Then, one day, rumors started floating around, of a new TV channel, that exclusively aired awesome cartoons, all day everyday. The rumors had even reached my parents in their workplace, and one day I asked my father to seek this fabled channel.
I remember the first time I beheld the magic, the moment that I set foot on the fabled land, and saw that big red and yellow logo on the top right corner of our TV: Fox Kids.
After that nothing was the same.
Life was FOX Kids all day, every day, not only for me, but for every child in Turkey, who was fortunate enough to own a TV and find that channel. The most commonly asked question among children was "Do you have Fox Kids?". It was more common than "Do you have internet?" or "Do you have a computer?"
The cartoons of this channel was all kids talked about. Every whimsical reference was related to one of the shows, the most prominent one being the "Wisconsin kay canavayı" (The Wisconsin Snow Monster, with a child's wisp tongue) from the show "Life With Louie".
To this day, everyone in my generation talks about shows like Eek The Cat (and The Terrible Thunder Lizards), Mad Jack The Pirate, Spy Dogs, Room 402, X-Men, The Amazing Spider Man (and the theme songs of the final two)... But the thing is, we all remember the Turkish names, and lines of these cartoons. Make anyone from my age group watch these shows in their original language, and it simply does not click. Our many adventures with these cartoons, and all the characters we've come to love and memorize lines of were in Turkish.
However, the way it brought us together back in the day, has not lost its power today. One can still spark a deep conversation about those times, and talk for hours and hours...
Louie Anderson himself is aware of this. In an interview he said something along the lines of "I found out that I had a special place among Turkish audiences, but I never could've guessed the extent of the place my cartoon had in their lives".
There are so few programs today that can even reach the hights of Fox Kids. I've wondered if this seems so because Fox Kids was such a dear and well timed presence in my life, however, with the advancements in animation technology - and thus the decline in effort in making cartoons -, and the seemingly mundane topics of kid's media, I decided to introduce my cousins (3 of them who were under the age of 10 at the time) to Fox Kids' media. They absolutely loved it, and suddenly found the content that was available to them on TV to be mediocre.
Fox Kids not only created a sense of community, it provided an entire generation with common grounds with bonds everlasting. Common grounds which still exist today. The only thing that was able to divert our attention from that magical channel was 20 minutes of Pokemon, until it was cancelled, and Nickelodeon, which went to sleep at around 8pm.
Recently a group of people started uploading the cartoons that were aired by Fox Kids (and later Jetix) to a video streaming site, and now many people in my age group, who are aware of this great act of philanthropy is filled with bittersweet nostalgia.
If I could still watch Fox Kids on TV today, I have no doubt that I would, because when it comes to Fox Kids, age truly doesn't matter.
Lapacı is not forgotten.
Louie from the Life with Louie has a facebook account now. I was amazed to see how many Turkish Fan interaction he gets. He posts pictures with fans and almost half of them are Turkish, and most of the comments were made by Turkish people. And I dont think we cannot find any Young-Adult Turkish person would not remember him.
ReplyDeleteI also remember some Turkish TV channels, I think it was ATV but I am not sure, were showing children content every Sunday morning ans they were mostly Disney shows. I was waking up to watch Recess. I really miss old children's content in mainstream tv.
I agree with you. I did not watch that cartoon but I believe that cartoons are one of the best ways of the unification of generation because cartoons are very desirable for children and suitable for their ages. It also helps communication in their life and help them become friends.
ReplyDeleteFor example children from China, Turkey and America may not have any shared culture or lifestyle but when they hear Pokemon, they start talking because Pokemon is a world-wide cartoon and it helps them to become friends even though they do not have any shared culture.
TV is key in creating a collective memory. It is a tool of social bonding. And what could bring out fuzzier feelings than childhood cartoons? I still remember my mother telling me to get ready for bed when Nickelodeon went to sleep. Maybe every generation says this for themselves, but I believe our era of cartoons were special. It was a perfect combination of everything. And sometimes they weren't afraid to treat children as adults in order to teach them which is something kids don't get these days. For example, Korsan Jack was very daring in that sense with its many innuendos. I would probably still enjoy watching it, and find things that would entertain me as an adult in it.
ReplyDeleteMost of the people in Turkey say that the American society doesn't really have a culture because of it's not an old civilization. Though, being watched Fox Kids all the time when I was a child, now I know that indeed they really have a culture and by the children's channel, Fox Kids, they managed to share it with Turkish youth. I've learnt many things about American society by the shows on the channel, and they were so different than ours. I, especially, remember that I couldn't get why don't we have scouting culture in our society. I've always wanted to go to a scouting camp as a child, because that was included somehow in every show. Scouting camps are part of the American society, learning about the Nature and how to survive in it. After, the Europeans migrated to the continent, they encountered a massive nature, untouched. As going to a complete new place with all the collective knowledge, they comprehended that it's so important to have a knowledge about the nature and the survival skills. The scouting thing is just one instance of my personal experience from Fox Kids. I think every child that constantly watched Fox Tv, had some break like mine.
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