Happy Birthday, John Stamos!
There are a handful of ‘80s celebrities who look just as good today, maybe even better, as they did back in the day. Think Rob Lowe, Robert Downey Jr., or maybe this guy, who happens to be celebrating his 52nd birthday today (August 19): John Stamos. 52 never looked so good. It’s hard to do a then-and-now piece on this guy because John Stamos never went off the radar (and for that I am pretty grateful.) He’s of course best known as...
We Got the Beat – Teen Beat and Tiger Beat Magazines
I’ve always been big on magazines. I love lip gloss magazines like Glamour and Cosmo, magazines with photos of beautiful food I will never make or eat like Gourmet and Food & Wine, and magazines that keep me up to date on all the important news of the day like US Weekly or In Touch (don’t judge: they pass the time nicely while getting my hair done.) As a teenager, I loved my Sassy and Seventeen magazines, of course. But as a...
Vacation: Two Enthusiastic Thumbs Up
I’ve spent the last week leading up to today’s release of the new Vacation reading critics’ reviews. Most have been less than kind, suggesting the new iteration tries too hard and fails to live up to the greatness that was the 1983 original. Sure, the original was written by John Hughes and directed by Harold Ramis, a combination hard to beat. Throw in Chevy Chase at his best, an amazing supporting cast, a dead Aunt, dog pee-saturated...
Musical What-Ifs, Back to the Future Style
Before there was the Butterfly Effect, there was the McFly Effect. The Back to the Future trilogy is essentially a dissertation on chaos theory, on the ways that tinkering with the past can affect the future. Plow into one of Mr. Peabody’s trees in 1955? The Twin Pines Mall becomes the Lone Pine Mall in 1985. Interfere with your parents initial meeting? You could be erased from existence. Now, let’s get meta for a moment and consider...
‘Can’t Buy Me Love’s’ Amanda Peterson Dies at 43
The star of one of the great movies of the 1980s, Can’t Buy Me Love, has passed away at just 43 years old. Amanda Peterson was found dead in her home on Sunday; her cause of death is not yet known at this time. Her father told TMZ that she suffered from sleep apnea, which may have contributed to her death. Peterson also starred opposite Ethan Hawke in Explorers and was on several television shows including Doogie Howser, MD and A Year...
My Favorite Vacation – European Vacation
Now don’t get mad at me right off the bat; the original Vacation movie starring Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, Anthony Michael Hall and Dana Barron as the Griswold family is great. Fantastic. Amazing. Super funny. But, if you asked me which was my favorite of the National Lampoon Vacation series (besides the classic Christmas Vacation, which I put in its own category under...
Schoolhouse Rock Rocks!
Hello. My name is Lori, and I was raised on the glory that was television of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. I know in today’s world it is much less socially acceptable to plop your kid in front of the TV with their Apple Jacks and Tang; but I’m here today to tell the tale of Saturday mornings with Superfriends, Smurfs, and the mother of all cartoons, Schoolhouse Rock. Mom says I learned to read by watching Sesame Street and The...
We Got the Colgate Pump!
Are you ready for your mid-week 80s earworm? No, it’s not a song that spent ten weeks at number one on American Top 40 or the theme song to The Facts of Life. It’s a commercial you probably thought you’d forgotten (watch below). But now that you hear it, you totally didn’t forget it – am I right?!? I came across this little nugget around two weeks back and it’s still going through my head on a loop. While it didn’t chart in the...
A Most Excellent Movie – Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
With the school year coming to an end, my mind races toward a few typical end-of-school-year events. Sure, there’s prom, senior skip day, the anticipation of summer vacation and . . . oh yeah . . . graduation. There’s also that big project you need to get done before the end of the year! That one where you need to go back in time in a phone booth, gather a bunch of historical figures to get up in front of your school in a rock star...
Why Summer Rental is the Quintessential 80s Summer Movie
We had free HBO last weekend and as usual we recorded (or “taped” as I like to say…) a bunch of movies so we’re all stocked up for a while. I’ll finally see Dallas Buyers Club, that great/weird documentary on Scientology, and the Melissa McCarthy/Sandra Bullock cop movie. As my husband and I were scrolling through the guide filling up our hungry DVR something special caught my eye. “Ooooh Summer Rental! Record Summer Rental! I...
Get on Board! The Great Space Coaster
If you took The Muppet Show, The Electric Company, H.R. Pufnstuf, and Fraggle Rock and mixed them all together in an 80s blender, it might look a little something like this (see the video below). Do you still know all the words to that theme song? I do. The Great Space Coaster ran in syndication from 1981 through 1986. It was a children’s show featuring both puppets and people — the main character of the show was a GIANT puppet,...
Here Comes the Cadbury Bunny
When you think back to classic commercials from the 80s I’m sure those California Raisins come to mind (and maybe those two crash test dummies warning you about wearing your seatbelt). Or, maybe you think of McGruff the Crime Dog telling you to “take a bite out of crime.” And isn’t it great when certain commercials from your childhood don’t ever die? Think of the famous “how many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie...
My Hero: Mr. Mom
Before he played Birdman and before his signature role as the caped crusader in Tim Burton’s Batman, Michael Keaton played a different kind of hero in the 1983 hit comedy, Mr. Mom. In addition to Keaton, Mr. Mom featured an amazing 80s cast including Teri Garr, Martin Mull, Jeffrey Tambor, and Ann Jillian. During the mid-80s the movie was an HBO staple for my brother and me; we watched Mr. Mom on a loop, and we loved it. When Michael...
Benson – 80s TV at Its Finest
Ran on ABC (1979 – 1986) When you think back to ‘80s television most likely you think of the front runners, like Family Ties, The Cosby Show and Cheers. But there were a few shows that flew a little under the radar that people loved and that ran forever, like Night Court, Head of the Class and this one: First of all, let me just say that “Benson” should be a font – don’t you agree? Does it get more ‘80s than this, all bubbly and...
30 Facts About Don’t You (Forget About Me)
Thirty years ago, a Scottish band– relatively unknown in the U.S.–made a request to the world. And thirty years later, the world is still honoring it. “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”– that’s all Simple Minds asked of us in February 1985, when their signature song from the film The Breakfast Club first debuted. And so far, we haven’t forgotten: the song and the film have been permanently etched into our pop-culture...
