Question of the Day 3.16.12

Name the music video!

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

McDLT

“Hey, you say you’re gettin’ tired of lettuce and tomato hamburgers in this town that don’t quite make it?”

We’re not sure about you, but whenever we went to McDonald’s, we’d get pretty ticked off when the lettuce in our Big Mac was limp and luke warm. Seriously! It’s not like McDonald’s is some run-of-the-mill fast food joint, it’s a–– oh, right. It is.

On one hand, you can’t fault the Golden Arch geniuses for coming up with the idea of a burger served in such a way that the hot (clap! clap!) stays hot, and the cool (clap! clap!) stays cool. But if we really cared that much about our ‘lettuce and tomato hamburger’ (like anyone calls it that), we wouldn’t frequent a McDonald’s, for heaven’s sake.

Still, Constanza was pretty peppy back then, huh?

The McDLT was launched in 1984, and by December 1990, it was gone. Mickey D’s said it was because of their decision to phase out the styrofoam packing (which was crucial to the McDLT’s success), but we think people just preferred Big Macs and Quarter Pounders to a ‘lettuce and tomato hamburger’.

We ♥ the McDLT.

Question of the Day 3.15.12

Name the movie!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Gimme a Break. Congrats to Carey, nicole, Jeffrey Scott, @1313Lucy, @PeoplesLima, and @buttercup081474 for guessing correctly.

That’s Incredible!

Because ‘real’ people just aren’t incredible enough, ABC stepped up to the plate and attempted to steal some of NBC’s thunder with That’s Incredible in 1980. A direct response to Real People, which debuted a full year earlier, That’s Incredible featured John Davidson, Cathy Lee Crosby, and Fran Tarkenton as hosts.

But the ‘real’ stars of That’s Incredible were the people that were featured every Monday night at 8pm. From incredible survival stories (avalanches! explosions!) to amazing kids (10 year old opera singer! 8 year old gymnast!) to people overcoming obstacles (blind figure skater! handicapped mountain climber!), there was a little something for everyone.

And occasionally (though we didn’t know it at the time) we’d see future stardom for the first time:

That’s Incredible actually did pretty well, finishing in the top 30 its first four years, running neck-and-neck with Real People (though they aired on different nights). And then, in the spring of 1984, ABC pulled the plug. Apparently there were no incredible people in the world anymore.

Bummer.

We ♥ That’s Incredible!

Question of the Day 3.14.12

Name the TV show!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Alphaville’s “Forever Young”. Congrats to absolutely no one on guessing correctly.

Toy Soldiers

“Step by step, heart to heart, left right left, we all fall down…”

By the end of the 80s, the Debbie vs. Tiffany ‘war’ was winding down, but there was still one more young lady ready to make a splash. We first heard from Martika in the mid 80s as the star of Kids Incorporated, but in 1988 she decided to go ahead and make an album (aptly titled Martika), and it’s biggest single was “Toy Soldiers”.

Co-written by Martika (née Marta Merrero), the song addressed the thorny issue of drug abuse, while still sounding light and fluffy, thanks to the sing-songy playground chant.

And if you have a hankerin’ for some obscure 80s pop culture trivia, try this little nugget on for size: Those pretty voices singing in the background on the song belong to none other than Martika’s Kids Incorporated co-stars Fergie and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Now you know.

“Toy Soldiers” was Martika’s biggest hit, spending 20 weeks on the charts in the summer of 1989, including 2 weeks as the #1 song in all the land. And then in 2004 it made a bit of a comeback when Eminem sampled it for his anti-violence anthem “Like Toy Soldiers”.

Yes, Eminem sampled a pop princess from the 80s. We’re still scratching our heads, too.

We ♥ Toy Soldiers.

Question of the Day 3.13.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Project X. Congrats to Howlin’ Mad Heather, Taps, Kevin Kropf, Kailyn, @buttercup081474, @RobLamarr, and @MrZab for guessing correctly.

Skip-It

“Hey now, kids, come gather ’round. See what just skipped into town…”

We all know the hula hoop was fun (you know… for kids!), but what about a hula hoop for your ankle? Well, now we’re getting somewhere.

When Victor Petrusek secured a patent for the Skip-It in 1989, Tiger Toys jumped on it and turned it into a gold mine.

Part of the genius was how incredibly simplistic the thing was–– a plastic wheely-ball fused onto the end of a stiff stick of plastic, with a foot-sized loop at the other end. Slip your foot through the loop and start (kinda) running in place. PRESTO! You got yourself the hottest new toy, buckaroo!

Skip-It was a late 80s/early 90s phenomenon that took the country by storm. So much so that it was constantly being NEW! and IMPROVED! First, a counter was added to the ball, so you could ‘keep score’, and then we got ‘hot new colors’, and then all kinds of customize-able decorations (you know… stickers and the like).

The Skip-It actually had a pretty decent shelf-life, lasting well into the 21st century. It’s since been discontinued, but is still quite the cult fav. Need proof? Check out this rather amusing video from early 2012.

We ♥ Skip-It.

Question of the Day 3.12.12

Name the movie!

Answer to Friday’s QOTD: Steve Miller Band’s “Abracadabra”. Congrats to @Scrapsity for guessing correctly.

Good Morning, Vietnam

“Excuse me, sir. Seeing as how the V.P. is such a V.I.P., shouldn’t we keep the P.C. on the Q.T.? ‘Cause if it leaks to the V.C. he could end up M.I.A., and then we’d all be put on K.P.”

A few weeks back we expressed our love for Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket… which got us thinking about another of our favorite Vietnam-era films, Robin Williams’ Good Morning, Vietnam.

Like Jacket, it’s really two, two TWO! films in one. First half? Happy, hilarious, and light-hearted. Second half? Man, does it get dark with a bang (literally… it all starts with the bombing of Jimmy Wah’s.)

Williams was at the top of his game as Adrian Cronauer, an airman who gets his seat behind the mic on Armed Forces Radio. Not content to just keep playing good ol’ Percy Faith, he decides to shake things up a bit–– playing rock and roll, doing impressions of everyone from Lawrence Welk to Gomer Pyle, and generally causing quite the ruckus.

…much to the dismay of (the late, great) Bruno Kirby, who was fantastic as the no-nonsense Lt. Steven Hauk.

Good Morning, Vietnam earned only one Oscar nomination (Williams, for Best Actor), but it finished up 1987 as the 4th biggest movie, bringing in more than $120 million.

It may not have been that close to Cronauer’s real-life story, but it was damn-sure entertaining.

“You know, you’re in more dire need of a blowjob than any white man in history.”

We ♥ Good Morning Vietnam.