For a few years now I have been introducing my children to classic films but I realized that there were a slew of classic tv shows that would amazing to watch as well. The Twilight Zone (1959-1964) is one of my favorite shows and a show my husband and I love to watch together. I have shown my children a few episodes of the show before but I figured to just go for it and watch the whole thing. We started the process in January 1, 2021 and finished on September 12, 2021. Almost every day after classes we would watch one or two episodes. After nine months we devoured all five seasons which included 156 episodes.
One cool thing we would do after we would watch an episode is talk about the story, the actors, and the lessons that could be learned from the stories. I think watching a classic tv show gave my children a view into another time period different from their own. It also allowed them to broaden their tastes, gave them an understanding of powerful storytelling, and expanded their view of the world around them.
I think kids today are capable of pulling themselves away from the video games and phone if we only give them a chance. Introducing them to a tv show that you can watch with them creates memories that they will take with them their whole life. I remember watching I Love Lucy and Bewitched when I was a kid in the 1980's and those good memories have stayed with me. I watched them mainly at my grandma's house because she had cable and a lot of times we would watch them together. I never forgot the pure simple joy that these shows gave to me as a kid and I wanted my children to experience this. I won't lie, some days they just weren't in the mood to watch an old black and white tv show but I encouraged them to finish what we started together and reminded them that this was their special time with me every day away from chores, homework, and video games. To my absolute pleasure they actually stuck with it and now they are forever changed by the special stories a writer like Rod Serling was able to put on the small screen.
October was all about the spooky movies and November we have been catching up with our other shows but I am hoping in the new year we will continue this tradition. I want my children to be exposed to all mediums of art and to be aware of what life was like at other time periods other than their own. The next shows we may tackle together is Night Gallery and The Wonder Years. The Night Gallery because it is more Rod Serling but set in the 1970's and I have never seen this show. The Wonder Years because not only is it a show I watched when I was a pre-teen and teen but because it depicts life as a young person set in the 1960's-1970's from a boys perspective.
What classic the shows did you grow up learning? Have you introduced any to the kids around you? What did they think about it?
Here are a few classic television shows that you can introduce to children:
1. The Twilight Zone
2. The Addams Family
3. Gilligan's Island
4. Bewitched
5. I Love Lucy
6. The Brady Bunch
7. Batman
8. Leave it to Beaver
9. The Munsters
10. Lassie
11. I Dream of Jeannie
12. Dennis the Menace
13. The Partridge Family
14. Little House on the Prairie
15. Diff'rent Strokes
16. Doctor Who
17. Mork & Mindy
18. Star Trek
19. Happy Days
20. The Patty Duke Shows
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