"Old school" stuff

[midgetshrimp]

I always watched Bill Nye and another sciencey show with a mad scentist, his female assistant, and a fat guy in a rat suit. I can't remember the name of the show... but anyway, I also watched a show on PBS of these two guys who predated Steve Irwin in the crazy, find weird animals out in the wild show. Can't remember that show either. I watched Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego, and never got into Wishbone.

I think that the show you're mentioning is Beakman's World. I used to watch it when I was a child. The mad scientist was Beakman, the female assistant I can't remember, as it changed 2 or 3 times, and the rat was called Lester.

Yes! That's it! I haven't been able to remember the name for years. Somehow it pops up in conversation now and again. Thanks! Hugs hugs!

And I've never read LotR...

[Don Alexander]

And I've never read LotR...

A lot of people have not.

It's only a shame if you actually like fantasy novels. Then it's like 101.

*prepares tar and feathers prophilactically*

[Ithilion]

what Don said

there is a reason Tolkien is considered by many the father of modern fantasy

back with the old school stuff... chronicles of narnia, bbc style

[cyanide_sweet]

wish I could include Tolkien in here, with the stuff I was exposed to during my childhood... the sad truth however is that I only got a chance to read the books when I was around 20... but then, I went wild with it... read The Fellowship of the Ring in two days (was taking my time to memorise all the names and locations) needed a day for each of the remaining two parts of LotR, then one more day for the Silmarillion... and roughly two more days for the rest of Tolkien's Middle Earth related books

did I mention I'm a fast reader? ...yeah, you've probably guessed already

and what did I read as a kid? ...pretty much everything I could get my hands on... from toothpaste labels to Russian classics, including a healthy dose of Asimov and that Jules Verne guy

I love Jules Verne! The first book I read that wasn't a picture book was 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You can tell I wanna be an English teacher when I grow up

[Don Alexander]

back with the old school stuff... chronicles of narnia, bbc style

Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis words on paper style.

I may have been late with LOTR, but my fantasy education started early. The 15 books of The Wizard of Oz... I did not read them, my mom read them to me!! Then we had Narnia, and Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles...

I'll also never forget my mom reading Stephen King's "The Body" to me (what then became the movie "Stand By Me", and both of us nearly puking from laughter at "The Revenge of Lard Ass Hogan"...

[Retiarius]

I loved those shows! I also liked the magic school bus. And Digimon. As for books, I was a big reading dork. By the time I was 6 I'd already read the Lord of the Rings. My teacher's thought I was insane, I got sent in for about a billion IQ tests

Elebenty baboobazillion geek points and for you. Now talk about being precoscious and having a good taste!

No, it took me a lot longer to read it... In my last school year, when I was 19 already...

As some of you may know (this, at least, is the story as I know it), The Hobbit and LOTR remained reasonably obscure after publication, until the hippies came along, thought the Hobbits were awesome fantasy hippies, and made the books wildly popular.

My dad, who was utterly of the whole student revolution stuff, developed a hate against LOTR without even having read the books. If the hippies loved it, it must be shite.

So while my mom had loads of SF and horror novels for me to read while growing up, we did not have LOTR, which my dad basically refused to have in his house. Until I just went ahead and bought them. And proved him to be an uttler fool.

Should I mention that he is a big fan of the movies???

The hippies made it popular, but the gamers made it immortal. After all, relatively few “hippy” books, such as Keroac’s On the Road or such are read by later generations unless forced to. But the wargamers that were doing medieval sieges with rules such as Chainmail (the old TSR version, not the newer WotC version) or Milgamex’s Ancient Warfare said, “Wouldn’t it be neat to do The Battle of Five Armies or Helm’s Deep?” So they made fantasy supplements for the rules, and the third edition of Chainmail included a fantasy army section, and that was the direct predecessor of Dungeons and Dragons. How large a percentage of the audience that saw the movie were role-playing gamers, past or present, I wonder?

[zgwortz]

I also didn't get to read Tolkien until I was older. I started reading Science Fiction avidly starting around 5th grade, and in fact devoured the entire section in both the school library and the town library through middle school. (My favorite book from that time ended up being Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, BTW -- and I still think that's one of the best pieces of SF ever...)

But fantasy? I didn't touch the stuff until I was about 16 or so, when someone loaned me a copy of The Hobbit. After that I was a lost cause, fully committed to both SF and Fantasy, and reading LOTR annually became a tradition of mine, one which sadly broke after the third film was released -- something I think I need to correct fairly soon...

[Bear]

Reading back... its just hit me and I'm surprised, as I'd forgotten too there... but no-one mentioned M.A.S.K.

[Bear]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASK It was something of a guys cartoon with transforming vehicles and big explosions and fights and stuff.

[cyanide_sweet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MASK It was something of a guys cartoon with transforming vehicles and big explosions and fights and stuff.

One of the cable channels had reruns of that! I remember watching that as a kid. Yay splosions. I also liked inspector gadget

[Ithilion]

ahem...

le sigh... and Dinosaucers, Spiral Zone, Ulysse31, Robotech, Mask, Defenders of the Earth, Pole Position, Kabamaru, Plawress Sunshiro, aand so many more... sigh

EDIT: and cause i hate not adding something new... who remembers Captain Harlock?

[Azrael]

ahem...

le sigh... and Dinosaucers, Spiral Zone, Ulysse31, Robotech, Mask, Defenders of the Earth, Pole Position, Kabamaru, Plawress Sunshiro, aand so many more... sigh

EDIT: and cause i hate not adding something new... who remembers Captain Harlock?

Ooh! Ooh! Mista Kotta! Arcadia of My Youth was full of win for me. As I recall it was done by the same lady that made Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers). I just wish I could find it on DVD somewhere, but alas it is looong out of print and even e-Bay is a fail.

[Azrael]

Can't believe I forgot this one as it was one of my favorite shows growing up: The Muppet Show Waaaaaaaaah!!

[LadySheDevil]

Can't believe I forgot this one as it was one of my favorite shows growing up: The Muppet Show Waaaaaaaaah!!

Bork bork bork!

Sesame Street too, though I really only watched that when I was home sick from school... And, you know... The Price is Right

[Ithilion]

as funny as the chef is, nothing beats the two old guys... for some reason i always saw myself in their place... and not because of any relating to age