TV

One Day at a Time

by generationxrewind

The #1 show on TV this week ( June 12-18, 1978 ) in 1978 was One Day at a Time. The show was one of the many programs that were produced by Norman Lear in the seventies. Like most of the others, One Day at a Time aired on CBS.

The show was about a recently divorced mom who moved with her two daughters from Logansport, Indiana to an apartment in Indianapolis. The series was created by Whitney Blake and Allan Mannings, a married writing team. The show was based on Blake’s life as a divorced mom with kids. Blake was also an actress who played the mom on the sixties sitcom, Hazel. One Day at a Time was different from most other sitcoms focused on a family in that the single parent was not widowed but divorced.

The show starred Bonnie Franklin as the mom, Ann Romano with Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli as her two teenage daughters. The show also starred Pat Harrington Jr. as Schneider, the apartment building’s superintendent. Various other characters came and went throughout the show’s nine-year run. Phillips was fired in 1980 due to drug issues and was rehired a few years later. She collapsed on the set in 1983 and afterward refused to take a drug test and was fired.

First wave Gen Xers might have been a bit young to watch the show when it premiered in 1975, but the show stayed on the air until they were in high school or just starting college in 1984. Many Gen X members did grow up with the show via the reruns that CBS aired on weekday afternoons from 1979-1982. The show is remembered for being one of the first to feature a divorced parent as the main character, for launching the stardom of Phillips and Bertinelli and for the various hot button social issues of the time that were discussed on the show.

Music

Let It Whip

by generationxrewind

Gen X Flashback Friday Music Video.

Every Friday, we will spotlight a forgotten, or obscure music video from the Gen X era. This week it’s a funky flashback from 1982, Let It Whip from the Dazz Band.

The song hit #1 on the R&B charts and went to #5 on the pop chart. It also earned the band a Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Let It Whip was the band’s only top 40 pop hit. They had continued success on the R&B charts with nine other hits, including three of those that hit the top ten.

Click the link below to order The Best of Dazz Band via Amazon.

Film, TV

Adam West

by generationxrewind

Two years ago today, Adam West passed away at the age of 88. For Gen X, we are too young to remember or were not even born yet when the BATMAN series starring West aired on ABC from 1966 to 1968.

Our generation grew up watching Batman reruns after school on one of our local channels. For many of us, Adam West was our first TV hero. We also watched The New Adventures of Batman on Saturday mornings on CBS in the mid-seventies. This short-lived cartoon featured the voices of West and Burt Ward. They also teamed up for two live-action specials on NBC called Legends of the Superheroes in 1979.

When the feature film Batman came out in 1989, we may have liked Michael Keaton’s performance of the Caped Crusader, but West was still our Batman. Some of us met him and got an autograph at some car show, or Sci-Fi convention in the seventies and eighties.

When the Batman show aired in the nineties on FX and The Family Channel, young Gen X parents introduced the show to their kids. In this current decade, some of us who had kids later in life, and or who have grandchildren introduced the show to our little ones via ME-TV and the IFC Channel or on DVD.

He became a true Pop Culture Icon as we became adults in the nineties. He worked steadily in the last three decades in films and TV, frequently doing voice-overs, most notably as the Mayor on Family Guy.

Since that 1989 film came out there have been four other actors besides Keaton who have put the cowl and cape on. There were also two other actors who played Batman in serials back in the forties. The West version of Batman, the way he looked, his mannerisms, his voice, is still the Iconic image of the Caped Crusader.

William West Anderson (September 19, 1928 – June 9, 2017), known to the world as Adam West left this world two years ago today. He is stilled missed and will never be forgotten.


Music, TV

Der Kommissar

by generationxrewind

Gen X Flashback Friday Music Video.

Every Friday, we will spotlight a forgotten, or obscure music video from the Gen X era.

Today’s Music video is Der Kommissar from After the Fire. The song went to #5 on the singles chart in 1983. After the Fire was an English progressive rock band who went New Wave. This was their only hit in America. Austrian singer Falco, had an international hit with Der Kommissar in 1982.

Click the link to download Der Kommissar via Amazon.

Film, Music, TV

Rocky III

by generationxrewind

Six years after the debut of the first Rocky movie, Rocky III was released during Memorial Day weekend in 1982. The film was hugely successful earning nearly 270 million at the box office. It was the fourth highest grossing movie of 1982.

Even more impressive than the financial success was the several ways that the film contributed to the pop culture of the eighties and to the Gen X era.

Mr. T.

Before Rocky III, Mr. T was a bodyguard and bouncer in Chicago. He appeared on NBC’s Games People Play as a contestant for the “America’s Toughest Bouncer” competition. He won that event and this is also where he was first noticed by Sylvester Stallone. This lead to him being cast as “Clubber Lang”, Stallone’s opponent in the film. Mr. T.’s famous catchphrase “I pity the fool” also came from Rocky III. The following year, he was part of the cast of The A Team on NBC and he went on to become a true 80s icon.

Hulk Hogan

Before Hulk Hogan became the biggest fan favorite during the pro wrestling boom of the mid-eighties, he was a bad guy in the World Wrestling Federation. The WWF then was only a northeastern regional territory and not yet the national brand that it was soon to become. This is also where Stallone first saw him perform and this lead him to be cast as Thuderlips, the grappler Rocky fought in a charity wrestler vs boxer match. After the movie was completed, Hogan left the WWF and started wrestling for The American Wrestling Association, which covered the upper midwest and parts of the west coast. Thanks in part to the success of the film, this is where he became a good guy, and Hulkamania started to run wild! In December of 1983, he went back to the WWF, and a month later beats the Iron Shiek to become WWF champion. Also in 84, the WWF went nationwide and Pro Wrestling becomes a true 80s cultural phenomenon with Hogan as its biggest star.

Eye of the Tiger

Stallone had originally wanted to use Another One Bites the Dust by Queen as the theme song for the movie. When Queen said no, Stallone requested the band Survivor create a theme song. That song, Eye of the Tiger became one of the most iconic songs ever made for a movie, and one of the signature songs of the eighties and the Gen X era. It hit number 1 on the singles charts and stayed there for six weeks. When you combine the sales for the original vinyl and the later digital downloads, nine million copies have been sold. Eye of the Tiger was also the title of an action movie from 1986 starring Gary Busey. The song was used in that film as well.

Click the link below to watch Rocky III via Amazon.
Rocky III

Film

Star Wars

by generationxrewind

On May 25, 1977, Star Wars was released in less than forty theaters and Hollywood has never been the same since.

Two Years before Star Wars, Jaws premiered and became the first summer blockbuster film, and it also became the highest-grossing movie of all time. Within six months after the opening of Star Wars and after going into wide release, the film replaced Jaws as the biggest box office hit of all time and kept that title until E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came out in 1983.

When you add up the box office results of 1977 and the money made from all of the times it has been re-released in theaters, the total amount the film brought in is over 775 million. When you adjust for inflation, the total amount is 2.5 billion. That amount makes it the fourth highest grossing film of all time on the adjusted for inflation list. In North America only, it’s number two behind Gone with the Wind.

When you talk about the impact of the film from 1977, you have to include the ten other Star Wars movies made afterward that have collectively brought in over 9 billion at the box office. This amount has earned the #2 slot on the highest grossing film franchise list. The #1 series is the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

There are several other ways that this film had a huge impact on Hollywood, the world and Generation X: The film ushered in a renewed interest in Science Fiction. Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and the comedy Quark all premiered on network TV in the late seventies. Merchandising and corporate tie ins went to the next level after the huge success of the film. The Hollywood Reporter estimated by 2012 that the film franchise has made 20 billion from toy sales as compared to only 3 billion at the box office at the time. The film’s success also showed Hollywood that there was value in movies aimed at the entire family. One look at the list of top ten movies of the eighties in comparison to the top ten in the seventies will back up that statement.

Generation X has to share Star Wars with Generation Jones, who were those born in the late fifties and in the first half of the sixties. For the purpose of this blog, we consider the Gen X era the second half of the seventies ( when the first wave of Gen X started to have awareness of the culture around them) on to the first half of the nineties, so that makes Star Wars our first blockbuster. What a way for an era to begin!!!!!!

Film, TV

Tim Conway

by generationxrewind

The comedy world lost one of its funniest people ever recently when Tim Conway passed away at the age of 85. Conway had the world laughing for over fifty years with a career that started out in local TV in Cleveland. He then went national when he moved to New York City and landed a job as a regular on The Steve Allen Show on ABC.

He had even bigger success as one of the stars of the 1960’s World War Two sitcom, McHale’s Navy. After that show left the airways, he had his own short-lived sitcom and variety show. What the world will always know him best for is The Carol Burnett Show, which aired on CBS from 1967 to 1978.

From the first season on, Conway was a popular and frequent guest. When Lyle Waggoner left the show in 1975, he became a full-time cast member and stayed on with the show till the end. Along with great characters like The Oldest Man and Mr. Tudball, his time on the show is noted for his ability to crack up his castmates during a sketch.

There are several reasons why Tim Conway matters to Generation X. The Carol Burnett Show was something that families watched together. When Conway passed away on May 14, 2019, there were many comments on social media from first wave Gen Xers about how they grew up watching the show with their families. The show aired on Saturday in a time when that was still a big night for TV viewing. Along with Burnett, for much of the seventies, the powerhouse CBS Saturday night lineup included The Mary Tyler Moore Show, All in the Family and The Bob Newhart Show. Can you think of a show that presently airs on Saturday nights on a broadcast network?

He was not just a TV celebrity, he was also a movie star. Conway teamed with another comedy great, Don Knotts and made four successful family-friendly movies starting in 1975 with The Apple Dumpling Gang. A sequel, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, came out in 79 as did The Prize Fighter. Their final movie as a starring duo, Private Eyes, was released in 1980. Both Conway and Knotts appeared in Disney’s Gus in 1976, however, they did not have any scenes together. They made a cameo as Highway Patrol Officers in Cannonball Run 2 in 1984. This was the last time they appeared together on screen.

Conway appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in 1986 in a skit where he portrayed a very short Scandinavian horse jockey named Dorf. This lead to eight direct to video “how to” films featuring the Dorf character. He also played Peggy Bundy’s father in four episodes of Married with Children.

Perhaps his most famous skit on The Carol Burnett Show was The Dentist with Harvey Korman. Neither one of them could make it through the entire skit without laughing. Take a look at the clip below.

R.I.P. Tim Conway and thanks for the memories.

Film

Top Gun

by generationxrewind

Top Gun was released this week back in 1986. The film starred Tom Cruise and was directed by Tony Scott. Despite mixed reviews, the film earned over $353 million at the box office. It was the #1 film of 1986.

The soundtrack was also a huge hit. It went platinum 9 times and was #1 on the charts for five weeks. Three singles from the soundcheck hit the top 40. Danger Zone by Kenny Loggins hit #2 and Heaven in Your Eyes by Loverboy went to #12. The biggest hit was Take My Breath Away by Berlin. That song was #1 on the singles chart and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. It also won a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

The film was also a hit in the still somewhat new home video market. Sales went up 40% for Ray Ban Aviator sunglasses after the movie became a blockbuster. The U.S. Navy reported that new recruits who wanted to be aviators jumped up 500% after the movie came out.

A sequel titled Top Gun: Maverick is set to be released in the summer of 2020. Both Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer will reprise their roles from the first film.

Music

CALL ME by Blondie, the #1 song this week in 1980.

by generationxrewind

The #1 song during the week of May 15, 1980, was Call Me by Blondie. The song stayed at the #1 spot for six weeks starting on April 19. It was also the #1 song of 1980 and the eight biggest single of the decade.

Call Me was Blondie’s second #1 song. Heart of Glass hit the top spot in 1979. The song was produced by legendary producer Giorgio Moroder and appeared on the soundtrack to the movie American Gigolo.

Wrestling

Saturday Night’s Main Event: MAY 11, 1985

by generationxrewind

On May 11, 1985, Saturday Night’s Main Event aired on NBC in place of a Saturday Night Live rerun. This marked the return of Professional Wrestling to network Television for the first time since the 1950s.

Wrestling was one of the first true hit shows on television during the late forties and early fifties. Wrestling From Marigold on The Dumont Network and Wrestling from Hollywood on The Paramount Network made national stars out of Gorgeous George, Lou Thesz, Vern Gagne and many others. After the network shows got canceled, regional wrestling promotions all across the country started producing their own shows which aired on the local TV stations in markets where they promoted live events.

It was Cable that brought wrestling back to national television. Ted Turner’s Atlanta superstation, WTCG, later changed to WTBS, aired Georgia Championship Wrestling on Saturday nights. The WWE, then known as the WWF aired wrestling on The USA Network on Sundays morning, and Sunday evening. They also had a wrestling-themed talk show called Tuesday Night Titans on USA as well.

These shows were successful, but it really took MTV to take wrestling to the next level. MTV aired two successful wrestling specials, The Brawl to End It All in 1984 and The War to Settle the Score in 85. These specials originated with Cyndi Lauper’s music video for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” which featured Wrestling manager Lou Albano. Lauper and Albano then had a feud on WWF TV which lead to both of them being in the corner of two lady wrestlers fighting it out for the WWF Women’s Championship. Lauper represented Wendi Richter and Albano managed The Fabulous Moolah. When MTV aired the first special that featured the women’s championship match, it was the highest rated show in MTV’s then short history.

Due to this successful Rock N Wrestling connection on MTV, Dick Ebersol, the producer of Saturday Night Live at that time, partnered with Vince McMahon and the WWF to produce a series of specials that would air in SNL’s time slot when it was on hiatus. The specials were big rating hits during the mid and late eighties. The March 14, 1987 show which featured a battle royale that included Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant drew a rating of 11.6, which still stands as the highest rated show in that time slot.

Since Saturday Night’s Main Event was a hit, NBC decided to air some prime time specials with the WWF. The first of these shows simply called The Main Event, aired on February 5, 1988. It featured a WWF title match with Hulk Hogan vs Andre the Giant that was seen by 33 million viewers. It is still the most watched American wrestling program of all time.

Saturday Night’s Main aired on NBC up until 1991. Fox started airing the specials in 1992 and that lasted for two years. NBC revived the show in 2006 and aired specials until 2008.

 


Verified by MonsterInsights