Our Childhood TV Crushes and the Shows That Raised Us

Remember when coming home meant fumbling with a key on a chain around your neck, dropping your backpack, and turning on the TV before your parents got home from work? The Women Are Plotting podcast takes us back to those formative years when television wasn't just entertainment—it was our babysitter, teacher, and window to the world.

As self-described Gen X "latchkey kids," Etienne, Heidi, and Jane share how their favorite shows shaped their values and worldviews when parents weren't around to do it. Norman Lear's groundbreaking sitcoms tackled racism and social issues before many of us understood these concepts. Charlie's Angels inspired neighborhood play that extended storylines beyond the screen. Fantasy Island taught us to be careful what we wish for. And let's not forget those teenage crushes on Tom Selleck and Ricardo Montalban that led to bedroom wall posters and surreptitious fan mail.

Unlike today's on-demand viewing, our television experience was communal—everyone watched the same episode of The Cosby Show or discussed who shot J.R. the next day at school. This shared cultural experience created a unique generational bond that's hard to replicate in today's fragmented media landscape.

What's fascinating is discovering which shows hold up decades later and which make us cringe. The hosts explore this dichotomy while watching classics with their own children—from the progressive messaging of All in the Family to the now-shocking casual sexism of Three's Company. The shows that endure (Golden Girls, Cheers, The Twilight Zone) succeed through timeless storytelling, memorable characters, and universal themes that transcend their era.

Join this nostalgic yet insightful conversation about the television that raised a generation. What shows shaped your childhood? Share your memories with us at info@thewomenareplotting.com or find us on all social platforms.

Email us at info@thewomenareplotting.com, and find us on all the socials. Be safe and be excellent to each other.

Transcript

Introduction and Fun Facts

Etienne 0:02

Welcome listeners. This is Women Are Plotting. I'm Etienne Rose Olivier, and I'm here with my friends and co-hosts Heidi Willis and Jane Gari. Today's episode will be talking about our favorite Gen X shows that inspired us, and we always have a fun and or interesting fact for each episode, and mine today is regarding the 1970s television show the Incredible Hulk and how the main character's name was changed from Bruce Banner to David Banner because CBS executives thought that Bruce was too effeminate of a name. Jane, what's your fun fact for today?

Jane 0:48

Oh my, sorry, I'm laughing because bruce is my husband's nickname for my non-existent side piece. We just make a joke like if he's coming home early, he's like tell bruce to leave because I'm gonna be there. And uh, bruce, I find I find bruce is a very manly name

Etienne 1:02

yeah, I guess bruce.

Etienne 1:03

Yeah, they didn't change it for any of the Marvel movies. It's definitely Bruce Banner. Yeah, yeah, that's ridiculous.

Jane 1:10

It was a different time, the 70s

Heidi 1:12

yeah

Jane 1:13

very different.

Heidi 1:13

Bruce Willis wasn't around yet.

Jane 1:15

Yeah

Heidi 1:16

I think Bruce Willis, like he rehabbed that name maybe.

Jane 1:21

Or like Bruce Springsteen.

Jane 1:26

People didn't think that that was like

Heidi 1:26

yeah, that too, yeah

Etienne 1:27

yeah

Heidi 1:27

huh. Yeah, that's weird that they would call it effeminate

Jane 1:29

bruce but yeah.

Jane 1:32

so my fun fact is actually about the term gen x itself, not the term itself, but just like what other nicknames for our generation like? Sometimes, gen x is called the in-between generation because we're situated between the baby boomers and the millennials, and one of the reasons why we're also called that is because we straddle the best of both the analog and the digital worlds.

Jane 1:58

I feel like we're killing it, but we're also called the forgotten generation, and we're also called the latchkey generation because many of us I would argue maybe most of us were left unsupervised at home after school, literally using the latchkey which, if you

Etienne 2:16

yeah On the chain.

Jane 2:18

Yeah, yes.

Jane 2:20

And if you're really young and you're like what is a latchkey? It's literally the name of the key to the outer door of your house and, as our parents were really the first generation where a lot of folks were having two parents working or there was a lot of divorce, and then you just have both parents who might be working but they're not living together, and so now there's no caregiver present when you're getting home, and I think that that leads into our topic for today, which is just the idea of our favorite TV shows, because I think there was a lot of afternoon TV watching going on when there's not a parent to tell you to stop.

Heidi 3:02

We were definitely raised on the television.

Jane 3:04

So what's your fun fact, heidi?

Heidi 3:07

So mine's personal I actually met Norman Lear in 2016 at an awards ceremony. Yes, I was a finalist and a semi-finalist for a couple of my scripts at the Austin Film Festival screenwriting conference and he was the one being honored that year, and so after the ceremony, I got to meet him and tell him basically, hey, you were a big part of my childhood. Like I feel like being raised by a single mom. I wasn't really taught moral. I think his shows All in the Family, the Jeffersons, one Day at a Time like those kind of instilled in me these values and morals and how to be good and how to be a good person, like I just basically said that to him and told him I was so grateful that I felt like he was a kind of a substitute father figure through his shows, helping me become a good person, and so, yeah, it was really neat getting to hug him and

Etienne 4:08

what was his response to you?

Etienne 4:10

saying that to him

Heidi 4:11

oh, yeah, he hugged me and and he was really grateful that I told him that. But yeah, I was crying that was a big deal.

Etienne 4:23

like, yeah, if you came up to me and said that I would probably start getting teared up Like that's so sweet.

Heidi 4:30

Yeah, so yeah, it was really neat that he was the one being honored that year, that I was at the award ceremony. It meant a lot being able to meet him and tell him that. You know, you know it was good, oh anyway. So norman lear is a huge influence on the shows that kind of affected me the most growing up. Also, other ones are like all those anthology shows like twilight zone, tales from the Dark Side, outer Limits. I was obsessed with those type of shows.

Jane 5:08

You're reminding me of Ray Bradbury Theater that show would be it was one of those, because I don't unlike Heidi, I do not gravitate towards horror as a genre, unless I'm reading it, and then I can control just how messed up the visuals get in my head. But as a medium film and television I don't gravitate towards horror, and unless it's about vampires I don't know why they don't scare me as much, and so I find them sexy in a way. But ray bradbury theater was weird enough and odd enough where I could watch it. Sometimes I would, though, because my sister and I would sometimes watch it together, and then we would fight over who was the last person up the stairs.

Jane 5:53

She was like I'm turning off all the lights and she'd run away and I would just be freaking out because now I'm responsible for making sure the television is off and making sure the door is locked, Because we would be watching it in a den and our parents weren't there. But I will say that if we were watching television in the evening Ray Bradbury Theater was an exception. I don't know what time it was on in syndication, so I think that that was maybe like a rainy day situation?

Etienne 6:20

Yeah, I was going to ask you because I never saw Ray Bradbury Theater.

Jane 6:23

No, and I think it was a summertime thing, because I remember when we watched it we were at my dad's house and so it must have been in the summer, but it was at night when it came on and it was in syndication, so I don't know when it originally ran, but we were watching it by ourselves. But if we were watching television in the evening and I think this is something that our generation was, the last generation, sadly, to have this be a normal thing, right, is you're watching it with your family?

Heidi 6:46

right.

Heidi 6:47

So there was this whole group watching the same thing

Jane 6:49

exactly so that when you went to school the next day there was a baseline conversation you could have about the cosby show yeah, you know that on friday everybody oh my god, did you see it?

Jane 7:03

and we'd be acting out the scenes from it. And I think that back to my fun fact about how I was str at least part of the storyline of our unstructured playtime that we'd have outside. So one of the things I used to love to watch in the afternoon, when I came home from school first, after eating a very unhealthy snack because my mom wasn't home to tell me to not eat it would be to watch Charlie's Angels, which was in reruns at the time, and me and my sister and my stepsisters would argue over who was going to embody who during the show. And I always wanted to be Kelly, because I think Jacqueline Smith is, hands down, one of the most beautiful human beings that there's ever been.

Jane 7:59

But Charlie's Angels before that, cameron Diaz, drew Barrymore reboot and Lucy Liu there were these three women in the 70s who were just like the badasses and they had adventures and I'm sure it would be really dated if I went back and looked at it.

Heidi 8:14

Got the bad guys

Jane 8:14

they did and they worked together,

Heidi 8:16

did it sexy.

Jane 8:17

They did it sexy

Heidi 8:18

In their heels

Jane 8:19

In their heels, and sometimes they had guns. They knew different martial arts moves.

Heidi 8:25

Yeah

Jane 8:26

they worked for some dude, though that they never saw, which was always really weird, and he just talked to them through this very weird speakerphone that just sat on the desk and it was almost like charlie was the speakerphone and I had some very sexually ambiguous dude named bosley who hung out with them, but he never actually did any of the wet work that the Charlie's Angels were doing. But I would. Then, after that show was over, I would go outside and with my neighborhood friends, we would play Charlie's.

Jane 8:54

Angels.

Jane 8:55

You know what I mean. So it wasn't like today's kids were. I couldn't then afterwards binge watch every episode of Charlie's Angels there ever was. It was only a 4 pm situation and then it was over. And then I turned the TV off and went outside and got into all manner of trouble in the woods or just being stupid, but we would play Charlie's Angels. So you did that too. You would play VR, whatever you were pretending to be.

Heidi 9:24

Well, I think that's when I realized I was a storyteller or should be a director or something, because I was like directing the kids, like okay, you're gonna be this person, you're gonna say this and yeah I think. Yeah, some of my friends were like we don't want to play with her anymore

Etienne 9:40

so bossy

Heidi 9:41

so bossy

Etienne 9:44

Did you guys do Charlie's Angels too, or what would your

Heidi 9:48

yeah, charlie's Angels, we would play that.

Heidi 9:50

Play Justice League. What was another one we'd play?

Jane 9:56

We played the Smurfs.

Heidi 9:57

Yeah, oh, the Smurfs.

Etienne 9:58

You played the Smurfs.

Heidi 10:00

Yeah, pretend like you're Smurfs.

Jane 10:03

God, there was magic involved.

Etienne 10:05

The Smurfs' little freaking tails coming out of their white pants.

Heidi 10:09

Some strawberry shortcake.

Etienne 10:11

That was my favorite. Maybe that's why Angus' little tail, my dog's little tail, drives me crazy. It looks like a little Smurf tail. I want to put a little Smurf pants on him.

Jane 10:21

That's so cute, oh my gosh.

Etienne's Favorite Childhood TV Shows

Jane 10:30

What were your favorites Etty?

Etienne 10:31

Well, yeah, my favorites. So, yeah, I really did love the incredible hulk, the music that they had at the end of that show. I wanted to cry every time, like every time. I was so sad for him because he'd always make friends in these new places and then he'd get found out by that guy that was coming after him and he'd have to leave, and that would just. I just loved the sadness of it, the fact that he turned into the Hulk, always at a great time, the fact that he didn't turn into Hulk when he needed to. I think it was because he was trying to save his son, but he wasn't one of those women who could, like, get the superpowers and lift the car off of his son or whatever, when the bad thing happened. Um, so, yeah, that was one of my favorites, but actually I really liked ricardo montalban in fantasy island I and I.

Etienne 11:15

I found out how old he was because he doesn't look young in fantasy island and I'm so. That came out in 1977, so so I was six years old when Fantasy Island premiered. Okay, Ricardo Montalban was 58. And I was six years old and I was in love with a 58-year-old man. Like I just thought he was so cool. And I love that show because it was always like you have these fantasies. Obviously you're coming to the island. You want your fantasy to be played out in whatever way it happened to be, and 90, maybe not 90, but 80, 75% of the time things were going to go bad for these people. Their fantasies would come true and they would turn out to be these horror shows.

Etienne 12:00

No take it back. I don't want it.

Etienne 12:02

It's fine, I'll go back to my life to where it was

Heidi 12:04

Be careful what you wish for.

Etienne 12:06

So I always kind of thought that Mr Rourke was the devil in a way. I don't know if he really was, but that's what he seemed like to me, because all of the fantasies would turn against the people.

Heidi 12:16

But they'd learn something.

Etienne 12:17

Yeah

Heidi 12:20

they'd become better people when they leave.

Heidi 12:21

Yeah, so

Jane 12:21

yeah. They appreciate their real lives at the ends,

Heidi 12:23

yeah, yeah

Etienne 12:24

there we go was that any of?

Etienne 12:26

you guys into mr Rourke, or is that the only six-year-old?

Heidi 12:30

no, I had a crush on him too, for sure, uh-huh, yep, love boat. I think was like right before fantasy.

Etienne 12:36

Yeah, because love boat was yeah, before fantasy island. Yes,

Heidi 12:39

yeah

Etienne 12:39

I would watch love boat.

Heidi 12:41

It was.

Heidi 12:41

Love Boat, fantasy, island night. I remember back to back and all the guest stars.

Etienne 12:47

Always the guest stars Fantastic.

Etienne 12:49

Charo

Jane 12:49

I thought Isaac was hot.

Etienne 12:50

I thought it was Charo in Love Boat, y'all Like seriously,

Jane 12:53

I thought she was a character in Love Boat. That's how often she was on it.

Etienne 12:56

She was so good. You're drinking?

Etienne 12:57

out. Wait, what did you say you?

Etienne 13:00

thought she was awesome. She was so full of energy Like I wanted to be as much energy as Charo

Heidi 13:06

yeah

Heidi 13:09

I mean, she could not fly in today's society, huh.

Jane 13:14

Why not? I'm having amnesia about why she wouldn't.

Jane 13:17

I feel like she was just,

Heidi 13:19

she was just like

Etienne 13:20

what just?

Etienne 13:20

her boobs.

Heidi 13:23

She was shaking her boobs everywhere and just like she was more like just eye candy for the men at home, I think.

Etienne 13:31

I mean it kind of reminds like maybe a Sofia Vergara, but, like you know, from the 70s so a little bit more over the top. Charo was a little bit more over the top but still had, like you know, her very thick accent that we all could understand unless she was trying,

Jane 13:49

she'd go up to people and hip bump them a lot.

Jane 13:51

Oh, that's right, I forgot about the hip bump and definitely be like and she would shake them in people's faces

Heidi 14:00

well, have you guys watched Three's Company?

Jane 14:02

oh god,

Heidi 14:03

it's so offensive now.

Heidi 14:05

It's so offensive now.

Heidi 14:07

That could not fly.

Etienne 14:09

I have not seen it since the day, since back in the day

Heidi 14:11

it's so sexist and it's so bad.

Jane 14:17

It's very homophobic, but every episode is the same plot line, which is somebody mistakenly thinks that somebody's boinking someone else, but they're not. They were just helping them fix something that was wrong with a button. Or like they just accidentally fell on the couch together because Jack left a banana peel on the floor, like they're all so stupid.

Heidi 14:38

Stupid yeah, so stupid. The writing's terrible. Because I watched it, I don't know, like a few years back and I'm like how did this ever get made and how is this popular? And who's watching this garbage? Because it's garbage. It really is Like there's no redeeming quality to that show at all. I like the guy who plays Jack Tripper. I like him.

Etienne 15:02

It was John Ritter wasn't it

Heidi 15:03

John Ritter I like him as an actor, but oh my God, yeah, that show is terrible.

Etienne 15:09

I watched it. I loved it, but I was little. I don't know if I can be counted Like. Why are you watching it?

Heidi 15:14

Everybody loved it. I loved it too, like I watch it now and go oh my God.

Etienne 15:19

I have to watch an episode Like seriously.

Heidi 15:21

Yeah, you need to because the humor is terrible. Yeah, it's bad. It makes me question our parents, their taste level.

Etienne 15:32

Well, that sort of reminds me of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Heidi 15:36

Yeah

Etienne's Love For Tom Selleck

Etienne 15:37

you know, it's kind of. I mean maybe a little more highbrow WKRP maybe, but not by a lot, I don't know.

Etienne 15:46

I don't know, but another show, another man that I was in love with way too young was Tom Selleck on Magnum PI and my parents let me get one of those Tom Selleck Magnum PI posters and I put it on the ceiling above my bed and my mom was telling me that neighbors, you know they could see it because we were in a townhouse and I was on the upper floor so the neighbors could walk by on the sidewalk and look up and see from outside my Tom Selleck poster on the ceiling. And they said stuff to my parents like why do you let her put Tom Selleck on her ceiling? I guess they thought I was masturbating. I was way too young to be masturbating. At the time I did not yet know how to do that.

Etienne 16:28

I mean, I knew of it but I didn't know how to do it and I just left his like I thought he was so cool, going around solving crimes, driving around in not his Ferrari but driving around in somebody else's Ferrari and living the life. Yeah, that was another favorite show, for sure.

Jane 16:47

Now, I had a poster, too, of a man that I was in love with, but that man was Robin Williams. I had a Mork and Mindy poster, but it was just Mork. It was just my Mork from Ork poster, and I loved him and his silly rainbow suspenders. That character was so goofy and so off the rails.

Etienne 17:04

But so innocent,

Heidi 17:06

Innocent yeah.

Etienne 17:08

There was not a bad bone in his body.

Heidi 17:11

No, I wrote him a fan letter back then and they sent me a autograph photo. I don't know whatever happened to it either. I'm like a little sad I don't have it still, but oh yeah, it was that and like a little letter back. So oh, yeah,

Etienne 17:28

so sweet

Heidi 17:30

it was a prized possession for many years

Etienne 17:32

oh my gosh, I'm surprised.

Heidi 17:33

Yeah, I have no idea what happened to it

Etienne 17:35

oh man

Jane 17:37

I had a crush on him and I had a crush on pa from little house in the prairie. I thought michael landon had just like some of the best hair. I mean robin williams had great hair too, but he had hair coming out everywhere, like I know

Etienne 17:48

he was so hairy man.

Jane 17:50

He was so hairy, but but pa michael landon had a lot of chest hair too. That was like the look, right, you could always see it just over his work shirt. Just a little bit. He also wore suspenders.

Jane 17:59

Oh my god, maybe he had a type

Etienne 18:00

you ever think about men with suspenders and body hair?

Jane 18:04

and big, just big fluffy wavy hair was gorgeous.

Etienne 18:08

Yes

Jane 18:09

out of control.

Heidi 18:09

He took off his shirt a lot believe it or not,

Jane 18:12

michael Landon.

Heidi 18:13

Yes.

Etienne 18:13

Was it like to?

Etienne 18:14

work on the farm or to chop wood. I mean, I definitely watched the show.

Heidi 18:17

I guess I don't know.

Heidi 18:18

But yeah, I saw a TikTok or something where it was talking about like there was a lot of scenes with him shirtless and they were like and he was definitely doing it for the ladies.

Jane 18:35

that seems so gratuitous, but I mean. So this is how in love I was with Michael Landon. Because, again, like after a while, because when we were little, that show was on but then went into syndication, right. So it was not something you could only watch if you were home sick, right? So I had a cold once that I did need to stay at home, legit, one day, but then by the end of the day I was feeling better. And this was back when my mom would leave me. As long as it wasn't anything serious, she would still go to work. She would leave out a gallon jug of watered down fruit juice and she would say, by the time I come home, this needs to be done, you need to flush this out of your system and you need to rest and you need to drink this, okay. And so I would just be sitting there like watching reruns of Love Boat and Fantasy Island and watching the Price is Right,

Etienne 19:23

oh, the Price is Right.

Jane 19:24

But I was homesick that day. And Little House on the Prairie. I watched it.

Jane 19:28

It was a two-parter, so the next day I was feeling better, but still pretended.

Jane 19:36

I felt like garbage so that I could see what happened.

Etienne 19:40

Nice

Jane 19:41

I was like Michael Landon's in trouble. He needs me to stay home and watch, and I don't even remember what the episode was Actually. Yes, I do, oh my gosh. It was an episode where Laura they had a young baby boy who died as a baby and laura had wished because she was the youngest and that was before they adopted that jenny girl or whatever that was. That was so weird I can't remember, but she had prayed that she would still continue to be the youngest and then her younger brother dies and she feels incredible guilt

Heidi 20:09

yeah and she did it.

Jane 20:10

She thinks she did it and she's like crying. Anyway, it was very emotional, very special little house on the prairie, and so I needed to see part two. I had never seen that one before. And lo and behold, the next day, when my mom was like, how are you feeling? I was like not good, not good, I still feel. Oh, it's so scratchy, you know. And so I faked it and I got to see what happened.

Etienne 20:32

Yeah, it's so funny. Back in the day you could literally be a fan of a show and there might be an episode you never saw. Just because, if it wasn't on reruns, if you didn't see it when it was originally on, you were screwed, and I think a tiny little Little House on the Prairie. Fun fact though too is, I think, one of jason bateman's first acting credits was on little house on the prairie.

Heidi 20:54

Yes, yes,

Etienne 20:55

he's talked about it before. Yeah, and I really like jason bateman me too.

Heidi 20:58

I've had a crush on him. I used to get what was that? Teen bop or

Etienne 21:04

teen beat? Oh yeah,

Heidi 21:06

yeah, if he was in there I would get it and get the poster out. Him, john Cusack. Who else? Oh, rick Springfield.

Etienne 21:15

Oh, rick Springfield,

Heidi 21:16

His posters and my

Etienne 21:17

you know what? One of my first concerts I ever went to is Rick Springfield

Heidi 21:21

really

Etienne 21:22

And it kind of ruined it for me when I found out he was pretty much the same age as my mother.

Etienne 21:25

It was only a couple of years difference.

Etienne 21:40

And I was like wait, what that was when I started realizing why am I liking people who are so much older than me?

Etienne 21:45

like this is wrong

Heidi 21:45

I used to practice kissing on the poster. Oh, I made out a lot with rick springfields.

Etienne 21:47

You didn't like ruin your poster, making it wet or anything. No tongue, just lips,

Heidi 21:52

no tongue.

Heidi 21:53

Yeah,

Jane 21:53

I did that with my Scott Baio poster, but I would practice on my lips.

Jane 22:00

Sorry, not on my own lips, duh, I would make little fake lips out of my fingers, but I would be looking at Scott Baio while I did it From my Dynamite magazine.

Etienne 22:12

Oh, dynamite,

Heidi 22:13

dynamite

Etienne 22:14

Oh, my God, yeah. And then like later on, in what high school? It was 21 Jump Street for me, so it was Johnny Depp.

Etienne 22:22

Oh, my God.

Etienne 22:23

Oh my God, he was so he's getting older and he's a little rugged now from all the drugs and drinking, but he was just he's still,

Etienne 22:32

But he was just so beautiful, so beautiful. Oh my God, and I thought I was way too young for him, which I was in high school. But then he got together with Winona Ryder, who's actually a little bit younger than I am. So I'm like, why not me? That was the one thing I was really hoping when I moved to Los Angeles after high school.

Etienne 22:49

The one person I wanted to meet was Johnny Depp, and I hung out a lot at the Viper Room when that became a thing, but never once did I ever see in person or meet Johnny Depp, so oh well.

Heidi 23:01

Hmm,

Etienne 23:03

yeah

Jane 23:03

he was.

Heidi 23:03

What else was in the 90s? I guess I wasn't watching a whole lot of television in the 90s,

Jane 23:07

no Same.

Etienne 23:07

No, not in the 90s.

Heidi 23:13

I was out all the time.

Etienne 23:15

Yeah, that was the thing. My ex-boyfriend, who's over a decade younger than me, he'll talk about shows in the 90s. I'll go. I just don't know what you're talking about. I was out almost as many nights as I could be out.

Heidi 23:32

I remember watching Ren and Stimpy.

Jane 23:34

Oh my gosh.

Heidi 23:35

After work I would watch and just laugh my ass off at that show. But that was basically it, like I wasn't watching television

Jane 23:44

and that was a late night show.

Jane 23:46

So I think that, yeah, the shows I watched in the 90s were also late night  Like I already went out and then I came home and now I'm watching something to just kind of veg out before bed. But that's also the early nineties. I was in college, I had too much work to do. I

Jane 23:50

was either partying or studying and there was really very little room. Like even I didn't even go out to movies. People talk about movies from the nineties and I'm like, I think you're making that movie up. I was like, I've never heard of this movie, and it's because I wasn't watching enough TV to see it advertised. Nor

Saturday Morning Cartoons

Jane 23:50

was I actually then going to the movies. I would go through brief periods of seeing some movies at that time if I was dating somebody and they suggested let's go to a movie. But even that, like most of the people I dated at that time nobody was we were still going out to do stuff that wasn't involved in passive watching of anything. But I definitely still childhood. It was different. You had like your appointment tv. When people don't have appointment TV anymore, saturday morning cartoons were a tradition. I literally made sure that I got up early enough to see the snorks come on before the Smurfs. I just needed to. I was obsessed with the Smurfs, you guys, I really was. I just thought they were really cool.

Etienne 25:03

No, I did too. I was on board with Smurfs. I really loved the Smurfs, I mean they might have been actually.

Etienne 25:28

Yeah, I'm a little teensy bit older than you are, but my brother, who was basically six years younger than me, he watched Saturday morning cartoons for a lot longer than I did.  But that's why I joined in too. 'cause I did enjoy them still. Like I really loved Smurfs. They're just so cute. How can you not love them?

Jane 25:36

 And their little song and actually, to be honest with you, I was watching them past when I probably. It was prime time for Saturday morning cartoons. Now that I'm thinking about it. 'cause when I was really little watching Saturday morning cartoons, it was like Looney Tunes. They were rerunning stuff. It was like Daffy Duck. It was stuff that now you go back and did not age well.

Heidi 25:49

None of this stuff

Jane 25:51

but some of this stuff was being rerun from things that they would play before full-length feature films in the 40s, right? So we're watching Bugs Bunny cartoons that have World War II references in them. Do you guys remember this?

Heidi 26:04

Oh

Heidi 26:04

yeah

Jane 26:04

bugs Bunny was pretending to dress up.

Etienne 26:06

Was there a lot of German soldier issues or things happening with German soldiers in Bugs Bunny?

Jane 26:10

Yes, and he was always dressing in drag and pretending to be Mata Hari, but he would say he was Hatamari. But Mata Hari was an actual spy during World War II, and I didn't know any of these jokes until I was older. Or if I watched it with my grandfather, he would actually, after the cartoon was over, explain to me what all the references were and why he was laughing. Yeah, and that's how I actually first realized that Bugs Bunny was racist. I was like what is happening? Because he was like, oh, when he said that he's making fun of Japanese people, and I went wait, why would we be doing that? And then he explained to me things, because I'm seven, I don't understand what's happening.

Jane 26:55

And so my husband and I were actually laughing about this a couple of weeks ago and I was like, oh, Bugs Bunny was so racist and my husband doesn't have a memory for minutiae like I do. I mean, these are not important things that I'm remembering, you know. But so he's got more important stuff in his head, but I'm sitting here recounting all of the ways Bugs Bunny is racist and he goes. I don't remember that. I'm like let me show you. All you have to do is go to YouTube and just type in Bugs Bunny being racist and it has a little disclaimer that comes up saying we have preserved this footage as an example of the insensitivities at the time. You know what I mean and it's really an education just how and it was brutal. I mean racist against everybody. But yet bugs bunny himself was like probably some kind of I don't know. He was some kind of crossdresser at the very least. So he should have been a little bit more sensitive.

Heidi 27:49

Yeah exactly.

Etienne 27:50

Bugs Bunny was a transvestite, so he should have more openness.

Heidi 27:55

Yes

Jane 27:55

exactly, but he did not.

Heidi 27:58

He was closeted.

Jane 28:00

Maybe that's why he was just so mean to everybody else. My husband also just hates Bugs Bunny because he's such an instigator and I remembered him as being really funny and then now I just look at him and I'm like no, he's actually instigating racists. It's so bad.

Etienne 28:13

Why did you get?

Etienne 28:14

mad about freaking Roadrunner and Wile E Coyote. I felt so bad for Wile E Coyote. Why did he have to get so beat up all the time? Like well, first of all, I should have died in every episode. There was just no way in real life that he would have lived. But yeah, that just seemed wrong.

Etienne 28:29

I could not root for roadrunner, sorry

Heidi 28:33

here's a fun fact I did not know roadrunners were real until I moved to new mexico

Jane 28:39

what'd You do when you saw

Etienne 28:42

they're tiny they're really, really small, aren't they?

Heidi 28:45

They're small, they're, I don't know, chihuahua size, and they run so fast and they will race you.

Heidi 28:51

It's so adorable

Jane 28:52

wait, they will do what they'll race you. Oh, that's not what I thought you said.

Etienne 28:57

Sorry, oh no, what did you think? I said, yeah, I'm trying to think now. What did you think? What did you think? She said

Heidi 29:05

they race you,

Jane 29:06

rape you, and I'm like what?

Etienne 29:08

no, that's dolphins

Heidi 29:19

they're running next to your car, like it's kind of adorable.

Heidi 29:26

Yeah, not, not, not, yeah, no

Jane 29:30

they'll race you like they could beat you. You should carry an anvil in your car and, just as revenge, just drop it out, just be like fuck you roadrunner.

Jane 29:43

You, just finally, you should get yours

Heidi 29:47

but I didn't know that they were a real bird until I got there. And so yeah, that was 20, 19-year-old me going what?

Etienne 29:58

They're a bird, but they can't fly right, or can they fly?

Heidi 30:01

Yeah, I think they fly, yeah, okay, but then they also run,

Etienne 30:05

so just, penguins.

Etienne 30:06

Penguins can't fly. I don't know how we got on this.

Heidi 30:12

Maybe I don't know.

Jane 30:14

I'm looking it up.

Heidi 30:14

Are we just pulling stuff out of our butt now,

Jane 30:17

roadrunners

Jane 30:18

can fly.

Etienne 30:19

Wait, roadrunners can fly.

Jane 30:20

They can fly, though they are primarily known for their impressive running speed.

Etienne 30:26

Wait, what's the fastest?

Etienne 30:27

Is it the fastest it can go.

Jane 30:29

I should look that up also. Let me see if this will tell me how fast it can go. I don't know, but on the show, so fast, right, that just leaves skid marks in the dust, A puff of smoke yeah,

Primetime Soaps and Who Shot JR

Etienne 30:45

so fast, you can't see them.

Heidi 30:46

So, speaking of 80s television shows again, were you guys made to watch all those soap operas, those nightly soap operas?

Etienne 30:54

Sometimes, yeah, with other friends and older friends of the family

Jane 30:58

Like Dynasty.

Heidi 30:59

Yeah, Dynasty Knotts Landing. Oh yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm talking nighttime ones, oh nighttime.

Etienne 31:04

Yeah, Dynasty yeah.

Etienne 31:05

Dynasty, yes

Heidi 31:06

, dynasty. Knotts, landing Dallas,

Etienne 31:09

dallas, yes,

Heidi 31:10

Knots.

Heidi 31:11

Landing was like our favorite Knots Landing.

Etienne 31:12

I didn't have to, but yeah, Like who Shot JR, you know like ending on that.

Etienne 31:17

That was a huge thing.

Etienne 31:18

Yeah, everybody couldn't wait to find out. I can't even remember now. Wasn't it his brother? I don't know.

Jane 31:37

I should know this, because my dad and my stepmom just got done watching Dallas, because they never actually watched it back then, and they had managed to not have. Who Shot JR spoiled for them for the past whatever 40 years. It was so funny I didn't know, because I was like, oh, who Shot JR? And my dad was like, no, no, no, no, don't tell me. And I was like dude, it's been decades, it's been

Etienne 31:48

30, 40 years.

Jane 31:50

Also, I don't know. And if I did know at one point, I don't care, it has fallen out of my brain.

Etienne 31:56

I'm going to type it in who shot JR?

Jane 31:58

I was so upset that I was going to spoil it, for him.

Heidi 32:02

I thought it was his like an ex-girlfriend or something like that. It was a younger girl.

Etienne 32:07

No way it says it was Kristen Shepard, played by Mary Crosby, jr Scheming's sister-in-law and former mistress Seanan.

Heidi 32:16

Yes, yes, I knew it.

Jane 32:18

Spoiler alert.

Heidi 32:18

I knew it was a young girl.

Etienne 32:21

Spoiler alert.

Etienne 32:22

Yeah, hopefully Everybody waiting to watch Dallas.

Etienne 32:24

Sorry about that, jesus, I think it's on.

Jane 32:29

Netflix now Also. Roadrunners can go 26 miles per hour.

Etienne 32:32

Wow

Heidi 32:33

See, that's pretty fast. If you're in a school zone,

Etienne 32:36

that's really fast.

Heidi 32:38

If you're in the school zone, they're passing you.

Etienne 32:41

They need to get a ticket.

Heidi 32:48

Running over school kids.

Etienne 32:54

Like Mom, you got run over by a road runner.

After School Specials

Etienne 32:57

Stop making up stories, kid

Jane 32:59

yes, on today's very special after school

Heidi 33:03

oh gosh the after school specials

Etienne 33:06

yeah, I did love those after school specials.

Heidi 33:09

Yes,

Jane 33:09

was it just me? Or they always were about don't drink, don't do drugs don't get pregnant Because they were worried. They were like they're home alone. We should probably do.

Etienne 33:19

Yeah, we got to dig in man, we got to stop stuff from happening.

Jane 33:23

It's like such half-assed parenting is after school specials.

Heidi 33:25

Don't be prostitutes.

Heidi 33:28

Don't be drug dealers, don't be prostitutes.

Etienne 33:31

was prostitution one of them? I don't remember that.

Jane 33:37

I feel like there was one about I don't know if it was overtly about prostitution.

Heidi 33:39

Well, it was about runaways, yes,

Etienne 33:39

runaways

Heidi 33:39

, it's going to lead to prostitution.

Etienne 33:41

Yeah, that's what's going to happen, you run away.

Etienne 33:42

You're going to have to become a prostitute, and then you're going to get into drugs. You're going to get pregnant. Your life is just over Over.

Jane 33:51

This is why they had to remind our parents at 10 o'clock like hey, do you know where your children are?

Heidi 33:56

Yeah, they were not paying attention.

Jane 33:59

They're down in the basement watching Fantasy Island and jerking off with Magnum behind closed doors.

Etienne 34:04

Or, you know, in the box of porn, in my dad's box of porn, in the basement.

Jane 34:11

Oh my gosh,

Etienne 34:12

what a wild childhood.

Jane 34:14

Yeah, we didn't have cable.

Primitive Childhood TVs

Etienne 34:15

Oh cable,

Jane 34:16

we did not have cable.

Etienne 34:16

Yeah, I mean back in the day when you only had like five channels and you had to sit there with the rabbit ears trying to get it just right so you could actually see something. Yeah, or the foil Remember the foil on the rabbit ears?

Heidi 34:29

Oh my yeah, or the foil.

Jane 34:34

it helped it come in better.

Etienne 34:35

I know, I know why it was there.

Jane 34:37

It's so weird, like you tell a kid that now and they're like what are you talking about? Or the fact that you had to physically get up and turn a knob.

Jane 34:46

So we recently and this is how I know that I'm getting old. But I had a couple of older TVs. My husband had one and I had one that we each had separately as single people that we then brought into the relationship together, and I had a built-in VCR and it's from the 90s but it lasted for a very long time. Like my daughter unlike her peers my daughter's going to be 18 soon knows how to take a VHS tape. We would get them from the library and I had a couple that I still was holding onto. She knew how to put a VHS tape into the thing and press play, because I'd let her do that while I was taking a shower when she was little. So she just thought that that was normal.

Jane 35:35

And at her other friend's house there was a TV that they'd have like no, no buttons on them. You know what I mean. We didn't have anything fancy like that. So we recently got a TV and there was just not a button on that thing anywhere, and it's the first TV I've ever owned that didn't have a physical power button on it, and I was

Etienne 35:54

sure it doesn't have one on the bottom, because some of them are hidden like underneath, in case you lose your remote and you can still do stuff

Jane 36:02

that is how out of touch I am with this.

Jane 36:04

Maybe it does, maybe I didn't look, go to

Etienne 36:06

the feel on the bottom like on the outer edges on the bottom. Yeah.

Jane 36:11

Okay, that's good to know.

Etienne 36:13

Yeah, because you might lose your remote, then you're screwed. Then what do you do with that?

Heidi 36:16

Yeah, yeah,

Norman Lear Shows Hold Up

Jane 36:19

but I still have a very uncomplicated remote and this very, very basic flat screen TV. That still confused me because it didn't have a button on it and I was like, oh my gosh, I can use other complex technology Like I'm very experienced right now with like large language models and other stuff but the TV I was just like don't, please, don't give me one. That's not simple. I just that would be, and it's not like I'm a huge TV head these days, but I do enjoy it as like some downtime or that type of thing. But I feel there aren't enough of some of these 70s and 80s shows available and I'm just wondering if it's because they just don't hold up and we have it in our heads is like this lovely nostalgic thing. But if I went back and watched an episode of Charlie's Angels or Little House on the Prairie, that I would be like, oh my gosh, this is awful.

Etienne 37:09

Well, like when Heidi brought up Norman Lear and All in the Family like the oh gosh, what was his name? The main character.

Heidi 37:17

Archie Bunker.

Etienne 37:18

Yeah, I mean, he was so racist and so misogynistic, like I mean, he's just all the badness. And like my dad looked up to him, he thought he was great,

Jane 37:30

but he was supposed to be, someone we were supposed to make fun of, I mean that the whole thing was like such a teachable moment when the jeffersons moved in and then he actually called him out for his racism.

Jane 37:41

That show was so ahead of its time.

Heidi 37:43

It was so ahead.

Jane 37:44

That show holds up because I have seen that since then. When I was teaching high school in New York I taught a television analysis and production course and my classroom actually had a TV studio in it and we were able to make short little films and stuff. But then we would do studies of TV shows. That was one that I put on the curriculum as groundbreaking so I'd seen it when I was a kid and then saw it again with those students. So when I was teaching that class it was between 1999 and 2003, which now sounds like forever ago, but it held up then. So I haven't seen it in probably 20 years. But even the kids at that time said oh gosh, because they did a show about gun control, they did a show about abortion. It was really ahead of its time. And then I think Norman Lear also, heidi you would know, was Maude also a Norman Lear show.

Heidi 38:37

Yes, maude,

Jane 38:38

I loved that show.

Heidi 38:38

She talked about abortion. Yeah, yeah, sanford and

Etienne 38:43

Oh Sanford and Sons.

Heidi 38:45

Yeah, One Day at a Time Jefferson's Like just.

Etienne 38:49

Such good yeah, such good shows.

Jane 38:52

Oh my gosh iconic theme songs.

Etienne 38:53

I'm not sure about Archie Bunker being a bad guy, mostly because my dad was like he's great, he wasn't getting the lesson in the episode, so they weren't being passed on to me. I was just like this guy.

Etienne 39:13

Oh god, and what was the one with uh, what's her name? With flow at the diner. Kiss my grits, so what?

Etienne 39:15

was that

Heidi 39:16

mel's diner,

Etienne 39:16

mel's diner, yeah or

Heidi 39:17

alice.

Etienne 39:17

Oh alice,

Heidi 39:18

no, it was called alice. Yeah, because they worked at mel's diner

Etienne 39:21

wasn't that a spinoff of the?

Etienne 39:22

there was a movie. Wasn't there a movie first, and then they turned it into a TV show, I think.

Heidi 39:28

Yeah, I think so

Etienne 39:28

Alice Doesn't Live here Anymore, or something, I don't know.

Heidi 39:30

Something

Etienne 39:31

I might be way wrong.

Heidi 39:31

Yeah, something like that.

Etienne 39:33

That was another favorite,

Heidi 39:33

but yeah.

Heidi 39:34

Flo, Eat my Grits.

Etienne 39:37

Kiss my Grits

Heidi 39:38

oh

Jane 39:38

My yeah.

Jane 39:54

Kiss my Grits,

Various Other Favorite Shows

Heidi 39:55

that's right, oh my gosh.

Heidi 39:57

And dukes of hazard, oh my gosh at all,

Jane 40:00

no

Heidi 40:00

and but loved those duke brothers

Etienne 40:01

and the a-team.

Heidi 40:02

A-team, yeah, yep,

Jane 40:03

um, yes, I did. At first I was like what? I'm like oh, my God they're in the van and Mr T and just like rando, that very, very strange.

Jane 40:13

I wasn't a fan of it.

Etienne 40:14

They were mercenaries, right, weren't they mercenaries,

Heidi 40:16

something?

Heidi 40:17

like that

Etienne 40:18

they were ex-special forces.

Etienne 40:21

They'd be, called in when nobody else could help right.

Etienne 40:23

Wasn't that the whole?

Etienne 40:24

Oh and like Knight Rider and the Equalizer. I loved the Equalizer when I was growing up. I thought that was so cool and, yeah, I totally glossed over Knight Rider but I watched Knight Rider too. Whatever TV I was allowed to watch, I watched. Like if my parents were sitting down to watch a television show and they would let me stay and watch, I would stay and watch. Yeah, I'm pretty sure loveboat fantasy island was a saturday night thing, because I think that was the night I got to stay up a little bit later so I could watch all the fantasy island

Jane 40:57

the golden girls is

Etienne 40:58

oh, golden girl.

Heidi 41:00

Yeah,

Jane 41:00

I love the golden girls. I still do. That's actually what I call my macaroni and cheese TV, like if I don't feel good, you know, that's what I want. I want I just want to see those three women, just you know well, four women really. Sophia counts just hanging out and being silly and just being sarcastic with each other, and I feel like that show for me holds up, and so does I recently, over the past couple of years, was watching episodes of cheers with my daughter and that show still holds up, it is still.

Jane 41:35

She thinks it's hilarious. And then when she realized that sam was played by the same actor from the good place is what she knows ted dancing from, and she's like she's looking, she goes, he looks so familiar. I'm like, oh, that's because he's the guy from the good place, She didn't say anything for like a minute. She was just stunned because she could see it all. I mean, the man is still very handsome and has like a solid jawline, but he plays such a different character and she

Heidi 42:02

has the white hair

Etienne 42:03

and young woody harelson

Etienne 42:05

Oh my god

Heidi 42:06

yeah

Jane 42:07

yeah, with lots of hair. What a dumb, what a dumb character he's playing.

Heidi 42:11

Oh, yeah

Etienne 42:13

but he was so sweet but like innocent sort of like

Heidi 42:16

he's like the original himbo

Etienne 42:19

yeah,

Jane 42:21

educate me

Etienne 42:21

himbo himbo instead of a bimbo.

Jane 42:24

Oh my gosh. I have never heard that term.

Etienne 42:26

You've never heard himbo.

Jane 42:29

I've met some

Heidi 42:30

Male bimbos,

Jane 42:32

oh wow.

Etienne 42:36

I'm thinking back on Ted Danson. He just seemed really tall and beautiful hair, just sexy. imagine him just leaning over a bar talking to you with his voice, like that? Okay, whatever you want Worked for me.

Jane 42:56

Well, and I think, like the relationship mores right that you see portrayed in those shows don't hold up.

Etienne 43:03

The relationship.

Jane 43:04

Yeah, there was a lot of the courtship games being played on some of those shows back then.

Etienne 43:09

Oh, like Moonlighting.

Etienne 43:10

Moonlighting was another favorite show

Heidi 43:12

Moonlighting.

Heidi 43:12

yes,

Etienne 43:13

oh my.

Etienne 43:13

God and Bruce Willis and Sybil Shepherd with their like. Will they get together?

Heidi 43:18

Will they or won't they?

Etienne 43:19

Which is the?

Etienne 43:19

same thing from Cheers the two of them.

Etienne 43:22

And then later on with Kirstie Alley when Shelley Long left. But yeah, I loved Moonlighting. I thought Bruce Willis was so cool. I love how he just like ruffled her feathers all the time.

Jane 43:38

I never watched that show, but I know the premise of it.

Etienne 43:40

I think it's yeah, it was definitely. You can find it somewhere. I was going to start watching it again I don't know if it was Hulu or something like that that it would hit moonlightings on.

Heidi 43:49

Weren't they like PIs or something?

Etienne 43:51

Yeah, she had a detective agency.

Etienne 43:52

But I think the deal was she wasn't getting business because she was a woman Was, I think, the premise of why she hired him to come in and be the face of her detective agency, so that she would actually get some more business. So he didn't really know what the hell he was doing, I think in the beginning, but kept pretending he did and she just got pissed. And she became attracted to him, which I think made her also angry, and like just so much anger,

Heidi 44:19

she's like damn it.

Heidi 44:23

Why do you have to be so sexy?

Etienne 44:23

Oh, and.

Etienne 44:24

Designing Women. Designing Women was a great show.

Heidi 44:27

yeah, they were woke before yeah

Etienne 44:30

yeah

Heidi 44:32

I've seen all kinds of clips of zingers and stuff that they had said back then. That is still relevant today. It's like man that was 40 years ago.

Jane 44:44

Oh my gosh, was it really that long ago?

Heidi 44:45

It?

Heidi 44:46

was the 80s, right?

Etienne 44:48

Yeah, it was definitely the 80s.

Etienne 44:50

I think late 80s, early 90s for designing women maybe.

Heidi 44:54

So almost 40 years.

Etienne 44:56

Yeah, I'm going to look it up real quick.

Jane 44:59

We're getting old.

Etienne 45:01

I'm technically related to Jean Smart who's on that show.

Jane 45:04

Really.

Etienne 45:04

She's on Hacks. She's been winning emmys like crazy, and golden globes I believe, yeah, she's my mother's cousin.

Etienne 45:10

So yeah, 1986 designing women came out

Jane 45:14

wow, okay,

Heidi 45:15

so next show will be four years.

Nostalgia Factor Forgives Cheese

Jane 45:18

I think it's interesting to then go back and see okay, what holds up, what doesn't, and why and what are? What's the venn diagram of? Okay, these are the things that they were talking about, or the themes that they touched on, that are just universal and can transcend and you can watch it and it still holds up.

Jane 45:37

And I was thinking about that, I guess, with cheer, specifically because I could watch something and the nostalgia factor will make me forgive the cheese. But that's not going to make my daughter forgive the cheese, right? So she was watching it and just saying that the acting was just so great, the writing was so great, the quick-witted repartee going back and forth, the slow burn of Sam and Diane all of those things are still good ingredients for good storytelling, no matter what decade that we're looking at, and so I think that that's why it holds up. And if you don't have just good character actors, nobody wants it. You're gonna go back and you look at it and you're like, okay, that's doofy, you know, but but I think that's why norman lear stuff holds up, because it's it was still around families and relationships. But the acting was so great and the writing was really good and you could have like this again witty repartee, you know, among the different characters.

The Twilight Zone's Timeless Stories

Jane 46:36

But then every once in a while they'd have an issue that was still relatable now, where you could do that episode now, but just with different outfits, and everybody would still be like, okay, this is happening now.

Heidi 46:49

Yeah, it's like, it's like Twilight Zone. So many of those episodes totally hold up and still have a moral to teach and are just great.

Etienne 47:00

I always think about the one with the guy who wanted everybody in the world to just be quiet and go away so he could read and then he breaks his glasses his reading glasses and yeah, that's like the episode that always pops in my head every time somebody talks about the Twilight Zone.

Heidi 47:14

Yeah, time Enough, at Last.

Etienne 47:17

Oh, wow,

Heidi 47:17

that's the title of it Time Enough.

Heidi 47:20

at Last it

Etienne 47:21

pulls out the title.

Heidi 47:24

Oh, I used to have the Twilight Zone companion book.

Heidi 47:28

I was obsessed when I was a kid.

Etienne 47:30

So wait, what's your favorite Twilight Zone episode then?

Heidi 47:37

I think it's called Nightcaller. It's where this lady keeps getting phone calls

Etienne 47:43

oh, you're giving me chills.

Heidi 47:44

She thinks they're prank phone calls. and eventually they discover during the storm the line went into her husband's grave and it was her husband trying to reach out from the grave. So when she figures out it's her husband, she goes home and she's like Norman, Norman, are you there? And he was like you told me to go away. And then goes away and she's like no, come back. It's so tragic,

Etienne 48:12

oh god.

Heidi 48:12

I just remember breaking my little seven-year-old heart or whatever, because she missed him so much and she had no idea it was him.

Etienne 48:23

That's good.

Jane 48:25

Yeah, I want to see that now.

Jane 48:27

See, yeah, good stories, just tell good stories.

Heidi 48:31

And then the one with Agnes Moorhead, who played the mother in Bewitched.

Jane 48:38

Oh my God, I knew that.

Etienne 48:42

You knew.

Etienne 48:42

That Is that what you?

Etienne 48:43

said Jane, Was she also in the Ghost in Mrs Mirror? I could pull out some old titles for you guys.

Heidi 48:50

So this was called the Visitors, I think, or something like that. But the whole thing is this woman's being terrorized by it. Looks like Martians. Well, at the end you find out the Martians are astronauts.

Etienne 49:05

Really.

Heidi 49:06

So they're US astronauts, they've landed on this planet of giants and so we've been watching this whole thing the whole time, thinking she's the human but she's actually the alien. So it's just kind of a cool flip on perspective, you know, because it kind of makes you think, oh, I was feeling for her because she's being attacked by what we think are like little martians and it's like, oh, we're the martians, oh, so she's the alien, okay, yeah, it's kind of a cool flip plot twist, I should say so yeah that's another one of my favorites, and it's it's nearly completely silent.

Heidi 49:50

It's all silent

Etienne 49:51

oh, wow

Heidi 49:51

just yeah, she's having to do some great acting because there's like no dialogue. So I highly recommend it's a great episode

Etienne 50:03

I, I'm pretty sure my ex-boss.

Jane 50:04

Kudos on your avant-garde sensibilities as a kid there, Heidi.

Etienne 50:08

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Twilight Zone was my ex-boss's, my boss from Los Angeles, who is still my friend. I think that was one of his favorite shows. Too was Twilight Zone Pretty sure.

Heidi 50:22

My sister found my old companion book and it was just like tattered and just curled up because I'd written in it and highlighted stuff, because I every time I would watch one, I'd like cross it out because there was, like I think, 100, more than 100 episodes total over like five or six seasons. So, yeah, it took a while because they just show once, right, yeah, like syndication. They were just. If you didn't catch it on a saturday night you'd have to wait till it went into rotation again.

Heidi 50:54

So it took me a few years to get that book

Etienne 50:57

do you have dvds of the twilight zone or like own it?

Heidi 51:00

yes, I have dvds, I have blu-rays, and then they're available for streaming too now. But yeah, I've got a physical copy.

Jane 51:10

That is commitment.

Etienne 51:12

You'll have to bring them with you next time. Well, obviously you'll have them with you if we come to see you or if you come to see us bring them with you.

Etienne 51:20

We can watch the episode that you were talking about That'd be so cool.

Heidi 51:22

Yes, oh yeah, I will totally share that with you.

Etienne 51:28

You know, when you have the other perspective in the room, it actually makes you look at it differently. Have you noticed that, jane?

Jane 51:34

Oh, yeah,

Etienne 51:34

yeah, I almost cringe a little bit when I'm watching it with somebody who I know like they might not take it the same way that I would because I was there at, but then you automatically are like ooh, ouch, ew, ew, please don't say that. I know it's about to happen.

Jane 51:49

Yes, we had a similar visceral reaction recently, when you're thinking if something's going to hold up years later, where we watched Airplane with her Still hilarious, still hilarious. But there are some jokes that don't hold up as well, and so we actually had to kind of say, listen, it was the 80s, people didn't care, people were politically correct. What brendan and I both forgot about was like the just gratuitous nudity that would happen in 80s movies like for no reason,

Etienne 52:28

like a lot of boobs for no reason

Jane 52:29

just random just titties on the screen just jump.

Jane 52:34

But and it was the woman was jumping around like so they're just like bouncing and they take up the entire screen. Okay, my husband and I are hysterical and our daughter is horrified and that is. It was just such an epitome of like Gen X and Gen Z responding completely differently to the same stimulus. It was really funny to us, Like we had to try to. She's looking at us like you're terrible people and she was like she. Just all she could say was why? Over and over again

Etienne 53:13

why is she naked?

Etienne 53:15

why? Yes why is she jumping around?

Jane 53:21

yes, exactly

Heidi 53:24

is happening? This isn't normal.

Jane 53:27

And it's not, and there were just so many and it just reminded us of every moment, from like Porky's and Revenge of the Nerds, and just like all of these

Heidi 53:35

Benny Hill,

Jane 53:37

oh Lord.

Etienne 53:37

I assume, yes.

Heidi 53:39

Yes, yes All of those comedies had the gratuitous boob shots. Bachelor Party Night Shift yeah.

Etienne 53:51

osom Buddies

Heidi 53:52

yeah so many gratuitous boobs.

Etienne 53:55

Yeah

Jane 53:57

Boobs are great. So I didn't really, and maybe that makes me, whatever I'm less woke. I thought it was funny too, because it was so random and we were awesome. Maybe like a little bit uncomfortable.

Etienne 54:10

Yes, you had to laugh. You're like dude. I'm going to laugh because this is so embarrassing for us.

Heidi 54:14

Yeah.

Jane 54:16

To be honest, I wasn't embarrassed at all. I really did think it was funny.

Jane 54:34

And then, I think, the fact that my daughter was mortified to find, made it funnier to me.

Jane 54:36

Does that make me terrible?

Etienne 54:36

No, I think that. No, I would probably laugh harder.

Heidi 54:38

Yeah, why, why, why

Jane 54:38

, yeah. And so we? We actually paused it because we know, on the boobs. Did you pause on the boobs? No, you know what? I should ask brendan, because he was in charge of the remote. It might have been paused with it. Uh, you know who will remember is my daughter will remember. She's probably scarred. The boobs were just there. Oh my gosh, I feel like there was a period of my stepbrother's life where I walked in on him a lot with, like, boobs just paused at the VCR.

Heidi 55:05

Yeah

Jane 55:06

A lot of boobs, but anyway,

Etienne 55:08

oh, my God.

Etienne 55:08

Well, I mean there's a few.

Thoughts on Nudity in General

Heidi 55:09

Yeah, that was his porn.

Etienne 55:10

I'm sure you guys have probably been to France Topless Beach. I've been to Cannes. I walked around with my top off on the beach there because every other woman was. I would have looked weird if I was wearing a top. You know, we're just a little bit more, or at least we were a little bit more reserved America than the other countries, you know. Or Germany. Also, I went to a nude beach there, took all my clothes off, you know. But yeah, we're just, at least we were more prudish than other places. I always thought Europeans were way more, you know, okay, with the nudity versus. Well, like, doesn't England used to have the newspaper, the daily newspaper, with there was a girl on the back with boobs out? Yes, yeah

Jane 55:52

bring it back, bring gratuitous boobs

Etienne 55:54

boobs, not saying I should I just like

Jane 56:00

no, I'm

Etienne 56:00

different time

Jane 56:02

different it was a different time but it was fun and I'm glad that in my latchkey days I had charlie's angels and little house in the prairie and some other things to keep me company and they are always going to have a soft spot in my heart, and the ones that you could watch today and not cringe are the ones with the good storytelling yes so revisit those.

Heidi 56:24

Yeah, and that's our show you've been listening to the women are plotting. If you have a story you'd like to share or have any comments, we'd love to hear from you. Email us at info@ the women are plotting. com, and, of course, you can find us on all the socials. Thanks and until next time. Be safe and be excellent to each other. Thank you.