Best of 1975: Our 50th Episode Retrospective

Hello everyone, this is Sonny Hollywood Pooney, co-host of Growing Up Rock and Podcast Rock City, and I want to congratulate Past Times at 80s High on their 50th podcast episode. Having been in the podcast world for a while now, I've seen countless podcasts not even make it to episode 20, let alone 50, but it doesn't surprise me with past times at 80s high because the connection that AJ, Mark, Kevin, and Dongo have with each other and the listener base is exceptional. Personally, I've been a listener since inception in May 2024, and I especially enjoy the top seven episodes. Anyways, I've always loved listening to Past Times at 80s High, and again, congratulations on your 50th episode. Let's toast the guys and wish them all the luck in the world towards getting to number 500 someday. So here is AJ, Mark, Kevin, and Dongo. Enjoy.

Hey y'all, welcome to Past Times at 80s High. Have a very special episode today. This is our 50th episode. Woo-hoo! Very excited about that. I of course have all the boys with me today. Hello, Dungo. He's happening Kevin. Hey! And Brother Mark.

Yeah, we made it to 50. How's it going, everybody?

Awesome, awesome. Very excited about this. It will we'll get started right out of the gate, like always, but I would like to get a a few things out there. You know, just because I can't believe it. I mean, we started what maybe I don't know, 14-15 months ago, and just thinking about, you know, looking online for this equipment and what's the right thing and the right way to get started, and you know, doing those first few test episodes, and I feel like I don't know, it all clicked really quick, and I'm excited about that, and just the fact that here we are at 50, and it feels like yesterday. So I'm just really looking forward to this one, and I'm excited about it. So, what we're gonna do actually today is we're going to go back to 1975, you know, it's the 50th anniversary for that year here in 25, and we are just gonna, you know, our favorites or uh, you know, things that were meaningful to us, maybe not necessarily the most meaningful things to the planet or the country or the world, but just things that have some meaning to us is the way I did it anyway. I don't know about you guys, but um, as always, I'd like to start out with a few things. Um, I'll add a little to it as it's our 50th, but just a few shout-outs to um a few locations, but just the fact that we are now in 52 countries and territories as of this morning, yeah, and 673 cities.

Oh my goodness.

You know, I just find that phenomenal that um, and you know, more than one listener in a lot of those places, so it's wow, you know, it it's it's it's promising. I love it. I mean, I think that's friggin' huge, you know. Wild.

Yeah, I heard Moondog Rex is you know, from parts unknown is actually listening to what's known.

Kamala.

Uh he was busy, I think.

But anyway, so I I did want to give a shout out to a few places like we normally do. We got Farmerville, Louisiana, Kent, Washington State, Krakow, Poland, we have. Yeah, and I'm probably gonna say this way wrong, but it's Borgan Bress in France. And you know, correct me if you know how to say that, but I do not. But thank you all so much and welcome aboard. And we couldn't appreciate it more, you know, just and for all the five-star reviews and downloads that are happening. We had pretty much a record day yesterday, which I felt was, you know, very special moving into today. But anyway, Mark, you're gonna have the honors today. I'm just gonna get a couple things out real quick first, and I'll get a few out throughout the episode as well. But the world population was over four billion at that point, the US population was approximately 216 um million people, and of course the president was Gerald R. Ford. And then, you know, we'll get some prices out there, like a new house, and this goes to show me that our house was not a new house when we bought it, but a new home at that point was around uh $39,300. I believe uh Farmer Drive mark was $24,000 that dad paid.

$37,000, $37,000, which is like the price of a Chevy Malibu.

Yeah, exactly. It's friggin' insane, isn't it? Absolutely insane model Malibu. Yeah, I find those the names funny too, like the the baby names of that year is so basic when you look back, like for boys, it was Michael, Jason, Christopher, and James. And then for girls, it was Jennifer, Amy, Heather, and Melissa. Now go through that and think of how many of those people we know with those names.

It's like oh, absolutely, but part of me thinks that that's better than all of the Daltons and Dylans and all that, and the and the Nevee.

Everyone tries to be weird. Yeah, what is it?

What is it? They say that a woman, a young girl named Neveeah will tell you within the first seven seconds of meeting her that it's heaven spelt backwards.

Exactly.

Thank you, Nevea.

I still think seven is the best thing. You can have six, you can have six. All right, Costanza. So we'll get some more of that shit out there throughout the episode. But Mark, why don't you take it away? Number seven.

All right. Well, my picks are gonna be kind of uh just not really rated from favorite to least or least favorite to favorite. Sure. Although if it makes a list, it's certainly a favorite. But I'm gonna start off with a music pick. It's Aerosmith Toys in the Attic. Um a great album came out on April 8th of that year. Of course, you have the title track where I mean, obviously Steve Tyler and Joe Perry, like they're singing about Christmas. They have all these toys up in the attic, or at least that when we were kids, that's what we thought it meant. Obviously, toys in the attic means you're you're you know, you're nuts. You know, I had Uncle Salty, Adam's Apple, and I want to uh make mention of well, walk this way, which I'll get right back to, but no more, no more. Love that and one thing I do remember about this, and this is bringing me back to a child, some of these are memories from today or things that I love from today or have loved all my life, but this is a memory from back when we lived in Littleton, and they would play every time Littleton High School would come out, the varsity team to play basketball, they'd come out to walk this way. And I was excited about that, but I'm going off on a tangent here. What I was really excited about was halftime going into the gym and getting me an ice cold Coca-Cola, which I am gonna put this in because I didn't know how else to do it. Soda in 1975. You could go in and get glass bottles, 10 ounce, 16 ounce. That could be Pepsi, Arcola, or Coca-Cola, and you know what? It was just so much different from today. I mean, they tasted better. It was made out of real sugar out of that friggin' high fructose corn syrup. But um, and you what you never wanted to do is have a friend take a sip out of your drink while he's eating something. You take it in the glass bottle, you could see all the crumbs that they use there.

I do not share beverages or I can't either.

Uh no.

Look, you just gonna keep that coke that I was so excited about because I can see the Cheetos crumbs floating around on the top of it.

But no, I'm not gonna smile. I mean, great record, but I I knew I could uh parlay this into a second topic. And um, you know, and they had those little lids underneath, you know, win 10 cents.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah, but I mean I was addicted to so.

They had ones that said win something. Mine all said please try again.

Exactly. Yeah. Well, I mean, they they continue this into the 90s, but you know, it it was a great record. I mean, just ballsy, absolute incredible.

Yeah, that's a I'm always a toss-up between that and rocks, you know. Yeah, well, those are both their two greatest, without question. And but yeah, I just to let you know, Mark, in my research, I did notice that that in 1975 it was the year where they started putting those prizes under the lids.

Yeah, okay, so I could have come with soda. Oh, one more thing, one more thing. Back then, you could go into the globe um in Littleton, and and they would have like a machine where fountain drinks are, you just press it, crushed ice. Oh my god, was that the and then they headed to the laundromat in Littleton? Yep. And I'm telling you, you pencil neck geeks that live out here today on planet Earth don't know what you missed.

Incredible. Well, you know, it's it's funny, Mark. I'm just gonna throw this out there. You're talking about the basketball team going out to walk this way, and it just shows the longevity of what we grew up on because although it wasn't that album, I don't think I'd have to look at it because my brain doesn't work today, but but my son's lacrosse team this past season had back in the saddle.

Nice, no shit.

So do you think that 50 years from now that that uh high school sports team is gonna be taking the field to Taylor Swift?

Yeah, or post Malone.

No, but post-malone, or what you know what I mean? They're not gonna be around. So again, why the 80s, 70s as well, were the greatest times on earth. Fucking it.

Yes, awesome pick, Mark. All right, all three of them. No, this will probably be my most brief because you know, this is a year where I, you know, I think I was three turned four that year. I wasn't there to see this live. However, I mean maybe I was there, I just certainly don't remember it. But this is October 21st, 1975, and it's Carlton Fisk's walk-off home run in the 12th inning of the uh World Series Game Six with the Cincinnati Reds. Anybody out there that has ever seen anything about baseball remembers this. It was probably one of the most famous games in you know major league baseball history. But just to see that friggin' swing and that one step, and then the three waves and the announcing going, get over, get over, and just to see that hop where he jumps like three feet off the ground when it hits the foul pole.

And this will lead it all up as a single and has walked twice, and then the wind blowing it up. We will have another seventh game in this 1975 World Series. How many steps does he take? One he waits to see it.

I mean, my hair's standing up right now, thinking about it. Of course, it's very depressing as they blow game seven the next day and then lose the World Series. But just everything that is that will go down in history. It always makes me think of Robin Williams and Goodwill Hunting, too, because he blows that game off because he had to see about a girl. That was a dumb move. Game seven was the most up till that point was the most televised event in history up to that point. All right, we're gonna get the ball rolling then to dungo number seven.

All right, so I'm gonna go with a kind of a different route, but I'm gonna go with what was invented on May 10th, 1975 was the Sony Betamax.

Yes! So that was the Betamax. Oh that TV show we want to watch goes on in five minutes.

America, stop rushing your life away just to catch a TV show. Get a Sony Betamax video recorder and automatically videotape that show while you're doing something else, and watch it anytime you want. Sony Betamax, it could change your whole way of life.

An example of when being first isn't always the best. Because, you know, Betamax, most people out there listening now are probably like, what the hell is that? You know, like I, you know, I barely remember. I remember my dad bringing home a tape and a recorder or a player from work, and it was like a big thing at that time. It's like this was before any VHS, you know, and it was like you could watch something on a TV at home, and it was like, that's amazing. Yeah, and record, you know, it was it was touted as being um had better resolution because then VHS came out the following year, um, and VHS was uh created by JVC, and Betamax was supposed to have better resolution, but had shorter record time, so it only had like 60-minute record time. Once they increased the recording time, it basically leveled the playing field as far as the resolution, and for whatever reason, VHS just kind of won the war, and they they ended up being the gold standard for a while. But um, it was still amazing that I didn't know this, but they were still being made up until 2002. Betamax and they stopped selling beta mank Betamax blank tapes in 2016. Holy shit! So, I mean, I mean in different countries, and you know, who knows? But it definitely vanished from our consciousness in like you know, 1976 or whatever, you know.

So you know that that it was Betamax was a far superior platform than VHS, and yes, the amount of time because you could fit a whole feature film on VHS, but do you know the real reason that VHS beat out Betamax? No, porn. Oh my god, it always goes back to the right. They could they could they could be cheaper and they could do what they needed to do, they could record it, and that became the platform that porn chose. So I don't know if you guys remember this, but when you used to go before Blockbuster, when you used to, it was when the movie rental place was the convenience store down the street or whatever else, and there was the beaded curtain that you walked through. You weren't allowed to go in there.

No, I didn't want to go in there because that's where the weirdos were. That makes me think of Jolly Jay's joke shop in downtown Laconia. I always got the heebie jeebies when I went in there and saw that curtain.

Yeah, yeah, the beaded, the beaded, like did I take those from Greg Brady's bedroom? Right. What's is that Greg's room? What's back there?

You can't go back there, kid. I will say, Dongo, that when I the summer I lived with DeGee, Bobby, his dad, in the basement had a VCR, a betamax, and the laserdisc player. Right, right. Remember, because Betamax, the tape was a bit smaller. Right now, Don Morocco? But yes, yeah, with Don Morocco. Yeah, boy, does he look just like him? Awesome. Great pick, Don. All right, Kevin, we're off to you.

All right, well, we did a whole episode on this, but I gotta bring it up because it was one of those things where some of these, um a lot of these things, I wasn't there because like you guys, I was five in 75. Right. So I I wasn't at that baseball game, and I won't mention other things that are coming up, but I wasn't there. This one, I was there. For some reason, my parents, who were fairly strict, decided it was okay for us to stay up and watch the first episode of Saturday Night Live.

Live from New York, it's Saturday night.

I don't know if it was the hype about it or what, but it became a tradition for those first few seasons that actually is still alive today, even though I don't know why. But my parents would let us stay up and everybody else would fall asleep, usually before the the cold open. And I would sit there by myself and I didn't always understand what was going on, but I knew they were being naughty and it was funny, and it helped develop my sense of humor. Oh, yeah. Um the thing that's great about it is that over 50 years it is it's changed so much, and I always have and and and I was looking up today, I still have faith that it could become funny again because there were dips, the Abersoll years there, you know, before Eddie Murphy came in, although there's stuff there that's way funnier than they do today. Oh, and I even remember like the first years we'll like Will Farrell and that group came in watching like the first skits with Will Farrell, going, This is just dumb.

Right.

And then getting what the humor was and and and whatever else. But I was excited today as I started doing some research, as they're firing a bunch of cast members. And of course, the younger generation's like, Oh, if this one goes, I'm not watching anymore. I'm like, whoo, if that one goes, it might be funny. Exactly. Maybe it will be. I mean, I don't want to go too far into it, but there's one character on there who is the quintessential caricature of that how do I say it without stereotype of that stereotype. Thank you. That's perfect. He is a stereotype of a stereotype. Any other person of his persuasion could do his roles. Yeah. Nothing and be funnier. And he's not funny, he's just playing that role.

The guy that's making late night comedy, sorry to interrupt you, but late night comedy has become this. Exactly. Oh, it's yeah, but that's why it's getting cancelled.

That's that's why it's getting cancelled because it's not funny, it's it's all about all about political correctness and and nobody wants that anymore. We're people are starting to realize that it doesn't matter where it comes from, comedy is comedy, and we need to laugh at the fact that we're all different. That there's that there's there's stereotypes for a reason, and we can laugh at them without being hateful, and we can make fun of things because we're human and we're stupid. Exactly. Let's make fun of it, and it just because it's this type of person or that type of person, it doesn't matter because we're all we're all dumb. So that's really what it comes down to is we're all dumb. And if we can't laugh at that, then yeah, I don't I don't want to be involved. So I am hopeful that maybe they'll get rid of some of the people on there that that were DEI hires that just aren't funny. Exactly.

Well, doesn't it come down to the production of the show or the the the writers or some of them are they trying to go in that direction?

I it's just a bit of everything, I think. They all take part in it. There's just funny and there's not funny, period. You know, and then not fucking funny.

I mean, none of the skits ever throughout this throughout the different incarnations of the show, they were never 100%. They never all had perfect endings. They never but now it seems like they don't even try. It's like they come up with a premise that's like I mean, you watch the show now and it's a a spoof on a game show. They do that at least once a week. Right. They have somebody like do something bizarre where somebody's either bleeding to death or puking be and they've got whatever that machine is that spews it. I mean, it's like every week. And then it seems like every week there's something about, you know, they're riding on luggage or some other, or somebody's on a mobility scooter and they're running somebody over. I mean, that joke hasn't been funny in 20 years.

Decades.

And they keep doing it like it's my God, exactly. What are they paying these people for? You call yourself a writer, a comedy writer? You're not even close.

Instead of a bad show here and there, it's literally come to the point where it's like there's one funny skit every five years.

Maybe. And I hate to say it, and I I don't want to. Well, I'm gonna call him out because God bless him, that Keenan Thompson has been on there longer than anybody. And he's made me laugh once.

Yeah, maybe.

When he did the when he did the um what's up with that, that skit was hilarious. I remember that one. And that kept coming back, and that was great. But every other thing he does, he doesn't even act. He's the same fucking character in every skit. He doesn't even pretend his acting has not progressed since he was on the Nickelodeon TV show. Right, exactly. And he does the same in the ads. Anyway, enough of that. Let's let's move on. I'm just hopeful that maybe, maybe we'll get some funny SNL skits.

Yeah, no shit.

Great.

Hope Springs Eternal.

All right, before I go back to you, Mark, for number six, I'm just gonna throw a couple other things out there. Uh, let's go to a new car. All right. A new car. Anybody want to guess what a brand new car? I mean, they don't give us a model, but I guess an average, you know, Sedan. 3650. Six grand. Donald. One dollar. Not the price is right.

No, I would say, I would say probably uh, you know, in the four to five thousand dollar range.

You are correct. Four thousand two hundred and fifty dollars. And you know, that's probably like your Corolla or something like that. It's probably not, you know, the four-door pickup, which I don't believe they made at that point, but anyway. And to go to a movie, to go to a movie, the average was two dollars and three cents. Oh my god. Jesus. You know, you can take the family for 10 bucks. You know what I mean? Popcorn was probably a quarter. Now, what is I don't even know what a ticket is. I haven't gone because they haven't put out a good movie.

Oh, it's 18 bucks for a ticket, and it's 25 to 30 dollars for a five cents worth of popcorn and and a nickel's worth of stuff.

And what I can't stand is like they make you buy the biggest one because they give you a deal if you buy the biggest one. Exactly. They do want a fucking wheelbarrow load of popcorn. And then you get free refills $75 for it or whatever it is, you know. I just want a small popcorn and I want to pay, you know, proportionate to what it is. Yeah, I get it. You gotta pay a little more in the thing, but you know, getting a small popcorn costs you eight bucks.

Whatever farm and the large is $8.25. Exactly. Well, you know, it's a lot more than that now.

Uh need to invent the popcorn jacket.

Uh, Drew Barrymore and Angelina Jolie were born that year. Couple births. I love Drew Barrymore. They're older than we think, then, apparently. Yeah, you know Julia Goulee has been in my age. They put us around that age. All right, brother Mark, let's go to number six.

Okay, um, before I move on, I just want to say I do remember 1975 because I was 11 years old. Yes. So a lot of this is is uh more fresh in my memory. So I'm going with the Gold Dust twins, Fred Lynn and Jimmy Rice. Ah, yes. Um they were rookies for the Boston Red Sox back then. It was amazing. It just it added life to the city of Boston. Everyone, it was all baseball, baseball, baseball. Of course, we know they won the pennant that year. Jim Rice, he was a uh left fielder. He actually Kyle Yastremsky loved Rice so much as a ball player that he went to play first base that year. Rice hit 309, hit 22 homers, 102 RBIs. Fred Lynn hit 331. He won Rookie of the Year, um, 21 homers and 105 RBIs. It was just incredible. That these two guys, what really sucked about that year was uh what was it on the 21st of September? The Red Sox were clinging to a lead over the Orioles as far as the division, and Vern Rule hit Jim Rice on the wrist. Ah, yes. And he was out for the year, and unfortunately, he couldn't play in the the World Series, and a lot of people think they would have won. Right. I'm not sure about that. They may have, they may not have, but uh never know, right? Would have definitely helped.

Yeah.

Yeah, and I I think we went to a couple ball games that year. Go ahead, Donnie.

Did Rice play in the 86 World Series? Was that he did play in that world?

We're not gonna get into that one. Another depressing year.

Yeah. Yeah.

But um, no, what I was uh going to say, I did go to uh a couple ball games that year, but uh it's just everyone was obsessed with Rice and Lynn. And I do remember being up the Little League field, Steve Simon had put a group of kids together to play a game, and um there was one girl that I think she thought she was Fred Lynn, but you know, she should she was a lefty. I I don't know. And I the bottom line here, this is the best game of my life. I hit I had an unassisted double play. Grandpa was short, I tagged second, threw to first, and it was just a big moment for me. And uh, you know, Steve was so proud of me, he took me to McDonald's after, but uh um but you know it I just can't even they captured the city of Boston that year. I mean unbelievable. Everyone talks about the impossible dream, which also ended in a World Series loss. But you know, we have the 21st century, we're not gonna get into that, so it's a much happier time in Boston baseball. But uh but yeah, it you know, between Rice and Lynn, and you had Dwight Evans and Fisk and Burleson and Incredible Louis Tion, you know. So yeah, that was a lineup. All right, anyway.

Great pick. Well, thank you. I mean, that was nice of you to say. Number six to me. Um, I'm kind I'm gonna kind of double up here um because this is gonna be, you know, a less happy moment, but it's a couple of deaths that occurred in 1975, okay. But on January 24th, we lost Larry Fine. Okay. Oh, wow. Um he suffered from uh several strokes and then wound up dying of a cerebral hemorrhage. Um then later that year, at the age of 77, on May 4th, we lost Mo Howard, um, who died from lung cancer. He had been a pretty heavy smoker for most of his life, but Uncle Ray? Yeah. No, but just two of the funniest men to ever live.

I wonder what became of that shamp. You know we went up on deck to scout for some food. Speaking of food, my stomach thinks my throat is cut. Me too. Hey, let's go find some grub for ourselves. Okay, but we'd better take our shoes off first so we can sneak around the ship quietly. Good idea. I'm sorry, Mo. That's all right, kid. Think nothing of it. Oh, you're a broad mind. You're a narrowhead.

I mean two-thirds of the three stooges, you know? It's just that really you know, researching, it just really, really struck me. I mean, those guys are just so friggin' funny and meant so much throughout my life. I mean, uh, WSBK Boston, TV 38, and the marathons they'd have, and it was every Sunday, I believe, they'd be on for at least an hour. And just absolutely spectacular. And that's where I'll leave it to you, Donald.

Cool. I'm gonna go with a song that just burned into my brain, and it was number one for a a lot of weeks in 1975, and it's I will, I will, I will be the two forever. It's Captain and Tanil's version, they they covered it of Love Will Keep Us Together, which was originally written by Neil Sadaka and Howard Greenfield, but they covered it in 1975 and it was number one on the charts, and it's it's just one of those iconic songs that is like you know, you recognize brings you back to that that time. Absolutely, yeah, yeah. Awesome. That's all I'm gonna say about that.

They ended up getting divorced, unfortunately. All right, Capitol.

Unavoidable that song was, and I think the captain was Daryl Dragon, the captain, was which is weird. I mean, some of these people that change their names. Why would you go by the captain if your actual given name was Daryl Dragon? Ah, you've got a cool Snoop Dogg's name is like Brocious, something broch Calvin Brocious, which is like that's a cool name. Yeah, why are you gonna change that up? Change that shit. I almost said my name, but anyway. Um, so I I had to go with an absolute classic, something that was a rite of passage for every man at a certain age to sit down and learn how to look different and say, go, I shall taunt you some more. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberry.

Ah fart in your direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries. What is that from?

The Holy Grail, Monty Python. I mean, it's just such such a classic, though. I mean, it's like everybody, you know, at that college age, I think it was mandatory that you had to like drink beer or smoke pot and watch the holy grail. And it's just such a classic, and it still holds up today. You look at things from those eras, and sometimes they're political, and sometimes they're you know, the humor just doesn't hit, they're too topical. That still cracks me up when the black knight is right, lost both arms and legs.

One of the best scenes of all time.

Now stand aside, worthy adversary. Tis but a scratch. A scratch? Your arms off. No, it isn't. But what's that then?

I heard worse. You liar! Come on, you pansy!

Such a quotable and uh hilarious take on on the search for the holy grail. Uh the knights who say English humor.

I don't know why.

We are no longer the knights who say nit.

I am not an English humor guy either, but the holy grail is a staple. Oh, yeah. Like to, I mean, I w Donnie, you and I watch that so many times. It's oh my god, Mark, you gotta sit down. And you know, I don't get into a lot of that stuff either, but that movie just has so many clues.

I use the runaway line all the time.

Runaway.

Holy crail. After they build the after they build the Trojan rabbit or beaver, whatever it is. So what do we do now? Now we wait till the middle of the night and we sneak out, they're not in the thing. They've totally screwed up the whole. It's just again, just such a quotable, great, great classic movie that you can put on anytime and just laugh, laugh your arse off. What is the live weight of an African swallow? What is your favorite color? Green. Um, blue. No, blink, pink. Oh, you can go. Oh, thank you then. How would I know?

Great pick. Love it. All right. So let's see here. Let's go to a couple more prices here. Let's go. Uh, anyone want to take a guess on what a gallon of milk cost in 1975? 69 cents. 89 cents. One dollar. Now, this one actually was, I would say, the closest to today. And which it's still a lot more today, but it was $1.65. I was surprised to see it that much. All right, brother. That's number five to you.

All right. I had to pick this. I had to. I mean, June 20th, 1975, Steven Spielberg's Jaws came out. This movie has such a huge impact on me, the country. It was unbelievable. I mean, that scene at the beginning when that she was hot. She was hot. Was she not? She was hot then. Well, okay, she was hot. So you know what? Yeah, exactly. Go on. But um, you know, and that scene in the middle of the movie where the head comes out of that ship, the heart sank in everyone at the theater. But uh I mean, one of the things that I I mean I really wanted to emphasize on this pick, I'll be brief, but just everyone at the ocean just changed how they did everything. And of course I didn't, because I'm you know, I was always a real man even at 11 years old. And I remember being at York Beach and going on one of those rafts they used to rent, and I was like, uh I was way out there. I mean, I was I mean, you couldn't even see the beach. That's how far I went out. You know what I mean? All right. I'm exaggerating. I'm seeing it through the eyes of an 11-year-old. Uh I was out there quite far, but I I I did invent it.

Seven feet off the right.

No, I was way out there, Kevin. And uh I, you know, I embellished it, you know, and I did it on Snow and Tell or whatever the hell it was that we did in what year 75. I think it was in fifth grade. And uh or maybe I did it in sixth grade. That but yeah, and I said, I think I saw a shark, of course. Naturally, but no, there was hysteria going on, and and ironically, now you have shark sightings all over the place.

Oh yeah. That's a 20-footer, 25, three tons of them. It's brutal now. I mean predictive programming that was marked pretty much as the first blockbuster. Like that, yeah, it's known as C. Yep, it was the first blockbuster in in the world of all time. And just a little uh thing about talking about that head mark, but they did a callback to that in an episode of The Walking Dead, and actually used that same head in the governor's aquarium tank. Cool, yeah. I can remember that. I love those kind of programs, yeah, yeah. You know, like you don't pick up on it until you hear about it. Right, right. But very cool. Awesome.

We're gonna need a bigger cash box.

We're gonna need a better, a bigger fish tank.

You're gonna need a bigger boat.

Awesome, awesome pick, Mark. So, number five to me, and this series came out on September 19th, 75, and that would be Welcome Back Cotter. It ran for four seasons, um, 95 episodes. Just I mean, this cat, I mean, Gabe Kaplan not only was Cotter himself, but one of the creators of the show and writers, and of course Travolta, the biggest you know, actor to come out of this, but just the sweat hogs and just the opening song, the opening song, which was uh by John Sebastian. How can you not sing that song and just love it when you hear it?

Welcome back. Your dreams were your ticket out. Welcome back to that same old place that you laughed about. Well, the names have all changed since you hung around, but those dreams have remained and they turned around. Yeah, where we need to go.

Just love the opening when you go in and they, you know, you're driving into Brooklyn and you see the you know, welcome to Brooklyn sign, uh, fourth largest city in America. Everything about it, Mr. Woodman. Uh, is it Woodman or Woodeman? I think Woodman, right? Yeah, the vice principal. Uh he was just freaking incredible.

I don't think did you ever see the principal?

So I do think I read something about the last episode, them having the principal come in and say something, or or something. Maybe, maybe he wasn't in the episode, but I think he was like uh retiring or something, and Woodman was gonna take over. But there is a mention about him, but yeah, I don't think we ever saw him. It was just funny. Why didn't they just make him the principal?

You know, I'd love the vice principal. I think he was like the funniest. He was one of the best.

The later seasons, uh Kaplan was in contract disputes, so he wasn't in a lot of the shows. I don't know if he left the show completely, but he wasn't in a lot of them. So his wife ended up working as a secretary at the school and whatever you know, just to keep her, you know, familiar character and and whatever else. So a lot of those kinds are attractive.

Is that wrong? No, no, no.

Julie, Julie was very hot.

Um, but his name was only 11. Uh just uh going back to Woodman, that was he was played by John Sylvester White, so great last name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But just the sweat hogs, just I gotta run through them because you have Vinnie Babarino, Freddie Boom Boom, Washington, Juan Epstein, the Puerto Rican Jewish boy, and then Arnold Horschak. Oh, oh, oh, Mr. Kata. Oh, oh I can't do him with I can't do him good, but just it was a good heartfelt show. Like they would do wrongdoings and learn their lesson, and it was a good coming of age, like it had a lot of seriousness mixed in, and I always found that important going through a lot of those old sitcoms where you know you had real life situations. Like, I think it was Freddie Boom Boom Washington that in one episode he like stole the the petty cash that they were saving for something, and he fesses up at the end. But great.

One of the favorite important actors never or not actor, but character was Carvelli. Was it Carvelli?

Ah, Carvelli Carvelli.

Yep. Carvelli said you put the sweat in sweat hook. Yeah, I heard him, Murray. He was like the rival kind of.

Yeah, and what'd he do, Kev? Didn't he do something? He was in something later. You talked about it in a past episode or something.

He was the voice of Roger Rabbit.

That's it.

That was Carvelli? Charles, yeah, Charles Fleischer. And a hell of a stand-up comic that never got his credit for how funny he was as a stand-up comic. Yeah, but yeah, Carvelli was and then you look at these guys. It's funny because you look back at like, you know, uh the fawns. And as an adult, what a geek he was. And not yeah, I'm like, I uh I would not be threatened by Harry McClair. Exactly. I would I would not be threatened by Carvelli. I would not be threatened by John Travolta. Yeah, right.

Or the Fawn. The coach and water boy. Anyway, classic, and that's all I'll say about it. So awesome. To you, Dongo.

All right, I'm gonna go with a toy, which was pretty amazing when you think about any one of us jackasses could come up with a stupid idea and become millionaire.

And here it is.

I know where you go with it. I know what it is.

So then he comes up with the idea for the pet rock. Yes.

The pet rock begins its life on the beaches of Baja, California. Dahl is the man who created the pet rock. An idea, he says, whose time has come.

It's been incredible. We we mailed our first pet rocks to the stores October 1st, and by Christmas we'll have sold well over a million units. Uh that that kind of stuff just doesn't happen. But then I'll be out of the rock business and into some other insane scheme. Or lying on a beach someplace, not caring about it.

And the dude just gets rocks for a penny from beaches in Mexico and puts them in a box and puts little googly eyes on them and sells them, and it becomes a you know phenomenal that year. Yeah.

Do they even have googly eyes in the beginning?

I don't know. They might have just made the box was main well. It had like a the box that came in was also like a pet carrier kind of thing, and it had an instruction book, Donald. It had an instruction on how to clear it. I mean, it's just shows, you know, just a stupid idea at the right time can make you some serious money.

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, it was only a fad for like six months. It was like in uh I can't remember when he did it, but you know, it was earlier in the year, got popular for six months, died off a little bit, got popular again during Christmas, and then the next year kind of went away. But I mean, they're highly collectible now. Yes, massive.

And he hasn't worked a day since, I'm sure. Which is why I roll my eyes, not because the idea is so stupid, it's that I didn't think of it.

Exactly.

Exactly.

I did I was five, but yeah, and it's like, how do you prove I'm sure the the the container is what's worth more? Because you could pick up a rock from anywhere and be like, yeah, this is a pet rock from 1975. No, there's no way to tell that. You need the maybe some you know, like uh stars or whatever. Yeah, I got a buddy, and he looks at it with a microscope and something like this isn't the right logical, it didn't come from the right quarry or whatever, the beach in Mexico. All the original pet rocks, right?

This is obviously a fraud. But doesn't that doesn't that the epitome of commercialism and consumerism that we would actually go out and pay whatever it was a dollar ninety-nine for something that you could walk out in your front yard and pick up?

The American dream, yeah. Right, yeah, but I wonder if there was like a uptick in like glass sales that year from kids throwing them through windows. Glass company ER visits and and those kinds of things.

Yeah, I got viciously injured by my pet rock.

Yes, all right. Good call, Donald. We I think we I bet you we all had that written down somewhere. That's a big one. All right, yeah. So we're to you, Kevin, for your number five.

All right, this was the coolest thing in the world when you were five years old in 1975 because he had the bionic eye that you could look through. He had the bionic transport and repair, which I never had. You could roll up the rubber on his arm and replace the little the bionic module, and it was just the six million dollar man.

Colonel Steve Austin, the six million dollar man, and the new bionic transport and repair station.

It's crashing. We'll put him in the bionic repair station. We can rebuild it. We'll replace the modules in the bionic car. No injury here. We'll have to check this on.

Bionic car, A-L K. Six million dollar man, ready for action.

New Bionic Transport and Repair Station sold separately. The six million dollar man, new from Kenner.

It was so cool. It was the coolest action figure that you could get at that time. It was just unbelievable. Like I said, we were poor, so I think I got a used one later down the road. I never got because he came with a rocket that turned into a working laboratory. It was like you'd put him in the bed, you'd open it up, and there was all this wires and tubes and whatever else. And it was just it was awesome. He had an engine block that he could lift up for Pete's sake.

Yes. Steve.

He was my idol back then.

Yeah, that was awesome. What a great show, man. So fun.

He was bowling with Larry Zonka.

He was bowling with Larry Zonka on the show, obviously. And uh and he rolled the ball. He got a strike, but he also cracked all the pins. They shattered.

Oh god. What a great show, though. Bigfoot will always remain Mike. And that was Andre.

What a great idea that how do we show him running fast? Well, let's do it in slow motion.

Exactly. Right. Yeah.

What? Show how fast he runs by showing it in slow motion. That makes no sense at all.

It does not, does it? Alrighty. So that's gonna move us to number four. But before we go there, did we already discuss the price of fuel that year for gas? No, just milk. All right. So let's move on to gas here. And to fuel your car up, what were we paying a gallon? Anyone?

56 cents a gallon.

Uh one dollar.

79 cents.

All right. Mark, you're the closest, although you've overbid 44 cents.

44 cents.

That means my metro I could have filled up for like 250.

So funny story when we were on the bypass in Laconia and we had to like move our bodies to get your car to we made. We were out of gas. We were trying to make the inertia of the wheels continue so we could go downhill. And then we finally went downhill and coasted in. I think you put 40 horse. Yeah.

Which in the metro, which in the metro, like probably lasted a week.

But that was on Route 11, Donnie, by Pichays, because when we went under the bypass, it flattens out. So Donnie and I both literally in unison just shook our upper body back and forth like this to fucking keep the car's momentum. And we just made it over the you know the hill. The crest of the hill. It was like a mile. We had to go another mile and made it. It worked. So that's that. It did work. And we put like 44 cents in. It's all we had, man.

All right. I had a buddy back then that had a Buick Grand National, one of the like nicest cars you could get. And we would literally pool our change to get gas to go out for the night. It was crazy. Yeah. Which today would get you not enough gas to light a match. Yeah, exactly.

Awesome. All right. Number four to you, Mark.

All right. Uh I'm going with Kiss Alive. Um, I'm I'm doing it now. I mean, it it could easily have been my number one pick. It was an incredible, incredible risk that that uh Bill Acoin did. This was back before I do believe AJ speaking to you directly, that uh that live albums were big yet. Like, I mean, this was a huge risk. And um this was a turning point in the band. I mean, they had just released three studio albums in a very short time. And this just all the cherries lined up. Um the band was at their zenith, in my opinion, as far as their hunger, their uh desire, they just everything. They they were in in their tight they were playing at their very tightest, and they played all their classics on this, and Eddie Kramer um produced it, and you know, they did some overdubs and everything, but I mean it speaks for itself, just a great record, and yes, it uh that was the turning point. That was the absolute turning point, that's what broke without a doubt. Yeah, and then with destroyer after they put them over the top. So that's all I'm gonna talk about that, AJ.

Awesome, brother. Four to me. All right, so this one I absolutely love, and it's one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

Nice key.

Just such an incredible movie, just a classic. It premiered November 19th, 1975, in a couple theaters in New York. I don't know if they just did that and then opened nationwide later, but it was its profit and it's gross all happened in 76 because it was released so late in the year, so it didn't get any accolades in 75. But holy roller, was this just incredible? But of course, you know, you got Jack Nicholson in this movie, which is just I one of his best roles. I mean, not that he has really ever had a bad role, but he's Randall McMurphy. Just incredible. And McMurphy, and he's um he's convicted or arrested for statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl, which the girl claimed she was 18. And he's supposed to know she wasn't tries to kind of fake his insanity so he doesn't have to go back to prison and you know do hard labor, and he succeeds. So he gets sent to the medical ward at a mental institution. And of course, there you have Nurse Ratchet, who is a quite the bytooch and very vindictive and disciplinary, and really takes advantage of these patients and tries to fuck with them over and over. It's she is definitely the definition of a bye-tooch. But the cast in this movie it's a bitch. And of course, uh Nurse Ratchet is Louise Fletcher, just she's a great actress. I mean, she does a hell of a job in this, and then the other, the rest of the cast, just the ensemble, you know, Christopher Lloyd, Danny DeVito is Martini, just I mean, and more and more. And what I wanted to get out here, Kevin, was uh Scat Man Cruthers. Yeah, it's a lot of people. Scat Man Crothers is the night guard turkle in it. Yes. And I never ever heard of this guy until you brought up something in one of the cartoon episodes, and then just he's come up like 10 times throughout because he was awesome.

He was Hong Kong Fui, and he was the caretaker at the uh uh in the shining. Yes, yes. So yeah, and what a what a distinct voice. Yeah, what was he asked?

You said Hong Kong Fui, right? Yeah, yeah. At the end, you know, you got Chief breaking out of the air, ripping that friggin' water fountain off of the off of the floor and breaking through the window, and then the heartbreaking ending with him basically he's getting he's lobotomized. So he kind of screwed himself by acting crazy and going to that joint. But that movie to me is it's top 10. Like it's definitely without question, you know, one of the greatest movies ever made, and I couldn't leave it off my list. So I shall go to you to number four.

I mean, that's that is a reference, that is a synonym for bitch now. I mean, yeah, absolutely.

And in the medical uh field, it's oftentimes, oh, she's a nurse ratchet type.

Yeah. Ah, I bet.

I've heard that before. Yeah.

Uh excuse me, miss. Do you think it might be possible to turn that music down so maybe a couple of the boys could talk?

Your hand is staining my window.

And I just wanted to throw in there that that was that was written by Ken Keasey, who was one of the Merry Pranksters, uh, the guys that hung out and did the acid test with the Grateful Dead. So he has he has a whole other, I mean, that was kind of like his biggest success commercially, but he has a whole other very interesting life beyond beyond that.

Wow. Well, it was a good success for him, that's for damn sure. Right? Damn right. Great movie.

We interrupt our program to bring you this important message.

Welcome to Halftime at 80shigh. Want to just get a little info out there for you folks, including our website, which is pasttimes at 80shigh.com, and that is 80s for 80s, past times at 80shigh.com. Shoot us an email at pta8h at gmail.com, pta80h at gmail.com. Love the feedback you've been sending. We can't appreciate it more. Check us out on all the socials, including our new Facebook, which is past times at 80s high. And then for interaction, past timers at 80s high. Find us on all the major podcast platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. And please remember that those five-star reviews and the comments go a long way helping us move up that chain. So thank you so much. We couldn't appreciate it more. Thank you so much for listening and back to the show. Alright, so that's four to you, Dongo.

Alright, I'm gonna continue with my stone reference. And I'm gonna go with another thing that came out in 1975, which was the mood ring. Ah, yes, I missed that very popular, but it was very disappointing to me, and I don't know if it's because I just got the cheap version of it. Obviously, I wasn't much of a jewelry wearer, but you were always gonna when I was a child, and it didn't change colors, and it pissed me off. I was like, this thing sucks, it doesn't work. But, anyways, they were very popular. Um, it's you know, there's a word, it's thermotropic liquid crystal that can change color based on temperature.

Original multicolor mood ring. This is the one that senses your deepest feelings. Scientifically developed, the incredible coma stone senses thermal changes deep within your body, reflects all your mood changes in a fascinating kaleidoscope of color, responding to your deepest secrets, your most hidden emotions. The beautifully crafted multicolor mood ring reveals your subconscious feelings in a myriad of breathtaking colors.

And they were very popular at the time, and they sold a lot, and they were fun, but it wasn't fun for me because it didn't work.

Maybe you were just always miserable, so it stayed black. Right.

You didn't just hold it in your hand and heat it up, because that's what I ended up doing.

It was just like hot and it's gonna swim from blue to green and awesome though, done.

So in January 1975, they they developed the the technique to to put them out, and uh again, it was kind of like the pet rock where it was huge at first, you know, big thing, this is the new big thing, and then it peters off. Yeah, awesome. There there is a resurgence with crystals, like true crystals now, but right that's a different story, yeah.

Yeah, all together.

Yeah, yeah.

Awesome. All right, to you, Kev. All right, so this one might be a little bit, it's not an exact moment, but it's a time when there are discernible moments because movements and styles in music, I don't believe it's aside from when you get to like you know, the Nirvana gate and then their disappearance, there's not like a switch when music happens, there's a spark, and then it influences people and they go in different directions. So in 1975, the Sex Pistols performed their first show, and also the Talking Heads played at CBGB's. Um really yes, and the cool thing about that is I love I I we don't talk about it much, but I love the punk and the new wave that came out of that era, and that's kind of one of the points of demarcation. You can go back to the New York dolls, um, because they were definitely New York dolls really kind of they they they sparked new wave, they sparked punk, and they sparked glam rock for sure. They they were like that, yeah. They they were really a lot of threads flew off in that direction. But but it goes right up to, you know, I mean, if you look at the rush album, Permanent Waves, was a commentary on New Wave. Everything from like you say, the talking heads, Devo, Blondie, all came out in the same places where the Ramones and you know, I mean, to think of those bands, to think of the germs and and Crash Darby in the same to put them in the same envelope as you know, Blondie and Devo and other bands from that era. It was just like I said, it was I I almost think that it was that that that 1975 was the beginning of punk and new wave, which was the last real original throws of rock and roll. Nothing against the stuff that we grew up with in the 80s, but it was everything that we grew up with was a retelling of things that already happened, right?

Right.

And even to some degree punk was because punk was kind of like rockabilly with with an attitude and and all that, but it was like I don't know, it was just it it was a it was the last bit of of pure emotion because it they didn't the record labels didn't know what to do with them, they were spitting on each other and cutting themselves and throwing up and yeah, I'm trying to think of what the band was. There was there was a band, oh shit.

They were disgusting a lot of them.

Oh, it was, and that I I had no interest in any of that. But there was a band, I god, I wish I could remember it. They tell a story about going to they went to England and they were playing there. Might have been I think it was no, it was the trainers, David Johansson and the New York Dolls. So they go to England to play a gig and they start feeding them pints of English beer. So they're up on the stage playing. Oh fucked up, and the drummer starts throwing up into the drum kit and keeps playing. And so then everybody else, because you know, if somebody near you throws up, then everybody else, so they all start throwing up, and so the British kids are like, What the fuck? This is these guys are unbelievable. Stand by me. They thought it was part of the show, they thought it was part of the show, and they just hadn't drank beer that was as high in alcohol content or potency that the British beer was, and so like a lot of things in in history kind of happened by accident, kind of major turnoff as far as I'm concerned.

But if they drank IPA Donnie, huh? Yeah, right. Makes me think of the fat ass story, Kevin, from Stand By Me.

Yes, yes, exactly. The Python contest.

Now, have you seen the movie C BGB? Yes, oh yeah, it's great in 2013 movie with Alan Rickman. I mean, he plays Hilly Crystal. It kind of showed like how that was kind of like just the happenstance creation of a movement kind of thing.

Yes, C BGB stood for country blue grass and blues, yeah, which was his it had been a dive bar, a biker bar. Yeah. He wanted it to be like a blues revival place with country music and bluegrass. And it didn't happen that way. But there's all kinds of stories that are pretty gross too about that place. Like he had Hilly had a dog. I think it was a big um if it was an Irish setter or something. I can't remember what it was. But the dog used to shit all over the place, and nobody cleaned it up. So people were like jamming into this small bar to see all of these bands. I mean, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, and all of those great bands from that era, and people were like stepping and talk crap, going, What the fuck?

That's right.

The thing that I loved about it is it was, and again, I think I've mentioned this before. Like one of the sayings was Pink Floyd must die. Because and I love Pink Floyd, but it was about all this, everybody went to the studio and they had orchestras playing, and they had all of this and all this captured. And Punk was like, fuck it, we're not even gonna learn how to play the instruments. We're just gonna get loud and scream and make it.

Yeah, one of your bar chords, basically.

But the well, but the fact is you go back and and you listen to Fugazi. And you listen to the Buzzcocks, and like there's something so raw and and moving about what they were doing. So it it's it's a oft-forgotten offshoot of the rock and roll history, uh, but one that I I love dearly. And it's really kind of started in 75, or at least got its traction.

All right. Awesome pick, Kev. Well, we're gonna move on to number three, but before we do, how about a dozen eggs, boys? What do you think that ran us in 1975?

79 cents, 35 cents.

One dollar.

What is this? Uh I believe Mark is a bucker. What do you think?

I hate the people that do that too on that show. Well, the smart ones that get it right, I get.

Or they even if they think everything's too low, they just go one dollar over the yeah, yeah.

I just hate when someone's like 489. Uh you know, or 490. Yeah.

Oh no, 488.

Or they go over I've seen it happen many a time. I think people stress and fold under pressure. But that's what I'm so mark. I believe you're the closest a dozen eggs were 84 cents in 1975.

Wow.

Yes.

Without going up. Kind of pricey back then.

Yeah. That's expensive. I thought they, I mean, it was more than a gallon of gas. Now they're less than it. Well, maybe not right now. Awesome. All right. So we're off to number three to you, Mark.

Yes. So I'm going with uh Ali Frazier 3, also known as a thriller in Manila in the Philippines.

In cooperation with production in cooperation.

This fight, I mean, I watched it again last night. I mean, I've seen it many times, and it it is akin to watching a Rocky movie, really. I mean, Fraser's the aggressor the entire fight, which kind of reminded me of Hagler uh Leonard, where Hagler was always going after him. But no, I mean, Allie's doing the rope dope, and it was just an incredible b uh boxing match. Allie won the first few rounds clearly, and then Frazier really came on big time for probably Kevin, would you say five or six rounds, six, seven rounds in the middle?

Yeah, he was such a bull. He was just unreal. I mean, the guy was it was like trying to knock out a fucking rock.

Yeah, and uh, and you know, it got the the fight got into a wee bit of a lull in the late rounds because they were friggin' exhausted. They're fighting like friggin' uh clever lane and uh Rocky Balboa. And just let me say this back in the 70s, boxing was massive.

It was absolutely massive, huge because there was no MMA back then. There was you know, MMA didn't come until the 2000s, you know.

Yeah, you had George Foreman, uh Ken Norton, Aline Frazier, they were the they were the big four, and the heavyweight division was massive back then as well.

Yeah, and they also would stop a fight at the drop of a dime, you know what I mean?

Like exactly that wasn't until Mancini and Duku Kim uh early 80s, yep. Yeah, when he died in the ring, they that's when they backed off on on everything and got really itchy about stopping fights.

And Apollo in Rocky IV.

That's true. That that's true. That's true. But um anyway, this fight it had a lot of ebbs and flows. You had Allie doing the rope of dope, you know, which was to obviously tire out his opponent, and and towards the end of the fight, uh, I think it was the 13th round, uh, Allie came on and he came on, he was doing the dancing thing that he used to do back in the day, and he had one punch where Frazier's friggin' mouthpiece went flying out of the ring. The crowd was going nuts over there, and uh great photographic image. Yes, very was it uh after the 14th round, or was it after or during the I they ended up uh uh Frasier's corner stopped the fight because his eyes were swelling up, kind of like Kevin's, you know what I mean? But um the the they fought three times. Frasier won the first time. There was a lot of current uh controversy in the second fight because uh Al Lee was doing a lot of clenching or holding on or whatever, but Al Lee won the second fight, and of course the third fight, which I'm talking about now, but what an incredible boxing fight, a boxing match. Oh, it's the epitome.

Alright, that's three to me, and another repeat here, but I couldn't leave it off the list, and that's Saturday Night Live. Lauren Michaels created 1975. Um, we've seen so much about the 50th anniversary of that. I actually really liked the movie they did on it, which I've heard off and on about its accuracy, but just that initial cast and the cleverness of it. Um, George Carlin being the first host of it. I loved the movie when they just kept bringing him more cocaine and more cocaine to keep him going. I mean, I'm not gonna go into too much detail, but Belushi, you know, Chevy Chase, Gilda Ratner, Radner, I'm sorry, Jane Curtin, Dan Aykroyd, friggin' Garrett Morris. For decades, that was a pure joy to come home and see Saturday night after, you know, went to a party or whatever, got home, got a Laconia house sub, and just sat there and watched that, and it was awesome through so many different casts. And I agree with you, Kevin, where you said each time it swapped over, you know, at first, you'd be like, Yeah, who are these guys? But then they'd come into their own and fucking find their groove and be absolutely hilarious.

Absolutely.

They still have not found that for the past 20 years.

And I don't feel like they're trying, but like I said, a Hope Springs Eternal, and I still turn it on for a few minutes every Saturday night when it's when it's being broadcast, just to see. Because I can't do it. Maybe there's an Adam Sandler out there, maybe there's another Will Farrell out there, maybe there's another Belushi or Eddie Murphy or I would like, I would like to feed your fingertips to feed your fingertips to the Wolverines.

To the Wolverines. Next, I am afraid. I am afraid we are out. We are out. Of badgers. Of badgers. Would you accept would you accept a Wolverine, a Wolverine in its place? In its place.

What is still on the air after 50 years and still happening, even if it's a shadow of what it once was? Right. True.

No, they have to uh take the muzzle off of these guys. I mean, again, they're not allowed to say stuff that would offend anybody. So you're never gonna do it.

I think most of them don't want to say it because they're all in the same fucking team.

I think that's what they have to do is start hiring funny writers and people that are actually funny instead of people that fit a mold. That's all. That's all.

Exactly. Uh, real quick, just to end my pick. Uh, Billy Preston and Janice Ian were the first musical guests on that. So I'll bring number three to you, Dongo.

All right. So I love space. You guys know I love space. I'm a sci-fi geek. I love all that shit. They launched in August 20th, 1975. They NASA launched the Viking 1, um, which was a probe to Mars, which was the first vehicle to land on Mars, which is pretty cool. Damn cool.

Um in 1975, two Viking spacecraft were launched, each of which was programmed to land the robot on the Martian surface.

ACS is green, 1.5 degrees per second, max, 0.2 G's. Touchdown, we have touchdown.

Pretty amazing. And it was like up until recently, it was it was a rover on Mars. It it was uh in service for like almost six years. Like it, I don't know if it roved around, but it was still like active for six years, like doing data and science and all that kind of stuff, which was kind of cool. Until the there's like the another rover that's on there now that that surpassed it as far as like time.

Until Howard Wallowitz crashed it. Right, right.

Howard Wallowitz. Oh yes, I knew it was 1972. Sorry, in 1972 was like the last supposed I'm doing air quotes mission to the moon. Um, so we didn't have a lot of space stuff growing up as kids, you know. We had you know, the shuttle stuff came in the 80s, but um the 70s was always kind of cool for the Voyagers and the Vikings and the exploration. Now, whether you believe like the Apollo stuff, I know that can go down rabbit holes. Oh but I'm one who was raised like my father got was so into it, and I got me into it, and I loved it, and I love space, and but this stuff lately then it's like maybe maybe they didn't, maybe they didn't land on the moon, right? So I don't know, you know, like it's like I hate the fact that I have to say that, but uh we can't go back because we lost the technology, right? They lost the technology, you know, this is the Van Allen radiation belt, like all kinds of weird stuff. And there's two arguments. There's one argument that's like don't give it credence, but I think that that mantra of don't give conspiracy theorists credence is is not working. Like get out there and do a press conference and be like, this is what we did, here it is, this is why it's not there, and all that, and like answer all the questions because otherwise people are sleuthing around on the internet and coming up with things that poke holes and things, and I don't wanna I don't want to disprove or you know, I want I want the truth, you know. I want yeah.

There's there's a there's a lot of stuff out there that just makes you go, hmm, that's yeah, that doesn't make fucking sense.

You know, we're in a race with the Russians, and there was some stuff we did with the Russians that year too in 1975, like we docked with a Russian spacecraft, which is cool, because like right in the heat of the Cold War, we were still doing collaborative stuff science-wise, and you know, that's important. Hell yeah.

Yeah, almost like all that stuff was like kind of trumped up to keep everybody on edge and scared and whatever else. But at the end of the day, what it comes down to is our governments would never lie to us.

No, absolutely not, Kevin. And if you think they do, you're a conspiracy theorist, right?

Right, right. Which that lid has been totally blown off, and I hope people realize that that is not true anymore. You know what I mean? Like you've got to question everything.

I'm looking at you, Gulf of Tonkin.

Right, right, yeah, exactly. Um but I do believe that you know the the probing, the you know, the Vikings, the Voyagers, all that kind of stuff. I do believe that that is, you know, that's good science and good it's been done and fucking incredible stuff and the millions of galaxies, like it's fascinating and physics.

But if we ever get into that one, that's gonna be a fun episode. I mean, people think we're crazy, but well, because I do.

If they listen, they already do, but all right.

So where are we? Number three to you, Kev. Up in those with a rubber hose.

I knew my stomach squeezed.

Start to feel who you are. Um looking back, I don't think I would now want to be a sweat hog, but they were so cool then. I mean, even Horshack, as dorky as he was, was kind of like he had the army jacket and the scarf, and he was kind of cool. But I just I don't know. I I I I loved Mr. Cotter, obviously loved Mr. Woodman. He was such a great character, I loved him, such a great bad guy kind of character. Um, you got uh Freddie Boom Boom Washington with hi there. Yeah, yeah, he was just he was so cool, and then obviously, I mean, our little Puerto Rican Jewish friends signed Epstein's mom. I mean, how we use that one all the time.

Yeah, absolutely. Sign Epstein's mother.

Yeah, please excuse Juan for being late. Signed Epstein's mother.

I would love how Mr. Cotter would read the note out loud to the class. Signed Epstein's mother, and then you'd get the I roll and the head turn. I knew you'd have that for sure.

Yeah, and you know, and I went through about a hundred of the you know, the uncle jokes from his uncle Sidney to his uncle Balzac and whatever else, and I thought I would find a funny one. Could not a single one of them was funny, they were all so horribly bad.

Oh, yeah. If we could genius, we probably remember them by you know verbatim if they were funny, right? Exactly.

Exactly. Awesome.

All right, so before we move on to number two, let's see if I get another price up here. Uh, I do. I have one more, and that would be the U.S. postage stamp.

14 cents, five cents.

Uh six cents. I thought for sure you're gonna say a dollar. Uh no, it it was 10 cents.

Oh, I went over, so I lose. You lose, you get nothing.

Exactly. Uh Jason Sudekis, Charlie's Theron, Bradley Cooper, a couple more berths that year. Yeehaw, who gives a rat's ass? But anyway, perfect. So let's move it to number two, Mark.

All right. Well, I'm going with uh my Uncle Ted's debut album, which gave us the incredible song Stranglehold. Yeah. Snakes, I'm going on and on. Snakeskin Cowboys, Motor City Madhouse, you make me feel right at home. And this record, guys, Ted did he did not sing many of his own songs. I mean, on this one, on this one, he only sang Motor City Madhouse. And I I need to bring this song up. Uh, it's called You Make Me Feel Right at Home that Cliff Davies sang, the drummer. It's the only one he ever had a lead vocal on, and it's a great song. And um these tunes, man, they're just such staples.

Incredible, incredible songs. I guess that's just what the doctor is. Yeah.

And a lot of these ended up on Double Live Gonzo, which was another live album that Kiss Alive might have inspired. And of course, she had Cheap Trickett live at Boudicon, stuff like that. But uh just this put him onto the scene, and nobody ever talks about it. We know why. Just an incredible Ted Nugent record. Awesome. And I think he has more hits on this one than anyone that he's ever done.

Did that solo album come directly on the back of Amboy Dukes?

Or did he the Amboy Dukes, and it was Ted Nugent in the Amboy Dukes. Then it became Ted Nugent. Mossai. Correct. Gotcha.

Always makes me think of that kids in the hall that was Rod Torfelsen's Armada featuring. Like they they all had to have their names separately listed in the band.

Right.

Awesome check, though. I knew you'd like to be able to do that.

They had to be on there.

Alright. So number two to me, and here we go again with another remote.

I can guess it.

No, you're not gonna guess it. I mean, you could probably guess it, but it's Jaws. Um I couldn't leave it off. Exactly. Spielberg, June 20th, 1975, the first major blockbuster in history. You got Bruce the Shark, of course. Uh I just discussed this in depth. I think might even be our last released episode.

So I'm not gonna go real as deep into it.

But you know, you got to be Roy Schreider.

Please don't draw me no diaphragms, huh?

Chief Martin Brody, uh Richard Dreyfus is hooper, hooper, right? And then Robert Shaw's Quint. Just incredible movie. Like Mark said in the beginning, just put a lot of fear into a lot of people, including me, including me later on, but what more can I say about it? It's it's that big. First of all, I have it over Cuckoo's Nest. So do I think it's a better movie? I don't know. I think they're both fucking incredible, but this one to me is just massive. So I'll leave it at that and go to you, dungo.

All right. On January 6th, 1975, Wheel of Yes. The first, you know, spin of that game show that is still out there today. It's just been in my life, my entire most of my life, you know. Merv Griffin, it was a Merv Griffin production. Yes. Uh, he the first host was Chuck Worldry, if I'm saying that correctly. Chuck Woolry. Yeah. Most most of us were familiar with Pat Sajak, who took over the show in 1981 and did a long stretch. I mean, he just retired very recently, yeah. Yeah. Um Vanna White, of course, we're all we are all familiar with her. Um, who was you know with Sajak for his entire entire run. But I it's just an amazing. Amazing show. It's fun. It's I'd love today watching those when they show like there's like every letter is filled in except for one, and people still get it wrong. Oh man.

I gotta admit, it's happened to me before. Oh yeah. I gotta admit it.

So on the spot dice spin.

Uh shelby.

On the spot decision.

Yeah, that's it.

Uh-huh. But the pressure. The pressure must be huge. But yeah, when they say the dumbest fucking thing on the planet when it's so obvious, it's mad. Yeah.

I remember one time it was uh Atlanta Hawks, and the guy said the Atlanta Hawks, which is kind of a normal thing to say, but but he didn't get it, and then the next person said Atlanta Hawks. Oh, it's for the the yeah, that's unboost because it was part of the puzzle.

It's like you have to answer in the form of a question, like on Jeopardy and all that kind of stuff. Um, you know, it's gone through so many different like evolutions. Like I remember you used to get like a lump of cash, and then they would have like a speed round where you would like, I want to buy the vacuum cleaner for you float around these for sixty-two dollars, and you know, it's like you had to buy the crap that the show they were producing, you know, the producers were you know, I was smart, yeah. And then they came up with the RST L N E kind of thing, where they figured like most people would just say those things, so they might as well just give you give you those right off the bat.

The same person that's giving them all of those letters is also coming up with a puzzle, right? So they can be sure to make the puzzle without RST L N E.

But very good point.

Yeah, uh, yeah.

So it was a fun show. Magic hand, magic band, magic, Jan, fan, van, can, and, fan, band, wan, wand oh!

All right, perfect. So that is to you, Kev.

All right, you guys are gonna love this one. I mean, it's so up your alley, but it was Super Bowl nine, the beginning of an amazing run that ended when they got Mike Tomlin. Um, your deal is made of. Oh my god, I used to be.

Super Bowl nine arrived on a frigid, rain-soaked January afternoon in the southern city of New Orleans. Originally, the Super Bowl was scheduled for the rainproof air-conditioned comfort of the Louisiana Superdome, but it was unfinished. So the game was moved, replete with dusty winds and gray flannel skies, to ancient Tulane Stadium. The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Minnesota Vikings would meet in the worst weather yet for a Super Bowl setting.

I just can't stomach it anymore. What's the point of beginning to watch a season to watch a team develop so that they can be totally undercoached, uncoached, and useless in the playoffs? I mean, the last time I watched, what was it? I think it was I think it was the end of Rothlisberger's career. They get they stumble into the playoffs, and the first snap throws the snapper throws it over Rothlisberger's head, almost gets a field goal. Who's coaching this team? Oh, he's such a great guy. Well, that's great. Let him hang out with the team. How about you bring in somebody to coach the team? And let me tell you, because this was the beginning of it, but let me just tell you this. This is this is why I love this team. And you guys, as Patriots fans, have to understand that this is where Belichick took most of his cues. All right, Chuck Knowle comes in in 6970. He immediately drafts Joe Green and LC Greenwood. He then brings in Terry Bratt Bradshaw, Mel Blunt, Jack Ham, Ernie Holmes, Dwight White, Mike Wagner, Franco Harris, Jack Lambert, Mike Webster, Lynn Swan, John Stalworth, Donnie Schell, Hall of Fame. Almost all of them in a four or five-year period. He drafts Hall of Famers. He builds a decimated team from the ground up. They'd never won anything from the 30s. They actually took them exactly 42 years, just like the Patriots, to go from no wins to dominating the league. It was a long, dry spell. But Noel did a great job at building that an amazing, amazing team. And Cower was so incredible the way he ran it and rebuilding it after, you know. I mean, uh, let's face it.

I liked him as a coach.

Cower.

Yeah.

The thing I loved about Cower is that if you just like went and grabbed a beer and you came back and a player was running off the field, Cower would be screaming at him with that bottom jar out and the spit coming up. And you have no idea whether that guy did something great or something stupid. He had the same intensity, whether he was congratulating the guy on making an amazing play or balling him out for fucking up. It was that same level of intensity, whereas this dimwit is if he if he even stays out of the path of the the return man, is just on the sidelines looking at like, well, I got great seats to this game. He's an imbecile. But anyway, so 75, Super Bowl nine, nice, steel curtain, purple people eaters.

16 to 6.

16 to 6. It was it was a it was a great and I love defense. It was a great defensive Super Bowl. Maybe not today's standards people want to see 500 to 627 or whatever else. I like defense. I like defensive battles, which is why I was a Steelers fan. But whatever. It was a great Super Bowl and the beginning of a great run.

With their convincing victory over the Vikings, Pittsburgh Steelers had boiled 42 years of frustration into 60 minutes of brutally physical football. Their coach Chuck Noel got the ride of his life. For the Pittsburgh Steelers were the champions of the National Football League.

All right, there's some football talk for everyone. And Mark, we are off to number one to you to start wrapping it up.

Alright, I'm going back to 75 again. We're going back to baseball. And I was at this game with my family. It was September 14th. Um the Milwaukee Brewers were in town. And Hank Aaron played for the Milwaukee Brewers. And if you recall back then Oh hell, right through nine ninety-six, the only time you got to see National League players was during the All-Star Game of the World Series. And of course they have interleague play down. The point being is I was at this game and Hank Aaron hit a home run that game. And and I and I looked it up the other day. I watched it, and it was exactly as I remembered. And that's the only one he ever hit there, and I was there, and that's kind of cool.

You know, super cool.

Aaron, long plot.

Oh, that one is gone. Hold on. Henry Aaron, up on the screen, has just hit says 12. Oh my listen to this Boston crowd. Listen to them. Henry's first home run in Fenway Park.

Got that breaking ball right in his pose. It was just a great memory. I mean, he was at the tail end of his career.

Was that that wasn't his record-breaking home run streak or something?

No, no, he hit that for Atlanta and uh God, was it Tom House? No, I don't remember who he hit it off, but uh no, he this is after that. That's surprising. He hit he hit 234 with 12 homers and 60 RBIs that year. I mean, he was he actually did play one more year, but I mean, I know we all gave him a standard ovation, and the Red Sox did win that game. And I think that might have been the second game we went to. And uh it was just such a memory, guys. That's huge. That's fucking Hank Aaron, man. Hank Aaron. And and and it's just wow. You know, one of the greatest hitters, pre-steroids ever. Right. Exactly. You know, so so yeah, and then as we know, we the the rest of the season went well. They won the pennant, and we're not gonna get more into it. But uh some of the the going to the games with my family, my Lebanese family back then, with I mean, they were such wonderful memories. And going, I mean, go walking into Fenway Park back then was like googly-eyed, like wow, here I am, man.

I still get that feeling with Sandra. There's a feeling when you get out because you it's from the outside, it's ugly and industrial, and then when you come out into the field, it's green and open and beautiful.

Yeah, it's cool, it's an incredible Fenway. It's yeah, you know, I I still think it's the greatest park to ever be created in major league baseball.

And then you sit down and and 90% of your wealth is gone.

Yeah, exactly. Right, right. Yeah, the the I mean back then, and even AJ, when you and I were going to a lot of games back in the mid 80s, and and even you, Donnie, when we went when I was at Berkeley, we used to walk over. 12 bucks for box seats.

Yeah, for boxes. I remember six dollars and nine dollars for friggin' six bucks for bleachers, sometimes four.

No, well, I AJ, when I would back in '85, when I went to like X amount of games, like 10 or whatever it was, it was seven for grandstands and eight for box seats. Yeah, incredible.

Yeah, incredible. Awesome. Red Sox all over the board here. Uh, number one to me. And yes, it's a repeat, everyone. And yes, it's a pretty obvious one. I'm going with Kiss Alive. Ah, just incredible. September 10th, 1975. A breaking point for the band, a breaking point for the live album. Let's see here. Casablanca, of course, was the company. But this was recorded at COBO Hall in Detroit on May 16th, Cleveland Music Hall on June 21st, the Orpheum Theater in Dat Davenport. Uh all I can think about is Tommy Boy when I say Davenport, because uh because it's 22 miles that way. Get yourself a new map. But and there was someone else, uh, Wildwood Convention Center, you know, recorded over a few nights. Eddie Kramer produced Electric Lady in New York, obviously the Hendrick studio, but Kiss did a lot of work there. And this album, yes, it was doctored, okay? But it was not necessarily, I mean, it was doctored, you know, for some. It was doctored quite a bit. But the point being is it wasn't necessarily doctored for the obvious reasons, you know, like a fuck up here and there, but it was doctored to give you, me, and everyone else what it felt like to be in those arenas. You know what I mean? The bombastic live show, which KISS was all about. Of course, rock and roll all night being such a massive hit from the live version always makes me think of the cheap trick song, I Want You to Want Me. You know, how off the studio album it was just dry and drab, and then you put that live, you know, feeling to it, and it just kicks ass. And it just sent them through the stratosphere and brought them to a new level. That's when they broke, that thing went fucking platinum, and then more over the years, and then of course, you know, the rest is kister.

So, what if I give you the names Bruce Redoubt or Redoute and Lee Neves? Do those ring a bell?

Oh they're holding the banner. Yeah, yeah, but now let me ask you this, Donald. Were they holding the banner at a KISS concert? Supposedly they were at Kobo Hall in Detroit. Yes. Supposedly, a lot of people claim they were at a sticks concert and held the banner up because the place was full. But that is uh that is a uh an old wives tale or a conspiracy theory, if you will, after our discussion earlier. But one of the more pressing ones they claim it was a sticks concert. Weird and wild stuff.

Weird, wild concerns. I'm wondering if they've got any royalties of any kind or wrong, but it's uh I doubt they got any money.

Yeah, probably be a good accolade, right? Yeah, right. They were probably invited to be roadies um on Gene's last tour, and paid him 10 grand each. $1200, $500. He gave $300 off.

I tell you what, boys, I'll give you $500 off.

It's the best I can do.

All right, boys. So we are uh to you, dongo. All right, right.

And I have to do it, it's kind of depressing, but it's iconic. And it's Vietnam, it's the end of Vietnam 1975, mark the official end of Vietnam. I think we probably pulled most of the troops out in 72, but there's a very iconic photograph of a helicopter on an embassy. I believe it's the embassy, and there's like a line of people, like a Huey probably could hold maybe eight people, maybe if you had to, 10 to 12. And there's like probably a hundred people on the staircase for one helicopter. It's just an iconic image of us pulling out a Saigon. There's so much we could go on forever about, you know, the Gulf of Tonkin we talked about, how that's like a false flag that got us into the war, and you know how tragic and awful Vietnam War was with uh you know killing innocent civilians, and then the use of napalm and the use of um ancient orange and defoliants, and uh, you know, this just like it that that was kind of the beginning of like a lot of bad stuff that's out today, and it's uh it's an interesting time in history. Mass. So I had to had to go with that.

I knew you were gonna have that dungo. I swear that's why I left it off my list. Yeah, because tons of movies, though. Oh, yeah, yeah, of the years.

Right. Sick to say that. I mean, that set the tone for us in the 80s with all the classic 80s movies.

Go!

What's your sole purpose in this army? To do whatever you tell my drill sergeant. God damn it, gump! You're a goddamn genius. That's the most outstanding answer I've ever heard. You must have a goddamn IQ of 160. You are goddamn gifted, private gump.

The other thing that strikes me too is yeah, the Agent Orange and whatever, and the brutality of it all. But then if you go back to World War One, monster gas and and what I mean, it's just well, there's an interesting war is brutal.

There was a recent podcast um where they were talking about that and how, like, you know, the Geneva Convention said you can't use chemical weapons. Well, they got around that by saying it's not a chemical weapon, it's a defoliant.

Agent Orange was just one of a series of heavy-duty chemicals the US military used in Southeast Asia called rainbow herbicides.

It's it's yeah, right. It's just the it's it's a you know, it's a herbicide that is used to take leaves off of trees. So it's not a chemical weapon. So company understands it's causing cancer and blah blah blah, endless medical problems for our troops, the human beings that live there, like just but it just shows the shadiness of war, you know. Oh, it's not a chemical weapon, we're not using chemical weapons, but no, it's it's it's just a defoliant, it's just uh you know, herbicide, blah, blah, blah.

Unbelievable. All right, Kev, number one to you to wrap up our 50th episode.

All right, so there were a ton of albums, and I really think we need to do a 1975 decade series because I had so many on this list, and decided to go with one that I actually had at that time when it was new. Obviously, it was my father's album, but it was uh Bob Dylan and the band The Basement Tapes. It wasn't related, it was it was recorded in 76. I'm sorry, it was recorded in 67 and then released in 75. It was never originally supposed to be released. So after the band, you know, The Wait and Cripple Creek and and all that, they were Bob Dylan's backup band when he went from acoustic to electric, and they toured everywhere and they got booed everywhere because the folk people didn't want to hear Bob Dylan doing electric music. Um, so after all of that, Dylan was living in Woodstock. These guys rented a place in Socrates and ended up putting a recording studio together, and the whole process was supposed to be about them working out how to write songs, how to record songs, how to make better music and their own style of music. And so Dylan would come over and work with them, but like Levon Helm came back, he had left the band, Robbie Robertson, uh Garth Hudson. They just and it was never they they recorded it only so they could listen to what they were putting down. It was never supposed to be an album, but it turned into this amazing recording. Just phenomenal work on everybody's part. And I don't know, it if if you're not into that type of music, obviously it doesn't mean anything to you, but if there's anything about Dylan or the band that you like, I love Bob Dylan.

Very iconic career, you know.

Absolutely. But the music these guys the music these guys did, what they put down, and the fact that they were a touring band forever. I mean, they started with with uh Ronnie Hawkins back in, you know, they all had short haircuts and string ties and whatever else. And just it I've always dug when you get those things that that weren't supposed to be released, those things that weren't supposed to be a hit, they weren't so they were just for them to work out their art, their creativity. But it was awesome, so so awesome. Double album. I think there was a hundred songs recorded, but a double album and just some phenomenal music. And if it's anything up your alley, check it out.

Awesome. Before we wrap this up, the boys and I just need to give a huge shout out to Sonny Hollywood Poony for that heartfelt introduction to this 50th episode of ours. Can't thank you enough for the kind words and the congratulations and for being a loyal listener. That's awesome. You can find Sonny on Growing Up Rock, awesome hard rock, heavy metal podcast that launches on Sundays. They showcase a lot of new music as well, which is great. Also on podcast Rock City Sunday nights at 7 p.m. Awesome Kiss podcast that is interactive, so you can get involved if you'd like to. Sonny was kind enough to give us a few of his picks too, so without further ado, I want to make sure I include those before we wrap it up. Awesome, thank you.

So, since the guys are talking about 1975, I figured I'd share my top seven TV shows of 1975. Technically, I was only five years old for most of 1975, and the most important things to me were probably candy, cartoons, maybe boobies, I can't really remember. But later on in life, the 1975 TV shows I enjoyed watching reruns of were, and I'm a ranking type dude, so I'm gonna rank them from number seven to number one. Number seven for me is Barney Miller, which was in its first season in 1975. Number six is Welcome Back Cotter, which was on its first season. Number five is the Jeffersons, which was on its first season. Number four is Happy Days, which was in its second season. Number three was the amazing six million dollar man, which was in its third season. Number two is Wheel of Fortune, which was in its first season, and someday I am gonna end up being on that show, I'm telling ya. And number one, by a country mile, is Wonder Woman, which was in its first season. And if you don't know why Wonder Woman may be important to a boy in his preteens when the show is on heavy reruns, um, then I ain't the guy that's gonna explain that to you. Other 1975 stuff that I ended up being very important to me in later years was that Dress to Kill and Alive by Kiss were released this year, and that Fergie, Angelina Jolie, and Ava Longoria were all born in 1975. Thank God.

Awesome episode, guys. So proud. Our 50th episode. Hope you guys feel the same way I do, and I know you do. And out there, everyone, thank you so much for making us proud and actually getting this far in and being so excited about it. All of the downloads and five-star reviews, we couldn't appreciate it more. And boys, thank you so much. Dongo, thank you. Thank you, Pete. Yep, uh brother Mark.

That was a lot of fun.

Very exciting episodes, and Kev? All right, man, thanks. Yes, and I am AJ, and we are out.