When I was younger, my sisters and I used to be addicted to a TV channel called Trouble. Not only did it play the ‘modern’ American imports such as ‘Saved by the Bell‘, ‘Keenan and Kel‘ and ‘Sister Sister‘, it played older shows such as ‘The Monkees‘ and ‘Bewitched’. Along with the Jetsons and the Flintstones, these were some of my favourite programmes – and it’s not surprising that some of their influence still lingers in my life.

The Jetsons: produced by Hanna-Barbera and originally airing in 1962-63, this was the perfect merging of atomic style and futurism. In the episode above, you can hear the 1950s influences of jazz in the soundtrack and Jet Screamer‘s music. I loved it. Midcentury style clothes, houses and furniture combined with living in the future? My friend Amy once pointed out that this would be the perfect combination for me; she’s right and it already exists in ‘The Jetsons’. Bubble cars, spacecraft shaped houses and robots to do all of

Another huge favourite of mine, which is wonderfully appropriate for this time of year, was ‘Bewitched’.

“Listen, if you ring this phone one more time I’m…oh, hello Larry. I’m sorry I shouted at you, I thought you were my mother-in-law.”

“Your not afraid to speak like that to your mother-in-law? Darrin, if you were here I’d get your autograph.”

‘Bewitched’ combined my love of all things witchy with the 1960s. Eldora’s outfits are just amazing throughout this series. I love that she is deliberately dressed completely over-the-top for every occasion.  Actually, thinking about it: I’ve always had a love of red hair and the colour green…

Even as a child I loved anything from this decade. Including the Monkees:

The episode above of The Monkees also has a sneaky reference to ‘Of Mice and Men’ – the book that is quickly becoming the bane of my life! I wouldn’t have got that as a child, that’s for sure. My favourite Monkee was Davy; my sister Kirsty used to like Mickey and Megan probably liked Mike, the one with the bobble hat. In fact, she’d probably wear that herself now!

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed finding out about some of my favourite childhood shows, and perhaps even watching some of them. I’ve certainly enjoyed the trip down Memory Lane.

Related articles

• Bewitched (housefulofsecrets.wordpress.com)
• Judy Jetson Loves Dudes: A supercut (fourfour.typepad.com) (something a bit wrong about this one, but it did make me laugh!)
• Jetsons (dreamplaylove.wordpress.com)