Tag Archives: Throwback Thursday

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Throwback Thursday: WOR-TV’s “Fright Night” (1973-1987)!

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From time to time I’ll find an artifact from the old days of broadcast television on Youtube, and I’ll  share it in a Throwback Thursday blog post — people really seem to enjoy the clips.  (And the credit for that belongs to the Youtube users who originally uploaded them, not me.)  One of this blog’s readers asked me about the intro for  WOR-TV’s (Channel 9) “Fright Night” movie series.

Here it is below, courtesy of FrightNight7387 on Youtube.  (Unless I’m mistaken, this would have been seen only by viewers in the New York metropolitan area between 1973 and 1987.)

I’m … actually not sure I remember this program.  The music feels more familiar than the (pretty neat) visuals, and I think I’d recall a montage like that.  I’m running it here for those who do remember “Fright Night” and might enjoy the clip.

Anyway, if you want to know more about Channel 9’s show, Jim Arena developed a terrific rundown on it over at DVD Drive-In.

It should not be confused with that other “Fright Night” of 80’s lore, the 1985 film starring Jonathan Stark, Chris Sarandon and Roddy McDowell.  That movie also depicted an in-universe movie series named “Fright Night,” which … apparently bears no relationship to the very real  eponymous series that ran in New York.  (Kinda weird.)  The 1985 movie was a lot of fun back in the day, though if it feels mostly forgotten today — even after it spawned a a damned cool 2011 remake.

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Throwback Thursday: MST3K’s 1993 riffing of “Santa Claus” (Season 5).

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Here’s a weird, wonderful, possibly offensive clip from the classic days of Mystery Science Theater 3000.  This is from the show’s fifth season; it originally aired in 1993.  The movie that Mike and the bots are riffing is 1959’s “Santa Claus.”  [I am linking below to MsHandsanitizer’s channel on Youtube.]

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Throwback Thursday: “Real Genius” (1985)

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I remember seeing “Real Genius” in the theater in 1985.  Man, did I love it.

I don’t think anyone thinks of this movie when Val Kilmer’s name comes up — he’s more likely remembered as Jim Morrison, Batman or Doc Holiday.  But he was actually really funny here.  (And does anyone really want to remember him as Batman?)

RG

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Throwback Thursday: “Going In Style” (1979)

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Does anyone else remember the original “Going In Style” (1979), with George Burns, Art Carney and Lee Strasburg? It was a really funny movie in which three old men become bank robbers.

It got its share of air time on 1980’s television; it was actually a big family favorite. I’d been looking around for information about it for years (because movie trivia keeps me up at night), but I remembered the title wrong — I kept thinking of “The Sunshine Boys” (1975), which was a different George Burns movie entirely.

They actually remade the movie 2017 with Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Alan Arkin.

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Throwback Thursday: Laura Branigan’s “Gloria” (1982)

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Weird world — Laura Branigan wasn’t the first vocalist to perform her signature song, “Gloria” (1982).  It was originally an Italian pop song performed in 1979 by Umberto Tozzi.   (That’s the second video below.)

Anyway, for a lot of people in my age bracket, this remains a quintessential 80’s tune.  Branigan even performed it in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade the year it was released.  I still remember people commenting about how beautiful she looked.

If you’re wondering whatever happened to Branigan, there’s a bit of a sad postscript here — she died in her sleep at a relatively young age, 52, from an undiagnosed brain aneurysm.  By that time she’d become a fellow Long Islander; she’d been living in East Quogue.

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Throwback Thursday: the trailer for “The Lost Boys” (1987)!

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A good friend of mine disclosed publicly yesterday that he had never seen “The Lost Boys” (1987).  The poor, benighted soul.  And this is one of my Mary Washington College alums too!!  (Even his wife was taken aback at the glaring omission in his 80’s pop culture experience.)

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Throwback Thursday: the Wham-O Fun Fountain!

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Does anybody else remember one of these?  The kids across the street from me had one, and it was a pretty big hit.

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Throwback Thursday: “The Last Unicorn” (1982)

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“The Last Unicorn” (1982) is an 80’s film that you don’t hear quite as much about in nostalgia circles.  My sister took me to see it in the theater when I was in second or third grade.  It probably wasn’t the first choice of a movie for a kid whose heroes were Sgt. Rock, Conan the Barbarian, and Ka-Zar the Savage.  (Seriously, I read a looooot of comics as a little boy.)  But my sister was the one with the car keys.

Come to think of it, there might have been a dearth of options.  If memory serves (the 80’s were a very long time ago), there were generally fewer films at the local multiplex for the younger set.  “The Last Unicorn” might have been the only children’s movie that happened to be playing.  (I think the market has expanded quite a bit since then.)  I really liked it, though.

“The Last Unicorn” had a hell of a voice cast — including Alan Arkin, Christopher Lee and Mia Farrow.  The animation (to my eyes, at least) looks like strictly average stuff — except for the title unicorn and the monster antagonist.  Those look quite good; they look fluid and natural.  The backdrops are pretty good too.

The monster’s name here is “The Red Bull,” which is probably funny now, given the eponymous modern energy drink.

 

unicorn

 

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Throwback Thursday: “The Dark Crystal” (1982)!

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My Dad took me to see “The Dark Crystal” when it came out in 1982.  I remember looking it up in the newspaper’s movie listings — and deciding on it even without knowing much about it.  (That was just how we did it in those days — we used “the phone book” and TV Guide as well.)

Hot damn, did I love this movie.  If you’re familiar with the 1980’s at all, then you know that “The Dark Crystal” was a surprisingly dark tour de force for Jim Henson, showcasing his ability to create a detailed and truly immersive alternate world.  (Modern CGI just wasn’t a thing yet — it arguably made its first appearance in 1989’s “The Abyss.”)  And you can’t really grasp the sheer spectacle of Henson’s world designs without seeing this movie on the big screen.

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Throwback Thursday: the original trailer for “Blade Runner” (1982)!

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I sent this trailer to a pal of mine after he told me he couldn’t remember if he’d seen 1982’s “Blade Runner.”  (The poor, benighted soul!)  As you can see … the trailer is a bit crude by today’s standards.  It’s just a loose montage of key scenes in chronological order — with narration that is obviously performed by a store-brand knockoff of Harrison Ford.  (I am linking here to the Movieclips Classic Trailers Youtube channel, by the way.)

You can kind of tell how Warner Bros. wanted to market the film as a standard action-thriller, instead of the moody, stygian sci-fi meditation that it is.  And you can kind of understand why general audiences didn’t turn out for the movie while its cult following gained so much steam later.