Jeff & Will's Top 5 TV Shows from Their Youth

We loved TV from our childhood so much that we own a lot of it on DVD. Here are our picks for Top 5 shows from our youth, which are mostly from the 70s. As you’ll see we were very much sci-fi/superhero kids, which we don’t write at all. These are presented alphabetically because there’s no way we could rank them. 

1) “Space: 1999” - This was one of the big sci-fi shows from 1976-78. The year is 1999 and the moon houses a research facility and is used to store Earth’s nuclear waste. A catastrophic explosion blasts the moon out of Earth orbit and the 48 episodes chronicle what happens next. Martin Landau and Barbara Bain are fun as the commander and doctor. The series had pretty sophisticated effects, a mix of silly, exciting and boring plots, along with a fantastic soundtrack.

2) “Super Friends” - Classic Saturday morning programming! This show was so fun in all its incarnations over the years on ABC. Probably the best though was “The All-New Super Friends Hour” from 1977 because not only did it feature all the usual Super Friends, but it also included segments on crafts, magic tricks, safety plus puzzles to decode. It also featured the Wonder Twins who were always trippy fun. This show no doubt led to our love of the superhero shows on the CW today. 

3) “Ultraman” - Seventies sci-fi from Japan at its best! The Science Patrol is on the case to defend Earth against whatever alien or Godzilla-like monster attacked that week. Hayata, one of the team, has the magic capsule that transforms him into Ultraman! This show’s had many permutations over the decades too, but the seventies shows are the best. Cheesy guys running around in monster suits never looked better.

4) “Voyagers” - This is our single selection from the 80s. This single season time travel adventure is a little bit Doctor Who and little bit history lesson. Super sexy Jon-Erik Hexum stars as a member of a league of time travelers who repairs errors in the world's timeline. History was never so fun...or as sexy. No Doctor or other time traveler holds a candle to Hexum, who sadly passed away just a year after this show went off the air.

5) “Wonder Woman” - Lynda Carter could do no wrong as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman in this iconic late 70s show. The show ran the gamut from serious World War II drama to kooky camp with killer toys as the show moved into its later seasons. Carter was always perfect though, keeping the superhero solidly grounded even if the plots around her were on the crazy side.