The purpose of the bill was to “protect American children from the harm caused by viewing violence on Television,” (Congress.Gov). The piece of legislation was called the Children’s Protection from Violent Programming Act (Senate Report 105-89). This was not the first attempt by the US government to regulate violent programming. Twenty-two years earlier in 1975, FCC Chairman Richard Wiley proposed that broadcasters limit violent programming to hours after 9pm EST. Broadcasters were expected to stop airing content between the hours of 12 and 1am. However, with the demand for 24-hour news programming in the 1980’s, CNN founder Ted Turner became the first person credited with news all night long (WBUR.org). By creating 24-hour news, the demand for all night (adult) entertainment grew at the same pace as the number of cable networks grew throughout the 1990’s.
The First Amendment is a Constitutional right that protects ‘freedom of speech’ for all Americans. For decades, First Amendment rights have protected free speech without the fear of censorship. However, most parents of young children (ages 2-8 years old) say kids content in movies and TV has gone too far, and America has lost its way. Could it be that a direct correlation exists between the rapid rise in adult entertainment and the steep decline in church attendance? In recent years, Gallup reports (News.Gallup.com) “three in 10 Americans attend religious services weekly (21%) or almost every week (9%) and once a month (11%) and 56% seldom (25%) or never (31%).
Two years before Stephanie came up with the concept for Pookey Tiger in 2006, she remembered reading an article where a Disney spokesperson was quoted as saying Disney’s demographics had shifted and they were going after more pre-school children with their content because children were becoming “jaded by age 9”. One can only surmise whether adult humor creeping into cartoons, such as: The Simpsons in the early 1990’s (debut in 1989) followed by South Park in the late 1990’s (debut in 1997) and into the 2000’s paved the way. After the adult cartoons became mainstream, movie producers followed suit and started creating content for PG audiences to broaden their demographics beyond children. However, there was a G-rated movie in 2011 called “Gnomeo and Juliet” which did well at the box office generating $193.9M worldwide on a budget of only $36M. Even though this was more than 20 years ago, the results showed that there could be profitability in G-rated movies. However, since then – most of the movies have abandoned their G-rated content and accepted the PG path from a profitability standpoint. Ironically, this is the timeframe that Stephanie was writing the Pookey Tiger music (one song at a time) and said, “Had there been access to venture capital at that time or crowdfunding,
I might have been able to speed up the content production. One can only conclude that the adult-like content’s effect on kids entertainment has had an adverse effect on children becoming more ‘adult-like’ at an age of innocence (before 9 years old) that instead should be protected. When “The Peanuts Movie” debuted in November 6, 2015 – The Charles Schulz’ Family said in a USA Today article by Bryan Alexander on Nov. 5, 2015 that “,,,if there’s one fart joke, we’re shutting this project down.” In a similar way, Stephanie is introducing her character, Pookey Tiger, to the world in 2025 with “God Is My GRRR” to give Christian parents and families a new option of ‘fun, faith and family’. She credits God in giving her the inspiration behind the Pookey Tiger album, “God Is My GRRR” which was released in Dec. 2015 and her friend and former Worship Minister at her church, Paul Smith, helped bring it to life.
In a similar way, her friend Maurice Ballew, whom she met during Covid in 2020, helped her produce 13 music videos that each tell a story about the 12 songs on the album plus a bonus video. For more information behind the “God Is My GRRR” songs and videos, visit: https://www.PookeyTiger.com and help join Stephanie in the fight to keep kids content kid friendly by joining The Pookey Tiger Club at:
https://www.PookeyTiger.com/Club to help have a say in the content that is being created.
Academic Achievements
Bachelor of Arts (BA), Baylor University – 1991
Master of Business Administration (MBA), Southern Methodist University (SMU) – 2001
Southwestern Baptist Theological Institute (SWBTS), attended in 2019-2020
University of Connecticut, School of Puppetry certificate, attended in 2020
Professional Achievements
1991 – 2014 (over 20 years working at technology-based companies in America and abroad)
2015-present (working in childcare, hospitality and restaurant industries)
