Moral Dilema

Moral Dilema

-or-

Why Kids TV Of Old Was Better For You Soul.

Now I don't want to rant here but I am, so get used to it. Now when I was a kid, when kids TV was good, there was a little thing called morals. When you watched any show there was always a message behind it, a moral lesson that you could take away. Television these days does still have the episode lesson but what remains is just a shell of what it was when programs like Transformers and Captain Planet were ruling the airwaves with there messages of energy efficiency and anit-pollution. This injustice inspired me to write the following post all about my favorite TV shows from my childhood.

A Very Brittish Preschool

Growing up I loved trains, I don't know why but I absolutly loved the. I used to have a little train with a carige that you could sit on and ride around the place, I also had the tomy electronic trainset which was absolutly fantastic there were three different enginge and loads of trake so I could build alsorts of rail networks. Thinking about it this probably stemed from my Grampa Max who used to have a model railway that he would show me every time I went round to his house. It is no supprise then that I also loved to watch Thomas The Tank Engine. I had all the toys and me and my friend used to make up routes for the many engines to travel along and then we would reinact our favorite episodes. I Loved Thomas so much that one year for christmas my Mum made a christmas cake with thomas on tom covered in snow like he used to get in the winter episodes.

Another show I loved to watch with a very Brittish feel to it was Postman Pat. Pat used to deliver post to about five people and then go home, very Brittish indeed. He also had a red van and a black and white cat. There was no Pat merchandise so mt Great Aunt knitted me a huge soft toy Pat and a scaled to the Pat version of Jess the black and white cat.

Disney Hour

Possibly the greatest periode for Disney the early Ninties not only were they releasing some of thier gratest films, Beuty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and of course the Lion King, but they wer making some of the greatest kids shows around. My favorite Disney TV show and the one that I have the most fond memories of is Duck Tales. There was something about Scrooge that I just loved as I have already explained. Then there was Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers god damn that was good, I wish they would release these shows on to DVD in the UK. As far as I can remember there was no merchandise that I collected for these shows apart from maybe some soft toys of Chip and Dale and Hewie from Duck Tales. Now these two shows might have been my favorite but I also loved:

• Tale Spin
• Gummi Bars
• The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Aladdin (TV Show)
• Goof Troop
• The Little Mermaid (TV Show)
• 101 Dalmations (TV Show)
• Gargoyles

Puppet Masters 1: Henson

Sesame Street is one of my all time favorites, every lunch time I would settle down with my peanut butter sandwedge and learn how to count with Count and learn how to read with Elmo. I loved Sesame Street the characters were so god damn cool and all the stuff in between like one section that I remeber fondly is the how they make peanut butter. My favorite charracter was Cookie monster mainly because he loved to eat cookies as did I.

Now once my age had got to a point that Sesame Street was no longer an option (I was at school when it was on) I turned lovingly to the Muppets. The first movie I ever saw at the cinema was, Aladdin ... but the second movie I saw at the cinema was The Muppet Christmas Carol (wow what a year for kids films two classic films). Favorite character has to be Gonzo what a crazy bastard. The only merchandise I own of the muppets was a soft toy Kermit I got when in Center Parks as a kid. Recently however Palisades toys releaced a line of Muppets action figures of which I only have Gonzo.

Another favorite of mine was Dinosaurs the disfuntional family sit-com played out by Dinosaurs. Please bring this out on DVD I need to watch it again.

Puppet Masters 2: Supermarionation

"Sit down and watch this" my mum said, "I think you'll like it." Little did she now that 14 years later I would still be writing about Thunderbirds in a blog. Well 14 years ago if someone had suggested the exsistance of the internet to my mum she would have laughed in thier faces, she may still. Mind you after my mum so kindly introduced me to Sci-Fi and my dad so kindly qued out side of Toys 'R' Us at four in the morning to buy Tracey Island, I think that 14 years of love of Thunderbirds is gratitude enough. Must buy the Takra Thunderbird 2.

Then after Thunderbirds pupetry got a little bit more gritty with Captain Scarlet. This series was probably better written than Thunderbird but hell it didn't have Thunderbird 2 in it and for that reason I didn't like it as much as Thunderbirds. I got the Sky Base and all the figures. Favorite character was for some reason Lieutenant Green.

I always wanted to see a Thunderbird / Stingray cross over for some reason I just thought they would fit together. Stingray is by far the coolest underwater Sci-Fi ever. I never got the stingray base but I always wanted it. And who can forget childhood sweetheart Maria.

Karate Kids

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers my introduction to giant robots, and badly dubbed Japanese women with spikey brests. My favorite thing about the Power Rangers was the Zords they looked so god damn cool and the whole morphing thing brilliant just brilliant. The toys were great I still have them and they look exactly like the Zords on the show, due mainly to the poor production value of the show. I have such fond memories of Power Rangers that I pain stakingly drew the above picture of the Megazord (Oh by the way I have a lot more where he came from so keep an eye out).

Another couple of shows that fit this catagory areBig Bad Beetle Borgs and VR Troopers both were very Power Rangers esque but they were still good quality shows that would beat the crap out of the poor shows kids watch these days.

Humanoid Animals

My all time favorite show from my childhood is by far the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. My favorite animals have always turtles and so a show about mutated turtles was right up my alley. As I have already highlighted my favorite character is Donnatello. It may seem like a strange concept for a show but believe me when I say that, mutated turtles trained in the martial art of ninja by a mutated rat who names them after his favorite rennisuaunce artists is actually the best TV show of my childhood.

The Biker Mice From Mars and Bucky O'Hare are other shows with humanoid animals they were both very entertaining and I still have a fondness for both of these shows. Bucky OHare were my favorite action figures and I only wish they had continued thempast their first series. There was something pretty damn cool about Biker Mice From Mars probably the fact that they lived in a basket ball stadium and rode futuristic bikes.

Robots In Disguise

How could I write a post about childhood with out mentioning Transformers. The show that actually introduced me to Giant Robots (sorry Power Rangers fans). Just you tell me what isn't cool about cars that turn into robots. Another perfect fit for a toy lisance, oh wait a miniute it was made by Hasbro of course. Well luckily for me one of the most exploititve shows of the 1980's was also one of the best.

Go and watch the above shows if you know whats good for you.

Towser