My top 5 animals in TV shows I watched as a kid list

1. Max - the bionic dog

Max is the first of 3 German Shepards on this list but was easily the most kick-ass. He was, in my opinion, the true star of the show 'The Bionic Woman'. My plush dog was named 'Max' after him in spite of actually being a Lady (from Lady and the Tramp) stuffed dog. In my eyes that toy was an awesome bionic Alsatian. For those of you who didn't watch the show here are a few facts about Max:

Max had a bionic jaw and bionic legs. He was able to stop the biggest cars and trucks with his mouth. Max was deathly afraid of fire. This fear came about when he was a puppy in a pet store and the store caught on fire. With the help of Jaime, Max overcame his fear. In short, he rocked.

2. Mr Ed

Mr Ed made it to second place for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he was a horse and I didn't want dogs to completely dominate the list. Secondly, he had a great dignity and authority on the show. Whilst many animal characters on TV shows, especially comedies, are cute and/or ridiculous, Ed was easily the smartest character on the show. The humour didn't come from laughing at an animal being a clown (or being forced into Disney-esque cute situations) but from his witty observations and relationship with Wilbur. It was not a series where the laughs came at the expense of animals but more often, in fact, the human characters were the silly ones. Also I remember being really fascinated by learning that MR Ed was fed peanut butter to make him look like he was talking. For some reason, as a child, it thought it was really cool that they fed a horse peanut butter.

3. The Littlest Hobo

Such a nice show. It had the animals heroically rescuing or helping people with their problems element that had been successful in Lassie and Flipper but without the annoying kid characters who feature in every episode of those shows. I had always thought that the dog was part wolf like the character White Fang, but according to the website where I grabbed this picture, he was in fact a German Shepard called London. A reference to the author Jack London? That would lend my White Fang part wolf theory more credence but I suspect not.

4. Scooby do

OK, cartoon characters are kind of cheating but Scooby is so awesome that he could not be on the list. He is cowardly, he says 'Yoicks', he loves food, will do anything for Scooby snacks and can deal with any dangerous situation by dressing up in a ridiculous costume. Yep, he is pretty much my hero.

5. Sniff

Again technically cheating as he was a puppet but Sniff the police dog who used to appear on What Now still deserves his place as the third German Shepard on the list. Alas, no pictures can be found of Sniff but he was very cute. He gave us a reason to watch 'What now' when the D&D and Spiderwoman cartoon were no longer on it. I think he was even around longer than Frank Flash. Sniff and his constable side-kick (what was his name?) are no longer on 'What now' to pass on their wisdom to youngsters so they have to gunge(?)* young NZ celebrity wannabes to get the kids watching.

* Is that the name of it when they cover people in that green gloppy stuff?