I admit it – growing up I was a huge game show fan. I would sit and watch The $10000 Pyramid, Wheel of Fortune (back when you would actually buy prizes with your winnings!) and of course Hollywood Squares (the Jim J Bullock version). Game shows were fun to watch because you could interact with the people on the TV and it was a show you could watch with your parents and you’d all enjoy it.
So I was pleasantly surprised when I heard that TELETOON has just started airing a new game show that is aimed at kids! Skatoony is an original series, but if it sounds familiar that’s because it’s based on a UK series of the same name - only now with Canadian content.
Skatoony is a trivia game where the real kids compete against animated characters in trivia rounds titled “Bang on or Bogus,” “Draw What You Hear and Shout Out When You Know What You’ve Drawn” (oh how I love how literal that topic is!) and “Hoo Flung Dung.”
A typical question might be – ‘Bang on or Bogus: the oak leaf is on the Canadian flag’? Or, ‘which province hosted the 2010 Winter Olympics’? Which I love because if my kids are going to be watching TV I prefer that they not be all zombie like and staring into space but actually interacting, and maybe even learning something. It’s also pretty cool because it combines real kids with animated characters in kind of a ‘Hollywood Squares’ style competition. Did I mention how much I loved Hollywood Squares?
And the best part – it’s Canadian! Yay Canada! The show features Canadian creative talent, and Canadian trivia questions, so you can really see if your kid is paying attention in school! Skatoony airs Thursdays at 6:30 on TELETOON and they also have a website that you and your child can check out too that has games, downloads and even karaoke!
Check out the video below of the show – I love that while the kids look like they’re having a blast you can also see how serious they are when they’re answering the trivia questions! Yay for making learning fun! So check it out and see who knows more Skatoony trivia – you or your child!
Scene and Heard
Confessions from a Pop Culture Mummy
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Lately there has been lots of tragedy in the news. From Tyler Clementi, to Marie Osmond’s son, to a former contestant on The Bachelorette, suicide has become a trend that is not only all too common, but incredibly scary. This past weekend the 14 year old daughter of the assistant coach of the Ottawa Senators took her own life. At fourteen years old something bothered this girl so much that she took her own life.
As a mother, my heart breaks for this girl’s parents - for all the parents out there who have lost a child to suicide. As a mother, this scares me because from all accounts no one saw this coming – she was a happy, normal 14 year old girl. As a mother, this scares me because our children are growing up in a world that is vastly different than the world we grew up in. Technology is so much further advanced than when we were in school and is being used in ways we never had to deal with. The trend of cyber bullying is getting so out of control these days I have no idea when it will end.
I mean, when we were in school you never feared that someone might take a picture of you in an unflattering position or manner and blast it to everyone in your school. When we were young we didn’t have to worry about someone planting a hidden camera in your dorm room to capture your most private moments and broadcast them all over the internet. When I was young, girls were mean, but they didn’t create entire social media profiles dedicated to destroying the reputation of someone because they had a bone to pick with them. One only has to search YouTube for videos of young girls threatening other young girls over Justin Bieber to see that things have gotten out of control. Young people are being bullied to death because of their sexual preference. All of these things are happening today, and it scares me beyond belief.
Now I have no idea the circumstances surrounding this recent tragedy, and I don’t need to. All I know is that when you see it happen to someone in your community that seems to have had it all, you realize that it could happen to anyone. I read an article in my local Ottawa Citizen that read that “suicide is the second-leading cause of death, after accidents, of young people. It accounts for 17.3 per cent of adolescent mortality.”
That number is so completely shocking and devastating to me. Because I’m sure that the parents of any of these kids were good parents – parents who had a good relationship with their children. Parents who thought their child was happy and well adjusted.
So what do we do? Well I think we take this opportunity to talk to our kids – to let them know that no matter what, they can talk to us. I think that kids need to know that it does get better, it will get better, and that no matter their problem is, even if they don’t want to talk to their parents there are resources out there that they can use – people they can talk to.
If you or anyone you know needs help, or just needs to talk to someone, call the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868, or visit them online here. You can also check out the suicide hotline online here to discover the phone numbers for help in each province.
My heartfelt condolences go out to the Richardson family. No parent, no sibling, no family member should ever have to go through something like this.
Scene and Heard
Confessions from a Pop Culture Mummy
Did you catch last night's CMA winners? I love myself a good awards show, but I have to admit I tend to run kicking and screaming from anything that remotely resembles Country Music. But, last night, when faced with either watching another episode of ‘Family Guy’ or tuning in to catch at least the opening of the Country Music Awards I decided on the CMA’s – mostly because Carried Underwood was hosting and given that she married Ottawa Senator Mike Fisher and I’m from Ottawa I was almost obligated to do so.
So I switch the channel to see Mrs. Fisher performing the opening number and all I can do is wonder why she chose to wear such high heels because she obviously can’t walk in them! Oh, and she’s really, really skinny. But then Brad Paisley joins her and they have this whole funny opening monologue thing where they sing a song to the tune of Beverly Hillbillies and they talk about the Nashville flood. But what I really liked was when they made fun of Tiger Woods and Bret Favre – gold right there!
So at that point I’m thinking ‘Hey, these might be pretty good’ but of course then my husband looks at me and promptly demands the remote since the ‘last time he checked we don’t listen to country music’ blahblahblah and promptly changed the channel to some movie with Mark Wahlberg. Sooooo, I didn’t watch the entire show but I did manage to wrangle the remote back from him and click over every once in a while.
Here’s what I liked – Brad Paisley is super funny. Like, really funny. And I like that the Country Music people don’t take themselves too seriously. Like when Brad Paisley referenced Jeff Gordon’s fight, called Lady Antebellum Lady Gaga, and asked Gwyneth Paltrow for Coldplay tickets.
Carrie Underwood was ok, but MAN she loves herself! Nothing like having an entire song dedicated to you, your husband and your wedding. With a slide show movie all about you playing in the background while you sing all about you, your husband and your wedding! Seriously – enough already. We get it – you’re hot, you married a hot hockey player, and you like to change your outfits.
Loretta Lynn was there too. I might not be a country music fan, but I like me some Loretta Lynn. Sissy Spacek introduced her tribute which featured someone named Miranda Lambert (yeah I know she was the night’s big winner) and Sheryl Crow. OK, help me out here. If you’re gonna honor one of country music’s biggest legends I would hope that you would bring more star power than Sheryl Crow! Cause she sucked! Thank God Loretta Lynn came out after and finished off the song because she saved the performance! And let’s just talk about how incredible she looked – shall we? Loretta Lynn is 78 years old and mother of six! Six kids!!! And she looked stunning! They just don’t make them like that anymore I tell you.
OK – now for the most ear bending part of the night. Kid Rock performed, maybe because he hasn’t had a hit in mainstream music for a while so he thought he’d give country music a try. I don’t know why, all I know was that my ears were bleeding listening to him, he was like a train wreck and I couldn’t look away. Terrible, he was so terrible. Like is country music where people go now to try to resurrect their career? Cause it didn’t work. He not only looked terrible but he sounded atrocious. I could have sung better than him and if any of you saw the ‘Bust a Move’ video from Blissdom you know that’s not saying much!
BUT.......there was a reason I kept flicking back to watch the CMA’s and that was because Gwyneth Paltrow was going to be performing, LIVE.
She’s starring in a new movie where she plays a country singer so this was kinda a big thing. So I tuned to watch her as she sang alongside Vince Gill and she was ok. Hell she was way better than Kid Rock! I don’t think she’ll be quitting her day job anytime soon, but she played guitar and she sang live and she did a respectable job. Although all I could think about was all the other legitimate country artists in the audience and whether they were pissed off that she got perform and they didn’t?
Scene and Heard,
Confessions of a Pop Culture Mummy
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