Old People

[Sofajockey]

I was wondering if anyone here watched the original airing of series 1 as a grown up adult human. Or to put it another way. Who here is dead old? I want to know who’s the oldest? I’m not judging or anything. I watched The End around at my mate Richard’s house in Derby after a fish finger tea. We were in the third year of school. That makes me 43 now. We then went upstairs to his room and I played with his instrument. I think it was a Casio CTK-240. And we tried to learn all the lyrics to Stutter Rap. Ah halcyon days…

Topic

[Taiwan Tony]

37. Watched it on video when it came out on video.
I still own *some* videos.
Old.

[Cloche]

My dad watched it when it first aired in America while he was in college, but I was born years later and saw it on New Years Eve when I was six years old the first time.

In other words, he’s old and I’m younger.

[Jonsmad]

42, and i saw future echoes on first broadcast.

[clem]

34, first watched RD and became a fan during the ’94 repeats of the first six series, so the first episode I watched the original broadcast of was Tikka. Those repeats omitted Psirens and I didn’t have it on video so for a good while I’d only read the script in Primordial Soup and not seen the episode, just like anyone who got the book when it first came out, before the original airing of series VI. Anyway, yeah, old.

[International Debris]

33, first saw Terrorform on initial broadcast, remember really enjoying Quarantine and Back to Reality. Watched VI when it came along. Taped VI on whichever repeat run missed Rimmerworld but had Dimension Jump in its place.

[Warbodog]

32. First memory is catching DNA’s curry monster ending in some early 90s repeat run, followed shortly by Justice’s bursting head opening. Back-to-back grossness, loved it. Then watched properly through series 6 (from Legion), which was the only one I ever saw repeated for years and was “my” Red Dwarf until the DVD era when I realised I appreciated all the earlier years a bit more. I didn’t see Psirens for ages, so it was either the first of many repeat runs or I just missed that broadcast.

I wonder if today’s nine-year-olds are developing lifelong obsessions with Red Dwarf via Dave repeats, or if it doesn’t connect with them the same way? I don’t know any to ask.

[Paul Muller]

31.

Vague memories of V and think I had VI on video, VII was the first one I properly watched on broadcast.

[pfm]

> I wonder if today’s nine-year-olds are developing lifelong obsessions with Red Dwarf

You expect them to look up from Farm Heroes Saga long enough??

[MANI506]

37, been there since my brother showed me series 2. He is 39 and saw Confidence & Paranoia/Me2 first time around. The hologram projection suite part of Thanks For The Memory had series 1 clips which tormented me for years until the VHS came out in 1993. So I read series 1 in the first novel and smegazine before I saw it.

[Hamish]

23, and I will get off your lawns.

[Rival Schools]

I’m thirty-something and I find Red Dwarf to be the equivalent of my sex life.

Technically better now but also cold and heartless.

[Dave]

35. I first caught it when The Inquisitor first aired (I vividly remember my first big laugh was the gag about the comicbook version of the Aeneid). Watched most the rest of V and VI, then caught up on the rest via the Six Of The Best boxset and the repeat run.

[Sofajockey]

You youthed me.

Interesting to hear all those moments where RD was stumbled upon for the first time – the ‘Stewart Moments’ I believe they’re called: “I was looking for The Singing Detective as my parents were out. I had just got out the shea butter and my mother’s best hand-towel, when my greasy hands mishandled the remote control and I suddenly saw this man on the television with an H on his head pull a funny face on a spaceship….etc etc”

[Dave]

Actually, I can’t have “caught up” with ‘Six Of The Best’, can I, as the repeat run was before that. I must have only bought that for the CD and the hologram.

[si]

I’m 38, and am pretty sure I saw series I with my Dad. I know I definitely saw series II, because when series III came round, I recognised Kryten and knew that Holly had changed.

[Chris Stokes]

33.

Red Dwarf was huge at school during V and VI. Too many of us 8 and 9-year-olds watching it when we shouldn’t have been, I suppose. My parents thought it was clever so didn’t mind me watching it.

I do remember a fight in the playground having to be broken up because Scott Mann was adamant that Cat was a vampire and Ben Duffy begged to differ.

Since Terrorform, I’ve watched each episode go out on broadcast, with the exception of Stoke Me a Clipper (a family party I HAD to go to which I resented enormously) and Back to Earth. Didn’t have Dave at the time so I remember watching it all-at-once after I’d had it recorded for me.

Also, not to be rude but anybody 34 saying they’re ‘old’ is exaggerating a bit…

[Pete Part Three]

>I do remember a fight in the playground having to be broken up because Scott Mann was adamant that Cat was a vampire and Ben Duffy begged to differ.

Classic Scott Mann.

[Dave]

Potentially taking the thread off on a bit of a tangent, but for fans old enough to have kids of their own, have you introduced any of your children to Red Dwarf yet?

My six-year-old has been vaguely interested for a while (after seeing a few clips here and there), but had never watched an episode until last week. We watched The End together and it went down pretty well. I’m wondering whether to just carry on with the first series, or jump around a bit and pick out the more kid-friendly episodes across all series.

(We watch Doctor Who together too, so I’m thinking some of the time-travel stuff will be particularly appreciated.)

[Chris Stokes]

I also remember he’d learned the word ‘cunt’ from his Dad, but it was clearly only ever in the context of watching a football match, which meant he’d learned the plural, thinking it was the singular. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and heard was him, in the broad Black Country accent, one day standing up in a lesson and saying,

“Mr Henzell, you’m a cunts!”

[Lily]

40. Was vaguely aware of Dwarf as a kid but my parents didn’t consider it suitable viewing for a little girl.

First broadcast (and series in general) watched: VIII

[CB3]

I’m 41, and I’m not old, so 34 definitely isn’t ;)

I was going to start a thread to introduce myself (I wasn’t really – I saw how the last one went) but here’s as good a place as any.

I started watching Red Dwarf in Series V and it was love at first sight, absolutely, totally, utterly. I couldn’t believe I’d managed to repeatedly miss this amazing programme – for four years! It was relatively easy to catch up with III and IV, due to repeats and borrowing friends’ taped-off-the-TV videos (I didn’t know you could buy official videos then), but I and II seemed to be unobtainable, and as a result acquired an almost mythical status. No one I knew had seen them, and there were rumours that Kryten wasn’t in it and they wore different uniforms…

I used to massively regret not watching Red Dwarf from the start, but when I think back to how exciting it was when they repeated Series I for the first time – I almost think watching it in the knowledge of what it would evolve into made it far more compelling than if I’d been watching it completely afresh. I do wonder what I would have made of the first episode if I’d been watching on that day back in February ’88. I like to imagine I’d still have loved it.

[CB3]

Oh, and in answer to Dave Wallace: I have kids aged 13 and 10 and they both love RD (my proudest parenting achievement! Possibly my only one, mind). My eldest was about seven when he first got interested – watching Back to Earth, curiously enough. I distinctly remember us watching Series X together and he was really into it by then. Bloody hell, just realised he would have only been eight years old back in 2012! Series X really was a long time ago.

Anyway, he’s a total teenager now so we don’t watch much TV together anymore, although he’s said he’ll definitely watch XII with me. He’s also reading – and enjoying – the novels. This is pretty amazing, as it’s really hard to get him away from a screen these days. Testament to how great they are, I think.

[Jonathan Capps]

34. I caught the odd episode on original broadcast, specifically IV, forgot about it for a bit and then became obsessed during the big repeat run.

[(deleted)]

Inminently 32. Knew naught until Tikka, and was won over instantly. Caught up via the series 1 tapes, Six Of The Best, Smeg Outs/Ups and VI Byte II, then whatever I could get hold of in whatever way I could get it.

My child is only 15 months old but I’ve still pondered ‘hmm… I bet Tongue Tied would be okay for her’. I am a mess.

[Dave]

The first Red Dwarf thing my daughter ever laughed at was “too slow chicken marengo”.

[clem]

Had later series already come out on VHS when series 1 was released, then? At Rob and Doug’s request? I know they asked for it not to be repeated. I’d be interested in seeing all the VHS release dates, actually.

> Also, not to be rude but anybody 34 saying they’re ‘old’ is exaggerating a bit…

Well, yeah, I don’t actually consider myself old. It’s just a bit mind-boggling to think I’ve been a fan of Red Dwarf since before I was a teenager, for over two thirds of my life, and today am eagerly looking forward to a brand new episode just like I was the day Tikka first aired all that time ago.

[MANI506]

I know from memory that the VHS releases were III in 91, II & IV in 92, I in 93, V in 94 and VI in 95.

[Dave]

Thanks, that clears up a mystery for me. I know the first series I watched was V, but I also know that I saw Dimension Jump and White Hole before I saw any of series I.

So I reckon that I watched V from the Inquisitor onwards, then went back and watched the second VHS ‘Byte’ of IV, then watched the entire repeat run all the way through after that.

[clem]

Thanks for that MANI.

[curtis]

33

I think I caught Out of Time on original broadcast, and possibly Justice. I remember being hugely excited when Philip Bunting told me about the 94 repeat run and hugely disappointed when Out of Time didn’t have a part 2. I also cried to my mum because I didn’t get to see Psirens.

[Author]

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