Topic: Sharing Your Childhood Favorites with Your Kids

[addicted2dvd]

Here recently I have been sharing some of my childhood favorites with my daughter, Brittany. And I have to admit... it is a pretty cool feeling to see your child(ren) enjoying the same shows you grew up loving!

For me... at least at this point it has been TV Series. I started with The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries... which she loved so much that I had to buy her a couple of the old Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery books. Right now she has 3 stories of each.

From there It went to what we are watching together now... Secrets of Isis. So far we watched 2 of the 3 disc collection... and she is absolutely loving it! She even tells me that I am not allowed to watch it without her... and that I have to watch it on her schedule... not mine! 

Anyway... it really is a cool feeling seeing your child enjoy the same shows you liked when you were their age (or younger).

[Touti]

There was a kids show on TV here a very long time ago.  It was called "Passe Partout" (I can image the smile on Rossroy's face right now ).  It played from 1977 to 1987.  Recently it was released on DVD and I heard a woman on the radio say that she tried something for fun.

She put together a bunch of kids, boys and girls, aged between 4 and 11 and she made them watched some episodes.  She thought they would laugh at it, and ask for something else but to her surprise they actually liked it and ended watching 2 hours (4 episodes) of it.  Not one kid ever made any comment about it looking old or being stupid or something like that.

It seems that kids are smarter than adults for certain things, when it comes to movies and tv series they seem to only be looking at the content.

[SailorRipley]

Oh, how much I would like to share my childhood movies with my own children more often!

I have two kids, boy & girl, aged 8 and 5 respectively, both are the smartest, most beautiful children I've ever known (are you sensing a bias here?  ) Unfortunately, I don't get to spend a lot of time with them. Guess a little context is in order. You see, I separated from my partner about 3 years ago, and she lives with my children in Paris, so as much as I try to see them as often as I can, the distance between countries is huge, so that's not always easy.

Two months ago I had the chance to spend quite a lot of time with them and that was incredibly fun. The boy loves everything related to King Kong so I tend to get him every single Kong item I can get my hands on. And I love the fact that he enjoys the 1933 version immensely. It's funny how kids have no prejudice at all against old films, he enjoys it just for what it is, a story well told.

My little girl attends a ballet academy, so of course she loves just about anything concerning musicals, where there's dance & singing. You know you're a dad when you end up singing the lyrics of Disney's High School Musical to yourself!

This next January they will stay for about a month with me in NZ, so I'm planning all kinds of fun to be had and of course, I already have on order all the shows & movies they like. Can't wait! 

[Najemikon]

I don't think kids TV today compares with when I was a kid and I'm only 31! The last decade or so seems to have been ruined by worrying so much about being politically correct. Even things as basically fun as Danger Mouse and Count Duckula have disappeared and I can't see what replaced them.

My cousin has three kids. A boy, about 14, whose favourite films are Bond and The Italian Job. The two girls are much younger, but I had all three of them hypnotised by Tom and Jerry. I haven't seen them concentrate as much on any modern stuff like that, but apparently T&J and Looney Toons are bad for kids, promoting violence and all that crap ...

[addicted2dvd]

You know... but I think this may be a fairly new thing. I know at least for me... I never liked the old stuff when I was young. neither did  any of the kids my age (That I knew) at the time. Of course for us the old stuff would for the most part be black and white instead of color... so that could be part of the reason. 

I can tell you a couple of parts that even though she let pass she couldn't help but to laugh at the quality (or lack there of) of the effects of Secrets of Isis... one was when Isis had to save a couple kids in the woods from a bear. Of course back then it was no more then a guy in a bear suit... but lets say the suit wasn't the best quality and the guy in the suit didn't do the best of jobs trying to convince you.  The other episode was again some kids on a trip with the teacher was in a cave... that just happened to have a cave in... but was also in the cave with an escaped gorilla. Again a guy in a suit... this time the guy did a fine job... the suit wasn't as bad as the bear suit... but you could clearly see the guy's white skin around his eyes in the eye wholes. you would of thought they would have put some dark make-up around the guy's eyes!

Anyway... when she pointed them out... wee both laughed for a couple moments and continued to watch. Really didn't phase her any more then a little extra entertainment value.

[VibroCount]

Would be nice...

But the only childhood stuff I can get my youngest to watch are musicals. She loves Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers.

But TV? Never! Not the stuff from when I was little (Lone Ranger, Dragnet, Roy Rogers, Ozzie & Harriet, Superman, Mr. Peepers, My Hero, Tales of Tomorrow, Life with Elizabeth, Love That Bob, Annie Oakley, Disneyland -- like Davy Crockett or Elfego Baca, Robin Hood, Mickey Mouse Club, Spin & Marty, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Cheyenne, Wyatt Earp, Science Fiction Theatre, The Hardy Boys, A Date with the Angels, Have Gun Will Travel, Leave It to Beaver, Perry Mason, Zorro, Maverick, Peter Gunn, Wanted: Dead or Alive, One Step Beyond, The Untouchables, Ernie Kovacs, Route 66, Rocky & His Friends, Wahon Train, etc.), nor the stuff from my teen years (Fractured Flickers, The Fugitive, The Addams Family, Mission: Impossible, The Prisoner, etc.)

She has watched & enjoyed the various (Julie Andrews, Leslie Warren) Cinderellas, and the Mary Martin Peter Pan, but again, musicals...

[JackKnightStarman]

I just showed my 2.5 year old the Disney's Jungle Book Animated, And he loves it. He sings the Bare Necessities non stop. I know he is young, But I can't wait for him to see some of the other classics that I grew up on.