Question of the Day 4.4.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Taps. Congrats to Todd for guessing correctly.

Don’t You Want Me

“You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar when I met you…”

1982.

The year of “Centerfold”, “Eye of the Tiger”, and “Abracadabra”.

But there’s one song (ONE song!) that ruled the year like no other. One song that still takes you back to those early days of our favorite decade… One song that brings to mind images of a creepy guy on a dark-night movie set and a hot blonde in a trenchcoat walking toward the camera.

Don’t you want me, baby?

The Human League hit musical paydirt in the summer of 1982 with their number-one, synth-pop smash “Don’t You Want Me” from their third (yes, third) album Dare!

With Philip Oakey’s deep vocals and Susan Ann Sulley’s snarly accompaniment (or duet, rather), it was a perfect song to help launch the British New Wave invasion in the early 80s.

Oakey claims he got the idea for the song from a tabloid magazine, but the general plot (boy helps girl get famous, gets ditched) more closely mirrors Judy Garland’s 1954 flick A Star is Born. Either way, it’s just a classic, awesome 80s tune, and from the opening chords and LM-1 drum machine, you can’t help but take a quick trip back to those days, areweright?

“Don’t You Want Me” spent 28 weeks on the charts in all, including 3 weeks at #1 in July 1982. The Human League would never have as big a hit again, but that’s quite alright. Anyone who gives us such a killer song is forgiven.

…and for a little more 80s fun, check out Atomic Tom’s cover (and hilarious video) from the Take Me Home Tonight soundtrack.

We ♥ Don’t You Want Me.

Question of the Day 4.3.12

Name the movie!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: The Right Stuff. Congrats to Todd for guessing correctly.

Joust

They must have been high.

That’s the only reasonable conclusion we can reach after playing Williams Electronics’ 1982 classic, Joust. The people who designed it must have been high.

To recap: You are a knight dressed in yellow (because we all know how fearsome the color yellow is). You fly around on your ostrich (because we all know how well ostriches fly). You’re hovering over a lava pit (because we all know how common those are). You are hunting knights who fly around on green buzzards (because we all know how buzzards and ostriches are natural enemies). When you hit the buzzard (from above) its knight turns into an egg (because we all know… wait, what?). And then the egg quickly hatches, giving you more knights to fight (okay, we give up.)

Did we mention the pterodactyls?

No fire button. No moving up and down (you had to flap to do that). No aliens. No outer space.

See what we mean? Serious, serious drugs.

Precisely because it was so different, Joust became an instant hit. Loved by gamers and critics alike, it is still remembered today as one of the best from our favorite decade. And the unique, side-by-side two-person gameplay only added to the fun.

Turns out you’d have to be on drugs NOT to like it.

We ♥ Joust.

Question of the Day 4.2.12

…and WE’RE BACK!

Name the movie!

Answer to March 22nd’s QOTD: The Art of Noise’s “Paranoimia”. Half-congrats to Todd for guessing the group correctly.

National Lampoon’s Vacation

“When I was a boy, just about every summer we’d take a vacation. And you know, in 18 years, we never had fun…”

All he wanted to do was take his family on a little vacation. A nice, happy car ride from Chicago to Walley World in California.

Was that too much to ask?

Yes. Yes, apparently it was.

When Clark Griswold piled the clan into the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, he may have had one hell of a week, but we got treated to what’s arguably among the funniest movies of all time.

Written by John Hughes (in his pre-Sixteen Candles days) and directed by Harold Ramis (in his pre-Egon Spengler days), Vacation boasts a cast that includes Chevy Chase, Beverly D’Angelo, and Anthony Michael Hall (in his pre-The Breakfast Club days), with cameos from John Candy, Eugene Levy, and Christie Brinkley. Throw them all together, and it’s a no-brainer– you have comedy gold.

There’s far too much gut-busting goodness to list it all here, so we’ll leave you with a few thoughts:
· “This is crazy, this is crazy, this is crazy…”
· “I don’t know why they call this stuff Hamburger Helper. It does just fine by itself, huh?”
· “This is not the car I ordered. I distinctly ordered the Antarctic Blue Super Sports Wagon with the C.B. and optional rally fun pack.”
· “Taxi! Taxi! Here boy!”
· “Here’s the leash, sir. I’m going back to get the rest of the carcass off the road.”
· “Sorry folks, park’s closed. Moose out front shoulda told ya.”
and finally…
· “Oh God, ease our suffering in this, our moment of great despair. Yea, admit this kind and decent woman into thy arms of thine heavenly area, up there. And Moab, he lay us upon the band of the Canaanites, and yea, though the Hindus speak of karma, I implore you… give her a break.”

…and not only was Vacation a masterpiece in and of itself, it of course went on to spawn a series of sequels. And though they were all funny in their own right, they (and pretty much every comedy ever made) pale in comparison to the genius that was Vacation.

We ♥ National Lampoon’s Vacation.

Fatal Vision

“Five-forty-four Castle Drive… Stabbing… Hurry!…”

As happy and wonderful as the 80s were (they gave us Three Amigos and “Walking on Sunshine”, after all…) there were also some dark moments and things that we say we ♥, though we don’t really LOVE them.

We started the week by talking about The Thin Blue Line, a haunting and powerful documentary about a cop killing in Dallas. And now we’re wrapping up the week by remembering one of the most powerful and controversial books or the 80s, 1983’s Fatal Vision.

The non-fiction account of the so-called “Green Beret Killings” that happened at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in February 1970, it tells the story of Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, M.D. He claims (to this day) that a gaggle of drug-fueled hippies broke into his house one night and brutally killed his wife Colette and their two young girls.

Journalist Joe McGinnis approached MacDonald about writing a definitive tell-all of the case shortly before the trial began. But the more McGinnis found out (and the more time he spent with MacDonald), the more certain he became that McDonald himself was the true killer.

It’s a gripping story (though, yes, painfully heartbreaking), and it still stands even today as one of the most powerful and influential true crime books ever written. Shortly after its release, it became a 1984 NBC miniseries starring Gary Cole, Karl Malden, and Eva Marie Saint. And more than two decades later, some of the images are still in our head–– particularly this scene, where Colette’s stepfather (Malden) listens as the prosecution explains what really happened in the house that cold, rainy night:

See? Creepy, tragic, and just downright terrifying. So you can understand why we might say we ♥ it without really LOVING it.

MacDonald, obviously, was none too pleased with McGinnis’ account of the events, and he actually sued the author for breach of contract and ‘journalistic distortion’. (The case was settled out of court for more than $300,000.) MacDonald continues to maintain his innocence and files new appeals fairly regularly.

So, there you go… Sorry to bring you down, but rest assured that we’ll be back to our ‘rainbows and sunshine’ ways on Monday morning. We’ll even let you know ahead of time that we’ll be singing the praises of arguably the funniest movie from our favorite decade–– National Lampoon’s Vacation:

“We’re all gonna have so much fucking fun, we’ll need plastic surgery to remove our goddamn smiles! You’ll be whistling ‘Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah’ out of you’re assholes!”

(We ♥ Fatal Vision.)

Card Sharks

“You can win $32,000 on the turn of a card. Right here on Card Sharks!”

Some 80s game shows were all about asking random trivia questions, some had you correctly guess the price of a tube of toothpaste, and then… well, then there was Card Sharks.

Debuting in 1978 (but finding its heyday in the mid-80s with both a CBS and a syndicated version airing simultaneously), Card Sharks was really two game shows in one. First you had the ‘playing the percentages’ part, where the contestants would have to guess how many of 100 U.S. Congressmen drove a foreign car (the other contestant would then guess if the real answer was higher or lower)… and then there was the ‘card’ part, where contestants would start with the base card and then guess if the next card was higher or lower. And, of course, if the card was particularly troublesome, they could always ‘FREEZE IT!’ Winner goes to the bonus round, where you could bet your cash on the cards on the big board. “All of it…. HIGHER!”

Sure, it was a little convoluted as game shows go, but it sure was entertaining–– especially since the contestants couldn’t just give a simple answer to the questions… they had to explain their answer.

Here’s the lovely Karen’s response to that question:

“I think if you would have asked that question about five years ago, a lot would have said ‘yes’. However, they know who votes for them, and they know the voters know what they’re driving, so I think very few do. I’m going to say… 7.”

Seriously, we can’t make this stuff up.

From Jim Perry to Bob Eubanks to Bill Rafferty, Card Sharks had some of the best hosts in the biz, and the show did pretty well for itself. It’s just another reason, though, that we sit here and mope about how the world needs more game shows.

The answer, by the way? Hopefully you said ‘higher’… it’s 41.

We ♥ Card Sharks.

Rock On

“Hey kid, rock and roll, rock on. Ooh, my soul. Hey kid, boogey too, did ya…”

Okay, girls, it’s Happy Swoon Time! All we really need to say is Danny Romalotti, and chances are you’re already feeling a little gooey inside… are we right?

There’s no denying that Michael Damian was THE dreamboat 80s star of The Young and the Restless. Young ladies from far and wide would tune into CBS everyday at 12:30 to watch him fall in love with Cricket and further his music career.

Damian himself actually released a few albums in the mid-80s, but it wasn’t until his cover version of David Essex’s “Rock On” was featured on the soundtrack for the Coreys’ Dream a Little Dream that he finally made it big(ish) musically.

The funky, slow-down beat helped make “Rock On” a huge hit for Damian–– it went all the way to #1 in June of 1989, outperforming the original version even.

Pardon us while we jump up (up) and down (down) in our blue suede shoes.

We ♥ Rock On.

Wacky Wallwalker

Well all know how Slinkys would crawl down stairs (alone or in pairs), but what about a slimy, rubbery toy that would ooze and flip down walls?

Ah yes–– the Wacky Wallwalker.

First introduced to America by Dr. Fad himself (Ken Hakuta) after his mother sent some from Japan for his kids, the Wacky Wallwalker was a thing of beauty. It looked like an octopus, came in a variety of colors, and, when you chucked it at the wall or window or mirror or door, they would slowly come unstuck a leg at a time and flip down the surface.

Sure they would attract cat hair and dust like a magnet on steroids, but one simple rinse under the tap, and BOOM! they were ready to go again, amusing kids like us for hours on end.

The Wacky Wallwalker became a HUGE hit thanks to a well-timed Washington Post article about the thing; eventually more than 200 million were sold. (Of course, having Kellogg’s included one in each specially-marked cereal box didn’t hurt either.)

…and you can still find them today in toy stores (and gumball machines) the world over.

We ♥ the Wacky Wallwalker.