This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Wash U chapter.
Most people probably grew up with the Disney Channel or Nickelodeon. But being a cheap family, I only ever got to watch the channels that our TV antenna (yes, those things) picked up. This meant that the only child TV programs that I could watch were on PBS Kids (considering it floated by the antenna for free).Â
The shows weren’t that different from Disney or Cartoon Network shows, except that they often had an educational component. This was a little more annoying as I grew up, but I guess that meant I had already learned the stuff in the show.Â
But here are some underrated PBS Kids TV shows from my childhood.
- Wild Kratts
- This was my brother and I’s favorite show back in the day. We loved learning and seeing the animals. The animation is also pretty good. It is relatively cheesy at times, but I don’t think we ever really outgrew it. After all, you could always learn more about the world’s creatures.
- Martha Speaks
- The talking dog. For some reason, this was a great watch, and Martha said some great stuff. Martha taught you about words, which, now that I think about it was pretty helpful.
- Arthur
- I cannot believe how long this aardvark has been on TV. The animation style is still pretty much the 1990’s animation style. It’s actually somewhat entertaining, and the cast is quite unique as well.Â
- Clifford
- I remember watching this, but it was a low-stakes cartoon: entertaining for a child me following the adventures of Clifford, the big red dog, and his doggy friends. But I don’t think I’ve seen it for a while.Â
- Dinosaur Train
- This was my dinosaur obsession in action. That theme song was catchy. We didn’t watch many episodes, though, because it played during the school day. Still, the episodes we did watch were very informative, at least from a child’s perspective, about dinosaurs. Also, we love that a Pteranodon family adopted a T-rex.
- Word Girl
- Another later in the night show about words. It was before Martha Speaks, I think. Kind of funny and a decent watch.
- Odd Squad
- A newer show that started later than many of the other shows on this list. This added some weird comedy to the PBS Kids channel. I can’t remember what they taught; I think it was math.
The nostalgia of a good TV show never gets old.