Sunday, May 1, 2011

May Day, May Day

The Blog is back for a special May Day edition, now while I actually have no idea what May Day is exactly, I do know what in movies and stuff when they say May Day, May Day, usually they are going down. Also May Day was former Red Sox relief pitcher Sam Malone's nickname, ok, so maybe he didn't really play for the Red Sox, but Sam "May Day" Malone is an icon. The concept for Cheers was a little strange though, I mean former Red Sox player opening a bar in Boston, I get that, but he's a recovering alcoholic, probably not the best place for him to be hanging out, no? It's also weird that other then in a few episodes towards the beginning of the series, they didn't really deal with that issue all that much, guess it was kinda a dark subject for what the show ended up becoming in the later seasons. Ok, so all this talk about Cheers brings me to a point. What was the best 80's Sitcom theme music? Cheers is definitely up there:
But is it the best? I'm not sure, I personally always enjoyed the Perfect Strangers theme song, which I have covered before in the blog, but just for the hell of it, here it is again, the original version though:
This was another interesting concept for a show, guy from Wisconsin moves to Chicago and then ends up living with his distant cousin that he never met before who is from the fictitious country of Mypos in Europe, I feel like if they tried this today, people would just be like WTF? and it would last 3 episodes and be off the air, instead it was the 80's so it lasted 8 seasons. Ok, quick sidenote here, watching Rocky III right now, and they just had the scene where Mickey dies, my question is Rocky actually saying words here?
 I'm not sure if those are words, I can't tell, what exactly did the script say for that part? Anyway, getting back to 80 TV Themes, another one of my favorities was Growing Pains, which had a great theme song as well:
I also liked the fact that they would switch it up too, they had different versions of the end where someone would stay and look at the camera longer for some reason, it was actually similar to what the Simpsons do with the couch gags, but Growing Pains did it first. Ok, couple things to note about this show, concept of this show was pretty, basic family show, interesting to note that Maggie Seaver, maiden name that she used when she was a reporter was Malone, so pretty sure she was Sam Malone's sister, I know that's probably not the case, but lets just go with it. Lot of people got their starts on this show, Leonardo DiCaprio was brought in for the last season, Brad Pitt made his debut on the show, and Matthew Perry also did some guest spots on the show before he was anyone, and actually was in a very special episode, he played Carol's boyfriend and was in a drunk driving accident and died, I know, very dark for a family sitcom, but it had a message which I remember at the end of the episode it had a special note that said don't drink and drive or something, it was weird. Anyway, moving on, Who's the Boss was another show right in the wheelhouse which had a great theme as well.
I don't know, definitely memorable, but I don't think it matches up with the other ones as well, but this one might:
Ok, now maybe its not that great, but I think the reason that I always liked it was because of an SNL skit they did when he was on, where he was in an elevator and Kevin Nealon comes in and keeps start singing the song and annoys the hell out of him, then Dana Carvey comes in and they start singing Back In Time, or maybe it was the other way around, I can't remember and can't find it anywhere online, but it was awesome. They also did one with Sting, which was good too. Ok, now technically these next couple started in the 70's but they went into the 80's, and I remember them more for syndication anyway, but anyway, they are great.
Ok, I can't say I really watched this show all that much, I know it spun off Happy Days, I pretty much just remember the theme music, but whatever, this next show however I was a huge fan of and it had a great theme as well:

Ok, for some reason I couldn't just find the opening on youtube, but that's got it in there. Loved this show when I was little, which when looking back on it, I'm not really sure why, I know I didn't really get half the jokes, but John Ritter did enough physical comedy as a kid that must have kept me interested. Ok, that's all I can think of for now, I'm sure there's plenty more that I'm leaving out, so let me know which is your favorite.

So, having been blogging much recently, been busy with some stuff, had an exciting week, went and saw the Bruins finish of Montreal in OT in Game 7, that was exciting and it was about time I saw the Bruins win a game 7 after the last 2 years, just a plus that it was against Montreal. Now it's time to get some revenge on the Flyers, and they are off to a good start winning game 1 7-3, Philly has issues in goal. Course after last year won't be comfortable until the Bruins are shaking hands after winning. Celtics finished off the Knicks and now take on Miami, which will be a crazy series, but I feel like the Celtics will win it in 6, so hopefully they can prove me right.

What else happened this week, well Thursday Night was Steve Carell's last episode as Michael Scott on The Office, which was good, could have been better, but certainly went out in style. I feel like the episode should have atleast been an hour, 53 minutes or whatever it was, was odd, seemed like they rushed it a little too much, but it was good, it'll be interesting to see how these next 3 episodes go, kinda strange that they didn't leave Carell's last episode for the finale, but I got a couple theories as to why they did that, either A, they wanted to get their feet wet with not having Michael Scott around, or maybe he was only signed on for a certain amount of episodes and that was it, not really sure, but either way it will be interesting to see where they ultimately go with the new Boss, cause Will Ferrell only has one more episode left.

Ok, so now while it should be time for me to move on to the 90's in terms of the MTV thing, with all this talk about 80's sitcoms and the fact that I definitely missed a whole bunch more videos in my last few posts, I'm gonna bring you one more dose of the 80's. One of the genre that was big in the 80's and I didn't really get into all that much was Hair Metal, and probably the poster children for Hair Metal was these guys:
Yup, Motley Crue, if that doesn't say Hair Metal for you, then maybe these guys will:
Then again, can't forget about these guys:
Or how about these guys:
Ok, so while hair metal was pretty big in the 80's there was other metal that was big too, and with all this metal being so popular MTV created it's own show to showcase it and that was called Headbangers Ball, and it featured videos that might not normally get played on the station, like video from bands like Megadeth:
Also bands liked Judas Priest:
as well as Anthrax:
Of course on the flipside of that MTV also did the same thing for Rap, when they came out with the show  Yo! MTV Raps with Doctor Dre and Ed Lover, and if it wasn't for that show, a group like NWA would never get a video on MTV, but they did:
Only a couple years later Dr Dre, not to confused with Doctor Dre as well as Ice Cube would be all over MTV, but at the time, they didn't really get a lot of airtime.

Ok, so probably one of the biggest omissions that I made during this whole thing, and really 1984, was not including any Bruce Springsteen, no idea how I left him out, he was huge in 1984 cause he released Born in the USA, and well that album was a monster hit, probably many of the "true" Bruce fans will say that's when he sold out, and maybe that's true, and this video might prove that actually:
But, hey, it's got Courtney Cox, and who doesn't like some Cox in their video? Speaking of which, there was this song and video that was big in the 80s:
Now, I want to bring up a song that started a trend in the 80s which had a lot people probably bumping into things cause it was hard for them to see well:
And finally, I got one last video from the 80s for you, and while this guy isn't probably the first guy you think of when you discuss the 80s, his bigger hits were probably in the 70s, he did have one big hit in the 80s and it had a memorable video, and here it is:
Well, there you have it folks, the 80s, next time out I will be moving on to the 90s. Hope you enjoyed it all, but just in case you didn't get enough, here's one last memorable 80s moment, came at the very end of the decade, but maybe people will always remember it. There was a Wall in Berlin, and in 1989 that wall came down and Germany was reunited, and what better way to celebrate, then with David Hasselhoff:
BTW, if anyone knows where I can get anything that he is wearing, that would be awesome.

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