Thursday, March 20, 2014

It's #TBT- Throwback Thursday.. What old 1980's TV Shows do you Remember?




Let's have some fun, are you ready? 

I love throwback Thursdays. It is like a walk down Memory Lane every week! This week I want to go back to the 80's. Yes, I know, some of you were not even born! But, I was. This is my year! And if that doesn't put an age with my face, I don't know what will... (I am still 21 at heart! And I know that no one believes that!)



What are some of your Favorite Shows back from the 1980's?


How about Alf?  I can remember everything about this show, right down to how the house was staged. It was one of those shows that, as a child, we never missed.  If you don't know who Alf is, Shame on You!!


BACKGROUND on ALF: (from Wikipedia.com)

ALF is an alien who follows a ham radio signal to Earth and crash-lands into the garage of the Tanners. The Tanners are a suburban middle-class family in the San Fernando Valley area of California. The family consists of social worker Willie (Max Wright), his wife Kate (Anne Schedeen), their teenage daughter Lynn (Andrea Elson), younger son Brian (Benji Gregory), and their cat Lucky.

Unsure what to do, the Tanners take ALF into their home and hide him from the Alien Task Force (a part of the U.S. military that specializes in aliens) and their nosy neighbors Trevor and Raquel Ochmonek (John LaMotta and Liz Sheridan), until he can repair his spacecraft. He generally hides in the kitchen. It is eventually revealed that ALF's home planet Melmac exploded because of a catastrophe involving a nuclear war. The alien was an orbit guard on his planet. In the Season One episode "Pennsylvania 6-5000", ALF tries to convince the President of the United States to stop the nuclear program, as ALF fears that Earth might suffer a fate similar to Melmac's, though miscalculating his words causes the President and National Security to call the FBI to arrest Willie. ALF was off the planet when it was destroyed because he was part of the Melmac Orbit Guard. ALF (a.k.a. Gordon Shumway) is homeless, but he is not the last survivor of his species. He becomes a permanent member of the family, although his culture shock, survivor guilt, general boredom, despair, and loneliness frequently cause difficulty for the Tanners. Despite the problems and inconveniences his presence brings into their lives, they grow to love him, though some episodes make it clear they are also afraid of how their lives would be turned upside down if word that he has been living with them gets out.

While most of the science fiction of ALF was played for comedic value, there were a few references to actual topics in space exploration; for example, ALF uses a radio signal as a beacon in the pilot episode. In the episode "Weird Science", ALF told Brian, who was building a model of the solar system for his science project, that there were two planets beyond Pluto called "Dave" and "Alvin" (as in David Seville and Alvin from the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise), which gets Brian in trouble at school. However, after ALF makes a call to an astronomical organization and states that "Dave" is known by the organization, Willie comes to believe that "Dave" could have been the planetoid Chiron, or "Object Kowal", after its discoverer. ALF then shows Willie exactly where "Dave" is on an intergalactic map of the universe.

Each episode dealt with ALF learning about Earth and making new friends both within and outside of the Tanner family, including Willie's brother Neal (Jim J. Bullock), Kate's widowed mother Dorothy (Anne Meara) with whom ALF has a love-hate relationship, her boyfriend (and later husband) Whizzer (Paul Dooley), the Ochmoneks' nephew Jake (Josh Blake), a psychologist named Larry (Bill Daily), and a blind woman named Jody (Andrea Covell) who never figures out that ALF is not human (although she is aware through touch that he is short and hairy).

Changes occur within the Tanner household over the course of the series, including the birth of a new child, Eric (the reason for adding a baby in the series being that Anne Schedeen was pregnant at the time); ALF's move from his initial quarters in the laundry room to the attic, which he and Willie converted into an "apartment", and the death of Lucky the cat in Season Four's "Live and Let Die"; in this instance, ALF finds that despite his occasional attempts to catch Lucky with the intention of making the cat a meal, as cats are the equivalent of cattle on Melmac, he has come to love and respect the family pet too much to do anything untoward with Lucky's remains. When ALF acquires a new cat with the intent of eating it, he actually grows fond of it and allows it to be adopted by the family, although he admits to the Tanners he has become the worst kind of Melmackian, a "cat lover".





Growing Pains and Kirk Cameron... and Leonardo DiCaprio when he joined the cast. I loved, loved, loved this show and seriously, I cryed when it ended. I remember being an early teenager and watching re-runs all over again. Those were the days!

BACKGROUND on Growing Pains: (from Wikipedia.com)

Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, Long Island, New York,[1] with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985, to April 25, 1992.

The show's premise is based on the fictional Seaver family, who reside at 15 Robin Hood Lane in Huntington, Long Island, New York,[2] Dr. Jason Seaver (Alan Thicke), a psychiatrist, works from home because his wife, Maggie (Joanna Kerns), has gone back to work as a reporter. Jason has to take care of the kids: troublemaker Mike (Kirk Cameron), honors student Carol (Tracey Gold), and rambunctious Ben (Jeremy Miller). A fourth child, Chrissy Seaver, was born in 1988. She was played in her infant stage by twins Kristen and Kelsey Dohring (who alternated in the role). Beginning in the fall of 1990, Chrissy's age was advanced to six years old, whereupon Ashley Johnson took over the role.

Cast:
  • Alan Thicke as Dr. Jason Roland Seaver
  • Joanna Kerns as Margaret Katherine "Maggie" Seaver (she used her maiden name "Malone" when she got a TV reporter job, but was known as Maggie Seaver at home and her previous newspaper job)
  • Kirk Cameron as Michael Aaron "Mike" Seaver
  • Tracey Gold as Carol Anne Seaver (1985–1992) (Gold replaced Elizabeth Ward after the pilot.)
  • Jeremy Miller as Benjamin Hubert Horatio Humphrey "Ben" Seaver
  • Ashley Johnson as Christine Ellen "Chrissy" Seaver (1990–1992)
  • Leonardo DiCaprio as Luke Brower (1991–1992)[3]



The Wonder Years.. I loved this show too. Winnie Cooper was my idol.  I think that this was the pre-quell to my late 90's -early 2000 favorite show. (That 70's Show).


BACKGROUND on The Wonder Years: (from Wikipedia.com)

The series depicts the social and family life of a boy in a typical American suburb from 1968 to 1973, covering his ages of 12 through 17. Each fictional year in the series takes place exactly twenty years before airing (1988 to 1993).

The show's plot centers on Kevin Arnold, son of Jack and Norma Arnold. Kevin's dad holds a management job at NORCOM, a defense contractor, while his mother is a homemaker. Kevin also has an older brother, Wayne, and an older sister, Karen. Two of Kevin's age peers and neighbors are prominently featured throughout the series: his best friend, Paul Pfeiffer, and his crush-turned-girlfriend Gwendolyn "Winnie" Cooper. Story lines are told through Kevin's reflections as an adult in his mid-30s, voiced by narrator Daniel Stern.

In the pilot episode, Winnie's older brother Brian, whom Kevin admires, is killed in action in Vietnam in 1968. Kevin meets Winnie in a nearby wooded area called Harpers Woods, and they end up sharing their first kiss. This unsaid relationship between Winnie and Kevin remains dormant for a long while, with Winnie starting to date a popular 8th grader named Kirk McCray, and Kevin briefly going steady with Becky Slater (played by Crystal McKellar—Danica's sister). After Kevin breaks up with Becky due to his feelings for Winnie, Becky becomes a recurring nuisance for Kevin. Winnie eventually dumps Kirk as well, and Kevin and Winnie share a second kiss at the start of the 1969 summer vacation. Around Valentine's Day 1970, Winnie temporarily dates Paul, who has broken up with his girlfriend Carla. Winnie and Kevin start dating each other soon after.

Just before the summer break, Winnie and her family move to a house four miles away. Although Winnie attends a new school, Lincoln Junior High, she and Kevin decide to remain together and maintain a successful long distance relationship. A beautiful new student named Madeline Adams joins Kevin's school and quickly catches Kevin's eye, but it is Winnie who breaks up with Kevin after meeting Roger, a typical jock-type at her new school. Neither relationship lasts long, but Winnie and Kevin don't reunite until she is injured in a car accident. After graduating from Junior High, Kevin and Winnie both go to McKinley High and Paul attends a prep school. Paul would later transfer to McKinley High and join Kevin and Winnie.
Earlier seasons of the show tended to focus on plots involving events within the Arnold household and Kevin's academic struggles, whereas later seasons focused much more on plots involving dating and Kevin's friends.

Kevin has several brief flings during the summer of 1971 and the 1971/72 academic year. After Kevin's grandfather gets his driver's license revoked, he sells his car to Kevin for a dollar. Paul transfers to McKinley High after his first semester at prep school when his father runs into financial troubles. Winnie and Kevin are reunited when they go on a double date to a school dance and find themselves more attracted to each other than their respective partners. Facing peer pressure in the episode "White Lies", Kevin implies to his friends that he has had sex with Winnie, but the spreading rumor causes Kevin and Winnie to break up for a few episodes. In late 1972, Kevin's older brother Wayne starts working at NORCOM, and dates his co-worker Bonnie, a divorcée with a son, but the relationship does not last. Kevin's dad quits NORCOM, and buys a furniture manufacturing business.

THE FINAL EPISODE (yes, this is how important this one was to me!)

In the finale double episode, Winnie decides to take a job for the summer of 1973 as a lifeguard at a resort. Kevin, anxious to experience a taste of adult life, plans a cross-country trip with his friends. Kevin's dad, Jack, vehemently objects to Kevin's plan and ultimately Kevin abandons his planned trip. Kevin returns to his job at his father's furniture factory and telephones Winnie, who by all accounts is distant and seems to be enjoying her time away from Kevin. Eventually, Kevin and his father fight and Kevin announces that he is leaving, reasoning that he needs to "find himself." Kevin hops in his car and heads to the resort where Winnie is working, hopeful that she can secure him a job and they can spend the rest of the summer together.[11][12]
Much to Kevin's chagrin, Winnie does not appear too pleased with Kevin's arrival and maintains her distance. Kevin is finally able to secure a job at the resort's restaurant and resides in the bus boys' dorm. Feeling confused and frustrated over Winnie's behavior, Kevin searches out other activities to occupy his time. Kevin decides to play poker with the resort's in-house band members. Kevin wins big (by bluffing while only holding a pair of 2s) and goes searching for Winnie, anxious to share the tale of his good fortune. When Kevin finds her, Winnie is engaged in a passionate kiss with a male lifeguard.

The next day, Kevin confronts Winnie about her actions, and they fight. The fallout with Winnie leads Kevin to play another round of poker with the band. This time Kevin ends up losing everything, including his car. Desperate, Kevin confronts Winnie and her new beau at the restaurant and ends up punching him in the face. Kevin then leaves the resort on foot.

On a desolate stretch of highway, Kevin decides to begin hitchhiking. He finally gets picked up by an elderly couple and much to his surprise he finds Winnie in the backseat. Winnie was fired over the fight Kevin instigated at the resort. Kevin and Winnie begin to argue and the elderly couple gets fed up and kicks them out of the car. A flash rain storm begins and Kevin and Winnie search for shelter. They find a barn and discuss how much things are changing and the prospects for the future. At first Winnie tells Kevin that she doesn't see them ending up together but quickly recants, telling Kevin "I don't want it to end." Kevin moves over to Winnie's side as she extends her blanket to Kevin and they share a passionate kiss. The adult Kevin narrates that night they made a promise to always be together and "it was a promise full of passion."

They soon find their way back to their hometown and arrive hand-in-hand to a Fourth of July parade. During this parade, the adult Kevin (Daniel Stern) describes the fate of the show's main characters: Kevin makes up with his father, graduates from high school in 1974 and leaves for college and later becomes a writer. Paul studies law at Harvard. Karen, Kevin's sister, gives birth to a son in September 1973. Kevin's mother becomes a businesswoman and corporate board chairwoman. Kevin's father dies in 1975, and Wayne takes over his father's furniture business. Winnie studies art history in Paris while Kevin stays in the United States. Winnie and Kevin end up writing to each other once a week for the next eight years. When Winnie returns to the United States in 1982, Kevin meets her at the airport with his wife and eight-month-old son.

The final sounds, voice-over narration, and dialogue of the episode and series is that of Kevin (voice of Daniel Stern), with children heard in the background:
Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers, the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. I remember a place, a town, a house, like a lot of houses. A yard like a lot of other yards. On a street like a lot of other streets. And the thing is, after all these years, I still look back... with wonder.
A little boy (Stern's real life son) can be heard asking his dad to come out and play catch during a break in the final narration. Kevin's narrative responds, "I'll be right there" as the episode closes.
<<<<so sad..tear!>>>>




Saturday Morning Saved by the Bell.  I feel sad because my Girls will never know about Saved by the Bell. I loved waking up, having my bowl of ceral and sitting down in my pajamas, eating and watching my Saturday Morning TV shows!


BACKGROUND on Saved by the Bell: (from Wikipedia.com)

Saved by the Bell is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from 1989 to 1993. The series was a retool of the Disney Channel series Good Morning, Miss Bliss. The show follows the exploits of a group of friends and their principal, and although the series primarily showcases light-hearted comedic situations, it occasionally touches on serious social issues, such as drug use, driving under the influence, homelessness, divorce, death, and environmental issues. This made Saved by the Bell a precursor to later shows (such as Beverly Hills, 90210, Dawson's Creek, and The O.C.) that introduce young audiences to critical moral dilemmas.

Saved by the Bell stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Dennis Haskins, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mario Lopez.[1]

Saved by the Bell was named one of the "20 Best School Shows of All Time" by AOL TV.[2] The show's popularity spawned two spin-off series to follow: Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993–94), a prime time series that follows several of the original characters to college, and Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1993–2000), a Saturday morning series that follows a new group of students at Bayside High School.[3] The series also spawned two TV movies and a short-lived comic book series.[citation needed] Saved by the Bell also aired in Australia on Channel Seven, and from 1990 until 2004 on Nickelodeon. Reruns have aired in local syndication and on MTV2 and E!




Moonlighting.. I know this one is weird for a young girl to watch, but my Mom would watch it all the time and I think this is where I got my obsession for Crime TV.  I went on to love CSI!


BACKGROUND on Moonlighting: (from Wikipedia.com)

The series revolved around cases investigated by the Blue Moon Detective Agency and its two partners, Madelyn "Maddie" Hayes (Shepherd) and David Addison Jr. (Willis). The show, with a mix of mystery, sharp dialogue, and sexual tension between its two leads, introduced Bruce Willis to the world and brought Cybill Shepherd back into the spotlight after a nearly decade-long absence. The characters were introduced in a two-hour pilot episode that preceded the series proper.

The show's storyline begins with the reversal of fortune of Maddie Hayes, a former model who finds herself bankrupt after her accountant embezzles all of her liquid assets. She is left saddled with several failing businesses formerly maintained as tax write-offs, one of which is the City of Angels Detective Agency, helmed by the carefree David Addison. Between the pilot and the first one-hour episode, David persuades Maddie to keep the business and run it as a partnership. The agency is renamed Blue Moon Investigations because Maddie was most famous for being the spokesmodel for the (fictitious) Blue Moon Shampoo Company. In many episodes she was recognized as "the Blue Moon shampoo girl," if not by name.

In his audio commentary for the season-three DVD, creator Glenn Gordon Caron says that the inspiration for the series was a production of The Taming of the Shrew he saw in Central Park starring Meryl Streep and Raúl Juliá. The show would parody this Shakespeare play in the season-three episode Atomic Shakespeare.[7]



Of course the Bundy's! Crazy my Mom let us watch this, but a classic in my opinion!


BACKGROUND on Married... with Children: (from Wikipedia.com)

The show follows the lives of Al Bundy, a once glorious high school football player turned hard-luck women's shoe salesman; his obnoxious wife, Peggy; their attractive, promiscuous, and dim daughter, Kelly; and their girl-crazy, wisecracking son, Bud (who will become the only Bundy to attend college). Their neighbors are the upwardly-mobile Steve Rhoades and his wife Marcy, who later gets remarried to Jefferson D'Arcy, a white-collar criminal who becomes her "trophy husband" and Al's sidekick. Most storylines involve Al's schemes being foiled by his own cartoonish dim wit and bad luck. His rivalry with and loathing for Marcy play a significant role in most episodes.


********
Of course there are a ton more that I am not even digging into!  I have come to the conclusion, we watched A LOT of TV back in the 80's. It is funny because we would watch the same things that our Parent's watched. Yes, Cheers, Facts of Life, and so many more!




 ooh, what about My two Dads?  Crazy to think that in today's day and age that is a reality! And the Dad's were not even "together"!


BACKGROUND on My Two Dads: (from Wikipedia.com)

The MAIN CAST:
The show begins when Marcy Bradford (Emma Samms), the mother of twelve-year-old Nicole Bradford (Keanan), dies. The two men who had competed for the woman's affections before Nicole was born — Michael Taylor (Reiser), a successful financial advisor; and struggling artist Joey Harris (Evigan), former friends who hated one another because of their mutual interest in Marcy — are awarded joint custody of Nicole.

The mix-ups of two single men raising a teenage daughter provided the story each week. Judge Margaret W. Wilbur (Florence Stanley), a family court judge who awarded custody of Nicole to Michael and Joey, would frequently visit the new family and served as Nicole's mentor. This was because she had bought the building in which Joey lived and was now the live-in landlord. Michael had originally had his own condo uptown, but had been evicted from it, due to Joey's painting of the walls, and as such, moved into Joey's artist's loft.

Nicole's actual paternity was never revealed on the show. In the episode "Pop, the Question", Michael and Joey — after a falling out — had a DNA test run to determine which of them was Nicole's biological father. The test was conducted against Nicole's wishes, who destroyed the results before opening them since she was happier not knowing who the father was. Michael and Joey later resolve their differences and reconcile. Judge Wilbur looked at the results, but threw them away without revealing them to the audience.

The series came to an end (in the episode called "See You in September?") when Joey reconnected with a former girlfriend named Sarah and eventually moved to San Francisco to live with her and her daughter, Grace. He keeps in contact with Nicole, Michael and Judge Wilbur, all of whom remained in New York. Nicole made reference to her coming out to San Francisco and visiting him, then she ended her letter to Joey by saying that no matter what or where he was or who he was with, he would always be one of her two dads.

The Love INTERESTS:

The series regularly featured Giovanni Ribisi and Chad Allen as two boys (Cory Kupkus and Zach Nichols, respectively) who competed for Nicole's affections just as her two dads had done for her mother's. Florence Stanley appeared as Judge Margaret Wilbur, who was responsible for assigning Nicole's custody, and who regularly looked over the family; she was also their landlady, being the resident owner of the apartment building where the family lived. Amy Hathaway played Nicole's worldly best friend, Shelby Haskell. The cast was rounded by former football player Dick Butkus, who managed the cafe in the building's first floor. The cafe (Klawicki's) was the second spot in the show where the plot usually revolved; the first being the family's apartment. In the third season, when Dick Butkus left the series, the diner was then run by cook Julian (Don Yesso), but there was no explanation as to what happened to Ed Klawicki. Ownership of the diner was explained to have been taken over by Judge Wilbur at this point, and it was renamed The Judge's Court Cafe.


*******
I have great memories of my childhood and teenage years. I loved all the shows that I watched. They obviously left an impact in my life as I walk down Memory Lane.

What were some of your favorite shows or some that you remember so vividly. I can recall bits and pieces of the Wonder Years, like I lived them!!!


Happy ThrowBack Thursday everyone!
#TBT   #Lifeatgraygables


~KEL~

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