I can’t look away . . . It seems the remarks of such B- and C-level “celebs” as Hal Sparks, Mo Rocca and “Rerun” aren’t sufficiently moronic, so they have hired a chimp. Oddly enough, the only commentator with consistently incisive and amusing remarks is Twisted Sister’s Dee Snider.
What holds me in its horrible, horrible thrall is the clips: TV shows, commercials, news footage from the decade (for the record, I turned 13 in 1970). But, Jesus, everything was so sleazy and sordid and the clothes were so awful!
I don’t fully understand it either, but I found myself strangly enraptured by this show. I know I should just turn it off, but… I can’t. I blame some kind of weird mind-ray that VH-1 is shooting into my brain. Time to get my aluminum foil hat on again.
I was especially creeped out by the freaky Blythe Doll. I don’t recall ever seeing one in the 70’s, but DAMN those are freaky dolls, with the giant heads and changing eye colors. And I loved Spark’s comment about them being Barbies with encephalitis. Heh.
I think Michael Ian Black and Hal Sparks are downright funny on that show and it’s prior incarnation. Black’s deadpan humor and Sparks’ over-the-top comments make the show worthwhile. So I’ll be watching. Like I had any choice with their mindbeams.
“Down goes Weeble! Down goes Weeble!” Heh, made me laugh.
I’ve only seen one episode so far, but will probably watch them all within the next week or so–the 1970 episode revived a lot of old memories (my wife and I sang the “Hee-Haw” song in unison), and that was just the year of my birth.
I absolutely loved the 80’s series. Same reaction as Eve, where you just can’t look away, and you’re drawn to the old footage.
I need to catch some of the 70’s episodes. I was born in '73, so I don’t think I’ll get as much out of this series, but still, the commentary is often what makes the show. That and groaning and saying “what were we thinking???”
Mo Rocca may be a B-level celebrity, but I loves me some of him!
Couldn’t they have gotten someone who actually remembers the 70’s? Hal Sparks and Mo Rocco were barely cogniscent of their surroundings at that point. It sort of annoys me.
Michael Ian Black, Hal Sparks, and Mo Rocca are the best parts of that show. How many more clips of a b-level celebrity singing the first line of a show’s theme song do we need?
See, for me the commentary is the weakest link: mostly people singing along with theme songs and going “Oh, I hated those!” or, “Oh, I loved those!” Rarely insightful or clever; Mo Rocco and Hal Sparks and Michael Ian Black (thanks, couldn’t remember his name) are funny when they have good writers supplying them with material. None of them are great wits on their own.
Blythe was my favorite doll as a kid! Her eyes made this clicking sound when they changed. I remember wanting her so badly in the store and doing my best not to pester my mother about it, but I simply HAD to have her. I very calmly asked her for it a number of times. My mom was good a rewarding those who did not whine.
I agree that the commentary is usually really annoying, with occasional exceptions. The chimp has got to go. I like monkeys as much (ok, maybe more) than the next gal, but it’s just a moronic use of a primate. We just become transfixed by the bombardment of old-timey clips, so it’s impossible for us to turn away from those kinds of shows. I believe we’re under mind control as well.
I love how Michael Ian Black (he’s new to me, very amusing) is taking the whole deadpan, straight-man approach with his comments. I was cracking up when he talked about Deliverence as a movie that explored “alternative lifestyles.” Bwahaha!
I think I’m especially drawn to this because I was born in 1971 and so barely remember some of the stuff they’re talking about. I do vaguely remember things going on around me, toys other kids had and I didn’t, news items I was too young to grasp the meaning of, songs that were playing all the time, etc. It sorta ties everything together somehow.
I think a lot of the toss-off jokes and observations are more telling than they realise. For example the guy who joked that no one ate anything healthy in the 70’s. That was so true! If you wanted wheat bread or a piece of fruit or something you were considered a hippie freak. I used to know a family who ate Honeycomb cereal with chocolate milk. The mom lived on Dr. Pepper and Twinkies. Most of the women they rattle off as “foxy” for each year look nearly malnourished by todays standards.
Biggest dead-weight “celeb”? Lisa Marie Presley! Her remarks can be pretty much boiled down to: “I remember that.” and “Huh? I don’t remember that.”
Her only funny remark was unintentional, describing Michael Landon on Little House . . . as “the perfect Dad everyone would want to have.” As opposed to, I dunno . . . Hers?
I think I remember seeing a quick ad saying that it was coming in October. Maybe I dreamed that. Not sure.
I was born in 1980, and I LOVED the “I Love the 80s” and I can’t help but watch the “I Love the 70s.” Some of it is lost on me but I’m still amused all the same.
Hal Sparks, I want to take him home with me. He’s adorable.
SInce I spent way too much time watching the 80s series, I figure if I watch this one when it first airs, I’ll get it out of my system.
I was born in the early 70s, too young to fully appreciate some of these things the first time around, but I still feel an attachment or revulsion to some of the things mentioned. Hee Haw was a big part of my childhood (it came on two of the five stations we had back then). I live in Alabama so Lynyrd Skynyrd is inescapable. We never watched The Waltons (I think it reminded Mom too much of her childhood, we were a Little House family. And I can remember hating my clothes even then although no one will ever mistake me for a clotheshorse or a modern day Beau Brummel. I had a pair of overalls I was actually glad I got sick and threw up on thanks to some gamey beanie weenies at day care. And I always dreamed of owning a Big Wheel, I had its mutant cousin, the Green Machine. Of course we had a loose gravel driveway, which made the whole thing pointless
I like the comments of Rich Eisen, Hal Sparks, ?uestlove and David Cassidy (even though he comes off as a real prick). “Rerun” must be out of the preaching business now judging by his comments. Stuart Scott is back to being worthless, I actually though he was clever for once during the 80s series.
The only thing worse than someone singing part of the theme song to some show is Mo Rocca singing the theme song. “Media gadfly”? - more like media pilot fish. Michael Ian Black may have a great deadpan delivery, but his material stinks, the instant I heard him say “skidmarks and burnouts” I knew an underwear joke was coming. And why do I like Donal Logue as an actor but find his comments irritatingly one-note?
But any excuse that gets Lynda Carter back on TV is just fine with me.
Yes, he has been disappointing, but the woman who plays his wife (I’m totally blanking on her name) has some really cute stories. I laughed when she told how her mom caught her trying to jump into the filing cabinet to see if she’d become Hong Kong Phooey. I could relate because I once punched the glass out of a window pretending to be Popeye. Heh.