Comments on: Multi-link Mike Post post

Multi-link Mike Post post

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:44:30 -0800

If you only watch the opening credits of 279 shows from the late 1980s, make it these 279 shows from the late 1980s.

1985: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 1986: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 1987: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8 1988: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 1989: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10

By: DU

DU — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:49:42 -0800

Wow, this is awesome. And how has there never been a MacGyver movie/remake?

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 09:51:17 -0800

This seems like it'd make for a good power hour. Thank you.

By: slimepuppy

slimepuppy — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:07:28 -0800

DU, the intelligent pacifist hero has been replaced with the moronic sociopath anti-hero. MacGyver just isn't edgy enough for kids today. Throw in a dark past, alcoholism, some mindless violence and the film will be Bruckheimertastic! That, and mullets don't test well anymore (except here in Madrid for some unknown reason.)

By: Toekneesan

Toekneesan — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:09:25 -0800

Members Onlyiatious! But...why?

By: marxchivist

marxchivist — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:10:11 -0800

That is pretty awesome that someone did all that work, and it is a fine post. At the same time, it actually makes me kind of happy I was annihilated on drugs and tequila from approx. 1980 to 1994 and missed most of those shows.

By: Wild_Eep

Wild_Eep — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:12:38 -0800

Dang I've watched a lot of TV. (shakes head)

By: Adam_S

Adam_S — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:13:16 -0800

*stop watching these and go back to work* *stop watching these and go back to work*

By: DU

DU — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:14:23 -0800

MacGyver had a dark past. He was against guns because, IIRC, he accidentally killed a friend with one when he was a kid. ...OK, but that was really, really dark to a sheltered 10 year old in 1983.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:15:33 -0800

"Taittenger"? "The Bronx Zoo?" WTF? I don't know any of these shows. I graduated high school in 1985 and didn't buy my first television until about 1991, which I guess explains it. I also personally didn't fully understand the cultural significance of the mullet, since I didn't know anyone that had one, but from sampling a few of these, it seems everyone did in those years. What else did I miss? Will my watching all these over the weekend fill this cultural void at long last?

By: troybob

troybob — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:18:04 -0800

Jeffrey Tambor with a beard! *woof!*

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:31:48 -0800

Wow, 279 reasons why adult males play video games. Except MacGyver, which was awesome.

By: These Premises Are Alarmed

These Premises Are Alarmed — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:32:28 -0800

MacGyver was that long ago? These sequences seem so LONG. Granted, I do'nt really watch sitcoms these days, but am I correct in thinking title sequences have been shortened dramatically? The only title sequences I can think favorably of are 1) BSG (because it shows scenese of the upcoming episode) and the Sopranos, because David Chase and crew are a fucking master of montage. Also: people were older then.

By: These Premises Are Alarmed

These Premises Are Alarmed — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:33:57 -0800

Also also: PERFECT STRANGERS!

By: Foaf

Foaf — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:34:08 -0800

Mac did use a gun at least once - as a wrench to close a valve on a nuclear power plant or something like that. And what's with not liking guns but being perfectly happy to improvise artillery every third episode?

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:39:39 -0800

These Premises, nowadays the shows themselves are several minutes shorter than they were in the 1980s (more commercials, natch) so they've understandably chosen to waste as little time as possible on credits.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:39:52 -0800

Okay, I have a serious question. I notice a pattern to these opening credits: City establishing shot, a few narrower establishing shots, smiling main character, clip of pratfall, shot of buddy or female supporting cast, cute friendly ensemble cast shot, progressively wider establishing shots, final shot with producers name. Why the hell does it matter what city these dopey sitcoms are set in? "Perfect Strangers is set in Chicago? Well, fuck that. I'm doing my fractions homework instead." Huh? Thank God Seinfeld came along and did away with this nonsense.

By: waraw

waraw — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:47:31 -0800

Sledge Hammer was fucking awesome.

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:49:09 -0800

1987 Ohara with a decidedly smoother less edgy Katherine Keener!

By: DU

DU — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:49:25 -0800

Why the hell does it matter what city these dopey sitcoms are set in? ... Thank God Seinfeld came along and did away with this nonsense. Seinfeld changed TV in a lot of ways, but making setting unimportant is definitely not one of them.

By: kimota

kimota — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:51:35 -0800

Metafilter: and there ain't no nothin' we can't love each other through

By: Pollomacho

Pollomacho — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:52:26 -0800

Thank God Seinfeld came along and did away with this nonsense. Yeah, thank god that formula was never applied again!

By: spock

spock — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:55:09 -0800

Two thoughts: 1) People's attention spans obviously tolerated longer opening credits in 1986 than they do in this age of remote "trigger-finger". 2) Those Amiga Video Toaster graphics were really something for their time, weren't they?

By: tkchrist

tkchrist — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:55:54 -0800

Also. This goes to show you that even after all the humiliation of surviving the entertainment industry gauntlet and finally landing your big break and getting a prime time TV show it still doesn't mean shit. 90% of those shows died on the vine and the stars either languished in obscurity since, crossed their fingers and had to take another decade re-inventing themselves, or become back ground fixtures on the crappy TV merry-go-round eternally. Brutal. The indignity of it all must be awful.

By: Skot

Skot — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:58:50 -0800

Seeing Andy Warhol's face pop up as a Love Boat guest star just about gave me the brain-fall-outs. Besides [Warhol's] own shows he regularly made guest appearances on other programs, including "The Love Boat" wherein a Midwestern wife (Marion Ross) fears Andy Warhol will reveal to her husband (Tom Bosley, who starred alongside Ross in sitcom Happy Days) her secret past as a Warhol superstar named Marina del Rey. Brrrrrrrrrrr.

By: kittens for breakfast

kittens for breakfast — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:59:38 -0800

I may or may not actually get around to this (279 seems...daunting), but as long as "The Equalizer" and the '80s "Twilight Zone" are in there, I'm happy. Sheer awesomeness.

By: troybob

troybob — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:24:26 -0800

The indignity of it all must be awful. I imagine the actors were just happy to be working in a chosen field in which it is difficult to find work. Becoming a superstar is not the only measure of success or pride in one's work; that seems more a tv-audience-conditioned judgment. A carpenter does not suffer indignity because he's building a whorehouse.

By: Mamapotomus

Mamapotomus — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:34:56 -0800

Thanks to this, I now know the faint memory of a little person having wacky adventures was called The Wizard and wasn't a hallucination. Thanks MeFi :-)

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 11:45:38 -0800

tkchrist writes "1987 Ohara with a decidedly smoother less edgy Katherine Keener!" Really? Oh, man, I gotta check that out. Maxine: Tell me a little about yourself. Craig Schwartz: Well, I'm a puppeteer... Maxine: Check!

By: The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:17:28 -0800

By: Flashman

Flashman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:24:29 -0800

Metafilter: what might be right for you, may not be right for some.

By: flarbuse

flarbuse — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:31:58 -0800

I just watched the opening for You Again? Did Jack Klugman ever fuck John Stamos? If not on the show, what about off-camera?

By: Dormant Gorilla

Dormant Gorilla — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:42:49 -0800

Ok, I was 7 in 1985, so maybe I'm too young to be able to understand. But you know how you can look at fashion from past decades and most of the time you think all right, I wouldn't wear that now, but I can see how it would have had a certain awesomeness at the time...but then I look at 80s hair, and WHAT. THE. FUCK. were they thinking?

By: psmealey

psmealey — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:49:47 -0800

but then I look at 80s hair, and WHAT. THE. FUCK. were they thinking? It was morning in America.

By: troybob

troybob — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:52:07 -0800

It was moussing in America.

By: Dormant Gorilla

Dormant Gorilla — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 12:58:50 -0800

I mourn for America.

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:29:55 -0800

Seems from alot of these that in the 80s, framerates were much, much lower than they are today. Around 1 or 2 every 5 seconds or so.

By: not that girl

not that girl — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:33:09 -0800

What gets me is less the hair than the shoulder pads. Whoa! I think in the Facts of Life intro, they're wearing pajamas with shoulder pads. That's just excessive.

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:00:33 -0800

This has potential to suck time and to reactivate long-unused memory-bank neurons. Favorited. Oh boy - already spotted Sandy Duncan, Edie McClurg, and Jason Bateman in the same TV show. These aren't all Mike Post theme songs, are they?

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:08:33 -0800

These aren't all Mike Post theme songs, are they? No, I was just riffing on the phrase "single-link YouTube post". Also, I should probably confess that I didn't literally count the number of shows. Most parts seemed to consist of 9 shows, and there were 31 parts. Could be 278, could be 280.

By: Hugonaut

Hugonaut — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:09:28 -0800

Wow. The Wizard. All I remember is that David Rappaport played drums when he couldn't figure out the solution to a problem. I thought midgets were awesome as a kid so a midget playing drums just about blew my mind.

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:15:21 -0800

Whats this thing that looks exactly like a flat panel monitor: http://img172.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture3hz5.jpg

By: Horace Rumpole

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:19:03 -0800

I think it's a beige CRT with a privacy screen disappearing into the beige background.

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:19:21 -0800

Also can someone with the time and wherewithal (and possible addiction to methamphetamine) go through and catalogue just how many of these them songs are about "makin it"?

By: arcticwoman

arcticwoman — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:27:48 -0800

Ooh ooh! Do the 90s now!

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:36:45 -0800

FUN FACT: When a cop is transferred to another city, they stamp his file with a stamp the size of a shoebox

By: vronsky

vronsky — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:40:52 -0800

Diane from Cheers -- in case you ever read this thread... you were my one true love. Unless Olivia Newton John shows up. Then I would have to kick you to the curb.

By: Jay Reimenschneider

Jay Reimenschneider — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 14:47:46 -0800

Wow. What a "lip flap"-a-thon (people talking minus audio- like in Family Ties and L.A. Law).

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:03:49 -0800

I think the Hart to Hart credits will always be one of my favorites. Because when they got together, it was moidah.

By: krinklyfig

krinklyfig — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:05:57 -0800

vronsky writes "Diane from Cheers -- in case you ever read this thread... you were my one true love." Yeah, used to be that way for me, too. Then, watching the reruns on Nick at Nite, I realized that the Diane character is a pretentious pseudo-intellectual. She's pretty and she sounds smart, but her fragile ego is too easily bruised, and she's too good for anyone who would want her (and she's not nearly as smart as she comes off). Sam, in contrast, comes out more mature and human by the time Diane left, though that was probably due to Shelly Long leaving the show and his character staying on. But, yeah, a part of me still remembers ...

By: Senor Cardgage

Senor Cardgage — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:15:10 -0800

What do you suppose happened to the legions of saxophone players primarily employed by the 80s tv theme industry?

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:07:06 -0800

Ok, I was 7 in 1985, so maybe I'm too young to be able to understand. But... I was -3 in 1985, and I know exactly what you mean.

By: pupdog

pupdog — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:57:11 -0800

And how has there never been a MacGyver movie/remake? They tried

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 18:43:10 -0800

as long as "The Equalizer" and the '80s "Twilight Zone" are in there, I'm happy. I actually have every single episode of the 2nd Twilight Zone series. That was a damned fine show, and worthy successor to the original.

By: Brocktoon

Brocktoon — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:57:05 -0800

Can't seem to find Benson or The Greatest American Hero, but great tubes nonetheless!

By: nevafeva

nevafeva — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 04:36:15 -0800

Oh My God. I still remember all the lyrics to the "Gimmie A Break!" theme song! And Nell Carter's sassy little jump at the end!

By: not_on_display

not_on_display — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:24:31 -0800

This FPP IN STEREO (where available)

By: Bugbread

Bugbread — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:05:55 -0800

spock writes "1) People's attention spans obviously tolerated longer opening credits in 1986 than they do in this age of remote 'trigger-finger'." Nah, it's not an issue of attention spans. It's a matter of advertising cutting into running time. For proof, go check out the opening credit times on channels without commercials (Showtime and HBO). The Sopranos, Dexter, and The Wire all have pretty long opening credits. Dormant Gorilla writes "I look at 80s hair, and WHAT. THE. FUCK. were they thinking?" You'll think the same thing in a few years about those emo haircuts I see when I go back to the US. I'm sure they seem really normal to everyone, because they're thick in the middle of it, but for someone outside the US, they seem like they're going to have a really bad aftertaste in a few decades.