Yes, Wanderly Wagon was shit.

If I heard this a few years ago I'd be incensed, just like alot of people who are reading this are now but hear me out.

Nostalgia is dangerous to your better judgement. Rose tinted glasses and hindsight being 20/20 and all that. In your mind Wanderly Wagon is great and there's nothing wrong with that, but as a quality, entertaining kid's show it doesn't stand up.

Wanderly Wagon ran from 1968 to 1982. Can it's shitness be forgiven because of it's vintage? Not at all, The Flinstones debuted in 1960 and the Banana Splits in 1968, same year as Wanderly Wagon. Britain ran dozens of decent kid's shows earlier than '68 and don't get me started on Japan, not only were they excelling in animation, their live action adventure shows, some of which first aired in the 50's boasted better special effects and production values than RTE's more recent efforts.

I know what you're thinking; BUDGET. Yes it's true RTE's budget was nowhere near as big as NBC, Toei or BBC but lissen dis; it ran for 14 years and was for a long time the only kids programme on the books so money isn't at fault. Look at the Morbegs, plenty of money available there and its beyond crap.

I've seen the Lambert Puppet theatre show twice, once when I was 9 and then when I was 19 and both times it was unimpressive. All due respect to the Lamberts, they try their best but how can they ever impress adults or kids when the whole world has been exposed to the magic of Jim Henson? Even watching it as a kid I knew the puppets were lame.

Maybe we are so protective of Wanderly Wagon because its an exclusively Irish 'institution', up there with Panky bars and Richy Kavanagh. Nuff said. All shit. RTE let us down badly with childrens entertainment, I can distinctly remember watching Forty Coats in a friends house when I was 7 when his older brother came charging screaming 'Turn that gick off! Thundercats is on BBC!' To me that sums the whole mess up, BBC had Thundercats while we had Forty Coats.

Wanderly Wagon is now out on dvd. If you want to re-live your crap Irish childhood go ahead. It was shit. And if you still hold it close to your heart be advised to let it stay there in your warm deluded brain and never speak of it again.