Well, it has been a long time coming. Star Wars fans should not be surprised to hear that the entire saga will be released in 3D. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the films will be rereleased in 3D beginning in 2012, starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. After that, each film would be released in order at the same time in consecutive years, depending on how well the first rerelease does.
In the meantime, Lucas plans a comprehensive Blu-ray Disc set of the six films next year, which would include upgraded picture and sound quality, new deleted scenes and special features.
If the movies stay on schedule, and are released every year, then Return of the Jedi will be released in 2017. And that means fanboys will finally get to see the moment they’ve been waiting for. Jabba the Hutt in 3D!!! Oh yeah, and Princess Lea will be in her slave outfit in 3D.
It was the dawning of a new decade
we got our first microwave
It’s hard to imagine a world without microwave ovens now. But, I remember getting our first microwave oven in the early ’80s. It may be surprising, but the microwave oven was not an ’80s invention. The first home microwave was launched in 1952 in the US. But, it did not catch on due to its hefty price tag, and due to the fact that it probably freaked people out. In the ’60s, several companies started producing the microwaves. But, nobody could still afford them. The prices started to drop in the ’70s, but it was still not worth it unless your name was Rockefeller. By the ’80s, normal people could afford to buy them – and soon, everybody was.
There was a learning curve though. Have any of you put something metal or aluminum in a microwave? it looks awesome, but probably not good for the microwave! And it became known that you shouldn’t stand near the microwave if you had a heart pacemaker. I wonder how they found that out! Well, if you wanted to knock off somebody with a pacemaker, the microwave would be very handy. It was also handy if you needed to get rid of a gremlin.
But, the microwave did make our lives easier. You could cook a lot faster.
The earlier microwaves usually had 2 dials, one for the cooking time, and one for the cooking power. Things are even easier today. The microwaves are mainly digital, and they usually have pre-programmed cooking options.
Now we just need something to automatically clean the microwave if you forget to cover something that explodes all over the place when you cook it.
This week’s selection is Prince and the Revolution’s “Let’s Go Crazy”, which was #1 this week in 1984:
“Let’s Go Crazy” was from the album, and the film Purple Rain. This is a hard rocking song for Prince. I am not a huge Prince fan, but this is one of my favorites of his along with “Little Red Corvette” and “When Doves Cry”. I didn’t care too much for the song “Purple Rain”, but it has grown on me over the years.
I have never seen the movie Purple Rain, so I can’t comment on that. If anybody has seen the movie, please leave a comment about it, and let us know what you thought of it.
Bell bottoms and eight track tapes
lookin’ back now I can see me
oh man did I look cheesy
I wouldn’t trade those days for nothin’
ah, it was 1970 somethin’
I know that people make fun of ’80s fashion, BUT C’MON NOW!! Those bell bottoms were pretty ugly. The bell bottoms came into fashion with the hippie movement in the late ’60s. Now, I’m beginning to understand. And it got out of control in the late ’70s with disco. And when disco died, so did the bell bottoms. That is until they made a minor comeback in the ’90s. Nowadays, jeans seem to be in fashion if you can see ass-crack. Maybe we are better off with the bell-bottoms!
8 Tracks had about the same life line as the bell bottoms. They started in the ’60s. They became popular when automobile factories started installing eight-track tape players in their cars. The 8-track was convenient an more portable than a vinyl album. And you could record on the 8-tracks.
But 8-tracks started to go out when cassettes started coming out. The cassettes were much smaller, and you could fast forward and rewind more efficiently. And the sound quality was better on cassettes. In the U.S., eight-track cartridges were phased out of retail stores by late 1982.
Question: What Pro-Wrestler was turned into a G.I. Joe character?
Last Week’s Question: Who was Mallory Keaton’s fiance?
Answer: Nick Moore
Nick, Mallory’s dim-witted fiance on Family Ties, was played by Scott Valentine. In 1986, He actually starred in a spin-off called The Art of Being Nick. The show also starred Julia Louis-Dreyfus. But only the pilot episode was aired. Nick was then a recurring character on Family Ties again. Here is The Art of Being Nick:
Part 2:
Part 3:
Scott Valentine did not have many other major roles after Family Ties. Here is a recent photo of him:
it was 1970 somethin’
in the world that I grew up in
Farah Fawcett hairdo days
Farrah Fawcett (February 2, 1947 – June 25, 2009) starred in Charlie’s Angels for only 1 season (1976-1977), but what an impact she made on pop culture! She became an international sex symbol, and her hair style was emulated by millions of young women in the 1970s and early 1980s. In 1978, she developed her own brand of hair care products, marketed by Fabergé, for which she appeared in a series of commercials and print ads.
Fawcett was married to Lee Majors, star of TV’s The Six Million Dollar Man and The Fall Guy, from 1973 to 1982, although the couple separated in 1979. Then from 1982 to 1997, Fawcett was involved with actor Ryan O’Neal.
Farrah Fawcett made her mark on the ’80s by starring in the television movie The Burning Bed, from which she earned an Emmy nomination. She played a battered woman, and the movie was the first to provide an 800 number that offered help for people in that situation – in this case, victims of domestic abuse.
Over the years, she starred in several other movies.
In 2006, Farrah was diagnosed with anal cancer. She went through chemo and surgery, and on her 60th birthday, it was reported that she was cancer-free. However, four months later a malignant polyp was found where she had been treated for the initial cancer. She then went through all kinds of alternative treatments. But, on May 7, 2009, she was reported as critically ill. A two-hour documentary Farrah’s Story, which was filmed by Fawcett and friend Alana Stewart, aired on NBC on May 15, 2009. The documentary was watched by nearly nine million people, and Fawcett earned her fourth Emmy nomination posthumously on July 16, 2009, as producer of Farrah’s Story. Fawcett died at approximately 9:28 a.m., PDT on June 25, 2009, in the intensive care unit of Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California. And as we all know, this was overshadowed by the death of Michael Jackson later that day.
Charlie’s Angels co star Kate Jackson said “I will miss Farrah every day. She was a selfless person who loved her family and friends with all her heart, and what a big heart it was. Farrah showed immense courage and grace throughout her illness and was an inspiration to those around her. When I think of Farrah I will remember her kindness, her cutting dry wit and, of course, her beautiful smile.”
“Today when you think of Farrah remember her smiling, because that is exactly how she wanted to be remembered.”
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas-a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.
well I was a kid when Elvis died
and my mama cried
August 16, 1977. That was the day the King of Rock & Roll died. Elvis Presley was suppose to fly out of Memphis that night to begin a tour. But his girlfriend, Ginger Alden, found him on his bathroom floor. There were multiple attempts to revive him, but he was officially pronounced dead at 3:30 pm at Baptist Memorial Hospital.
Here are some news broadcasts reporting his death:
Thousands of people gathered outside Graceland to view the open casket. Presley’s funeral was held at Graceland, on Thursday, August 18. Approximately 80,000 people lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery, where Presley was buried next to his mother. Of course, there was a wacko that tried to steal his body, so Elvis and his mother were reburied in Graceland’s Meditation Garden on October 2. Graceland was opened to the public in 1982. It is the second most-visited home in the United States, after the White House.
We have seen our share of tragic deaths in the past year – Corey Haim, Gary Coleman, and of course Michael Jackson.
Elvis’ death may be the earliest memory of a celebrity dying before their time should have been up.
Does anybody remember the day that Elvis died, and how were you affected?
and a couple of Evel Knievel scars on my right arm
Evel Knievel was a famous stuntman and daredevil. He was kind of like the David Blaine of the ’70s. Except that it is way more fun watching somebody wipe out on a motorcycle than it is to watch somebody not move from one place for hours and hours.
Evel was born October 17, 1938, and his real name was Robert Craig Knievel.
Evel Knievel was most famous for his motorcycle stunts. There had been motorcycle stunt people who jumped over animals and pools of water. Knievel wanted to stand out, so started jumping cars. He began adding more and more cars to his jumps when he would return to the same venue to get people to come out and see him again. On June 19, 1966 in Missoula, Montana, he attempted to jump twelve cars and a cargo van. He did not get enough speed off of the ramp, so his back wheel hit the top of the van while his front wheel hit the top of the landing ramp. Knievel ended up with a severely broken arm and several broken ribs. Instead of ruining him, the crash made him famous.
He had some very successful jumps, and some more crashes.
While in Las Vegas, to watch Dick Tiger successfully defend his WBA and WBC light heavyweight titles at the Las Vegas Convention Center on November 17, 1967, Knievel first saw the fountains at Caesars Palace and decided to jump them.
Knievel tried to get ABC to air the event live on Wide World of Sports. ABC declined, but said that if Knievel had the jump filmed and it was as spectacular as he said it would be, they would consider using it later.
Knievel used his own money to have actor/director John Derek produce a film of the Caesars’ jump. To keep costs low, Derek used his then-wife Linda Evans as one of the camera operators. It was Evans who filmed Knievel’s famous landing. It was an incredible crash, and here it is:
After his crash and recovery Knievel was more famous than ever. ABC-TV bought the rights to the film of the jump paying far more than they originally would have had they televised the original jump live.
Another one of Knievel’s jumps was over the Snake River Canyon on September 8, 1974.
ABC Sports was unwilling to pay the price Knievel wanted for the Snake River Canyon jump, so he ended up hiring Bob Arum’s company, Top Rank Productions, to put the event on closed circuit television and broadcast to movie theaters. Then WWF Promoters Don E. Branker and Vince McMahon, Sr., were later said to be silent promoters of this event. Knievel hired an aeronautical engineer to build him a rocket-powered cycle that he could use to jump across the Snake River, to be called the X-1 Skycycle.
As soon as he took of, the parachute deployed. The cycle actually made it across the length of the canyon, but the wind brought it back to the side where he started from. He only landed a few feet from the water. If he had landed in the water, he would have drowned due to a jumpsuit/harness malfunction which kept him strapped in the vehicle. Knievel survived the jump with only minor injuries.
Here is an interesting video about the event:
He had many other major jumps after that event, and he was world famous. There were even Evel Knievel toys:
Evel Knievel died in Clearwater, Florida, on November 30, 2007, aged 69. He had been suffering from diabetes and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis for many years.
His son Robbie Knievel has followed in his father’s shoes as a motorcycle daredevil.
Before I had money to buy music, I had my parents’ money to buy baseball cards. I also had football cards, and The Empire Strikes Back cards. But, since baseball is my favorite sport, I had more than a shoebox ful of baseball cards. Remember how the gum would come in the package? You could break your teeth trying to chew it. And a lot of times, the gum would stick to the back of the last card, and the card would rip a little bit.
Here are a sample of the Topps cards from the ’80s:
Well, it has been a long time coming. Star Wars fans should not be surprised to hear that the entire saga will be released in 3D. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the films will be rereleased in 3D beginning in 2012, starting with Episode I: The Phantom Menace. After that, each film would be released in order at the same time in consecutive years, depending on how well the first rerelease does. 
Return to the 80s 