More Nostalgic Shows

Berenstain Bears
The Berenstain Bears was yet another television series based off popular children's books. The authors were apparently camping one day only to be surrounded by a family of bears. These were grizzly bears, though, not the black bears that have been appearing all over my state recently. Not that that matters, but the title characters here are grizzly bears (although I remember there was one book when a family of pandas moved in down the street - pandas!). The books tackled issues for families raising children, such as manners, Trick-or-Treating safety, first day of school, fears, friends, etc. Some of those books can still be found today in the book aisle of supermarkets. These were straightforward stories, though some were told in poetry form (those were special, narrated videos I used to borrow from the library when I was a kid, but the TV series was fully animated and usually didn't rhyme - with the exception of the theme song, of course). In recent years they had come out with a newer cartoon series, but I didn't see it. At least it wasn't CG, though.

Madeline
This and Babar had a big presence in my childhood. There was even this lady who came to my elementary school dressed as the title character who read the books to us. Then there was the animated series, which at first was based off the books but then just did its own thing with the episodes. This was a good thing because in all of the books, I could never remember any of the other girls being so individualized. Madeline stood out because she was the smallest and a redhead and constantly got into situations. In the animated series, although she was the main focus still, the other girls got more involved and we learned what their names were (although I've forgotten most of them by now, except for a Nicole and a Chloe). Christopher Plummer as the narrator. There was also a live action movie several years ago, but I never was inclined to see it and still am not.
Fridge Brilliance - Miss Clavel told the girls she couldn't catch chickenpox again...but she didn't think about the shingles virus.

Recess
There was a block of programming on ABC called One Saturday Morning, and in that block was a show called Recess. In case you don't remember it or never watched it, it was about a group of six elementary school students and their classmates (mainly during recess, hence the name). Their adventures were usually more lively than the recess activities at your elementary school, but the themes and trends should be familiar to almost anyone.
The theatrically-released movie, School's Out, inspired me to write a manuscript for my first series that was a double-length summer special. There was also a straight-to-video holiday special video that contained three stories within a storyline (three of the teachers trapped in a car because of the snow remembering certain escapades, including a holiday pageant that they may or may not have just concluded). My favorite episode of the whole series was "The Barnaby Boys," which involved the kids reading a Hardy-Boys-type book series and uncovering evidence of a crime at their school.
Tim Curry guest starred in an episode called "Prickly's Leaving," in which he was going to be their replacement principal because their principal was being promoted to middle school principal (which is why it turned up as an honorable mention in my top list of Tim Curry roles). The person who voices Randall, the schoolyard snitch, also voices Demyx in the Kingdom Hearts games. Go back and watch either one of them with this knowledge and it's hysterical (at least it is to me)!

Babar
One of the TV and book series I remember reading as a kid was Babar, which was written by Jean and Laurent Brunhoff. I remember two different types of storylines - Babar as a young king and Babar as an adult. I liked them both in different ways depending on the episode. Either way, I could never tell whether Pompador was a guy or not, even back then. I heard that there's a new reincarnation of the series in which his elder son and younger daughter each have a kid. So does Rataxes' son, and Lady Rataxes, who actually used to be pretty nice, is now kind of overprotective and rude to others. I guess it was only a matter of time. Reminds me of one of my aunts. I haven't seen it, but my options are rather limited right now. It's even in CGI, which is what everything seems to be nowadays.
The old show used to make a lot of cultural references from time to time, like Phantom of the Opera and Jules Verne, which is how I was introduced to those things in the first place (well, this and Wishbone, anyway). In the original movie, the premise starts out differently as sort of a Bambi-like story, but the episodic everyday life of Babar leading the Elephants in a civilized human-like society just seemed to work better for the series (no Furry references, please). I also like the idea of Babar and Retaxes as friendly rivals rather than as bitter enemies like they were in one movie that I can remember. It was the early nineties, so your mileage may vary as to what you remember or prefer.
I can't help but wonder what the country would be like if someone like Babar were in charge of things. The fact that he's an elephant doesn't make the case for Republicans, necessarily, but he would be a better choice than those in the running either way. Now that I think about it, Lotsa Heart Elephant, one of the Care Bear Cousins, would also be an excellent choice. He was made king for a day in one Care Bears episode, after all.

Mr. Potato Head
There was a show on Fox a long time ago called The Mr. Potato Head Show. Not the Mr. Potato Head from Toy Story, just the toy itself re-imagined into his own show. It was set in a kitchen with all these other weird food-based puppets and real people that were producing the show within a show. It was really freakish but still sort of amusing nonetheless. I mean I played with Mr. Potato Heads as a kid but I preferred playing the Cootie Bug game (not to be confused with the Potato Bug character from the show). Burger King also used Mr. Potato Head as the spokesman for their new fries (not the new-new fries that just came out, but the last time when they were chosen over McDonald's fries in a taste test; McDonald's still claims to have the more popular fries based on sales).