#80's tv

[thegroovyarchives]

The cast of M*A*S*H, 1979-1980. From The Complete Book of M*A*S*H, Suzy Kalter, 1988.

(via: archive.org)

[grandmastv]

Murder She Wrote (2.01 Widow, Weep for Me, 1985).

[histonics]

[xx8199xx]

ｓｗｉｎｇ　ｏｎ　ａ　ｓｔａｒ

[arconinternet]

Lady Lovely Locks - The Complete Series (Videos, 1987)

You can watch it all here.

You can read a couple of tie-in children's books here and here.

You can watch a two-episode VHS tape, with a live-action intro not shown in the linked playlist below:

[eightiesfan]

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

Booker is kind of great, actually

[tamara-kama]

My new classic Doctor Who Blu-ray of season 2 of Peter Davison's run just arrived.. One of the serials on this is upgraded to Dolby Atmos audio! (The Five Doctors)

[kevinbolk]

What started as an intense desire to draw Shanelle from Beverly Hills Teens exploded into a full-on celebration of some of my favorite black 80’s cartoon gals including Netossa from She-Ra Princess of Power, Shana from Jem & the Holograms, Diana from Dungeons & Dragons, and Orange Blossom from Strawberry Shortcake.

[cannibal-nightmares]

"You can't be strong all the time. Nobody is. Not even me."

I put a lot of love into this soundtrack + fan playlist! Shuffle it!!

(if anyone knows who made the meme cover image so I can credit them and/or change it, please lmk!)

[thegroovyarchives]

80′s KTZO-TV/KOFY-TV San Francisco, California Dog Commercials Part 4

[grandmastv]

MacGyver (2.01 The Human Factor, 1986)

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, 112 (Jan. 16, 1988) - “Datalore”

Written by: Robert Lewin & Gene Roddenberry Directed by: Rob Bowman

Episode Breakdown

Data gets an origin story!

The episode begins with the Enterprise’s arrival at the colony where Data was discovered. We’re told that colonists all died under mysterious circumstances before Data was activated; as such he’s unable to shed any light on the matter (Presumably the ship that found Data never had time to investigate). Picard figures they might as well take a look around since they’re in the neighbourhood, because what’s the worst that could happen? While on the planet’s surface, the away team discover that Data is the creation of Noonien Soong, a brilliant scientist who disappeared after a failed-first-attempt at creating a positronic brain; since that is precisely the type of brain Data possesses, the team rightly concludes that Noonien finally succeeded in achieving his goal. The team also discover a second android that looks exactly like Data, albeit disassembled.  Since Data is understandably curious, Riker agrees to take Data’s twin back to the Enterprise to rebuild him.

In a twist that may shock you, Data’s long-lost twin (named Lore) turns out to be evil; he’s also capable of greater emotional expression, including the ability to lie convincingly.  It turns out Lore was Noonien’s first android who, prior to being disassembled, summoned a giant crystalline entity from space to consume the colonists.  Somewhere along the way, Noonien figured out that his new creation might be a raging psychopath and took Lore apart before building Data (and also before getting eaten).  Now free to roam the ship, Lore inevitably betrays and deactivates Data, with the intention of signalling his old Crystaline pal to come eat the Enterprise crew.  However, since Wesley is (annoyingly) the most amazing boy in the universe, he’s able to see through Lore’s pretense. With the help of Dr. Crusher, Wesley gets Data back online just in time for the two Androids to duke it out until he can beam Lore into space, (where Picard presumably decides to leave him without any further discussion).

Thoughts

So far ‘Datalore’ has been the best episode of the season. We get some decent world building, a good intro to Data’s evil twin, and nice dose of tension and atmosphere. What’s not to love? Even the moments that feel dated (and there are many) all add to the episode’s charm. There are still a handful of times I had to roll my eyes at specific bits of dialogue, but if the ending had been a little stronger I almost would have considered giving this an extra half-star.

3.5 stars (out of 5)

Stray observations:

Picard’s (mostly) not an asshole: That traumatizing holodeck adventure from last episode must have been more relaxing than expected. For the most part he seems to be in an uncharacteristically encouraging mood towards his crew.

Except Wesley. Picard really lets the kid have it this week. He must still be mad about that time Wesley got impaled and then didn’t die a couple episodes back.

There are some rather pointed scenes where Picard and Co. go out of their way to be exceptionally reasonable and mature about a variety of potentially difficult or awkward subjects (mostly regarding the nature Data and Lore’s sentiency/creation); it would be fine except that they keep commenting on it. My guess is that it’s an example of Gene Roddenberry’s influence, who was known for wanting to avoid depictions of interpersonal conflict between the crew. But personally, I like to think this is a result of HR calling out Picard for his less-than-cordial behaviour from previous episodes, and so now the captain is on his best behaviour, and everyone is acting like it “never even bothered me that much anyway, I heard other people were complaining, but not me.”

Okay I hate to say it but… ugh, Wesley was right. After deactivating Data, Lore masquerades as his brother.  The crew test Lore with questions he wouldn’t know the answer to, but they do it in the most easy-to-evade way.  It’s pretty unintentionally funny, but means the adults were missing what any child should have been able to (and evidently DID) see.  

HAHA! Wesley saves the ship and Picard is like “fine, you can go back to the bridge, now beat it!” Zero apologies of any kind. Excellent. It’s as if even the writers were pissed that Wesley saved the day, and honestly I get that.

[arconinternet]

Dinosaucers (Videos, 1987)

You can watch the entire extremely 80's animated series here.

[hedleylamarr]