Episode 67: Cape Cod's Suicide Alley; Beavis & Butthead; 1980's TV Show Themes; Jamaica/Townshend VT(5-5-2022)

Episode 67 kicks off with the story behind what some consider to be the most dangerous stretch of road in Massachusetts.  This stretch of Cape Cod's Route 6, between Dennis and Orleans, is ominously referred to as 'Suicide Alley.'  Does it deserve this nickname?
It's a double-dip Road Trip as we venture to the Green Mountain State of Vermont and the neighboring small towns of Jamaica and Townshend.  They are interconnected for me which is why they are here together.  Find out why this week.
Nearly three decades ago cartoons were changed forever with the creation of Beavis and Butthead.  Exploding onto MTV this Mike Judge animated show was controversial and hilarious.  I share a little of what it was like being a teenager when it first came onto the scene.
The Top 5 1980's TV show theme songs are sure to have you swimming in memories, or searching YouTube to see what the big deal was.
There's a new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the very first Grammy Awards.
Be sure to watch for my livestreams called Without A Map Friday's at 8pm on Instagram which serve as a sort of postgame show for the podcast. Find them on IGTV after they've finished.

Helpful Links from this Episode(available through Buzzsprout)

• Purchase Iconic Hotels and Motels of Cape Cod
• Wear Your Wish
• DJ Williams Music
• KeeKee's Cape Cod Kitchen
• Christopher Setterlund's YouTube Channel
• Christopher Setterlund.com
• The In My Footsteps Podcast Blog
• Vermont State Parks
• Vermont.com

Listen to Episode 66 here.

Transcript

Intro

Hello World, and welcome to the in my footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund. Coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 67. Back after a week off with a loaded show for everyone, so thanks for tuning in. This week we're going to talk about Cape Cod's infamous suicide alley roadway. Is it the most dangerous road on Cape Cod? Stay tuned to find out. We're going to double dip for a road trip we're gonna go to the neighboring towns of Jamaica and towns in Vermont. We're gonna go way way back in the day as I gush about my love of the satirical and lowbrow cartoon, Beavis and Butthead. There's going to be a brand new top five that will focus on the top 5 1980s TV show theme songs. We'll have a new this week in history and time capsule, all of that coming up right now on episode 67 of the in my footsteps podcast. How's everybody doing? Welcome back. I took a week off last week to kind of let episode 66 Which was dedicated to my Nana have a little more time to percolate and get more views. So welcome in Welcome to may Spring is in full bloom. Everything's looking great. The weather is starting to get better on Cape Cod. Spring actually hasn't been too bad. I always talk about it being mid to upper 40s and misty and foggy most of the mid part of spring but not this year. Since we last got together I became a certified senior fitness specialist. This allows me to work with senior citizens as far as training goes. I add that to my medical fitness specialist and certified personal trainer certs. You can kind of see what I'm honing in on as far as my personal training side helping those that are of advanced age have just a better overall quality of life. And like I say if you're in need of any sort of health, wellness, or chiropractic work come down and see us at Mind Body spine chiropractic on Route 6A in Brewster and also coming soon Cape kettlebell our sister gym, I wanted to send Best Wishes get well wishes to Trainer TKO. Kailyn Orr. so in the time that we took the week off on the podcast, she suffered a pretty nasty injury to her neck. I won't go into all the details here. But she's going she ended up having surgery on the 26th of April, it's going to be a long-ish recovery, but she will be back 100%. So if you follow her on Instagram, on Facebook, go send her best wishes, even though there'll be a week or so late because I didn't have a podcast last week, but still go send them because she deserves and needs all the good vibes she can get right about now. Also, since we last spoke, the lady of the dunes documentary had a very successful week-long stay at Cape cinema in Dennis. So much so that other local cinemas are looking to play it throughout the spring and summer. Once I have information on where you might be able to see it, I will obviously let you know. But it's getting big, bigger than we expected. Where there are several distributors all kind of fighting over the rights to this film, which is great for Frank. And it's great for me because the bigger the film gets, the bigger the book is going to be that goes along with it. So it's looking like the rest of 2022 is going to be an excellent year I feel the vibes I feel the positive changes coming. And it's a matter of just sailing down the river letting the boat kind of go where I'm being steered, which at times can be kind of scary, but it's also when I feel all the good stuff coming. You know, it's easy to let go with a wheel. But you still got to put in the work and keep going. And that's what we're doing right here. I'm back with episode 67 of the podcast because I love doing these. I love the interaction with everyone who likes to listen. And I'm hoping you'll enjoy this episode. We're going to kick it off with something that I had promised to do a few weeks ago and that was a look at Cape Cod's suicide alley stretch of roadway if you're not from the Cape and you've never heard of it. The story is pretty interesting. It is at times seen as the most dangerous stretch of road on the Cape, maybe even in Massachusetts. But coming up right now is the full story. So you be the judge as we talk about Cape Cod's suicide alley on episode 67 of the in my footsteps podcast

Cape Cod’s Suicide Alley

The mid-Cape highway, known as route six extends 63 miles across Cape Cod, from the foot of the Sagamore Bridge to Heron Cove beach in Provincetown. It passes through every town on Cape Cod, except for Falmouth, Mashpee and Chatham, first designated in 1926. This road has been consistently improved and redeveloped over the subsequent century. It is now the main highway and busiest road on the cape. Throughout its lengthening and widening, eventually connecting the entirety of Cape Cod. Route 6 has remained quite normal highway. It is a double-barreled road from sandwich to Dennis, while becoming more of a traditional surface road between the towns of Eastham and Provincetown out on the Outer Cape. However, there is one section of Route six that has become a world unto its own, and people that live on the cape know all about it. This 13-mile section connects the towns of Dennis to Orleans, and has been witness to an unusually high number of fatal auto accidents. So much so that this section of road has had its own unique and chilling nickname. It is known by locals as suicide alley. So this section of Route six extending the highway to the Orleans rotary was initially completed in 1959. In 1954, the highway was widened from two to four lanes up to Hyannis from its beginnings at the Sagamore Bridge. But it took until 1971 For it to be widened to four lanes into Dennis, what used to be exit nine, A and B but now the numbers are different. But that's a totally different story. However, that was where the widening stopped once it reached Dennis, the section between Dennis and Orleans remains two lanes one in each direction, and has right up until today. In the summertime, it's a wild thing. It's a bottleneck where the two lanes try to meet into one. Those of you that live on the cable or visit in the summer, you know what it's like when you pass Dennis and you have to get two lanes into one. Initially, this two lane highway maintain the 55 mile per hour speed limit of the rest of Route six up to that point to allow for faster traveling vehicles and easier time. There were 22 passing zones included on this part of the road. Which means that it was possible for passing vehicles to be face-to-face with those coming in the opposite direction. Which is just horrifying to think of because 55 is the speed limit. But who among us goes that speed limit I'm going to admit I don't. So just imagine crossing over into oncoming traffic to pass slower vehicles. Anyway, likely sensing impending doom, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works discussed plans to widen route six to four lanes all the way into Orleans. So the plan initially was to just keep widening it and never have suicide alley ever really be a thing. However, environmental concerns halted these talks by 1974. The proposed widening would impact some wetlands, several ponds and potentially town drinking water. So as a compromise, the state did lower the speed limit from 55 to 50 miles an hour along suicide alley in 1974. Naturally, though, this did little to slow the increasing rash of severe accidents. It was not until the late 1970s that this part of the highway got its morbid nickname. First seen in a printed capacity in 1979. Suicide Alley was bestowed upon the 13 miles of road. Obviously this was due to the high number of fatal vehicle accidents being that it was basically suicide trying to pass vehicles on this road. Between the years of 1973 to 1979. alone, there were 17 deaths and 174 injuries along suicide alley. And for anyone who's traveled on it, it's easy to understand why as the two lanes had hardly any separation between them, with vehicles commonly traveling far above the posted 50 mile an hour speed limit. It was just like any normal road you drive on with the two yellow lines in between. The main difference was that suicide Alley was a cramped section of road where on an off season day the highway can see upwards of 55,000 vehicles. And like I said a little while ago was only exacerbated in the summer, when those numbers could easily double or triple track the traffic jams heading west on summer days. Like I said, they're frustrating. They're unbelievable. When you're driving there in the summer, if you're down here, and you're stuck in traffic, pull up Google Maps and just look at the traffic with that long red line have stopped vehicles. So in 1979, there were renewed talks over widening routes six, the environmental concerns were raised again, though, the idea of getting the town's involved Dennis Harwich, Brewster and Orleans, on the same page seemed to be just as difficult because the idea was a united front with those four towns would help get the project funded, but that just would not happen. And by 1981, the talks had quieted down again. Instead, locals gave ideas on how to make suicide alley safer without widening it. Some of these included traffic lights at all on ramps and concrete barrier in the middle along the entire stretch of road, and the barrier was also nixed due to environmental concerns. There is an interesting note about suicide alley, and that is that despite the fatalities along it being higher than the state average for highways, the number of accidents in general was lower, which is just a weird sort of stat. In the mid 1980s. Some state police officers referred to the Dennis to Orleans section of highway as the most dangerous road in Massachusetts. An environmental impact study was green lighted in January 1986, with a route six Task Force suggesting again to widen the highway to four lanes in September 1986. In addition to the environmental worries, some locals theorize that a wider suicide alley could lead to a faster development of the areas that passed through. This time, though the project actually gained steam by the end of the 1980s 36 people had died on the road in the previous two decades. The Tipping Point was the horrific accident in April 1989 When Brewster mother Lois Ann Scholomiti and her two children died in a head on collision with a truck. In an attempt to appease all sides, a $7 million project was completed in 1991. This was a three foot wide, artificial embankment and a three foot tall series of reflectors, which were added for the entirety of suicide alley. The passing zones were removed, and the two lanes were slightly widened. It was like the best they could do. Despite these safety improvements, the talk of making the road four lanes remained and had its closest pass to date in 1994. This was when the Massachusetts highway departments submitted three proposals for the maligned suicide alley. They all included some form of widening the road, though each with different endpoints of said widening a full build to the Orleans rotary was estimated to cost $45 million, or about $81 million today when adjusted for inflation. The project even had designed plans drawn up by the highway department that I found online. In the nearly three decades since though the project has never moved past design plans and speculation, although interestingly, it must be said that to Cape Cod rail trail bridges have been added to the highway over the recent years, and they have left room for the addition of more lanes just in case. For more than 40 years though a 13 mile section of Cape Cod highway has been alternatively known as suicide alley by locals. Is the name justified. There are drivers and police alike who say it is not. The Bourne scenic highway is one such road seen as more dangerous and suicide alley. This is basically the road that goes from the Sagamore Bridge to the barn bridge on the cape side. It's very similar to what suicide alley looked like back in the day. According to a study by the Cape Cod commission in 2004, the crash rate on Route six in Eastham is the highest nearly triple have any other section on Route six, including suicide alley. So keep that in mind when you're driving route six in East Ham that's the most dangerous section of the road. Those safety measures implemented in 1991 have reduced the accident rates on the road. However the rumblings of extending the four lane route six all the way to Orleans are always just below the surface anytime a terrible accident occurs or a several mile traffic backup occurs in the summer, those talks will again come bubbling up until it is officially no longer two lanes, suicide alley will maintain its name among locals, even if it really hasn't been truly fitting in three decades.

Road Trip: Jamaica & Townshend, VT

For this road trip, we're doing something that I've never done before and actually double-dipping towns. This week, we are crossing the border going into the Green Mountain State of Vermont, and checking out the neighboring towns of Jamaica and Townshend Vermont. The reason being that I just couldn't do one without the other based on a couple of amazing places that I saw on the same trip Long, long ago. So let's dive into a little bit about what makes these two places interconnected and make them spots that should be on your list. If you're going to the state of Vermont, Jamaica and Townshend are not that far into Vermont. They're a little over 20 miles from the border with Massachusetts. To give you a little bit of an idea if you're coming from somewhere else in the state. These towns are about 160 miles northwest of Boston. For me coming from Cape Cod, it's a little over three hours. And I'm just fascinated with that area of New England, specifically northern Vermont and New Hampshire where it feels like a different world, especially from southern New England. You go from beaches and somewhat industrialized cities with providence and Hartford and Boston, and then up north to where it's just mountains. And there's not much in the way of cities, it's small towns. And that's why I really enjoyed Jamaica and Townshend. They're both small towns. As of 2020. Jamaica had a population of 1005, Townshend had a population of 1291. When I went up there I went camping with a couple of friends. So there is Townsend State Forest, which is nearly 1100 acres in total size. But when I went up there I went camping at Jamaica State Park, which if you're looking for kind of the central location where to go to put it in your GPS, it's 48 Salmon hole Lane in Jamaica. You can also visit VT state parks.com To see more photos, and I'll put a link to it in the description of the podcast so you can just go check it out. I don't know where you all fall on camping. I think most people enjoy it. But the thing is, how much do you bring as far as amenities? So there's a difference between driving an RV around where you're camping? Yes, but you're kind of in a little house. And then there's the other side where you're in the middle of nowhere and a little tent and I kind of fall in the middle. I could do either. But I'd like to have kind of the best of both worlds I guess. The season up there for the State Park and camping. It's from the end of April through Columbus Day. Jamaica State Park is 772 total acres, which was opened as a park in 1969. It's located on a bend of the West River and it was great when I went up there camping. We actually hiked in the river. I remembered having to buy a pair of water shoes. They're typically made of stretchy mesh not spandex, but sort of like that. So you can just walk in the water and not worry about slicing your feet on rocks. Also in Jamaica State Park is Hamilton falls which is a lot of fun to hike up just be very careful and try to find dry rocks to get your footing on. I highly recommend camping at Jamaica state park but I understand if you're not a fan of either sleeping outdoors or being deep in the woods, especially up north where there are more woods and fewer people. So if that's the case, there are a lot of Airbnbs in both Jamaica and Townsend which are easy to find. But there's also the three mountain in at 3732 Vermont route 100 in Jamaica, or three mountain in.com. It's got both luxury and the classic Vermont feel from an 1800s home. The rooms are named after local Vermont towns and is close to a couple different ski resorts Stratton and mount snow. So you can even go in the wintertime. If you're up there camping and you're enjoying a few days up there, you're going to need food. You can check out west river provisions at 33816 route 30 in Jamaica, they're a newer place, but also a classic country store grocery store. They're located on Facebook, so you can go and see some photos. That would be where you would go to grab the stuff you need to have at your campsite. But if you're looking for somewhere to go to actually have a full meal. Well now we come to the other reason why this is a double dip road trip. And that is the Townshend dam diner at 5929. Route 30. In Townsend, if you look them up online, I think they're at Dam diner.com they're also on Facebook. I ate there 20 years ago when I went camping and I still fondly remember it. A because dam Diner is just a funny name, although there is a dam there. But they also had this amazing bison burger, which if you've never had it, it's a super low-fat lean type of burger obviously comes from a bison. It's a little more expensive, but it was so good that I still remember it. Currently, they're only doing outdoor dining and takeout and they have limited hours Friday through Monday that might change as summer comes. But obviously check ahead if you're in the area. Don't just go there. I felt bad because one of my oldest friends he and his family were here from LA and they were in Vermont not far from Townsend. And I told them go to the damn diner. And they were there on a Thursday and they weren't open. And I sort of course, the one place that I could recommend you in Vermont and you can't go to it. So you found a place to stay if you're camping or not. You have eaten you've got your provisions you need what other sites can you see? Well, naturally in northern New England, there are a lot of covered bridges, which are just so cool throwbacks to 100 150 years ago, in the area of Jamaica and Townshend there are two there's one at route 100 at Island Lane in Jamaica. But there's a more well known one, which is the Scott covered bridge at 3049 State Forest Road in Townshend, it's 277 feet long, which makes it one of the longest in the state. And for those of you wondering the longest covered bridge in Vermont is the Cornish Windsor Bridge, which spans across the Connecticut River from Vermont into New Hampshire. And this one is 449 feet long. So It's way bigger. There's history. There are art museums, there's also mule mints, craft drafts, which is obviously a craft beer store. And it's got more than just beer, beer, wine, cheese, Vermont, things that you can take home. I don't want to say touristy stuff, but you know what it is. They're located at 8814 route 30 In the village of Rawson Ville, which is in Jamaica, but I liken it to if you know, Cape Cod, it's like we have the bigger towns like born but there's a village like Pocasset. So it's just a smaller village of Jamaica. They're also at Craft drafts.com. But it's not drafts how you normally spell it. It's Draughts. So drots, but it's pronounced rafts, there's English for you. But the main thing with Jamaica and Townsend it's the scenery, it's just the green and the wide open spaces. That's what really sticks out to me and what really has stuck with me since my time going there. There's plenty to see but just take your car and just go and find the little nooks and crannies around these two towns, because you'll probably see things that I missed when I was there. Visit vermont.com and just look up Jamaica and Townsend and you'll see more of what's to do and more photos that will probably entice you to go there. And like I said VT state parks.com will help you get if you want to go camping at Jamaica State Park which I highly recommend 160 miles northwest of Boston, just across the border of Vermont in the Green Mountain State towns in and Jamaica you can't go wrong with either they're both interconnected, so I could not separate them for this road trip. And I'll be back next week as we check out another beautiful amazing spot from one of the six New England states and beyond.

This Week In History

This week in history, we are going back 63 years ago this week, May 4 1959 And the very first ever Grammy Award Ceremony. The Grammys are often seen as a very prestigious award ceremony, awarding the best in music. There have been some legendary performances at the award shows, and some of the biggest names in the history of music have won a lot of awards at the Grammys. As of this year 2022 The person with the most Grammy Award nominations is rapper Jay Z with 83 Paul McCartney is next with 81 Quincy Jones is next with 80 I'm pretty sure most of you could have guessed at least one of those as far as the most nominated Grammy artists ever. But if I asked you to name the artist that has the most Grammy wins, I have a pretty easy time thinking most of you would not get it. tied for second place with 28 Grammy wins each are Beyonce and Quincy Jones. However, the person with the most wins with 31 Grammy Awards is Hungarian British conductor George salty, who won 31 awards out of the 74 nominations he had the first ever Grammy Awards were hosted in Los Angeles and presented by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Some of the famous winners from that night include Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and the Kingston Trio. Some other famous winners from that first night include the song tequila by the Champs which is better known as the song that Pee Wee Herman dances to and Pee Wee's Big Adventure, as well as Alvin and the Chipmunks The chipmunk song for comedy album. Interestingly, rock did not become a category at the Grammys until 1980, and rap in 1989. Best Music Video came along in 1982 and 2017, the number of total awards given per show, stabilize that 84 And that's kind of where they are now. And even though the Grammys may be a huge deal as far as music goes, there have been some significant legendary artists that have never won any Grammys ever. And they include queen, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, The Beach Boys, to POC Guns and Roses, the who the doors and the Grateful Dead. That's a lot of Legends right there. And the first-ever Grammy award ceremony took place 63 years ago, this week in history. And now it's time for another time capsule. This one may be one of the most recent times that we go flashing back to, although it's going to make a lot of you feel old. So we're gonna go back 20 years ago this week to May 4 2002. Yes, 2002 was now 20 years ago. The number one song was foolish by Ashanti. This was her first single off of her self-titled debut album. It spent 10 weeks at number one, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Female r&b vocal performance. Ashanti's album has sold more than 6 million copies worldwide since then. And its debut week where it's sold over 500,000 copies was the biggest first-week sales for a female artist ever at the time. The number one TV show was er. This was the hugely successful medical drama created by famed novelist and physician Michael Crighton. It starred Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Eric LaSalle, Noah Wiley, and tons more. It lasted 15 seasons from 1994 to 2009 331 Total episodes. The fictional series that took place in Chicago won a total of 23 primetime Emmys during its lifespan as a show. And an interesting fact is that as of 2014, the TV show had grossed $3 billion in television revenue. The number one movie was Spider Man, the original one not the 500 different reboots that it's had since then. This is the original starring Tobey Maguire, Willem Defoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco. It's an amazing movie really good. It's obviously based around the character spider man created by Stan Lee. At the time, it grossed $825 million on a budget of 139 million. The film is credited for redefining the superhero genre of movies that has become so big in the years since and it's fun to direct sequels, Spider Man two and three, and then a whole host of offshoots and reboots. And if you were around back, May 4 2002, and I'm pretty sure most of you were, and you wanted to listen to music, take your music with you, there was this kind of new thing called an mp3. And you could download those, and load them onto something brand new that would change the music industry. And that was the first generation iPod. And this was only a few months into the existence of the iPod back then. So if you wanted the brand new 10-gigabyte model, first-generation iPod, you could grab one for $499, or about $800. when adjusted for inflation to today. I did not ever get one of those first generations, the first thing I got was the shuffle that looked like a little pack of Wrigley's gum. But that was good enough for me. And that's gonna wrap up another this week in history, another time capsule. Now we're going to go back a little more retro. As we go into a new top five, that's going to be the top 5 1980s TV show theme songs. I don't think I'm going to sing any. But these are going to bring back memories that you will hear for the rest of the day. So here we go.

Top 5: 1980s TV Show Theme Songs

This is going to be a really fun top five list, partially because of the fact that it's dealing with top 5 1980s TV show theme songs, which would be so much easier to do if I could play a lot of these themes. But I don't know about copyright things. So a lot of this is going to have to deal with you listening having to pause this and go find the theme and remember it I take chances on some things playing little clips of sounds but with this where it's gonna be a whole lot of themes. I don't want to risk it. So as with all of these top five lists, obviously they are in no particular order. And you may have some that I didn't put on my list that you're going to ask me why they weren't on there. But it's all subjective and all in good fun. As a child of the 1980s, though, I can say that I believe that all of these deserve to be here. So let's jump in the there are always honorable mentions. So this will kind of whet your appetite for what's to come. Honorable Mentions for 1980s TV show theme songs include Punky Brewster, family ties, perfect strangers, who's the boss, Reading Rainbow, and Magnum PI. That's a lot of honorable mentions. I was trying to think of ones to take out and I just said the hell with it. We'll just throw all of them in there to give you more homework to go check them out. So I set expectations pretty high with those honorable mentions. So let's jump into the top 5 1980s TV show theme songs. Number one is Knight Rider. This was the famed action crime drama with David Hasselhoff and his car KITT from 1982 to 1986. It's got that thumping baseline to it. And I mean, it was a cool theme song, especially for the times and then being a kid. You know, when I was watching Knight Rider, I was 6, 7, 8 years old. So the car was so cool. David Hasselhoff was so cool. The theme song was so cool. So that's why it sticks out in my head. It was one of the first I thought of for 1980s TV theme songs. That's an easy theme to go on YouTube and find and listen to and see if you agree if it should be on there. Number two is Miami Vice. Another one that's an instrumental there's no words to it, but it's an iconic theme song. This is another crime drama. It starred Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas from Miami surprisingly, The show ran for five seasons in 112 episodes. And the theme just called the Miami Vice theme by a man named John Hammer actually peaked at number one when it was released in 1985. So not too many TV shows can say their theme song was a number-one Billboard chart hit. Number three is cheers. This comedy was one of the best comedies of the 80s and probably all time. It ran for 11 seasons 275 episodes and deals with the titular bar from Boston with an iconic ensemble cast Ted Danson, Shelly long, Woody Harrelson, George Wendt, Kelsey Grammer, and so many more. But just as iconic as the comedy itself is the theme song where everybody knows your name. It was the debut single for Gary Portnoy, who wrote the song and performed it. His follow-up was the theme for Punky Brewster. The song was even Emmy nominated and did crack the Billboard Top 100. But it was nowhere near as successful as the show itself was, but the theme song is iconic. Number four is the A Team. This is another one here, no words to it unless you count the guy who talks about how you can find the A team at the very beginning of the show before the music kicks in. This was an action adventure TV show. It ran for five seasons and 98 episodes, and starred George Peppard, Dirk Benedict, and of course Mr. T who became by 1980s icon. The theme song was composed by Mike Post and Pete Carpenter, and is very much as iconic as the TV show. I'm sure you can hear it right now. And if you can't go to YouTube and look up a teen theme song, because if you don't remember it, it'll take like three bars of the music for you to be singing along. And finally, we've come to the end of the 1980s top five TV show theme songs with number five and that is the Golden Girls. This one is a personal favorite because if you've listened to the podcast I've mentioned several times that this TV show reminds me of my Nana. So naturally, the theme song reminds me of her too. Thank you for being a friend. On the show. It's performed by a woman named Cynthia fee. It was originally written by Andrew Gold and released as a single in 1978, where it reached number 25 as its peak position, but it became way more famous on the Golden Girls. The show lasted seven seasons in 180 episodes and starred bea Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty, and it's become even more iconic now in the years since it went off the air. That's another one that's easy to remember and hear in your head. And if not, go and check them out. All five of these theme songs Knight Rider, Miami Vice, cheers, the A Team, The Golden Girls, go give them a listen, go watch a few episodes of the show and get lost in what it was like being a child of the 1980s. And of course I'll be back again next week with a brand new just as random top five list that I think you're you will enjoy. 

Back In the Day: Beavis & Butthead

I tell you for those that weren't around in the early 1990s When Beavis and Butthead first appeared on MTV, it's hard to explain the culture shock and culture shift that came from the Mike Judge creation. For the most part up until the early 90s cartoons had been family friendly that you could watch with everyone. Even the slapstick violence of things like Tom and Jerry or the Looney Tunes cartoons weren't the same as what we would see with Beavis and Butthead. As of right now. 2022 Beavis and Butthead in total has run for eight seasons, and 222 episodes. It began with a short film called Frog baseball on MTV liquid television. It was released in September 1992, and really changed the way cartoons were viewed. Granted, it wasn't as bad because liquid television when it was on from 1991 to 95, on MTV was on late nights. So this wasn't like it was primetime. But still, the idea of these 2 15 year olds I think they were about 15 years old, delinquent, ignorant boys, basically using frogs as baseballs, was just something that had never been seen. I was basically the age Beavis and Butthead were supposed to be when they first came out 14 going on 15 And with me being a fan of shows like The Simpsons for cartoons, seeing this it was kind of gross out at first, but I quickly came on board with this show is just being something I had never seen an animation. Perhaps it was the distinctive laughs of Beavis and Butthead, or them just being completely oblivious to normal human interactions. They had like no way of communicating with their fellow students or adults. It was always funny. It was satirical but lowbrow with their interactions like with the kids Stewart where they would always do horrible things. And then Stewart would either get hurt or he'd get in trouble. In some ways, he was kind of a prototype for the butters character on South Park. There was Daria, who was one of their classmates and she was the smart female foil to Beavis and Butthead. She got her own short-lived spin-off show to the vast majority of characters on the show or voiced by Mike Judge, though, and boy, he became iconic. I had no idea how talented he was, until watching all a Beavis and Butthead. And then when he created king of the hill, and there was somewhat of an overlap with king of the hill because Hank hill and then Tom Anderson, the neighbor in Beavis and Butthead, they both had the same voice. They would always torment Mr. Anderson, whether it was intentional or they were just too stupid to realize they were doing stuff to him. They'd always be in his tool shed, he would always say that those boys a whackin’ in my tool shed he used to say, God, that was a line that got repeated in school a lot. I had a Beavis and Butthead t-shirt. I don't know how many of you did, it definitely showed where I stood on humor. And of course, the boys worked at Burger world, but they didn't do a good job. They were students at Highland high school where they would cause a lot of chaos or just not go to school at all. They had their gym teacher, literally called coach buzz cut that would just torment them with either dodgeball or something. But they'd always get their revenge in stupid ways. Despite all the funny adventures they went on in the episodes, I think what Beavis and Butthead is most remembered for today is them watching music videos, and basically making fun of most of them, except for Gwar. Gwar was the major band that they liked Beavis and Butthead in the early to mid 90s. I mean, that's something that stands out as a staple of Generation X, you know, my generation when I think back of things that influenced us. Now, we didn't go and do anything crazy, like they did, like putting explosives in a bowling ball and throwing it off the roof, or hitting frogs with baseball bats. Because for the most part, people that watched it knew that it was satire, and it was just funny, and you could kind of get lost in it. But that didn't mean there wasn't controversy that came with Beavis and Butthead. I mean, from that first frog baseball episode. There were people that hated this show. There was one time early on where, in one of the episodes Beavis got really excited with chanting Fire, fire fire, and there was supposedly a five-year-old that burned his family's house down, and the parents blamed Beavis and Butthead. But the neighbors said that these people didn't even have cable so their kid wouldn't have been able to even watch Beavis and Butthead. But despite that, they still made it were from going forward. Beavis never really chanted fire anymore. That was, of course until the show returned in 2011. That was the eighth season. They came back for one year. And Beavis was once again saying fire. I remember before the show would start they would have this warning that would pop up on the screen, like a disclaimer. That said Beavis and Butthead are not role models. They're not even human. They're cartoons. Some of the things they would do would get people hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. And it finished by saying, Do not try this at home. It's sort of like the commercials you see in recent years, where there's stunts being done and it always has to say do not attempt because there are people that are that stupid that will go out and try to flip their car or something and then sue the people that made the commercial and say, Oh, no one told me not to do it. It's like that kind of stupidity. Their popularity peaked in 1996 with the movie Beavis and Butthead Do America where they basically go across the country. Their attempts to score with chicks lead them to be Wanted by the FBI and ATF. It made over $63 million on a budget of 12 million. So it was a hit. I went and saw it in the theater senior year. And it's 70% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so it's got a positive score. I think that's kind of par for the course with Beavis and Butthead about 70% of people liked it. 30% didn't. There's one of my favorite scenes in the movie is when Beavis and Butthead basically meet their fathers who look just like them, but just old fat and bald, and they think they're the coolest guys in the world, but then they end up just going their separate ways. There was even an album in 1993 The Beavis and Butthead Experience. It had the cover of I got you Babe where Cher sings it with Beavis and Butthead. And then there's even a song called come to butthead where he sings it all seductive. It was a good album though it had Aerosmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run DMC, and it kicks off with a great Nirvana song. I hate myself and want to die with a great title for a song. Especially for a Gen X teen like me. It's easy to find old episodes of Beavis and Butthead on YouTube. But if you're looking for something new, they're saying that in July of 2022, on Paramount Plus, there's gonna be a new movie, Beavis and Butthead Do the universe. And it's one of those things that Mike Judge is still young, that if there was a big groundswell for more new Beavis and Butthead content, he can do all the voices, he basically voice the whole show. So he can always make new content. But I'm also still holding out hope that Mike Judge does some new King of the Hill episodes too. That was definitely a different time and a shock to the system when Beavis and Butthead first came out. I mean, now these days, when South Park and Family Guy came around, now it's a little more common for, I guess, vulgar, more adult cartoons. But back then that was new. I can definitely remember many, many times just sitting and laughing my ass off at stuff that Beavis and Butthead did, but never going out and doing it even though I was basically their age. But you who grew up in the 90s, like me, teenager of the 90s Did you use the watch Beavis and Butthead? Or did you get into it later? And what were some of your favorite moments and favorite episodes? Did you go see the movie? Did you get the album? I mean, I had the CD it went double platinum. So some people had to get it. Now that I've recorded this segment for the podcast, I'm definitely going to spend some time this week watching some old Beavis and Butthead and remembering being a 15 year old looking at these suppose that 15 year olds and wondering what the hell was wrong with them, but laughing every second of the way.

Closing

And that's going to wrap up episode 67 of the in my footsteps podcast. Thank you so much to everyone who has been tuning in. I really appreciate it. I hope you've enjoyed the content that I've put forth over the last year and a half of the podcasts, blogs, videos, any of that stuff. Check out the weekly live streams on Instagram Fridays at 8pm. You can also follow me on Instagram. Follow me on Twitter, Facebook, I've got an in my footsteps podcast author page. There's my home website, Christopher setterlund.com, which has links to my first six books I will keep you updated on when Book number seven photographers America, Cape Cod beyond the dunes comes out likely in the fall. And then obviously, I'll keep you updated on book number eight, which is finding the lady of the dunes. My goal, my hope is to have concrete plans for the release of that book before July 1, so I can start to really promote it during the month when the actual Lady of the dunes murder took place. Timing is everything but you know, that's my goal for right now. Like I said before, I'll keep you updated for where the lady of the dunes documentary is going to play next. It could be the Chatham Orpheum, if they hear this, you guys should play that film. But obviously, I'll have more information on that in the days and weeks to come. Mother's Day is this weekend. So make sure that you celebrate your mom, because nobody's a bigger fan of you than your mother. So even if you don't have money to buy something huge, just do something nice for her. I'm sure by the time she hears this podcast, my mother will have gotten the gift that I got for her. So I just wanted to say thank you to my mom, I love you. And thank you for being my biggest fan and supporter. And Happy Mother's Day to all the other moms out there who listen to the podcast. I hope you have a great day and that you're spoiled rotten by your significant others and children. And if the weather's nice, get outside and enjoy it. Everything is in bloom. It's getting green, it's getting warm. This is the best time of year where the weather is nice and you can just be outside and wait for us on Cape Cod. It's leading up to the tourist season. So it gets nice but yet there's not as many people yet I love May and I love September October the best. Tune in next week for episode 68 of the in my footsteps Podcast. I'm going to share the long and winding story of the West Barnstable brick company, from 20th Century Business powerhouse to being a crumbling facade lost in the woods in the 21st century. It's an amazing story. In honor of it being Friday the 13th Next week, we're going to look at the Friday the 13th Nintendo game and what I thought it would be and what it ended up being. We're going to take a road trip up to the south shore of Massachusetts to the town of Hull right within sight of the Boston skyline is going to be a brand new top five and these are going to be top five underrated lesser-known grunge alternative bands of the 1990s There'll be a brand new this week in history and Time Capsule all coming up next week on episode 68 of the in my footsteps podcast. And like I said, it's the time of year to get outside, be outside the vitamin D is good for you. It's good for your mental health. Make sure to take care of that. Your mental health means more than anything. Lean into what makes you happy. If what you do doesn't hurt anyone else, just do it. Mental health is at a premium at this time in the world. So definitely take advantage of it and do what you can to keep your mental health good. And as always, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps, create your own path and leave the biggest footprint you can in this world because you never know what tomorrow brings. Now I'll be back next week for episode 68 Thank you again so much for tuning in to the in my footsteps podcast. I have Ben Christopher Setterlund and I will talk to you all again soon.