’80s Rewatch: You Make The Call
Submitted by Sarah D. Bunting on August 9, 2009 – 11:07 PM132 Comments
In the spirit of recent rewatches elsewhere around the interwebs — Wing’s 90210 coverage at Sling; Sepinwall’s of Band of Brothers, Sports Night, and others — I’ve decided to do my own. The TN twist: I’d like to pick a far more hilariously unbearable show than any of those. Heh.
I’ve narrowed it down to Miami Vice, original Knight Rider, original Degrassi, and 21 Jump Street, but I need you guys to make the call…or to suggest a show I’ve overlooked. (Let me say pre-emptively that ST: TNG is not going to happen.)
Share!
Tags: Alan Sepinwall David Hasselhoff friends sites TV
If you would like to watch Thunder In Paradise, I will totally mail it to you.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108958/
It’s clear. Sars must watch and snark on every show ever made in the 80s. How will she ever get anything else done? Like laundry, or feeding the cats?
Late coming in, but as a Canuck, I’m duty-bound to vote for Degrassi. Though IIRC, 21JS was shot in Vancouver, so if that’s true, it could work, too.
However, GAH rocked in my memory & I would totally go for that. I could also stand CHiPs and The Powers of Matthew Star, if anyone other than me actually remembers that show. Thankfully, IMDB has a listing for it, so I’m not completely delusional.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083467/
Another vote for 21 Jumpstreet. I’ve bought the DVDs, I’ve watched the DVDs, I’ve shrieked in horror at Holly Robinson’s earrings on the DVDs. I began watching the DVDs for the Johnny Depp (Oh my God, when I was 12 I would watch the entire episode while on the phone with my best friend so we could squee in unison over his hotness) but it is the ’80s fashion plus the didactic, hysterical, formulaic Very Special Episodes on every teen “hot prob” (tm Heathers) that kept me hitting “play” when I bought the DVDs. It’s like a preachy first-season 90210, except with more stirrup pants and feathered hair. And a Johnny Depp that looks so young that I feel vaguely dirty for perving on him.
FOREVER KNIGHT
an 800 year old vamp is a policeman – at night.
(before vamps were so very cool, and before they were teenagers)
second – HIGHLANDER , the tv show with those MAGICAL COATS……..
you may have to do brackets of our many suggestions. (even if you decide to override our voting.)
I hate to add more food for thought, but in my last week of unemployment, I had a marathon of the first season of “Murder, She Wrote.” JB is only in Cabot Cove 10% of the time, and the host of guest stars is like the passenger list on the Love Boat: JoAnne Worley, Ned Beatty, Andy Garcia, Jeff Conaway, John Astin, Peter Graves, Vicki Lawrence and many more, including Tom Bosley, of course. Some episodes are good, many are just ok. Best, it’s on Netflix Watch Now!
Degrassi, totally! How much more ridiculous can you get??? Every single possible problem a kid could go through happened at that school. Right on.
MacGuyver, Silk Stalkings, or Knight Rider would all be awesome! Thinking about it, though, something like DeGrassi might be easier to recap, since all of the above were pretty formulaic with minimal character development from episode to episode. Doing something with a little more forward momentum might make the recaps more fun to write than just “Aaaaaaaand here’s the MacGuyverism of the week!” Any way you decide, I can’t wait for the snark!
@trog: Andy Garrrrrrrrrrcia (tm Rayanne)? You lost me…and then you had me. Heh.
Wow, missed that new comment while I was writing. Highlander, totally!
Yeah, because Andy Garcia is the owner of Hotness, and sells franchises to lesser men. What on EARTH was he doing on MSW?
Remington Steele?
The Highlander Series ran from ’92 to ’98. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highlander:_The_Series For fodder, there’s a list of 80’s shows at http://www.crazyabouttv.com/decades/1980s.html. Oh, boy, Bosom Buddies.
21 Jump Street is intriguing because Depp is the only star of those shows who is still culturally significant (at least in the U.S.), but Knight Rider is more unbearable.
Why not take it one step further and “rewatch” the hypothetical show “Forever Knight Rider”, where an 800 year-old vampire teams with a talking car to fight crime?.. at night?
Degrassi! I grew up with the original Degrassi and my brother and I still have in-jokes based on some of the sillier episodes. It would make my YEAR to have you watch it!
I think Degrassi is almost too easy, although I would read any recaps with glee. I’ve never seen 21 Jump Street, but I’ve now put Disc 1 of Season 1 in my queue. So I vote for that.
From your suggestions it would have to be 21 Jump Street, but I was surprised not to see Fame in the comments anywhere. My college roommate had every episode on VHS and watched them religiously…I learned quickly not to make fun, but good grief that was a lot of cheese! (It seems, tho’, that Fame is held in higher regard than Dukes of Hazard or Bosom Buddies or Perfect Strangers and that my standards are skewed. I LOVE Quantum Leap and Magnum P.I. and Simon&Simon, cheese and all!)
21 Jump Street!!!
1. Forever Knight
2. Silk Stalkings
3. Dynasty ( sorry ..it’s an 80’s thing)
4. Knots Landing
5. Hunter
@p jane FAME!! (I’m gonna live forever!) aw man! now I’m going to have that stuck in my head. I guess it’s a welcome replacement for the 21 Jump Street theme that’s been bouncing around in there!
Degrassi. Because the world needs one more person who can distinguish Heather from Erica. (I don’t remember my co-workers’ names, but by God I can tell apart my fictional twins.)
I will taunt people here further by saying that I have the *books*.
Hands down: MIAMI VICE! Don Johnson running around in pastels, the moodiness of the night shots, hot cars and neon, excessive south Florida lifestyles, great music tracks, pushed up jacket sleeves – what more could anyone want for a mindless flashback?
Personally I’d love to hear a rewatch of 21 Jump Street just because I would love to hear your take on it. I’d suggest Miami Vice, but that doesn’t seem like your cup of tea.
The only reason I might not want you to watch 21 Jumpstreet is because I hate to have my love for it exposed to the harsh light of time. Thanks to the ability of Xbox to grab netflix videos, my fiance and I have recently gorged ourselves on 80s series. The first show I tried, a while back, was Stingray. Man, I loved that show. I couldn’t even get through the first episode, it felt so cheesy. More recently I’ve tried Family Ties, Kate & Allie, Knightrider, MacGyver, Battlestar Galactica. I have to say that the last two were especially eye-opening in their sexism. I find I can’t really watch any of those old shows for very long, so best of luck to you!
“Miami Vice” might be worth discussing, just to see what Sars makes of the phrases “Lori Petty wielding a vibrator” and “Iman in drag”.
Hee, Thunder in Paradise. My favourite part of that show was that it was all clearly filmed on DisneyWorld Florida properties.
I remember because I discovered the show while I was staying in Celebration for work and it just made the whole Disney faux universe experience even trippier
Bunting and Jaybird, it’s a bit part unfortunately. He tries to rough up JB in the pilot at the corner of 3rd Ave and 17th St (I think) in NYC.
I believe this was actually in the late ’70s, but the TV movie that involved KISS and a haunted theme park would be quite glorious.
I wanted to suggest “Melrose Place,” but it ran from ’92 to ’98. “My So-Called Life” is also a 90’s show. (LOVE YOU CLAIRE DANES!!!)
I have a theory about Melrose – If you’re a straight man, and you DON’T have sex with Amanda Woodward, you will die. Can anyone disprove this?
My sweetie has every ep on DVD so *Miami Vice* would be lovely!!!
Since we all seem to have a very special show or tv movie we’d love to have your take on, I wonder, if maybe, you’d consider auctioning off a recap as part of the Donor’s Choose drive this year?
@J: Ooh, good idea. Remind me of that at contest time.
I won’t be revisiting MSCL; I recapped a big chunk of that for TWoP, and as much as I love the show, that bird is done.
Air Wolf. Never seen it. Heard it was nerdy and awful.
Here’s a wiki-excerpt:
The program concerned a high-tech military helicopter, codenamed Airwolf, and her crew as they undertook various missions, many involving espionage, with a Cold War theme.
Degrassi for sure!!
“ALL THE WAY WITH STEPHANIE KAYE!!!”
“Why not take it one step further and “rewatch” the hypothetical show “Forever Knight Rider”, where an 800 year-old vampire teams with a talking car to fight crime?.. at night?”
@Alex R.: Two words for you: Vampire. Car. (I would watch that show. Hell, I might write that show, just for Sars to snark on.)
Here’s some cheesy goodness: Forever Knight co-starred John Kapelos (better known as the Janitor in The Breakfast Club) as Nick The Vampire Cop In Toronto’s partner; said partner’s name was a perfect homonym for “skanky.” I shit you not. But I couldn’t deal with either 21J or Degrassi – they both made me break out in hives.