Inspired by today's entry from Perpetual Blonde, which I'd link to if I wasn't an HTML moron.

What did you watch when you were kids? Any fond childhood memories?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Answers

Oh, and to set you non-D.C. people straight, Captain 20 was in no way a cheap ripoff of Captain Chesapeake. Don't be busting on the fine folks at WDCA. Without them, how would I have seen all those great Sid and Marty Kroft shows?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Here it is, sweet Berman.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Well, of course there was Sesame Street and The Electric Company. And Dusty's Treehouse.

And uh, I can still sing the entire opening theme song to "Zoom".

Banana Splits, anyone? Land of the Lost? I was all about the sleestak; they scared the crap out of me. Chaka got on my nerves, though. And I wanted to BE Holly.

Hee.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I watched the hell out of some Bugaloos-because they had the best theme song, of course. Yes, even better than the Banana Splits.

I learned to tie my shoes while watching Mr. Rogers, god love him. I still know all the words to the Spiderman theme song from the Electric Company.

But I think the best were the After School Specials. Bringing morals via sentimentality to a disenfranchised seven year old near you. Were they ALL about eating disorders, or am I just having selective memory failure?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I always wanted to be Speed Racer. But I'd have ditched Trixie as my girlfriend. What a wet blanket she was with her whininess!

Robyn, all I can remember of that theme song are The Bugaloos! The Bugaloos! They're in the air ... they're everywhere.

I also remember 3-2-1 Contact with those crazy kid detectives, The Bloodhound Gang.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Did y'all live the name of Will Farrel's character in the Jay & Silent Bob movie? "Marshall Willenholly" - classic.

When I was very young, the Electric COmpany scared the crap out of me every time it came on. I'd be in this peaceful post Seseme-Street state, blissing out in front of the tv, when out of nowhere - "HEEEEEEEEEY YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUU GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYYYYYYYYSSSS!!!!"

Scared the bejeezus out of me every time. Pavlov, my ass - I never learned.

It also annoyed my five-year-old self when Mr. Rogers would talk about his trolley. I was all, "It's a STREETCAR!! Not a trolley! Get it right, Mr. Rogers!"

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Square One, yo. And You Can't Do That on Television.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

You Can't Do That On Television was one of the all time great kids shows. And let us never forget the beauty of Kids Incorporated.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I know I'm older than most on this forum...so maybe you all were too young, but I would rush. home. from high school to watch Dark Shadows. Barnabas Collins rocked my world, and there is no evil like the evil that was Angelique.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I wanted to be on Kids Inc. so badly.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Oh -- I'd forgotten about You Can't Do That On Television! How great was that show?

I don't know.

Maybe I need some water.

Wait, what's that falling from the ceiling...

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

K! I! D! S! Kids Incorporated, hey!

God, I loved that show. I wanted to be Stacy. Do y'all remember that Slater from Saved by the Bell was on there?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Electra Woman and Dyna Girl people. How can you forget Electra Woman and Dyna Girl? Sheesh.

Loved 3 2 1 Contact. is the reason. is the moment. when everything happens. Okay that's bad.

There was some show, and I think it was PBS or part of 3 2 1 Contact, with a bunch of jr high kids with weekly issues. The only thing I remember is that one of the girls became an alcoholic and tried to get some older guy to buy her some "sha bliss" and he was all, "You mean chablis?" and she was all, "sha bliss, chablis, whatever." Does anyone know what show this was?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Slickery, rest assured that no one will ever forget Dierdre Hall's contribution to the Kroffts.

A few years ago I was shopping for fabric to make a cape for my Halloween costume - The Black Whole, and my chest was emblazoned with a sparkly 1/1 - and I ran into these two very, very gay men who were in a heated debate over who would get to be Electra Woman, and who was stuck with Dyna Girl.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I was partial to "Degrassi Junior High." Probably too old for it, but I loved those crazy Canadian kids anyway. Zits and all.

I also remember "Picture pages, picture pages, time to get your picture pages, time to get your crayons and your pencils!" with Bill Cosby. My damned mother would never buy me the picture pages and the fancy talking pen! I was so abused, y'all.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Hey Slickery - thanks! because, see, now I'm walking about the streets of Austin singing in my head "Contact! It's the Reason! It's the Moment! When it Comes Together!"

It's like Marlo Thomas being "That Girl", only with a crazy 70's PBS kids' show soundtrack. And people looking at me funny.

p.s. and NO I'm not becoming a street-walker, so don't any of you go there.

p.p.s. I forgot to enter my e-mail address when I posted this and Greenspun said "Hey! There's a problem! Your e-mail address doesn't look like foo@bar.com."

Well, I sure showed Greenspun, didn't I?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Re Captain 20:

As far as I recall, good, decent space captains never have Groucho Marx-style moustaches or beer bellies.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Don't make be ask how many sea captains spend their time talking to puppets.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Need I say more?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Oh my god, Keli. My fiance grew up in the DC area, and that picture explains so much.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

See, that's just intellectually dishonest. He didn't normally have those ears. At least not when I was watching.

Did he?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Look, if you were tossed offboard while at sea and swam and swam and swam to shore, and a sea monster helped save your life, by God, you'd talk to that puppet every day for the rest of your life.

I still have my Bruce the Bird issues, but there's nothing wrong with talking to puppets.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Hey, I have no hatred for Captain Chesapeake. Isn't there room in the world of a child for two captains? You know, some kids want to go sailing and some want to explore space.

And, you know, those kids who were too chicken to think about exploring space had to have someone to look up to, right?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I will concede on the ears issue: he "lost" them in 1979.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I don't know nuthing 'bout no Captain Chesapeake, but what's with the total dis of Captain Kangaroo?

You can't tell me you didn't beg for a pair of green jeans to slip on over your underoos.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

And why were they all "Captains"? Shouldn't some of them have been promoted to Admiral?

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I'd love to know what the hell kind of captain Captain Kangaroo was.

Shows I hated: The Goodbody guy and the Great Space Coaster.

Best after-school special: The one where Helen Hunt smokes a joint and goes nuts.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

As if I needed more confirmation that my memory was shot. I don't recall half the shows y'all are talking about. If it wasn't on PBS, I didn't watch it. The Street, Mr. Rogers and that's about it. Maybe Electric Company if my brother was home.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Wait - was it the Great Space Capade or the Great Space Coaster.

I couldn't STAND the New Zoo Revue. Or the fact that my mother didn't recognize that smart moms know that kids can grow upon Sweet Pickles.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I feel very, very young y'all. I lived on The Smurfs and She-Ra when I was a young one. I still remember the pinball counting skit off Seasame Street, and it gets stuck in my head occasionally. Gotta love driving down the road singing the numbers one through 12 in a sorta disco-ish way. :)

I vaguely remember 3-2-1 Contact...sorta...and I also remember watching Square One religiously when I got home from school. My parents thought I'd be good at math from watching "Mathnet" every night, but my high school grades reported otherwise. DRASTICALLY otherwise.

When I got older there was Tiny Toons and Animaniacs and Bonkerz! and numerous other cartoons.

...now I get to sit and watch Digimon with my five year old. Cartoons have gone speeding downhill seemingly with no brakes. I hate crappy FOX cartoons now. There are only a couple of new cartoons that I like....Pepper Ann is my hero and Recess is the best kids show on TV.

...I'm ranting again...

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I was an odd child. I suppose I'm an odd adult too, but anyway.

I watched Saturday morning cartoons, sure. But I used to hunt around the UHF channels, remember UHF? I found Roller Derby and reruns of black and white Flash Gordon episodes.

Of course, my mother would deny she ever let me watch roller derby, but what she doesn't know won't hurt.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

By the way, I watch Digimon with my five year old *NEPHEW*. (Sorry, just didn't want anyone to think I was some crazed teenage mother.)

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Tami, you may think the cartoons now are bad, and I would tend to agree, can you say Ed, Edd and Eddy? But cartoons seem to go through cycles. I don't really have fond memories of Saturday morning or afterschool cartoons because when I was a kid there was stuff like JabberJaw, Wonder Woman and, dare I say, Scooby Doo.

Now, I don't want to get any Scooby fans all riled up. I see that Scooby has stood the test of time for some reason, but I never cared for it.

At least there was roller derby.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

'Kay, yeah, I'm posting AGAIN.

I missed Tami's post about "crazed teenage mother." Heck, I'm a crazed adult mother of a 5 year old. Heh.

Did any of my fellow ZOOM watchers figure out Ubby Dubby? It wasn't until several years after the show went off the air that someone explained to me what that was all about. I guess I was a little slow. Maybe it was from too much roller derby.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

Dissing Scooby Doo?!!! Oh no. Scooby was great! well until Scrappy showed up. That was the end. YEch.

I loved You Can't do that on Television and Picture Pages when I was little.

In Arkansas, it was all about the Bozo show. I remember standing in line during one of the worst heatwaves in Arkansas history just to get my picture taken with Bozo.

Mike, I gotta say. That channel 20 guy scares me. Keli wins.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Tami, you're not alone in the She-Ra love. But I was more partial to Jem. Still am.

Hell, I watch Digimon with my best friend -- the one who feeds my Sailor Moon habit.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

When I got older there was Tiny Toons and Animaniacs and Bonkerz! and numerous other cartoons.

Side note: Freshman year of college, my roommate and I would skip out 4 p.m. classes to watch Tiny Toons and Animaniacs.

Side note 2: In fact, for most of freshman year, the background on my voice mail was the theme song from Tiny Toons, specifically "At Acme Looniversity we earn our Toon degrees."

What?!

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

In fact, for most of freshman year, the background on my voice mail was the theme song from Tiny Toons, specifically "At Acme Looniversi

Mike, you're pretty.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

You all loved your Ren and Stimpy, didn't you?

"Don't forget to wash where the sun don't shine!"

"It's Log, it's Log / it's better than bad, it's good!" (I just heard the original Slinky tune this year.)

"I am Stimpy, you are Sven . . . "

"Our country reeks of trees / Our yaks are really large / And they smell like rotting beef carcasses."

Ahem. Sorry. Continue.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Um, Hannah Beth -

Be kind to your web footed frieeeeeeeeeends, for a duck may be soooooomebody's brooooother... Be kind to the diligence of the swaaaaaaaaaaamp, because the swamp is very, very daaaaaaaaaaamp... You may think that this is the eeeeeeeeend...

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Hey! We could start a cartoon edition of "Name That Tune!"

I was always a big fan of The writers quit, we have no script, why bother to rehearse and We're zany to the max -- there's balony in our slacks as far as cool theme lyrics go. But then again, I've already outed myself as an Animaniac.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Mike, I don't know why, but when HB and I saw that - we must have been 14 or so - we thought it was the funniest thing, EVAH. We were in hysterics. We taped it and watched it over and over and over again.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

I would like to go on the record as having no idea what T and HB are talking about.

The sad thing is how many cartoon theme songs I know: MASK! is the mighty power that will say the day / M-m-m-MASK, MASK! No one knows what lies behind the masquerade . . .

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Here he comes ... here comes Speed Racer! He's a demon on wheels.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

I forgot about the Dayton institution of Dr. Creep. He was this big, tall fat guy who wore white and black goth makeup long before goth was in with a top hat and a cape. He would intro old horror movies in the afternoon and appear at local events. Then they dropped his ass and years later I met him when he was acting as a bouncer at a really sleazy strip club.

Please note that I was not stripping but was there to accompany a friend who was there to acquire, um, some tasty oregano.

He also made appearances on Clubhouse 22, which apparently was the Dayton version of all your Captain shows. It was on channel 22, natch, and there were no captains as Ohio has no oceans. Although they do have a great lake up north that I've never seen. ANYway it was just hosted by this young, cute news anchor and he had a dog sidekick. Guy in a dog costume sidekick. I can't think of the sidekick name. Scruffy maybe? They did this sort of kid version of Let's Make a Deal where they pulled a kids from the audience, did some sort of contest and the winner chose a door to win a prize. Once my brownie troop went and I got pulled to be on of the three kids but didn't win whatever the contest was. Poor me.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Mike, I just wanna know if your school kicked ass on It's Academic.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

We did!

And I actually have an episode on tape from my senior year, somewhere gathering dust in my parents' basement. I wasn't on the team, but friends and I went to join the studio audience and heckle the other schools.

We usually won a couple of rounds and lost to Jefferson or one of the other magnet schools.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

I'm pretty sure we lost to some lame school like Crosslands.

I was not up there, either (something about not being smart enough, I gather). I was there though, for the Just Before Station Break Cheerleading For Your School type-thing.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

You lost to Crosslands?

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

I like to think that this is because we had Slurpees mixed with rum and vodka on the bus trip to the studio.

Please, don't make it any worse than that.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Mmmmm. Alcoholic beverages involving Slurpees.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Okay. Is there anyone from the metro-New Orleans area who remembers Popeye's Funhouse, or Theater? I can't remember the name of the show, dammit. Anyway. Kids form metro-New Orleans would get to sit in the audience and eat free fried chicken - at 9 a.m. Saturday morning! I was so, so jealous of these greasy-fingered kids. All I wanted was for my Brownie troop to get to be in that audience, shouting "Roll 'em!" before they aired an ooooold Popey cartoon.

So sad.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Here in Dallas we had "Mr Peppermint", who was this guy dressed like he sang in barbershop quartet. He introduced cartoons and had guest animals and talking puppets. His son later became a founding member of The Butthole Surfers. heh.

-- Anonymous, October 04, 2001

Y'all, I am in love with the cartoon network. I was a child deprived of cable (Ren and Stimpy? I only saw it twice.) so now that I have it...I love having animaniacs at 4 am or so...and old Looney Tunes! Yay!!

-- Anonymous, November 21, 2001

I had to pull this question back up in light of the new Mountain Dew commercial. Davey and Goliath on Sunday mornings? I laughed so hard that I cried when I first saw this commercial during the NCAA tournament. I also loved The Kroft Superstar Hour...the Bugaloos rocked, but I was loving me some Dr. Shrinker. How about the one with Jim Nabors and Ruth Buzzy trapped with the kids on the spaceship? My brain cell that used to house the name of that show is no longer available. Anyway, I can't believe that no one has mentioned H.R. Pufenstuf yet either...H.R. Pufenstuf, he's your friend when things get rough, H.R. Pufenstuf, can't get a little but you can't get enough! The trivia question that stumped my brother and I for years was, "What were the names of the Keystone Cops on H.R. Pufenstuf?" And, in regard to the Captain Chesapeake vs. Captain 20 controversy - Captain Chesapeake was by far the better Captain. Especially since my stepmother spilled a martini on him once in a restaurant and he was nothing but gracious. Also, probably only Mike and Kelly will know of this reference, but do you all remember Professor Kool? My brother was on his show in Baltimore and got to the the "Sock it to me" game with the pie in the face which, naturally, made my brother a celebrity in our neighborhood when we were growing up.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2002

Dawn, I remember H.R. Pufenstuf. I watched it pretty religiously. And the show that came on afterwards, I can't remember the name but it had Witchy-poo and maybe the same kid from H.R. Pufenstuf. The actress who played Witchy-poo also played a character on H.R. Pufenstuf. And the kid had an English accent and on one of the shows he had a talking flute. Mmm-hmmm, it's all coming back to me.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2002

Oh yeah, I remember Professor Kool. Stu Kerr can bite my ass. He was one of the most annoying people to creep across my UHF dial, ever.

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2002

Stu Kerr was incredibly annoying but his "Professor Kool" show rocked. Also, I was on "Romper Room" as a small child but "Do-Bee" scared the hell out of me. (Funny that in college, Do-Bee's did not scare me at all - haha). Melissa - I don't remember a seperate show with Jimmy, the flute, and Witchie-Poo. It may have just been that they were all on the same show but sometimes they focused more on Witchie-Poo and sometimes it was mainly H.R. and friends partying in the woods. And at the top of my favorites from Saturday mornings are Captain Caveman, Schmoo, and the Laff-0lympics.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Shit, I can't leave out Hong Kong Phooey.

"Hong Kong Phooey, number one super guy. Hong Kong Phooey, quicker than the human eye."

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Dawn, do you remember Kids Baffle? The kids version of the Great Baltimore Baffle? Because my elementary school and junior high school rocked the house on that show.

We did not do so well on It's Academic, but I was just there to cheer in between the commercials for Giant.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

For some reason, Kids Baffle does not ring a bell. I do remember a game show for kids broadcast from a bowling alley called "Kids are People Too". They used to sing this song, "Kids are People Too, Wackadoo, Wackadoo, Wackadoo.." Does that ring any bells? It was kind of like a crazy kid's version of "Bowling for Dollars".

My high school always did pretty well on It's Academic. I never went to any of the tapings because Mac McGarry and his lack of pronunciation skills scared the crap out of me.

Did you go to high school in Baltimore County?

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Dawn, I'm getting the two shows hopelessly confused. I think there was another show with Charles Nelson Riley (sp?) as a bad guy who terrorized this town made up of live hats. Really! Or was that also part of H.R. Pufenstuf?

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

I went to school in Anne Arundel County, for the most part, but I lived in Baltimore County during second through fourth grades.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Melissa, now you have me confused, live hats? Were they like cowboy hats or more like pillbox hats? I don't remember any live hats in H.R. Pufenstuf, just live trees, so I would say that it was not a part of that. I'm picking my brain about the other Sid & Marty Kroft shows to try and remember one that may have had hats as the main characters.

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Oh. My. Gawd.

Melissa, check this out http://us.imdb.com/Plot?0066679 (sorry, I suck at HTML). But, you were right! It was called Lidsville and it starred Charles Nelson Reilly. See, you're not as crazy as you thought you were!

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

And, it WAS a Sid & Marty Kroft production!

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002

Thanks Dawn! That was it!

-- Anonymous, April 16, 2002