Anyone remember this guy? Yahoo Serious was an very '80s Australian comedian who is best known for his 1988 movie Young Einstein.
Young Einstein was a major hit in Australia, and when it was released in the U.S., it sold tickets and made money. But the reviews were more mixed, and some of the humor didn't quite translate. Serious did develop a cult following in an era full of oddball comedians... and that hairstyle says '80s if nothing else does.
Actually, I never really saw Young Einstein, but essentially its about the idea that the namesake genius was actually an Aussie who invented the bubbles in beer and rock and roll. Here's a clip. Serious was part of an overall American interest in all things Aussie back in the '80s, following up on Men at Work, Air Supply, Midnight Oil and Crocodile Dundee.
I do need to do some posts about '80s comedians... it was a great era for quirky, odd humor.
Around the time of Mother's Day, I posted a remembrance of my mom's love of cop, private investigator, and action shows. Now, for Father's Day, I have been trying to think of what my father liked when I was growing up. The first thing that came to mind was his interest in news programming and current events.
In particular, I am reminded of how back in the '70s he was a devout watcher of the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. I remember, like clockwork, my father would turn on that broadcast every night at 6:30 and follow it with great interest. Back in the '70s, during my pre-teen years, I had not yet developed much of an interest in the news, and found it all pretty boring, but I still remember how that news program started, with the teletype machine sounds in the background and the news program's logo announcing the show. Cronkite was famous for ending the show with "and thats the way it is."
I searched Youtube for something news related, and found this excellent 1975 broadcast of CBS news, in top form, with Cronkite reporting on the Apollo-Soyuz linkup in space that happened that year. This appealed to me because I actually remember this event being mentioned in school, and also because I have always been (and still am) a major fan of the space program.
My father was a no-nonsense type of guy, always very practical. He was a history teacher in high school, and always interested in politics and issues and news. He was also a major follower of "60 Minutes" and would watch that show just as consistently. As I grew from a goofy kid to an oddball, nerdy teen, I also developed a strong interest in news and current events, and I have my Dad to partly thank for that. I owe him a lot, for which I can only partly show my appreciation as I spend time with him this weekend.
1984 was a great year for music. In searching the net for all things '80s, I discovered this podcast from Slate Magazine's Mike Pesca and Chris Molanphy who talked about the greatest songs of 1984.
They do a pretty good job of encapsulating 1984 in music, but here's a brief overview.
The very '80s rockers Van Halen were riding high in 1984 with their album, appropriately named "1984", and their biggest hit off that, "Jump." How can anyone have gone through 1984 without remembering that memorable, and now classic, rock hit.
1984 was a great year for comebacks from classic musicians. Tina Turner, the soulful diva of the '60s and '70s, returned in a big way with "What's Love Got to Do with It," one of many hits off of her album Private Dancer.
The '70s progressive rock group Yes fine tuned its style for New Wave '80s, and had a major hit with "Owner of a Lonely Heart," off of the album 90125. The song was actually released the year before, but it was still pervading the airwaves in 1984 with its infectious and catchy style.
1984 was the year for Madonna's breakthrough hit "Like a Virgin," from the album of the same name.
And equally unforgettable, it was the year of Footloose, both the movie and the namesake song by Kenny Loggins.
Here's another part of the '60s flashback which occurred during the 1980s. In 1983 Tracey Ullman, a British musician and actress, put out an album You Broke My Heart in 17 Places, whose style clearly derived from the '60s.
The hit she had off of that album, "They Don't Know" is instantly recognizable as having the style of mid-'60s British female musicians such as Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark. As if to drive the point home, the video also clearly presents '60s era motifs, and features the very '60s Paul McCartney.
The 1980s was a time of great nostalgia for the 1960s. I think in some ways this was the result of aging baby boomers who were then largely in their thirties (as in the TV show Thirtysomething) and who provided a big audience for memories about their younger years. There was also something cyclical about the phenomenon, since it was preceded during the '70s by Fifties nostalgia (i.e. Happy Days, Grease, American Grafitti), and followed in the '90s by Seventies revivalism (i.e. That '70s Show, Dazed and Confused). In any case the '80s were full of flashbacks to the '60s which included television shows like The Wonder Years, movies like the self-explanatory 1969 (which came out in 1988), and plenty of musical revivals of '60s styles such as when Prince released his Sgt. Pepper-esque 1985 album Around the World in a Day.
The Moody Blues, a '60s era group that was still going strong in the '80s, had a hit with "Your Wildest Dreams," a song that dealt with longing for the era of change and protest. The video for that song is quite poignant.
As an '80s teen, I loved '80s music and culture. But I also shared a tremendous fascination for the era of the 1960s, a time which was so momentous that its effects rippled for many years afterward. And '60s music was great. So, when there occurred this sudden interest in all things '60s, I dove right in, making myself tye-dye shirts, buying paisley prints, and listening obsessively to oldies stations that focused on sixties music. There was an innocence and joy and idealism that shone forth from that era, and quite a few members of my own generation made it a point to revive that '60s culture and make it part of our own as well.
In 1986, in the midst of the revivalism, three of the four members of The Monkees decided to reunite and tour. They too had a hit with "That Was Then, This is Now."
Eventually, time turned, and '80s nostalgia eventually came our way in the form of '80s nights on the radio, and movies like The Wedding Singer (1998). I think this '80s nostalgia is quite proper, as the '80s truly were a memorable decade. In the midst of such nostalgia, its important to remember how strong a component of '80s culture was this wave of revivalism that gave a second wind and a new generation of fans to '60s culture.
A comment to one of my recent posts referenced The Greatest American Hero, so I was inspired to re-post this, which originally appeared August 11, 2013. Enjoy.
One of my well remembered TV series from the early '80s was Greatest American Hero (1981-1983), a quirky super hero series which featured an unlikely and fumbling everyday guy as its protagonist. I think what made the series so likable was the sense that the "hero" was someone who never even sought the role, a well meaning person who had hero status thrust upon him and tried to deal with it as best as he could. Neither the hero nor the show took themselves too seriously.
William Katt starred as the unlikely hero, Ralph Hinkley, a schoolteacher assigned to a special education class. Connie Selleca stars as Pam Davidson, an attorney who handled Hinkleys divorce, but soon becomes his love interest in the show. Ralph's last name was changed to "Hanley" after an assassin whose last name was Hinkley attempted to kill President Reagan in March of 1981.
The great Robert Culp played FBI agent Bill Maxwell, who somehow linked up with Ralph and Pam, and often provided the more hard-edged strategic mindset which the others lacked.
Together, the disparate trio repeatedly found themselves batting bad guys after an unexpected encounter gave Ralph his super powers.
During an trek in the desert, Ralph and Bill had a close encounter with space aliens. (I always thought the spaceship was cool.)
The aliens beamed down a special suit which only Ralph could use, and which was the source of his powers, which included such typical super hero abilities as flight, invisibility, strength and remote viewing.
But the mild mannered Ralph proved to be an uneasy superhero, which made him all the more likable in the role. More problematic was the fact that they lost the manual provided with the suit which showed how to properly use it. So, Ralph, with the help of Bill and Pam, had to learn how to use it by trial and error, with often funny results. Ralph's haphazard effort at flying was a frequent feature of the show..
Heres the intro, courtesy of RetroJunk.com.
The theme song, written by Mike Post and Stephen Geyer and sung by Joey Scarbury, became a hit in 1981. I remember hearing it frequently on the radio back then.
I was 11 years old that year, when the show premiered. Now, looking back, I see both the song and the TV show as reflective of that era. When the show premiered in 1981, the United States was just recovering from a rough period where hostages were held for over a year in Iran, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and the economy was in a bad state. Although the country was not yet out of the woods, by any means, there was the uneasy glimmer of hope and optimism. I think the portrayal of Ralph's uneasy hero status, and the song about being surprised at unexpected success, seemed to echo this mood.
David Letterman, the host who revolutionized late night talk shows back in the '80s, retired this past week. For a long time, he has been a fairly mainstream celebrity, that it is often hard to remember how truly novel his comedy was during the '80s. During that decade (more specifically between 1980 and 1993) Letterman was the host, on NBC, of Late Night with David Letterman. His show during that era was a free wheeling, loosely structured, oddball affair, full of the quirky and sometimes strange humor that seemed to pervade the decade.
I mean, speaking from personal experience, back then I often found myself laughing uproariously at the off the wall humor that came at you from odd angles and which seemed to be everywhere: in comics like Bloom County and The Far Side, in stand up comedians like Stephen Wright and Gallagher (and you should have seen the early stand up Whoopi Goldberg), and in shows like Eddie Murphy/Joe Piscopo era Saturday Night Live. There was a viewpoint that was just fresh, so quirky and so very funny, that has not been seen for quite a bit. (In the '90s, quite frankly, comedy seemed to take on a more hard edged quality, more "in your face" and less oddball, which was quite different.)
David Letterman's Late Night show was a prime example of the off the wall '80s humor, as exemplified by his experimentation with suits made out of different materials. Here's several clips over the years.
