Treat your mother right… fool!
Anyone growing up in the 80′s loved Mr. T. He was an icon of a bygone and fondly reminisced era. My wife even had a crush on him back in the day (married me because we look so similar;-) But I digress.
What I bet most of us Gen X’s don’t know (or anyone else for that matter) is that Mr. T had a brief stint as a singer/songwriter. I kid you not… and video proof follows.
Kinda catchy if you ask me…
Fred and Barney’s Nicotine addiction
What I bet you didn’t know is that good old Fred and Barney were also heavy cigarette smokers, frequently lighting up and at the same time encouraging their impressionable viewers to do the same.
Shame on them. Actually, same on the shows producers. Let me explain…
The Flintstones series was initially aimed at adult audiences, and the first series was sponsored by Winstone Cigarettes. Hanna Barbara allowed Fred and Barney to appear in several black and white television commercials for the cigarette company.
And we think that today’s cartoons are a bad influence!?
The ‘Star Wars Musical’ mystery
The Star Wars Holiday Special was a two-hour television special set in the Star Wars galaxy. It was the first official Star Wars spinoff produced. It was broadcasted in its entirety in the United States only once on Friday, November 17, 1978.
David Hofstede, author of ‘What Were They Thinking?: The 100 Dumbest Events in Television History’, ranked the holiday special at number one, calling it “the worst two hours of television ever.”
Shower power
We have low shower pressure. It’s very annoying, but at least it saves us on power.
The in-laws have high shower pressure. I had a shower at their house tonight, and was blown away by the strength of the water (almost literally).
It reminded me of an Seinfield episode I once saw, where Kramer desperately wanted more water pressure, and would do almost anything to get it. To this day, I think it is the funniest part of the whole Seinfield era.
View the clip below.
1978 Galactica in 2008
Last night I put the girls to bed early and us guys (my two sons and I) transformed the lounge into a home theatre by placing the sofa right up close to the TV (to make the 21 inches of screen look bigger) and turning out the light. I then introduced my boys to three episodes of the classic 1978-1980 Battlestar Galactica TV series… Retro TV at its best.
Talk about taking me back! I grew up on a healthy (or unhealthy) diet of Star Wars, Buck Rogers and Galactica and spent many hours as a lad pretending to be Starbuck and Apollo, and being terrified of the Cylons (I hid behind the couch on more than one occasion during the series).
Enough reminiscing already… back to last night. Even though I was frequently interupted by comments like “That looks fake dad” and “I can see the strings”, the boys loved the episodes and a great night was had by all. There’s nothing like a cheesy thirty year old Sci-fi TV series to bring a family together!
I don’t recommend the ‘re-imagined’ Galactica series of recent years. I’ve never watched an episode but Wikipedia tells me it’s full of violence and heavily suggested sexual content. TV ain’t what it used to be.
For those of you who completetly missed the original (everyone 30 and under), below is the opening theme.
Retro TV: Jamie & the Magic Torch
My top 5 childhood crushes
In May I reminisced about my childhood heroes… today you get to read about my top five childhood crushes (lucky you).
5. The Abba girls
I confess my very first childhood crush was on Agnetha and Anni-frid. My siblings were all teenagers when Abba-mania came to the Drake household (late 70s). I was four years old. Ahhhh young love.
4. Daisy Duke
I’m sure EVERY boy alive during the Dukes of Hazzard television series (1979-1985), had a crush on Daisy.
3. Wonder Woman
Who can forget the lasso throwing, bad-guy thumping Wonder Woman (1976-1979)? I guess she was everything a five-year old wanted in a lady.
2. Princess Leia
Princess Leia Organa made it to number two. She was definately a woman who could take care of herself. I bet Han Solo camped in the lounge a lot.
1. Wilma Deering
Coming in at number one (none of the others come close) is definately the lovely Wilma Deering from ‘Buck Rogers in the 25th Century’ (1979-1981). I know I’m not the only guy who had a crush on Wilma growing up (right Lesmond J?).
It’s amazing how the seductiveness and the tight body suits of the 70′s didn’t even register in my young mind. The age of innocence was great. Looking back, I think the most attractive aspect about them was that most of them were in cool TV programmes/movies with lots of action and explosions and guns.
Well, almost 3 decades later, I am a very happily married man, and have an incredible wife! How does DW compare to my childhood crushes? DW blows them all away. She’s real too… not a creation of TV land!
Retro TV: The Lost Islands
Back in the days when I actually went fishing, my buddy Lesmond J. and I would spend hours reminiscing about the TV shows we used to watch as kids growing up in the late 70′s and 80′s. Ahh, the good old days… fishing, while talking about the good older days [cue to wipe tear from eye now].
Now, thanks to Youtube, for your reminiscing pleasure, in its original magicalness, is the opening credits to ‘The Lost Islands’… The first of many retro TV posts.
