Making Children's Programming Great Again

There was a time when parents didn't have 10,000 choices about what their children watched. A handful of networks, studios, and executives decided what America's children would see.

Maureen Steele | August 27, 2026

There was a time when parents didn't have 10,000 choices about what their children watched. A handful of networks, studios, and executives decided what America's children would see.

And remarkably, much of it was good.

We grew up with programming that understood childhood was something worth protecting. Mister Rogers' Neighborhood taught kindness. Sesame Street taught letters and numbers. Families gathered around Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons, stories about courage, hardship, responsibility, forgiveness, and family.

Nobody called it "values-based programming." It was simply understood that entertainment helped shape culture. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that.

Children's entertainment increasingly became another front in America's culture wars. Adult political and social debates began finding their way into programming aimed at younger audiences. Parents who objected were largely left with two choices: accept it or turn it off.

For the first time in history, ordinary creators have the tools to challenge an entertainment industry once controlled almost exclusively by giant studios and production companies.

The first revolution was distribution. YouTube, Rumble, and streaming platforms demolished much of the old gatekeeping apparatus. Suddenly, creators didn't need a television network to reach millions of people. But there was still a problem.

YouTube gave everyone a television network. It........

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