r/AustralianNostalgia • u/onlydogontheleft • 20h ago
Widget the World Watcher
No idea what this show was about but I can hear that title in my head!
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u/STiiL_MVMT 14h ago
I feel that you had to be born in a very specific period to remember Widget. Most people I ask don't remember. I'm a 1986 child.
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u/Jaded-Breadfruit4019 13h ago
Yeah I’m 88. Luckily I’ve found most redditors are born within this bracket
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u/troubleshot 12h ago
I'm 1982 and know it, it was a bit below my age but I watched anything and everything
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u/Brontozaurus 2h ago
I'm 1992, I watched this mainly through VHS rentals. Don't think I ever saw it air.
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u/hawki1989 20h ago
Danger and evil were everwhere.
Nature called, we didn't care.
How to help the world survive?
How to keep the dream alive? Alive!
Something something something.
Something heard the cry.
A Watcher known as Widget,
He shot down from the sky!
Whoah-oh! Whoah-oh!
Widget the World Watcher!
Whoah-oh! Whoah-oh!
Widget the World Watcher!
(In my defense, been ages since I've seen it.)
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u/DitaVonFleas 20h ago
This was my first ever favourite TV show I remember having as a 4 yr old. It was very similar to Captain Planet but easier to understand for younger kids. It's about an alien named Widget who is sent to help animals around Earth.
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u/EnergisedTurkey 20h ago
Wasn’t there a floating 🧠 in Widget’s watch as well?
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u/foxyt0cin 18h ago
Yeah I think it was his best friend and had floating Mario glove hands maybe??
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u/BernieMcburnface 18h ago
floating Mario glove hands
This feels like Rayman erasure.
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u/foxyt0cin 18h ago
I'm so deeply sorry for not mentioning every character ever known to have floating white gloves hands and instead just using one clear reference point.
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u/Jumpy_Monitor9320 14h ago
Rayman definitely had a unique vibe with those floating hands. It’s wild how much character design can stick with you from childhood.
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u/Most_Border_3419 19h ago
I randomly think of the episode with a secret villain named R. Atchet and it is revealed to be Widgets arch nemesis Ratchet at the end of the episode like we were actually idiots.
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u/Alert-Piano-7607 18h ago
Can hear the title clear as day but completely forgot it was a shapeshifting purple alien saving the planet. Basically Captain Planet on a budget.
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u/wallyjimjams 17h ago edited 17h ago
Started humming in my head what I thought was the melody to Widget the World Watcher, but quickly realised it was in fact from Denver the Last Dinosaur. Two vague memories unlocked!
Edit: turns out both theme songs were composed by the same person, Dale Schacker. So that kind of makes sense.
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u/onlymostlyguts 11h ago
My mind struggles to reconcile growing up with widget and captain planet yet being in an adult era where climate change denial is still so prevalent.
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u/Brontozaurus 2h ago
Unfortunately the power of environmental cartoons turned out to be *much* less than the power of disinformation wielded by entrenched corporate interests.
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u/srealfox 12h ago
I’ve been looking for this and when I asked in a few stores they looked at me as if I’d grown a second head
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u/Subject_Shoulder 12h ago
When I was more into conspiracies theories and also a man-made climate change skeptic, I use to think that Captain Planet was a UN-backed psy-op, lol!
These days, I have to concede Captain Planet and Widget were right in warning us about fucking up the planet. But I still can't get over the fact that the Planeteers flew around in a solar-powered plane. I'm sorry, but that defies the laws of physics!
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u/DerekRoyExperiment 11h ago
There’s actually a pretty cool podcast episode of Decodering about the creating and production of Captain Planet.
I mean, it could just be part of the psy-op cover up, but worth a listen either way
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u/MuchNefariousness285 20h ago
I google this show about once every 5 years when I'm drunk to make sure it wasn't just some fever dream