These shows, such as The New Super Friends Hour and Scooby Laff-a-Lympics, were designed to increase audience flow. In the 1980's came the television revolution; which was caused by the overwhelming demand for cable and VCR's. Many new programs for children were being put on the air due to new networks like Nickelodeon, Discovery, Learning, Lifetime, Disney, and the Family channel. In the 1990's, television was influenced by the Children's Television Act with many educational shows joining the available programming. .
There have been a large amount of studies regaurding television programs and their effects on children. Related to educational programming, are prosocial programs which model socially valued responses for viewers, (Alexander p.1). Prosocial behavior is usually defined as "good for persons and society", and may include lessons on the value of cooperation, self-control, helping, sharing, and understanding those who are different. Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, for example, is a classic prosocial program. Achievement, intellectual ability, grades, and reading show complex relationships with television viewing, but the connection between television viewing and academic performance is not clear. In many ways, educational programming has been revolutionized by the show Sesame Street. Viewed by over six million preschoolers every week, this show was created to teach educational concepts of a wide range, such as reading to international understanding. Research on Sesame Street has given evidence that young children can learn skills from the show, and that these skills will contribute to their early educational success. It is said that children who spend a great deal of time watching TV do poorly in school, but children who spend a moderate amount of time with TV perform better than the non-viewers. Overall, research suggests that learning and television viewing are positively linked with a timeframe of about ten hours per week.
