S2 E16: The Gift That Keeps on Givin’

Zip up your members only jacket, pour some eggnog in your Wally's World moose mug, and pause your Walkman as we bring you to the nineteen eighties. Welcome to the Eighty Show Podcast where we talk about all things nineteen eighty. From movies and TV shows, music and stars, fads and fashions, we'll talk about anything and everything to do with the nineteen eighties. We are your hosts alongside Damon Raffelli. My name is Bill Lasseter. Thank you for joining us on this special

Christmas edition of the A Show podcast. I mean, you know, uh we were just talking before this this uh we we started recording here, Damien, about eggnog. Um and Um they do have those on sale. You can you can actually pick those up at the uh at the store. You know what I brought one of those for a a white elephant gift. I was at a uh holiday party for the nonprofit. I I work with the Gambrae uh Syndrome at GBS uh C I D P Foundation.

And the sad thing is the younger people there had no idea what it was. Yeah, that's pretty sad. That's pretty sad. But uh, you know, hopefully you're having a delicious eggnog as you're listening to this. And if you're driving, hopefully it's not spiked. Uh it's a non spiked eggnog. So uh well we've got a good show for you today. Um Christmas special. Damien, what are we gonna be talking about today?

Well today first off it's Cousin Eddie presents National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Oh yeah, one of the great movies that eighties. Uh probably my favorite Christmas movie. I'm gonna go ahead and go on record and Uh such a great movie. Um, we're also gonna be talking about uh the old Sears Wishbook Christmas catalog for us.

Gen Xers, we know all about the uh the the catalog that came from uh from Sears that we would go through every year, right? Yeah, the actual physical catalogue before the internet. That's right, that's right. And so uh yeah, so those are our two s uh segments for today. Um, but kicking us off, we're gonna talk a little bit about eighties in the news. Um something exciting happened uh just a couple days ago. Spaceballs two, the quest for more money, uh actually finished uh uh wrapped filming.

Um, which uh which is great. I'm really excited to see this. Um of course they are announcing that it's not gonna be released until twenty twenty seven, which It's kind of a bummer, right? You know? Hopefully Mel Brooks will last that long. So I'm just impressed he made it through filming. Again, it's not he's almost a hundred years old. I mean literally almost a hundred years old.

By the time this comes out, I think it's gonna be a hundred and one, right? Yeah, yeah. And so yeah, he turned ninety nine this summer, it'll be a hundred next year. So uh there's a cool you can you can find it online. There's a cool picture of the cast uh after they wrapped. Uh to kinda announce uh that th that they're wrapped in stuff and I guess laughter is what keeps you up.

Living long. Yeah, absolutely. I thought it was bourbon and but uh I guess it's it's laughter and bourbon. Laughter, bourbon, you know, whatever you want to spike your eggnog with. Uh all right, so talking about uh eighties uh sequels. We have Letha Weapon 5 has just been announced. And the the interesting thing about this is not going to be a reboot. It's going to be a true sequel, just like Spaceballs.

Looks like a lot of the original cast is coming back. Mel Gibson's gonna come back. He's gonna star and direct. And uh Danny Glover's gonna come back too. No, it's crazy because in the original Lethal Weapon, which was nineteen eighty seven, uh Danny Glever already said he's too old for this sh. So like he's g I mean, he's gotta be eight

Wait too ancient for this shit now, right? Thirty years later, yeah. I wonder if it's gonna be like the kids, their kids or so I don't know. Hopefully not. Hopefully I don't know. I don't know. Maybe they're running the retirement uh police Uh there you go. Security at the retirement home. It could be someone someone's uh p you know, doing some drugs there and passing off entanol to the to the older you s I don't know. I don't know. So

Uh what do you think? You think gonna go see that Damian? Oh I I'm definitely gonna have to see it. Yeah, yeah. Hopefully hopefully it'll be good. I mean

We'll see. And also Lethal Weapon happens to be a Christmas movie too. It it it takes place at Christmas. That's right. I the original one. I I I can't remember if the other ones do uh I don't remember. I don't recall, but the for sure the first one happens around Christmas, so Um, other thing that you know, this is not really eighties necessarily in the news, but uh Variety just released their top one hundred comedy movies of all time, Damien.

Um and you know, there's some great movies from the eighties that are on this list. Uh Tootsie's on this list. Um there's uh um uh when Harry Met Sally's on this list, but I want you to there's only one movie from the eighties, uh comedy movies in the eighties that made the top ten. And believe it or not, it was actually the number one rated comedy of all time. And so Damien, uh, what do you think that movie might be?

Okay, that's a tough one because the 80s had a lot of great comedies. For sure. Off the top of my head, uh, before without really think about it, I'm gonna say Airplane. So Airplane is not in the top ten, however, it is in the top fifty. Okay. At least it's on the list. Yeah, it's on the list.

Uh I mean just'cause we're talking about Christmas vacation, is that on the list? Christmas vacation. I didn't see it on the list. Um I only have the top fifty in front of me. It maybe it may have made the top one hundred, but uh nope, not Christmas vacation. Man, there's so I know and and you definitely know this movie very well, by the way.

There's so many uh it can't be weird science. It's not gonna make that list. Nope, nope, nope, nope. Um for sure. Uh gimme just narrow it down a little bit. There's a there's so many con I mean if I say if I give you a hint it's gonna give it to you, but um we have talked about this uh movie on the show quite extensively actually. Um and um

I'll give you one more hint in a second if you want to take another guess. I mean, oh man, there's so many good comedies. I mean, there's the original vacation movie trading places. It was made in nineteen eighty eight. Well eight uh so it's gonna be a late eighties comedy. Yep. Uh Turner and Hooch. Nope, nope, Turner. Uh it and it doesn't even star uh uh Tom Hanks. Um and recently there was a remake of this movie. Like recently. Oh, is it gotta be Lethal Weapons?

Not lethal weapon but Naked Gun. That's right. Naked Gun from the Files of Police Squad is the number one comedy movie of all time, according to the writers of Variety uh magazine. I could see that. Um it it's one up there I mean it Zuckers did both. The Zuckerberg did that at an airplane. To me, airplane should be higher. Um but that's just me. And even Spaceballs is uh the original Spaceballs is hilarious. And what and what kind of comedy is Naked Gun?

It's a slap slapstick. Yeah. Yeah. So um we had a conversation where some younger people did not know what the term slapstick comedy uh actually means. So this was the same ho the holiday party I was just telling you about where I brought the Wal Wally's World mug. and from Christmas Vacation. And they we had to write on a little card, you know, a couple things about yourself. You know, one said I love slapstick movies and everything, nineteen eighties.

Yeah. And a lot of younger people had to come up to me and ask me what slapstick was. Yeah. It felt so cool. That's pretty that's pretty yeah, yeah. There's not really a lot of slapstick movies uh made um anymore. But uh yeah, so number one m comedy movie of all time according to Variety magazine is The Naked Gun. Uh another top twenty, uh this is Spinal Tap was also in there in the top twenty.

Um, but uh anyway, you know, um we'd love to hear from you about what your favorite 80s movie was, 80s comedy was too. Um and uh, you know, you can always email us at 80showpodcast at gmail.com. Uh visit us on our website at eighties dot show. And uh hey Damien, we've got a new sponsor here on the podcast. That's right. We've got Jelly of the Month Club. Ooh, that's a gift that keeps on giving all year long. This Christmas, give your employees something.

Something heartfelt. Something that says, I acknowledge you exist. Gift your employees Mr. Shirley's Jelly of the Month Club. It's cheaper than cash, easier than caring. Remember, why give a holiday bonus when you can give jelly? The gift that keeps on giving the whole year.

Now it's time to talk about National Lampoon's Christmas vacation. Yeah, that's right, Damien. So this is one of the uh uh you know, uh last movies to be made in the eighties because it was released on December first, nineteen eighty nine, so just barely made

the eighties cut. Um which it would have broken my heart if this was nineteen ninety. We couldn't talk about it. Yeah, I know exactly, exactly. Um and the box office it did pretty well. It made seventy five million dollars on a twenty seven million dollar budget and i it's because it was was released so late in the year.

It was actually the number twenty movie of nineteen eighty nine and the number seventy two movie of nineteen ninety. But number one in our hearts. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And so, you know, the top movies of nineteen eighty nine were

Uh Batman, Indiana Jones and Last Crusade and Lethal Weapon Two. And we just talked about Batman a few episodes ago. Michael Keaton, of course. That's right. And uh Uh yeah, so and it was written by John Hughes, um, which when you think about it, the very next year, which you know, we're not the ninety show podcast, but in nineteen ninety was the b biggest grossing film for a long time, um, which was Home Alone. So he has two

Iconic uh Christmas movies out there in the in the in the Zeitgeist. And back to back. Yeah, I think what's interesting too is is John Hughes book ended the nineteen eighties with the vacation movies. He wrote the original vacation movie in nineteen uh I think it was nineteen eighty three, was that if I'm not mistaken. So pretty early eighties and then

right at the end of the eighties wrote Christmas Vacation. Yeah. And of course he wrote a lot more. I mean we could talk I mean, you know, we've been talking a lot about John Hughes, and this is just because he produced so many movies. Last episode we talked about Weird Science.

And it that wasn't the point the reason we chose Christmas Vacation. He just has happened to have written uh so many movies that we that are our favorites of these. Yeah, yeah. I mean and and his career really was just, you know sandwich in that eighties in nineteen eighty to nineteen eighty nine. So and of course Christmas Vacation stars Chevy Chase, uh Beverly Angelo, Randy Quaid, um who's great as cousin Eddie.

uh Juliet Lewis and Johnny Golecki. Um, you know, were the were the were the new Russ and Audrey. You know, I th I I also think it's funny that every single movie it's a different Russ and Audrey, you know. Yeah, there is a little story behind that. So

I've actually seen a couple of different things. And one uh point of course, Chevy Chase takes credit for thinking it would be just cool to ch change out the kids'cause they're I guess they're not that important to the the the the story and they age out. But I think the real story, and this is what it from from some of the the deep research we do here on the Eighty Show podcast.

is that, you know, the original Rusty of course was uh Anthony Michael Hall. Right. And from from the original vacation movie. And then they made European Vacation a few years later. Right.

And John Hughes decided not to write that because and it will again he actually almost didn't write Christmas Vacation because he's he doesn't like to write sequels. He's not a sequel guy. Right. Yeah. That's true. Yeah, he doesn't have a lot of sequels on that. We'll talk about a little bit more about what i what his inspiration for this was. But because of that, um

He uh my Anthony Michael Hall decided not to do European vacation. Instead he what do you wanna you know what he did he decided to do? Yeah, like it might have been around the same time as Weird Science, is that right? Exactly. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he stuck with John Hughes, which I think was a smart move for his career because he did a lot of John Hughes movies in the eighties, Anthony Anthony Michael Hall. Um and of course Johnny Golecki went on to do Roseanne.

And then of course big bang theory. Big bang theory, yeah. So yeah. But this was his first uh real major acting role. Yeah. And of course Juliet Lewis became a big uh movie star starting into the nineties. And um wasn't she an old school too? Yes. Yep. Yes. I that was the that's actually what I thought of was old school. Oh man. Uh so yeah, so you know, these stars, we've seen'em on different movies throughout the years, but you know, I always

You know, I when I think of Chevy Chase, I actually do think of uh Christmas vacation. Um, all right. So, you know, there's a lot of different, you know, things we could talk about, but uh one thing that maybe people want to know is and and everybody's got one. Do you have a favorite scene of the movie, Damien? Like what's your favorite scene from the Christmas vacation? So this is a really tough pick. This is one of my favorite Christmas movies and I do watch it every year. And

I have to say the lingerie counter scene when he and he and Restier are shopping. Uh so Clark and Rusty are shopping at the mall for for gifts. That's the funniest thing. So Rusty's uh elsewhere looking for stuff and Clark's uh talking to the the lingerie counter girl and uh

And he's just flustered and you know, he's like it's a bit nipply out. I mean nippy. Uh what'd I say, nipple? You know, well there is a nip in the air though. Uh you know, he's like something about you a log and it's like, Well not that I have a log He starts he's like, Oh it's it's getting hooter hotter in here and then he grabs the the the um

The underwear starts patting his head'cause he's sweating so much. Yeah. Oh. So then Rusty walks over, yeah. Oh look, no lines. So good. So good. Wouldn't be the Christmas shopping season if the stores were any less hooter than they hotter than they are. Woo, it is warm in here. Well you have your coat on. Yes. Oh, do I? How did that happen? Because it's cold out? Yes, yes. Spit nipply out. I mean nippy out.

What am I saying? Nippled? There is a nip in the air though. I use those lines all the time, especially it's a bit nipply out. You know, it's I think everybody does it. I think it's just you know, something a line everybody knows. Maybe they don't know what movie it's from, but they know that those lines. Yeah, yeah. Um man, and so we were talking earlier about, you know, picking your favorite scene. And it's so hard because there's

Yeah, and it's funny. It's one of those movies where you watch it again and something else strikes you funny, you know, this time or than you know, than the previous time or whatever. Um, I just love Clark trying to hang up the lights.

Um, and he's got those Italian those imported Italian twinkling lights and it's in a gigantic knot. He gives the Russ, you know, get get this knot out, kid and then he's trying to hang up the in a accidentally staples his glove to the to the roof and then he hangs on to the um to the uh

What's it called? The The gutters, yeah. The gutters and then the ice goes through the neighbor's window and then Tata Margot's house. Yeah, and then they just and then they try to turn on the lights and it doesn't work. And I mean, it's just in Uh just a great that whole that whole thing I could totally relate to uh trying to, you know, be the

Be the good dad of hanging the lights up and stuff like that and it not working out very well and stuff. So And that whole bit about with the light switch is what you know Yeah. And they don't figure out that's funny. You know, just where you're talking about him just like kind of like hanging off the roof. That physical comedy, that's old school slapstick comedy, you just don't see that as much anymore. Yeah. And it you're just funny. I mean

Some some of these lines we were talking about, if you read'em, they're not that funny, but in context, the way they're delivered and how it goes and especially with the physical comedy. Yeah.

I mean there's I don't think there's any part in there I would cut out in the movie at all. So you know what's funny? And I we didn't talk about this beforehand. It's not in the notes, but like um

This was a very late eighties move where the beginning of the movie is cartoonish. Remember it's like Cartoon and Santa and all this stuff and l and I remember like there were several movies in the late eighties where There was some random cartoon at the beginning that had nothing to do with the movie, but like it was just like a

Maybe eighty eight, eighty nine, maybe beginning of ninety. The movies had this cartoon thing and it's just like I always thought that was weird, but but like especially if you watch it now, you're like, Why is this? And like

A ton of movies did that back then. Do you remember that? Yeah, and I I was never a big fan. There were there was also a um uh a John Cusack movie that did that where he was uh One crazy summer, right? And it was like some art so it kinda fit a little more'cause he was an illustrator.

Um but there was a story I did hear uh here about that um with the director Chechik. We haven't talked about we can talk about him a little bit, but I guess that was his idea to do an animated uh opening sequence sea sequence.

Because I guess he wanted to do a an animated movie at some point and that was his small way of doing it. The studio wouldn't let him do it. Yeah. Yeah, it just uh it doesn't really fit the movie, but other I don't think it ruins the movie. No, no, no. No. But uh so the other thing is, you know, I so

As far as nineteen eighties uh Christmas movies, Damien, how does this How does this rank? I mean, there's so many classic Christmas movies from the nineteen eighties. You know, we mentioned Lethal Weapon earlier. Um, what else was out there? Yeah, I mean, I think a top on a lot of people's lists would be of course the classic, A Christmas story. Sure, sure. You're gonna shoot your eye out, kid.

Yeah. Um I think uh Scrooged was in the eighties. Bill Murray, I think it was like eighty eight. Yeah. Yeah. Um we talked we talked in a previous episode about the gremlins, about gremlins. Yeah, we got another wacky one. Ernest saves Christmas. That's right. Ernest P. Warrell. Yeah. Remember him? Yeah. Did like three hundred movies and you know

And of course two iconic Christmas movies, Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, right? Like they're they're both they're both good. Yeah. So some of these movies we'll talk about now are a lot of people would not and I think it's debatable whether Christmas movies, there's a lot of debate. We're gonna call them Christmas movies here. And so diehard, lethal weapon, uh I would say uh gremlins on top of that. Because it just takes place at Christmas. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh what else do we have?

from the eighties. I'm sure we're missing it. Oh right, of course. Trading places was around Christmas. So yeah. Um there's a lot of Christmas stuff in there too. There's the Christmas party and then you see Dan Ackroyd in the Santa suit, right? Yeah. Um I think that was a definitely a Christmas one. So so So here's my questi. So Christmas vacation. It's called Christmas Vacation. So you know it's about Christmas. But you told you said something that I never thought about earlier about

It about Christmas in this movie. What were you what what'd you what'd you share with me? So in the movie we n actually never see Christmas Day. It ends on Christmas Eve. Yeah. I never really thought about that, but you never see the presents being opened. You never see anything like that. It's just So who got the jello mold? I don't know. Well I think most of the

The uh presents burned up anyway when the tree is on fire. So I'm not sure there was any Christmas gifts left. So we never get to Christmas morning, which is which is kinda funny for a Christmas movie. Well he did open the Jelly of the Month Club. He did get that. Oh and the cat. The cat got the cat. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So um another question that we can discuss and debate about is you know, who is the bigger

in this movie. Is it Clark or is it Cousin Eddie? And I think that's a good question because Clark really is he is a jerk man. Uh you know what it's if you also look at it from from Margot and Todd's perspective, he is like the worst neighbor, right? True. Uh I I'd actually like to see a movie from their perspective. Oh for sure. That would be great. That would be great. It's kinda like the movie neighbors, you know, the the worst.

I mean he's he's always mean to them. He's like, you know, cra you know, he the tree goes to their house, a uh icicle goes to their house. He's got like uh a thousand megawatt lights shining right in their window and he's just a d You know, like like they when they just make that kind they're kinda yuppie jerks, but you know, they bring home when he's bringing home the tree, they're like, Where are you gonna put that thing? Yeah, yeah. Bend over and I'll show you.

You know, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, it's just so good. Uh Yes, Clark is kind of jerk, but let's just think about this too. He's he's also the ultimate family man. He's you know, his whole thing is he wants to build a pool for the family to to hang out in. I'm and maybe invite the girl from the lingerie counter to come hang out exit. So um yeah, I'm not sure who the b and I think just Eddie's just

Ignorant, right? Like he's just he's got a good heart. He's just he's just ignorant, you know. He's just a simpleton. But he does save the hot Christmas. I mean

Yeah, it's he it takes a kidnapping. But he does save Christmas. He is the hero of the story for sure. He is a hero of the story. There's another funny tidbit just talking about the the kidnapping. So in that kidnapping scene, Ellen uh Beverly D'Angelo's character says uh to the officers, sorry, this is our first kidnapping.

Right, right, yeah. And no, because and this is funny, I had not thought about this until you brought it up, but in the original vacation movie, they kidnapped John Candy as a security guard and make him open up all the rides and go on the rides with him and so It's not their first kidnapping, is it? Yeah. Yeah. So that that is that's like Kinda like a a tongue in cheek uh joke right there that I never really caught until you mentioned it today.

And you know, cousin Eddie i he's a family man too. Not the kind of family man y most people would envision, but you know, he brings his kids across country in a in a beautiful R V or tenement on Wheels on Wheels, yeah. Tenement on wheels. When did you get the uh tenement on wheels? Oh that there that uh that's an R V. And you know, he does care about his kids. I mean he may not buy them Christmas gifts or or or

shampoo or or soap um or food. But he seems to care about his children. He cares about you know, he actually does care in the movies, he does care about Clark. You see that you know, even all the way through Vegas vacation going in much later years. And um uh so

Actually I don't know if he wasn't really in European vacation, was he much in the middle of the year? I don't recall him in European vacation. I you know, and I haven't seen that movie in a long time, so I I don't remember, but yeah, he he for sure he for sure cares about Clark and the whole family and stuff. So And that was one of my least favorite uh vacation movies. Probably my least favorite was European. And maybe it's'cause cousin Eddie wasn't in it. I think he's part of the uh the charm.

In fact I read a a article about um that cousin that uh Randy Quaid uh I don't know how much acting he was doing'cause he really is pretty crazy these days. I mean I think Yes, for sure. Uh he got uh arrested by the Canadians and sent deported back to the America a few years ago.

Uh anyway, but so when he was growing up in Texas, I'm assuming with his his brother, uh, Dennis Quaid, that uh he knew somebody that was very much like Cousin Eddie and got his mannerisms and a lot of things like that. So he's yeah. Uh but it's pretty funny. So I think he's one of my favorite characters and

I don't know. I'm I it's hard to say who's a bigger bigger jerk. Yeah. Yeah. He's just you know, and there's just so m he's just so funny in that movie too. Just the little things he does and You know, not meaning to, like when he when he I don't even know that little candle thing that spins around and he hits it and it just falls apart and stuff like that and he's He he just he doesn't mean to do that kind of stuff, you know. Innocent kidnapping.

Yeah. Do you remember those little wooden things with the candles? Like they were that would always fall down. It was like the heat from the uh candles would make a good spin. Yeah. But I remember just like knocking them down all the time as a kid and my mom get mad, you know.

And he's wearing that uh turtleneck uh top with the with the thing over and stuff like just so good. He's so good. Uh another thing that about Cousin Eddie, and we'll move on from that, um, but um it wasn't until a few years ago on a rewatch that, you know, when they're walking in Walmart or whatever store they're in and he's getting the dog food and it's like, you know, and Clark's saying telling him that he's gonna, you know, help, you know, get the kids uh presents and stuff like that.

Have you noticed his tight pants in that? Oh yeah. Oh so I it's classic. It's so funny'cause I didn't notice it until a couple of years ago and um and then I started laughing. 'Cause I had never n seen it. But so that's what that's what's great about a movie like that is you can see it so many times and then catch something new.

you know, that that strikes you as as funny or whatever. But I never noticed it until about a couple of years ago. There there are so many small things in that movie. Like and I love the way he dresses us with like the patent leather white shoes. Yeah. Oh yeah. Just all the uh the the clothes are out of date. Um But there's another uh thing there that was improved which um it's Yeah, you should probably notice at the end, but there's a lot of little parts in there.

At the very end, you know, in the scene where the police come in and they all they go freeze and everybody freezes. Yeah. And and Ellen grabs a Clark's crutch. Crutch. Yeah. And she improved that. And nobody's like she's just like, Oh my wonderful say anything, then they just use it. They use that cut. Well, depending on Jimmy Chase, it cannot be you know, it has been you know, we've heard that he's

Not very delightful to work with. But so but I guess he d he did mentor Johnny Golecki though, um Okay. During that so I guess he would take him to improv shows and he uh he took him, I guess, to the set of Ghostbusters two. Oh, okay. And then I don't know if it was Harlem Knights or whatever. It was one of Eddie Murphy's movies too at the time. So uh Johnny Glecke said that was, you know, pr pretty cool. Like obviously he's got one of the comedy greats. Yeah, and all these S NL connections.

teaching him and got his comedy chops, you know. Maybe, maybe. That's interesting. Well, I'm I'm glad to hear there's some redeeming factor of of Jace. But so you were talking about um, you know, it was John Hughes that wrote this. And so what so What was the inspiration of of of him writing this?

Yeah, so this is something I didn't know, I just found out um that he actually had written a short story called Christmas fifty nine. Okay. And it was published in National Lampoons. They used to have a magazine. Okay, yeah, yeah. Uh I think it used to come out of Harvard, right? I think a lot of these guys went to Harvard. Whatever, it doesn't matter. Um but i that was published in December nineteen eighty.

And that's uh where he got the I that's where this this movie script came from. Oh, again, like I said, he didn't like to do uh sequels, but since he had this was based on something he had written already. Okay, okay, gotcha. That's uh that's cool. I like that. I like that. And did have you s did you notice any of the nods to that original

uh Christmas fifty nine story in the in the Well the m when he's playing the the movie when he's up in the and when he's stuck in the attic, you know, he's playing like and you can see uh Yeah one of the labels I think says th Christmas fifty nine or something like that. Yeah, so there's a bunch of those home like eight millimeter tapes or whatever. It does say Christmas fifty nine, you're right. Right.

Um, you know, Aunt Bethany is in there and and and stuff like that. So Aunt Bethany played played by uh Mae Questel. um was actually, you know, she was old in that movie. I don't know how old she was. She was old in that movie. But she was actually the original voice of Betty Boop. That goes back to the thirties. That's crazy. Um and and I guess later on she was also the voice of olive oil and the Popeye cartoons. Um Which she kinda has a high pitched uh uh you know

uh uh voice anyway. What's that squeaking sound, you know? Her voice was so high pitched, she actually caused an actual earthquake. For real. So when her and Uncle Lewis, you know, when they first go in the house, when you first meet them, they're going to the the Griswold house.

Um there is a a small earthquake'cause it was filmed in the Burbank lot. Um and uh and you can actually see in the movie if you watch it closely the camera actually shakes a little bit and they use that they use that. So you said that today, I gotta re well It's that time of year to watch it again. So um and and you also told me that The house that Todd and Margot talking about another Christmas movie.

The house that Todd and Margot lived in was actually the Murtaugh home from Lethal Weapon, which is pretty co I gotta rewatch it now to watch to see that part. th a couple of the houses that they use were filmed used in a lot of different T V shows and movies. So if they look a little familiar, that's why they're just again it's the part of the you know, the Warner Brothers lot. Yeah. There's a lot of stuff. I they still use it today. I mean there's still stuff filmed in that lot. Yeah.

So critically How how did this movie do? According to Roger Ebert, you know, remember that was a that was a heyday of of Siskel and Ebert, right? So what what did Roger Ebert say? So I will say on Rotten Tomatoes now, it has a really high score from both critics.

and audience members currently, right? So it's it's it's a modern day cult classic, right? Right. And Robert E Roger Ebert, you know, he was always, you know, always on it, right, for this. He gave it two stars. And he said something like, It doesn't deliver the jokes or the punchlines and I gonna last You know, the the you know, the the over time.

And uh just like a lot of the uh reviews he wrote that he was absolutely wrong. Now, so this is another interesting tidbit about this movie. Now it's the only vacation movie that had its own sequel. um which was a it was of course direct to T V or direct to video sequel. It was actually made for TV. Made for TV. Okay. It wasn't even c I don't think it was even considered for video

Um yeah, so if you've never heard of it, there's a reason. Yeah, right, right. So it was uh two thousand three that it came out and it was Christmas Vacation to Cousin Eddie's Island Adventure. Um and and that also got a great rating, right, Damien? Yeah, on IMDb it's got a solid two point seven out of ten.

And on and Rotten Tomatoes got a solid thirteen percent. Hey, thirteen percent. That's uh no that's not even passing. I do want to uh watch this though. I I'm I wanna find it and watch it. I'm really not sure if I want to watch it or not.

Um, and so th one little one last tidbit that we want to talk about is um because you had told me about this was the squirrel scene because great scene, you know, uh so You know, w if you haven't watched the movie, you should watch it. But basically they have to replace the the Christmas tree'cause it blows up or it burns up real quick because of uh because of the stogie um that was being uh uh taken um i in in the living room and so they

He Clark goes outside and cuts down a tree from outside and all that. Not even his own yard. And so uh, you know, Aunt Bethany hears a sound and Um all you hear is uh is uh you know, you and the dogs the dogs barking. Dogs barking and stuff like that. And like what's that squeaking sound and uh Uh, Uncle Lewis g delivers a line of um uh you couldn't hear a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant, right?

Um and so uh th there's a squirrel in the tree, live squirrel in the tree. And so what did you what did you find out in your research, Damien? So uh it was actually uh saw something about uh the director Chechik uh talking about this. And he um so They actually had a trained squirrel with an animal trainer, believe it or not. And the squirrel died like the day before. Apparently squirrels don't live that long. Was it one of the water skiing squirrels that you see?

And so the Chechuk says, I said, Holy f we're shooting that today. And the animal trainer turned and said, You know, they don't live that long. We still had to shoot that scene, so we used an on trained squirrel. It was just total chaos. That's so awesome. So I think it probably added to the the just insanity of that scene. And I'm not sure it was being been as funny with a transcorrel. No, no, no, for sure. It just the just the reaction of the family and um

Uh Clark's mom just falling down on the floor and passing out and stay there, mom. Don't move. And the dog trying to chase the squirrel and it's on like Clark's back. Uh again, that's slapstick comedy right. Oh yeah if you don't know what slapstick is, that's slapstick. Yeah. And just uh just before we close up too, uh just about Chechik, we haven't really talked about the director. Oh yeah, yeah. And I had never heard of him. Uh I didn't know who he was. I was surprised because you know it's a

Or very popular film. Did you have you had you heard of him before we did this research? And then you were and then you were telling me some stuff that he w he had done. So this was his first uh feature film. He had done some stuff uh T V a lot. But so after this he did Benny Benny and June, so with Johnny Depp. And that was actually good. Um he did Diabolique with Sharon Stone, which didn't do so well. And then he did the Avengers in nineteen ninety eight.

Oh, so like uh with uh Robert Downey Jr. and and all them? Like No, no, it wasn't even a Marvel uh comics. Okay. It actually did have a really good cast, but it was a uh satire, a spy satire, so it's like a comedy action spy movie set in England. Okay. Ralph Fines and Sean Connery. And it bombed. Completely bombed. I had never even heard of it. I watched the the the trailer for it.

Uh even the trailer looked pretty bad and it has it has some really bad, bad ratings. So um and there's a little tidbit in that movie where uh sorry, in Christmas vacation where he actually you can see his face. Oh yeah. And you knew this. I didn't know this one. We were watching this a while back. Uh you remember what we see. Um he's he you know, it was they they

He forgot a saw, so they dug it up and you know that whole thing. Um, and so he's in bed talking to his wife and he's he's got a people magazine. And he's turned the pages but his his fingers are sticking to it. And on the cover of the magazine is the director of the movie. Yeah, and he looks old in there too. I thought he was uh'cause I thought it was a real people magazine.

I thought it was member w there was a couple of those FBI agents that uh were they got busted'cause they were spying for the the uh the Soviet Union. And I thought it was one of those guys, but you know, it was the uh director. Yeah. But yeah, there's a reason we never heard from him. So this was the only

I mean the only like great movie he did. But I guess hey, if you got one you do one great thing, it's one of my favorites. It's one of my favorites. So um so hey, we would love to hear from you. Um What's your favorite scene of Christmas vacation?

Um what do you remember about watching it? Do you watch it every year? We'd love to hear from you. You can hit us up on the socials and also what's your favorite Christmas movie from the eighties and yeah, we are there some movies that we didn't mention that you think are Christmas movies? There's a lot of weather ones we didn't mention. Yeah, for sure. There's some animated ones, there's other stuff. Other stuff.

Uh you know, and also, you know, if you have any funny Christmas stories of chaotic families, I think That's why it's relatable, right? We all have c everybody's got somebody, even if you've I'm sure there's people out there to have a a a functional family. I don't know what that would be like. But if you do, everybody's still got the dysfunctional people in their family. So if you've got some funny stories, I'd love to hear that, especially from the e the eighties. Absolutely.

All right, next up on the 80 show podcast, we're gonna be talking about the Sears Wish Book. The Sears Wish book was a thing that all Gen Xers know about or might be referred to as the Sears catalog. So Damien, tell us a little bit about the Sears Wishbook. Right. This was back in the day when we actually had physical catalogs. That would come in the mail and uh

So Sears had a a special wish book just for Christmas. So it was a special catalog just for Christmas. Right. And it was broken out into different kind of departments, different, you know, categories where you could go through and uh, you know, s was it toys, electronic

Right.'Cause I'm sure that's that's what you wanted most like socks and underwear, right? Yeah, I always went straight to the socks and underwear because I wanted the fruit of the loom because there's a special No, because yeah, so you know, you would get this uh catalog, this this wish book.

And it came out uh like November and um basically you would just go through it and like see what you want for Christmas that year and you would circle stuff and pictures plus descriptions too. Yeah, yeah. And so I know like Most Gen Xers would know

what the wish book was because we all did it and and I I was trying to think like how to describe it to someone who's not from You know, our generation, I was like, it was like a yellow pages, but oh wait, no, they don't know what the yellow pages is, right?

Um, but yeah, so you would you would go through and circle the things that you wanted, you give it to your parents. And the funny thing is, I you know, one of the one of the things that I think about is that um even though you circled it in the Sears wish book, Maybe they went somewhere else to get it. You know, they they didn't have to necessarily go to Sears to get that toy or that thing that you wanted. And um but it w it just was like

It's just a rite of passage, you know, when you were a certain age a as a kid, you would you would go through that wish book and and and basically wish, you know, tell tell your parents what you wish you wanted to have for Christmas. Or tell Santa Claus where you're going to be able to do it. Or tell Santa Yeah. So, you know, you would

cut out the little pictures and send it to Santa Claus, I guess, too. Yeah, and there were there were other catalogues like Toys R Us had one, um but I think Sears and some of the other stores, but I think Sears was the most comprehensive and probably the most popular

Yeah. Because it had a lot more stuff than just toys too. Yeah. If you wanted like a boom box, you wanted like a Garfield uh phone. Remember those novelty phones? Oh yeah. They had like a like hamburger one, like McDonald's. What else? Remember some of those? So I had a I remember one of the things w and I finally got a phone line in my room. Not

Not a separate line than my par than my mom, but for the people that are listening, they're not Gen X. Um these phones were plugged into a wall. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. They were not cordless. They were not mobile phones. Yeah. And so I remember I had this this like blue one with gigantic buttons on it. That's the one I wanted. I remember circling it on the wish book and

I didn't get it that year. But I got it for my birthday eventually, so it was fine. You know. Uh I do remember there was like nineteen eighty seven or six, something like that. I had one of those uh uh uh those football phones, but it was from Sports Illustrated. Sports Illustrated you got a sports illustrated uh

Uh subscription, you get the sport you get the football phone and I did definitely did not do it for the uh swimsuit edition only. Oh I was just really into sports and I got the the phone as well. Um, but yeah, so that was for Christmas. So they had all kinds of cool novelty phones. And in fact, that'd be fun if any of our listeners had some of those novelty uh novelty phones. Uh just say, Hey, what was your favorite? Which one did you like?

'Cause that was actually pretty cool again,'cause we you know, people talked on the phone a lot. Yeah. That's what we did. Yeah, that's what we did. And and you know, you you you and and and the thing is you could only use the one line. Yep. You couldn't, you know, you you The same line that you use, your parents used and and so Yeah, so you're talking to your friends and your parents pick up you got

Hang up the phone, Mom. Yeah, yeah. I've got my I have a good friend that you know named Dave who uh uh his mom was notorious about picking up the phone and just listening to our conversations. We knew she was listening and stuff, so Um but anyway, um the the Sears wish book um it's just that that time of year you would you would go through it and circle everything you wanted. And so I was just thinking about and maybe I'll I'll ask you this and you can think about it, but like

Was there anything that you circled that you really wanted but you never did get?'Cause I'll I'll I'll share one with for for you, uh from me. So like every single year I circled the seven or eight drum kits that were that were in this year's catalog. And thinking back now as, you know, I have my own kids, like I know why my mom never got that for me. It wasn't just price. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was the, you know, like, oh, oh yeah, we're gonna get a little drum kit in this.

This two bedroom uh condo here. I'm sure your neighbors were happy that you did not get one. Yeah, for sure. So was there anything that you really, really wanted that you never did get? Couple things. Uh but they were pretty expensive, the big toys. Like uh like remember Star Wars had some of the big toys. Oh the big like bases or Millennium Falcon or something. And also G. I. Joe they had like a aircraft carrier, you know, some of these big toys which were

I I understand why too. They were like super expensive. Yeah. And those were some of the ones that I that I wanted, uh that never got. But um unfortunately. Another one that I always wanted was R C cars. And I remember one year my my grandparents got me an R C car and um But it only it had one button on the remote which

made it turn backwards left. Like so you would go straight and like, Oh, I can't go that way then you would push the button and it would turn it would go in reverse and turn left. Like that that was it. That was the only that was the only direction that it it had on it. But

I got it. I do remember a little bit towards the more like the late eighties when I was in like probably fifteen or sixteen, something like that. I was probably fifteen. And I did get a like a really cool R C car, one of the ones that had like the you know, the the there were like waff-rows with the studs and the wheels and all that. But the battery technology back then was so insane it would last twenty minutes, you'd have to charge it for six hours or something like that. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So um so you know, we used to circle all these things. Do you remember those little robots too? They were more like RC cars, but they were sold as robots. Uh in fact some of the bigger ones were like on silver spoons. They had one. Oh yes, I do remember that. And the series I did see one in the the'cause looking back at some of the old series wish books from the eighties and I did see one the Omnibot.

And it's kinda funny, but think about what technology is today, but that was so cool, but it didn't really do much. Yeah, it just would walk and then that was it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or you could talk through the the speaker or something. I have no idea. Yeah. So there was always cool toys in there. one that I always wanted and never got was the uh Snoopy Snow Cone machine. Like you know, and that was like basically it just took

Your ice from your freezer and then you grinded it up and and then it g came with like syrup to to flavor it. That was all it was. Yeah, and it wasn't even electronic, right? It was all manual. You'd grind up the mint. Yeah. Yeah. So recently I saw it for You know, they're trying to to d to tap into nostalgia and they uh had that at I saw it at Target uh a couple you know, maybe a couple of months ago or whatever in the summertime, but

Um, yeah, so there's so many different toys, so many different things that people wanted. Um, I do remember, you know, talking about clothes. I do remember like When I got older, especially, not when I was younger. I didn't care what I wore when I was younger, but like certain uh shirts that I wanted, um uh, you know, different brands, like T and C Surf was a big thing that I would quicksilver when it first came out, like stuff like that or skateboarding companies.

I always circle those things. I I didn't get them all the time though. So Yeah, especially like sneakers too, or you know, tennis like people call tennis shoes with sneakers back easy. Uh, you know, like the Nikes or Reeboks or uh what was popular the the kangaroos, remember those things or the British Knights? Yeah, Brit BKs, yeah, baby, yeah, baby. Uh so what about

I'm pretty sure I got my members only jacket from uh Sears catalog. I might have too,'cause I did have one. Yeah, I know. We we've talked about that on the case. I'm trying to remember if I got it for Christmas or not. Um also parachute pants too. I that's where I like parachute pants. And I think I wanted at one point when I was younger, uh, one of those Michaels Jackson uh jackets from Thriller with all the red with all the zippers. I could see my parents wouldn't buy this.

It's not very practical, but it seemed cool at the time. It probably looked like a moron word of it. For sure. But uh, you know, it's it's it's what we did as kids in the eighties and you know, there's tons of popular toys back then. You know, we t I think one of our first episodes we talked about laser tag.

and how that was a cool like if y if you could get laser tag, that'd be awesome. Yeah, my dad didn't buy them. We talked about that in one of the the holiday episodes from from a while ago. My dad did buy that for me cr for Christmas. Oh, it's being a clothes, I do remember one thing my dad got for me.

It was uh probably like night it was right around the time Miami Vice came out. So I got that white blazer for Christmas. I know you had one too. And I that's right. It was for Christmas that I got that. Yeah. Yep, yep. Um and uh so you know there was other toys, you know, I think girls m uh you know, were into Barbie dolls, uh care bears was a big thing in the nineteen eighties. Um strawberry shortcake. I know my wife talks about having

uh strawberry shortcake doll that i y you know, it would actually smell like strawberries, which was pretty cool. You know, like a blueberry one too. My cousin had some of those. And then of course we we also previously covered in a episode

The Atari twenty six hundred. Like that was a huge uh thing to get. And of course Legos. Legos were always has have always been huge. Yeah, they've been always big. And uh we talked about this actually was I think your favorite toy from the eighties, uh Cabbage Patch Kids. That was a craze for w quite a while. I think they came out in eighty three was the big uh Wait, did you say my favorite toy? Yeah. I don't know about that, but yes. Um

You know, in different games. Simon, remember Simon uh Yeah, it was like Simon says is a game, right? Where the the little the lights would there was like four or five lights that would light up and you'd have to remember and it kept going faster and faster. Um Yeah. It was uh that was and of course board games. Like I remember I I always wanted operation.

Yeah, that was a fun one. Operation was a great one. Um My cousin I used to play Trouble a lot, you remember that one? Yeah, Trouble with the you pop the thing and and stuff. So yeah, so um but there were so we did find the list of the best selling the top selling toys of the nineteen eighties by year. Um, and I know that um I circled this in my Sears wish book. Oh there's definitely some of these on this list that I circled. Some of them I actually did have two, which was even better.

So they're not all expensive gifts. They're not they're not. They're not. So w you know, let's uh let's start at the beginning of the decade in nineteen eighty, Damien. What was the top selling toy of nineteen eighty? And from when I was looking, I believe this was the top selling uh toy of the entire decade as well. The Rubik's Makes Sense. The Rubik's Cube. Yeah, Rubik's Cube was you know, that was one that you know, there's some kids that I knew that could do it really quick.

I always struggle with it. I would peel off the stickers and and put'em in the other place or But you could break it and put it back together and I always struggle with that thing. Yeah. There's some simple strategies to do it. Uh yeah. I never figured it out. But yeah, a lot of us would do the same thing where you'd break it apart. Break it apart and put it back together. Yeah. Yeah. So like I saw it. Yeah. Hey, look what I did. Um

Um so in eighty one was uh Masters of the Universe, you know, A Man. And uh She Ra as well as part of that too. So they had a whole line of of toys that were more geared towards girls as well, the She-Ra uh part of it. Um I used to play with Shira. That's fine. Yeah, that's there's nothing wrong with that bill. Okay, all right. Well uh you can be but non binary and that it's fine. All right. Uh even though I don't that I don't know what that means. Yeah. It's some butt computers.

Um and also in the eighty so I was looking uh the also a popular toy in nineteen eighty one were the Smurfs too, which I was a big fan of the Smurfs. Yes, yeah. Smurfs, I you know, I love the Smurfs, except for it was I think we've we've talked about this on a previous episode is You know, i there there's just one female sur smurf, right? Exactly. And it's kinda you know, I don't know. It's it's a little uh creepy, but I do remember um that they uh had these little shrinky dinks.

Do you remember that? Oh yeah, shrinking. Yeah, shrinking. Yeah, you would you you would harden up. You would color them um when they're bigger, and then you put them in the oven and they would shrink. And it probably gave off a a toxic odor we that we don't know. I'm sure, you know. I'm sure it's probably causing a lot of diseases today.

It does remind me of another thing that was big in the eighties. Remember those seahorse uh eggs or whatever you could buy? They were like but they were like dry and you put'em in water and the seahorse is coming down line. It's crazy. It's crazy, crazy. Um what else do we have? Nineteen eighty two was my little pony, your favorite toy of the eighties. That that was my number one toy of the eighties. Yeah, you used to like to bring the little brush and c and brush the hair of the of the

the pony and stuff like that. So pretty hairy and I love it. Um Yeah. Um and of course eighty three is apparently my favorite toy of the eighties was pa cabbage patched kids. Um and then the next year we have a which become a it was gonna become a massive toy, which is still popular today. Yeah. Uh by Michael Bay.

Transformers. Transformers, yes. In nineteen eighty four Transformers was the big hit out there. They were more than meets the eye. That's right. That's right. That's right. Um it's funny because I remember like It's getting older. Um, my birthday that year well, my birthday in eighty five, I guess, and is I'm at that age where I'm eleven. I'm kind of a kid, but also kinda and I got a couple Transformers and one of my friends made fun of me for having a transformer but

I said, Oh no, no, that's I'm gonna give that away. But then I'd go to my room and play with it. Like like without him noticing. But like yeah. Transformers were super cool. Um then at eighty five, a You know, you kinda look at these commercials, Damien, from eighty five with this toy. And it's a little bit creepy, I'm not gonna lie. Teddy Ruxpin. You remember Teddy Ruxpin?

Yeah, and that was high tech for the day, right? I mean that was uh and I think w we did cover this in a previous episode, if I'm not mistaken, it was uh from the f some of the people that worked uh for Atari and then they they created their own company. Yeah. And they created Teddy Ruxpin. And then we have the the movie the m movies that came out much later in the like twenty twelve and stuff.

The movie Ted, which is a comedy which I think was based off the Teddy Ruxpin doll because Seth McFarlane's about our age our age. So Yeah, yeah, yeah. So uh Teddy Ruxpin was a huge toy uh back then. Um then eighty six. Of course, I mean one we've covered extensively. It's one of my favorite toys. Laser tag. Um and coupled with that in eighty six was also G.I. Joe. Yeah, and I think G.I. Joe, you know

I think it was pretty popular through a lot of the eighties. I I forget what year it came out. But again, actually G. I. Joe was out for a long time before that. They used to have the large dolls, like I think in the like the sixties or whatever. And then they became more smaller action figures and

Um the great thing with that is like you could spend a lot of money. They I'm sure they made a ton just like these action figures'cause they had these m like I said, these massive toys. They were like airplanes, aircraft carriers, bases and Then you had to get the uh you know the G.I. Joe, plus you had to get Cobra, the bad guys and uh yeah. So next to Star Wars, those are probably some as younger person as some of those my favorite like.

figures. Yeah, yeah. You know, uh G.I. Joe, um i always thought it was funny, not funny when I was a kid, but now looking back, like I don't know if you know but like when you watch the cartoons They weren't allowed to show people dying.

So like they sh they blow up a a plane and everybody w everybody would parachute out of the plane and survive, right? Like you you couldn't show death uh on a cartoon for kids. Yeah, I would take like red paint or my mom's nail polish and I'd paint like blood on some of them just like to make the action like the battles like a little more Interesting. Yes.

Um and then an eighty seven was a game that is actually pretty popular today. Um Jenga. Um, you know, the the the the tower the wood tower and and Pulling pieces out and now that you can see giant Jenga, you s sometimes you see them at like So that's

It's kind of uh stood the test of time. Yeah, there's different versions too where you can write stuff on the blocks if you're played that. Yeah, you have to do whatever it says, you pull it out. Yeah. Yeah. And uh those are those are still great even as adults. Um and then of course in eighty eight, uh this was actually This was probably also one of my favorite uh toys was the original Nintendo at the N the N S the OG Nintendo. Um, yeah, I I I had one, you know, played Duck Hunt and uh and uh

I need to say that better. Duck hunt and uh Super Mario Brothers uh was was uh came came. It sounded like something else. We should cut that out. Anyway, um so uh Uh Duck Hunt and uh and Super Mario Brothers.

Um and then also in eighty eight was also the Couchball. Do you remember the Kouchball? Yeah, yeah. It was like uh I don't know why that was so popular. It was just like this little ball with these like these nylon strands coming out of it. It just I I don't even know why that was popular. It was just one of those weird toys that

Uh probably nobody even today would remember what that was. Yeah, yeah. So um so did you have a Nintendo, an OG Nintendo? Yeah, I did. Well actually the I played the we I had the game Top Gun Oh, yeah. There's a there was a karate game too you could play and you had to fight the big boss at the end of each one. Of course I didn't know. Metroid, I remember Metroid Duck Hunt was my favorite one of my favorites as well. Yeah, there you go.

Um, and then uh in eighty nine again, Nintendo saves everything, saves Christmas was the Game Boy. Yeah. Um you know, it's funny. I remember in college, which was early nineties Um, I had a roommate that needed some money and he sold me his Game Boy for like thirty bucks. And I had and with all of his games and I'm like, This is freaking awesome. That's a good deal with the game. Yeah, it was great. It was great.

Uh I never did have a Game Boy though. You never had a Game Boy? No. I just I had it in college because I bought it for my roommate who needed uh Needed a couple of bucks. Um and some things we we that were super popular that were probably not in the the number one selling things, but popular for a long time and including the eighties where it was a Barbie universe. Yeah. I mean

There was like every kind of Barbie doll, plus you got the Barbie house, the s the beach house, you got the cars, you know, all different kinds of stuff. Ken. Yeah. Yeah. I remember play I you know, I always played uh Barbie with my cousin. I I uh tell me about you playing Barbie with Steam, go ahead. I had to be Ken, of course. But there was only like the one there was like one guy, right, you had to play with.

Um yeah. So um yeah. I still collect barbadells, don't think. Um it's for investment purposes only. Yeah, so Um, you know, the tons of toys made. Hot Hot Wheels too. Did you ever have Hot Wheels? I did have Hot Wheels and um I the the the yellow or the orange track. Yeah. You know, and you would um

I had a a thing called crisscross crash where it would you could race two cars at a time and it was in a it was like a figure eight and then eventually they were gonna crash each with each other and I thought that was pretty awesome. Yeah, crisscross crash.

Yeah, they had all those cool like track things and you'd try to get'em to do loops and all that stuff. Yeah. That was fun. Yeah. So um you know, tons of things that we w remember as toys from the eighties. Um, but uh, you know, they they all they all came from the Sears Wish Book, Damian. They did, right? I mean, if you wanted a a T V, remember those little TVs too? They were like some the remember the small T Vs, they were like, you know

eight inch screens, but they were like like four feet deep. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And they were black and white. Exactly. But that was pretty cool back then'cause there were some of them were port and they had some portable ones too you could run.

uh you know, they got walkbins too. I mean there was a lot of stuff, even in the Sears Wish book, all this different stuff. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's it's funny. I I think about uh Back to the Future when um uh when when Marty goes back in time and visits his his mom's family or whatever. And uh They're asking, Oh, do you have a TV at your house, Marty? He's like, No, uh yeah, you know, I have two. And they're like, What? And and like I just remember like

Yeah, if you had two TVs in your house, you were doing pretty well in the eighties. Yeah, you were you were rich. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So um so your kids like so they they still uh they they circle the stuff from the the Chris the To see her's wish book like for Christmas this year and they just hand it to you? Is that the how you did the Christmas shop? We do that now and you know, it no.

Of course not, but it it's sad because Sears was really ahead of its time with the catalog ordering. I mean, that's kinda how they made their name. They made that market for I think uh from they started in the eighteen hundreds, yeah. And then when the internet came, they did not jump on board with the same idea of having like an online catalog and of course now how many so how many seer you we just looked this up, how many sears

stores are there now. You say there's four? There's five left in the United States. Oh my gosh. That's crazy. And they could have they could have cornered the market with Uh the way that people order uh toys and and and other things. They had the physical locations if you want to pick stuff up. They had distribution, right?'Cause of the catalog.

They had everything set up. And I did e commerce back in the the late nineties, early two thousands. And I was actually surprised too where a lot of these old school companies they couldn't change from their their old ways and I didn't understand it. They they could have been the number one e commerce they could have been the Amazon of today. Yeah. They should be actually they should they should have been. They should have been and and uh it's sad, you know, R. A. P. Sears and

You know, it's not even the Sears Tower anymore in in Chicago. It used to be the tallest building in the United States and now it's I don't even know what it is now, but the Amazon Tower or Probably probably the Bezos uh building. Um, but um yeah, you know, it's it's kind of a bummer i'cause it's something that like As a kid, you just you remember every year getting that wish book, going through each page, circling. I remember like

circling certain things and then like like folding the corner down just so my mom knew that I really wanted that thing on that page, you know, whatever it was. So it it's just not the same now. You know, we all use Amazon and all these different uh online shops. It's not the same doing Christmas shopping right now.

'Cause you gotta dig down and find out to have just a book to see what's cool and what's yeah great for that year. And a lot of times they're curating what's the hot stuff for that year too, and they're gonna tell you and then it's just for your kids just to Tell you what you want. Like'cause I you know, my nieces and nephews when they were younger

It's hard to know when I've got friends with young kids still now and their their taste change so much, like what they liked a few months ago, they're not liking now. So yeah. It really does. Yeah. But the whole experience is just changed, right? I mean it just you can even go into the to a Sears or go into the mall, like we even talked about in in the the Christmas vacation.

Go into the lingerie kind of whatever it happens to be. You know, just but going to the to the mall. It it was an experience. It can be frustrating sometimes, but I do miss going out and and doing some of those things. I remember I'm always kind of a slacker, so I remember going to the Bram Mall, like shopping and for Christmas gifts like you know, a day or two before Christmas and it's always

Got a pack park like three uh three blocks away at a different uh you know just to get into the mall. But it was kinda fun, you know, it was a madhouse, but you know, you it's also everybody but everybody was doing it too, you know. Yeah. It was an experience to go to go together.

Yeah, exactly. And I so it kind of I just I miss that. I miss the Sears Wishbook catalog. I wish they would do something like that nowadays. We don't really have anything mailed to us anymore either. You don't get catalogs mailed anymore. That's true. But uh yeah, so as we wrap this uh segment up, you know, we'd love to hear from you. What was your favorite do you do you have a favorite memory or a toy that you circled in the Sears wish book and gave to your parents and got or?

one like me the drum set that I never did get. You know Uh, we would love to hear your comments and your feedback and let us know what you think. Yeah, and even where you know, where else you you you you w if you didn't use Sears Wishbook, did you use like the Toys R Us catalog? Or how did you do your Christmas list? And where did you find what you wanted? Maybe it was just like commercials from Saturday morning cartoons, whatever it was.

Thanks for listening to this. special holiday Christmas edition of the Eddy Show podcast. And we have some ex another exciting episode coming up. Bill, what do we have coming up in our next episode? Yeah, so our next episode is going to be our season two finale. Where we are gonna be talking about one thing and one thing only, Damien. The classic hit Red Dawn. So I I I've heard this movie. Um I is this this was in the nineteen eighties? Damien I'm just gonna tell you this red dawn

Yeah, we only reference it once an episode, I think. Yeah, exactly. And so that'll be our season finale. Um we also have an exciting announcement after that, you know, on that episode. So you want to tune in for that and find out what's going on with h us here on the 80 show podcast. Yeah season three is gonna be really cool.

Some really cool stuff come out f on season three, so stay tuned for for the Red Dawn episode. We'll talk more about that. And we're also gonna re release a couple of our old holiday episodes too in between there. So that's our next new episode. Yes, that's right, that's right. And uh of course as always if you um

Wherever you get your podcast, please rate us on fi five stars. Uh it helps other people to find us um and listen to us, especially if you enjoy uh listening to us. Um, you know, we would love to Get those get that five star rating, right, Damien? That's right. And have it you know, for all of our listeners, have a very Merry Christmas. You know, happy Hanukkah, whatever you celebrate or if you choose not to celebrate, enjoy the holiday season from us.

Absolutely. And so anyway, um as we wrap up, uh once again Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out in the middle of nowhere and leave you free? I'm Damien Feli. Look at the time. I still gotta brush my teeth, feed the hog, still got some homework to do, still got those bills to pay, wash the car.