Fan Favorite Flashback to My Life With HBO | From The Vault #567

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls and friends beyond the binary. There are also all patrons. The patrons, beyond the pale of kindness patrons. I don't know what beyond the pale means, I have to Google that. But I'll tell you what, I'm not pale when I talk about you, I blush because I say, wow, you really are my heroes. Thank you so much for supporting this podcast, and here you go, here's another episode.

Hey, you're up all night so I'll sing [journey Madari 00:00:34], sing trouble of getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep. Well, welcome. This is Sleep With Me the podcast. It's here to put you to sleep. We do with a bedtime story, all you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights and press play. I'm going to do the rest. What I'm going to do is try to create a safe place where you can set aside whatever is keeping you awake, whether it's thoughts running through your brain, feelings, physical sensations, travel, changes in routine, stormy weather, like stormy stuff. Like your mind going blank.

Whatever's keeping you awake I would like to distract you from that. What am I going to do, did I already say I'm going to try to create a safe place where you can set all that aside? A friendly place. So warm, welcoming place. Well, I'm glad you're here and I hope like this place could accommodate you and I really do try to carve that out. I think I've stressed that sometimes like a snow fall, we'll come back to that, but there truly is a … really we'll get back to it. So I'm trying to create a safe place, a figurative snowfall with the warm stuff that I can … I'll work on that imagery.

In the meantime, for the new listeners, I'm going to send my voice across the deep dark night. I'm going to use lowering soothing Creek dulcet tones. Yeah, pointless meanders. Long meander where I'll be wearing meander wear. Also be like, some people say they're reading tea leaves, I read my meander wear. I say, what does this say like when I'm wearing it, which may be even slows that's very distracting. Like when you try to look at your tag, how often does it happen? I feel like I'm always trying to read tags that are on clothes on me. Usually I'm trying to rip them off without ripping the shirt or the … It's like why do I have a memory of reading tags? I think that I might be like … I wonder if that was implanted in us in the matrix. That's proof of the matrix maybe, because when really will someone say, “Is that a rayon shirt? Holy moly.” And you say, “I don't know. Let me check.”

I mean, maybe with jean someone would say like … I guess trying to talk my brother into buying some jeans recently, and then he said, “Is there a stretch in those jeans?” And I said, “I believe there are,” but I still didn't check them out and I had jeans on, but he still wasn't checking like in the store. That's kind of like when you think about how much we criticize dogs for chasing their own tails or more like write them off. You say, okay, they're not going to be taken over … No reason. No wonder they're domesticated. They're chasing their own tails. And meanwhile we're like, I mean, at least I can only speak for myself. I'm chasing my dead tags, and then the dog says, “It's a freaking cotton shirt. It's 100% cotton. I don't know what you're looking up.”

Then the dog said, “That was a memory implanted by the ma- … and I'm not even talking to you.” And I say … Anyway, I thought I was going to talk about snow forks after I welcome the new listeners. I'm sorry matrix dog. You're also good pet name, just in case anybody's thinking about naming a pet, we always have the segments when it comes up and matrix, that's a good name. Especially if you're a matrix of lover, like if you love Dot Matrix Printers, probably not very many people do. The movies The Matrix. What if you love … I loved the movie The matrix, but if it didn't exist it would still be a wonderful word matrix.

And I think that is, matrix, it's two syllables. Correct me if I'm wrong brain, but I think it's two syllables and the second one is got like an oomph to it and those are key in naming pets. If you excuse me, I am a pet naming hobbyist. So let's run through this. Sorry to hijack the intro. That was going to be about snow forks, snow forks, the forks you scoop snow with. That's tonight's sponsor and they're having a summer sale. Oh, they just went out of business. That's quick. Anyway, back to matrix. So dog, that would be a good name for a cat. I definitely could see a cat being named matrix depending on it's fur or its personality or how much you love, maybe you love matrices, matrixes, matrices. Matrices sounds like a servant at a royal event or like, what's that third person carrying your … whatever the thing, your gloves or something.

Well, that's my matrices, she's the assistant to the matrons assistance, matrices. Yeah. What about naming … I don't think matrix is the best name. The bird named matrix. That sounds like … that's a story again that could write itself, a bird named matrix. I don't think you could … Yeah, I don't think you could pick a better, at least for a title of a book or a story. What about, okay, so let's talk small mammals. Let's do it, matrix. I can see a fish, sorry. But sometimes I laugh when my brain says stuff. I say, did you just say fix instead of fish? But fish, you can name a fish matrix.

I think maybe with single syllable words for fish is probably more efficient, because you mean, let's be honest, say after the first couple of weeks, how much are you going to be interacting with those fish? Just when you feed them and you just say here, fishy, fishy, fishy. Anyway, that's nice. I guess that would be, I'm not working on any books on boosting self-esteem, but I think, well this is probably what leads to overfishing … overfeeding a fish. That's what I meant. But it's like that good feeling you get when you say here, fishy, fishy and the fish come. I mean, talk about getting your validation in strange places, but that's where like you got to get it where you can find it.

Like here's some terrible personal advice. If you need validation, get a fish and the feed it and you'll feel at least however many times a day you feed the fish while it lives, you'll feel validated until you invalidate the fish or just feed it once a day or twice a day. It could solve your veterinarian or your carnival worker and it gets named that fish matrix, because a durable name matrix. I could see that, but some know it all, some pet know it all is going to come to your house, “So why did you name it matrix?” Like with a cat you'd say, “Look at it's fur, look at its eyes.” Because how can you get more leeway? I guess you do just because animals, cats and dogs have more personality.

I know like not a lot of people have pigs as pets, but that would be a good, pig matrix. Maybe not. You're right. It's just a gut feeling. A guinea pig named matrix, matrix. Yeah. Probably stick to like … So it's a iffy name. It's a nice word, matrix. I don't know why I started talking about it, honestly, gosh, because I was hoping to get new listeners set up. So new listeners, if you're new here, there's a little dose of the matrix in my mind, which is more like a gobbledygook. If gobbledygook could be a matrix, it just cooked ramen the other day. That's about as straight a line as I can get with this. That's like the podcast intros like a bowl, a lump of ramen.

You don't think that's a matrix, because matrices are usually more efficient or they're working for like the royal class carrying their gloves. I wonder, maybe I'll put out a job thing. I'm hiring for matrices. So just like unpaid matrices physician currently, or what do they say, salary based on experience or some say, “Well, how many years have you never heard of a matrices? Right, so I can't pay you because you've never been a matrices.” “Well they don't exist.” Well they do, you just don't have any … Your salary is contingent on experience. You don't have any experience.

Well actually I'm a professional snowboarder, so I carry my gloves all the time. Well, its different, different situation entirely. Anyway, got to get back. So if you're new here, it's clearly so I guess a little bit silly. You don't need to listen to it, but I'm pretty confident. Like if the podcast that you were distracted, you may have been confused and distracted. That day you were distracted from whatever was keeping you awake was rambling. So that's one thing. If I get something to distract you, take your mind off stuff, engage you just enough, but you also don't need to listen so you have permission to tune out or to drift off whenever you feel like it. It is a podcast to put you to sleep. As soon as you feel any pressure to fall asleep right away, just fall asleep when you can.

I'm here to like be here, keep you company, keep you mildly, barely entertained while you drift off into dreamland. To create a safe, comfortable place. Much like the perfect snow fork which may be only exist in like, is that a Plutonian ideal like a snow fork? Could that have one of those? It would be cozy. It would be warm. It would be shady. Where you getting warm like, definitely warm like … If you want room for two, there could be a room for two, comfy, where you could lie or sit down and you say, man, I feel good in here. I feel like I could relax and just chill out.

Then go pelt my siblings with snowballs after they walked by or whatever the plan is. Also, it's summertime, so I don't know why I've got snow forks on the brain, but I have a snow fork envy here. Snow fork was drawl 30 years of it. So if you're new here, you don't really need to listen or pay attention. You also don't need to feel any pressure to fall asleep. These episodes are about an hour. Like the structure of the show, a little late to share this, but the first five or six minutes or so, or housekeeping, and that's how we keep the show free, sponsors and supporters. So if you're new, not that important. If you're a regular listener, it's kind of critical you listen to that part and appreciate a bit [inaudible 00:12:05].

Then we have an intro, which we're hopefully on the tail end of. An intro is kind of a show within a show where people like fall asleep or start to unwind or brush their teeth, make their beds, puff their pillows, all that kind of stuff. Then we'll have an episode of stories tonight that'll be about 40, 45 minutes or so. Then some thank yous on the tail end of the show and that's it. It's a podcast to take your mind off stuff to put you at ease. It doesn't work for everybody. That's the only catch, I'm an acquired taste.

Just like you can't name every pet matrix. You can't, like not everybody's going to fall asleep to this podcast, but give it a few tries. 90% of the reviews say, hey, listened to it a few times. I was skeptical and then I started to enjoy it. Unfortunately, that doesn't exactly translate to personal life, but it works for the podcast. So I can say, well, first you got on my nerves and then I was like, well wait a second you just got to sit back and listen and then I fall asleep. So give it a few tries. I hope it helps you and I say this every episode because I mean it, I'm really glad you're here. I work hard. I yearn and strive to help you fall … I really hope I can help you fall asleep. So thank you for coming by. All right, good night.

Hey everybody. So it's a Tuesday and I'm thinking, I had this idea kind of based on a few different things. When you hear this, it'll be a little bit dated a couple of things in referring to. I just listened to The Doughboys episode, a feral audio podcast and Nick Wiger has like this opening kind of where he does this historical thing, and he was doing it about The Sopranos and it made me think about HBO in like kind of weird way. Farrell's got this new podcast called Tap which you should just check out to get the concept, they found a little leak in the N to the S to the A where it's kind of like funny mundane conversations. Anyway those two things were making me think about in different ways how much of an impact HBO in these weird slivers of my childhood had on my life. On this podcast to be honest with you. So this will kind of take it like a little bit of a personal journey. I don't know how much fiction will be in here. In the parts where I'm sane will be fiction.

I was thinking about, wow, yeah. The Soprano's had this big journey and then I was just sinking into the past and then I was thinking about the power of archives and archiving things. And I said, geez I wonder … Let me see how I can talk about this. Let me talk about the biggest, like the impact in my relationship with HBO. I've kind of talked about it before, but never in this direct way I guess. And those of you that aren't in the US, HBO is a premium channel. It plays movies and their own shows. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of it, but it used to stand for Home Box Office.

And I believe it was one of the first premium cable channels which you would pay. I don't know, in the past what it costs five, 10, 15 bucks a month is what it costs. Nowadays and now with the unbundling of cable, you could just subscribe to it alone, which is really convenient except when you forget about making sure you get value for value. Sometimes I forget about that when I talk about it on the podcast. So like with Patreon, am like, oh, geez, if I'm paying for HBO, I want to be watching it especially when you're just subscribing to the app. I've been getting a ton of value out of the Showtime one, which so … let me just talk about it.

So I was the oldest of six kids. If you're a new listener, this might be like real window into some things of me. Yeah. I was born in the '70s but grew up but grew up in the '80s, mostly it became sentient. I don't know when you become sentient or your memory start recording. I mean, my recording of memories it's always been spotty, but I associate most of my memories with the 1980s. Yeah, I'm the oldest of six kids. I grew up in Syracuse, New York and at some point when I was a kid was when cable became a thing. I remember not having cable and then I can almost remember the day the cable got installed. I think if you have six kids, and again, I don't know what the proposition, my parents were very … I mean, when you have six kids money is tight no matter what. Then my mom was from a very large family and my dad was from the Bronx and his parents were very concerned about money.

So I always lived in an environment where my parents always did their best to take care of us and their money was spent I think in providing for us, but they never just spent money like in a casual way I guess. So I don't know what prompted this decision. Maybe I could interview them when I see them, but at some point they decided to get cable, I think because it was such a huge, just became this universal thing. And I don't know if like living in Syracuse, it gets going from like three channels because they don't even think they had Fox back then. In Syracuse it was three, five and nine and then you had PVS, so four channels, excuse me, PBS. I spent so much time with you, I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm sorry. That was wrong in me.

I just took that corporate brain. I'm sorry about that, Mr. Rogers, Captain Kangaroo, could you please forgive me? But anyway, let's move on to [inaudible 00:18:23]. I mean, you did change a little of our burden. I mean, what can I say? But that's for another time I guess. So at some point we got cable. Now we didn't get, like I don't know how they sold cable packages back then. This is where I could use the help of NSA. I don't know if they were tapping anything back then. But if you have all this centralized like our cable guides and our bills, it'd be super handy. Also for those of you that didn't grow up in the 80s you'll have to indulge me, but this'll be like for our younger listeners, a little retro and for listeners that are like, that grew up in the 80s maybe it'll be familiar for you as well.

Think about what you could do on your phone now. We had a Castro Ray tube TV without even wireless remotes. The remotes were wired for the cable and they were push buttons. I think they may have been analog, like they had strange brown remote which you had to shift it up and down to give to … Anyway some people know what I'm talking about, but it's not that important. Like you had to push a button that would go in to change the channel, just to give you a little idea. I know it's a stone age, is totally. So we got cable. I remember the day the cable got installed. I don't remember a lot about it other than that because it would have been like six to seven, eight years old. I don't even know what grade you're in, in those ages.

Well, no I should my daughter is … So first, second, third grade and I do remember a couple things about cable. It wasn't that great for kids. And I think at some point they came up with Nickelodeon, but I don't even think Nickelodeon maybe had like 12 hours of programming and this is going to reveal that, I never said I'm a heartfelt good person, but like they had this awful show called Pinwheel and I don't know if there's any Pinwheel fans on there, but I loathed that show. I think that was like the first attempt at TV for toddlers. But the problem was if you stayed home from school, you faked you were sick. The main value if you're a kid of six, oldest of six kids even is that you want to be able to, you have full control of the TV and after the game shows ended at noon, that was a great, until after school television programming. You had this great gulf of nothingness.

Literally only soap operas and Pinwheel, and Pinwheel was a show like today's special I think would start. I don't know what time they would start at, 2:30 or 3:00. I didn't really like that show, but I think one of my siblings would watch it. So Pinwheel is just toddler TV but early stages, so they're just figuring this out. So I just remember it was a disappointment that I would watch anyway because what else was I going to do? I mean, I loved reading, but if I was home sick from school, it was to spoil myself because I was faking it.

And I think in second grade, this is probably where most of it comes from. I did break my arm in second grade and I was home from school for a while because it was … it really is in my memory I was, so maybe that's where it came from. I had a long stretch at home, like a couple of weeks or something, at least in my memory. So that's probably where my resentment for Pinwheel came up because I had so many days that I was watching TV in a row. Of course, that's when I discovered other channels. I think I talked about this on a recent podcast where there was ER, not the ER on NBC, but another George Clooney ER situation comedy. And that was on some channel, like it was a super station, which I don't have time to get into. One day I'll do a show about WPIX, which also had a huge impact on my life.

There was also a show, it would be ER, and then this other show, which was a situational comedy. They took place in a bar, rooftop bar with a lounge singer and the wait staff. I don't know what that was called either. Those two shows for second grader were barely watchable, but at least they were better than soap operas which is probably like an appealing thing or something. My mom liked soap opera, so I couldn't like them except when I got a little older and I watched them for a little while. But so at some point we got cable. So then HBO was a luxury, we wouldn't get HBO. The kid said like that lives to the fat life in my opinion. They also had Cinemax, I don't know if Showtime was around, but there was TMC, that was the movie channel.

I remember this is pre Blockbuster. So this is the only way you could see a Hollywood movie in your house probably. There might have been video tutorials and stuff, but I don't think that happened till I got to middle school. My mom was very busy and my dad was working, so they weren't about to be hitting video stores especially if I was the oldest. So the rest of the kids they were just [inaudible 00:24:04]. Maybe our house was always based on Darwinism anyway. So at some point, but what would happen is HBO would run like a weekend where there would be free HBO for everybody to try to get you hooked. Then it's sometimes, I don't know what would happen. I guess again, I'd interview my parents, but I don't think there would be reliable witnesses.

That's why I need the NSA to look for my parents' bills would be way more handy. At some points we did have HBO so I don't know if it was like a special or maybe when we went to bed, one of my parents liked watching HBO secretly or maybe they thought it would like shut us up, like me, it's particularly because I was the oldest and the worst kid and that's not a self-esteem thing. I was a handful, to keep us occupied for a couple more hours of dealing with the younger kids. So I had a lot of memories of HBO, like tons as we dig in here.

But the pinnacle HBO moment of my life I think was during an HBO, whatever they call that, like a preview weekend when they showed Raiders of the Lost Ark because Raiders of the Lost Ark came out in '82 I think and I was too young to see that in a movie theater. I was probably too young to see it period when it came to HBO, which I would assume would have been fourth or fifth grade. So '84, '85. And particularly folks of 1984 tonight, but … So when I saw that movie it came out exactly at noon, maybe 11:00, maybe 10:00, I think noon though, because what would happen is it would be a Saturday matinee and that was when cartoons would end. I think there was like cartoon re-runs or something between 10:00 and 12:00. I'm not sure the timing.

Again, this is where it is all due. And they say, well, don't you work in [inaudible 00:26:14]. And I say, well yeah, I guess I could go back and micro-fish all this and that's a great idea. When I have time I will. So at some point and I remember, I think my brother Carl, my sister Sheila were there, maybe my brother Ted, I don't know, but we were trying to figure out, geez, should we go outside? We weren't allowed to watch WWF which I think was also came on around that time on Saturdays because that would cause us too much trouble. It's professional wrestling. My dad thinks professional wrestling was personally designed to make his life difficult and we would act like maniacs and start wrestling. So we weren't allowed to watch that because we couldn't control ourselves.

So at some point around 11:00 or 12:00, this one Saturday we would normally watch to see what the matinee was if we had access to HBO and 99% of time it stunk. We would go into other possible movies that would be on, but they're trying to pitch something that's got to be PG or G and it has to have like a wide … it has to appeal to a decent amount of people. So that's a tough programming job for HBO but not this day. This day they hit it out of the park because it was Raiders of Lost Ark. I think maybe I've seen some ads for the movie, but since I didn't have an older sibling and my parents had six kids, so they didn't really go to the movies. I didn't really know, like I could not believe from the second the movie started I was floored. This was like something so far out of my ability to understand what awesomeness could be created.

And I had seen some like old Flash Gordon. I probably hadn't seen a Star Wars movie yet, but maybe that's not true. I don't know when I saw my first Star Wars movie, but I'll never forget to stay. Like we were rapt, R-A-P-T, watching this movie and it was just unbelievable. I could not believe how awesome every second movie was, how funny it could be, how moved I could be, how the sounds, it just changed my life literally forever. I mean, I guess like I took some turns, some serious meanders away from like whatever, like wanting to create story and take people places. But this movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, I was literally floored. When the movie ended, I could not believe what I just saw.

We didn't have a DVR, so I couldn't re-watch it. I remember we went outside and then the other kids in our neighborhoods started coming outside and this kid that lived across the street from me, Dave, I said, “Dude, I can't …” Like I was telling him, I was like … And his brother was one of my brothers ages and it was just, I remember it was one of those memories where you go out in the sun, you can't get adjusted to the sun and you're trying to reset your hormones and emotions and you've just been transported to someplace and then you're like really hard to readjust to the world and kind of hard to be like, well geez, do we want to recreate the movie with sticks? This is what we did, we immediately started adventuring.

It was at least just a moment I'll never, never forget and one of those pure moments of I don't know, where my attention, I was fully engulfed by this movie. So for a long time, I've been curious, when was that, when did I see that movie and was that the premiere? Because maybe it did say like world premier, that's what got our attention. But I do have a very strong memory afterwards of going outside and playing outside, which in Syracuse, New York, where it was warm enough that it wasn't winter or pouring rain. It was sunny I remember. In Syracuse, sun at noon isn't always guaranteed and this might've been, maybe we went outside at noon. So yeah, maybe Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, excuse me, started at 10:00 or 11:00. So whatever.

We went outside and I just remember the sun like I said and then I remember playing. So it made me think it was in the spring or the summer. But again, I don't have a ton of extra time to do research on the podcast, but I did some research, because HBO had their own little magazine style guides back then. So it's always just [inaudible 00:31:28] because then it'll kind of tell some of my HBO experiences in 1984 at least. For some other people, because there's some stuff that I've heard of and some other great memories. So yeah, let's just take a look. I'm using Google here and if we take a look back here, they said this first one that came up is from June 1984 and on the inside cover, so it's like a little bit of a magazine.

There's scribbled ads for some movies that people have probably heard of, The Dark Crystal. Another movie we want to talk about, Wimbledon 1984 and Martinez is on the cover of the that. National Lampoon's Vacation, Doctor Detroit and then the George Carlin on Campus Special. My parents were strict about R movies, so I didn't see a lot of R movies. So I don't know when I first saw National Lampoon's Vacation. Maybe it was this summer. Watched a lot of Wimbledon. My grandmother, my mom's mom, grandma what I called her, she loved tennis. So I remember watching a lot of Wimbledon and this was like when McEnroe, or I guess I wasn't watching, I was complaining probably, but the adults would be watching in.

Yeah. Let's see what else we got in here. In this next page is a rich little special, which I probably saw that Easy Money. I didn't see that until I was much older. Another Wimbledon ad, draw, which maybe Wimbledon was the thing that got my parents to subscribe for my grandma or just in general, Glen Campbell Special. Glen Campbell, I think seeing zen in alignment for the county. When I was a insect trap where people would sing that to me. Then a movie, Fin Friend, dolphin three, but instead of dolphin, another name, I definitely remember seeing that movie because it was in 3D but it wasn't on HBO, but I remember loving that movie. Let's see, Fraggle Rock. I remember watching Fraggle Rock, and here's like an ad for bringing home the magic of Fraggle Rock.

That doesn't look like toys. Furry Fraggle Rock Five, lovable, huggable, collection of Fraggle plush. I guess they are, in a dozer wind up. They weren't cheap, Gobo, Dow, Boober. I don't remember any of these styles even though I watched the show. Red, I remember Red. Wembley, they were like around 15 to $17, and the dozer lined up it was 4.99. Shipping and handling, 2.50, two to four weeks for delivery. Can you imagine having to wait for that long? Let's run through some of this Fraggle Rock plots. Fraggle Rock, Red's club, Red is surprised to see Gobo elected president of her new club. That was in October. Oh, so this page is from October. The secret of convincing John. How does convincing John make Wimbley a decisive Fraggle? It sounds like a test question. Manny's land of carpets, the promised land beckons.

It looks like a new Fraggle Rock comes out every week, at least in the fall. Junior sells the farm. A salesman trips junior gorge. Fraggle Rock and Mokey discovers another tribe of Fraggles. Then there was a TV show, like there's a couple ads. I remember seeing these ads for the movie, The Glitter Dome. James Garner, Margot Kidder and John Lithgow. But I don't ever remember, that was probably R or just like an adult movie that bored me. Then there's like a spot here for The Right Stuff. Scott Glenn, Dennis Quaid, Sam Shepherd, Kim Stanley. I kind of remember The Right Stuff. I don't think I had the attention span for it. Let's see, movie with George Seagull, Consumer Sports Special.

Tough dramas on HBO. One with Charles Bronson, one with Steven McQueen and there's a lot of ads I saw from The Year of Living Dangerously. Again, I remember seeing some of these previews when I was watching other stuff on HBO. But this starred Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver and Linda Hunt, a foreign correspondence in a glamorous diplomat caught up in intrigue and revolts in a sultry '60s Indonesia. The atmospheric thriller features Linda Hunt and her powerful Academy award winning performance. Oh wow. Is a all knowing tipster directed by Peter Weir and a PG, an hour and 55 minutes. Never seen that movie. Let's see, Superman three. I definitely saw this one. This was with Richard Pryor. Let's see what else came out that month.

Can't quite make it out. Not all the pictures are HD. Well, here we go. 1984 November Raiders of the Lost Ark signed the cover and I think this is the right one. It has the right, also it says Harrison Ford on the cover of Raiders of the Lost Ark, the right stuff. Something else. All the right moves. Larry Holmes, Title Flight and The Glitter Dome. Then we jumped to 1984 guide and I think … So this is Red Skelton royal performance. I definitely saw that. At least I saw some Red Skelton performances. I can't remember it. Then there's an ad for Not Necessarily The News, which was I think like an early daily show. I mean, I didn't … Like I've talked about it before, but I would watch that show and I thought it was hilarious even though I probably didn't get most of the jokes. Not Necessarily News is my favorite news show on TV that's from M. Kitman from Newsday. I looked for HBO hit comedy series and Saturday Nights and other times too.

Then there's an ad for a Terry Gar or The Black Stallion Returns. I don't think I was a big Black Stallion fan. There's something about it that I didn't like, and then there's an ad for Silver Dream Racer with Bow Bridges. Never saw that. So here's a Saturday at 11:00 AM was Superman three. On a Sunday, April 8th, so I definitely saw that. Here's another movie I gave a shot, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. That was a Steve Martin comedy. April 7th, I was probably watching that because Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid was on then Oliver at 2:30 and 7:00 PM was The Black Stallion Returns, and then 9:00 PM was Not Necessarily the News, then I probably had to go to bed.

Then this one's from September, 1984 there's a Joe Piscopo special with Eddie Murphy. I may have seen that in a Robert Klein special called Poppery of Piscopo's people. So this is before Comedy Central or Netflix, like you'd have your standup comedy specials. His first TV special and TV appearance since Saturday Night Live, Joe presents innovative sketches and standup comedy. He does Andy. Frank Sinatra, Joan Rivers, Andy Rooney, and David Hartman. Then Robert Klein in all new comedy performance. Klein reps about his New York [inaudible 00:39:55], now with a baby of his own. The Child of the 50s, 60s, humorous liquor parent is in the 80s.

Then another ad for, Not Necessarily the News. Here's one from May of '84. There was Sugar, Ray Leonard, Twilight. So this is definitely us watching this time. So this must have been the year we had because Twilight's on the movie. I saw that and War Games, I definitely saw that. February of '84, Billy Crystal Special, I probably saw that. A David Bowie Special, I never saw that. Holy moly. The Man with Two Brains, I tried watching that, probably watched it a few times. Then April of '84, they had High Road to China, women's gymnastics. Superman three, also Culture Club in Concert. They had something called Single Plays, David Bowie special down Summer Special. I don't know what that means.

So Beach Boys Special, Culture Club, George Burns, Last Unicorn, then something called The Far Pavilions, an in Epic and Grand Score, thousand extras, 5,000 costumes, three palaces, scores of camels, horses and elephants. It helped to recreate the splendor of India under the British Raj, the setting for HBO premiere films The Far Pavilion is $12 million mini-series was filmed in India. So, wow. First of three parts, oh, here's an ad that notes that HBO is 24 hours. So that was a big deal too, because back then TV would just stop. Let's see what else we have. Here's an ad from October 1984, families showcase every weekday afternoon, but there's better stuff on normally. A Boy named Charlie Brown. That was a decent movie. David Copperfield, Gizmo. I don't know what that was.

We Think the World Is Round, there's Columbus's Ships. Robbers, Rooftops, and Witches stories by O. Henry Ray Bradbury. The Halloween That Almost Wasn't, I probably saw that. I was pretty picky. Here's another ad for Superman three from '84. August '84, there was a Bette Midler Special and Mr. Mom. So I definitely remember seeing Mr. Mom. So this was the year I saw this. Here's an interesting one. This is a HBO, 1984 Christmas schedule, Rich Little's Christmas Carol. That must've been a hit. 50 minutes. Red Skeletons presents Freddie the Freeloaders, Christmas Dinner with Vincent Price and the beloved Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas. It's 49 minutes. Jim Henson's, Muppets and award-winning story about love, generosity, and loyalty. The Trolls and the Christmas Express. I don't know what that one was, but determined to sabotage Christmas six trolls sneak into Santa's village, delightful animation. The Christmas That Almost Wasn't. When a Scrooge like zillionaire buys the North pole, Scrooge children come to Santa's rescue.

Raiders of the Lost Ark. It was on December 25th. What a great Christmas movie. Here's Harrison Ford stars and George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's box office hits. Here's the Saturday family matinee. That's what I was talking about. December 1st, Annie, I saw that. December 8th Shipwreck, I don't remember that one. December 15th Daffy Ducks movie, saw that. December 22nd another classic in my life that, War Games. And then December 29th was Superman three. That was also a classic. Geez, running around here. Let's see. This one's from March of 1982, Bed knobs and Broomsticks. That was a classic for me. Weaving a Spell to Save Britain from WWII, Amateur Witch, Angela Landsbury stirs up a lively brew of fantasy and music. It's a blend of live action animation, won an Oscar for special visual effects.

Also, there was a Simon and Garfunkel concert in the park, standing room only. The big music event in 1981 is now an HBO exclusive. This historic concert features 21 songs, including Mrs. Robinson and the Sound of Silence. Let's see what else was on TV during the day. The Electric Horseman, I remember seeing that, like not understanding what the heck that was. Saturday, March 13th, 7:00 PM, Bed Knobs and Broomsticks was on. See on Sunday, March 14th. I don't see, oh, Simon and Garfunkel was on but I would have been to second grade. I was too young for that. Here's one from '86. HBO family showcase. I don't think I had the … we didn't have HBO then because I don't recognize any of this other than Emmet Otter's Jug-Band Christmas.

July 1982 definitely didn't have it. They had baseball on there. Wow. Or a baseball show, Race For the Pen. Diana Ross's special with a 50-piece orchestra. Only when I laugh with Kristy McNichol and Marsha Mason. Okay. Here there was some stuff I might've missed. What's this? '82 yes. I don't think I saw any of this. They had Walt Disney's production The Black Hole, which I ended up seeing at some point, but I think I was just a little bit off on the ages there. How about this one, All Night Radio, an HBO comedy, a TV show about radio. Just flip your dial to say any comedy special about an all-night radio station. See you from the DJs booth, listening at the dinner door or the diner next door. Wow. Cast a far out characters.

Here's a year I may have had though, Popeye with Robin Williamson and Shelley Duvall. That was in 1982. I definitely saw that movie. The squint eyed sailor of the comic strip comes to life on the screen. Robin Williams, stars in this high-spirited comedy with Shelley Duvall as [inaudible 00:46:53] Olive Oyl. Here's a movie I was thinking about the other day, that was on there St. Helens starring Art Carney. May 18th, 1980 Dawned like a Common clear. Yeah, but then Mount St. Helen's did some stuff. August 30th that came out on HBO, 1982. I can't remember seeing that, but I wasn't really in it for the drama, so I didn't really watch very much of it.

Here's another movie I saw. I remember seeing the song and the ads for, but never seen it in my life. The Night Lights went out in Georgia. This was August 1982, it's a PG movie. Nashville bound with the law night far behind Kristy McNichol and Dennis Quaid touring the country and Western music business upside down. Mark Hamill also co-stars in this upbeat trauma, adult situations in language and brief nudity. At PG you could get brief nudity. You got to be kidding me. So that's interesting, but I never seen that movie. And I was a big fan of these Gary Coleman movies. I don't remember this one, it's called Scouts Honor, but I do remember a few other ones I liked. Happily single executive becomes a den mother for youngsters who wreak havoc with her life. Gary Coleman in a funny, often moving drama and I was a big Gary Coleman fan.

Let's see what's on the weekends in '82 August. Under the Rainbow, Scout's Honor, the Gary Coleman movie, that was at 10:30 AM. Clash of the Titans. So I was watching this, that was at 12:30 August 14th. I probably was watching right then. Then they kind of repeat everything again, which that would get on my nerves too. Oh yeah. Oh, Sunday, August 15th, 10:30 AM Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Well, that would be good. There was a good weekend and there was a Beach Boys Special, 5:30, then another Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. So that would have been good time to have HBO. How about this one? 1984, Men at Work in Concert and Crystal Gayle in Concert, David Bowie, Serious Moonlight. Wow. Lot of good stuff. Oh, here's a family showcase. They don't recognize it anything but one thing, Ragged Ann and Andy, 1982. I remember this movie. I think we had it on video tape as a kid and I never liked it. I don't know what about it, it definitely triggered something at my semantic level or whatever vestigial. I don't know if I had a vestigial raggedy …

I did have a raggedy Andy doll because my name, I was called Andy as a boy, but let's see. Fearless Rag Dolls, Raggedy Ann and brother Andy set out on a musical adventure to rescue the kidnapped French doll [inaudible 00:49:59]. Clever animation plus live action, G. It wasn't G to me. There's something in it that made me … Oh boy. What year is this? 1986. At some point in '86 The Legend of Bille Jean was on. Let's see what time. Also, '86, so we probably had Breakfast Club. I remember seeing that movie in 1986. Here's another one from 1984. The family's showcase. I don't recognize any of these things. I think this was back to when they still had propaganda for kids. A lot of stuff to convince kids to be perfect.

The Special Magic of Herself the Elf, then Fraggle Rock. Let's run through this. Of course, we should run through this Fraggle Rock. Wembley's eggs. A gigantic bird's egg shows up in Fraggle Rock and Wembley discover she's a mother. Boober Rock. Boober wants peace and quiet, but life away from his parents has its problems. The trash heap doesn't live here anymore. The gorgs decided to build a gazebo and Wembley's mission is to save the trash heap. Red's sea monster, Red is sure she discovered a mysterious beast.

Let's see. This one's from '84. There was Not Necessarily, the Olympics special and then Not Necessarily the News. Those are classics. This was the '84 LA Olympics too. So it must have been a lot of things. Wavelength with Robert Carradine. I don't remember that movie. Lovesick with Dudley Moore. Strange Burrow, I definitely saw that movie. Also, Cheech and Chong, it was a strange brew. [inaudible 00:51:55] the McKenzie brothers try to add some hard to brew masters spiking the world to be your supplier with mind control drugs. Yeah, I was definitely watching that in '84 and then Yellowbeard, Cheech and Chong and Marty Feldman swatch buckling silly. I've never seen this, Graham Chapman's in this. The Saging Scourge of the Brainy Sea, I wonder if that movie was any good.

So this is July 1984 let's see. July 7th, we had Bear Island, swamp buddy. It's not a real name of it, but I remember watching that movie. So I was probably watching on July 7th at 1:30 PM and then nothing looks like I would watch. Then Sunday, July 8th, Oki talk, man. James Bond movie Octopussy, my dad, he was like you will never watch that movie and I don't think I did. I mean, I think he didn't get … I think I was like, dad, there's an octopus in the movie. But he took it literally. So he was like, you'll never see that movie.

This was another thing I loved Brain Games in HBO. This is the HBO's exclusive, funny, new half-hour family entertainment. The show you don't watch, it's a show you play. It's a series of mind teasing segments and it's truly original. I really liked that. Brain Games and I liked that it said Brain Games. Here's 1987, which I don't know if we had it back then, but that's when Return of the Jedi premiered in March of 1987. Oh boy. Here I'm seeing some good ones here. This was a movie. Oh no, White Knights, I didn't like those Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. I was a bigger fan of Running Scared but that one I don't really remember. I think it had to do with ballet. A nightmare becomes real for Russian defector Miquel Baryshnikov when his plane crashes in Siberia and he has hope with two people he can't trust, US Defector Gregory Hines.

We also have an ad for HBO late night, which was like rated R movies but mostly comedies. I think lately, you know what I mean. Here's a couple of other classics that I saw. Emo Phillips comedy specials. I definitely caught those. Emo's an original to say the least and his view of life is just as original. On topics like scuba diving, washing the kitchen is unique way of looking at things. Here's Emo with a hasty pudding theater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That was in '87 though. Then Lucas, I remember watching this movie a bunch. Lucas is in love, but he's too short, too skinny and too much of a loner. This is Corey Haim. Still the 14 year old outsider is determined to win the prettiest girl at school away from the handsome football hero.

Oh, here we go. Legend of Billy Jean, 1986, Billy Jean Davies is a typical girl next door until fate turns her world upside down and sends her on the run from the law. Helen Slater from Ruthless People plays Billy Jean, he becomes a media sensation and national celebrity. Also, I remember Transylvania 6500. I don't remember watching it, but I remember when that came out. Daytime. Here's Breakin, I remember seeing that movie a lot. What year is this? '87, that makes sense. Two veteran break dancers team up with a more conventional dance student. The trio of dreamers, air steam high, right at the Broadway stage. It was big round Breakin two, electric Boogaloo. But I do remember Breakin.

Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird that was a Sesame Street movie. Reds, I don't think I saw that one when I was young. Here's April '87. That's when Bags of the Future hit HBO. Here's one of the funniest and most exciting time travel fantasies ever, I would say movies ever. But Michael J. Fox, the ADC team accidentally zooms to the nifty fifties and almost uncreates himself disrupting the romance between his teen parents to be. Nominated for four in 1985 Oscars. There was also a Barbara Streisand special on there. Oh, this one had huge impact on me, but this was in the '87. It was Robert Townsend and always had these HBO specials and I loved those. It was like sketch comedy and stand up director, star of Hollywood shuffle shares the stage with some up incomers in the evening of comedy and music. December 19th and December 30th, oh, this was the HBO comedy hour live, but at some point they would give him his own regular special.

This one here is a season's greetings, December 1986 in HBO, Rocky IV, which I saw. We definitely had HBO in '86 because … Spies Like Us. I loved that movie. Rocky IV. One other movies at Jim Carter, that was another one I saw it a lot. Ghostbusters, what else we got on here? Revenge of the Nerds, Santa Claus the movie. I don't know about that one. Christmas at Radio City music hall. Look at this lineup. Last new year's Eve comedy. Comedy Relief '87. Listen to this one. Paul Riser, Roseanne Bar, Bob Golfen, Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinison, Paul Rodriguez and Women of the Knights. Well, so they have first in 10, which was this HBO comedy. We occasionally have brief nudity, that was one of the main reasons I watched. I'll be honest with you. It was kind of funny, or it would have adult situations or whatever you call that, where it was almost brief nudity.

Let's finish up with this. This is July 1986, Mad Max, it was out that summer. Cannibal Run II, so I saw that. Girls Just Want to Have Fun, I don't remember that. But I mean, I remember the song. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Midnight Express, was that the Charles Grodin Dinero movie? Midnight Run, [inaudible 00:59:04]. Oh, Saint Alamos Fire. Revenge of the Nerds. Yeah, I definitely would watch then. I was missing good movies, so Pale Rider. I didn't see that back then. Oh, there's one of my loves A View to a Kill. So this was a good year. This was a good time, Hall and Oates, the Liberty concert. Not Necessarily the Movies, Not Necessarily the News. Robert Klein on Broadway. Regular Cannonball Run, Meatballs Part II. Oh boy, Secret of NIMH, Twilight Time. I don't know. Wimbledon 1986.

A couple of other movies, probably seen. Tina Turner's Private Dancer. So yeah, that was some HBO from my childhood. I guess I didn't really nail anything down, but it was an interesting journey. Hopefully it put you to sleep. Okay. I want to thank everybody, just putting the show in Patreon. I want to thank Kay, Tracy and Veronika with a K. Thanks and good night. So I want to thank Emily Ketchup and Oliver, thank you and good night. I want to thank Christy, Jeremy and Kate. Thank you and good night. I want to thank Carl, Caitlin and Patricia. Thank you and good night. I want to thank and goodnight, Mark Rainey and Andrew G. Thank you and good night. A good night and thank you to Rachel Douglas and Rob.

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