Top 10 Pop Culture Moments of the GenX Era
Kristin Nilsen 0:00
Ask us tomorrow what would be on this list, and it might change, and you will definitely be like, hey, yeah, where is fill in the blank?
Michelle Newman 0:07
Where is Walnut Grove blowing? Where is Danny in the flying car?
Kristin Nilsen 0:12
You're gonna be pissed about all of it. I'm just warning you right now.
Speaker 1 0:18
Hello World. Is a song that we're singing, come on, get happy. This what we'll be bringing we'll make you happy.
Michelle Newman 0:33
Welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society, the podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who grew up wearing tough skins, Oshkosh, bagash and cords from the gap, the old gap, in all lowercase letters.
Carolyn Cochrane 0:49
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.
Kristin Nilsen 1:00
And today, we'll be saving the top 10 Gen X moments of all time in a completely unscientific but possibly definitive list compiled by us, your pop culture preservationists, after five years of swimming in the Gen X soup that is the pop culture Preservation Society. I'm Carolyn, I'm
Michelle Newman 1:17
Kristin, and I'm Michelle, and we are your pop culture preservationists.
Kristin Nilsen 1:24
Today, we're celebrating what we've learned after five years of creating episodes and social media posts and meeting our listeners and reading your comments and messages, that is an education that could not be replicated by many people, and even though we have always claimed to be experts in the pop culture of our Gen X youth after this five year intensive educational experience, we can really and truly claim that we know how our generation felt about what they were watching, reading, listening to and playing with when they were children in the 70s and 80s. We are the experts in you. And on November 7, 2025 to celebrate the five year anniversary of the PCPs, we went to the Jason show, The Daily pop culture talk show hosted by Jason Matheson that is based here in the Twin Cities, but it airs in like 40 cities around the nation. So we went to them, and we said, hey, listen, we have a list, and it's a list that could only be compiled by people who were born in the big wheel generation and have spent the last five years studying Gen Xers and the pop culture of their childhood. We call it the top 10 Gen X moments of all time, as determined by us after five years of asking questions and researching episodes and polling our listeners and followers, these are the top 10 moments we have found our people really like to talk about and they said yes, because Jason loves pop culture and he is our age mate, so we had to go on TV and reveal the top 10 Gen X moments of all time.
Michelle Newman 2:52
Yeah, Jason's, like, our honorary little brother. I think he's like, five years younger than me or something like that. He's our little Gen X brother. Yeah, we like to call him Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 3:00
And he gets so excited about this stuff, so that is just makes it so much fun to chat with him. He just loves anything pop culture, but particularly stuff that happened in our Gen X job. It's in the 80s for him.
Michelle Newman 3:13
Yeah, I think, like us and like many of our listeners, Jason isn't afraid to show and express joy and unapologetic enthusiasm, yeah, these pop culture moments that defined us, right? A lot of people are like, Yeah, I read 17 Magazine, and that's when you're like, you should be a little bit more excited about that, right?
Kristin Nilsen 3:33
Some people are just like, That was then, this is now.
Michelle Newman 3:37
But we get really excited about it, and it's to us, it's joyful, the nostalgia of all this. And Jason's like that too, and we could hang with him for hours. Unfortunately, when we're on the show, we get, like, I don't know, 2.8 minutes with him.
Kristin Nilsen 3:52
It's not Yeah, it is. It is not enough. And so that's why we're doing this today. We're revealing this list for you today because we didn't have the opportunity to go deep on the show because of our 2.8 seconds that we had. I also want to add that Jason is not just on the Jason show. You can also catch him on the radio. He's on my talk, 107, and you can get that on, I don't know your I Heart Radio, whatever. Like you can stream it is it would you
Michelle Newman 4:19
just go, Well, I know, like, I mean, for, you know, the 22 years I lived in Minneapolis, that was my that was, like, the only radio morning I listened to, yeah, it was also my afternoon. But Jason and Alexis, for sure, were my morning.
Carolyn Cochrane 4:30
Yeah, you know, now that we're in the entertainment biz ourselves, I just have to tell you how much I truly appreciate Jason's skills. Like, you know, when we're on, it is a live production, people, it is, at least in the Twin Cities, and some of those 40 cities you talked about. It is happening live. So you can't say, oh, let me start over. Or you can't spell a random Oh, fuck, or something like that. He's just so good at keeping the conversation going. You know, he's listening to you. He's engaged. Engaged, and he kind of he knows his shit enough that he just knows when to kind of end the conversation, because commercials coming up and all of that. I was just so amazed when I think about it's a skill. Yeah? Is because think about how many times I'm going, like, Hold on, let me think of what I want to say, Yeah, but he just knows what he wants to say, and he doesn't know what we're gonna say. So it's really that spontaneous.
Kristin Nilsen 5:23
And there's a closing there's a clock that is counting down to when the commercial goes and he has to, like, get our information and comment on it and send us off into commercials to be quiet so
Carolyn Cochrane 5:33
he can talk. That might be. So just shout out to Jason and his talk show skills.
Michelle Newman 5:42
Yeah, he's super seamless. I mean, he's been doing this for decades, yeah, and we've only been doing it for five years. You know, to be fair, he is this is what he was made to do, yeah, yeah. He's so great on the radio. But I love watching him. I love watching him on camera like he's, this is what he was made to do. So, yeah, it's fun. And it's also fun to be like, to know Him now he's so he's, he's the coolest
Kristin Nilsen 6:10
So, and seeing how the sausage is made, being on that side of the camera, yeah, is so fun, because then you see that he has a clock. When you're watching TV, you just see Jason Matheson talking. You don't know that there's a little clock counting down to when the commercial is coming. That is so stressful. No kidding, how do you how do you live like that?
Michelle Newman 6:27
I have no idea. Well, and when he's talking to us and listening to us, and He truly is, he also has someone talking in his earpiece, oh, my telling him, yes, those things, you know, like, that's gonna, I can't, I can't imagine it be like, you know, multitasking like that is crazy.
Kristin Nilsen 6:44
So this was an incredible experience. They they loved the fact that we had this list. They're like, yes, please come on and share this list. But we also want to make sure that you know that we're talking about Gen X moments, right? And it is subjective. We are three people with three opinions. Ask us tomorrow what would be on this list, and it might change, and you will definitely be like, hey, yeah, where is fill in the blank?
Michelle Newman 7:10
Where is Dan in the flying car?
Kristin Nilsen 7:13
You're gonna be pissed about all of it. I'm just warning you right now. So when I say Definitive, I'm saying it with quotations around it.
Michelle Newman 7:21
We could, we could, you know, in two seasons from now, have another episode just like this, and have 10 totally different moments that were probably every bit as big.
Kristin Nilsen 7:28
Absolutely, these are 10 of the biggest moments. Absolutely, we could do another list next week. Yeah. Okay, so are you ready? Drum roll please. It is now time to reveal what we three pop preservationists have deemed the top 10 Gen X moments of all time, until we make another list. Here we go in the number 10 spot.
Michelle Newman 7:52
Okay, number 10 was a tie, but I combined them into one because they're basically the same thing, and because this is our list, and I can do that, and that is something we are still going to be talking about even more in depth later this season, but that's the workout fads of the 80s, courtesy of Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons, because
Kristin Nilsen 8:14
I feel like we should applaud right there. James Simmons, let's just call it Jane Simmons, yeah. Thank you to Jane Simmons, yeah.
Michelle Newman 8:21
We need to come up with a Yeah, a little name, a combo, name of them, jired, I don't know, because, you know, let's be real. Everyone the 80s, they didn't just get people moving. Fitness was a full blown spectacle. Like, Forget quiet mindfulness, like we have now, like yoga. The Workout fads of the 80s were all about neon sweat and unfiltered enthusiasm. Richard Simmons enthusiasm, yeah, the fitness of the 80s, it exploded right out of gyms and straight into our living rooms. Because all you needed you needed a VHS player, you needed some leg warmers, and you needed a sweat band to keep your giant bangs out of your face, right? You put it right under your bangs. You hold them up, sure it Yeah, so they stay curled, yes, right? Like, sort of stay straight up and then curled, yeah. And as we know, at the center of it all, and who really was the pioneer of all of this was Jane Fonda and her workout videos. They didn't just launch a fitness craze. I really think they created this entire movement. And like we mentioned, you know, back in our season preview episode, Carolyn, I think you reminded us that they they didn't start as videos. They started as an album, correct?
Carolyn Cochrane 9:40
Crazy, yeah. And I think I remember checking mine out at the library. Yes, exactly. And you can just see her. I can just see her on the cover of the album. I think she's like, on her side, those, those
Kristin Nilsen 9:54
scissor legs, remember, she has the two legs up in the air, and she, yeah,
Michelle Newman 9:59
can all see it. Yeah. Yeah, and they were
Kristin Nilsen 10:00
so straight and long, they were beautiful. And the enthusiasm, you're right, for both of these people, it was not mindfulness, it was enthusiasm. And so much so that when we did Jane Fonda Workout tape in our dorm room, we called it Jane on cocaine, because you had to be like, yeah, what you
Michelle Newman 10:16
guys, they're kind of hard. I was watching one recently, and it's, it's hard. I don't know if I could do it. I don't know. I know I used to do I'm I remember one called buns of steel, but that was the early 90s, and my mom would come over to my apartment, and we would do that that killed like you could not walk the next day. Your glutes were just all twisted up like a little rubber band. Well, then, of course, there was Richard Simmons rip and he was the glitter covered counterpart to Jane Fonda. She was kind of cool, even though she was she, I don't know just the her mannerisms and the way she led that instruction was very Jane Fonda. It was just very dignified. Thank you. Dignified is great. Richard Simmons, it was like Jane inspired the discipline, and Richard radiated like crazy joy. His workouts were loud. They were loving because he was very encouraging and supportive. They were gloriously unpolished. He did high kicks. He just was constantly supporting and encouraging you. And he built many of his workouts around oldies music, which really then made space for everyone. Because in Richard Simmons well, and in Jane Fonda's too, there was no judgment, there was no intimidation. It was all just movement, sweat and, you know, leg warmer space.
Kristin Nilsen 11:40
It was for the every spandex I do feel like that sweat into the oldies was targeting like, hey, yeah, you Grandma, you get and by then, that was a 50 year old, Hey, Grandma, get up off the couch. We know you've put on 30 pounds since you were in college, but get up here and sweat to the oldies with me well.
Michelle Newman 11:55
And there were huge cruises like they had, yeah, it was dedicated to this so, and I think it had just a lot to do with, you know, Richard Simmons let his freak flag fly, yes, wonderfully and furiously. Let me see if I can do that. His freak flag fly furiously. And, like I just said, the radical self acceptance totally from him, yes, just, you know, these are all people like, maybe, if you were a little overweight, or in this culture, we were living in of SlimFast and, you know, tab, when I say a little overweight, you probably, you know, were five six and weighed 105 pounds, but you didn't dare, maybe step foot in a gym, and then you had that like Olivia Newton, John stuff, you just, you were, You wanted to stay in your house. So this made it so this make fitness so accessible. Fitness so many people.
Kristin Nilsen 12:47
Yeah, fitness came fitness
Michelle Newman 12:49
came home. Yes,
Kristin Nilsen 12:50
yeah. And remember, before we had sweat into the oldies, Richard Simmons had a TV show, that's right, you did aerobics with his show like it. It's on at 230 it's time to put on your gym shorts,
Michelle Newman 13:02
your dolphin shorts, that's right, yeah, your little striped dolphin shorts.
Kristin Nilsen 13:07
I'd love to see a timeline on that to see where the show came and where workout tapes.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:13
Well, I'll assign that to you for our Thank you. Perfect for our episode. That's yeah, for
Kristin Nilsen 13:19
Let's Get Physical episode, because there's a lot more. You can tell we're holding back here. We want to say so much more, but there, but we've got to save it for the episode. Gotta save it for the episode. We'll save it.
Michelle Newman 13:29
So that was number 10. That was number 10. Hey, there. It's me.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:33
Richard Simmons, Listen, are you sick and tired of boring look alike exercise videos with synthesized elevator music and a lineup of leotard class, different wives. Well, if you are Honey, have I got the cure for you?
Michelle Newman 13:48
Okay, coming in at number nine is one I personally think should have been higher, but I'm fine. Fine with it. I'm fine. And that's the famous lift from Dirty Dancing. Because that lift is not just a dance move, you guys, it is a full blown pop culture milestone. We can all picture it right when baby runs and leaps and lands those like hip bones perfectly in Johnny's hands and he lifts her, and she the arms go out, and she's looking up like she's supposed to. It crystallizes everything.
Kristin Nilsen 14:23
I just got nipple lining. Yes, I'm sorry. Have to interrupt you. I just got in and we're not even looking at it. We're just talking about it.
Michelle Newman 14:29
It crystallizes everything Gen X loves about movies from that era. It's the romance, it's risk, it's transformation and a killer soundtrack, and that can change your life, but that lift, it's the payoff of that entire story that we've all been invested in the whole time. It's baby finding her confidence. It's Johnny trusting her, it's both of them defying expectations in front of a crowd in kellerman's but in the movie theater that did not see it coming. Thing. I mean, Dirty Dancing was a long before wicked, but you might say that leap taught us to defy gravity.
Kristin Nilsen 15:13
Thank you. And it's, this is a good example of pointing out that this is a moment, right. You could, you could argue, even though Dirty Dancing was huge, it was ginormous. But you could argue that there are bigger movies. Grease was a bigger movie, but this moment, it's this lift is was the thing that made the culture hold its breath for a moment. And if it can happen to JENNIFER GRAY, it can happen for
Michelle Newman 15:35
me too well, because what made it even more iconic is how deeply it escaped the screen, right? That lift launched millions of living room reenactments between people that should not have been trying to do that lift, weddings, wedding dance attempts, most of which ended without the same success, right, and the same grace that JENNIFER GRAY did. But I just think that it became shorthand for like trust, but I think it's more cinematic romance. I don't know it was so romantic that whole last dance and scene, and it's been referenced and parodied, recreated in countless TV shows, and
Carolyn Cochrane 16:16
just a silhouette of that moment, that's all you need, and everyone knows exactly what it is, and you get the nipple lightning and all that stuff. How many movies or anything can you just have this one little snippet, a silhouette? You don't even need faces. That's a
Kristin Nilsen 16:33
great litmus test. Actually. If you can do it in silhouette and have everybody know what it is, then that's iconic, right?
Michelle Newman 16:39
It's even people who have never seen that movie, know the lift, yeah, yeah, it's that moment, and it's proof that, like what you said, a moment like that, that can be such a pop culture milestone, especially if it's backed by a great song, yeah, like that. But it embeds itself permanently into pop culture, and it stays there for decades, forever, and
Kristin Nilsen 17:01
it can grow. I mean, you you see now Jen's ears trying to do the lift on social media like it maybe was gone for a while, but then these things that are iconic, they start to bubble up again. And if somebody younger grabs on to it, that's when you know that something really has true staying power, that that's how important it was, when people who never experienced it the first time around are grabbing onto it.
Michelle Newman 17:23
It's current today. I was just watching the latest, not really proud of this, but just watching the latest season of Emily in Paris over the holiday break, and in one of the first few episodes, there's the lift, you know, oh, my left comes to be, yeah. So, so it's still, it's still going on, and that was from what 1987 687, one of the two, yeah, yeah. So definitely deserves a place on this top 10 List. Like I said, I don't know about nine, but definitive.
Kristin Nilsen 17:53
So definitive. Who made the order in the number eight spot? We have the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack dominated the number one spot on the album chart for a record breaking six months in 1977 and 1978 we're not talking on the charts for six months. No, no, it was number one in the number one spot for six months. And just think of what that means for our culture, right? It was it was everything. It was everywhere. It was what we listened to, it was what we wore. It was how we combed our hair. It was what we did with our bodies. It was the culture. It was the entire culture for six months, at a number one level, at the number one intensity, for six months, even if you'd never seen the movie. Yeah, it doesn't matter if you haven't seen the movie, even if you hated the bee. Gees, it doesn't matter. It's everywhere. It flooded the zone, and suddenly every artist had to have a disco hit because they were chasing Saturday Night Fever. So the Rolling Stones had miss you. Kiss had what is that one that kiss had? Was made for love. Mickey Mouse disco. Come on, you guys. Mickey Mouse had a disco hit. Every TV show incorporated a lighted dance floor at some point,
Michelle Newman 19:13
Sesame Street. There's a whole Sesame Street disco.
Kristin Nilsen 19:18
Yes, some you know, there was a lighted dance floor everywhere. That was not a thing prior to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. So again, even if you ever saw the movie, even if you never saw the movie, you know that lighted dance floor from the album cover, and that lighted dance floor was something that the director knew from some supper club in Alabama when he was growing up and his parents would go out dancing that was a one off thing from like, the 50s, and he's like, I'm gonna make it and I'm gonna put that in my disco movie. And now suddenly, the Acapulco Lounge has a lighted dance floor. Or the California Highway Patrol and their roller disco fundraiser, they have a lighted. Dance floor. It was like the air we breathed. And no matter what your opinion on that is, the fact is that it happened,
Carolyn Cochrane 20:09
yes, and think about it now, there's, I can't think of anything that everybody would know about. I mean to me, this would be a thing my grandmother would know about it, and all of her friends and all of my friends and my mom's friends, and it was like you could not escape it, and you could just say it, and everybody knew what you were talking about and referring to. And I don't think there's anything pop culture or otherwise that right now you could say to some, to, you know, a group of people, and every single person would know exactly what you were talking about, it's just again, another example of we're losing these moments that can we all share, not just a generation like ours together, but it brought multiple generations, brought everybody together.
Kristin Nilsen 20:54
You the child, the grandchild, and your grandma both knew what was happening when there was a lighted dance floor on Barnaby Jones
Michelle Newman 21:04
that's a really good barometer for most of the things on this list. I would say most of the things on this list, and I think we might have done this a little bit unintentionally, maybe, maybe not, but that if you didn't see the TV show, we're talking about the movie, whatever you could take one thing from it, the lift, the lighted dance floor, or whatever. And even if, even if you were, you know, 85 years old, or no matter what generation you were from, even if it wasn't, you weren't that target demographic of that movie, of that album, you know what it is that's, there might be a couple on this list. That's a stretch, but I think for most of them, that that's kind of the good test of these long, lasting, impactive, impactful pop culture moments,
Kristin Nilsen 21:51
because they were everywhere and not just in the place where you saw them. It was more than even if you didn't have the soundtrack. You knew what it was, you heard it on the radio, or your friend had it, or your child had it, or your grandchild had it, or you saw the lighted dance floor on TV, right? It's you didn't have to have gone to see the movie or own the soundtrack yourself. Unlike today, where you can't pick up on other people's likes and dislikes, you just don't have access to it. Yeah? Now something that big with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, right? And so when something gets that big, there has to be a backlash. Whew, and it was swift, and it was bad, and we've talked about it a lot in in a lot of different episodes, actually, and the poor Bee Gees were like, well, we didn't do anything I know, and they were hated by a population of people, and there were lots of different reasons for that, and they didn't deserve it, but that's kind of what happens when something gets that big, yeah, but they have been the Bee Gees are definitely redeemed, and they was wherever they I
Carolyn Cochrane 22:57
think, legendary movie, everything has been redeemed and for that, and I just had to live through that. You know, those poor people, yeah, again, right?
Kristin Nilsen 23:07
Some people who created something so amazing had to be, had to be bashed like that. Is so sad. We love you, Barry. Gibb
Speaker 1 23:19
your eyes in the morning sun, I feel you touch me in the pouring rain. And the moment that you wonder, I want to bring you in my arms again,
Kristin Nilsen 23:31
okay, in the number seven spot. Here's a moment for you, and we all remember it. Fonzie jumped the shark on September 20, 1977 wearing shorts and a leather jacket
Michelle Newman 23:44
and wait and the light, the life preserver, the life vest, was just one of those that went around his waist, just a little waist belt, one
Kristin Nilsen 23:52
of the first safety things. Yeah, for safety, so leather jacket, shorts and life jacket around his waist for safety and TV would never be the same TV would never be the same, because now jumping the shark became a part of our lexicon, and it came to refer to a show that does something outlandish to recapture your attention as it enters its decline. But as we know, this was a misnomer, because Happy Days was at number one. They were nowhere near declining it. They weren't doing it for ratings. They weren't doing it because they were in decline. They went on to be number one for like five, six years after that. So it's just it was only in retrospect that they grabbed that term, and the reason that they did it again was not because the show was in decline, but because Henry Winkler's dad is a stage mom, and apparently Henry Winkler was a water ski instructor at a summer camp when he was a teenager, and so his dad was like, have you told them yet that you know how to water ski? And this is, this is a quote from Henry Winkler. You can, you can hear him rolling his eyes. And. He's like every day for years. Tell Gary Marshall, did you water ski, dad? I don't think I'm gonna do that. No, no, tell him, you water ski. It's very important. I finally tell Gary My father wants you to know I water ski. Yeah. And so they create this episode, and truthfully, everybody on the show was a little bit like, you guys, what's going on? Why are we doing this? But we showed up, we were like, Oh my God, he's jumping over a shark. And remember, this is just two years after jaws.
Michelle Newman 25:34
Do you guys remember too that, like, the the promo for it, and he's jumping off the ramp, and it's like, and then it would just kind of freeze.
Kristin Nilsen 25:42
We had his leather jacket and his bare legs,
Michelle Newman 25:46
if you I, we've said this a whole bunch of times listeners, but please, if you listen to any memoir, listen to Henry Winkler's him reading it and telling that story is just gold.
Carolyn Cochrane 25:57
So funny, so good. It's so good. Gosh, and just the whole jumping over things was so weird. Yes, that Daredevil kind of stuff. Yeah, it
Kristin Nilsen 26:11
was all thanks to Evel Knievel. I think he started it, and then everybody else was like, I want to jump over something like, do your
Carolyn Cochrane 26:18
husband's well, it doesn't have to be just guys, but Andy talks about this, but they would do that like in the front yard.
Michelle Newman 26:26
Yes, most dangerous, yes, Brian on his bike again, yeah.
Kristin Nilsen 26:31
Gen X, Gen X parenting, right? Yeah. And this became something that Henry Winkler actually embraced, even though it was supposed to be an insult, that somebody is jumping the shark, but they were. He refers to it in when you see Henry Winkler on Arrested Development 30 years later, in the early 2000s where he's playing, where he's playing the lawyer, Barry Zucker corn, and there is a moment where Henry Winkler jumps over a shark on the dock, like there's this little fish thing on the dock, and he's like, Oops, and he just jumps over it, like, like, a little one footed jump, like, oh, just gotta jump the shot. And all a good sport about and we all knew, like, all of us are we see that moment, and we know immediately what he's doing, and we are dying laughing. Yeah, yeah. And that's one of those moments we I use this as an example all the time, how we, as a culture, as kids like we did so many things together, so when Fonzie jumped that shark, we all showed up at school the next day talking about how Fonzie jumped the shark. It was a very bonding moment. It was a very bonding moment.
Speaker 1 27:33
Step out of it. Rich, Fonz is gonna jump over a shark. I don't get it, okay? Rich, read my lips. Fonzie wants you. The California kids challenge him and they're gonna jump over shark, then you get to drive Fonzie shark.
Michelle Newman 27:47
Is he crazy? Okay, so the sixth item on our list is unquestionably cringy in today's world, but in 1988 this was cause for an enormous on air celebration. Oddly, I'm talking about when Oprah Winfrey sucked into size 10 jeans, wheeled out 67 pounds of animal fat in a wagon on The Oprah Winfrey Show to illustrate how much weight she lost in four months on Optifast
Kristin Nilsen 28:18
four months. Oh, my God. 67 pounds.
Michelle Newman 28:23
She'd lost the weight courtesy of liquid diet. She actually said in an interview, for four solid months, I didn't need a single morsel of food. When I started Optifast in July, 1988 I was at 212 pounds. By fall, I weighed 145 pounds. I know. I think, I think a lot of these back in the 80s, and this kind of goes with the whole fitness craze and everything we're gonna be talking about, I think a lot of them have big regrets of what they did and how they did and how they promoted it, the wagon full of fat on the show. And you guys can picture her. She was like, in those jeans, she she had the black turtleneck on and the belt, and she was so proud when she pulled that wagon of fat out, and it instantly became a shocking it was visual, right? And it was very, it was a very unforgettable pop culture spectacle and moment, because she turned this personal struggle she'd been having often on her whole life, into a very public conversation, and it reframed how we viewed weight and body image big time and not in a healthy or positive or lasting way. We now know like, how many people, though, watched her do that and were like, I'm gonna drink Optifast for four months. I knew a lot of people who did, yeah, when we did Jason show actually, and mentioned this because Jason adores Oprah, and he said, she has said, he said, she said, this is, I'm getting my I'm referencing Jason here that she has said pretty much. And she walked backstage after that taping and took those jeans off. She was never able to get them on again, like she gained two pounds already, like that day. And interestingly, this, this whole stunt is her biggest on air regret. She I also read an interview with her where she says, big, big, big, big, big, big mistake. When I look at that show, I think it was one of the biggest ego trips of my life.
Kristin Nilsen 30:27
Oh, sad, but that she recognized that that was personal. It was she took the personal and made it universal. She made us all witnesses to it.
Michelle Newman 30:37
Yeah, and I think, like we said, this was an era of people, and I know we're still in it. I think it's, it's just different, but people doing really unhealthy, losing weight and really unhealthy ways and and losing weight for instant gratification, but not for long term change and long term results, right? Like she drank opti past for four months, basically. So then, you know, she was paid, I'm sure, a very pretty penny for it, so she could wheel this giant wagon on show. Everybody, look at me. Look how, like she says, biggest ego trip. She was so thrilled. But then, like she said later that night, like, don't ask me to put those jeans on again tomorrow. I couldn't have done it. So it was really all for the spectacle and all for,
Carolyn Cochrane 31:20
well, it's all for the moment. Almighty dollar, if we're really trying to get down to it, and we don't have to go down that rabbit hole, but just the whole everything fitness and body and weight and all that, it's just to make some people wealthy
Kristin Nilsen 31:33
well and even like eyeballs, because they they advertised what was coming. We knew what was coming. We showed up for that moment. I skipped class to watch that moment because we knew it was coming. So it was coming, yeah? So dollars, even in terms of advertising dollars, on her show that day, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Michelle Newman 31:52
I forgot what ended up. But for a long time, that was her most viewed episode. And then there's something else that that kind of, you know, beat it. And then, of course, the finale of her shows beat it, but for a long time that was the most viewed. Wow, she was on the air for so long.
Kristin Nilsen 32:07
Wow sounds a lot. Yes, it does Okay. Moving on in the number five spot. If you didn't have a cable you had to stay up past your bedtime on December 23 1983 to watch the premiere of thriller on Friday night videos Friday night. I can just see the little I know right. Can you see the little neon things? Neon things. This premiere of thriller was after it was two Gen X moments, because it had its actual premiere, its first premiere on MTV on December 2. But if you didn't have cable, you had to wait three weeks, and we left the party. I was in high school at the time, and the night was over, you had to go home because thriller was gonna premiere. It was at midnight, right? Did Friday night video start at midnight? Kristen's house? Yep, see, everybody remembers where they were. It's sort of like when Kennedy was shot. This is our when Kennedy shot. When did you when thriller was premiered? It actually revolutionized music videos. This was the moment that remember, before 1983 music videos were pretty half assed because there was no template, and people didn't know how to do them or what their expectations were. They had no idea. So this revolutionized how videos were made. It boosted album sales, and it was later inducted into the National Film Registry, Film Registry because the video itself was 14 minutes, and that's technically a short film. It was, as far as music videos are concerned, this was more cinematic. It was had more storytelling. It was inspired by horror movies. It had this elaborate choreography that we're still doing today, by the way, and it had high production value, including Vincent Price's famous narration over the top. This was not anything anyone had ever seen in music videos before. It's as if Michael Jackson defined music video. So here's the backstory for how it came to be. When thriller, the album was released, it was like November 1982 or something. And that always surprises people. They're like 82 that can't be right? But it's because people associate the album thriller with the video thriller. So this is December of 1983 this is well over a year later, right? So when thriller, the album, was knocked out of the number one spot, Michael Jackson was like, well, this can't stand what are we going to do to get it back into the number one spot? And that's when the idea for making the Thriller video was born. He needed to do something big, and that big thing was the Thriller video. This is such a Taylor Swift move, because it's not just the creation of the video, but the rollout of the video that was newsworthy. This is a movie, not a music video. There's a premiere, just like as if it were a movie. You have to tune in. Everybody. Tune in at this very specific time, the whole world. Let's all. All tuned in at this one moment together, and it doubled his album sales. The Thriller video doubled his album sales after it had already been on the decline. Brilliant, brilliant business move, brilliant cultural move. It's something that is still within the culture today, and even if you are not a fan of Michael Jackson, you you love those Halloween parades where the zombies come by and do the thriller dance. You know you do? You know you do,
Michelle Newman 35:27
or you've done, you've tried to do some of the dance yourself. Of course you have in
Kristin Nilsen 35:31
your basement with the shades pulled down. Yeah, I have.
Michelle Newman 35:35
I love how every year around Halloween on, I don't know if it's like on social media, but I don't know which one, but you'll see videos of little kids today who are, like, four or five years old, just nailing, like, every move of that thriller dance. And I just love how the life that it's had. Yeah, it's so good. But again, you know that we're separate. You can separate that from, yeah, apart from my Creator, it's so good, yeah, yeah. How many times, too, when you guys, like, back in 1983 and that, well, then in early 19 four, how many times do you think you watched that video? And of course, you couldn't replay it. You had to wait for it. Yes, right, come on. But it was the best.
Kristin Nilsen 36:17
That was the beginning too. When he did make it available for sale. You could buy it. And then, remember, there was the documentary of the making of thriller, and you could buy that video. So again, another Taylor Swift move, where he's just figuring out how to not just make money, because it was about more than making money. It was about impacting the culture and how to have it seep into everyone's homes. It wasn't just waiting for it on MTV. He was allowing you to have it in your home whenever you wanted. And that was unheard of at the time, brilliant and letting you in behind the scenes. I mean, we're all watching the Taylor Swift documentary now about the making of the eras to her, right? This was the same thing the make he's like, why don't we just film The making of the video, and then let's find the making the making
Carolyn Cochrane 37:01
of putting the makeup on makeup. Yes,
Kristin Nilsen 37:04
that's right.
Michelle Newman 37:05
I love all kinds of behind the scenes stuff. Like, that's, that's my interest is like, how the sausage gets made. So, yeah, any of these behind the scenes things, I'm all there.
Kristin Nilsen 37:16
I'm all for it. And we all left the party, or stayed up late. If you were younger than me, you were like, Please, let me stay up for Friday night videos.
Unknown Speaker 37:25
It's only a movie. It's not funny. You were scared, weren't you?
Speaker 2 37:32
I wasn't that scared. Beep, beep, beep. Did you guys hear that? What is that? What that is
Carolyn Cochrane 37:43
that's your alarm going off at 4am on July 29 1981 so that you could get up close and personal and watch the royal wedding of Prince Charles. Yep, my alarm was actually probably a bathrobe clad Lillian coming into our bedroom in a beach house. It was the week we were spending at Ocean City, New Jersey, at the beach, at the little apartment we would rent. And I remember my mom coming in and my sister, I don't even know if my sister got all the way up, I'd have to ask her, but my mom was not going to let us this was like, this is history in the making. This is like landing, yes, and we watched it on this little TV. That was just kind of the bummer was that we weren't at home. I do think, I don't even know if it's a color TV now that I think about it, but I do remember it was the summer and we were on vacation, and I read that people that were at summer camp, they woke those people up there was a BBB, if you were a summer camp, so that you too could watch,
Kristin Nilsen 38:44
even though there's no TV at camp. But today, there is because Charles and Diana are getting
Michelle Newman 38:49
so sad, is that we all bought into it at the time. It was this fairy tale, like, even though he was kind of yucky and older and gross, it was this fairy tale. Now it's kind of like, sad, because it certainly wasn't. But yeah, at the time, we thought it was magic
Carolyn Cochrane 39:06
about again, our generation, like we've been the generation who bought into all this. Like you think about this event and how so 77 50 million people watched in 74 countries. I mean, I don't know if there will ever be a global event. You know, we've talked about in our own country, you know, we've talked about TV shows episodes, or, just like we just said, The Friday Night videos debut of thriller. But this was worldwide, and people were getting up whatever time it was to watch it. So for us, it was practically the middle of the night, and it was one of those moments where, again, we bought into it, but we've lived long enough now and to realize that's not always real life, and most of the time it isn't real life, yeah, and you know, we kind of lived in this box. Bubble of oh my gosh, this is look at her dress. Look at all of these things. Although it's, I think it's important to point out. And I don't even know if I picked up on this, or if my mom did when it happened, but you might remember that Diana famously omitted the word obey from her vows, yes, and so that was kind of subtle, but yet at the same time kind of radical. And this wasn't just a royal wedding, like, you know, I've, we've watched Meghan, Markle and Harry get married and stuff. This was like a spectacle. I mean, this like took over. You talk about merch, you know? What? About merch sales for concerts and stuff? This wedding there, the amount of merch was out of control. It was
Kristin Nilsen 40:39
people collect it to this day. People collect all the merch just from that wedding that didn't even survive, from the wedding that didn't
Carolyn Cochrane 40:46
survive, right? Yeah, and it was the first I think we probably ask our moms. But you know, this royal wedding in this couple that became these otherworldly celebrities like Diana just pushed them up to this other level that I don't think it happened before. I mean, you knew who you know the Queen was and all of that stuff, but you didn't have the spectacle that this became. And then, of course, we know what that did to the marriage and their lives and all of that.
Kristin Nilsen 41:15
We didn't have the celebrity. They were quasi celebrities, but they were, but she was the first person who was cinematically celebrity. And so we, you know, you're right, Michelle, we didn't give a fat rat about Prince Charles. Nobody gave a shit about him, right? So gross. It was just, it was her. It was her
Michelle Newman 41:33
school teacher. She was just right. Every day I have memories of my this, if you guys know maybe enough about my mom. Now this shouldn't surprise you. My mom just kept going, Oh, bless her heart. She's got to be so upset at how flat her bangs are. Oh, bless her heart. Oh, look at those bangs. Oh, they're just in her eyes. I was just in London, you know, last month, and standing on the steps of St Paul's Cathedral, I was like, now instead of going, this is where Diana got married, all I was thinking is how I'm standing on these stairs that she walked up. Now, understand, I'm getting most of my information and my knowledge from that that the series of the crown, the Crown certainly right. But I'm thinking now as I'm standing on those steps like we went to London in 1984 my mom took my sister, me and my sister to London and touring St Paul's Cathedral. It was all like, Oh my God, and this is where they got married. And it was like, you were just bubbling over. Now I was standing there, and all I was thinking as I was looking at those stairs and walking up them, was the dread that was in her heart. Because he's given freakin Camilla, you know, like a ring the night before. Yeah, and, and just, and she knew all this stuff. So, like, again, everyone, like, Don't fact check me, this is brown. I wasn't there, but, but she, but we all do know by now, she did not want to be married to him, and she, was very much coerced into this, and it just became this train she couldn't get off of. But as she's walking up the stairs and that those giant sleeves and the giant with those flat bangs and
Kristin Nilsen 43:12
all those little bridesmaids,
Michelle Newman 43:15
just heavy, I bet, like, wow. How terrified would you be? How terrible. Also, Carolyn, how many people did you say?
Carolyn Cochrane 43:21
Like 50 million. Holy, my God,
Michelle Newman 43:26
you know, you might not have known that number then, but you know, what a spectacle it was. So that's poor, poor woman. It was just it had to
Kristin Nilsen 43:33
been, had a wedding been, had a royal wedding been televised like that before, or was this the first one?
Carolyn Cochrane 43:39
Maria von Trapp, why?
Kristin Nilsen 43:42
Thanks for playing. I think
Carolyn Cochrane 43:48
I've seen documentaries and stuff where there was televised, like even of the Queen, but it
Kristin Nilsen 43:55
was coronation was televised. My mom remembers getting this
Michelle Newman 43:58
is because Diana was just you and me, yeah, she was just obviously she
Carolyn Cochrane 44:03
hadn't been Yeah. It was all the things yes and the you and me, and just she was kind of shy, and she was just so
Kristin Nilsen 44:13
beautiful and statuesque and shy and demure and pure class
Carolyn Cochrane 44:18
as Gen Xers. I mean, like we were in our teens or kind of younger when this was happening. So a lot of us, and Michelle, you and I have already said we watched this alongside our parents. So it is one of those other core memories that you have with other, most likely a family member in this lots of times. In this case, it would be your mother. My dad didn't get up at 4am to watch it. Not that other dads didn't, but mine didn't. So it was this moment with my mom that I knew was important, but I think it was because my mom was telling me also how important it was that I knew it was important. I don't know necessarily that on my own, I would have gotten up.
Kristin Nilsen 44:55
Oh, I felt like there. It was enough of a fairy tale. It was enough. It had enough. Luke and. Laura in that I was deaf. I knew I was getting up, but I didn't watch it with my own mom. I watched it with the Stein girl's mom. I had was having a sleepover and and you watched on your tiny little TV. I watched it on the Stein girl's big screen TV. Yeah, seriously, in those days a big screen TV. There was a lot of improvement in the future for big screen TVs. And so it was like, these shadowy figures. Yeah, it was not good. It was just big. It was just big. It was just big. That is exactly right. Couldn't really see it. And it was the size of like a sleigh. It was like a sleigh in your living room there was a screen, if Santa slay had a screen in front, that was what the big screen TV was like, and it had the big, giant lights, like, with all the different colored lights, yeah, that shot up onto the screen. And so I'm thinking, this is gonna be so awesome. I'm gonna watch this royal wedding on this big screen TV, and I could barely see
Carolyn Cochrane 45:58
a different experience. You and I had, yes,
Kristin Nilsen 46:02
yeah, same, exact same moment
Carolyn Cochrane 46:03
parts of our country, but yeah, we Yeah, saw it a little bit differently. Yeah, that's Yeah, crazy, but
Kristin Nilsen 46:10
you're right. It was a family affair. We didn't get up on our own. The Stein girl's mom helped us get up and get ready so we could watch this wedding together.
Michelle Newman 46:18
It was for us same, and I was, I was pretty young then. I don't think I would have done gotten up by myself, but my mom from, I think the time Diana came onto the scene, until that morning that I had she was staying with us, and I had to go tell her, when she woke up that Diana had died the night gone to sleep was one of the worst things in the world I could parents were visiting sleep the whole night, because I was so I was so upset, and I was devastated. I was in shock. I all I kept thinking about were those boys. I couldn't I couldn't believe it. I thought it wasn't real, and then I would think my she, she had been babysitting for us, and we had been at some friend's house and watched it on TV like we had stayed there anyway. I just knew I had. I just never forget, because it was a Sunday, it was a Saturday night, so Sunday morning, and we were gonna be going to Memorial Day weekend, and I went, I just knelt by her bed, and I said, Mother, something really awful to tell you. But last night, Diana died and was killed in a car accident. She just sat, she shot out of bed. It was awful. So I know that, like the wedding, like, from the beginning, my mom was all in, flat bangs or no flat bangs, she was all in, yeah,
Kristin Nilsen 47:30
you know what's interesting, though, this is a whole episode right here. Basically, yeah, exactly what we've talked about, our buy in for this royal wedding, but then her demise and what happened with the divorce and Camilla and blah, blah. So Diana was responsible for my love of that wedding in the royal family, and she is also responsible for my then hatred for the royal family. 100% hatred is a strong word. I don't have another alternative.
Michelle Newman 47:59
I just have dislike. Yeah, okay, let's move
Kristin Nilsen 48:01
oh, let's, let's move on to number three. Number three, okay, in the number three spot, the third most, the third biggest, whatever the in the number three spot, you
Kristin Nilsen 48:27
Star Wars was born on May 25 1977 and Gen Xers stood in line to be the first generation of kids to see it. And there is, I have to tell you, and we will all say here, we're not really Star Wars people, and that is true, but there is a certain pride that comes with being one of those people who saw it in the theater. Because most of the world, we stood in that line, most of us multiple times we saw it, more than one time. We were the first people who saw this generational juggernaut in the theater when it came out. That's us. Everyone saw it. The excitement was so contagious, even if you were more into like the secret garden and sci fi, which was definitely me, but it didn't matter. Everyone was included. I didn't know anyone who didn't see it. Can you imagine a movie today that the entire culture experienced?
Carolyn Cochrane 49:20
Every last person, absolutely not. And that's super sad.
Kristin Nilsen 49:23
It's really sad. And I'm sure I've said this many times on this podcast before, but went to this day because of my experience in that theater with all of my neighborhood friends. We all went to the movie together that first time because of that experience, when I see those yellow letters flowing going up the screen to tell the little Prolog of what the story is, because they do it in every Star Wars movie. I don't even like Star Wars, but when those letters scroll up the screen, I get all choked up. I get very,
Michelle Newman 49:55
very emotional. Was there an was it our first. And maybe our first but I'm just wondering, was there another movie like phenomenon like this? Because we are also, we're the first generation to stand in line and to see it, but then we are the first generation to get the figures and the lunch boxes and the toys and the tissue bed sheets. To this day, there are Star Wars figures and Legos and whatever in the toy store or wherever, but nobody else but our generation. I mean, yes, the people older than us, but as children who were this was all made for,
Kristin Nilsen 50:34
yeah, like, my parents didn't have c3 po I had c3 Well,
Michelle Newman 50:38
yes, but still, like, was there? Was this, our first, like, I'm trying to think, was there a movie before this for Gen X that was this all encompassing, with everything there was, you're right, the bed sheets, everything so and that lasted this long. Well, my God, for for real. Also I get to say, I get to say I walked out of that movie theater in 1977 and said, I don't really like it, but that I feel like kind of honored, like, that's my right. Like, if someone you showed it to kids today and they're like, I don't like it, you're like, what? That's like. Like, even me, even me. I'm a little bit like, what? How do you not like it? I've literally seen, like, the first three or now, they're not the first two, but whatever. I haven't seen all those recent ones, but I got to walk out of the theater and say, I don't really get it. I don't
Kristin Nilsen 51:32
like you and my you and my grandma, because I have my my grandma's diet, her travel diary from when she came to visit us in 1977 and she wrote about the day when it was my brother's turn to choose a movie, and he chose Star Wars. And in her diary, she wrote, today we saw the science fiction extravaganza called Star Wars. It was not my style. Fabulous.
Michelle Newman 51:57
I wear that kind of like a badge of honor. Yeah, and you still
Kristin Nilsen 51:59
appreciate the phenomenon. It's not like all of us here appreciate the phenomenon and love it, yeah. We love it, the phenomenon, yeah. I love all of the pop cultureness. This was important.
Carolyn Cochrane 52:11
So one of these pop culture moments, kind of like Diana, that I remember more about the experience. I remember the standing in line, and I went with my dad. And I think I've shared with you, I can tell you, that the sound of music when it was in a theater and Star Wars, I think, are the only two times I've ever seen a movie with my dad. And so we knew this was a big deal. My mom didn't go, so it was me, my sister and my dad, and standing in line. I don't think I'd Well, I hadn't ever stood in line for a movie, and I knew that my dad really wanted to see this. It wasn't like I was so excited, and it's interesting. I wonder I'd be interested to do the research on the the build up and the marketing for this movie, like, because my dad wasn't like somebody that watched TV all the time, or, but how did we all know to stand in line? Like, what? How did we know it
Michelle Newman 53:01
was a big deal? Yeah, how did we even know there must have been amazing commercial. There must
Carolyn Cochrane 53:05
have been stuff advertised talking about at work or something, who knows. But because he was so excited and so excited to take us. And I remember, and this is all therapy stuff, you know, going because my dad really wanted me to go, and I wanted to make him happy, kind of also remembering also and he would, he let us get whatever we wanted off the concession stand. You know, my mom would have been like, you get the little popcorn, you share it, whatever. Or actually, no candy. My mom, we would have pre popped the popcorn like a little drinker spit that had all the grease on the bottom, yeah, and have candy in her purse and anyway, but yes, it's it was another kind of multi generational experience. Yeah, again, people of all ages, yeah, experienced this movie. We just happened to be the kids who got the benefit of all the the toys that make believe.
Kristin Nilsen 53:59
My grandma knows about the science fiction extravaganza called Star Wars. I love that. I love it. And Princess Leia is still my girl. She you don't have to be a Star Wars fan to be a princess Leia Stan. And when there and she and I have a special relationship. And when the last movie that she was in which, I think is the Force Awakens. They took, you know, scraps and made other movies with her, you know, leftover footage, but the last one that she made before she died, when she's General Leia Organa, and she's 54 years old, and when she came on that screen, I fucking cried. Yeah, they cried because they were allowing her to be 54 and still be Princess Leia slash, General Leia Organa. And I was just so happy that she wasn't excised from the movie because she was no longer hot. Now she was an important figure, and that was important for me, and so that means that we grew up with her, right, right? She, she was our little princess, and then she became our general love. That. It. Yeah. Round of applause. Yeah. Kind of applause for Carrie Fisher,
Speaker 3 55:03
I have placed information vital to the survival of the rebellion into the memory systems of the SAR two unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan, this is our most desperate hour. Help me. Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only out
Carolyn Cochrane 55:22
coming in at number two. And some might argue this should be number one. I'm happy with it being number two. I want you to raise your hand if you skipped school in November of 1981 to attend the wedding of Luke and Laura on General Hospital. You
Kristin Nilsen 55:46
second only, second only to Charles and Diana. Seriously, of all weddings, of all time. Well, all time,
Carolyn Cochrane 55:52
course, and this is just a few months after Charles and Diana. This is the same year.
Kristin Nilsen 55:57
Do you think it's inspired by that? Do you think that's where it came from?
Carolyn Cochrane 56:01
Well, I don't, I mean, I don't know how far ahead they plan those things, but they probably leave her gown and just all of the pomp and circumstance. And you guys want to know the coolest, fun fact, Diana reportedly sent champagne to celebrate the TV wedding, no yes and congratulating them on this wedding. And she knows what it was like, because she had just had hers. And interestingly enough, so much the same, Jeanne Francis would not be able to enjoy that bubbly because she was not old enough to drink. Stop it. How old was she? Not old enough.
Michelle Newman 56:43
Oh, my God, yep, she has said that
Carolyn Cochrane 56:45
there was Jean Francis in interviews, has said there was champagne everywhere. Was just like real when they're having the tea, you know, the wedding celebration. It was all just around for cast and crew. But she was still under age.
Kristin Nilsen 56:57
Unbelievable. No, she was under age.
Carolyn Cochrane 57:01
So I'm guessing 21 must have been
Kristin Nilsen 57:04
the age. It was 19 in Minnesota at the time. But that's when it was
Carolyn Cochrane 57:08
different everywhere. Yeah, so I'm get, I'm guessing it was 21 in California for her to be under age, because, gosh, if she was eight, I mean, I guess she could have been 18. Yeah, that was happened. We'd have to look that up. But, and
Kristin Nilsen 57:20
he had a receding hairline. I mean, come on.
Carolyn Cochrane 57:24
Thing was weird. And Anthony Erie rip I know, but we bought it.
Michelle Newman 57:29
Yeah, we did well. And yeah, listeners, you don't need to, like, remind us go into the hole. We talked about it many times in this if you love them, just go back and find our soap opera couples episodes, our soap opera moments episodes. And we talk a lot more about Luke and Laura, their relationship and their wedding. But regardless of how you feel about how they got together and if he looked older or he didn't look like he matched with her, you cannot deny that it was a just a pop culture, just moment and spectacle and and you bought into it.
Carolyn Cochrane 58:08
You did. And much like we were talking about for Saturday Night Fever, you didn't have to have seen the movie, or, no, any of that stuff. You can talk to people that didn't watch General Hospital.
Kristin Nilsen 58:17
I didn't watch it, yeah, hospital. I knew all about it, where they were, and that English clashed it? Yeah, I didn't skip school and I was in school, but I knew enough about it that when I was in English class and I saw the second hand, or the minute hand, move into the two o'clock spot, I'm like, It's happening. It's happening right now. Like, it's a
Carolyn Cochrane 58:37
real wedding. Yes, yes, for sure. Yeah. I think that was so fun. And here is another fun little fact that I came across. Well, here's when I can tell you that I used a little chat GPT. And chat GPT can be wrong. Ai, doesn't know everything people know they i Fact checked AI. And so I'm gonna give you the real scoop. But I thought this was interesting. Originally, it told me that Rick Springfield, in real life, married his longtime girlfriend Barbara Porter in 1981 the same year as Luke and Laura got married. That's not true. They got married in 1984 Oh, geez. But I wanted to share it, because they have been married for over 41 years. He's still married to Barbara and he
Kristin Nilsen 59:18
is yes, yeah. God bless you. Rick Springfield,
Michelle Newman 59:21
even if you didn't like them, or you didn't think they went together, you can't deny it was like it was a huge culture, right?
Carolyn Cochrane 59:27
And and I can just say that episode drew an astonishing 30 million viewers, making it the most watched episode in American daytime soap opera history, and that's a milestone that still stand unbelievable.
Kristin Nilsen 59:43
Well, that right there gives it its number two spot. That alone gives it and your litmus test again, where even if you didn't watch the show, if you still knew all of the players and what was happening and at what moment it was happening, everybody knew, everybody knew. And that's how you get into the number two spot. Yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:00
Elizabeth Taylor was in the scene. I mean, she was because she loved the show so much. And obviously Princess Diana loved the show enough to send a bottle of champagne. I mean, that's just insane.
Kristin Nilsen 1:00:12
That is insane. I forgot Elizabeth Taylor was in the audience, congregation. Well, she was a
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:17
congregation. She was somebody cassadyne, yeah, that's right,
Kristin Nilsen 1:00:22
it was huge. Okay, what do we have? This is number one. We're here, but we were here. It's number one. What is the number one? What is the number one? Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:29
Now remember pop culture moment? Okay, ladies and gentlemen, at number one on November 21 1980 our number one pop culture moment, according to us, happened it was when we found out who shot J, R,
Kristin Nilsen 1:00:47
Cannon, yes, the cannon just blew. Yes.
Michelle Newman 1:00:49
The confetti question is our number one spot, when he got shot, or when we found out?
Kristin Nilsen 1:00:55
No, when we found out, when we shot out? Yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:59
This episode before on the podcast, and we've shared how many people watched it and how impactful that phenomenon was for us. So I did do a little like, you know, rabbit hole searching, as I do, to find a couple of maybe other interesting facts that you might not have known happened or were going on. Did you know that you could actually have bet on the outcome back then. So there were bookies and like and places like that. So I just printed out and thought it was interesting to see what the odds were. Okay, so dusty Farlow was the odds on favorite for being the murderer. Now, I don't know. I think he was the lawyer. He was Sue Allen's lover. Oh, what I know?
Michelle Newman 1:01:44
Like curly Luke hair?
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:46
No, yeah, helmet. I think he had a brown helmet head. Oh, okay, curly hair. No, I don't think so.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:01:53
Well, it was interesting, because you had to kind of put on your soap opera hat to believe this, because he was actually presumed dead in a plane crash earlier in the season. So you were having to think he really didn't die and he was able to come back and shoot Jr.
Michelle Newman 1:02:09
But parachute, yes, yeah. Just like parachute.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:16
Okay, Amelia is not okay. But actually, the actual shooter, who you all remember, who was that, ladies? It was Kristen, yes, and she was the second odds favorite. Oh, she was yes. So she had three to one odds. He had, like, one and a half to one odds.
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:32
I didn't, I didn't think it was her. I had no, I had no guesses, actually. But when it, when it was her, I was like, what?
Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:38
Well, this was another one of those experiences where I didn't really watch Dallas that. I mean, I kind of, did you know I knew it was on, but I knew about the who shot Jr, and I knew about that episode, and I knew about when the, you know, Season premiere was coming.
Michelle Newman 1:02:52
Oh yeah, we were bit watchers. We were we were weekly watchers at that time.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:56
I don't know that I was weekly at that time. I was weekly in the beginning. What See, I should know this. Do you remember what season this was?
Michelle Newman 1:03:03
I don't remember the season, okay, before. I think it was, it
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:06
was very early into earlier than, I think I
Michelle Newman 1:03:09
probably check, okay, check. I think it was the end of three, going into four.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:14
Okay, let's say that makes sense.
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:15
And she and they made us wait so long because he was shot in like April, like March or April, and find out until November, November, on
Michelle Newman 1:03:27
my birthday in March in 1980 that he was shot, and that was the end of the third season. Okay? And then November started season four.
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:36
So we waited six months. How did they keep us interested that?
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:41
Oh, well, they kept talking about it. Remember, like it was
Michelle Newman 1:03:47
t shirts. Yes, everybody was wearing T shirts. It was on the cover of People magazine. It was everything. People are
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:53
betting on it. It was, it was everywhere. I mean, there were some marketing genius and on those same bets that you could make, sometimes there would be wild card bets, and included in those were Tom did Tom Landry kill Jr. And for those of you who don't know, Tom Landry was the iconic Dallas Cowboys coach whose odds were 500 to one. And another wild card bet was Roger Staubach, who we recently in our DCC episode, the Cowboys quarterback.
Michelle Newman 1:04:25
Two very shiny balls. Yeah, two very shiny balls.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:31
That's right. And if you don't know what that's referring to, please go back and listen to our Dallas Cowboy cheerleader episode from just a few, a few episodes back, Roger as we, I think even talked about in that episode, he was such a great guy in Dallas. He's got a great reputation, so his odds were 1000 to one that have actually been the one too. He wouldn't do such a thing. Yeah, I didn't know this, and maybe you guys knew this, but remember that Dallas had kind of this. I. What do I want to say reboot in not very long, maybe the last 20 years, it had like a reboot on one of the streaming channels, and this was before Larry Hagman had died. But in the reboot, Jr is shot again, and it turns out that he actually, the character has cancer in the show, and he stages his own shooting and frames Cliff Barnes, oh,
Kristin Nilsen 1:05:29
I'm thinking, when you said dusty, I was picturing Cliff. Cliff has the hair helmet. And, yeah, I don't know, maybe, maybe convey hair
Carolyn Cochrane 1:05:37
was with what you might call it, Bobby and Pam, that was like He loved Pam. Oh, yeah. So he staged his own shooting. He was shot again, but this time he framed because he was mad at him because he didn't like him. No one is a bad thing. Never the healings and the barns. They are always there's
Kristin Nilsen 1:05:55
just no there's just no underestimating how much this not just this one show, but this one storyline thrashed us about for six months and wouldn't let us go. And every single person tuned in. Because how could you not want to find out who shot him? Right?
Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:13
I mean, what were you gonna talk people were gonna be talking about it. You needed to be a part of those conversations. Everybody wanted to know. Yes, it was a big deal. And I'd argue that, you know, we are probably the last generation to truly have these kind of global, shared experiences, or at least, if not global. You know, in our own culture here, that we all were experiencing something at the same exact time that was entertainment driven, and I just don't think that will ever happen again. And I think that is really kind of sad. I think
Kristin Nilsen 1:06:45
it is too because it brought us all together. It brought us all together. Yeah, yeah.
Kristin Nilsen 1:07:05
I thank you everybody. Thank you for tuning in. That's it. That's it. Do you agree? Are you screaming at us right now? There's there is just no way to win this game. There is no definitive 10 moments that we could all agree on, but these are definitely 10 of the biggest moments of all time for Gen Xers, according to us, you are welcome. I think, I think it's fun to put together a list like this, just to remind ourselves. I mean, we've, we've talked about this for 10 different items now, to remind ourselves of the enormity of such things. Do not shortchange your experience just because it was a long time ago and your children have no idea what you're talking about, and the people at work are like, what are leg warmers? Like, do not for a minute. Let anyone forget that these things essentially created our lives. This is what our lives were made up of. It was like you wake up and staying alive is on the radio, and then you get on the bus, and you know more than a woman is playing on the bus. And then in class, you write the lyrics to how deep is your love on your folder. And then you're watching TV after school, and there's an ad for a record that's going to teach you how to do the hustle, or Denny therio is on The Mike Douglas Show. This is the stuff imposter. Yes, right. He is not the choreographer, but it was. This is how things wrapped themselves around us and brought us all together. This stuff lives on within us, and just because other people don't know about its enormity or even its existence at all does not mean that it's not part of you, and that's what we are here for. The Gen Xer in me recognizes the Gen Xer in you. Namaste. Thank you so much for listening, and we will see you all next time
Michelle Newman 1:08:43
and to our patrons over on Patreon, thank you. Truly. Your support keeps the show alive and keeps us talking about the music, movies and moments that shaped us. You're not just backing a podcast. You're helping preserve a shared memory of mixtapes late night TV and growing up a little feral, we're grateful you're here, and we do not take your support for granted. Today, we're giving a special shout out to patrons. Our newest patron, actually, Lisa V Thanks, Lisa, thank you. Lisa, Melinda, Christina, Michelle Lee, Maria Bonnie, Lori, Jo Liz, CN, Carrie, Carolyn, with a K Victor and Colleen. Thank you so so much for your support
Kristin Nilsen 1:09:32
in the mean. Yes, thank you, everybody. In the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast, courtesy of the cast of Threes Company, who certainly had a lighted dance floor scene at the Regal Beagle. Yes, two good times, two Happy Days to
Carolyn Cochrane 1:09:45
Little House on the Prairie where they didn't have a lighted dance No.
Kristin Nilsen 1:09:50
Mike and Landon might still try and figure that one out, like, how do we can put one in the barn? Maybe the information, opinions and comments? 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. You.