The Channels I Grew Up On

 I grew up in the early-mid 2010's. Kind of a strange time to be a kid, at least technologically. Cable and physical media were still in common use, but streaming and tablets were also on the rise. As a kid, I watched a LOT of television, and specifically, kid's television.

Nick Jr was my favorite channel back in the day. My favorite show not just on the network, but in general, was Yo Gabba Gabba. I was Gabba OBSESSED as a kid. I had so many Gabba toys, had almost all the DVDs and CDs, had a whole bunch of books and clothes, saw Yo Gabba Gabba live, I even had a Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday party. I went nuts for that show. My favorite episode as a kid was the first one, "Eat". Kind of a basic pick, but what can I say, its a classic.

Other than Gabba, I also watched what everyone else watched. Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, Backyardigans, Max and Ruby Wow Wow Wubbzy, etc. But there were also some I watched that barely anyone remembers, like Julius Jr and Tickety Toc.

I enjoyed (and still do!) some of the "cozy" shows on Nick Jr like Little Bear and Oswald. My grandma liked Little Bear. Whenever i'd stay over at her house, we'd watch her Little Bear tapes. I still think the background music in both shows is very good.

At this time they were still airing some of the Noggin shows, so I watched Oobi and Jack's Big Music Show and just a bit of the Upside Down Show. The only problem was that they only played Upside Down Show at like the ass crack of dawn, so I never really saw it.

I also remember playing on the Nick Jr website a LOT. They had a lot of art games on there, and my favorite of the art games was Sticker Pictures, where you could make little collages with characters from a bunch of different shows.

My favorite game in general on there was the Yo Gabba Gabba game "Magic Word Adventure", where you had to find all the letters in the word "Please". That was the first ever video game that I completed.

Other than Nick Jr, I also watched a lot of PBS Kids. I of course watched Sesame Street, Arthur, Curious George, etc. Me and my mom both liked Wordgirl. I think it still holds up. That's probably why it had that resurgance some 4 years ago.

PBS Kids was also the main way I consumed Thomas the tank engine. I wasn't as crazy for Thomas as for Gabba, but I really liked Thomas as a kid. I had quite a few of the wooden railway toys, a few Trackmaster sets, and a few of the take-n-play toys. I had some of the DVDs and i'd take them on road trips occasionally, I even saw Thomas Live and went to Day Out with Thomas a couple times.

My parents let me watch just about anything that wasn't inappropriate. Even if they weren't jazzed about it, they still would let me watch it. The only thing they wouldn't let me watch was Caillou. Probably a good thing.

Another show I remember watching on PBS was Pocoyo. It was always on after Peep and the big wide world. I would sometimes watch Peep just to catch Pocoyo, lol. It was always a novelty seeing Pocoyo on public television for me, since I always associated it with Nick Jr. My favorite episode as a kid was "Big Scary Slide".

I didn't really watch Mister Rogers back in the day. Mostly because they only aired it at the ass crack of dawn.

I started watching a LOT of PBS Kids between 2016-2018, as that's around the time we got rid of cable. Nature Cat had started airing around this time and that was a good show. My local PBS station aired the episode where they go and see a parody of Michael Bublé named "Michael Bluejay" a LOT for some reason. Someone at my PBS station must've reeeeally loved that episode.

I watched PBS Kids until my local affiliate was sold in a spectrum auction some 8-9 years back and ceased operations.

I didn't watch as much Disney Junior as the other two, but I did watch it of course. My favorite show back then was Rolie Polie Olie.

I remember a bit of Special Agent Oso but not too much. My best memory of it is seeing it being played on one of the TV screens in the playplace area at Burger King. That sticks out in my mind for some reason. 😂

I vaguely remember the stop motion show "Sam Sandwich" which I think was an interstitial series.

Another interstitial series that I think was also an interstitial Was Big Block Singsong. Maybe I remember it from CBC Kids, idk.

SPEAKING OF, since I live in Michigan, which is very close to Canada, we could get CBC Kids. I remember watching Bookaboo, a show about a drumming dog puppet that likes books.

I watched Babyfirst as a baby. Mio Mao is a classic.

They had a show with a guy drawing on sand, and another show called "ClayWorld" with a guy making stuff out of clay. Every night they would play the same exact video of Harry the bunny singing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". It's barely changed at all since I was a baby. Same shows and everything. It reminds me a bit of Boomerang pre-2015.

I didn't watch very much of the Hub Network, at least I don't think so. The only shows I can remember watching are the Aquabats Super Show and In The Night Garden. We may have watched Animaniacs but I'm not sure.

I also remembered watching the Wonder Woman TV show from the 70's on the Hub with my mother, but it apparently never aired on there. Mandela effect maybe?

I watched quite a bit of Sprout back in the day. Pre-2014/15 Sprout was unique compared to all the other channels at the time. They had a lot of obscure foreign shows, day and nighttime blocks with unique characters and hosts, some nice little original shows, and LOTS of viewer participation. Sprout was how I originally watched The Wiggles and LazyTown.

I found a plush of the star character from the Goodnight Show at a thrift store a couple years back. Absolutely no clue what happened to that.

One of the weirder things Sprout did back in the day was the "Snooze-a-Thon". Every year beginning on Christmas Eve, Sprout would air a loop of characters from their shows sleeping, FOR 12 HOURS. NONSTOP. I'm not kidding. In concept it sounds weird, in practice it's even weirder. Here's almost 2 hours of it!

I also watched Cartoon Network as a kid. My favorite show was Clarence. That show got me through some really dark times. I actually used to hate Clarence (for some reason) but it grew on me. I specifically remember them playing a clip from the episode where they chase down a lizard on the TV screens at Chuck E Cheese.

I watched a bit of Adventure Time but never really got into it, same with Regular Show and a single DVD of Steven Universe. My mom liked Adventure Time more than me. On the contrary, my mom HATED the Amazing World of Gumball, but I enjoyed it.

When we got cable AGAIN around 2018-2019, me and my mom started watching episodes of Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends and Summer Camp Island on demand. Good shows.

Did you watch any of this back in the day too? If so, leave a comment or somethin'!