Pathetically enough, I remember most of the American shows brought up here....a couple things come to mind to add.

Winky Dink and You was way ahead of it's time. To my knowledge it was the first interactive kids TV program. You bought a kit that had a plastic sheet that adhered to the screen and it included a set of markers and other stuff so you could draw on the screen. The thing worked out pretty well and I remember being so excited when I got my Winky Dink stuff......just had to be home for that show!

The dog that went nuts over the biscuits eventually wound up as Muttley on the Wacky Racers as the sidekick of Snidely Whiplash......that satisfied laugh/sigh was always unmistakable. I was also a big fan of Tom Terrific's dog, Mighty Mannfred who was always trying to take a bite out of Crabby Appleton.

KIM....I hated Senor Wences and let me ask you.....Don't you find it odd that the dude painted the "lips" on his hand? Little Johnny.....yeah, right.......Did you wonder if Senor Wences had to shave Little Johnny?

Early on I liked Captain Video but soon switched my allegiance to Captain Midnight and his Secret Squadron. Drank the livin' shit out of my Ovaltine so I could get a patch and of course my Secret Squadron Decoder Ring. I figured later that these were leftovers from Little Orphan Annie on the radio since it too was sponsored by Ovaltine.

I was older when Shari Lewis came along with Lambchop........Still young enough to clandestinely admit loving Lambchop but getting old enough to think Shari was really cute....It was that in between age(:<))

But before Shari, there was Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Puppetry was a large part of early kid's TV and for my money, KFO had it all over Howdy Doody!!!! But I watched them both, and AMOS....Way back at the beginning of this thread I need to correct you. It was Princess Summerfallwinterspring.

And has no one brought up "You Bet Your Life?" One goofy looking little old Jewish guy with a moustache and a big cigar sitting on a stool and making wisecracks at the expense of his guests while purportedly doing a quiz show. He had the best straightman imaginable in George Fenneman and the great Groucho was at his smart-assed best. With two guests both named Heidi he said, "I'll call you Heidi-Hi and I'll call you Heidi-Ho and you can call me Cab Calloway." The classic though was never aired. A couple named Storey were on and they had 26 children. When asked why they had so many, Mrs. Storey replied, "Groucho, we just love kids." Groucho gave the patented cock of the head, askance look complete with eyebrow lift, and said, "I like my cigar too but I take it out once in awhile." The audience laughed for a full 5 minutes and the recording became one of the earlier laugh tracks even though the words that created it were never aired. As a very verbal and smart-assed little kid, I loved Groucho........and I still do.

Then of course there was Caesar......Sidney that is. Do you realize that for about the first 4 or 5 years that the show was not only LIVE but 90 MINUTES LONG? 39 episodes a year. Tell the cast of "Friends" and some of that other feeblestuff to do THAT!!! And the quality of writing and performing were both at a high standard. Folks, that like doing a new Broadway play every week. Seinfeld couldn't have cut it either. Nor has the writing staff of the show ever been matched......Caesar himself, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, the Simon brothers, Woody Allen, Howard Morris, Larry Gelbart........my gawd how can anyone top that?

And the women of early TV may have been in "secondary" positions but perhaps because they always got the best of the men, at least for me they represented just how smart and better women were. Imogene and Sid were classic of course, but there was Ann Sothern as Maisy the secretary who ran the company, Gail Storm as "My Little Margie" who may have been in the soup for an entire half hour but always came out on top in the end. Then there was a favorite of mine, the first adult actress that I as a kid had a serious crush on....Audrey Meadows may have been "just a housewife" but she always had the better of Ralph.....and I just loved that voice! I should have been a New Yorker. Voices..............

Is it just me or were they far more distinctive then since so many came from radio and the movies/stage with characters already drawn. Audrey Meadows, Ann Sothern, Wally Cox as Mr. Peepers, Art Carney as Ed Norton, Ed Wynn, the Texaco Firechief, Eve Arden as Miss Brooks, Groucho, Walter Brennan, even Uncle Miltie.......You didn't need to see them to know who they were.

Oh well.............

Spaw