Classical Baby is the name of an HBO television series touted as a show for parents to watch with their babies. The show features pieces of classical music played while images of clowns, animals, and works of art are shown.
Critics, including some child psychologists, have condemned the show, which premiered on May 14, 2005, for marketing television to babies. They contend that television is generally unhealthy for children, and that such a promotion is geared towards acclimating children to television at too young an age. Nevertheless, the show won two Emmy Awards in 2006: one for Outstanding Children's Program and another for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation given to animator Barbara Wierzchowska.
It won a Peabody Award in April 2005, and was assessed by the judges as follows:
- "This whimsical, charming, deceptively simple marriage of animation to the music of Tchaikovsky, Bach and Ellington becomes an interactive treat for young children and parents alike."
Read more about Classical Baby: Episodes
Famous quotes containing the words classical and/or baby:
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“Only when human sorrows are turned into a toy with glaring colors will baby people become interested—for a while at least. The people are a very fickle baby that must have new toys every day.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)