Tag Archives: Throwback Thursday

Throwback Thursday: this 1983 commercial for General Mills Monster Cereals!

Here’s a weird bit of pop culture — a 1983 ad for General Mills Monster Cereals.  I might never have actually had Boo Berry — and I remember eating Franken Berry only once or twice?  But Count Chocula was a sugary morning delicacy in my household growing up.

It frequently had the best toy surprises waiting at the bottom of the box too.  (Do cereals still have those?)  I was utterly thrilled that one summer when I got my hands on the the Monster Cereals ink stamps — though, if memory serves, I actually had to save some proofs-of-purchase or something and send away for them in the mail.

Anyway, thanks to the SaturdayMorningFever Youtube channel for this upload.

And if weird Monster Cereals trivia is your thing, then you ought to read up on Quentin Tarantino’s reverence for Fruit Brute.



Throwback Thursday: “Dark City” (1998)!

“Dark City” (1998) maybe wasn’t quite as perfect as its most ardent fans make it out to be, but it was still a damned good film — creative, original and caliginously artistic.  (It occasionally suffers somewhat in comparison with its spiritual cousin, “The Matrix,” which changed the very medium of movies only a year later.)  And what a cast — William Hurt, Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland and Rufus Sewell!

I saw this movie on VHS around … 2001, I think.  I remember being eager at the time to see the inimitable Hurt — I’d grown up with films like “Gorky Park” (1983) and “The Accidental Tourist” (1988).  It was only later in life that I really became a fan of Sewell — after his tour-de-force performance as the Nazi villain in “The Man in the High Castle” (2015-2019).

And how can you beat Connelly as a nightclub crooner?  My girlfriend sent me a gem that she found on Youtube — Connelly singing an alternate version of her musical number in the movie, Giovanni Polimeni’s “Sway.”  (It’s the second video below.)

By the way, I am linking tonight to Media Graveyard and Polimeni’s Youtube channel.



Throwback Thursday: a lost art form.

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Throwback Thursday: Queensryche’s “Silent Lucidity” (1990)!

Classic early 90’s tune.



Throwback Thursday: this 1985 ad for Toaster Strudels!

Enjoy.

(And be sure to check out the Youtube channel for Chuck D’s All-New Classic TV Clubhouse, from which this came.)



Throwback Thursday: “The Adventures of Superman” (1952-1958)!

No, I was not alive when “The Adventures of Superman” first aired in the 1950’s.  But I could swear that I remember seeing reruns on local New York broadcast TV when I was a tot in the 1970’s.

I could be wrong!  It’s possible I’m remembering some other iteration of the character in film or television.  My instincts are telling me that this is the show, though.

Comic book fans will recognize George Reeves in the iconic title role.

I am linking here, by the way, to Steven Brandt’s Youtube channel.  Thanks, Mr. Brandt.



Throwback Thursday: this 1979 Pop Rocks commercial!!

Pop Rocks!!!  These fizzy little candies had a genuine mystique to little kids in the late 1970’s — and they were pretty damned good too! (I am linking here to the Bionic Disco Youtube channel for the video.)

Of course, no reminiscence about Pop Rocks could leave out the morbid, wide-eyed awe we kids felt at the fate of poor Mikey, the beloved little brother in the classic Life Cereal commercials.  The finicky tike had perished horribly after a concoction of Pop Rocks and soda had literally exploded his stomach.

It was all bullshit, of course — and maybe the first example of pervasive “fake news” affecting me in my lifetime.  But the bizarre and grisly myth got the harmless candy yanked right off the market after sales plummeted.



Throwback Thursday: “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008)!

I think that we can all agree that “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” (2008) is the least of the film series.  (Some people really despise it.)  And I suppose it’s telling that I’ve only seen it twice.

It isn’t a terrible movie, it just couldn’t match the magic of the original trilogy.  (I was surprised a moment ago when Wikipedia informed me that it was indeed still directed by Steven Spielberg.)  The Russian villains were a little too cartoonish, the chemistry among the leads was a little off, and the whole thing maybe felt a little … rushed.  For some reason, it makes me think of a pretty good made-for-television movie instead of a feature film — sort of an “Indiana Jones Reunion Special.”

Hey, I didn’t hate it.  The artifact they’re chasing is unique and cool, the denouement is inventive, and Shia LaBeouf’s “Mutt” actually didn’t bother me much.  This movie was fun. 



Throwback Thursday: “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (1989)!

I remember seeing “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” in the theater with my 11th grade girlfriend.  When it was released, we thought this third entry in the film series would be the last.  (Blockbusters tended to run in trilogies back then.)  And what a great ostensible send-off it was!  Indy was back, in fine form, doing what he did best — punching Nazis.  Casting Sean Connery as his father was a stroke of genius, and the chemistry between him and Harrison Ford was priceless.

A couple of astute film fans on Facebook pointed out that 1989 was a great year for movies.  This was the summer when Tim Burton’s “Batman” came out, along with “The Abyss,” “Lethal Weapon 2,” “Pet Sematary” and “Dead Poets Society.”  Seriously, look at this list.  It’s insane.



Throwback Thursday: “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984)!

“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” (1984) was the first sequel to 1981’s “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but it was technically a prequel — its story is set a year prior to the events of the first film.  I was predictably obsessed with seeing it when I was a kid.  I even remember getting excited over the tagline you hear in the trailer below — “If adventure has a name, it must be ‘Indiana Jones.'”

But I was a little late for the party, and a few of my sixth-grade classmates saw it before I did.  They even blabbed about the rope-bridge finale in class, which I guess is the first time in my life that spoilers were ever an issue.  It didn’t affect my enjoyment of the movie, however.  (Somewhere, the shrinks at UC San Diego are smiling.)  I was over the moon for this “second Raiders movie.”

If memory serves, I even had the story on audio cassette.  I think it was a birthday present.  I had the novelization too; that was even more fun!