nostalgia | Cavalcade of Awesome

Archive for the nostalgia Category

The 1992 Olympic Dream Team debuted just over 20 years ago

Posted in nostalgia, pop culture with tags basketball, Dream Team, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, NBA, nostalgia, pop culture on July 16, 2012 by Paxton

On June 27 the 1992 Basketball Tournament of the Americas was held in Portland, Oregon. Just over 20 years ago. This would be the qualifying tournament for the 1992 Olympic games in Barcelona, Spain.

This particular tournament is important because it was the international debut of the 1992 Men’s Olympic Basketball Team, the original Dream Team.

Selected the Summer before in 1991, the team consisted of co-captains Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan as well as Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, John Stockton, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler and Christian Laettner. This would be the first time that FIBA would allow the use of NBA players on a country’s Olympic team.

Though the tournament started on June 27th, the Dream Team didn’t debut until the second day, June 28, where they played Cuba.

Here are the team intros and some highlights of that debut game.

The game was televised. I was actually working that summer as a lifeguard. I, unfortunately, had to work that day, but during my lunch break I ran home and watched a little over an hour of the game before having to go back. I, of course, video taped the game so I could watch it in its entirety later that evening. Earlier that summer, I had purchased a replica of Larry Bird’s Olympic jersey and when I ran back to work that afternoon, I wore it the rest of the day. I still have the VHS of that game as well as Bird’s Olympic jersey. I also would later purchase a replica Bird Celtics jersey and a replica John Stockton Jazz jersey. They are my two favorite NBA players.

Larry Bird replica jersey Jazz jersey

The Dream Team would go on to sweep that tournament and win their birth in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. After their spectacular debut in the tournament, the country caught Dream Team fever and, as expected from a David Stern NBA venture, the team was marketed to the general public with jerseys, videos, collector cups and more.

I’ll take a look at some of that merchandising this week in my week long look at the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. This week will culminate in my review of the new book by Jack McCallum, The Dream Team, which is a look back at the formation of the team as well as “behind the scenes” of being on the team.

New Feature: Bionic Review

Posted in Bionic Man, nostalgia, pop culture, Six Million Dollar Man, TV shows with tags Bionic Review, nostalgia, pop culture, reviews, TV shows on June 14, 2012 by Paxton

I’m going to start up another feature on this blog. Thanks to CT over at Nerd Lunch I was able to acquire a very cheap set of The Six Million Dollar Man Complete Series DVD collection from Time Life.

I’ve been a huge bionic fan since I watched the show in reruns while I was growing up. I have VHS copies of some of the more famous episodes like the original Bigfoot episodes, the original Bionic Woman episodes and The Seven Million Dollar Man episode. But ever since Time Life released this set, I wanted it. The asking price was a little out of my price range though, but I maintained hope that it would go on sale at some point. Then CT spotted a coupon code on Facebook for the set that gave me over $80 off the price so I pulled the trigger and got the entire set with free shipping for a price that fell smack dab in the middle of my desired price range. YES.

So now I have the full set at home. It’s awesome, it comes in this collectible box with a lenticular image of Steve Austin on top that actually runs when you move the top up and down. Also, when you open the top, you hear Oscar Goldman say, “Steve Austin. A man barely alive…” Like I said, AWESOME. My son loves that the box talks when you open it and he also likes looking at the Steve Austin lenticular “run”. Maybe sometime he’ll watch these episodes with me.

So now I want to start watching the episodes of the show.

Cyborg IV

At the same time I’ve been trying to get this DVD set, I’ve also sort of quietly started collecting the novels that are based on the show. There are four novels written by Martin Caidin who created Steve Austin in his first novel, Cyborg. There are also a bunch of novels that adapt episodes of the show. I got the original Cyborg novel as well as it’s two sequels; Operation Nuke and High Crystal. But it was taking me for-f**king-ever to find the final Caidin book, Cyborg IV. Then I finally worked a deal with a guy online and acquired pretty much the entire run of Six Million Dollar Man novels as well as the two Bionic Woman novels. So now I have those to read.

Since I plan on consuming all of this pop culture bionic awesomeness, I figure I’ll chart my progress here on the blog in much the same way I’m doing my Oz books read through. I’ll start reviewing the books, then I’ll start reviewing the TV episodes. I haven’t figured out how the episode reviews will work. I probably won’t put up an article for every single episode. I’ll probably group episodes together in twos or threes and leave the big two parters and the more significant episodes (Bigfoot, Bionic Woman, Death Probe) with their own articles. We’ll see how I do that when I get there.

Currently, right this very moment, I’ve read the first two Caidin novels and watched the first two Six Million Dollar Man pilot movies (there were three movies in 1973 before the series began in January 1974). I’ll slowly start to post these reviews without any type of regularity at first. The Oz read through stuff will take priority right now. But I’m looking forward to starting and sharing this journey with everyone. It should be fun.

5 Comments »

Nerd Lunch Episode 39: Test of Time: GI Joe: A Real American Hero

Posted in nostalgia, podcast, pop culture with tags GI Joe, Nerd Lunch Podcast, nostalgia, podcast, podcasts, reviews, TV shows on May 29, 2012 by Paxton

Episode 39 of the Nerd Lunch podcast is live and ready to defend human freedom against…boredom, I guess? This week we are joined by Doug from the very funny podcast Schlock Treatment. Our topic? Determine if the GI Joe A Real American Hero cartoon stands the “Test of Time”.

(Via Jimmy Tyler)

We each take an aspect of the cartoon and review it. Doug takes the original mini-series, The MASS Device. I took the sequel mini-series, The Revenge of Cobra. Jeeg talks about the original cartoon movie and CT talks about the second season mini-series, Arise, Serpentor, Arise!

Listen to us discuss what we liked and didn’t like about each of these programs. We also discuss some of our other favorite cartoon episodes including Cold Slither and Ninja Holiday. See how many of us feel the cartoon does live up to the “Test of Time” and how many of us feel otherwise.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

3 Comments »

In honor of Memorial Day, 16 vintage comic covers featuring wartime superheroes

Posted in Americana, comic books, holiday, nostalgia, pop culture, Superman with tags Cavalcade Comics, comic books, comic covers, DC Comics, holiday, Marvel Comics, Memorial Day, Superman on May 28, 2012 by Paxton

It’s Memorial Day. Hope everyone has had a great holiday weekend. In honor of this day that honors our armed forces, here are some awesomely vintage, patriotic comic book covers featuring our favorite heroes during wartime. See our heroes doing their part to give Hitler a sock in the jaw!

I found many of these covers on Comic Browser.

1 Comment »

A Review of the 1974 TV Guide Fall Preview issue

Posted in fall tv premier, nostalgia, pop culture, TV, TV shows with tags pop culture, reviews, Six Million Dollar Man, television, TV Guide, TV Guide reviews, TV shows on May 9, 2012 by Paxton

Today is my birthday and I wanted to do something on my birthday for the blog. I had this idea that I wanted to review something from the year I was born. I thought about it and remembered that I absolutely LOVE Shawn Robare’s 80s TV Guide Fall Preview reviews. It’s a great series and really fun to read. And he covers nearly all of the 80s Fall Preview issues. So, I thought it would be fun to review the TV Guide Fall Preview issue from the year I was born; 1974.

So, yes, I’m totally stealing this topic from Shawn. But before you go running to Branded in the 80s and narc-ing on me, I showed up at the Branded offices “Godfather-style” and asked permission to use the idea. Shawn granted me his permission, so we are all square and legal in that respect. That and my next child will be a masculine child (Shawn deemed it so).

My plan is that this will be an ongoing feature. I plan to look at a bunch of the 70s Fall Preview issues as well as some of the 90s. However, this will be an irregular, ongoing feature as it takes time to scan the issues and I have the Oz books read through I’m in the middle of and I’m also gearing up for a Bionic Review feature that will review the Six Million Dollar Man franchise. So, I’ll squeeze this in as I have time.

Anyway, today, on the day of my birth, I am going to take a look at the 1974 TV Guide Fall Preview issue.

Honestly, I have to say, right off the bat, that is one boring ass cover. WTF, TV Guide?! You couldn’t spruce this up with a ninja or robotic dinosaur? I get a dead tree. Thanks. Happy birthday to me.

So let’s move on from that horrible cover and take a look at the contents of this issue. I’m going to group these scans into three sections. First I’ll look at the Fall premier section and talk about all the new shows for the 1974-1975 season. Next I’ll look at a few house ads for existing and new shows. Lastly I’ll show you some of the more awesome vintage product advertising. It should be fun, so let’s get this TV Guide party started.

You can click any of the below images to see them BIGGER.

New Fall TV Show Previews

First, on the left, we have the preview for Friends and Lovers starring Paul Sand as well as Penny Marshall. The show was actually ranked 25th but was pulled later in the year and replaced by The Jeffersons in January 1975. On the right we have the show Nakia starring Robert Forster as a Navajo deputy sheriff in New Mexico. It also would be cancelled before the end of the year.

TV Guide describes the show on the left, The New Land, as a “Swedish Waltons” as if that will lure viewers to watch the show in droves. It does star a very young Kurt Russell, an impossibly young Bonnie Bedelia and Todd Lookinland, the brother of Mike Lookinland (Bobby Brady). On the right is The Sonny Comedy Revue, which is the evolution of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour. Cher and Sonny separated and each started their own variety shows in 1974-1975. However, both of those shows would cease when they decided to start performing together again in late 1975 on the new Sonny & Cher Show.

The TV show Born Free was based on a 1966 movie. It starred Gary Collins about a couple who live in Kenya raising a lioness and protecting the local animal population from danger. It was cancelled before the end of the year.
However, the show Rhoda, which was a spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, starred Valerie Harper as her character from the previous show who moved back to New York from Minneapolis. It would air for 5 seasons and beat it’s parent show in the ratings.

On the left, Petrocelli began life as a movie called The Lawyer starring Barry Newman. Newman would reprise his role as a Harvard educated, enthusiastic lawyer who moves out of the hustle and bustle of the city to the American Southwest. The show would last for 2 seasons.
Like Petrocelli, Get Christie Love! began as a film, only not a feature but a made-for-TV film. It starred Teresa Graves who was one of the regular performers on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In. The TV movie became very popular and spawned this TV show. Unfortunately, budget concerns and rewrites due to Graves becoming Jehovah’s Witness and refusing to do anything too racy would kill the show after 21 episodes.

On the left is the preview page for Little House on the Prairie. Little House would become an extremely popular show and run for 9 seasons. Little House would run on Monday nights for it’s first two seasons then move to Friday nights for the last seven seasons. It starred Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. It’s strange seeing this early picture of the cast as I am currently watching Melissa Gilbert on Dancing with the Stars and she’s like a cougar now. Weird. Anyway, on the right is one of TV Guide’s house ads for the premier of Little House on NBC.