Parents' Guide to Doozers

This show is a good choice for young kids, but for parents who were hoping for a vintage rewind, it's not likely to thrill. The industrious green construction workers won over plenty of Fraggle Rock fans in the '80s, and decades later, this TV series might have satisfied those now-grown fans' hopes for more from the comical little crews. Sadly for them, though, the show shares little similarity to the original characters that inspire it. CGI animation gives it a thoroughly modern feel rather than the classic (and much-loved) Muppets style in which we first met the Doozers. Similarly, the cast is entirely new and obviously geared toward the preschool crowd.

But if you're not bothered by its new look (and kids certainly won't be), then Doozers is poised to be a fan favorite for its thoughtful content and unusually realistic look at the ups and downs of creating, building, and solving problems. Things don't often work out the first time we try to do or fix them, and thanks to the Doozers, kids will see that this holds true even in TV land. The Pod Squad typically goes back to the drawing board two or three times before they accomplish their goal, but they always discover that their struggles are worth the eventual reward of success. The messages this sends about perseverance, cooperation, and commitment to a task are invaluable takeaways from this engineering-minded show.