More trawling has been taking place staying in early 2001 and the first episode of BBC 2's "I Love The 80s". Presented by Larry Hagman, this took a look back at the stand out points of 1980, not neccesarily for the right reasons.
Especially in terms of music where one of the items looked at the dodgy disco records around such as "Oops Upside You Head", "D.I.S.C.O." and Liquid Gold's "Dance Yourself Dizzy". The latter would have been familiar to the younger audience as it was sampled a couple of years earlier on Yomanda's late 90s dance anthem "Synth And Strings".
I seem to remember radio alumni and dance music fan Dan P saying that it was the record he wanted played at his funeral.
One record they looked at in detail was actually quite a decent tune, "Feels Like I'm In Love" by Kelly Marie which was written by noneother than Ray Dorset who sang with Mungo Jerry and had their own hit 10 years earlier.
In 2005 Kelly appeared on ITV1's "Hit Me Baby One More Time" where she gave her own take on Britney Spears' "Oops I Did It Again".
In terms of television there were items on shows such as "Diff'rent Strokes" and this was the first time I'd ever seen extracts from the show on television and found it hilarious.
They didn't interview Gary Coleman but they did have Todd Bridges who played his brother Willis, who explained how that catchphrase came about.
It all ended pretty sourly as Gary took his parents to court for mis-management of his wages and the actress who played Mr Drummond's daughter Kimberley, died in 1999.
Another series they looked at was LWT's "Metal Mickey" and featured a few comments from sci-fi fans disapointed at what we had on offer in the UK compared to shows such as Buck Rogers from the States.
Jamie Theakston pointed out that Metal Mickey had more in common
with Ted Rogers than Buck Rogers.
Shellsuits were another talking point with specific attention paid to
Sheena Easton who wore a lot of them during her pop career at the time.
Sheena was one of those interviewed although it appeared her accent had problems deciding whether it was Scottish or American.
I may still have a special with Sheena made by Thames Television in the early 80s that I downloaded from Youtube a couple of years ago that's good for true nostalgic value.
The overall highlight however was an item on Barbara Woodhouse who brought dog training to television in her own inimitable manner.
This resulted in the catchphrase "Siiiiiiitt!" (with heavy emphasis on the T) which ended up being said by everyone on television and even by people in the pub when meeting their mates.
Barbara also went over to the states which very possibly inspired the character of Emily Winthrop in the Simpsons. The dog trainer who bore similar resemblances to Woodhouse and was voiced by Tracy Ullman.
Looking back on it all, it will be bizarre with regards to the fact that next year it will have all happened 30 years ago.
I'm dreading the day I reach that age as it now appears that 30 is the new 40.
No comments:
Post a Comment