‘Mom, there’s nothing to do!’ : Here’s help, with a parent’s, yet kid-friendly, guide to summertime viewing

Many parents actually may survive the summer without having to attend to a single case of poison oak or swimmer’s ear. Few, however, will escape that more insidious seasonal nuisance: summertime TV.

No matter how parents plan to prevent their kids from squandering the summer vacation in front of the TV--by scheduling endless activities, letting the kids live in the pool or simply locking up the set--they sooner or later see the folly of their schemes. The vigilance required to control the TV set lends the effort that air of futility common to all struggles against nature; parents might just as well try to keep bees from a rose garden.

The fact is, kids eventually will make time to watch TV. If denied cartoons, they’ll just get up earlier to watch them. They’ll misplace their shoes, among other tactics, to delay banishment from the house. They’ll suddenly heed warnings connecting eating and swimming to stomach cramps, and insist on giving lunch one more TV show’s worth of time to settle before they jump back into the pool.

Even without VCRs, rarely an hour passes when TV doesn’t have something fetching (if not necessarily suitable) for children, unlike 20 years ago when the dearth of anything but soap operas and old movies at midday drove kids outdoors.

Today, Nickelodeon, a basic cable channel, and the Disney Channel, a pay-cable channel, provide children’s entertainment throughout the day, while dozens of other cable outlets and broadcast stations show cartoons, game shows, reruns and movies that appeal to children.

The best that parents may be able to do, considering the circumstances, is to steer their children toward fun, entertaining shows that are untainted by violence, innuendo, lurid subject matter or mere stupidity. In other words, they might want to take the time to find shows that are more appropriate for school-age children than, say, reruns of “Charlie’s Angels” or installments of “Sally Jessy Raphael.”

This, too, demands vigilance, but there is a reward for those who succeed. Any parent who makes it through the next few months without hearing the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song can rest peacefully, knowing he or she has done his bit for the preservation of a young mind; any parent who doesn’t deserves the aggravation the song invariably induces.

This somewhat abbreviated list assumes a lot: that parents are aware that anything made by Children’s Television Workshop (“Sesame Street” or “3-2-1 Contact”) won’t just entertain, but might even teach kids something; that anything with Jim Henson’s name attached (“Fraggle Rock,” 5:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily TNT) might even be enriching; that any kids’ show on PBS (“Wonderworks” or “Reading Rainbow”) has good production values; that the “New Mickey Mouse Club” on the Disney Channel (5:30 p.m. weekdays) is entertaining. So beyond the assumptions%

NEW SHOWS

The new children’s TV season won’t start until fall, except at Nickelodeon, which gets a jump on the competition this summer. The channel plans to kick off two new series, transform a weekly show into a daily one and start new seasons for at least two of its returning programs.

Premieres for two shows are scheduled for July 4: “SK8 TV,” everything kids would want to know about skateboarding, at 9 a.m. and repeated at noon, 4 and 7 p.m.; and “Wild and Crazy Kids,” described as a sort of a “That’s Incredible!” for kids, at 9:30 a.m., 12:30, 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. The half-hour “SK8 TV” will air regularly at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays, beginning July 7. “Wild and Crazy Kids” assumes its regular time slot, noon and 6:30 p.m. Sunday, July 8.

Both new shows should benefit from the fact they follow Nickelodeon’s popular adventure/sitcom series “Hey, Dude,” about a group of teen-agers who work on a dude ranch. New episodes begin in July, when two new cast members make their debut. The show airs at 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

Also, fresh episodes of “Eureeka’s Castle,” Nickelodeon’s 10 - 11 a.m. weekday offering (7-7:30 a.m.) for pre-schoolers, will begin in August. The series features a huge cast of puppets, among them an apprentice sorceress named Eureeka whose spells never quite work as they should.

Although the time has not yet been selected, Nickelodeon plans to add a new weekday show, “Daily Panic,” a half-hour version of “Total Panic,” the channel’s Sunday morning game/cartoon/talk show in which the studio audience participates.

MOVIES AND LIMITED SERIES

Scouring the TV listings will yield a surprising abundance of films and special series for kids that may have previously been overlooked because of competition from the better-known syndicated cartoons and reruns.

The Disney Channel Premiere Film series is a source of richly detailed and emotionally satisfying movies that often harken back to classic children’s fare. This summer watch for “Back Home,” featuring Disney child star Hayley Mills as a British mother trying to help her daughter adjust to life following World War II. The movie airs this week at 9 a.m. Tuesday and 4 p.m. Saturday.

True classics can be found on a couple of stops on the dial. Monday through Saturday, check out the 5 p.m. movie on The Family Channel; it might be a film such as “Black Beauty” or “The Last of the Mohicans.” The Movie Channel has its Cliff Notes Theater, which presents adaptations of classic literature such as “Ivanhoe” and “The Yearling.” And in the coming months the Arts & Entertainment Network plans to air such films as “Little Lord Fauntleroy,” “Long John Silver” and “Captain Kidd.”

Children may also be swept away by “Avonlea,” a Disney Channel series about a city girl who is sent to live with relatives on rural Prince Edward Island during the Victorian era. The series is an offshoot of the immensely popular and critically acclaimed “Anne of Green Gables” and “Anne of Avonlea” miniseries.

Showtime will continue its animated “Storybook Classics” during the summer. “The Ugly Duckling,” narrated by Cher, airs at 4 p.m. June 21, 25 and 5:30 a.m. June 22, 26. “The Emporer and the Nightingale” and “Steadfast Tin Soldier” will be shown in July.

And on Sunday mornings, at 8:30, HBO is presenting “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,” an animated series based on the L. Frank Baum books.

SERIES, OLD AND NEW

This is one of the most troublesome categories of TV when it comes to kids. Frequent violence is the only criterion used to judge whether these shows are fit for kids, and while many may not be overtly harmful, they often lack any worth beyond mere diversion. Any show a parent deems too dumb for adult consumption should be so deemed for a child, too.

In prime time, the one sitcom that surpasses expectations for the genre and interests older children is “The Wonder Years,” a remembrance of youth that rings true for the young and old. It airs at 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC. For prime-time drama, ABC also has “Life Goes On,” about a middle-class family riding out the rather ordinary ups and down of life, which airs at 7 p.m. Sundays on ABC.

On weekdays, several shows from the days when TV producers were more mindful of young viewers--and censors--are still engaging to kids.

“Father Knows Best” is sometimes derided as unrealistic, but what’s so bad about a family that acts civil? Repeats air from noon to 1 p.m. weekdays on The Family Channel, which also airs an hour of the old “Batman” series, so camp that even young children get the joke, beginning at 2 p.m.

“The Andy Griffith Show” appears frequently on weekdays: at 5:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. on KTTV, and 3:30 p.m. TBS. What’s more wholesome than Aunt Bea’s apple pie?

Another crowd pleaser, of course, is “Leave It To Beaver,” on weekdays at 6:30 a.m. on WGN and 8:30 a.m. on KTLA. Nickelodeon carries those other perennial favorites, “Lassie,” 6 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. weekdays, and “Dennis the Menace,” at 7 p.m. weekdays.

For drama, repeats of “Little House on the Prairie” air at 11 a.m. weekdays on KTLA.

ANIMATION

Most of Disney’s animation is a good bet, whether classic cartoons on the Disney Channel or the current syndicated series “Duck Tales” and “Chip ‘n Dale’s Rescue Rangers,” which follow one another weekdays beginning at 4 p.m. on KCAL. Also, Disney Channel offers an animated “Fraggle Rock” series at 9 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Beyond that, look to Nickelodeon and some of its animated imports for interesting weekday cartoons. Young children seem especially fond of “Maya the Bee” at 9:30 a.m., and “David the Gnome,” at noon, followed by “The Adventures of the Little Koala.” Other shows such as “Inspector Gadget,” at 7:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and “Heathcliff,” at 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., hold more interest for older kids.