It’s common for people to think that their generation is the best.  I’ve had older individuals tell me that LeBron will never be as good as Jordan, cars aren’t made like they used to be, and no matter how hard he tries, Drew Carey will never be Bob Barker.

   While I used roll my eyes at such remarks, I find myself doing the exact same thing when it comes to television.  I watched more television than I care to explain growing up, and I’ve forgotten more Nicktoon factoids than most will ever know.

   My shows were my childhood.  I loved Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel, but upon a recent review of the present programming on these stations, I found myself heartbroken over the current state of affairs.

   I liked it when television kids used to be just kids.  I could identify with Cory Matthews from “Boy Meets World.”  He was a kid from Pennsylvania who struggled with popularity, had a crush on the goofy girl in class, and came from a normal family. Then we had Zach and Cody who lived on a cruise ship, Carly who had her own web show, and now a dog with a blog – I just can’t figure out how kids find any of it relatable.

   Television used to teach us things.  “Boy Meets World” had episodes about underage drinking, a cult, dealing with death, and sex as it relates to peer pressure.  The writers filled the scripts with moral lessons and original humor that made the show a huge success.

    “The Famous Jet Jackson” takes on First Amendment issues in its episode “Saving Mr. Dupree” as the show’s namesake and protagonist is arrested by his own father for reading “Fahrenheit 451” which is banned in their school district.

    T.J. from “Smart Guy” once prevented he and another friend from being victimized by a sexual predator.  And these were all shows that were directed towards younger audiences.

   Today’s shows lack clear plot, character depth, and original writing for certain, but a lot of them have another key component of the family sitcom mysteriously absent.  Did anyone ever notice how many of these kids don’t have parents?

    In the Disney Channel original show, Jessie, a teenage girl is raising four children from the same family in a hotel.   On top of that, the four children appear to be of different races, so not only are these fictional parents not taking care of their biological children, but they were socially conscious enough to adopt children to disregard.

   Zach and Cody are similarly raised by a hotel and cruise staff.  Carly from “iCarly” lives with her 26 year old brother in a studio apartment in Seattle even though her parents are alive.

   If these shows take place in one fictional universe then someone better look into this alternate dimension’s children’s welfare organizations.

   When parents do appear in these shows they are often portrayed as bumbling idiots who are in the way, as are most of the other older characters.  Adults are usually antagonists trying to stop our young heroes from achieving their goals.

I prefer Alan Matthews who wasn’t so different from my own dad, and who didn’t enjoy a slice of parental wisdom from Danny Tanner?

   Austin and Ally, Victorious, Jonas, Shake It Up, Hannah Montana, and Big Time Rush are a handful of shows that depict kids as rising pop stars and musicians.  That’s just scratching the surface of this new pseudo-genre of show.

   Disney and Nickelodeon used to take talented kids, cast them as normal kids, and turn them into stars.  Amanda Bynes and Brittany Spears can attest.  Now they take talented kids, cast them as stars, and deliver them into obscurity.  A few Selena’s and Miley’s manage to slip into the main stream, but the majority of these Disney daughters lack staying power once they step into a more adult platform.

   Viewers no longer have the opportunity to really get to know characters as the majority of these shows do not make it past a fourth season.  Many of the shows are cancelled after just one or two.

  MoffetNathanson reported that Viacom, which owns Nickelodeon, has shown a 22 percent decrease in ratings in the first quarter of 2015 with Nickelodeon suffering the biggest drop off in viewership.

   Executives at Nick shouldn’t ignore the fact that their most popular show, “SpongeBob SquarePants”, is a program from 1999 that more closely resembles their cartoons of the past.

With new competition from digital media such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, it has never been more important for cable stations to come up with original and quality programming.

    Content used to be diverse.  There were live action family sitcoms, cartoons, and even game shows like “Global Guts” and “Figure it Out.”

   It doesn’t take serious content to make a show good.  The 90’s were full of quirky zany shows too.  “Rocco’s Modern Life”, one of my favorite shows of all time, was way out there, but made it work.

   Classic cartoons like “Doug”, “Rugrats”, and “Ren and Stimpy” have had their shoes filled with singer/songwriter shows and knockoff shows from other networks.

   Disney isn’t past looking to other networks for inspiration either.  In 2011 Disney put out a show called “PrankStars”, a prank show from the same vein as Mtv’s “Punk’d.”  The show had only four episodes air before it was discontinued.

   Older kid’s shows also stand the test of time.  “Boy Meets World”, “Clarissa Explains it All”, and many cartoon and other shows have cult followings by adults who used to enjoy them as children.

   You can still enjoy these shows in your 20s because they stand the test of time.  The content from these shows transcends age, unlike their newer replacements to make them enjoyable for all audiences.

  In my book, Sabrina is always going to be a better witch than the kids from Waverly Place, Shia LaBeouf playing the unbalanced Louis Steven on “Even Stevens” is brilliant comedy, and an average kid like Arnold from “Hey Arnold” is going to have more to offer kids than a third or fourth Jonas Brothers’ show.

   It’s my hope that Disney and Nickelodeon get back to the good shows they were putting out in the 90s and early 2000s because the cookie cutter content now isn’t all that.