Bluey is the Breaking Bad of Family Television

This was supposed to be way shorter, but I couldn't stop writing . . . and maybe crying.

Before we dive into Bluey, a little housekeeping. April office hours are happening on Friday April 26th from 11am - 12pm PT. This time, we’re going to try something new — an AMA on Zoom. All paid subscribers will get an email with the Zoom link a few minutes before we start, and then we’ll all log on and hang out. If you’ve been thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, this might be the perfect time!

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This post discusses some of my favorite TV shows. What are some of yours? Let us know in the comments. Also feel free to hit that like button!

For years now there has been talk about this era being the new Golden Age of Television a.k.a. Peak TV. While the exact dates are debated, the first time television was declared a “Golden Age'' was in the ‘40s and ‘50s. We’re talking about shows like I Love Lucy, Father Knows Best, The Honeymooners, The Flintstones, Dragnet, The Twilight Zone, and What Are We Going To Do With These Uppity Negro Neighbors, Dear? Just kidding about that last show. That wasn’t a show. That was the nightly news.

This new Golden Era is generally considered to have started with The Sopranos in 1999. The era goes on to include several acknowledged classics like The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Insecure, The Office, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Ted Lasso, Squid Game, Orange Is the New Black, and the reboot of What Are We Going To Do With These Uppity Negro Neighbors, Dear? a.k.a. Black-ish.

But what isn’t usually recognized with the same fervor and number of glowing profiles is that we are also in the middle of a Golden Age of kids and family television. I have gone on and on about my love for Doc McStuffins, even writing about it for the Los Angeles Review of Books. I did a whole bit about the show on my Netflix comedy special, Private School Negro. But there are so many more shows that prove that kids and family TV is in its Peak TV era too — shows like, City of Ghosts, by my friend Elizabeth Ito, Tiny Chef, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, Rise Up! Sing Out!, Phineas and Ferb, Masha and The Bear, Wild Kratts, and Gabby’s Dollhouse. There are too many to name. (Shout out to Sesame Street who’s been doing Peak Kids TV before it was cool.) There are even great shows for older kids like, Inbestigators, The Baby-Sitters Club, Brainchild, and Just Roll with It. My 9 year old would never forgive me if I neglected to mention both of Olivia Rodrigo’s contributions: Bizaardvark and High School Musical: The Musical: The Series.

Whew! That was close. 

All these shows are different. Some are animated. Some are not. Some are intentionally going out of their way to educate. Some are mostly just good ole fun. But they do have three things in common. (1) They all feature diversity in people (and animals). (2) They are not annoying to parents. We could even go so far as to say that these shows are actually entertaining for parents. (3) And these shows aren’t talking down to your kids. They are talking to your kids at the level they are at. It seems like the people who make these shows are making them in response to some of the kids programming from back in the day. The kind of kids programming that was just trying to keep your kids attention instead of earning it. This sea change has happened in the relatively short window of time since my wife and I had our first kid. Back then so many kids shows operated at a tone that was like a broken dog whistle that you can hear. Many still do, but there are so many that respect both the kid’s and the adult’s intelligence. It is such a gift to a family when everyone wants to sit down and watch the same thing.

And that brings us to the Disney show Bluey. Bluey is the Breaking Bad of family television. Both shows start with a seemingly simple idea. In Bluey’s case it is a cartoon about a family of Australian dogs and their domestic life. Inside that simple premise the creator Joe Brumm and his crew take the story - and YOU the viewer - to places that you never would have imagined. The stars of the show are six year old Bluey, her younger sister Bingo, and their mom and dad, Chilli and Bandit. As anthropomorphic cartoon animals often do, they own a house, drive cars, have jobs, and go to school. At first glance the show looks like your average kids cartoon: big-eyed characters, bright colors, and physical humor. But the show Bluey is so much more than the sum of its dog parts.

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Premiering on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 2018 and in the United States on Disney Junior and Disney+ in 2019, Bluey has grown to over 150 episodes. Perfect for parents whose kids want to watch one show at a time over and over. And like the greatest shows - including Breaking Bad - the show is not afraid to break its own formula. Many episodes take place in the world of the family’s collective imagination. The kids are allowed to come up with something otherworldly, and the parents just go with it. But none of that means much without the writing.

The writing is where Bluey really shines. Although it is definitely a kids show, it centers the parents' experience as much as the kids’. When the kids won’t stop playing, the show allows the parents to be annoyed in the way that all of us parents get annoyed. Not in an over-the-top TV way, but in a real life, Please, I’m begging you to stop. way. The parents also are allowed to be wrong and sometimes have to make amends to their kids. The parents are allowed to be down on the floor playing with their kids and also exhausted at the same time. (There is even one where the parents are hungover. They don’t explicitly say it, but us parents know what’s going on.) The parents are also allowed to be intentionally annoying to their own children. That is personally my jam! There is a brilliant episode that is just about how hard it is for a parent to get the kids ready to leave the house. And most notably in this kind of programming, the parents don’t always have the answers the kids need. Sometimes the parents have to say, “I don’t know.” That alone is revolutionary for kids television. There is a real sweetness throughout that is also laced with the melancholy I’m doing the best I can that I truly associate with being a parent.

This makes Bluey one of the most realistic portrayals of parenting in the history of television, inlcuding television that isn’t animated. While the parents on the show may not always be perfect TV parents, you always know that these parents love their kids more than anything. Some of that may have to do with the fact that the kids who do the voices of Bluey and Bingo are the actual kids of members of the crew. We don’t know whose children they are, exactly. The names of the real life kids have never been released for the sake of the kids’ privacy. Another reason I love the show.

Bluey also handles subject matter that is often seen as not suitable for kids cartoons. It does so in ways that are both age-appropriate and satisgying for the adults in the room. The show has dealt with death, divorce, depression, feeling like you have to be perfect to please your parents, Chilli’s sister’s infertility, and even farts. (Not fart sounds, but actual farts!) In the most recent episode, one of Bluey’s classmates refers to his “mums”... plural. While some of the subjects may seem too heavy for a kids cartoon, just remember that in real life real kids deal with all these things. There have been kids on the show who use sign language, show signs of ADHD, and who some fans believe are autistic. Many fans of the show even speculate that the character of Bluey is neurodivergent. 

@aussiegirlmargieBluey The Sign confirmed first LGBTQ+ couple in the show 🏳️‍🌈 #bluey #blueytok #disney #disneytok #momsoftiktok #momlife #lgbtcouples #lgbtq #lesbiancouple #parenthood #parentsbelike

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All of this is (clearly) carefully constructed into a highly artistic package that elevates it from the usual kids show fare. It does this so successfully that in my household no one is allowed to watch new episodes of Bluey without the entire family present. I was on the road with my nine year old last week, and she told me that we weren’t allowed to watch the new episodes. So a couple nights ago when we had returned home, my five year old, my nine year old, my twelve year old, my wife, and I fired up the two new episodes of Bluey: “Ghostbasket” and “The Sign.” The show is known for its intentionally obtuse titles that give you no idea what the episode is about, but often end up changing your family lexicon. We have added “keepy uppy,” “toilet hand,” and “dance mode” to ours. Just this morning my daughter wanted to play “ghostbasket” before school. I was annoyed, just like Bandit would have been in Bluey, but we played anyway… just like Bandit would have done in Bluey.

Finally, one of the absolute best things about Bluey is that each episode is 8 minutes long. That includes the closing credits, so they are really only seven minutes long. That means when your kid inevitably asks for “ONE MORE SHOW!” you are only in for seven more minutes if you say yes, not an hour or 30 minutes or 22 minutes. Seven gloriously short minutes! Plus, seven minutes is just long enough to get the kid’s shoes and socks on so when it ends we can get out the door. And that is why I was gobsmacked when I saw the running time of the newest episode “The Sign.” It came in at a Godfather Epic length of twenty-eight minutes! My initial thoughts were “How? Why? What? And again… why?” I thought all that and I loooooove this show.

But by the time the twenty-eight minutes were over, it was clear to me and my family that the creators of the show needed every last second. It was like the best version of a last episode of any beloved television show. It wrapped up several plot lines. It featured a plot worthy of a last episode but not a plot so outside of the usual storylines that it felt forced. (Looking at you, series finale of Seinfeld.) At the end, the characters felt transformed by what they had gone through but still familiar to who we had come to know. Although it felt very much like a last episode, the makers of the show assure us that there is more coming. But they clearly wanted to signal a change of some sort.

While Bluey regularly manages to walk a fine line of making shows that please both kids and adults, honestly, this one was maybe leaning more towards the adults. There have been several articles written about parents who watched the episode and ended up in tears. That definitely happened in my home. I won’t tell you which adult was crying. But it certainly wasn’t me. I’m known for my cold-hearted toughness.

The specific thing that makes this feel like a great final episode of an adult series is that you can’t watch this episode and truly appreciate what the makers of Bluey have accomplished unless you see the other 150+ episodes. The last episodes of Breaking Bad or The Good Place or Six Feet Under or Schitt’s Creek won't land as hard if you haven't invested the time to get to know all the twists and turns of the plot and the characters. In “The Sign” you have to have been a Bluey completionist to catch all the Easter eggs and fan service that they are squeezing in there. It is truly a work of genius. While I have heard that this episode is too much for some kids, that’s okay, too. Eventually they will grow up, watch it again, and be bawling through the whole thing just like me… I mean… just like my wife.

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You’re With Me

Here are some updates. I’ve got things you can do to help yourself feel less depressed about the state of democracy or the state of education. I’ve also got a stand up show in Asheville and an appearance on Top Chef!

Did You Say Top Chef!?

I sure did. This week, I’m a guest judge on one of the greatest reality competition shows of all time, Top Chef. Check it out. Tell me what you thought of the quick fire challenge, and next week I’ll tell you more about what it was like to hang out with Kristen, Gail, and Tom!

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Office Hours: Zoom Edition

Save the date! April office hours are happening on Friday April 26th from 11am - 12pm PT. This time, we’re going to try something new — an AMA on Zoom. All paid subscribers will get an email with the Zoom link a few minutes before we start, and then we’ll all log on and hang out. If you’ve been thinking about becoming a paid subscriber, this might be the perfect time!

Upcoming Events

Flip the Vote

Tomorrow I’m hosting an event in Oakland to help raise money for Flip the Vote, an organization that provides a way for people who care about democracy and civil rights to channel hope and fear about upcoming elections into meaningful action. Flip the Vote makes strategic recommendations based on careful research about where and how to invest in winning critical elections. They also provide a simple and enjoyable process for people to engage and activate their friends and family around our strategic recommendations.

Tomorrow’s event is sold out, but you can join the effort from wherever you are. Check out this online fundraiser. Maybe you can donate or maybe you can help by sharing this info with other people:

Join us in support of Flip the Vote for the 2024 election season to fund 7 vetted voting organizations in critical swing states. Donations are directed to: Advance Carolina, Black Male Initiative Georgia, BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing Communities, Milwaukee), Detroit Action, LUCHA (Living United for Change in Arizona), Make the Road Action (Nevada), and One Pennsylvania.

Stand-Up Comedy in Asheville on Wednesday 6/19

I’m doing stand-up in Asheville. (photo: Aundre Larrow/CNN)

HOLY CATS! I BOOKED A REAL STAND-UP COMEDY SHOW! Am I really back to stand-up? I still don’t know. But if you are in Asheville, North Carolina in June, I’m doing stand-up at at the Orange Peel on June 19th. Tickets just went on sale. See you there.

DonorsChoose Projects

I’m not like other math! I’m FUN math.
Last week we shared a BIG $1,000 project from Aurora, CO. Ms. S is trying to put together FUN Math Learning Bags for her 3rd - 5th grade students to take home over the summer so they don’t lose all of their hard-earned knowledge to summer slide! Y’all made some serious headway on this one. There’s only $284 left to raise. I have a feeling we’ll get it across the finish line this week. The two fundraisers we shared for social-emotional learning curricula got funded quickly! Nice work.

Supplies for a Solar Energy Competition
Let’s take another big swing. Ms. Bower teaches at an elementary school in Harrisburg, PA where more than 50% of students are Black, Latino, and/or Native American, and more than 50% come from low-income households. Ms. Bower’s students have a really cool opportunity in front of them, but they need your help. Ms. Bower explains:

The fourth grade students at our school in Harrisburg, PA are creative and curious. They have been designing and building solar structures, diagramming the wiring, keeping notes in a scientific journal and imagining a story to enter the KidWind Solar Challenge. Several teams of students were able to take part in this hands-on design celebration. One team is invited to move on to the KidWind World Challenge. All of the students are using Solar Energy Exploration Kits to explore a variety of real world applications including using solar panels to pump water. They need more kits as well as multimeters, wire strippers, alligator clips and motors to extend their understanding and connect this to future careers.

The necessary supplies add up to a little over $1,500. It would be fun to help Ms. Bower raise this money before her August 10th deadline.