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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Childhood impact

09:00 / 28.06.01

It appears a fluffy thread, but this actually really interests me- what do you remember from when you were small, what TV shows, comercials, movies stuck in your head?

I remember the opening sequence of a show called The Third Eye which was on Nickelodeon. I only remember the opening sequence because at 8 or 9 pm, Nickelodeon switched to Arts & Entertainment. I can't find any actual evidence that the show ever existed, but it was creepy as fuckall.

09:21 / 28.06.01

I'm assuming you mean things that left an unwashable brain stain as opposed to just junk I can remember.

1) The "Blue Lagoon" (the whole thing)
2) The closing song/scene of the film "Breaking Glass" - aparently the US ending was different from the UK's (shrug)
3) The scene in the Happy Days holloween episode where Richie finds the headless body
4) A certain psychedelic sequence from "ElectroWoman and DynaGirl" (anybody remember that show?) where some New Waver guy hypnotizes a teenage prince.
5) Any number of bizzare mind-altering scenes from Sid & Marty Kroft shows, specifically "Wonderbug", "Dr. Shrinker", and the "Bay City Rollers Show".
6) The terrifying "Fembots" episode of the "Bionic Woman".

09:46 / 28.06.01

quote:Originally posted by CorvusB:

4) A certain psychedelic sequence from "ElectroWoman and DynaGirl" (anybody remember that show?) where some New Waver guy hypnotizes a teenage prince.

Debra Winger's first role (I think) was DynaGirl. I always like ElectroWoman better though

I personally still remember "Villa Allegre" which was sort of a weird, surreal, Mexican Sesame Street. If my memory serves me right, they had so many weird lights all over the street it looked like a typical Ayahuasca painting.

09:46 / 28.06.01

I spent several years of my earliest childhood about ten inches away from a television screen. Eventually, my parents grew worried and the television was sold. I was crushed; I had lost my best friend, my preteen heroin fix, my lover, my God. For years afterwards, I dreamt of exploring my house and finding a secret stairway to an ancient attic. Harsh fluorescent light would spill out from underneath a door in the corner, along with muffled moans. I'd press my face against the wood, inhale the dust, push it open, and there it was: a flickering screen without horizontal control, the picture lazily scrolling upwards like a drop of water in reverse. A pallid man with a shaved head was facing away from the camera; as I entered, his skull would hunch down between his shoulders, then he would slowly turn to face me with those horrified, fascinated eyes...

Oh, yeah. I also remember The Brady Bunch. I thought it was stupid then, too.

09:46 / 28.06.01

Silk and Steel used to scare the pants off of me.

Jamieon

09:46 / 28.06.01

I spent most of 1980, wandering up and down our road in Pinner, attempting to "say 'Mattesons' without saying 'MMMMM!'" Coming to the conclusion this was impossible, I insisted my mother buy me some pate immediately:

"It must be delicious Mummy; you can't say 'Mattesons' without saying 'MMMMMM!'"

I tried it. I loved it.

But 'Dick Turpin' found my scrawny five year old frame cowering behind the sofa.

[ 28-06-2001: Message edited by: Jamieon ]

The Return Of Rothkoid

10:08 / 28.06.01

What do I remember? The A-Team and The Greatest American Hero, Battle of the Planets and Ulysses 31. Both incarnations of Voltron, The Fall Guy, BJ and The Bear, The Dukes of Hazzard and Knight Rider. It's A Knockout. The Goodies, Me and My Girl and all other family-based comedies of that nature (yeah, hello Alex P Keaton.). Alf. And Doctor Who, which used to creep the fuck out of me on a regular basis: notably, the Cybermen, the watcher figure that stalked Tom Baker when he turned into Peter Davidson, those fucking robots in The Robots Of Death and the bloody stone thing in The Keeper of Traken. Fucked-up. Got to the point that I thought cybermen lived in our bathroom and were just waiting for me there. Eek.

I also remember seeing the start of a movie called Crash, I think, which involved a Kombi-van running off the edge of a cliff - and you could see a dummy's head flying out of the window as the vehicle exploded! It frightened the bejesus out of me, I'll tell you. I made my babysitter change the channel to the news until I calmed down. I believe I cowered in my beanbag.

TV ads? Drontal ads. Always at bloody dinner-time, too. There's nothing more elegant than a sheep with a gob full of yellow anti-worming goop while you're tucking in to dinner. Blah. Rural TV; gotta love it...

11:55 / 28.06.01

I can't remember if the "Third Eye" theme was more or less creepy than "Tomorrow People". I think it switched to A&E in my area as well, and I was always relieved.

I remember that once I got to stay up late enough that I saw part of Saturday Night Live, and the Land Shark scared me because I was afraid it was this "Jaws" movie I had heard about and I didn't want to see it.

I wasn't allowed to watch "Manimal" after I had a nightmare about people turning into panthers... I distinctly remember exactly how they turned into panthers and I still get the heebie-jeebies.

I watched "Wonder Woman" religiously, and didn't understand the idea of the workday, because I recall telling my dad he'd missed Wonder Woman AGAIN when he came in the door... I suspect I told him this daily.

I recall being about four or five and reading the TV guide, and telling my mom that it had a mistake in it; there was a summary of something which said that a woman's husband fell in love with another man (I'd assumed they'd dropped the "wo"). My mother explained that it wasn't a mistake, and some men fall in love with other men. "Oh, okay."

12:00 / 28.06.01

this seems quite timely. Channel 4 are running a vote on the hundred greatest kids shows here.
You can vote for your favourite ten or just look down the list and have the crushing blow of rememberence as you read a show's title you used to love.
Strangely enough my top ten mainly featured cartoons, which obviously says something about me.

13:29 / 28.06.01

quote:Originally posted by doubting thomas:
I can't remember if the "Third Eye" theme was more or less creepy than "Tomorrow People". I think it switched to A&E in my area as well, and I was always relieved.

Seriously! <Shudder> I also remember them showing this short with virtually no dialogue about a place where it rains all the time. There was a school there, and some kids are playing, and this one boy locks this little girl in a room. While she's in there, the sun comes out, just for a little while, and she misses it. Likewise creepy.

quote:I wasn't allowed to watch "Manimal" after I had a nightmare about people turning into panthers... I distinctly remember exactly how they turned into panthers and I still get the heebie-jeebies.

I think they air that on the sci-fi channel sometimes when they do that "Superhero Land" thing.

I just recalled this martial arts movie that gave me a complete wiggins when I was young. The main feature of the movie was this metal box with a chain on it that you threw over somebody's head- pull the chain and blades decapitate them. Nobody ever saw it coming. I was looking nervously upwards for weeks.

14:10 / 28.06.01

Ack! That was the one where they either predicted the sun would come out for the first and last time ever, or it came out once a lifetime (like on a longer cycle than Halley's Comet).

What the hell was up with Nickelodeon?!?

14:22 / 28.06.01

quote:Originally posted by Lothar Tuppan:
Debra Winger's first role (I think) was DynaGirl. I always like ElectroWoman better though.

You're thinking of Wonder Girl. Debra Winger did a one (mayybe two)-shot guest appearance on Wonder Woman as Wonder Girl.

Dyna Girl was played by Judy Strangis. Here's a picture:

Heh heh heh, lookin' for that made me feel all funny...

14:53 / 28.06.01

quote:Originally posted by CorvusB:

You're thinking of Wonder Girl. Debra Winger did a one (mayybe two)-shot guest appearance on Wonder Woman as Wonder Girl.

Dyna Girl was played by Judy Strangis.
Heh heh heh, lookin' for that made me feel all funny...

Wonder Girl, Dyna Girl... I'm getting all sorts of strange fused memories.

Oh well, at least I didn't get her confused with Dyno-Mutt

[ 28-06-2001: Message edited by: Lothar Tuppan ]

The Knowledge

15:19 / 28.06.01

There was something about 'The Red Hand Gang' and 'The Kids of Degrassi St.' that really depressed me as a child.

But not as badly as 'Cockleshell Bay' - that actually induced existential angst. Childrens programmes should never be set in a seaside resort.

Bexhill, Eastbourne, Peacehaven, Hastings.... The horror!

"No I don't want a stick of rock! Mummy! Daddy! I don't like the laughing clown! It's so GREY here..."

16:03 / 28.06.01

quote:Originally posted by Wombat:
Silk and Steel used to scare the pants off of me.

you must mean Sapphire & Steel. parts of the second story scared me as an adult never mind as a kid.

09:07 / 29.06.01

my freind figured out how to use the VCR at a very young age so my main childhood TV memorys include images and flash backs to lots of what was then called "video nasties" his dad collected them and felt no need to hide them as he diddent know of our new found techno-skill

no clear memorys of the films them selves, plot or characters but every so often ill be watching a film and i know ive seen it before. oh and the zombie nightmares,

other tv memorys
A-team (I still love the A-team)
Knight rider (with the boost button shenanigans)
my dad watching snooker for what seemed like ludicrassly large periods of time
The fall guy
Button moon (be back soon)
Moomins (v v v scary)
Mr Benn
Airwolf (mainly the theme tune)
wrestling on saturday with big daddy and giant haystacks (not as camp as modern wrestling and with more fat sweaty men)
Batman re-runs (same bat time, same bat channel)
Johnny Biggs (dreary jug eared northern twat)
Woof
He-man

thats all, for now

[ 29-06-2001: Message edited by: Puck ]

09:18 / 29.06.01

From my teen years: Robotech.

I was a big Robotech geek when I was 16.

09:30 / 29.06.01

Watching Twin Peaks when I was about 12 terrified me, especially the episode where you found out who killed Laura Palmer and the one where Bob came into the loungeroom and climbed over the couch to get to Maddy. For years I couldn't go into the bathroom at night without being afraid I'd see Bob pacing up behind me.

Also, the Garfield halloween special really scared me when i was a kid.