Blast from the Past....TV

I am not sure about you but to this Chindian, TV is my life! I can remember shows from 20 years ago, recite the dialog and may even act out the scene if need be but I can't always remember if I brushed my teeth this morning. So I was out shopping one day and happen to wander into this DVD store. I don't normally patron these shops since they sell pirated DVDs....I prefer to download them.

I saw a boxset of a sitcom from the past. It was called Perfect Strangers. The premise is about a lowly Myposian sheepherder coming to American looking for a far related cousin, with hilarious results of course.

Just in case you are wondering Mypos is a country in the Mediterranean that doesn't exist. Sorry if you have already fired up google to search it. The lead character is Balki and his cousin Larry. Balki's tagline "Of course I do, don't be ridiculous" just cracks me up. It's his standard reply to a question he doesn't know the answer to. Ok, it's one of those things where you got to be there.

You should check it out on You Tube.

I started then thinking of the TV shows that I grew up on and I realized that it was primarily sitcoms and action movies. Back then, all TV shows had a long TV theme unlike now and I could still sing most of them. I don't find myself interested in shows that doesn't end that week and you have follow it week in week out, like "Lost" or "Heroes". I guess it's just I have an attention span of a hummingbird.

Some of these shows are:-

1) Perfect Strangers
Balki Balthakomous is upbeat, optimistic, adventurer and Larry Appleton is uptight, worrier and loner.

2) Three's Company
About a guy who share's an apartment with 2 ladies. It's a time when this is seriously frowned upon. So he pretends that he is gay to the land lord. This is also a time when homosexuality is frowned upon. Still, now that we are hypocritically politically correct, it's still funny.

3) Mind your language
It's British comedy so there is more word play than action. It's about an night school English teacher teaching a bunch of foreign students English. To make it work, they have to fail every year so that we have new seasons. Makes you wonder how he ever kept his job.

4) Cheers
A horny retired baseball player who now owns a bar "where everybody knows your name". A whole bunch of characters are here especially John Ratzenberger who plays Cliff the postal worker. His voice is lent to many Pixar characters. Look it up.

5) Gilligan's Island
Albeit this is a little old. About a group stranded on a deserted island after getting caught in a storm when they went out for a "three hour tour, a three hour tour". That statement is from the theme song la!

6) Beverly Hillbilly's
Also an oldie of a hill billy sticking oil, becoming a millionaire overnight and moving to Beverly Hills.

7) Airwolf
Airwolf is the name of the super highly sophisticated helicopter that can put most immovable objects to shame. At that time it was the coolest! It could shoot rockets, has retractable machine guns and flies at supersonic speed. The hero's character is Stringfellow Hawke. If I met a guy called Stringfellow today, I think I would punch him in the nose and report his parents.

8) A-Team
Ever popular TV show about a group of military fugitives becoming mercenaries to help those in need. Now I realize that the military with all its law enforcement behind it can't find these guys but ordinary people who can't cook their own instant noodles can. Also they don't seem to get paid and no one ever dies despite all the shooting and bombing.

9) Twilight Zone
This was a cool pioneer of X-Files. It combines the supernatural and your incredulity. This show will not survive today though. If I wanted to see or read about weird stuff, I just open the newspaper and read about our political scene.

10) Combat!
Definitely without any doubt my favourite movie of all time. Sgt Saunders and his men are the meanest, baddest soldiers around. My cousin Kly and I use to take out plastic soldiers and place them around the kitchen in a battle scene that lasted almost all our puberty. My favourite character besides Sgt Saunders was Kirby, the guy who carried the M60 machine gun.

11) Six Million Dollar Man
Who always wanted to be Steve Austin, raise your hand? I thought so. Wasn't he like the coolest??? Though I always wondered then, if he has super speed, why did he move so slow? Also why wouldn't he do everything in super speed? He only did it when he ran. I would be doing all kinds of crap!!

12) Knight Rider
I really hated David Hasselhoff. The car was cool though and it was another guy magnet since the car could do everything except climb stairs. So why do we need David Hasselhoff?? Chick magnet I guess. Guys dig the car, chicks dig those wavy hair.

13) High Chaparral
I would give my left toe to see this show again. I was so in love with the Mexican heroine Victoria Montoya and her brother Manolito. It's about the Wild West and how settlers (or in this case the Cannon family) claimed land and tried to work with the natives and other American settlers.

14) Happy Days
You get to see the young Ron Howard (with hair and freckles) being a nerd and hanging our with Arthur Fonzeralli or "The Fonz"...Heeyyyyy. It was a show set in the 50s played out in the 70s. It's about biker gangs and nerdy high school kids with bee-hive haired chicks.

15) Thundercats!
Thunder, thunder, thunder, THUNDERCATS...HOOOOOO!!!! This show still has a strong following and it's about a group of feline-humans led by the boy king Lion-O fleeing their dying planet Thundera coming to "Third Earth" and battling Mumm-Ra an evil Egyptian-like mummy. The Thundercats have the mystical sword called Sword of Omens of which holds the Eye of Thundera. Mumm-Ra is also assisted by the Mutants from the planet Plun-Darr who all want the Sword of Omens and the Eye. "Sword of Omens, give me sight beyond all sight".

16) Baa Baa Black Sheep
Baa Baa Black Sheep with Mej Pappy Boyington flying over the skies of the Pacific with his misfits on the 214 Squadron. With their flying of the Corsairs, they were the terrors of the Pacific during the war. It was this show who got me excited about war planes and wanting to be a pilot.

17) Wild Wild West
This was the original starring Robert Conrad about the wild west's secret agents battling weirdos.

18) Man from U.N.C.L.E
Something out of James Bond with Ilya Kuryakin and Napoleon Solo battling the evils of today....whatever that was. Ilya was always the one doing all the dirty work and Napoleon was the one kissing the girls. If I was Ilya, I would have turned over to the bad side and shot Napoleon for money!

19) The Saint
Our first glimpse of Roger Moore who played this really unexplained rich, suave, playboy who drove the coolest car, stole from rich criminals and helped people as Simon Templar.

20) Blocker Corp Machine Blaster
Tempei Asuka is the name of the hero in this Japanese animated robot cartoon. The first of its kind that spawned off your Gundam, Voltron all those other animation with humans in robot suits. It was definitely the coolest a 4 year old has ever seen. However, it is not easy to find details on the net so you just got to take my word and the word of all those who grew up in the 70s and 80s.

If you know of any other info, pls share. This is a great way to go down our childhood lane. I do have many more to share but my fingers are tired.