Time Capsule 1975: HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY!

Kristin Nilsen 0:00

In the number nine spot is laughter in the rain by Neil sadaka. And I'm sorry, but I did not appreciate this song enough when I was a kid.

Carolyn Cochrane 0:08

Well, Carol did. Was so happy,

Michelle Newman 0:18

right? This list is bonkers, you guys. I know this. It's Hi this list is from 1975 this list has been smoking some weed.

Speaker 1 0:30

Hello World. Is a song that we're singing. We'll make

Kristin Nilsen 0:40

is what we'll be bringing we'll make you happy. Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who advertised their mood on their ring finger.

Michelle Newman 0:55

We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images, and if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear, like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:08

And today, we're saving many of the things celebrating their 50th birthday this year, the pop culture nuggets of 1975 I'm Carolyn,

Michelle Newman 1:18

I'm Kristin, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists. You

Michelle Newman 1:44

October, the year was 1975 Saturday mornings meant Scooby Doo and Schoolhouse Rock. Saturday nights meant the brand new Saturday Night Live. And every night meant arguing over who had to get up to change the channel on the family's one TV, although everybody was just watching ABC. So I think that might have made things a lot easier in 1975 honestly, like every hit show was on ABC,

Kristin Nilsen 2:10

and they always won battle in network stars too. That's

Michelle Newman 2:12

right, they did. We, Gen Xers were playing with our Evil Knievel stunt cycles, clutching our pet rocks like they were real pets, and begging for Land of the Lost lunch boxes to show off in the school cafeteria, or for Carolyn and Kristen, they're Apple's way lunchbox, which

Kristin Nilsen 2:33

nobody knows but us and one other person.

Michelle Newman 2:35

Right right jaws. Jaws made us afraid to go in the water, and every basement in America echoed with the sound of Pong. Can't you guys still hear it? Oh yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 2:52

that's gonna go on our sound museum.

Michelle Newman 2:57

We drank Slurpees and rode around town on our banana seat bikes until the street lights came on and the three of us were living in it, living in the gloriousness of it all. To return to that 1975 simpleness, you guys. Yeah, I was five turning six. Kristin was six turning seven, and Carolyn was nine, turning 10. And today we are older and we're I'm not gonna say no, we're gonna have a big 50th birthday party for the pop culture nuggets of 1975

Michelle Newman 3:35

do you guys feel, though, like 1975 just like, I don't know. I can almost see, like the font, like it's written in a groovy font. Oh yeah. I know we've talked about, we've had a whole episode devoted to 1976 and we've talked about all the amazing things that happened in 76 but for some reason, for me, just 1975 I don't even think it's because it falls right in the middle of the 70s. But to me, that's the epitome of the 70s

Kristin Nilsen 3:59

well, and it was, if you think about it from like a numerical standpoint, we're bridging the gap between the early 70s and the late 70s. So it's like bridging the gap between hippies and disco

Michelle Newman 4:11

well, but that's actually a really good point, because that decade is wildly different from the early 70s to the late 70s, so much changed in everything, all kinds of pop culture, from movies and music to toys and and what we were doing, basically in politics too,

Kristin Nilsen 4:31

and we were, this is a pivotal word, a pivotal, pivotal year for me, because this is the 50th anniversary of me moving to Minnesota. I transitioned from a Californian to a Minnesotan in 1975 I moved from a small rural town to a city. And when you change regions like that, you change cultures. And so there are a lot of cultural moments that I remember really well, everything. All of my memories are sharp. Harper, because there was so much drama in my life. In 1975 I made this huge change. It was like I moved to a different planet.

Carolyn Cochrane 5:07

Yeah, yes. And you refer to that time so often, all the time, the episode. So I can only imagine just how clear that's good. Clear is about how clear 1975 is in your mind and all the emotions that went along with things as well. And it

Kristin Nilsen 5:23

was almost like, you know how you they say that you remember songs from your coming of age. So you remember everything from when you're 14, because you're coming of age. But when you make that kind of a change, that's a form of coming of age. So I have all of those moments I are so clear I can all the songs I know, all the songs I know, all the shows. It's like I was a grown up. That's how this is such a coming of age for

Michelle Newman 5:47

me. Well, you have, like, a motion. You were six, turning seven. Yeah, I was gonna say seven. She might have, well have been 38 pretty much 39 I was pretty much

Carolyn Cochrane 5:59

curious, though, because I'm trying, did you want to move? Was there like a sadness in the move like I had when I was in middle school? Or were you just like, it's, I'm moving? It

Kristin Nilsen 6:10

was it's different, because when you're when you're young, you can come in and out of emotion very a lot more easily than when you're a teen or a preteen. And so I was a I had a little bit of trepidation. I was a little bit nervous, and the moment of leaving was very sad, like the literal getting in the car and saying goodbye to the neighbors and driving away. That was sad, but everything else from it was new and exciting, and I am nothing if not excited by novelty. And my mom had done a really great job of selling this move to us too. It was her job to make us excited about and she did a great job. And she led with Mary Tyler Moore. So that was I knew where I was going. It was going. I was very familiar, because I see it

Michelle Newman 6:51

on TV. Well, you know she's like, yes, six years

Kristin Nilsen 6:57

to be married, I'm gonna get a job. It's gonna be great,

Carolyn Cochrane 7:03

like a little briefcase, just marching beat as she's six years with carrying her Agatha Christie around or whatever. Yeah, I can't so I

Michelle Newman 7:13

was five, turning six, and we moved from Texas to Arizona. It wasn't my first move. It was my first move out of state, but it certainly wasn't. We had moved around Texas a lot, but so that's I started kindergarten in 1975 in Mesa, Arizona. But I fashion wise, I probably I looked like a little business woman too, because I always wore the blouses with a big bow on my neck. Kindergarten. You did

Kristin Nilsen 7:37

that's really early.

Michelle Newman 7:39

I did. Yes, I did. I was

Kristin Nilsen 7:41

crawlers at that point. I think,

Carolyn Cochrane 7:43

okay, yeah, well, 1975 as you said, Michelle, was the year that I turned 10. And I have this distinct memory. It's so crazy how I have it. And I can tell you, I was at my friend Chrissy Williams house. It had to be maybe right before school was starting. My birthday is in September, we were on sitting on the floor in her living room watching Ryan's Hope the soap opera. Yes, well,

Kristin Nilsen 8:10

we would have just started, I think, I think Ryan's Hope had just

Carolyn Cochrane 8:13

begun, and it was only 30 minutes. So I kind of felt like, Oh, this is one we can watch, because all the other soap operas at that time, I think we're an hour long. So this one, I felt like it was right before all my children. Yeah, was made for kids. I don't know what I thought, but I remember having this kind of epiphany that in this moment, I was thinking, I'm gonna have two numbers in my age, like when they go from nine to 10. This is huge. And this like feeling just kind of overcame me about being this two digit age now, and I remember just what was on TV when I just had this kind of realization that I wasn't going to be a kid anymore. I was going to have one in a

Kristin Nilsen 8:55

form. It's a form of a

Michelle Newman 8:57

teenager. Yes, it's brains are so weird. I know that's what you remember. Like, think about it like, I think about so many milestones that my kids even will say, remember when we did this? And I'm like, No, but you're remembering like that feeling. And I can remember, like, something I said in kindergarten to a little boy one time, like one day, like just a random day, but I remember where I was. I remember the words that came out of my mouth, I remember my brains are weird. Well, this month's print issue of remind magazine celebrates 1975 so we thought we'd kind of take their issue to the air and talk about some of these things that we loved and watched and played with, hated, talked about, etc. I'm going to show you, if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see this month's issue, and we have things like a whole article about, welcome back Cotter. But then it was really fun. This was the inspiration for this episode, because there's like, a time capsule, right? And it has everything from, like, movies and music and and all the things. It just they all bring back so many great memories that we thought we hoped that they would do the same for all of you listening. So this should be really fun, and even if you weren't born, I want to say another thing. If you're a Gen X or listening to this, and you were born in 1975 or you were a baby, or you weren't born yet, you're still going to love this, because every single thing we're talking about kept going, right? Yeah, you must have memories of these things from the late 70s the early 80s, and you might go no way that was from 1975 also, it's always just good to have this kind of trivia under your

Carolyn Cochrane 10:32

belt. All right, you guys, we are going to start with a list of the TV premieres that happened in 1975 so buckle up, because who knew this goodness all came in one fell swoop in 1975 we've got the Jefferson I'm

Kristin Nilsen 11:11

not going to tell you where it appeared in our countdown of the greatest TV theme songs of all time. Let's just say it was high. It was very, very high, and I am all there for it. And I may have, I may have ranked it as my personal number one, because it just got you up and stamping. It sure did. It

Michelle Newman 11:27

sure did. Like a church, like one of those southern churches, yeah, like, we want to clap, and yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 11:33

And then can you see him, like, walking in, like this, Sherman Helms, he's doing this with his arms. Of course,

Carolyn Cochrane 11:39

that goofy, tall neighbor, Mr. Bentley, yeah, Mr. Bentley, oh my gosh, yes. And, you know, or the

Michelle Newman 11:45

painter, the number painter in Sesame

Kristin Nilsen 11:47

Street, yeah, that's the same guy. The number Painter is Mr.

Carolyn Cochrane 11:51

Bentley. We have coming up next Barney Miller, which I did not watch. I have to say, I remember

Kristin Nilsen 11:56

it. I was in and out. It wasn't one of my favorites. But again, theme song.

Carolyn Cochrane 12:02

What's the theme song? I hated

Michelle Newman 12:14

it anytime it was on, I was like, No, it's just all these Angry Men I felt like and it probably wasn't, but in my mind anytime it was and they were old, in their late 30s,

Carolyn Cochrane 12:27

there were any women, and they were so grumpy, like a pagoda. Gosh, his name Abe, it's even sounds mean, just grumpy. Alrighty. So we're gonna move on from Barney Miller to space 1999 and I'm just holding my hands up, going, what is that? I don't remember that. Ever heard of that Ivan, either. So we'll move on from that and go right to welcome back. COTTER theme song

Carolyn Cochrane 13:01

again. Place the Yeah. John Sebastian, do we even need to Yes? Yes, yes. I mean,

Kristin Nilsen 13:09

when look at it in three shows from 1975 which is just one random year, and it's just, it's not even the three biggest shows. It's just three shows that started and we have three banger theme songs that we remember 50 years later. I just wonder, what theme songs from today will people be singing in 50 years?

Carolyn Cochrane 13:28

Alrighty, then Good Morning America. And early on, just because we've talked about how much we loved ABC, that was my go to show, morning show up until probably I graduated from high or college, and then I was all about Katie Couric and the Today Show, my tiny is exactly the same as you the morning was. It was David Hartman and

Kristin Nilsen 13:50

Sandy Cahill. Yes, they were so

Carolyn Cochrane 13:54

sweet. And what's her name? Now I can't even think our blonde friend, Holly. No, no,

Michelle Newman 14:00

no, Diane. Diane, but I know

Kristin Nilsen 14:03

who you're talking about. Who?

Unknown Speaker 14:06

Yeah. Joan London, yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 14:09

Sorry. They're screaming at us again, our listeners. I had

Kristin Nilsen 14:12

no idea that this started in 1975 I thought it had always just been there, and so my memory of it started in 1975 now I know that's not a coincidence. And so we moved to this new place, and as soon as we moved, the first thing that we bought was this tiny, little Panasonic TV, 13 inch, black and white little bubble TV. And it would sit on our kitchen counter. And in the morning we would watch David Hartman and Sandy Cahill on Good Morning America before going to school. Yes, so

Carolyn Cochrane 14:41

it's, there's a lot wrapped up in some of these pop culture nuggets that we're going to talk about. Beyond just it was entertaining. It was, there was other stuff going on in our lives at these moments that live in us and so, yeah. So you probably hear the theme song from Good Morning America, or hear David Hartman's voice, and you're in can. Garden again, or whatever,

Kristin Nilsen 15:01

those random things that we remember like you said, Michelle at the top, like you remember a random thing that you said to some kid, and that kid probably didn't remember it the next day, I distinctly remember seeing Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr, Billy Davis Jr, no, Billy Preston. JR, Billy. It's Billy Davis. Yes, I

Carolyn Cochrane 15:24

promise I don't know he's not. Oh, my God, because Billy Davis Jr was shorter.

Carolyn Cochrane 15:41

I love that song, yeah, that's such

Michelle Newman 15:43

a great song. Yeah, I think it was one of your top picks. Did we do a 1975 or six or something? And Carolyn, you love that? Yeah? I remember,

Kristin Nilsen 15:51

yeah, you don't have to be a star baby.

Carolyn Cochrane 15:53

And I'm sure I talked about their height difference still sticks with me. I know I can't tell you why, because I'm tall, and I was super tall in terms of, you know, the difference between boys and girls, and I was always the tallest in my class. And I always would think, well, am I ever going to get married her husband just because Marilyn McCue does? It's just not right. Okay, now we have one of our favorites for sure, although I don't know if this was ABC, maybe it was, but this was Linda Carter as

Unknown Speaker 16:32

all the world is waiting for You and the power you possess in your satin tights,

Carolyn Cochrane 16:54

fighting for your rights. Remember how we talked about that, how they tell the story of the backstory that kind of helps you understand the whole show. Like

Kristin Nilsen 17:04

that was the purpose of the theme song. It was setting up the premise for you, yes,

Michelle Newman 17:07

yes. And it's also just because, like we talked about in our theme songs episodes, and I think we've had two of those 70s theme songs and 80s theme songs, but that they just don't make them like they did in the 70s and even in the early 80s. I mean, even the instrumentals were pop hits were radio hits, right? But especially the the ones with lyrics, they were just so great. Yeah, Linda

Kristin Nilsen 17:29

Carter has quite the presence on social media nowadays. She's fierce. She's very fierce. She's a fun follow.

Carolyn Cochrane 17:35

She is and so is Lindsay Wagner. And I want to have, I'm manifesting our like power woman episode where we have both of them on single women didn't need a guy, you know, Steve major, or whatever, Steve Austin, he was always still after her. And, yeah, but they she was like, I don't need a guy, yeah. And so, I think those were some of the people that, like, you can be strong. You can jump over buildings and hear people from miles away with no, yeah. Anyway, you know

Michelle Newman 18:07

what? Though, it's just basically they kicked ass. And I feel like in the 70s, the way they had to show women kicking ass was to give them a superhero cape, ionic ear, which is kind of a shame, but there is a show coming up that's true, and there's another show coming up that was a sitcom about with a single woman, oh yeah, that's true. She kicked ass, just with her attitude and everything. So I guess, just think about it, it was all over,

Carolyn Cochrane 18:34

yeah, and I don't know that our moms had any shows where a female character was kicking ass. I mean, obviously, wouldn't have called it that back then. But I

Kristin Nilsen 18:43

think the closest we would get, and I wouldn't call this kicking ass, because she was still a sidekick, was my mom was really into Dale Evans, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans,

Carolyn Cochrane 18:54

a real person.

Kristin Nilsen 18:59

Rogers and Dale Evans,

Carolyn Cochrane 19:02

she is Dale. Evans, yes, she is. Her name is Linda Smith,

Kristin Nilsen 19:06

I don't think she's actually a cowgirl. Oh yeah, lives in Beverly Hills.

Carolyn Cochrane 19:11

I know what, whatever. Okay,

Kristin Nilsen 19:15

let us know, but I think satisfies

Michelle Newman 19:19

it. No, okay,

Carolyn Cochrane 19:21

all righty, well, the next one, one of my favorites, it doesn't have any women in it really, but they need to, because it was Starsky and Hutch

Michelle Newman 19:30

Carolyn, I will never forget her telling us one time that she had Starsky and Hutch knee socks, knee socks. And that's just stuck with me, because I love that factoid about 10 year old Carolyn. So much.

Carolyn Cochrane 19:43

Yeah, I love it too. And I again, because I was tall, probably to be knee socks, I had to really pull them up. And so their faces were like, look like Starsky and

Michelle Newman 19:57

fun house mirror of your calf. Was

Kristin Nilsen 20:01

not the stuff you think about. This is the reality of life people, if you have

Carolyn Cochrane 20:05

taught but at the same time, those were shorts. So really, I was the only one who saw them. Yeah, some people actually, because, oh, my pants were kind of high waters. Remember, everyone make

Michelle Newman 20:17

fun of me, colonial shoes. Yeah?

Carolyn Cochrane 20:22

75 I kind of graduated, I think, from the those shoes. I think my mom maybe fourth grade, my orthopedic, yeah, giant orthopedics, okay, Saturday Night Live everybody. We are well aware of that. We've been living at this last year, as we celebrated their anniversary, they've

Michelle Newman 20:42

been celebrating the 50th, though, I think for three years, like it seems like it started. And did you guys know that the actual date of the premiere was in, like, October. It was in the fall of 75 they started these celebrations, like a year and a half ago. It's just like the anniversary that never ends, because, you know, there'll be a big deal about it this fall again, right? You know, what's weird is that there's no way I would have been watching it in the first season. You would think, or the second, or the third or the fourth. However, I have, I have memories of that cast, and I don't know, is it because at some point I was able to stay up and watch it? Is it? Because, because they, I can't imagine they did them in reruns. I don't know

Kristin Nilsen 21:26

how does that work? Because we know those sketches. We definitely knew those people. I knew. We

Michelle Newman 21:31

knew Roseanne, Roseanne, Dana. We knew the Weekend Update. We knew, you know candy Graham. We know all the classics. And there

Kristin Nilsen 21:40

are certainly things that would have come out in celebrations. In like reunion episodes, but we knew them at the time too. We knew about

Michelle Newman 21:49

at the time they were a part

Carolyn Cochrane 21:50

of pop culture again. Yeah, we didn't have, as we've talked about so many times as many options. And so a Saturday night at what, you know, 1030 or 1130 or whatever. It was easy to go to work on Monday and say, Did you see it? And everybody kind of saw it. And so those were all things that you could go to school or and just say, you know the candy gram, or Roseanne, Roseanne. And we could all, everybody knew what you were talking about. Which, yeah, we don't have that again as much. You have to seek out those people that would know those things. All right, perhaps one of my all time favorite shows, hands down, love it. Wanted to be in it. Wanted to be in their family. Wanted that apartment. This is one day at a time. Everybody

Unknown Speaker 22:44

I am such

Michelle Newman 22:59

a great theme song.

Kristin Nilsen 23:02

Such a great theme songs. It might be.

Carolyn Cochrane 23:08

It was a great theme song, a great plot line. And I do remember well, this is probably reading now about what it meant back then. But having a single mother like again, a strong female that didn't need a guy, because, remember, I forget his name. Was it David? I think it was David. Like, that was always pining after Bonnie Franklin, and, you know, it was kind of her boyfriend, but he wanted to get married and stuff. And she was like, No, you know, kind of, I'm good, and we respect, I mean, that's like, how we grew up, saying that's an option where our moms might not have thought

Kristin Nilsen 23:44

that they were definitely not shown that option. If they were shown that yeah, they were shown one, one path. There's just one path. You get married, you have babies, that's all, yeah, end of story. Or if, if you have no options, then maybe you could go to secretarial school, or you could be a nurse. By 1975

Michelle Newman 24:01

my mom had already been divorced and probably gotten together, broken up and gotten back together with my stepfather. I was living a different life one day at a time. To me, was just like, yeah, that's like, home.

Kristin Nilsen 24:12

It's another day in the life of Michelle. And

Carolyn Cochrane 24:16

I think this might have come on right after one day at a time or in the same night. I'm not sure, but this will be Phyllis everybody. Phyllis got her spin

Kristin Nilsen 24:23

off big fans. We were big in San Francisco. She was in San Francisco, and her curly updo was exchanged for like a sleek Bob, which was a little confusing. And little Bess was growing up. I loved it. And

Carolyn Cochrane 24:37

for me, there was the switch, because I never really liked her on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I always thought she was kind of mean, and when she got her own show, I was a little bit hmm, but they kind of changed her character. I think they made her much more palpable, at least for me. But at first I was like, Why is she getting her own show? Like nobody liked.

Kristin Nilsen 25:00

Her well, Rhoda got her own show. So Phyllis, Rhoda,

Carolyn Cochrane 25:04

I didn't think Phyllis had earned her own show. I didn't think she deserved it. Didn't

Kristin Nilsen 25:08

last very long, so you might be right. I know, but we loved it in the Nilsen household, we loved it. So here's my sweet spot. You guys, what was playing on the radio in 1975 what were the biggest billboard hits in 1975 I could have, this could be the whole episode for me, as you know, so I'll try and keep, I'll try and keep it to a minimum. What a year? Yeah, agreed. So we're going to be bringing, I know it's traditional to bring you like the top 10 hits of the of 1975 but we're bringing you the top 12 because the last 211 and 12 are really important songs, and we want to talk about it. So in the number 12 spot is Jive Talking by the bee.

Kristin Nilsen 26:02

Gees and this comes from the Bee Gees quasi comeback album called main course, which was their precursor to Saturday Night Fever. And in my opinion, it's the best Bee Gees album, like I might even take that one over Saturday Night

Carolyn Cochrane 26:16

Fever. Really, that's a hot take it for me.

Michelle Newman 26:19

For me, Jive Talking is the quintessential roller skating rink song. Yes, we and this, this is checking out, right? I don't think I was going to roller skating parties in kindergarten, but I probably did in first and second grade, when you know the song is still great. And also, this makes so much sense. 1975 it's disco is just, you know, there, it's really, really starting to take off. And so just jab time might be one of my favorite BG songs. I love it so

Kristin Nilsen 26:50

much. It's really, really good.

Michelle Newman 26:52

Thank you for keeping 12 songs. And then Christine, we need to

Kristin Nilsen 26:55

do the top 12. I mean, it seems like random that they do top 10. Why haven't they been doing top 12 the whole time. You guys may know, people may have heard this before, and I think we've talked about this before, that, that whole and the way that it begins, the Doom dig, a dig, a digging. I can't do it, but you know what I'm talking about. Yeah, comes from the bee. Gees lived on this little spit of land in Miami where they had to cross a bridge. I don't think it's ocean. It's canal. I don't know. You got to cross some water to get over to the place where the Bee Gees lived. And as they're as they're crossing the bridge, the sound of their tires going over these bridge pieces is going and then they go straight to the studio and record Jive Talking. Okay, so yay. Jive Talking. Okay. In the number 11 spot, you guys could be there's nothing further away from Jive Talking than this song right now. The furthest away you can get from Jive Talking in the number 11 spot is, thank God I'm a country boy by John Denver,

Michelle Newman 27:56

the most clapable song. I think I know we'll laugh on the farm.

Speaker 2 28:02

Ain't much. An old country boy like me can't hack it's early to rise early in the sack. Thank God I'm a country boy. Will a simple kind of life never did me no harm, or raising me a family and working on the farm, my days are all filled with an easy,

Michelle Newman 28:16

you know, like just, you gotta clap when you hear that. I did a

Kristin Nilsen 28:19

tap dance to that. Oh, you did. I can see that we did. Yeah, I did a tap dance and I wore turquoise overalls. Everybody got a different color of overalls. I was really lucky to get to get turquoise. And I just think that this song is so you can't really classify it. It was so unlike anything that was on the radio, or had been, ever been on the radio. I wouldn't even call it country music. It was almost a novelty song.

Michelle Newman 28:46

It was, but, yeah, but, I mean, wow, there's some real country sound in it. If you think

Kristin Nilsen 28:50

about closer to country than disco, for sure, so much.

Carolyn Cochrane 28:52

Well this, these were the years we've talked about, I think before this kind of crossover, when we're getting Olivia Newton John, who was kind of a country singer first, but she's kind of coming over, and we've got, we'll talk about later, another star that is, you think of this country, but he's got a top song on here, and Kenny Rogers, I mean, we're getting, starting to get that mainstream ish kind of country, and it's

Kristin Nilsen 29:17

not country rock cross. That's not what it is at all. It's more. It's more a country that is becoming popish, that is appealing to a pop audience, and we are all here for it. In the numbers 10 spot is one of these nights by the Eagles snore, boring, unless you guys have anything it's about

Michelle Newman 29:35

that now you hear it on like you hear it like in a grocery store now, or you hear it in the elevator.

Kristin Nilsen 29:40

Yeah, sorry. Eagles, nothing wrong with that song. I like it in the number nine spot is laughter in the rain by Neil sadaka, and I'm sorry, but I did not appreciate this song enough when I was a kid.

Carolyn Cochrane 29:52

Well, Carol did. Was so happy.

Michelle Newman 30:00

No hand with the one, right? This list is bonkers, you guys. I know it is. It's high. This list is from 1975 this list is smoking some weed. It is all over the place.

Kristin Nilsen 30:14

Laughter in the rain is such a happiness song. This belongs on your feel good playlist. This was a comeback song for Neil Sedaka. He had not had a hit since 1963 with Breaking up is hard to do and and I didn't really understand. I mean, I knew that he was like an old, weird looking guy when I would see him on TV, like if he was on Merv Griffin, or something 1975 right? But this song, the lyrics are so good laughter. I'm not gonna sing song whatever, walking hand in hand. I love a rainy day and the happiness. It's just such a happy, happy song. I feel so good for him. Fame. Okay. Now, in the number eight song was fame by David Bowie, which, as we know, is written by John Lennon. And so when you know that that it's written by John Lennon, then when you listen to the words and they're talking about how messed up fame is, you're like, oh, because that's a Beatle, yeah, I get that in the number seven spot. This surprised me. This really, really surprised me. I didn't think of this as a top 10 hit. I thought of this as more of like an R and B gem. Shining star by say, By September, shining star by Earth, Wind and Fire, which will forever be immortalized as the song that Elaine does, the Elaine dance to. That's

Michelle Newman 31:38

right. Oh, that's right, it

Kristin Nilsen 31:41

will never go away because of the Elaine dance. Remember when that that opening comes and then she walks out like, come on, you guys, come on. Yeah, which

Carolyn Cochrane 31:51

says something about the song, don't you think too is like they chose a song that everybody's gonna kind of know. I mean, it's not popular now, but people are gonna remember, Yep, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 32:02

you're right that they had, I want to be at that meeting. The Seinfeld writers are going, What song should it be? That was a whole day of meetings. They had to figure out what song it should be. Oh, and they chose Shirley, star by Earth, Wind and Fire in the number six spot, the sixth, biggest sixth, the biggest song of 1975 was some kind of wonderful by Grand Funk Railroad, I would have told you the song came out 1967 nobody's saying anything. So that was mean, we don't like this song, okay? And number five spot is my eyes adored you. By Frankie

Michelle Newman 32:37

Valley. You know, Carolyn

Carolyn Cochrane 32:40

happy? Oh,

Michelle Newman 32:41

Harold was happy. I was happy too. Because, you know, happy days premiered only a year before, I mean, in 1974 so we've talked about this before, probably on our happy days, one of our Happy Days episodes, but you know, everybody was really latching on to this whole 50s, this whole throwback to the 50s, and this song, and the next song that you're going to talk about. Both of these have a very 50s vibe to them, and they and to be the four and the, you know, fourth and the fifth biggest songs of the year, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 33:10

And the number four spot, which is very, very high, very 1975 is before the next teardrop falls by Freddie fender, yeah.

Speaker 1 33:21

If the tear drop ever starts, I'll be there before the next teardrop fall.

Kristin Nilsen 33:33

You guys. Carolyn just sang every bloody word of that song, and I've never heard it in my whole entire life. I've never heard that song. I had to do this happy

Michelle Newman 33:42

very often. I had to look it up, and I didn't recognize it until we got to the he'll be there before the next teardrop falls. And again, I go back to to spending time with my dad. So I bet my dad I listened to the song with my dad.

Kristin Nilsen 33:56

Yep, and you're both in Texas and you're in Arizona, right? So that you probably have more country radio, or country maybe infiltrates your rock.

Michelle Newman 34:06

It's not country, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 34:08

yeah, that's country. Oh, you think

Michelle Newman 34:12

okay, cuz I was listening this morning, and it was very, it was very throwback. There's a

Carolyn Cochrane 34:18

kind of music called Tejano in Texas. I don't know if he's from Texas or if that would be considered Tejano

Kristin Nilsen 34:29

that song, but I do the here's the only way that I know Freddie fender, because he has a funny name, and because there was an infomercial with Freddy Fender's Greatest Hits. And we thought that infomercial was the funniest thing we had ever seen. It was a person we had never heard of before. We didn't know any of the songs, and he looked he had a little Gabe Kaplan look to Him, yeah. And who's this dude? Who is this Freddie fender? And we like, we would turn it on, we'd get up and we'd like, sing along to it without knowing any of the songs. I'm assuming that song must

Michelle Newman 34:59

have been if it's. Country, if it's country, it's very 50s country, because it's very, like, Patsy Klein ish, because, like, I love it, yeah, because I started listening to Freddie fender, the best of Freddie fender on Spotify this morning, and I was like, Oh, I'm kind of loving the throwback, this throwback sound, and it's very 50s sounding. This basically puts it in a nutshell, combining elements of 1950s rock, Tejano, Louisiana, swamp pop and country music in his exuberant style, Vander paved the way for Latin American performers.

Kristin Nilsen 35:32

Okay, what's next? In the number three spot is Philadelphia freedom by Elton John, which I think was the follow up to Yellow Brick Road. Goodbye, yellow brick road. If I'm not mistaken, that's a banger, the number two song. This is another one to put on your feel good playlist, Rhinestone Cowboy by Glen Campbell. This is one that I'll put on today if I'm just feeling a little sad force and just like a laughter in the rain, my love of Glen Campbell has grown so much as an adult. I didn't appreciate him as much when I was a child.

Carolyn Cochrane 36:05

No, yeah, I didn't either, but my parents loved him, and we had an album, and it was just like his face on it, and that had, I think I have it, yeah, yeah, your dad might could just see your dad really liking a Glen Campbell kind of, but yes, he had some classic class like, Galveston, isn't that? Which, of course, for me, for us in Texas, is very exciting. Galveston, great.

Michelle Newman 36:34

I like to call them just like Saturday afternoon, you know, just kind of in that downtime, these are good just background music in your house to sing along to and just make you feel just happy to be alive.

Speaker 1 36:48

But I'm gonna be where the lights are shining on me like a rhinestone cowboy riding on the horses.

Kristin Nilsen 37:04

I'm really happy that that's in the number two spot that totally vibes with how I was feeling in 1975 and that brings me to the number one spot, which is legendary, very deserving of this spot. It's the song that identifies 1975 for me. I associate it with my move, and it is the most memorable of all of these songs, possibly because I believed that I saw it performed in a casino in Reno, Nevada. That's right, as an adult. And when I say adult, I mean, like one year ago, I was like, No, you didn't. Let's just pick that apart that we were talking, of course, about love will keep us together, by the captain and to Neil, love

Speaker 1 37:59

will keep us together whenever. Some sweet talking girl comes along singing a song, don't mess around. You. Just gotta be strong to stop, because I really love you.

Kristin Nilsen 38:16

Stop this, like my number one karaoke song, it is, if you that part, we can go, I will, I will. It's just like the best karaoke moment of any karaoke night. Such a great

Carolyn Cochrane 38:31

song. It's such a a moment for us because of all these people. No, no, no other performer on this list was a doll, like cat, you know, yes, they made her Mattel doll or Maybelle, but you know, like we wanted to play her, yeah, with her,

Kristin Nilsen 38:51

with her Tony Tenille haircut, they put a little haircut on her little haircut in

Michelle Newman 38:55

1976

Kristin Nilsen 38:56

Yes, you did, and it was adorable. Is that? Yeah? Truly it is that haircut, the Tony Tenille haircut, is iconic, and it like only got, like, pushed out by the Dorothy Hamill problem, right? They were adjacent to each they were very adjacent. So, and I've told this story also in many podcasts, so I'll just be very brief here. When we were, when we were driving from California to Minnesota, we stopped at a casino in Reno, Nevada, I don't know why, with their children, there we were, seven and four, and my parents, we were in a diner, and my parents went in to gamble, and they're like, don't leave the diner. And I was again, parenting and but

Michelle Newman 39:33

I your mom wasn't my mom.

Kristin Nilsen 39:36

It's very confusing. It is not on brand for Linda at all. And I could see through the window of the diner into the bar, and in the bar was somebody with a Tony Tenille haircut, singing, love will keep us together. And I was like, oh my god, it's the captain and Tenille. And I grabbed my brother's hand, and we ran into the bar. And I just couldn't believe I was watching the captain and Tenille, and I believed that I saw. Them until just a few years ago, and I realized that was probably not them. It was probably just a woman sitting in a bar

Michelle Newman 40:07

buddy and Lois sing the songs of the captain and Tenille and the Red Roof Inn and

Kristin Nilsen 40:17

Reno, Nevada, Nevada. That's exactly what it was. And this song was written by Neil sadaka, who was having a comeback with laughter in the rain, and you can hear in level, keep us together when they go sadaqah is back, right? That's a little piece of the song, and we're weaving the top 12 songs all together.

Michelle Newman 40:39

Nice, full circle.

Carolyn Cochrane 40:40

I know that I did not say sadakis back for a really long time. I'm trying to think what I said. Talk about misheard lyrics. I think I was and get her back.

Michelle Newman 40:51

I don't think I've ever known that that's part of the lyrics of that song. Yes,

Kristin Nilsen 40:54

sadaqa is back. It up a slap on the back. Okay.

Michelle Newman 41:01

Well, 1974 1975 was a banner year for toys and just new products that meant a lot to us as children at the time, that were cracking me up, because there's a lot on this list that I don't think in my entire life. I've ever thought they would have had like a birth year, right? Yeah, we've talked, we have talked ad nauseum about the pet rock on this podcast. So we're okay. So congratulations, 75 okay, but something that I you cannot deny changed our lives was birthed in 1975 and that was the portable cassette recorder in so many ways. How did we exist before that? I mean, we had recognized obviously, but we could record Casey Kasem at night. We could record you could record James Vincent McNichol on Apple's way when you wanted his dialog. I mean, this changed our lives for the better, the invention it

Kristin Nilsen 42:00

was, and Panasonic was having such a moment, because, if you recall, it wasn't just the, yes, we had the little black tape recorders. The important thing was that these had handles. You know, there were tape recorders before you'd have to pick them up and carry them to the room, but these had little handles and you could bring them around. And Panasonic was making everything into a little colorful bubble. And so you my little Panasonic TV was a colorful, white bubble. And then these tape recorders were sort of like rhombus, like shaped in a rhombus. And they, mine was light, not light blue, but like a royal blue. They came in red. I think they came in yellow also. And my dad, when, before we moved to Minnesota. My dad went to Minnesota to start working, and he bought us one of the blue Panasonic tape recorders, wow, because he would then record, he would read stories, he would sing songs, and he would send the tape. That's adorable, yes, I know. And so this is where I first heard house at Pooh corner, because my dad sang house at Pooh corner on the tape that he sent to us, and then we would record stuff back and send it back for his tape recorder. And this is legend in our household. My brother would tell he's only four, and so he would tell jokes, and he would say he would go, why did the robber take a bath? And then he would wait a beat and he would go, nope to make a clean getaway. My brother still has the blue tape recorder, and he still has the white bubble TV too.

Michelle Newman 43:32

I love that. Wow. Okay. Do you guys remember the kind of that yellow and orange Barbie camper that came with all the little vinyl furniture, like the little folding chairs, and they could never sit on it. Okay? That was not, that's not the one I'm going to be talking about just, I wanted to be clear that one came out in 1971 but in 1975 a Barbie VW camper came out. And you guys, we did not have this. And I want to show you a picture to see if you know about this, because I need this in my life. Do you know that this one,

Unknown Speaker 44:04

oh, my god, red.

Michelle Newman 44:09

It does look like a Mystery Machine. Yeah, it's red on bottom with all this like sticker decal that are, like the grooviest 70s flowers, and then the top of its white. So I'm definitely gonna post this if I

Carolyn Cochrane 44:21

have an audience, social media, rare, because, why did none of us remember it? Yeah, I don't remember having a friend that would have had it. And I know peak, you know, nine going on 10, I was, I was aware of Barbie stuff,

Michelle Newman 44:34

okay, something that I don't know how. I didn't own this, and it's something that is coveted today, but it's too expensive on eBay, but that is the Fisher Price Play Family set that was Sesame Street, you know the Sesame Street set? Yeah. I mean, we, I think we had pretty much every single other one we didn't have, like the houseboat or the camper, but, and I still own a lot of them. But how did we not have I was we. Both me and my sister were so into Sesame Street. I don't know how that wasn't a Christmas present or something. I have all the figures. They're in my office now that my husband's gifted me, but I don't have the actual set. So so cute. Do you guys remember the Fisher Price cash register that was in like, every preschool church nursery, and it's really chunky, and it has the chunky coins Yeah, that came out in 1975 my

Carolyn Cochrane 45:23

sister had that and so, but we would place, we would play store with it. So I thought that was cool that we had, like, you know, a cash register, even though it was those clunky coins. But,

Michelle Newman 45:33

yeah, you had three coins. You're like, that'll be one red coin. One red money. Yeah, something that I've never thought about having a birth is, you know, there were Legos, but the little Lego minifigures, you know, the one that looks like the little people, right? Yeah, never you can attach, didn't exist. I mean, you guys had kids that played with Legos too, right? I did, and my husband did. But all the little people with the little feet that have, yeah, you know, that can kind of clamp, yep, something that our listeners love when we post on Fisher Price Fridays, and that's the Fisher Price Joey doll. So Joey is joining Mary, Jenny, Audrey, baby Anne, Natalie and Elizabeth who were released in 1974 but not to be don't confuse those with the my friend dolls like Mandy, I'm so those ones were released in 1977 and Mandy and her friends, they are not babies, y'all, they're big girls and big boys. They're big kids. But Joey is one of the babies who, like I said, if you I had baby, I still have my baby, Anne. I have baby Anne. So those were 1975 such a Gen X candy to this day, Pop Rocks. Pop Rocks, life change. And in 1975

Kristin Nilsen 46:44

that was a life changing moment that wasn't we would put them on it was an activity just

Michelle Newman 46:49

you'd walk around your friends with your mouth open, sizzling like bacon in your mouth. And you ever get one that would actually pop hard and pop up to the roof of your mouth, you would

Kristin Nilsen 47:00

never do it by yourself, because yourself, because what's the point? Right? You would have to have Pop Rocks with somebody.

Carolyn Cochrane 47:07

And I remember, like, just doing a few at a time, like trying to make my little pack last for a really long time. Like, can I get the same thrill with just a few on my top? So Lillian wasn't buying me a bunch? Oh, God,

Michelle Newman 47:18

no, no, no, no. We would pour a whole pouch in our mouth and start chewing them. If you start crunching, they pop like firecrackers in your mouth. My sister and I would do that. You pour the whole thing into me your mouth. Would like,

Carolyn Cochrane 47:32

just bizarre concept to like, again, people sitting around in some boardroom somewhere, yeah. What is it actually

Kristin Nilsen 47:41

do that there's a whole science about it has something to do with with carbon dioxide, certainly, yeah, and saliva. And I'm pretending like I know, yeah, it must be triggered by by moisture. People listening right now are going, you guys like they know all they had there's must be, like, a Sesame Street, like, little video about it, and we don't

Michelle Newman 48:03

know Mr. Rogers was like, let's, let's get into our little trolley and see how Pop Rocks are made. Okay, these are some things in the category of I never even have in my mind considered that they had to have a birthday, but Whack a Mole. Arcade game. Arcade games. Yeah, start. I love Whack a Mole too. You got to get both hands and you got but that started in like 1975 a lot of pressure for Carolyn Burger King's fish sandwich.

Kristin Nilsen 48:32

I do remember that coming out in UK. You do, oh yeah, it was a big deal for all the Catholic people. Oh,

Michelle Newman 48:39

probably, yeah, you can eat. We should find a commercial for

Carolyn Cochrane 48:42

that. You know what else came out in 1975 in terms of fast food, it was the birth of the Egg McMuffin. No idea of breakfast on the go. That kind of wasn't really a thing before, like you could get a whole meal and a drive through kind of a thing. Yes, Muffin 1970 least.

Michelle Newman 49:03

Anytime we go up to the mountains, we get, we both like them just plain, just with the egg and the cheese, my husband and I. So anytime we go to the mountains, we drive through this McDonald's near our house and get an egg McMuffin. So next time, I'll say how the 50th Egg

Carolyn Cochrane 49:15

McMuffin? Yes, I'm surprised they haven't leaned into that. And I remember the whole concept of, like, Canadian bacon. Do you remember that? Because that was on there and it's like ham. That's ham in Canada, the way our minds were at these ages. And trying to reconcile words like, you know, bacon in a circle that looks like ham. No.

Kristin Nilsen 49:40

Why is it Canadian? No, the

Michelle Newman 49:43

last one I want to mention, the last fun thing, and is freshen up gum, and I have a little story, and it's and it's kind of rude. So listeners, if you don't like kind of rude crash, you might just crash, a little crash, you might come right, but we laugh so hard, well, you'll remember. When we interviewed Melissa Gilbert, I think it was the first time. I don't know how fresh and up gum came up, but she just comes out with we used to call it cum gum.

Kristin Nilsen 50:10

Oh my god, Melissa Gilbert, but she's not wrong.

Michelle Newman 50:15

Yes, I mean it. Think about it, you might. And I know that's kind of rude, but oh God, when she said it, I about peed my pants laughing. Well, because you're right, she's not wrong.

Kristin Nilsen 50:27

Yes, it makes it 10 times lower. Angles, yeah. Angles, yeah. But we would be remiss in not mentioning big red gum, because I remember being excited when that came out, and recently, I craved the smell of big red gum, and I went and I bought some, and I didn't even really want to chew it. I just wanted to smell it, and now it lives in my utility drawer.

Michelle Newman 50:50

Yes, I liked a lot, and I chewed a lot of gum, but I the big red to me I liked at the very beginning, and then it started burning my tongue and, like, burning really strong, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 51:03

yeah. If that nostalgia will rock your world, when you smell that big red again, you will tumble backwards. I loved

Carolyn Cochrane 51:09

cinnamon there for a while, like the cinnamon, you know, the Brock cinnamon, and then the little what are the little ones called that are kind of chewy, like, red hot,

Michelle Newman 51:20

yeah. Red Hot Yeah, yes, yes. Now they call them cinnamon Imperials. Yeah. They what? Yeah. My mom was obsessed with them as when she got a lot older, and so I would have to go find them. And you could find them at like, CVS, and it's hard to find when it's not Valentine's Day, but there's some places you can, like a Walgreens or something, and they don't say red hots. They're called, you can get, like, the bag of them, and they're called cinnamon Imperials. And she also used to make applesauce a lot. As she got older, she or her whole life, she used to love to make homemade applesauce. And so when you boil the apples down, if you put in a little handful of red hots, it gives it a little bit of a cinnamon first, it makes it pink, which is kind of fun, and it gives it a little bit of a cinnamon and sugar and sweetness.

Kristin Nilsen 52:00

That is a 70s hack, right there. Yeah, and a couple of red

Michelle Newman 52:04

you know, what else is a 70s hack that has nothing to do with any of this that came out in 1975 but when I was thinking of my mom would make that, and then it made me think, oh, yeah, she made that apple sauce for us when we were little. She would have completely this. 1975 would have been one of the years. But for dessert, one of my favorite desserts is she would get a can of peaches, like peach halves. So just think of a can, pour it in a saucepan and serve, oh yes, pour it in a saucepan and just get them warm, right? You spoon out the half into a bowl with some sauce, and in the half, you know, where, like the pit was, you put, you sprinkle brown sugar, and then you put, like, a tablespoon of sour cream on top of it. That sounds disgusting, I know, but that was one of my favorite desserts. And isn't that very 70

Kristin Nilsen 52:50

yummy? Actually, it's very out of a can. Like, don't go, don't go to the farmers market and get a fresh peach open a can of peaches, right?

Michelle Newman 53:02

Well, it has to be that slippery, slimy peach, right? And you try to cut it, and it would just like, inside your fork, and the peach would just like, shoot across your bowl, but you you and then the dollop of sour cream on top,

Carolyn Cochrane 53:14

no, gosh,

Kristin Nilsen 53:15

very 70s. We can have that at our 1970s potluck.

Carolyn Cochrane 53:19

Okay, so 1975 big, big movies out. None that the top 10 were none that we would have seen in real time, necessarily, but we probably have memories of our parents seeing it, or the posters or whatever. So let me tell you what those top 10 are. I'm going to start with number 10 for you guys, and that would be Tommy, and that was the WHO right, the Pinball

Kristin Nilsen 53:45

Wizard. Or is it different? Because I feel like Pinball Wizard came out so much earlier.

Michelle Newman 53:50

No, I think that

Carolyn Cochrane 53:52

is, is it all together? Okay, okay, the other side of the mountain.

Kristin Nilsen 53:58

I thought that was a made for TV movie. I didn't know that was in the theaters. I didn't either, because I probably saw it on Saturday afternoons 900 times

Carolyn Cochrane 54:07

or so. Well, right? There's a scene in it that sticks with me. That was probably just a little scene in a way, but they're the ski team is all. They're having a sleepover, and her friend, Marilyn hassett's friend, has a fever, and she's like, she doesn't feel well in Maryland's like, you'll be up better in the morning. It ends up she had polio and she got and she was paralyzed, which was crazy, obviously, because then Marilyn has it goes on to be paralyzed because she gets an awful ski

Kristin Nilsen 54:35

accident. It's a double paralysis movie that does not seem okay. And I

Carolyn Cochrane 54:40

remember thinking, if I get a fever, that means I can, like, get polio, like, that stuff is what stuck with me in that scene. And anyway, yeah, it's really

Kristin Nilsen 54:50

sad. That's your variations people, that's right.

Carolyn Cochrane 54:53

Gosh, don't even have you not seen the other side of the mountain. Is

Kristin Nilsen 54:58

RFK not seeing the other side of the mountain? One

Carolyn Cochrane 55:01

this would start to this is one that my parents loved to go to the movies. So my parents, in the 70s, that's when we had babysitters, they would go to the movies, or they would got to dinner with friends and so funny lady, of course, would have been one of those movies, because we know it stars one of their favorite girls, right? My

Kristin Nilsen 55:19

parents loved it. I have no I have no familiarity with it,

Carolyn Cochrane 55:23

no, but you just know the title, because they'll say, Oh, we went to see yeah, whatever, and it's rated whatever. I remember my parents saw taxi driver. And of course, you only remember the titles, and you're thinking, what, who cares about like someone driving a taxi, but I have a distinct memory of when they saw that. Then we've got three Days of the Condor. I recognize the title. Don't remember it, yeah, Return Of The Pink Panther. That's coming in at number six. Another one where the title was a little bit confusing to me. It was very confusing. It's the pink fiberglass, Corning fiberglass, yeah, but it's not.

Kristin Nilsen 56:00

And we went to see, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no, go ahead. So that was the first movie that we saw after moving to Minnesota. And you know, in those days, when you went to a movie, it was a big deal. It was an event, like, Guess what, kids, we're going to the movies. Yay. And then they said, we're seeing the return of the Pink Panther. Oh, I love the Pink Panther. And so I watched that whole movie, and it's entertaining, to be sure, but I keep waiting for the Pink Panther, and when the movie ends and we walk out, I'm like, Where was the pink

Michelle Newman 56:36

opening of those movies have the Pink Panther in it? Yeah, opening animated,

Kristin Nilsen 56:41

but there's no part in

Carolyn Cochrane 56:42

the story. Yeah. And so in my mind, because I didn't see it, I'm thinking it was rated, probably PG. How did you get to go? I didn't get to see any PG movies for who knows how long. All right, then next is Dog Day Afternoon, which I think is about the war or something, yeah, when I hear the name, Okay, number four, you guys, this is another one where I have one of these moments. I remember. My mom saw this with my next door with her next door neighbor. My mom saw this with our next door neighbor, who happened to be her best friend. My dad didn't go to this and it was shampoo and again, confusing. What is this? Like, the name and then seeing like, ads or the poster, because you guys was a male hairdresser, such a thing. What is this? This was like, and he's holding, like, one of those big hair dryer, hair

Michelle Newman 57:33

dryers. It's on, it's streaming, and I'm gonna forget what it's on. And I started watching it a few years ago, after, like, maybe a year or two into the podcast, because I was, like, all into watching this old stuff. And it's, it's really cute. It like, kind of still holds up. It's very retro. It's very 1975 but just search in your I don't know whatever streaming services you have. It might be on something like Tubi, but for sure, my mom would have loved that movie, because she loved Warren Beatty, and it's so when it came on TV probably a few years later we watched it. I would imagine Rocky Horror

Carolyn Cochrane 58:04

Picture Show. I mean, the iconic I have never seen that, you guys, I have

Michelle Newman 58:08

never seen before. Yeah, yeah. And I don't have

Carolyn Cochrane 58:13

any desire to either. Don't do it

Kristin Nilsen 58:15

unless we want to do the whole Yeah, it's gonna be disappointing.

Michelle Newman 58:19

Yeah. I mean, I'm not obviously a person. I've, I've done the whole thing, the whole midnight thing, in high school only a couple of times. But it's nothing that like there's people that they are obsessed with it, and they are Die Hard, Rocky Horror fans, and that's great. It's not like there's

Kristin Nilsen 58:35

a time and a place for it. And I think, yeah, window may have closed, maybe, but it's

Carolyn Cochrane 58:41

so interesting that it became what it became because, I mean, obviously in 1975 our generation was not even going to see it in the movie theater. So it's just that it kept playing. It kept going like it had enough of a draw that whole new generations of people were loving it. All right, you guys, we've talked about this before. The number one movie of 1975 by a lot, is the blockbuster jaws.

Kristin Nilsen 59:10

Thank God, a movie we've all seen, and we all know, and we all have feelings about Yes.

Carolyn Cochrane 59:17

And so 1975 again, think how iconic we've already we've already talked about love will keep us together. To me, that is an iconic song of the 70s. If I had to pick a song, it would be one of the top three. I would probably pick that defined that time and and this would be the movie I would, in a lot of ways, would say, like, two major things that happened in 1975 Yeah, for sure.

Michelle Newman 59:42

One movie that wasn't didn't quite make the top 10, that I'm calling foul on is the Apple Dumpling gang and you guys, that was released 1975 and I've said it on here before it is. Such a good that movie holds up today. It is so stinkin funny, and I love that movie. I've said it before that. It's probably the first movie I remember seeing in the theater. So I would have been like, six years old. And the other day, my sister and I were texting about when we were both going back to see jaws in the theater, and she says this, I'm reading her text. Daddy took me to see Jaws when it came out, when we stayed with them in July, you and Vicki saw something else. I think it was Apple Dumpling gang. Mother wasn't very happy that I saw Jaws at that age, because she was nine and I all caps. I'm like, Oh my God, this all makes sense, because I had just told you guys. I don't think I didn't see jaws in the theater, but I know I saw Apple Dumpling game. And I always used to think I saw it with my daddy, so I'm guessing daddy and Melanie went and saw jaws and in the same cinema, Apple Dumpling game, Vicki and I went and saw it. And I swear, you guys, I still have a memory of seeing it with my daddy. So I'm wondering if we loved it so much that then we went back and saw it like the next week. We used to stay with them for, like, the whole month of July. We saw it again. But now I'm like, that's when it was, it was when Melanie was too young to be this would

Kristin Nilsen 1:01:13

be such a different conversation if we were talking about, you know, the Movies For Children released in 1975 I just want to see if anything comes up, Movies For Children, Apple Dumpling game. Why I get it would be number one. It would

Carolyn Cochrane 1:01:25

definitely be number like one. There weren't any gaming movies.

Michelle Newman 1:01:32

You guys, if you have listeners, let me just keep on my plug for Apple Dumpling. Yeah, if you have Disney plus, immediately go watch Apple Dumpling gay again. I so many things came back. Do you remember the little girl and Bill Bixby? Oh my God, he's so handsome in it. And the little girl is just constantly going, I gotta go. I gotta go. She's gotta go potty the whole time. And, oh my gosh, you've got Don Knotts. You know? They're just the, just the fumbling, bumbling.

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:01

It's the first thing that comes up when you say Movies For Children in 1975 Apple Dumpling gang is the first thing that comes up. And then the next one is Herbie rides again. Oh, I we're, as you know, we are a Herbie family. This would be a different conversation if we had had Herbie and the Apple Dumpling gang in there. What else? Let's keep going with it. Well, it does say escape to which mountain. Well, I never knew it was escape to or from, escape to to which mountain.

Michelle Newman 1:02:30

But isn't there also an escape from which mountain?

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:33

Isn't that the sequel like

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:36

them? Okay, yeah.

Kristin Nilsen 1:02:39

Mountain, the wilderness adventures of the wilderness family,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:43

I think, I think I saw that I loved like Robinson Crusoe, yeah, Swiss Family, Robinson, I loved when people were marooned. I know it is, but it's true.

Speaker 3 1:02:59

Oh, pirates on one side, chasing us and a storm ahead, waiting to tear us apart. What to do? It's what of our passengers, the Swiss Family, the Robinsons, what is to become of all of us?

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:13

What came out in 1975 for us? And this is there were some great ones in 1975 stragan Nona, by Tommy de Paula, why mosquitoes buzz in people's ears? Ramona the brave by Beverly clear favorite. Here's a big one. You guys forever by Judy Blume, came out in 1975 it didn't reach me until probably 1977 or so. It took a while to because, you know, you only have one copy that goes around the whole classroom, right? So that takes

Michelle Newman 1:03:41

a while. We probably actually all read the same coffee in different parts of the country because it just kept getting passed around. I was probably more like 8081 when I read it,

Kristin Nilsen 1:03:52

when it meant when it got to you. I think this is funny, that it's on the list the secret of the Forgotten city, volume 52 of the Nancy Drew series because the number was important, and I think it didn't go much further than 52 Yeah. And I think the yellow books only went to 53 or 54 that would be, that'd be a good trivia question, yeah. How many of the yellow Nancy Drew books are there? But here's a really important book that is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and it is celebrating it in style. And that is Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. This is the book, of course, about a family that lives in the forest, and they've found a spring in the middle of the woods that gives them immortality. They'll never die. And the question is, is this a good thing or a bad thing? And it has never gone out of print. It has sold over 10 million copies, and just this week, they released a 50th anniversary edition with the original cover art, which was, by the way, by Natalie Babbitt. She was an artist, yes, yeah. And. And also, this week was a graphic novel version of Tuck Everlasting. And this is, isn't that cool? This is a trend a lot of

Michelle Newman 1:05:09

kids who can't read, who don't have the capacity to sit and read the whole book, and they're they would never read it otherwise, yeah, such great discussion comes read it aloud to my fourth graders. When I was a teacher, great, such great conversations, I read aloud to my own girls too. So they are coming out with a new audible. And I don't know if it's a new one or if it's the first one, I would imagine it's new. But Alexis bleedell, who played Rory Gilmore and a lot of other things, especially in She's so great. She was always so great and Handmaid's Tale, but she is reading it, and I feel like she's gonna be perfect reading it. I feel

Kristin Nilsen 1:05:48

they're pulling out all the stops on top everlasting this year. And I think that's really great that they're finding, they're finding that there's enough, like marketing departments are finding that this book is good enough to re release it to the world that people today, children today, will get as much out of it as we did 50 years ago. Maybe adults too. Yes, absolutely

Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:08

it's Yeah. I think that might be added to my reread list. Yeah,

Michelle Newman 1:06:13

that's a great idea. I think I want to reread it, but I definitely want to listen to Alexis Liddell Bledel read it because I don't know. I just like her voice. And I think that would, I don't know, I think you'd get all the feelings from that. We'll put it on our bookshop.org, if it's not already there. So yeah, those of you who want to order it and do a reread, you that link is in our show notes. And then we have a really fun shop over there. So we have a lot of our own favorites, and we have a lot of the books we liked as kids.

Kristin Nilsen 1:06:44

Yes, let's not forget, let's and let's put all the versions of Tuck Everlasting into that bookshop, shop, bookshop.

Michelle Newman 1:06:50

Love it. Yeah, you guys looking at Ramona the brave. I mean, Ramona Quimby is probably my favorite literary character of all time, and she I love those books. I was obsessed with them as a kid, but also reading them to my own kids. And just recently, Ramona the past and Ramona the brave have really old copies have been in my somebody's put them in my little free library and the Children's and I've been so excited. And then when I go and I check, like, four days later and it's still there, I would look down the sidewalk both ways, like, I'm sorry, people, do you not know what an iconic classic books here? And probably the kids are, like, cooking, you know, I'm a pig over it, yeah? I know I can

Kristin Nilsen 1:07:31

just see her. I'm that orange cover, and she's on the swing. Ramona. Ramona, the

Michelle Newman 1:07:35

brave it might be, yeah, I would think so, yeah, okay, just to sort of put us in time quickly, who were the hot teen idols in 1975 who were on the cover of, you know, Tiger Beat and all the magazines. So that would be Donnie Osmond, David Cassidy, John Travolta, Michael Jackson, the Bay City Rollers. Vince Van Patten, you guys, I pulled up 1975 Tiger Beat covers, and just did an image search. He was on the cover of, like almost all of them, for a year, as well as Tony DeFranco Vince vampires. Me, he was Tony DeFranco covers. Tony DeFranco. I mean, so many of y'all loved him. We know because when we post on social media, that heartbeat, you know the song you love, the different

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:23

Okay, David, check the timeline on that one, because I thought he walked away in 74 after that girl was killed,

Michelle Newman 1:08:30

maybe, but he was still in a lot of covers, because I just

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:33

checked. Maybe he wasn't. Maybe he wasn't doing anything, and they were, maybe, yeah, oh, that's sad. That's when he's and

Michelle Newman 1:08:39

then, if you guys are thinking, Where is Sean Cassidy? Where's life Garrett? Where's Andy Gibb they're all just emerging. And 19 percolating five, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 1:08:49

yeah. Get ready. Get ready because they're coming.

Carolyn Cochrane 1:08:54

Well, get ready world, because there are some celebrities we know today that were coming in 1975 in terms of coming into the world and being born, we have some that are celebrating their 50th birthday this year, and I'm going to shout those out to you this year turning 50 are Drew Barrymore, Sarah Gilbert, Eva Longoria, Chelsea Handler, Judy Greer, Michael Buble, Jason Sudeikis, my, my, is it my? Alec, Maya, Bialik, Charlize, Theron, Toby Maguire, Kate Winslet, Linda Carolyn, e Zach Braff and drumroll, please. Last but not least, in any way, shape or form, is Mr. Dax Shepard. Ladies and gentlemen, all of these people are celebrating 50 years on the planet and only 10 years younger than we are. So I'm not cradle robbing Jesus. Have

Kristin Nilsen 1:10:00

my most importantly, yeah, right, she's already done the math. It's okay. Yeah, I can't, I'm sorry. I cannot believe that blossom is 50. And also, the little girl in ET is a 50 year old woman, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 1:10:12

And I think it's how we know them. Like, I would never put Eva Longoria and like Drew Barrymore in the same that they're the same age, because I only got to know, you know, Eva Longoria as this adult on Desperate Housewives or whatever, right? That was her first foray into art, so she seems so much older than Miami does, or Drew Barrymore because

Kristin Nilsen 1:10:34

they're children. Those people are children. Yes,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:10:37

it doesn't work out in my head.

Michelle Newman 1:10:39

Well, a lot of those people I look at, I mean, they're six years younger than I am, but I look, and I think of Sarah Gilbert as a child too, because when I watched Roseanne, she just was much younger than me, right? But especially You're right. Kristen, I am Bialik, like I didn't watch blossom. I was too old for that, but I certainly knew who she was. And in my mind, she's, she's a child, but, but when you are adults, but when you are, you know, if we were, say, you know, she was 15 and I was 21 when blossom was on, that's a huge difference. 50 and 50, right? Not so big. You know,

Kristin Nilsen 1:11:12

we are not hanging out, right? But we can, I don't know that. I right now we can hang

Michelle Newman 1:11:17

out, yeah, all right, well, y'all that is 1975 and a polyester collar nutshell, and it was a year when pop culture, I think we've established it was bold, it was weird and unforgettable, a lot like our Gen X childhoods. Thanks everyone for time traveling with us. Until next time, may your lava lamps always bubble. Your water be free of sharks and your Tiger be always feature a percolating Sean Cassidy.

Kristin Nilsen 1:11:48

Get ready. Everybody. Get ready. This is when we'd like to spend. Send a special shout out to our supporters on Patreon. These are the people who pledge a monthly donation so so that the PCPs can pay its bills, and in return, they get fun little things in the mail and opportunities to see us on a screen on our little zoom happy hours. So this time today, we would like to send a special thank you to SJS, Karen C, this is actually like the parade of Gen X names. Jennifer Liz, Kim, Melanie Tony. Jennifer Z, Karen, F, Elizabeth, Cynthia, Nancy, Erin, Marsha, Michelle and Dana. Thanks so much. You guys. Love all those

Carolyn Cochrane 1:12:29

thank you and listeners, if you have loved hanging out with us today, don't forget to share this episode with your besties. And while you're at it, go ahead and subscribe so you never miss an episode. It's kind of like setting your VCR to record, but only this time you won't accidentally, like tape over your mom's soap opera or your brother's Miami Vice if you really want to, and you really love us and you want to make our day, please leave us a review, and you can think of it as just passing us one of those cool little folded notes in class that says you're totally awesome. Don't ever change.

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:04

I love that. In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast to the year that gave us pet rocks and the Jeffersons courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times, two Happy Days,

Carolyn Cochrane 1:13:18

Two Little House on the Prairie. Cheers.

Michelle Newman 1:13:21

Cheers. Everyone, the information,

Kristin Nilsen 1:13:23

opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crushologist and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there is always a first time the PCPs is written, produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional wjm studios and our beloved Mary Richards, Nanu. Nanu, keep on truckin, and May the Force Be With You.