Ouch – revisiting childhood tv shows

link doesn't work?

Could be the last STW mystery of 2022 !

The Twitter post has been deleted. It had a picture of a talking JJ Evans doll. The TV show was groundbreaking in that it featured a Black family, but JJ became the most popular character with the "dyn-o-mite" catchphrase and that's what it's remembered for.

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/talk-1975-times-jj-evans-jimmy-walker-457332853

Was the Good Times TV show ever on in the UK?  I don't remember it at all.

I don’t remember it at all.

You were blessed. When I was a kid, I thought it was hilarious. Now, it's just embarrassing. Probably not as bad as It Ain't Half Hot Mum though, but I wouldn't bet money either way.

I tried to watch MASH the film . Not a pleasant experience.

I’m gutted that my favourite childhood show was so damn racist, when viewed with 2022 hindsight.

I loved dem Duke boys and their wacky adventures in a car that may as well have had a swastika on the roof and 88 on the doors…

Watching the Adam and Joe show with other ACTUAL adults in the room was a chastening and humiliating experience. Trying to explain why there were multiple soft toys copulating on screen to my 70 year old aunty was .. difficult.

I loved dem Duke boys and their wacky adventures in a car that may as well have had a swastika on the roof and 88 on the doors…

Jeezus, that show has not aged well at all. Aside from the racist thing, it's just lame. I'm pretty sure I could outrun their car chases in a 40-year old Astra 1.3. I still have fond memories of Catherine Bach though.

Pick the right shows and never have to feel guilty. Still love this now and I'm in my 50s.

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We put police academy on a while back as we thought it'd be funny to watch with the kids. I don't think it lasted more than 5 minutes. Absolutely shocking. Pick an ism, they were all there from the start!!

We put police academy on a while back as we thought it’d be funny to watch with the kids.

Homer Simpson: STEALING! How could you? Why do you think I took you to see all those "Police Academy" movies, FOR FUN? I DIDN'T HEAR ANYONE LAUGHING, DID YOU?

My favourite shows as a kid were mostly the Gerry and Sylvia Anderson ones - Torchy the Battery Boy, Four Feather Falls, Supercar, Fireball XL5, Stingray and Thunderbirds.

Oh, and Doctor Who.

Definite lack of ‘isms in those.

Pick the right shows and never have to feel guilty. Still love this now and I’m in my 50s.

We grew up in a bit of a golden age, didn't we. Do 40-somethings, 30-somethings, 20-somethings have similar classics?

I watched the first episode of Allo Allo the other week, fully expecting to hate it. It pains me to say it but.... I found it pretty funny still! At least it was merciless in taking the pish out of all nationalities including the Brits.

Me and my 11 year old mates thought Eddie Murphy - Delirious was the funniest thing ever.  That hasn't aged well.  The ice cream and G.I. Joe gags are still filed away in my mind, somehow.

Still enjoy him in 48 Hrs, Trading Places and Beverly Hills Cop, though.

The first couple of series of Allo Allo aren't completely terrible.  I think the appearance of the gendarme is where it started to go downhill fast.

Me and my 11 year old mates thought Eddie Murphy – Delirious was the funniest thing ever. That hasn’t aged well.

He's still aged better than Bill Cosby. Jello puddin eating mother***.
Link to sweary Eddie Murphy skit.

We grew up in a bit of a golden age, didn’t we. Do 40-somethings, 30-somethings, 20-somethings have similar classics?

Yeah, just different ones. My kids grew up with things like Phineas and Ferb, Sponge Bob and Adventure Time - all great cartoons and certainly up there with classics like Dangermouse.

Was the Good Times TV show ever on in the UK? I don’t remember it at all.

Me neither, I do remember it ain’t half hot thou for being very shite.

I do remember catching the what must have been the dying embers of the black and white minstrels shows which my young brain also couldn’t comprehend how people thought it was entertainment which also my parents thought was shite as well.

I think as I liked the sci-fi and 2000ad the views were a little bit more forward thinking on this material.

A lot of the sit coms to me were just not funny then,it’s definately a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

I tried to watch "Cities of Gold" again. The episodes were 10 minutes long including 2 minutes of titles and a 3 minute recap.

TBH I did watch something as an old fart that I wanted to watch as a kid that was always advertised in the us comics I’d get, spaceship Yamamoto which wasn’t too bad whereas g-farce was pretty bad and I couldn’t watch more than 2 episodes so to keep my childhood memories intact.

It’s a pity that they didn’t reboot Blake’s 7 tbh, I think that would make an entertaining series on greater than 70’s budget 🙂

I'm watching Dukes of Hazzard on FreeVee...first series stands out as slightly off (on a number of things) but as they wanted to get this aimed at kids it was tamed down...however, Catherine Bach was absolutely stunning and as a 7 year old it was completely missed, however, even now I'm captivated by the car.
Watching it now, it hasn't aged well. But compared to other stuff at the time it wasn't bad bad, just off.
Allo Allo - absolute classic but did run a bit longer than needed, but just brilliant as it poked fun at everything in equal measure.

TBH dukes of hazard was a a pantomime romp with car stunts and everyone loved the car stunts. The sexiness of Daisy and the confederate thing was just lost to us kiddies.

I watched the first episode of Allo Allo the other week,

Vicki Michelle in black stockings still does it for me now.

Hallo little old lady!

I sometimes wonder what's on nowadays that will be seen as unacceptable in the future.
I found Little Britain hilarious back in the day but now- how was it ever allowed?

I used to love watching MacGyver when I was a young teenager but that just looks lame now. The tech, the stunts, the caricature bad guys...

A lot of what was tech back then is now so old I reckon it'd go completely over the heads of anyone under the age of about 25!

The sexiness of Daisy and the confederate thing was just lost to us kiddies.

Hallo little old lady

Chorton and the wheelies was very surreal, did my me laugh as it was always how we said hello to mum. More of a joke as she never got the little old lady was the witch.

Jamie and his magic torch.

We had our two now teenagers watching the Clangers the original version when they were small, I've robbed them of a future thread but they would happily sit and watch over and over.

Dangermouse isn't problematic these days, is it? Watched it with my daughter about five years ago and thought it stood up very well.

I tried to watch “Cities of Gold” again. The episodes were 10 minutes long including 2 minutes of titles and a 3 minute recap.

I remember thinking it was tedious because of this when I was a kid.

It’s a pity that they didn’t reboot Blake’s 7 tbh,

They did, kinda. Big Finish did a run with most of the (surviving) cast.

We had our two now teenagers watching the Clangers the original version when they were small,

The Clangers were always small.

the confederate thing was just lost to us kiddies.

I haven't watched it since I was a kid. Aside from the car's name and its roof, was there much of a 'Confederate thing' at all?

I enjoyed watching CHiPs on ForcesTV when it was on - it still had a sunny Californian optimism that made America so attractive in the 70s and 80s. What a change from now.

It’s a pity that they didn’t reboot Blake’s 7

A friend was approached to design a reboot recently  but dont know if the production has got the green light.

Aside from the car’s name and its roof, was there much of a ‘Confederate thing’ at all?

Well the car was the star so that name and flag were pretty central. Although I don't think, particularly in the UK, that the flag was considered a "racist" thing. Well to me it wasn't.

However, in hindsight it was bizarre that the show did not have 1 black character.

There are 4 distinct programmes missing from any streaming platform. They are The A-team, Airwolf, Knight Rider & Street Hawk. And to a lesser extent Quantum Leap. Oh boy!
Also worthy of mention is Manimal and Automan! 😂

However, in hindsight it was bizarre that the show did not have 1 black character.

actually, there were nineteen, including a few intermittently recurring characters. (Not a DoH nerd, I came across the fact whilst googling) A sheriff of a neighbouring county was black, and portrayed as somewhat more competent than Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane (a low bar, admittedly).

This is a higher black character/episode average than friends and Seinfeld, set in New York, interestingly.

Says a lot about American culture, that.

This is a higher black character/episode average than friends and Seinfeld, set in New York, interestingly.

That is interesting and also is the fact that I never noticed.

Wasn't it "midsomer murders" that actually had a rule barring black characters for about 12 series before anyone realised and exposed it.

I have been watching Knightrider on one of the lesser known freeview channels and it's awful. Why isn't KITT in surveillance mode all the time? He only goes into it when he is told to "keep his scanners peeled". He drives into a bear trap in one episode, how did he not notice that?

I have been watching Knightrider on one of the lesser known freeview channels and it’s awful.

It's mediocre, not awful.

Thing with Knightrider for me was that I could never understand how KITT drove up the ramp onto the moving truck. It's kind of like the opposite of the airplane on the conveyer belt thing. It's been bugging me for decades. I'm assuming they just winched it up in real life.

Thing with Knightrider for me was that I could never understand how KITT drove up the ramp onto the moving truck.

Nah they just drove it up, I think one of the YouTube shows did it to see if you could.

Super persuit mode anyone.

Costcutting TV trivia for the day...

The sound of KITT's turbo boost is the same as the Viper launch noise in Battlestar Galactica.

It’s mediocre, not awful.

Yep there are bountiful shows from that generation.

BJ and the Bear 🙂

I wonder how Buck Rogers fares, biggy biggy.

Myth buster Knight Rider

13thfloormonk
Full Member

Watching the Adam and Joe show with other ACTUAL adults in the room was a chastening and humiliating experience. Trying to explain why there were multiple soft toys copulating on screen to my 70 year old aunty was .. difficult.

I always like to think of hollywood moguls looking at all the different directors they could pick for their new marvel blockbuster and then looking at Joe Cornish's career and going "yeah, he's definitely the one"

Colournoise I have Trap Door and Count Ducula downloaded on my laptop 😁

Why isn’t KITT in surveillance mode all the time?

Power saving?

Thing with Knightrider for me was that I could never understand how KITT drove up the ramp onto the moving truck. It’s kind of like the opposite of the airplane on the conveyer belt thing. It’s been bugging me for decades. I’m assuming they just winched it up in real life.

Rear wheel drive, remember. Presumably they'd have to slam the brakes on hard as soon as the driven wheels were on the ramps (or knock it into neutral and coast up I suppose). The speed differential between the car and truck is low.

I tried re watching monkey magic it was dire, might have to look up mork and mindy again too thinking about it

I wonder how Buck Rogers fares

Yes, but, Erin Gray... (sorry, but, had a wall poster as a kid. I was in love.)

Air Wolf was good, but that silly futuristic motorbike one ? Chips was great ! Buck Rogers was good for Erin Gray. And 'The A Team' - that was daft fun.

Street Hawk was the motorbike one. Air wolf has not aged well IMO, I caught an episode the other month and it was terrible.

Rear wheel drive, remember. Presumably they’d have to slam the brakes on hard as soon as the driven wheels were on the ramps (or knock it into neutral and coast up I suppose)

Watch the video - the inertia oddly slows it all down, it doesn't behave like you'd think.

I was hoping one of the STW physicists would explain the physics 🙂

Rear wheel drive, remember. Presumably they’d have to slam the brakes on hard as soon as the driven wheels were on the ramps (or knock it into neutral and coast up I suppose). The speed differential between the car and truck is low.

The last sentence is crucial. Like you say, rear wheel drive, and an auto box make this manoeuvre a (relative) piece of cake; the mass of the car hardly changes velocity at all, only the drive train, which is engineered to do exactly that with ease (imagine a four wheel lock up at speed; similar sudden drive train velocity change). A little chirp of the tyres as they rapidly change rotation speed and you’re done. Probably doesn’t even need much throttle adjustment; rolling resistance suddenly reduces but a gradient is introduced.

What is much more impressive is getting those front wheel drive, manual minis up into the coach on a winding Italian mountain road! Some clever clutch and gear work there.

As much as watching these shows now makes us all cringe, they did all seem to have decent stories (most of the time)...there was an episode story and some had a series story (or the full thing story)...they were decent. Compared to a lot of shows now where it seems completely disorganised...

Suspect I'm watching it all with rose-tinted specs on, but apart from the cheese factor on the costumes, etc. they did have some decent storylines...

ITV4 and Legend seem to be the 2 channels on FreeView to watch for this kind of cheese. FreeVee does some shoes as well...but it does kind of draw you in. I've got less than 1.5 series to watch of Dukes of Hazzard - despite watching it all as a kid, I recall all the characters but have no recollection of any of the stories! I'll be glad when I get this finished as it'll be ticked off and done.

I used to love Street Hawk. It's one of those shows where there were a lot fewer episodes made than you remember. 12? 16? Something like that.

Also I think it was the first ever on-screen appearance of George Clooney.

I forgot the second half of my Knight Rider reply:

It’s mediocre, not awful.

Thing with Knightrider for me was

What irked me, even as a kid, was the oh-so-convenient coincidental upgrades.

Opening scene: Bonnie is in the truck, not nearly greasy enough for 13-year old me, but anyway. "Hey Michael, check this out, I've equipped KITT with a new bear repellent. Because you never know...!" Cut to lingering close-up on 'Repel Bear' button in the middle of the console.

Third act dramatic showdown scene: "look, a bear!" Michael presses the Repel Bear button. Bear is repelled, runs off back into the woods.

Back at FLAG, Wilton's started on the Scotch. Michael quips something about the day being unbearable, everyone laughs. Credits roll.

The Repel Bear button is never mentioned again. Six episodes later they're up to the fetlocks in a wild bear infestation going "hey KITT, how about putting up a smoke screen?"

TBH I'm a bit partial to Miami Vice always had good music and shiny cars, and a nice kit car for the hero and oddly even when he had the real Testerossa the chases would also be a kit car of that as the real deal wasn't reliable enough for the tougher driving scenes.

What irked me, even as a kid, was the oh-so-convenient coincidental upgrades.

Opening scene: Bonnie is in the truck, not nearly greasy enough for 13-year old me, but anyway. “Hey Michael, check this out, I’ve equipped KITT with a new bear repellent. Because you never know…!” Cut to lingering close-up on ‘Repel Bear’ button in the middle of the console.

Q Branch has been equipping 007 with those convenient "you will use it in this film but never again" gadgets for decades!

Anyway, MacGyver used to suffer from the same except that stuff was never issued to him, he simply "found" them conveniently nearby...
"What I needed right now was 24 truck tyres, an air compressor, 4 barrels and some double sided sticky tape..."

Holy shit, look at that truck workshop right next to me - what are the odds?!

Pretty ****ing high MacGyver, pretty ****ing high. And miraculously with JUST enough time to make the contraption before the Caricatured Bad Guys show up.

On Knight rider there's not that many real cars around as there was a de-rail of a train carrying firebirds and they were given to the production company on the proviso that they were crushed after use.

So only the original season 1 cars survived, they even had a massive rubber cover they put over it so they could keep driving thru walls and have it unmarked.

MacGyver used to suffer from the same except that stuff was never issued to him, he simply “found” them conveniently nearby…

See also, bad guys locking up the A-Team.

Another thing I noticed as a kid, in The Incredible Hulk, Banner hulked out precisely twice every episode. No more, no less. I wonder if there was a production reason for that?

Back at FLAG, Wilton’s started on the Scotch.

Devon, not Wilton. Blast.

Tried watching Knight Rider and The A Team again a few years ago to see if they lived up to my childhood memories. All I can say is my parents must’ve been dosing me with mescaline or LSD as a kid. I remember action and excitement and not **** all happening for half an hour. Mediocre at best.

Ah, The A Team.... those car drivers never did get the hang of dodging those bushes that rather amazingly always made the cars do barrel roles.

Sesame Street was way ahead of its time I think. Very diverse and some really wacky but well done animation throughout.

Hell, it's still being made, that must say something.

I still have PTSD from watching the final episode of Blake's 7 all those years ago. I took that really personally, as did every other boy at school I think. Can't comment on the girls, was too bloody scared to talk to them at that age.😁

Not a kids show as such but I used to like The Professionals, its still repeated on some obscure channel, it's not held up well either.

For pure childhood magic I still love Bagpuss. Great characters and little stories and a huge dose of sentimentality which I'm ridiculously prone to these days.

I used to like The Professionals, its still repeated on some obscure channel, it’s not held up well either.

No, it has not.

Ahhh no one’s mentioned Minder and the gratuitous stripper shots that were used regularly.

Itv4 shows them...I like The Professionals, hasn't aged as badly as the US shows - hasn't escaped it either but isn't as bad.

If you want to look back and wonder what on earth was going on in kids TV in the 80s, there was an episode of Rentaghost on telly a few weeks ago. It's on the iPlayer now. I loved that show as a 7 year old and it's all pretty innocent stuff but it didn't pass muster with my kids.

I still have PTSD from watching the final episode of Blake’s 7 all those years ago. I took that really personally, as did every other boy at school I think. Can’t comment on the girls, was too bloody scared to talk to them at that age

Blake’s 7 was actually pretty progressive with the portrayal of female role models thou 🙂

I hated the ending thou.

https://twitter.com/MikeJMika/status/1608593341062729728

Tom & Jerry, Itchy & Scratchy isn't it. That bloody upstart SpongeBob!