Signposts on the Road

You guys know I love LOST. What you may not know is that this obsession has been a long time coming. Any time I showed higher than average interest in something fantastical, my parents were quick to pull in the reigns. Well, truthfully they did that with anything that I started getting a little crazy about. Do you think I got to go to that *NSYNC concert in OKC in 1998? NosirreeBob.

There have been a number of sci-fi TV shows that I was interested in over the years. It was rare that I watched them during their original run or that I got to watch them regularly. Listen up. I used to live in a household that owned only ONE television. I was the only girl in the house (my mother didn’t care about TV). Do you think I got to watch anything I wanted?

Sci-fi shows were a natural preference for me, but it was encouraged by the fact that it was something I could get my brothers interested in. As long as they were interested and not in the mood to pick a fight, I got to watch my shows.

Now, in no particular order, clues that it was about get much, much worse:

Dark Shadows
Granny and Paw Paw had satellite television long before my parents. With that came the Sci-Fi Network and this oldie. I used to creep into one of the back bedrooms and watch this. Then I mentioned it to my mom and she revealed that she had watched it as a kid, knew it was about vampires, and then there was a whole lot of rain on my parade.

The Secret World of Alex Mack
One of the great SNICK shows from the good ol’ days. They don’t make them like this anymore. Alex gets some kind of chemical dumped on her from a local chemical plant and instead of shriveling up and dying, she gains the ability to morph into some Capri Sun looking ooze and slither all over the place. She can crawl through air ducts and under doors without anyone noticing. Now, I never bought it that she didn’t leave any residue behind, but whatever. Loved it. Larisa Oleynik before 10 Things I Hate About You.

Muppet Babies
I know, you’re all, “What?” Muppet Babies was like Intro to Star Wars for Preschoolers. And I loooooved it. The Star Wars episodes were my favorite, probably because I had never seen the movie and it just whetted my appetite for the whole thing.

Ghostwriter
This was the first show I was really devoted to. It aired when I was in elementary school (the original, not the “new adventures”) on Sunday afternoons on our local PBS affiliate. Basically I had to hope that we got home from church in time and weren’t going to church that evening to get to watch both new episodes each week. I can’t even remember if we ever found out who Ghostwriter was, but this show kept me interested for a number of years. I wrote to the cast enough when I was in 3rd grade that I finally got a signed postcard back and even a Ghostwriter notebook for participating in their songwriting contest. That is so embarrassing now that I think about it. Worse yet, I can remember the lyrics of my song and no I will not repeat them ever in my life. I’m pretty sure they were set to the tune of Exposé’s “I’ll Never Get Over You Getting Over Me” so let your imagination run wild.

My favorite story arc from the show was the one about time travel (go figure; I’m really starting to notice a theme in my life) — when the kids connected with some children in the past living in one of the current Ghostwriter group member’s home…back in 1920 or so.

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Another SNICK show that it seemed everyone watched. I think I got into it during the summers when it would run on repeats during the afternoon. I don’t think my mom would have let me watch most of those episodes at night. This one was more creepy than sci-fi, but it had its moments. They don’t make them like this anymore.

Space Cases
Let me go ahead and tell you that a huge part of the reason I watched this show was Kristian Ayre. He’s the one with the hair.

And this show makes up for the fact that I’m not a trekkie.

The Tribe
And finally, maybe my favorite…The Tribe:

It’s a New Zealand export and something I watched on WAM! during my last few years of high school. Basically a soap opera for teens. The premise is that there are groups of kids (or people under the age of 21 or so) who have formed tribes in a post-apocalyptic world where all of the adults were killed by a virus that only young people were able to survive. The main tribe that the series follows is the Mall Rats, a group that took up residence in the city’s main shopping center. There are good tribe and bad tribes, tribes that live in the country and the city, those that create their own religions, build up their own rulers, etc. It was a really brilliant show. Sadly, we didn’t get to see the whole series in the US and because of a family crisis the series was put on hold and then cancelled.

And, if my obsessive viewing of this show wasn’t enough, I used to be a part of a Livejournal based RPG based on this series. Yeah, I know. I won’t lie. If someone told me there was a text-based RPG active and placed in this world, I’d be there in a minute. So, umm…hey. Tribe folks. Got anything for me?

So, you see? I told you. It was bad and only got worse. Right now I’m in LOST but almost to the end, starting Twin Peaks, and I hope to check out The Outer Limits, Dead Zone, Sliders, and The X-Files in the future.

Any kiddie sci-fi shows you were into?

Related posts:

1. Alfie and Me
2. Book Review – The Gospel According to LOST by Chris Seay
3. Call it.