Ten on Tuesday

 10 Favorite TV Shows from my Childhood. 



For the purposes of this list, I'm going to define "childhood" as "under 18," 'kay? And yes, I was a weird, intense child.

The Patty Duke Show. I have always been fascinated by twins, whether actual, spiritual, conjoined, or opposite. ("Conjoined?" you ask. Definitely. One of my greatest terrors is losing my privacy; the ultimate loss of privacy would be eternal, physical connection to another person.) Patty and Cathy did not represent two sides of me. If anything, Patty represented an alien creature who might as well have been from "The Twilight Zone" (see below) or "The Outer Limits." Cathy was closer - perhaps, at that time, the closest teenage character to whom I could have had a conversation.  


The Twilight Zone. Some episodes never have left me, like "Willoughby," and "Little Girl Lost." The first was like a projection of my own dreams: finding a place where I would fit in. The second made me certain that one day I'd find myself in an echoing, hallucinatory nowhere land. My family was so political that I was aware, even then, of the anti-McCarthyite and other underlying themes. Have there been many shows this entertaining and intelligent since? 

Dark Shadows. Multiple timelines. Glorious gothic creepiness. A major crush on Christopher Pennock, who played Jebez Hawkes.






Star Trek. Leonard Nimoy. Need I say more? Sometimes introduced important themes, sometimes entertained greatly, and always pushed limits.

Rainbow Quest. Pete Seeger. Eric Andersen. Richard and Mimi Farina. Donovan. Banjo.

The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. Steve Martin. Leigh French. Donovan. John Hartford. Pete Seeger (who did, finally, get to sing "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy"). 





The Dick Van Dyke Show. Smart and funny. 

Shindig and Hullabaloo. Indistinguishable in my memories - I loved them both. 

and, finally -

Ben Casey. Broody, intense. Man, woman, birth, death, infinity, and Vince Edwards. 















What were yours?