Many years ago, Sunday evenings was very excit­ing and special occasion that both children and adults looked forward to in our dear country, Ghana.

Those were the days that the main source of entertain­ment on televisions (TV’s) was the Osofo Dadzie show. There were no coloured TV’s in those days and as a matter of fact, only a few families owned TV sets.

Those of us who were not from wealthy homes had to go and watch the famous Osofo Dadzie Show at nearby homes who had the Black and White TV.

Everybody wanted to watch Super O.D. (Kwaku Dar­ko of blessed memory) so that at school the next day, which is a Monday, one can contrib­ute to the discussion among their mates on the show regarding the very interesting parts, especially the funny jokes of the star of the show Super O.D.

Most of the time we had to watch the TV through the window of the individual who had the TV since the rooms in a compound house were usually chamber and hall type and so had limited space to accommodate a lot of people.

Those were the days that if somebody happened to flatulate, especially the silent foul smelling type, in the little crowd in the enclosed space, a crisis of smells was created in the room and ev­eryone becomes a suspect.

Some TV owners actual­ly conducted inspection to identify those who had had their bath before letting them into their room for TV viewing. If you were a parent woe betides you if you should send your child on an errand around 8:30pm.

You would surely be silently cursed by your child for depriving him or her the opportunity to watch Super O. D., that particular Sunday evening.

I recall one such show in which Super O.D. went to marry a woman who already had a couple of children and O. D also had a couple of chil­dren. In the course of time they had two children who then had four elder siblings.

Naturally, since the two were the youngest in the fam­ily, they received much atten­tion from their parents and so the elderly ones envied them. The elderly ones therefore formed an unholy alliance to make life uncomfortable for their younger siblings.

Super O.D. returned home one day to meet his younger children crying and inquired of them the reason for their crying. They told him that their siblings had beaten them. Soon after his wife also returned home and on hearing of the commotion also asked her husband of what was going on in the house and Super O.D. said “Your children and my children, are beating our children”.

The Osofo Dadzie show was also a great source for inculcating good Ghanaian values in the youth and there is an urgent need to find a replacement show on TV capable of replicating what the show represented in the Ghanaian community.

The impact the shows in the Twi language has on people especially the youth of this nation cannot be overem­phasised.

The Osofo Dadzie show, was an avenue for dissemina­tion of essential government policies and therefore was very helpful in the national development agenda.

It was a very effective and useful channel for the pro­motion of our cultural values. Useful moral lessons were being learnt from the show.

One feature of the show was the moral teachings of Osofo Dadzie character at the end of each show and every­one, both adults and children waited for with great expec­tation.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah