The Pinged Hobbit

Lately I’ve been feeling a little nostalgic. Thinking about the past and things that I remember from my childhood. It all started a few weeks ago with the release of the new Transformers movie, revenge of the fallen. Reading the reviews after it’s release made me think back to when I saw the original Transformer’s cartoon movie and finding out Spook was in the new movie didn’t help (he is the voice of Galvatron in the original movie), so much so that I ended up going setting about watching it. Took me a while to find it mind but it is out there online if you know where to look, although split into multiple parts.

Watching this old time favourite of mine got me thinking of what other shows I used to watch, shows that I just simply couldn’t miss. If like me you’re a geek who grow up in the 80’s and 90’s some of these shows probably defined your childhood just like they did mine.

1. Transformers

Probably the show of my childhood, keep your Turtles, keep your Power Rangers, nothing will ever take the place in my heart held by Octimus, Jazz, Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots. When the Transformers movie came out a few years ago I remember getting a tingle when I heard the sound of a transformation taking place. For a moment I was 6 again, getting up early to watch Saturday morning cartoons. I remember watching the original cartoon movie when it first came out, sure now I realise that whole thing was a marking ploy to sell more toys, but back then I didn’t know. Did I cry when Octimus Prime died, did I cheer when Hot Rod opened the Matrix of Autobot Leadership, became Rodimus Prime and kicked Galvatron’s ass? Damn right I did, along with the rest of the kids in the cinema at the time! The originally movie has possibly one of the best 80’s rock soundtracks as well. You’ve Got the Touch and of course Dare.
Autobots, transform and roll out

The A Team

2. The A Team

If Saturday morning’s belonged to the Autobots then Saturday afternoon’s belong to another set of A’s, the A Team. BA, Face, Murddock and of course Hannibal. I think every boy I knew growing up used to watch the A Team, on a Saturday afternoon I used to be at my Grandparents while my mum went shopping with my Gran, for me it was a welcome way to break up and afternoon with no friends to play with. It formulated nonsense, you knew that no matter what situation you knew that along the way the guys would get captured by the baddies, locked up somewhere there just happened to be a full mechanic’s workshop (including welding equipment) in which they would construct a complete weapon from household objects. This would usually take the form of a vehicle which they would use to escape and deliver the bad. The one thing everyone always remembers about the A Team is that no matter how good the weapon was they built, no matter how many bullets were fired and no matter how many vehicles were overturned, no one ever died or got injured! (OK that’s not strictly true, two people did die, still got to be one of the lowest body counts going, heck even Transformers had death, see the mass murder taking place in the cartoon movie!). No matter how predictable it was it was still a show I couldn’t miss!

3. Knight Rider

While never holding a big a place in my heart as the A Team, Knight Rider was another show that lightened my Saturday afternoon. Just like the A Team it predictable, it was cheesy and it was kid safe, but still in it’s defence it did help implement our revenge on the German’s for World War II, David Hasselhoff’s singing career! OK true that also meant we had to listen to his pityful attempts at singing as well, but it did also give us the Hoff, who is second only to the Shatner in being a cult icon and knowing how to take the micky out of himself.

4. Quantum Leap

Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett led an elite group of scientists into the desert to develop a top-secret project known as Quantum Leap. Pressured to prove his theories or lose funding, Dr. Beckett prematurely stepped into the project accelerator, and vanished.

He awoke to find himself in the past, suffering from partial amnesia and facing a mirror image that was not his own. Fortunately, contact with his own time was maintained through brain-wave transmissions with Al, the project observer, who appears in the form of a hologram, that only Dr. Beckett can see and hear. Trapped in the past, Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, putting things right that once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home.

Unlike the shows mentioned above Quantum Leap was not primarily aimed at kids. Showing in the UK on a Thursday night at 9 0′clock it was post watershed on a school night so was always going to attract a younger audience. To some extent it was a little predictable too, but it always had a feel good factor about it. The show had a good sense of humour to it and it wasn’t anywhere near as cheesy as Knight Rider and A Team. Just like Octimus Prime, Sam Beckett had some endearing qualities about him which draw you into the story and made you want him to succeed. Unlike most programs when it came time to show the final ever episode it wasn’t a sugar coated ending where everything turns out alright and things go back to how they were. Instead you were left wondering what happened to Sam as he decided to carry on leaping rather than returning home. I’m thinking it’s time to start a petition for a Quantum Leap revival!

5. The Fall Guy

I might fall from a tall building, I might roll a brand new car. ‘Cause I’m the unknown stuntman that made Redford such a star.

The stories of Colt Seavers, The Fall Guy was all about a stunt man moonlighting as a bounty hunter. A little like the A Team at times, it usually involved Colt and his buddies helping out a group of people being bothered by the thug that Colt was chasing in his role as a bounty hunter. Unlike the A Team however, rather than constructing a weapon to save the day, Colt would perform some stunt. The stunt would usually involve his truck in some way, shape or form. The show had it all, tough guys (Lee Majors plays Colt, he’s the Six Million Dollar Man they don’t come tougher), it had humour (the theme song even poked fun at Lee Major’s real life) and it had girl’s (just look up Markie Post ). All the things a growing boy needs!

That’s just some of the shows that shaped my childhood, got your own to add let me know in the comments. (Honorable mentions to Street Hawk and Airwolf!)