When I come across the current day kids TV shows, it brings me back to my childhood years. It is surprising how much children’s daytime television has actually changed over the years. Here is a list of my 43 favourite kids shows from when I was young:
1. Bodger & Badger Who couldn’t love this show? I thought it was hilarious, and I only ate mash potato at dinner times because badger did! This show is the reason I didn’t turn my nose up at it.
2. Playdays Oh how I loved Whybird and this program, it kept me entertained for hours!
3. Rosie & Jim This had an annoyingly catchy theme tune which I would sing along too.
5. Raggy Dolls This program was set in a doll factory, and dolls were put into the reject bin if they were not ‘perfect’ the dolls then came to life when humans were not around. The theme tune to this program reassured children that it’s okay to be different and not fit in with everybody else. If you listen to the words it’s actually really inspiring.
6. Mr Men As well as never missing an episode of Mr Men, I had every single book and would read one before bedtime every night.
7. Spider Arhh I have always been terrified of spiders, but this program made the fear slightly easier.
8. Williams Wish Wellingtons Ahh young William, and his magical red welly boots, that granted him any wish he wanted when he was wearing them. If only that could be true!
9. Topsy & Tim This included every day things such as going shopping and swimming, and revolved around the two siblings and their lives.
10. Mr Benn This is a good one to look back on, because this was before the times of moving cartoons and images. This show consists of just drawings and voice overs. There are no moving images at all. The program was about Mr Benn who had a new job and outfit every day and would keep taking on a new role such as a spaceman.
11. Tots TV I’m at Tot ‘Je Suis Un Tot. Tilly, Tom and Tiny! Whilst hard to understand at times, these characters were adorable!
12. Pinky And The Brain This show was about two mice in a lab. Brain was smart, whilst Pinky was not so intelligent. Brain was always trying to take over the world but always failed somewhat.
13. Come Outside The sweet auntie Mabel and her dog Pippin, always went on a new adventure every day. This show was to teach children about the world and different environments. It was both fun and educational.
14. Spot The Dog A learning show where Spot would have adventures. This dog was extremely popular, and the TV show was made in addition to the books.
15. Scooby Doo Another really popular program where a group of friends – Daphne, Fred, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby Doo, would go on missions to uncover the truth and resolve mysteries in the mystery van. Those meddling kids.. 16. Arthur This show was about an 8 year old animal character Arthur and his friends, and showed how they interacted with each other. This was an educational program.
17. Rainbow Rainbow consisted of characters including Zippy, George, Bundle and Geoffrey. The program included lots of songs and stories.
18. Oakie Doke Oakie Doke was a friendly character made up of an acorn head and lead body. He lived in an oak tree and everyone in the forest looked up to him, because he would always sort any problems out. 19. Bump The Elephant Bump was a clumsy elephant who always had a plaster on his forehead. He had a little friend called Birdie who was a bluebird and would give Bump advice to stop being so clumsy. 20. The Wild Thornberrys This show was educational and is about a family who travel all around the world filming exotic animals. The main character Eliza can speak to the animals and her best friend is a monkey. 21. Bananas In Pyamas The two twin bananas B1 and B2 live in a neighbourhood with their friends. They all have different jobs, and have adventures together. 22. Barney Barney was a big purple dinosaur who had many dinosaur friends. He sent out educational messages throughout the song and danced.
23. ZZZap I thought this program was ever so fun as it was like a big comic that had come to life. It showed different clips of various things.
24. Mona The Vampire Mona and her friends always go on new adventures where they imagine the supernatural and fight against them. They all look like normal children, until they are faced with the supernatural and then their real selves are shown.
25. Catdog This program was so weird as it was about conjoined brothers, one which was cat and one a dog.
26. Cow And Chicken Cow and chicken are two very unlikely siblings with human parents. The program was very funny and random. 27. Dennis The Menace One of my favourites! A bunch of rebellious kids, who annoy their parents and are always getting into trouble. Dennis causes absolute chaos and his parents are never happy with him. But it sure gave us a laugh to watch!
28. Dexters Lab Dexter is a boy genius with a secret lab which he creates his inventions in. He has a sister called Dee-Dee who always finds a way into the lab even though Dexter tries to keep her out. 29.The Flinstones This show was based in the stone she and shows a working class family and how they live their lives. Fred Flinstone had a best friend called Barney who was his neighbour and they would always hang out together, also with both of their wives.
30. Fireman Sam This show is about Sam and his fellow fireman and the people that live in the town with them. Sam is always there to save the day when something goes wrong.
31. Huxley Pig Huxley is a pig who would always dream about adventures. He had a friend called Sam who was a seagull, and when Huxley went off into a daydream Sam would be able to speak.
32. Hey Arnold Arnold is a kid who lives with his grandparents and the show focuses on him and his friends in their day to day lives.
33. Johnny Bravo Johnny bravo is a beefcake of a man, muscular with a big blonde hairdo, and he is always trying to hit on women.
34. Kipper The Dog Kipper is a talking orange dog with many friends. He is very kind and has a best friend called Tiger. 35. Meg And Mog Meg is a witch who is always casting spells that never seem to go to plan. She has a best friend called Mog who is a cat. A typical witches best friend.
36.Postman Pat Pat is a friendly postman who always takes the time to chat with his neighbours whilst on the job. He has a black and white cat called Jess.
37.Paddington Bear Paddington was obsessed with marmalade, and carried a battered suitcase around with him. He wore a blue coat and had a red hat.
38. Pingu The cute little penguin and his family. This show was about Pingu and his life, playing with his friends, and communicating in penguin language that we couldn’t understand, but it was fun to watch.
39.The Powderpuff Girls Blossom, Bubbles and Buttercup are three sisters that all have different superpowers. Their father is a scientist and their mayor is always calling them to come and help by fighting criminals such as the evil monkey Mojo Jojo with their powers.
40. Rugrats Rugrats is a show based on a group of toddlers called: Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Tommy’s big sister Angelica. The toddlers always seem to get up to mischief, and Angelica is a bit of a minx.
41. Rupert The Bear Rupert was known for wearing a red jumper, bright yellow checked trousers with a matching scarf. Rupert lived with his parents and had lots of animal friends.
42. Bear In The Big Blue House I loved this program and the goodbye song where bear used to sing to the moon featured at the end of each episode always used to make me sad.
43. Brum This cheeky little yellow car, with eyes made of headlights, used to drive itself around everywhere when it’s owners back was turned. Brum expressed himself by controlling his doors and bonnet and making typical car noises.
My family and I only watched Dexter, the Flinstones, and Johnny Bravo. I hadn’t even heard of a lot of the other shows!
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Paddington certainly was worthy of a movie, Pinky and the brain was a lil too hard to watch at times though lol
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The Flintstones and Arthur are definite winners 🙂 I keep hoping Netflix will make some Arthur episodes available for watching. Those were some fun times!
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Ahh they were indeed 😊
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Wow, talk about nostalgia. This list takes me way back. I also enjoyed Nickelodeon’s “Hey Dude,” which was sort of like a western version of “Saved By The Bell.” Corny? Yes. Bad acting? Of course.
Totally awesome? You bet!
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I loved this post, it definitely brought back a lot of memories! I loved The Rugrats! my brother and I spent hours watching Cartoon Network – Cow and Chicken & Ed Edd + Eddy were our favourites!
I wrote a post yesterday about my favourite 90’s films if you would like to have a read – http://elizajamesx.com/2015/04/01/popcorn-worthy-cinema-the-90s/
xx
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I miss them all! Brill, I’ll check out your post ☺️
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Aw the nostalgic feels!! I came down here to tell you off for getting the Rosie & Jim theme stuck in my head…but now I’m stuck listening to a megamix of that, Tots TV and Bananas in Pajamas!! You would not want to be in my head right now 😂.
Brilliant list though :-).
Much Love
AJ xx
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Hahaha I’ve been singing them all at work! And thank you 😊
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I wish I could be back in those days! 😦 Today’s TVshows for kids are just crap (sorry for saying it like that – it’s the truth)
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Ahh I agree!
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Here’s a nice normal girl in an ordinary world, show us your fangs (yay Mona!)
Gonna be stuck in my head all day now! 😀
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Oh no! Now it’s stuck in mine haha
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This was a fun read. There were tons I had never heard of!
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I like the Wild Thornberrys and Hey Arnold. Someday I want to travel like how the Thornberrys do. Talking about Hey Arnold, Helga taught me about loving someone secretly, haha…
Thanks for bringing back the memories.
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Ah Pingu and Mr Benn, how I love those. The rest I am too old to know lol
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I recognise a few of these programmes, such as Arthur and Rugrats. I remember the most bizarre thing about Cow and Chicken is that the parents are not only human, but only consist of a pair of legs. I preferred the early Zzzap, with Tricky Dicky (who got adults to try the challenges instead of just kids), Smart Arty and the violent hands (I am sure they stopped the hands smacking the signs away while doing the magic tricks). There is a funny discussion of the Flintstones at the beginning of the “Backwards” episode of “Red Dwarf”.
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Very interesting to see the few of those who made it over to Central Europe 🙂 Most of them are totally unknown here…
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