Little Bear and American Teens.

So i just watched an old Little Bear episode on YouTube, but before i get to that i have to tell you about what possessed me to be watching old Nick Jr cartoons at 2:40 in the morning in the first place.

A couple weeks ago i checked out a DVD from the library called "American Teen." It's a documentary following five different kids in five different social standings through their senior year at a midwestern high school. And you know me (or maybe you don't-- who are you? Lets be friends!)-- i'm obsessed with high school sociology. Not as in a sociology class you take in high school, but as in the sociology of high schoolers and their different cliques, groups, whatever.

So anyway. I'm getting off track. I watched this movie late at night because i am an insomniac to rival the best of 'em, and i really identified with one of the kids they were following (her name is Hannah Bailey). I googled her as creepy fans are wont to do, and i came upon her blog, one of the entries in which noted that she was watching LITTLE BEAR ON YOUTUBE.

Is this sounding familiar?

So i clicked the link she provided and proceeded to watch with nostalgia and delight as Little Bear got the hiccups. Unfortunately, the video only showed the first five minutes of the episode and i couldn't find the next part in the related links, so i am left in suspense as to what got the hiccups to stop (as i'm sure they did), whether Papa Bear or whatever they called him got mad because there was too much noise being made, and whatever happened to that berry pie that Mama bear was baking.

Lovely lovely Maurice Sendak. He never disappoints.

They still show the commercials for that Little Bear training toothpaste, don't they? But they don't air the show anymore, right? So what they should REALLY do is put Little Bear in a toothpaste commercial marketing to the roughly 16-21 crowd that actually WATCHED Little Bear and is seeking to fill the void in their young adult lives by buying products that feature characters they loved oh-so-long ago.

Genius, right? It is a wonder someone isn't paying me handsomely to sit here in my bed at coming-up-on 3 in the morning and churn out ideas for the capitalist machine.

Beloved jingles and slogans? I'm coming after you next.