#childrens-media

#childrens-media

Kenan Thompson's been acting for most of his life. Cast in both All That and D2: The Mighty Ducks in 1993, when he was just 15, Thompson came of age onscreen. Maybe that's why, when he joined Saturday Night Live, just ten years after he started on Nickelodeon, Thompson felt like a fully formed comedian, sure of his own voice and style and able to deliver in just about any situation. He might have been relatively young, but compared to his fellow cast members, he had more credits and (arguably) more experience.

If you're under 45, it's hard to remember a time when Andy Richter wasn't a TV fixture. Rising to prominence in 1993 as part of Late Night With Conan O'Brien, Richter has seemed an omnipresent affable Everyman ever since, both on the talk-show circuit and in his own work, such as the criminally underrated sitcoms Andy Richter Controls the Universe and Andy Barker, P.I.

They say three is a trend, the rate of occurrence upon which one moves past the threshold of randomness and into the realm of fixed preference that we often identify as "taste." Levi seemed to like older movies and TV. Levi seemed to dislike newer movies and TV. I sat down to watch an episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse with him, and a hypothesis about why this is the case took shape.

I love a checklist of reminders for my kids, but these overly complicated chore charts? They've got to go. There are apps, there are magnetic charts, there are giant customizable dry-erase boards - it's all too much. And it makes giving your kids chores and encouraging them to be a part of the team at home way more overwhelming than it needs to be.

I was thinking back to my own potty training journey with Thomas, and it's really refreshing to bring some joy to it, and some fun and some dancing and singing.