Retroist Podcast

I am trying something a little different with this episode. I am heading back to 1977 to take a look at the original titles for the Atari VCS. I have been a lifelong Atari fan and collector and while my top games are not from the first year of the console, I am very much intrigued by the idea of a time when the console only had 9 titles. It would take me a while, but eventually I would get to collect ‘em all. Support the Retroist on Patreon On the show, I start off by talking about this time in Atari’s history and how I have loved the start of any product line. Variety is great, but a small checklist is very satisfying. In addition to the original games, I talk about Sears, cartridge technology, the art and artists, and the original cast of programmers who made these first few games. These trailblazers would all go onto other things. Its is amazing that Star Wars and the VCS landed in 1977. Two things among many that helped to define a lot of childhoods. This episode helped to remind me why I really loved ear

The Bad News Bears made more sense to me after I played baseball when I was young. I was put on a T-ball team that seemed to be assembled from the kids nobody else wanted, and we were terrible. We never got great, but we improved and somehow eventually managed to win a few games, and got the award we were dreaming of. That was enough to make us feel like champions. When I later watched the Bears, probably on VHS or cable, I could relate to being part of a team that was bad but still worth playing for. Support the Retroist on Patreon On the show, I talk about how The Bad News Bears was made and the people who brought it to the screen. I spend time on Bill Lancaster’s screenplay and Michael Ritchie’s work with the young cast. I also look at the film’s unusual music, its reception, and the other versions that followed it. As usual, I pulled out my local newspapers to see what was happening when the movie opened in 1976. The Bad News Bears remains one of my favorite sports movies because it understands how strang

I want to start off by saying I don’t know much about soccer or as I think most of the rest of the world calls it football. But with the World Cup back in the United States I thought this would be a nice opportunity to talk about my time working security at the World Cup the first time it was played in America back in 1994. I was very young at the time, but it was great job to get. It might not have taught me much about how soccer is played, but I did finally get an idea of how rabid the fans are. On the show, I start by talking about my limited exposure to soccer growing up. I then move on to the 1994 tournament, how it was presented to an American audience, and some of the strange details surrounding it. Most of the episode is about how I got the security job at Giants Stadium, the different assignments I was given, the people I encountered, and what it was like to be close to such a large event without really understanding the sport being played. The 1994 World Cup was far more successful than many people

I start this podcast episode by talking about my own trips to Action Park. I was so excited to go as a kid when I visited and got to go because it was close to where my uncle lived in Northern New Jersey. My mother was not a big fan of amusement parks unless they were connected to Disney, and she had started reading enough about Action Park to be worried. My uncle did not have the same concerns, so he took me there and I had a great time. I rode what I could, brought home brochures, talked about it all summer, and assumed I would keep going back. That didn’t happen. Then I talk about how Action Park came to be. The story starts with Gene Mulvihill, Great Gorge, Vernon Valley, and the problem of what a ski resort is supposed to do when the weather gets warm. The Alpine Slide came first, and from there the place kept growing into something much larger. Action Park was built around participation, which meant you were not simply strapped into a ride and moved along. You had some control, or at least the feeling o

I begin this podcast episode by talking about the strange timing of television in our lives. Sometimes a show arrives at just the right moment, and for a while it feels like part of your weekly routine. Then you get older, your habits change, and without really deciding to, you stop watching. Years later, you come back to it and realize there was a whole stretch of the story you never saw. Perfect Strangers was one of those shows for me. Then I talk about Perfect Strangers, including its creation, the people in front of and behind the camera, its place as one of the anchors of ABC’s TGIF lineup, and the full run of the series from its mid eighties debut through its final season in the early nineties. I also talk about how the show changed over time, how Balki and Larry grew from mismatched roommates into family, and how Perfect Strangers helped lead to one of television’s most successful spinoffs, Family Matters. Perfect Strangers worked because Bronson Pinchot and Mark Linn Baker were so right together. The

I first saw the Game Genie at a friend’s house just after Christmas in 1991. We were doing the usual thing, seeing what everyone got, trying out games, handing controllers back and forth. Then he brought out the Game Genie and plugged it into the Nintendo. The second I saw what it could do, I wanted one of my own. It was that simple. If you spent enough time with games, you knew their rules pretty well, and this thing seemed to step right past them. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk about that first time seeing the Game Genie in action and why it was such a revelation the moment it was plugged in. Until then, games felt locked. They were hard in the ways they were hard, and if you could not get past something, that was that. Then this little cartridge adapter shows up and suddenly you can start with extra lives, make impossible jumps easier, or see parts of a game you had never been able to reach on your own. It did not feel like a normal accessory. It felt like you were getting access to someth

There were a few cars that could stop me in my tracks when I was a kid, and the DeLorean was near the top of the list. We had one in my town, parked outside a dentist’s office, and just knowing it was amazing. It was not something you expected to see in everyday life. It looked like it had landed from somewhere else, all sharp lines and brushed metal, like the future had somehow ended up next to where I got scolded for not brushing properly. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk about what it was like to grow up with that kind of local landmark, a car that felt larger than life before I knew much at all about how it came to be. Back then, the DeLorean was just the DeLorean to me, a machine that stood apart from every other car on the road. Later on, of course, I came to understand that behind it was John DeLorean himself, a figure who was just as unusual, ambitious, and complicated as the car that carried his name. That is part of what makes this story so interesting to revisit. You cannot really se

Back to the Future didn’t feel like a property that I expected to be turned into a cartoon, at least not to me at the time. By the time the animated series arrived, my interest in Saturday morning television was already starting to slip. I had not entirely left it behind, but I was no longer meeting it with the same excitement I had a few years earlier. That made this show an interesting one for me, because it landed right in that moment when a longtime habit was beginning to feel more like something I was outgrowing. Support the Retroist on Patreon On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk about that stretch of time when Saturday morning cartoons were still part of the routine, but not quite the center of it anymore. I was still watching, still checking in, still curious when something tied to a movie or character I liked showed up on the schedule. But it was different. The feeling had changed. Back to the Future The Animated Series came along right in that space, where I still wanted one more visit wi

Back to the Future Part III had a different job to do. Part II had ended on a cliffhanger and sent everybody out of the theater with their heads spinning, but the third film had to bring everything back down to earth, or maybe more accurately, out to the Old West. It was ending a story people had gotten very attached to and it had to do that without losing the sense of fun and invention that made the series feel special in the first place. We didn’t go to the future with flying cars and flat screens. This time it was dust, horses, locomotives, and a version of the past that felt just as exciting. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I start with a memory from my time working at the mall. I spent a lot of lunched at the bookstore, where I kept running into a fan of the film who loved talking about where the series could go next. He was especially taken with the train at the end. He had no shortage of ideas about the sequels that could have followed if that machine had carried Doc and his family into one mo

Back to the Future Part II had a lot to live up to. The first movie was already huge, and by the time the sequel showed up people were ready to see Marty and Doc again. This was not just another follow up. It felt like an event. Audiences had been waiting to find out what happened next, and the movie gave them a future full of flying cars, weird gadgets, and, most importantly to a lot of us, hoverboards. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk about Back to the Future Part II, starting with the fact that my friends and I really believed hoverboards were real. Or at least that they had been real for a minute and adults had ruined it for everybody. It did not help that Robert Zemeckis was willing to play along. When you are a kid, that kind of thing gets in your head fast, and this movie knew exactly how to make that future feel real enough to believe. From there I get into the movie itself, its release, and why it hit people the way it did. Part II did not just try to do the first movie again. It went

I don’t know if you knew this, but Back to the Future is kind of a big deal. Its known as a big hit, but that wasn’t a forgone conclusion. Robert Zemeckis was not yet a household name, and while Michael J. Fox was a TV star, translating that to movie stardom was far from guaranteed. Many studios had already passed on the project, and time travel comedies weren’t exactly in demand. But sometimes a movie arrives at exactly the right moment, and this was one of those times. It became one of the highest-grossing films of the year and launched one of the most cherished franchises Hollywood has ever produced. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk all about Back to the Future. I start off talking about what its like returning to your hometown after some time has passed. There’s something genuinely disorienting about walking streets you know by heart but finding them subtly wrong. The layout is familiar but the details have shifted. You catch yourself navigating toward a store that closed a decade ago, or s

Grease as a studio movie in the late 1970s was a big swing. Sure it had two big stars in it, but its success entering a crowded summer of movies was not a foregone conclusion. But it turns out it was just what people were craving at the time and the film, much like the stage musical it was based on, was a huge success. On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk all about Grease. Starting with my first interactions with the film. Like many, I found the songs in the films hard to resist and re-listened to the soundtrack until I had memorized my favorite song, Greased Lightnin’. What I didn’t know about the song, was that it had some adult themes that I was too young too understand. How did my family react, with laughter, of course. Then I move onto the film going all the way back to its origins as a stage musical. After that, I discuss its development, casting, production, release, reception, and much more. This is a film that not only was big at the box office, but managed to find success in related media

In the late 1960s, the pop culture of the 1950s was still well-remembered, but the United States was going through some major changes. A counter-culture was going mainstream and with it came a rejection of things associated with older generations. Emblematic of this era was Woodstock. This music festival was filled with bands and artists that defined the era. But another act, took to the stage during the festival that didn’t quite fit in, Sha Na Na. Started as a college performance act, Sha Na Na came to the attention of Jimi Hendrix. Hendrix liked their energy and with his urging, the organizers of Woodstock went to see them and invited them for perform. You can see their performance in the Woodstock documentary and some members of the audience look confused, but in the end, Sha Na Na wins them over and you can see why. Their energy and talent was relentless. The music? Timeless. The group would go onto tour successfully, star in their own TV show, and have a memorable turn in Grease. So they were on the sta

Welcome to the Retroist Christmas Commercials III Podcast. Christmas is almost here. You know what that means? Time to buy stuff! That’s why this week’s show is all about the Christmas commercials that we love. I have done this format twice before and people liked it. So be warned, this show has a bit of a different format from the regular podcast. It is dedicated solely to holiday commercials. I hope you enjoy it. I tried to break it down in little themes and also tried to not repeat what I have shared in past specials. I can also be limited by existing audio. A few commercials I found just had unsalvageable audio. Here are how I organized the show. Atari Music Other Newspapers and Magazines Foods Cameras Beverages Colognes Stores Fast Food Toys

In 1965, Christmas television in the United States changed forever when, A Charlie Brown Christmas, premiered. Nothing about its creation and tone said it was going to be a success, but it touched people and was a huge hit. A hit that has continued to deliver Christmas Magic year after year for decades. I start the episode talking about something that became important in the eighties. That’s when it wasn’t enough to just watch the special. Now with VCRs, you could own the special. Sure, you could eventually buy or rent a copy, but with a blank tape, you could make your own copy. So I discuss what that was like in my home at the time. Then I dive into the special itself. I discuss the people in front of and behind the camera, its production, music, and much more. I also reference some newspaper articles, and I will share my clippings over on Patreon, so if you are a support, make sure to check them out. It isn’t Christmas for me unless I watch, A Charlie Brown Christmas. It is a special that not just enhances

In 1967 Hanna-Barbera had a new show on Saturday Mornings, The Herculoids. This was before my time, but the show’s concept and characters were so enduring that nearly a decade and a half later they would be revived for a new show and I would be introduced to the great characters. Between and since then the have shown up in reruns, comic books, and more modern shows where they often appear for laughs. The design of the characters was by the great Alex Toth, who I haven’t really talk enough about on the show. So I start this episode with a bio of Toth after talking about my experience discovering and learning about the show over the years. Then I move onto thee show itself. I discuss the people in front of and behind the camera, the studio who made it, its release, the music, and much more. While the show combined elements of science fiction and fantasy, it was very easy to understand. A family of people and creatures come together to protect their home against anything that throw at them. Combine that simple a

In 1983, the first wave of arcade madness was still at a highpoint. We had a slew of classic games filled with classic characters that had become household names. Still, only one had made the leap off the gaming screen and onto the small screen, Pac-Man (and his family.) With everyone being so crazed for games, TV networks were wondering, how do I get my own Pac-Man type show? That is where we get the Saturday Supercade. Because why have a show with just one character when you can pick up a slew of video game stars. On today show I want to tell you all about the Saturday Supercade. I start by talking about my own viewing habits as a kid. I was very much the target demographic for this show and I did not let the network down. Then I move onto each segment of the show, talking a little about its run, voice talent, and more. I conclude by summarizing the Supercade, how long it was on, when it ran, and its long-term influence. The show was so meaningful to me that this was actually the second episode of the Retro

Prom Night, starry Jamie Curtis, is a movie that is often overshadowed by her more memorable turn in Halloween. While it might not be a classic, like Halloween, it is a film well-worth your time. A fun, low-budget slasher film, it is also has a nice whodunit, and a time-capsule of the late 1970s with its disco dancing and music. I begin the episode by discussing my own prom. It wasn’t memorable like all the proms I saw in the movies, but my friends and I did eventually manage to have some fun. Could our prom have used more disco? Probably, but all proms could use more disco. After discussing the prom, I move onto the film itself. Talking about how it got made, who made it, the actors, music, reception and much more. Prom Night is interesting as a bridge between the Halloween era and the more graphic slashers that followed. Its kills are relatively low-key compared to what came after, but its focus on teenage drama, secrets, and revenge foreshadowed many later films. Why should you watch it? Curtis’s performan

Heavy Metal Music and Horror Films are a potent combination, so I am always surprised that heavy crossover isn’t as a common as one could expect. Still a few movies have done it in different ways. On the newest episode of the Retroist Podcast, I want to talk about a movie that integrates it fully and completely, Trick or Treat. This movie didn’t do great when it was first released back in 1986, but it has since gone on to have a cult status. I begin the episode by discussing seeing this movie with my friends. They had wholeheartedly embraced metal music, while I was more of a tourist at this point. So there most movie chats about it went mostly over my head. Still, I did find the movie enjoyable and even more so when it was available on VHS. It is my time of horror, a little weird, creepy, but the violence is toned-down. I then discuss the film itself. Talking about how it got made, who made it, the actors, music, cameos and much more. Trick or Treat is one of those movies that feels like it could only have b

1999 was a great year for movies. Almost too great. It didn’t help that I found myself so busy with work that my focus on film couldn’t be what it used to be. So while I am a big fan of “The Iron Giant,” I was also one of those people who didn’t go to see it in the theater and contributed to its “flop” status. That summer was stacked with films like “The Sixth Sense” and “The Blair Witch Project,” and it was easy for something quieter and more thoughtful to get lost. While that is bad, the good news is that I was also one of the people who took to it on home video and picked it up on DVD as soon as it was available. I can still remember watching it for the first time at home and being floored by how much heart it had. I start the episode talking about my experiences with the film before moving onto the film itself. I discuss the people who made the film, its source material, other adaptations, the people who lent their voices to the film, its reception, music, and much more. It’s worth noting that the directo