The Energon Pub

A lot of things that I love are turning 25 this year: Transformers, Voltron, Robotech, Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Last Starfighter and A Nightmare on Elm Street. I starting to feel very old.

YYYYep!
I know how ya feel. When people stare at you blankly when you mention Steve Austin the 6 million dollar man. Half of them don't know what yer talking about, and the other half think yer talking about the wrestler Stone Cold guy.

I find that most of my references to things past get these same reactions unless I'm speaking to people my own age. I've found that I frequently say things like "back in the day...'', and "Ah, swell! More gadgetry that nobody needs!".


I'm 41, and already on my way to crotchety.

I'll be 27, that's not considered old. But every day I see or hear things that are reminders that I'm not getting younger.

The best way to look at it is this: everything really WAS more awesome back then. We had actual Saturday morning cartoons. We had music that didn't suck. We had great movies.

Enjoy the fact, if you remember the 80s, that you're old enough to have been around when things really were good!

HK, now, the 70s? not so good.

hellkitty wrote:HK, now, the 70s? not so good.

I'm inclined to agree with ya there. A silly time to say the least.
But it did bring us Micronauts, Rush, and Star Wars, so it wasn't a TOTAL waste!

the 80s were great!

hellkitty wrote:We had actual Saturday morning cartoons.

Aaaaah... The "good old days"..
I miss Sat morn toons on the big 3...

Cyber Bishop wrote:

hellkitty wrote:We had actual Saturday morning cartoons.

Aaaaah... The "good old days"..
I miss Sat morn toons on the big 3...

qft

hell we even had sunday mornin cartoons on the local channels. transformers season 3/4 followed by ninja turtles, 11 and 1130 every sunday 20 years ago. kbhk 44 (even though its channel 12)

And the local channels used to plat toons mon - frimfrom 3 - 5 pm..
That is when Transformers, Voltron, Gobots, GiJoe, Jem, Filmations Ghostbusters, etc.. used to come on..

The local stations also played toons from 6-8 am too.

Times seemed so much simpler back then.. That is because for us late 30 somethings.. They were simple!!

I was born in '82. Sometimes I wish had been born 15 years earlier, so I could have enjoyed the 80s, not just remember it as a few memories from when I was knee high to a grasshopper.

I still remember my very first TF toy (G1 Prowl), mt very first TF comic (G1 #13 Shooting Star), and my very first TF episode (wasn't MTMTE, it was Aerial Assault). Good times, indeed.

Cyber Bishop wrote:And the local channels used to plat toons mon - frimfrom 3 - 5 pm..
That is when Transformers, Voltron, Gobots, GiJoe, Jem, Filmations Ghostbusters, etc.. used to come on..

The local stations also played toons from 6-8 am too.

Times seemed so much simpler back then.. That is because for us late 30 somethings.. They were simple!!

hell even the non cartoon shows aimed at kids were better. out of this world (the one where the girl stopped time by touching her fingers together), saved by the bell, hell power rangers even.

filmations ghostbusters.. is that the one with the ape?

and 'im in the boat with the rod. born in 83, wis for 15 years earlier. wait that would make me the same age as my mom maybe it wouldn't work...

hellkitty wrote:HK, now, the 70s? not so good.

What about Led Zep? Come on, now. The 70s is where(when?) some of my favourite music is from.

Each of those decades brought something to the mix. For toys, the 80's had it for sure. I've always looked on that decade with fond memories in that regard. For music, The 70's brought us a revolution in rock and roll. 80's brought us flock of seagulls. I'm not saying there wasn't good music in the 80's, there absolutely was, but I can only listen to Falco rock Amadaeus so many times. At least Disco still has kitch appeal. God the early days of 80's music videos was beyond embarrassing. Sorry Stan Bush...

Children's movies..80's for sure. Never ending story, Dark Crystal, swearing in TF G1 Movie..etc etc

Yeah a lot of the TF toys were born from the 70's, but that's just the price of admission. The 80's knocked it out of the park.

It's not that I feel old, I feel privileged to have been there to appreciate it.

The 70s also brough us Debbie Harry and Blondie.

Yes, I am in love with her. What a voice!

hellkitty wrote:The best way to look at it is this: everything really WAS more awesome back then. We had actual Saturday morning cartoons. We had music that didn't suck. We had great movies.

Enjoy the fact, if you remember the 80s, that you're old enough to have been around when things really were good!

HK, now, the 70s? not so good.

Truest statement of all time.

It's not like we over-eggaterate the goodness of the stuff from the 80s. It really was that good.

Name_Violation wrote:hell even the non cartoon shows aimed at kids were better. out of this world (the one where the girl stopped time by touching her fingers together), saved by the bell, hell power rangers even.

Saved by the Bell started in 89, most of its run was in the 90s. In my eyes that makes it a 90s tv show
Power Rangers was in the 90s


The 90s cartoons were far better then the 80s in my mind though

I'm listening to "The Danger Zone" from the Top Gun soundtrack. Awesome. I gotta get more music from the 80s.

Rodimus Prime wrote:I'm listening to "The Danger Zone" from the Top Gun soundtrack. Awesome. I gotta get more music from the 80s.

I always get a kick out of "You're the Best" by Joe Esposito.

"Sweep the leg!"

I would also throw out there that a good chunk of prime time was better than a lot that's offered now.

Magnum PI
CHiPs
Emergency
Moonlighting
Night Court

there were a lot of shows I remember as a kid hoping to stay up to watch, I know my sister's kids aren't interested in any of the current stuff available, and I certainly don't put on any of the CSI's/L&O's or much of any the current PT shows on When I'm helping look after them.

Oh yeah. Back then so many shows were fun to watch.

MacGyver, Knight Rider, A-Team, Transformers, G.I. Joe, Magnum P.I., ChiPs, and my favorite, Dallas. J.R. Ewing FTW.

I love those old shows!

I think we have some good TV shows from this decade too. I'm a big fan of Firefly(too bad it didn't get the series run I would have liked but at least Serenity was made!), Dexter, Chuck, and some others that escape me at this moment.

One of the things I love about the 80s is the anime. I didn't get to appreciate them at the time of their first airings. Macross(both Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the Robotech Macross) had a great impact on me, it was one of the things that inspired my pursuit of a career as an artist. Astro Boy too. I've got the Tetsuwan Atom series on DVD. Bubblegum Crisis is something I can watch over and over again. There's just a sense of depth that seemed to permeate more anime of the 80s than what we see today, both in TV series and limited series like OVAs.

Convotron wrote:One of the things I love about the 80s is the anime. I didn't get to appreciate them at the time of their first airings. Macross(both Super Dimension Fortress Macross and the Robotech Macross) had a great impact on me, it was one of the things that inspired my pursuit of a career as an artist. Astro Boy too. I've got the Tetsuwan Atom series on DVD. Bubblegum Crisis is something I can watch over and over again. There's just a sense of depth that seemed to permeate more anime of the 80s than what we see today, both in TV series and limited series like OVAs.

Same exact reasons I am involved in the local anime community. when Robotech hit the local airwaves it was amazing, The visuals were much better than the other cartoons I was watching at the time and the story and themes were lightyears ahead of the others, heck just that fact characters died, and they didn't gloss it over.

When I was reintroduced to anime in the early 90's It was brilliant because when ever I couldn't find something interesting on regular TV, I ended up watching shows like Patlabour, Gundam Stardust Memories, BGC and others that were the brilliant stories I just wasn't finding on the dial.

Editor wrote:Same exact reasons I am involved in the local anime community. when Robotech hit the local airwaves it was amazing, The visuals were much better than the other cartoons I was watching at the time and the story and themes were lightyears ahead of the others, heck just that fact characters died, and they didn't gloss it over.

When I was reintroduced to anime in the early 90's It was brilliant because when ever I couldn't find something interesting on regular TV, I ended up watching shows like Patlabour, Gundam Stardust Memories, BGC and others that were the brilliant stories I just wasn't finding on the dial.

Yes, the treatment of content in anime was refreshing to me! Especially in Macross, which I feel is holds up 20+ years later as a solid war story, animated or not.

It's not as if such stories aren't being told these days in anime, it's just that the ratio of solid shows to the throwaway shows are not as high. I feel a lot of current anime developers mistake heavy melodrama and armchair philosophizing for creative and insightful writing.

I also have to mention Hayao Miyazaki...his work has never disappointed me. I remember seeing Kaze no Tani no Naushika(as Warriors of the Wind on VHS as a kid and then the original on DVD years later) and Mononoke Hime for the first time. Just the level of quality on the technical and creative level...these are the things that last for me where the hundreds of other comics, novels, TV shows, films, whatever, only linger momentarily before I forget about them.

On the other hand, there have been some good anime recently that have impressed me. Sutorenjia Mukohadan was the last anime feature film I saw and I really enjoyed that. Seirei no Moribito was a great TV series that had a good balance of action, drama, and humour. Great voice acting too.

The Last Starfighter is 25 years old.What I can't believe is all the shows and movies that I know and love (and some that I don't) are turning 25 years old this year.

And btw A Nightmare on Elm Street has remake next coming out next year.

Cyberstrike wrote:The Last Starfighter is 25 years old.What I can't believe is all the shows and movies that I know and love (and some that I don't) are turning 25 years old this year.

And btw A Nightmare on Elm Street has remake next coming out next year.

Death Blossom!

Hmm, I'm not sure about the remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. I don't think I've seen a remake of a horror film that I really liked yet. But who knows? Maybe this remake will be the exception!