When i was a child i firmly believed that when i was on Ready Steady Cook (it was compulsory, everyone had to do it) if i didnt think of a good enough name for my meal or quickly enough Ainsley Harriot would pull out a bazooka and blow me up. I don't know why, he just looked like a mean guy. It used to scare the hell out of me, and i'd practice at night, thinking up weird and wonderful names.

Im not crazy, everyone else is

When I was little and was into the show 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien', and looked it up on Wikipedia. I was horrified when it said that he 'often manipulates his pompadour for comic effect'. I didn't know what a pompadour was, and assumed it was vulgar. It makes me laugh to this day.

Justin Bailey

I used to think Diff'rent Strokes was about smimming and when I was asked if I'd seen it I told people " No, I don't like swimming "

Matt

I thought that the "Champion the Wonder Horse" song went in part:

Like a shooting star flashed across the sky,
Like the swiftest arrow risen from a bow,
Like a mighty marrow forth he seems to fly...

I didn't know what large, green vegetable marrows had to do with horses but I was used to grown-ups saying incomprehensible things: I just assumed it meant something to them. (I still don't know what that line really was!)

Stephen from Scotland

i had this weird belief that if i watched a reflection of the daleks in a wall unit they could not get me ... but if i dared to look at the tv screen where they were "real" that would be the end of me

headless chicken 2k

When I was a kid, I used to think that all the TV shows I watched were real, and that there were people filming in the back round. Yes, I thought that film of Buck Rodgers and Star Trek were sent back through time and that Batman and the Hulk were real people. It wasn't untill I saw Lenord Nemoy doing a movie review show with out the ears and laughing that I figured it out. (I didnt see that show untill I was 10)

Slow Show

When I was younger, I used to think that the reenactments of the criminals on America's Most Wanted were the actual videos of the person committing the crime. I used to be confused as to how they could tape them committing the crime without catching them.

I was confused

"The wombles of Wimbledon Common are we" meant that there were loads of them...

Mike

I was about 6 and was watching a particularly good episode of Knight Rider one day, when Michael Knight was invited round to a sassy lady's apartment to do some investigative work.
She then offered him a drink whilst leaning seductively over a bar and he replied, 'No thanks, I don't drink.'
And so I believed for the next few years that Michael Knight didn't drink...anything...ever. Not even water.

AJM

Back in the early-80s when I was in kindergarten, one of my very favourite TV shows was Knight Rider. Back then my parents had a 1974 Chevy Camaro that I absolutely loved (when my father decided to trade it for a butt-ugly pick-up truck I was rather upset). I would go outside and hang around the car, pretending not to pay attention to it but stealing glances every so often to see if I could catch it talking (beats me why I just didn't go up to it and ask, "hey, can you talk?", but acting like a spy was just so much more interesting at that age). I conducted this top-secret experiment a few more times until, with a heavy heart, I realized it was just a "normal" car.

Tornado

I used to think that soap operas were actually called "soappoppers" and I thought they were called this because the emotions on the show were so extreme that if there were soap bubbles in the room they would break because of all the tension and raised voices!

Caro

When I was little, there was a children's series called 'The Demon Headmaster', that was about a teacher that hypnotised the children with his eyes. When he took of his glasses, you could see his eyes going all green and swirly. I was terrified of getting hypnotised myself, through the TV screen, so I'd hide behind a cushion to protect myself from his mind controlling rays.

Demon Headmistress

i used to believe that the tv show "Jim'll fix it" was hosted by Jim'll Saville!

V Earnshaw

i saw an advert for the samaritans which said do you ever feel you've had enough and want to end it all, this was during an ad break between the A-team, i thought people who wanted to top themselves volonteered to die on programmes like the A-team, this was before the lad next door told me he was going to be a stunt man!!!!!!!!!!

Jo Pope

Before I learned about live studio audiences… I used to think that if I laughed really hard into my television speakers, that other families watching from their living rooms could hear me… because I reasoned that was where these other voices were coming from. So I purposely tried to laugh out of tune and when I heard someone that sounded like myself, I would smile with content because I had just heard myself on TV.

Later when I learned about reruns, I would get excited when I heard someone laugh like myself because I was certain that was ME from a previous taping.

Helen

My dad was a big fan of the original "Star Trek" when I was a kid. The opening, as you probably know, states the five-year mission of the Enterprise: "to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To *boldly go* where no man has gone before." Well, I thought their five-year mission was to reach this planet called Boldlygo, and that the show was simply chronicling their adventures along the way.

Melinda

I used to get confused when watching Wheel of Fortune, because I didn't understand that there was a camera overhead looking down at the wheel. I through there were two wheels, one flat for the people to spin, and another vertical one for the camera to shoot that would turn in sync with the flat one, somehow. Strange.

Guy

Before I started school I saw the odd bit of daytime tv show Trisha (Ricki Lake/ Jerry Springer type show). Anyway in Trisha's studio audience there were always loads of different types of people like teenage goths with flesh tubes, old grannies, bald tattooed guys, fashionably dressed ladies etc. I thought to get all those different types of people there, Trisha's studio audience must be called up, like JURY DUTY!
"Oh honey I've been called up to be in Trisha's studio audience!"
It never occured to me that thet might all LIKE the show...

Rosa the floor cat

When I was younger, (up to when I was about 7 years old), I believed that the salemen/women that come to your door were asking you to become an actor. I had no idea you had to audition or anything. I was always hoping for a spot on Barney or be a voice on Arthur, and I was mad at my mom for telling the people, "We're not interested."

Olivia

My mom used to tell me that when the people on the news said 'goodnight' they were talking to children and it meant that I *had* to go to bed.

Cindy