Irish: as a girl would've been a big one for you

Irish: mm

Irish: so what was wonder woman

Irish: wonder woman was the ultimate female superhero and she was a princess diana prince during the day and she was some mysterious amazonian princess who came to earth

Irish: yeah

Irish: i think she was her i'm not sure

Irish: yeah

Irish: she was from another planet but she arrived to help earthlings and i believe it was during world war ii which was another passion of mine so that kind of helped me hope as well <laugh>

Irish: it was strange growing up with two older brothers and playing toy soldiers what you did and that's what you did

Irish: yeah

Irish: so it kind it kind of rubbed off on me in what i used to

Irish: yeah

Irish: watch but my brother said no objection watching wonder woman either trust me there was never any rules

Irish: yeah

Irish: over watching wonder woman they were watching it for different reasons but she was an idol she was strong and you know forthright

Irish: yeah

Irish: and she solved problems and she spun around and turned into wonder woman and she had a bike and an invisible plane that that was just amazing

Irish: there wasn't it's not like now i guess with all the marvel stuff and you know i guess back then she must have been a big figure because cast of my mind back 'cause i used to like a lot of the comic book kind of stuff

Irish: mm

Irish: and i'd watch batman and spiderman and the incredible hulk so i guess wonder woman was one of the few kind of female kind of empowered role model type characters so that must have been important to be in a girl especially in a boy's house kinda watching

Irish: we had very few women that we could look up to mainly soap

Irish: yeah

Irish: opera stars that's a whole other

Irish: yeah

Irish: conversation

Irish: yeah

Irish: but really like you know in batman you had batgirl but that was towards the end and it was more of a gimmick

Irish: yeah

Irish: it was very very rare that there was a woman on tv that had that kind of status and made that kind of impression on kids

Irish: yeah

Irish: and she was there so much so i had a wonder woman's swimming suit and i thought

Irish: <laugh>

Irish: i thought i was wonder woman i was convinced of it that was the power that that show

Irish: yeah

Irish: had over me at that such an influential influential age

Irish: yeah i guess when i look back and think on tv from when i was ten eleven twelve it was very boy and kind of male centered

Irish: mm

Irish: um a lot of action shows um stuff like airwolf and

Irish: okay

Irish: blue thunder and it was always like a man on a machine and um but did you like those kind of programs too where you kind of have a tomboy attitude to watching some of those or

Irish: mm it was a case of because you had such limited choice if it was

Irish: sure yeah

Irish: if it was watchable and it wasn't you know a a politics discussion show after the news or something you'd watch it so you'd watch

Irish: yeah

Irish: the a team or you'd watch airwolf but what i really enjoyed the most were the big kind of mini series family events

Irish: okay

Irish: the big big things like when v started

Irish: yeah

Irish: and they showed a mini series or even something as as silly as north and south or cane and abel those big blockbusting mini series the whole family would sit down as a family and there wouldn't be a peep we might not understand it at the same time

Irish: yeah

Irish: my parents got a different outlook on it but we would also it was it was an event you know

Irish: yeah

Irish: and especially if it was on over three separate nights

Irish: yeah

Irish: nobody got you'd sit in each night and watch that was a big big event

Irish: yeah i guess it was a unifying force

Irish: mm

Irish: anyways too and it was rare that obviously like i said i was an only child so i didn't i kind of mom and dad watched the tv at night i'd watch it during the day so um i'd say it was rare to find something that could unify all age groups

Irish: mm hmm

Irish: and all the kind of dynamics of a family so um i guess

Irish: and i just i was just gonna say speaking to that one there was one in particular one tv show every week that we always sat down and we never missed but it used to terrify me and it was the incredible hulk

Irish: yeah

Irish: if you remember it <laugh> and it the part when he would transform into the incredible hulk

Irish: incredible yeah

Irish: and you see his shirt bursting on his slee on his arms

Irish: yeah

Irish: he's turning green and his eyes change that was i was gone i was behind the couch every week without fail

Irish: yeah

Irish: i was gone behind the couch and i wouldn't come out until he i could handle it while he was the hulk and i could handle it before he was the hulk i think it was the transformation and just when he looked up

Irish: yeah

Irish: and his eyes had changed

Irish: his eyes

Irish: i was just oh my gosh

Irish: yeah

Irish: gone

Irish: yeah

Irish: gone

Irish: i used to like that program a lot but i think everyone suffered from that um moment 'cause it it's it changes gear quite quickly for kids program but i think everyone has that memory of the lookdown and then the lookup and the change

Irish: oh

Irish: in the eyes and you just ran for cover you know um so yeah that was a big show

Irish: you'd be you'd be watching the tv going don't make him angry

Irish: yeah

Irish: you like him when he is angry <laugh>

Irish: i guess i kind of respected that that they made like i say tv shows for kids in a really adult format

Irish: mm

Irish: so they didn't hold back much and i don't think there's that kind of crossover these days where you would have something that's like a drama but it's aimed towards a kind of a younger audience that much you know

Irish: no not so much i think you know the kind of nickelodeon style to go over with saved by the bell and all that

Irish: yeah

Irish: we grew up we grew up with uh with a more dramatic background especially with the british programming things like black beauty or

Irish: yeah

Irish: (()) you know there was some beautiful period dramas that we'd watch

Irish: yeah

Irish: we'd actually sit down and watch as children um wasn't there was like the secret garden and there was just some beautiful ones or even

Irish: yeah

Irish: annotations of (())

Irish: that's

Irish: which i don't think you see nowadays

Irish: no but that's one thing i'd say rte did quite well

Irish: mm hmm

Irish: they used to buy a lot of adoption of children's classics like i remember treasure island and stuff like that too they were really really good and the old um mark twain stuff like huckleberry finn and tom sawyer

Irish: <breath> i loved loved

Irish: yeah

Irish: huckleberry finn and tom sawyer

Irish: yeah

Irish: yeah

Irish: yeah so that's one thing i credit them for they were just they were quite strong on kind of drama

Irish: mm

Irish: um but it was hugely kind of it was very seasonal it was usually during the summer when we had summer holidays and stuff like that too

Irish: and my abiding memories of the summer would be tom sawyer but it was it must have been a european production because it was dubbed

Irish: yeah

Irish: so

Irish: yeah that was really common

Irish: <laugh> and it i didn't know understand what was going on because there was no subtitles granted we didn't have to read it

Irish: yeah

Irish: but it used to scramble my brain i didn't understand that there was dubbing in other countries so yeah after a while you get over it but you'd be wondering why their lips aren't actually in sync with what they're saying

Irish: yeah

Irish: you never realized that there were german or austrian or something but the same with heidi do you remember heidi

Irish: yeah i do and i remember the dubbing was

Irish: mm

Irish: absolutely atrocious

Irish: <laugh>

Irish: and it was really something you had to come to terms with over time

Irish: <laugh>

Irish: you didn't notice after a long period of time but yeah it it was really really obvious and but i guess it was budgeting too they they kind of couldn't buy the cream or the crop or develop

Irish: yeah

Irish: their own stuff so they bought everything in but at least there was some kind of thought put into it and did you go through any kind of phases with cartoons when you were a kid like collecting stuff i know like stuff like care bears and stuff like that was huge and

Irish: uh kind of i was a bit too old for care bears by the time they came around

Irish: yeah

Irish: um my little pony i kind of came in at the end of the party with my little ponies but i did get one as a birthday present of a friend

Irish: yeah

Irish: but it it wasn't something i was really into i never really had any merchandise with respect to a cartoon like

Irish: i think

Irish: you were you were

Irish: i think that was less common

Irish: you were more star wars than that weren't you

Irish: yeah i i think what that was very generic and universal but i

Irish: mm

Irish: think in ireland too when you were an irish kid merchandise and stuff that wasn't really a big part of of your daily life you know and it's again it was very much a uk kinda thing and

Irish: yeah

Irish: all that stuff you could kinda collect it seemed to kinda stop before i came over to ireland so it was eleven twelve thirteen really before i got into collecting stuff but

Irish: mm

Irish: like star wars was a huge kind of event for my childhood and uh it was really good merchandise i think merchandise that you can actually go out and use your imagination with

Irish: yeah

Irish: is is a really good thing you know and that's what the stuff like star wars but yeah star wars seeing that for the first time was absolutely huge you know

Irish: i think

Irish: and

Irish: personally when sky started their own morning um saturday morning tv shows and i think they had dj cat for a while

Irish: that was um

Irish: i was at

Irish: european

Irish: oh euro euro tv or something euro channel

Irish: yeah

Irish: euro channel

Irish: i think it came from amsterdam but it i remember that well that was

Irish: mm

Irish: another layer of kind of very exotic stuff you hadn't seen 'cause there was all these cartoons from europe and that they were buying in and i remember a lot of japanese cartoons

Irish: that was <overlap> the first time i saw transformers

Irish: yeah stuff like that

Irish: and that was huge for merchandise because the toys came first and then

Irish: yeah

Irish: the cartoon so there was no shortage of transformers and then you had the cheaper rip off transformers that you get

Irish: yeah yeah

Irish: in the in the not so branded shops you know and

Irish: yeah

Irish: but um that was the first time excuse me that was the first time i remembered there being a big kinda hullabaloo over merchandise first of all

Irish: yeah

Irish: transformers and then the teenage mutant ninja turtles

Irish: turtles yeah

Irish: mm hmm

Irish: out of cartoons

Irish: mm

Irish: that's one i never really took to i think i was a bit older

Irish: yeah

Irish: um when they kind of came around but i remember being absolutely astounded when my cousins came home from england with actual transformers based on on the cartoon

Irish: wow wow

Irish: and i think that's when the whole kind of japanese animation kinda opened up

Irish: mm hmm

Irish: on this side of the world as well it's very common these days but it it seems so different and so new

Irish: yeah

Irish: i remember one that was a huge influence on me and it was rté who had bought it um but it was a really old seventies japanese cartoon called battle of the planets

Irish: oh i

Irish: and that was

Irish: remember that

Irish: yeah

Irish: yeah

Irish: i was very young like five six seven but that was that was a huge cartoon going back we used to wait all day to see it and once a week around half four in the evenings that was the other thing too with irish broadcasting they never adhered to specific viewing times

Irish: hmm

Irish: they'd say they'd be showing a program or a cartoon at five o'clock and it mightn't appear till quarter past six or it was infuriating back then they used to just cut things off

Irish: yeah

Irish: but you'd been waiting a week to see and into your earlier teens then did you start getting into more like american tv that must have been

Irish: no yeah

Irish: a big thing like big shows

Irish: but i remember you know the sitcoms and stuff like that and it

Irish: yeah

Irish: probably the biggest one in my house growing up would've been the cosby show

Irish: yeah

Irish: that that was huge on a sunday

Irish: yeah

Irish: when that started you didn't you never missed the cosby show even though my dad again he was an avid tv viewer so he always had something to say about the tv but he did not like the cosby show or bill cosby and used to insist that that wasn't funny and he could do a better job and yeah he probably could have <laugh>

Irish: yeah

Irish: but it was it was really just viewing on a sunday evening definitely

Irish: i guess before we know what we know now

Irish: hmm

Irish: it was yeah it was so big because it crossed all kinda cultures and kind of globally the whole family used to sit down to watch that show um i guess you start paying more attention to more kinda dramatic stuff um

Irish: yeah

Irish: i remember the things like miami vice and just

Irish: hmm

Irish: getting into that kind of more adult kinda glamorous world too when you were a kid that was kind of exciting and um english channels produce a lot of good kind of cop shows and tv shows stuff that i used to watch when i was a kid did you have any

Irish: yeah

Irish: favorites like

Irish: i i used to like dancing magpies uh

Irish: yeah

Irish: and that was a good one um then as i got a little bit older and you know a bit more worldly wise i was able to understand more of what was going on and things like cracker i used to find that

Irish: yeah

Irish: really really good but that would've been above the kind of re we were looking at when we were kids it wasn't made for my age group but i used to love

Irish: yeah

Irish: the detective side of it and the investigative side of it but um yeah you know when it came to the cop shows and stuff like that usually you'd migrate over to things like hill street blues and

Irish: yeah

Irish: i think rte used to show that one wasn't it

Irish: yeah they they bought

Irish: yeah

Irish: that quite wisely but

Irish: mm

Irish: it was always on really late when i was young

Irish: yeah

Irish: it was kind of beyond bedtime it was usually around quarter to eleven or so so it was later when i got

Irish: yeah

Irish: into that stuff but one cop show i used to love when i was a kid you used to probably watch it too was t j hooke with william shatner yeah

Irish: hmm was that

Irish: that was huge

Irish: was that um the girl from dynasty what's her name

Irish: yeah heather locklear

Irish: heather locklear that's it yeah

Irish: and it was william shatner and another young kind of italian actor who used to do a lot of the heavy lifting and a lot of the running and chasing

Irish: yeah

Irish: but yeah that was a big big show and um

Irish: actually you've just reminded me of two shows that i loved growing up to american ones one was the fall guy

Irish: oh yeah that was

Irish: i absolutely loved the fall guy i just

Irish: yeah

Irish: i would've given anything to have moved to california there and then i i was just amazed by the

Irish: yeah

Irish: place and the other was the dukes of hazzard <laugh>

Irish: oh yeah i'd forgotten about that that was huge

Irish: yeah i used to love it

Irish: that was huge in ireland

Irish: so much so that i would refuse to get into the car if someone opened the door as a child i would only get in and out through the window <laugh>

Irish: yeah

Irish: like the dukes boys i would only

Irish: yeah

Irish: climb in and out through the window and there was no way i was if you opened the door for me no you had to close the door roll down the roll down the window there was no electric window

Irish: yeah

Irish: back then roll it down and then fyuu and i'd go

Irish: i think that was really popular in ireland it seemed to click with two things which was cars and outlaw culture

Irish: <laugh> yeah

Irish: it's the fact they used to make moonshine and smuggle and stuff i i think yeah it was it was a big show on this side of the world

Irish: it was i think the irish liked it because like that we're always trying to get one up on the authorities and boss hog and

Irish: yeah

Irish: you know we used to <overlap> have an affinity yeah it was a rebellious thing and then there was a good

Irish: yeah

Irish: looking girl in small shorts and that always helped with the viewership but

Irish: yeah

Irish: i just i just loved the car and i think

Irish: yeah

Irish: everybody in ireland would've killed to have had the general lee but it was never you'd never see an american car like that in ireland it was ford fiesta or nothing <laugh>

Irish: yeah i did see some like ford escorts over the years that were modeled up

Irish: hmm

Irish: to look a bit like the general lee and that was as close as they came but yeah i guess again in back in ireland in those days everything from abroad seemed very exotic and very unobtainable just like you mentioned the fall guy and

Irish: mm

Irish: um that was a show about a stuntman

Irish: yeah

Irish: who lived in hollywood and he kind of solved mysteries on the side and stuff like that too

Irish: it was like a private investigator on the side

Irish: yeah but yeah the these are the first glimpses you get at places like california and that kind of lifestyle and it just seemed you know like you would never see the likes um i guess for some too another huge show from when we were a kid would've been magnum pi with tom selleck yeah that was a big event

Irish: i loved it i loved i loved the touch i loved the shorts i loved the ferrari

Irish: yeah i think that was designed to have something for the moms

Irish: everyone

Irish: the dad and for the kid all

Irish: yeah

Irish: rolled into one

Irish: mm

Irish: and it's something we watched recently as kind of adults and it has <overlap>

Irish: it hasn't held

Irish: tom selleck has as an actor but my god it's it's really badly written and badly constructed but when we were kids we used to just be enthralled i think you were always just waiting for 'em to jump into that ferrari and drive and the rest

Irish: hmm

Irish: didn't <overlap>

Irish: it didn't matter well that's it and they always say you should never really revisit the stuff you watched when you were a kid 'cause it doesn't hold

Irish: yeah

Irish: the same magic you know

Irish: yeah

Irish: you start to see the flaws in it

Irish: yeah i guess that's um a good measure of it because when you do go back and look at certain things the really good stuff still holds up you know but

Irish: yeah

Irish: i guess a lot of that time was about distraction it was a lot of surface and not much depth

Irish: oh we we import the glamor but we never really had the substantive glamor that we wanted

Irish: yeah

Irish: so we we just

Irish: yeah

Irish: saw it on the tv

Irish: yeah

Irish: but listen i really appreciate having this chat i really enjoyed it it was lovely some of the things some of the things i genuinely forgotten about and you brought them back to mind like battle of the planets i think i might go and look at it

Irish: youtube

Irish: on youtube thanks again

Irish: yeah yeah it's uh that's youtube it's all there so it's good to talk to you

Irish: okay take care

Irish: you too bye bye

Irish: bye

Irish: bye