Yep, leave it to the eighties to break my Geek Out silence.

It’s no secret that I am a child of the eighties.   I am of the old fogey-ish opinion that I grew up in the “good old days” when Star Wars ruled, Transformers went from being things on telephone poles to characters in  a great cartoon, G.I. Joe was stomping Cobra, and He-Man had the power.   And that was just the afternoon when I got home from school.  In the evenings there were talking cars, furry aliens, good ole’ boys, and a crack commando unit wanted for military crimes they didn’t commit.

The A-Team was one of those shows that was appointment television in my house.  It never occurred to me that with all the shooting and explosions that no one ever died.  I just thrilled to the adventures of B.A., Murdock, Face, and Hannibal.  I too loved it when a plan came together.  I laughed at Murdock’s antics, cheered when B.A. kicked butt, and hoped to one day be as cool as Face.

In 2009, a couple of the eighties franchises that we love got a bit of a kick in the pants due to not-so-well-received theatrical releases of The Transformers and G.I. Joe.  In other past eighties slaps in the proverbial face, The Dukes of Hazard was turned into a parody of the original series, and now Hollywood is trying to remake everything we once held dear.

So it was with great trepidation and skepticism that I heard about The A-Team being made into a feature film.  However, today this was posted around the interwebs…

Of course the minute I posted the video it was taken down. But, now it’s officially up and running over at Yahoo.

Click here to check it out

I’m sold.  More to come as we get in to some other posts later this week.

Not me.  That’s for Sure.

Back in the mid-eighties it seemed that whatever animations companies threw against the wall stuck. It didn’t matter what these guys did, kids seemed to eat it up. Of course, from a business standpoint at the time it was all to promote toy lines.

The most popular properties among kids (after Star Wars) were GI Joe, Transformers, He-Man, and Thundercats. I really think that’s true and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the order of popularity by sells and ratings.

In an effort to capitalize on the success of those most popular properties and products, other lines were launched that were in someway comparable. The answer to Transformers? Go Bots. The answer to GI Joe? Maybe M.A.S.K. The answer to He-Man? I’m not really sure there was a proper answer to He-Man unless it was the Thundercats, but they became so successful that they demanded an answer to their success. Enter The Silverhawks.

The Silverhawks had a lot of similarities to the Tundercats. Instead of organic cat/human amalgams, the Silverhawks seemed to be bionic in nature.

There was the tried and true team line up including a nearly perfect leader of the team, a female counterpart, a strong guy, a kid, and a rocker..uhm…country singer…uhm…he had a guitar.

The villains were the classic big scary guys that tended to screw up a lot with a super scary and vastly superior boss. In this case, the boss actually went through a transformation just like Mum-Ra in Thundercats. I guess that’s what makes them seem so similar.

The Silverhawks were like space police. They took assignments from a leader with a bionic arm and everything.

Of course, at the end of every episode was a lesson of some sort usually featuring the child of the team (who only talked in beeps and whistles) and the cowboy guitar playing guy. These would teach a moral or safety lesson a la GI Joe or He-Man or even a science lesson.

While the Silverhawks never rose to the popularity of He-Man or the Thundercats, they were there and as a kid I enjoyed them and thought they had a great theme song. I don’t know why I thought so then, but it seemed to rock out more to me than any other. Looking at it all through the eyes of an adult though? I’m not so sure…I still love it…just not sure it rocks as hard as I once thought it did.

I’m glad Silverhawks are getting the DVD treatment, now bring on some of those other lesser remembered titles – Turbo Teen, Pac Man, Orbots, and Go Bots.

Use the link below to check it out, and maybe even purchase it from Amazon and support the site.

Sometimes I feel like Uncle Rico.  I want a time a machine to take me back to 1982.   Actually, I’d take a time machine to just about any point in the eighties.   I know the eighties gave us some pretty bad movies.  But the eighties also gave us some great movies.   I would list the good movies, but then I’d have to list the bad movies and the only reason I wrote that is because I know there had to be some.  (I tend to think that the nineties gave us bad sequels to good eighties movies.)

The thing about the eighties when it came to entertainment though, is nothing was off limits.  If a team could imagine it, then a company would make a cartoon out of it.  They threw EVERYTHING against the wall just to see what stuck.

While only a small handful of those cartoons (like the myriad of over-the-top action movies, silly comedies, and crazy science fiction movies) became icons that have stood the test of time, there was a lot of great fun to be had during what I feel is the glory days of cartoons.  Here’s a neat video I stumbled across on YouTube showing a nice portion of some eighties cartoons.  Some are more obscure than others, and they aren’t ALL represented, but the icons are there along with some that I don’t know.  So check it out:

While it’s not by best offering of a podcast ever, it is what it is.  In this episode I talk a Smallville, the viral campaign that is underway for THE DARK KNIGHT, JUSTICE LEAGUE casting rumors, and I answer some questions about Heroes and assign a new name or two.   Oh yeah, and David Hasslehoff comes to Geek Out Loud…sort of.  I mention him…WHILE I’M TALKING ABOUT KNIGHT RIDER.

Here are the links you need to understand everything..

For more on Smallville, as always, go to Kryptonsite.com and of course Starkville’s House of El Podcast of which I am a part.

For more on Heroes, check out The Tenth Wonder Podcast, where you’ll find thorough reviews, theory discussions, and spoilers.

For that sweet picture of KITT, just click here.

Now for the shameless plugs…

To start up forum-esque conversations about Geek Out Loud or Geek Out Online, click here.

As always leave comments, or E-mail me.

Thanks for listening.

 I forgot to post this link earlier.  The Al Roker report on the Dark Knight can be seen here.

 

 Standard Podcast [79:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Being a child of the eighties, I have a certain fondness for Mr. T.   Being a geek, I have a certain fondness for World of Warcraft (WoW), the Online Multiplayer Role Playing Game thing.  While I’ve never played WoW myself, I have friends who play it, and I wish I did play it. 

Well, just like your peanut butter getting on my chocolalte, or my chocolate falling in your peanut butter, (who knows that reference?), the forces of Mr. T and WoW have come together to make something that reeks of awesomeness.  “Maybe Mr. T is pretty handy with computers.”