I'll take toy based entertainment over half the stuff us adults are supposed to watch any day. Transformers Prime is better written and less Narmy than half the action shows geared to adults (cough cough Once upon a time cough). Freakin' love Transformers Prime. That's my LOST.I agree that it seems like television is being used as the parent. And there's stuff on TV that's not very beneficial for adults. All I can say is that Dinosaurs truly satirized that with Captain Action Figure. "Not advertising, children's programming."
Still, there's just something about the big, for lack of a better word, Flim Flam of 0-2 year old entertainment. Teletubbies clearly has some strange British factor. Any attempt at subtle British style humor is destroyed by how annoying the freaking show is. You know that crap Falwel said about Tinky Winky? I'm absolutely convinced that the creators totally did that on purpose, and said loudmouth couldn't take a joke.
Plus, as a fan of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series, Teletubbies is a COMPLETE waste of Trillian. No... seriously... the actress that played Trillian did the voice of one of those horrid bug things. Pop up trivia track on the DVD said so.
But Baby Einstein is a money making scheme that Disney fell into and bought (literally... they totally bought the company and then dumped it the second it was discredited). Then there's the Tweeg's Medicine Wagon version "Your Baby Can Read." Parents are absolutely convinced they can create a race of super intelligent children that have the bright future of being the worlds most eloquent and educated Burger King employees after college (another rant for another day). Even if this thing actually did work (which it so didn't), let's say every parent actually bought it and it worked. It makes all those hyper intelligent kids that could read before they were able to see clearly all exactly the same and therefore not special. And like I said, Burger King.
Of course, at the risk of sounding hypocritical, I did watch SS at a very young age. Of course, I didn't stop watching. And the sad thing is, when I did, it was a brief period from 6th grade through High School, and I still watch.