Retroist Retro Podcast

I first saw the Game Genie at a friend’s house just after Christmas in 1991. We were doing the usual thing, seeing what everyone got, trying out games, handing controllers back and forth. Then he brought out the Game Genie and plugged it into the Nintendo. The second I saw what it could do, I wanted one of my own. It was that simple. If you spent enough time with games, you knew their rules pretty well, and this thing seemed to ste...

There were a few cars that could stop me in my tracks when I was a kid, and the DeLorean was near the top of the list. We had one in my town, parked outside a dentist’s office, and just knowing it was amazing. It was not something you expected to see in everyday life. It looked like it had landed from somewhere else, all sharp lines and brushed metal, like the future had somehow ended up next to where I got scolded for not brushing...

Back to the Future didn’t feel like a property that I expected to be turned into a cartoon, at least not to me at the time. By the time the animated series arrived, my interest in Saturday morning television was already starting to slip. I had not entirely left it behind, but I was no longer meeting it with the same excitement I had a few years earlier. That made this show an interesting one for me, because it landed right in that ...

Back to the Future Part III had a different job to do. Part II had ended on a cliffhanger and sent everybody out of the theater with their heads spinning, but the third film had to bring everything back down to earth, or maybe more accurately, out to the Old West. It was ending a story people had gotten very attached to and it had to do that without losing the sense of fun and invention that made the series feel special in the firs...

Back to the Future Part II had a lot to live up to. The first movie was already huge, and by the time the sequel showed up people were ready to see Marty and Doc again. This was not just another follow up. It felt like an event. Audiences had been waiting to find out what happened next, and the movie gave them a future full of flying cars, weird gadgets, and, most importantly to a lot of us, hoverboards.

On this episode of the Retr...

I don’t know if you knew this, but Back to the Future is kind of a big deal. Its known as a big hit, but that wasn’t a forgone conclusion. Robert Zemeckis was not yet a household name, and while Michael J. Fox was a TV star, translating that to movie stardom was far from guaranteed. Many studios had already passed on the project, and time travel comedies weren’t exactly in demand. But sometimes a movie arrives at exactly the right ...

Grease as a studio movie in the late 1970s was a big swing. Sure it had two big stars in it, but its success entering a crowded summer of movies was not a foregone conclusion. But it turns out it was just what people were craving at the time and the film, much like the stage musical it was based on, was a huge success.

On this episode of the Retroist Podcast, I talk all about Grease. Starting with my first interactions with the fil...

In the late 1960s, the pop culture of the 1950s was still well-remembered, but the United States was going through some major changes. A counter-culture was going mainstream and with it came a rejection of things associated with older generations. Emblematic of this era was Woodstock. This music festival was filled with bands and artists that defined the era. But another act, took to the stage during the festival that didn’t quite ...

Welcome to the Retroist Christmas Commercials III Podcast. Christmas is almost here. You know what that means? Time to buy stuff! That’s why this week’s show is all about the Christmas commercials that we love. I have done this format twice before and people liked it. So be warned, this show has a bit of a different format from the regular podcast. It is dedicated solely to holiday commercials. I hope you enjoy it.

I tried to break...

In 1965, Christmas television in the United States changed forever when, A Charlie Brown Christmas, premiered. Nothing about its creation and tone said it was going to be a success, but it touched people and was a huge hit. A hit that has continued to deliver Christmas Magic year after year for decades.

I start the episode talking about something that became important in the eighties. That’s when it wasn’t enough to just watch the ...

In 1967 Hanna-Barbera had a new show on Saturday Mornings, The Herculoids. This was before my time, but the show’s concept and characters were so enduring that nearly a decade and a half later they would be revived for a new show and I would be introduced to the great characters. Between and since then the have shown up in reruns, comic books, and more modern shows where they often appear for laughs.

The design of the characters wa...

In 1983, the first wave of arcade madness was still at a highpoint. We had a slew of classic games filled with classic characters that had become household names. Still, only one had made the leap off the gaming screen and onto the small screen, Pac-Man (and his family.) With everyone being so crazed for games, TV networks were wondering, how do I get my own Pac-Man type show? That is where we get the Saturday Supercade. Because wh...

Prom Night, starry Jamie Curtis, is a movie that is often overshadowed by her more memorable turn in Halloween. While it might not be a classic, like Halloween, it is a film well-worth your time. A fun, low-budget slasher film, it is also has a nice whodunit, and a time-capsule of the late 1970s with its disco dancing and music.

I begin the episode by discussing my own prom. It wasn’t memorable like all the proms I saw in the movie...

Heavy Metal Music and Horror Films are a potent combination, so I am always surprised that heavy crossover isn’t as a common as one could expect. Still a few movies have done it in different ways. On the newest episode of the Retroist Podcast, I want to talk about a movie that integrates it fully and completely, Trick or Treat. This movie didn’t do great when it was first released back in 1986, but it has since gone on to have a cu...

1999 was a great year for movies. Almost too great. It didn’t help that I found myself so busy with work that my focus on film couldn’t be what it used to be. So while I am a big fan of “The Iron Giant,” I was also one of those people who didn’t go to see it in the theater and contributed to its “flop” status. That summer was stacked with films like “The Sixth Sense” and “The Blair Witch Project,” and it was easy for something quie...

Welcome to my final episode I plan to do about the Jaws franchise. Originally I planned on doing just a podcast about the Jaws NES Game, but as I started working on it, I thought it might be more enjoyable to throw a wider net. So on today’s show, I am going to talk about a few topics related to the film. Mainly, the board games, video games, theme park rides, and trading cards. The format is a little different, I hope not too disr...

I have very mixed feeling about Jaws: The Revenge. On the one hand, I found it disappointing when compared to earlier films, on the other hand I am fascinated that it was made and audiences reaction or lack of reaction to it. It is the last of the Jaws film, but was it the killer of the franchise or was the franchise already dying and this was just the last gasp?

I saw most of Jaws: The Revenge by myself. I don’t think I had a crit...

Like many people at the time, I was really into the early 80s 3D revival. With interesting 3D offerings on TV and on the big screen, it was fun time to be watching stuff. Not many of these entertainment events were well-reviewed at the time, and because of the limitations of home 3D viewing, not many of them have managed to find modern fandom.

I saw Jaws 3D at the theater with my best friend at the time. We were both enthusiastic a...

My family was very excited to see Jaws whenever it came on television, but never mustered the same enthusiasm for its first sequel. Because of this, I had an opportunity to read a copy of the Jaws 2 novelization before I saw the film. I really enjoyed the book and was hopeful that the film would match it, but I was surprised to find they were different. While many times after this it would happen, this was the first instance of whe...