David Itzkoff [who, judging from his MySpace page, is the ur-Grup] writes about Wonder Showzen in the NY Times. There's a lot of background for the 95% of Times readers who have no idea was Showzen is, and then there's an excellent discussion of the parents of the show's child performers, most of whom don't let their kids watch the actual finished show:
But as [co-creator] Mr. Chatman knows, parents are entitled to set their own rules about what cultural experiences their children should be allowed or denied. "My brother is really sickened by 'The Little Mermaid,' " Mr. Chatman said. "My niece went to a party and they gave her a Little Mermaid book, and he explained to her, 'Here's why we don't read books like this, because they teach you to be a passive female.' Who knows what twisted experimental fiction she's going to get into because of that?"'Wonder Showzen' Is No 'Sesame Street' [nyt]"Or," [other co-creator] Mr. Lee added, "she's just going to totally get into Disney."
Previous Showzen
Enjoyed the NYT article. I wondered how/where they got those kids for Wonder Showzen. My husband and I actually once discussed whether or not we would ever let our son do something like that.