A Substack Letters series between Mark Dykeman (How About This) and Julie Falatko (Do The Work) about childhood influences on creative work as an adult, starting with local television for kids
I’m too young for these so I’m quite curious, seeing as I have late Boomer parents and jumped over any knowledge of this time...
We also had 40! channels on cable in the ‘90s. And my parents were shockingly ahead of the curve and we ended up being among the first to get digital cable once it arrived (not because my parents thought we needed all those channels, they just wanted the sports).
Considering how much television I watched with the 10 or so channels we had, I can't imagine what I would have done with 40! I'd probably still be sitting there in front of the TV.
This is where I admit I actually don’t watch that much TV! Five people, two TVs, and I was the odd one out. I still don’t watch much and my parents thought it was weird till I pointed this out.
Ha, yes! We had maybe 5 to 7 local channels, and I somehow managed to watch 7 hours of TV between Friday nights and Saturday mornings. (Friday night sitcoms, Saturday morning cartoons.) But I honestly wasn't a screen junkie...I was a voracious reader!
This promises to be a very interesting exchange of letters, Mark and Julie. I was spawned around a decade earlier than you, and in the UK, so my childhood viewing was centred on Saturday morning cinema: dead cheap for kids, and showing films like Hercules Unchained. As far as I know we didn't have Switchback on tv, but we had a programme that sounds similarly madcap: TisWas. It was meant for kids, but I (and other uni students) were enjoying it in our 20s!
Saturday morning television sure seemed to supplant Saturday morning cinema in North America as well, although I think it may have happened at least a decade earlier than in the UK. Apparently Switchback was also enjoyed by university students nursing their hangovers as well!
I WISH we'd had Saturday morning cinema. Though eating cereal on the floor while watching She-Ra is probably almost like leaving the house to see Hercules Unchained, right?
Letter #1 should have a warning. I found myself being transported back in time at a very high speed! Lovely read that will keep me smiling all day. Thank you.
I don’t think a day passes where I don’t think about Switchback, which is a loose template for an audio Zine I’ve been working on.
I vaguely remember Miss Anne as a local version of Romper Room. Miss Anne’s show was shot at CHSJ in Saint John, where our old friend John was living, and if I recall he was one of the kids on set once.
Do you remember that the CHSJ TV audio was also available on the AM radio band?
Wait, now I want to hear more about what an audio zine is! Especially one based on Switchback, which I hadn't heard of until Mark told me, and which I know I would have LOVED as a kid. Or now.
An audio Zine to me is a personal mix of spoken word, weird noises, music and other material that may or may not be organized around a theme. I did them on audio cassettes and later CDs when I was making a lot of apazines in the 90s especially. Friends like mark were kind enough to collaborate on some of them. I also used to do video zines on vhs. I had a lot of time on my hands.
These days of course people are mostly making podcasts but I don’t really tend to have ideas that sustain my interest long. The one I’m working on is not a direct remake or tribute to switchback but definitely is inspired by its low tech, retro vibe.
I really like this idea. I've been thinking lately about how much I admire creative people who do a lot of different things. Play guitar, write poetry, make films, skateboard. And then they might figure out a way to do some or all of them together in one piece of art. A cassette zine sounds so delightful to me. McSweeney's did an audio issue of their quarterly literary magazine, and I haven't gotten it (yet?) but I'm fascinated by the idea of combining a print literary magazine with audio. (https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/mcsweeneys64) I love the idea of a book/zine that had all these interactive elements but also in a retro way, so it's not just another use of the internet.
Hey Scott, yes to all of the above! I honestly hadn't thought about Switchback very much since the 1980s so the research I did for the post was a lot of fun. It was an amazingly creative show when I stop and think about it. I'm not sure if Stan is still alive or not: I tried searching for him via Google because I thought I'd heard he passed away.
This was such fun to read, Mark! It brought me back to my childhood (I'm an older millennial) watching shows like Eureka's Castle, The Elephant Show, and 3-2-1 Contact at my babysitter's house. At home, it was Sesame Street (I must have driven my parents crazy with the endless alphabet and number songs), Lamb Chop's Play-Along, and Shining Time Station in the mornings. But being a nerd even then, some of my favorites after school were Ghostwriter, Wishbone, Square One TV and Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Wow. The things that are in our brains even when we think we've forgotten them. It does make me wonder how this has influenced my own creative output. I may have to ruminate on that in a future essay...
I have so many fond memories of shows we watched as kids, especially on Saturday morning. Sky King, The Real McCoys, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, including adult shows like Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, Ben Casey, Texas Rangers (sponsored by 20-Mule Train Borax). Thanks for reviving some of these memories of shows that may not be PC today.
My childhood was also filled with Saturday morning staples, but they were almost all cartoons. We had interesting sitcoms on Friday nights, too. I have the most distinct memories of Perfect Strangers and Family Matters.
Really interesting, Mark - I'm looking forward immensely to the rest of the series!
Your term 'local' television has surprised me - as far as I can tell, local TV is only a thing round here where it comes to news bulletins, as I'm pretty sure everything else is broadcast nationally.
TV was rationed at our house - Saturday mornings we might watch an hour of something like 'Saturday Superstore', and we'd always watch 'Blue Peter' twice a week, plus 'Crackerjack' and 'Record Breakers' - those were all in the same half-hour slot on BBC1 on different days, and that would be our 30 minutes of telly before we had our tea. That was in the 80s - the only one of the programmes I listed that's still going is 'Blue Peter' - it's pretty much a national treasure, the first edition having been broadcast (live, always live!) since October 1958!
BANNED from our house was a soap opera called 'Grange Hill', which was set in a school. The programme was a 'bad influence', apparently. I remember being teased at school for not being allowed by my parents to watch it!
Hi Rebecca. With a mixture of public and privately owned broadcasters we've seen a mixture of how programming is rolled out. Much of the CBC's regional programming is scaled back a lot from the 70s and 80s. Hard to believe that Blue Peter is still being aired!
Blue Peter has moved with the times - it’s always had its finger on the pulse of what children are interested in, and what’s lovely is that the programme and its viewing community are involved in good causes. They cover things in the news that affect children and families. They introduce their audience to new hobbies or sports - I remember snippets about parkour, ceramics and rollerblading. And the ‘makes’ they do are incredible! I remember their demonstration of how to make your own personal organizer in the days when Filofaxes had just come out. And a homemade Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island, anyone? They did that, too! Every year when they were off air over the school holidays they’d be busy on the ‘Blue Peter Summer Assignment’ - the team would go abroad and do things like build bridges (both physical and metaphorical!) in communities that needed them. Great telly. If I’d had kids I’d probably still be a regular viewer! 🤣
I’m too young for these so I’m quite curious, seeing as I have late Boomer parents and jumped over any knowledge of this time...
We also had 40! channels on cable in the ‘90s. And my parents were shockingly ahead of the curve and we ended up being among the first to get digital cable once it arrived (not because my parents thought we needed all those channels, they just wanted the sports).
I'll write about butter churns and homespun clothing in the next installment, promise.
Churning butter must have gotten easier with the advent of food processors, leaving you with more time to watch TV.
Uncle.
Considering how much television I watched with the 10 or so channels we had, I can't imagine what I would have done with 40! I'd probably still be sitting there in front of the TV.
This is where I admit I actually don’t watch that much TV! Five people, two TVs, and I was the odd one out. I still don’t watch much and my parents thought it was weird till I pointed this out.
Ha, yes! We had maybe 5 to 7 local channels, and I somehow managed to watch 7 hours of TV between Friday nights and Saturday mornings. (Friday night sitcoms, Saturday morning cartoons.) But I honestly wasn't a screen junkie...I was a voracious reader!
I read a ton AND watched a lot of television -- there wasn't that much else to do! (Ok, fine, I could have gone outside.)
** perishes from laughter **
This promises to be a very interesting exchange of letters, Mark and Julie. I was spawned around a decade earlier than you, and in the UK, so my childhood viewing was centred on Saturday morning cinema: dead cheap for kids, and showing films like Hercules Unchained. As far as I know we didn't have Switchback on tv, but we had a programme that sounds similarly madcap: TisWas. It was meant for kids, but I (and other uni students) were enjoying it in our 20s!
Saturday morning television sure seemed to supplant Saturday morning cinema in North America as well, although I think it may have happened at least a decade earlier than in the UK. Apparently Switchback was also enjoyed by university students nursing their hangovers as well!
EVERYTHING happened a decade earlier than in the UK! uni students: 🙃😁
I WISH we'd had Saturday morning cinema. Though eating cereal on the floor while watching She-Ra is probably almost like leaving the house to see Hercules Unchained, right?
Sounds good to me 😂
Letter #1 should have a warning. I found myself being transported back in time at a very high speed! Lovely read that will keep me smiling all day. Thank you.
Noted!
I don’t think a day passes where I don’t think about Switchback, which is a loose template for an audio Zine I’ve been working on.
I vaguely remember Miss Anne as a local version of Romper Room. Miss Anne’s show was shot at CHSJ in Saint John, where our old friend John was living, and if I recall he was one of the kids on set once.
Do you remember that the CHSJ TV audio was also available on the AM radio band?
Wait, now I want to hear more about what an audio zine is! Especially one based on Switchback, which I hadn't heard of until Mark told me, and which I know I would have LOVED as a kid. Or now.
An audio Zine to me is a personal mix of spoken word, weird noises, music and other material that may or may not be organized around a theme. I did them on audio cassettes and later CDs when I was making a lot of apazines in the 90s especially. Friends like mark were kind enough to collaborate on some of them. I also used to do video zines on vhs. I had a lot of time on my hands.
These days of course people are mostly making podcasts but I don’t really tend to have ideas that sustain my interest long. The one I’m working on is not a direct remake or tribute to switchback but definitely is inspired by its low tech, retro vibe.
I really like this idea. I've been thinking lately about how much I admire creative people who do a lot of different things. Play guitar, write poetry, make films, skateboard. And then they might figure out a way to do some or all of them together in one piece of art. A cassette zine sounds so delightful to me. McSweeney's did an audio issue of their quarterly literary magazine, and I haven't gotten it (yet?) but I'm fascinated by the idea of combining a print literary magazine with audio. (https://store.mcsweeneys.net/products/mcsweeneys64) I love the idea of a book/zine that had all these interactive elements but also in a retro way, so it's not just another use of the internet.
Hey Scott, yes to all of the above! I honestly hadn't thought about Switchback very much since the 1980s so the research I did for the post was a lot of fun. It was an amazingly creative show when I stop and think about it. I'm not sure if Stan is still alive or not: I tried searching for him via Google because I thought I'd heard he passed away.
This was such fun to read, Mark! It brought me back to my childhood (I'm an older millennial) watching shows like Eureka's Castle, The Elephant Show, and 3-2-1 Contact at my babysitter's house. At home, it was Sesame Street (I must have driven my parents crazy with the endless alphabet and number songs), Lamb Chop's Play-Along, and Shining Time Station in the mornings. But being a nerd even then, some of my favorites after school were Ghostwriter, Wishbone, Square One TV and Bill Nye the Science Guy.
Wow. The things that are in our brains even when we think we've forgotten them. It does make me wonder how this has influenced my own creative output. I may have to ruminate on that in a future essay...
Can't wait to read the rest of the series!
I have so many fond memories of shows we watched as kids, especially on Saturday morning. Sky King, The Real McCoys, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, including adult shows like Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, Maverick, Ben Casey, Texas Rangers (sponsored by 20-Mule Train Borax). Thanks for reviving some of these memories of shows that may not be PC today.
My childhood was also filled with Saturday morning staples, but they were almost all cartoons. We had interesting sitcoms on Friday nights, too. I have the most distinct memories of Perfect Strangers and Family Matters.
Really interesting, Mark - I'm looking forward immensely to the rest of the series!
Your term 'local' television has surprised me - as far as I can tell, local TV is only a thing round here where it comes to news bulletins, as I'm pretty sure everything else is broadcast nationally.
TV was rationed at our house - Saturday mornings we might watch an hour of something like 'Saturday Superstore', and we'd always watch 'Blue Peter' twice a week, plus 'Crackerjack' and 'Record Breakers' - those were all in the same half-hour slot on BBC1 on different days, and that would be our 30 minutes of telly before we had our tea. That was in the 80s - the only one of the programmes I listed that's still going is 'Blue Peter' - it's pretty much a national treasure, the first edition having been broadcast (live, always live!) since October 1958!
BANNED from our house was a soap opera called 'Grange Hill', which was set in a school. The programme was a 'bad influence', apparently. I remember being teased at school for not being allowed by my parents to watch it!
Hi Rebecca. With a mixture of public and privately owned broadcasters we've seen a mixture of how programming is rolled out. Much of the CBC's regional programming is scaled back a lot from the 70s and 80s. Hard to believe that Blue Peter is still being aired!
Oh, it’s interesting how that’s changed, Mark.
Blue Peter has moved with the times - it’s always had its finger on the pulse of what children are interested in, and what’s lovely is that the programme and its viewing community are involved in good causes. They cover things in the news that affect children and families. They introduce their audience to new hobbies or sports - I remember snippets about parkour, ceramics and rollerblading. And the ‘makes’ they do are incredible! I remember their demonstration of how to make your own personal organizer in the days when Filofaxes had just come out. And a homemade Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island, anyone? They did that, too! Every year when they were off air over the school holidays they’d be busy on the ‘Blue Peter Summer Assignment’ - the team would go abroad and do things like build bridges (both physical and metaphorical!) in communities that needed them. Great telly. If I’d had kids I’d probably still be a regular viewer! 🤣