Gen X Nostalgia Podcast: Our Favorite 80s Movies, Bands & Memories

Mr. Gorbachev teared down this wall. Hey all and welcome to Pastimes at 80s High. This is AJ. We are going to talk about our nostalgic podcast, talking about the 70s, 80s, early 90s. Today we are going to do episode one, kind of an introduction to what this is going to be all about. And I'm from New Hampshire, 52 years old, and I just love, love, you know, hanging out with my buddies and talking about the greatest times ever. I just like to, you know, go back to those days where things were just simple and awesome. And to my right over here, which you folks can't see, I have Donald.

Hi, I'm Donnie. Or Donald or Dongo. I have uh multiple nicknames. The Dongo comes from the wonderful time that we had watching 16 Candles. I'm not hopefully not trouncing on anybody's future pick, but that's kind of where my nickname evolved from. Dave Haley, who runs the uh podcast in New Hampshire, uh New Hampshire sports page. So shout out to him. It's an awesome uh website if you want to listen to that. Uh he he started calling me the donger after 16 Candles, and then it kind of evolved into dongo. So I'm a jack of all trades, master at none, 52 years old. Uh still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life. I've done multiple things, gone to music school, joined the Navy, been a firefighter, paramedic. So kind of done it all, kind of thing.

A jack of all trades. Right and a master of said trades. Not really, but and awesome. And none of us know what we want to do with our lives yet. Right. Awesome.

And now to you, Kev. So as AJ mentioned, I am Kevin, uh, a little bit older than the last two. I'm 54. Uh I love thinking about talking about what we did in the 80s, 90s, and beyond uh when life was a little better. Whether it was the time period or the time in our lives, our ages, who could tell? But it seems like the music, the movies, and everything were much better than get off my lawn.

Damn right. All right, and last but certainly not least is my brother Mark.

Okay, I'm my name is Mark. I was born in Littleton, New Hampshire. I currently reside in uh Ware, New Hampshire. Where? Yeah, yeah, you're a funny guy. And uh I'm 59, so I'm the oldest one in the group. And you'll hear more 70 stuff from me because that's where I did a lot of growing up, and it was in Littleton, New Hampshire, and uh there'll be a lot of references to Littleton. I really miss how simple it was. I by far the most thing that I miss is uh all the family we had up there. It was such a close-knit family, big Lebanese family, and uh we used to uh gather at my aunt's house in the same duplex, and you know, we'd have 30, 40 people down there at a given time, so so that's my story.

Unbelievable. Yeah, those were great times for sure. All right. Well, what we're gonna do today for episode one is kind of give everyone a a little bit of a hodgepodge, or what do they call it on Jeopardy, a popery. It's just a bit of everything, you know. We're gonna do a lot of our lists are gonna be like top sevens. So we're doing seven items today, and we're gonna do a little bit of everything, like I said. And to start off, we are gonna go with movies, and I'm gonna kick it off today. And this was very, very difficult for me because obviously there's just so many incredible movies from those decades, but this is you know what was meaningful to us, and my pick for movie is The Outsiders, all right? 1983. Um, the memories I have from this movie are just so friggin' amazing. I mean, Guilford, New Hampshire went to the you know, the local theater with probably about three full rows of people, like got had to be at least 20 of us. Pizza place right next door to it. We would always go there to Papa Ginos after the movies. Back when it was still good, yeah. Back when it was great. And you know, the memories of this to me, uh, one I can't talk about, but um, you know, the the movie itself just um I mean you look at the actors and actresses in that movie, I mean, God, the people that came out of that, it was just frigging amazing. And you know, being a 12-year-old kid or whatever I was at the time, just to see the greasers and the socias and the I mean, we all wanted to be the greasers, of course, but God, you had Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, uh Emilio Esteves. I mean, I'm not gonna name the whole cast, but just an incredible. Matt Dillon. Matt Dillon, absolutely. You see Thomas Howell? Yeah, I'm sure. Jerry Valance. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Lots of them. Anyway, you get old boy. You get the fucking point, everyone. Anyway, um, now just a quick story to end this, and then I'll move to you, Donald. But um, the reason is is we got out of this movie, and this is yes, a good memory, I'm calling it, but we go to Papagino's just like always. And afterwards, everyone's thinking they're the greasers and then a gang. And I proceed to walk to Papagino's and get punched in the nose by Russell Bean and from Laconia. And you know, it was like the two gangs at the time, and he's a great guy now. We get along great. I haven't seen him for a few years, but I'll never forget that he broke my nose. Anyway, yep, that's my awesome memory. There's always a thing.

Don't F with the beans.

You know, that's a different family, though. Yeah, awesome. That's to you, Don. You're right.

So I'm gonna cheat a little bit. I have to because to narrow this down is so hard for favorite movies. So I texted everybody last night and I said, Star Wars, right? Who's doing Star Wars? And I'm just putting that one aside because that that's an obvious. Like we were all in that age bracket where Star Wars was just amazing, um, hit hit us at the right time. So I'm gonna pick Star Trek as mine, and I'm gonna go with the motion picture, Star Trek the motion picture, but also there's like a five-movie kind of series with you know the Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home, the search for Spock, um, because that kind of also ties into the TV series. I love the TV series as well, but uh I uh I love Star Trek. I love Spock, I love you know Captain Kirk. Uh I just I love the humor that they have in there. Um awesome. Um, you know, there's there's a lot of stuff about that movie that I like. So I picked Star Trek.

Green Women with Three Breasts. Oh, yeah. Is your name Sheldon? Or moves us to the show? Oh, I am a geek?

I am a definitely geek.

So I'm gonna go a little further back because we do include the 70s, and I really thought hard about this. And of course, Donnie is absolutely correct. If we all had to pick one, it would probably be Star Wars, maybe not Mark, because he's so fucking old. But just kidding, buddy, just kidding. Um but but there are so many contenders for this. I mean, think about it. You're talking about literally three decades with just a ton of phenomenal movies, whereas the ensuing three decades, there probably like three good movies, but anyway, so I'm going back to 1974 with the Godfather of two.

Wow, it got it.

And I tell you, I tell you this, yes, I I did I did enjoy two better. Yeah, the reason I love this movie is at this point because it's like sitting down and and being able to go back in time, what we can't do, and go back in time and have dinner with our family. I mean, that's what watching that movie is like, the ending of it, where where they're all sitting there together and and everybody's still alive. It's it's those characters are so familiar to me at this point that I can if if you're flipping channels and it's on and it's not a billion advertisements, which is pretty rare, yeah. But I I will sit and watch it until they have a barra a barrage of ads because it's that comfortable, it's that familiar. Never mind the fact that all of those actors are some of the greatest that we've ever produced.

Yeah, all time.

And I I I would feel and I was thinking about the other, I would feel that way about that movie if it hadn't got the accolades that it got, because I really could give a rat's ass about Oscar winners and what I don't care. Yeah, I either I like a movie, most of the movies that I really like would be under the Oscar snub category. Doesn't doesn't matter to me about the Oscars. So true. Just a great movie.

So The Godfather, I can't remember if it was three or two, the one he keeps saying, I keep trying to get out, but they keep pulling me back to me back in. Yeah. Is that three or two? I believe that was three. That might be three. It wasn't that great, but that was a great line in that movie.

Yeah, three is is out of the out of the two. One and two are just fantastic, but three is just kind of I don't know if they were tried.

Was that two? It was two. That was that's that was so awesome.

Oh, I know. That's that's a and all the Jimmy Fredero. All the folklore about you know, the orange. There's an orange in every scene before somebody gets whacked, and all of that stuff that that he put in. And the other great thing about that that's that's new, Miles Teller, that was in the the Top Gun sequel, was in this um uh miniseries called The Offer, which talks about how he be how the producer became the producer of of The Godfather and the troubles that he went through with the mafia and whatever else. A good watch on I think Paramount.

Absolutely. All right, Mark. Okay, well, my pick is actually goes back a little bit into the 60s. However, most of the movies, because I'm picking the whole five, the Planet of the Apes series. Yes. Um just remember this. I mean, when it came out, I was a little kid, and you know, they they they get off the plane and and they they see scarecrows and was it? Heston goes, damn the scarecrows, because they heard water. So they ended up in the water swimming, and next thing you know, uh these mute humans were like trying to they stole their clothes. But the anti uh anticipation is absolutely building and building and building, and then all of a sudden the first gorilla comes into scene and it was just like oh my god. And uh and a little uh run back here, uh the the gorillas were the militant ones. Uh the chimps the chimps were the they were the uh doctors and you know the peaceful ones, and then the the educated class. And then the orangutans were scientists. So you know, and then the the end of this movie is it's really iconic. Classic, yeah. Um Dr. Zaeus, um well Charlton Heston had a gun and he says, I'm pretty handy with this. And uh Dr. Zayas says, Of that I'm sure. And then uh Dr. Zae says to uh Cornelius, read the seventh scroll. Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's hawn. He kills for sport. And it ended with Battle 4, when Ape has finally killed ape.

Yes.

Okay.

Ape shall never kill ape.

I know, let alone an ape child.

All right, all right. So now we're gonna move on to the next category, which is uh it's gonna be a 2A and 2B. And I guess what I'll do is I'll do both mine and then move forward, and that is Actor and Actress. So my actor will be Harrison Ford. You have Han Solo, you have Indiana Jones, and then just so many other iconic movies through then the the fugitive being one of my favorites. He was just friggin' cool, and I mean he's Han Solo, which is really all I have to say, because his Donnie and Kevin kind of was he that was amazing, Indiana Jones, right?

Oh, hell yeah, absolutely.

Which was like that was awesome, unbelievable. Yeah, I mean, those are you know some of my favorite movies. We'll get into the Star Wars saga someday on a different show, but there's that'll be enjoyable for a lot of you because we have a love-hate relationship there.

Harrison Ford actually had an amazing, I think, 17 seconds in Apocalypse Now as well. Yeah, he did. Oh, yeah, I remember really brought the scene to life.

I like Blade Runner, forgotten, yes, you know, just so many movies. And then for my actress, I'm picking Michelle Pfeiffer. I mean, not only did I find her incredibly gorgeous, she still is. She still is.

She's aged gracefully.

But I mean, uh, one of my favorite movies of all time with her was Tequila Sunrise. Um, just incredible movie with Mel Gibson and Kurt Russell. I loved that. And I mean, who couldn't love her is Catwoman. Oh, yeah. You know, she looks pretty farging good.

That would be just off topic a little bit. That would be a good topic for future discussion, is like who's the best Batman? Who's the best Catwoman? Who's the best Superman? You know, that Bruce Wayne.

Right. Absolutely. Bruce Wayne. Right. Damn it. All right. So then Donald.

All right. So my 2A actor is going to be Eddie Murphy. Yes. Um, love Eddie Murphy. Um, his acting is, you know, I wouldn't say he's my favorite actor per se, but he's my favorite. Like you said, who touched you or who, you know, like he makes me crack up every time I see him. But like 48 hours, Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop. Oh uh, Trading Places is probably one of my favorite comedies. Incredible. And he was just awesome. That's when he was at his pinnacle. And then like his like Delirious and um you know, uh Eddie Murphy comedian and raw. Just there, you can't say him now. Coming to America, yeah, exactly. Coming to America, awesome movie, yeah. So he's he's my he's my 2A. And then for 2B, this is gonna be a little outside pick, but not too much as Jamie Gertz. Yeah. She's a smoke show, and she's always been a smoke show, but she's also a very good actress as well. I know because you can you can kind of do the hot crazy matrix with acting. You can go hot or you can go good actress, and you know, it's hard to find that perfect, but they they're there, and uh she's awesome. Uh, believe it or not, she was in 16 candles. I didn't know that. Yeah, she had a very small part. She was the dork, right? Wicked dork in there, yeah. Um crossroads. I loved Crossroads. That was awesome. Yes, yeah. She uh was she um lost Ralph Macchio. Yeah, I love that's one of my favorite. Um Ralph Macchio had no business being with her in Crossroads. That's why it makes sense. But if you can play a guitar, you can get the chicks. That's right. Exactly. That's and that's crazy. But she's she's awesome. I mean, she's been she's kind of like the um uh Kevin Bacon of Female Act.

Six degrees, yeah.

She's been in like she's been in Seinfeld and she's been in Family Ties and ER and like all kinds of TV too.

So she's not spare a square, cannot spare a square. Exactly.

Yeah, so that's that. You don't have a spare square, square to spare. So, Kevin, you all right, 2A. Again, much, much debate as there is a huge well to draw from here, but I finally decided on Mr. Mom, Michael Keaton, yeah, nice Batman. Um, multiplicity was was one of his later ones in that era, and it did not get a lot of recognition, and he plays several variations of the same character as as he's being cloned, and he does such a great job at it. I mean, you see the movies, either the trading places movies, not trading places, but you know, the freaky Friday stuff or something like that, and and and they fall short so many times, but he really he he brought each of those characters to life as a variation of uh of the main character. But just I mean, the guy would have you in stitches, he could just go off on a tear. He's an amazing actor, yeah.

Beetlejuice character, I mean which is coming back again, yes, with him again.

With with how could you not who's gonna take his place? Right. Um Johnny Dangerously, of course. I mean fantastic. Yes, yes. You fire sneaky bastards. Bastions. You will hear many quotes from Johnny Dangerously on this podcast. Yes, yes, without question. Uh moving right along, actress, a little bit harder because we're talking about our favorites, not the best. I would think from that era, if you're gonna go best for actress, it would be Merrill Street. Of course. I think you I know I would agree. I think we're all kind of right, but that was not my choice. My favorite was Diane Lane. Just so I mean, Outsiders, of course, Rumblefish, Cotton Club, and then one of my personal favorites, Streets of Fire. Yeah. A somewhat forgotten post-apocalyptic kind of William Defoe scares the crap out of you. Was she King Kong? Was that Diane? I think Jessica Lang. Also, and and and and to go back, Color of Money was actually the sequel to The Hustler, which was not Redford, it was Newman. I don't apologize. Newman Newman.

Hello, Newman.

But but after, I mean, as as far as beautiful women go in film, after uh Princess Grace, I I think Diane Lane is probably the second most beautiful woman to Grace's screen. She's sexy.

Yeah, yeah. She was in one with Michael Douglas. I can't remember that one, but man, was she hot.

I think it was Michael Douglas, but and I also think the woman on the Paramount is based on her, the the the digital version, not the original one, because she wasn't bored yet, but the the the the new Paramount logo, the woman holding the the torch, the torch looks very much like Diane Lynn. Right.

All right, brother. Actor and actress to you. Well, do you feel lucky? Ah well, do you punk?

Clint Eastwood is my favorite actor. Uh 2A. You know, Dirty Harry. How can you not love and respect him? My favorite movie he ever did was Sudden Impact. It was the most obvious antagonist, protagonist movie in the history. These uh, you know, the bad guys, the evil people in this movie were extremely evil. And uh evil. One of my favorite lines ever is go ahead, make my day.

Well, it's probably one of the top pop culture. Absolutely.

Yeah, and he was what, in any which way you can, in any which way but loose. Classic. Right turn climb. Yeah, yeah. Those are the greatest. But I mean, I I I mean, this is after the this is after the uh years that we're talking about, but I thought he was incredible in Gran Torino. Oh, yeah.

You know, and that's he's still incredible in what is he like 92 now.

And to be honest with you, I think I want to be that way when I'm old. I don't want people standing on my lawn. Get off my lawn! Get off my lawn, punk.

And then, of course, mark all of his friggin' I mean westerns.

Oh god, Josie Wales, right? That's one of the greatest.

That's what made him probably a few dollars more. Oh my god. Why can't the big one come in? Good, bad, and the ugly. Thank you. Oh, there you go. Eli Wallach. One of the greatest. You know the amazing thing about right. The amazing thing about Clint Eastwood at this point, and I can't remember how long it's been, but it's been a while. He's one of the few people in Hollywood. It's like he just he looks at the studios and says, I want to do a movie. And they say, Okay, here's your money. And they do it because his movies invariably come in on time, under budget, and are hugely successful.

Oh, yeah.

So the studio's just okay, good to go, whatever.

And he's producing, isn't he? Oh, yeah.

Directing, directing.

Amazing. Uh million dollar baby. Oh fucking increasing incredible.

Not Gina Davis, was it? No, no.

No, that was uh of course we all go back to the movie. That was a great movie.

I mean, he's done so many. I mean Hillary Swank. Hillary Swank. That was a great one. Good hey, this guy's got the movies down, you know. But sometimes. Anyway, my uh my favorite actress would have been Sandra Bullock, but it's not in the uh the time frame. So I went with Kim Basinger. Nice, good pick. Nine and a half weeks. Nine and a half weeks, very seductive. You can believe one of the Batman movies. But really, I mean, does it the biggest reason I picked Uh Kim Basinger is well, I kind of like her lips or breast turns. Oh yeah.

Those big pouty lips.

Oh my God.

And I've heard huge acting skills. Yes.

And I've, you know, I've been with a lot of well quite a few blondes, and I'm married to a redhead, sure, but but let that go. Not that many, Val. You know.

Mark will be absent from next week's podcast as he's going through divorce court.

All right. All before I met you. So number three, and that is banned. Okay. And for me, everyone knows the obvious. You don't folks out there yet, because this is episode one, but you will see that we will be doing a little sidecast called Preachers of the Night on this. But it would be KISS. I am a lifelong diehard KISS fan. This band changed my life. It, I mean, I can still remember my brothers, Mark and David. David is now gone. God rest his soul. We lost him a few years ago. But they both got me into this band so thoroughly that I was not allowed to like any other band ever. But I believe it was Dress to Kill, the first album we had gotten. That would be Correxa. And then I can still remember getting out of the car the day that we came home from Kmart with Love Gun and just seeing that cover with these heroes in makeup, and then all these beautiful, big-breasted women. Falling all over them. What would any seven-year-old boy think at that point? And I just fell in love. And to this day, um, you know, I checked out in about 2002 when Tommy and Eric put the you know Catman slash spaceman makeup on, which is Ace Fraeli and Peter Chris, and that's me. That doesn't mean you have to check out or anyone else has to check out, but I did, but that doesn't mean I still don't love and cherish this band, and you're gonna hear so much about it. But that's all I have to say. To you, Donald.

All right, it's really hard for me to pick one band because I'm like a Mozart to Metallica guy, like all music. Um, I like all genres. Um, but if I were to pick one from my childhood that I really liked would be Def Leopard. Um Pyromania was probably my first album that I had. Um, I had it both vinyl and cassette, and I played played it front and back over and over again. So that that's probably the band that I would associate with my uh childhood more favorite. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But I liked a lot of the bands at that time and kind of mixed music taste, but that's the one I do.

This is your favorite right now.

You're eclectic, yeah.

You're eclectic, right? Oh, yeah, I think we all are very much, you know.

But yeah, you like all of the Kiss albums. Fuck you.

All right, Deb, what do you got?

Donnie's Mozart to Metallica, AJ is uh Love Gun to Rock and Roll One. Rock and roll over so again, much much like our friend Dongo here, I I do really enjoy many, many different styles of music. It'd be easier to list the ones that I don't like, not a huge opera fan, and uh let's say uh rap country, everything else I'm pretty much open for, and I'll even take a little bit of those. Uh, but we are talking about generally the 80s, and I was a huge clash fan. Nice, nice, and a lot of people debate the name The Clash, and I always just assumed it was because the style of music that they were playing was supposed to be people that were devoid of musical talent. Yeah, it was kind of punkish, and they were very talented, yeah, and that was a bit of a clash, that they were they were talented punk musicians, uh, but incredible songwriters, great players, uh, and just kind of a raw, edgy approach to the music. Joe Strummer was one hell of a vocalist. Yeah. Um, it's odd being my age now, because I will play it while my 17-year-old son is around, and I I think it was uh straight to hell off Combat Rock. And he was, Are you listening to MIA? And I'm like, No, I don't know, or Mia, or whatever the fuck they call her, who sampled that song and and and that kind of went beyond sampling to just like she played that song while she was rapping. And so it's it's kind of mind-blowing at this age to to think that your child is familiar with your music through a whole different route.

Absolutely. Awesome pick.

All right, brother, to you. Okay, with apologies to Uncle Ted and 70s Aerosmith. I'm also going with KISS. Big shock here. Right? Big shock. Uh, I love the band. I love most of their phases in the band. Uh I was sitting up watching TV in Guilford one night, and they had this variety show on, and they had KISS with they were doing rocking in the USA, and I just loved how Gene would go, Oh, flying in a 747.

Yes.

That little growl or whatever, and it was like, wow, I like that. It just hit me. And I went searching for the records and trying to find that song, to be honest with you. And again, we came home with Dress to Kill, and I thought Rock Bottom might have been it. It obviously wasn't. It wasn't even Gene singing, but you know, we we just loved the band. We got we were into it towards the tail end of their peak, actually. As a matter of fact, it was after the solo records. The first record that came out in our fandom was Dynasty, and it's like, uh, what's going on here? I mean, Kiss was always kind of a chameleon trying to go with the the letter of the day, you know, the flavor of the day, I say. And um, you know, they tried the disco, then they went certainly heavy during uh my two favorite records are uh Lick It Up and Creatures, but you know, then they went pop and then they tried to go grunge and they brought the uh the reunion, you know, they brought Peter and Ace back, and that was my favorite time. Oh man, it was incredible.

And I just and then the second reunion, and then the third.

Yeah. Well, but but final when when they started losing me was actually prior to Ace and um pardon me, um Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer wearing their makeup. It was actually during Psycho Circus and the immeasurable disappointment I had when I found out that on the entire record, the only song that they all played on together was Ace's song Into the Void. And it's just the I just can't believe I was so upset. The uh they could have done any worse than the some of the crap that they put out on that record.

Absolutely. And and the two, I mean, yeah, the two after that too. So we don't even know those really.

But if they had quit, or if they like right after the Unplugged, when they did Unplugged, that was awesome. Friggin' incredible. It was amazing, right? If they had done a reunion tour after Unplugged and then called it quits. Yeah, maybe two tours, maybe and one record where they all played on. Yeah.

Well, that's what we all thought they were doing, but then they claimed that was the farewell to Ace and Peter. And then played for two more decades. I mean, they're making money.

You can't, you know. Hey, well, again, we've we've talked about this amongst ourselves. It's they make more money in three nights on a tour in this era than they would have for like the first ten tours. Yep, exactly. Because it's nine million dollars for a nosebleed series.

Yeah, and so many people fucking pay it, which is ridiculous because every time I mean I get tickets for free now, usually through the beer companies. So I I don't think I paid since Tommy and Eric, but I did go to a lot of shows because I wanted to show the girls and you know, some friends of mine to see the spectacle. But if you looked at tickets though, at you know, three days before the show, you paid 30 bucks when the guy beside you paid 800, you know. So you just gotta be smart, you gotta be patient.

Yeah, right. So, anyway, in conclusion, with the band Kiss, I mean I didn't mean to disparage them. Didn't like what they did the last 25 years or so. However, they will still always remain my favorite band because to love someone is to criticize.

Damn right.

That's so true. God, I feel so much love.

All right, yeah. So now we are moving on to news stories. News. Okay. And mine is the 1980 Olympic hockey team. That was a miracle on one game, such as game. And boy, did we need that. Amazing, amazing time. Um, great HBO did an incredible documentary on that. I mean, I can watch that over and over. Always brings tears to my eyes. But Herb Brooks, who got yanked at the last second before he was gonna play in the Olympic hockey team, um, you know, he was he had a vengeance. He wanted to come back and kick ass, and he did, and it was the midst of the cold war. Um, the Iran, the Iran hostage crisis, just there was so much going on during this, and the the way it lifted our country, my hair's standing up literally right now. Um, it was just fucking amazing to me.

And yeah, it was a feat that there was because they were amateur impossible because America still used the amateur athletes while other countries were using their pros. And you know, Herb Brooks's speech before that and the movie, it's just it's one of those like rah-rah, let's go, baby. Play your game. Because he was your game. You know, you play them nine, ten times, they're gonna win nine, but they won that one that one, and they were Russia was unstoppable at that point.

They would come to the NHL, they would have these series, yep, you know, exhibition series through the 70s, and they would pretty much kick the NHL's ass.

It was like 13 or nothing, I think, just before going into the Olympics, and that was our NHL pros. And then um uh lots of players from from Boston and Minnesota were were a huge part of that team. Jim Craig. And those people, you know, that they were rivals, so it was really tough to mold them as a team. And once they became a team man, it was just incredible. Incredible story.

Yeah. Well, it's you know, you you mentioned that the you know, uh uh uplifting for our country. I mean, oh my god, being born in that era, I think back to the early 80s and and the time before that, where we still had teachers that were in the in the classroom were were still talking about America as a bad thing, as a bad concept, as a bad idea. Yeah. I mean, it was we people were reeling from the Vietnam War. There was a lot of you know, anti-US sentiment around the world and here in the States, and that was kind of a turning point where people, there was some national pride and things started to turn around for us, the shining city on the hill.

Exactly. Awesome. All right, Donnie to you.

All right, well, you kind of uh preluded to mine, which was during the same time as the Iran uh hostage situation. Yes, um, that was a big news story in my childhood to see um you know Americans being held hostage with you know things over their eyes, and and it was a very scary time to understand what was going on, and they tried to rescue them and they had a failed rescue. Yeah um, but that was uh pretty, you know, tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree. Yeah. And you saw the ribbons, you know, you're saying, what's that for? Yeah. Um yeah, I mean that was kind of my thing. Um learning about it after goes down another rabbit hole for another.

Yeah, absolutely. But yeah, very very strange as as a young child to to scary witness that and and and think that that that that could happen, but um not to go too far down the rabbit hole, as you said, but that's that's what weakness gets you as as a country. Yep. And that's what I and that's what we had. Uh moving on, my news story, the one that affected me the most, and of course there was many things that that we could talk about. I won't list them because that would not be fair. Uh but the one that struck me the most was just so fucking senseless, and and that was the the the murder of John Lennon. I mean, I can still close my eyes and and remember that morning talking to my friends at school being 10 years old. And and why why would somebody kill and I mean we can debate who John Lennon was. I mean, I always thought that he was a little bit of a fraud. He was selling peace and love. Right. And and and I don't know that he really from what I've read, he didn't really live the things that he but the man did not deserve to be shot and killed out of his home for no reason at all. Right. Um just kind of and that again, as we were at that age to see something so violent and senseless. I mean, um, which then oddly you know skyrocketed the double fantasy album. Right.

Um except for the I think it was the fourth side that had And the whole play backwards and Paul will die and all that kind of stuff.

Oh well, yeah, the Paul is dead. Yeah, that's that's that's like four episodes right there. No, like I I think that the only thing that held that album back was the tracks that Yoko sang.

Oh my god. The track she screamed.

Yeah, listen, we we all we all do crazy things for love. So you gotta give it up to John Lennon for for Yoko. I mean, it's you know the fifth Beatle. It is what's go with Billy Preston, not Yoko.

Well then there was a fifth beetle. What about Pete Best? Pete Best. He was the original drummer, the poor guy. Right.

Because his dad had money for the equipment, I think was uh exactly.

You know why Paul didn't want him in the band? Because he thought he was cuter than him and he wanted to be the key. Yeah. Uh all right, Mark. Okay, let me take you back. Uh 1980, okay? Where is America right now? We we're relying on the United States hockey Olympic team to pull us out of the depression we're in. And Jimmy Carter's out there with his cardigan sweater telling us to wear sweaters instead of turning the heat up. We got inflation, double-digit inflation. We're in a malaise, and there's a new election. A man who would bring in the crazy, roaring 1980s, the best years ever, in my view. Ronald Reagan came in, and this is during the hostage crisis. Reagan won uh, let's see, 479 electoral votes.

Landslide. Absolutely.

This is I mean, the next one, he only lost one state. And I don't remember when Reagan was inaugurated, what what happened with the hostages? I don't remember. Could you tell me what happened?

I do remember them getting off the plane here in the United States. Thank you very much. They didn't wait for him to get inaugurated. Iran went, yeah, we're not gonna play this game anymore because this guy's crazy enough.

Yeah, and he'll do it. And the fact is, is like you said earlier, weakness. That's what happens when you come from a position of weakness. And and the eighties, I mean uh Reagan is pretty much the poster child of the 1980s. He had lots of fans on both sides. They had a thing called Reagan Democrats, right? And he won states like Massachusetts, California, Oregon, Washington.

Yep. The Shining City on the Hill.

Those are great eight years.

I mean unbelievable eight years and and and set things in motion for the next decade as well. We ate spaghetti seven nights a week when Carter was president. Right. And then Ronald Reagan got elected and I tasted steak.

Exactly.

I'm sorry, on a personal level, we could put gas in our car. And we could put gas cars. You didn't have to wait for an odd or even day to fill up your fucking room. Oh, that was the other thing. Yes.

The gas carage.

Which again, their muscles and without going too far down that road. We were told back then that we were running out of fossil fuels. Do you think that today's world uses more fossil fuels in one day than an entire year back in 1976? I'm guessing yes. We haven't run out. No, we haven't run out.

You know what was interesting about the end of Reagan's presidency is they said he might have had dementia. True end up. That's how we know he might have that now. No, no, no, no.

He had it before he even went in.

Right. All I'm saying is Nancy did a heck of a job while Ronnie had was suffering from that. Yes.

Oh, the gunshot. He got shot by Hinkly.

Well, that was a great news story for that time. I thought about saying that one because that was that was a big one. Thank God he lived.

Talk about talk about this you were talking about Miracle on Ice making you tear up. I almost just did there because I remember the story about the doctor when they rolled him in because he got shot and he wanted to go home. He was like, he he didn't want to, he hadn't, I guess the adrenaline hadn't realized what had happened yet or whatever. But as they're wheeling him into the hospital, he famously asked the doctor if he was a Republican. And the doctor said, I am today, sir.

Perfect. All right. Moving on to number five. This is gonna be another 5A and 5B. It's gonna be an indoor activity and an outdoor activity. And for my indoor, yes, it's roller skating. As crazy as it sounds, back in the 80s, we had the Guilford Roller Rink. Every Friday night, I would be there playing arcade games, skating around during the snowball, trying to pick out a girl. Just that was the place to go to meet girls from other towns. Yeah. Yeah, you had the men's choice snowball. You know, I'd try to be cool shooting the duck in front of the ladies that I liked. You know what that why wouldn't that work?

Right, roller skating was cool because you didn't have to dance. Like dancing sucks. Especially if you're we all go to clubs, we don't like the dance, you know. You like to sit at the end, but at least you could just skate around in circles and and still look somewhat cool.

Some little tiny inner circle, hold their hands.

They did have the like the hold the hand couple session.

That was the snowball. Right. The girls would line up on one side and the guys would pick, and then they'd swap it up, and the girls would pick. But the arcade games there were awesome, just everything about rank the two.

They never they never picked me.

All right. And then uh my outdoor activity was uh baseball. Um, I was very, very huge into baseball through farm league all the way through little league. Um, I played little league for 12 years, and I'm not patting myself on the back. Excuse me.

You played Little League for 12 years.

Uh I'm sorry. I played Little League for four years. Yeah, all four years is my point. I made it in front of the game.

I didn't see that kid's birth certificate.

And yeah, that's what they're doing, like the Dominican and right with the napkin I am 12.

Baseball been better, better good to me.

Anyway, um I my coach came over to meet with my parents to tell them to make sure that they put me in all the baseball camps um because I could become something someday in the sport. And the next year I did not go to camp. I moved to Hinsdale, New Hampshire, the southern western armpit of New Hampshire, and my life uh at that point that's when I, you know, turned for the worse for a few years. And I really regret that and have great hatred for it. Although I have some great memories in that town as well. But I just, you know, I really hated that we had to move that year. Sounds familiar. But anyway, enough of that. I will go uh to you, Donald.

All right. So my indoor and outdoor are kind of very similar. So my indoor activity was playing with army men. Yeah. I love the just the plain old green army men, you know. Absolutely.

Cowboys and Indians.

No, never never got in with those, but definitely got in with the army guys. And it was always like World War II army guys against Nazis, pretty much, you know, like German soldiers. We can still hate that. They were the yellow ones. Absolutely. They were grayish. Yes. Yes. But yeah, I had like this big, huge guns and navarone set that was like a thing. It was cool. I loved it. Very cool. I hated the radio guy. I hated the like the prone sh uh sniper guys because you really the lying down guys. I like it. The prone guy was cool. And the binocular guy. But the binocular guy got cool in Toy Story. Yeah. Which was kind of cool. But what was he going to do?

Like the radio guy and the and the and the binocular guy. What are they going to do to defend themselves? You got fucking binoculars to get shot at, dude. What do you throw them?

You know, lousy thing to have. Like you're going to be the radio guy.

Oh, great. Awesome. I'll just I'll just die now. What about the grenade guy? I like the grenade guy. What about bazooka? But he never threw it.

Yeah, bazooka guy was kind of cool. Yeah. Loved the army guy. I love the army guys, played with them quite a bit. And then my outdoor activity was playing war. Like we used to. Oh, yeah. Like when I grew up in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, we played in a sand pit and we played war. And shows and movies at the time were like Red Dawn, Uncommon Valor, Bridge Too Far, Battle of the Bulge. And we would like reenact these scenes like get to the chopper, like in Uncommon Valor, and show each other over Kelly's hero. And we used to play like war, like shoot 'em up war and and bang your dead kind of thing. Now it is a big thing. I actually dug a calendar. I know I dug a pit in the backyard and put like a cardboard over it with hay, and it was like in Red Dawn when they popped up out of the ground. So I just loved playing army guys. Oh, it was so. And then I went into the Navy for some reason. But yeah.

You didn't play Navy guys though. Well, that's another story. That makes no sense. As much as we all love Red Dawn, you just gotta wonder at what point did the Russians think, you know, if we take over that small town in Colorado, the rest of you know if we get that high school, it will just fall. The rest of the U.S. falls. We just have to concentrate all our forces where Patrick Swayze is.

Right. Great movie, though. Great movie. Now that we slam it. That's what we do. That was a great I loved that.

What do you got, Kev? Well, I'm gonna tell you, my indoor activity, so much room for activities now that we have the bunk beds. There's actually I I I wasn't thinking about this. Um what I'd written down was again, I'm a warmonger like like Donnie over here. I used to love to play the board game Risk. Oh, that game because I would play with my grandfather and my father, who would totally ignore me as I amassed massive armies in Australia. That was the Australian gambit. I would take the continent. Exactly. You only had to protect the one entrance, and then you had those extra armies. So while they're decimating each other, I'm down there building my little thing, and they're not paying attention to me. And then after one of them would get really big and they'd smash the shit out of each other and be, you know, like have one army in each territory, I would come out and annihilate my entire elders, all of them at once. It was great. But what it what I totally forgot the ones who went through the Second World War. My grandfather absolutely was war. Yeah, well, my father did my grandfather was their ass kicked by Australia, right? My my grandfather's transport actually got sunk D-Day in the English Channel. He swam back to England, and the next day they put him on, dropped him on the beaches in Normandy, where he was on cleanup duty.

That's he did not say much more about that. Not a good cleanup duty. Right.

Uh, but the thing that I forgot is something that I still do as an act indoor activity. If you look around the room, you might see friggin' Legos are still the best. I absolutely love Legos. So I'm not gonna talk too much about that because I'm I'm doubling down on indoor activities. I'll be short on the outdoor activities, possibly. Simply the woods.

Oh, the woods.

We just I mean, this is something where I think if today's youth, if you left them out in the woods, they'd probably die within seven to ten minutes. Where we used to we used to dam up brooks, we used to climb trees, we used to go around forts, build forts, tree houses. We would go around and find dead trees and knock them down, get a running start and run into a dead tree and rip it out of the ground. No, it was just it was it was great playing in the woods. Your mother loved it because you came home and you had like I would get like the black flies in the spring would bite the hell out of me and I'd get these huge welts on my head. I'd I'd be in the swamp up to my you know, be on my knees and just covered with with whatever muck and and swampiness.

All right, that's number five to you, Mark. Okay, my favorite indoor activity actually goes to a friend's house, or actually two friends' house, called the twins. Yes. They lived right down the street from us, Stevie and Billy. Me and my brother David went there just about every night for a while there, and we would go down in the basement and we would play floor hockey. We would play this basketball game where you would uh uh tires at each end of the basement, and they were bike tires, and you would the to get the basket, the your two points, you had to get the ball inside of the tire.

And we would like uh what's the uh Harry Potter? Like it's kind of quidditch, quidditch like yeah, yeah.

And we would play that, and my favorite game we ever played, we only got to play it once, and from that point forward I was always begging to play it, but it was called glowing juice. You would put kabuki stuff on your face, and it was just so much fun, I thought. We would sneak up on each other and see the other guy with with makeup, and it just they wouldn't let me play it anymore. So but no, I mean, those are the two games I do remember down there. I mean, we just had a blast, and um the the funnest game that we ever played, though, was once we were done, we all had to pick up our toys, and I had this little game that I would sneak out of the house and they would come and tackle me and bring me back. But there were other times when I got away, and all the way home I'm just laughing my head off. I did it, I got away with it, you know. And what game was that?

That was the mean game. The Mark cleaning up game.

The mark wanted like I'm running away.

But it was a game more than anything. I think it was called Peace Out Bitches. It was just a game. I mean, I I don't know if I went back. I don't think I did.

But we would, you know, we'd drink Kool-Aid and just play and play and play. The walkers.

Yep, Dixie Walkers kids. Oh, yes. He was a nissing man too.

Oh, yeah. Don't let your babies go up to be bread men. Dad used to sing that to us.

Outdoor activity. Back in those days, as you know, this is the 70s, not the 80s, in Littleton, New Hampshire. And we would all day play stuff. I mean, either between going to the swimming pool, the t the the town pool, but mostly we'd play football, baseball, street hockey, basketball, um, we would do hide and seek in the earlier years. But by far my favorite thing ever is to the point where I got grounded from doing this one activity was fishing. Yes. Once I learned how to fish up there, and we're talking the Aminoosic River, you you're talking about a river that you can fish for trout all year. Down my way in southern New Hampshire, you get to July and it's over. At least in the rivers. Anyway, specifically was fishing up at Apthorpe Dam, had all these nice holes. The fishing was always decent. You very rarely went up there and got skunked. Um I remember catching a big brown trout, dropping it in the water and going back in to grab it, you know, and uh but some of the things that we would do back in these days, okay, you got this long waterfall with water going over, and what would we do? We would take the ladder down and walk across the waterfall. Okay. Then he had this long wall down there that put you in a good fishing spot, and you had to jump go down this ladder, and it was awful. I was a little nervous about that, but I did it anyway. And I lost a brown trout. It's so funny. The holes, the dropping of the brown trout. Oh, one more time. I lost it. I hit a snag and I the sinker went and hit me right in the teeth. But oh no, that sucks.

Well straight back at me.

Right in my teeth. But anyway, get this one. T I listen, this is my story. I get to talk. You guys. So anyway, I was up there fishing on the right side of the dam, and I cast down. I actually had almost a 15-inch brown on it, and it got caught in the uh the brown trout in the brush. And I had to snap the line. Well, I was walking home and I saw my my good friend Ollie LaFlam, and we went back, we went down on that scary wall, we went down and we grabbed that trout. That trout came home with me, and that's the biggest trout.

Was he snagged or did you re-catch him?

No, he was snagged on the he wouldn't have made it. So I mean nice. So I mean, I guess technically I caught it. I don't know. Caught it twice. But you know, we'd fish on top of the dam, we would fish on the bottom. It just it was always good fishing. Like I said, it's a small town, you don't have a lot of fishing pressure up there.

For the record, for those of you that couldn't see, three of the four of us were trying not to laugh out loud, but not doing well at it.

It's your turn this week.

Uh all right. So we are at number six now, which is favorite item, something we, you know, love to have in our possession back then. And mine was my BMX bike. It was a GT Pro Performer. Uh back then we had a I mean, the shop is still there now, Pshays Ski and Sport Shop. And back then, I mean, I, you know, I'm 10 years old, and I could walk into this place, I could pick a bike and say, yeah, put that on my mom's account and ride it out. You know, it was a ride.

Did she know about this?

She did know about it. Dad did not, but anyway, it was a $350 BMX bike. Back then, that was huge money, and it had all the pegs, it was freewheel, double brakes, all the freestyle things on it. And just I lived on my bike. I mean, from the day I could ride one until I had my license, I lived on it. And back then they didn't have gears, so when you went to ride up a hill, you weren't shifting down. You either gunned it or you you got off and pushed. But just I lived on my bike. I, you know, went to the beach every day, just everything about it. I, you know, that bike was my life, just building ramps and doing everything on my bike.

Back then, your bicycle was your first taste of freedom. It was your ride, it was it was how you gut places, it was it was everything. I did not have a mother that had an account at a bicycle shop. I got um kind of as things changed from standard banana seat kind of bicycles to the BMX thing, I remember I had to convert, I had a uh I had a it was a Schwin Hornet had a gas tank and a motorcycle seat. Yeah, and it was the antithesis of what a BMX bike was because it was nine million pounds. So as things shifted and BMX came into existence in the early days of it, I had to steal um the seat off my sister's 10 speed and take the big motorcycle banana seat and the plastic gas tank off mine and sand it down and paint it flat black. And I could bunny hop with it, but yeah, like I said, it weighed about 9,000 pounds. I think if the practice I had doing any stunts on that, you know, the tabletop, the bunny hop, all those things, if I had an actual lightweight chrome alloy bicycle, I probably could have probably could have jumped a duplex.

Oh, that thing was huge. The other thing I want, I mean, it had mag wheels too, this thing. Oh, I love the mag wheels, but the beauty of it was just, I mean, the beach I believe was six to eight miles from my house, and at you know, seven years old, I would ride my bike alone to the beach, and that is why those were the greatest times on earth because you fucking try to see a kid do that now, it's not happening, right?

Walking across the waterfall, yeah. To you, Donnie.

All right, my favorite item. This is again was another tough one, but uh, went with the Daisy 880 BB Pellet gun. You'll shoot your eye out, right? I know I was thinking of the Christmas story and shoot your eye out. Um, you know, my grandfather was a very staunch like hunter, and he had one, and he taught me how to fire it and how to hold it and how to treat firearm safety and all that. Um, taught me right, and then I got one from my parents, and I I pretty much uh air quotes pretty much uh used good gun safety techniques. But like I remember one time I took a shot up in the air at a plane that was flying by. Now, this is a commercial airliner, probably at 30,000 feet, but at like 10 years old, I'm like, oh my god, what did I just do? Was that like so? Did you pump that?

I might have shot a plane because I I think with the Daisy 88, was that a pump? It was a pump. And you could multi-pump. Right. So I think by 10 you could get to the 30,000 foot mark.

I think that was no idea about ballistics and range and anything like that. Well, anyways, I remember you and I playing with it, man. In the woods. AJ and I were playing it in the woods, and we we were playing war, like I was saying before, we were playing war, and we had a three-pump minimum. And I remember shooting AJ, and he was like, Oh my god, you know, like was that like minimum maximum? You were like, That's bullshit. You shot me with war. So you you took it and you pumped it like four times and shot me like I was a prisoner of war. Remember? Do you remember that? Dug a little hole, stood you up by it, poured some lime on you. Very safe. I never recommend anybody shooting each other with a BB gun. There was a friend of mine in Massachusetts that got shot by a BB gun and almost pierced his aorta. He was pretty dangerous, but we shot each other. Yeah, for the most part, like I said, I respected gun safety and da da da. But when we got too older, we got older and we realized it's a BB gun, it's not gonna hurt. Three pump minimum. But yeah, that it's fucking maximum. Yeah. Three pump minimum. But stop bringing up for your sex life.

At this point, we here at Past Times at 80s I would like to uh just state the fact that we do not support shooting your friends in any way, shape, or form.

Yes, correct. I got a question, guys. Um, does a bee? I mean, I've been shot with a BB before many times, but not a paintball. What hurts more?

A BB. A B. Yeah. I'm paintballs hurt too. Yeah, they certainly do. Certainly, yeah.

Some good, nice welts. Yeah, yeah. Right. Yeah. That's a great picture.

But again, with the BB, it like if you're getting the Daisy Red Rider single cock, you know, 20 feet away, it's not gonna hurt that bad. Just watch, but if it's point blank, yeah. They stinger. Yeah. It's a sting. Yeah. Like Kevin was saying, we don't recommend the shooting of a human being. Don't try this and tell them children. Do not try this. This was the 80s when everybody wasn't a pussy. I mean, when things were different, eye protection, all that kind of stuff.

60 UK.

All right. My favorite item right to the heart of the matter was my Fisher rack stereo system. 15-inch subwoofers.

Yeah.

I don't know how many million watts that it was, but it was awesome. Turntable, dual cassette deck.

Yeah.

4200 band EQ. One piece, too, right? They they were no, they they were multiple pieces, but they were sold as one. It had the cabinet with the soft closed door, the glass door, and all that. But those speakers were absolutely amazing. As a matter of fact, later in life, I took the 15-inch subs out and put them into my car. Oh yeah. Yes, my Plymouth Sundance thumped.

I know. Back in the 80s, like you had to have the big thing.

Yes, that was a big thing with the 80s. Yes.

I would do, I was not a DJ professionally, but when there was a party, I would bring that system to people's houses. Yeah.

All right, brother. Okay, well, with all due respect to my Mitchell 300 open face fishing reel, I would I have to go with AJ a bit, and my mine was a Huffy bluebeard five-speed bicycle. I mean, I loved that thing. I went everywhere on it. You know, it it was it had like a rack in the back, it had five speeds, obviously, had the banana seat. You know, this is back when they they made low-end bikes, but I loved this little thing. Couple stories about bikes back in those days. Well, there was a time me and Fred and Kevin Presley were up at the top of the brook road in Bethlehem, and I was going down with Sad Bluebeard, pedaling as fast as I can down a hill. Well, of course, I was not thinking too well because the bike started to shake and oh my goodness, there goes Mark. Over the top panels. Oh, and there are Fred and Kevin laughing their asses off. Oh yeah. You know?

Oh, those hurt.

Another thing is back in the day, the freewheel versus the back brake. You know what I mean? Well, this was they were hand brakes. Yeah.

They were hand brakes. I would have preferred the the handbrake, I mean the foot brakes, but the foot brakes get away from you, though. Which kind of contradicts AJ, sorry, but they did have gears back then. But so anyway, another story about bikes up there. I don't know if I jumped with the bluebeard. I probably did, but the store right next to us, um, we would we would put a ramp up. This is during the days of Evil Canival, jumping cars and trying to jump Snake River Canyons and stuff like that. But we would line up like cordwood people and we would jump them. You remember that? Oh, yeah, we did that. You did that too. I used to get landed on the thing. Yeah, we put you, we put AJ at the end. Yeah, right. And yeah, can you imagine being able to do that now? Just things that you just don't, they don't do anything, these pencil neck geeks that we're all just too damn paranoid. Oh, yeah, and the another thing I want to say just you know, I we were going to uh going to the gymnastics the other day, and you're driving by school bus stops, and there's all these cars lined up to pick up their kids. Are you kidding me?

You know what drives me a mile from home? Freaking crazy walk. The bus stops and then it goes like a hundred yards at the most stops again for another kid, like a single kid. It's like, dude, you can't walk a hundred yards to the street I grew up on.

Now here's the thing I lived across the street from the school, so it didn't affect me. I was a walker and rider, not a bus. But my street was five miles long. There were two stops. Right. You walked your ass two and a half miles to one or the other if you were riding the bus. You were lucky if you had shoes, too, you know? Right, uphill in the snow.

Yeah, but where I was, if you were in a one and a half mile radius, there was no, I think it might have even been two miles, no bus. Yeah, yeah. You had to walk or ride your bike. Right. Walk it. Pussies. So number seven here, and I'm kinda number seven or number one. That's however you want to look at it.

Okay.

Uh it's TV show, and I'm kind of cheating here because it's not the typical thing that you know one would think, but I am. Going with the headbanger's ball. Yes. All right. Now, this show to me was my life. Every Saturday night, we would order from Mrs. Pizza. Blueberry Lane. Yeah. Um, we would go to John's house, and I believe it was the basement. We would play hacky sack in and just couldn't wait till midnight. Um, Ricky Rackman hosting at that point, uh, after Adam Curry lost the job because he just was not metal enough. Because he was Adam Curry, exactly. And then just, I mean, the videos on it, just that's when we really started getting getting into the heavier stuff. He came to my house too, yeah, all the time. Uh, Blueberry Lane for sure. And look, I get it right there, Mark. Blueberry Lane. And just in LA? Oh, yeah, just you know, it was unbelievable. And I'll never forget seeing Unholy come on for the first time. Kiss Unholy, and just seeing Kiss back to the heavy and Gene Simmons looking ballsy and kick-ass and battle axe. Thank you, Vinny Vincent. Yep. And just, I don't know. That show was not just a television show, but it was a way of life for us. Like we looked forward to it. It was three hours long. I mean, the fucking thing ended at 3 a.m., you know, so we're home at four, you know. And yeah, just I don't know. Just it was a way of life, and that is why it is my favorite show. And that would go to you, Dongo.

All right. So for me, I took one that kind of led my career path, and that was Emergency Squad 51, Rampart, and all the stuff. Yeah. Yep. Roy DeSoto. Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto. Yeah.

Randy Rantooth. What was the guy's? Randolph Mantuth. Manth. Yeah.

And Kevin T. Yeah. I love that show. Um, it's it was uh, you know Saturday night. Yep. And uh, you know, got me wanting to be a firefighter paramedic back in the day. Rampart. I ended up, you know, I wanted to do other things, and then I kind of came back to that's what I want to do with my life, and that's what I ended up doing. Become a firefighter paramedic. And that show has four people in the emergency services, like it actually did drive the um kind of the narrative of paramedicine. Because before that show, you know, basically you called an ambulance, you got like um it was like uh funeral home people were doing ambulances. Yeah, like they would put you in a hearse and just drive you to the hospital, they wouldn't do anything from A to B. And then that show kind of said, Hey, we need to do something on scene, get you to the hospital alive, and do things on the scene. Save your life. Right. And and because of that show, it it you know, it wasn't the sole factor, but it was a driving factor in kind of increasing paramedicine in the in the world.

And they always saved the structure fire for the end, yeah. Right.

The the big money scene. Yeah, but that that was very well showcased in that how much their hands were tied and how new that whole concept was of a fireman actually knowing something about how to you know help somebody. And they were always talking to Dixie back at Rampart. Yeah, and no matter whether it was a uh uh uh LSD overdose or um a car accident, it was uh uh five five cc's of ringer's lactate was was the cure for everything. But I believe that was all they were approved to yeah, let's set him up with five CC's of Ringer's lactate and uh wait for transport.

Right. Yeah, that was their classic order. But right now it's always Ata van.

At a van. No, I wish he lost his leg in a motorcycle accident.

Well, give him five cc's of Ringer's Lactan.

All right, Kevin, to you.

To me. Okay, so this one, if you guys want to, I don't know. Uh it's it is it is what it is. It's still on the air, it's not worth watching anymore. But I remember the first, the very first episode as a young man, maybe six, seven years old, um, because of the hype, I guess, my parents let me stay up till 11:30 to to watch it, and it became a classic that every Saturday night my father, my mother, my older sister would all fall asleep, and I would be watching this program. And I still to this day turn it on as aggravating and depressing as it is that they'd call it humor. But Saturday Night Live formed so much of my humor, that and Monty Python back in the day.

Oh my god.

Um, but but what an amazing show and so many changes, which always gives me hope because by the 80s, well, by today's standards, it was hilarious, but it wasn't as good as the original not ready for primetime cast. It wasn't Belushi, but there were still great shows. Mary Gross, there was uh Tim Kazarinski, um Chevy Chase. Well, Chevy Chase was yeah, he was great by that Eddie Murphy, but yeah, even those lulls, though, you always kind of they weren't that bad, yeah, but they'd come around and then an Eddie Murphy would show up, and it was just invigorating and Piscopo to a to a lesser, but what a great comedian he is and was, also known as Danny Verman.

Yeah, but nowadays it's like you know, you could you don't have to stay up to 11:30, you can get up and watch it on YouTube and watch the video. But there isn't anything worth watching. I still look at it and it's like back in the day you didn't get that replay. And I can't. The only way you get it is from like pop culture people replaying it.

Exactly. Exactly. And the thing is, you know, I try to temper it with is it because I'm old, the world's moved on, but I just watched this stuff, and it's not even that it's not funny, it it's vitriolic, which is terrible because it was such a great show. I mean, yeah, think about the people, the the entertainment that it brought you from you know, Belushi Axis.

Chris Farley was on it, wasn't he? Yeah, oh God, yeah.

Uh uh Down by the river Bill Murray to Eddie Murphy to Chris Farley to Adam Sandler. Adam Sandler, Will Farrell, all of these careers that started on that show.

Kevin Neal and it's countless. I mean, there's literally hundreds of Phil Harding. Oh poor Phil Hardy. Yeah.

God, why couldn't she have just never mind? She could have left him for us and taken herself out if that's where she was going, right? But but you know, but now so I mean, think about that though. Yeah, the show now. How many of those people have their own movies now? Right. Like, like Glorne Michaels isn't even like, I'm not even gonna back these people because he loses his shirt. They don't have any, I mean, one of the great things in the in all of it was the recurring characters. Yeah, and they don't do that anymore because they can't come up with a good recurring characters.

Right, right. Exactly.

Massive head wound hairy. Right, exactly. I mean, the kid from Keenan and Kell's been on there for like 40 years now. He's made me laugh twice. I like the Harrelly boys.

I don't think he's made me laugh once. The hairly boy with uh Hurley. Yeah, the Hurley kid. Yeah, with Sandler and Farley.

Do your laundry. For the love of God.

He'll mow your lawn.

Let him be your dog.

What about uh uh Sandler and and Farley doing the Zagot, the the restaurant? Oh my god. Farley plays the wife, and he's all done up with the lipstick and whatever. He's like and and and she's going, oh, let's check out this. And Sandler's character is like, kill me now! I just want to die.

And the lunch lady. Oh my god, yes.

Yeah, this I love that such a such a fantastic need to get their head out of their ass. Yeah, because it would be it would be sad to see it go away. Yeah, yeah.

It would be sad to see it not happen anymore because it's such an institution, but let's let's try something weird and be funny, and be funny instead of being politically biased and and and crapping on half of the the world, exactly, or more than half, whatever it's at. I I agree, I agree with you.

Yeah, all right, brother Mark, okay seven to you.

My number one show is from I believe the very early 1980s. It took place in California. It was called The White Shadow. Ah, yeah. I love that show. I love it dearly. That helped me get through some years. Um, like AJ, we also moved to a town that I wasn't used to. We I lived in Littleton, grew up, and it was a walkable community. You know, it was some I mean it was it was urban in a way, it was just very small. And I moved from that to to Guildford, New Hampshire, and it was just very snobby. And that show helped help me through. Um Coach Reeves was uh Ken Howard was the actor. Ken Howard was the actor, and you know, you had guys like Hayward and Coolidge and Salami. Salami, yeah. And uh Hyundai Thorpe. It just it reminded me a little bit of growing up in Littleton, believe it or not, comparing a major, major city. But and you know, it was that show was it taught a lot of lessons on it, and I just love the show, and it's one of the shows that I would watch in syndication. There's a lot of shows that I could have put on my list, a lot of shows that brought me a lot of laughs throughout the years.

They dealt with real everyday problems that were coming of age, you know, whether it was pregnancy or you know, just they drugs, yeah, drug use, strong. It was just awesome. You that's when you could go to your teacher for help, or your coach rather, you know, and instead of being ostracized and you know, for being a kid, it was just such a friggin' amazing show.

And I used to laugh at the end when they they say MGM and they'd have the cat dribble into basketball. Yeah. They even touched murder. Um, one of the was it Reese? He went down to the liquor store. I mean, I the drinking age was 21 at the time, but let or tw I don't know what it was in California, but they sent him down to get booze, and there was a robbery. He got murdered. Great pick.

Thank you. Awesome. Well, that was great fun. Kevin, thank you for hosting. Guys, thanks for joining us for this.

And thank you very much for listening. And I want to say I'm really looking forward to this podcast. It's gonna be a lot of fun topics we're gonna talk about, and we'll see you next time. Awesome.

Excellent. Well, guys, thanks for being here and um making this a great time. Look forward to seeing y'all again soon.

It was fun, fun times, guys. Love being here. Thank you all for listening. Awesome.

Thank you guys, thank you, listeners, and thank you for joining us for pastimes at 80s high, and we are out.

That bright eyes is remarkable. He keeps trying to form words.

You know what they say humans see, human do.