The TV Of My Childhood

I found a link to The Top 10 Unintentionally Funny TV Intros on the always entertaining Pop Culture Junkmail, and found it to be deliciously awesome.

I was inspired by it to look up some of my favourite shows from when I was a kid, and because they are all so eighties fabulous, knew they had to be posted here.

Growing Pains

We moved to Goderich when I was 9. Before then, I really didn't watch much TV. I know, you don't believe it. But it's true. We moved in January, and I remember during one of the first days in Mr. Mason's grade 4 class we were doing a unit on graphs, and the class was taking surveys to display in graph form. Fully half the class covered the riveting topic "What's your favourite TV show", and I didn't have one. That's right. I did not have a favourite television show. I picked Growing Pains because like half of the class had picked it and it's important to conform in the 4th grade.

After that I grew to love it though, and developed the requisite 1987 crush on Kirk Cameron. Ahh, Kirk Cameron. So dreamy before he went insane.

Family Ties

We used to watch Family Ties as a family. Good quality wholesome family fun, that was. Good times. I just bought season 1 on DVD and it's held up pretty well. And it's got a kick ass theme song.

Night Court

I wasn't just a fan of the family sitcom. I also enjoyed a nice office comedy - especially if set in a New York small claims court. Oh, the wackiness! I recall being very invested in the storyline between Markie Post's character and her cop boyfriend. That's right. I cared about Markie Post.

Perfect Strangers

Speaking of awesome theme songs, I love this one. It's so inspirational. And who can't relate to the story of mis-matched cousins from different countries who end up living and working together .... and becoming best friends. I think I'm going to cry.

Facts Of Life

I am female and grew up in the eighties. Of course I love Facts Of Life. It would be crazy if I didn't. Jo was my favourite. I thought she was so cool. Remember, I was very young.

Who's The Boss

I was watching an episode of How I Met Your Mother recently and a character asked who the boss was. Clearly the responses were "Tony", then "Angela", then after a pause "Mona". And I laughed. Oh, how I laughed. I have a very vivid memory of the guys in my sixth grade class all getting their hair cut like the kid who played Jonathan. Like I can laugh though - that was the year of hair sprayed bangs and multi-coloured slouch socks.

Head Of The Class

I loved this show. Less so in the post Howard Hessman days, but I still watched it. Who can dislike a show with many, many musical episodes? Sure, the kids were performing in musicals, but still they did it first. I also had a crush on the tough guy, who also appeared in one of my favourite eighties teen movies Camp Cucamonga.

The Hogan Family

Ah, Jason Bateman before he was cool. Good times, I tell you. I remember shockingly little about this show, but I know I liked it.

Gimme A Break

I used to watch this after school. It was on after Facts of Life, as I recall. You know, I'd bet that in the future, archeaologists are going to find all these sitcoms from the eighties and decide that every household had a sassy black houskeeper and/or a sassy British butler. The main thing is the sass. That's the most importnat part.

Ah, eighties sitcoms. So delightful. Just think - kids growing up today are going to be sitting at their computers reminiscing about that stupid sitcom with James Belushi. These are sad, sad times we live in.