TV or not TV; that is the question

Every family has their own rules about which TV shows their young children can watch.  This picture of the cast of M.A.S.H. was in my FB news feed today.  It reminded me of some of the TV rules when our kids were young.

Our kids were encouraged to watch MASH (mostly the reruns as our youngest was 5 months when the final session of MASH aired in 1983) and not allowed to watch Dukes of Hazzard.  We felt that the lessons taught in MASH, in particular the last 6 yeas were well worth learning.

The Dukes of Hazzard taught nothing but disrespect for the law. We didn't watch it either. Our kids were around RCMP from when they were babies as we first lived in a community with the barracks across the street from us, then remained friends with one of the families for years.  We were watching Smoky and the Bandit one day when the oldest two were maybe 4 and 2.  They could not follow the movie but they cheered for Jackie Gleason because he was the law. They are no longer quite so naive but still respect police officers in general.

Funny how having kids affects what adults watch. We were hooked on Dallas until one night our oldest who was 5 decided to stay up and watch it with us.  Suddenly we realized exactly what trash we were watching and never watched it again.

Another family, a much more conservative Christian family than ours, allowed Dukes of Hazzard but not MASH as they felt the morals in MASH set a bad example.  To be fair, their kids were older and the earlier seasons of MASH were much raunchier.  We far preferred MASH with the characters pictured above. (The link above has a time line of all the characters).

I think the kids have watched every episode of MASH many many times.  The youngest owns every season on DVD.  I am glad to say that by and large they have retained and live many of the lessons from MASH in terms of how to treat their fellow humans. Alan Alda would be proud.