Tag Archives: Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: this 1980 ABC7NY holiday news segment about video games!

I actually remember Kaity Tong.

And listen to those New York accents!  “My mutha.”  For a pretty big portion of my life, that sounded perfectly normal to me.

I can only vaguely remember ads for that “Dark Tower” game, but I believe a group of my friends on Facebook were actually talking about it.  I thought they were making a Stephen King reference, but they told me they periodically play a certain board game as a tradition … I’m guessing this is it.

I am linking here, by the way, to the ABC7NY YouTube channel.



Throwback Thursday: College Nolan!

Circa 1992.  With College Girlfriend, no less.

The young lady pictured was always a sublimely cool individual, so I will spare her the ignominy of naming her here.  (We protect the innocent at this blog.)

Thanks to MWC Alum Rick Slagle for the photo!



Throwback Thursday: this 1974 ad for the Mego Super-heroes.

This comes courtesy of The Hypnotic Eye on Facebook.  Take a look at the comments there — some people collect these zealously.

They even had dolls (yes, that’s what they were) for Conan the Barbarian and Mr. Mister Mxyzptlk.

Throwback Thursday: this 1978 ad for “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.”

CBS.

I am linking here to Bionic Disco on Youtube.



Throwback Thursday: this 1984 ad for Folgers!

Warning — earworm.

I am linking here to PhakeNam on Youtube.



Throwback Thursday: “The Sting” (1973)!

“The Sting” (1973) was probably the first movie I ever saw starring Robert Redford; it was a family favorite that made the rounds on television in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.  (Though I will note here that “A Bridge Too Far” (1977), was also a family favorite, and also circulating on television in roughly the same time.  Redford was in that film too.)

I remember asking my father how the ruse worked for that guy in the beginning who fell for the handkerchief trick.  And I remember the movie’s theme music (Floyd Cramer’s “The Entertainer”) being an impossible earworm.

The next movie I saw starring Redford would probably be “All the President’s Men” (1976) when I was 14 or so; that was with my uncle John Muth, who had a wealth of such treasures on VHS.  After that, it was the wonderful “Sneakers” (1992) in the theater in my college town of Fredericksburg, Virginia.

What I remember about Redford is just how goddam likeable he was in every role.  It was uncanny — there was just something about him.  It’s kind of like Carey Grant was so inexplicably suave, or how Harrison Ford always seems so sincere.  I’ll bet something like that can’t be learned in an acting class.

Rest easy, Mr. Redford.

By the way, I am linking below to Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers and MovieClips on Youtube.



Throwback Thursday: the sentry guns scene in “Aliens” (1986)!

No, you are not suffering from the Mandela effect if you saw “Aliens” in the theater in 1986 and remember a really cool scene with some automatic remote sentry guns placed in a corridor — against which waves and waves of monsters launched an attack.  And you aren’t insane either.

The scene was in the movie when it originally played in theaters, according to my sources on Reddit and Youtube.  But it was not included on the VHS version (whether it’s referred to the “theatrical cut” or not). 

Variations of the scene can be found in different subsequent cuts of the film, according to fans online — like the director’s cut or the special edition, or versions appearing on television. 

Some include dialogue we remember from 1986.  (“Next time they just walk right in,” or something like that.)  And at least one includes the shots of the aliens being cut to pieces in the corridor.  (Notably, the scene below does not.)

Anyway, I am linking to the totally awesome Alien Fire Team Elite on Youtube for the video.  Semper fi, gentlemen.



Throwback Thursday: the trailer for “Aliens” (1986)!

I was one of the lucky (and old, I suppose) people who saw “Aliens” (1986) in the theater.  (I am linking here, by the way, to Grindhouse Movie Trailers.)

This trailer had one of the greatest taglines in history too — “Aliens: This Time, It’s War.”



Throwback Thursday: “Atlantis: the Lost Continent” (1961)!

Hot damn, this movie blew my mind when I was a kid.  It was made in 1961, but it was on television in the early 1980’s.

By the way, I am linking here to the Youtube channel for the really cool people at Unseen Trailers.



Throwback Thursday: the fabled rotating comic stand!

Yep.  When I was in kid on Long Island, it would be either war comics (especially Sgt. Rock), Conan the Barbarian (or his himbo spiritual cousin, Ka-Zar the Savage) any of the various Archie titles, or a horror comic.  (I thought superhero comics were stupid when I was a kid.  In order for a comic to entertain me, it had to include war, swords, Archie or monsters).

When I was in the fifth or sixth grade, my dad would occasionally  pick me up titles that only seemed available in Manhattan, where he worked as a bus driver — books like the 1980’s iteration of the Blackhawk Allied commandoes or (joy and rapture) The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones.  (Maybe Indy’s title adhered more loosely to the rule of thumb I cited above, but that was forgivable, because it was the greatest comic book ever created.)

The last time I saw a rotating rack like this was … 1993?  1994?   For a while, it was neat little fixture of the 7-11 along Route 1 just outside Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, Virginia.  You could make a run for coffee or nachos at any hour and snag a comic while you were at it.  By then, I was thoroughly entrenched in the DC and Marvel superhero pantheons.  (A really cool goth kid in my freshman dorm had shown me Frank Miller’s work, and I was hooked.)