Enjoy Stuff: A TechnoRetro Podcast

Thanksgiving is a time to remember and confess the things for which we are thankful, and thankfully, you’re still listening to TechnoRetro Dads even after this past Saturday’s Holiday Special!  Thanks for tuning in, EarBuds!  There’s enough in this episode for a full meal with leftovers to boot.

In the NEWS

It’s Thanksgiving week, so don’t forget to defrost that turkey NOW!  Laika discovers the Missing Link in an upcoming film (Hunter, one of JediShua’s former students, worked on this movie).  Fettmatic on Discord spotted the animated Dungeons & Dragons characters in maquette form through Iron Studios.  Jim Henson’s Christmas specials (Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and The Bells of Fraggle Rock) are coming to theaters in December.

 

We Love Our Cereal…

…even if the Golden Girls cereals are never gold.  Funko announces more colors for their very popular offering coming soon.  The Roving Spoonster (Shane in GR) has more bowls of cereal news this week, too!

  • Weet-Bix turns 90
  • Mr. Kellogg’s home is for sale in Tampa.
  • Sour Patch Kids Cereal is real.

 

TechnoRetro Arcade

Hunters and gamers could find common ground on Thanksgiving in 1984 with Nintendo’s release of Duck Hunt in arcades and at home.  An effective light-sensing zapper allows players to shoot digital ducks and pixelated clay pigeons on CRT monitors in a fun (and sometimes frustrating) game that everyone can play.  However, the dog can be a jerk.

 

Thanksgiving Television

From the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thanksgiving morning to the holiday specials (nope, not that Holiday Special — see last Saturday for that one), while Gramma works in the kitchen, the kids and dads watch TV with traditional programming that marks the fourth Thursday in November.  Dallas and Detroit are sure to play and Bugs plays “Diet Doctor” in a Looney Tunes special.

 

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Thanksgiving is about spending time with family, but when you’re out-of-town trying to get home to be with your loved ones and transportation problems threaten your relaxing holiday, you may have to team up with a stranger to make everything work out.  Steve Martin and John Candy star in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, a John Hughes film.  Everyone has met “that guy” — just a common, ordinary guy who doesn’t seem to have everything figured out as much as he thinks he does.  He means well and has a positive attitude, but his optimism doesn’t always work out.  Settle down for raucous laughter with family and friends for a gut-busting good time this weekend with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.

 

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  Be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Apple Podcasts.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, vote in the EarBuds Christmas bracket, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

 

Share and enjoy.

Direct download: TRDads_06.31.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

Forty years ago today, 17 November 2018, The Star Wars Holiday Special aired for its one and only appearance on television.  For years, fans have sought out black market copies of the program in order to see it for themselves.  As for the TechnoRetro Dads, they have adored this heart-warming story for four decades.  

 

Today, thanks to a discovery in Ralph McQuarrie’s personal items in 2012, shazbazzar and JediShua present a rendition of an early story treatment of the Star Wars Holiday Special as made available on StarWarsHolidaySpecial.com.  

 

We hope you will share and enjoy this audio tribute to the “Could’ve Been but Wasn’t Actually the Star Wars Holiday Special”.

 

Special thanks to:

High Adventure “Light the Sky on Fire” and “Happy Life Day”

Supernova “Chewbacca”

Donny & Marie Osmond

Kevin Rubio TROOPS

Battlestar Galactica

CHipS

Mork & Mindy

Wheel of Fortune

WKRP in Cincinnati

 

Starring:

  • JediShua -- Narrator
  • Jessizzar -- Operator
  • shazbazzar -- Mechanical Jawa
  • Mrs. Shua -- Captain Rockie Welchel
  • Joe Tavano -- Sauna-Mann
Direct download: TRDads_LifeDay2018.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 8:00pm EDT

Hobbits, a Dragon’s Lair, and The Lord of the Rings make for a great Dungeons & Dragons campaign in the ‘70s and ‘80s as shazbazzar and JediShua take a trip back 40 years (and more) into the past for this episode of TechnoRetro Dads.

Feedback

From the Misfits of Science to pumpkins, from snowmen to bubblegum, and a brand new mini-store from the people who brought us Toys ‘R’ Us — several EarBuds send pics and electronic-Ms about several things we’ve been talking about (and should be talking about).

 

The Lord of the Rings (1978)

Animator Ralph Bakshi committed J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings to film in 1978 with a combination of animation styles from traditional cels to rotoscoping to make a very ‘70s movie that challenged young viewers and made an imprint on impressionable young minds.  Even Peter Jackson was not immune to the magic of Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings, evident in his 2001 version of the first third of the story with scenes derived from this mind-blowing masterpiece that kept kids coming back for more.   

 

Vinyl Scratchback

When JediShua introduced shazbazzar to “The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins”, the younger ‘Dad sought out more music from Leonard Nimoy, and shazbazzar discovered the album Spaced Out featuring Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.  With original songs and covers of popular tunes, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock got groovy in the late ‘60s with an album that boldly went where no record had gone before.  

 

TechnoRetro Arcade

Sword and sorcery continue in the arcade with the impressive and challenging Don Bluth cartoon video game Dragon’s Lair.  For only two quarters, gamers could control Dirk the Daring in his quest to rescue Princess Daphne from the Dragon’s Lair.

 

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  Be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Apple Podcasts.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, vote in the EarBuds Christmas bracket, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

 

Share and enjoy.

Direct download: TRDads_06.30.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

The pumpkins have fallen out of fashion, Christmas commercials invaded televisions the day after Halloween, the smell of peppermint is in the air, and it won’t be long before there’s enough snow on the ground to build a snowman.  Do you want to?  You know… build a snowman?

 

In the NEWS

A YouTube channel has compiled “all” Ready Player One references in one gigantic video list.  You can soon build your own virtual reality bedroom (Ready Player One style) will memorabilia, movies, TV shows, and even classic video games!  Beetlejuice is now a musical stage production on its way to Broadway.

 

TechnoRetro Arcade

Star Wars landed on home game consoles everywhere in 1982 with the release of The Empire Strikes Back, a scrolling shooter that pitted players’ snowspeeders against AT-ATs on the march towards Echo Base.  The low-resolution game (hey, it was 1982) did not diminish game play in the least.  The walkers looked like walkers.  The snowspeeder looked like a snowspeeder.  The snow-covered terrain looked like snow-covered terrain.  And the FORCE… Well, it was multicolored flashing and had cool music.  The Empire Strikes Back on Atari may not have been “winnable”, but it sure did provide hours of fun reliving the “Battle in the Snow”.

 

Saturday Mornings

In 1985, Bill Watterson brought the dark imagination of a small boy to life in the funny papers under the title Calvin and Hobbes.  Calvin, a bright, energetic, and playful boy, teamed up with his striped friend Hobbes to remake the world as they wanted it to be.  From transmogrification to snowmen in somewhat disturbing positions, Calvin and Hobbes kept parents on their toes as the pair (?) delivered joy to newspaper subscribers every day as the paperboy completed his neighborhood route.  JediShua and shazbazzar recall some memorable “snowman” strips from the ‘80s and ‘90s.  (Thanks for the idea, Russ!)

 

They Live

Evil-Lynn returns from Masters of the Universe to fill her role in this John Carpenter film from thirty years ago.  They Live is a creepy look at ‘80s culture through the eyes of the filmmaker as Carpenter warns his audience of the dangers lurking beneath the surface in our capitalistic economy.  But theater-goers weren’t as interested in the underlying message of the director (who claimed the film is a documentary), they just wanted to be entertained by the likes of pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper.  From muscles to mullet to mouthing-off, Roddy Piper drew in audiences to see this sci-fi thriller about friendship, aliens, magic glasses, and street brawling.  Featuring Roddy Piper, Keith David, and Meg Foster, They Live is an essential part of ‘80s pop culture.

 

Feedback

  • Jedi Holmes presents One Punch Man.
  • Jack o’ Lanterns
  • Matt Marks shows off his designs.
  • Armando discovers an amazing carving.
  • Raising Fangirls shows off some cool creations, too.
  • Even “Little ‘A’s” has a round rendition of retroism for her orange gourd.

 

Thanks for tuning in to TechnoRetro Dads, EarBuds!  Be sure to subscribe on iTunes or Apple Podcasts.  Don’t forget to rate and review TechnoRetro Dads on iTunes, share us and with us on social media, get TechnoRetro merch at TeePublic, and join discussions on Discord about toys, cereal, games, movies and/or shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s by giving the ‘Dads your feedback via voice mail at (209) 878-7323 or sending us your mp3dback via electronic-M to podcast@TechnoRetroDads.com.

Direct download: TRDads_06.29.mp3
Category:TechnoRetro Dads -- posted at: 6:00am EDT

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