Whenever I am on the fence about seeing a family friendly movie, I ask my kids if they want to see it. When they say no (which they often do), I decide there’s no reason to go and look for something better to spend my $36.00 on.

Now, of course, this sometimes backfires on me. There was the time they both wanted to see Hotel for Dogs and when they really wanted to see Nancy Drew but those events are few and far between.
I think the reason behind these decisions have more to do with time management than anything else.
My daughter has a friend who’s mother wouldn’t let her see any Harry Potter movie until she read the book first. What a bad idea. Not only does this spoil the movie for everyone but it takes the fun out of seeing a movie when said movie becomes a reward for spending too much time and money on a hard cover book that will eventually end up taking up valuable DVD space.

It’s with this in mind that I am proud to announce that my daughter has started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Teen Nick. They started airing the episodes of the series in order a couple of months ago and she loves it.

There are so many reasons that this is great, I hardly know where to start.I suppose the best part is that from now on, she and I have a common interest and will always have one. That’s pretty cool.

My kids laughed and became excited for the new Chipmunks movie, but I had to wonder – did the studio really expect fans of the Chipmunks to be familiar with Titanic?

It turns out that my 9 year-old daughter HAS seen Titanic (she saw it a few days later), but she’s one of the few preteens I know who have seen the movie. Her older brother has not (heck, it’s a long film).

Obviously the “I’m the Kind of the World” scene is iconic, but I wonder what other pop culture scenes and references should kids be expected to know? As a fan of Family Guy and Robot Chicken I see many of the things I grew up with regularly referenced, but those shows are aimed more at my generation. What are kids expected to know?

In trying to think of some “must know” characters, catchphrases, and bits of dialogue I found that most my first thoughts are probably past their period of relevance:

• Dr. McCoy’s “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a ________”
• The Terminator’s “I’ll be back”
• The classic Shatner-speech-pattern parodies
• The haunting music from Jaws
• Bond’s “Shaken, not stirred”

I haven’t seen Cars 2, but I understand it has a Bond-type character. How Bond-y is it? Does Pixar expect most kids under 10 to know the Bond-isms, or are they there for the adults (in which case, I don’t consider it to be what I’m talking about)?

The Fairly OddParents cartoon regularly drew upon other pop-culture characters: Dark Laser is clearly a Darth Vader reference, the April Fool is very Seinfeld-ian, Catman is played by Adam West in a clear reference to the original Batman TV show, and many more. Are those for the kids or the adults?

I’ve started giving my son some classic literature to read: Gulliver’s Travels, The Time Machine, Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth. He loves it and it will help him better pick up on the many references in current movies, books, and TV.

He’s been exposed to Godzilla, Star Wars, and Star Trek. I will try to bring in the first 2 Terminator films later this year.  We watch old game shows on GSN and lots of old TV through Netflix, Antenna TV, and TVLand. Overall though, I’m not sure where else to turn.  He’ll get some Edgar Allen Poe in school (I hope).

How important is it that he see Ferris Beuller and Better Off Dead? They’re great films, and he’s going to see them before he sees Titanic.  Maybe in Chip-Wrecked they’ll have a scene where Simon stands and stares at a painting whlie a Smiths song (covered by the Chipmunks, of course) plays in the background.

Today, nearly thirty years later, the Green Lantern finally comes to the big screen. And on Father’s Day, I’ll be going with my son to see it.

We’ve shared many passing on the torch of fandom moments, some of which I’ve written about here. But this one is a bit different. Unlike Godzilla, which is appealing to us both in the same way, or Star Wars, which I resigned from the beginning to him being a prequel-brainwashed fan, Green Lantern is something which may not appeal to him at all. I’m hearing early buzz that the movie is a disappointment (I’ve been suspecting as much for a while, but I’m hoping everyone is just being negative). And, the things I love about Green Lantern may not be captured in this film. There may not be a Green Lantern vs. his equal (Sinestro? another rogue lantern?), and it may be more of just a bland origin story with a non-iconic villain setting the stage for later films. This may result in my boy giving it a “meh.” Rating.

On the other hand, I could be pleasantly surprised. I panicked at the start of Thor, as they laid out all of the backstory necessary for the film. I feared that the 15-minutes or so of prologue would lose my son’s interest, but he hung in there and loved the film. It may be that he gives Green Lantern a blindly loyal shot and comes out liking it. We will see.

But for me, it’s another chapter in fatherhood. Another interest shared, fingers crossed that it will take with him (probably not so much my daughter, but I’ll give her the opportunity as well.)

Is it our own fault that Hollywood continues to make awful movies based on childhood projects from the 70′s and 80′s? I remember when I took my children to see Alvin and the Chipmunks. The experience was so excruciating, I wanted to abandon them and flee the theater. Afterward as they talked about how much they loved it, it reminded me of how much I enjoyed the first revival and my parents teaching me all about Ross Bagdasarian and the genius of The Witch Doctor.

I may be late to this party but it occurs to me that the plan is for me to take my children to The Smurfs and pretend that it was their idea. Then whether I enjoyed it or not, the kids will be hooked and just like many of us, will buy the stickers, socks and key chains bearing their favorite blue creature.

Now I wasn’t a fan of The Smurfs in the first place, but I recognized their significance to pop culture. For what it’s worth, they were the first cartoon to use their own name as every conceivable part of speech and never apologized for it. The Smurfs pioneered that practice long before The Snorks appropriated it or people started using Lewinsky as a verb.

What I came to realize was that I and my generation are directly to blame for the revival and subsequent molestation of our beloved childhood icons. I knew Yogi Bear was going to be terrible but I just had to see it for myself. It was clear that The Green Hornet would be sub-par and still I shelled out good money to witness it firsthand. I even chuckled at Eddie Murphy’s gassy antics in the remake of The Nutty Professor instead of LOL-ing at the far superior original with Jerry Lewis.

So before you bemoan the fact that Hollywood insists on co-opting your childhood memories, take a look at yourself in the mirror and be thankful that Romper Room will never be remade … probably.

Hear more from the King of TV on The Paul Goebel Show podcast and at his website, www.TheKingofTV.com. You can also follow Paul on Twitter @PaulGoebelShow.

He is the villian of the original Star Wars trilogy, despite his eventual turning against the Emperor. His redemption is the result of Luke Skywalker’s efforts and the exclamation point on Lukes development into a true hero.

However, if your child was born after the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999, he or she most likely believes Anakin Skywalker is the hero of Star Wars. Yes, that Anakin Skywalker, the man behind Darth Vader’s mask.

As George Lucas continues to cash in on the Star Wars franchise, he has moved from original trilogy to prequel trilogy to Clone Wars saga, where Anakin Skywalker and his sidekick mentor Obi Wan Kenobi fight wave after wave of droids and bounty hunters. Star Wars has been reduced to a modern day version of the GI Joe cartoons from the 80s. Cartoon commercials pitting good vs. evil in weekly battles, with a handful of key characters having quirky qualities and strange sounding names: in place of Serpentor, Cobra Commandor, the Baroness, and Destro, we have the Emperor, Count Dooku, Asajj Ventress, and General Greivous. Instead of Duke, Flint, and the rest of the Joes, we have Obi Wan, Anakin, and a mix of Jedi and clone commanders.

About a year ago my co-host Elton McManus and I spent a podcast episode discussing with my 10 year old son who was the real hero of Star Wars.  Not surprisingly, my son (born in 2000) believes Anakin to be the hero. Elton, being a 30-something die-hard fan of the original trilogy railed against the notion and lobbied for Luke. At 40 years old, I find myself siding with Elton, but I can completely understand why my son feels the way he does – and it saddens me.

The original trilogy clearly focuses on Luke, while the prequels are intended to follow Anakin as he makes choices which take him down the path to the dark side and he becomes Vader. Perhaps if it was executed better, I would have found myself rethinking who was the true hero of the set of six films. Unfortunately, Episode 1 gives us almost nothing in the origins of Vader. Episodes 2 and 3 begin to show his fall – but do so in such a clunky way that Anakin is more jerk than hero. In fact, I make a case in our podcast for Obi Wan to be considered the true hero of the prequels and as much a focus of the franchise as any other character.

Having bookended the main Star Wars storyline and left the before and after times for “expanded universe” writers to explore, Lucas has chosen to wring extra cash out of the franchise by fleshing out the time between Episodes 2 and 3. The first sanctioned Clone Wars expansion by Genndy Tartakovsky was more about story telling than selling products. This well executed microseries managed to show flashes of why Anakin Skywalker was considered a great Jedi before his fall without making him a hero. We still saw the glimpses of darkness in his persona that made Episodes 2 and 3 relevant.

On the other hand, the Clone Wars cartoon movie and current Cartoon Network seriesput Anakin Skywalker on a pedestal. He is ignorant and immature, not tainted and haunted. We are not watching a character walk the fine line between good and evil, constantly being pulled toward one side or the other, and with each episode… with each challenge overcome, Anakin seems more firmly entrenched on the side of good. We have no reason to think he might slip to the dark side, and the complete dissolution of his trust in Obi Wan in Epidose 3 is difficut to envision.

So, my son, his classmates, and nearly every person under the age of 12 (most likely under the age of 16) view Anakin Skywalker as a good guy. They do not even necessarily associate Darth Vader with being Anakin Skywalker.  To them, it’s more like Anakin dies and his body (or what’s left of it) is reanimated and possessed by an evil presence. And again, why shouldn’t they?  Lucas himself has revised explained the backstory of Vader to be that of “not a monster but instead as a sad man who made a deal with the Devil…and lost.” Lucas reinforced the youthful fans’ view in 2006 when he replaced Sebastian Shaw as the ghost of Anakin in Return of the Jedi with Hayden Christiansen on the DVD release of ROTJ. He would later explain that Anakin had died when he became Vader (I’m not paraphrasing it very well, but you can read a discussion of it Lucas’ justification for the switch here).

I’m sorry, but Anakin is NOT the hero of Star Wars. Of the prequels? Maybe. Of the Clone Wars? Sure. But of the original trilogy or the single film known as Star Wars? Absolutely not. And I feel badly for my son and his whole generation that they have been misled to think so.

If you have the time, please do check out Episode 43 of An Apotheosis of a Bombast and listen to the discussion we had about this topic.  You can listen to the episode here on the show’s main website or through the various podcast aggregators -  iTunes, Zune, etc., .

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This image is one of three quizzes asking you to figure out movie titles expressed as math pictograms among the comics at spikedmath.com.

The other quizzes can be accessed by clicking these links: Quiz 2 Quiz 3.

If you aren’t already familiar with the site, Spikedmath.com hosts regularly updated math themed comics and is well worth your time exploring.

While these quizzes or and the math comics may not be grade-level appropriate, you should be able to find at least a few to use as examples of the clever way mathematics is used and to inspire your students/children to develop similar projects: creating their own math-themed comics or pictograms of song titles, TV shows, common phrases.

We found it interesting was that all of the films were older films, and none were seen in a movie theater. Among the films parents allowed their pre-teens to watch were The Rock, Not Another Teen Movie (featuring a cameo appearance by Perspectives’ own Paul Goebel), Animal House, Beverly Hills Cop, The Breakfast Club, Caddyshack, Air Force One, Sudden Death, Judge Dredd, Timecop, and Starship Troopers. All of the parents surveyed commented on how much standards had changed and wondered if those films would earn an R rating if released in their current state into today’s market.

We recognize that each household has its own criteria for determining what is appropriate entertainment, and clearly much depends on the maturity level of the individual child.

What films have you, as a parent, decided were too harshly judged by the MPAA? Do you disagree with the choices of these 5 parents? Please share your thoughts below.

• All three children reported having worked with substitute teachers on 10 or more days this year. This does include substitutes filling in for teachers other than their primary instructors (art, music, physical education, and others).
• Two of the children each reported at least one instance where part of the day that their permanent teacher returned was spent allowing the class to “finish the movie.”
• None of the children felt the movies they watched should be described as “educational.” No Donald Duck in Mathland, no Phantom Tollbooth, no movie versions of a book they were reading in class at the time, no old VHS copies of Square One or 3-2-1 Contact, not even Sesame Street or Dora the Explorer were reported as having been watched. The list of movies watched included Horton Hears a Who (the Jim Carrey version), Beauty and the Beast, Cars, The Incredibles, Monsters Inc., and two episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants.
• All three children each reported that their classrooms contained televisions hooked up to computers and that they had previously watched academic video streamed from the pc to the screen by their permanent teachers.
• Two of the three students have more than one permanent teacher in their classroom on a daily basis.

We recognize that it is often difficult for a substitute teacher to maintain the flow of the permanent teacher’s instruction. However, we are not talking about asking a retired electrician to fill in for an Advanced Placement Calculus class (which we would contend could still be a productive day for those students).

Our unscientific study reveals an unfortunate waste of fairly limited class time,  and we can see how this sets up expectations on the part of the students for unproductive days with substitute teachers in the future.

What experiences have you or your children had with substitute teachers?  Please share them below.