>>149364916
>mom wants the tv to parent her kid instead of her putting in the work to do it herself
>can’t find a show that does it well enough
>decides to make her own
>devotes all her time and energy to that, to the point she doesn’t even muster the bare minimum level of parenting as other neglectful pro tv moms of her age
>loses sight of the original vision and becomes consumed by greed
>kid is scarred for life

Yep. That kinda thing was a part of it. Most people at that time weren’t aware that that was what was going on behind the scenes on Barney specifically, of course. But the societal fear “maybe it’s a bad idea to just plop kids in front of a screen and hope for the best. maybe it’ll just make them crazy and stupid instead of well behaved and smart like its supposed to,” was an attitude that started at the very rise of tv itself, and was still around enough to impact the attitude toward Barney. It evolved into the concern over tablet kids.

Sesame Street was the other side of the coin, an example of a show that was trying to do the same thing as Barney but was doing it right, or at least was accepted as not doing as shitty of a job.