Tag Archives: Throwback Thursday

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Throwback Thursday: “The Return of the Living Dead” (1985)!

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One of my tragic flaws is that I am consistently late to the party when it comes to cool stuff.  (Seriously.)  So I never saw “Return of the Living Dead” (1985) in the 80’s.  I saw it around … 1993 or 1994, I guess,  on VHS tape in the Mary Washington College dorm room of Rhett Carlson and Nickolai Butkevich.

I truly enjoyed it, which is unusual for a horror-comedy.  (Movies can either scare me or make me laugh, but they can rarely do both.)  Yes, I am one of the people out there who finds “Return of the Living Dead” genuinely creepy.  C’mon … it’s got decent makeup effects — and both the “Tarman” zombie and the slab woman, for example, are pretty well executed monsters.

Hey … there’s a remake due out this Christmas.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see if it’s any good.

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Throwback Thursday: the trailer for “28 Days Later” (2002)

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(I am linking here to Sony Pictures Entertainment.)

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Throwback Thursday: “The X-Files: I Want Believe” (2008)

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Look — back in 2008, I was as disappointed as any other fan that this second “The X-Files” feature film was unconnected withe the show’s overarching storyline about aliens.  But … this actually was a really decent standalone horror-mystery tale.

It just happens to be well executed.  (The trailer below doesn’t do it justice; it’s a methodically paced, atmospheric and character-driven thriller.)  Chris Carter’s directing is in fine form; the opening sequence, where a kidnapping is juxtaposed with the subsequent arrival at a key piece of evidence is especially good.  So too were the performances of David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson.  (It seems like the older I get, the more I appreciate Anderson’s talent.)

Finally, Amanda Peet’s portrayal of FBI Agent Monica Bannan was excellent;  she seemed like a nuanced, interesting character that would have been a terrific regular on the show.

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Throwback Thursday: this intro for the 1984 TV premiere of “Alien” (1979)

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Here’s another little goody related to ABC’s 1984 broadcast of “Alien” (1979) — the intro to it on “The ABC Sunday Night Movie,” complete with a content warning.

I am linking here, by the way, to the totally cool people at the Retro Channel on Youtube.

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Throwback Thursday: this unfortunate 1984 ad for the network premiere of “Alien” (1979)

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If you are even remotely familiar with Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” then you know that ABC’s marketing staff was not.

John Hurt is looking pretty spry.  (At least they had the good sense to leave Ian Holm and Veronica Cartwright out of this mess.)

Anyway … did it really take “Alien” five years to reach network television?  I seem to remember (falsely, I suppose) that it hit TV when I was still a very young child.  Yes, HBO carried it only a year after its theatrical release — maybe that’s what I’m remembering.  (People just called it “Home Box” back in the day.  Being a little kid, I thought they meant the physical “box” –the converter — that sat atop the television.)

Yet I also seem to recall my family having Showtime, but not HBO … and people on my street still just called any premium channel “Home Box?”  Whatever … it was a verrrry long time ago, and I wasn’t the brightest kid out there, anyway.

Source: Screen Gems on Facebook

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Throwback Thursday: Longwood High School English Teachers!!

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Suffolk County, New York, late 1980’s.

I had Ms. Hateau in the 10th grade, Mr. Bigham in 11th and Mr. Anderson in the 12th.

These pictures come courtesy of my great old friend, Carrie Schor (who was Carrie Harbach, back in the day).

[Update — my alumni who do NOT have dementia have reminded me that I had Bigham in the 10th grade, and Hateau in 11th.]

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Throwback Thursday: “A Bridge Too Far” (1977)

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“A Bridge Too Far” (1977) was one of those war movies that my Dad enjoyed; it would have appeared on television a couple of years after its theatrical release (1979? 1980?).  Back then, I thought of it as a “really old movie” — which was understandable, because my father liked some truly old movies, even by 1980’s standards.   But “A Bridge Too Far” actually hit the screens at roughly the same time as the original “Star Wars,” which most kids in my neighborhood had seen in the theater.

I found it online and finally watched it in its entirety — it’s actually a really good film.  (Adapted from its eponymous 1974 novel by Cornelius Ryan, it’s a three-hour, meticulous depiction of Operation Market Garden — the Allies’ 1944 invasion of German-occupied Holland.)

The cast list is astounding — it’s basically a lengthy “Who’s Who” of 1970’s cinema.  (Seriously, look at it.)  If you enjoy period war films, I recommend this.

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Throwback Thursday: this 70’s(?)-era photo of NolanKin.

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I don’t even really remember how I got this photo, or how it wound up in my backup files.  I think it is from the late 70’s?

That is my dad, Robert James Nolan, when he was younger than I am now, along with my eldest sister and (I think) our first family dog, Shadow.

 

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Throwback Thursday: when you could watch Halloween specials only ONCE a year.

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If you were a kid in the 1980’s and you wanted to see ANY holiday special … you snooze, you lose.  It was a Darwinian pop-culture childhood consumer jungle.

Alright, alright — yeah, I guess VCR’s were first appearing.  Whatever.

By the way … check out the old TV Guide-era fonts for channel numbers.  🙂

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Throwback Thursday: this 80’s-era fake wood paneling!

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People on the “I Found This Online” Facebook page are joking about this weird faux-wood paneling from the 1980’s.  (It got 96,000 “likes.”)  There is even a Reddit page about them!  These walls were everywhere in my rural/suburban New York neighborhood.

I love them!  Sure, you couldn’t hang anything up because you couldn’t get a thumb-tack in.  But they’re dark and rustic, and they take me right back to the 1980’s.  Gimme a basement with these walls, a plush rug, a television, an Atari 2600 and a stack of 80’s horror films on VHS ands I’ll be very happy.  (Hopefully the movies will include 1986’s “Aliens” and 1982’s “The Thing.”)

Better yet, leave out a couple of liters of soda and some chips, and let me invite a couple of Longwood High School friends over.