PBS
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A recent Jesse Welles song, inspired by the defunding of Public Broadcasting:
The shows mentioned in the song include:
Reading Rainbow
The Magic School Bus
Sesame Street
Barney & Friends
Mister Rogers' Neighborhood
Thomas & Friends
Wishbone
Pappyland
The Big Comfy Couch
Their funding sources were various, but all of them (except I think for Thomas & Friends?) aired on PBS TV stations during Jesse Welles' childhood.
AntC said,
August 5, 2025 @ 8:01 am
When was the vital information deleted that Thomas is a Tank Engine?
In my childhood, the series 'aired' in hardback borrowed from the public library or swapped with friends. (The school library regarded the series as not educational enough, unlike the moronic Janet & John.)
Do kids these days even know what is a steam locomotive?
Brett said,
August 5, 2025 @ 8:16 pm
@AntC: Lot's of kids in America still like steam trains. However, trains have never had as big a role in America popular culture as in Britain. No other country had an extensive system of train transportation as early as Britain. Steam locomotives became important in America later and were largely replaced by automobiles earlier than in Britain. So the knowledge of the intricate details of different kinds of trains is a much more niche interest here. Very few people, except by exposure to Thomas and his pals, would know what distinguished a "tank engine" from a different kind of steam locomotive.