Written by Though time travel hasn’t been made possible yet, watching a favorite show from childhood is the next best thing. Watching a Disney movie from when I was a kid is just as enjoyable today as it was back then. Sure, I’m a big kid at heart, but a wonderful story is still a wonderful story even if it doesn’t look quite as grand as the modern versions. Some shows, however, don’t age quite as well, giving one that, “What the hell? Why did we all like that?” moment. But the memories that these shows evoke are always wonderful for me, even if the re-viewing of them, isn’t quite as wonderful as I remember. As a kid, I was super excited to get my own little television in my room, which was only capable of displaying images in black and white. So in some cases, just seeing one of those older shows in color can be a rather magical thing. Or sometimes, not as much. I used to dream about all the colors I thought should be there on that tiny black and white screen. It was my first version of painting, even if it was only in my mind. Sometimes, I prefer to simply remember the colors I imagined.
When I was a little kid, one of the most popular shows on television was Happy Days. It was perfectly ridiculous in that perfect way that makes people smile. And it was kind enough to spawn two of my other favorite shows. The first was Laverne and Shirley, a show where I can still sing the entire opening song. Though I only do so in the shower. The second spin-off I loved was Mork & Mindy, the story of an extraterrestrial that journeys to earth in a big egg and becomes a roommate with a girl who works in her father’s record store. Yeah, it sounds perfectly stupid in description, and it really was, which is exactly why it was so enjoyable. The other two shows that came before I was born, but were played continuously when I got home from school in the 70’s were Gilligan’s Island and The Beverly Hillbillies. The first, a show about seven castaways long before Tom Hanks was ever found talking to a volleyball and the second a show about seriously backward people from my home state, striking it rich when they discover crude oil. Yeah, there’s a theme here. I love a cleverly dumb premise.
So many stories today attempt to be all-to-relevant and hard-hitting, when the stories of my childhood were simply stupid escapes. I rather miss those shows. The ones you showed up for not to be impressed or challenged, but to simply be entertained and guaranteed a smile or two along the way. I’ve never been a fan of any art that tries so hard to make a point, the point is lost entirely to the majority of people viewing it. I just love enjoyable stories where people do things that people do in those perfectly dumb ways that they really do them. It just feels more real, especially when the storyline is ludicrous. Real life is definitely a bit ludicrous, but I probably wouldn’t have it any other way. Those days spent sitting in front of my little black and white screen are a cherished memory for me now. Little stories I would paint in color with my mind, laughing along the way. Not much has changed really. If you’re showing up to my blog and reading these little posts, you’ve very often found yourself watching a childhood show.
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About the DoodlewashDa Vinci Paint Co.: Yellow Ochre, Bezimida Orange, Quinacridone Burnt Orange, Cobalt Turquoise, and Payne’s Gray. Lamy Al-Star Safari Fountain Pen with sepia ink in an A5 Hahnemühle Watercolour Book. |
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Mork and Mindy! What a great memory! Great tv painting.
P.S. I received two palettes from Cheap Joe’s tiday. Thank you for the July give aways.
Yay!! So happy to hear it! Sorry for the delay!! 😃💕
hehe!! Thanks so much! 😃💕 Yeah Mork & Mindy was the best!!
What a fantastic TV! Wonderful use of color.
Thanks so much, Sharon!! 😃💕
I have a pretty cool connection to Mork and Mindy. My ex-husband owned the New York Delicatessen in Boulder where Mork (supposedly) worked. The show paid the restaurant $1 to use the name and the exterior of the restaurant. Robin Williams, Pam Dawber and the crew came out for a week for the filming on location shots- the main episodes were done on set in LA. We got to be extras in some of the exterior restaurant shots. Watching Robin Williams work was amazing. He was always ‘on’, doing funny things, making comments, and generally interacting with the world like he was an alien. I remember when he squirted the mustard straight up by squeezing the bottle. I don’t think that was in the script – he made it up. Tourists visiting Boulder still walk by and photograph Mork and Mindy’s house, but the New York Deli isn’t there anymore – now it’s a sushi restaurant.
Oh my gosh!! That story is amazing!!! 😃💕 LOVE that!! What a fabulous memory! And also, that means I probably saw you strolling outside that restaurant! hehe
Probably – hhehe 🙂 in the first season or so. I think they changed the trailers later on.
Let me know if you ever come to Boulder, CO. I’ll make sure to take you to Mork’s haunts – his house and the old NYD and other places 🙂
Oh my gosh!! That would be awesome!!! 😃💕
I love your stories… they make me smile much like watching favorite shows from my childhood.
Aww that’s that best compliment ever! Thanks so much, Sandra! 😃💕
Yeah, that black & white television was the portal to a lot of exciting worlds. I’m a bit older, so ‘Bewitched’, ‘My Favorite Martian’ (the series, not the movie), ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea’… good stuff. Totally dorky by today’s standards, but truly amazing to an audience that had yet to be jaded by CGI effects.
Oh wow! Yes!! Bewitched would totally make my list! I owned the boxed set on VHS! LOL Loved that! 😃💕
ahhh childhood. My favorites were wonder woman, Mash and, like you, Happy Days. I still love watching The Fonze in anything. It was such a wonderful shock to find out, as an adult, that he’s a lovely, gentle man. Gotta love the juxtaposition of that. The Fonze who was too cool for school and Henry Winkler who is such a gentle soul he could calm down a cat on a hot tin roof, lol. We grew up so similarly. I can still quote major lines from Mash.
Aww cool, Jennifer! 😃💕 Yep… sounds like the same upbringing indeed! Totally agree on Fonze… a completely different version that we get today, but somehow even more endearing! hehe
Well, I’m a bit older than you, Charlie, so I remember Bonanza and The Mickey Mouse Club and Walt Disney on Sunday nights. Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday night, and Perry Mason Mysteries………….sigh. Good times. Great T.V. painting.
Aww cool!! Bonanza was still on occasionally and my dad watched it. But the Disney Sunday nights I remember!! 😃💕
Your TV looks so real, Charlie, and cute! 😎
Yes, I remember those shows. Always had a giggle. Fun memories.
Thanks, Janina! 😃💕 Glad ya liked this! Yeah, those are some of my favorite memories!
you are the best storyteller Charlie. How great to have so many things in your life documented.
Thanks so much, Kaye! 😃💕 I often hope I’m not only documenting my life, but bits of everyone’s… Many of these images are not exactly the things I had, but only the things I remember. 😊
Love the story and can relate! Seems we enjoyed most of the same shows 🙂
Thanks, Tom!! 😃💕 Yeah, I’m pretty certain we would have been great friends back then. And now! hehe
I love the TV, so much character! I wish they still looked like that. It can be a bit of a risk going back to childhood favourites but the memories will always be there, at least!
Thanks, Jacob! 😃💕 I know, right??? I LOVED televisions that had a back on them. So much more relevant and important. And I think mine was actually a lime green. hehe… it was awesome!!!
Yes, they were much more impressive! It was fun turning the dials and pressing the buttons, and the fuzzy analogue reception with its static was warmer in its way. All nostalgia, I suppose… but I do like the sound of a lime green TV!
hehe… yeah… the lime green TV was cool, but I don’t miss trying to get reception. I would spend hours adjusting the antennae! 😊
TV memories! Things seemed so much simpler then and mostly because it wasn’t as serious. My favourite memory is of daddy coming in from Saturday’s yard work, or some other outdoor task, to watch the Road Runner with us kids. His laughter would shake the walls. Afterwards, we would all trek outside to help or find other playmates and fun. ❤️
Aww… that’s the best memory ever!! Road Runner was so fun! And anything that just makes us enjoy the sound of laughter is always the best thing in the world! 😃💕
Wow
This is great
Thanks so much, Prashant! 😃💕
Nano, Nano…
Always such a great pleasure to read your stories and partake of your paintings!
Thank you!
hehe… thanks so much!! Nano, Nano, back to you! Man, I loved that show back then! Lol 😃💕
Your daily paintings are brilliant – are you keeping them all in one sketchbook?
Aww thanks so much, Clare! 😃💕 LOL… I don’t think they make a sketchbook that big! They’ll spread across many, many sketchbooks that are now stacked in the corner. I consider my blog my one BIG sketchbook!
And now, all of a sudden, I kind of want to find old episodes of Green Acres to paint from.
(It’s a little older than my time, but when I was a kid, I had a UHF tv in my basement room that would only pick up one channel, and after midnight-ish, it played episodes of the Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres, and I’m pretty sure that’s when I decided I wanted a flock of chickens and a feather boa.)
That’s awesome!! UHF!! What a trip back to the past. Those were some awesome days and I bet you would look stunning in a feather boa! 😃💕