PCPS LIGHT - The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and the 1979 Movie We Can’t Unsee

Michelle Newman 0:00

Welcome back to another light episode of the pop culture Preservation Society, or as we shall be referred to today, America's pop culture sweetheart. And that's because today we're chatting about an article sent to us by our friend and author and McSweeney's darling and humor writer and all around, lovely person, Wendy Aarons longtime listeners might remember her from when she sat in with us in early 2021, for our Flowers in the Attic episode where we did some thespian level readers theater, didn't we?

Carolyn Cochrane 0:35

That was good, and had probably, in my opinion, one of the best titles of an episode of all of our two plus episodes. Yeah, D flowered in the it wasn't mine. With it, one of these two other clever ladies did, but I just, I love that one.

Michelle Newman 0:52

Yeah, if you loved that book, go way back in the Wayback Machine and find that in our, all of our, our catalog of episodes. So Wendy sent us an article written by her friend Sarah Thurmond that was in the October issue of Texas highways. And here is what Wendy's email said to us. My friend Sarah just did this interview with Jane Seymour. And I don't know about you, but this movie was huge to me and my sister in 1979 we even asked for and got Dallas Cowboy jerseys for Christmas in North Dakota. Wendy, you know us so well because, of course, we want to, of course, we loved this article and we wanted to have a conversation about it. So the movie Wendy was referring to, of course, is the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which starred then 28 year old Jane Seymour. It aired on January 14, 1979 which was just about a week before what is considered to be one of the greatest Super Bowl games of all time, Super Bowl 14, where the Cowboys lost to the Steelers y'all in the mid to late 1970s I was obsessed with the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, like even more than I am today, this day, and I had to think about that, like, did it have something to do with the fact that I was born in Dallas and I lived there for, you know, nine years, so it was my birthright. Basically, yes. Did it have something to do with the fact that my mother was a lifelong Die Hard Cowboys fan, and she and my dad went to every home game, like when they were dating, and then right after they got married, and then after she and my dad got divorced, was known to attend after parties with the players. What probably, oh, yeah, she was telling stories all the time. And I now own a giant Crayola crayon art piece of a cheerleader I did in about first grade. And underneath it, and my little writing, I wrote, When I grow up, I want to be a chill leader, C, H, O, and I have it, I'll post a pic to prove it, a cheerleader. Yeah. And then, even weirdly, I had a non blood relative that was a Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders in the mid cheerleader in the mid 70s. She was like my pervert uncle's first daughter from another marriage or someone. So I don't want to dig deeper, because I do not like to acknowledge his previous presence and existence. But my sister me and my sister had signed posters of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleader squad on our walls for a hot second. Anyway, I was a big fan. I was by the late 70s. So was the rest of America, and that's mostly because of the success of the Cowboys. In her article, Sarah tells us that by the end of the decade, NFL films deemed the Cowboys America's team during their championship season in 1978 and so suddenly, everyone's eyes were on the DCC. That's the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, so much so that an entire movie was made centering around them. Now I'm going to read from Sarah's article right now, because this is a light episode, and so remember no research, right? She says, the plot, which is available on Prime centers around a magazine editor played by Bert, convey

Unknown Speaker 4:15

Mr. 70s

Michelle Newman 4:18

pressure to increase circulation, who comes up with a scheme to expose the most gorgeous girls in America and their phony PR to prove the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are not Goody goodies, he assigns an investigative journalist, Jane Seymour, to infiltrate the squad. I just love I love everything about this I know as Seymour's character makes the cut and worms her way into friendships with the cheerleaders, though she discovers there is more to the girls behind the pom poms that I just I love it so much, and I definitely remember this movie. But listen to this, Sarah tells us. That the movie came in third the week it aired, behind Mork and Mindy and Laverne and Shirley. This is just so 1978 and with a 33 Nielsen rating, the equivalent of 24 point 6 million homes watched it. According to its star, Jane Seymour, it was the highest rated movie in television history?

Kristin Nilsen 5:22

Okay, I don't think so. Jane Seymour,

Carolyn Cochrane 5:26

that star, yeah, right, right, exactly

Michelle Newman 5:29

it. Yeah, that made me stop in my tracks.

Kristin Nilsen 5:31

But that being said, what percentage of the people on this call right now watched

Michelle Newman 5:36

it? We I watched it. I

Carolyn Cochrane 5:37

probably didn't, and I played devil's advocate. Oh, okay, everything you guys are okay,

Michelle Newman 5:42

because also, let's not forget. So anyway, let's just say it was very popular, yeah, and then it was, that was in January of 79 and then in November of 79 they were still steaming ahead, because who could ever forget the two part episode of

Kristin Nilsen 5:59

The Love Boat? Yes, I don't think I reached the level of Michelle. I was not obsessed. I didn't know from football, but I did have a fascination, as I think everybody around the country did, with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, mostly with how to say it, like, is it Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders? I don't know where the girl was. It was really Dallas Cowboys, cheerlead cowboy cheerleader. I didn't know I was both, like enamored and repulsed by them at the same time. I was angry about the little shorts, but I couldn't stop staring at the little shorts. I knew that there was something sexist about it, but I also loved it. I was there. I didn't I was confused, and I loved every minute of it. I absolutely loved it to a flame. It was a flame. And if you had, if you had asked me if I wanted to be them, I would absolutely say no, but I would also be nodding my head at the same time. No, yeah, no, I do not disgusting. Yes, I do don't, yeah, I think the the plot is just so luscious, because this is essentially Burt conveys the somebody's attempt to slut shame the DCC, because pretty girls have to be sluts, so they can't be Goody goodies, which of course, failed because Jane Seymour found out that they really were Goody goodies, and they were and they had brains and they had families. I mean, imagine that they're three dimensional people. I can't believe it, but it also this is what fascinates me, because I am still hooked on the DCC, because I've watched both Netflix documentary series and I'm all in and they still have the same PR campaign about protecting the image of, you know, isn't Madonna whore. I think it's, it's a little Madonna whore. Like the like, the outfits are a little bit horror, but they want Madonna image. And so the movie was basically like propaganda for them to say, No, we are, we are really sweet and kind and in maybe it's not this current series, but the previous one, there was one candidate for the DCC that was dismissed, who was disqualified because there were photos of her on Facebook at a party holding us red solo cup. Yeah, and that did not line up with the image of the DCC, because we are good girls with

Michelle Newman 8:20

their very church shorts, yeah, yeah. They in the, in the Netflix documentaries, they like to showcase that a little bit that they're all very churchy.

Kristin Nilsen 8:28

Yeah, they're a little, there's a little Jesus involved here. Well, it's also Texas, Texas, yeah. So in the article itself is an actual interview with Jane Seymour today, today, like this past fall, yes and letting 74 year old Jane Seymour, 74 year old Jane Seymour reflecting back on this role that she barely even remembers, that she did in 1978 and it is a fascinating reveal, because it is not full of golden memories, it is mostly Jane Seymour feeling regretful about what a snob

Michelle Newman 9:07

she was. Yeah, yeah. Also, I was shocked that, and maybe because I did grow up so ensconced in the Dallas Cowboys, you guys. I just have to interject this, because it is the season right now, when this episode airs, we'll probably be after Christmas, but one of the best family stories we have, and I remember this perfectly. I was in kindergarten, we had a motor home. I remember singing this at the top of my lungs. I can picture the I can like feel the inside of the motor home with the shag carpet. And I never knew why my mom and stepfather, John laughed so hard, I made up a song, and it was to the tune of Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer. And the beginning of it went like this, Roger Staubach, that was the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, very, very famous and good, and I loved him. I had jerseys. I had everything. Roger Staubach had two very shiny balls. Haha. I don't remember the rest of it, but I just remember that part because it was catchy, right? And I thought the whole time my mom and my stepfather John would laugh so hard. And I thought they because they just thought I was darling. They thought my song was darling, but oh yeah, that was my song. We were so ensconced by it that and to me, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, it wasn't, you know, this movie came out in January of 1979 I was, I was infatuated way before that. But this interview with Jane Seymour, she's like, barely can remember the movie. It sounds like

Kristin Nilsen 10:37

trying to forget it. Forget it. Yeah, when it's all burned in our memories. Okay, fun fact. Quick before we move on, Roger Staubach was once my boss. The actual one, the actual one. Yes, my checks were signed by Roger Staubach because he was the owner of the American dance team Association and and these were like, if you went to cheer camp, or if you went to dance camp, this was the dance equivalent of cheer camp, and I was a camp counselor, and he signed the checks, and I went to the office, and I think I met him. But again, because I'm not football II, I didn't know

Michelle Newman 11:12

he kind of had that that, but it was, yet, it was more like, like a chestnutty color,

Kristin Nilsen 11:19

yeah, reddish. Oh yeah, I met him then, yeah,

Michelle Newman 11:21

that's such a fun fact. Here's

Carolyn Cochrane 11:23

my fun fact that might top it, but we can't leave put it in there. Is that when I swear I told you guys this, but when I was a freshman in college, I went on a date party to a fraternity like Rush party, and so my date took me to an apartment, because there was a friend that was getting rushed lived in an apartment. I'm like, I didn't even know you could live in apartments at our college when you were freshmen. And he was married, this guy, we were going to, but they were, he was a freshman in college. He was he was married to Roger staubach's daughter, who was pregnant. She was pregnant, and so she was only, I don't even know if she had graduated. She was a year younger than we were. She had gone to Ursuline Academy. They were Catholic, and John was his name, and they're still married John, and I can't remember his

Michelle Newman 12:12

last name now. They're still married from 18 years old back in 1970 back in 1983 Wow. Why can't we put this in this is great. I feel bad.

Carolyn Cochrane 12:21

I don't know. I mean, I guess that's kind of known. You're not the one that got pregnant. Well anyway, yes, reporting the facts at Jennifer Stahl back and that at that point she had a different last name, I can't remember what, at their house. And then we went to a party. And of course, she didn't drink because she was pregnant. She's like, a teenager, and I couldn't wait to get home and call my parents. And I'm like, yeah, it was just crazy. But yeah, that's my story.

Michelle Newman 12:52

But now my mom actually would have stories of go like she would always say, well, your father and I, we would go back to Mother and daddy's after the cowboy game, because they went to every cowboy game and whatever. And probably after they had my sister, they didn't go to as many, but she had legendary stories of going to after parties, and so much so that it would become like a joke for me and my sister. Like, are you sure one of our fathers isn't a former

Carolyn Cochrane 13:20

task? Maybe segue, because I was not a fan of the Cowboy Cheerleaders at all, so much so that when you guys go talk about DCC, I'm like, what I don't even know. I forgot even when it was listed for. This was what the episode was about. I didn't know what it stood for. I had to, like, remind myself I'm gonna do a little wardrobe change here just to show you why I was not my God. So everybody bear with me for a second.

Michelle Newman 13:46

Okay, something's coming. Wait, but this isn't gonna be on YouTube. How is it not gonna be on YouTube? Oh, because, oh, she's an Oilers

Kristin Nilsen 13:54

fan. Yes, you are an

Carolyn Cochrane 13:56

oiler fan because of Texaco. Yeah, that has nothing to do with him. I mean, I don't know. Okay, Houston Oilers was the football team, right? And because Houston was an oil town, but that's not why. I mean, we hated Dallas. If you lived in Houston, you hated Dallas Cowboys, and every single thing about that. Didn't know. So those cheerleaders gag. I mean, no way, and we would go around being like, who I didn't vote to call them America sweethearts, who deemed them America's

Kristin Nilsen 14:30

sweetheart of conversation, like you kids talked about that Well, I

Carolyn Cochrane 14:33

mean, it was just understood. It was just like, so funny. That's so cheesy. Yeah, their football team isn't really any good, so that's why they have to have these cheerleaders that flaunt themselves around? So I was never, ever a fan, far from what Michelle was. But at the same time, it was this Texas mentality with football that, oh yeah, lived, breathed. I mean, look, I'm wearing this ski cap. Listeners, I have a ski cap on my. Head with big pom pom on it, and I want you to know, and it says Houston Oilers. This was in the same chest of keepsakes that my dad's cufflinks were, and soap on a rope. This was his soap on a rope. This was his hat. And he and we never really had much snow or any reason to even wear a Ski hat in Texas, so it probably wasn't worn that much, but when I saw it in his the chest of his stuff, I kept it, and now I'm wearing it, but it gave me a whole different perspective of to this article and the documentary, who has wasted their time watching a documentary? Cheerleader.

Michelle Newman 15:38

Oh, that hat is a relic, though, because they're Texans now they're not Oilers,

Carolyn Cochrane 15:43

which was a whole nother big scandal when they left. But you know, the Oilers played in the Astrodome, which to me, is a huge pop culture reference of the 70s, regardless of where you live, because it was the first covered dome stadium in the country. And whenever anyone visited us from out of town our go to, you know, experience was the back lot tour of the Astrodome. I can't tell you how many times I walked around there when there was, like, nobody there, except for the tour going through. But my dad was so proud of it. And I honestly thought it was the ninth wonder of the world, or the eighth whatever. Well, Texas, yes, I thought, I mean, that's how they like promoted. And I thought, okay, right up there with, what the Great Wall of China. And, of course, this first cover. So anyway, it gives you all, and there's probably a small percentage of people that didn't like the Dallas Cowboy shield, everyone from cheerleaders. And I'm thinking, a lot of you are from Houston, and I see you, and I'm repping you and I'm wearing my love you blue Oilers hat. Yeah. It's very cute. It's very retro,

Kristin Nilsen 16:46

clear, like as an adult, a woman in my 50s, watching the Netflix documentary series. Both of them I am. Hate watching it. Oh, absolutely. I'm 100% hate watching it. Nobody. I mean Judy and Trudy. Trudy Judy,

Michelle Newman 17:02

it's Judy and Kelly. Finlas,

Kristin Nilsen 17:06

Judy Kelly, yeah, Judy and Kelly, yeah. They're the coaches, and they are svengalis to these girls, and they, and they are, yeah, they, they control every inch of these girls, and they, there's so much emotional manipulation, and so I am hate watching it. I don't want to be them, and I don't want anyone to be them. But then when they get to go on the field for the first time, you are like, Yes, you did it.

Michelle Newman 17:33

Anytime I see a story or a post, I like, I like, physically feel like I'm kind of gonna vomit at like, the things they're saying and doing, but I can't stop,

Kristin Nilsen 17:44

which is kind of how it was presented to us in the 70s. We couldn't stop watching whether you liked it or didn't, you couldn't. And the whole theme we mentioned this previously, of this article with Jane Seymour is Jane Seymour saying, I am an idiot for for saying no to all of the things that because she was looking she was looking down her nose at them. She said no to a sequel. She said no to joining the squad on the field for a real game, because she said she just snubbed them. So I think Carolyn, you were probably feeling Jane Seymour in those moments right

Carolyn Cochrane 18:21

when I was reading the article, yeah, yeah.

Michelle Newman 18:24

Well, for sure, but so funny that today, 7478 whatever, year old Jane Seymour says that's a really big regret she has. She wishes she would, she wishes she would have, yeah,

Kristin Nilsen 18:35

because she now understands the phenomenon. Remember, she's from England, so she didn't really understand America's team. She didn't understand America's Sweethearts. She didn't understand the phenomenon that it was. She just looked at it on its surface, which is cheese ball, like cheese ball to the 10th power. And so that's why she was looking down her nose. I think it's interesting that because of Carolyn's view of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which is probably not uncommon, it shows how it was very necessary to have this goody goody PR campaign, because what is the first thing you grab onto when you hate a group of women in tiny shirts dancing? It would be slut shaming, right? That would be the first how do you take down? How do you hate those people? How do you take them down? You go straight to slut. So it's very important for the organization to emphasize not sluts. Yeah, they even like there are a lot of rules about how they cannot fraternize with the players. No, absolutely. 100% you cannot fraternize with the players, and so it's sort of like survival, this PR campaign, whether you call it propaganda or whatever, in order for them to survive and to protect the girls, you probably have to promote this image America's Sweethearts, goody, good. The I mean, that's just kind of the

Michelle Newman 20:01

Carolyn's face right now. Also, I think Carolyn, I would, I would argue that your disgust of the DCC Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, Cowboys Cheerleaders in the 70s and probably 80s and beyond, is more rooted. I'm not saying it's not because of what Kristen was just saying. I'm going to just say to just say it's more rooted. And they were your nemesis. They were your arch rivals. They were how I felt as an Arizona State Sun Devil about the University of Arizona. You know, that's how that I mean, it is the biggest rival. And like Carolyn said, I mean, when you are in Texas, you know, like she talks about the Astrodome hat, you know, being the covered. Well, my mom used to say all the time, so much so that my sister and I are, like, mouthing it in the back, because everybody says it, you know, why does Texas State, why does Cowboy Stadium have a hole in the in the top so God can watch his favorite team play? So, like, it's, it's such a huge rivalry that I would argue that as a child, your dislike of them was probably rooted more on that than it was about oh, the tiny shorts and the big curl here, because, because, even though the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders were one of the first really big NFL cheerleading teams to to have all that there were other ones. It wasn't like they were the only ones. The Derek dolls. Feel those were our cheerleaders. Imagine it was like hats on with like oil, things coming up, like the top, like squirting, squirt, like those feathers, like those little like black feather things, like a fascinator, a fascinator,

Carolyn Cochrane 21:48

much more to your point, Michelle, probably then I don't want anyone to think I'm slut shaming.

Kristin Nilsen 21:54

No, anything. I don't want to sound like I was accusing you of No,

Carolyn Cochrane 21:57

no, I know Yeah, you didn't. But I'd also say now that those rules that they had for them. I mean, I remember them back then and, like, whatever, but now it's, like, archaic. It's almost insulting to those women to still, like, you can't tell me who I can date and who I can't date. And it's like a sorority where there's this, like, house mom, and she's saying very much, this is the right behavior and this is the wrong behavior. Oh, cut me a break and cut me a break that they haven't ever been with some of those football players.

Kristin Nilsen 22:25

Well, but also this is, this becomes a little apparent when you watch the show, is you realize, no, I'm not gonna make you watch it. Please, don't. You'll hate it. You'll vomit it. Becomes a they don't say this outright, but you feel it that these women are, well, they're objectified in a way that could make them, I don't even want to say it, like victims of people who are big, literally big people who could overpower them and think that they have automatic access to them like, I'm a football player and you're the cheerleader for my squad and I want to have sex with you. And that could be, I know I'm bringing some darkness into the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, but I just get that sense. I get that sense that the that the coaches are like, we need to protect the girls,

Michelle Newman 23:18

just for legal purposes, everyone, let's let's all just clarify that Kristin is not saying that has happened.

Kristin Nilsen 23:24

No any information. This is just something I gleaned listening hard to the episodes.

Carolyn Cochrane 23:32

Well, yeah, I can see that too. Like, you know, we're protect in a way, like this is a backwards way, not a backwards way, but we're protecting you from something that could potentially happen because of these

Kristin Nilsen 23:44

big people who are big and powerful and think that they can do no wrong and they can get away with it. Yep, they

Carolyn Cochrane 23:49

all live in Texas, exactly,

Kristin Nilsen 23:52

exactly. Not everybody. Well, I'm not even

Carolyn Cochrane 23:56

go there, sorry, in Texas, you know, we love you too at the same time, I don't want our Texas listeners, and

Michelle Newman 24:00

there is a lot people in all sorts of places. There are a lot of parts in Texas I still love, and make me still proud to be from Texas. And, you know, born there, bred for a little while there, but I don't there's also a lot of parts of it, not too proud of until like, but that's the way it is with everywhere, right?

Carolyn Cochrane 24:23

Well, I'd like to just say that in my mind, I want to remember Jane Seymour from somewhere in time, and Dr Quinn medicine woman for her portrayal, whatever the character was in Dallas, whatever, even it was called the movie, because I don't think I watched that TV movie. You wouldn't. You would never have watched big memories of it.

Kristin Nilsen 24:46

But I saw ads, I'm sure, because they advertised it like crazy.

Michelle Newman 24:50

Yeah, and if you see her with the ponytails, the law, you know, she still has her long trademark hair, but it's in the dog ears, the pony, whatever you guys call them, pigtails. But I just think it's so funny that. My first reaction, though, when I read the interview, because again, back to the interview. That takes up most of Sarah's article is about how she's like, I don't remember it, but basically saying it was a good experience, blah, blah, blah, I feel like she also didn't. She have to be like, reminded of the plot in that she's having the interview. She's like, what? And I'm reading it, going, what, how could you not and then what all it took was for you to say somewhere in time, and Dr Quinn, and I was like, oh, yeah, I guess, I guess, I guess, I'll give that one,

Carolyn Cochrane 25:33

okay, and this part we can take out, because I just thought that article

Michelle Newman 25:39

was terrible. Take that out? Did a

Carolyn Cochrane 25:41

high school kid write this or something? This Texas highways is actually, having been a journalism major in Texas, that's a kind of they used

Michelle Newman 25:50

to be giant. Yeah, they used to be big. My mom had a whole basket of Texas.

Kristin Nilsen 25:56

We should probably be pitching more, yeah?

Carolyn Cochrane 25:58

Well, probably. I mean, it's not just about the highways or whatever, but it was a real get. If anyone you knew had an article that was picked up in Texas highways. And so I was like, what has Texas highways become?

Michelle Newman 26:12

This isn't very good. Well, it's also seen it could just be the online let's not forget that a lot of times now the online publications are kind of because that out. They are just trying to churn out as many articles as they can to get they're going to do something about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders right now, because that's going to get them clicks to people who might not usually click on a Texas highways article,

Kristin Nilsen 26:39

but she could have asked such vastly different questions.

Carolyn Cochrane 26:44

I was wondering if she did and these weren't just the salvageable ones, because I swear that Jane Seymour seemed she could be a little like uninterested that, or maybe she just

Kristin Nilsen 26:57

impossible. Did you

Michelle Newman 26:59

see an article she says that her manager said, Really, you're gonna do an interview about that movie? Yeah, that was one of the things Jane Seymour says. And she's like, Yeah, I kind of want to see because I can't believe somebody remembers this movie. So she's like,

Kristin Nilsen 27:14

No one has ever asked me about it. Ever five years later, I'm gonna talk about it because somebody dared to ask. She was curious. Yeah, I can't believe we've not talked about this, and this didn't appear in the article either. But one of the main reasons I was showing up for that movie was because of Lauren tweeze, because Julie McCoy. Lauren tweezes, the actors who played Julie McCoy, yes, the cruise director on the Love Boat. She was one of the candidates on the show, and she had little Southern accents. So bad, she's so bad, so bad. Yeah, and she's so

Michelle Newman 27:46

bad, she's such a bad dancer. Yes, she was, she was. And then you have to wonder if it was that connection that then led to them being on The Love Boat. I don't even know, but yeah, she's, she's kind of unwatchable in the movie. Yeah, you guys, can you can? You can find it on like YouTube. I watched it when we did our episode on The Love Boat because I knew we were going to be talking about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders episode. Which listeners, we have an episode for that. Yeah, go back find our Love Boat episode. And we definitely address The Love Boat episodes with the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. And yes, we talk about cute little is it Tammy with the blonde ponytails? And, yeah, but, but I just have to wonder if that's where the wheels started turning about getting

Kristin Nilsen 28:34

them on. I always assumed when I was a kid that there was a connection there, like and then, because Julie McCoy was on the movie. Then they she invited them on the Love Boat, because it's all real. Everything is she became such

Michelle Newman 28:44

good friends with them. Yes,

Kristin Nilsen 28:46

that's right. Okay. FYI. FYI, this was gonna blow your socks off right now. I had my own Jane Seymour moment in that when I reluctantly auditioned for the North Stars hockey team, dance team. I did ice on ice. No, no, no, aisles. It was in the aisles. Yes, I can. I can't remember. I can't do crossovers when I'm roller skating. Dance on ice. Danced in the so I auditioned. Okay, I did make the team. I needed the money, and they paid $50 a game, and I when and when they called and said that I made it. I was so conflicted. I was like, fuck, what do we do now?

Unknown Speaker 29:38

Wait, I know

Michelle Newman 29:40

this is a piece of information we have needed before now,

Kristin Nilsen 29:44

and I and I said no, I mean, and she's like, why did you audition? If you're gonna say no, but I had Jane Seymour, Jane Seymour syndrome, and I sort of felt like I was a little embarrassed. I felt like I was too old. I was 23 I the reason I needed money was because. Graduated from college, and it was 1990 and it was a recession, and nobody had a job, and so I needed the $50 a week and but I just couldn't do it. I'm like, Kristen, you can do it. I'm like, No, I can't. I can't do it. Because I sort of felt like, you know what? This is, best left in high school. I shouldn't still be doing this after high school, and I they, and there were no Madonna whore outfits. You were bike shorts and a sweatshirt. So I really felt that was one of the reasons I was like, I can do this. I can audition for this. But then I had this really conflicting moment when they called me and said that I had made the team. And I said, No,

Michelle Newman 30:34

what was the audition would you have to do? This is amazing.

Kristin Nilsen 30:37

This is you had to go. It was just like on the documentary where, you know, a bunch of people go in and they and they teach you a routine, and then you, you it was, like, it was like, boot camp.

Unknown Speaker 30:48

Did they record

Carolyn Cochrane 30:55

it? And, you know, like, oh, remember her? I think it could be.

Kristin Nilsen 30:59

And I'm pretty sure there were some North Stars who were judges, but like I used to, I'm not sportsy, so I don't know. I don't know. All I know is Dino Ciccarelli and I, and I know it wasn't Dino Ciccarelli, so I if it had been him, I would remember, but it wasn't. So I didn't, I don't under. I don't remember.

Michelle Newman 31:16

Wow, I know. All right, everyone listening. So put that in your noggins for when we, one day, are very famous, and you can turn around and try to blackmail Kristin for sale,

Carolyn Cochrane 31:27

or we're a Jeopardy category on Jeopardy, which PCPs

Michelle Newman 31:31

host made the North Stars Dance in the Isles team? Yep.

Carolyn Cochrane 31:36

Who is Kristin Nelson?

Michelle Newman 31:41

Final answer.

Speaker 1 31:43

I just couldn't picture myself going. I gotta go to work now. I gotta go. I gotta go dance in the aisles of the North Stars game

Michelle Newman 31:53

a week. You know what? Spoiler alert, you're about to get a whole bunch of North Stars merch for Christmas.

Carolyn Cochrane 32:00

That's from there in Dallas now.

Michelle Newman 32:07

Goes gag about Dallas.

Carolyn Cochrane 32:11

I'm not a fan, but you know who I am a fan of. I'm a fan of the Minnesota Vikings.

Michelle Newman 32:16

Cheers, Michelle, who was born in Dallas.

Carolyn Cochrane 32:20

But guess what? The Vikings have two male cheerleaders. I'm obsessed with them.

Kristin Nilsen 32:25

People love them, right? And it's, I think this moment with the Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders, because of these two men and the women are incredibly talented, too talented. The team is very talented. But these men have have because of the controversy, the Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders have been put out front and become a news story and have gotten a lot of press. But until that happened, has there ever been and maybe I'm going to wrong. I'm wrong, and it's okay if I'm wrong. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, to this day, remain the only team that had this sort of national profile, which, you know, there's something to be said about that. There's, there's a reason, I'm not sure, but we're proud of those guys, and even people who don't like football, like me, I'll watch them.

Michelle Newman 33:14

Yeah, Blaze. I forgot the other one's name. Blaze is the one I follow. I don't think I follow the Yeah, the other guy gets a name, like Blaze, and then I remember, right, like, I know, or something,

Carolyn Cochrane 33:25

Kristin, you need to go do the dancing grannies or whatever, I think, yeah, a little cheerleading squad that comes out every once in a while, or dance team. Yeah, I've

Kristin Nilsen 33:38

just started taking classes. And I didn't go to class for like, 10 years and and I just started going back to class. And it's incredibly humbling, because what I found out is that there's very little you can do when you have vertigo, like, oh, you can't go up and down, you can't spin, you can't, yeah, it's a moment where you're like, Ah, shit. We're really until very recently, I could do all the same things I could do in 1985 and now you really can't. Now I look like the old lady who everyone's spinning, and I'm just standing in place.

Michelle Newman 34:11

I'm sorry, yeah, Carolyn is still sitting here in her Oilers hat. The whole rest of the time she's been in the Oilers hat. All right, so this was fun. So if you have a really strong opinion on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, one way or the other, let us know. We're always up for reading your emails. Like Carolyn. You'd like to support Carolyn with hatred of Dallas and the huge

Michelle Newman 34:41

hashtag, Derek, make sure, though you sign your your DM hashtag. Derek, dolls for the win. FTW, okay, so why don't we raise our glasses for toast?

Kristin Nilsen 34:52

Shall we? Courtesy of the cast of Threes Company, two good times, two

Michelle Newman 34:56

Happy Days, two

Carolyn Cochrane 34:58

little house on the prayer.

Michelle Newman 35:02

We go cowboys, you.