I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. Here is my top eleven children’s television shows. It’s hard to narrow it down, that’s why there’s eleven. There are some notable shows missing but these are my honest to goodness favourites that I still watch on repeat now.
Press Gang
Set in a newspaper run by children for children, Press Gang wasn’t afraid of throwing serious issues back at a young audience. Suicide, child abuse, drugs, guns and death, Press Gang covered issues that kids had to face but don’t normally get talked to about. And it was really funny too.
Grange Hill
What can you say about Grange Hill? Set in a London school for of rascals it was Degrassi before Degrassi. It dealt with all the issues kids faced at school and stuck mainly with the first and second years of high school. It included all the traumas involved with making new friends, avoiding the school bullies, surviving school lunches and coping with those horrible teachers.
Children of the Stones
Spooky kids show about a man on a university research grant to study an ancient circle of stones. Worth watching the show for the spooky and arty opening titles alone.
Archibald the Koala
Archibald lives on a small island with 500 other koalas and badgers. Ruled over by the bumbling but ultimately likeable Archduke, Rastepappe is an island full of events and mysteries. Luckily Archibald is a detective and sets out to solve all mysteries and crimes on his bicycle with a magnifying glass.
The adventures of Pete and Pete
A story of two brothers both called Pete. The younger Pete had his own super hero called Artie (strongest man in the world!) and their mum had a metal plate in her head that could pick up radio stations and confuse police radar guns. Quirky, full of amazing underground music, awesome special guest stars (Iggy Pop as a boring dad) and just plain brilliant. Worth watching just for the swearing free insults that will make parents scream.
Angry Beavers
Two beaver brothers that have just moved out of the family dam into a dam of their own. They do everything you wanted to do if you moved out of home at age 9. With plenty of money for lollies, non stop cartoons and horror movies on their telly, pretending to be super heros, playing golf and football inside and trying to stay up all night but getting tired by 10:30. They also get on as well as you would if you moved into a house with your brother aged 9… Just watch it you spooty head!
Daria
Poor Daria, so sarcastic and so never going to fit into Lawndale. Luckily she finds a friend she can bag out the rest of the town with and eat pizza with. That’s the best most awkward teenagers can hope for. Daria shows that it’s ok to be smart and puts a great soundtrack to it too.
Kids of Degrassi st
Before Degrassi there was the Kids of Degrassi st, a rather cute show that looked like it was filmed in the dirt filled snow in a back street in Toronto. The characters were primary school aged kids and the stories revolved around them getting beaten up, winning competitions and printing their own newspapers. Alot of the actors went on to appear in Degrassi when it started but mostly with different character names (but similar characters….)
Battle of the Planets
I could have chosen Voltron or Battleship Yamato to go here as all three are quite similar but Battle of the Planets wins for me purely because of their amazing capes.
Batman the animated series
The best and darkest Batman. There is no other for me. This is a Batman series that lives up to what you see in the comic books.
Tintin
Everyone knows Tintin and we’ve all read the comic book. But this animated version really does do Herge proud. The best part about Tintin is Snowy. The incredible things that dog gets up to and the scrapes he saves Tintin from. What a dog. I also like Captain Haddock’s exclamations. (Turns out I like kids tv purely for non swearing insults….)