5 TV Music Shows That Need Bringing Back

The Banana Splits was the theme tune to my early childhood, every Saturday morning I was plonked in front of the TV addicted to the exploits of 4 grown men wearing furry animal suits (things haven't changed too much) running around at double speed to, what seemed at the time, the greatest music on the planet. Fast forward a few decades and The Cartoon Network are set to bring back Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky to the small screen. This is good news for kids everywhere, as we all know TV was much better in the old days

It's fair to say that The Banana Splits have influenced a generation of bands who fire out feel good, fun 60s tinged pop. Supergrass have been a carbon copy of The Banana Splits at various moments in their career, not to mention making cheap plastic sunglasses look cool. And that got me thinking, what other old music shows are we missing out on? In a Justin Lee Collins moment I donned a furry wig, some extra chest hair and thought about five TV music shows that were worth Bringing Back....

Top Of The Pops
Who cares that there's a million music chart shows running down top 40s, the BBC are supposed to be the cultural voice of the British people. A mainstream music show on prime time with live performances from our favourite bands. Listen up BBC, bring back TotPs asap or I'm not paying my licence fee any more.

The Monkees
This should have happened already, The Monkees were ace. No one cared that they didn't really perform their own music, so it won't be a problem to stick some shambolic nobodies in a house and get them to pretend to be somebodies. Just make sure the music they pretend to release is as good as I'm A Believer instead of anything Chantelle might have come up with.

The Young Ones
The Young Ones was genius, because it looked like a TV sitcom, but that just goes to show what an amazingly well written subversive show it was. Didn't you notice that every week a band played in the living room? Neneh Cherry, The Damned, Dexie's, Madness and even Motorhead appeared in the show and it spawned two hit singles: Hole In My Shoe and Living Doll.

Popworld
How many hangovers were spent watching Miquita Oliver and Simon Amstell make some pompous pop star feel extremely uncomfortable with some embarassing line of questioning? The show was killed and ass raped by Alex Zane and Alexa Cheung pretending to be the show's original hosts, but still nothing has held a candle to it since. Find some new blood and get this show back on, gotta beat Shipwrecked innit.

The Word
Defining Nirvana performance, L7 bass player throwing used tampon into the audience, Jerry Halliwell when she was still a wannabe. The Word was the defining “yoof” music show of the 90s. There's nothing comparable now and Terry Christian has been reduced to z-list Big Brother contestant from his former voice-of-his-generation status. The Word challenged taste and decency boundaries more than once in every show. Let me know whether you agree or you can add to the list!