Age 1-ish
Rock With Barney
I didn't see much Barney on TV; I caught a bit of Sesame Street, though. At least, this is what I'm told by mom--apparently, my sister took control of the TV when she was around, leaving me to watch what she did--but this period in television-watching is mostly a blank for me. If I were to see references to favourite episodes today, I'd probably remember the scene, but I haven't seen much of the show since--or others from that period; I recall little more than Bert and Ernie and my confusion at the real-life children acting normally towards puppets.
But I'm told I did see some Barney. I'm cheating the timeline slightly, but I'm deeply amused by this story, and thought I'd share it. Back when my sister was at the appropriate age to watch Barney (2-4) and I had yet to master this "running" thing, my mom would supplement her parenting with some Barney VHS tapes--straight-to-video Barney shows that preceeded the creation of the television program. (apparently, this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_with_Barney) I watched a few of these shows with my sister. When Barney sang a song, I guess we liked it; my sister would jump around, sing along...it all depended on the song and her mood.
As for me? I stood in front of the television set, about 2 feet away, and stared at the screen.
I take this as an early sign of my interest in music. "What's this...rhythm business?! It's like regular sound, but more appealing. And don't those old kids know they're talking to a purple dinosaur?!"
Age 5
Power Rangers-Maybe three of the seasons
I gotta say, I don't think minors have very good taste in entertainment. I used to watch this show all the time when I was a kid--it was on every Saturday, right? I had a grand old time. It was exciting to see the the good guys dress up in their secret identities and beat the evil, cackling (often literally) bad guys. I didn't think of it at the time, but I thought the elaborate fight maneuvers, and the giant robot battles were cool.
Just about every episode, the rangers would fight some goon that the behind-the-scenes evil person would send at them; this person would rarely be seen before or since, but the Rangers usually had a difficult fight with the villain. And when the behind-the-scenes evil saw the goon finally losing, they would have the goon grow hundreds of times in size, forcing the rangers to enter their animal-esque robot devices/Zords (if they hadn't already) and perhaps turn into a really big robot/Megazord! Take that, generic villain! the Rangers would get closer and closer to fighting the evillest baddie behind-the-scenes, and it always took longer than I hoped it would.
I watched this show many, many times, leaving only a few years later when I begun to grasp the formula. This was the same with many other shows on YTV, but I had a good time while they were on, though. And why not? It's not like I'd experienced high art at that point, and I wouldn't have understood something like that at a young age, anyway. I had to develop my taste, and it was only once I'd seen shows that were merely decent, if not outright awful, that I begun to differentiate. This is why I always find it odd when critics describe a kid's movie as being great: it's not just that it's usually a grown adult giving the review and recommendation, but also that, when you've seen only a few films or television in your life before, almost any fantastic storyline seems new and exciting to you. It's good to read those reviews when going to the movies with youngsters because you've likely developed those standards. When it comes to young kids themselves, however, I sometimes feel that if you were to watch an outdoor rave party at a distance with a young one, and tell a story about it, they would be equally enthralled.
Age 10
Monster Rancher
Another show about monster battles that mirrors popular video game franchise. Boy is good at Monster Rancher game; boy wins tournament and special early copy of new game; boy gets sucked into game universe; adventures ensue.
In retrospect, this show disappointed me. The characters were distinct and interesting, and the plots often hinted at deeper themes. For example, there was an episode where a Henger (humanoid robot) who was programmed to keep a city clean while its inhabitants were off fighting a war breaks away from its programming by accident, and learns that the humans the robots were built to serve had all died in that war, ages ago. He goes back and tries to tell his former robots what happened, but he is considered defective and is nearly destroyed in the process. It recalls the Socratic Myth of the Cave in its depiction of a sentient being who has learned, but but no one believes him, and could be compared to the novel 1984 in its depiction of a purely obedient, strictly-ruled society, and makes me wonder if there is something that much of human society is working for now that is utterly useless, and we simply are mistaken in working towards it. It was reminiscent of Star Trek in this sci-fi way of addressing social issues abstractly.
However, most episodes did not plumb so deep. Some of the enemies the characters encountered in the show were simple villains, with little more than a character tick and a faux-philosophic line to differentiate them from everyone else. And there were more simple episodes devoted more specifically to the monster battles themselves; it's as if the show was trying to split the difference between a more philosophic teen audience and a younger audience that just wanted to see fantastic monsters do battle with the bad guys.
Or maybe I was too young to appreciate it. That episode I dissected above sounds a lot better now than when watched it.
Age 15
MuchMusic Countdown
As noted in the last 5-10-15-20, this is about when I started "getting into" music, as much as I can say that. Around this time, I watched a whole lot of Much Music; I didn't have as much homework then as now, MuchMusic played a lot more_actual_music_than it does today, and my musical tastes weren't as obscure then. I remember seeing tons of 50 Cent. changing the channel whenever Hedley came on. I remember thinking Rihanna was pretty generic (Umbrella hadn't come out yet; as a singer, she still kinda is, but no one's gonna say that). The videos rarely stuck with me, but the music did; increasingly, I just put Galaxie radio on or somesuch when I want to watch something on commercials.
Age 20
Robot Chicken
It's one thing to start liking low-brow comedy; it's quite another to dislike it until being slapped by quality humour across the face. Robot Chicken certainly isn't for everyone, but even in this day and age, where I spend more and more time in front of a laptop instead of a computer, I find time out of my day to head down and watch 15-30 minutes of this. Quite simply, no show mashes together different elements of pop culture quite like this one; it doesn't always say something, but the best jokes make you feel like it has. My favourite gags include a short about a morbidly obese man who rescues a kid from a burning building using a forklift; an episode of the surreal life where MC Hammer et all have to return the one ring of power to Mordor; a Sir Mix-a-Lot rap about why King Arthur and his knights ought to get a round table for their meetings (featuring the real Sir Mix-a-Lot!) and a teenybopper biopic of Anne Frank, starring Hilary Duff.
For many of you, I likely preach to the converted, but if you haven't opened yourself up to absurd humour and television that seems "below you", you might be missing out. Sometimes. (Watching Jersey Shore is still a waste of time.)
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