Action was the best 8-bit programming language

Another 8-bit "better than BASIC" language was COMAL. Similar to the language in the article, it also had structured programming constructs, and the C64 version had built-in turtle graphics, sprite, and sound commands. I remember picking a version up at a mall kiosk that sold PD disks and it expanded my horizons!

There was the fantastic COMAL 80 cardtrige for the Commodore 64 with high level commands for sound and graphics, and a full screen editor. It bank-switched so you could use the full 64K RAM on the C64.

Same here. I knew BASIC very well and had done some 6502 assembly, but the COMAL disk I picked up somewhere for the C64 was my first exposure to structured programming, and it definitely expanded my young mind.