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Original poster

Does anyone remember Channel 4 showing old American shows?

34 replies

LogsInLogsOut · 02/02/2022 12:30

I was talking with a friend about shows we used to watch and I mentioned Channel 4 showing old American shows like Rawhide, The Lone Ranger, Mork and Mindy and Happy Days. She's the same age as me (Born in 84) and doesn't remember them being on at all and thinks that they wouldn't have been shown then.

I'm sure they were shown in the '90s? Does anyone else remember this?

OP posts:
HangoverSquare · 02/02/2022 12:32

She's wrong. It was cheap TV for stations to broadcast older American TV shows. Happy Days used to be on at 5 pm-ish I think. I used to like watching The Waltons on Channel 4 on a Sunday morning.

CrabPuff · 02/02/2022 12:33

Lone Ranger was definitely on. And I think the BBC showed the Man from U.N.C.L.E as well.

MedusasBadHairDay · 02/02/2022 12:34

I remember watching Mork & Mindy and Happy Days, and I was born '84.

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INeedNewShoes · 02/02/2022 12:34

We used to love watching Happy Days! (Born 82) Think it was on after a show called Blossom which we also liked.

Icantgetalifeifmyheartsnotinit · 02/02/2022 12:34

Yep - also born in 84 and C4 used to show v old 70's Heidi (no idea if American!) Little House on the Prairie and Rawhide on a Sunday morning. Moro and Mindy was an evening showing IIRC. This would have been around 1993-4-5 I think!

BurnDownTheDiscoHangTheDJ · 02/02/2022 12:35

Happy Days was definitely on at tea time on channel 4 for a while when I was a kid! Born similar time to you and I remember that and Mork and Mindy too.

PuppyMonkey · 02/02/2022 12:35

Yes and they used to show Lost in Space, The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie etc on a Sunday lunchtime. Happy memories of my youth (big hangovers).

bellabelly · 02/02/2022 12:36

Yes, they used to show old American comedies like Mork & Mindy, Mr Ed etc. I used to love watching them in my early teens - so late 1980s.

darkred · 02/02/2022 12:37

Yeah they did, they also used to show Bewitched and I dream of Jeannie in the summer holidays

HangoverSquare · 02/02/2022 12:39

I remember when Sky first launched a huge chunk of their output was repeats of 60s and 70s American sitcoms like Three's Company and Gidget. Cheap telly.

BasiliskFace · 02/02/2022 12:41

Don’t know which channels but I remember in the 80s watching Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, the Waltons, Zorro, Champion the Wonder Horse, the Lone Ranger, Flipper…

JenniferAllisonPhillipaSue · 02/02/2022 12:58

They also used to show cheap US comedies around teatime - Diff'rent Strokes, Alice, etc.

Callcat · 02/02/2022 13:26

Mork and mindy was on just after lunch on a Sunday, and little house on the prairie on Sunday morning!

Callcat · 02/02/2022 13:28

Ch4 also showed 'dinosaurs' and Harry and the Hendersons. I was born in 85.

BluTangClan · 02/02/2022 13:29

Land of the Giants was an obscure on that was shown on Sunday mornings.

MedusasBadHairDay · 02/02/2022 13:32

@darkred

Yeah they did, they also used to show Bewitched and I dream of Jeannie in the summer holidays
I loved Bewitched!
suckingonchillidogs · 02/02/2022 13:36

I think there was some kind of strike at TV am (or whatever the breakfast show on ITV was called in the 80s). I remember they showed Happy Days and Batman instead for a while, it was great!

LIZS · 02/02/2022 13:39

Happy Days and Mork and Mindy, the Waltons, Little House on the Prairie predated ch4, they were shown originally on bbc 2 or itv at teatime. They were reshown on Sunday lunchtimes on ch4 or school holiday mornings.

AnotherMansCause · 02/02/2022 13:47

I remember most of these. Also Knightrider, & reruns of 1960s shows like Thunderbirds etc. I was born in 1981.

musicalfrog · 02/02/2022 13:49

Ahh Flipper!

And the Littlest Hobo.

I'd love to see those again!

cherryonthecakes · 02/02/2022 14:04

I remember most of these!

Lassie and Skippy The Bush Kangaroo spring yo mind too

MsIreneWinters · 02/02/2022 15:36

Yes I definitely remember this. Loved Mork and Mindy and also got quite into Laverne and Shirley at one point.

DisforDarkChocolate · 02/02/2022 15:38

Rawhide Blush.

Worth it just to see a young Clint Eastwood.

Icantgetalifeifmyheartsnotinit · 02/02/2022 19:32

YY to the Littlest Hobo!!

Original poster
LogsInLogsOut · 03/02/2022 20:14

Thank you all. I'm glad that so many others remember them too.

I loved so many of these shows and you've just reminded me of so many that I've forgotten which I loved. I have an urge to watch some of them now.

OP posts: