Reflections on Childhood TV Shows: From Adored to Disdained

Do you remember a TV show that you once loved but now look back on with a different perspective? This article explores some personal reflections on childhood shows that were once adored but are now considered dreck by the author.

The Munsters

During my formative years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, one of the shows I loved the most was The Munsters. The humor, albeit simple, was perfect for a child like me. In contrast, shows like The Addams Family had jokes that I couldn’t always understand. However, as I grew older, I realized that Herman the Monster, with his temper tantrums and immaturity, was more of a nuisance in real life than a comic character. This realization made it difficult for me to watch The Munsters now.

The Dukes of Hazzard, The Greatest American Hero, and More...

Most series from my childhood, particularly those from the late 1970s to the mid-1980s, share a common theme of being quite shallow. Around a dozen years ago, I had an IT job with long 12-hour overnight shifts. During these shifts, my coworker often brought in DVDs of old series that we could sample. Among them were The Dukes of Hazzard, The Greatest American Hero, The Incredible Hulk, Magnum P.I., The A-Team, and Buck Rogers. To a one, they were simply idiotic—dumbed down to the intelligence level of a 14-year-old, with humor that was even more juvenile. These series followed a predictable formula where characters would act a certain way and the plots were as formulaic as plastic and cardboard props.

Every episode seemed to follow the same structure: David Banner always 'hulked out' exactly once per episode at the half-hour mark and again in the climactic scene at the end. The writing was ghastly, with every episode beginning fine before descending into existential chaos before resolving with all loose ends tied up. We watched with morbid fascination, impressed by how universally bad and formulaic these series were.

Speed Racer from a Child's Eye and a Law Student's Perspective

Another show that stood the test of time—albeit in a different way—was Speed Racer. My mother forbade me from watching it as a child because she deemed it too violent. I managed to watch some episodes anyway and absolutely adored them. The show’s jumping car, the little chimpanzee Chim Chim, the mystery of Racer X, and the endless possibilities involving Speed and his brother Racer X were all captivating. A particular episode involving a gigantic car driving down city streets knocking over other cars stands out vividly in my mind.

After about 20 years, when I was in law school and discovered that MTV was rerunning Speed Racer, I was excited to catch up on missed episodes. However, watching these episodes, I found them completely terrible. The animation, plots, and characters were awful. It was the most stupid thing I had ever watched. This stark realization contrasts with my fondness for another Japanese dubbed show, Kimba the White Lion, which my mother never banned. Even decades later, watching Kimba the White Lion with my own son, I found it to be a lot cruder but still a delightful experience.

In conclusion, it's fascinating how the same show can mean vastly different things to us at different stages of our lives. While The Munsters and Speed Racer have both left a lasting impression, they are now vastly different memories from my childhood and law school years.