TRAINS On TV |
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I admit the TV was like a baby sitter to me when I was just learning to walk. And if you look at some of my best loved and remembered shows that popped up right around the time I was old enough to start being influenced, you'll see I couldn't help but love trains. I mean, my word, even the Captain Kangaroo show had commercials for Kellogg's cereal, and this toy train that delivered the boxes of cereal right in front of the camera. |
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| Right off you have the TV shows of Wild Wild West and Petticoat Junction. Colombia House sells lots of old series on video tape. |
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| (NOTE:)I’ve always wanted my own railcar to play in and still do. I really want a caboose in my back yard. And at several times have even thought about how cool it would be to live in a real passenger car. I actually thought about trying to get some contractor to build me a wooden replica from actual blueprints. |
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| The same train in Petticoat Junction was also seen once in a while on Green Acres. |
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| Another TV show that comes to mind is The Addams Family, Gomez was always blowing up his trains. |
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| And how about that green clay actor GUMBY? I still remember several GUMBY episodes with model trains in them. One show had GUMBY going to different planets and one was covered completely with tracks and trains. Another time a train was stuck at a railroad crossing and GUMBY helped out by shrinking small enough to get into the cab to move the train along. And how about that train that came out the toy box, and ran all around the room on tracks that it took right along with it. |
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| Take off your school shoes and put on your sneakers it's time for: Mr. Rogers Neighborhood with TROLLEY. Building and playing with model trains is make-believe to the tenth power. (NOTE: I still remember a show when OWL wanted HandyMan Gregory to change the Z on the inside of his door to an X.) |
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| Do you remember seeing an Ellery Queen show where this great inventor was murdered because he was designing a computer controlled railway system which would put lots of big businesses out of work? |
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| My Heavens, I almost forgot Thomas the Tank Engine. How lucky kids are today to have loving Thomas. (But then we kids had it pretty good 35 years or so. And our parents even more so.) |
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