Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Retro TV

So earlier this week, Stephanie and I were gchatting (as per the usual) and somehow the topic of Clarissa Explains It All came up. And no, I don't remember how. But I do remember that I was beyond excited to think about that show, and Clarissa's obnoxious brother Ferguson, and her friend Sam who always showed up at her window on the ladder, and her ridiculous parents.

I was SO very excited about Clarissa, in fact, that I went straight to Amazon and ordered Season 1 on DVD. Would you believe that that thing has 5 full stars out of 43 reviews? That's how genius this show is. The DVD arrived yesterday, and Torsten was working late, so I sat down last night after work and watched two episodes. And wow, they ARE pure genius. Clarissa's insane outfits are awesome. And one thing I noticed that I totally missed when I was a kid is that she is totally tech savvy and on the cutting edge--designing scenario simulations and video games on her giant early '90s computer. I love that.

Anyway, the show was pretty much just as brilliant as I remembered, and it reminded me of other shows that I totally loved when I was a kid, and by kid I mean anywhere between the ages of 6 and 12. I wasn't allowed to watch much TV, so my list is limited, but there are definitely a few standouts:
  • Mad About You. I was probably a bit young for this show at the beginning, and I'm sure I missed a lot of the innuendo and adult themes, but damn did I love it. I especially loved Murray, the adorable dog.
  • Family Feud. I have always liked game shows and Family Feud was the very first one. I watched this show pretty much every day with my parents. I loved the families that all looked alike the best, and I loved how useless so many of the contestants were. Of course, Ray Combs didn't kiss the female contestants the way Richard Dawson used to, but the show was still great.
  • Life Goes On. Okay, I was definitely too young to really understand this show, but I loved it because my whole family watched it together. Also, it was while this show was still on the air that I found out that my uncle was HIV positive, and the HIV-positive character on the show helped me to understand that.
  • The Wonder Years. I don't know if there's even much to say about this show. It was brilliant. I adored it. I thought Winnie Cooper was beautiful. I secretly preferred Paul to Kevin. Was I alone in that?
Wow, now that I've created this list, I'm realizing that I totally wasn't into conventional shows targeted at my age group. Am I the only one? What shows did you love when you were a kid?

63 comments:

  1. Do you remember "Roundhouse"? I loved that show. I would also love to see original episodes of "Doug" (not the crappy ABC version) and "Salute Your Shorts." Ooh, and "Hey, Dude"! I just realized that I know all of their theme songs, even now. I swear, I watched other channels besides Nickelodeon as a child, but these shows seem so out of reach these days due to lack of syndication.

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  2. I LOVED The Wonder Years. My dad's real personality is a lot like Kevin's dad on the show, and my dad loves the show, too. It was kinda our thing. I also watched the crap out of The Brady Bunch and Saved By the Bell.

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  3. I totally loved all the Nickelodeon shows- Hey Dude and Salute Your Shorts and You Can't Do That on Television, and ESPECIALLY Clarissa. Must go order now.

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  4. As a young kid I love "David the Gnome", "Inspector Gadget" and "Maya the Bee"

    As a teen I loved "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" "California Dreaming" "Saved by the Bell"and the "Secret World of Alex Mack."

    Among countless others...

    Love old TV :)

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  5. I loved this post. I seriously might have to make my own list on my blog. My favorite shows were Full House, The Cosby Show, The Wonder Years, Doogie Houser, Family Matters, and all those other TGIF shows. Aww, Such good memories...

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  6. I love the Wonder Years too! I also watched Clarissa, Saved by the Bell, Full House, Family Feud, Boy Meets World, Step by Step, etc.

    Those shows were the best!

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  7. Fun stuff! I loved these old shows! PS I tagged you!

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  8. I loved "Mad About You" as well, mostly because I had a huge girl crush on Helen Hunt (still do).

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  9. Oh gosh - I LOVED Clarissa! Mad About You and The Wonder Years too! Also, Nickelodeon: Hey, Dude and Salute Your Shorts. Um, Family Ties. And please. Let's not forget Saved By the Bell. Because it comes on twice a day on some random channel. And I have it DVR-ed. No seriously. I do. It's awesome.

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  10. OMG this is a great post! People said (and still say) i look a lot like clarissa, so funny. I loved that show. I also loved Wonder Years, Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, Life Goes on, Saved by the Bell, The Cosby show ... the list goes on and on and on(And I still do love all of these shows.. well except Family matters)

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  11. I LOVED The Wonder Years. I went to school with a boy named Jason Roberts and he looked just like Kevin. So I loved Jason and I loved Kevin. I even one time got off the bus at Jason's house just so I could be like "closer" to him and then ended up having to walk maybe 2 miles home. It broke my heart when he moved to another school later that year. But whenever I see Wonder Years I think of Jason ...

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  12. I remember going to my grandma's house one summer with my sister for a week and we watched Clarissa Explains it All every day. It was like heaven.

    And then I totally loved her in Sabriana the Teenage Witch.

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  13. I had a huuuuge Girl Crush on Clarissa!!! OMG I want to get the DVDs now!!

    And RA totally reminded me of Roundhouse... uhh that and Are You Afraid of the Dark! Nickelodeon used to be soooo good.

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  14. Uh, The Golden Girls was my favorite (FAVORITE) show growing up, and my mom and I watched it together. You could say that I was most definitely not in the targeted age group for this particular program.

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  15. I am probably dating myself but I loved Family Ties (Alex P. Keaton!) and Growing Pains and Who's the Boss and Eight is Enough. I also loved The Wonder Years and Life Goes On.

    Man, if this is now considered "retro" I am officially OLD.

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  16. I loved Clarissa too. I always wanted to be her since she was so cool! I also watched Saved by the Bell, The Brady Bunch, Captain Planet, Beverly Hills 90210, Roundhouse, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Just the Ten of Us and The Facts of Life (summer reruns), Major Dad, Unsolved Mysteries, all the TGIF shows....

    I could name shows all day long...haha

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  17. "O BLAH DEE, O BLAH DA, LIFE GOES OOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNN. LA, LA, LA, LA LIFE GOES ON!"

    Sorry, that's all that's in my head right now.

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  18. Oh, I LOVED The Feud, for sure. I think it was on when I got home from school so I remember watching that pretty religiously.

    Punky Brewster was my favorite as a kid. And Doogie Howser.

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  19. gah! roundhouse! down at the roundhouseeee where i can be myselllllf....

    ok, sorry. i feel the need to disclose the fact i wnated to BE clarissa. and have awindow seat. and be all cool like her.

    oh clarissa, i heart you. i'm so glad the show lived up to your memories of wonderfulness.

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  20. Oh I love Clarissa Explains It All. Man, maybe I should put it on my Netflix queue. (Actually, strike that, it's getting added now!)

    Also, yay! on the wedding stuff. And although I have no real words of advice (but I hope you find the cure to the upper arm bumps and share with your fellow bloggers) - you can always get Sephora to make you samples of perfume. Try Guerlain, Aqua Allegoria in the Mandarine Basil. It's a favorite in the summer.

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  21. haha... the other day I was thinking about "Hey Dude" that show on Nickelodean about the dude ranch and Christine Taylor played some character in it. I'm not sure if it's out on dvd (probably not), but I did manage to find a few clips from youtube. :)

    but I used to watch Mad about You all the time. great show!

    (and somehow my open id wordpress isn't working so i have to use my old blogger one. weird.)

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  22. I am like you in that I wasn't allowed to watch much tv. I only remember watching Full House, The Wonder Years, and The Cosby Show.

    When my mom got married when I was 13 we got cable for the first time and I was able to watch more shows since her interests changed!

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  23. OMG I LOOOOOVE Clarissa Explains it All!! She was totally my fashion icon. I tried oh so very hard to dress like her... sometimes I almost succeeded!

    This is why I will still watch Sabrina the Teenage Witch when it reruns... I love Melissa Joan Hart!

    And ra is my hero for mentioning "Roundhouse"! I can still sing the themesong--my girlfriends and I used to do so all the time, in harmony!

    I would kill to get You Can't Do That On Television on DVD. When will they wise up and syndicate it!?!?! WHEN???

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  24. I loved Mad About You also...But I was not a kid when it aired.

    My favorite childhood shows: Family Ties and Growing Pains.

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  25. Oh - I just saw NPW's comment - I LOVED You Can't Do That on Television. And Double Dare. I was just thinking of prime time shows with my first comment...

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  26. Parker Lewis Can't Lose! OMG! I forgot about that.

    I'm dating myself here, but does anyone remember Sarah Jessica Parker and "Square Pegs?"

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  27. i loved the wonder years, life goes on, just the 10 of us, growing pains, the facts of life, full house, family matters, step by step...man, i could go on and on. this was a great post!

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  28. I'm with Tessie on Punky Brewster----BEST SHOW EVER!

    I got addicted to Murphy Brown reruns when I was pregnant with CA. It was on when I was a kid, but I never watched it then.

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  29. I looooooooooved Clarissa Explains It All! Mostly because I wanted her hair. We only got to watch it in the summers when we were visiting my grandma stateside because she had cable. Love! Totally loved Punky Brewster. And I am so buying my kid every Muppet Show I can find.

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  30. Ahhh old kids shows! One of my favorite topics :D

    I loved Clarissa Explains It All. Loooved.

    Also loved: Are You Afraid of the Dark, The Secret World of Alex Mack, Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude, Saved by the Bell, etc., etc.

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  31. I was such a TV kid, so this is a hard question. I loved The Wonder Years and Life Goes On. I also remember sitting on the floor of my parent's room watching the Saturday Night Line-up (because I am awesome) of Mr. Belvedere, Just the Ten of Us, Golden Girls and Empty Nest. Anything with a laugh track and I was in.

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  32. Jess - this is so funny! Me and survivingmyself were gchatting about ALF yesterday.

    My favorite show was Hey Dude! YEAH!

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  33. Oh man, I don't know if there is enough room in this comments box to list all of the shows that I watched religiously as a kid but if I have to narrow it down I'd have to say that in my pre-teen years, my favorites were Family Ties, Cosby and Kids Incorporated. Oh my god I loooooooooooooved Kids Incorporated.

    Of course there was also Murphy Brown, Cheers, Night Court, Magnum PI, Quantum Leap (though that continued into my teen years), Midnight Caller, Punky Brewster, Just the Ten Of Us, Growing Pains, Full House, My Two Dads, this list could go on forever!

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  34. hmm, wonder years wasn't on pbs.. so i wasn't allowed to watch it :-) i saw a LITTLE of clarissa, but mostly i am a total pbs kid: square one, 3-2-1 contact, mr wizard... although my OTHER fave was the A-Team, because my dad let me watch that with him even though it wasn't a kid show :-)

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  35. Oh my Life goes on, I thought the obladioblada theme song was so annoying. I watched Blossom.
    I also watched this show called beauty and the beast with my mom, I loved this show more than anything.

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  36. Clarissa explains it all was AWESOME, and always on Nickelodian... ha! (I totally can't spell that word.)

    Are You Afraid of the Dark used to scare the pants off me!

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  37. oh em gee. i loved clarissa and mad about you! i still love watching MAY repeats..

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  38. Who's The Boss... Tony Danza in a maid's uniform.... HOT

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  39. Oh how I loved Clarissa! And Life Goes On and The Wonder Years!!

    My whole family also watched "Sister" every week! Young George Clooney!

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  40. No wonder we got along so brilliantly. We liked the same shows growing up!

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  41. LOVED Wonder Years. One of my all time favorites...

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  42. My friend and I went on YouTube on a whim the other day because we had been talking about "Salute Your Shorts," and we watched the beginning credits and LAUGHED OUR ASSES OFF at the nostalgia. We also watched the beginning to "Hey Dude" (heeyyyyyyyyy duuuuuuuuuude) which was hilariously cheesy. I will always remember Christine Taylor as Melody from Hey Dude. We also watched the beginning to Clarissa.

    NA NA NA NA NA!!!!
    NA NA NA NA NA!!!
    WAY COOOL!

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  43. Family Feud was the shit!

    Also? I LOVED A Different World. Loved.

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  44. I LOVED The Wonder Years and Clarissa. And Punky Brewster, The Bradys (I know them well enough to call them that, of course), Silver Spoons, Family Ties, The Facts of Life, The Love Boat....wait. Am I older than you? I must be. Damn.

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  45. Hmmm... I'm a bit older than you, but I watched "Facts of Life" and "Diff'rent Strokes." When Nickolodeon first came out with "You Can't Do That on Television," I watched it. My favorite on that show was Alistair. I thought he was quite adorable. When I was older, I LOVED "My So Called Life" and "Freaks and Geeks." I also watched "Moonlighting," "Remington Steele" and "Simon & Simon." Somewhere in there, I watched "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," and I still recognize people from that show, like the big guy who played an orderly on ER and now he's the bartender on "Men in Trees."

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  46. Oh, and Saturday mornings - "Land of the Lost." LOVED that show.

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  47. I loved Clarissa, as well as Hey, Dude and Salute Your Shorts. I'm going to have to find some Clarissa. It's been years...

    I too used to love TV shows that were way over my head. Sisters, Empty Nest, Golden Girls, etc. LOVED them.

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  48. Do you remember that she had a pet named Elvis and he was Jila dragon, ok I have no idea how to spell that!

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  49. Punky Brewster! Also, loved Wonder Years, Full House and all the Nickelodeon shows.

    I find it so hilarious that all of my nieces and nephews LOVE Full House now too.

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  50. LOVED the Wonder Years! My Dad used to watch it non-stop and so I got in to it as well, we watched it together and it's some of my favorite memories growing up actually. The show WAS brilliant indeed.

    What was that show with Blossom and Joey and Six? I used to watch that...

    Jamie

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  51. Gosh.. This post brought back the memories. I have a few faves some newer than others.

    Blossom - Remember how cool those big hats were?

    Punky Brewster

    Growing Pains

    Salute Your Shorts on Nick

    Hey Dude - I used to rush home to watch that show.

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  52. Doogie Howser, Step by Step, Full House, The Wonder Years, Alf!

    So many good ones :) I bet I haven't remembered all of them either...

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  53. Mad About You and Life Goes On were both great shows! The latter was where I first saw Chad Lowe perform and I thought he was AMAZING and so much more talented than his half-wit brother, Rob. To this day, I still believe Chad Lowe is one of the most underrated actors and Rob one of the most over.

    I also enjoyed The Ellen Show. The situations weren't always 100% on, but I loved the courage of that show, combined with the humor and quirkiness.

    And now I'm dating myself, but I still love Friends.

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  54. I loved ALL of those shows. LOVED. And I think I miss My So Called Life and Golden Girls. lol.

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  55. I didn't have cable growing up, so I missed out on a bevy of awesome shows. I did really enjoy Clarissa Explains It All though. I used to watch that and the Secret World of Alex Mac when I went to my grandmother's house. I also loved Blossom and Boy Meets World.

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  56. Wow, reading a lot of these comments brings me BACK!

    One of my favorite shows was Three's Company, same can be said for a lot of me not "getting" the innuendo at the time.

    I was a big Saved By the Bell fan too, and the Cosby Show, Roseanne (I swear the show was modeled after my family... I was Becky in case you're wondering...)

    Degrassi Junior High was one of my favorites (I think there's an updated version of this show on now, but the original ROCKED! Yep, quick check on Wiki shows there's a DeGrassi: The Next Generation currently on)

    MY SO CALLED LIFE!! Awesomeness.

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  57. I loved Wonder Years and when I was much younger Facts of Life.

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  58. i miss The Wonder Years and Life Goes On and still cannot believe my husband has zero idea what either are. I mean, who doesn't know about Kevin and Winnie and Corky? Seriously.

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  59. Roseanne
    The Wonder Years
    Parker Lewis Can't Lose
    Blossom
    Who's the Boss?
    Mr. Belvedere
    Family Ties
    Growing Pains
    Murphy Brown
    Designing Women
    The Cosby Show
    The Facts of Life

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  60. OMG..Clarissa! I LOVED that show!

    I always think about old cartoons I used to watch...Doug, Gulla Gulla Island, Rugrats, Busy World of Richard Scary...I also loved Home Improvement, Full House!

    TV now is nothing compared to old TV. Gosh, where did the good shows go?

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