60s, 70s, 80s kids tv shows

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I'm was a child in the late 80s right through the 90s, so I grew up on things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, He-man and the Masters of the Universe, Bucky O'Hare, the incredible KNIGHTMARE, and all the Nickelodeon shows of the 90s. I was a bit too old for Pokemon when it came to Britiain, but I got into it anyway because I've always been a bit immature like that

Anyway, my dad was born in the late 50s, so all the 60s shows from the early Gerry Anderson stuff from Four Feather Falls to Thunderbirds were more his thing. He tried to get me into them when I was a kid, but I just wanted my talking turtles instead. Anyway, he showed me an episode of Fireball XL5 today and it was awesome. It's from 1962 and it makes me wanna listen to Telstar and dream about little green men. I like that kitsch early-60s thing in music already, and the whole space-age thing, so now I'm more able to appreciate it kids tv form.

My Mum would watch all the Hanna Barbera cartoons (especially Top Cat) around that time as well, which I'd watch because they were on Cartoon Network and that stuff was quite good fun. I watched more of that than the Supermarionation that my dad tried to get me into at that age. He didn't try to get me into the Watch with Mother stuff like Pinky and Perky because his true passion was Gerry Anderson shows (even if he was a member of the Pinky and Perky fan club,)

Anyone else who was a kid in the 60s - what did you watch on telly? Also, what was it like? I remember my late 80s/early 90s childhood being full of glorious e-number highs from the sweets and aggressive marketing of Mattel action figures Oh and Margaret Thatcher being some sort of bogie woman and lots of 'America f**k Yeah!' type propaganda on the tv with shows like Bucky O'Hare. And there was some sort of weird obsession with Australia in popular culture going around, I think maybe because of the soap operas.

People who grew up the 70s, what did you watch as well? British kids tv from that era always seems a bit creepy, but the 70s are sort of an eerie period from my POV, anyway.

'70s kid shows: the Superfriends (Wonder Woman, batman, Superman, Aquaman, etc.), live-action shows like Isis (ancient Egypt was kinda big there for a little while because of the King Tut exhibit) and Run, Joe, Run (about a German Shepherd who was being hunted for some reason--I think he escaped from a lab and had super-dog powers), and Dr. Shrinker (a mad scientist shrank some teenagers down to Bic lighter height and they spent every episode trying to get unshrunk). I didn't watch Land of the Lost because the Slestaks (weird alien creatures) were scary to me. I liked the Pink Panther, too. I didn't watch Scooby-Doo because I was afraid of dogs. Those were the Saturday morning shows.

After school I watched re-runs of Bewitched and Emergency!.

I didn't like talking animal cartoons for some reason. I liked more realistic-looking stuff.

I very much miss the classic european cartoons, that were showed around the 70ies, 80ies. So they were painted mostly in Japan ^^, but the story normally was from european kid-book authors. It was focused on simple storytelling, and the adventures the main charakters went through, were often based on things that kids see as adventures in their fantasies.

So as example there was "Pipi Langstrumpf" (= Pipi Longleggin) a girl that was very strong, and whose father a pirate didnt return from a "businesstraveling" ^^, so she lives on her own with her dads goldtreasure and is befriended with two kids of the neighborhood. Most of the series simply were based on the typical expectations of grown ups, confronted with Pipis own experiences, made by living alone. "But you cant paint the house in 25 different colours without any straight line!" - "But I have already done so. It was not that hard, so why did you think thats not possible?"

Another series was Nils Holgerson, the main actor Nils was somehow rudely against a cobold or a similar magic being, and so the cobold cursed him to become very tiny and small. The house-goose of Nils family stays with him, and together they decide to join a wild goose-family.

Or "Puschel" a little chipmunk, who got adopted by a farmcat. Its a bit like the story of "the ugly little duckling", so it focuses on the farm animals having prejudices at the beginning against the chipmunk and his catmother, and after a while they learn, that it was wrong of them.

Bee Maya is as well a classic story, about a wild little beegirl, that doesnt want to become like all the other bees, as she is expected, because of her not willing to obey and work all day, but she wants to decide on her own, what she wants to do. So she leaves the beenest, with Willy, another bee that cant stand to be in the bee nest, because of them expecting him to work all day, while he is a bit lazy. ^^

Or "Ronja Räubertochter" (=Ronja Banditdaughter), who is raised in a banditgroup that lives in an old castleruin, in a wood with magic beings, cobolds an so on. Her father wants her to become a cruel, brutal bandit, but instead she influences him to become more robin hood like, because of her being well harted. (Means robbing is ok, punshing not. ^^ Good old scandinavian viking morale. XD )

"Wicki and the strong men" is as well based on an scandinavian story. His father is a viking pirate chief, doing raids with his villagers, and disappointed of his son, because of him being tiny and slim, instead of great and strong. But because of Wicki being supersmart and having great ideas, he becomes an essential part of the pirate crew. (And again the good old scandinavian morale. ^^)

Pinocchio was based on an italian story, about a carpenter, that misses to have a son, and when a fairy sees him being so sad, she enchants a puppet he created to become alive and moving. Pinocchio then tries to become a real boy.


I really, really, really miss all that old series so much and could add easily a dozend others like "Niklas, the boy from Flandern" that wants to become a classic painter or "Perrinne", a french series about an orphan girl. I am whondering if I am simply getting old, or are todays series, really 85% nonsense trash. I simply dont see a sense in letting a kid watch pokemon. "So I must become the strongest pokemaster of them all!" ... ok. Why exactly? Why is it so important to proof yourself to be stronger then others? What does that help? Its as well not generally about, from where a series comes from, so as example I loved the classic dragonball series, where there was the little innocent boy, having adventures, tumbling from one weird innocent situation into another, confronting others with his innocence emotions about stuff and asking questions, that people dont think of. Whyever, they changed that with Dragoball Z and GT, which became quiet boring.

I am simply wondering why so many parents seem to allow their kids to watch so many of those series, so if not lots of kids would see that, it wouldnt be screened. So in the opposite, if parents cared more, for what their kids watchm then those nonsense shows would be ending soon, because of only few kids watching them, and instead there would be again better program. So I dont want to be radical, every kid should be allowed to have a favorite series, anyway if its full of nonsense as long as it fits the average age of the kid, but I dont think it needs to be more of 1 or 2 of that series a day.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eliQEStzhu4[/youtube]

Now, this is what I'm talking about. Gotta love the '80s.

Like your parents I grew up with early sixties cartoons.

I watched Top Cat as well.

LOVED Bullwinkle and Rocky. A couple years ago my sister gave me a dvd set of the sixites show (but two of the four discs broke unfortunetly).

The creators of Rocky (and the other features on the show- Dudley Doright, and the dog professor who had a time machine) like to challenge the child viewers with puns just a little beyond your grasp.

You mentioned Thatcher and the political climate of the 80's.

Bullwinkle was totally enmeshed in the Postwar/Cold War/Space Race era of that time.

The villians were a pair of Russian spies: Boris Badenough, and Natasha.
They answered to "Fearless Leader"- a Nazi uniformed Prussian Junker type with a dueling scar.

They were after the Moose and his flying squirrel buddy for - something to do with rocket fuel.

Oh yeah! The moose and squirrel accidently had the secret of the element vital to anti-gravity known to scientists as "Upsidasium", and ...

I'll have to watch those DVD's to refresh my memory.

I guess its all STILL over my head!

The sixties were the golden age for kids TV.
For a start, everything was new, we hadnt been conditioned by the likes of CGI to expect perfection.

Tv companies seemed more willing to spend money so the following list, none of them are cartoons, they were all filmed with live people on real sets and locations.

Heres what we had in the sixties, whilst some of these shows were directed at adults, they were still what kids of the time watched and enjoyed,

Dr Who
Lost in Space
Star Trek
Voyage to the Bottom of the sea
Time Tunnel
Land of the Giants
Robinson Crusoe
Batman
Daktari
The Munsters
The Adams Family
Bewitched
I Dream of Jeanie
The Avengers
The Persuaders
Man from UNCLE
The Saint
Randell and Hopkirk deceased
On White Horses
Skippy the Bush Kangaroo
Flipper
Champion the Wonder Horse
Mr Ed
Bonanza
The Beverly Hillbillies
Tarzan
Robin Hood
Hogans Heroes
The Monkees
The Banana Splits
Noggin the Nog
The Invaders
The Twilight Zone
Camberwick Green
Tales of the Riverbank
Casey Jones
The Virginian
The High shaperal

Those already mentioned using puppets
Fireball XL5
Supercar
Thunderbirds
Captain Scarlet
Joe 90

And all those Hanna Babara Cartoons
Top Cat
The Flintstones

And then just as soon as we hit our teenage years we got
Monty Python!

I think Micky Mouse was the popular cartoon kids show on 80s and 90s tv. Now days i watch Sonicgang.

I will admit to watching the Mario and Sonic cartoons back then, they make me laugh nowadays, but my child mind was glued to it, same goes for Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z. Ninja Turtles were great, and the original Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.

I love Alf. It's from the 80s-90s. It's more of a family show than a kids show. It's about an alien who lands in a earth family's garage and goes to live with them.

Here in Central PA/Delaware Valley/Baltimore, the syndicated cartoons (Popeye, Looney Tunes, etc.) in the 1960's had a local host. For example, Channel 6 in Philly had Sally Starr, Chief Halftown (who was an actual Seneca Indian Chief) And Capt. Noah (who was an ordained Lutheran Minister. Channel 10 in Philly (when it was a CBS O&O) had Gene London and Pixanne, while Channel 17 had Wee Willie Webber. Sadly, with the exception of Gene London and Capt. Noah, they all passed away.

As for Baltimore, it was Pete the Pirate and Rhea Feiken on Channel 11, Stu Kerr on Channel 2 (first as Bozo the Clown, then as Professor Kool), Royal Parker on Channel 13, and Capt. Chesapeake on Channel 45. All but Rhea, who now is on MPT doing fundraisers are gone.

As for central PA, it was Marijane Landis with Perky Platypus on Channel 8 in Lancaster, and until very recently, Pete McTee, on channel 49 in Red Lion. As far as I can tell Marijane Landis is still alive (after working for channel 8 as a kids show host, weather person, and public affairs director for channel 8, as well as Lou Castriota, aka Pete McTee.

If I had to choose which one was the best, hands down it was Stu Kerr from Channel 2 in Baltimore, Followed by Marijane Landis, then Chief Halftown from Channel 6 in Philly.