I Remember…Nickelodeon

Day 296

I love checking out old TV show clips on YouTube! It’s amazing what you can find (and I need to send a shout out to those people who have posted these clips! Thanks!) The other night I spent a great deal of time (i.e. hours) just looking at various clips and I happened to come across some great TV shows that used to air on Nickelodeon, back in the 1980s.

As a child in the ‘80s my life revolved around TV (as it probably did for most kids), so I remember a lot of the TV shows at that time. One of my favorite channels to watch was Nickelodeon, because it was an entire channel devoted to kids. I remember that it was Channel 17 on our cable box (that had a turn dial - how’s that for old school?!) And these are the shows I remember most on Nickelodeon:

* This was a really cool cartoon from the United Kingdom and was full of that wry, British wit that I absolutely love! Danger Mouse and his nervous sidekick Penfold (he always cracked me up) battle against the evil toad Greenback! I have the first 2 volumes on DVD and my nephews and nieces have watched a few episodes and liked them!

* Mr. Wizard (who looked like Mr. Rogers’ older brother) would always show these cool science-related experiments and projects and had kids help out. Very entertaining and educational!

* Nickelodeon’s answer to MTV: a half-hour show devoted to music videos. I remember seeing videos from ‘80s staples like The Cars and The Go-Gos. Great music!

* One of my absolute favorite shows on Nickelodeon was this show from 1984. It was on for just one season but it was a great show just the same. This show consisted of very funny skits and ridiculous news stories, like Adult Education, How NOT To Do Things, Let’s Eat!, Fast Told Fairy Tales. It never failed to make me laugh!

*Nickelodeon’s answer to Sesame Street and The Electric Company: this was an early morning show with puppets (like brothers Plus and Minus) and people all living together in a big house.

* Leonard Nimoy hosted this behind-the-scenes show about the making of popular movies like Return of the Jedi, WarGames and Star Trek III (gee, I wonder why Leonard Nimoy focused on this movie!)

* Another cute kids show: this one took place in a department store after hours when a mannequin named Jeff would magically come to life and hang out with Jodie, Sam (the puppet security guard) and Molly the rhyming mouse.

* Another import from the UK: this was actually from the 1970s, but I was kind of oblivious to that fact (despite the outdated fashions and hairstyles). I just loved this cool show, about a group of kids called “Tomorrow People” with special telekinetic powers who worked together to help protect the Earth from various aliens. I bought 2 box sets of the TV show a few years ago. Great sci-fi show!

* Nickelodeon’s answer to Saturday Night Live: this was show made up of newly produced sketches and classic sketches from other shows around the world. Several sketches included actors that were featured on my favorite Nickelodeon show…

* Yep, this is the one! My favorite show on Nickelodeon! This was a very cool kids/teens show from Canada. I will be doing a future post devoted to this show.