Question of the Day 6.14.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Hill Street Blues. Congrats to Jeffrey Scott, @booner1972, and @MrsSweatheifer for guessing correctly.

It’s Your Move

After just two seasons as Derek Taylor on NBC’s Silver Spoons, one thing was clear.

Jason Bateman needed his own TV show. And how.

The 80s generation’s Eddie Haskell was as promising a young star as we had seen for a while. And his sly, manipulative (though dead-on charming) ways were already the stuff of legend.

So without further ado, Bateman departed the Stratton mansion and made his way to an apartment complex in Van Nuys.

It’s Your Move debuted in the fall of 1984, and right off the bat it was clear that this was not your grandma’s sitcom. There’s no ooey-gooey happy family moments here–– only the never-ending battle of wits between Bateman’s Matthew Burton and his neighbor (and boyfriend to Matthew’s single mom Eileen) Norman.

Practical jokes, misdirection, and a healthy dose of one-upsmanship ruled the day as each tried to sabotage the other’s life as much as humanly possible.

Look no further than the episode “Love Letters”, which finds the two fellas trying to deduce what’s real and what’s just a sly prank.

Of course It’s Your Move is remembered best for The Dregs of Humanity, the fictional band that Matt created using skeletons from the science lab (no thanks to Eli, who lost the money the school was supposed to use to hire a real, live homecoming band). Strings, pulleys, and levers (and no shortage of fake smoke) helped bring the band to life.

Alas, It’s Your Move was not long for this world–– cancelled after just one season. Bateman, of course, would move on to The Hogan Family/Valerie/Valerie’s Family… but we’ll always remember him from one of our favorite short-lived sitcoms in our favorite deacde.

We ♥ It’s Your Move.

Question of the Day 6.13.12

Name the TV show!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Say Anything… Congrats to Carey for guessing correctly.

In the Air Tonight

“Well if you told me you were drowning, I would not lend a hand. I’ve seen your face before, my friend, but I don’t know if you know who I am…”

It’s been the stuff of urban legend, it helped launch one of our decade’s best TV shows, and it secured Phil Collins’ place as a solo singer.

And it’s got perhaps the most famous drum fill in musical history.

In 1980, he was riding high on the success of Genesis, but he was also still feelin’ pretty darn low in the wake of his divorce a year earlier.

After deciding to take a break from Genesis, he went into the recording studio (as the story goes) and just started signing. The result (Collins says 99.9% of the lyrics were made up on the spot) was his first top 20 solo hit… “In the Air Tonight”.

Featuring dark, macabre lyrics, a completely unique percussion track, and a video that’s among the creepiest ever made, the song was an instant classic.

Urban legends abounded about its origin (Collins wrote it after witnessing a man drowning, he wrote it after coming home to find his wife being attacked…) but it was just a simple song made in the simplest of ways.

And it was so perfectly 80s and evoked such a mood that Michael Mann tapped it for use in the pilot episode of his new cop show in 1984… Miami Vice. Of course it’s also shown up in dozens of other places, too, from Risky Business to The Hangover to NBA arenas.

“In the Air Tonight” was released in May 1981 and peaked at #19 in August…not a huge hit, but it was an acquired taste, and it’s now one of our favorite decade’s most famous songs.

“…the hurt doesn’t show, but the pain still grows. Some stranger to you and me…”

(We will now pause while you air drum your heart out.)

We ♥ In the Air Tonight.

Question of the Day 6.12.12

Name the movie!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Devo’s “Whip It”. Congrats to Todd, @RICANROLL, and @MrsSweatheifer for guessing correctly.

Keypers

“Keypers, Keypers, what’s inside those Keypers…”

Oh, those pesky little brothers.

If only there was a way to store your secret things under lock and key. And if only it was SO cute your brother wouldn’t go near it with a ten-foot pole.

Meet Keypers!

Hitting store shelves in 1985, thanks to the fine folks at Tonka, Keypers were a line of girly-colored toys that came with a hidden storage space and, yes, a key.

Sheldon the Turtle, Tango the Ladybug, and Fancy the Snail were quite a hit in the mid-80s, and it’s easy to see why… girls just have more cool stuff to hide than boys, right?

Plus, each Keyper came with its very own Finder (Twist, Footloose, and Nitelite).

And as the years wore on, more and more Keypers flooded the market, including Tabitha the Kitten, Diamond the Horse, and even Belle the Baby Swan.

Take THAT, little brother!

We ♥ Keypers.

Question of the Day 6.11.12

Name the music video!

Answer to Friday’s QOTD: Lita Ford’s “Kiss Me Deadly”. Congrats to Kailyn, @RICANROLL@MrsSweatheifer for guessing correctly.

Fletch Lives

“The Reverend Farnsworth was Becky’s father, but I wasn’t going to hold that against her. If I was going to hold anything against her, it certainly wouldn’t be her father…”

Four years after Fletch outsmarted Alan Stanwyk and made off for Rio with the lovely Gail, he finds out he has just inherited a Louisiana plantation from his long lost Aunt… but Belle Isle isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

In his mind, the place is a sprawling monument to southern hospitality, where he whiles away the hours serenading the house staff with an epic version of “Zip-a-Dee-Do-Dah”. When he arrives, though, he finds a dilapidated pit… which, for some reason, someone wants to give him a lot of money for.

Of course, it doesn’t help any that his cutie-pie lawyer ends up dead in his bed the next morning, landing Fletch in jail with “Ben Dover”.

Fletch Lives is a tale of toxic sludge, televangelism, and deadly African microscopic termites, by way of the KKK and a ride with the local Harley-Davidson gang (Fletch IS Mr. Harley, after all).

Plus we had Hal Holbrook, Julianne Phillips, R. Lee Ermey, a nice cameo by Phil Hartman, and even Cleavon Little (pseudo-reprising his Sheriff Bart role from Blazing Saddles).

Fletch Lives was a bomb-and-a-half when it hit theaters in March 1989–– it only made $35 million and finished the year WELL outside the top 20 (#35 to be exact), but it’s still Fletch, it’s still Chevy Chase, and it’s still funnier than half the comedies from our favorite decade.

“…while I’m gone see to it Miss Scarlet stays away from the Union army, will you?”

We ♥ Fletch Lives.

Question of the Day 6.8.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: The Fox and the Hound. Congrats to @MrsSweatheifer for guessing correctly.

The Flight of Mathias Rust

There’s no earthly reason why he wasn’t shot out of the sky with all the fury of the Soviet Air Force.

Not only did 18-year-old Mathias Rust fly into Soviet airspace (something the world learned was a major no-no just four years earlier), he landed his Cessna 172 in Red Square.

Yes, THAT Red Square.

On May 13, 1987, the teenager (with precious little flying time to that point) left an airfield in his native Germany for a trip throughout Europe, finally landing in Finland. And then, on the morning of May 28, he took off, telling air traffic control that he was headed for Sweden.

But his real target (so to speak) was actually Moscow–– and what he saw as a chance to lessen the tension of the Cold War by building an ‘imaginary bridge’ between the two sides of the issue.

That afternoon, as his plane appeared on Soviet radar, missiles on the ground were aimed in his direction, and two Soviet jets were launched to investigate… but not a single shot was fired, even as he got closer and closer to Moscow.

Finally around 7:00 p.m., Rust flew over the city, and he made an attempt to land in Red Square. Because there were so many people milling around, though, he aimed instead for a nearby bridge.

Upon touchdown, Rust taxied the Cessna to a parking lot near Red Square and, yes, was promptly arrested.

Rust was sentenced to four years in a prison camp, but after less than a year he was released, in the wake of the US-USSR anti-nuke agreement, as a gesture of goodwill.

He may have been a little nutty (with a titch of a death wish), but Rust did make headlines in 1987, and while he’s in no way responsible for the end of the Cold War, he may actually have played a little bit of a part… and that’s good enough for us.

We ♥ the Flight of Mathias Rust.