# When You Were a Kid, What TV Character Did You Identify With/Want to Be? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 29, 2011, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158 "2011-10-29T05:18:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/41 "2011-10-29T21:53:50Z")
Jim Rockford ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/42 "2011-10-29T22:02:58Z")
Steve Austin, better known as The Six Million Dollar Man. ---
**Author:** ![loshan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce73a5/32.png) [@loshan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/loshan)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/43 "2011-10-29T22:08:32Z")
That Girl…Marlo Thomas Julia…Diahann Carroll (Mom said…“b b b but, she’s black!” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/44 "2011-10-29T22:10:30Z")
Another one for the Professor, here. And it didn’t hurt that he got a lot of subtext with Mary Ann, either. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2011, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/45 "2011-10-29T22:38:14Z")
I wanted to be the Princess Knight: [Princess Knight - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Knight) I was a tomboy, I almost always identified with male characters - nothing that the TV or films associated with being a girl held any appeal for me - but I didn’t actually want to \*be \*a boy. So she was perfect. I had only half a clue what was going on, because I stumbled across this on a very fuzzy channel in Italy at a point when my Italian was pretty shaky, but I wanted to be her anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/46 "2011-10-30T00:23:32Z")
PFC Paul LeMay from “Combat”, although he was usually called “Caje” because his character was a Louisiana Cajun, I thought his name was “Cage”. Had the best beard/5 o’clock shadow, looked cool shooting lefthanded, since he spoke French he could talk with the natives when the men of K company found one of those rare villages without an English teacher who was invariably a pretty 25 year old woman. Also in the episode “Mountain Men” he managed to get on a pair of skis and out race the skilled German ski troopers chasing him. We’ll ignore the fact that Normandy is flat since Pierre Jalbert, a fist class skier himself, told the director who said they wanted such an episode. Usually competent and brave, although in the D Day episode he broke down, ran away but ran into the French Resistance and returned with the weapons to free the prisoners and the wine to celebrate with. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/47 "2011-10-30T00:27:32Z")
I wanted to Mark Wedloe from Gentle Ben or Sandy from Flipper. Only as girls. StG ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/48 "2011-10-30T00:34:35Z")
Candy Pruitt, Head Mail Order Bride in Here Come the Brides (late 60’s, early 70’s) played by Bridget Hanley. She had beautiful red elaborately arranged hair, there were lots of eligible lumberjacks vying for the affections of her and her friends, and they all lived in the beautiful northwest U.S. There is, oddly, a Star Trek tie-in, one of the characters was played by Mark Lenard (Spock’s father) and one Barbara Hambly wrote a Star Trek novel involving Spock and time travel, sending him back to San Francisco in early days AND Here Come The Brides territory - to be adopted by Mark Lenard! Another unremembered show, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, a moody dramedy set in a New York that is no more. Starred Blair Brown, a single woman with no visible means of support, but living pretty well nonetheless and having varied adventures in work and romance. She seemed so cool and sophisticated, and she bought shopping bags full of Chinese food, and every man on the show was protective and wanted her desperately, though she never noticed. Just drifted through life, working odd jobs…I do recall her ex-husband gave her some of his music on a new fangled thing called a “CD”, lol! ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/49 "2011-10-30T00:44:14Z")
I wanted to be Mindy and live happily ever after with Mork. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/50 "2011-10-30T01:02:19Z")
Dawson Leery. He had the tomboy, girl-next-door, Joey Potter, he had the innocent, young, boyish charm. He was into Motion Pictures, and I could identify that as a big part of his personality, and mine. I took a Film course in college. I didn’t get the girl. Yet. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/51 "2011-10-30T01:26:24Z")
Veronica Lodge from The Archie’s. Still do, now that I think about it! I also once sprained an ankle jumping out of a tree with roller skates trying to recreate something-or-other from The Bionic Woman. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/52 "2011-10-30T02:36:43Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Jim Rockford A modern day Bret Maverick. I wanted to be him when I was in my 20s. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/53 "2011-10-30T04:25:51Z")
Spock - although just prior to that I did dress as Bugs Bunny for Halloween. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 7:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/54 "2011-10-30T07:55:39Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > I wanted to be Laura Petrie; feared I would be Millie Helper; but knew really I would end up as Sally Rogers. > > And so I did! I wanted to be Laura Petrie, because she was married to Rob Petrie. Except I’d ditch those twin beds. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/55 "2011-10-30T08:37:58Z")
[Pippi Longstocking](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pippi_Longstocking). Then, when I turned emo goth adolescent, it became any female protagonist in the novels of Tanith Lee. All moody beautiful girls with impossible log hair. (We had a TV growing up, but for most of my childhood it had only two acessible channels) ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/56 "2011-10-30T09:52:17Z")
Another Spock here. ---
**Author:** ![GovernmentMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e9c0ed/32.png) [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/57 "2011-10-30T11:37:52Z")
Goku from Dragonball ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/58 "2011-10-30T15:18:57Z")
I identified most with Heckel and Jeckel, an old cartoon that’s never shown anymore, I think because it was politically incorrect. They were smartasses and I really liked that. To Lynn Bodoni…when playing “girl stuff” I always wanted to “p’like I’m Debbie Reynolds.” (p’like=play like) Another friend was always Elizabeth Taylor. Don’t know if the scandal had happened yet. If I had been a kid more recently it would be Xenia. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/59 "2011-10-30T15:42:06Z")
Tintin. Another girl who couldn’t identify with any female characters in the 60s. And the dog? I wanted a little white dog so badly! ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158/60 "2011-10-30T15:45:17Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I always wanted to be The Professor from _Gilligan’s Island_. That dude could do _anything_! Except nail either Mary Ann or Ginger, apparently. For me: The Lone Ranger and Superman were my wannabes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-you-were-a-kid-what-tv-character-did-you-identify-with-want-to-be/601158.md?page=4)