100 greatest kids' tv thing: Student irony gone too far?

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Seriously, even in the 6th form, we've had the kids' tv conversation hundreds of times, to the extent I never want to talk about them ever again. Admittedly, some of those programmes were great, but do we really need another 3 hour top 100 with the usual c-list celebs and maconie on writing duties telling us we like them? Can TV sink any lower?

― Bill, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And to top it all, the Simpsons won, which, as far as I am aware, has never per se been kids' tv. Or does anyone think it really is?

― Bill, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What *were* they thinking??

― carsmilesteve, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Watched it with Isabel who loves kids, works with kids and is a genuine unironic adorer and fierce critic of Kids' TV and it was depressing, not least because she'd set aside the evening for us to watch this and was so disappointed by the constant useless and old jokes. As Bill says, we've all been down that pub, years and years ago. Are we so pathetic as adults we can't enjoy anything without sneering?

Simpsons both should and should not have won - it's becoming the Beatles of TV, wins anything it's put up for. But to exclude it for not being kids' TV is limiting the quality of what kids' TV should be.

― Tom, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

To think people watched this shite when both Romy & Michelle's High School Reunion was on Channel 5 AND Deep Rising was on BBC1. You've got to love the giant octopus.

― Pete, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Janeane Garofalo rowr: "Stay away from my bikini area!" Lisa Kudrow: "Er, OK!"

― mark s, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

and as for iain lee, what a TWAT. every one of his comments was very clearly badly scripted. nice to see andrew collins getting a look in with maconie merely the puppet-meister behind the scenes.

― carsmilesteve, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

also first "were they on drugs?" comment no more than 3 minutes into the prog, ref crystal tipps and alistair

― carsmilesteve, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Obligatory "I Can't Believe They Didn't Include" comment: Count Duckula.

Who was Lisa Rogers anyway? And the Brit gurl with short hair who made the first "ON ACID" comment?

― Nanny, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

only saw about one minute of it, but the american woman talking about Sesame Street looked reasonably interesting. what is sad, is that an interesting programme could be made along these lines, perhaps with a smaller scope?

― gareth, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

re: "voting" so-called. The fix was in: Bod was ranked impossibly low. Look, I had to RECORD it for my SISTAH who is on holiday in the Bermudas or sumfink, and I wuz er just checking the tape was working. Yes that's right.

It made Maconie look like Mark Twain.

― mark s, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Lisa Rogers = famous for being famous, presents some programmes on BBC Choice, girlfriend of Ralph Little and unreservedly rowr

― cabbage, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

she started on that football thing with danny baker didn't she?

― gareth, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Scary factoid about Iain Lee: his eyes are even bogglier in real life.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Danny Kelly - Baker's erstwhile fat sidekick. Which made Rodg a sidekick of a sidekick, which is a bit like being Robin's pet mouse or something.

Prog was Over The Moon, a relatively good attempt to do stupid sports based TV. Now all we have is Major League Soccer at 4am which is the silliest sports presentation in ver world.

― Pete, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Iain Lee: very hyper in TV studio, too.

― Mark Morris, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I enjoyed how keen Iain Lee was to lay into the "spoddy" kids and pooh-pooh the D&D aspects of Knightmare while clearly lovin' it and knowing LOADS ABOUT IT. Denial, methinks.

― Tom, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Iain Lee = plainly very spoddy man indeed. AND he like the Cardiacs!

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tho i despise ilee for all the appropriate reasons i was a wee bit beguiled by his presentation of the HISTORY OF VIDEOGAMES c4 doc of some months ago: because he did reasonably unuglily out self as a gamesplaya of considerable obsession/passion and no little uselessness. ie had earned right to attitude yet did feel need to unleash it

re Under the Moon: did anyone else see the FINAL EP, when my old foe DK (smart funny man: monumental punk-traitor sell-out/ Clash fan, see?)) learnt they had been cancelled and struggled with idea of TOTALLY RIPPING UP THE PACE AND GOING ANGRY WILD UBERGONZO LIVE.

Of course he bottled. He always did.

― mark s, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The orange haired American media expert lady seemed terribly pointless.

It was nice to see Bod . I haven't seen it in probably 20 years.

― rosemary, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ian Lee deserves derision for the 11 o'clock show debacle but i did like that videogames prog. The way he jumped up and down like a small child when beating the programmers at their own games was most amusing.

Also interesting to see what happened to the long lost prog. of Jet Set Willy.

Never mind DKelly we need DBaker back on the radio. Currently residing in the where are they now file.

― MarkS, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well, Kelly was an internet millionaire for a while there, but how much of it is left is a whole different question...

― Mark Morris, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Show seemed to represent the C4 demographic to a tee i.e 30 somethings voting for thunderbirds/clangers et al or 18-21 year old students adventure game/miad marion etc with added votes for the stuff adults like to watch knowingly with their kids Simpsons/Smtv.

What I want to know is how come Tiswas didn't make it into the top 10? Didn't the NME writers get caged in one show, was that before your time mark.

Plus is it true they're going to do a big budget film version of Mr Benn with John Hannah as the cross dressing wearing adventurer.

― Billy Dods, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was in a cage too, but over on Open University: Astrophysics Higher Level

― mark s, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

other deeply irritating moments; woman who had a marxist reading of bagpuss was a total dick.not least for her inability to take seriously the crap she was talking. she kept saying, "the rats ar ethe proles!" but never gave any e4xplanation of how it all works. right, my table is the proles and i'm the bourgeois. i'm opressing the damn chair.

― matthew james, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They are not RATS, they are MICE. If she didn't get that right, given how much fuss is made of the MICE being part of the MOUSEORGAN (= haha pun, yesno?), I wouldn't think she was very trustworthy about anything else.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That communist woman got on my nerves a bit. And, all that post- ironic it's all about sex stuff was a snore. The Simpsons should not have been included, it's not a kids programme. Am I the only person who doesn't really like Bagpuss?

― jel, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I didn't see this, though I can't remember what I did do on Saturday, so maybe I did. Anyway, The Simpsons. Somewhere-or-other I was reading about how the BBC cut the Simpsons to show at 6pm, and how they basically treat it like a kid's programme whereas everywhere else in the world it's treated as a family/adult show. Due to the vast no. of references to old films, political figures etc I certainly wouldn't class it as a kid's programme. What were they thinking?

― DG, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Didn't see it but I like what the people at top of thread are saying - ie. that progs laughing / sneering at kids' TV, esp. with drug / sex references, are an abomination, even when they *don't* feature tossers like I*** L**.

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

What happened to the Rugrats, it charts the dynamics and stresses of parenting and being parented as well as anything else on tv. Destroy the movies though.

― Billy Dods, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DG, dude, the programme was on Monday! :)

― jel, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Obligatory "I Can't Believe They Didn't Include" comment: Trap Door. I wish it didn't but some of this pointless show made me angry. Louise Redknapp calling Jackanory 'a bit boor'rin' really'. Lisa Rogers. Timmy Mallett. Ian leeeeeeeeee who watched Swap Shop instead of Tiswas, therefore: TWAT! Though he did have a few good words for The Adventure Game which I liked. And all those shitty, predictable comments on anything the least bit colourful or strange as being the work of someone 'on drugs' and Mr Ben being gay because he was in a closet! Do you seeeee?
Tossers.

Interesting to hear how the creator of Camberwick Green/Trumpton burnt all the charecters. Good thing too, otherwise we would now be seeing them abused in 'ironic' skits with Jamie fucking Theakston ala Sooty & Sweep and George & Zippy.

Leave my childhood alone you unfunny fucks.

Oh and the creator and narrator of Noggin the Nog, Bagpuss, Clangers, Ivor the Engine have my eternal gratitude for the richness they provided my younger life with their beautiful, sweetly meloncholic work. They deserved better reward than this tawdry, empty nonsense.

― DavidM, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Biggest missed-out thing was surely Henry's Cat.

― Tom, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh yes! Of course! Monday! I know where I woz then, I woz watching Josie and the Pussycats, which woz no doubt better than this televisual horror. There was yet another nostalgia programme on this evening about TV aerobics or something, with the usual suspects voicing their 'opinions'.

― DG, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Did anyone else notice the huge gaping void? They had the usual Bagpuss-Mr Ben-Clangers oldy hegemony, they had recent stuff like The Teletubbies, but there was almost nothing from 1987-1997, and there never is. Maid Marian and Knightmare were all I spotted. Is it just because all voters would be a similar age, and vote for what they watched and what their kids watch, or is there really a decade long gap in TV history? It seems like thirty-somethings have an unbreakable monopoly over kids' TV nostalgia. I want my Mighty Max, I want my Animaniacs, I want my Ducktales, I want my Round The Twist.

― Graham, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"I want my Mighty Max, I want my Animaniacs, I want my Ducktales, I want my Round The Twist."
I believe you've answered your own question. Unless you are talking about 'Round The BEND', which was THE best kid's programme ever, but only I have ever seen it, apparently.

― DG, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Round The Twist. Fucking yes.

― Greg, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Round The Twist was a wonderful programme. why did australian childrens tv programmes often have a magical other-wordly quality about them?

― gareth, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jeez, Animaniacs. I'd completely forgotten about that. That was ace that show. I think I've got an Animaniacs video somewhere. That's tonight's entertainment sorted.

At one point, I did become slightly enraged at Chris Moyles calling Mr Benn a loser. Enraged to the point of wishing a terrible fate would befall him. But I then became satisfied realising that actually being Chris Moyles is the worst fate I could think of.

― jamesmichaelward, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Animaniacs was not that long ago at all! Saying 'ooh I remember that' when it wasn't very long ago at all makes you the target audience for I Love the 1990s!

― Emma, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

MarkS wrote: Also interesting to see what happened to the long lost prog. of Jet Set Willy.

What?! The one occasion when I decide that I'm far too mature and sophisticated to watch such barrel-scraping and I miss Matthew Smith on tv? Sigh.

Like Bill, I have had the kids' tv conversation many many times. Unlike Bill, I'm happy to have it again in real life, but it seemed a pointless waste of three hours watching it on tv. As a student, the nostalgia ha-ha-what-were-they-on aspect is pretty much secondary to the fact that it's a fairly universal shared experience at a time when you've been thrown together with people you don't yet know at all well and you're desperately trying to find something in common and something other than what course you're on and where you're from to talk about. If I want nostalgia without the alcohol and the conversation then I can at least go to TV Cream and choose what I want to see instead of wading through entries aimed at other generations and thus irrelevant to me in the hope of seeing some old favourites. (Missing Henry's Cat out = shocking. I had some ace HC felt-tip pens in chunky metal with a picture of the different characters' bodies with big rubbery plasticky coloured lids in the shape of their heads. Oops, now I'm doing the nostalgia thing. Anyway...)

Richard T wrote: Iain Lee = plainly very spoddy man indeed. AND he like the Cardiacs!

Was he the 11 O'Clock Show presenter that used to be in Magnilda? Just guessing from the Cardiacs reference. And I don't think liking the Cardiacs is that horrifying, but I guess that's obvious from the fact I'm interested in the lineup of an old and obscure Cardiacs- influenced band, and besides you've all had that argument on ILM and I can't be bothered to revive it and take sides.

― Rebecca, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Did they have the Banana Splits? The Hair Bear Bunch? Wacky Races? (I saw Scooby Doo and Tom and Jerry)

― Andrew L, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes they had the Banana Splits but not the Hair Bear Bunch or Wacky Races. Or the Great Grape Ape for that matter which was screened at such a dim and far-back point in my childhood that until the interweb came along I honestly thought I'd dreamed it.

― Tom, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

Hey i used 2 watch round the bend as well! that ruled i loved it, wait u r talkin about that thing with crocodiles or rats or something living down a toliet? i cant remeber it 2 clearly u see.

the simpsons aint a kids programme, it has never been on Citv or Cbbc and has heaps of jokes and stuff that kids would never get. just because it is a cartoon does not qualify it for kids tv. why not put south park in next time?!

and so much stuff was missed out that are classics eg trap door, OH MY GOD!

― Aimz, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yes, THAT Round The Bend, it was ace. It was the best kid's programme ever, I don't care what anyone says.

― DG, Saturday, 10 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two months pass...

What happened to Ullyses 31 the first real Sci Fi for kids. Or Cities of gold another classic. Voltron,Jayce and the wheeled warriors,Mask,COPS,Transformers. WHERE are they eh?? I can't believe they didn't make it to the list if not the Top 10 at least!!!

― R.M, Saturday, 9 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one year passes...

Thundercats, Smurfs, He-man + TMOTU, Teenage Ninja(/Hero) Mutant Turtles, Transformers, Challenge of the Go-bots, Dr Doolittle - what were we on?

Was there ever a Zoids TV series?

― Mumm Ra, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 09:58 (twenty-two years ago)

the first real Sci Fi for kids

how early was Ulysses 31? Wasn't it later than all the Gerry Anderson series, Battle of the Planets and Space Sentinels? Or aren't those ones "real"?

― MarkH (MarkH), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

HAVE YOU EVER

EVER FELT LIKE THIS

― prima fassy (bob), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Has the 'Bring Back Knightmare' campaign suffered a fatal blow?

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

WHY ARE THERE NAILS GROWING ALL THE WAY UP MY HAND?

WHY DO MY SHOES SMELL SO BAD?

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:21 (twenty-two years ago)

DavidM's comment up there is still OTM, particularly wrt Clangers/Noggin/Bagpuss/Ivor.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

But what's this..?

"Televirtual has secured a £40k National Lottery funded media development grant to help relaunch it's classic children's TV adventure game, Knightmare." (July 2003)

― gobemouche, Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:26 (twenty-two years ago)

From the Brick Back Knightmare site:

"The campaign was originally started...in 1995. However, due to the difficulty of reaching supporters, as well as a lack of interest in broadcasting networks in showing any children's TV programmes, the campaign had little success."

This is so OTM. TV Company just don't show any children's programmes at all.

BTW - I think the people behind this campaign are quite possible some of most tragic mentalists I have ever seen advertising their mentalism on the interweb. I'm sorry - adults wanting to have a kids TV show brought back. Puhlease.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 10:28 (twenty-two years ago)

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