Kid's TV in late 90's-00's

TV shows of morning British childhood
On
November 30, 2009
Every day in the morning before primary school (or elementary as you Americans would call it) I would get up at 7:00 and watch TV until 8:30. Why? Well my friends and I watched CBBC (Children'c British Broadcasting Corporation) for the cartoons. Maybe not the most energetic thing to do but hey.
Let's start with what came on first...


Chucklevision
This slapstick "sketchshow" has been around for ages- as far as i know it is still making new episodes! Barry and Paul Chuckle aka the chuckle brothers have a 15 minute slot in which to do something mundane and then make it as hilarious as possible. And surprisingly, I was addicted to this like a fly to yellow paper. Once again the theme tune sticks in my head-"chuckle-chucklevision, chuckle-chucklevision" as well as memorable quotes such as "to me, to you" which often results in a heavy object being dropped on toes.

UBOS
What happened to this show??? I rank this as my favourite cartoon that CBBC dare to put on. This was essentially a spin off of Harry Potter, since it was created soon after the Philosophers stone came out on film. I remember Casandra the Tenth, aka Cassy, a teenage(?) witch whose family had a history of famous witches and wizards at the school. Gus, the elf who was so cocky and Verne, aka Mortie the human who often didn't understand what was happening. Being effectively 9th graders, they had to juggle school work (of which there seemed to be very little) and battling the minions of Zarlac, with the help of a magic book, the Ultimate Book of Spells, aka UBOS. Had me hooked for a while, despite the fact it only went on for 2 years. I watched in vain wating for the show to magically reappear and then i just gave up and got a life.


Mona the Vampire
Yes this was also shown in the afternoon, but trust me on this one. It was also on in the morning. This was another excellent cartoon, of an ordinary girl who used some wacky methods to defeat enemies, like hairspray or peper. Think batman on a budget and more humourous and your almost there.

Tracy Beaker(based on Jacqeline Wilson's books)
This show was very topical. Yet it wasn't meant to be. It was about a 10 year old in a care home. This should really have come with advice from childline. I thought sometimes the show could be very moving, with her dreams of living with rich foster parents, but no one would adopt her. So she would fly into trantrums unti lahe got her own way, often destroying things. This was meant to be humourous!! I found very little of it that funny, yet i enjoyed this show on the whole. I think it's still going. I also had cartoons of her dreams and thoughts- like monty python only without satire.


Brum
Sort of a toddlers show, and yet so adorable i've heard of adults watching this show! A very small car who essentially went around helping people who were in trouble. He opened his car doors in exclamation of almost anything, and his only real form of communication was his horn. He also lived in a workshop full of old rusty cars. Nonetheless we all fell for him at some point in our lives.

Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow

I have yet to meet a person of my age who didn't watch this. That is how popular this show was. They even do reruns!! It was a saturday morning show, which went on for 3 hours, live, then another 3 hours on the digital channel, which most of the population didn;t seem to watch, as we didn;t have digital(a it complicated to explain). Richard Mccourt and Dominic Wood were just essentially slapstick performers and magicians. 6 children stayed in the "house" and played lots and lots of different games The winner was the person with the most points. Games included make dick sick and baby race, where poor babies were made to run at their own pace across a 10 foot section of carpet. Often a lot of crying from the babies. Many things were done without the children, like the talking picture, which was basically chjildren's satire of celebrities, and BOGIES. BOGIESbogiesbogiesbogies!!!! This is why the show was cancelled, after 3 glorious years. Dick and Dom would try to shout BOGIES the loudest in in convenient places, like libraries. The government stepped in!! How many times does that happen? But it was too late. Even today if anyone dare shout that dreaded word, then you can have an entire school shouting BOGIES. You have been warned. The crazy thing is that bogies was on the first ever show! Oh yes the pants dance as well- whichever child had the lowest points on saturday (and i think sunday as well) then they got a piece of underwear on their head and did the pants dance,"just liiike they do in france". The best show ever made by CBBC? I say yes! BOGIES!!!

Smile

This came after the millenium, about the same time as Dick and Dom in da Bungalow. It went on from 7:30 to 11:00. A variety of cartoons were shown, but the format was to have phone in competitions so children could play games and win prizes. Fearne Cotton, Reggie Yates and DJ, along with a puppet called made the show really entertaining and as such my sundays were nothing but watching Smile. When they changed DJ and Fearne
with ither presenters I thought they had lost the essence of the show.
Basil Brush
Originally shown in the 60's, this puppet had a 40 year hiatus(like Doctor Who), and then he was modernised, and given his own show again with human friends and some relatives. He was another slapstick type of guy and yet this little fox ran off with our ratings! "ha-ha-ha-boom-boom!" was his little catchphrase and for a while it was actually a common thing to hear in the playground.


Among other cartoons- a lot are from America, if not all of them, here is a list of just some of those I can remember:

Pink Panther(with inspector Clouseau)
Scooby-Doo(many different variants)
Taz
Looney Tunes
Tiny toons
X-men
Batman and Robin
Captain Caveman
Wacky races(shown once, maybe twice ever)
Secret Squirrel
Top Cat
Arthur
Tom and Jerry

just to name a few.

In the mid 90's there was Live and Kicking which had the Simspons and otherwise i don't really remember much of that show. It was aired on friday and saturday.

However, I will mention one thing from CITV- on saturday morning there was something which had a similar format to a saturday morning show, which had ANIMANIACS!! as a cartoon. I loved it. I've seen the film and couldn't stop laughing even at the end of the film. It only lasted a year, but i don't care. It's my first real memory of ITV.

Well thats my first article. Please tell me other shows i've missed out from CBBC. Someone may want to rival me with a CITV version but i don't care. I will do another on CBBC in the afternoon at some point...
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