Weekend morning TV memories

(click image for bigger version)

I've spent much of this morning listening to cartoon theme tunes and remembering heroes, villains, monsters and adventures lived vicariously through animated characters on an old TV screen. I've actually been pleasantly surprised that I know a lot of them - growing up I thought we were in a cultural wilderness having only "poverTV" (RTÉ 1 and 2) but now I think that other than Doctor Who and the Crystal Maze, maybe I didn't miss out on much at all!

I was looking at the above illustration trying to work out how many I could remember watching on TV without looking them up. So here goes, left to right, back to front:

Round the twist (aussie lighthouse drama), The A-team, Jimbo, Count Duckula, Transformers (robots in disguise), Dogtanian and the Muskehounds, Fraggle Rock, He-man (wasn't Skeletor drawn quite scary?) Postman Pat, Supergran (I was surprised how much of the theme tune I knew!), Super Ted, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (when exactly did they become ninja turtles?), Inspector Gadget, The Flintstones, Gummi bears (bouncing here and there and everywhere), Dangermouse (Penfold, in case you're asked in a Table quiz), Sharky and George (crimebusters of the sea), Thundercats, Ulysses and even though it wasn't on RTÉ, Jim'll fix it.

I know up there there's things like Rainbow, Button Moon, Teddy Ruxpin, Roobarb and Custard, Bod and Grange Hill - all programs I became familiar with either through You Tube or the constant 100 top TV programmes that if you didn't watch as a child, you had no life. I've also remembered Eerie Indiana, The Muppet Show, The Jetsons and of course Sesame Street.



Then of course there were the truly Irish ones that seemed part and parcel of Irish youth. Bosco. Wanderly Wagon. Fortycoats. Echo Island. Mary Kingston in the morning. Anything Goes with Aengus MacNally. Make and Do with Mary Fitzgearld. Zig and Zag. The Den Christmas specials. The Beat Box with Simon Young and Peter Collins.

So, who are the rest of the above? Just how did their theme tune go? Can you remember the lyrics as well as you think you do? What other shows do you have memories of?

Not sure who's in the illustration? Head on over to Annelicious where I found out about the TV Theme Medley. It's a work of art. Enjoy the memories.