Thursday OT - For No Good Reason

[Angie]

My youngest was watching the reboot of Muppet Babies this morning (it's crap, by the way - no Rolf, Scooter, or Skeeter, instead they added in some penguin, which doesn't even make sense because the nursery is neither cold nor in water). Anyway. It made me flash back to the original show, when there was an homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark where Kermit had to run away from a big rolling rock in one of their fantasies. Then it made me think about other shows from my youth where I vividly remember one specific episode. I remember an episode of Alvin & the Chipmunks where they covered the Berlin Wall coming down, and I can still sing the chorus of the song. I remember the Punky Brewster where Cheri hides in the fridge and almost dies. (I remember shows from when I was really, really young, for some reason.) I have, like, dozens more over the years, and I didn't even watch that much TV!

What shows did you love as a child, and there is one particular episode that pops out in your memory? What episode was it?

 

[Clonefan32]

I was all about a good kid's gameshow when I was a kid:

 

[Gonzo]

Georgia Championship Wrestling... the DiBiase/Freebirds Incident, with Gordon Solie on the call. Legend.

 

[IcSyU]

I was all about a good kid's gameshow when I was a kid:

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Legends of the Hidden Temple FTW.

 

[Angie]

Georgia Championship Wrestling... the DiBiase/Freebirds Incident, with Gordon Solie on the call.

I've never seen any of these outside of them, but have you ever watched the old show "Cheap Seats" cover any of these old matches? It's amazing.

 

[throwittoblythe]

For some reason this one always pops into my mind when my kids are watching old Disney cartoons. I don't know if I saw it on TV regularly, or perhaps it was on one of the few VHS tapes we owned, but I know as a kid I watched it many, many times.

 

[Angie]

I was all about a good kid's gameshow when I was a kid:

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Do you remember Nick Arcade, where kids would go inside of the video game? It was always on right as we were catching the bus, and we always had to leave before we found out if they beat the obstacle course.

 

[Gonzo]

I've never seen any of these outside of them, but have you ever watched the old show "Cheap Seats" cover any of these old matches? It's amazing.

Have not, will look into that. We watched NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling on TNT every week, DiBiase was my favorite because, Figure Four leg lock. This match F***** me up big time. I thought he'd never walk again. Goddam Fabulous Freebirds...

 

[jbindm]

The 80's and 90's "very special episodes" damn near merit their own thread (episode titles may not be accurate) -

Family Ties - My Name is Alex
Diff'rent Strokes - Bike Repair Pedophile
the aforementioned Punky Brewster ep
Saved by the Bell - I'm so....scared!!!
Scrubs - branching into the 2000s here but that one with Brendan Fraser
Family Matters - Urkel gets drunk and falls off a ledge or out a window or something
Fresh Prince - the one with Will's dad or the one where Will gets shot and Carlton buys a gun

 

[JP4CY]

There was no other show that I sat in amazement and watched as much as this one:

 

[Angie]

Have not, will look into that. We watched NWA Georgia Championship Wrestling on TNT every week, DiBiase was my favorite because, Figure Four leg lock. This match F***** me up big time. I thought he'd never walk again. Goddam Fabulous Freebirds...

I think they're mostly on YouTube, if you can't find them anywhere else. It's the Sklar brothers basically going "Mystery Science Theater" on old sports shows. They love them some DiBiase. You'd have to look for wrestling ones in particular - but they're all gold. My favorites were always the spelling bee ones.

 

[Angie]

The 80's and 90's "very special episodes" damn near merit their own thread (episode titles may not be accurate) -

Family Ties - My Name is Alex
Diff'rent Strokes - Bike Repair Pedophile
the aforementioned Punky Brewster ep
Saved by the Bell - I'm so....scared!!!
Scrubs - branching into the 2000s here but that one with Brendan Fraser
Family Matters - Urkel gets drunk and falls off a ledge or out a window or something
Fresh Prince - the one with Will's dad or the one where Will gets shot and Carlton buys a gun

Do you listen to the "Fake Doctors Real Friends" podcast? They're going episode by episode. They've not done the one where Brendan's character Ben passes away yet, but he came on as a guest for the one where he gets diagnosed w/leukemia. That guy is an interesting cat.

 

[jbindm]

Friday Night Videos - if you didn't have cable and MTV this was the only way you were going to see any music videos in the mid 80s. We used to tape the episodes and watch on Saturday morning. Take On Me blew my six year old mind.

 

[Clonefan32]

Do you remember Nick Arcade, where kids would go inside of the video game? It was always on right as we were catching the bus, and we always had to leave before we found out if they beat the obstacle course.

I was also a big Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego guy.

 

[Angie]

I was also a big Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego guy.

I got my daughter a card game of it here recently, and she loves it! That show (and the crappy computer game) was awesome!

 

[Clonefan32]

A couple other classic shows from my youth:

 

[jbindm]

Do you listen to the "Fake Doctors Real Friends" podcast? They're going episode by episode. They've not done the one where Brendan's character Ben passes away yet, but he came on as a guest for the one where he gets diagnosed w/leukemia. That guy is an interesting cat.

You don't see him in much anymore. I heard he was pretty good in that miniseries Trust several years back but I never saw it. I do recall reading an interview with him and it sounds like he wasn't quite jaded by his Hollywood experience but that he was kind of over the whole leading man bit and was just looking to do stuff that he finds interesting or fun now.

 

[Angie]

You don't see him in much anymore. I heard he was pretty good in that miniseries Trust several years back but I never saw it. I do recall reading an interview with him and it sounds like he wasn't quite jaded by his Hollywood experience but that he was kind of over the whole leading man bit and was just looking to do stuff that he finds interesting or fun now.

I've read some articles about that, too - he's gotten really screwed over a lot. He kind of talked about the leading thing a bit on that episode. He did talk about a superhero show for which he's doing voice acting, I want to say it was "Doom Patrol" or "Doom Squad" or something.

 

[20eyes]

I was a huge Thundarr The Barbarian fan. It's absolutely remarkable that it ever got made when you consider how adult the themes were. I was six & seven years old watching a cartoon about a post apocalyptic wild dystopia full of ghouls, wizards and murderous tribalism. It could never get made today and put on Saturday morning.

I can still remember Season 1 Episode 1, "Secret of the Black Pearl" because it featured ruins of a Manhattan* subway and I'd recently seen basically the same thing in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Also, the main villain Janus was featured and he was pretty cool (based on the Roman mythological character, his head would turn around and his bad-ass face would shoot death rays through his eyes). I also remember the episode "Treasure of the Moks" because it featured Ookla's (The Mok side-kick to Thudarr) mutant people.

* Per wikipedia they even referred to it as Manhat. Like a six year old in Iowa could possibly catch that???

It was so down-beat, I loved it. There was an episode in the ruins of Washington DC for chrissakes. Good luck getting Frosted Flakes to advertise that now...

 

[Isualum13]

I grew up in the country with nothing but antenna tv. We did have a massive satelite dish in our yard that was no longer hooked up that I got to mow around and rack my head on for 10 years though.

As a family we would watch Home Improvement nearly every week. Episode that I remember most vividly was a christmas episode where Mark was starting to question Santa Clause and being tormented like usual by his older brothers. Wilson came by on christmas eve dressed as santa with a nice gift for mark and only a button and rubber band for the brothers because they were being jerks. Of course they ended the show with Wilson in his yard and no santa in sight with the parents in awe. Proving to the young kids watching that Santa is in fact real. For a few years after this, I would always put a few rubber bands in my brother's stocking. Parents always removed them though when they stuffed everyone's stockings while we all slept.

As far as kids shows Recess was my favorite on Saturday mornings.