u/waxmuseums

They were kinda era-defining romcom leads at the same time, and Hilary and Meg I think typically were in “good girl” blonde roles while Lindsay and Julia were sometimes cast as the “bad girl” and more frequently in tabloids. I think Kate Hudson and Cameron Diaz were kinda like that too at the same time

I’d argue this is true of the two versions of “China Girl,” first as a single from “The Idiot” by Iggy Pop in 1977, then as a Bowie single for “Let’s Dance” in 1983.

The Iggy Pop one wasn’t a chart hit, though the album has been widely touted and cited as a formative influence on the whole realm of post-punk in general, in a broader scope maybe even “alternative” as a whole. And interestingly it’s contemporary with punk in the UK, I think the only British punk album to precede it was The Damned. You can hear this song in the genealogy of a lot of goth, industrial, etc.

And “Let’s Dance” was the beginnings of one particular definitive sound of 80s pop-rock, that being the sound of Nile Rodgers as a producer. That quickly became a massively popular sound, soon adopted by some of the most fashionable acts of the early mtv era - Madonna, Duran Duran, INXS - and stylistically had a pretty wide and sustained impact. The Bowie version was a hit and was probably instrumental in popularizing this production style

In my opinion it would have been a more interesting choice if Papouli died on camera. At that point the series needed a bit more pizazz, which is why they had Papouli die I’m sure, but they didn’t take it far enough. The way the show handled it also left open a lot of loose ends, like what bed did he die in or who found him, etc. Even if they didn’t show him die they could have at least had paramedics or something, like Degrassi. Tbh it probably should have been a two-parter, again like Degrassi did if anyone died

If an empty bottle of wild Irish rose is 10 points, what is a car with a cd106 bumper sticker?

I’m pretty interested in early MTV history and Asia seems like one of the first acts to get huge with MTV - their debut album was the number 1 album of 1982 according to both Billboard and Cashbox - but they pretty quickly became obsolete and I think are probably remembered as something like a two-hit wonder. “Heat Of The Moment” is probably pretty well-known today, and “Only Time Will Tell” still got a bit of airplay when I listened to classic rock radio.

“Heat Of The Moment” was the kind of video that seemed really futuristic in the early days of MTV, and it gives a shout-out to being in 1982, but both of these things would date it pretty quickly. And likewise in the annals of MTV/Viacom’s own version of history, they will never stop putting all their chips on The Buggles. “Heat Of The Moment” sounds melodically too much like “Video Killed The Radio Star,” and it’s maybe a funny thing that the supergroup status of Asia has sometimes marked Geoff Downes as a member of The Buggles foremost but that’s the power of having a very on-the-nose song connected to a massive corporation. “Don’t Cry” from their second album got MTV airplay though I think people weren’t as into it, and at the same time Phil Collins and Genesis were figuring out how to be relevant as proffers-gone-pop in the 80s, as well as their old compadre Peter Gabriel, and Asia just fell by the wayside. At the same time I think the American corporate rock Olympus bands of the 70s were adapting musically and visually, while emerging AOR acts like Night Ranger or Loverboy seemed a bit peppier than Asia and it just fell apart for them. I think the early 80s was stylistically a treacherous time to try to get established

This is an incredibly charming early video, though mtv was pretty rare for a long time. And 38 Special existed in a space between new wave and arena rock that I’ve always thought was funny. When did you get mtv? When were you aware of it being important to culture and stuff? When did you think it stopped having an impact on anything?

I just think it seems like there would have been something they would have made to promote the film in the city, but it’s a very hard topic to research on search engines and I don’t have access to any Vegas newspapers on my newspaper database

These are some of my notes on how I think the writing staff could have added a bit more razzledazzle and depth to our favorite uncle:

Instead of Jesse and the Rippers being an oldies cover band, incorporate the Bay Area thrash scene into the show - everyone complains now about the incongruity of Jesse being presented as some kinda leather jacket rebel then his band is just playing Surfin USA… so instead, Jesse is in a thrash band called Night Ripper, he was a roadie for Metallica on their ill-fated 1986 tour, he has a girlfriend named Chainsaw, etc. Even if it’s just for season 1, this could be the basis of a lot of character development in the show’s overall theme of Jesse the boy becoming Jesse the man. He rejects the dark themes of his thrash metal band after the death of Pam Tanner and starts up The Rippers, you could even work in some of the tragic backstories of The Beach Boys to explain why they started showing up.

1987 was the peak of hair metal, so if thrash is a fridge too far, make him a hair metal guy. And he doesn’t have to be in Motley Crue or WASP, there were wimpier bands and ballads going on by 1987. He was in a rising hair metal band down in Hollywood when Pam died, so that would add more pizzazz to the fact that he left all that behind to come to SF. They still could have had The Beach Boys and Tommy Page doing cameos but if you add in Bret Michaels, Jani Lane, The Nelson Twins, that would have been the ratings boost imo at least through 1991 or so. After that just slowly swap in more alternative acts. (And if they couldn’t get Counting Crows for that one episode, they should have gotten the Gin Blossoms, Toad The Wet Sprocket, etc… they had options.)

A waterbed. It’s a little thing but it’s like Cody Lambert having a van or Fonzie having a leather jacket, it would have just added a bit more dimension and believability that the character would have had a waterbed. And there would have been an episode where someone pokes a hole in it and floods the place, this was a Miller Boyett show after all.

Someone else should have died in Dr Dare Rides Again. It could have been Scott Baio, could have been Chainsaw, maybe even just one of the Rippers. But it would have made it more of a very special episode. The series would have benefited showing more of John Stamos’s acting skills and it’s an easy thing to throw in. Also the ghost of Pam Tanner should have shown up in this one and talked to Jesse.

This isn’t a new idea, but Urkel should have shown up with some kinda transformation ray and it accidentally zaps Jesse, Joey, and Danny and they all end up in the same body. They could have gotten Jason Wiles from Beverly Hills 90210 to play the combined version of them since he looks like if you smushed the three of them together. They could have done a lot with this concept.

If he was gonna be a big Elvis fan they should have had a vacation episode in Graceland. I’d have loved to see Lisa Marie and Priscilla do cameos. He could have been in an Elvis impersonator contest. I can kinda imagine it like when Saved By The Bell went to Hawaii, he’d have to hatch a scheme to save Graceland from developers or thwart some crooks trying to do a big heist of Elvis’s car collection. There would be some old Elvis impersonator that keeps helping Jesse along the way but he’s not in the contest, he’s like “naw I’m too old for all that and besides none of these greenhorns could buckle the kings britches,” and at the end it turns out it was the actual Elvis all along and he goes back into his grave, though they’d probably have to get permission to film that. But he could be like, “Jesse Katsopolis, you truly are the new king of kings.” It could have been an episode that taught young people about Elvis and Boomer culture maybe.

It could have been a corrupt televangelist trying to buy Graceland and bulldoze it to make a big resort, crooked televangelists were topical in that era. It would be like the Bakkers with their theme park. They could have brought in Stavros to help in the scheme.

It should have been more clear whether the theme song was being sung from Jesse’s perspective or Danny Tanner.

These are some of my notes on how I think the writing staff could have added a bit more razzledazzle and depth to our favorite uncle:

Instead of Jesse and the Rippers being an oldies cover band, incorporate the Bay Area thrash scene into the show - Jesse is in a thrash band called Night Ripper, he was a roadie for Metallica on their ill-fated 1986 tour, he has a girlfriend named Chainsaw, etc. Even if it’s just for season 1, this could be the basis of a lot of character development in the show’s overall theme of Jesse the boy becoming Jesse the man. He rejects the dark themes of his thrash metal band after the death of Pam Tanner and starts up The Rippers, you could even work in some of the tragic backstories of The Beach Boys for explaining why they started showing up.

1987 was the peak of hair metal, so if thrash is a fridge too far, make him a hair metal guy. And he doesn’t have to be in Motley Crue or WASP, there were wimpier bands and ballads going on by 1987. He was in a rising hair metal band down in Hollywood when Pam died, so that would add more pizzazz to the fact that he left all that behind to come to SF. They still could have had The Beach Boys and Tommy Page doing cameos but if you add in Bret Michaels, Jani Lane, The Nelson Twins, that would have been the ratings boost imo at least through 1991 or so. After that just slowly swap in more alternative acts. (And if they couldn’t get Counting Crows for that one episode, they should have gotten the Gin Blossoms, Toad The Wet Sprocket, etc… they had options.)

A waterbed. It’s a little thing but it’s like Cody Lambert having a van or Fonzie having a leather jacket, it would have just added a bit more dimension and believability that the character would have had a waterbed. And there would have been an episode where someone pokes a hole in it and floods the place, this was a Miller Boyett show after all.

Someone else should have died in Dr Dare Rides Again. It could have been Scott Baio, could have been Chainsaw, maybe even just one of the Rippers. But it would have made it more of a very special episode. The series would have benefited showing more of John Stamos’s acting skills and it’s an easy thing to throw in. Also the ghost of Pam Tanner should have shown up in this one and talked to Jesse.

This isn’t a new idea, but Urkel should have shown up with some kinda transformation ray and it accidentally zaps Jesse, Joey, and Danny and they all end up in the same body. They could have gotten Jason Wiles from Beverly Hills 90210 to play the combined version of them since he looks like if you smushed the three of them together. They could have done a lot with this concept.

If he was gonna be a big Elvis fan they should have had a vacation episode in Graceland. I’d have loved to see Lisa Marie and Priscilla do cameos. He could have been in an Elvis impersonator contest. I can kinda imagine it like when Saved By The Bell went to Hawaii, he’d hatch a scheme to save Graceland from developers or thwart some crooks trying to do a big heist of Elvis’s car collection. There would be some old Elvis impersonator that keeps helping Jesse along the way but he’s not in the contest, he’s like naw I’m too old for all that, and at the end it turns out it was the actual Elvis all along and he goes back into his grave, though they’d probably have to get permission to film that. It could have been an episode that taught young people about Elvis and Boomer culture maybe.

It could have been a corrupt televangelist trying to buy Graceland and bulldoze it to make a big resort, crooked televangelists were topical in that era. They could have brought in Stavros to help in the scheme.

It should have been more clear whether the theme song was being sung from Jesse’s perspective or Danny Tanner.