# Did I imagine this show? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2008, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532 "2008-12-10T07:51:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/1 "2008-12-10T07:51:58Z")
When I hit puberty in the 80s, I have a memory of an exercise show that seemed to border on soft-core. It was filmed in an all white studio and the women exercised to fast techno music in a way that to my fevered teenage brain, seemed highly provocative. It seemed to me to be marketed as more than just an exercise show. Does anyone else remember this show? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/2 "2008-12-10T08:00:39Z")
[Aerobics Oz Style](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobics_Oz_Style) maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/3 "2008-12-10T08:04:51Z")
Aerobicise. Check YouTube for results. I couldn’t get the two click rule to work for samples, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/4 "2008-12-10T08:05:41Z")
I don’t think that was it. I should have specified that I grew up in the US, sorry. I’m pretty sure it was an American show with American performers. It would have aired in the early 80s. For some reason I was thinking about the show recently and how out of place it seemed to be. In my hometown it aired after Solid Gold, rather than in the morning with other exercise shows. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/5 "2008-12-10T08:26:05Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I should have specified that I grew up in the US, sorry. I’m pretty sure it was an American show with American performers. _Aerobics Oz Style_ did screen all over the world, but fair enough. It probably wasn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/6 "2008-12-10T08:55:54Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I don’t think that was it. I should have specified that I grew up in the US, sorry. I’m pretty sure it was an American show with American performers. It would have aired in the early 80s. > > For some reason I was thinking about the show recently and how out of place it seemed to be. In my hometown it aired after Solid Gold, rather than in the morning with other exercise shows. Funny, when I read “exercise video that seemed to border on soft-core” my first thought was the Solid Gold workout video! That’s probably not it, though. I can’t imagine they would air that right after the show, whatever the show was. (I never saw the show. I used to own the exercise video, though.) ---
**Author:** ![kbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4491bb/32.png) [@kbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kbear)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/7 "2008-12-10T10:05:00Z")
Sounds like the 20 Minute Workout that used to air on CITY TV in Toronto back then. Everyone was dressed like Jennifer Beals in Flashdance with the big hair and leg warmers. The guys thought they were pretty hot. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/8 "2008-12-10T13:10:39Z")
I remember 20 Minute Workout, but in my mind it was on HBO during the late 1970’s. They used it as filler to make the movies start on the hour. Always three women. I was past adolescence, but it was still pretty hot. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/9 "2008-12-10T13:26:20Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > …in a way that to my fevered teenage brain, seemed highly provocative… > [@](#): > > CORDELIA: So, does looking at guns really make girls wanna have sex? That’s scary. > > XANDER: Yeah, I guess. > > CORDELIA: Well, does looking at guns make you wanna have sex? > > XANDER: I’m seventeen. Looking at \*linoleum \*makes me wanna have sex. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![D.Fenestrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aca169/32.png) [@D.Fenestrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D.Fenestrator)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/10 "2008-12-10T14:59:46Z")
This sounds like the “Aerobicize” shorts that ran on Showtime in the early 80’s (80 to 82 or so). Three (or occasionally four) women in leotards, wearing waaay too much make-up, doing some highly improbable exercises (they didn’t look like they were going for the fitness aspect, if you know what I mean) on a giant turntable in a white studio, to vaguely disco-ish music. They ran as filler between movies, as I recall, and were just a few minutes (3 or 4) each. We had a video recorder at the time, and were fast-forwarding to get through “aerobicize” to the movie, and one of our cats was FASCINATED by the wacky wiggly women… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mahna\_Mahna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e47c2d/32.png) [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/11 "2008-12-10T15:39:04Z")
My first guess was 20 Minute Workout as well, since it definitely had that pretty girls, provocative camera angles and rotating floor thing going… but I’m guessing that there were probably few shows that fit that description floating around during the aerobics craze in the 80’s. The video for [Call On Me](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-722K7aj5TI)is a tongue-in-cheek homage (warning, video features thongs, provocative camera angles and suggestive dance moves). ---
**Author:** ![thwartme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@thwartme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thwartme)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/12 "2008-12-10T15:55:33Z")
Hooray for the [20 minute workout](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S-DgR_nj0c)! thwartme ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/13 "2008-12-10T16:08:19Z")
I agree with **Pine** – it sounds like **Aerobicize**. They showed a clip of this on the Tonight show, and my rommate and I drop our jaws. It pretty clearly wasn’t intended as a normal exercize video – you couldn’t tell what the girls were doing at first. You jut saw body parts dressed in primary color spandex outfits. “What IS this?” I asked “It’s for old guys,” replied my roomie. “It’s to get their hearts started in the morning.” I noticed that each of them had a black box attached at the waist, with cords going up to their heads. “What are those boxes?” I asked. “They’re their Mind Control Boxes,” my roomie said, instantly. I wished I’d come up with that. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/14 "2008-12-10T17:09:37Z")
My first thought was 20 Minute Workout as well. It wasn’t just on premium cable. In our town the local independent station stuck it in as morning filler, somewhere between the farm report and the Andy Griffith rerun. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/15 "2008-12-10T17:19:50Z")
Aerobocise I remember it well. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/16 "2008-12-10T21:37:24Z")
Yeah, The 20 Minute Workout wasn’t just cable, because I used to watch it every day when I was younger, and we didn’t have cable then. –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/17 "2008-12-10T21:50:57Z")
I think there may have been more than one show like this. I remember coming across stuff like this while channel surfing (and stopping in my tracks, of course), but I never knew what it was called. There’s a scene in _48 Hours_ where Eddie Murphy (who has just left prison for the first time in years) is seen staring mesmerized at a television showing some lithsome, skimpily clad aerobicizers and says “TV has changed.” ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2008, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/18 "2008-12-10T22:26:44Z")
I vaguely remember this, I remember the lead exerciser would give a brief explanation of each new exercise and state “Let’s all do 10 repetiitons” (or something to that effect.) She’d then count them off: “Three more…two more…one more…” That became something of a joke catch-phrase when the series aired. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/19 "2008-12-11T05:01:30Z")
It was indeed the 20 Minute Workout. The woman were on a rotating platform as they exercised. As **Diogenes** mentioned, I believe this is the show that Eddie Murphy comments on in 48 Hours. ---
**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2008, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532/20 "2008-12-11T05:04:04Z")
As I recall, there used to be a show like that on Showtime and HBO. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-i-imagine-this-show/476532.md?page=2)