I grew up in a Christian home and my parents did their best to instill solid Christian values into my early life. Unfortunately the Christian values they tried to instill sometimes came up against my nerd inclinations…or “nerdclinations” (I hope I just invented a word). When I was growing up there were a few shows I wanted to watch that my parents said I couldn’t. To this day I feel like I’m not as well rounded of a nerd as I could be had my parents allowed some cartoons to slip past their Christian values. Here are some of those shows I wasn’t allowed to watch.
The Real Ghostbusters
The Ghostbusters were really cool when I was in elementary school. There was a popular song and all the cool kids had the black t-shirt with the Ghostbusters logo. I remember watching The Real Ghostbusters on a Saturday morning and, when my mom saw, she told me to turn it off and that I wasn’t allowed to watch the show anymore. She told me that it wasn’t the best and that it dealt with some evil stuff. As a 7-year-old I accepted what she said even though it meant that I would miss out on another opportunity to grow my nerdclinations. However, now I can’t understand her logic. While it’s true the Bible warns about messing around with the supernatural, I wanted to watch a cartoon, not visit the witch of Endor. I’m sure there would have been no need for an exorcism had I continued watching The Real Ghostbusters; the worst that could have happened is that I would have been slimed.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
I loved He-Man as a little kid, even though he looked like he belonged in the Village People. Everything about He-Man was great: the villains, the green tiger and I’m pretty sure my first crush was on Teela. I got away with watching He-Man for a while; I think my mom thought it was just another fantasy show with swords and a male lead with a bob cut. As soon as she heard Prince Adam say, “By the power of Grayskull,” though, it was over. I think she thought that Grayskull sounded too much like Satan and that if I continued watching He-Man the next logical step would be cat sacrifice. It’s like my mom saw a P.S.A. at church that said He-Man was the gateway to Satanism.
The Simpsons
On the surface, The Simpsons doesn’t look like an entirely nerdy show. However, given the opportunity, The Simpsons provides a level of obsession that can contend with Star Wars at any comic book shop. The Simpsons has been on the air since 1989 and, since 1989, I have been banned from watching it. If my mom wasn’t going to let me watch He-Man because of its tenuous ties to the dark side, she definitely wasn’t going to let me watch a back-talking deviant like Bart Simpson. So I was never even given the opportunity to obsess over The Simpsons, to get in at the ground level so today I could troll message boards and argue that seasons 3-7 were the best. Instead I’m left with a fleeting knowledge of Springfield and the feeling that I’m being bad any time I watch an episode.
The fifth commandment says to honor our parents, so I did, and missed out on some potential nerd fodder. Thankfully my mom never caught on to the fact that Star Trek is completely based on secular humanism or she might have banned me from watching that as well. Had she done that, things could have really turned ugly; I might have turned to manga to meet my nerd needs.
What television shows, if any, did your parents ban while you were growing up?
This makes me laugh. I only remember Mom banning Scooby Doo, Seinfeld, and The Simpsons. I wonder what would have happened if we grew up with the Harry Potter controversy...
Also, have you considered if Mom had banned Star Trek and Star Wars, maybe you would have gone outside to play and turned into a jock basketball star and now be playing for the NBA? Granted you're at a genetic disadvantage, but maybe professional badminton, archery, or bowling could have been your future.
The Simpsons was banned at my house, but not until I started enjoying it. I was probably in about 3rd grade when my brother and I were laughing at something Bart's little electronic toy said in the episode. When we repeated it my parents looked horrified. I was offically not allowed to watch The Simpsons, with exception to the Christmas specials that I some how argued the value of and won, until I was eleven when my mom said I was allowed to watch it as long as my dad didn't know. Funny thing was it was the only thing my parents ever disallowed. I could watch R rated movies or Tales from the Crept or anything else I wanted. However, I was a weird kid and self-policed very well.
I was raised in a Christian home and I think the only show I was allowed to watched was beavis and butthead
I was allowed to watch the Simpsons.
I think Beavis and Butthead was on late enough to where I could watch it and my mom had no idea.
I only remember being banned from watching any tv show dealing with war, All in the Family, and anything having to do with Madonna. The Simpsons came out when I was thirteen, so my mother figured out I was mature enough to watch the show.
Anyway, I was quite shocked when I attended one church where the pastor allowed his two kids (ten and twelve years old) to watch South Park, Beavis and Butthead, and Futurama. However he banned them from Harry Potter and other "witchcraft" in the media.
The Simpletons, excuse me, Simpsons was overrated crap, always was, and always will be, period, full stop, and ditto for every other franchise that is mentioned on here. They do promote evil and they are also boring. However, people that oppose cartoons and television are likewise evil, for they do not do their proper amount of studying the Holy Scriptures in their lives.