Question of the Day 3.9.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Beaches. Congrats to Emma, Howlin’ Mad Heather, Carey, and @Laura915 for guessing correctly.

The Remote Control

Listen, my children, and you shall hear
of a time when you couldn’t just sit on your rear.
You had to stand up to change the TV,
but then we were blessed with the invention of the…

Remote control.

Yes, yes–– the TV remote has been around in some shape or form since 1950’s ‘Lazy Bones’ from Zenith, but in the 80s, well…

In the 80s, we got the first REAL remote. The zap-tastic infrared one.

Near as we can figure, Viewstar unveiled the first infrared remote in 1980, and the technology just blew up from there. Within just a few short years, remotes were being used to power VCRs, stereos, and even those new-fangled CD-player thingys.

All you had to do was point the remote at the console, and ZIP! a red laser light shot out that would change the channels, raise the volume, and (we’re pretty sure) blind the dog.

After all, it was a frickin’ laser beam.

These days we’re pretty sure the average household owns somewhere in the neighborhood of 12.7 remotes ––any three of which, at any given time, are buried in the couch cushions–– but there was a time, children, when there weren’t remotes; you had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel.

We know, right?

But thankfully those days are long behind us. Thanks… to the 80s.

We ♥ the remote control.

Question of the Day 3.8.12

Name the movie!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Crazy Like a Fox. Congrats to @RobLamarr for guessing correctly.

Double Trouble

Before the Olsen twins, before Tia and Tamera, and waaaay before Zack and Cody, our televisions were graced with what remains one of the more memorable sets of twins (and certainly the best from our favorite decade).

Liz and Jean Sagal burst on the scene in the early 80s as the Doublemint Twins, and then in April 1984 they got their own show… and oh, how we loved it.

Double Trouble was fresh, hip, and, yes, more than a little silly. And even though it was painfully short-lived (only 23 measly episodes), true 80s fans will always remember it fondly.

The first season found livewire Kate (Jean) and prim and proper Allison (Liz) as 16-year-old twins living in Des Moines (yes, Iowa) with their widowed father, who ran a dance studio. It gave the twinkies plenty of opportunity to show off their real-life dance skills, and it gave their characters plenty of time to get into hijinks (oh, that crazy Kate… always pretending to be Allison).

It wasn’t until the second season, though, that the show finally hit its stride, as the girls moved into their nutty Aunt Margo’s house in New York City (Kate wanted to be an actress, Allison took fashion classes). The small-town vibe was gone, and the loony-tune comedy was in full effect. Sure, Kate’s buddies Charles and Billy (Jonathan Schmock and Jim Vallely) were loopy, but even they couldn’t hold a candle to Allison’s friend Aileen Anne-Marie Johnson), who was always offering up non-sensical words of wisdom from her momma in Jamaica.

Throw in the beyond-deadpan Michael D. Roberts as Allison’s teacher Mr. Arrechia, and we’re still at a loss as to why Double Trouble didn’t make it to a third season. Seriously, it’s main timeslot competition was T.J. Hooker and then Dynasty. What gives?

The girls were cute (love those bangs!), the comedy was spot-on (at least for the 80s), and the supporting cast was stellar (Schmock and Vallely have since gone on to have quite the career)… Put it all together, and we think it’s obvious why…

We ♥ Double Trouble.

Question of the Day 3.7.12

Name the TV show!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Fine Young Cannibals’ “She Drives Me Crazy”. Congrats to bababooey, Kailyn, and @buttercup081474 for guessing correctly.

I Love Rock ‘n Roll

“I saw him dancin’ there by the record machine…”

In the late 70s, Joan Jett (neé Joan Larkin) tried to convince her group The Runaways to record a song she’d first heard in 1975 by Arrows called “I Love Rock ‘n Roll”, but Cherie Currie and the other gals decided to pass. (Big mistake. Huge.) Then, when The Runaways had called it quits and Joan struck out on a solo career, the fetching Miss Jett remembered the song and decided to record it on her own.

Big hit. Huge.

The hard-driving guitars, sneering vocals, and “We Will Rock You” drumbeat (not to mention the particularly universal message) ensured an instant hit.

By the time the dust had settled in the spring of 1982, “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” had spent 7 weeks as the #1 song in all the land, and it launched Jett into the musical stratosphere. Though she never topped the charts again, she had plenty of other hits (“Crimson and Clover”, “Do You Wanna Touch Me”, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”…) and she even got to make a movie with Michael J. Fox. Not too shabby.

Meanwhile, the rest of The Runaways are still slapping their foreheads.

We ♥ I Love Rock ‘n Roll.

Question of the Day 3.6.12

Name the music video!

Answer to yesterday’s QOTD: Pink Floyd – The Wall. Congrats to Todd, Taps, and @buttercup081474 for guessing correctly.

Domino Rally

Near as we can figure, dominoes originated in China in the 12th century.

Why it took 800 years for someone to take them to the next step and invent ‘Domino Rally’, we’ll never know.

The product of Pressman Toys in the mid 80s, Domino Rally was a thing of genius (for the most part). Sure, there were still individual dominoes that you needed to set up one-by-one (with a very steady hand), but then… well, then there were also the pre-set bridges, stairs, and other tracks that only required a flick of your wrist.

Domino Rally wasn’t without its flaws ––sometimes you needed to grab a pair of scissors and file off that little plastic nub on the edge of the domino, so it would stand up straight–– but in general, it was the source of hours of fun for us 80s kids.

…unless you had a little brother, a little sister, a dog, or a cat… or lived along a fault line, of course.

We ♥ Domino Rally.

Question of the Day 3.5.12

Name the movie!

Answer to Friday’s QOTD: My Left Foot. Congrats to Todd for guessing correctly.

Out of Africa

“I had a farm in Africa…”

For every Pretty in Pink and Top Gun in the 80s, there was an Amadeus and a Terms of Endearment, ’cause grown-ups watch movies, too, you know.

…which is how we now find ourselves in the culturally-significant part of our program, singing the praises of 1985’s Best Picture Oscar winner, Out of Africa.

If you’re yawning just thinking about it, it’s time to wake up and remember (or experience for the first time) one of the 80s’ most stunningly beautiful films.

Starring Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, Out of Africa tells the story of Karen Blixen, a Danish woman (as evidenced by Streep’s spot-on accent) who, after marrying a Baron, moves to Kenya to oversee a coffee plantation. While there, she comes to see that her husband is actually quite the philanderer, and then she meets the oh-so-handsome Denys (Redford), a big game hunter who sure does enjoy his time on the Serengeti.

Streep and Redford, of course, ‘shack up’ (Out of Africa‘s nothing if not sweeping and romantic), but there’s so much more to this story… and, yes, we can hear you rolling your eyes from here.

If nothing else, just enjoy one of the most famous shampoo scenes in movie-dom.

There’s also rampaging lions, a nasty case of syphilis, a big ol’ fire, and Maasai warriors… but the best part? The amazing plane ride that Karen and Denys take above the African plains, set to John Williams’ Oscar-winning score.

We get weepy just thinking about it.

In all, Out of Africa finished Awards Season with almost 30 trophies, including seven Oscars, three Golden Globes, and a place as one of the greatest films of the 80s.

And lest you think we’ve gone soft, we’ll quickly remind you that we’re also big fans of Valley Girl… so don’t judge us too hard.

We ♥ Out of Africa.