"Sammy's Super T-Shirt". Even hearing it's name takes me back to those wasted summer days when my brother, sister, and I would sit glued to the TV screen as flickering images of a boy and his super shirt unfolded before us. My parents had purchased our first VCR in the mid-eighties and mum began compiling endless hours of kid's TV shows on stacks of VHS tapes. There wouldn't be enough space to list all the shows here, but among them were hours of "The Get Along Gang" (with the little TV-AM clock in the corner), a couple of "Chucklehounds" episodes, an installment of "Chish N' Fips" (anyone else remember that show?), the odd episode of "M.A.S.K.", "Ewoks", "Wuzzles"… Well you get the idea.

Anyway, one Friday afternoon mum happened to have a tape ready in the VCR when a flick entitled "Sammy's Super T-Shirt" was about to come on. She pressed the record button and the rest was history. In the years following we watched it, re-watched it, re-re-watched it, heck, we must have seen it a couple of hundred times! And it never got old. Even when I was 'too old' to watch it, me and my best mate, Simon Alexander, would join my younger brother and sister as they exhumed the tape from our vaults. You know when you pick up certain quotes from TV shows/films as a kid and continue to use them for years after? Well we were forever reciting "Miaow, miaow, I'm a tiger!", "I'll get that shirt if it's the last thing I… DO!", and "How much cheese?"

And it's suprising how "Sammy" remains in people's memories even though they haven't seen it for years. A work colleague (Martin Fryer) and I were reminising about retro TV a few years back and to my astonishment he asked me "Do you remember that kid with the super tiger t-shirt? I always wanted that shirt!" It just goes to show how appealing it was to kids, imagining what they could do with a super shirt.

I think this film needs a DVD and VHS release very soon. Our clapped out old copy (which must be around sixteen years old) is definitly on it's last legs and I'd hate to think that we'd lose this gem forever. I'd like to share it with my own kids some day too!

As a side note, I think it's great that Reg Winch (who played Sammy) has had a hand in this website. It's kind of surreal being associated with a guy who we've been watching wrestling the bad guys for all those years. Thanks Reg!