Off the couch, children

THERE’S a new kind of TV villain on “LazyTown,” Nickelodeon’s popular kids’ show. Robbie Rotten, in all his creeping, hand-wringing, nyah-ha-ha evil, plots to keep the village children indoors, occupied with video games and candy. His nemeses Sportacus and Stephanie back-flip to the rescue, demonstrating the joys of fresh air and fitness.

“LazyTown” is just one in a new wave of children’s shows reaching beyond predictable lessons in reading or morality to try to instill a desire for fruits, vegetables and cartwheels in young viewers. Under fire for having contributed to the national epidemic of childhood obesity, the networks have essentially remade the children’s TV landscape; shows like “Arthur” and “Sesame Street” now include health and fitness elements, and new shows like “Boohbah” were conceived specifically to inspire kids to exercise.

Older viewers might sense a certain irony in the effort. Like most children’s television, the shows are supported largely by commercials for fatty, sugary processed foods. And behind each message to get up and play lies the unstated implication that children should be doing something better with their time than sitting and watching television.

“Television is an informational as well as an entertainment medium, even for preschoolers,” said Peter Katz, director of marketing for Common Sense Media, a group devoted to informing parents about media. Characters like SpongeBob SquarePants have tremendous power to affect behavior and values one way or another, he said. He applauded the networks for using their icons’ power for good, but said the associated food products could be a danger.

No one knows whether such programs will produce a generation of slimmer, healthier kids. “The proof will be in what kind of results parents see from their kids who actually follow some of the tenets of the program,” Katz said.

Hoping to engage the little ones’ imaginations, the networks are forging ahead with some innovative techniques intended to get them up and moving even as they watch.

Besides rebranding Cookie Monster as a milk-drinking, broccoli-eating health Muppet, PBS has introduced the Boohbahs -- flatulent fuzzballs designed to elicit laughter and imitation as they exercise. Nickelodeon’s “LazyTown” has charismatic, health-conscious stars: a pink-haired cheerleader, Stephanie, and Sportacus, played by creator Magnus Scheving, a world-class athlete. And Disney Channel’s “JoJo’s Circus” features an animated 6-year-old clown girl who tries to get kids to follow her in “movement activities and do-along songs.”

While acknowledging the problem of childhood obesity, network executives stop short of accepting the blame for a condition created by many factors. The fact that many children feel unsafe outside their homes was one reason producers wanted to integrate nutrition and fitness messages into all PBS kids’ shows this summer, said John Wilson, senior vice president of PBS Kids. “Time spent in front of screens, not just TV, makes us think these are topics that should be addressed.”

The initiative will air indefinitely, said Rosemarie Truglio, vice president of education and research for Sesame Workshop. “We feel this is a health crisis that will take some time for change to occur,” she said.

Critics call it an exercise in futility. “TV is literally an obesity machine, both because of what it advertises and the inactivity that it encourages,” said Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, an advocacy organization warning parents against commercialism. “The single most important thing for kids is to exercise more and see less junk food commercials. That will only happen if kids turn off the TV set and parents do too,” he said.

So far, research has shown television to be one of the culprits in the complex problem of childhood obesity, along with poor diet, sprawling suburbs, dangerous neighborhoods, cutbacks in school physical education programs and poverty. One of the most difficult problems is obese parents, said pediatrician Ari Brown, coauthor of “Baby 411: Clear Answers and Smart Advice for Your Baby’s First Year”: “You have to change the parents of a generation to change the kids.”

At this point “there is little known on exactly which approaches will be the most effective,” said Dr. Thomas N. Robinson, director of the Center for Healthy Weight at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford University. Last year Robinson helped produce an Institute of Medicine report that encouraged the media to help solve the problem of childhood obesity by promoting nutrition, increased physical activity and reduced sedentary behaviors.

However, he said, shows that inspire children to move while watching, or reduce the cues to eating, appear to be helpful. “JoJo’s Circus” takes the direct approach, inviting kids to imitate simple activities. “LazyTown” uses an on-screen “power play meter” that purports to measure the activity level of preschoolers at home as they watch activities like jumping jacks or just wiggling. The “meter” also appears in the lower left corner during regular Nick Jr. programming to continuously encourage young viewers to keep moving while watching television.

Wiggle while you watch

IN “Sesame Street’s” home video “Happy Healthy Monsters,” children don’t have to be told to try the exercises. They watch other children watching Grover teach aerobics on television, and they see them trying the jumping exercises.

“Boohbah” was designed to get children to instinctively move as they watch. Each episode begins with the colorful creatures doing simple, repetitive warm-up exercises followed by real children showing off their own silly moves on a lawn.

Creator Anne Wood, who also designed “Teletubbies,” based her method on her own research observing the behavior of young children watching her shows. Body language, sounds and smiles indirectly invite children to participate while avoiding the anxiety that a direct suggestion would create.

“Kids are smart. They can smell a lesson from a mile away,” said Cyma Zarghami, president of Nickelodeon Television. In its health messages, the network tries to hide the information in humor and entertainment.

“There’s no one fix for obesity, overscheduling, playing too many video games, being too sedentary. All we can do is try and strike a balance,” she said.

“Nobody is going to do this for you,” Linda Ellerbee told school-age kids on Nick News during a segment on how to read food labels. The government, she noted, doesn’t require restaurants to provide nutritional information and hasn’t set standards for school vending machines. “So it’s up to you.”

In contrast, “Sesame Street” wants caretakers involved. Celebrity appearances are one way to get parents to watch and participate with their children, Truglio said. This season has seen visits to “Sesame Street” from New York Yankees manager Joe Torre and singer Alicia Keys, among others.

For the most part, parents appear to have greeted the trend as a positive development. But some resist change. Cookie Monster himself drew criticism earlier this year, with many complaining that his broccoli-eating was too politically correct. “Some people would write in saying, ‘Thank you so much. I can’t get my kids to eat fruits and vegetables.’ Other people were saying, ‘He’s a cookie monster. Why are you putting him on a diet?’ ” Truglio said.

“He’s not on a diet,” she said. “Having Cookie Monster teach the song ‘Cookie Is a Sometimes Food’ is a message of moderation. It’s saying there are lots of foods we want you to be open-minded about and try.”

The networks are not limiting their health and fitness messages to television. Many have more information on websites and in books, magazines and board games; some also sponsor health fairs, screenings and family fitness events in local communities.

Nickelodeon has plans for SpongeBob SquarePants and Dora the Explorer to appear on bags of fresh spinach and carrots.

The network has also gone one step further. On Oct. 1, the date it has scheduled its second annual “Worldwide Day of Play,” Nickelodeon will go dark for three hours. Viewers will have been encouraged to turn off the television and go play instead.

*

Contact Lynn Smith at calendar.letters@latimes.com.