Let's think more along the lines of Sesame St. to Muppet Show.

Joss doing a Muppet Show type show would rock.

They can call it "Smile Time".

I want something with no violence, no profanity, and no overt sexual situations. I think some good stories can be told without any of those. But I want it to be smart and interesting, and actual good story, as opposed to barely tolerable.

Yeah, I'm pretty much down to no overt sexual situations with Emmett. After letting him sit through FoTR at age 5, it was hard to say he couldn't handle grotesque monsters and horrible violence. He *did* get very creeped out watching a snip of Evil Dead 2 (and he still alludes to it), so I don't let him watch horror movies.

I'd be wary of letting him see realistic violence. For example, I would never let him watch the beginning of Kill Bill 1, or the scenes where The Bride is getting out of the hospital. But I had no problem letting him watch the blood bath against the Crazy 88s, because it was so obviously unreal and cartoonish.

As for profanity, I just make it clear that even if he's allowed to hear certain words, that doesn't mean it's appropriate to use them. That seems fair to me. Mind, it's not like he's watching stuff with f-bombs going off all over the place. (He mostly watches Nickolodeon, and some fantasy movies. And his current Marx Bros. fascination.) But I don't care if he listens to "Housequake" and likes it when Prince yells "Bullshit!"

Oh, and being able to buy cable channels a la carte would fucking rock.

Another good example of a writer/director doing some kids stuff after having children of his own is Robert Rodriguez's Spy Kids movies.

and I would love to be able to buy my channels in some sort of ala carte fashion. there would be NO espn or golf channels. or shoping channels for that matter. I assume that even with an a la carte type menu - there would be some sort of package - to lure people into other channels

I'd hope so. Even though I get a lot of channels I don't ever watch, there are others that I've stumbled upon and grown to really value, or that I don't watch regularly but once in a while have something that's a must-see. Channels like Animal Planet would probably be very badly served, frankly, by strictly a la carte cable line-ups.

Imagine if TiVo could recommend shows to you that you don't actually get. But could get.

Channels like Animal Planet would probably be very badly served, frankly, by strictly a la carte cable line-ups

Maybe, but I know more than one person who subscribes to digital cable solely to watch Animal Planet.

Yep, Anne did, which gives me hope that I could someday move out of NYC without throwing away all my stuff. I am terrified by the stories I've heard of long-distance movers. Every time I've moved far in the past, I've done it myself, but never again.

Someone please remind me of this if when I finally start my 3000 mile move to the other coast. Ack.

I loved early Cosby. I also totally agree with Hec re: Elmo.

Cable Channels I'd definitely pony up for ala carte:

Independent Film Channel
Food TV
Comedy Central
Turner Classic Movies
Cartoon Network
BBC America (though I keep forgetting it's there)

Channels that have gone downhill, but still program stuff I tune into occasionally:

AMC
Bravo
A&E
SciFi

Channels I don't watch that have stuff I should check out:

FX
Discovery
Animal Planet

I subscribe to digital cable to watch the history international, national geographic, science, and discovery times channel. The other ~70? I don't want, although I would probably subscribe to Noggin ala carte too, for the kids. In fact, I don't want most of the channels I get either on my regular cable package, or the expanded digital tier. I want PBS, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, UPN, WB, CNN, History, Travel, and I think that's it. In reality, I have channels between 2 and 88, and between 100 and 152, (there are probably some blank spots in there) when at most I watch 14--15, if we count NESN, which we only really watch during baseball season.