I've discussed most of these shows other times in other threads but since i'm kind of regularly posting again after being AWOL from the forum for awhile, may as well throw these in here (some of these will probably be unfamiliar to anyone not at least in their late 20's or early 30's)
...but before i begin, i'll throw in that being fortunate to have lived on the lake shore of Ohio up until my teens, i was lucky enough to get CBC so i do know of Mr Dressup and other Canadian goodies from the 70's and early 80's (and yes that means that i was able to see the UK sketches of The Muppet Show when they originally aired since CBC tended to keep the UK spot but cut out another random sketch somewhere)
Most of my fave Non-Henson shows growing up happened to feature puppets!
Hot Fudge Show - which may be the all time coolest (non-Henson) show in the universe - i recently posted in another thread a few weeks back about how the local station from where the show originates apparently recently did a reunion special (have had no luck tracking down a copy) and there's a few clips on youtube of old shows - funny puppets, great adults, excellent slapstick (one actor who did the "holy moly" sketches had more expressions than Wile E Coyote!) and just way too cool for words - had to get up super early to catch it but that's what made it all the more special
Puppet Tree - this was a by-now-pretty-much-forgotten Christian kid's show. Once upon a time there were a whole bunch of really cool Christian kid's shows that were just fun and only just barely threw in some scripture here and there. All these years later and i still have yet to find any sites or anything in reference to it on the web - seems like i'm the only one who remembers it. It had a laugh track, Muppet Show type sensibilities, a "Crazy Harry" like character named Kama Kaze who was this demented pilot that liked to drive all over the place real erratically in his biplane, and ended with a little girl puppet (no longer remember her name) dusting off a bunch of manequins over a voiceover saying "Puppet Tree was taped before an audience of dummies"...the dummies then got knocked over domino style.
Both the above shows were kids shows but didn't seem like they were at all - which made them so great - much like early Sesame, and other older classics like Soupy Sales.
Electric Company - yeah, it was CTW (which became Sesame Workshop) and it did have a few Sesame cameos but still had to mention it here because it was way too cool for the same reasons as what i just attributed to the other shows.
Okay - maybe our Canadian friends can help with this one - don't remember the name but it was around the early 80's puppet show that took place underwater - had one main character named Conrad...remember loving it but can't remember much about it now
Stricly local shows...in Cleveland OH there was a bunch of local shows weekend mornings featuring puppets and cartoons - one was called Mindy (and was a spin-off of another show that i don't remember the name of) and had a character named "the Inspector" kind of based on Inspector Clousseau who did a lot of slapstick stuff. One puppet was called Tony Pepperoni. Also not a kid's show but a fond memory growing up was a late night show called Big Chuck and Little John
...and again not a kid's show but a late night show that was NOT local so some of you will definately remember it - Night Flight - it would be on all night on one of the cable stations and it would be an eclectic mix of all sorts of cool stuff - parodies, music videos, cult films, short indie films...they used to show the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers before it got Americanized. I remember it introduced me to my all time fave comedy film Eating Raoul. It was also the first place i had ever seen the video to Eurythmics "Love is a Stranger" (who were then and still are my favorite music group) It actually even came back in a shortened version a few years after it had been off the air for awhile - it really needs to come back yet again!
You Can't do That on Television. Again one of The Coolest Kids' Shows Ever! They originated the "green slime" which eventually became a symbol for Nickelodeon in general (but they did it first and best)...and yes, we can thank Canada for originating it before it became one of Nick's early signature shows. There was also a brief knockoff of it on PBS around 1984 called "Don't Look Now" which was a huge ratings success for PBS (a lot of kids who didn't have Nick at that time but heard of YCDTOTV especially tuned in) but as successful as it was, no one apparently taped it or kept their tapes as old episodes still have yet to make their way to the fan community.
TBS in its early days also had some really cool early morning shows with both cartoons and live comedy bits...wish they still had stuff like that.
The Letter People - another all time classic kids show - i finally was able to get a hold of the complete run of the series on tape several years back and it was a real treasure to see them again. Not only was it on PBS but it was on when most kids were in school - but they usually would turn it on and have kids watch it in school (our elementary school principal even had inflatable balloons of all the characters)
And speaking of stuff we would watch in elementary school, i remember their were some film strip series we would watch and i can barely remember it now (a lot of times i had a hard time understanding the lines because of the projector) but it had a handful of kids and one bumbling adult character who often got hit with pies. (Of course anything with pie throwing gags would always be a winner in my book) I keep wanting to say it was either Mulligan's Stew or Vegetable Soup but i think both of those are titles of different shows than what this was.
...and since i was still in high school when it started, i'll include it here - MTV's Just Say Julie starring comedianne Julie Brown, long one of my faves. I was over the moon when she got her own MTV show (esp since there had been "another" Julie Brown hired as the "sixth VJ" years back and i was so disappointed that it wasn't "my" Julie Brown. The format was actually much like what Beavis and Butthead would do soon after (only with live comedy instead of animation surrounding the videos) and often Julie would pop up on screen as they played videos and offer wacky comments...one of my fave being when she would freeze frame a Robert Palmer video and then point at the models and then herself declaring "Fake-fake-fake-REAL!" Another fave moment was seeing this nice tranquil song in the background ("Eternal Flame" by the Bangles) being disrupted by this complete absurdist nutjobs running around in front of it - Julie chasing an airhead model with a paddleball (don't ask) This all actually had a little bit of a predicessor in occasional specials Weird AL Yankovich would do called Al TV. They used to say in MTV News segments how word has reached MTV Studios that Weird Al has gotten together pirate satellite equiptment and has plans to disrupt MTV's programming with his pirate shows.
Fame - another one of my all time fave shows growing up - as someone who had planned on being a performer as a career, the show really captivated me. Even though the common thought is that the first two years (when it was on NBC) were the best, the later four years (when it went into syndication) had much going for them too though admitedly they did do some fluff filler episodes during that time too. Loved Carrie Henderson's character (Carol Burnett's daughter - Carol did a great guest spot in the last season) and absolutely adored Nia Peeple's singing (though i didn't really care for the records she made afer Fame).
Even though i was too young to have watched (or been allowed to watch) Laugh-In in its original airings, i LOVED staying up late nights to watch repeats.
Of course i will think of many "how-could-i-have-forgotten-THAT" ones after i send this thread through but that's a good start.
..and oh yes, even though i was pretty much in college or beyond once these were on, i also LOVED Dexter's Lab and Johnny Bravo (reminded me of a hetero version of so many himbos in the gay community) as well as Two Stupid Dogs a couple years before those.
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