Retro Vision 254
dncsky1530 writes "The Sydney Morning Herald reports: It babysat generations, distracted countless teenagers from homework and, as Homer Simpson sagely observed about television, became our 'teacher, mother, secret lover'. Sure, the shows may have been ludicrous - think Webster, The A-Team, Charles In Charge - but they became part of our lives nonetheless. So what do you do when they end? Immortalise them online. At least, you do if you're a diehard fan - and there are plenty of them out there. Look up a show, any show, and the odds are there'll be at least one fan site, possibly with a tinny version of the soundtrack playing in the background and certainly with photos galore, plot lines, trivia as well as 'where are they now?' information on the actors."
This story brings to mind fat, lonely nerds (Score:5, Funny)
Obligatory quote. (Score:5, Funny)
- Comic Book Guy.
Re:Obligatory quote. (Score:5, Informative)
-B
What...? (Score:3, Interesting)
What exactly is this story supposed to be about? Why is this newsworthy?
Just wait a while (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What...? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:What...? (Score:2, Funny)
In other news... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:What...? (Score:3, Funny)
Because someday retro-80's fashions will be what the cool kids are wearing once again. It's just a matter of time, I figure. And then I'm calling my mother and sending her up to the attic for my old clothes, so that all those parachute pants and "Members Only" jackets and Izod shirts can command top dollar on eBay, as actual period garb. Remember, Youth Of Today, when that day comes, demand authenticity! Don't settle for cheap knockoffs of the classic originals!
It's not just for memories and trivia (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:It's not just for memories and trivia (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's not just for memories and trivia (Score:5, Insightful)
Trust me, that had little to do with it. TV execs don't give a shit if people love the show, they only care if the show is profitable.
They saw that the Family Guy DVDs were selling like hotcakes, and that it's getting high ratings on Cartoon Network, and realized that they put it out to pasture prematurely when there was still cash to suck from its teat.
Re:It's not just for memories and trivia (Score:2, Troll)
Re:It's not just for memories and trivia (Score:2)
You make it sound like those are mutually exclusive concepts. I assure you, they aren't.
Re:It's not just for memories and trivia (Score:2)
the popularity and fanaticism of family guy on the web contributed to it getting put back on the air.
Mmmm...counting chickens before they are hatched.
Jump The Shark: Chronicling The Moments When TV Sh (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Jump The Shark: Chronicling The Moments When TV (Score:5, Informative)
i confess (Score:3, Insightful)
However, watching old reruns on cable, i can't believe how bad some of them were. Magnum PI, stands the test of time (though the fight scenes seem corny), but for the rest, they seem stuck in the past. I've moved on.
Work the lock (Score:3, Funny)
Tv show research (Score:5, Interesting)
Very extensive site for tv shows animated or otherwise includes episode lists & guides as well as all people accociated with them.
It's not my site but one I consult regularly.
One thing I've discovered... (Score:5, Insightful)
If "I Love the 80's" has given you the urge to set your TiVo to pick up a few episodes of some show they talked about, trust me-- ignore that urge.
Re:One thing I've discovered... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:One thing I've discovered... (Score:2)
Re:One thing I've discovered... (Score:2)
Well, I was thinking that they'd be better left as Ate My Balls [yahoo.com] websites, but sure, memories would work too... Whatever floats your boat.
Re:One thing I've discovered... (Score:3, Funny)
The Dukes of Hazzard, though. Wow, I feel shame for ever liking that show.
um nice example (Score:2, Funny)
jesus christ someone actually liked full house? are they blind and just read the scripts in brail or something? even bob saget had to admit he "sucked dick for coke [imdb.com]" because of what the show did to him..
sad.
Alternate article title (Score:5, Funny)
Truman Show (Score:4, Interesting)
People just find the remote and switch channel.
Funny enough though, Truman Show itself has plenty of fan sites immortalizing the show.
Jump the shark (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Jump the shark (Score:4, Funny)
"Remember that funny website all the tech nerds used to hang out on? I think it was DotSlash or Slashthroat or something like that........"
"Yeah it really JTSed when they started moderating trolls down. The trolls were the only good part of the site....."
Re:Jump the shark (Score:3, Funny)
Slashdot jumped the shark when we started seeing the OSDN Personals ads.
thank you Mister Rogers and Gi joe (Score:4, Funny)
Re:thank you Mister Rogers and Gi joe (Score:3, Interesting)
I came across a site with Transformers episodes once. I was able to watch a few of those. I liked Transformers a bit better that GI joe as kid..might have had something to do with it. I loved the way Transformers could ravage several conservation laws at least 20 times an episod
Re:thank you Mister Rogers and Gi joe (Score:2)
Re:thank you Mister Rogers and Gi joe (Score:2)
So. . .what? (Score:2)
Methinks someone's waxing misty over the end of Friends.
Retro Mental Images (Score:4, Funny)
I'm somewhat ashamed to say that my initial thought was, "That has got to be the worst bit of slash ever written."
A-Team rocked! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A-Team rocked! (Score:2)
I don't remember A-team being that remarkable, only the fact that Mr. T seemed to gain popularity for some odd reason... and continue to spy him on 1010-987 comercials.
Re:A-Team rocked! (Score:5, Funny)
Anyway, I stumbled across this bouncer competition. It's not every day that you get to see a televised competition of big ugly dudes hoisting drunks out the saloon door. I can't remember if this was the nationals or internationals. Anyway, this especially ugly dude named "Mr. T" won.
That was his fifteen minutes of fame. But that was too short for him, so he stretched that fifteen minutes into half a decade. First he fights Sylvester Stallone in Rocky. Very cheesy. I was thinking, "Hey, your fifteen minutes are over!" Then he shows up on A-Team. Come on! This guy couldn't act his way out of a paper bag!
His career finally stuttered, stalled, and crashed into Florida swampland after a particularly atrocious Barbara Walters interview.
Epilogue: I thought the ghost of Mr. T had been laid to rest. But I was wrong. An CS professor with a bad sense of humour was describing an algorithm to my class, when he suddenly jabbed his pointer at the chalkboard, right at a meta-variable, and loudly announced: "I pity da foo!"
TV or not TV (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:TV or not TV (Score:2)
Re:TV or not TV (Score:2)
Well Duh! (Score:2)
Damn good thing (Score:4, Funny)
Man, so much more to this world than I ever knew
I pity the fool (Score:5, Funny)
What was that website we used to visit? (Score:2, Redundant)
USA (Score:2)
Another good site for cancelled comedies/toons (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Another good site for cancelled comedies/toons (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Another good site for cancelled comedies/toons (Score:5, Informative)
There's a difference between 'legal' and 'low probability of legal difficulties'.
Bad 80s is much better than bad 2000s (Score:5, Insightful)
BUT...in 20 years when people look back at OUR shows, they're gonna think we're a bunch of morons. Ohhhhh..."American Idol" is amazing! Or today's "reality" shows like "I Married a 7'3" Midget" and such. THAT'S going to be scary...looking back at today's stuff. Egads...
Re:Bad 80s is much better than bad 2000s (Score:2)
Reality shows won't be the ones being re-run in the future, shows like Friends, X-Files, Seinfeld will be. Shows that people might be interested in 20 years down the road.
Re:Bad 80s is much better than bad 2000s (Score:4, Insightful)
No, they were pretty bad for their time period. The only reason people watched them was
1. There was nothing better on
2. Everyone didn't have cable to find something better.
Knight Rider, a show who's ad campain said to dial some 800 number inder to get details why the KI3000 is better then the Dukes of Hazzard car. What's worse is this marketing attempt has been sited as a good use for an 800 number.
I'll give you Friends... that ranks up there in three's company in my book, popular enough to have a few spinoffs, and likely to be shown just for it's cheeze value.
X-files, while I didn't typicaly watch it, had some some decent writing.
Seinfeld is harder to judge, but I rank it much higher then a-team, air wolf, or knight rider.
Re:Bad 80s is much better than bad 2000s (Score:2, Insightful)
We can learn a valuable lesson from this, and that is...
TV sucks.
Buy Transformers DVD (Score:2)
Not to mention this is the only show where guns really do damage. For example, nobody can hit a target in GIJOE. When the autobots fire a laser beam, decepticons really get it up the ass.
Re:Buy the 22min TV comercial on DVD (Score:2)
I have a vague memeory of someone at one time robbing a bank with the Megatron
Transformers and Schoolyard Trauma (Score:2)
I'm the first to admit, the concept of the transformers was cool, but the TV show was not.
No. Transformers(TM) are not cool, were never cool, and never will be cool.
They're hideous chunks of cheap-assed made-in-$INSERT_THIRD_WORLD_MANUFACTURING_HELLHOLE _DU_JOUR plastic crap that all the kids with mucous running down their noses in endless streams clamored to have.
My big resentment is not that all my 1980s peers had them. As a kid who was *always* into electronics, I was always building or playing wit
Re:Buy Transformers DVD (Score:2)
Sounds like a challenge! Hmm... my favorite 80s tv show is still The Misfits of Science.
Re:Buy Transformers DVD (Score:2)
I still love the Indiana Jones/Big City interleave opening of one ep. Some really great stuff, pretty uneven but typical of 80s shows.
--
Evan
Re:Buy Transformers DVD (Score:5, Interesting)
It still severely lacked in the fatality department. The Autobots and Decepticons must have been piloting non-lethal weaponry for UN peacekeepers. If it was really necessary for the plot, someone would be knocked down with a smoking hole in him until the next scene. Otherwise the consequences were "Hey! That really scorched my paint!" or something.
The movie had some fatality it but only characters from the old line of toys bought it in the first twenty minutes. I think the idea was you were supposed to throw your dead Transformers in the trash and go buy some new ones. Well, Starscream died a bit later but they trot his ghost back out in afternoon programming so you could go buy Starscream again.
TV sucks lives...Millions and counting... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is a great topic (Score:2)
Really, what else would it be?
Meow TV (Score:2)
Some things are better left lost, like GAH (Score:2)
It's nice to know my TV wasn't screw nor am I nuts for thinking they mispelt Hinkley on the blackboard in the 2nd season, and the fact that they seemed to add in some car noise when ever they were about to say "Hinkley" rather then "Hankley. It gives me some comfort that my memory wa
Re:Some things are better left lost, like GAH (Score:2)
I've read that.. not matching 100% with my memory though.
I believe that the students, in particular the Tony fellow, just called him Mr. H independent of the Reagan attempted assasination. I believe also that season 2 was already filmed, or mostly filmed before these events caused concern among the network, hin
In Soviet Russia... (Score:3, Insightful)
Music, television shows, movies -- all these are stolen from the public by excessive copyright terms. Copyright was supposed to encourage "content developers" to share the fruits of their labors so that the public could benefit from (and eventually take ownership of) their works.
Lately I keep thinking of a short bit of an Arthur C. Clark's "2061: Odyssey Three" in which Haywood Floyd remembers a bit of an old tune and considers asking his computer to help him to find the actual song. It strikes me as quite sad that because we seem to have forgotten the benefits of copyright expiration, it's likely that whatever old tunes I try to remember in 2061 will probably still be controlled as tightly as possible by the recording industry.
I feel like the media industries beat me up and stole my lunch money.
A-Team ludicrous? (Score:2)
I learned I could see color on a B&W TV from A (Score:2)
Who can forget "Riptide"? (Score:3)
Riptide Fan Page [aol.com]
From the site:
Welcome aboard the Riptide, home of the world-famous Riptide Detective Agency. Meet, from left to right, Murray Bozinsky, computer expert, inventer of the Roboz, Nick Ryder, pilot of the Screaming Mimi, an old Sikorsky helicopter with a big smile on its 'face', and Cody Allen, owner of the Riptide.
Sadly, this seems to be one of the few (or only?) Riptide fan sites around - most people don't even remember this series (it only lasted a few seasons, IIRC)...
Re:Who can forget "Riptide"? (Score:2)
I can't believe I remembered that.
Re:Who can forget "Riptide"? (Score:2)
What about "Whiz Kids" that aired on CBS for a short time? The redhead wound up on "ALF" after that...man, what those kids could do on early 80s 8-bit computers not saddled with the bloatware from Redmond!
Whiz Kids? (Score:2)
Re:Whiz Kids? (Score:2)
I would kill for episodes of that show to see again. I would be in early 80s heaven. That's my drug.
Re:Whiz Kids? (Score:2)
I also remember the relationship between the lead geek and the younger sister, and how she always tried to get him into trouble, yet he always took accountability for anytime she did wrong.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
That's nothing... (Score:5, Funny)
After that sentence, we all just fell silent. It was an absolutely strange suggestion when you thought about it, but we also realized that they probably do exist.
And lo and behold, Google didn't just find one, it found about a dozen. We laughed, both at the idea of googling for it, and the sad truth that there are Hamburgler fansites out there.
----- ----
Re:That's nothing... (Score:2)
And lo and behold, Google didn't just find one, it found about a dozen.
So don't keep us waiting... which one was it?
Re:That's nothing... (Score:2)
Well...which was it?! Was it "robble robble" or "rabble rabble"?
I defy you to find this show on P2P. (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, Cop Rock, a show where the characters would break out into song at key moments. I believe only five episodes were shown before the show was fed to the shark. In fact, this show's concept was so bad it jumped before one single line of script was written. I seriously don't know what Bochco was thinking, as well as the execs who green-lighted this. What piece of blackmail did Bochco have on them to get this aired?
Anyway, if you can find some video of this (as well as Mexican wrestling movies fr
The good old days... (Score:2)
The Fantastic Journey [xmoppet.org]: Weird adventures in the Bermuda Triangle
Ark II [geocities.com]: Keeping technology alive in a post-apocalyptic Earth.
Run Joe Run [70slivekidvid.com]: A german shepard who could put Lassie to shame
And we can't forget the pretty much forgotten Andy Griffith in space show, Salvage One [geocities.com]: Using the trans-linear vector principle to build a rocket out of junkyard parts. (An early concept of Junkyard Wars?)
And a whole bunch of other shows from what used
Hell... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Hell... (Score:2)
I have had issues getting doctor who via kazza. Not that I wasn't able to get some, I just can't seem to get all the ones I want in a specific story. Problem being doctor who is a pretty massive set to carry, and popular enough to be annoying to share.
But I have to thank kazza kindly for having a shared copy of the first episode of Firefly no
Amazing new media!! (Score:2)
Film at 11.
Small Wonder complete epsides, for example? (Score:2)
Re:Small Wonder complete epsides, for example? (Score:2)
Then I made friends and didn't tune to fox until the simpsons.
Quantum Leap (Score:2, Interesting)
That's a good god-damn question.
I'd like to hear from some Quantum Leap fans after they were left with their mouths gaping open, speechless after watching the last episode, thinking to themselves simultaneously, "WTF?!"
Sure, some people change the channel. But there are times where you're just left ALL SORTS of screwed up, not knowing what the hell just happened.
Part of your lives, maybe (Score:2, Interesting)
I got a summer job in the woods. When I came back home after three months and sat down in front of a television I simply could not believe that people could watch such inane drivel. I lasted 15 minutes.
It was nearly ten years later that I actually bought a television set, and that so I could watch movies on HBO. I no longer even have cable. Once in a while at a friends house I will see what is on the tube today and as far as I ca
Ludicrous (Score:2)
Now, thinking of ludicrous examples of 80s TV shows, "Small Wonder" popped into my head. I will forever curse the author of this article for that... but he has a point. Sure, enough, there was a fan site for "Small Wonder".
However, some jewels remain improperly exploited. The lack of an "Sledge Hammer" DVD is a crime against humanity
Tales of the Golden Monkey (Score:2)
I've found a few sites about it, but I have yet to meet anyone besides the site operators that remembers this show. It was probably horrible, but as a 9 year old I have fond memories of it.
Ah, wasted youth.....
classic sitcoms (Score:2)
Then again, I haven't watched a sitcom since the 60s. Either they don't make 'em like they used to, or I grew up.
airwolf (Score:2)
You Can't Do That On Television (Score:2, Insightful)
possible virus alert from the full house site? (Score:2)
Of course, me using moz, I didn't notice it.
http://fly.to/fullhouse
This is a job for... (Score:2)
Dedicated to cataloging all of the hideous and obscene fanfic and fanart that ruins all of our cherished nostalgic childhood memories.
Powerpuff Girls, check. Electra-Woman and Dyna-Girl, check. Rainbow Brite, check. Those are almost obvious. My Little Pony, perhaps less so.
On the other hand, Mighty Mouse or Care Bears slashfic takes a certain je ne sais quoi to create; and Gummi Bears or Knight Rider slash indicates someone, somewhere, is operating from an entirely
Re:ITVDB? (Score:5, Informative)
TV Tome [tvtome.com]
Re:I don't watch TV (Score:5, Funny)
I prefer Shit Pump
Re:I used to watch this sci-fi/space show (Score:2)
Re:Miami Vice! (Score:2)
Re:Thundercats outtakes (Score:2)
But do try the main link -- that way you can browse the rest of her collection of oddities.