Fun Shows I Recommend:
6Teen
This show took place at the mall and was a Canadian show that aired on Teletoon while I was a kid. It focused on a group of teens who got summer jobs at the mall and navigated the perils of being a teenager as well as other life issues. It's actually aged pretty well throuhgout the years in terms of its content, mostly (even if everyone uses smartphones these days vs. flip phones, and we've got a diverse cast that develops well over the seasons.
Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!
Do you like superhero shows and robot monkeys? If you do, this will be for you.
This one's about a boy named Chiro, who comes across a giant robot containing other robot monkeys. Chiro gains the abilities of the Power Primate, and he and the robot monkeys proceed to protect Sugazoom City from the evil Skeleton King.
As of this writing (Jan. 29th 2025), I'm currently watching through Season 3 and it's good so far! The characters are fun, there's a lot of awesome group dynamics, and so on. Unfortunately, the show ends at Season 4 and was cancelled before it could air its actual planned finale season (Season 5). So I'm not looking forward to ending this on a cliffhanger...
Totally Spies!
Totally Spies features three girls (Sam, Clover, and Alex) who work for WOOHP as spies. It originally ran for six seasons, but was renewed for a seventh season which is currently airing as of 2025!
Like 6Teen, this was a show that I didn't watch many episodes of. I also vaguely recall having some French comic books featuring the spies, with one of them being centered on a beauty pageant where the models went missing.
Fortunately, episodes of the first six seasons can be found on Youtube, and they even have an official Youtube channel to watch them all!
Between The Lions
Between The Lions was a kids' show meant to be kinda like Sesame Street in the sense of edutainment - fun, but you also learned something. Between The Lions, based on what I remember of the show, focused more on literacy and reading however. All the main characters were puppets, and I especially remember the lions. The show ran from 2000 to 2010.
Like most of these shows listed, I only saw a few episodes when I was a kid, and I'm hoping to find some episodes on Youtube and elsewhere to stream as of Feb. 6th 2025.
Dragontales
Dragontales was a show that focused on two kids and a whole bunch of friendly dragons. That's it, that's all that I remember. Much like Between The Lions, I'm trying to find full episodes to stream as of this writing (Feb. 6th 2025).
Arthur
Okay, Arthur lasted for, what, 25 seasons? That is incredible. But I mainly remember watching the early seasons as a young child, and the show did a great job of bringing up everyday issues in a way that was very relatable to kids. I think that's the main strength of the entire cartoon, especially as the Arthur universe expanded over the later seasons.
The special "Arthur's Perfect Christmas" is very near and dear to my heart in particular. And same goes for the musical episode that ended with the one number about library cards. Also, the "Banned Books" episode is another one I'm super fond of and highly recommend watching - I think this one among several other episodes was Arthur at its best.
Though Arthur has ended, I read somewhere that the people behind the show (or at least one of the key people) is now running a show called Hop, which is meant for an audience that's a bit younger than Arthur's target audience. I wish them all the best and hope it does well to inspire new generations!
Trapped!
Trapped! was a kids' competition show that ran for four seasons. Each of the children, known as the Unfortunates in-universe, were brought to the show's tower to work together and descend down each floor by solving puzzles and challenges. The catch? One child is randomly chosen as the Saboteur who wants the rest of the group to lose the challenge.
If the group passes the challenge, the Saboteur is automatically trapped/eliminated while the rest continue forward. But if the group fails, they must vote on who they think is the Saboteur - which could lead to them trapping an innocent soul instead.
The fourth season put a spin on the show by making every challenge fairytale-themed and is called Trapped! Ever After. All episodes of the show are available to stream on Youtube!
Jungle Run
Jungle Run was another kids' competition show where a trio of kids, each episode, would complete challenges in the jungle (not actually a jungle but a really well-designed set) to collect bananas or monmkey statues in later seasons. These bananas or monkey statues would then be used to calculate how much time the kids had inside the Jungle King's Temple to solve puzzles and grab as many larger monkey statues as possible (the last one being the Golden Monkey). The more large monkey statues they got, the more prizes they got at the end.
However...if the team failed to get out of the final temple before time ran out, they were effectively trapped in there and got no prizes. The first season or two had it set so that if even one teammate was caught in the temple, no one on the team would get prizes even if the rest got out in time.
The show ran for eight seasons, and had three hosts: Dominic Wood (seasons 1-2), Chris Jarvis (seasons 3-4), and Michael Underwood (seasons 5-8). Most if not all episodes are available to watch on Youtube as of this writing (Feb. 6th 2025)!
Raven
Raven is basicaly what happens when you put together a fantasy LARP with a gameshow, in my opinion. The titular character, Raven, guides groups of children through a tournament. Each challenge gives them the abiltiy to win gold rings, and Series 2 onwards gave them the ability to exchange 7 rings for a life. Each child has 7 (later 9) lives, and if they lose all of them they are out o the competition. Additionally, if no one has 0 lives by the end of an episode, the kids with the lowest amount of lives from failing previous challenges must face The Way Of The Warrior, which virtually NO ONE passed except for four kids.
The winning two kids from each group get to move on to the final week of the competition, where they all compete for the title of Ultimate Warrior.
The show ran for 10 series from 2002-2010, and then was revived in 2017-2018 for two more series with a new host with the same in-universe name (though the orignial one did appear as Raven of Old). The show also had three spinoff competition shows (Raven: The Island, Raven: The Secret Temple, and Raven: The Dragon's Eye), which is pretty impressive.
I've seen some posts online state that Raven should've just been a full-on fictional fantasy show vs. a gameshow, but I actually really like the elements of the gameshow involved. However, I do think it could have potential to have a full-on fictional fantasy spinoff show in the future if they choose to revive it again.
I just finished watching ALL the series (spinoffs included) as of March 2nd, 2025!
My personal ranking of every Raven series:
- Top 1-3: Raven Series 3, Raven series 4, Raven: The Secret Temple
- 4-9: Raven series 7, Raven series 1, Raven series 10, Raven: The Dragon's Eye, Raven series 2, Raven Series 12
- 10-15: Raven Series 11, Raven: The Island, Raven Series 5, Raven Series 9, Raven Series 8, Raven series 6