Peggy Charren, a children's television activist who has been credited with revolutionizing children's programming, recently died at the age of 86. Obits like this one hail her for her impact on the medium…
Frustrated with the vapid quality and hyper-commercialization of TV programs her children watched in her Newton home the late 1960s, Peggy Charren helped found Action for Children's Television, a grass-roots organization that brought about landmark legislation and sweeping changes in programming for young viewers.
I'm getting a number of e-mails asking me to comment because if you go to her Wikipedia page, it says, "Although denounced as an advocate for censorship by her critics, including animation writers Steve Gerber and Mark Evanier, Charren has insisted she is an outspoken critic of censorship, and has cited her stance against the American Family Association's campaigns to ban various programs." Since Steve is no longer with us, I'm the one getting asked how I feel about her and her work.
I believe the Wikipedia page is wrong to suggest that either Steve or I ever singled Ms. Charren out but we were among many writers working on cartoon shows in the eighties who doubted that the "parents' groups" (which sometimes did not actually represent any parents) were doing good things or even accomplishing much of what they claimed to be accomplishing. We criticized all those crusaders, not her in particular. One of these days, I'll write a long post about all this.