Being of a certain age and casting caution to the wind, your intrepid critic watched "Hiya, Kids!! A '50s Saturday Morning," a four-disc DVD set (Shout! Factory, $34.99, not rated), out this week. It's a collection of 22 episodes of kids shows foisted on the first generation of television viewers - puppet shows, Westerns, sci-fi adventures, ventriloquism, educational programs, variety shows and more - from the late 1940s through the '50s, before cartoons ruled the kiddie airwaves.

With our goal being understanding rather than nostalgia, here's a sampling of what we found while returning to those thrilling days of yesteryear and channeling the 7-year-old still lurking inside.

"Kukla, Fran and Ollie": Hand puppets Kukla, a little guy with a ball for a nose; Ollie, a one-toothed dragon; and other characters voiced and performed by Burr Tillstrom share the stage with a good-natured human, Fran Allison. Unscripted and unrehearsed, the show works for both kids and grown-ups, with songs about the alphabet mixing with jokes about highbrows and lowbrows, "classifications in the United States' social structure," Life magazine, Brahms, surrealism, Alexander Calder and Gertrude Stein, plus a built-in ad for show sponsor RCA Victor's radio/phonograph console.

"Howdy Doody": Inane from irritating opener - "What time is it, kids? It's Howdy Doody time!" - to thudding end, this Saturday morning hit stars marionettes Howdy (a red-haired, plaid-shirted boy) and the crabby Mr. Bluster, human Buffalo Bob Smith and the sort-of-human Clarabell, a clown who communicates by horn. It's live TV with audience participation from the kids in the "peanut gallery," but what passes for a story (Howdy owes Mr. Bluster 500 marbles a day) is pathetic.

"Lassie": Tommy Rettig stars as 11-year-old Jeff Miller, who gets lessons in life from his widowed mom (Jan Clayton), Gramps (George Cleveland) and his collie Lassie. In this episode, Lassie doesn't have much to do - no little kid falls into a well and needs saving - but she carries wood and lunch bags, aids Jeff, Gramps and a friend in building a tree house and helps teach Jeff about sharing with friends.

"Annie Oakley": Fifties feminism thrives in the form of Gail Davis, an excellent stunt rider/ sharpshooter and a veteran of Gene Autry movies, starring as the blond-braided title character. Annie works closely with Durango's deputy sheriff, Lofty Craig (Brad Johnson), but she's usually telling him what to do ("Check their saddlebags, Lofty, and see what they're packin'"), saving him from riding into ambushes and figuring it all out.

"Flash Gordon": Set in the year 3000, give or take a few centuries, this sci-fi-on-the-cheap show stars the wooden Steve Holland as a not-so-flashy Flash Gordon. Shot in West Berlin (hence the German-accented English of many characters), the episode here features lots of talk about dead planets blowing up, time traveling and nuclear "durinium" bombs - but very little action. A futuristic snoozer.

"Ding Dong School": Aiming at pre-schoolers, Miss Frances (a k a Dr. Frances Horwich of Roosevelt College in Chicago) talks about going to the dentist, spends five Warholian minutes showing how to blow bubbles ("You can't blow bubbles with just plain water," we learn), reads three poems to a group of toy dolls, does an ad for Kix Crispy Corn Puffs, plays with a handkerchief and a bouncy ball, and at the end, talks to parents and guardians about everything she just did with their kids.

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