The A-Z of kids shows we watched in the 80's!

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Carrying on with the T's in this countdown because I've clean ran out of shows beginning with U and V we have Tiswas which, although a seventies show was actually still running in the early 80's.

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Here's another 80's show beginning with T that I missed out last time. This was a spin-off show from Grange Hill called Tuckers Luck.

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For those of you who are already getting bored of this you will be glad to know that there are only four more letters left and this week we will go into
W - X
and I'll start off with a magical show that was not a lot but I liked it!

[Nigel]

Do you know that Wizbit's making a comeback? www.wizbit.tv

[blueshift]

I absolutely loved Wizbit, noone else I know remembers it.

Ah-ah thisaway, a-ah thataway a-ah thisaway, my oh my!

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I don't hold out much hope for the new series. Everything has to be CGI these days and many a classic show has been ruined by them.

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Ever since I posted a clip here yesterday about the show Tuckers Luck I've become interested in it. I was never interested in Grange Hill as a kid nor this spin off show but so far I've watched the first two episodes and they've both grabbed my attention. It's one of those British kids shows that tells the real story about what happens after somebody leaves school without ever dressing it up for TV - something that todays kids shows should take note from.

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A short-lived but classic Disney cartoon from the mid 80's

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Another kids show based on a series of kids books and one that was a bit of an oddball but was still highly entertaining.

[Nigel]

I was going to mention Wuzzles myself - and I was going to use the phrase "short-lived". I liked Wuzzles. I remember it being really popular then just disappearing. I can actually remember going to the cinema and there was a Wuzzles short on before it the feature. I can't remember which film it was with, though.

I missed T, so please excuse me while I pop back to mention another short-lived series that I enjoyed but don't remember very well now, except for one sketch that sticks in my mind: TTV. That's Teatime Television, if you're wondering.

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Apparently, the reason why the Wuzzles finished after just one series was because the bloke who did the voice of Moosel (the one thats a cross between a moose and a seal) died. Although he also provided a voice in the Gummi Bears that continued though.

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Back in the 80's we were smacking people over the head with mallets! Today's kids don't know they've been born!

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A classic schools TV show that ran for twenty-odd years.

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Now for a classic Cosgrove Hall show.

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Now for a classic BBC schools programme that most if not all of us watched as part of our lessons.

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Being the sad little individual I am yesterday I sat down and watched a couple of episodes of Words and Pictures on Youtube. As I watched the show I initially felt a creeped out by this cartoon character who co-hosted the show called Charlie. He's a weird looking character that I thought would have also creeped out other kids watching it at the time (the shows target audience were the pre-school age).

Anyway, onto my selection for today - a Welsh cartoon about a duck.

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My next submission is a long running British show that supposedly kept us occupied during the summer hummers during our school years. The show is called Why Don't You? and ran through all of the eighties as well as most of the 70's and the 90's also. Alas, Youtube doesn't have a video last time I checked.

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This one needs no introduction

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I can't remember if I mentioned this show in the D's but the full title for it is called The World of David the Gnome which means it belongs in the W's.

I used to enjoy watching this show when it was on Channle 4 on a Sunday morning many years ago and I was delighted when it was released on DVD a few years ago. I brought the DVD and watched the epic but ever so slightly ridiculous adventures of David the Gnome once again. One word about the intro above though. That one is the original one shown when it was on TV but the DVD's have a different intro. Nevertheless, it is still the same cartoon.

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There doesn't seem to be any shows beginning with X but anyway, here's another classic from back in the day.

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We are onto the final week of this A - Z countdown and this week we cover
Y - Z
Today I will start off with a schools TV show that covered historical topics. I seem to recall at school enjoying the intro to the show more than the actual programme.

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I'm back to bore you with another BBC schools programme and this one is another classic.

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As is to be expected when you get to the tail end of an A-Z countdown there is very little to add. I did however find five shows that virtually nothing can be found about on the net beginning with Y and these are:

Y.E.S (1987)
You Should be so Lucky (1986 - 1987)
Young Charlie Chaplin (1989)
Young Krypton (1988)
Young Sherlock - The Mystery of the Manor House (1982)

Of all of them Young Krypton is probably the only one that I have watched because I was a fan of the Krypton Factor at the time and a junior version of the show would have interested me greatly.

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I've now ran out of kids TV beginning with Y and Z so I'll fill in a few gaps from a little earlier on in the A-Z that I missed.

There was a show in the mid 80's on BBC 1 called Scragtag and his Teatime Telly that I recall vaguely was hosted by Phillip Schofield. It involved the then current Children's BBC host walking out of the broom cupboard after introducing the show and straight onto the set of the show where he would be joined by a puppet cat called Scragtag. There used to be a video of it on Youtube but there isn't anymore so I can't actually provide any proof of that.

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Just watched the first two episodes of Star Fleet on the DVD's I got for Christmas. Will be watching more as time goes on.

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In 1981 Filmation made a cartoon on the Zorro stories. This must have been one of the very few Filmation cartoons that passed me by because I don't remember it. There is a few Youtube videos of a Zorro cartoon but I think they are the ones from the 90's cartoon based on the story and not this 1981 version. Anyway here is the Wikipedia link for anybody interested:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Adventures_of_Zorro_(1981_TV_series)

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Going back to shows beginning with S because I've ran of ones beginning with Y and Z here's a cartoon from the early 80's that I think was originally a series of kids books.

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Continuing on with one from the letter S and another show that was originally a childrens book. These days the Stig refers to the anonymous Tog Gear driver but back in the 70's and 80's he was a caveman-like creature that lived on a dump hence the title of the story Stig of the Dump.

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This A-Z countdown is now drawing to a close but I still have a nefarious plan to keep it going and make you have nightmares about it for a bit of a while yet! Starting from tomorrow I will start a series of retrospectives covering certain genres of kids TV that I hope will turn into a discussion about what you think or what you all remember about this particular aspect of the TV we used to watch when we were younger.

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Today I start the first of my retrospectives covering certain genres of (mainly 80's) kids TV and this week the topic is:
Schools TV
Yes, that's right (groan if you want!) and I'll start off with a natural start to the genre with something that possibly had the most cutting-edge graphics for the 80's.