Those were special times when I was a kid. They marked the beginning of two back-to-back school-free days every week from September to June and, though Saturday mornings didn’t stand-out nearly as much during the summer, they were special all year round. The main reason for that is what came on TV. I watched TV at home a lot more than I do now; most of the time compared to almost never; and most of what came on from early morning to pass noon were shows you, meaning me and my older brother, had to wait all week to watch.
We were kids in the 1980s and early 1990s, so the line-up included everything from cartoons like The Smurfs and Muppet Babies; the Muppet Babies theme song remains a classic; to real-people shows like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and WWF wrestling. I can’t forget Fraggle Rock. I can’t forget Garfield And Friends. I can’t even forget short runners like Rude Dog And The Dweebs and My Pet Monster. They’re embedded in my memory, however vague, somewhere in the part of my brain reserved for nostalgia. In fact, I still have my Pet Monster.
I think my Pound Puppies are still around too. TV shows, in that sense, came to life. Then there was the cereal I ate while I watched the shows. Oh what I’d do now for a bowl of Smurfs, or Gremlins or Mr T. They probably wouldn’t taste much different than the stuff we have now, but just holding and looking at the boxes would make it special. I don’t even remember brushing my teeth or washing-up. It seems I’d just wake-up and start watching… Kidbits. It all began with Kidbits. That show, a local science show, came on first. Ah, the memories.
The closest I’ve been able to come to those years I’ll reluctantly refer to as the golden years since they ended in the early 1990s was NBC’s “TNBC” line-up from the late 1990s. As a young adult, I got into the routine of waking-up on Saturday mornings to watch shows like Saved By The Bell, The New Class; which I’m fairly certain I watched more than I ever did the old one; Hang Time and City Guys, as I lay on the sofa I slept on upstairs in that same house I grew-up in. I was in high school by then, but those were still good times.