Top Ten Shows From Your Childhood? (2 Viewers)

[Garrett Adams]

Robert I believe RCA (NBC) started a feed in New York City around 1935. If I recall correctly there were only 100 TV sets in the city.

You're spot on as to no real TV. My late afternoon radio shows were Terry and the Pirates, Chandu the Magician, Jack Armstrong (sponsored by Wheaties), and Sky King. In the early evening there was The Green Hornet and The Lone Ranger. Of course I'd also listen to my parents' shows; Jack Benny, Burns & Allen, The Great Gildersleve, Fred Allen, Amos 'n Andy, Baby Snooks, Grand Central Station, and Inner Sanctum.

The first TV show I watched was lights Out in 1948 and in 1949 I was an audience member for a radio series recorded in San Francisco named Pat Novak for Hire. The lead was played by actor named Jack Webb.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Definitely You Can't Do That On Television and Double Dare. I guess I'd round it out with Inspector Gadget, because I didn't really watch anything but the first two.

 

[Lew Crippen]

Being of an age with Robert, I’d be better off putting forth my Top Ten Radio Shows,

 

[Ockeghem]

Wow, that's a blast from my past! Good choice.

 

[LCD22]

I'm sorry I'm late in replying to this thread Mike. I was born in 1978. The following may be a partial list since my memory is little hazy, but here are my top 20 childhood favorites:

DuckTales (This was my favorite animated series.)
Garfield and Friends (This was my top favorite program on Saturday mornings.)
The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show (My second favorite and I watch it consistently for many years.)
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
The Jetsons (repackaged 60s version and syndicated 80s version)
The Flintstones
Care Bears
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe
Inspector Gadget
G.I. Joe
Transformers
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Voltron: Defender of the Universe
The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin
MacGyver
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Family Ties
Nick-at-Nite
The Disney Channel (The Mickey Mouse Club, Avonlea, Danger Bay, Disney theatrical shorts, etc.)

Honorable Mentions:

The Jim Henson Hour (I was pissed when this was cancelled.)
PBS

 

[RAF]

Yes Garrett, I'm aware of the early feeds involving TV in the NYC area in the 1930's (not from personal experience since I was born in 1942). I was referring to the first electronic commercial broadcasting in the USA. This occurred on July 1, 1941 (technically, 10 p.m. the night before). Here's a copy of the program guide:



I did mistakenly set the date at "July 1, 1942" in my previous post. This information came from an erroneous source. By 1942 the war effort had halted the production of most TVs and most public broadcasting. Also, other countries beat the US to the punch between 1935 and 1941 in this area (Germany, England, Italy, France, Holland, etc.) And, of course, the concept of "Television" (the term was coined in 1900) was already in developers' minds during the last decade of the 19th century.

Your comments about those radio shows brought back many pleasant memories. I would wait by the radio for Baby Snooks (with Fanny Brice) to start. For some strange reason I can still remember the ad phrase "Tums for the Tummy" even though I sometimes can't recall what I had for breakfast! "Waaaaaaaaaaaa!"



And Lights Out was a favorite show of mine as well. That "floating head" opening was downright scary! Lights Out aired on Monday Nights on WNBC-TV at 9 pm opposite I Love Lucy on WCBS-TV. I recall being the only kid in school the next morning not knowing what Lucy and Desi had been up to the night before!



Thanks for the memories. Most people here (except other old farts) don't have a clue what we are talking about.)

 

[StephenA]

In my opinion think Sesame Street and Mr. Rogers should automatically be on top of any childhood TV list since a lot of kids watch them. Here's a list of some of my favorite shows that I used to watch.

Muppet Show
Fraggle Rock
G.I. Joe
He-Man
Transformers
Voltron
Thundercats
Inspector Gadget
Today's Special
Pinwheel


Some of the cartoons that Nickelodeon used to show over 20 years ago that I also liked are Belle And Sebastian, The Little Prince, and David The Gnome.

 

[Lucia Duran]

Shows I loved when I was younger:


Tom and Jerry

Super Friends

He-Man

Thundercats

Beetlejuice

Beverly Hills Teens

The Smurfs

The Adventures of the Gummy Bears

Duck Tales

Jem and the Holagrams

Johhny Quest

Alvin and the Chipmunks

The Pound Puppies

Galaxy High

Camp Candy

School House Rock

Pac-Man

Scooby Doo

My Little Pony and Friends

Plastic Man

Kidd Video



Non Cartoon shows:


The Voyage of the Mimi 1 and 2

Pee Wee's Playhouse

Out of This World

Alf

Punky Brewster

Kids Incorprated

The Wonder Years

Small Wonder

My Two Dads

3-2-1 Contact

Reading Rainbow

Where in the World Is Carmen San Diego?

Fame

Star Search

 

[Chip_HT]

I also watched a lot of ABC's TGIF over the years, which was sorta geared towards kids. The era I remember most is the one anchored by Sabrina and Boy Meets World.

The last couple of lists are jogging my memories of shows that I know I saw occassionally, but was too young to really comprehend and/or remember at this point. Therefore, I don't remember enough to know if I really enjoyed them, or watched them because I was a typical kid that watched any moving picture on a TV.

 

[Radioman970]

Thanks! I watched a few of those over the weekend. They're still fun. Although I also watched the Gerry Anderson show Supercar, which is similar but much more interesting to watch.

Marionettes & detailed models > paper cut outs & creepy human mouths.

But both have likable characters and simple/fun storylines. Perfect Saturday morning fare.

 

[Radioman970]

These were mine:
You Can't Do That on Television
Mr Wizard's World
Salute Your Shorts
Nick Arcade
Double Dare

 

[JonZ]

Born in 69

Pre-13, in no order....

F Troop
The Honeymooners
The Odd Couple
Star Trek
The Muppet Show
Looney Tunes
Tom & Jerry
The Little Rascals
Batman
Spiderman cartoon

 

[Jerome Grate]

Not as old as Grandpa RAF but I do feel old, born in 1963, and the era you are looking at I was at least graduating high school, then in college. Ah, MTV days, now that was t.v.

 

[DaveMcS]

I recall the show called Jabberwocky (with Dirty Frank) and of course Electric Company and Sesame Street. gotta love that local programming

But I'm wracking my brain trying to recall the name of a show I used to watch where the title of the show was shown with a mirror image of itself and stood on end resembling a bug.

A little Google research leads me to think it MAY have been SNIPETS. I remember the Popcorn theme song and the self-returning coffee can toy "Come Back Here"

 

[Radioman970]

Does everyone remember when the channels (only 3 channels kids!!) would have the Saturday Morning preview show introducing what was coming in the next season? I can vaguely remember the euphoria I'd feel during that. Would Fat Albert come back for another season? Etc... Saturday Mornings were simply magic. It's a shame kids of today will never know what that was like.

 

[Ockeghem]

I sure do! I used to look forward to that, and watched it several times. That's another great memory.

As far as that magic is concerned, I agree. I recall those days very fondly. My children, now used to watching DVDs with their parents, are surprised when we tell them that we had to wait a week (or longer, if pre-emptions existed) for various shows to conclude. Remember those 'Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel' lines at the conclusion of Batman? Heck, today we just let the tape (in the case of Batman) or DVD run to see the conclusion of a two (or three) parter. Our children expect it, as they don't watch network television.

 

[Radioman970]

Very interesting! I remember a few years ago when they began releasing Hercules and Xena, I read in a review that the shows didn't work as well on DVD. I was like "wahhhh-what?!" And they reminded that each commercial break was a cliffhanger on those. With DVD the prolonged tension is lost.

 

[Ockeghem]

I had never considered that. I watched one episode (that's all it took) of Lost on television, and I could not sit through it. The commercials and advertising congestion in the corners of the screen turned me off to watching that show on television.

 

[Lucia Duran]

speaking of limited channels.... I grew up in a household that only had one tv and we only got 4 channels (3, 4, 6 and 18). When satalite came out all our friends were buying dishes to get these new channels, but of course, my parents didn't go along with what everyone else was doing. We didn't even get a VCR until I was a junior in HS. We use to have to rent one everytime we wanted to rent movies.

While I hated that back then, I think as an adult I can appreciate the fact that I was out doing more than most of my friends. That being said, I loved tv growing up, even though we couldn't watch it as much as most people.

 

[Radioman970]

That's one of the main reasons I canceled my dish after years of paying for it. The other was time compression and editing of old shows. Not worth the money I was paying. I spend that $50 (and then some!) on DVDs instead. Much more fun!!

When I used to watch Lost on regular TV it was usually snowy and those annoying ads didn't show up anyway. At this time abc.com's streaming version doesn't have that annoyance, thank God. Some of those things take up 1/4th or even 1/3rd of the scream and feature sounds of their own! Crazy.