Nostalgia - Quality Live Action '90s Kids' Shows

Anyone else looking back fondly at all the insanely good kids' series they used to have? Back home, we used to get lots of Canadian and Australian ones, but also a few British and American ones - Ocean Girl, TheOdyssey, The Adventures Of Shirley Holmes, Mission Top Secret, Mirror Mirror, The Worst Witch, Aquila, The Magicians House, So Weird ... And those are only the ones I remember!!

I thought we could discuss them here, let the younger generation rediscover them...

edited 28th Jan '12 3:52:05 AM by karasu91

OMG. Mirror Mirror. That was it. OMG.

I've been wondering what the name of this show was for years. You have no idea how happy this makes me feel.*

The Worst Witch had some great adult performances.I loved that as a kid. Oh Ms Hardbroom. You amazed me.

And you forgot Return To Jupiter! And Five Children And It! And that British one about those kids from that weirdly Victorian time who are being chased by that guy, and the girl's the main character and I think she had some kind of flower-like mark on her (or some sort of tatoo.)

And that weird Australian one that was shot entirely at the top of a lighthouse in an alternate dimension. Not Round The Twist, no, but it did involve magic pearls. It was kinda soapy, and probably very bad, but I used to watch it when school was cancelled because of public holidays. Always seemed to be the same episode too...

Oh wow. What a headrush.

Heh. Anytime, glad I could help! Unfortunately, unless you're talking about the Jolly Green Giant, which I don't think you are, I can't help you for the rest as I don't know them... But you should take it to the You Know That Show page - they work miracles!!

Edit: Huh. Another good one I just remembered: The Genie From Down Under.

edited 28th Jan '12 6:55:14 AM by karasu91

YES! That was so good.

I'm kinda terrified to check these out now — Mirror Mirror wasn't exactly like I remember it. Surprisingly darker than I remember, but no meddling aunt. Huh.

Another one for you: The Ghost Hunter. Jean Marsh was so great as the villain in that. And the kid from that was in another thing, I'm sure, where his parents were permanently hypnotised into being children, in order to teach him and his sister to grow up. I remember the reveal at the end to be pretty great.

(And I tried what you suggested, thanks.)

You're thinking of Mirror Mirror : Season 2, which reused the basic premise, but with different families, different times and no relation whatsoever to the first season beyond the mirror itself. Very different tonally, but just as good.

edited 28th Jan '12 7:59:36 AM by karasu91

Fuck yeah SMTV Live. This show was the Mutt's Nuts when you were a kid, they even showed Pokemon!

PowerRangers, perhaps the most 90s of all 90s kids shows.

Folk can say what they like, but this show was creepy as hell. Even the intro always freaked me out, and to this day I don't like the way that dogs eyes glow like that.

You have no idea of how much I am still jealous of this bastard being given that watch. I want that watch!!!

To be honest, I always found the theme song for The Queen's Nose really spooky. Why is it so... sad and tragic sounding?

Going waaaaay back into my childhood here and HOLY SHIT HOW CREEPY ARE THEY?

We used to watch this in Primary School sometimes. You've no idea how shocked I was when she appeared in the recent season of Doctor Who.

I always thought "this'll make sense when I'm older". Nope.

Aww yeah.

Noel's House Party. Because that gave us...

THIS.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!

edited 28th Jan '12 8:23:06 AM by TheBatPencil

Edit - there we go.

edited 28th Jan '12 8:23:20 AM by TheBatPencil

D'you guys reckon the quality in kids' shows has increased/decreased/remained constant?...

I think it's remained constant. The only bad thing that I think there's more of is merchandising.

I remember the Secret Files of Shelby Woo not being bad, but its been fifteen years since I've seen it, so maybe it sucked for all I know.

I tried to rewatch Mighty Morphin Power Rangers on Netflix last night...I can't do it now. I loved it when I was kid, though.

The Adventures of Pete and Pete was really good,

Oh I remember Escape From Jupiter/Return To Jupiter. I also always liked the The Secret World Of Alex Mack but that might just be nostalgia.

edited 29th Jan '12 1:54:02 PM by Duckling

The Oddysey was freaking awesome, I was obsessed with that show. I loved it, to this day I can't picture Ryan Reynolds as anything other than Finger.

Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Well, I have a weakness for all bubblegum high school sitcoms, but I like how this one dispenses with the weighty Aesops.

Here's another one. Does anyone remember a British show that aired on the ABC back in the 90's that was about a castle/old building on an island (or the coast), and the crazy woman who lived there. She was obsessed with these four gems, one of which was a ruby and another was an amethyst, and the strange contraption that they powered (and snapped the hand off of whoever tried to open it without the gems.)

And there were barrels of toxic waste littered along the coast. And a sequence with snorkling.

Nope, sorry Nicknacks.

God, I've been rewatching the first season of Mirror Mirror... For a Kids Show, it's remarkably well done with excellent production values, well plotted, reasonably well acted, and surprisingly dark. Really really recommend it - I've seen worse adult shows.

I loved Beakman's world.

edited 6th Feb '12 2:51:07 PM by nairoxev

Been trying to look some of them up - DVD's are almost impossible to find in most cases... Also, anyone remember a show called Crashzone about video game testers, an AI and some computer corp named Catalyst?

I have vauge memories of something like that. British show, right?

Eh, aussie, IIRC.

Edit: Here's the relevant page on The Other Wiki.

edited 13th Feb '12 12:58:23 PM by karasu91

I watched the Worst Witch long after I was the age to and I loved it. Hetty Hubble was brilliant, or rather the actress who portrayed her. And I am a man, so there.

That was the show. I'd forgotten that I used to assume that basically everything was British until I got to a certain age. I also tend to associate anything I saw as a child as being from the 90's.

Amazing Animals!