I remember having quite a few VHS tapes from a company called “Just For Kids”, that had some of the neatest shows.

“Sherlock Hound”, “Kissyfur”, “Foofur”, “Seabert”, and quite a bit more. My siblings and I loved animals, so this got us interested right away!

I also grew up in a religious household, so Christian videos were standard for us.

Did you know that there was a bible-story-centric anime called “Superbook”? Used to watch it all the time! There was also “McGee and Me”, “Secret Adventure”, and “Adventures in Odyssey”. Used to listen to the “Adventures in Odyssey” radio show all the time!

“The Donut Man” was a Barney-esque Christian show for kids, too.

What obscure things did you watch growing up?

  • shimura@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    It’s technically a Disney Movie, but Brave Little Toaster was a bizarre move we used to watch all the time as kids. Up there with movies like Flight of the Navigator or Short Circuit or Batteries Not Included in terms of rewatchability for us. Tried watching it with my kids a year or two ago and I feel like I don’t know how my parents could of let me watch it as a kid. So dark. So weird.

    • TimTheEnchanter@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      To this day I am still extra cautious with the vacuum cleaner cord because of that scene where the vacuum runs over and vacuums up his cord! That movie had some really intense scenes!

      • shimura@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Right?! I remember taking extra care to never lose my blanky because of that movie.

  • PepperTwist@sopuli.xyz
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    1 year ago

    Being born in the early 90’s in a country neighboring Russia, you could find quite a lot of bootleg or otherwise weird VHS-tapes of Soviet-era cartoons that had made it across the border back after the Iron Curtain collapsed, usually at flea-markets or in bargain-bins.

    I remember we used to have quite a few of them, most were just collections of different Russian cartoons from like the 70’s and 80’s. A few I’ve managed to track down, like Nu Pogodi! The rest of them I’ve tried to find with the limited details I remember, but haven’t had any luck.

  • TimTheEnchanter@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know how obscure it is, but I loved watching KaBlam! It was weird animated shorts in a variety of styles. My favorites were the shorts made with stop-motion and action figures.

  • Ignacio@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    There was one made in stop motion called “Bumpy in the night”. Just two seasons, but it was fun. I liked it.

  • Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Does anyone remember a show that featured a big record man who clacked wooden spoons together? He was terrifying haha, he would say “AND HERE COMES THE BEAT”…

    Also, anyone remember 3,2,1 Contact on PBS?

  • JillyB@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    My brother and I remember this cartoon we had on VHS from our childhood. Every time we mention Seabert to anybody, they have no idea what we’re talking about. It’s about a guy and his seal going on adventures, often in the desert…

  • Witch@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Jam the Housnail.

    I thought for the longest time it was a fever dream. That it didn’t exist. I could never find it anything related to the godforsaken thing on any Canadian channels list of cartoons they aired. My family thinks I am joking when I mention how horribly this show plagued my thoughts over this years, but I had been searching for a decade.

    Anyway apparently it’s from Japan and I probably watched it on Veoh or something, because it’s on my anime list now and I finally found out what it was called last year.

    https://myanimelist.net/anime/29367/Jam_the_Housnail

  • Ethereal87@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I remember having a VHS tape from some group which was basically just a bunch random kid friendly songs. I did some googling and found a Youtube Channel with them (interestingly called “Kidsongs”) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71a4VPi6toc

    The other obscure-ish one that I remember was trying to wake up early before school to watch Superhuman Samurai Cyber Squad. I can see now it was an attempt to capitalize on Power Rangers’ popularity and reuse Japanese footage in the same way/style.

    War Planets was another one I loved as a kid, mostly because I had a lot of War Planets toys too.

  • Wigglet@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I remember the doughnut man, but not fondly.

    There was this movies called scamper the penguin I really liked.