A-Team; Saturday afternoons glued to the box with Dad and my sisters. No one died, BA would always be drugged into getting onto the plane and the MPs would arrive just too late. Never mind Face’s women, Murdock variable insanity and the ever present super invention. Locked in a shed with nothing more than a toilet brush, garden hose and sticky backed plastic they would emerge triumphant (if not slightly unlikely) with a battle tank or all terrain vehicle
McGyver; The show that influenced me not into buying the toys or the bed covers but the Swiss Army Penknife. Ever present to aid escape from nuclear power plants and other unlikely scenarios
Littlest Hobo; One of those shows that went on forever but you wanted it to end, if only for the sake of the little guy form the title encouraged by the theme music that made you want that dawg to settle down and not move along. Growing older you of course realised that this was the Littlest Hobo’s life and he would never change, no matter how many little kids begged him to stay at the end of the show
Three shows that I can never watch/think about without returning to my childhood, especially when accompanied by such iconic theme music.
On Sunday evenings at 6:00, the damn ticking of the “60 Minutes” clock. This meant the weekend was pretty much over and I’d have to go to school tomorrow.
Later that evening, the beginning of “Masterpiece Theater”. Now the weekend’s done and it’s time for bed.
Many years later and I still have the same associations.
Sunday evenings at 7:00 - “The Wonderful World of Disney”. As Legomancer stated, this was the end of the weekend.
“Kukla,Fran and Ollie” - This signified the end of the Saturday morning cartoon scheduling. After this show, there was nothing on but golf.
“Davey and Goliath” meant a lazy Sunday afternoon - a guilty pleasure because you managed to get out of going to church. (hmm, I sense a recurring theme)
Sunday evenings at 7:00 - “The Wonderful World of Disney”. As Legomancer stated, this was the end of the weekend.
“Kukla,Fran and Ollie” - This signified the end of the Saturday morning cartoon scheduling. After this show, there was nothing on but golf.
“Davey and Goliath” meant a lazy Sunday afternoon - a guilty pleasure because you managed to get out of going to church. (hmm, I sense a recurring theme)
“The Little Rascals” - if you worked really quickly, you could watch this show before school.
The Banana Splits left with an uneasy nightmarish feeling for 30 years. There was something unspeakably sad about the characters disappearing at the end, leaving only mute frozen painted images on a wooden fence.
Shazam! - The recent weekend run on TV Land really caused a rush of fond memories of childhood. Perfect late night viewing when I get home from work. It takes me back to when a show this cheap, cheesy, badly acted, and even worse written made sense to my little mind. The stock music from every Filmation show is burned into my brain, damn how I loved to hear it again.
The Rockford Files - Makes me think of all the good times I had watching the show with my dad. I was too young to understand the plots, but I loved the humor and James Garner’s attitude. The theme song is still the best theme ever written.
The Stargazer/Star Hustler - Still makes me think it’s getting late. When this guy came on I knew my parents were going to say I had been up too late and it was time for bed no matter what.
WKRP - Rock ‘n’ Roll, hot babes, and smartass humor. To me this was the coolest show ever at that point. I so thought I was growing up when I got the sex and drug jokes in some episodes. It takes me back to when radio could still be cool.
The Big Valley - I used to live for reruns of this after school when I was about 7-11 years old. Would Heath get shot yet again? Would Audra (sic) fall off a horse again? Was it a really dramatic episode where Barbara Stanwick had to use a gun and make a defiant speech to some bad guy or lazy lawman? Was Nick a jerk again? Was Adam out of town on legal business again?
I have to second The A-Team and add Knight Rider to it. I watched those shows with my dad every single week when I was six, and I probably remember 5% of what I saw On the other hand, poor Dad probably wishes he could block out all memories of ** Punky Brewster** and ** Webster** since those were my viewing selections at that age.
Other memorable shows include: Fraggle Rock, He-Man, and WLVI’s Creature Double Features on Sunday afternoons- if it involved Godzilla or some other weird scifi/horror movie- “staring” some sort of terrible creature- and was made before 1985, I probably saw it with my Dad and Grandpa.
Actually, the show was called Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Too bad Halloween is over, as you’ve apparently missed the chance to download an episode from this site:
On the other hand, poor Dad probably wishes he could block out all memories of ** Punky Brewster** and ** Webster** since those were my viewing selections at that age.