Nostalgic Tangent series: television

I was a little panicky last night when I realized, O faithful tangent explorer, that I had no adventure in mind for today.  Maybe I was still a little teared up from our last journey.

But my friend D-Rod (why do all my friends who give me ideas have handles with first_name_initial--last_name_opening_syllable?) gave me a great idea.  He said I should blog about old awesome nostalgic things from childhood.  The idea is so awesome that I'm going to get 3 or 4 tangents out of it.  We'll start with TV shows.

The format of nostalgia

As I look back on my childhood, I see a lot of things.  Many of them make me shudder, as they're based on embarrassing footage from home videos where I must be trying to experiment with how annoying a young boy can be.

But one of the things that fascinates me about my childhood is that, apparently, I could only be into one thing at a time.  So all my favorites come in "phases", sort of like fashion trends (I wouldn't know about this, since I've been in a hoodie and sweatpants phase for about 5 years now).

And so, I give you...


My childhood TV show phases

Phase 1 (1987-1988): Alf

This phase was so early in life that it doesn't even exist in my memory -- only in my stuffed Alf doll, the VHS of Alf's Special Christmas, and a few pictures of me in ALF pajamas as a kid.  But I've taken it upon myself to learn about this early-life obsession. 

In case you don't know, Alf is an alien from the planet Melmac who lands in a family's backyard.  They keep him secret for his own safety, and in return he keeps them entertained with jokes about wanting to eat cats.  Yeah, for some reason he always wanted to eat a cat.


Phase 2 (1989-1990): Ghostbusters

You've probably seen the movie (or its awesomely terrifying sequel with the dude that comes to life from the painting -- nightmares, anyone?), but you might not be as familiar with the early 90s animated TV show.  I was.

It was the cartoon that introduced me to the idea of fighting ghosts, which I would end up doing regularly with every Ghostbusters action figure known to man.


Phase 3 (1991-1992): Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Of all the phases, this one probably hit me the hardest.  Maybe it's because at ages 6-7 we are first able to really sink our teeth into an obsession for the first time.  Maybe it's because I was first learning I was going to be an intellectual nerd, and Donatello's smart-but-cool persona gave me hope.  Whatever the reason, I was all about the ninja turtles.


Phase 4 (1993-1994): Saved by the Bell

I guess at age eight, a boy decides it's time to come of age.  There's no better way to do that, as far as I can see, than to spend 30 minutes a week with a role model (Zach Morris), his rival-but-still-best-friend (Slater), the class nerd (Screech), and a bunch of pretty girls.  If that won't grow you up, what will?

Aside from general life lessons, this show provided me with awesome sci-fi imagination skills (mainly from Zach freezing time with a cool snap of his fingers) and my first fictional character crush -- Kelly Kapowski.


Phase 5 (1995-20111997): X-Men

I guess after I grew up with Saved by the Bell the previous two years, I felt too serious and mature at age 10.  So I turned to the imagination, superpowers, and awesomeness of X-Men. 

I probably would have watched this cartoon up to the present day, but the show ended in 1997.  And believe me, you can't follow the reruns.  Despite the show purportedly being for kids, they introduced so much time-traveling with Bishop that it was about as easy to follow as jumping into the 5th season of LOST.

What shows did you grow up on??

Jon