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When you try to tell your kids that back in the old days certain things were better you can usually make a decent argument. For example, you could play outside without fear of smog, nobody you knew was alergic to peanuts and you could walk out of a store with a handful of gum and candy that would last you the whole week for a quarter.

Some things aren’t as easy to defend such as Saturday morning kids shows. Sure we had classics like Looney Tunes (before they got all censored and polically correct), the Flintstones and Scooby (before Scrappy) and of course Josie and Pussy Cats but let’s look at some live action shows that you likely watched as a kid in the 70s either because nothing else was on or you actually liked it though secretly you wished the Jetsons were on again.

Nobody really remembers this until you show them the picture of the jacked up RV and they suddenly vaguely recall seeing it. The other reason they likely don’t remember is the fact it only aired one season’s worth of shows but ended up in reruns for many years after.

From the opening sequence we learn, “For millions of years, Earth was fertile and rich. Then pollution and waste began to take their toll. Civilization fell into ruin. This is the world of the 25th century. Only a handful of scientists remain. Men who have vowed to rebuild what has been destroyed…this is their achievement… Ark II, a mobile storehouse of scientific knowledge, manned by a highly trained crew of young people. Their mission: to bring the hope of a new future to mankind.”

That’s it? That’s the master plan? Even as a kid I knew we’d be screwed if the future of mankind depended on an Asian woman, a young boy, his monkey and a hipster with a jet pack. The show did have some decent morals and was kind of an eerie foreshadowing to what is actually happening with our environment.

Shazam! Isis Power Hour

Okay I’ll admit she was rather easy on the eyes but are you telling me there weren’t any beefed up actors that could have filled the Shazam! costume out a little more super heroish than Jackson Bostwick? But I digress.

Shazam! lasted three seasons after its debut in 1974. The premise was Billy Batson (Michael Gray) and his guardian known only as Mentor traveled around and always wound up mixed up in some kind of problem (Nice going mentor – way to teach the kid how to stay out of trouble). Whenever the need for a super hero came up, Billy Batson would utter the word “Shazam!” and get transformed into Captain Marvel.

The storyline for Isis involved Andrea Thomas (Joanna Cameron), who was a high school science teacher. While on an archeological dig in Egypt, she found an amulet that belonged to an ancient queen named Hatshepsut (rumor has it is was a play on the phrase “That Cheap Slut”) which would grant the wearer the powers of the Goddess Isis.

She only lasted two seasons even though it was a much stronger show than Shazam!. Both characters would appear in each other’s shows which kind of begged the question of why not just let them join forces for the whole hour and get a real good story going. In the end both shows would try to hammer some moral into you at the end of each episode which is more than what you can say for Yugioh! They eventually made them into cartoons which were probably much less expensive to produce.

Bigfoot and Wildboy

I’m not really sure where they blew they’re budget on this show but it certainly wasn’t on Bigfoot’s costume. The premise was that Bigfoot found the orphaned boy and raised him in the wild, hence the name Wildboy (man, the writers were firing on all cylinders that day). Naturally they went on to battle all evil doers in the forest and avoid capture. Let’s see the Loch Ness Monster do that !

The show started as a fifteen minute piece on the Kroft Super Show in the late 70s before getting it’s own thirty minutes in 1979. It lasted only one season after that. Can’t imagine why – there’s all kinds of evil happening in the forest on a regular basis. Isn’t there? The episodes were released on DVD but have been extremely rare and have actually become a collector’s item.

So what do you get when you combine the late King of Pop with the classic Super Mario Brothers video game? Super Michael Jackson Brothers of course!

Arguably one of the most influential Hip-Hop artists to inspire the newer generation of rappers are Run D.M.C. They were credited with bringing rap to the mainstream with their collaboration with Aerosmith and have been honored with numerous accolades including showing up 48th on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest musical artists of all time back in 2004.

It seems their influence is still felt to this very day not only in music but politics as well. I seem to recall Obama using the term “It’s tricky” a few times in his address yesterday on Healthcare reform. Coincidence !?!? I think not.

Before they were stars, many actors and musicians were just average Joe’s trying to make a buck while waiting to make it big. I’m sure they hoped that many of their early efforts would fade away on crappy VCR tapes never to be seen again and eventually forgotten.

Of course, that was before the internet. Thanks to modern technology, these examples of fine acting and suave career decisions will haunt them forever. Here’s two good examples for you:

John Travolta for SafeGuard Soap

Jason Alexander from Seinfeld for the McDLT

You may want to pray the doctor is out. It seems kind of dumb to be squeamish about needles or having a prostate exam when you see the kinds of vintage instruments of terror doctors used back in the day.

Click the Vicodin popping doctor below to goto the article.

Here’s a couple of cool Star Wars related links that don’t really need much of an introduction.

It’s amazing how far we’ve come with video games and home video game platforms. When you consider that the average home gmaing console has more computing power than NASA had during the Apollo missions, it really puts things in perspective on how far we’ve come from the early days of Pong.

I know I’ve spent countless hours in arcades back in the day spending a small fortune on quarters to try and just get to the next level of the latest and greatest game. Even though you knew they were making it more difficult to suck more quarters out of you – you still fed those babies like your life depended on it. When home computers and gaming systems came along, it allowed you to play in the comfort of your own home without having to constantly feed more quarters. Having said that, you had to spend a small fortune to keep up with the technology to be able to play the latest and greatest games.

Game consoles came along and we were hooked on crappy graphics for the longest time until eventually you had games that rivalled and beat out the PC games. They were easier to play than using a PC keyboard but you killed your fingers and lost hours of sleep just trying to beat the damn thing or get to the next elusive level.

One thing I have noticed though is that games in the old days like Wolf 3D or Doom were quick loading games that allowed you to jump in and start blasting. Simpler games that although challenging, didn’t require weeks of training or learning key combinations. I find the older I get, the more I like and miss the older games. I guess it’s whatever you grew up with that will remain near and dear to your heart, but I think we’ve all been there when it comes to sitting down to play a quick game only to have a slow loading PC just kill the will to play anything or wish that photon balster in the gam was real so you could actually unleash your wrath on the wretched PC!

Click here to play Retro arcade games from the 80’s.