Pajiba

Hey let's find out who the OLDEST Pajiban is! I was born in 1970 and 87-88 was my senior year in high school, sigh.

I wasn't watching much TV at all. I was going to Pink Floyd concerts, involved in a love triangle, trying to get into college, and--the entire second semester of my senior year--smoking a lot of pot. Still got into the college of my choice, whoooo!

Anyway, it's funny how, depending on the age you were when that particular show or movie came out, you might have totally missed it or totally been into it. I can remember my dad and my younger brother howling with laughter at Alf (I really must remind them of that very soon, and point and laugh while they cringe), but um, I think I was probably heading out the door in my acid washed denim and leopard spotted shirt to go to the Texas JAMM concert with Metallica and Van Halen. And to smoke some weed.

Good times. (No.)

Hmmm...I was 7 at this time. God I loved Perfect Strangers and Head of the Class. I had a mini crush on Howard Hesseman. I was a strange young lass.

I was born in 1959. My TV viewing consisted of The Merv Griffin Show, The Partridge Family, and The Brady Bunch. I got to stay up late and watch the very first episode of SNL because George Carlin was going to be on and I had 2 of his LPs.

My whole family also used to watch the walk through the park that HBO used to show between movies for minutes on end. We were easily entertained.

Perfect Strangers was my favorite. I still sometimes sing the Bibby-Babka song while cooking.

Wow, I can remember watching most of these shows, too, even though I've always accused my mom of being one of those anti-TV parents. No wonder our generation destroyed the world's economy; we spent our formative years glued to the tube watching Dallas and Falcon Crest, in which everyone lived in fabulous mansions, drank martinis, and wore totally awesome (by 80s standards) clothes.

I was born in '75, so Snuggiepants beats me. I was still in junior high in 87-88, wearing two different colored slouchy socks and high-top Reeboks with my denim mini-skirts. I think I went to see NKOTB with Tiffany at the state fair sometime around then.

Kudos to Tracy Ullman - she still has a a show.

Verbal Kint and Frank Cannon, functioning in proximity; King of America, indeed, as I felt at the time dreaming of a day when the rolling ladder would no longer be required to reach the Shilts works at the top. Precocious was I, like the undesirable baby shrimp at the bottom of the tray.

Well, I wasn't even in the States during the aforementioned years, but we did get Alf in the ass end of the world we were in. Ahhh...what couldn't that irreverent alien do? I miss you!

Sniff.

Gold star branded!

Uh, I was two. Yet, I have vivd memories of a lot of these shows thanks to syndication and growing up a latchkey kid.

AB, I think we established that I'm a few months older than you. I think I've also decided that you and I have the same boss and that we might actually be the same person. And AvB is another one of our personalities.

It was also my senior year and other than my GIGANTIC addiction to "Days of our Lives" or DOOL as it was known amongst my friends (because were obviously very cool), I don't recall watching much tv. "Moonlighting" and probably "My Two Dads" STFU, Greg Evigan was hot!

NO WAIT! I also watched "Knots Landing" because that show was THE SHIT!

I was married and carrying my first child that year...wow am I waxing nostalgic. I saw Beauty and the Beast on that schedule and it reminded me how rabid the fans of that show were. My next door neighbor ordered all her clothes from the show-related catalog and she went to bed for a month when the show was cancelled. She even had Vincent's face painted in oil and it hung over her mantel. They were an odd bunch.

Hey I just noticed that if we shorten AvB's new name similarly, she's StD.

Anyway StD, I am older than you by 4 years and I was finishing up college when these shows were on so I wasn't watching a lot of TV at the time either. I do remember trying to catch Wiseguy and LA Law when I could.

I was five and not allowed anything more than a half hour of TV a day. All other times I pretty much had to be outside.

Now, I sit my fat ass on the couch and watch TV or the Interwebs all night.

Great job, mom. Your strict parenting failed in the most spectacular way possible.

That 10:00 time slot pretty much consumed my parents life during those years.

I was born in '77 (I'm still young and pretty) so this was right in my time frame. I watched Alf all the time. I think it was his taste for cats. Cats suck.

Snuggiepants. Yeah, I'm going to be 50 in July and I don't know where all the time went. I've been a computer programmer for 30 years and I learned to program on punch cards (puts false teeth back in). The Internet still kinda freaks me out a bit, but I'm learning it. I refuse to Twat, Twit, Tweet?

I was born in 77, so I'm right about the middle of all of you. Ha ha ha ha...ya'lls are old!

Okay, this is war because I do in fact have a Medic Alert bracelet. (dogtag, but still...) Anyway, I wasborn in '70, and in '88 I was graduating from high school. I don't remember watching much TV, but my parents chain smoked, so maybe I just didn't see it through the constant haze.

Beauty and the Beast! Hunter! Jake and the Fatman!

I was born in 1978 (disco baby, yeah!). I can't believe my parents let me stay up late enough to watch Hunter, even if it was Saturday night. I was ten, for chrissakes!

I was born at the dawn of time, beneath the shadow of His fourth tentacle. I am eternal. Wendel formed when I was in my teens. I initially thought he was a strain of super-acne.

Damn, it smells like cabbage and Gold Bond in here. Am I the only person under twenty five? Who else is going help me steal cash from all these purses and pick out the good meds?

Help, I've fallen and I can't get up...

1975. China Beach must've started the year after, right? I watched that every Wednesday night.

"Sledge Hammer" and "Crime Story" died entirely too soon.

Jeebus, this brings back a few memories. Out of nostalgia, I bought the DVD collection of Sledge Hammer a while back. Ooooh, didn't age well. Pity. Tour of Duty, the Vietnam War drama? Ah, yes. American popular culture was soaked in Vietnam War stuff from about 1986-88.

The dramedy Hooperman was an odd duck -- John Ritter as a sensitive detective. He was always brought in to talk down jumpers, and he'd start by throwing a watermelon off of the ledge to show the jumper what the impact would look like. (One episode had a jumper who was a black man tired of racism. He said he was sick to death of cracks about fried chicken, and that if he even saw a watermelon, he'd throw up. Hooperman dumped the watermelon while it was still inside a grocery bag and pretended it was just his lunch.) It was followed in the lineup by the Dabney Coleman star vehicle (yes, there was a Dabney Coleman star vehicle in prime time in 1987, kids) The Adventures of Slap Maxwell, about a gruff sportswriter. I don't think either Hooperman or Slap Maxwell went into a second season.

I loved the Tracey Ullman Show. Is it wrong that I had a strange crush on her, and that I still do? She's not super-pretty, but she seems just so damn awesome...young Soulless was smitten.

Whoo! 1970 REPRESENT!

@ Lainey & StD(formAB): We are secretly triplets separated at birth, I'm pretty sure of it.

I fully loved Thursday night's NBC lineup, as did my parents. (I also remember me and my mom both having a crush on Remington Steele, but that's not here; it must have been a few years earlier, because I seem to recall still having a "bedtime", and being allowed to stay up late for that one. Although I could be making that up, because I'm old, and my memory's a little faulty. Also, old people just make stuff up.) Loved Who's The Boss and Growing Pains... actually, you know, I think I watched TV every damn night of the week. I was pretty shy back then, and didn't have many friends until later, when I was around 23 or so and became the social butterfly that I am today.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go rub some Ben-Gay on my joints. I'm a bit stiff from sitting in front of the computer so long.

Ha! 1963! I lose, but just barely. Thanks, BWeaves. My twenties were rather fully occupied with lying to my parents and bad dance music, as well as chemical therapy after I lost my Mom in '86. I kind of remember wanting to fuck the Republican out of Michael Keaton on Sunday nights and seeing Sam Kinison on Married With Children one Christmas, so it wasn't a total blur. Other than that? I got nothing.

Treena, I am so impressed - you know, not with the hip breaking but with the di di hey hey. I am still trying to calculate if doing it at work will tip the scale for me from mildly-eccentric-Jilly to keep-a-4-ft-radius-Jilly

Oh, I just noticed St. Elsewhere up there. Loved.That.Show.

"Sledge Hammer" and "Crime Story" died entirely too soon.

Crime Story is responsible for my enduring love of Dennis Farina. I actually enjoyed "Stealing Harvard" because of him.

"Amen," "Perfect Stangers," and "Alf" were hilarious, but I was five at the time. I remember being completely baffled by "The Golden Girls," but I've learned to love it thanks to the Lifetime Channel.

"Moonlighting" has the honor of being the first show I remember seeing a sexy scene in.

And where is "Mr. Belvedere"?

On Thursdays. I figured it was drugs or you were in an alternative universe where Michael Keaton did TV (and he totally coulda fit in with late 80s TV drama).

Speaking of foggy memory, where's Midnight Caller? Wasn't that around then? Was it earlier?

1971. i can't imagine how i ever chose between Spenser for Hire and Murder She Wrote i loved both of those shows. between my undying love for Dan Tanna Spenser and lusting after Hawk (even before he was Sisko) i don't think i missed an episode. i still watch MSW whenever i can--same with Matlock.

i watched a lot of tv, but not Alf, i hated that show. i was also one of those Beauty and the Beast freaks mentioned above. i had a big crush on Vincent--and it carried over onto Ron Perlman--i was heartbroken when it was cancelled. apparently i was a middle-aged white woman when i was a teenager.

That new-fangled imbd'er thinger really works! (I was just too lazy to use it before) For you, Jay, Midnight Caller debuted in October 1988 and ran until 91, so it began the season after this. I don't know what night.

I saw NKOTB and Tiffany at the state fair too idgiepug!! I was only 5 though, and my dad said I fell asleep before NKOTB was done. Yes, my dad took me too a boy band concert because he loved me that much. Awwwwwww

Hey, who let all these damn kids in here?! I thought this was the old folks' room.

Wait... is that my grandkid over there? You know I've got a clump of butterscotch candies on top of the teevee if you prefer them to the peppermints, jM...

Thanks! I wanna say it was Monday or Tuesday, not a fun night, like watching "Night Court" and feeling happy that the next day was Friday. Maybe it was on after Riptide?....naw, that doesn't seem right. Anyway, I watched it right from the start and so I've always liked Gary Cole (apart from "Fatal Vision", I suppose).

Quick, I'll lead them all in light chair aerobics followed by some arts and crafts, then I'll let them bitch to me about how their ungrateful kids never come to visit. While I've got them distracted you raid their rooms, jM and Optimus.

'83 for me. I was watching much different programming around '88, TGIF! Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, Step by Step, Boy Meets World. And it was Must See TV on NBC with the Cosby Show, Wings, Mad About You, Friends, and Frasier.

I was born in 1980, aka Chinese Year of the Monkey.

What's that, Julie? Yeah, you too.

I still vividly recall my dad insisting that no matter what garbage he was forced to watch during our sitcom appropriate early years, Thursday nights were his and he was damn sure watching Tour of Duty and Wiseguy. As such, I got to learn about Vietnam and the mafia at the tender of 7. Aces.

1969. I'll be *shudder* 40 in a few weeks. I did not watch any of these shows as 87/88 was my first semester of college. Hell, we didn't even have a phone, much less a television capable of receiving all those shows.

Actually, being engineering students/geeks, my roommate and I tapped into our neighbor's phone line and used it when they weren't home, so I guess we did have a phone, albeit not a number we could give out. But, being engineering students/geeks, who were we going to give out a number to?

BWeaves>> That is impressive. You wouldn't happen to have taped any of the lost episodes? :- )

A lady never talks about her age, right? And my hubs is 10 years younger than me and everyone thinks we are the same age, so I think I'll just pretend we are.

1964. Old, Baby, Old!

Max Headroom and Moonlighting ruled my tiny world.
I wrote an award-winning (ok, a B+) college paper on "the future is now" of Max Headroom. Dear Godtopus.

I just started watching Moonlighting via Netflix again, and man...anyone else remember how pervasive that weird mauve color was? That pinky-purply-brown shade was EVERYWHERE. Clothes, wall art, sofa colors, carpet, pencil holders...yeesh.

I was born in later part of 1980, so I was only 7. And I totally remember my mom not really letting us watch tv, but I've seen an awful lot of these shows. Maybe I watched them when I was at my grandma's?

DarthCorleone: Tape? Where would a 5 year old get videotape?

Video tape was so expensive in 1963 that they didn't even reshoot flubbed lines. I actually bought some of the early stuff on DVD that they didn't delete, and there's a scene where the first Doctor (William Hartnell) calls one of the TARDIS's piece of equipment "The Fornicator" and they left it in.

I have seen some of Patrick Troughton's (2nd Doctor) episodes where they still have audio and have mocked up some black and white anime to fill in the missing video. It gives me chills. They got damn close to the actual video scenes I remember.

(Puts false teeth back in. Where's my damn walker?)

You can make fun of my age, memory, and sordid past, dear Jay, but leave my chart readin' skills alone! Young 'uns. Humph. Can I call you "dear" some more? Make you some cookies? Is it cold in here? Wears my sweater?

..and by "wears" I meant "where's", obviously.

Oh Cindy, Mr. Lower was an 18 year old college freshman when I met him, and I was a 28 year old divorced woman with a kid. We've been together half his life. I thought he was 23, and that's what he though I was. He was more mature then than any other guy in his 20's that I had met. He was supporting us right out of college. He had his shit together, and I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. It works, that's all that matters. What other people think? Not so much.

Add me to the list of Pajibans passing out old ribbon candy at the assisted living facility. I was in my first year of grad school (shut up, I graduated early!) and didn't have time for much TV -- too busy deconstructing Virginia Woolf and reading literary criticism in French (and I don't speak French). I do remember making LA Law a priority, though, dammit. It rekindled all of my childhood love for Susan Dey.

My husband and I met later - I was 34 and he 24. I almost fell over when he told me how old he was, and immediately set him in my mind as a fling. Three kids later, look how that all worked out. It's still magic.

Another '75'er here, and where to begin?! This was truly a great year for TV, and since I was my most formative age, and my parents were TV junkies, I watched just about all of this. Monday was all about the CBS line up, except for Valerie's Family, because my 12 year old girl self had to watch Jason Bateman each week. And my 33 year old self still has to watch him in whatever he's in. The Tuesday night ABC line up was one of the best in TV history. I need to buy the Moonlighting DVD's, except for the last season of course. Definitely ABC for early Wednesdays, but then my parents took over for Magnum PI and, the end all be all, Dynasty at 10:00. Thursdays were a no brainer for NBC, as usual, but then my parents switched to their #1 obsession, Knots Landing. It was that show, Dynasty, and then Dallas in order of importance. Friday night was the only time I didn't have much interest in what was on. I did always watch Dallas with my parents, and then fell asleep through Falcon Crest. We need more serials set in wineries in Napa Valley. I think that one is ready to come back. And I had almost forgotten that there were still honest-to-god sitcom line ups on Saturday night. And of course I watched all of that too, NBC from 8-10. Sundays were a toss up because I always wanted to watch Family Ties for yummy Michael J. Fox, but the folks also wanted Murder She Wrote. I think by that time we had figured out the VCR and could tape one of them.

This is why I always win whenever I play any sort of TV trivia game.

One black and white TV, Katy.

Omg, my mother and her console TVs. She designed her living room decor around her latest console monstrosities. They were all huge, ugly fake wood and they all broke down within 2 years and required $500 components from Zenith. I also remember we were the first to get cable TV on our block in Montgomery Alabama and all the neighbors would crowd in our living room every 4.5 hours to watch the one movie per day that HBO would show....it had Burt Reynolds and Dom DeLuise and I think it was called "The End".

Oh shit. The metaphysics are falling apart here. Pretty soon I won't think that I'm me.

jM The only meds you're gonna get off me are Zocor for high cholesterol (it's GENETIC so shut up), Paxil (and everyone has that, sheesh), and some Claritin. Mebbe you could make the Claritin into meth, I dunno. I watch Intervention so I know this stuff.

Lainey Dude, you outed yourself. I specifically did not mention YOUR old ass or AvB's old ass, both of which are older than my ass. MWA! Hugs and kisses!

Ok my TV memories are coming back to me a bit, but there still seriously aren't any from 87-88 (again, the weed). BUT I can remember in my junior year in college (or sophomore? at this point I blame alcohol) one of my roommates was OBSESSED with China Beach. For the youngsters in the room: Marg Hellenberger once had normal lips. I loved this show called Home Front which lasted half a season, of COURSE, and if anyone can find it on DVD I will love and worship you FOREVER FOR REAL, because it was awesome. Which is probably why it was cancelled so quickly. Bastards.

By the late 80s, early 90s, Saturday Night Live was experiencing a tiny bit of a revival (or...was it the booze?) and they had the bowhead sorority girls and other stuff I can't remember too well, but I laughed at a lot.

Even younger in high school, in the years leading up to 87-88 (great year, btw), I don't think I watched much TV because back then we had one TV and there wasn't crap on in the afternoons and when your dad got home, well, he owned the damn thing, so he got to decide what was on.

I remember Home Front. The theme song was Accentuate the Positive. And my parents watched it. Geez, our family watched everything.

Ok wait, I'm getting some more memory back here. In the fall of 88, at the age of 17 (another one who peaked academically in kindergarten), I was in my first semester of college, living off-campus. One of our roommates brought this HUGE old console TV that actually had cabinet doors to cover it up with. It really...didn't work. We put plants on top and a fish tank, then later, after an unfortunate party incident, we just gutted it and used it as a bar.

BUT, my boyfriend just happened to live in the upstairs apartment and I'd go up there because they had a real working TV. One or two vivid memories: MTV was still figuring out what it wanted to be when it grew up, so it was branching out into other stuff. They showed The Young Ones, every episode of the three seasons from barely a decade before, and that was when I discovered that TV gem.

MTV also, for some odd reason, showed the movie Barbarella and weird stuff went down while I was watching that that I'd rather not talk about.

Max Headroom ... lord, forgot about that one.

87-88? In college, without a TV. I had 5-1/4" disks with word-processing and spreadsheet programs (remember having to load each program every time?), so I was farther out on the technology front than most of my fellow students.

I need to change my Depends now.

whoever said that they only get the Golden Girls now

There's a good chance that I was a slow child. Don't get me wrong, I love it now, but back in the day I had no clue what was going on. I just knew it had to do with old people sex.

In my first apartment, we all decided we were just like the Golden Girls. Hells yeah, I got to be Dorothy!

They showed The Young Ones

Posted by: Snuggie Deathie, again at April 3, 2009 2:59 PM

That show is the tits. I have so many happy memories running through my head
now.

I was born in 1947 . . . and get off my lawn!

Great times, I saw the Beatles on Jack Paar's Tonight show before they even came over to be on Ed Sullivan. Graduated in '65, ended up in 'Nam in 69, and NEVER missed Murder She Wrote. Loved that show.

-Ralphie

Wow. I didn't realize I was the youngest pajiba here. 1987 was the year I was born. Yeah...

Birth Class of '83, bitches. And strangely enough I remember Max Headroom and The Slap Maxwell Story, but only through cable reruns.

Alf was pretty much a given since I have German blood in me. (Alf was, and still is, HUGE in Germany.) And I not only watched Alf, I also watched Alf the Cartoon and AlfTales. I even had an Alf toy that was basically a Teddy Ruxpin but in Alf format. Hell, I even brought home an Alf audio cassette that was in German from the time my family and I visited our relatives in '88! (The songs were from the show, I assume the actual body of the show was from the German dub of the show, or recorded in studio like a radio play.)

Nice feature...could you perhaps do an early 90's version? I need a legitimate excuse to geek out about M.A.N.T.I.S and The Flash; remember the fail that was the CBS Friday Night LineUp (FISH POLICE?! WTF?!), and to wistfully remember the Fox Saturday Morning LineUp (Dog City and Bobby's World, FTW!)

Oh, not even close, Wormer. I'm fairly sure that George fellow has you beat by a mile. If my information is correct, he stopped breast feeding just long enough to punch out his Star Wars article.
Plus... '89 over here.

OMG, totally not anna von beaverplatz at all...etc, etc., we had that cable box thing, too and if you held down two buttons at once and put the lever thing between the channels, you could kinda' see blurry boobs on the porn channel. And hear "mmmmmmm" sounds. My neighbor taught me that. I'm not sure why I was watching wavy, blurred porn with my 26 year-old neighborguy when I was 17... hmmm, in retrospect, that might have been a bad parenting decision on my dad's part...

another child of 1970....August 1970..

Things I remember:

The girl on the show My Sister Sam was really cute, she got killed by a crazed fan. Very sad.

Newhart, Night Court and Moonlighting were the balls.

I remember the Tracey Ullman show, there was a cartoon part on it, can't remember the name of the family but that part was funny.

The show after that, Duet, got changed halfway through its run. They got rid of some characters and added new flamboyant ones to the lead girl's realtor office and called it Open House. God, my memory of the obscure is crazy.

I remember when my family was the first to have HBO in Bovard, PA....we would get together on Saturday night to watch the "new movie of the week" fresh from the theaters. The one I remember is "Heroes" with Sally Field and Henry Winkler. I don't think the show on now is a spinoff.

Wormer, sugar, you have got to pay attention! I said I was born in September of '87, Rhyme, my eternal nemesis, is younger. Yea, I pick on a kid that's younger than me and probably couldn't lift a small bag of dog food. Shut. It.

And George, dear little George, still scoots about on his training wheels.

Also, Nick at Night helped me realize the awesomeness of a lot of these shows.

While we're on the topic, does anyone remember the awesomeness that was Double Trouble, or for that matter, Nicolette Sheridan's TV debut: Paper Dolls?

Paper Dolls is what turned me gay. It featured John Waite (of Bad English fame) singing "Missing You" on a fashion runway. A young, prepubescent Pink Hulk fell deeply in love with him, even badgering his parents to buy him the album single just so he could see John's face at night before bed. Ahhh...to be young and gay again.

"And that was all in addition to watching my Mom's taped versions (off of several VCRs) of Days of Our Lives, Young and the Restless, As the World Turns, and Guiding Light."
---
Reminds me: R.I.P. "Guiding Light," age 72.

Damnable punk-ass kids.
What can you know of television without having endured such fine fare as "The Gale Storm Show"?
Without having witnessed the sheer force of personality exhibited by TV titans like Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Ted Mack? Without having lived through the "Golden Age" which brought us not only "My Living Doll" but "My Mother The Car"?
So, yeah... I think I can speak for many of us born in the mid 1950's when I say that TV was then, as it is now, pretty crappy. There were some jewels... The Dick Van Dyke Show was greatness and if you could see Star Trek through a 12 year old's eyes, you'd see the coolest show ever produced for TV. Oh, yeah... the Beatles on Sullivan and Neil Armstrong on the moon. Saw those.
So, in summary... YAY! Old People!
Born in 1954, BTW.
Do I win the pony?

Ralphie!
Oy! We should get together for a Geriatrics Olympiad. Shuffleboard, Bocce Ball, Checkers, Dominoes, maybe a little Acey Ducey and Canasta, too. We could put it on Pajiba-Cam so the young whippersnappers around these parts could see what the good times are really all about. I'll bring the Mogen-David and Ben-Gay, you bring the stack of 45's... and don't forget the autographed Angie Lansbury pic for inspiration! She's one hot mama!