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The TV Shows That Raised Gen X · The Women Are Plotting

0:02
Etienne: Welcome listeners.
0:03
Etienne: This is Women Are Plotting.
0:05
Etienne: I'm Etienne Rose Olivier, and I'm here with my friends and co-hosts Heidi Willis and Jane Gari.
0:12
Etienne: Today's episode will be talking about our favorite Gen X shows that inspired us, and we always have a fun and or interesting fact for each episode, and mine today is regarding the 1970s television show the Incredible Hulk and how the main character's name was changed from Bruce Banner to David Banner because CBS executives thought that Bruce was too effeminate of a name.
0:39
Etienne: Jane, what's your fun fact for today?
0:48
Jane: Oh my, sorry, I'm laughing because bruce is my husband's nickname for my non-existent side piece.
0:51
Jane: We just make a joke like if he's coming home early, he's like tell bruce to leave because I'm gonna be there.
0:57
Jane: And uh, bruce, I find I find bruce is a very manly name
1:02
Etienne: yeah, I guess bruce.
1:03
Etienne: Yeah, they didn't change it for any of the Marvel movies.
1:05
Etienne: It's definitely Bruce Banner.
1:07
Etienne: Yeah, yeah, that's ridiculous.
1:10
Jane: It was a different time, the 70s
1:12
Heidi: yeah
1:13
Jane: very different.
1:13
Heidi: Bruce Willis wasn't around yet.
1:15
Jane: Yeah
1:16
Heidi: I think Bruce Willis, like he rehabbed that name maybe.
1:21
Jane: Or like Bruce Springsteen.
1:26
Jane: People didn't think that that was like
1:26
Heidi: yeah, that too, yeah
1:27
Etienne: yeah
1:27
Heidi: huh.
1:27
Heidi: Yeah, that's weird that they would call it effeminate
1:29
Jane: bruce but yeah.
1:32
Jane: so my fun fact is actually about the term gen x itself, not the term itself, but just like what other nicknames for our generation like?
1:41
Jane: Sometimes, gen x is called the in-between generation because we're situated between the baby boomers and the millennials, and one of the reasons why we're also called that is because we straddle the best of both the analog and the digital worlds.
1:58
Jane: I feel like we're killing it, but we're also called the forgotten generation, and we're also called the latchkey generation because many of us I would argue maybe most of us were left unsupervised at home after school, literally using the latchkey which, if you
2:16
Etienne: yeah On the chain.
2:18
Jane: Yeah, yes.
2:20
Jane: And if you're really young and you're like what is a latchkey?
2:22
Jane: It's literally the name of the key to the outer door of your house and, as our parents were really the first generation where a lot of folks were having two parents working or there was a lot of divorce, and then you just have both parents who might be working but they're not living together, and so now there's no caregiver present when you're getting home, and I think that that leads into our topic for today, which is just the idea of our favorite TV shows, because I think there was a lot of afternoon TV watching going on when there's not a parent to tell you to stop.
3:02
Heidi: We were definitely raised on the television.
3:04
Jane: So what's your fun fact, heidi?
3:07
Heidi: So mine's personal I actually met Norman Lear in 2016 at an awards ceremony.
3:14
Heidi: Yes, I was a finalist and a semi-finalist for a couple of my scripts at the Austin Film Festival screenwriting conference and he was the one being honored that year, and so after the ceremony, I got to meet him and tell him basically, hey, you were a big part of my childhood.
3:32
Heidi: Like I feel like being raised by a single mom.
3:35
Heidi: I wasn't really taught moral.
3:38
Heidi: I think his shows All in the Family, the Jeffersons, one Day at a Time like those kind of instilled in me these values and morals and how to be good and how to be a good person, like I just basically said that to him and told him I was so grateful that I felt like he was a kind of a substitute father figure through his shows, helping me become a good person, and so, yeah, it was really neat getting to hug him and
4:08
Etienne: what was his response to you?
4:10
Etienne: saying that to him
4:11
Heidi: oh, yeah, he hugged me and and he was really grateful that I told him that.
4:18
Heidi: But yeah, I was crying that was a big deal.
4:23
Etienne: like, yeah, if you came up to me and said that I would probably start getting teared up Like that's so sweet.
4:30
Heidi: Yeah, so yeah, it was really neat that he was the one being honored that year, that I was at the award ceremony.
4:37
Heidi: It meant a lot being able to meet him and tell him that.
4:42
Heidi: You know, you know it was good, oh anyway.
4:48
Heidi: So norman lear is a huge influence on the shows that kind of affected me the most growing up.
4:55
Heidi: Also, other ones are like all those anthology shows like twilight zone, tales from the Dark Side, outer Limits.
5:04
Heidi: I was obsessed with those type of shows.
5:08
Jane: You're reminding me of Ray Bradbury Theater that show would be it was one of those, because I don't unlike Heidi, I do not gravitate towards horror as a genre, unless I'm reading it, and then I can control just how messed up the visuals get in my head.
5:25
Jane: But as a medium film and television I don't gravitate towards horror, and unless it's about vampires I don't know why they don't scare me as much, and so I find them sexy in a way.
5:38
Jane: But ray bradbury theater was weird enough and odd enough where I could watch it.
5:47
Jane: Sometimes I would, though, because my sister and I would sometimes watch it together, and then we would fight over who was the last person up the stairs.
5:53
Jane: She was like I'm turning off all the lights and she'd run away and I would just be freaking out because now I'm responsible for making sure the television is off and making sure the door is locked, Because we would be watching it in a den and our parents weren't there.
6:06
Jane: But I will say that if we were watching television in the evening Ray Bradbury Theater was an exception.
6:12
Jane: I don't know what time it was on in syndication, so I think that that was maybe like a rainy day situation?
6:20
Etienne: Yeah, I was going to ask you because I never saw Ray Bradbury Theater.
6:23
Jane: No, and I think it was a summertime thing, because I remember when we watched it we were at my dad's house and so it must have been in the summer, but it was at night when it came on and it was in syndication, so I don't know when it originally ran, but we were watching it by ourselves.
6:36
Jane: But if we were watching television in the evening and I think this is something that our generation was, the last generation, sadly, to have this be a normal thing, right, is you're watching it with your family?
6:46
Heidi: right.
6:47
Heidi: So there was this whole group watching the same thing
6:49
Jane: exactly so that when you went to school the next day there was a baseline conversation you could have about the cosby show yeah, you know that on friday everybody oh my god, did you see it?
7:03
Jane: and we'd be acting out the scenes from it.
7:05
Jane: And I think that back to my fun fact about how I was str at least part of the storyline of our unstructured playtime that we'd have outside.
7:28
Jane: So one of the things I used to love to watch in the afternoon, when I came home from school first, after eating a very unhealthy snack because my mom wasn't home to tell me to not eat it would be to watch Charlie's Angels, which was in reruns at the time, and me and my sister and my stepsisters would argue over who was going to embody who during the show.
7:52
Jane: And I always wanted to be Kelly, because I think Jacqueline Smith is, hands down, one of the most beautiful human beings that there's ever been.
7:59
Jane: But Charlie's Angels before that, cameron Diaz, drew Barrymore reboot and Lucy Liu there were these three women in the 70s who were just like the badasses and they had adventures and I'm sure it would be really dated if I went back and looked at it.
8:14
Heidi: Got the bad guys
8:14
Jane: they did and they worked together,
8:16
Heidi: did it sexy.
8:17
Jane: They did it sexy
8:18
Heidi: In their heels
8:19
Jane: In their heels, and sometimes they had guns.
8:22
Jane: They knew different martial arts moves.
8:25
Heidi: Yeah
8:26
Jane: they worked for some dude, though that they never saw, which was always really weird, and he just talked to them through this very weird speakerphone that just sat on the desk and it was almost like charlie was the speakerphone and I had some very sexually ambiguous dude named bosley who hung out with them, but he never actually did any of the wet work that the Charlie's Angels were doing.
8:46
Jane: But I would.
8:48
Jane: Then, after that show was over, I would go outside and with my neighborhood friends, we would play Charlie's.
8:54
Jane: Angels.
8:55
Jane: You know what I mean.
8:55
Jane: So it wasn't like today's kids were.
8:57
Jane: I couldn't then afterwards binge watch every episode of Charlie's Angels there ever was.
9:04
Jane: It was only a 4 pm situation and then it was over.
9:08
Jane: And then I turned the TV off and went outside and got into all manner of trouble in the woods or just being stupid, but we would play Charlie's Angels.
9:18
Jane: So you did that too.
9:19
Jane: You would play VR, whatever you were pretending to be.
9:24
Heidi: Well, I think that's when I realized I was a storyteller or should be a director or something, because I was like directing the kids, like okay, you're gonna be this person, you're gonna say this and yeah I think.
9:36
Heidi: Yeah, some of my friends were like we don't want to play with her anymore
9:40
Etienne: so bossy
9:41
Heidi: so bossy
9:44
Etienne: Did you guys do Charlie's Angels too, or what would your
9:48
Heidi: yeah, charlie's Angels, we would play that.
9:50
Heidi: Play Justice League.
9:51
Heidi: What was another one we'd play?
9:56
Jane: We played the Smurfs.
9:57
Heidi: Yeah, oh, the Smurfs.
9:58
Etienne: You played the Smurfs.
10:00
Heidi: Yeah, pretend like you're Smurfs.
10:03
Jane: God, there was magic involved.
10:05
Etienne: The Smurfs' little freaking tails coming out of their white pants.
10:09
Heidi: Some strawberry shortcake.
10:11
Etienne: That was my favorite.
10:12
Etienne: Maybe that's why Angus' little tail, my dog's little tail, drives me crazy.
10:15
Etienne: It looks like a little Smurf tail.
10:17
Etienne: I want to put a little Smurf pants on him.
10:21
Jane: That's so cute, oh my gosh.
10:30
Jane: What were your favorites Etty?
10:31
Etienne: Well, yeah, my favorites.
10:31
Etienne: So, yeah, I really did love the incredible hulk, the music that they had at the end of that show.
10:34
Etienne: I wanted to cry every time, like every time.
10:37
Etienne: I was so sad for him because he'd always make friends in these new places and then he'd get found out by that guy that was coming after him and he'd have to leave, and that would just.
10:47
Etienne: I just loved the sadness of it, the fact that he turned into the Hulk, always at a great time, the fact that he didn't turn into Hulk when he needed to.
10:56
Etienne: I think it was because he was trying to save his son, but he wasn't one of those women who could, like, get the superpowers and lift the car off of his son or whatever, when the bad thing happened.
11:05
Etienne: Um, so, yeah, that was one of my favorites, but actually I really liked ricardo montalban in fantasy island I and I.
11:15
Etienne: I found out how old he was because he doesn't look young in fantasy island and I'm so.
11:20
Etienne: That came out in 1977, so so I was six years old when Fantasy Island premiered.
11:26
Etienne: Okay, Ricardo Montalban was 58.
11:30
Etienne: And I was six years old and I was in love with a 58-year-old man.
11:36
Etienne: Like I just thought he was so cool.
11:39
Etienne: And I love that show because it was always like you have these fantasies.
11:45
Etienne: Obviously you're coming to the island.
11:46
Etienne: You want your fantasy to be played out in whatever way it happened to be, and 90, maybe not 90, but 80, 75% of the time things were going to go bad for these people.
11:56
Etienne: Their fantasies would come true and they would turn out to be these horror shows.
12:00
Etienne: No take it back.
12:01
Etienne: I don't want it.
12:02
Etienne: It's fine, I'll go back to my life to where it was
12:04
Heidi: Be careful what you wish for.
12:06
Etienne: So I always kind of thought that Mr Rourke was the devil in a way.
12:10
Etienne: I don't know if he really was, but that's what he seemed like to me, because all of the fantasies would turn against the people.
12:16
Heidi: But they'd learn something.
12:17
Etienne: Yeah
12:20
Heidi: they'd become better people when they leave.
12:21
Heidi: Yeah, so
12:21
Jane: yeah.
12:21
Jane: They appreciate their real lives at the ends,
12:23
Heidi: yeah, yeah
12:24
Etienne: there we go was that any of?
12:26
Etienne: you guys into mr Rourke, or is that the only six-year-old?
12:30
Heidi: no, I had a crush on him too, for sure, uh-huh, yep, love boat.
12:34
Heidi: I think was like right before fantasy.
12:36
Etienne: Yeah, because love boat was yeah, before fantasy island.
12:38
Etienne: Yes,
12:39
Heidi: yeah
12:39
Etienne: I would watch love boat.
12:41
Heidi: It was.
12:41
Heidi: Love Boat, fantasy, island night.
12:43
Heidi: I remember back to back and all the guest stars.
12:47
Etienne: Always the guest stars Fantastic.
12:49
Etienne: Charo
12:49
Jane: I thought Isaac was hot.
12:50
Etienne: I thought it was Charo in Love Boat, y'all Like seriously,
12:53
Jane: I thought she was a character in Love Boat.
12:55
Jane: That's how often she was on it.
12:56
Etienne: She was so good.
12:57
Etienne: You're drinking?
12:57
Etienne: out.
12:57
Etienne: Wait, what did you say you?
13:00
Etienne: thought she was awesome.
13:01
Etienne: She was so full of energy Like I wanted to be as much energy as Charo
13:06
Heidi: yeah
13:09
Heidi: I mean, she could not fly in today's society, huh.
13:14
Jane: Why not?
13:14
Jane: I'm having amnesia about why she wouldn't.
13:17
Jane: I feel like she was just,
13:19
Heidi: she was just like
13:20
Etienne: what just?
13:20
Etienne: her boobs.
13:23
Heidi: She was shaking her boobs everywhere and just like she was more like just eye candy for the men at home, I think.
13:31
Etienne: I mean it kind of reminds like maybe a Sofia Vergara, but, like you know, from the 70s so a little bit more over the top.
13:39
Etienne: Charo was a little bit more over the top but still had, like you know, her very thick accent that we all could understand unless she was trying,
13:49
Jane: she'd go up to people and hip bump them a lot.
13:51
Jane: Oh, that's right, I forgot about the hip bump and definitely be like and she would shake them in people's faces
14:00
Heidi: well, have you guys watched Three's Company?
14:02
Jane: oh god,
14:03
Heidi: it's so offensive now.
14:05
Heidi: It's so offensive now.
14:07
Heidi: That could not fly.
14:09
Etienne: I have not seen it since the day, since back in the day
14:11
Heidi: it's so sexist and it's so bad.
14:17
Jane: It's very homophobic, but every episode is the same plot line, which is somebody mistakenly thinks that somebody's boinking someone else, but they're not.
14:26
Jane: They were just helping them fix something that was wrong with a button.
14:30
Jane: Or like they just accidentally fell on the couch together because Jack left a banana peel on the floor, like they're all so stupid.
14:38
Heidi: Stupid yeah, so stupid.
14:40
Heidi: The writing's terrible.
14:41
Heidi: Because I watched it, I don't know, like a few years back and I'm like how did this ever get made and how is this popular?
14:50
Heidi: And who's watching this garbage?
14:52
Heidi: Because it's garbage.
14:53
Heidi: It really is Like there's no redeeming quality to that show at all.
14:58
Heidi: I like the guy who plays Jack Tripper.
15:01
Heidi: I like him.
15:02
Etienne: It was John Ritter wasn't it
15:03
Heidi: John Ritter I like him as an actor, but oh my God, yeah, that show is terrible.
15:09
Etienne: I watched it.
15:10
Etienne: I loved it, but I was little.
15:11
Etienne: I don't know if I can be counted Like.
15:13
Etienne: Why are you watching it?
15:14
Heidi: Everybody loved it.
15:15
Heidi: I loved it too, like I watch it now and go oh my God.
15:19
Etienne: I have to watch an episode Like seriously.
15:21
Heidi: Yeah, you need to because the humor is terrible.
15:25
Heidi: Yeah, it's bad.
15:27
Heidi: It makes me question our parents, their taste level.
15:32
Etienne: Well, that sort of reminds me of WKRP in Cincinnati.
15:36
Heidi: Yeah
15:37
Etienne: you know, it's kind of.
15:39
Etienne: I mean maybe a little more highbrow WKRP maybe, but not by a lot, I don't know.
15:46
Etienne: I don't know, but another show, another man that I was in love with way too young was Tom Selleck on Magnum PI and my parents let me get one of those Tom Selleck Magnum PI posters and I put it on the ceiling above my bed and my mom was telling me that neighbors, you know they could see it because we were in a townhouse and I was on the upper floor so the neighbors could walk by on the sidewalk and look up and see from outside my Tom Selleck poster on the ceiling.
16:16
Etienne: And they said stuff to my parents like why do you let her put Tom Selleck on her ceiling?
16:21
Etienne: I guess they thought I was masturbating.
16:23
Etienne: I was way too young to be masturbating.
16:25
Etienne: At the time I did not yet know how to do that.
16:28
Etienne: I mean, I knew of it but I didn't know how to do it and I just left his like I thought he was so cool, going around solving crimes, driving around in not his Ferrari but driving around in somebody else's Ferrari and living the life.
16:42
Etienne: Yeah, that was another favorite show, for sure.
16:47
Jane: Now, I had a poster, too, of a man that I was in love with, but that man was Robin Williams.
16:50
Jane: I had a Mork and Mindy poster, but it was just Mork.
16:54
Jane: It was just my Mork from Ork poster, and I loved him and his silly rainbow suspenders.
17:01
Jane: That character was so goofy and so off the rails.
17:04
Etienne: But so innocent,
17:06
Heidi: Innocent yeah.
17:08
Etienne: There was not a bad bone in his body.
17:11
Heidi: No, I wrote him a fan letter back then and they sent me a autograph photo.
17:18
Heidi: I don't know whatever happened to it either.
17:20
Heidi: I'm like a little sad I don't have it still, but oh yeah, it was that and like a little letter back.
17:25
Heidi: So oh, yeah,
17:28
Etienne: so sweet
17:30
Heidi: it was a prized possession for many years
17:32
Etienne: oh my gosh, I'm surprised.
17:33
Heidi: Yeah, I have no idea what happened to it
17:35
Etienne: oh man
17:37
Jane: I had a crush on him and I had a crush on pa from little house in the prairie.
17:41
Jane: I thought michael landon had just like some of the best hair.
17:44
Jane: I mean robin williams had great hair too, but he had hair coming out everywhere, like I know
17:48
Etienne: he was so hairy man.
17:50
Jane: He was so hairy, but but pa michael landon had a lot of chest hair too.
17:55
Jane: That was like the look, right, you could always see it just over his work shirt.
17:57
Jane: Just a little bit.
17:58
Jane: He also wore suspenders.
17:59
Jane: Oh my god, maybe he had a type
18:00
Etienne: you ever think about men with suspenders and body hair?
18:04
Jane: and big, just big fluffy wavy hair was gorgeous.
18:08
Etienne: Yes
18:09
Jane: out of control.
18:09
Heidi: He took off his shirt a lot believe it or not,
18:12
Jane: michael Landon.
18:13
Heidi: Yes.
18:13
Etienne: Was it like to?
18:14
Etienne: work on the farm or to chop wood.
18:16
Etienne: I mean, I definitely watched the show.
18:17
Heidi: I guess I don't know.
18:18
Heidi: But yeah, I saw a TikTok or something where it was talking about like there was a lot of scenes with him shirtless and they were like and he was definitely doing it for the ladies.
18:35
Jane: that seems so gratuitous, but I mean.
18:35
Jane: So this is how in love I was with Michael Landon.
18:37
Jane: Because, again, like after a while, because when we were little, that show was on but then went into syndication, right.
18:43
Jane: So it was not something you could only watch if you were home sick, right?
18:47
Jane: So I had a cold once that I did need to stay at home, legit, one day, but then by the end of the day I was feeling better.
18:55
Jane: And this was back when my mom would leave me.
18:57
Jane: As long as it wasn't anything serious, she would still go to work.
19:00
Jane: She would leave out a gallon jug of watered down fruit juice and she would say, by the time I come home, this needs to be done, you need to flush this out of your system and you need to rest and you need to drink this, okay.
19:15
Jane: And so I would just be sitting there like watching reruns of Love Boat and Fantasy Island and watching the Price is Right,
19:23
Etienne: oh, the Price is Right.
19:24
Jane: But I was homesick that day.
19:26
Jane: And Little House on the Prairie.
19:27
Jane: I watched it.
19:28
Jane: It was a two-parter, so the next day I was feeling better, but still pretended.
19:36
Jane: I felt like garbage so that I could see what happened.
19:40
Etienne: Nice
19:41
Jane: I was like Michael Landon's in trouble.
19:42
Jane: He needs me to stay home and watch, and I don't even remember what the episode was Actually.
19:49
Jane: Yes, I do, oh my gosh.
19:49
Jane: It was an episode where Laura they had a young baby boy who died as a baby and laura had wished because she was the youngest and that was before they adopted that jenny girl or whatever that was.
19:59
Jane: That was so weird I can't remember, but she had prayed that she would still continue to be the youngest and then her younger brother dies and she feels incredible guilt
20:09
Heidi: yeah and she did it.
20:10
Jane: She thinks she did it and she's like crying.
20:12
Jane: Anyway, it was very emotional, very special little house on the prairie, and so I needed to see part two.
20:17
Jane: I had never seen that one before.
20:19
Jane: And lo and behold, the next day, when my mom was like, how are you feeling?
20:23
Jane: I was like not good, not good, I still feel.
20:26
Jane: Oh, it's so scratchy, you know.
20:27
Jane: And so I faked it and I got to see what happened.
20:32
Etienne: Yeah, it's so funny.
20:33
Etienne: Back in the day you could literally be a fan of a show and there might be an episode you never saw.
20:38
Etienne: Just because, if it wasn't on reruns, if you didn't see it when it was originally on, you were screwed, and I think a tiny little Little House on the Prairie.
20:46
Etienne: Fun fact though too is, I think, one of jason bateman's first acting credits was on little house on the prairie.
20:54
Heidi: Yes, yes,
20:55
Etienne: he's talked about it before.
20:55
Etienne: Yeah, and I really like jason bateman me too.
20:58
Heidi: I've had a crush on him.
21:00
Heidi: I used to get what was that?
21:01
Heidi: Teen bop or
21:04
Etienne: teen beat?
21:04
Etienne: Oh yeah,
21:06
Heidi: yeah, if he was in there I would get it and get the poster out.
21:10
Heidi: Him, john Cusack.
21:12
Heidi: Who else?
21:13
Heidi: Oh, rick Springfield.
21:15
Etienne: Oh, rick Springfield,
21:16
Heidi: His posters and my
21:17
Etienne: you know what?
21:18
Etienne: One of my first concerts I ever went to is Rick Springfield
21:21
Heidi: really
21:22
Etienne: And it kind of ruined it for me when I found out he was pretty much the same age as my mother.
21:25
Etienne: It was only a couple of years difference.
21:40
Etienne: And I was like wait, what that was when I started realizing why am I liking people who are so much older than me?
21:45
Etienne: like this is wrong
21:45
Heidi: I used to practice kissing on the poster.
21:46
Heidi: Oh, I made out a lot with rick springfields.
21:47
Etienne: You didn't like ruin your poster, making it wet or anything.
21:49
Etienne: No tongue, just lips,
21:52
Heidi: no tongue.
21:53
Heidi: Yeah,
21:53
Jane: I did that with my Scott Baio poster, but I would practice on my lips.
22:00
Jane: Sorry, not on my own lips, duh, I would make little fake lips out of my fingers, but I would be looking at Scott Baio while I did it From my Dynamite magazine.
22:12
Etienne: Oh, dynamite,
22:13
Heidi: dynamite
22:14
Etienne: Oh, my God, yeah.
22:16
Etienne: And then like later on, in what high school?
22:19
Etienne: It was 21 Jump Street for me, so it was Johnny Depp.
22:22
Etienne: Oh, my God.
22:23
Etienne: Oh my God, he was so he's getting older and he's a little rugged now from all the drugs and drinking, but he was just he's still,
22:32
Etienne: But he was just so beautiful, so beautiful.
22:34
Etienne: Oh my God, and I thought I was way too young for him, which I was in high school.
22:38
Etienne: But then he got together with Winona Ryder, who's actually a little bit younger than I am.
22:42
Etienne: So I'm like, why not me?
22:44
Etienne: That was the one thing I was really hoping when I moved to Los Angeles after high school.
22:49
Etienne: The one person I wanted to meet was Johnny Depp, and I hung out a lot at the Viper Room when that became a thing, but never once did I ever see in person or meet Johnny Depp, so oh well.
23:01
Heidi: Hmm,
23:03
Etienne: yeah
23:03
Jane: he was.
23:03
Heidi: What else was in the 90s?
23:04
Heidi: I guess I wasn't watching a whole lot of television in the 90s,
23:07
Jane: no Same.
23:07
Etienne: No, not in the 90s.
23:13
Heidi: I was out all the time.
23:15
Etienne: Yeah, that was the thing.
23:16
Etienne: My ex-boyfriend, who's over a decade younger than me, he'll talk about shows in the 90s.
23:20
Etienne: I'll go.
23:21
Etienne: I just don't know what you're talking about.
23:22
Etienne: I was out almost as many nights as I could be out.
23:32
Heidi: I remember watching Ren and Stimpy.
23:34
Jane: Oh my gosh.
23:35
Heidi: After work I would watch and just laugh my ass off at that show.
23:40
Heidi: But that was basically it, like I wasn't watching television
23:44
Jane: and that was a late night show.
23:46
Jane: So I think that, yeah, the shows I watched in the 90s were also late night Like I already went out and then I came home and now I'm watching something to just kind of veg out before bed.
23:50
Jane: But that's also the early nineties.
23:50
Jane: I was in college, I had too much work to do.
24:15
Jane: I
23:50
Jane: was either partying or studying and there was really very little room.
23:50
Jane: Like even I didn't even go out to movies.
23:50
Jane: People talk about movies from the nineties and I'm like, I think you're making that movie up.
23:50
Jane: I was like, I've never heard of this movie, and it's because I wasn't watching enough TV to see it advertised.
24:15
Jane: Nor
23:50
Jane: was I actually then going to the movies.
24:21
Jane: I would go through brief periods of seeing some movies at that time if I was dating somebody and they suggested let's go to a movie.
24:28
Jane: But even that, like most of the people I dated at that time nobody was we were still going out to do stuff that wasn't involved in passive watching of anything.
24:38
Jane: But I definitely still childhood.
24:42
Jane: It was different.
24:42
Jane: You had like your appointment tv.
24:46
Jane: When people don't have appointment TV anymore, saturday morning cartoons were a tradition.
24:52
Jane: I literally made sure that I got up early enough to see the snorks come on before the Smurfs.
24:57
Jane: I just needed to.
24:58
Jane: I was obsessed with the Smurfs, you guys, I really was.
25:01
Jane: I just thought they were really cool.
25:03
Etienne: No, I did too.
25:04
Etienne: I was on board with Smurfs.
25:05
Etienne: I really loved the Smurfs, I mean they might have been actually.
25:28
Etienne: Yeah, I'm a little teensy bit older than you are, but my brother, who was basically six years younger than me, he watched Saturday morning cartoons for a lot longer than I did.
25:36
Etienne: But that's why I joined in too.
25:36
Etienne: 'cause I did enjoy them still.
25:36
Etienne: Like I really loved Smurfs.
25:36
Etienne: They're just so cute.
25:36
Etienne: How can you not love them?
25:36
Jane: And their little song and actually, to be honest with you, I was watching them past when I probably.
25:36
Jane: It was prime time for Saturday morning cartoons.
25:36
Jane: Now that I'm thinking about it.
25:36
Jane: 'cause when I was really little watching Saturday morning cartoons, it was like Looney Tunes.
25:36
Jane: They were rerunning stuff.
25:36
Jane: It was like Daffy Duck.
25:36
Jane: It was stuff that now you go back and did not age well.
25:49
Heidi: None of this stuff
25:51
Jane: but some of this stuff was being rerun from things that they would play before full-length feature films in the 40s, right?
25:57
Jane: So we're watching Bugs Bunny cartoons that have World War II references in them.
26:03
Jane: Do you guys remember this?
26:04
Heidi: Oh
26:04
Heidi: yeah
26:04
Jane: bugs Bunny was pretending to dress up.
26:06
Etienne: Was there a lot of German soldier issues or things happening with German soldiers in Bugs Bunny?
26:10
Jane: Yes, and he was always dressing in drag and pretending to be Mata Hari, but he would say he was Hatamari.
26:18
Jane: But Mata Hari was an actual spy during World War II, and I didn't know any of these jokes until I was older.
26:24
Jane: Or if I watched it with my grandfather, he would actually, after the cartoon was over, explain to me what all the references were and why he was laughing.
26:34
Jane: Yeah, and that's how I actually first realized that Bugs Bunny was racist.
26:41
Jane: I was like what is happening?
26:43
Jane: Because he was like, oh, when he said that he's making fun of Japanese people, and I went wait, why would we be doing that?
26:50
Jane: And then he explained to me things, because I'm seven, I don't understand what's happening.
26:55
Jane: And so my husband and I were actually laughing about this a couple of weeks ago and I was like, oh, Bugs Bunny was so racist and my husband doesn't have a memory for minutiae like I do.
27:05
Jane: I mean, these are not important things that I'm remembering, you know.
27:07
Jane: But so he's got more important stuff in his head, but I'm sitting here recounting all of the ways Bugs Bunny is racist and he goes.
27:14
Jane: I don't remember that.
27:15
Jane: I'm like let me show you.
27:16
Jane: All you have to do is go to YouTube and just type in Bugs Bunny being racist and it has a little disclaimer that comes up saying we have preserved this footage as an example of the insensitivities at the time.
27:31
Jane: You know what I mean and it's really an education just how and it was brutal.
27:36
Jane: I mean racist against everybody.
27:39
Jane: But yet bugs bunny himself was like probably some kind of I don't know.
27:45
Jane: He was some kind of crossdresser at the very least.
27:47
Jane: So he should have been a little bit more sensitive.
27:49
Heidi: Yeah exactly.
27:50
Etienne: Bugs Bunny was a transvestite, so he should have more openness.
27:55
Heidi: Yes
27:55
Jane: exactly, but he did not.
27:58
Heidi: He was closeted.
28:00
Jane: Maybe that's why he was just so mean to everybody else.
28:02
Jane: My husband also just hates Bugs Bunny because he's such an instigator and I remembered him as being really funny and then now I just look at him and I'm like no, he's actually instigating racists.
28:12
Jane: It's so bad.
28:13
Etienne: Why did you get?
28:14
Etienne: mad about freaking Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote.
28:17
Etienne: I felt so bad for Wile E Coyote.
28:19
Etienne: Why did he have to get so beat up all the time?
28:22
Etienne: Like well, first of all, I should have died in every episode.
28:24
Etienne: There was just no way in real life that he would have lived.
28:26
Etienne: But yeah, that just seemed wrong.
28:29
Etienne: I could not root for roadrunner, sorry
28:33
Heidi: here's a fun fact I did not know roadrunners were real until I moved to new mexico
28:39
Jane: what'd You do when you saw
28:42
Etienne: they're tiny they're really, really small, aren't they?
28:45
Heidi: They're small, they're, I don't know, chihuahua size, and they run so fast and they will race you.
28:51
Heidi: It's so adorable
28:52
Jane: wait, they will do what they'll race you.
28:55
Jane: Oh, that's not what I thought you said.
28:57
Etienne: Sorry, oh no, what did you think?
29:00
Etienne: I said, yeah, I'm trying to think now.
29:02
Etienne: What did you think?
29:03
Etienne: What did you think?
29:04
Etienne: She said
29:05
Heidi: they race you,
29:06
Jane: rape you, and I'm like what?
29:08
Etienne: no, that's dolphins
29:19
Heidi: they're running next to your car, like it's kind of adorable.
29:26
Heidi: Yeah, not, not, not, yeah, no
29:30
Jane: they'll race you like they could beat you.
29:32
Jane: You should carry an anvil in your car and, just as revenge, just drop it out, just be like fuck you roadrunner.
29:43
Jane: You, just finally, you should get yours
29:47
Heidi: but I didn't know that they were a real bird until I got there.
29:51
Heidi: And so yeah, that was 20, 19-year-old me going what?
29:58
Etienne: They're a bird, but they can't fly right, or can they fly?
30:01
Heidi: Yeah, I think they fly, yeah, okay, but then they also run,
30:05
Etienne: so just, penguins.
30:06
Etienne: Penguins can't fly.
30:07
Etienne: I don't know how we got on this.
30:12
Heidi: Maybe I don't know.
30:14
Jane: I'm looking it up.
30:14
Heidi: Are we just pulling stuff out of our butt now,
30:17
Jane: roadrunners
30:18
Jane: can fly.
30:19
Etienne: Wait, roadrunners can fly.
30:20
Jane: They can fly, though they are primarily known for their impressive running speed.
30:26
Etienne: Wait, what's the fastest?
30:27
Etienne: Is it the fastest it can go.
30:29
Jane: I should look that up also.
30:30
Jane: Let me see if this will tell me how fast it can go.
30:34
Jane: I don't know, but on the show, so fast, right, that just leaves skid marks in the dust, A puff of smoke yeah,
30:45
Etienne: so fast, you can't see them.
30:46
Heidi: So, speaking of 80s television shows again, were you guys made to watch all those soap operas, those nightly soap operas?
30:54
Etienne: Sometimes, yeah, with other friends and older friends of the family
30:58
Jane: Like Dynasty.
30:59
Heidi: Yeah, Dynasty Knotts Landing.
31:02
Heidi: Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm talking nighttime ones, oh nighttime.
31:04
Etienne: Yeah, Dynasty yeah.
31:05
Etienne: Dynasty, yes
31:06
Heidi: , dynasty.
31:07
Heidi: Knotts, landing Dallas,
31:09
Etienne: dallas, yes,
31:10
Heidi: Knots.
31:11
Heidi: Landing was like our favorite Knots Landing.
31:12
Etienne: I didn't have to, but yeah, Like who Shot JR, you know like ending on that.
31:17
Etienne: That was a huge thing.
31:18
Etienne: Yeah, everybody couldn't wait to find out.
31:20
Etienne: I can't even remember now.
31:21
Etienne: Wasn't it his brother?
31:23
Etienne: I don't know.
31:37
Jane: I should know this, because my dad and my stepmom just got done watching Dallas, because they never actually watched it back then, and they had managed to not have.
31:40
Jane: Who Shot JR spoiled for them for the past whatever 40 years.
31:41
Jane: It was so funny I didn't know, because I was like, oh, who Shot JR?
31:43
Jane: And my dad was like, no, no, no, no, don't tell me.
31:45
Jane: And I was like dude, it's been decades, it's been
31:48
Etienne: 30, 40 years.
31:50
Jane: Also, I don't know.
31:51
Jane: And if I did know at one point, I don't care, it has fallen out of my brain.
31:56
Etienne: I'm going to type it in who shot JR?
31:58
Jane: I was so upset that I was going to spoil it, for him.
32:02
Heidi: I thought it was his like an ex-girlfriend or something like that.
32:05
Heidi: It was a younger girl.
32:07
Etienne: No way it says it was Kristen Shepard, played by Mary Crosby, jr Scheming's sister-in-law and former mistress Seanan.
32:16
Heidi: Yes, yes, I knew it.
32:18
Jane: Spoiler alert.
32:18
Heidi: I knew it was a young girl.
32:21
Etienne: Spoiler alert.
32:22
Etienne: Yeah, hopefully Everybody waiting to watch Dallas.
32:24
Etienne: Sorry about that, jesus, I think it's on.
32:29
Jane: Netflix now Also.
32:30
Jane: Roadrunners can go 26 miles per hour.
32:32
Etienne: Wow
32:33
Heidi: See, that's pretty fast.
32:35
Heidi: If you're in a school zone,
32:36
Etienne: that's really fast.
32:38
Heidi: If you're in the school zone, they're passing you.
32:41
Etienne: They need to get a ticket.
32:48
Heidi: Running over school kids.
32:54
Etienne: Like Mom, you got run over by a road runner.
32:57
Etienne: Stop making up stories, kid
32:59
Jane: yes, on today's very special after school
33:03
Heidi: oh gosh the after school specials
33:06
Etienne: yeah, I did love those after school specials.
33:09
Heidi: Yes,
33:09
Jane: was it just me?
33:10
Jane: Or they always were about don't drink, don't do drugs don't get pregnant Because they were worried.
33:16
Jane: They were like they're home alone.
33:17
Jane: We should probably do.
33:19
Etienne: Yeah, we got to dig in man, we got to stop stuff from happening.
33:23
Jane: It's like such half-assed parenting is after school specials.
33:25
Heidi: Don't be prostitutes.
33:28
Heidi: Don't be drug dealers, don't be prostitutes.
33:31
Etienne: was prostitution one of them?
33:31
Etienne: I don't remember that.
33:37
Jane: I feel like there was one about I don't know if it was overtly about prostitution.
33:39
Heidi: Well, it was about runaways, yes,
33:39
Etienne: runaways
33:39
Heidi: , it's going to lead to prostitution.
33:41
Etienne: Yeah, that's what's going to happen, you run away.
33:42
Etienne: You're going to have to become a prostitute, and then you're going to get into drugs.
33:47
Etienne: You're going to get pregnant.
33:47
Etienne: Your life is just over Over.
33:51
Jane: This is why they had to remind our parents at 10 o'clock like hey, do you know where your children are?
33:56
Heidi: Yeah, they were not paying attention.
33:59
Jane: They're down in the basement watching Fantasy Island and jerking off with Magnum behind closed doors.
34:04
Etienne: Or, you know, in the box of porn, in my dad's box of porn, in the basement.
34:11
Jane: Oh my gosh,
34:12
Etienne: what a wild childhood.
34:14
Jane: Yeah, we didn't have cable.
34:15
Etienne: Oh cable,
34:16
Jane: we did not have cable.
34:16
Etienne: Yeah, I mean back in the day when you only had like five channels and you had to sit there with the rabbit ears trying to get it just right so you could actually see something.
34:25
Etienne: Yeah, or the foil Remember the foil on the rabbit ears?
34:29
Heidi: Oh my yeah, or the foil.
34:34
Jane: it helped it come in better.
34:35
Etienne: I know, I know why it was there.
34:37
Jane: It's so weird, like you tell a kid that now and they're like what are you talking about?
34:41
Jane: Or the fact that you had to physically get up and turn a knob.
34:46
Jane: So we recently and this is how I know that I'm getting old.
35:06
Jane: But I had a couple of older TVs.
35:07
Jane: My husband had one and I had one that we each had separately as single people that we then brought into the relationship together, and I had a built-in VCR and it's from the 90s but it lasted for a very long time.
35:12
Jane: Like my daughter unlike her peers my daughter's going to be 18 soon knows how to take a VHS tape.
35:21
Jane: We would get them from the library and I had a couple that I still was holding onto.
35:24
Jane: She knew how to put a VHS tape into the thing and press play, because I'd let her do that while I was taking a shower when she was little.
35:32
Jane: So she just thought that that was normal.
35:35
Jane: And at her other friend's house there was a TV that they'd have like no, no buttons on them.
35:41
Jane: You know what I mean.
35:42
Jane: We didn't have anything fancy like that.
35:44
Jane: So we recently got a TV and there was just not a button on that thing anywhere, and it's the first TV I've ever owned that didn't have a physical power button on it, and I was
35:54
Etienne: sure it doesn't have one on the bottom, because some of them are hidden like underneath, in case you lose your remote and you can still do stuff
36:02
Jane: that is how out of touch I am with this.
36:04
Jane: Maybe it does, maybe I didn't look, go to
36:06
Etienne: the feel on the bottom like on the outer edges on the bottom.
36:10
Etienne: Yeah.
36:11
Jane: Okay, that's good to know.
36:13
Etienne: Yeah, because you might lose your remote, then you're screwed.
36:15
Etienne: Then what do you do with that?
36:16
Heidi: Yeah, yeah,
36:19
Jane: but I still have a very uncomplicated remote and this very, very basic flat screen TV.
36:25
Jane: That still confused me because it didn't have a button on it and I was like, oh my gosh, I can use other complex technology Like I'm very experienced right now with like large language models and other stuff but the TV I was just like don't, please, don't give me one.
36:37
Jane: That's not simple.
36:38
Jane: I just that would be, and it's not like I'm a huge TV head these days, but I do enjoy it as like some downtime or that type of thing.
36:47
Jane: But I feel there aren't enough of some of these 70s and 80s shows available and I'm just wondering if it's because they just don't hold up and we have it in our heads is like this lovely nostalgic thing.
37:01
Jane: But if I went back and watched an episode of Charlie's Angels or Little House on the Prairie, that I would be like, oh my gosh, this is awful.
37:09
Etienne: Well, like when Heidi brought up Norman Lear and All in the Family like the oh gosh, what was his name?
37:16
Etienne: The main character.
37:17
Heidi: Archie Bunker.
37:18
Etienne: Yeah, I mean, he was so racist and so misogynistic, like I mean, he's just all the badness.
37:24
Etienne: And like my dad looked up to him, he thought he was great,
37:30
Jane: but he was supposed to be, someone we were supposed to make fun of, I mean that the whole thing was like such a teachable moment when the jeffersons moved in and then he actually called him out for his racism.
37:41
Jane: That show was so ahead of its time.
37:43
Heidi: It was so ahead.
37:44
Jane: That show holds up because I have seen that since then.
37:47
Jane: When I was teaching high school in New York I taught a television analysis and production course and my classroom actually had a TV studio in it and we were able to make short little films and stuff.
37:58
Jane: But then we would do studies of TV shows.
38:00
Jane: That was one that I put on the curriculum as groundbreaking so I'd seen it when I was a kid and then saw it again with those students.
38:10
Jane: So when I was teaching that class it was between 1999 and 2003, which now sounds like forever ago, but it held up then.
38:19
Jane: So I haven't seen it in probably 20 years.
38:22
Jane: But even the kids at that time said oh gosh, because they did a show about gun control, they did a show about abortion.
38:29
Jane: It was really ahead of its time.
38:32
Jane: And then I think Norman Lear also, heidi you would know, was Maude also a Norman Lear show.
38:37
Heidi: Yes, maude,
38:38
Jane: I loved that show.
38:38
Heidi: She talked about abortion.
38:40
Heidi: Yeah, yeah, sanford and
38:43
Etienne: Oh Sanford and Sons.
38:45
Heidi: Yeah, One Day at a Time Jefferson's Like just.
38:49
Etienne: Such good yeah, such good shows.
38:52
Jane: Oh my gosh iconic theme songs.
38:53
Etienne: I'm not sure about Archie Bunker being a bad guy, mostly because my dad was like he's great, he wasn't getting the lesson in the episode, so they weren't being passed on to me.
39:01
Etienne: I was just like this guy.
39:13
Etienne: Oh god, and what was the one with uh, what's her name?
39:14
Etienne: With flow at the diner.
39:15
Etienne: Kiss my grits, so what?
39:15
Etienne: was that
39:16
Heidi: mel's diner,
39:16
Etienne: mel's diner, yeah or
39:17
Heidi: alice.
39:17
Etienne: Oh alice,
39:18
Heidi: no, it was called alice.
39:19
Heidi: Yeah, because they worked at mel's diner
39:21
Etienne: wasn't that a spinoff of the?
39:22
Etienne: there was a movie.
39:23
Etienne: Wasn't there a movie first, and then they turned it into a TV show, I think.
39:28
Heidi: Yeah, I think so
39:28
Etienne: Alice Doesn't Live here Anymore, or something, I don't know.
39:30
Heidi: Something
39:31
Etienne: I might be way wrong.
39:31
Heidi: Yeah, something like that.
39:33
Etienne: That was another favorite,
39:33
Heidi: but yeah.
39:34
Heidi: Flo, Eat my Grits.
39:37
Etienne: Kiss my Grits
39:38
Heidi: oh
39:38
Jane: My yeah.
39:54
Jane: Kiss my Grits,
39:55
Heidi: that's right, oh my gosh.
39:57
Heidi: And dukes of hazard, oh my gosh at all,
40:00
Jane: no
40:00
Heidi: and but loved those duke brothers
40:01
Etienne: and the a-team.
40:02
Heidi: A-team, yeah, yep,
40:03
Jane: um, yes, I did.
40:03
Jane: At first I was like what?
40:05
Jane: I'm like oh, my God they're in the van and Mr T and just like rando, that very, very strange.
40:13
Jane: I wasn't a fan of it.
40:14
Etienne: They were mercenaries, right, weren't they mercenaries,
40:16
Heidi: something?
40:17
Heidi: like that
40:18
Etienne: they were ex-special forces.
40:21
Etienne: They'd be, called in when nobody else could help right.
40:23
Etienne: Wasn't that the whole?
40:24
Etienne: Oh and like Knight Rider and the Equalizer.
40:27
Etienne: I loved the Equalizer when I was growing up.
40:29
Etienne: I thought that was so cool and, yeah, I totally glossed over Knight Rider but I watched Knight Rider too.
40:36
Etienne: Whatever TV I was allowed to watch, I watched.
40:39
Etienne: Like if my parents were sitting down to watch a television show and they would let me stay and watch, I would stay and watch.
40:47
Etienne: Yeah, I'm pretty sure loveboat fantasy island was a saturday night thing, because I think that was the night I got to stay up a little bit later so I could watch all the fantasy island
40:57
Jane: the golden girls is
40:58
Etienne: oh, golden girl.
41:00
Heidi: Yeah,
41:00
Jane: I love the golden girls.
41:01
Jane: I still do.
41:03
Jane: That's actually what I call my macaroni and cheese TV, like if I don't feel good, you know, that's what I want.
41:10
Jane: I want I just want to see those three women, just you know well, four women really.
41:14
Jane: Sophia counts just hanging out and being silly and just being sarcastic with each other, and I feel like that show for me holds up, and so does I recently, over the past couple of years, was watching episodes of cheers with my daughter and that show still holds up, it is still.
41:35
Jane: She thinks it's hilarious.
41:36
Jane: And then when she realized that sam was played by the same actor from the good place is what she knows ted dancing from, and she's like she's looking, she goes, he looks so familiar.
41:47
Jane: I'm like, oh, that's because he's the guy from the good place, She didn't say anything for like a minute.
41:53
Jane: She was just stunned because she could see it all.
41:55
Jane: I mean, the man is still very handsome and has like a solid jawline, but he plays such a different character and she
42:02
Heidi: has the white hair
42:03
Etienne: and young woody harelson
42:05
Etienne: Oh my god
42:06
Heidi: yeah
42:07
Jane: yeah, with lots of hair.
42:08
Jane: What a dumb, what a dumb character he's playing.
42:11
Heidi: Oh, yeah
42:13
Etienne: but he was so sweet but like innocent sort of like
42:16
Heidi: he's like the original himbo
42:19
Etienne: yeah,
42:21
Jane: educate me
42:21
Etienne: himbo himbo instead of a bimbo.
42:24
Jane: Oh my gosh.
42:25
Jane: I have never heard that term.
42:26
Etienne: You've never heard himbo.
42:29
Jane: I've met some
42:30
Heidi: Male bimbos,
42:32
Jane: oh wow.
42:36
Etienne: I'm thinking back on Ted Danson.
42:37
Etienne: He just seemed really tall and beautiful hair, just sexy.
42:43
Etienne: imagine him just leaning over a bar talking to you with his voice, like that?
42:47
Etienne: Okay, whatever you want Worked for me.
42:56
Jane: Well, and I think, like the relationship mores right that you see portrayed in those shows don't hold up.
43:03
Etienne: The relationship.
43:04
Jane: Yeah, there was a lot of the courtship games being played on some of those shows back then.
43:09
Etienne: Oh, like Moonlighting.
43:10
Etienne: Moonlighting was another favorite show
43:12
Heidi: Moonlighting.
43:12
Heidi: yes,
43:13
Etienne: oh my.
43:13
Etienne: God and Bruce Willis and Sybil Shepherd with their like.
43:16
Etienne: Will they get together?
43:18
Heidi: Will they or won't they?
43:19
Etienne: Which is the?
43:19
Etienne: same thing from Cheers the two of them.
43:22
Etienne: And then later on with Kirstie Alley when Shelley Long left.
43:24
Etienne: But yeah, I loved Moonlighting.
43:28
Etienne: I thought Bruce Willis was so cool.
43:30
Etienne: I love how he just like ruffled her feathers all the time.
43:38
Jane: I never watched that show, but I know the premise of it.
43:40
Etienne: I think it's yeah, it was definitely.
43:42
Etienne: You can find it somewhere.
43:43
Etienne: I was going to start watching it again I don't know if it was Hulu or something like that that it would hit moonlightings on.
43:49
Heidi: Weren't they like PIs or something?
43:51
Etienne: Yeah, she had a detective agency.
43:52
Etienne: But I think the deal was she wasn't getting business because she was a woman Was, I think, the premise of why she hired him to come in and be the face of her detective agency, so that she would actually get some more business.
44:05
Etienne: So he didn't really know what the hell he was doing, I think in the beginning, but kept pretending he did and she just got pissed.
44:11
Etienne: And she became attracted to him, which I think made her also angry, and like just so much anger,
44:19
Heidi: she's like damn it.
44:23
Heidi: Why do you have to be so sexy?
44:23
Etienne: Oh, and.
44:24
Etienne: Designing Women.
44:25
Etienne: Designing Women was a great show.
44:27
Heidi: yeah, they were woke before yeah
44:30
Etienne: yeah
44:32
Heidi: I've seen all kinds of clips of zingers and stuff that they had said back then.
44:37
Heidi: That is still relevant today.
44:39
Heidi: It's like man that was 40 years ago.
44:44
Jane: Oh my gosh, was it really that long ago?
44:45
Heidi: It?
44:46
Heidi: was the 80s, right?
44:48
Etienne: Yeah, it was definitely the 80s.
44:50
Etienne: I think late 80s, early 90s for designing women maybe.
44:54
Heidi: So almost 40 years.
44:56
Etienne: Yeah, I'm going to look it up real quick.
44:59
Jane: We're getting old.
45:01
Etienne: I'm technically related to Jean Smart who's on that show.
45:04
Jane: Really.
45:04
Etienne: She's on Hacks.
45:05
Etienne: She's been winning emmys like crazy, and golden globes I believe, yeah, she's my mother's cousin.
45:10
Etienne: So yeah, 1986 designing women came out
45:14
Jane: wow, okay,
45:15
Heidi: so next show will be four years.
45:18
Jane: I think it's interesting to then go back and see okay, what holds up, what doesn't, and why and what are?
45:25
Jane: What's the venn diagram of?
45:26
Jane: Okay, these are the things that they were talking about, or the themes that they touched on, that are just universal and can transcend and you can watch it and it still holds up.
45:37
Jane: And I was thinking about that, I guess, with cheer, specifically because I could watch something and the nostalgia factor will make me forgive the cheese.
45:46
Jane: But that's not going to make my daughter forgive the cheese, right?
45:48
Jane: So she was watching it and just saying that the acting was just so great, the writing was so great, the quick-witted repartee going back and forth, the slow burn of Sam and Diane all of those things are still good ingredients for good storytelling, no matter what decade that we're looking at, and so I think that that's why it holds up.
46:09
Jane: And if you don't have just good character actors, nobody wants it.
46:16
Jane: You're gonna go back and you look at it and you're like, okay, that's doofy, you know, but but I think that's why norman lear stuff holds up, because it's it was still around families and relationships.
46:27
Jane: But the acting was so great and the writing was really good and you could have like this again witty repartee, you know, among the different characters.
46:36
Jane: But then every once in a while they'd have an issue that was still relatable now, where you could do that episode now, but just with different outfits, and everybody would still be like, okay, this is happening now.
46:49
Heidi: Yeah, it's like, it's like Twilight Zone.
46:52
Heidi: So many of those episodes totally hold up and still have a moral to teach and are just great.
47:00
Etienne: I always think about the one with the guy who wanted everybody in the world to just be quiet and go away so he could read and then he breaks his glasses his reading glasses and yeah, that's like the episode that always pops in my head every time somebody talks about the Twilight Zone.
47:14
Heidi: Yeah, time Enough, at Last.
47:17
Etienne: Oh, wow,
47:17
Heidi: that's the title of it Time Enough.
47:20
Heidi: at Last it
47:21
Etienne: pulls out the title.
47:24
Heidi: Oh, I used to have the Twilight Zone companion book.
47:28
Heidi: I was obsessed when I was a kid.
47:30
Etienne: So wait, what's your favorite Twilight Zone episode then?
47:37
Heidi: I think it's called Nightcaller.
47:39
Heidi: It's where this lady keeps getting phone calls
47:43
Etienne: oh, you're giving me chills.
47:44
Heidi: She thinks they're prank phone calls.
47:45
Heidi: and eventually they discover during the storm the line went into her husband's grave and it was her husband trying to reach out from the grave.
47:55
Heidi: So when she figures out it's her husband, she goes home and she's like Norman, Norman, are you there?
48:04
Heidi: And he was like you told me to go away.
48:10
Heidi: And then goes away and she's like no, come back.
48:11
Heidi: It's so tragic,
48:12
Etienne: oh god.
48:12
Heidi: I just remember breaking my little seven-year-old heart or whatever, because she missed him so much and she had no idea it was him.
48:23
Etienne: That's good.
48:25
Jane: Yeah, I want to see that now.
48:27
Jane: See, yeah, good stories, just tell good stories.
48:31
Heidi: And then the one with Agnes Moorhead, who played the mother in Bewitched.
48:38
Jane: Oh my God, I knew that.
48:42
Etienne: You knew.
48:42
Etienne: That Is that what you?
48:43
Etienne: said Jane, Was she also in the Ghost in Mrs Mirror?
48:46
Etienne: I could pull out some old titles for you guys.
48:50
Heidi: So this was called the Visitors, I think, or something like that.
48:53
Heidi: But the whole thing is this woman's being terrorized by it.
48:57
Heidi: Looks like Martians.
48:58
Heidi: Well, at the end you find out the Martians are astronauts.
49:05
Etienne: Really.
49:06
Heidi: So they're US astronauts, they've landed on this planet of giants and so we've been watching this whole thing the whole time, thinking she's the human but she's actually the alien.
49:16
Heidi: So it's just kind of a cool flip on perspective, you know, because it kind of makes you think, oh, I was feeling for her because she's being attacked by what we think are like little martians and it's like, oh, we're the martians, oh, so she's the alien, okay, yeah, it's kind of a cool flip plot twist, I should say so yeah that's another one of my favorites, and it's it's nearly completely silent.
49:50
Heidi: It's all silent
49:51
Etienne: oh, wow
49:51
Heidi: just yeah, she's having to do some great acting because there's like no dialogue.
49:57
Heidi: So I highly recommend it's a great episode
50:03
Etienne: I, I'm pretty sure my ex-boss.
50:04
Jane: Kudos on your avant-garde sensibilities as a kid there, Heidi.
50:08
Etienne: Yeah, I'm pretty sure Twilight Zone was my ex-boss's, my boss from Los Angeles, who is still my friend.
50:15
Etienne: I think that was one of his favorite shows.
50:17
Etienne: Too was Twilight Zone Pretty sure.
50:22
Heidi: My sister found my old companion book and it was just like tattered and just curled up because I'd written in it and highlighted stuff, because I every time I would watch one, I'd like cross it out because there was, like I think, 100, more than 100 episodes total over like five or six seasons.
50:41
Heidi: So, yeah, it took a while because they just show once, right, yeah, like syndication.
50:48
Heidi: They were just.
50:48
Heidi: If you didn't catch it on a saturday night you'd have to wait till it went into rotation again.
50:54
Heidi: So it took me a few years to get that book
50:57
Etienne: do you have dvds of the twilight zone or like own it?
51:00
Heidi: yes, I have dvds, I have blu-rays, and then they're available for streaming too now.
51:06
Heidi: But yeah, I've got a physical copy.
51:10
Jane: That is commitment.
51:12
Etienne: You'll have to bring them with you next time.
51:14
Etienne: Well, obviously you'll have them with you if we come to see you or if you come to see us bring them with you.
51:20
Etienne: We can watch the episode that you were talking about That'd be so cool.
51:22
Heidi: Yes, oh yeah, I will totally share that with you.
51:28
Etienne: You know, when you have the other perspective in the room, it actually makes you look at it differently.
51:32
Etienne: Have you noticed that, jane?
51:34
Jane: Oh, yeah,
51:34
Etienne: yeah, I almost cringe a little bit when I'm watching it with somebody who I know like they might not take it the same way that I would because I was there at, but then you automatically are like ooh, ouch, ew, ew, please don't say that.
51:46
Etienne: I know it's about to happen.
51:49
Jane: Yes, we had a similar visceral reaction recently, when you're thinking if something's going to hold up years later, where we watched Airplane with her Still hilarious, still hilarious.
52:04
Jane: But there are some jokes that don't hold up as well, and so we actually had to kind of say, listen, it was the 80s, people didn't care, people were politically correct.
52:18
Jane: What brendan and I both forgot about was like the just gratuitous nudity that would happen in 80s movies like for no reason,
52:28
Etienne: like a lot of boobs for no reason
52:29
Jane: just random just titties on the screen just jump.
52:34
Jane: But and it was the woman was jumping around like so they're just like bouncing and they take up the entire screen.
52:41
Jane: Okay, my husband and I are hysterical and our daughter is horrified and that is.
52:51
Jane: It was just such an epitome of like Gen X and Gen Z responding completely differently to the same stimulus.
53:00
Jane: It was really funny to us, Like we had to try to.
53:04
Jane: She's looking at us like you're terrible people and she was like she.
53:10
Jane: Just all she could say was why?
53:12
Jane: Over and over again
53:13
Etienne: why is she naked?
53:15
Etienne: why?
53:15
Etienne: Yes why is she jumping around?
53:21
Jane: yes, exactly
53:24
Heidi: is happening?
53:25
Heidi: This isn't normal.
53:27
Jane: And it's not, and there were just so many and it just reminded us of every moment, from like Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds, and just like all of these
53:35
Heidi: Benny Hill,
53:37
Jane: oh Lord.
53:37
Etienne: I assume, yes.
53:39
Heidi: Yes, yes All of those comedies had the gratuitous boob shots.
53:44
Heidi: Bachelor Party Night Shift yeah.
53:51
Etienne: osom Buddies
53:52
Heidi: yeah so many gratuitous boobs.
53:55
Etienne: Yeah
53:57
Jane: Boobs are great.
53:57
Jane: So I didn't really, and maybe that makes me, whatever I'm less woke.
54:02
Jane: I thought it was funny too, because it was so random and we were awesome.
54:08
Jane: Maybe like a little bit uncomfortable.
54:10
Etienne: Yes, you had to laugh.
54:11
Etienne: You're like dude.
54:11
Etienne: I'm going to laugh because this is so embarrassing for us.
54:14
Heidi: Yeah.
54:16
Jane: To be honest, I wasn't embarrassed at all.
54:17
Jane: I really did think it was funny.
54:34
Jane: And then, I think, the fact that my daughter was mortified to find, made it funnier to me.
54:36
Jane: Does that make me terrible?
54:36
Etienne: No, I think that.
54:37
Etienne: No, I would probably laugh harder.
54:38
Heidi: Yeah, why, why, why
54:38
Jane: , yeah.
54:38
Jane: And so we?
54:38
Jane: We actually paused it because we know, on the boobs.
54:39
Jane: Did you pause on the boobs?
54:40
Jane: No, you know what?
54:40
Jane: I should ask brendan, because he was in charge of the remote.
54:42
Jane: It might have been paused with it.
54:44
Jane: Uh, you know who will remember is my daughter will remember.
54:52
Jane: She's probably scarred.
54:53
Jane: The boobs were just there.
54:55
Jane: Oh my gosh, I feel like there was a period of my stepbrother's life where I walked in on him a lot with, like, boobs just paused at the VCR.
55:05
Heidi: Yeah
55:06
Jane: A lot of boobs, but anyway,
55:08
Etienne: oh, my God.
55:08
Etienne: Well, I mean there's a few.
55:09
Heidi: Yeah, that was his porn.
55:10
Etienne: I'm sure you guys have probably been to France Topless Beach.
55:13
Etienne: I've been to Cannes.
55:15
Etienne: I walked around with my top off on the beach there because every other woman was.
55:18
Etienne: I would have looked weird if I was wearing a top.
55:20
Etienne: You know, we're just a little bit more, or at least we were a little bit more reserved America than the other countries, you know.
55:26
Etienne: Or Germany.
55:26
Etienne: Also, I went to a nude beach there, took all my clothes off, you know.
55:30
Etienne: But yeah, we're just, at least we were more prudish than other places.
55:38
Etienne: I always thought Europeans were way more, you know, okay, with the nudity versus.
55:40
Etienne: Well, like, doesn't England used to have the newspaper, the daily newspaper, with there was a girl on the back with boobs out?
55:45
Etienne: Yes, yeah
55:52
Jane: bring it back, bring gratuitous boobs
55:54
Etienne: boobs, not saying I should I just like
56:00
Jane: no, I'm
56:00
Etienne: different time
56:02
Jane: different it was a different time but it was fun and I'm glad that in my latchkey days I had charlie's angels and little house in the prairie and some other things to keep me company and they are always going to have a soft spot in my heart, and the ones that you could watch today and not cringe are the ones with the good storytelling yes so revisit those.
56:24
Heidi: Yeah, and that's our show you've been listening to the women are plotting.
56:29
Heidi: If you have a story you'd like to share or have any comments, we'd love to hear from you.
56:34
Heidi: Email us at info@ the women are plotting.
56:38
Heidi: com, and, of course, you can find us on all the socials.
56:41
Heidi: Thanks and until next time.
56:43
Heidi: Be safe and be excellent to each other.
56:46
Heidi: Thank you.