In search of the retro TV of my childhood

TV always seemed brilliant when we were young, didn’t it? Even though there were only four channels and they all shut down overnight, there was no live pause or rewind and no streaming *gasp*. It was entertaining and exciting and fun (I think; I could be looking back with a rose-tinted sense of nostalgia though).

I don’t remember any set limits on screen time as we only ever watched a tiny bit due to always being outside. But there was always after school, where you’d fit in as much Broom Cupboard as possible before tea, bath and bed.

Alex and I had a think about what we used to watch when we were younger, and here’s our stand-out shows from the 80s and 90s;

Playschool / You and Me with Dibs and Cosmo / Chock-A-Block / Superted / Banana Man/ Dogtanian / 80 days Around the World with Willy Fog / Why Don’t You? / Geordie Racer / Dark Towers / Wide Awake Club and Wackaday / Maid Marion and her Merry Men / Simon and the Witch / Morph / Neighbours / Going Live / Transformers / Byker Grove / Grange Hill / Captain Planet / Mysterious Cities of Gold / Moondial / Century Falls / Clarissa Explains it all / Sister, Sister / Heartbreak High / My So Called Life

I would love for all of these to be on Netflix – how amazing would a ‘kids retro TV’ category be? I’ve been searching for things I used to watch on there as I thought it would be fun to gradually introduce Eliza. Interestingly, she’s just found and is fascinated by Teletubbies in the kids section – I was a student when this came out but we used to drunkenly watch it, with deep irony of course. 

So what about future classics our children will get all misty eyed about? Here’s the Netflix kids shows and films that are firm favourites with the mini one in our house:

* Toy Story 3
* Cars
* Bugs Life
* Doh do do do do do do do Doooora
* Go Diego Go!
* Bubble Guppies
* Pocoyo
* Team UmiZoomi

What were your favourite childhood shows?

Also, things to watch when you have a new baby, and the stages of watching a film when you have children.

This is written as part of the Netflix Stream Team. I originally meant to write this as part of the ‘Back to School’ theme for September, but I’m ever-so-slightly late on this…