Television of Today.

“Salute Your Shorts” was one of the best shows on television.  

Period.  

What has happened since the 1990’s? When I was growing up we had a great set of shows to entertain us.  Nickelodeon wasn’t just random high pitched voices like Spongebob.  Even the “Angry Beavers” (sexual connotations aside) was a great show that could keep people coming back for more. 

If you go back even further you get other classics like “AHHH..Real Monsters”, “The Secret World of Alex Mack”, and “Hey Arnold”.  These iconic shows not only entertained us, but also showed us what it was like to be a kid. Sure Alex Mack was a science fiction story, but it also was a great way to show how friends should support each other.  “Salute Your Shorts” made me want to go to summer camp, which gave me an experience away from home and prepped me for actually being independent. “Hey Arnold” gave us all a great view on how you can have a great time without spending money. Also who didn’t want to have that awesome room that Arnold had with that pulldown skylight exit. 

All these are iconic things from my childhood that are realistic, not like a anthropomorphic sponge living in a pineapple at the bottom of the ocean.  

We also got phrases and songs that were universal to pretty much any kid. If you go up to a group of 20-somethings and chant “Stoop Kid’s afraid to leave the stoop!” you bet your ass they’d be right along with you chanting a beat later.  There probably aren’t many people my age who couldn’t sing the opening rap to “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, which is a lot more challenging than “Whoooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea?”.  

Moving away from Nick we get shows like “The Fresh Prince”, “Boy Meets World”, and “Saved by the Bell”.  These characters were great and we got to see them grow up right along with us. We got characters like Mr. Feeney, who made us all wish for a teacher of that caliber, Zack Morris, who made us all want tot be that charismatic smart-ass, and Carlton, who reminded us that there are far worse things then a fiercely loyal cousin.  

These shows gave us far more realistic (though admittedly still not entirely so) view on relationships, families, and interacting with the world.  Now we get things like “Jersey Shore”, which makes me fear for the future of civilization as we know it.

Also, what happened to kids game shows? What happened to “GUTS”, “Legends of the Hidden Temple”, “Double Dare”, and “Wild and Crazy Kids”? I wanted a shot at the Silver Monkey. I wanted to take a bit of the Aggro Crag home. Now kids don’t have those things to pine for.  It’s unfortunate that they never were exposed to those shows, except when they hear people of our generation talk about it.


My younger brother also reminded me of another classic Nick show, "All That". Our parents had "Saturday Night Live", and to a point that's still around. For us though, "All That" was our sketch comedy show. Everyday French with Pierre Escargo. Vital Information with Lori Beth Densberg (later Danny Tamberelli). Ask Ashley. All were classic sketches that as kids, had us literally rolling on the floor with laughter. And later on, Kenan Thompson went on to be a part of Saturday Night Live, making the connection between the two shows concrete. 

I miss those days. I miss those shows. I miss knowing what I was going to do every night.

Try to take over the world.