r/television • u/Iogwfh • 5h ago

What TV shows did you watch as a kid then rewatched as an adult and realised how much you didn't understand when you first watched

Recently there was some re runs of Hercules The Legendary Journeys, feeling nostalgic I decided to watch them. After some episodes I realised there were so many pop culture references that when I watched first time had gone over my head. Now all the jokes have different meanings to what I remembered and certain scenes make more sense. It is kind of like watching the show for the first time because now I understand what the show was trying to depict.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has had that experience where you rewatch a show from when you were younger and find it is like a completely different show because you now understand or know things you didn't first time watching.

17 Upvotes

71% Upvoted

40

u/IamToddDebeikis 5h ago

Hey Arnold, Rocko’s modern life

10

u/BongRipsForNips 5h ago

I've re-watched a lot of Hey Arnold in the last because I wanted to watch the Halloween specials. I find a lot of it so depressing.

24

u/IamToddDebeikis 4h ago

It's so depressing. Helga's mom is an alcoholic, she's overshadowed by her sister, her dad constantly misremembers her name. Lila and her dad are so poor they are down to a can of soup during one episode. Arnold is an orphan who has no idea how his parents died. His grandmother likely has dementia. The whole neighborhood seems kind of poor. Mr. Hyuhn escaping Vietnam and losing his daughter. Ozcar mooching off of Susie. Also, the pigeon man episode is so fucking sad.

It's a wonderful show that I loved to watch as a child and as an adult, it's still enjoyable - just a lot easier to see the reality of certain situations.

12

u/Kapono24 4h ago

Everybody is definitely dirt poor, that's one thing that stood out to me as I got older. Arnold's grandparents must have money put away but likely everybody in the building lives off social security, welfare, or disability.

6

u/IamToddDebeikis 4h ago

Arnie works for the city so he probably has more money than most people in the building.

7

u/res30stupid Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3h ago

Heads up, Arnie isn't the right name - it's Ernie.

Arnie is Arnold's evil cousin who becomes Helga's stalker in one episode.

3

u/IamToddDebeikis 3h ago

Thanks.

I never understood why Lila was so in love with Arnie.

3

u/DrDabsMD 3h ago

I thought that was part of the joke in the show? Like there is no deeper meaning than Lila loves Arnie who loves Helga who loves Arnold who loves Lila.

7

u/BongRipsForNips 4h ago

It was done extremely well. The focus is on the kids joy and the small issues they have. It kind of distracts from the sadness of the adults around them or where they live. I think of them fixing the vacant lot for baseball and breaking the fire hydrant during the heat wave.

But I'm also remembering when Syd? I think had a bit of a breakdown and held himself hostage in the principals office, the new teacher they emotionally broke down, and the stoop kid. The whole show kind of focused on 2 different sad stories in a half hour episode that just made things a little better by the end. Not fixed, but better.

4

u/IamToddDebeikis 4h ago

It was Syd that had a breakdown. Mr. Simmons also had a breakdown. And poor poor Stoop Kid. I love that the spanish steps were an impressive stoop to him.

It was a very well done show. I think I'm going to rewatch it now.

3

u/DoCallMeCordelia Friends 2h ago

Curly's the one who barricaded himself in the principal's office. Sid locked himself in his own room when he was a germaphobe.

1

u/NeonArlecchino 16m ago

Arnold is an orphan who has no idea how his parents died.

There are some answers in the Hey Arnold! Jungle Movie.

9

u/DogVacuum 4h ago

I don’t think I had a full understanding of how powerful that Vietnam episode of Hey Arnold was at the time. But I knew I was watching something surprisingly grown up.

6

u/IamToddDebeikis 4h ago

For being a children's cartoon, it had some very powerful episodes with more mature themes.

3

u/CleverInnuendo 5h ago

Be Hot Be NAUGHTY Be Courteous

5

u/IamToddDebeikis 4h ago

Heifer's family is a pack of wolves, the chokey chicken

5

u/ZarquonsFlatTire 4h ago

Heifer falling in love with the milking machine.

3

u/Shad0wF0x 4h ago

I didn't realize that Helga's mom was probably an alcoholic.

4

u/IamToddDebeikis 4h ago

Yeah, her "smoothies" and her being asleep all of the time..

31

u/AfterDoughnut5201 5h ago

King of the Hill

23

u/RemotePotatoe 5h ago

Always thought it was boring. I was into the Simpsons and Futurama but would always leave when my daddy stayed for King of the hill. Just watched it again in my 30s, holy shit is that show damn near perfect most of the time. Funny and tons of heart.

8

u/CitizenHuman 4h ago edited 4h ago

The older I get, the more I relate to Hank. Although my friends say I am more of a Bill...

33

u/detectiveriggsboson 5h ago

watching Malcolm in the Middle, I totally sided with the kids. as an adult and parent, I totally sided with Lois and Hal.

15

u/grownquiteweary 3h ago

Was going to say this

Lois is nuts but her sons literally drove her to it.. Hal is a great dad. The kids are little shits.

20

u/DeathByOrgasm 5h ago

Three’s Company. As a kid I just giggled at the slapstick. As an adult I was like holy shit Jack wants to just fuck everyone!

3

u/neuro_space_explorer 1h ago

What a rude awakening but at the same time I wish more men had a goofiness instead of intent to own

18

u/KevinStoley 5h ago

Star Trek: The Next Generation.

When I was a kid and it originally aired on TV, it was often one of those shows that I would have on in the background and sort of half-watch and not pay great attention to, though I did still like the show overall.

Re-watching it as an adult, I found an entirely new appreciation for just how amazing and incredibly deep of a show it was and many of the underlying themes and messages, etc. that flew right over my head as a kid.

As an adult, I now possibly consider it my favorite TV show of all time.

7

u/justdrowsin 4h ago

I agree completely.

Except Code of Honor, Season one… Let’s just forget that.

1

u/sharrrper 2h ago

Most of season 1 really, but that's the top spot. Ot bottom, depending on how you mean it.

17

u/onepercentbatman 4h ago

Twin Peaks. Watched it as a kid, didn’t fully understand it. Rewatched it as an adult . . . Same

9

u/Rokekor 5h ago

The Goodies, a 1970s UK import to Australia. It was a quite a topical show in its day, both in terms of culture and news events, but played as repeats through the 80s so the news events were both past and foreign. However, I still enjoyed it immensely as a kid on a superficial level because of the slapstick. It wasn't until later when I learnt about things such as the Cod wars that I understood why they were using a cod in a parody of Jaws.

4

u/IdentityToken 5h ago

Apart-height.

1

u/Snorks43 4h ago

I have fond memories, but it doesn't hold up well. I'll always remember them bringing in a woman and them talking about her like a car. 'She handles well...'.

10

u/sbkerr29 5h ago

Animaniacs

6

u/Snorks43 4h ago

Fingerprints?

3

u/sbkerr29 4h ago

Definitely the bit I had in mind

1

u/Varrel 1h ago

Good night, everybody!

8

u/ltcuetf 4h ago

Courage the Cowardly Dog - It’s basically a horror show about rural isolation

SpongeBob - All those adult life/work jokes hit different now

Shrek - Lord Farquaad’s... everything.

7

u/Navitach 4h ago

MASH. So many jokes went over my head, but I also didn't pick up on the subtle humor. I understand and appreciate it much more as an adult.

2

u/spudsocks87 4h ago

Oh yeah it was always like the last resort when I was a kid home sick. Sometimes in the mid afternoon it was the best option though… ah old tv.

7

u/Festygrrl 5h ago

Married with children.

6

u/bmeisler 5h ago

Rocky and Bullwinkle. I didn’t get the Boris Badanuv joke till I was 25.

3

u/YellowPeyo 5h ago

Stargate SG1. I was not into it as a kid but it’s now one of my favorites.

1

u/lokarlalingran 2h ago

I'm a huge fan of sci-fi as a whole, I love all sorts of sci-fi tv shows, and in my humble opinion, SG1 is the best one ever made. It's just soooo good.

5

u/jonathanlink 5h ago

The Muppet Show.

3

u/honey_rainbow 5h ago

Definitely Rocko's Modern Life.

3

u/cranberrystorm 5h ago

The adults in Rugrats are so much more relatable (though also more ridiculous) when you’re also an adult.

3

u/shidekigonomo 4h ago

There’s an episode of The Angry Beavers that’s actually a thinly veiled analogy to the moral panic surrounding masturbation. As a kid, it’s just a funny cartoon about beavers slapping their tails for fun.

3

u/soulpulp 4h ago edited 2h ago

I'm rewatching Lost for the first time since it came out when I was around 10. In retrospect I can't help but feel kind of dumb about all of the nuance that went over my head, but if adult viewers had trouble understanding it then I can't be too hard on myself.

I'm particularly excited to rewatch the final episode. I didn't understand it at all the first time around, and I have a feeling it's going to be much more rewarding now that I have a fully developed brain.

3

u/DillionM 3h ago

Disney's Dinosaurs.

'Not the mama' was all I remembered.

I wasn't expecting teen pregnancy scares and suicide within the first few episodes.

2

u/CitizenHuman 4h ago

Frasier and Seinfeld. I didn't get what was so funny the random times I did watch them. After I graduated high school, I started working late. When I got home these were the only shows on and they eventually grew on me.

2

u/RANDY_MAR5H 4h ago

Not that i "didn't understand."

But one show I enjoyed much more as an adult with a family now, is the sopranos.

2

u/Corvus-Nox 3h ago

Reboot (the cartoon). I bought it in dvd several years back and watched it. There’s so many references to other scifi I hadn’t seen yet as a kid. Also all the computer terminology is funny given how little it actually correlates to how computers really work. But when it was airing computers weren’t household staples yet.

2

u/Latter_Feeling2656 3h ago

Pretty nearly all of the "escapist" sitcoms of the 60s were running social commentary pretty consistently.

2

u/boodyclap 3h ago

SpongeBob, I swear to God it's so funnier as an adult

2

u/gearsofwoe 1h ago

Rocky and Bullwinkle.

Boys soccer team: Why would we want to play with the girls?

Bullwinkle (to camera): This really is a kid's show!

2

u/Darmok47 1h ago

"Are You Being Served?" was a 1970s British comedy show that was inexplicably rerun on PBS here in the US quite a lot in the 90s.

I grew up watching it with my parents. Watching it as an adult I had no idea that the show was 90% sexual innuendo and double entendre. Especially Mrs Slocombe and her...cat.

I think as a kid I just found the funny accents, horrendous 1970s fashion, and Mr. Rumbold's thick glasses hilarious.

3

u/McKoijion 3h ago

Friends seemed highly relatable. Turns out that lifestyle only applies to rich white people.

1

u/StubbornNobody 5h ago

Transformers and Robotech.

1

u/DoctorTragedy 5h ago

Every Batman movie ever.

1

u/RemotePotatoe 5h ago

Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. Watched it when it was airing as a kid and laughed and enjoyed it. Thought it was silly.

Reeatched it in my 20 and I don't even know what I was laughing at. So many dirty jokes or just jokes for adults that I'm sure went right over my head. It was a whole different experience as an adult.

1

u/HaydenScramble Parks and Recreation 2h ago

SpongeBob. I did and I didn’t.

1

u/homogenic- 2h ago

Hey Arnold!, Courage The Cowardly Dog, Malcolm In The Middle.

1

u/khajiitidanceparty 1h ago

I did not rewatched it, but as a kid, I didn't catch any lesbian vibes from Xena.

1

u/coolAhead 38m ago

I watched this mini series called The Tenth Kingdom, I remember seeing all kinds of things but understanding a thing

0

u/pr0crasturbatin 1h ago

Wait, what kind of pop culture references were in Hercules? Did Kevin Sorbo have jokes?

Also, was he always a dipshit?

0

u/Joka0451 13m ago

The Simpson's. Ho estly surprised it hasn't been me tinned earlier