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My little pony is the obvious answer

Good question. The one that comes to mind is Bob’s Burgers. It was pitched with a very dark premise but then gradually became less PG as Loren Bouchard realized it would be alright if he just wrote about a family and just slice of life stuff. If you watch the first episode and then one from today, you’ll see how the show now caters to what I believe is a demographic that watches the show for comfort rather than humor and edge.

The fans really love the characters, as though they’re their own family from what I can tell. I recently listened to a podcast where Andy Richter mentioned to H. Jon Benjamin that he cares about what Bob’s family is up to as though they’re real or something which I thought was hilarious.

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That's just weird ngl.

Bluey. Although I think the brilliance of this show is that it was actually made for adults the whole time.

I haven’t gotten around looking into this show but hear it being spoken about a lot. I remember hearing about its censorship of certain topics. Are you saying that it’s a children’s show that’s appreciated by adults?

It’s a children showed that’s more written towards the parents who are forced to watch it with their kids.

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I had nightmares of the three foot long black horse dildo I saw one of my former students with. My Little Pony fans are disgusting.

My Little Pony is probably the first thought a lot of folks will have.

I also think a show like Avatar: Legend of Korra drew in a wider audience than teens due primarily to just being well-written. Gravity Falls experiemced the same thing. Helped keep both around longer than otherwise in a niche (children/teen programming) that tends to burn through shows pretty quickly.

Smash was targeted towards theater nerds here in the US

it became huge in Brazil

Apparently , Baywatch's demographics were 65% women.

>The audience was 65 percent female,[11] with its number one audience being women aged 18 to 34. Speaking in 2001, Schwartz explained that, after doing focus groups on Baywatch for about five years, they learned that the show appealed to this demographic because "most of [its] lead characters were strong, independent women who were heroic, who were saving lives, who were equal to men".[12]

I was a kid when Baywatch was on, but I do remember the jokes on Friends about Chandler and Joey watching it for Pam Anderson and Yasmine Bleeth running in slow motion.

New Girl?

Was Everybody Hates Chris dubbed or did it have subtitles?

Apparently “The King of Queens” was huge in Germany, and thus Kevin James is big there.

Malcolm in the Middle became very popular in Latin American countries, especially in Mexico.

Young Justice got cancelled because the fan base was mostly girls.

Doctor Who was made to fill a 30 minute time slot to teach kids about science and history, that’s why the first two companions to join the Tardis were teachers from those subjects. But ultimately the show became something that can be enjoyed by an audience of all ages, it’s now seen as a family show instead of just a kids show.

Star Wars the Clone Wars (the 3d series). The show started as a Jedi hack and slash with a few bits of Yoda life wisdom, droid misadventures and the odd galactic trade federation politics.

It matured into a series of jedi turning human soldiers against each other due to racism (speciesism?), A Jedi having to bury her entire battalion in a mass grave after Order 66 and one of the most poignant shots in all Star Wars history with Vader in the very last scene of the series.

From a literal sense, the show started in 2008 and with the final season dropping in 2020 after a 6 year hiatus due to the Disney acquisition,the characters in the show grew up and were given newer models to coincide with Anakin's appearance in Revenge of the Sith so the show also 'grew' up with its audience in a way.

I hear Gilmore Girls is one.

Well, it's very likely to be dubbed.

German here: it was about as big as "Scrubs" (...was in the US), but less big than "How I met your Mother" - so just a little more successful or popular than in the US.

"ALF" and "Married with Children" were like that in Germany too, and I think to similar audiences.

so: it's absolutely true. but please don't think we all adore Kevin James, lol. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff

Queer as Folk was big with middle age women at the time.

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Big Bang Theory has a pretty big following in China.

Lots of K Drama got an American followings.

Apparently Avatar the last airbender was found to be more popular with adults so they started writing it for an older audience.

Definitely seems to improve quite a lot from the second season. I've always thought the first season was kind of weak and not as interesting as the following seasons.

The sentence “Tichina Arnold Brazil’s version of Michael Jackson” is hilarious to me

A lot of us watched the show and enjoyed it and never once thought anything dirty about the cartoon horses. Like how you watch House and don't want to fuck House.

Kevin James is pretty big everywhere; a lot of his comedy is based around that

Baywatch was pre Internet porn.

It was a soap opera with women doing important things. Makes sense. Used to being in the middle of the day.

Liberals seem to like King of the Hill despite it mocking liberalism.

Scarface has been embraced by black urbanites. It's supposed to be a cautionary tale. Don't sell drugs.

LOL reminds me of the Lemon Popsicle movies that somehow got really big in Germany

I Finally watched Avatar:The Last Airbender and im gonna say that...its supposed to be a kids show, i only watched it because so many people put it as their top 3 show in some discussion here and GOD DAMN its good even tho im a grown man. it only aired on a kids' channel in my country

What are you doing looking at your students horse dildo?

(I don't know if I meant this sarcastically or not.)

But it was most popular within its original target demo.

> and don't want to fuck House

I think a lot of people would like to Fuck Hugh Laruie

But you still love the Hoff right?

In the 90s Mexican telenovalas exploded in popularity in the Philippines. Marimar made Thalia a household name in the country

I didn't watch New Girl during its initial run because I was just like "do I really need to watch 25 mins of Zoey Deschanel being quirky?" Pandemic comes along, I'm bored, I start watching New Girl because I wanted something simple to digest.

Lo and behold I found myself watching one of the best explorations of the male experience I've ever seen. Sure, the majority of shows focus on men as lead characters, but nothing else I've seen has really captured the life experience of the everyday guy coming into adulthood in the new millenium so well.

OK, fine. It's like how you watch The Golden Girls and don't want to... oh, who am I kidding? I would have gone with any of them.

Sleepy Hollow was set for 18-32 white males demo. Then 30-50 black women loved it. End of show...

Yellowstone

I love that there’s definitely an episode where everybody making the show realized all the guys were really really funny, and maybe much funnier than the show they were on, and they hard pivoted. Then the show shifted from “Jess and her wacky guys!” To “which wacky guy will allow Jess to tag along in the background”.

Which in fairness, was the right move.

Tichina Arnold isn't the most famous actress in Brazil, that is totally wrong haha.

But aside from that, everybody hates Chris is really huge here, and the dub is splendid.

Oh it absolutely pokes fun at liberals, and we love it! Despite what Tucker's told you, we absolutely know how to laugh at ourselves.

But you're missing the central premise of the show. Hank's old fashioned Conservative values are often challenged, and many times he has to question why he even holds those values in the first place. Think about the episode where he had to report a male coworker for sexual harrasment because it was making his workplace toxic, or when he had to confront his childhood trauma inflicted by his father that kept him from being able to use a gun properly, or when he had to stand by his wife as she taught sex ed at the school while conservative voices in the town tried to get the program shut down, or when Hank had to come to terms with the fact that Mr. Strickland, his boss and a man he admires greatly, does not run his business in order to provide good, stable employment to hardworking people and offer a valuable service to the community, but rather to squeeze every penny of profit he can from his customers because he's just a fatcat, greedy capitalist like the rest of them who wraps himself in good ol' fashion conservative values in order to sell a product.

Even through these conflicts though, the show never espouses the superiority of left or right wing ideology, but rather argues that the universal values of kindness, decency, and understanding always win the day.

And besides, it hella pokes fun at conservatives too.

I mean... a family show is a kids show.

A family movie/TV show just means it's not specifically for little kids. Like a Sesame St/Barney type thing.

I ran into him and some other former students at a hotel where there was a My Little Pony convention.

Didn’t know Married With Children was popular anywhere outside the US. That’s awesome, it was one of my favorites.

Russia made a remake show with 365 (!) episodes, and IRL, the shoeseller character based on Al became a famous statue. (I'm not kidding.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Together_(Russian_TV_series)

Dubbed

SpongeBob SquarePants

I bet Hasselhoff put in a good word for him. Sometimes it's just who you know.

That's actually a common misconception. It was mainly because of toy sales, with the higher-ups being disappointed with the toy sales and deciding to can it based on that. What's ironic is I think if they made stuff like Funkos based on the show versions of characters, they'd probably sell decently.

It was weird, but I miss the positivity from those times. I got to take a break from cynicism for like 2 years, and not alone, but with a bunch of other weirdos.

It didn’t start out weird. It actually started out really wholesome where some critic bashed the show and said everything about it was awful even making false claims that the show was racist, and then a bunch of dudes who would normally hate girls’ cartoons checked it out and were like actually this is a good show, we’ve decided to defend it against people who hate it for no reason.

Every good children’s show I’ve ever seen both as a kid and an adult knows that parents watch TV with their kids and want to make the show something both audiences enjoy

It got more wholesome over time, it started out on 4chan

Pre-Pam Anderson baywatch was a different show. If you ever caught it in syndication there a different tone to the first two seasons which was much more serious. More like a procedural.

Yellowjackets

I think the two timelines allow for two generations to fangirl the show simultaneously.

Buzz buzz

I think it's a kid focused show that also provides valuable lessons for parents. I'm not going to lie, I watch an episode when I need a pick me up.

A lot of telenovelas these days were originally Turkish…

That’s not surprising at all since there are tons of Black Brazilians; more African slaves were taken there than anywhere else.

You were there for the convention, weren't you?

You know KOTH wasn’t written by conservatives… right?

Give it a try. It's cute, funny, and has some great messages. I've only seen a few episodes but it's really nice that a show that teaches important lessons on friendship and health is available to all ages. Especially when some of those lessons are things you wouldn't pick up until a teenager or young adult.

The sequel is pretty great, too, but suffers from being fucked over by Nickelodeon, most clearly in season 2. But you'll still enjoy it overall.

Not only in there. There were.also in German and Turkish TV and very successful.

Libertarians, basically.

Jenny Nicholson provides a great examination of the phenomenon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fVOF2PiHnc

You mean the guy who made Beavis & Butthead?

No.

>I got to take a break from cynicism

It won't do you any good, but whatever.

I was watching my 3 year old nephew, and my brother tells me to just throw on some Bluey to keep him occupied for a little.

3 episodes later and I'm asking my nephew if we can watch another one. Was shocked at how good it is.

we only had like 5 tv stations with 3 being private tv stations that would import tv shows from the US rather than showing self produced german stuff. so a lot of these shows that were 'big' in germany were only big because it was the only alternative to watching some german soap or documentary or something.

so it's not that there were 20 shows but we all wanted to watch "King of Queens", it was just the only thing on if you switched on the tv at 19:15

Mostly pokes fun at liberals.

Except for Dale, the rednecks are generally good people.

The sex ed episode ended with a parent talking to a kid about sex. Not a government employee.

The Hills went to church every Sunday.

Bush was a nice guy. The Clintons were scum.

Racism does not exist in Arlen.

Liberal activists, especially, are overgrown children.

It never addressed the confederate flag, which was problematic.

Ok. Just doesn't seem fair to call it weird. (Unless you're referring to some of the more sexual parts of the fandom)

My daughter tried watching it and even in comparison to her other shows the writing was bad and the characters lacked any depth or nuance. It's a kids show, yeah I understand but there's other shows aimed at the same audience that aren't as terrible

>Give it a try. It's cute, funny, and has some great messages. I've only seen a few episodes but it's really nice that a show that teaches important lessons on friendship and health is available to all ages. Especially when some of those lessons are things you wouldn't pick up until a teenager or young adult.

So you're saying you should watch it if you're an emotionally stunted weirdo? Gotcha.

But that's exactly why. They said girls don't buy toys and blamed them, rather than the declining physical toy space in the wake of modern electronics. Kids had phones and didn't want toys, but they blamed the audience.

The first few episodes especially are extremely cartoony and childish

family show is more just like "kid proof," so things like the Mandalorian and all the other disney+ stuff would fall into that, versus most of primetime broadcast tv in the US which is all cop procedurals or PG/TV14 sitcoms like how i met your mother.

I’m jealous you got to so recently watch it for the first time. I wish I could forget it so I could watch again for the first time

So like Phineas and Ferb.

Liberals love making fun of themselves. Check out Portlandia.

Sounds like it would be perfect for you

I mean kind of but it’s a literal children’s show, for like 5yr olds.

>Sounds like it would be perfect for you

You bronies sure get salty fast 🤣

Arthur

Phineas and Ferb was also a children's show, but much of the writing had references to movies and pop culture only their parents would really get.

Yeah I’m familiar with the show I was just pointing out that Bluely is more of a “Laugh with the parent because the dad in the show is in the exact same situation that you are now” watching it with a toddler than a show like Phineas or Ferb where it’s a show for young kids/preteens that makes some pop culture references some times

Sooo many people didn't get this, I feel for you bro.

I highly recommend the YouTube series Baywatching where a super fan gives a funny recap of every episode. You can see how much the show changed over time and it really is something.

And the concept of the Doctor regenerating and changing personalities was just a quick excuse to explain why they changed the actor who plays the Doctor from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton. Eventually this led to casting Tenant and Smith who appealed so much to younger audiences and women that the franchise became a global phenomenon... at least, moreso.

Yeah the original pitch for that show was pretty bad, very run of the mill gender war stereotypes type stuff, but the writing very quickly evolved.

The MCU didn't make a movie about a nonwhite protagonist until Black Panther (movie #18) or about a woman until Captain Marvel (movie #21) for the same misconception. Turns out those demographics didn't buy as many superhero toys because there were barely any that they could see themselves in.

I guess Ant-Man and the Wasp predates Captain Marvel with its woman co-lead but I personally feel like Ant-Man is still the main character of that film.

So while it was still huge in America, I don’t think many Americans realise just how massive Friends was outside of America.

When the reunion happened you would constantly see Americans whinging they did a segment on Friends around the world. And it’s because the creators and actors recognised the popularity.

Yeah I'm pretty sure you didn't watch King of the Hill.

And that's why Disney kicked out Ike Perlmutter out of the MCU

At the time middle-aged women loved gay men. It was the days of the "gay best friend" trope.

Golden Girls

Kevin James is big everywhere

The way Sleepy Hollow shot itself in the foot was painful to watch. I loved S1 and especially the blossoming relationship between Abby and Ichabod. I guess people shipping the two was the showrunners' worst fear, because the pivot they did after the first season was nonsensical.

When they brought it back it was awful though. Couldn't get into it

that is a massive part of why that fandom is seen as weird

So a current favourite of mine - Lockwood and co - was not at all advertised in india. I mean, Netflix india instagram does not have a single post on the show. Yet it is #2 here in India

I don't get how you watch the sex-ed episode, which is clearly mocking the whole conservative prudishness against sex-ed, and think that it has an anti-liberal ending. Peggy is literally a substitute teacher, she is teaching sex ed while being paid by the local government,

The first episode of Arrow was not for the CW audience, the rest of it was.

CW shows, apparently. They ostensibly targeted teens but actual demos showed they were most popular with 45+ viewers.

Glee was supposed to be for adults.

They changed the tone of the show in S2 once they discovered their audience was mostly tweens.

I think the obvious one off the top of my head is Columbo being absolutely massive in Romania.

The original Mobile Suit Gundam from 1979 had a huge following among women, and didn't have the male traction you would think until the model kits were produced.

Iirc, Young Justice had this going on. The target audience were school age boys -- that is, those who ostensibly are more likely to buy merch and such -- but it ended up being popular primarily with teen and young adult viewers, a big chunk of whom were women.

I feel like that's kind of typical, or at least not new, for kids' shows, though.

E.g., Rugrats and Muppet Babies -- which were my favorites as a little kid, like preschool/early school age -- made heavy use of pop culture parodies in their plotlines.

I mean, sure, '90s kids probably got the Star Wars and Indiana Jones references. But no cap, Muppet Babies did an episode that parodied The African Queen, which is apparently an old Humphrey Bogart movie from the '50s. No way a kindergartener in 1995 was gonna get that reference, lmao. Kid me legit wondered what the hell they were parodying.

I feel like it's probably a lot harder to make a toddler/preschool show appealing to adults while still appealing to its actual target audience, versus kids' shows aimed at school-age children or tweens.

Some shows definitely pull it off, though, it's just rare. Haven't seen Bluey due to neither having kids, nor having young relatives or friends' kids in the right age bracket for it. Arthur pulls it off, though, imo.

Though Arthur tends to be kind of like, an "all-ages" kids' show, if that makes sense? Like, it's a solid choice for a preschooler, but it's also enjoyable for older kids closer to the main characters' actual ages (iirc Arthur is in 3rd or 4th grade). Kind of in a different category than something like Dora the Explorer.

Cougar Town

Trailer Park Boys.

There is a lot of say here, but I will just stick with liberals go to church too, teacher are government employees - and the end lesson Hank learned from that was its ok to learn about sex in school, there were a few episodes that dealt with racism, from both a black and a native perspective, and the confederate flag wasn't a hot spot at the time. If the show was still going on I imagine they would do something.

Supernatural

Peggy spoke to Bobby about sex. Yeah. It showed the absurdity of the anti sex ed crowd.

Most of the race episodes showed blacks as reactionaries. Hank Hill wasn't racist. He was a white conservative. There's a difference.

Confederate flag has been an issue since about 1861. In the 90s, liberals were trying to take it down from statehouses.

Yeah like how is this not just "the answer" to this thread.

So? Still is the most accurate answer for this thread weird or not.

Oddly if I recall right it it did start out as wholesome even on 4chan for the most part. Because "ironic" humor of people like them enjoying the show was still big at the time.

Try Stargate

Is it? I've seen some clips and I just don't really "get it". I'm not a parent so maybe that's why? I'm sure I could relate to it better if I was. Hell I even do some work with kids and still just don't see what the appeal is for a single millennial.

So my theory of if you don't have kids you still won't really get into it makes sense. Kinda like those "litterbox comics" where they're more for the parents but if you don't have that life experience its not gonna hit you the same way.

Is Hasselhoff still a god there?

Reaching back to the 90s, Xena: Warrior Princess. I'm not actually sure who the intended audience was, beyond people who were interested in campy, tongue-in-cheek comedy adventure, but it pretty quickly became a cult hit amongst lesbians.

The original Avatar was a much bigger show than the LoK no? I liked Korra, but it was very much a follow up to ATLA iirc. But yes. ATLA was well received by adults, partly because it does deal with quite a lot of mature concepts at times (while also being quite silly as well to appeal to kids)

It's been succeeded by Ru Paul's drag race. Still has a huge queer audience, but a close second is straight white women

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I wouldn’t have picked this up if I was an exec

Thanks...
I know that making a joke doesn't always come across in written text without my stupid grin, but I thought this would've been obvious...

I thought it was pretty obvious too but I keep forgetting to remember that the average person is dumb as fuck, and half of all people are dumber that that.

Yeah Phineas and Ferb did a whole episode that was kinda spoofing LOST but did it in a way that to anyone who hadn’t seen the show or didn’t know it was gonna be somewhat of a LOST parody, it just looked like a normal Phineas and Ferb episode.

Downton Abbey (UK): Originally advertised as a British period drama, Downton Abbey quickly achieved international success, becoming one of the most watched television shows of the 21st century.

The appeal of Bluey isn't pop culture parodies though. It's more very relatable situation, especially for parents going through raising kids, and also is a good example for adults on how to better interact with each other and with children while also being funny

Steven Universe. Was originally made for kids, but I think teen and adult women were way bigger consumers of the show.

That is a minor part of the fandom that is common with any kid show

It took about a season to find its legs but thinning the characters lack depth is simply a sign of not playing attention.

Talk about eye candy

Now I need to commission a House, Golden Girls, Fluttershy orgy picture

Censorship is stuff like the Disney version not showing a horse poop on screen

I dont think its the kind of shows that works watching random clips. The episodes are pretty story centered and jokes usually are built upon whats been happening. The episodes are like 8 minutes long. Just watch one if youre curious

It's a kids show and not a good one, it doesn't hold a candle to comparable television.

The first episode has a fairly prolonged and awkward but about child molestation.

That isnt true. What do your base that off of? Its better then most shows

The writing, the characters and the storylines.

How much did you watch and what issues did you have with it?

You played the part too well.