Think back to the movies and/or TV shows you watched when you were a kid; they were kind of strange weren’t they….

One of my all-time favorite movies while growing up was Sesame Street Presents: Follow that Bird. Coming to us from the great year of 1985, Follow that Bird was labeled as “It’s Big Adventure! It’s Big Laughs! It’s Big Bird on the Big Screen!” I tell you, I loved this movie.

Sitting here I am trying to remember all the little details of the movie (actually just trying to remember the general plot). Great, I just quickly reviewed the movie plot on imdb, I love that site.

So here’s how it goes down:

Big Bird has always lived in Sesame Street, but the Feathered Friends Society is not too happy about it. They think Bird should be living with his own kind, not the eclectic backgrounds of those in Sesame Street (hmm… can you see a possible lesson to be taught through this movie… hah) Big Bird meets his new bird family but isn’t happy. He sneaks away and so the real movie begins, with Bird flying the coupe back to Sesame Street.

What is it about Sesame Street that attracts young kids? I know I watched that show at least once a day. I loved Big Bird, Snuff… Snuffelu… yeah, Birds big brown friend with the nose, Bert and Ernie were pretty much awesome (and I never wondered while I was young why they lived together… you sickos), and everyone has a place in their heart for Oscar. I think we might have even gone to see Sesame Street Live once or twice when it was in Cincinnati.

Now you turn on kids shows and there are lights flashing everywhere, you have no idea what’s going on, and there not speaking real words… what are those characters that have the strange wire things on their heads and make cooing noises for speech? Teletubbies!…. yuck… seriously, what’s up with them? I was a big fan of Arthur as well, although that talking aardvark didn’t show up until my later kids TV show years.

I also liked Ghostwriter, and thought it was the coolest thing to go everywhere with a backpack that had a pen and notebook in it… just in case :-)

Bill Nye was great…Wishbone was amazing (If it weren’t for that show, my knowledge in classics literature wouldn’t be nearly what it is today… hah)… Mister Rogers was pretty awesome (I have a book title “The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers” that is sitting ready to be read back at home, I’ll let you know how that goes)… and remember Reading Rainbow? Great TV definitely.

So what sorts of kid shows did you watch when you were young?