Those kids of the TV generation, bred on the old sci-fi serials that inspired Lucas to write Star Wars, really came to the fore in the 1980s thanks to the successes seen by Lucas and Spielberg in the late 1970s. The two Godfather’s of the blockbuster continued to be at the forefront of family-orientated science-fiction with “Empire Strikes Back” and “E.T.”, while those inspired by their method like Zemeckis, Dante, and Robbins took us on more adventurous journeys into the fantastical. For the fantasy and science-fiction genres, there are few periods in film history better than the 1980s. Children, with their love of adventure and fairytale, had never had it so good.

The Radio Times here in the UK held a reader poll to discover the best family film of all time with over 2500 people voting Steven Spielberg’s “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial” number 1. It’s a curious list with only a couple of films (“E.T.” and Robert Zemeckis’ “Back To The Future”) lacking at least one musical interlude. Given the readership of the magazine I’m guessing the 2500 people who voted consisted mainly of grandparents wishing to occupy their children’s children with a melancholic sing-a-along hence the inclusion of films “Sound of Music” and “Mary Poppins” amongst others. Read on to see the top 10 and don’t forget to click here to be in with a chance of winning ten family film DVDs.

“Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a DeLorean”: The Magic of Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis was once asked if television was a bad influence on children. He answered, emphatically, “television isn’t an education, but I see no reason to turn it off.” What would so many television-starved children give for Zemeckis as a babysitter, or indeed a father: ‘Can I pur-lease watch more TV?’/’Of course you can!’ He was a product of the television generation – this new visual medium that found its way into most …