6 Childhood TV Shows We Used to Watch: Backyardigans, Oswald and More

Blue's Clues, Max and Ruby, Oswald

Blue's Clues was never the same after OG Steve left. Steve Burns hosted from the 1996 premiere and his last episodes aired in April 2002, after which his brother Joe took over. Joe was fine. Joe was not Steve. Mailbox, meanwhile, remained the most enthusiastic employee in television history.

Max and Ruby was two bunny siblings, based on the Rosemary Wells books, and it started in 2002. Ruby had a plan, Max had one word and ruined it, and every episode Max won anyway. Those gumdrops looked so good and we will not be taking questions.

Oswald the blue octopus, created by Dan Yaccarino, arrived in 2001 with his hot dog dog, Weenie. The slowest, kindest show on TV. If you want the local side of after-school TV, Mat Yoyo and Art Factory are in our Singapore childhood TV shows list.

In the Night Garden and JoJo's Circus

In the Night Garden came from Andrew Davenport, the same person who co-created Teletubbies, and it started in 2007. That explains a lot. Igglepiggle, Upsy Daisy, the Pinky Ponk airship, the Ninky Nonk train, and Makka Pakka pushing his Og-Pog around washing stones. Only the real ones remember the Makka Pakka song, and if you are one of them it is now stuck again. Sorry.

JoJo's Circus is the one people swear they made up. They did not. It was a Playhouse Disney claymation show from 2003 to 2007 about JoJo, a six-year-old clown girl, and Goliath, her pet lion, at circus school. Three seasons, 59 episodes, and a tent you could draw from memory.

The Backyardigans, and that song

Five friends, Uniqua, Pablo, Tyrone, Tasha and Austin, turn one backyard into a different adventure every episode, each with its own music genre. It ran from 2004 to 2013 and there are 80 episodes, but you only remember one.

International Super Spy is a two-part Bond parody and it is, genuinely, a banger. We have the caption to prove it.