Question of the Day 1.27.12

Name the movie!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Devo’s “Freedom of Choice”. Booooo, no one guessed correctly.

Izod Alligator Shirts

In the mid-to-late 80s, neon and hair metal were all the rage… spandex, bright colors, and things so gaudy and loud that our retinas are still recovering.

But the early 80s? Well… those were the days of preppy happiness. And leading the charge was the famed Izod alligator shirt. (With popped collar, of course.)

First introduced by tennis ace Rene Lacoste in the 30s, the shirt came in any color you wanted, as long as it was white. Then in the 50s we started getting colors. And then in the 80s, the famed Izod alligator shirt was front and center in the preppy world–– starting in 1980 with the publication of The Official Preppy Handbook.

Of course Lacoste was just looking to provide a comfortable tennis shirt for the people… never guessing his little alligator logo would become as synonymous with the 80s as the Rubik’s Cube.

And why the alligator, you ask? Well, Lacoste was known in the tennis world as ‘the crocodile’ because of his fierce on-court tenaci––– wait a sec.

The Crocodile?

So wait… that green icon of preppiness is actually a crocodile?

And it’s Lacoste that came up with it? Not Izod? (…who just happened to be partnered with Lacoste at the time)?

Oh geez–– this changes everything!

We (oops) ♥ Lacoste Crocodile Shirts.

Question of the Day 1.26.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: The New Alfred Hitchkcock Presents. Congrats to Carey, @RobLamarr, @buttercup081474, and Todd for guessing correctly.

My Two Dads

“I… I think we’re Father of the Year!”

First we had two moms (sort of) with Kate & Allie… then in the fall of 1987, NBC gave us My Two Dads.

After Michael and Joey’s mutual ex-girlfriend passes away (years after they’d both stopped seeing her), they find out that they’ve inherited her 12-year-old daughter Nicole.

No, we never find out who the real dad is (paternity tests were inconclusive), so both guys take it upon themselves to raise their new-found little girl.

Michael’s the uptight one with the financial job in a big office uptown. Joey’s the loosey-goosey one who does nothing but make sculptures and paintings all day. Hey, it’s The Odd Couple with a kid!

But somehow the three of them managed to not kill anyone or do any permanent damage; even helping Nicole with her boy troubles, school troubles, and friend troubles along the way. And, in return, she helped them with the ladies. Now that’s family bonding!

My Two Dads never made much of a splash, finishing outside the top 20 during it’s entire run… which, after only 3 seasons, came to an abrupt end with Joey moving to San Francisco.

Paul Reiser, of course, went on to star in Mad About You two years later, while Greg Evigan moved on to the mid-90s’ TekWar. And the adorable Staci Keanan? Well, she of course become a happy member of the Foster-Lambert family in the 90s (boooo!) hit Step By Step.

…but we’ll always have the 80s, when the three of them came together to live in that super-cool loft downtown. With that super-cool couch shaped like an old car.

“You can count on me… no matter what you do!”
We ♥ My Two Dads.

Question of the Day 1.25.12

Name the TV show!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: An American Tail. Congrats to Carey and Robin for guessing correctly.

I Wanna Be a Cowboy

“Riding on the range. I’ve got my hat… on. I’ve got my boots… dusty.”

As wild and crazy as the 80s were, we really didn’t get much in the way of novelty songs. Sure, the 50s and 60s (and even 70s) were full of stuff like “Purple People Eater”, “They’re Coming to Take Me Away”, and “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah”… but outside of a few Weird Al tunes, what did we really have? I mean, would you consider “Rock Me Amadeus” a novelty tune?

Us neither.

So, imagine our surprise when “I Wanna Be a Cowboy” started burrowing itself into our skulls in 1986. The (dare we say it) LOL song from Boys Don’t Cry was a stroke of genius.

In the days and weeks where sentimental stuff like “Live to Tell” and “No One is to Blame” were riding high, how could you not chuckle to yourself whenever the saga of dusty-booted Ted and his dirty-haired lady hit your ears?

“I Wanna Be a Cowboy” never amounted to much… it only made it to #12 on the charts, and it was gone before you knew it–– barely qualifying as BDC’s one and only hit.

But if you ever need a quick shot of spaghetti western nonsense, well–– have we got a song for you.

“My name is Ted, and one day I’ll be dead, yo yo…”

We ♥ I Wanna Be A Cowboy.

Question of the Day 1.24.12

Name the movie!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: U2′s “Pride (in the Name of Love). Congrats to Todd for guessing correctly.

Alphie II

Yes, we realize that there was a PREVIOUS Alphie, but that guy was born in the 70s… and do we talk about the 70s around here? Not if we can help it.

But, for the life of us, we couldn’t just leave out Alphie the Educational Robot. Was he educational? Eh… he could help us play games, so does that count? These were games involving numbers and letters and… and… Ok, look we just wanted to have our very own robot. Is that so terrible to admit?

No.

It’s not.

It’s awesome.

And so that’s why, at some point in the 80s, Alphie II was flying off the shelves and into the arms of children all around the USA. And, come on. We’ve got to give the guy some credit. He was a little robot you could play games with. It was like a miniature Johnny 5 in our living rooms! (You know, except the whole ‘developing a romance with a human’ bit… At least that never happened with us– and if it happened with you, you should maybe keep it to yourself.)

But above all else, parents really wanted to provide us with educational toys (Sesame Street was all the rage, you see) and what better way than with Alphie II the Educational Robot?

Sadly, our little robot was discontinued, left to gather dust in the bottoms of our toybox. A sad fate for any toy but, he didn’t help himself by randomly turning on at times only to convince us that with the faint (and let’s be honest, fairly creepy) electronic jingle of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star maybe he wasn’t just a robot and maybe John Connor was on to something after all.

Of course. That could just be us…

We ♥ Alphie II.

Question of the Day 1.23.12

Name the music video!

Answer to Friday’s QOTD: Better Off Dead. Congrats to Carey, bababooey, and Todd for guessing correctly.

Wall Street

“How much is enough, Gordon? When does it all end, huh? How many yachts can you water-ski behind? How much is enough, huh?”

You want the glorious 80s in a nutshell? Look no further than Oliver Stone’s ode to greed and financial success (and, yes, the subsequent crash and burn). When Wall Street hit theaters in December 1987, the good ol’ U.S. of A. was in the throes of economic happiness. The rich were getting richer, and the poor? Well, they weren’t doing so bad themselves.

Inspired by his stockbroker father, Stone crafted a tale of young Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a wannabe big shot who uses a little, ya know, inside information to get into the good graces of his idol, corporate raider Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas).

Fox’s dad (Sheen’s real-life dad Martin) doesn’t like what he sees (in both his son and in Gekko) but Bud won’t have any of it. And why would he, really… all of a sudden he’s got hot chicks jumping on him in the back of his limo, and he’s sporting threads so fine they make Brooks Brothers look like crap from JCPenney.

Wall Street only earned one Oscar nomination, and it resulted in a well-deserved win for the fantastic Mr. Douglas. (Should we mention that Daryl Hannah also won an award that year? Yep, a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actress.)

25 years later Wall Street still holds up as a paean to excess in our favorite decade.

“…greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms: greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge, has marked the upward surge of mankind. And greed, you mark my words, will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA. Thank you very much.”

We ♥ Wall Street.