TV shows: 1950's vs. 2003

            The children of today and the 1950's shared the similar interest in humor. Children of America have always enjoyed the laughter brought by misbehavior, yet it was not until the 1950's that the entertainment business took notice. Not every TV family of the fifties was portraying a well-mannered child. Dennis The Menace [1959-1963] showed the dangers of what having a child without siblings could yield. A single boy child can wreck more havoc on a community than a tornado. But Dennis was only a character in TV that many children could relate to and admired. Most kids looked up to him to fulfill all the little repressed hostilities they had toward adults. Although he had his menacing moments he portrayed a scout with a heart of gold. Today's Dennis the Menace can be said to many of the characters in today's TV show, yet he is best portrayed through the eyes of the menacing Dexter, in Dexter's Laboratory. Dexter not only causes havoc but know he is armed with an extremely large intelligence, with which he creates tools of destruction. Of course as any Dennis the Menace he never succeeds in his task of innocent destruction and the cycle of destruction continues through out the duration of the TV series.
             Dennis the Menace was a destructive, scheming young man, full of mischievous energy. While most blamed Dennis" activities to youthful excitement, his next-door neighbor, Mr. Wilson, found the boy insufferable. With the help of his friend Joey and his dog Ruff, Dennis would get into the wildest situations imaginable. Many times Margaret, with whom Dennis had a love-hate relationship, would involve herself just to show that girls could be as much trouble as boys. As much fun as the boy had wreaking havoc, the producers always made sure to show the consequences of Dennis' actions by the end of the episode, even inserting a moment when Dennis spoke to the kids at home. In one specific episode somehow Dennis, Joey and Ruff entered some parallel universe in which all the role of humans and dogs could talk.