Gamer Girls

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usye1hEk5cY

1:00 – 

Mike: Did you watch Mr Rogers Neighborhood growing up?

Ryan: You know what, I watched it a good bit as a kid, to be totally honest, because, like, I think, like we didn’t have cable until later, so, like PBS was where it was at.  So you had like your Sesame Streets and your Who Framed —

Mike: Did you watch Bob Ross?

Ryan: Yes.  I did.  Actually, my mom —

Mike: I like how you were about to say “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

Ryan: I mean, yeah, Mr Rogers.  You know, my mom paints like water colour and oil paintings and stuff like that.  So yeah, Bob Ross was on in the house.  You know what I didn’t watch?  I didn’t watch 3-2-1 Contact but I would see the ad for it.

Mike: How about The Frugal Gourmet?

Ryan: No, I haven’t heard of that one.

Mike: There was a lot of programming back then.  I grew up on, like, I guess early Sesame Street, 80s Sesame Street.  Then I watched a lot of Mr Rogers growing up.  I loved watching the segments with Mr Rogers but when it would go to the Neighborhood of Make Believe, then I would kind of tune out for that.  Like, I kind of liked some of the characters, like Daniel Tiger who got his own cartoon later or whatever.  

Ryan: Right.

Mike: Some of the characters were cute, X the Owl was cute, but a lot of those puppets were really disturbing.

More fake *nostalgia* by Mike.  For reference, I’m like two years older than Mike.  

Frugal Gourmet.  Let me look this up.  Oh, yeah.  I did watch this guy.

But Bob Ross?  No.  Never even heard of him until he became a “meme” on the internet a few years ago.

And “Early Sesame Street”.  Fuck off.  The show started in 1969.  I know that he then said “80s Sesame Street” but I don’t believe anybody who says that they watched Sesame Street.  This is a program for toddlers.  Once you’re old enough to go to pre-school, you can no longer watch the show because it’s on while you’re at school.  So you’re going to have memories of watching a show as a toddler?

Same with Mr Rogers.  I didn’t watch it.  Or if I did, it was before I was old enough to form memories.

I think that each PBS channel was independently owned and they could set their own schedules.  So different markets would have different shows on at different times.  But was Sesame Street being shown in the afternoons (so at a time when a school-aged child could watch)?  Because that’s not my recollection. 

Let me think of some actual PBS *nostalgia*, as opposed to the made up bullshit of Mike Matei.  

Oh, that Cajun chef.  What was his name?  Justin Wilson.  I don’t recognise this guy or remember anything about him other than he would say, “I guarantee” a lot, when assuring the viewer of something.

Yan Can Cook.  I remember him much more clearly.  Martin Yan and his Chinese cuisine.  He would chop up those onions really quickly and smile broadly.  Maybe a bit racist by today’s standards but he seemed alright with it.  I doubt anyone told him to do it.  This was his idea. 

I watched a lot of Rick Steves’ Europe.  This was as an adult, though.  I was in college.  I bought a travel guide of his too for my travels.

Oh, Antiques Roadshow.  I watched a lot of that.  Again, as an adult.  

I watched the McLaughlin Group just to annoy my family.  I didn’t actually care about that shit.

Oh, and all of those woodworking shows.  There was that one with that guy who used olde tyme tools.  New Yankee Workshop?  No, but I watched that one too.  The Woodwright’s Shop.  That’s the one I was thinking of.  

That’s all I can think of.  What’s this 3-2-1 Contact that Ryan is talking about?  

A science show that ran from 1980 to 1988.  So Ryan would have been…I don’t know…three years old in 1988?  Of course he didn’t watch this.  Or have memories of it.  Why…am I the weirdo for not remembering watching television when I was three years old?  Everybody else seems to remember this stuff.