Did you have a favorite TV show as a child or youth?
Other than the usual famous ones which I have stated and blogged about I’d like to focus on a few tv shows that I used to watch and enjoy a whole lot as a kid.
Kimba the White Lion : is a Japanese shonen manga series created by Osamu Tezuka which was serialized in the Manga Shonen magazine from November 1950 to April 1954. An anime based on the manga was created by Mushi Production and was broadcast on Fuji Television from 1965 to 1966. It was the first color animated television series created in Japan. Kimba is the son of the king of the jungle Panja who was trapped by hunters & killed for his hide, and the pregnant Eliza is put on a ship, destined for a zoo. Kimba is born on the boat.
Eliza teaches him his father’s ideals. As a huge tropical storm nears, she urges her cub out through the bars of her cage and he is urged to swim back to Africa. There he is found by people in a village who take care of him and decides that when he returns to his wild home he will bring culture to the jungle and stand for peace like his father. The show follows Leo’s life after he returns to the wild, still a young cub, and how he learns and grows in the next year. Leo soon learns that only communication and mutual understanding between animals and humans will bring true peace.
Misfits of Science is an American superhero fantasy television series that aired on NBC from October 1985 to February 1986. It features super-powered humans and their madcap adventures. A double-length pilot and 15 additional episodes were created. Dr. Billy Hayes, the non-powered leader of the team Dr. Elvin “El” Lincoln, Billy’s colleague and close friend. He is a towering man who gives himself the ability to shrink for minutes at a time from his height of seven-foot-four to eleven inches via hormonal treatments which he activates by pressing a nerve on the back of his neck. Johnny “Johnny B” Bukowski, a rock-and-roll musician who was electrocuted on stage, thus giving him formidable electrical powers. He continually drains any electrically charged items in his surroundings, forcing him to live in isolation. Gloria Dinallo, a troubled telekinetic teen with a history of juvenile delinquency and a mother in a mental institution who claims Gloria’s father is from outer space.
Jane Miller, Gloria’s probation officer who, although attracted to Billy, is often put off by his eccentric behavior. Her character appears only in the earlier episodes. Miss Nance, the scientists’ secretary who usually seems more interested in doing her nails, going on her coffee break, and watching her soap operas, she is actually the one who keeps their department running and is always there at the end of the show to turn off the lights and say good-night to the bunnies in their cages. Dick Stetmeyer, the uptight director of the Humanidyne Institute rounds out the main cast.
These two shows were instrumental in giving me hours of pleasure and anguish when the show was off the air. I have both shows on dvd and have watched them for the first time since I was 11 years old and enjoyed them a lot.