You are clearly not watching excellent kids shows like Dinosaur Train, Sesame Street, or Word Girl. Of course, these are all PBS show... interesting. We don't get cable and only sometimes catch an episode of something else on Netflix, so maybe you're right, but PBS is still putting out top notch stuff.
>Back when he was young (three) I could never get him to sit still in front of that stuff.
Have you considered that it may not be the quality of the TV, it may be him? Some kids don't want to consume, they want to do. It's not bad, but trying to get a kid like that to watch TV will be hard no matter how good it is.
You're right though, that is a tough age. Part of the problem is that kids in the 9-12 range don't want educational. You can grab DVDs of the old Batman animated series or similar, but if you want educational you are stretching. Most local stations have to purchase e/i programming themselves to meet their requirements, so the production qualities tend to reflect "local budgets". There is some good stuff out there (Aqua Kids used to be pretty good, but it's been a couple of years) but it's so hit and miss. If you think what you've got is bad, look through the catalog sometime and see what your station rejected...
That's one of the reasons I like PBS so much. He could still do Arthur, WordGirl, Cyberchase, The Electric Company or Fetch! (which is not my favorite show, but I bet a nine year old would like it). If he's not digging those, have you tried Nova ScienceNow? That one has the added benefit of Neil Degrass Tyson.
You are clearly not watching excellent kids shows like Dinosaur Train, Sesame Street, or Word Girl. Of course, these are all PBS show... interesting. We don't get cable and only sometimes catch an episode of something else on Netflix, so maybe you're right, but PBS is still putting out top notch stuff.