Thanks Pete, that’s really interesting.

Then there was Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy – superb TV series but now being murdered in movie form 🙁

I haven’t seen the film as yet (though my sister went to see it last night and really liked it) but I always consider the TV version to have murdered the original radio version. Though it was a good TV adaptation for its time, those 1980’s special effects are appaulling, but on radio it doesn’t matter because it’s all about the imagniantion in that medium.

I remember Wait Till Your Father Gets Home – some of the charcacters were just like those in The Family Guy, and I originally thought that the latter was a rip-off of the former, but The Family Guy was a much funnier show.

Anyone remember the British kid’s drama “Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest”, and another similar one called “Our House” about a foster home in London? And another that comes to mind from around those days was “Buddy” starring Roger Daltrey as a teddy boy father and his kid, real gritty kid’s drama. The British really know how to make them great.

Another I used to really like as a kid was a Canadian show called “Danger Bay”, about twin boy and girl who’s Dad was a marine biologist and his girlfriend flew a DHC Beaver. That was a way cool show, and it’s where I first learned anything about Canada because most Canadian productions tend to masquerade as American shows.

Australia did a few good kid’s shows in the 1980’s. One was “Dusty” about an old chap (Bill Kerr) who owned a part dingo dog in the outback. And there was one about a camp run by kids, there was one old man in chrage but the rest were kids. They had their own radio network and got into scrapes with other kid gangs and stuff. I can’t recall the title, but many of the young cast later ended up in Neighbours and other soaps.

Good idea B-17 Man.

Just a suggestion, but how about the nose art “Vascellating Virgin” from Memphis Belle? It’s genuine and incorporates the sponsor’s name!

Thanks John for the clarification over Dean Paul Martin. I didn’t realise the series had ended before his death, I think it was still being shown here when he died – we used to always be a year or two behind with foreign shows due to rights issues. Nowadays it is quite different – I think we’re about two weeks behind with “Lost” at the moment, and some shows are really up to date, which is good.

I never watched Night Court, though it did screen here. I hated Perfect Strangers, I cannot stand either main actor and the show was plain stupid. Sorry.

Alf was well cool though. I liked him, even if his family were annoying. The Wonder Years is a classic, it repeated here recently and is still a very great show. Fred Savage was a stunning actor at a young age.

Three’s Company was a tawdry rip-off of the much better Man About The House (a British sitcom, not the film). I never really liked it much, it was too overplayed, like many of those 1970’s shows were.

One of the best 1980’s sitcoms was The Young Ones, still a classic. But does anyone recall the follow-up the team did called ‘Filthy, Rich and Catflap’? It wasn’t nearly as good as The Young Ones, but we all watched it because Ade Edmondson, Rik Mayall and the guy who’d played Neil were all cult figures by then. Their later series Bottom was so much better – that is a classic, and also has three of the Young Ones in it.

Of course the best ever 1980’s sitcom has to be Blackadder, closely followed by Allo Allo, The Young Ones and Red Dwarf. I suppose there were other classics in that decade but these are my favourites.

This page is scanned from the booklet called “Famous Museums of the World – The Camden Museum of Aviation, NSW, Australia” which was Book 1 from Historian Publishers, 1972.

Is this museum still going today? If so, do they still have this very complete looking Beaufighter?

Wow, some great memories there guys – I certainly remember watching CHiPs, BJ And The Bear, The Goodies, Mork and Mindy, Simon and Simon and even China Beach.

The latter was nowhere near as good as Tour of Duty to us teenage boys, but when I watched reruns years later I did really appreciate China Beach more.

What was the one with the big pink helicopter called screaming Mimi?

Flood, I too recall Space 1999 from about the mid-late 1970’s – but we got shows a few years after Britain in those days, unlike now in the digital era where we are nearly up to date.

Also, does anyone remember this long-forgotten (here at least), brilliant comedy series from the late 1980’s, Sledge Hammer? That was superb, the most gung-ho cop with the hottest partner. He always carried a rocket launcher or bazooka in the boot of his cop car, and used it often!! And his catchphrase – uttered calmly before he blew something up – “Trust me… I know what I’m doing.” I loved that show.