I love Nostalgic things... Anything that brings me back to the time before my rather troubled childhood began to actually bloom out of control... Back to the days when I was more innocent, and could actually enjoy things such as "Thundercats," "He-Man," "She-Ra," "The Real Ghostbusters," "Transformers," and "G.I. Joe."
However, what I wanted to delve into in this topic was the more "out of the way" nostalgic items. We recently had a discussion that went into the Inhumanoids, which is very cult/unknown. Here are some things that not everybody might know about...
1. Kazi no Tani no Naushika: The first anime I ever saw, before Disney got their hands on it and made it Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (I think the translated title as I saw it back in the eighties was Warriors of the Wind, which wasn't a very good title since the movie was all about pacifism). Does anyone remember having watched this back in the day? When I recently rented it from Netflix and heard Patrick Stewart say "The toxic jungle has claimed yet another victim" rather than some unknown eighties voice actor saying "Another family... lost... to the toxic jungle," I knew I was in for a good experience, but not the nostalgic one I was hoping for.
2. Grendel Grendel Grendel!!! An Australian cartoon based on Beowulf, but focusing more on Grendel, the evil ogre who turns out to be a lonely, depressed little boy. I remember feeling very sorry for him when Beowulf rips his arm off. I recently found used copies of this on Amazon.com for 120 USD.
3. The Wizard... I think it was called, about a Simon-like game that was really a test to see if kids were smart enough to be carried away by aliens.
4. Cloak and Dagger, about secret messages hidden in Atari games.
Some others that you might remember, maybe not as little known as the above but nostalgic nonetheless:
The Goonies... The Flight of the Navigator... The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon... The Snorks... FooFur... Heathcliff (which, for some reason, I heard the themesong to at my local GameStop the other day)... Mickey's Christmas Carol, which was followed immediately by The Legend of Sleepy Hollow... The Wind in the Willows... The Plague Dogs... Watership Down....
Can anybody else think of any others, or do any of these have "special meanings" for you?
Nills Holgersson!
An amazing series. The goose (I think this is where King_Nipper got the idea. He should be sued!). The child shrinking. And btw learning some geography.
Haidi (SP?)
Lovely! An endless cradle! Sheeps going baaaaaa baaaaaa (hehe)
Cady cady (again spelling please....)
Lovely.
And after all this I believe that I'm a sissy! There goes my manhood!
OUAAAAAA
Quote from: esper on Wed 19/10/2005 10:24:42
I love Nostalgic things...
It's not what it used to be, though...
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3. The Wizard... I think it was called, about a Simon-like game that was really a test to see if kids were smart enough to be carried away by aliens.
Sounds like The Last Starfighter to me
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The Snorks...
I saw this the other day, too. I remember painting a ping-pong ball red and stuicking on felt eyes and 8 felt legs to make my own Occie
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Heathcliff (which, for some reason, I heard the themesong to at my local GameStop the other day)...
I remember prefrring this to the Garfield animation at the time
My favourite cartoons were Henry's Cat (especially the 15 minute ones), Count Duckula and i loved thos long series they had like Ulysses, Cities of Gold, Dogtanian, etc.
Quote from: Nikolas on Wed 19/10/2005 11:45:29
Nills Holgersson!
An amazing series. The goose (I think this is where King_Nipper got the idea. He should be sued!). The child shrinking. And btw learning some geography.
Out of curiousity, would this be Swedish geography, or did they make a special variety for your country? The original book was, as I'm sure you know, written by the Swedish nobel prize winner Selma Lagerlöf
Henry's Cat is one of my favourite childhood memories.
Chris Rabbit: "I'm running backwards! I'm RUNNING BACKWAAAARDS!"
Quote from: Andail on Wed 19/10/2005 13:06:14
Out of curiousity, would this be Swedish geography, or did they make a special variety for your country? The original book was, as I'm sure you know, written by the Swedish nobel prize winner Selma Lagerlöf
No only Swedish geography, I just couldn't remember which country ;)
For some unknown reason, Kinoko's post kind of reminded me of another little-known childhood favorite: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
"If you move, I strike. If you don't move, I strike."
The response I always wish Rikki gave: "Frickin' commie snake bastard. Who are you to impose your one-sided ultimatums on me!"
EDIT: I know that RTT is from a book by Rudyard Kipling, and therefore is not altogether "out of the way," but I'm sure not too many people know about the animated short film.
I cried on the last episode of Nils Holgersson. :(
I laughed the whole time. Also Count Duckula rocked.
In the heart of Transyvania, in the Vampire hall of Fang-yia,
There's not a vampire zanier than Duckula.
Class. As was just about everything made by Cosgrove Hall, until I was about 15. (Which I honestly believe says more about their changing standards, than mine.)
Also - Batfink, Pob, and those strange little cartoon men that used to be in the adverts for Jaffa Cakes, but no-one except me & my mum seem to remember.
another series I remember and I'd really like to see again is the Odysey in Space, or something simmilar. It was a French-Belgique-EU production and it was great. Featuring the stories and adventures of Odysseus in Space. He had long black hair and a beard and also some gismo that made him fly and some kind of shield.
Does anybody know the actuall French name of the series. Something like Illyseus, or something but I can't find it in google, and if I could I would gladly buy it...
Ulysses 31 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0131190/) perhaps? Great theme song, if so.
I'm just a mine of useless information, aren't I?
Quote from: Ashen on Wed 19/10/2005 14:44:30
I'm just a mine of useless information, aren't I?
υεσ υοθ αρε. Τηανκ υοθ.
Ok. Sorry that was great. The same keys if pressed give, Yes you are. Thank you!
Ooh, ooh got others (mostly already been said)...
Dogtanian & the Three Muskerhounds
Around the World with Willy Fogg
Mysterious Cities of Gold
Dungeons & Dragons
Less so D&D, but the others (and Ulysses 31) seemed to keep getting shown about once a year either after school, or over the summer holidays. I must've seen each of them 4-5 times, and I don't really remeber a damn thing about them, except the theme tunes and that I thought they were ace.
And, since I've started... (I don't think these are that obscure, but you never know):
Terrahawks,
Roobarb & Custard,
Knightmare,
Fraggle Rock (Did I hear recently they were remaking this? I hope not - it won't be the same.),
Cockleshell Bay,
Chockablock
...
I could go on, but won't. I probably spend an unhealthy amount of time thinking about cool TV shows from my 'youth'.
Oh yeah! The Muskethounds! how could I forget? Ooh! And James Bond Jr.!
Quote from: Ashen on Wed 19/10/2005 15:10:06
Dogtanian & the Three Muskerhounds
Mysterious Cities of Gold
Ahem, someone mentioned these already...
Quote from: SSH on Wed 19/10/2005 12:59:22
and i loved thos long series they had like Ulysses, Cities of Gold, Dogtanian, etc.
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Dungeons & Dragons
Less so D&D, but the others (and Ulysses 31) seemed to keep getting shown about once a year either after school, or over the summer holidays. I must've seen each of them 4-5 times, and I don't really remeber a damn thing about them, except the theme tunes and that I thought they were ace.
Nono the robot was cool, but I don't think I ever saw the D&D kids or Ulysees get home... maybe the series were cancelled before the reached home.
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Chockablock
Chockablock was for toddlers...
Jigsaw was good: anything with Wilf Lung rocks. I remember he invented a bicycle with things that hit the ground in attempt to trick worms into thinking it was raining. The was also the incredibily sinister Noseybonk.
and Johnny Ball's programs were good, too.
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Quote from: Ashen on Wed 19/10/2005 15:10:06Fraggle Rock (Did I hear recently they were remaking this? I hope not - it won't be the same.),
The DVD's just came out in September, maybe that's what you heard about? I hope so because I, too, hope they don't try to remake it ... it is perfect as is!
There was this show (cartoon) that I used to love! But for the life of me I can't recall the name. Maybe some of you can recall ...
There were this group of people (one was a wizard named, I think, Gillian) and they fought against this enemy that used vegetation as a weapon. These growing vine type things.
Sound familiar to anybody?
Also ...
Thundercats - Hooooo!! A few years ago I found a website that had a bunch of out-takes of the voice recording sessions and you could hear them all cussin' and laughing and joking. It was hilarious.
Another show (toys) I loved was M.A.S.K.
Also, M.U.S.C.L.E.S. the little pink (and then other colored) wrestlers.
I, like Ashen, could just keep going. Ahhh ... nostalgia is fun!
Quote from: SSHAhem, someone mentioned these already...
Whoops, sorry. Somehow I managed to read every post before & after yours, but skipped right over it.
QuoteChockablock was for toddlers...
Yeah, I just loved the little quad-thing they had. And the semi-computer-ish voice that said 'Chockablock'. And, if you want to get technical, I probably
was a toddler when it was on.
Johnny Ball was indeed God-like. Wilf Lunn still is. (http://www.wilflunn.com/) (I think the worm bike is on the Bikes page.)
Quote from: Darth MandarbAnother show (toys) I loved was M.A.S.K.
Mobile Armoured Strike Kommand. And their enemies V.E.N.O.M. ([something, possibly Vicious] Evil Network Of Mayhem).
Can't say as I've heard of it....
Actually, I got the playset of the petrol station you could drop a big rock on (Boulder Mountain? Boulder Hill?), before the parents realised the cartoon was basically an extra-long ad for the toys, and started to ween me off it. Thundercats was nifty too - but I never did get the Sword of Omens with light up Eye I asked for.
Also (last one for today, I swear), I remember really,
really wanting to be one of the kids on 'Why Don't You?'.
A couple of movies/tv series that I used to be really into as a 10-12 year old:
Big - Ok, so not exactly unknown. But this movie is one of my strongest movie memories from my childhood, along with Back to the Future.
Gotcha! - with Anthony Edwards playing paintball assassin games around the college campus and getting dragged into cold war espionage during a trip to Europe.
F/X Murder By Illusion - I think I watched this movie more that 10 times, and for years after my biggest ambition was to work with special effects.
Automan - Does anyone else remember this tv show? About some guy who was actually a computer program and looked like something out of TRON. He had a sidekick called Cursor, which was this little shimmering thing flying around drawing stuff in the air. If I remember correctly it even drew his car (Autocar) out of thin air. I don't remember it as a very good show, just weird. It was on at around the same period as Knight Rider I think.
http://www.chuckwagner.com/automan.html
It just goes to show how young you are when you hear 50 or so show's you've never heard of... :P
As I have an interest in DnD (sort of "cool!" with added geekism and lack of any books) I would *love* to see the DnD show. Anyone know if they had beholders on it? Cartoon beholders... cooooool.... *drools* Anyway, the ironic thing is that the series never finished. It got cut before the final episode. I'd pay good money to buy the entire series.
The cartoon Gargoyles. And yes, I am too young to be talking about my nostalgic memories, but that was a cartoon I don't remember yet kicked ass. My older brother has a whole collection of episodes I watch every once in a while, but not as often as I'd like. Everything... great.
And there are other good shows I used to watch, but this is just about the only one I remember.
Coming from a guy with YuGiOh as his avatar, yes, I don't think you're qualified to join the grown ups in their discussion about how great the 80s and beyond were ^_-
Right, I'm good at this because I've had this discussion about 100 times before (several at least on this board alone, I'm sure) so I can cut straight to the chase with my list :P
Mysterious Cities of Gold - always my absolute number one show ever, able to inspire pants wetting and screaming at just the mention of it's name. No longer holds the same mystique for me now that I own the series, unfortunately, but it's still amazing.
Ulysses 31 - Coolest opening ever. Very close to MCoG. I call him Space Jesus!
Bell and Sebastion - Not too many people remember this but I always had good memories of it so I delight in telling people the name when they're like `OH! OH! That show...! With the dog and the orphan boy in the mountains trying to find his mother...!!!`
Transformers/Voltron/Thundercats/Robotech(Macross) - I stick these guys in the same catagory. Fighty team of people, often in space, machines involved usually...
Astroboy - Clearly doesn't need to be mentioned but since I brought up Macross it would only be fair.
Fraggle Rock/The Muppet Show/[old skool] Sesame Street/Muppet Babies - these pretty much go together for obvious reasons
The Wuzzles - I'm so happy I was able to find an avi of the opening. This show rocked. It was WELL animated and fun. The opening song is rocking.
Willow the Wisp - Anyone? Maybe it was just me. Odd show.
Ghostbusters - I was a bit of a sucker for this show. By the way, I'm talking about the couple of guys and the cartoon Slimer. Was it the Real Ghostbusters? I can never remember which was which.
TMNT - I used to adore this show. One xmas, my list consisted of nothing but TNMT merchandise (what did I get? Barbie dolls. Of course.)
The Magic Roundabout - I have a serious thing with this show. Me and my fiance... it's like a link that will tie us together forever, even when we hate each other. I'll just say, `Don't leave me! Remember Dougal!` and he'll have tears in his eyes as we remember that creepy carnival music together. Incidentally, I heard they're making a 3D version. I've even seen pictures but whether it was true or not, I can't say.
Catweazel - Did anyone else watch this? Weird.
Bagpuss - I always associate this with Catweazel, strangely enough.
The Banana Splits - Odd show.
Babar - My absolute most adored-in-a-lovely-kind-of-way show.
He-man/She-ra - If only these two could somehow combine in some way, producing young that was a combination of the two. Wow, most fantastic warrior ever.
Danger Mouse - Not my personal favourite, but it had it's moments.
Count Duckula - Awesome show.
Inspector Gadget - Enough said. We all know.
The Last Unicorn - Yeah baby. Again, making a new movie of it, but live action. I tell you, it looks AMAZING too. What's more, the original fucking voice actors are playing the same characters. Seriously, how cool is that? Angela Landsbury and Christopher Lee are finally old enough to convincingly play these characters they gave voices to a couple of decades ago.
Since I'm on the subject of movies... Goonies/Labyrinth/Neverending Story/Return to Oz/Dark Crystal/Bedknobs and Broomsticks/Flight of the Navigator/Secret of Nimh/all the Ewok movies and, well... others.
The Wizard/Big - Two of my fun childhood movies. Both silly, loved em both.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit - History.
Howard the Duck - weird, but apart of my childhood nevertheless.
Little Monsters - anyone remember this? I got the idea of putting gladwrap over the toilet bowl from this movie. Boy, was my dad happy when April Fools rolled around that year.
ALF - Not a movie, but... I used to love ALF, I'll admit it.
Round the Twist - Was very good at the start, got crapper and crapper as they replaced more characters and started using original stories.
Out of the World - a show as cool as the name suggests with an awesome opening and ending song.
The Wizard of Oz - the animated series, originally from Japan. Best adaptation of the books ever.
Vicky the Viking - what a dude.
Here are some things special to me as a very young girl, some you'll know, some obscure:
Rainbow Bright
Strawberry Shortcake
Carebears
My Little Pony
Candy Candy - had this on video. Now I'm in Japan, I can search for the elusive manga.
(and some less special ones)
Cricket's Clubhouse (or something)
My Pet Monster (I still sing the theme tune to this occasionally)
The Berenstain Bears (spelling)
Lucky Luke
These are what I call my Primary School 5 o'clocks. They'd be on TV after I got home from school, and were often only short 5 or ten minute shows clumped together:
The Trap Door
Roger Ramjet
Banana man
Fat Tulip - This one deserves a special mention. Tony Robinson narrating a story about frogs in a garden. There were no 'characters' in this show other than the suggested. He'd run around all over the place telling a story in the absolute best way a story can possibly be told. This is where my love for Tony Robinson sprouted. If you care, here's the website: http://www.foylesystems.com/index.php?view=Fattulip
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Monkey
The Line Man (buying DVDs of this soon)
Pingu
Mort
There are two shows here I can't remember the names of, unfortunately. Both clay animation. One was a pink thing and a brown thing and the theme song went, `A a a a e e e e i i i i`. Yeah, you know the one. That foreign show. The other show featured 3 little clay dudes that changed shape and did stuff. They remade it recently and it wasn't as good.
Gumby
Alias the Jester - A big childhood crush of mine. I wanted to do really bad things to Alias.
Henry's cat - I want Henry's cat to be Kinoko's cat. http://www.henryscat.com/
The Ratties - Rat-rat-ratties!
Superted - Good old Spotty.
These are my `middle of the day on a weekday` shows:
T-bag series - Fucking - amazing. These shows deserve some kind of award for pure creativity.
Captain Pugwash - The CP song is still my incoming mail sound. Wish it was on my phone.
Puddle Lane - Fun, and awesome.
Mr Squiggle - perhaps this is just Australia, but if you never saw this show, you missed out.
Woof - A boy who can turn into a fluffy dog. Hilarity ensues (yeah, I know, that line is way overused...)
These are `Not so childhood` childhood shows:
Twins of Destiny - Not so much a childhood memory because I was probably in late primary school or early high school while I was watching it, but anyone who's seen it will know what a rocking show it was.
Elly and Jools - Spooky show about a boy and the ghost of a girl who was killed. They pretty much have to find the murderer. Rather sad.
Ducktales - LOVED it. Especially the movie. Gold fever, mmm.
Darkwing Duck - Excuse me while I think naughty thoughts.......... thanks. I had a serious crush on Darkwing, after I saw the episode where he became a super ... ah, well, I won't get into it. It was great show.
Charlie Chalk - I can still sing the opening, and I still remember an episode where a recipe book washed up on the shore (oh yeah, Charlie Chalk was a clown washed up on a deserted island with lots of people) and they decided to have a feast. Of course, every dish was made out of bananas.
Titch - I love Titch. tich, and Tail-cat.
George and Martha - Not a childhood show at ALL but it's one of the best ever so it needs to be mentioned.
Archibald - Also awesome like George and Martha
Well, that's not everything but I'm a bit sleepy now so I'm gonna leave the list at that.
EDIT: I chose to omit Warner Bros and Hanna Barbera stuff because... well, I just mentioned them here, really. There's too much to list seperately.
The Ghostbusters was two guys and a gorilla called Tracy.
There were two different cartoons, so... I just can't remember which was called which. One was definitely called `The REAL ghostbusters`. I expect that's probably the one you're talking about, seeing as it's quite clearly not the real ghostbusters and they were giving it an ironic title :P
Three, at least :=
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0127569/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090506/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0121932/
The extreme one may not be old enough to be considered nostalgia though.
You know, I can no longer remember which one I used to watch. Maybe both @_@
But year, the `extreme` ghostbusters (guy in a wheelchair, right?) is pretty recent. I remember having a good laugh about that one a couple of years ago.
Oh my god, catweazel! I never had a TV growing up, but I read the Catweazel books... argh, I loved them!
That reminds me of a book I read when I was little... about erm... some kids who were computer wizards (starts off with this girl sitting in a tree programming a spectrum-style thing or something) and they win a competition or something... go off to this place with a mad scientist who wants to steal their brains or something... erm... oh man does anybody remember anything like this?
Also Labyrinth was my favourite movie as a child.
Argh! The only reason I chose my 3 and 4 as The Wizard and Cloak and Dagger is because I had planned to do two others but forgot mid-post. Thanks Kinoko for The Last Unicorn (I love the themesong,) and that made me remember the other: The Flight of Dragons, possibly the most beautiful animated movie I've ever seen. My fiancee loves dragons and I sing her the themesong all the time. And does anyone remember the animated versions of The Hobbit, the Lord of the Rings, and The Return of the King?
Huw, the D&D cartoon wasn't really for people who like D&D. There were a bunch of kids that got teleported into the Dungeons and Dragons world, and this old guy called the Dungeon Master told them what they had to do. There was a warrior, a cavalier, an acrobat, a mage, and I think a knight and a rogue, or something, and the main villain was some evil sorcerer and Tiamat, the dragon, who had like fifty gajillion heads and each one was a different color (breath) of dragon.Ã, (Also, personally to Huw: do a websearch for "Enochian Magick" if you want to find out what the lettering in YuGiOH means and where it came from).
Kinoko: You watched The Real Ghostbusters, I think. If you buy the two-pack Ghostbusters movie DVDs, there is a special feature on the second movie where they have two of the episodes of the cartoons :D
I'm glad someone mentioned Dangermouse, too. I loved Dangermouse, and Duckula. How did I forget them?
Noel Edmunds
Just kidding.... honestly I am...
Although being alive in the 80's I wasn't old enough to take much in, but I remember watching the following:
- Thundercats
- He-man
- Howard the Duck (or something)
- Super Ted
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (didn't they lose the ninja part at one point?)
I don't really remember much else from my childhood TV life, I think everything merged into one.
Kids these days have no appreciation for the classics with all their poké-mon and "yugioh". ^_^
For me as a child I was more into comics and stuff, I always watched things like spiderman, batman and always read the comics...
Quote from: magintz on Thu 20/10/2005 10:19:35
Noel Edmunds
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/4349798.stm
Hey does anyone remember Alfred J Kwak? The theme song was awesome. But the series was sad in some parts.
QuoteHoward the Duck (or something)
A friend of mine thinks that Howard the Duck is one of the best films ever made. I worry about him sometimes.
QuoteTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (didn't they lose the ninja part at one point
Only here in the UK, where they were afraid the word 'Ninja' would encourage violence.
Quote from: Kinoko
He-man/She-ra - If only these two could somehow combine in some way, producing young that was a combination of the two. Wow, most fantastic warrior ever.
Or, in-bred, banjo-playing, space-hick. Which would've been an interesting show in it's own right.
Others:
Wizbit. 4ft tall, walking talking yellow magicians hat, and his 6ft rabbit friend. Also, as I remember, a talking swamp/bog and, most disturbingly, Paul Daniels.
Rent-a-Ghost.
Round the Twist.
Pugwall. (I think it was called - was the main character's name anyway.)
Timmy Mallet on TV:AM.
Funhouse with Pat Sharpe.
(It's possible I'm now moving away from 'nostalgia', and in to 'Psychological Damage'.)
Out of this World. Series about a girl who was half alien and could freeze time. Spoke to her dad through a glowing block of perspex.
I hate everything. Why does it seem that all the American shows made it to other parts of the world, but none of your shows made it to me!!!??? That seems very unfair.
I remember a few other shows. There was a show about a little girl who was really a robot or an alien or something(the themesong was "If You'd Like to Swing On a Star)... And then there was Punky Brewster (my god, did I have a crush on her)...
What about the books you guys used to read? Does anyone remember Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Superfudge, How To Eat Fried Worms....
And Ashen: how is that possible? TMT? Teenage Mutant Turtles? That souds like it would suck all manner of buttocks. Actually, though, I've read the original Eastman and Laird TMNT graphic novels, and they are full of violence/sex/language... The TV version already cut A LOT down... Same with the GI Joe comics.
And how about all these friggin' remakes? Bloody friggin' He-Man, and Transformers (actually, the new transformers show isn't half bad), and Ghostbusters Extreme, and GI Joe Extreme, and TMNT Extreme... They aren't extreme, they're just t3h suck.
QuoteThere was a show about a little girl who was really a robot or an alien or something(the themesong was "If You'd Like to Swing On a Star)
QuoteOut of this World. Series about a girl who was half alien and could freeze time. Spoke to her dad through a glowing block of perspex.
Were one and the same. How could I forget to mention the tune?
QuoteAnd Ashen: how is that possible? TMT? Teenage Mutant Turtles?
Hero. Teenage Mutant
Hero Turtles. Except, everyone knew it was meant to be Ninja, and there was cheap knock-off Ninja Turtle toys on all the market stalls.
Heman and the masters of the universe (from the eighties)
Fraggle mountain
Inspector Gadget
Ducktales
The Neverending story
The Goonies
Ronja Rövardotter
Who framed Roger Rabbit
Damn! I forgot... a shitload!
Okay, I'm adding to my list:
Neverending Story (one of my Big Three, I'm so ashamed for forgetting that one)
Out of this World (LOVED that show)
Howard the Duck (weird but.. fun)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Round the Twist
Super Ted
Also one another friend reminded me of - the Wizard of Oz animated cartoon series. There are lots of them but this is a special one, because it was actually good. LOTS of episodes too so they covered a LOT of Oz ground.
esper: I loved How To Eat Fried Worms
Batfink "My wings are like a shield of steel!"
The Flumps
The Adventure Game! (I liked the Aspidistra best)
The Family Ness
Mr Benn
and books: There were these ones about Mylar, a robot horse and one about a guy who likes tomato-flavour crips and Australian football.
More keep popping up all the time....
Zoobely Zoo
Captain N (about Nintendo, had Super Mario Brothers and Legend of Zelda mini-cartoons sometimes)
Captain Planet and the Planeteers (I actually HATED this show... in the words of Eric Cartman, it's "all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap"... but I loved the Russian girl so much I actually dated one in college just for the nostalgia of it all)
Captain Power (you could buy a little spaceship/gun and fight the badguys in the show. They would shoot at the screen, and somehow the toy would recognize it, and if you got hit the spaceship would "blow up" in your hand)