Olden Time TV

Since there hasn't been anything real fun to watch lately, I figured I would continue my theme of the good ol' days and talk a little bit about the shows I loved when I was growing up. Humor me and play along, why don't you?

The very first television show I remember loving was The Monkees. Nickelodeon used to show reruns of their short lived (1966-1968) half hour comedy and Dennis and I loved it. It was centered around the band itself (Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith and Davy Jones) and the silly hi-jinks and situations they would get themselves into. My brother and I became obsessed with the show and the music in general. Every episode would feature at least one musical performance. We had all their records/albums and knew all the words to every song. I had the biggest crush on Peter Tork and even received a keyboard one Christmas because I wanted to play like him. Most of what I remember about the show now, is a lot of Davy getting stars in his eyes and falling in love with a different girl every episode and them just doing really ridiculous things. It was mindless and cheesy and so much fun. It also led to my very first concert when I was 6 years old. My parents took Dennis, Jay and I to see them at Pine Knob and Weird Al opened for them. I remember being completely in awe of hearing the songs I loved so much live and being so confused because they didn't look like they did on the show (you know, because they grew up, haha). Below is a little sampling of what usually took place in every episode. You'll notice this clip also stars Bobby Sherman, who I think looks a lot like Maxwell Caulfield, AKA Rex Manning from Empire Records.



We also looooooved Fraggle Rock. Really, I shouldn't have to explain what this show is (but I will if you have been living under a rock or in a hobbit hole all of your life). It was a live-action muppet show, created by Jim Henson. The series focused on Boober (he was the depressed one and loved doing laundry), Red (she was the athletic, energetic one, as well as Mokey's Best friend.), Wembley (Gobo's roommate and best friend. Always indecisive.), Gobo (the main Fraggle and the most level headed of the bunch. He liked to explore "outer space") and Mokey (She was the hippie of the group. A free spirit, if you will), with special appearances by Uncle Traveling Matt, the doozers and last but not least, the Gorgs. Red Fraggle was my favorite and my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ron bought Dennis and I all of the stuffed animals when we were kids. I still have mine and passed them down to Charley. They are a bit beat up but he loves them nonetheless. The show was really good at teaching kids lessons and it had pretty awesome music to go along with it. Here is one of my favorite songs from the show:



Listen, I know all of you (most of you) liked Saved By The Bell but I REALLY liked it. Quite frankly, I adored this show. I would race home from school everyday, settle into my office (the couch) and watch it. It was about a handful of teenagers (and their principal) as they endured "everyday high school experiences". Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) was the main character, followed by Kelly Kapowski (Tiffani-Amber Thiessen), Jessie Spano (Elizabeth Berkley), Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) and Screech (Dustin Diamond). Simply put; A slacker, a homecoming queen, a brain, a fashion guru, a jock and a nerd. I am aware that there have been several different variations of this show (New Class, College Years Etc.) as well as other cast members who were added (Tori, blech!)and subtracted at one time or another, but this was my favorite cast. I wanted to be friends with these characters. I wanted to hang out at The Max, help Zack with his kooky schemes, be apart of Hot Fudge Sundae and sell "Buddy Bandz" with them. I was honestly devastated when Kelly broke up with Zack, to start dating her boss from The Max, Jeff  (played by Patrick Muldoon) and I wanted a summer job at the beach house that they all worked at. TBS showed back to back episodes of it every afternoon and I would anxiously await the day when they would show the very special episode entitled "Jessie's Song" where Jessie gets hooked on caffeine pills. That episode was so out of the norm from the goofy stuff they usually did that it is still one of the most popular and remembered episodes ever. Observe, if you will:




Speaking of Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, after she was done on Saved By The Bell she took a walk on over to one of my other most favorite shows ever, Beverly Hills, 90210. This show started out as the story of the Walsh family, who moved from Minneapolis, Minnesota to glamorous Beverly Hills, California. It centered on the two kids in the family (twins), Brenda and Brandon, as they made new friends and experienced what it was like to live in such a rich place. As the years went on, the focus came off of those two and was broadened quite a bit to include everyone else in the cast: Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Dylan McKay (Luke Perry), Donna Martin (Tori Spelling), David Silver (Brian-Austin Green), Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris) and Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering).Now, I could go into all of my favorite episodes and why they are my favorite episodes but that show was on for 10 years and it would take up an entire blog post all by itself (note to self: do 90210 blog post). Instead, I will just tell you that this was the first soap opera type show that I ever really connected with and fell in love with. I loved Brandon and Dylan and would go back and forth on trying to decide which one I loved more (FYI: Brandon eventually won my heart) and I loved the drama of the triangle between Dylan/Kelly/Brenda. The show went through some great times and a few bad times but I loved them all. A few years ago, Carrie, Jaimie and I had a Beverly Hills, 90210 trivia-off. We each came up with our own questions, had Jeff ask them and whoever had the most correct answers won. Jaimie was the winner. Hooray! Here is one of my favorite moments from the show:



Remember back in olden times when you had to pay for the Disney Channel? Every so often we would get a free preview and I would get so excited because I was able to watch Kids Incorporated and The Mickey Mouse Club. That was also during the time when cartoons were only on in the mornings. Now there are several channels dedicated solely to cartoons. Charley can't even comprehend the thought of not being able to pause live tv or record something at the push of a single button... Meanwhile I still have Saved By The Bell: Hawaiian Style on VHS, hahaha.


Those are just a few of my favorites... the most important ones. I also really loved Who's The Boss (the episode where Samantha gets a training bra for her birthday is my favorite), My Two Dad's, Pee-Wee's Playhouse, Just the Ten of Us, The Cosby Show, Head of The Class, Melrose Place, Fame, Hey Dude...

What were some of your favorite tv shows/scenes?

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