I grew up in the 80s, and I have to admit that I watched a lot of television as a kid. I don't feel that it necessarily stunted my intellectual growth or ruined my attention span. But it did give me exposure to a number of classic kids' shows that fans enjoy to this day as well as a few that haven't quite stood the test of time.

My childhood days coincided with the heyday of both Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood. Sesame Street's classic characters taught me letters, numbers, and even a little bit of Spanish. This was before the days of Elmo, when Kermit the Frog would still stop by the show and do news reports. One of my all-time favorite books as a kid was The Monster at the End of This Book which starred Grover from Sesame Street. While Sesame Street dealt with specific educational points like a letter of the day, Mr. Roger's Neighborhood was more concerned with teaching us how to be better people. Mr. Rogers was everybody's favorite neighbor and we loved the half-hour we could spend at his house feeding the fish and following the trolley to the land of make-believe. These two shows have the ability to entrance kids to this day, although their parents' nostalgia probably has something to do with choosing the program in the first place.

The shows that haven't stood the test of time so well are the cartoons. I think part of the problem is that animation standards have improved over the years. So no matter what the plot, if you see an older show like G.I. Joe, the fuzzy lines, lackluster colors and out of sync lips detract from the show. It's always sad when you visit a favorite show of the past and it's not nearly as good as you remember it. In fact, sometimes it's downright awful and you wonder what you ever saw in it in the first place. When Cartoon Network brought back Voltron and Thundercats several years ago, I just couldn't resist checking them out. I had happy memories of spending my afternoons watching these action packed shows and sometimes acting out new adventures for the characters. But to my jaded eyes, the cartoons in front of me just didn't live up to my cherished memories. Who knows, though? Maybe today's hottest cartoons will feel just as dated twenty years from now.

I don't know if today's kids have ever rediscovered an 80s television show on cable and become instant fans, but they have certainly had plenty of opportunities to become fans of remakes of popular shows and/or toys of the past. Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake are two television/toy combos that have made recent comebacks. Is Rainbow Brite far behind? Cabbage Patch Kids have also returned in their classic style. While not a television show (although I do believe there were a few videos created to cash in on the Cabbage Patch Kid craze), these are still quintessential toy icons of the 80s.