Camp Songs, Thorn Birds, and CHiPs Roller Disco: A Sneak Peek at Season 16
Kristin Nilsen 0:00
In the last few weeks, you've heard us talk about some of the ways you can support the pop culture Preservation Society. You've all heard the benefits of becoming a Patreon member, and you've heard us talking about some of the products our generous sponsors provide for the world. But there's a new one you may not be as familiar with, and that's bookshop.org bookshop.org. Is an online bookstore, just like the one everyone turns to automatically without even thinking. But here's where bookshop.org is different. Bookshop.org shares its profits with small independent bookstores all around the nation. That's its whole reason for being. You can even choose which bookstore you'd like to support. Just put your city into the search bar and it will show you all the bookstores near you who can benefit from your online purchase. And if you don't have a bookstore near you, just put in the bookstore where I work, big hill books in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now you can shop online and still support small local businesses. And here's where we come in. We are now an affiliate of bookshop.org and we have built a little online bookstore for you to shop, filled with the books you hear about on the podcast, plus our favorites, plus what we're reading right now. And if you shop@bookshop.org using the link in our newsletter and in our link tree and on our website, bookshop.org will share their profits with us too, because we, too are also a small, independent business, and you can still put big hill books in the search bar, and everyone wins. So if you're in the mood for book shopping, consider supporting us at the same time and shopping@bookshop.org you can find the link on our website and in our social media bios. Thank you so much, and happy reading like you would be on base and somebody would tag you and say you're out and you're like,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:34
bass, yeah. Bass, hello. Well, there's a song
Unknown Speaker 1:41
that was singing.
Unknown Speaker 1:44
Come on, get
Carolyn Cochrane 1:51
happy. We'll make you happy.
Michelle Newman 1:56
Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who know the best ding dongs come wrapped in foil.
Carolyn Cochrane 2:05
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. And
Kristin Nilsen 2:17
today, we'll be giving you a little sneak peek at what we've got cooking in the kitchen at the pop culture Preservation Society in our season 16 preview episode, I'm
Carolyn Cochrane 2:26
Carolyn, I'm Kristen,
Michelle Newman 2:28
And I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.
Season 16, you guys. Can you believe it?
Carolyn Cochrane 2:47
What? The What? What? No, I cannot believe that. I know
Michelle Newman 2:51
it'll officially start next week, listeners, but I'm glad I'm wearing a hat today recording, because when I realized that you guys, my mind blew. But see, it's all contained. See, it's all contained in here. So today, we thought it would be really fun to give you all listening a sneak peek at the conversations you'll be hearing over the next 10 weeks. Full disclosure, though, when you hear this, we've already had most of them, but right now today, we have not. And if that's confusing. Try being us. So
Kristin Nilsen 3:21
what exactly I know what it is and I can't follow
Michelle Newman 3:26
it. We'll just be giving you the main topic of the episodes and a broad idea of what we're thinking we'll be talking about. But don't hold us to it, because when we do actually record it, which when you're hearing this, we'll have recorded it, it might be a little bit different
Kristin Nilsen 3:42
conceptualizing phase right now, we are really letting you into our process right now, right, right,
Carolyn Cochrane 3:48
right. This could all just blow up if, like, Rob Lowe calls tomorrow and says, Yeah, I'd like to do a six part series with you all on the evolution of my career.
Michelle Newman 3:57
And we say, okay, okay, when and where? Rob Lowe, yeah, so today's episode might be a little shorter than you're used to. Haha. We always say that, but if it is, you know, consider that our gift to you, our first gift of season 16. If you guys recall
Carolyn Cochrane 4:12
the last season was the first time we did one of these season previews, and as part of that episode, we chatted about those iconic network TV promos that we fell in love with. Like, you know, we're still the one Fonzie going up in a hot air balloon, and obviously I loved those. Well, also, besides the network television promos, we also got a sneak peek once a year in the annual TV Guide fall promo issue. And you guys, I we didn't get TV Guide at my house because it was for the rich people or at the doctor's office, but I had some rich friends, or rich friends, and so I remember thumbing through sometimes, like when I was at their houses, or sometimes they would even be at the doctor's or dentist office. And. So I thought it would be fun if I just chose a year and just flipped through to see what, how they, you know, previewed a particular year. So I chose 1979 I didn't really have any specific memory of what might have been the fall season of 1979 and TV stuff, but boy, did I pick right. Get ready everybody. Because in these issues, we would get a little sneak peek of up the upcoming season of some of our favorite shows. We'd also get a little behind the scenes look at some new shows that were going to be coming out. And boy, were there some cool ones in 1979 for instance, in that 1979 TV Guide, we learned that our dear friends, Helen and Stanley Roper from Three's Company, would be getting their own TV show after Stanley sells the apartment building and they move into a townhouse. Lucky us. We learned that we are going to be getting a new character, new building manager, Ralph Furley, who was played by Don Knotts. So 1979 was when we were gonna get Don Knotts. You know who else we were gonna get in 1979
Michelle Newman 6:02
1979 everybody? John Sebastian,
Carolyn Cochrane 6:06
no, we were going to get two new characters on what we might say is our all time favorite TV show of the 70s, and that would be the show Little House on the Prairie. We were going to meet Almanzo Wilder and his sister, Eliza. Jane, oh, man,
Kristin Nilsen 6:24
for me was when Almanzo comes to Walnut Grove.
Michelle Newman 6:28
Yes, exactly that. That, like, truly, there truly is a before and after, yeah, and that, you know, that's the, that's the line there. Because all of a sudden, actually, in one episode, Laura goes from being a little girl, you know, to a woman, yeah, even in the beginning, it's an after braid, I was just about to say, even in the hairstyles, the beginning of the episode, where he comes, she has braids, and at the end, she's wearing it up in the big swoopy bun the school. She's a lady,
Carolyn Cochrane 6:56
that's right, yeah. So we're getting some new characters. We learned that we're also kind of getting a peek, that we're gonna say goodbye to some of our favorite shows that went off the air during 1979 you guys. This is when the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mystery, said goodbye. Oh, I know. Starsky and Hutch said, Goodbye. What's happening? Welcome back. Cotter and Wonder Woman, among others, there were others that
Michelle Newman 7:21
was like a huge like death, that was a lot of really good shows and long lasting shows. Not all of them were as long lasting as some of the others, but that's a big chunk of 70s that just was like, poof, right? Yeah. I mean that
Kristin Nilsen 7:35
two years of the Hardy Boys felt like about 40 years for us, because it was a good percentage of our childhood. If you're 10 years old, that's 20% of your child. Your childhood you spent with the Hardy
Carolyn Cochrane 7:44
Boys. And it was much more than just that time that we spent. We spent with them while they were on our screen. We spent time with them in our beds, in our bedrooms, with our lunches, as we know, like our lunches and on our walls, certain
Michelle Newman 8:02
walls, yeah, and our on our in our pajamas,
Carolyn Cochrane 8:07
yeah, But fret not friends. We might be saying goodbye to some but this issue of TV Guide let us know what was in store in the terms of new shows. So get a load of this, guys. I'm going to try to read this fast, because 1979 is when we were introduced to heart to heart. A few of these you won't know, but out of the blue, the associates, you know, I'm not gonna what
Kristin Nilsen 8:31
is out of what is I know? Out of the blue. Out of the blue. Olivia Barish, was she in
Carolyn Cochrane 8:36
that? Oh, I don't know. The only name I have is James Brogan. I don't really know who James Brogan is, but we could look, I feel like I know that show, okay? And, well, that's the thing. As I read some of these that were truly one season wonders or half season wonders, you'll get like, kind of who screwed dude. I don't know if I'm gonna who screwed you guys on any of these, but on this one, but there was a show called a new kind of family that came from was in that Michelle, do you know how?
Michelle Newman 9:04
No, but I feel like we just talked about that, and I feel like a new kind of family. Was that Scott Baio and was that no? Gary Marshall one no, because he would have been heavily into this. Was
Carolyn Cochrane 9:15
Eileen Brennan. Do you remember Eileen Brennan? She was a classic 70s from private, private.
Kristin Nilsen 9:21
Benjamin, yeah, yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 9:23
And a very young Mr. Rob Lowe, oh,
Michelle Newman 9:26
that's what I was thinking. See, I was getting my crushes mixed up there. Yes, it could happen. And that was actually, I believe, right before school, boy, Father, I think we talked about it. I was like, we've talked about this before, so I bet it was listeners go way, way, way, way, way back in the Wayback Machine to our season one. We have a really great episode. The entire episode is the ABC after school special. What a
Carolyn Cochrane 9:50
classic, what a classic. And how about this one? I don't remember, but it introduced us to somebody we all know and love. It was a sitcom, a legal comedy. Whatever that is called the associates, and we met Martin Short in that short lived no pun intended
Michelle Newman 10:08
to find that that's
Kristin Nilsen 10:10
completely foreign to me. Yeah, I'm gonna have
Carolyn Cochrane 10:12
to find a few of these, because I don't remember this one, but one of my first adult crushes starred in this. So it's the show called 240 Robert. It was a police drama. Anyone remember this? It starred Mark Harmon. It wasn't on very long either. I wouldn't have even known he had another show before. What's the one? Not Falcon Crest paradise.
Michelle Newman 10:34
It was like, it was like,
Carolyn Cochrane 10:38
fair Yeah, Flamingo Road with Morgan Fairchild. There we go. Okay, you guys, we got Benson in 1979
Michelle Newman 10:45
oh, I feel like if I was on a trivia Yeah, we watched that a lot too. But I feel like if I was that was a trivia question, and there was like three years given, I would have thought it was like 75 or something. So that's surprising. I have,
Kristin Nilsen 10:56
I have a question for you when you start watching Benson, when you saw the name Robert Guillaume on the screen. How did you say
Unknown Speaker 11:03
golio golovial? He
Carolyn Cochrane 11:05
rhymes with salami. I mean, yeah. And
Kristin Nilsen 11:09
when we learned, I don't know, probably because he was on Johnny Carson or something, right? This
Carolyn Cochrane 11:14
one's French that sounds very
Michelle Newman 11:15
exotic and doesn't soap go with Benson.
Carolyn Cochrane 11:19
He would, no, no. One of them's a spin off of the other. I think Benson was Benson or spin off. I think Benson
Kristin Nilsen 11:25
is a spin off of soap right
Michelle Newman 11:26
now, there's so many if this
Carolyn Cochrane 11:30
because I think I was allowed to watch Benson, but you remember, I wasn't allowed to watch so so
Kristin Nilsen 11:36
on that same show with Robert Guillaume, was Rene au Bourgeois. Oh yeah, those Frenchies. Frenchies. There were a lot on that show where you're just like, that's
Carolyn Cochrane 11:45
right. So those were courtesy of ABC. CBS gave us a, again, short lived sitcom, but it had, it was called working stiffs, and this, I remember that one. Okay, do you remember it was in it? No, Michael Keaton and
Kristin Nilsen 11:59
Jim Fauci, yes. I do remember that. How crazy
Carolyn Cochrane 12:03
and star filled is that? All right, you guys, we got Trapper John. MD.
Kristin Nilsen 12:14
Gregory Harrison,
Carolyn Cochrane 12:15
come on, people, what that show I did have to wrap my head around the fact that it wasn't the trapper John I knew kind of a thing. Like, it was, like, it kind of cheated a little, and it was a huge jump, but okay, and you
Kristin Nilsen 12:26
were doing the math and, like, okay, so how long was is it today? Is he old? Is he what? Right? Like, you had to just fudge his face a little bit in terms of how old he would have really been.
Carolyn Cochrane 12:38
And I want you all to just sit tight, because, remember, I didn't know anything when I just picked 1979 I thought it would be a good year. CBS gave me just Carolyn, nobody else. It gave me California fever. Oh, that's they call it a sitcom. I don't know. I think it was kind of a drama. It
Kristin Nilsen 12:55
was a drama love. It was the first drame D, and it starred
Carolyn Cochrane 12:59
Lorenzo lamas, Okay, everybody, yeah, whatever. And James Vincent McNichol, some other people. We don't care. I want you to listen to this, because I think you will really appreciate this. Okay, so not only did they, you know, tell us the new shows that were coming on, a few of those new shows would get a little extra page in the TV Guide with a little description of what that show was going to be about. And again, just for me, Carolyn rich, they decided to do a little thing on California fever. Oh, this
Kristin Nilsen 13:27
is the jackpot for you, Carolyn, like you just won the lottery. Yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:30
So here we go. This is the producer of the show. He starts with a quote, and it says, Our emphasis is on the lifestyle of Southern California, says a producer of this series, and now here's the TV Guide writer, aha. Does this mean a wild thriller about the hillside strangler, drugs, sex, mudslides and freaky religious cults? Certainly not. It means roller skating, disco dancing, surfing, rock music, skateboarding, hot air ballooning, more disco dancing, more rock music. Enjoy riding along the San Andreas Fault. In short, it means teeny bopper heaven with Vince Butler, Jimmy McNichol, Ross. All right, Ross, I guess Ross doesn't have a last name, Mark McClure, Laurie, Michelle Tobin and Rick Lorenzo lamas. They will form a rock band, bop around a lot, run into trouble and run away from trouble that jazzy Hot Rod may also run out of gas, but that's no problem for these kids. They never run out of steam. CBS premiering September 25
Kristin Nilsen 14:30
okay, how can that lose? How did that not become a giant hit? I
Carolyn Cochrane 14:35
don't know. I think you know it's what it ran up against. I think it might have run up well, it ran up against happy days. We know when we've talked about that it was on Tuesday nights. You know, somebody needs
Kristin Nilsen 14:44
audience and right? Happy days already had their hold on the audience. Yes, but that description, my God, I know.
Speaker 1 14:54
Hey, these kids have the fever, California fever, when every day is sun and fun. And every night is something else. Jimmy McNichol and Mark McClure starring California fever. New this fall. Tuesdays looking good. So
Carolyn Cochrane 15:11
NBC gave us a few new ones. Unfortunately, I don't remember any. Well, I do remember one, but we had one called a man called Sloan. This was a spy thriller starring Robert Conrad, which I guess is kind of how he got to be on Battle of the network stars too. I don't remember that show, The Misadventures of Sheriff Lobo. This was a police comedy with Claude Atkins, who I do remember Buck Rogers in the 25th century. And I do remember this one because I loved Girard and I loved Erin gray. Remember Erin gray? So cute. This also gave us another short lived sitcom, I don't know how this didn't go on for more seasons, called Shirley. This was a sitcom starring Shirley Jones, yes, Tracy gold and Rosanna Arquette. Come on. But Kristen, do you remember what it was about? Because if you don't guess what, wasn't Shirley Partridge, no, but this was another show that got featured in the little description. So I'm going to tell you what Shirley was about, because TV Guide wrote up a little bit about it. No, this isn't a spin off from Laverne and Shirley. Shirley Miller is none other than that nice lady and professional Partridge mother Shirley Jones, again as a widow, this time with four kids, Bill 17, Peter Barton. Remember Peter Barton? Of course, yes. He was a Saturday morning. Was he Shazam? Wasn't he? Maybe, okay, sorry, he was fact check. He was one of those, like superhero Saturday morning guys. Okay, that was really cute with the hair. And he'd be in Tiger Beat.
Michelle Newman 16:48
If you saw his picture, you would remember he was all over Tiger Beat. He was powers of Matthew star. That was oh, powers of Matthew star, that's what I'm Yeah. But that was after, oh, hang on. I was gonna see what he was in before Shirley. Because, Oh, it must have then been Shirley is what led I think that was other things, because he was all over Tiger Beat. He was the Keith Parker,
Carolyn Cochrane 17:10
yeah, he was the Keith Parker's character. Then we had Deborah, she was 16, Rosanna Arquette. And then a young Tracy gold played Michelle. She was eight,
Kristin Nilsen 17:20
so she's the Tracy character. Yes, exactly. Just a
Carolyn Cochrane 17:24
little bit about what happens. They move from New York to Lake Tahoe to start a new life.
Kristin Nilsen 17:28
There's a band
Carolyn Cochrane 17:32
there. Shirley meets stop us if you've heard this before, Ben de Angelo, who was divorced and has two kids, Penny and Mark. Shirley needs some work done around the house. And guess what? Ben is pretty handy. But Can he turn himself into a permanent fixture,
Kristin Nilsen 17:48
Reuben Kincaid, or, I
Carolyn Cochrane 17:50
think, a little bit more permanent than a Reuben, I think, yeah. Or will he lose out to the stable banker of the or the hunky ski instructor who are also after Shirley? Tough one to call. Shirley, though, is easy to call. You can just call her Shirley or you can call her Jones, or you can call her Shirley Jones, or you can go call her Shirley Miller, or you can call her mom, but she doesn't have to call her a partridge in a parody.
Kristin Nilsen 18:21
Oh, two on the nose, NBC, and everyone shows up, waiting for, like, the musical montage. And there's no musical montage. They're like, forget it.
Michelle Newman 18:32
It only aired 13 episodes.
Carolyn Cochrane 18:36
Yeah. Sadly, people like Been there, done that, and there's no Keith partridge. So why? Why
Kristin Nilsen 18:40
Lucas shells
Michelle Newman 18:41
freaking super cute, though.
Carolyn Cochrane 18:44
Yeah, I don't know why. He just never, kind of hung on for a while. I'm pretty sure I would have had his posters. He's always the one. If we post a picture of a Tiger Beat cover, people will be like, Who's that guy in the top corner? He looks vaguely familiar. Who is, I don't know. Sorry. Peter Martin, nice. Him. Couldn't quite get over the hump. Just two other quick things that I had kind of forgotten about TV in general when we were growing up, but particularly in 1979 because it was one of the last years that this actually happened, because cable comes along. But do you remember how theatrical releases would then become movies on our TV screen? So you would get something that had played at the movie theater a year or two before, and then it would be on our television. Yes, obviously heavily cut, but in 1979 that was a year okay for these theatrical releases on TV. We knew from this TV Guide issue that we were going to get Annie Hall Jaws looking for Mr. Goodbar. Whoa. How are they gonna you? Asked me, and we could go on a whole thing about that, because my mom had that. She ordered it in the Book of the Month Club. I can see the cover, and all I could think about was the candy bar. The whole time I would see that thing, like, what I mean? And I knew
Kristin Nilsen 19:54
I was racy. I was like, how could it be racy? It's about a candy bar, right?
Carolyn Cochrane 19:58
Michelle, guess what else we. Got the theatrical release of Benji came on TV for us that year, as did coming home. Do you remember that one? Oh, that was John. Wasn't that John? Boy, wheelchair from boy the Outlaw, Josey Wales and Dog Day Afternoon. I thought that was pretty, pretty amazing. That's like,
Kristin Nilsen 20:17
basically the equivalent of the paperback book coming out. Like, I'm just gonna wait for it to come out on paperback, exactly,
Carolyn Cochrane 20:23
but, gosh, I can't imagine. I mean, obviously commercials were a good opportunity for them to cut. But some of these movies that I know, like looking for Mr. Goodbar, is there even a plot if they had to take stuff out? I don't know. I
Kristin Nilsen 20:34
don't know. You know, what's interesting is that, you know when I'm going, Oh, I remember that one. I remember that does not mean that I saw the show because I didn't know what Shirley was about, but I definitely, I can see the font, I can see the commercial, and I can remember being excited for it. I probably saw the commercial for it, right? It probably all
Carolyn Cochrane 20:52
of these. It was an NBC show. So probably we're watching Little House on the Prairie, and we see the preview. But again, I mean, sometimes these shows, it's just because of what they were put up against that they didn't make it. So surely might have been opposite. You know, I don't know, the lost or Drummond, yeah, or something that we were glued to, and so it didn't get the audience that it needed to stay afloat. So lastly, I wanted to just share a couple of the Made for TV movies that were previewed in this issue. So we got Leslie Ann Warren as the in quotation marks from TV Guide, the stripper with a heart of gold in portrait of a stripper. I remember
Michelle Newman 21:32
when we did our TV movies that tagline. This
Carolyn Cochrane 21:35
was a classic year, because you guys Michelle, we got Scott and Lance and the boy who drank too much. It's one
Michelle Newman 21:42
of the best ones that ever has been iconic. This one
Carolyn Cochrane 21:46
sounds good. This was David Janssen and Susanna York as a policeman and a nun finding love and murder in the Golden Gate murders. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 21:55
the Golden Gate. Oh, give me a good setting. That's a good Ed Asner
Carolyn Cochrane 21:59
paired up with Meredith Baxter in the adultery drama, the family man, the adultery adultery drama. And lastly, I might have to go look this one up. Tom Barringer. Do you guys remember him? Kind of nice looking. It starred Tom Beringer in an adaptation of Pete hamill's flesh and blood as a boxer having an incestuous affair with his mother, Suzanne Bucha.
Kristin Nilsen 22:28
Emily Newhart, no, it's Hartley. It's Bob Newhart. Emily Hartley, anyway, that's sad. I don't want to watch that. No, I don't either.
Carolyn Cochrane 22:36
But I mean, who? How was that? First of all, it was a book, and they thought the book was so good that they're gonna make it into a TV movie. How do you film that? I don't know. That's why I need to go watch it, not because I'm, I mean, I'm kind of, you know, my curiosity is peeps. On a lighter note, I forgot about these are two other ones I'll share. Lee Merriweather, Loretta sweat and Janet Lee. They triode up as an acting trio in the plastic surgery drama, Mirror, mirror.
Kristin Nilsen 23:02
I remember that one too.
Carolyn Cochrane 23:06
And lastly, Cheryl Ladd was in a movie called a new start where she was a child abuser. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 23:12
my God. 1969
Carolyn Cochrane 23:16
stop. Cheryl Ladd a child abuser. That's not gonna work. People, no one's gonna buy that. She did not win the Emmy, as far as I could tell. So that just gives you a little glimpse into how excited we must have been for 1979 because that was a year to behold.
Kristin Nilsen 23:33
It was that, don't you remember? It was super that preview issue would be just Yes, super fat.
Carolyn Cochrane 23:37
So with that in mind, everybody, I am going to start us off with some previews of our upcoming season, maybe not quite as exciting as you know Suzanne Bush being having an affair with her son, the boxer, but nonetheless, they're going to be exciting. And I thought it would be fun if I wrote one of my descriptions in kind of the style of a 70s TV. Good for you. Fantastic. When I say I there's an a in front of it, because I might have gone to like a I'd help me a little bit with this. But here we go. We're going to have an episode about field day. You.
And here's how it would be described in 70s TV Guide style, it's Field Day flashback. Hop in your mental time machine with host Carolyn Kristen and Michelle for this hard hitting docudrama. It's an epic, deep dive into the sun burned, whistle blowing, slightly chaotic glory that was the Gen X Field Day, where sack races ruined friendships, the war shredded palms, and every kid suddenly became an Olympic hopeful in the wheelbarrow. In the wheelbarrow, that's hard to say, in the wheelbarrow. Wheelie. Okay. Expect. Locker room, gossip, cafeteria conspiracy theories and first hand accounts of mysterious injuries caused by flying frisbees and Rogue three legged races. Tune in for this hard hitting expose, where we will uncover was the ribbon for participation, or was it just pity and poignant personal anecdotes, like, Will Carolyn ever forgive Erin for tripping her in the potato sack race of 1978 we've got laughs, grass stains and just enough retro charm to make you smell wet asphalt and off brand Kool Aid. You are not looking forward to our field day flashback episode. What is wrong with you? A little preview taste. Thank you everybody.
Michelle Newman 25:43
We have already gotten some really great stories and memories and and happy memories. Yeah, about to say a lot of painful memories on field day. Yeah, that'll be a fun one. And what if you weren't sporty? Well, I was gonna say, Well, you didn't have to be because I was not sporty and I loved Field Day. We'll talk about that horrible day off from
Kristin Nilsen 26:04
school is always good. Yeah. Okay, so mine is just out of my own mouth and not for the TV Guide. It
Carolyn Cochrane 26:11
will be just as entertaining. I have no doubt this
Kristin Nilsen 26:14
is these. These episodes are being released in the summertime. So as you can tell, we have Field Day, which might be around the last day of school always comes next. Camp comes next. Our next episode was inspired by a phone call I shared with my friend Colleen over 20 years ago, and it started with somebody dropping a line from a song that they learned at camp in the mid 70s. Maybe it was like got this great big hunk of tin, or maybe it was on top of old smokey, or on top of spaghetti, or maybe it was John Jacob jingle Heimer, or maybe it was
Michelle Newman 26:49
just a boy,
Kristin Nilsen 26:54
and lo and behold, the person, the other person, finished the song. We did not go to the same camp, but the other person finished the song. I went to Camp chi when she went to Camp ajua. But little by little, we realized that we knew all the same songs, never having gone to camp together, we spent the next hour and probably like $15 in long distance charges, basically singing camp songs on the phone. That's all we did. We'd be like, do you know this one? Do you know this one? Do you know this one? So if this phenomenon was true for Colleen and me, it certainly means that it is true for our listeners as well. And I have just a little bit of a preview. Do you guys remember this one in a cottage in a wood little man by the window stood saw rabbit hopping by, frightened as could be. Help me. Help me. Help he said, before the hunter shoots me dead, come little bunny, come inside. Happy we will be and that's where you pay your sure
Michelle Newman 27:56
the Help me. Help me. I recognize it now, Kristen that you've got, okay?
Kristin Nilsen 27:59
No, you're welcome. I'm still petting my bunny.
Michelle Newman 28:08
This is not a visual medium, so people are now imagining,
Carolyn Cochrane 28:12
oh, I've got such awful things in my head, but I'm not even gonna say my boys
Michelle Newman 28:17
and girls listening. She has her hand like a little bunny, and she's petting it.
Kristin Nilsen 28:24
Yeah, it comes with hand motions. It's
Carolyn Cochrane 28:26
above the waist. Her hands are above the waist.
Michelle Newman 28:31
Comes with hand motions. Is not a helpful visual. I just thought of a really, really good like, my very favorite camp song ever, and I just wrote it down so I don't forget to mention that episode, because
Kristin Nilsen 28:44
part of the fun is the surprise of it. So in this oftentimes, what we do is we we each choose things that we want to talk about, and then we bring them to the table, and they're all researched and everything. But the element of surprise is really fun when you say, do you remember this one? And then you start singing. So
Michelle Newman 29:00
there's gonna be some singing, and there's gonna be some singing. I want to
Unknown Speaker 29:03
linger a little longer, a
Unknown Speaker 29:07
little longer here with you. It's
Carolyn Cochrane 29:11
such a perfect night. It doesn't seem quite right that it should be my last with
Michelle Newman 29:16
you. Okay, I'm gonna say some things, and I want to see what does it bring to mind? Okay, north and south. Lonesome Dove, rich man, poor man. Salem slot, Shogun, roots, The Thorn Birds. What are we thinking? We are thinking those TV mini series of the late 70s and early 80s that our moms probably were so excited to watch. It's probably the only time my mom, like, was, like, really overly excited about watching TV. And probably there are many series that you know, the couple years before we had all seen our moms with the giant paperback, giant, Oh, yeah. Yeah, well, all of them, I think my mom, I have memories of my mom reading all those I remember. And when we did our roller rink episode, Christian was like, my mom was just sitting there reading, like The Thorn Birds or something. While I was roller skating, she wasn't
Carolyn Cochrane 30:13
roller skating. She was reading hats off to our moms, because those paperbacks of the 70s and 80s and 80s and Kristen, you would probably know when they transitioned over they were so the point size was so small, the paper was so super, like newspaper, thin, dark, thinner, like tissue paper, almost that if it got wet, because you'd read it at the beach and then got all wet in the tub, yeah, oh, yeah, or in the tub, that's right. But God bless those women and that, like, round thing at the grocery store that they would be on there.
Kristin Nilsen 30:45
Yeah, the spinner. Those are called mass market paperbacks, and it's interesting, because some of those shows are very grown up, and so maybe we were allowed to watch them, and maybe we weren't, but we certainly got little snippets, because they were on for what, four nights in a row.
Carolyn Cochrane 30:59
Yeah, and I couldn't, like, you couldn't bother mom. No, I remember I was encouraged to watch roots. Like, that's when I do remember. That's like, probably the oh, well, we'll talk about, never mind everyone. That's your little sneak peek when Carolyn will go off on another tangent. Yeah, that's what our shows are about. Okay, I've got the next one. So this is another 1970s TV Guide sounding description of our episode that is going to be about night games and neighborhood games, okay? And we're going to call it street light showdown. Oh, that's right, that's good, okay? Before smartphones tick tock and doorbell cams ruined our fun. There were night games, the original social network powered by lightning bugs, BMX bikes, and the knowledge that you had to be home when the street lights came on or else join host Carolyn Kristen and Michelle as they relive the golden age of kick the can, diplomacy, flashlight tag, warfare and hide and seek treaties forged in backyards, bushes and behind that one weird neighbor's shed. It was a time when your whole block was your playground, your curfew was a vague suggestion, and someone's older brother was always the unofficial game commissioner and probable cheater. So tune in for these thrilling tales of mistaken identities during sardines scandalous flashlight sabotage and the great sprinkler truce of 1981 will also expose the real reason that Carolyn always picked bass by the rose bush, whether you were the stealthy seeker, the base hogging blocker or the kid who always mysteriously had To, in quotation marks, go home for dinner right before clean up right this pod, it's got your name written in sidewalk chalk.
Michelle Newman 32:51
What did you type in to get that? I
Carolyn Cochrane 32:54
gotta say, sometimes it's AI and stuff is very helpful. And I think I'm gonna always stump it like, how is it gonna know what I even mean here? So, for instance, I wrote, write a podcast description in the style of a 1970s TV Guide episode description of a, you know, basically, of a podcast episode about Gen X night games, and make it funny with some wordplay. I think something like that is what I said. You have to be just as creative with what you're asking it to do. So I think that's a skill in and of itself. Yes, I'm gonna pat myself on the back for that one. I think
Kristin Nilsen 33:31
it's funny, because as soon as you said something about the weird neighbors shed in my head, I was like, Oh, that was base. That was definitely base. And base is not a word that we use anymore, right? Do kids have anything with their with base?
Carolyn Cochrane 33:44
And why did we choose some of the bases that we might have chosen behind there? And there would
Kristin Nilsen 33:50
always be here we are going into the episode like, you would be on base, and somebody would tag you and say you're out and you're like, base. Yeah, I'm touching the shed right now. I'm touching the shed. Okay, in our next episode, we talk about a lot of music on this podcast, songs we listen to on the radio, the albums we bought with our allowances, but there was music in our houses, and music we heard was not necessarily of our choosing, because we didn't pipe the music directly into our ears the way that we do today, we had to play it in the living room. If you didn't have a turntable in your room, you were playing it in the living room. And that's what our parents were doing, because they're Remember, your parents didn't have a turntable in their bedroom, their turntable was in the living room. So listening to music was kind of a public thing. So we all knew what other people in our family liked. And there was something that was true in our household, and I wanted to see if it was true in Carolyn and Michelle's households too. And that was that my parents loved Broadway musical soundtracks, and there were some biggies when we were growing up. And when I asked this question of Carolyn, Michelle, did your parents listen to Broadway musical soundtracks? They both were like, oh. Hell yes. So just listeners. Right now, I just want you to take a moment and try to catalog the musicals that your parents listen to in your house. Don't say them out loud. No, don't say Don't say them out loud.
Michelle Newman 35:14
I'm putting my fingers over on your mouth. Yeah, I know that. So that's coming up. That'll be a good one.
Unknown Speaker 35:22
Sunset, that was
Carolyn Cochrane 35:24
what I danced to. Oh, and then my wedding. Well, I
Michelle Newman 35:29
know them well, because I not only sang them all, I acted them all out.
Kristin Nilsen 35:33
Well, that's huge. That is because you were in your bedroom acting it out. Nobody even knew. Oh yeah. It was amazing. Okay, so the next topic that we have, I've been wanting to do this one. Do this one for a long time. There's something that existed in the 70s that is really gone, gone, gone. It is gone like the wind. It's a thing of the past, but it was something that really hooked you in a very unique way, and that is that the 1970s was the golden age of the story song, think cats in the cradle, a song that told a complete story with a beginning, a middle and an end. We covered a couple of these in our sad songs episode called I'm not crying. You are crying because most of those these story songs are sad. Oh, they're terribly tragic. They're devastating. Some of them are just devastating. I'm trying to think of one with a happy ending, but I really can't. I really can't. In that episode, I think it was Carolyn talked about the song Lonely Boy by Andrew gold, the first line of the whole song. He was born on a summer day 1951 I was born on a summer day 1951 I mean, that's the beginning of a story, right there. Yeah. And it's just so sad. His mother and father said, what a lovely boy. We'll teach him what we learned. Oh yes, just what we learned. We'll dress him up warmly and we'll send him to school. I'll teach him how to fight a bee. Nobody's Fool. And then, of course, what happens is, his mother brings home his baby sister. And
Carolyn Cochrane 36:54
what did he do? He ran down the hall and cried, because how could his mother
Kristin Nilsen 36:57
have lied? His parents have lied. He said, When they said he was their only son, he thought he was their only one.
Michelle Newman 37:04
I have so many good ones, but I'm saving them for the saving,
Carolyn Cochrane 37:07
saving, saving, yes, yes. Please listen you guys, because I'm going to tell you exactly what the lonely boy's house looked like, because I That's how specific I get in my mind. When he's running down that hall, I can tell you how long the hall is, how many doors
Kristin Nilsen 37:21
pass through storytelling at its finest. I mean, we're talking about a tradition that comes from basically like Shakespearean times. This is, you know, people would stand in the square with their loot and sing a story, and we're hooked in a different way. When a song tells a story like this, it taps into our emotions in a different way. And except for, like, I was trying to think, I'm wondering if that's why I don't connect with music right now as much, because it's not really telling a story. Except for, think about the success of pink pony club by chapel Roan, pink pony club, and she's even like, Oh, mama. Like she's even singing to her mom and everything. So it maybe that's why people are connecting to pink pony club. So hard is because chapel Roan is telling us a story.
Michelle Newman 38:05
Yeah? Taylor Swift has some good story songs. Yeah, for sure, yeah. She has some stories in
Kristin Nilsen 38:11
there too, on the stage,
Unknown Speaker 38:15
in my heels, it's where I belong down at the
Kristin Nilsen 38:22
pink Okay,
Michelle Newman 38:25
I'm gonna quickly just go through two that we're gonna do one we've talked about for, probably since season one or Season Two. It cracks us up every time. I already feel like this episode is going to go off the rails, much like our dynamite episode went off the rails, because anytime we start mimicking it or talking about it, we laugh until we pee. We're all gonna finally watch again the episode of chips with the roller disco, and we're just gonna kind of recap it, and that's it. That's all we're gonna do. And it's bringing us so much joy just imagining that we're going to do it, that I don't know if we'll be the only ones. I think what's going to happen is, about two weeks before that episode is going to air, we're going to give everyone a heads up, probably via social media, and say, just watch it, because then this episode, you'll have so much more joy, right? If you're if you're knowing everything. So that's going to be really fun. I'm not even going to go into any more detail about it then, because detail about it then, because,
Kristin Nilsen 39:24
I mean, the title says it all the chips roller disco episode. Yeah, it's
Michelle Newman 39:27
who's at the disco. That's everything that's, that's, that's 99.9%
Carolyn Cochrane 39:34
of it. Is there a plot? Sure, is there, like a murder I don't remember. There's a plot to that episode. There doesn't need to be I'm sorry. It's gonna be so good. I'm already laughing. I'm having a diaper on that one.
Kristin Nilsen 39:55
So I guarantee our next topic will be a hoosker do moment for a lot of you. A little romance is a 1979 movie starring Laurence Olivier and a 13 year old Diane Lane in her film debut. And now everybody's going like they're just barely remember, get just a little taste of it like I think I remember it. A little romance was about a French boy and an American girl who meet in Paris and begin a teen romance that leads them to run away. They're gonna run away together to Venice so they can experience their first kiss beneath the bridge of size at sunset. Because Laurence Olivier is like their he's like their not their Svengali. He's their guru. I don't know he's their old man. Laurence Olivier is their old man Sherpa. Yeah, he's the romance Sherpa, and he has told them of a tradition that if a couple kiss in a gondola beneath the bridge of size in Venice at sunset, while the church bells toll, there are a lot of factors, they will be in love forever. It was a very quiet movie. I don't think it got a very wide release, and the critics were not kind, but kids and teens loved it, obviously, obviously. And there's a reason we're discussing this movie, and that's because the following episode, the next week, we'll be having a very teen romance focused book
Michelle Newman 41:18
club, and we will be sharing some of your very own real life crush stories. We're not talking about when you crushed on Sean Cassidy or when you crushed on Leif Garrett or Davy Jones or whoever it was. This is the real person. This is, this is what then transpired next, right? And we're doing this for a reason, because this is Episode will air the week that the Scott Fenwick diaries is released the Scott Fenwick diaries, which is the sequel, the follow up to worldwide crush, both by Kristen Nielsen, by local author, Kristen. So not only are we going to be sharing the real life crushes, we're going to talk to Kristen about how those stories that we've had, that we've collected, how they relate to the Scott Fenwick diaries. She's going to be sharing some of the Scott finwick Diaries, and it's just going to be a crushy Licious episode. I said crushylicious, but crush delicious, yeah. I mean, we all have them, right? We all have that first read, oh,
Carolyn Cochrane 42:19
I remember crush I remember first and last names. I almost think I want to say them, because I want some listener to go. I'm married to Doug Irwin or something. And like, you know, my third grade crush, his dad was a sheriff with
Michelle Newman 42:33
mine. I'm still friends with mine. Mine ended up marrying my best friend. Oh yeah, I think we know that, but that'll be a fun story. So every day, but they're still they're still friendly. So no, it's fine. It's all good. So they didn't kiss
Kristin Nilsen 42:44
under the bridge of size. I guess none of what have lasted apparently, not that
Michelle Newman 42:48
would have been, that would have been the key. Yeah, so that'll be super fun. So I'm excited about this season, and I wanted to just give you guys a little bit of an insight, because we often have people that ask us, How do you come up with these How do you come up with each season, 10 topics. And you might think it's really difficult, and it is really difficult because we have an excess, because it's like, it's like, there's too many, right? We have a very long shared list, but we also have people that are constantly giving us ideas that are so good, but when we finally come down to the 10. We also are really cognizant of not having, you know, six episodes that are about a TV show, or seven episodes all about music. So we're also trying to split things up and and then there's some, like, chips disco that were like, you guys, finally, this is the season that it's getting put in. So there's kind of a lot of factors involved. There's a lot of, you know, there's vials and adding machines and, yeah, abacuses, yeah. But there's no that
Kristin Nilsen 43:50
when you because a lot of people send us ideas, please know that when you send us an idea, it goes on the list. Oh, yeah, so what? And sometimes it pops up a year later, two years later, three years later, just know that it gets it gets put in the bowl, and eventually it will get drawn out. If you don't hear from us and it doesn't happen, don't think that we rolled our eyes at you and walked away. It's on the list. It's on the list. Yeah.
Michelle Newman 44:12
So, yeah. So starting next week, you can start looking forward to these episodes, the beginning
Kristin Nilsen 44:19
of season 16.
Michelle Newman 44:20
Get excited. Summer 25 season 16. Thank you everyone for listening today, and we hope you'll be back next week as we start season 16, and all these fun conversations will be happening. Thank you
Kristin Nilsen 44:37
so much for listening, everybody, and we will see you next week for season 16. Shall we toast? Yes. In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast. Courtesy of the cast of Three's Company, two good times, two Happy
Michelle Newman 44:49
Days, Two Little House
Carolyn Cochrane 44:51
on the Prairie cheers, the information,
Michelle Newman 44:53
opinions
Kristin Nilsen 44:55
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. Nano. Nano, keep on trucking and may the Force be with you. You.