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Old channels you remember?



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Soldier

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Hello,

In light of the Coronavirus running rampant in the present, I want to take this time to reflect on the past before the virus mutated and spread to what it is today, to a simpler time that perhaps all of you shared. Growing up with a television/vhs set was commonplace when I was growing up, and between the big three (Cartoon Network, Nick and Disney Channel) there were some channels that weren't really talked about that much, but were still present nonetheless. I was one of those kids that wouldn't watch just the big 3, I branched out to other channels that were hit or miss. This thread is to discuss some of those channels/movies you watched and maybe remember some of what you saw. Who knows? someone on here possibly watched the same thing as you back in the day.
I'll start:
Back when I had to go to my grandparents place after school and before school, I would sometimes watch discovery kids (which if you didn't know, was a split channel from the discovery network that primarily aimed at the kid/preteen demographic). I still remember tuning in on a cold winters morning, school was cancelled and i was feasting upon a pumpkin muffin from Dunkin Donuts while watching trading spaces, boys vs girls. Anyone else remember that show? It was about a group of boys and girls renovating each others rooms to fit their tastes (I.E, one boy loved camping, so the girls had to make the room look outdoorsy, complete with a mounted bear with a television in its belly!). The show's bland and unrealistic premise just drew my vague attention as a kid for whatever reason, though looking back I know now it was all staged in some backlot studio. Though looking back, I remember something about one of the episodes that always made me question about the practicality of it. What i remember is one of the boys really enjoying hockey(or soccer, can't remember which), so the girls redid the room as a runk with the bed being part of a functional scoreboard that descended from the ceiling. I got to thinking "what would happen if the kid was stuck on the bed when it went up? would he be squished like a pancake?" and then when i grew up, I thought "eh, the kid's probably sick of the room by now. they're only... 26 years old! jesus cripes, that's kind of sad". Other shows revolved around mysteries, what the future holds in terms of earth's biological life, egypt mythology, etc. Then it went and got turned into the hub, and I hate it now.
 

mouflon

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I’ve always found shows with the premise “stranger comes into your house and moves your stuff around and replaces some of it” super weird and inappropriate. Like, dude, get the heck outta my house, ya weirdo. I like my stuff where it is and you gotta learn what boundaries are. (Like you say though, t’s mostly fake, and it’s not like they’re breaking into people’s houses are anything. It just seems like a weird idea to me, haha.)

I'm not sure how many American channels we got in the UK when I was a kid so I don't know if we had Discovery back then. I mostly watched cartoons on CN, Nick and Disney so have no idea if the show you mentioned even aired here, though if it didn't, we probably had something very similar at least. Doesn't help my memory is generally super shoddy.

I remember years back there used to be a channel called Anime Network. At the time it was the only channel showing anime at reasonable hours (to my knowledge). I only found out about it because as I was looking for something to watch on evening, I saw they were showing Fullmetal Alchemist. I’d been interesting in watching FMA for a while so put it on. My mum was with me and we watched together and loved it. Every Tuesday at 8pm thereafter we’d watch it together. My brother watched it on his computer around the same time via less-than-legal means but he was always behind us so we could never talk about spoilery stuff in front of him, haha.

I saw some other series via Anime Network but FMA was the only one that really stuck with me. My mum and I watched FMA Brotherhood for the first time last year and started re-watching the original series again in the past two weeks. So yeah, just that one incidental viewing of a channel, which no longer exists (I don’t think it last longer than like 2 years or something), helped make all those memories. Funny I never really thought about it that much until this topic either.
 

Soldier

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I’ve always found shows with the premise “stranger comes into your house and moves your stuff around and replaces some of it” super weird and inappropriate. Like, dude, get the heck outta my house, ya weirdo. I like my stuff where it is and you gotta learn what boundaries are. (Like you say though, t’s mostly fake, and it’s not like they’re breaking into people’s houses are anything. It just seems like a weird idea to me, haha.)

I'm not sure how many American channels we got in the UK when I was a kid so I don't know if we had Discovery back then. I mostly watched cartoons on CN, Nick and Disney so have no idea if the show you mentioned even aired here, though if it didn't, we probably had something very similar at least. Doesn't help my memory is generally super shoddy.

I remember years back there used to be a channel called Anime Network. At the time it was the only channel showing anime at reasonable hours (to my knowledge). I only found out about it because as I was looking for something to watch on evening, I saw they were showing Fullmetal Alchemist. I’d been interesting in watching FMA for a while so put it on. My mum was with me and we watched together and loved it. Every Tuesday at 8pm thereafter we’d watch it together. My brother watched it on his computer around the same time via less-than-legal means but he was always behind us so we could never talk about spoilery stuff in front of him, haha.

I saw some other series via Anime Network but FMA was the only one that really stuck with me. My mum and I watched FMA Brotherhood for the first time last year and started re-watching the original series again in the past two weeks. So yeah, just that one incidental viewing of a channel, which no longer exists (I don’t think it last longer than like 2 years or something), helped make all those memories. Funny I never really thought about it that much until this topic either.
It's of no surprise that you hadn't seen the show, It was on discovery kids which I think is now called the hub now for some reason? It focuses on shows that at that time (I was around 15 when it changed) I wouldn't be interested in, though they did have R.L stine's the haunting hour, with all of its weird cheesiness you'd expect from it. Somebody had to be watching the show at least, it got 3 seasons somehow. And an entire channel dedicated to anime? huh, I didn't get into anime much growing up until I was much older, but that could have changed my perspective.
 

2 quid is good

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I'm also from the UK, and growing up CN, Nick and Disney channels were all channels you needed to pay for and we're digital, this was still at a time when you could move around an aerial and pick up signals from anywhere XD

As a result I didn't watch much of the "big three" as we only had these channels for a couple months to a year at various points in my life, so most of the time I watched CBBC or CITV, and a looooot of the Pop channels (Pop, Tiny Pop, Kix, Popgirl). The pop channels would show a lot of older American cartoons and shows that were no longer showing on the paid channels, so I didn't miss out on toooo much. After Toonami, Kix was definitely the channel I loved the most, and it lasted a lot longer too. It was filled with superhero cartoons, anime, and in its earlier days it had a lot of extreme sports shows which was great. It shut down 3 years ago, but honestly I would love to watch something like it now.

Interestingly enough, my mind associates a lot of CN/Disney shows with urdu, because every year I would go on holiday to Pakistan where my uncle had "free cable" hahahaha. Anyway, I got to watch a lot of the current shows for 4-6 weeks but not always in English, the English versions would be played really late at night. Pakistan also had a really good version of Animax which the UK never got.

One of the things I think the UK did extremely well was Saturday morning shows however. Maybe you remember this @mouflon but my weekends would be split between me trying to watch all of Dick and Don in Da Bungalow on cbbc, and then toonattik on citv. I also liked TMI but thought it was much weaker than dick and dom, and there was also Holly and Stephens ministry of mayhem before those.

I do miss a lot of these channels, Kix, Jetix, and citv is a real shadow of itself. I think they really shaped my childhood and it does kind of sadden me to see that channels nowadays are so often bland and vanilla with their promos, bumpers and eye catches. I really loved when channels showed personality and cohesion with their shows and advertising those shows, like the CN city promos, those really stick out in my memory.

Generally speaking, I guess I just dislike the shift to 11 minute comedy shorts rather than 22 minute story driven cartoons
 
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One of the things I think the UK did extremely well was Saturday morning shows however. Maybe you remember this @mouflon but my weekends would be split between me trying to watch all of Dick and Don in Da Bungalow on cbbc, and then toonattik on citv.
I loved Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow too. I mostly watched CBBC and sometimes CITV as a kid. I remember being really excited when CBBC launched as a separate channel, rather than just being broadcast on BBC 1 or 2 for a few hours a day,

They didn't show a lot of anime, so I only saw much of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and the 2000s Astro Boy series. I watched other cartoons, like Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (apparently somebody in the UK thought that Ninjas had too many violent connotations). But also I remember watching a lot of original live action shows, like zany sitcoms aimed at children and also some programs which were quite realistic.

I particularly remember Tracy Beaker, which was about children in a care home dealt with some quite serious stuff like behavioural problems and abandonment issues. But the show was also a lot of fun to watch and Tracy was a very real main character, frequently she took pranks too far and threw temper tantrums but you could see she wasn't bad deep down but was really sad and I think it's good to see characters, especially girls like that in stories for kids.

I worry a little bit for kids these days like who just watch cartoons, like my niece. There are a lot of good cartoons our there but I feel like I was lucky to grow up watching some shows more grounded in real life, and not so many kids are getting that now.
 

2 quid is good

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I loved Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow too. I mostly watched CBBC and sometimes CITV as a kid. I remember being really excited when CBBC launched as a separate channel, rather than just being broadcast on BBC 1 or 2 for a few hours a day,

They didn't show a lot of anime, so I only saw much of Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh, and the 2000s Astro Boy series. I watched other cartoons, like Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles (apparently somebody in the UK thought that Ninjas had too many violent connotations). But also I remember watching a lot of original live action shows, like zany sitcoms aimed at children and also some programs which were quite realistic.

I particularly remember Tracy Beaker, which was about children in a care home dealt with some quite serious stuff like behavioural problems and abandonment issues. But the show was also a lot of fun to watch and Tracy was a very real main character, frequently she took pranks too far and threw temper tantrums but you could see she wasn't bad deep down but was really sad and I think it's good to see characters, especially girls like that in stories for kids.

I worry a little bit for kids these days like who just watch cartoons, like my niece. There are a lot of good cartoons our there but I feel like I was lucky to grow up watching some shows more grounded in real life, and not so many kids are getting that now.
I remember when CITV finally got its own channel too, definitely was excited for that! I think a lot of CBBC shows, even the ones with more fantasy and Sci fi settings, dealt with a lot of real issues. Tracy Beaker was a favourite of mine growing up too, and this show about wheelchair kids who played basketball called Desperados, that really had an impact on me especially because one of the main characters dies in it, plus it just deslt with a lot of harsh stuff like that.

There was also just generally a lot of good mini series too, like Postcode, which dealt with kids from london that had to deal with immigration statuses, gangs, all of that stuff, a few of the things that I was exposed to fairly regularly as a kid. CBBC still does produce some good live action stuff but it's mostly one off movies or mini series, their proper live action shows are really light on substance these days which I think is a bit of a letdown
 

mouflon

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I freaking loved Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow! I’d totally forgotten about it and, having now looked it up, realise just how old it is. I have a recollection of watching it as an older teen/adult and not a kid, but I guess I was one given the airing years? Unless there were repeats? Like I said, I’ve got one shoddy memory…

I more remember the shows I watched when I were really young rather than the channels. Pingu, Mr. Ben, Spot the Dog. I think maybe they were CITV or CBBC?

I also remember being in primary school and watching Pokémon at 8am every day before leaving for school. We’d just be heading out the door as the adverts afterwards ended and The Smurfs came on. Not sure what channel that was. I actually wanna say it was Sky, but ??? who knows.

Oh, and DBZ and Tenchi Muyo aired on Cartoon Network… I think? Though I only ever really Tenchi Muyo since it was an anime and anime was this big new shiny thing to my naïve eyes back then. DBZ I enjoyed for some years, though.

I remember watching Jetix, too, but only vaguely. It’s the logo that sticks out in my mind. I have no idea what shows I watched. I’m starting to think even when I were young I was already much more into video games than television, since I have loads more memories of games even as an itty bitty tiny kid than I do TV, haha.
 

Ballad of Caius

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My Gen Z ass thought you were referring to old YouTube channels, AJHAJHAHAHAA.

But yeah, back in the day I was way more into television than I am now. I scarcely used my TV for anything besides gaming and YouTube/Netflix. But old channels I frequent were Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, and both Disney channels: Channel and regular one.

I especially remember Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
 

Vulpes XIII

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The channels and shows I remember that I used to watch when I was growing up were:

CITV - Jungle Run

BBC One - Get your own back, 50/50

CBBC - Raven, Tracy Beaker

Fox Kids/Jetix - Sonic X, Pokémon,Beyblade,Digimon,Shaman King, Sailor Moon

Pop Channels - Zoey 101,Lizzie McGuire and I think it was also one of the Pop channels H20 Just Add Water was on

Also lots of shows on Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel
 
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I used be a near-obsessive junkie for all of the supernatural shows that used to run on the Travel Channel (and I think even the History Channel had some too). And not like the reality TV stuff of people ghost hunting; I'd rather do that myself than watch other people do it. Travel Channel in particular used to have their Weird Travels (I think that's what it was called) segment, typically Fridays & Saturdays, and they'd air documentaries and docudramas about places famous for being considered haunted, and also the documentaries about like, bigfoot and such. My favorites were the Haunted Hotels series, and a special that focused on a town Kansas that was rumored to have like, a dozen different haunted places.

Yeah, I was (and still am) a weird kid (who is now no longer a kid).
 

WaltK

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I’m a UK kid, so I initially grew up on CITV and CBBC, this being years back before they were spun off into their own channels.

CBBC had some great shows (it was where I first watched Rugrats, for example), but overall, I liked CITV the best. Aside from imported shows like Pokemon, it also had it’s own programming that I used to love like My Parents are Aliens and Art Attack.

(the male presenter in that clip is a young Arthur Darvill, AKA Rory off Doctor Who)

ITV also used to have an early weekend morning block called Diggit, which was basically the Disney block, where I saw shows like Recess for the first time. The block was especially well known for launching the career of TV and radio presenter Fern Cotton.

And of course there was SMTV Live and Live & Kicking, the two big, competing breakfast shows.

We eventually got cable in 2000, and I gradually shifted over to channels like Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, but I’ll talk about that another time.
 

2 quid is good

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Man it was always so hard to pick which saturday morning show to watch, but once Dick and Dom stopped airing CITV was clear ahead of CBBC with Toonattik, even stephen and Holly's saturday showdown was fun

Edit: it has come to my attention that I keep repeating myself, I guess the nostalgia resets my brain when it comes to this thread
 

NEOFuddyDuddy

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I remember there was this one channel named Kabillion that had reruns of shows like Code Lyoko and Hero 108. That was pretty wholesome when I was a middle schooler, always coming home to watch those. Unfortunately, my free on-demand stopped being free (wrap your head around that one) before I was thrown into mature content by way of 1000 Ways to Die reruns. Not all bad afterwards, but I remember the halcyon days of those cartoons that I would always come home to.
 

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Okay, so, in this part of the world, a long long time ago, like, the 90's or sumthin', CN was the end all be all channel for kids to watch because it was either that or their playstation and computer, and there wasn't a lot of video games back then that caught my attention. Unfortunately every 9PM they'd change it to TCM, which would play old black and white movies until like 5AM. It was dreadfully boring as a kid, so you can imagine how happy I was when they finally gave TCM its own channel and cartoons played past 9PM.
 

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Okay, so, in this part of the world, a long long time ago, like, the 90's or sumthin', CN was the end all be all channel for kids to watch because it was either that or their playstation and computer, and there wasn't a lot of video games back then that caught my attention. Unfortunately every 9PM they'd change it to TCM, which would play old black and white movies until like 5AM. It was dreadfully boring as a kid, so you can imagine how happy I was when they finally gave TCM its own channel and cartoons played past 9PM.
This may sound weird but, I miss when children’s TV channels used to sign off at night. I dunno how to explain it, I guess it just makes the time the channel is on air more special.

I remember when this was how Nickelodeon signed off at 10PM every night:
 
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