Pac-Man was a cultural phenomenon in the early 80s. It was merchandised as thoroughly as anything is today. So on this most auspicious holiday think back on the Atari 2600 and the game of Pac-Man. Maybe head on over to an emulator site and play a game. Enjoy one of the first video games to become a global phenomenon.
The Pirate Movie starring Christopher Atkins and Kristy MacNichol was released on August 6, 1982, which is 30 years ago today. Many people consider this movie a cheesy knockoff of the play Pirates of Penzance. However, while it’s incredibly cheesy, it’s more accurate to say that it’s a spoof of the Penzance play. It did not set the box office on fire, but HBO would play it continuously throughout the 80s causing it to have a cult following.
Here’s a newspaper ad of the movie from the day it was released on Aug 6.
Not only did this movie spoof pirate movies, it also spoofed musicals like Grease and even had some Star Wars jokes. It seemed like the cast had a really good time making it and most of the songs were very well written.
Check out the awesomely 80s trailer:
I am a big fan of musicals and this was a great one. The soundtrack is truly one for the ages. I still listen to (and workout out to) songs on this album. The songs on the album included some of the more famous Penzance songs like Modern Major-General and Pirate King, but also featured newly written songs specifically for the movie.
Some of my favorite songs in the movie include:
Pumpin’ and Blowin’ by Kristy McNichol (very much a late ’70s-early 80s tune)
This summer is the 20th anniversary of the 1992 Olympic Men’s basketball team. The original NBA “Dream Team”. To commemorate this anniversary, 7-up products have a set of 7 collector cans featuring 5 of the legendary team’s members.
Here is the lineup of cans available.
The five players chosen to represent the “Dream Team” for this set are Magic Johnson (Sunkist), Larry Bird (7-Up), Patrick Ewing (A&W), Scottie Pippen (Sun Drop) and David Robinson (Canada Dry Ginger Ale). As I said, there are only 5 of the 12 players represented, but there are 7 different cans. Consequently, Magic Johnson is also on Diet Sunkist and David Robinson is also on Welch’s Grape. I’m surprised they didn’t go for the full player roster and have 12 collectible player cans. When I found out about this I was actually concerned that I would have to hunt down 12 more collector cans so soon after my last hunt for cans (see Avengers cans) just ended. I need not worry now. I’d like to get all of these cans but I think I’m only getting the Bird and Magic cans. And I’ll probably get only the Diet Sunkist Magic can.
Honestly, I’m not surprised about Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley being absent from this set. They have separate likeness deals that have always made including them in NBA deals dicey. Jordan rarely showed up as a playable character in NBA Live games in the 90s. However, why not include cans of Stockton and Malone, Chris Mullin, Clyde “The Glide” Drexler or Christian Laettner (not really missed, btw)? I’m very saddened by the absence of Stockton and Malone especially. I was a big fan of the Jazz in the late 80s – early 90s. I’ve even seen them play at The Delta Center in Salt Lake City. Next to Larry Bird, John Stockton is my favorite NBA player of all time. I had planned on just getting the Stockton, Bird and Magic cans, but now, like I said, I’ll have to settle for only the Bird and Magic cans. Which is fine by me, but I would have really liked to have a Stockton can.
So, the actual anniversary of the selection of the initial 10 Dream Team players is September 21. I’ll be back then with a small retrospective on the team. I had planned on doing this retrospective anyway, but it’s nice to see 7-Up, ESPN and the NBA have also remembered the anniversary of this most historic basketball team.
Oh, and NBATV has also been running an hour and a half documentary called The Dream Team. It covers the selection, practices and tournament play of the team with footage and interviews. It’s been running several times a day every few days. Check it out if you get the chance. Here’s the trailer.
This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of Star Wars Celebration II. The event started on May 3, 2002 and went until May 5, 2002.
I was there with my friend Jason Collier. Above is a card advertising the event. It’s autographed by Daniel Logan, the kid who played Boba Fett, and RA Salvatore who wrote the novelization.
Jason and I also attended Star Wars Celebration I in Denver. I talked about Celebration I on it’s 10th anniversary in 2009.
So Celebration I was held in Denver. The powers-that-be decided to move it to what they thought was a more “central” location. It was announced that Celebration II would be held at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, IN. Honestly, I was a bit excited about the announcement. I’d never been to Indianapolis and I heard it was a really nice city. So with my wife’s blessings Jason and I planned our second trip to a Star Wars Celebration.
Right away, this convention proved that it was going to be a lot more “formal” than the last convention. There was going to be a proper “Autograph Alley” where fans could get autographs of their favorite stars which Celebration I didn’t have. And there were going to be really big stars putting in appearances like Hayden Christensen, the newly minted Anakin Skywalker, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams and the return of Anthony Daniels as emcee of the festivities. Also, there was going to be a LOT more convention merchandise as well as an exclusive action figure developed to be sold only at Celebration. This Celebration was shaping up to be a “real” convention as opposed to the loose “gathering” of Celebration I.
Jason and I bought three days passes, which had a picture of Hayden as Anakin.
I took off work on Thursday and Friday and we arrived in Indianapolis on Thursday night and showed up at the convention several hours early on Friday morning. Here’s the front of the RCA Dome. I was able to catch it when the sign flashed up Star Wars.
This one is really hard to believe for me, but the entire Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition release happened 15 years ago in early 1997. More specifically, Return of the Jedi: Special Edition was released 15 years ago TODAY.
It was originally planned to be released on March 7, and many posters actually reflect that date, but Lucasfilm delayed the release a week due to the popularity of the first two re-releases.
Here’s the 1997 trailer for the release of the entire trilogy. I remember seeing it for the first time in front of Jingle All The Way.
For those that ventured out to see Return of the Jedi: Special Edition in theaters, it’s possible you received a free action figure. Select theaters passed out free “Theater Edition” Jedi Luke action figures.
I however didn’t get one. I was in my last year of college when I saw this in the theater and saw it at a small place in Auburn, AL that didn’t have them. I would have to acquire mine several years later.
I’m not a fan of all the changes Lucas made in this “special edition” of the trilogy, but honestly, I enjoy many of the upgraded effects and new scenes. Especially some of the subtle stuff that was added to Empire Strikes Back.
To date, the changes I hate the most are Greedo shooting first and the new Jabba scene in A New Hope and the new musical number in Return of the Jedi. And I’m baffled why they changed the Ewok celebration music. I actually enjoyed that (even though the new one is actually pretty good, too).
