Ramona

I just re-watched a few episodes of this series on very poor VHS tapes that I recorded the series on. I'm glad I did, though.

Ramona is based on the children's books by Beverly Cleary and follows the adventures of the title eight-year-old (Sarah Polley). She has fun with friends and family and gets into trouble much like many eight-year-olds. All ten episodes are pretty good. "Mystery Meal" kind of grosses me out as a vegan, but it's funny seeing the parents trying to get their kids to eat cow's tongue! And any episode that mentions Godzilla Versus The Smog Monster twice can't be all bad. I like "Ramona's Bad Day" even more. Although it's disheartening to see Ramona going through a rough day, she does imagine herself getting revenge on her friend Howie's uncle (a pre-Psi Factor Barclay Hope), who always teases her. "The Perfect Day" is also good.

Lori Chodos plays Beezus, Ramona's sister. I swear I've seen her on something else, but IMDb doesn't list anything besides this show. Unfortunately, this series is not on DVD. Why is every crappy show made these days on DVD except something I'd actually like to buy? An injustice if there ever was one!

I was thinking about this show recently and I decided to see if I could find some episodes for sale. I found some on Amazon and I just finished watching "Ramona the Patient" a few minutes ago! It was really fun to realize that I could still hum along with the theme music and remember the cat book report that she does at the end.

This show was on in the late 80's, and it aired on Sunday mornings for a while if I remember correctly. I was about 6 and I loved it because I was always a huge fan of Beverly Cleary books. The show itself is pretty good, and it does remain loyal to the stories. It's also fun to see Sarah Polley in such a cute role, as she's known to play very serious, somber roles these days.

Yay Ramona!

I remember watching "Ramona" when it was on TV back in the late '80s. I was about Ramona's age when I first saw the show and immediately fell in love with it. It was so true to real life. Ramona faced many challenges that I faced when I was a child (having horrible days and thinking my parents would get divorced, getting sick at school --only not in front of my entire class--, etc...). Even today I still enjoy watching one of the videos I have from time to time, even though I am far past from being 8 years old. Still, this is a show and probably one of the very few shows that kids can really relate to. And seeing Sarah Polley as a little girl--wow! She was so adorable back then and is just as gorgeous now.

We watched this series around 1990 or so on VHS, when my daughter was about 6 or 7. Of course we read the books, also. Which I recommend even if you can't find copies of the program.

After just having watched the movie "Ramona and Beezus" (which suffered greatly in comparison) I had to come back and remind folks how great this TV show was.

I thought the characters were well cast. Ramona and Beezus especially. Although Ramona got into her quota of embarrassing situations, the program was not a non stop series comedic events. There was actually time spent on the development of the character's personalities, giving the program some depth. And even as an adult watching it, I could remember in an emotional sort of way how Ramona felt when she thought herself misunderstood and of no importance. As most children do at some time or another.

Too bad it's not available on DVD. Makes you wonder who decides to put the most inane drivel on DVD and not good stuff like this. If it was available, I bet we could talk our daughter into watching it with us when she visits.

Ramona is one of the best shows of the 80s and one of my favorite Canadian tv shows of all time along with Goosebumps. If you enjoyed the books then you will enjoyed the show for sure. It is simple and that works so well. It is a almost perfect 10. The movie is pretty good too. But the show is better. If you are looking for something simple then Ramona is just perfect for you. I give it a 9 out of 10. Hopefully it gets released on dvd or streaming sometime soon. In the mean time you can find the episodes on vhs or on YouTube or fanmade release dvds. Give it a watch you will be glad that you did fun for the whole family both young and old.