My Favorite Childhood Shows

'Ello! I know it's been really dry with reviews around here, and for that I'm sorry. When I tell you that my finances are dry, they're like celibate-for-years dry. LOL That was one reason I wanted to do the weekly posts, so that I'd have something to post, even if it's not a review. Those will hopefully be coming back within the month. Anyway, even though my birthday's over, I wanted to keep things light this week, so I thought I'd talk a bit about some of my favorite childhood shows. I was born in the late '80s and while I definitely remember some of those shows, for the most part I'm a '90s kid. The list probably reads a bit like a TGIF/Snick mashup (because it totally is), but these are some of the shows I loved the most. Enjoy!

1. Hey Arnold!

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This show, by far, was my favorite childhood show...and is still one of my favorites today, despite the fact that I'm now pushing 30. For a short, gangly child whose 'cute' days had long since abandoned them, I identified quite a bit with Helga and her prickly exterior. Personality-wise though, I've always been more of an Arnold so I understood him as well. We were all the same age and my 4th & 5th grade classes were pretty similar to Arnold's class, so for me this was the definitive show of my childhood. The show also introduced me to the awesome tunes composed by Jim Lang, who was responsible for the jazz sounds throughout the series. It's still one of my favorite shows and I have no shame in admitting that I still watch it regularly.

2. All That

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All That was like SNL but for kids, and I was in love with this show. This was where I was introduced to Danny Tamberelli, Kenan and Kel, Amanda Bynes, and the chick that I really, really wanted to be my older sister, Lori Beth Denberg. She just seemed like that older, sassy sister I wished I had, but I was quite fine with settling to watch her on tv with the rest of the cast every week. All That was good, clean (if not a bit campy, now that I think about it) fun, it was age-appropriate and had a lot of variety, which I really enjoyed.  

3. Legends of the Hidden Temple

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This was mah shit! You really weren't a true '90s kid if you didn't watch Legends of the Hidden Temple and feel with absolute certainty in your heart that you could smoke all the teams on the show by yourself. Olmec was a creepy ass spirit trapped in a rock, Kirk Fogg was the obligatory friendly host that you realize (once you get older) looked totally over the whole damn thing by the 2nd season, the prizes weren't all that great, and the Temple Guards were the scariest bastards I'd ever seen in my life. They were the stuff of many a nightmare for me, but I still wanted to go on that show so badly it drove me crazy. Even though I knew Olmec wasn't real, I thought the Temple Guards were. LOL So I wasn't a bright child all the time. Repeats of the show aired on Nick GAS back in 2005, but they took it back off tv not long after and I haven't seen it since. But you know what? I'd still watch it today. lol

4. Boy Meets World

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Boy Meets World introduced me to the first two couples that I 'shipped.' Cory and Topanga had that textbook young love that I just loved to pieces, and I couldn't see either of them with anyone else. I was in a state of constant envealousy (envy & jealousy) whenever Topanga was onscreen because her hair was the business. But later in the series, Shawn and Angela get together as well and if you paid attention, that was a slightly darker romance than the cookie-cutter story of Cory and Topanga. I can't mention BMW without mentioning Mr. Feeny because he was by far my favorite character on the show. He was a cranky, shade-throwing man who was there for none of Cory's crap in the earlier years of the show and I loved him. He was also great for dropping random nuggets of wisdom from time to time. I believe this was part of the TGIF lineup, and I even got my mom to start watching a few episodes with me once they hit high school. I don't watch Girl Meets World and it's been a mindf*ck to think about BMW being considered 'old school,' but it does make the child in me happy to see a show I loved being resurrected for a new generation. 

5. Gullah Gullah Island

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This was a really underrated show that I used to watch as a kid. Gullah Gullah Island was another clean-cut show that focused on teaching kids about a number of things, usually in the form of a song that the kids would sing along with. It was a really peaceful show from what I can remember, and I liked that. Even though I admit I don't remember too much about it, I can remember singing along with some of the songs (I still remember all the words to the theme song lol), I remember that the show thrived on color, as all the sets and things were colorful, and I also remember that the primary focus of the show was learning. Gullah Gullah Island made learning fun, and I loved that. 

6. Family Matters

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A lot of people write this show off as being "The Urkel Show," but it was actually quite forward-thinking for its time and audience. I read an article a couple of years ago that mentioned all the great topics that the show covered and it really opened my eyes. For a '90s show with a young adult market, we were shown the truths of gun violence in schools, racial profiling, AIDS, and gang violence, just to name a few. The biggest and probably most common theme on the show, however, was bullying. Yes, many of the bully-themed situations Steve found himself in were lightened in favor of putting a comedic spin on things, but that was the great thing about the show. They tackled a lot of adult topics in such an insightful way and made them easy for us to understand. On a random note, that Fresh Prince-esque switch-up of Harriette wasn't fooling anyone. Aunt Viv went from being cocoa to caramel, and so did Harriette. I wasn't pleased. But the nerd finally did get the girl, and if nothing else it gave creepy dudes everywhere hope that if they stalk, harass and bug the girl they like long enough (and also have a chamber where their 'super-hot' alter ego comes out at will), they'll get her. 

7. Are You Afraid of the Dark?

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As an adult, some of the stories I remember from this show are laughable, but as a child all of them scared the ever-loving shit out of me. Only Tales from the Crypt and Temple Guards (...and the Undertaker, for wrasslin' fans) scared me more. What I liked about Are You Afraid of the Dark? was the campfire setting because it really did help to set the scene. I also liked that sometimes, you'd see a familiar face or two in the story being told that week. I wanted my own Midnight Society, but in the desertland of Texas where we're under constant fire restrictions, it just wasn't gonna happen for ya girl. lol

8. Ren & Stimpy

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Oh, the levels of inappropriate this show was for children. This show was the subject of many arguments between a 9-year-old me, my uncle, and my mom, who immediately banned me from watching it. I can't watch it today as I now find it to be immensely stupid, but back in the day I thought this was hilarious. My uncle and I had an agreement that if he was watching Ren & Stimpy, and I just so happened to be in the vicinity at the time, and I was so tired I just had to take a seat on the couch and rest while he watched the show, that I could do that and he wouldn't tell. In said agreement, however, I had to give my word that he was released from all responsibility should I get caught. LOL Since we were already in the doghouse for another show that's further on this list, we figured we wouldn't push it. I believe the last time I saw Ren & Stimpy, it was on Adult Swim. And that's exactly where it should be. lol

9. Tales from the Crypt

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This show--and its skeletal host--gave me all the creeps. And I loved it. It usually came on past my bedtime, but if my mom felt like being lenient that week (and after making me promise I wouldn't wake her up with nightmares that I caused by begging to watch the show), I got to watch it when it aired. I broke my promise more than a couple of times, but I enjoyed every minute. It was probably my first time experiencing jumpscares, and they were a glorious discovery. LOL Apparently, M. Night Shyamalan is reviving the series, so if all works out let's see if they can successfully recreate the jumpscares I looked forward to so much as a kid. 

10. Eureeka's Castle

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To be honest, I don't remember anything about this show anymore except for the theme song and that it had muppet-like characters on it. I was around 2 when it first started, so I don't fully remember what it was about off the top of my head. I do remember loving the ever-loving shit out of this show, though. There was hell for the adults to pay if I couldn't watch Eureeka's Castle. 

Honorable Mentions:

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

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My brother and I drove my mom insane with this show as kids. My brother is 5 1/2 years younger than me, so he'd wait for me to run home from school so we could watch this together. He gave mom hell if she tried to watch something else when he knew I was on the way home. The boy couldn't even tell time back then so to this day I have no idea how he always knew, but he did. We collected the dollar store playthings of the Rangers and tried to imitate them a bit too much. I was always either the Pink or Yellow Ranger, my brother was always either the Blue or Black. My brother admired the White Ranger and I wanted to marry him. LOL Looking back on it, it was a really corny show and I completely understand now why my mom couldn't stomach more than 2 minutes of it. But it was great to us then. 

Captain Planet

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How many of you late '80s babies still remember the opening lines to Captain Planet's theme song? This was another show that I loved, and I spent quite a bit of time during recess trying to recreate the show with friends. I went to a number of elementary schools and I can remember playing this at more than one school, so I'm guessing I just kept finding the nerds in my classrooms.

Pop-Up Video

Slate

This was a show during my later childhood, but it, and VH1 for that matter, did a pretty good job taking care of those awkward transitional years between kid and tween to teen. Reality tv hadn't yet oversaturated our networks, and as a result VH1 was oftentimes the older and tamer, if not a little boring, older sister to MTV. Pop-Up Video was a great source for finding out the most random stuff about a video or an artist, most of which wasn't necessarily important but was certainly fun to know. It was also an awesome example of shade-throwing, which happened often depending on the artist and song in question. This is a show that both my mom and I miss dearly. ha

Figure It Out

Deadline

Hey, how many of you remember when Nick started selling slime in stores? Figure It Out, the Nick game show that featured most of the faces from All That, helped popularize the stuff and became something I added to quite a few Christmas wishlists as a kid. Figure It Out was another example of good, clean fun (unless one of the older kids threw in a very rare sorta dirty joke), in the form of guessing the very random talents of the various guests. The crowd would be in on the talent but the panel wouldn't, and the guessing challenges commenced from there, with the panel trying to, well, figure it out. lol At some point throughout the game there'd be a Secret Slime action and if Danny Tamberelli was on the episode, it was usually him getting slimed, but I lived for it regardless. 

Beavis & Butthead

Another inappropriate show for kids. But on the flip side, it introduced me to a number of things, namely MTV, Mike Judge, Nirvana and grunge. It also created the clusterfuck of cult classic ridiculousness that was Beavis & Butthead Do America, which I watched with my uncle. The brief resurrection of the show a few years ago resulted in one of my absolute favorite episodes, Werewolves in Highland. This show was stupid yet culturally aware; accurate in a really ridiculous way, and showcased some awesome ass music to boot. This was actually the other show that I was talking about earlier that my mom banned me from watching but as evidenced by the fact I watched the movie with my uncle, I did what I wanted, even then.  What I'm actually saying here is that I got grounded and he got bitched out. lol

Thanks for taking a walk down memory lane with me this week! I'm working on some Spring-related posts and book reviews, and I hope to have some other types of reviews up here really soon. I just wanted to get that out since I've been doing so many Things-related posts this year. But back to our topic, if you're a '90s kid too, what were some of your favorite shows growing up? Would (or could) you watch them today? See you soon!