Gen Z! Here's why you should watch these television shows that Millennials love

For those of us who grew up in the rsquo90s India had the best TV programming in both Hindi and English The programming was planned by people who understood children preteens and teens For example Doordarshan always had the Childrenrsquos Film Society of India working on both the visuals and the language so as to soothe kids and drive home social messages The shows appealed to all ages so everyone could watch it together and even our dads and moms loved itRight now our screens are too noisy with visuals designed to distract more than truly entertain or move the viewer We grew up on shows like The Last Airbender which has graphics that were both spectacular but also calming and the plot and character arcs lent an understanding of complex emotions such as empathy at a young ageIn an era of brainrot like Fruit Love Island and relentless rows on reality TV these are our recommendations of shows that will leave you feeling warm and comfortedFlop ShowThe satirical show aired for only 10 episodes back in 1989 PICYOUTUBEDOORDARSHAN NATIONALThe show that seemed to have expectation baked into it was Jaspal Bhattistarrer Flop Show The show was loved for its Mr Beanlike humour sans the physical comedy it was a laugh riotWe still canrsquot forget the showrsquos theme song ldquoYe hai flop show flop show flop showrdquo mdash you just had to be there in the rsquo90s to get how iconic this wasThe execution of tongueincheek dry humour by Bhatti and Vivek Shauq was just too goodThe show lasted only 10 Sundays The final episode was as meta as it gets parodying the TV industryrsquos producers and broadcasters who despite being loaded did not want or fund quality contentThe showrsquos name was also a satirical take on how the common man of India was made to feel like a flop show because of government apathyNukkadThe first time we watched Nukkad was in 1993 which is when the revived version Naya Nukkad airedThe original series ran initially from 1986 to 1987 and the revival from 1993 to 1994 Nukkad roughly translates to ldquothe cornerrdquo or ldquoour corner of the neighbourhoodrdquo The show was about urban youth trying hard to make a living Our favourite character was Khopdi a loveable drunk with a sad origin storyThe show is set in an unspecified city and our ldquonukkadrdquo is just one corner with a mix of middleclass and lowerincome residents One of our arcs was the love story between the characters Guru and Teacher ji that didnrsquot go anywhere but was nevertheless enough to get our preteen heart racingWatch this if you want to actually see the magic of writing and acting meeting organically on a modest budgetYeh Jo Hai ZindagiThe series was part of the early careers of Satish Shah Shubha Arya and Tiku Talsania PICYOUTUBEShemaroo Indian TV ClassicsThe series aired between 1984 to 1985 and was about a middleclass married couple Ranjit Verma Shafi Inamdar and his lively wife Renu Verma Swaroop Sampat and the ups and down in their relationship It also starred Dhrandharfame Rakesh Bedi when he was a freshfaced 29yearoldIt stuck in our memory because of the theme song sung by none other than Kishore Da filmed against the backdrop of MumbaiBedi played Renursquos unemployed brother who would often create some drama between the couple dispute living on his brotherinlawrsquos dime unapologeticallyThe show aired before our time but we enjoyed the reruns With almost 67 episodes today it would count as a show with about five seasonsPlease catch it if you want to watch something sweet with the family this festive seasonSmall WonderSmall Wonder aired in India in 1995 PICYOUTUBEElectric Coffee MugThis American show aired from 1980 to 1985 Itrsquos an innocent story about the Lawson family We loved Jamie the mischievous wisecracking son of Ted and Joan Lawson but it was their goddaughter Vicki mdash who was actually a robot mdash who won our hearts when the show finally came to India in 1995Today wersquore scared out of our minds as to what AIpowered robots will mean for humanity In our childhood though a robot girl was the coolest thing we could imagineTed is a robotronics cybernetics engineer working on a project titled ldquoVoice Input Child Identicantrdquo aka VICKI She is brought to life by Ted who then brings her home to see if human beings can be fooled into believing that she is a real childThe show ran for four seasons and the plot largely revolved around Lawsonrsquos attempts to hide that Vicki was a robot until she actually starts emoting human emotions and the family ends up thinking of her like a family member I especially loved the fact that this tiny robot could lift a car and a couch She had a superpower before the AvengersMy favourite character was the gingerhaired Harriet Brindle who was always close to figuring out the Lawsonrsquos family secretItrsquos a soothing watch for me