Think back five, ten years ago, remember those childhood television shows that impacted your memories at an early age?

We’ve all had a favorite childhood television show. Whether it was Arthur, Between the Lions, or Dragon Tales, each has unique elements to its show that we may have never noticed.

Many do not realize that in Winnie the Pooh, each character symbolizes a different disorder. Christopher Robin has schizophrenia, explaining why he sees all the other characters. Pooh has an eating disorder, while Piglet has panophobia (a fear of everything). Tigger has ADHD, as he bounces off the walls and has trouble concentrating. Rabbit is OCD, making sure everything is orderly and put in place, and Owl has Narcissistic Personality Disorder as well as dyslexia. Last but not least, Eeyore has depression, as one can tell with his gloomy and depressed attitude towards others and life.

Another childhood television show that we all know about is Spongebob. In Spongebob, the seven main characters represent the seven deadly sins in the Bible. Patrick symbolizes laziness and the lack of movement, Squidward resembles hate and anger, Mr. Krabs is described as greedy, Plankton is the epitome of envy, Gary symbolizes gluttony, Sandy demonstrates pride, and Spongebob symbolizes lust.  Although theses characters have a down-side, their other side makes viewers connect with them. Sarah Stumpf’s(12) “favorite childhood television show is Spongebob, because [she] says that [she] can relate to Spongebob as a character, and he’s [her] spirit animal.”

In the television show Teletubbies, the show is filmed on a farm in Warwickshire, England. Before the reboot in 2014, 365 episodes were made per year, meaning that one could watch a different episode every day of the year. Each of the Teletubbies’ accessories also has a hidden meaning–Po’s scooter resembled travel, Dipsy’s hat was for role-play, Tinky Winky’s handbag symbolized volume and Laa-Laa’s bag demonstrated youth.

Remember the Magic School Bus? It is said that this show was made after a special education class because of the short yellow bus and fun adventures that the students got to go on during school hours, instead of learning at a desk.

Some random facts that many find interesting are hidden in Sesame Street. This childhood fan favorite has been airing the longest out of all children show’s in the country. A hidden fact in this show is that both Bert and Ernie’s shirts are striped but Ernie’s are horizontal to give a more calming feel while Bert’s are vertical to show his upright and anxious personality. Cookie Monster’s real name is Sid, and Oscar the Grouch was originally orange! Lauren Bui’s (9) “favorite cartoon is Sesame Street because it was entertaining and cute. [Her] favorite character from this show was Elmo because he was friendly and outgoing.”

Childhood television shows tend to bring back old memories, but sometimes we don’t realize different perspectives of the characters portrayed in these shows until we are older. Later, when we do realize the truth about our favorite television show, we can never envision it the same way again.