I haven’t done a pop quiz in a long time! This time around, I’m giving you four words from song titles by the same musical artist; your job is to name the artist. These are—for the most part—very well-known artists, with a couple of my personal favorites thrown in just for fun. Come back to the blog on Tuesday for the answers – you can subscribe to be notified of new content immediately!
***** CONTENT WARNING – THIS POST CONTAINS A REFERENCE TO 9/11 *****
These albums are all turning forty-five this year. This list is in chronological order by release date and covers albums released between January and April 1979.
Armed Forces – Elvis Costello & the Attractions
CHART POSITION: #10 in the US, #2 in the UK, #8 in Canada, #9 in Australia
SINGLES: “Oliver’s Army”, “Accidents Will Happen”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Goon Squad”, “Busy Bodies”, “Two Little Hitlers”, and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”
FUN FACT #1: Costello’s label, Radar Records, opted to release the album in the US with different cover art; the original cover (above left), showing a herd of elephants running straight towards the camera, was replaced with a pastel-colored pop art paint drip (above right).
FUN FACT #2: Working titles for Armed Forces, which re-teamed Costello with producer Nick Lowe, included Cornered On Plastic and Emotional Fascism. Armed Forces is the first album to be credited to Costello’s backing band, The Attractions (keyboardist Steve Nieve, bassist Bruce Thomas, and drummer Pete Thomas).
FUN FACT #3: In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, older brother Michael sings a snippet from “Accidents Will Happen” as he comes home from school and looks for a snack in the fridge (just before he meets Elliott’s pet alien). The single is also featured in The Simpsons episode “Treehouse of Horror XXVI”.
FUN FACT #4: “Sunday’s Best” was left off the US version of the album in favor of Costello’s cover of Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”, the B-side to Lowe’s 1978 single “American Squirm”. “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding”, the rare cover to eclipse the original, was written by Lowe in 1974 and recorded with his band Brinsley Schwarz (link below). Costello’s version has become one of his signature songs.
We Are Family – Sister Sledge
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #7 in the UK
SINGLES: “He’s the Greatest Dancer”, “We Are Family”, “Lost in Music”, “Thinking of You”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: We Are Family was written and produced by the powerhouse team of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards (of CHIC fame). The vocals for the title track, Sister Sledge’s biggest hit and signature song, were recorded by a then-19-year-old Kathy Sledge in a single take.
Look Sharp! – Joe Jackson
CHART POSITION: #20 in the US and Australia, #40 in the UK
SINGLES: “Is She Really Going Out with Him?”, “Sunday Papers”, “One More Time”, “Fools in Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Happy Loving Couples”, “Baby Stick Around”, “Look Sharp!”, “(Do the) Instant Mash”, “Got the Time”
FUN FACT #1: The Look Sharp! cover is one of the most celebrated ever; in fact, Rolling Stone placed it at #22 on their list of all-time greatest album covers. With photography by the legendary Brian Griffin, the cover art received a nomination for Best Recording Package at the 21st Grammy Awards (it lost, rightly, to Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, an album we’ll talk more about later in this post). For his part, Jackson was disappointed in the cover because you couldn’t see his face, and he vowed to never work with Griffin again.
FUN FACT #2: A debut album for the ages (and a personal favorite), Look Sharp! announced the arrival of a brash, brainy new artist. Jackson has been one of the most consistently inventive artists of the past five decades, ever-evolving through genres as diverse as reggae, ska, jazz, swing, and even classical.
FUN FACT: Inflammable Material was released during the height of “The Troubles” (click here for more info – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Troubles), and every note is imbued with the anger, violence, and brutality of life in Northern Ireland. Although Stiff Little Fingers never achieved the commercial acclaim of their UK punk contemporaries like The Clash and The Sex Pistols, Inflammable Materialis one of the most influential punk records ever.
Spirits Having Flown – Bee Gees
CHART POSITION: #1 in thirteen countries, including the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia
SINGLES: “Too Much Heaven”, “Tragedy”, “Love You Inside Out”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Spirits (Having Flown)” and “Search, Find”
FUN FACT: Spirits Having Flown was the first album released by the brothers Gibb since their contributions to the blockbuster Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. Though it only sold half as many copies as its predecessor, Spirits Having Flown was a huge success nonetheless, shooting to the top of the charts in thirteen countries, selling 20 million copies worldwide, and winning the American Music Award for Best Pop/Rock Album of 1979.
George Harrison – George Harrison
CHART POSITION: #14 in the US and Canada, #39 in the UK
SINGLES: “Blow Away”, “Love Comes to Everyone”, “Faster”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Here Comes the Moon” and “Soft-Hearted Hana”
FUN FACT: George Harrison, the former Beatle’s eighth solo album but his first to be self-titled, was written during a period of personal contentment for Harrison (in 1978, he married Olivia Aras and she gave birth to their son Dhani). Guest musicians on the album included Steve Winwood, Gary Wright, and Harrison’s BFF Eric Clapton.
Rickie Lee Jones – Rickie Lee Jones
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #18 in the UK, #1 in Australia, #11 in Canada
SINGLES: “Chuck E.’s in Love”, “Young Blood”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “On Saturday Afternoons in 1963” and “Easy Money”
FUN FACT #1: “Chuck E.’s in Love” was inspired by Los Angeles musician Chuck E. Weiss, with whom Jones and her then-boyfriend Tom Waits spent time at the Tropicana Motel. Weiss once called Waits from Denver to announce that he had fallen in love with a woman there; after hanging up, Waits announced to Jones, “Chuck E.’s in love!”
FUN FACT #2: At the 22nd Grammys, Jones took home the Best New Artist Award, beating out The Blues Brothers, Dire Straits, The Knack, and Robin Williams.
Force Majeure – Tangerine Dream
CHART POSITION: #26 in the UK and Australia
SINGLES: N/A
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Force Majeure”, “Cloudburst Flight”, “Thru Metamorphic Rocks” (that’s the entire album)
FUN FACT: Remixed excerpts of “Force Majeure” and “Cloudburst Flight” – titled “Lana” and “Guido The Killer Pimp” respectively – were utilized in Tangerine Dream’s score for 1983’s RiskyBusiness, while a snippet of “Thru Metamorphic Rocks” was reworked as “Igneous” for Michael Mann’s Thief.
Off-topic, but “I’ve got a trig midterm tomorrow, and I’m being chased by Guido the killer pimp!” is just *chef’s kiss*
No. 1 in Heaven – Sparks
CHART POSITION: #204 in the US, #73 in the UK, #63 in Australia
SINGLES: “La Dolce Vita”, “The Number One Song in Heaven”, “Tryouts for the Human Race”, “Beat the Clock”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Academy Award Performance”
FUN FACT: After the disappointment of their previous two efforts, the wonderfully weird Sparks—brothers Ron and Russell Mael—were ready to move their music in a new direction. They called upon the legendary Giorgio Moroder to co-write, produce, and perform on the album, and a synth-pop classic was born. Joy Division has named “The Number One Song in Heaven” as a primary inspiration for their single “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. And Paste magazine placed No. 1 in Heaven at the top of their list of the greatest synth-pop albums ever.
Breakfast in America – Supertramp
CHART POSITION: Top five in fourteen countries, #1 in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada (in the US, it was the fifth-most-popular album of 1979)
SINGLES: “The Logical Song”, “Breakfast in America”, “Goodbye Stranger”, “Take the Long Way Home”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Gone Hollywood” and “Oh Darling”
FUN FACT #1: Breakfast in America, Supertramp’s biggest-selling album, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard 200 and has sold an estimated 20 million copies worldwide.
FUN FACT #2: “The Logical Song”, the band’s highest-charting hit, was inspired by Roger Hodgson’s time in English boarding schools. Paul McCartney named “The Logical Song”, which won Best Song at the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards, his favorite single of the year. And Paul Thomas Anderson later used “The Logical Song” and “Goodbye Stranger” in his 1999 opus Magnolia.
FUN FACT #3: Breakfast in America‘s cover was designed by Mike Doud and Mick Haggerty, who won the Grammy for Best Recording Package. After 9/11, a bizarre conspiracy theory posited that the album’s cover art predicted the tragic events of that day; for more on this theory, click here:
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Manifesto” and “Ain’t That So”
FUN FACT: “Dance Away,” the album’s biggest single, reached #2 on the UK charts; Blondie’s “Sunday Girl” kept it out of the top spot. The Manifesto cover was designed in part by lead singer-songwriter Bryan Ferry; the typography was inspired by the early-20th-century literary magazine Blast.
FUN FACT: One of the best bands you’ve probably never heard of, The Fall was hugely influential in the post-punk era and beyond, inspiring artists like Sonic Youth, Pavement, Franz Ferdinand, and LCD Soundsystem.
Evolution – Journey
CHART POSITION: #20 in the US, #35 in Canada
SINGLES: “Just the Same Way”, “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'”, “Too Late”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “City of the Angels”
FUN FACT: “Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin'”, Journey’s first top-twenty hit, was inspired by Sam Cooke’s “Nothing Can Change This Love”.
Van Halen II – Van Halen
CHART POSITION: #6 in the US, #23 in the UK
SINGLES: “Dance the Night Away”, “Beautiful Girls”, “Somebody Get Me a Doctor”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “D.O.A.” and “Women in Love”
FUN FACT: In Van Halen II‘s liner notes, the band thanks the Sheraton Inn of Madison, Wisconsin. The band had stayed at the hotel during their first tour and essentially destroyed the entire seventh floor, throwing television sets out the windows and engaging in fire extinguisher fights in the hallways (and blaming it all on their tour mates, Journey).
Just a Game – Triumph
CHART POSITION: #48 in the US, #19 in the band’s native Canada
SINGLES: “Lay It On the Line”, “Hold On”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Movin’ On”, “American Girls”, and “Just a Game”
FUN FACT: Just a Game‘s inner sleeve features an actual game designed by Triumph’s bassist and keyboardist Mike Levine – though he intentionally made it impossible to win.
Secondhand Daylight – Magazine
CHART POSITION: #38 in the UK, #41 in New Zealand
SINGLES: “Rhythm of Cruelty”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Feed the Enemy”, “Rhythm of Cruelty”, “Talk to the Body”, “I Wanted Your Heart”, “Permafrost”
FUN FACT: The album cover’s super cool typography was designed by Malcolm Garrett, an absolute legend who has created iconic covers for ’80s artists like Duran Duran, Culture Club, Heaven 17, Buzzcocks, and Simple Minds. British engineer Colin Thurston, who went on to work with Duran Duran, Talk Talk, Kajagoogoo, and Gary Numan, made his producing debut on Secondhand Daylight.
Overkill – Motörhead
CHART POSITION: #24 in the UK, #17 in France
SINGLES: “Overkill”, “No Class”, “Louie Louie”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Overkill”, “No Class”, “Damage Case”, and “Tear Ya Down”
FUN FACT #1: Metal band Overkill, formed in New Jersey in 1980, named themselves for this album.
FUN FACT #2: Motörhead’s version of “Louie Louie” was released as a standalone single in 1978 but not included on the album because Bronze Records founder Gerry Bron called it “about the worst record I’d ever heard”. “Louie Louie” was included on a 1996 reissue of Overkill, and I’m including it here.
Desolation Angels – Bad Company
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #10 in the UK
SINGLES: “Rock ‘n’ Roll Fantasy”, “Gone, Gone, Gone”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Crazy Circles”, “Oh Atlanta”, and “She Brings Me Love”
FUN FACT: The album’s title, named for the 1965 Jack Kerouac novel of the same name, was almost used ten years earlier for the second album by Paul Rodgers’ previous band, Free (that album’s eventual title, imaginatively enough, was Free). Desolation Angels was Bad Company’s final top-ten album in the US and the UK.
Squeezing Out Sparks – Graham Parker and the Rumour
CHART POSITION: #40 in the US, #18 in the UK, #22 in Australia
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “You Can’t Be Too Strong”
FUN FACT: Squeezing Out Sparks, which topped that year’s Pazz & Jop critics poll in The Village Voice, was a musical departure for Parker, whose previous work utilized a horn section for a more soulful sound. Producer Jack Nitzsche wanted the album to have a raw sound, which left Parker’s rhythm & blues section free to play on The Clash’s masterpiece London Calling (more on that in volume three of this post).
Replicas – Tubeway Army
CHART POSITION: #124 in the US, #1 in the UK, #11 in Australia
SINGLES: “Down in the Park”, “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Me! I Disconnect from You”, “The Machman”, and “You Are in My Vision”
FUN FACT #1: I am OBSESSED with this album. When I first heard “Down in the Park”, my tweener mind was blown. Tubeway Army frontman Gary Numan went solo after the release of Replicas, which was heavily influenced by the work of Philip K. Dick (specifically, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the basis for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner). His solo debut, The Pleasure Principle, was also released in 1979, and we’ll discuss it in undoubtedly great length in part three of this post.
FUN FACT #2: Musically, Replicas was inspired by David Bowie’s Low and Kraftwerk’s The Man-Machine, among others. In turn, industrial artists like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson have listed Replicas as an influence on their work.
Cool for Cats – Squeeze
CHART POSITION: #45 in the UK, #18 in Australia
SINGLES: “Goodbye Girl”, “Cool for Cats”, “Up the Junction”, “Slap and Tickle”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Hop, Skip & Jump”
FUN FACT: In 1979, Squeeze was two years away from their US breakthrough East Side Story, which contains the iconic single “Tempted”. But on the strength of four UK hits, including the title track, Cool for Cats is my favorite of the band’s albums. In 1995, Chris Woodstra called Cool for Cats a “pure pop masterpiece” for the All Music Guide to Rock.
“Cool for Cats” is tied with “Up the Junction” as Squeeze’s highest-charting UK single
Voulez-Vous – ABBA
CHART POSITION: #19 in the US, #1 in the UK, the group’s native Sweden, and five more countries
SINGLES: “Chiquitita” (in both English and Spanish), “Does Your Mother Know”, “Voulez-Vous”, “Angeleyes”, “As Good as New”, “I Have a Dream”, “Kisses of Fire”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT #1: Voulez-Vous, ABBA’s first full-fledged disco album, made the year-end top ten in four countries, including the UK and Japan (where it was the 17th most popular album of the DECADE).
FUN FACT #2: For their 1992 EP Abba-esque, Erasure recorded a kick-ass cover of “Voulez-Vous”, which is French for “Do you want?”
Bad Girls – Donna Summer
CHART POSITION: #1 in the US, Canada, and Finland
SINGLES: “Hot Stuff”, “Bad Girls”, “Dim All the Lights”, “Sunset People”, “Our Love”, “Walk Away”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT #1: A disco masterpiece, Bad Girls was a critical and commercial success. It went to #1 in the US and Canada (it made the year-end list in both countries) and sold four million copies worldwide. At the 22nd Grammys, Bad Girls received five nominations – including Album of the Year – and garnered Summer an award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for “Hot Stuff”.
FUN FACT #2: On June 30, 1979, Summer became the first female artist to have two songs in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100 (“Bad Girls” and “Hot Stuff”).
As always, here is the playlist, which will be updated to coincide with future volumes:
“The only difference between Bob Newhart on stage and Bob Newhart offstage is that there is no stage.” – David Hyde Pierce
Grammy, Emmy, and Golden Globe-winning actor Bob Newhart has passed away at the age of 94. A master in the art of deadpan, Newhart was the ultimate everyman, known for his bone-dry wit and stammering delivery.
George Robert Newhart was born in Oak Park, Illinois, on September 5, 1929. He received a Catholic education and attended St. Ignatius College Prep. After graduating from Loyola University Chicago in 1952, Newhart served in the Korean War with the US Army (he was a clerk, so basically Radar from M*A*S*H).
After his 1954 release from the Army, he worked first as an accountant for United States Gypsum, then as a copywriter for a major independent producer. At the latter, Newhart and a co-worker began recording their absurd conversations and submitting them as audition tapes to radio stations. A deejay named Dan Sorkin passed one of the tapes along to Warner Bros. Records, then in its infancy; the label signed Newhart in 1959, and his debut album – 1960’s The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart – launched a sixty-year Hollywood career.
From his eponymous sitcoms to his variety show appearances, from Disney Animation to Elf, from SNL to The Big Bang Theory – generations of fans have their favorite Newhart role.
The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart and The Ed Sullivan Show
Newhart isn’t the only comedian nominated for a Best New Artist Grammy (Dick Gregory received a nod the following year, and Robin Williams was nominated in 1980), but he’s the only one to actually receive the award. The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart, which went to #1 on the album charts in the US and Canada, also won Album of the Year. Also in 1960, Newhart made his first of four appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The Bob Newhart Show (no, not that one)
On the strength of The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart and his Ed Sullivan appearances, Newhart was given his own NBC variety show, The Bob Newhart Show. The show only lasted a single season, but it got Newhart in front of a wide television audience and earned him his first Emmy Award nomination for Writing Achievement in Comedy (he lost to Carl Reiner for The Dick Van Dyke Show).
Hell Is for Heroes
Newhart made his feature debut in 1962’s Hell Is for Heroes, a WWII flick starring Steve McQueen. Newhart provides the film’s comic relief as PFC Driscoll, a clerk who’s given the task of improvising misleading radio messages for the Nazis after the company locates a secret microphone in an abandoned bunker.
In a case of art imitating life, the former Army clerk played an Army clerk in his debut film
On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Catch-22
In 1970, two years before the premiere of his iconic eponymous sitcom, Newhart made a pair of film appearances: Dr. Mason Hume in On a Clear Day You Can See Forever and Major Major Major Major in Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22.
Cold Turkey
This pitch-black satire, written and produced by Norman Lear, stars Newhart as an ad exec for the Valiant Tobacco Company, which offers a $25 million prize to any town whose citizens can quit smoking cigarettes for thirty days.
The Bob Newhart Show (yes, that one)
I can’t add anything about this legendary series that hasn’t been said before. Just absolutely genius.
FUN FACT: The typeface used for The Bob Newhart Show‘s credits,Cooper Black, was made famous in 1966 when it was used on the cover of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds.
The Rescuers
As a Gen-Xer, I grew up in the Disney Dark Ages, so the only full-length, first-run Disney Animation features I saw in the theater were 1977’s The Rescuers and 1981’s The Fox and the Hound, which traumatized me too much to ever revisit. But even though Madame Medusa TERRIFIED me then, I am still delighted by The Rescuers, primarily due to Newhart’s performance and his chemistry with Eva Gabor (the Bianca to his Bernard).
Saturday Night Live
Newhart hosted Saturday Night Live twice, first in 1980 and then in 1995, bringing his trademark bone-dry, stammering delivery. The skits – as is often the case with SNL – were uneven, but given the chance to do what he did best, Newhart more than delivered.
Newhart
At 184 episodes, Newhart was the actor’s longest-running series. Newhart played author turned Vermont inn owner Dick Loudon, the straight man to the inn’s wacky collection of employees and guests. In one of the greatest twist endings of all time, Newhart‘s finale reveals that the entire series was dreamt by Newhart’s The Bob Newhart Show alter ego, Dr. Robert Hartley – complete with a cameo by Suzanne Pleshette.
Bob
Newhart’s third and final eponymous sitcom, Bob was about a comic book writer turned greeting card artist. Despite a strong supporting cast that included Betty White, Tom Poston, Lisa Kudrow, and Megan Cavanagh – and a complete season two retooling – Bob did poorly in the ratings and was canceled after just 33 episodes.
FUN FACT: Newhart once joked that since he’d had shows called The Bob Newhart Show, Newhart, and Bob, his next show would simply be The. While The never came to fruition, Newhart did have one more regular series role, in 1997’s utterly forgettable George and Leo.
The Simpsons
Newhart played himself in The Simpsons‘ season five episode “Bart the Fink”. Most of the show’s writers were huge fans, and the producers agreed to give them the day off to observe Newhart’s recording session, with the caveat that they had to remain quiet. According to David Coehn on the episode’s commentary track, after Newhart completed his first take, there was an “explosion” of laughter in the room.
Elf and ER
In 2003 – at the age of 74! – Newhart showed no signs of slowing down. In addition to a small role in Legally Blonde: Red, White & Blonde, Newhart played Papa Elf in the beloved holiday classic Elf and made a rare dramatic turn in a three-episode arc on ER, for which he received his only Emmy nomination for a drama series.
The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon
The role that finally earned Newhart an Emmy Award was Arthur Jeffries (AKA Professor Proton) on The Big Bang Theory and its prequel series. Newhart delighted not only the Big Bang cast but a new generation of television viewers with his trademark deadpan. Emmy voters agreed, bestowing Newhart his first Emmy victory (at the tender age of 83) and nominating him twice more for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance.
In an Instagram story, Kaley Cuoco (Big Bang‘s Penny) wrote of Newhart, “He was classy, kind, generous and absolutely hilarious. Every take — every time. Icon forever.”
My personal favorite Professor Proton moment
Bob and Don: A Love Story
Directed by Judd Apatow, this New Yorker short documentary chronicles Newhart’s decades-long friendship with Don Rickles and includes home footage and interviews with both families.
Bob Newhart and his wife Ginnie were married for 60 years until her death last year. They had four children and ten grandchildren. For more than a quarter century, Newhart and his family lived in a Bel Air mansion designed by Wallace Neff (architect to the stars, whose most notable creation is Pickfair, the Tudor Revival home of silent film A-listers Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford). A lifelong Catholic, Newhart was a member of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills.
After a series of short illnesses, Newhart passed away in his home on July 18. Tributes have poured in from celebs like Reese Witherspoon, Carol Burnett, Judd Apatow, Kaley Cuoco, Mark Hamill, and Jamie Lee Curtis, as well as President Biden, who issued this statement: “Today, we mourn the loss of Bob Newhart, a comedy legend and beloved performer who kept Americans laughing for decades.”
It is very, very summer in Michigan right now, as it is for much of the country. Weather like this makes me grateful for a safe, cool(ish) home for myself and my family. It also makes me think about the ultimate summer tradition: camping.
I did quite a bit of camping as a kid. In fact, many of our family vacations were camping trips, generally in the northern lower or upper peninsula (Tahquamenon Falls was a particular favorite). Later, as an adolescent, I attended two years of Girl Scout camp and four years of band camp.
All sorts of camping trips are depicted in film, across many genres, though they generally fall into one of two categories: comedy and horror (you’ll find several of each on this list). Whether a family camping trip, scout camp, or a solo hike in the wilderness, there’s a little something for everyone.
Without further ado, here is a sampling of the most iconic camping movies, along with (as usual) a few PBandJulie favorites.
The Parent Trap (1961 and 1998)
As a Gen-Xer, I’m partial to the 1961 original, with Hayley Mills as twins Sharon and Susan, but the 1998 remake starring Lindsey Lohan is just as delightful. In both versions, my favorite scene is the cabin raid, the culmination of the girls’ rivalry.
FUN FACT: The Parent Trap is based on Das doppelte Lottchen (“The Double Lottie”), a 1949 German children’s book.
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors stars comedy icons Dan Aykroyd and John Candy, Bart the Bear (best known for his roles in Legends of the Fall and The Edge), and Annette Bening in her film debut.
FUN FACT: Written by John Hughes, the film’s working title was Big Country, but it was later changed to avoid confusion with another 1988 comedy, Big.
Meatballs
I will never claim that Meatballs is a good movie, but I adore it anyway. In his first starring role, Bill Murray proved he could carry a movie. Meatballs has many of the typical teenage sex comedy tropes, but with a PG rating, the proceedings are relatively tame. At the movie’s heart is the relationship between Murray’s head counselor Tripper and Chris Makepeace’s Rudy Gerner. Rudy, ignored by his father and bullied by the other kids, bonds with Tripper; they run together and play blackjack for peanuts. It’s downright adorable. Meatballs was absolutely a product of its time (1979) – bell-bottom jeans, gloriously awful disco soundtrack – but it’s worth seeing for the Trip/Rudy storyline.
FUN FACT #1: After primary shooting had wrapped, the filmmakers brought Murray and Makepeace back to flesh out the Trip/Rudy storyline. Among the added scenes were the aforementioned blackjack game and the bus station scene. Apparently, puberty had arrived for Makepeace in the interim, so Murray gave him his first shave.
FUN FACT #2: One of the songs from Meatballs, credited to the North Star Camp Kids Chorus, provides the title of this post.
Addams Family Values
The rare sequel that surpasses the original, Addams Family Values benefits greatly from the addition of the divine Joan Cusack. Her character, black widow Debbie Jellinsky, has her eye on Uncle Fester’s fortune and wants the children out of the way, so she convinces Morticia and Gomez that Wednesday and Pugsley want to attend summer camp. The head counselors at Camp Chippewa, played by an absurdly chipper Christine Baranski and Peter MacNicol, cast Wednesday as Pocahontas in the Thanksgiving play; it doesn’t end well for them (or the rest of the campers).
Friday the 13th
The OG summer camp slasher, 1980’s Friday the 13th introduced us to one of the most iconic movie monsters of all time, Pamela Voorhees. That’s right, the infamous, hockey-masked killer Jason (Pamela’s son) doesn’t take up the mantel until 1981’s sequel. Made for a measly $550,000, Friday the 13th – which features Kevin Bacon in one of his earliest roles – made a (ahem) killing at the box office, raking in almost $60 million. And a franchise was born.
American Pie
IFKYK
Moonrise Kingdom
Starring a cast of Wes Anderson favorites, including Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Jason Schwartzman, the gorgeous Moonrise Kingdom is primarily a story of young love. Sam escapes Camp Ivanhoe to be with his beloved Suzy, and as the rest of the cast attempts to locate them, Sam and Suzy set up camp at a tidal inlet they call “Moonrise Kingdom”.
FUN FACT: It took Anderson eight months to find the perfect Sam and Suzy, Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Neither had any professional acting experience before making Moonrise Kingdom; both received nominations at the 34th Young Artist Awards for their performances.
Into the Wild
Based on Jon Krakauer’s stellar non-fiction book of the same name, Into the Wild tells the tragic story of Christopher McCandless (a terrific Emile Hirsch), an over-confident, ill-equipped young man who longed to disappear into the wilderness. Unfortunately, he got his wish. Director Sean Penn exquisitely captures both the beauty of the Alaskan landscape and McCandless’s fatal hubris.
FUN FACT: Jim Gallien, the truck driver who was the last person to see McCandless alive, plays himself in the film.
Little Darlings
“Don’t let the title fool you” is the perfect tagline for Little Darlings, in which rival campers – spoiled, dreamy Ferris (Tatum O’Neal) and skeptical, street-smart Angel (Kristy McNichol) – vow to lose their virginity before the other. The subject matter is handled with a surprising amount of thoughtfulness by director Ronald F. Maxwell, and the two leads turn in lovely performances. There are so many movies in the “teen boys attempt to lose their virginity” subgenre (Porky’s, Losin’ It, Mischief, and American Pie, just to name a few), so it’s nice to see the other side of the coin.
Heavyweights
The beloved owners of Camp Hope, a boys’ weight loss camp, have filed for bankruptcy and sold the camp to tyrannical fitness entrepreneur Tony Perkis Jr. (Ben Stiller). Perkis, who plans to turn the camp’s weight loss program into an infomercial, confiscates the boys’ secret stash of junk food and forces them to endure punishing workouts. Since this is a Disney movie, the boys get their revenge and – with the help of their beloved counselor, Pat – have the summer of their lives.
The River Wild
Gail Hartman (Meryl Streep) and her family are rafting Idaho’s Salmon River when they unwittingly become involved with a gang of bank robbers led by a psychopath named Wade (Kevin Bacon, in a rare villain role). The plot sometimes strains credulity, but director Curtis Hanson keeps the pacing tight and the tension high. The film’s greatest strength, though, lies in its cast; Streep and Bacon, both nominated at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards for their performances, are joined by greats like David Straitharn and John C. Reilly.
Troop Beverly Hills
Phyllis Nefler (Shelley Long) becomes a Wilderness Girl troop leader to spend more time with her daughter (Jenny Lewis, in her film debut). Phyllis, who has her hands full from the start, finds her troop’s status in danger when she butts heads with a rival leader. To prove their worth, Troop Beverly Hills must succeed at the annual Jamboree.
FUN FACT: Jenny Lewis references her previous life as a child actor in her 2015 single “She’s Not Me”. In one segment, she and her co-stars in the video – Zosia Mamet, Vanessa Bayer, and Leo Fitzpatrick – wear the Troop Beverly Hills uniform.
Wet Hot American Summer
The brainchild of the folks who brought you The State, Wet Hot American Summer is a spoof of – and homage to – some of the other films on this list, including Meatballs and Little Darlings. With a sprawling ensemble that evokes movies like Dazed and Confused and Nashville, WHAS was a commercial and critical failure upon its release but found a cult audience on home video and launched a franchise.
FUN FACT: The pop music soundtrack for WHAS includes ’70s and 80’s classics like Jefferson Starship’s “Jane”, Foreigner’s “Juke Box Hero”, Loverboy’s “Turn Me Loose”, and KISS’s “Beth”. The score was co-written by Theodore Shapiro, whose filmography includes Tropic Thunder,Jennifer’s Body, and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and Craig Wedren. Interestingly, Shapiro would later compose the music for the pilot of Showtime’s Yellowjackets, with Wedren and Anna Waronker writing for the remainder of the series – including the absolute banger of a theme song, “No Return”.
The Burning
A sort of mash-up of Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street (which wouldn’t come out for three more years), The Burning follows the teen camp slasher playbook to a T. The film, the first feature produced by Bob and Harvey Weinstein, was heavily edited to achieve its R rating; the original cut was restored in all its gory glory in a 2007 DVD release.
FUN FACT: Jason Alexander (above right), Holly Hunter, Fisher Stevens (above left), and Brian Backer all made their film debut in The Burning. Backer, best known as Fast Times at RidgemontHigh‘s Mark Ratner, also won a Tony Award in 1981, for Woody Allen’s semi-autobiographical The Floating LightBulb.
Indian Summer
A group of thirty-somethings return to the summer camp of their youth for one final hurrah with the camp’s director Lou Handler, affectionately known as “Unca Lou” and played by the fabulous Alan Arkin. Each is wrestling with a particular, stereotypical demon: a recent widow, a recovering alcoholic, a single woman hung up on “the one that got away”, and a married couple who’ve lost their spark, to name a few. But the talented cast, which includes Diane Lane, Bill Paxton, Elizabeth Perkins, and Kevin Pollak, keeps the proceedings grounded. Filmmaker Sam Raimi, childhood friend of Indian Summer‘s writer-director Mike Binder, provides comic relief as the hilariously incompetent camp caretaker, Stick Coder.
FUN FACT: Camp Tamakwa is a real camp in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park, which Binder attended for ten years as a child. Indian Summer was filmed on the grounds of the camp.
Deliverance
Four friends – played by Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox – decide to canoe a river in the remote Georgian wilderness. When the pals run afoul of some questionable locals – and get separated from each other to boot – bad things happen. Deliverance was a hit, earning $46 million on a $2 million budget, and received three nominations at the 45th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for John Boorman.
FUN FACT #1: The studio requested that Boorman film two versions of the rape scene, one for theatrical release and one for television viewings. Boorman defied them by filming it once and changing the dialogue to suit both needs. There are several versions of how the unscripted “Squeal like a pig!” came to be, but it became the film’s most enduring quote.
FUN FACT #2: “Dueling Banjos”, written in 1954 by bluegrass legend Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith, became a #2 hit in the US and Canada after its use in Deliverance.
Stand By Me
A perfect little gem of a film based on Stephen King’s semi-autobiographical novella The Body, Stand By Me is also one of King’s favorite adaptations of his own work. Director Rob Reiner once recalled King excusing himself for about fifteen minutes after the film’s premiere in order to compose himself. With perhaps the greatest young cast ever assembled for a film, Stand By Me captures all the nostalgia and heartbreak of growing up. Come awards season, Stand By Me was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director at the 44th Golden Globes but the Academy only gave it a nod for Best Adapted Screenplay. More importantly, the film has captured the hearts of generations of moviegoers.
Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor, activist, and all-around badass Donald Sutherland has passed away at the age of 88.
Born in Saint John, New Brunswick on July 17, 1935, Donald McNichol Sutherland attended Victoria University in Toronto. After earning degrees in engineering and theater, Sutherland left for London, where he studied at the prestigious London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. While in the UK, Sutherland found work in theater and television. In 1964, he made his feature film debut in Castle of the Living Dead, which starred the legendary Christopher Lee and was directed by Warren Kiefer (he would later name his eldest son after the latter). After his breakthrough role, as the twelfth member of The Dirty Dozen (the fifth-most-popular film of 1967), Sutherland headed for Hollywood.
Over the next five decades, Sutherland would amass two hundred credits in film and television. Here is a selection of his most iconic roles, along with a few of my personal favorites.
The Dirty Dozen
The original script called for Clint Walker’s character Samson Posey to impersonate a general, but Walker felt the scene was demeaning to his Native American character. Director Robert Aldrich chose Sutherland to replace Walker in the sequence – and a star was born.
M*A*S*H
One of two war films Sutherland made in 1970 (the other was Kelly’s Heroes), M*A*S*H cemented his star status. His role as Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce earned the actor his first of nine Golden Globe nominations (he and co-star Elliott Gould both lost to Scrooge‘s Albert Finney).
Klute
Though Jane Fonda received the lion’s share of the acclaim for Klute – as well as that year’s Best Actress Oscar – don’t overlook Sutherland’s turn as the title detective (or his chemistry with Fonda, with whom he had a two-year affair).
Don’t Look Now
For his unnerving, atmospheric meditation on grief and guilt, director Nicholas Roeg knew from the start he wanted to cast Donald Sutherland. A landmark in gothic horror, Don’t Look Now is one of many films that should have earned Sutherland an Academy Award nomination; his lack of a competitive nomination is one of the biggest oversights in Oscar history (he received an honorary award in 2017).
National Lampoon’s Animal House
For his role as pot-smoking prof Dave Jennings, Sutherland had the choice of $40,000 OR 2% of the film’s profits. Assuming Animal House would tank at the box office, he took the $40K. The film has grossed over $141 million worldwide; if he’d accepted the 2%, Sutherland would have earned about $3 million.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
One of the most highly-rated entries in Sutherland’s filmography, Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a sci-fi horror masterpiece (with one of the greatest twist endings of all time) and one of Sutherland’s most indelible performances.
Ordinary People
We could argue all day about whether Ordinary People was the actual best picture of 1980 (it wasn’t), but there’s no denying the emotional power of this gut-punch of a movie. Once more, Sutherland’s subtler efforts failed to impress the Academy, which instead nominated his two male co-stars, Judd Hirsch and Timothy Hutton (who ultimately took home the Best Supporting Actor prize).
Max Dugan Returns
Max Dugan Returns, also starring Marsha Mason and Jason Robards, was the feature debut for Matthew Broderick and Sutherland’s 16-year-old son Kiefer. Donald and Kiefer would appear onscreen together twice more, in 1996’s A Time to Kill and 2015’s Forsaken, in which the lookalikes finally portrayed father and son.
Forsaken
“Cloudbusting”
The music video for “Cloudbusting”, the second single from Kate Bush’s 1985 sonic masterpiece Hounds of Love, stars Sutherland as Austrian psychiatrist and researcher Wilhelm Reich (more on him here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich) and Bush as his young son Peter. Due to an issue obtaining a last-minute work visa for Sutherland, he offered to appear in the video for free.
JFK
In a sprawling cast that includes greats like Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Sissy Spacek, Joe Pesci, Jack Lemmon, and Walter Matthau, Sutherland manages to give one of JFK‘s most memorable performances. As Mr. X, inspired by L. Fletcher Prouty (who served as Chief of Special Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the Kennedy administration), Sutherland has a small but key role. Once again, Sutherland was overlooked in favor of one of his showier co-stars (in this case, Jones) come awards season.
Pride & Prejudice
In 2005, Sutherland took on the role of the wry, cynical patriarch of the Bennet family. As usual, he knocked it out of the park.
The Hunger Games franchise
It’s a testament to Sutherland’s talent that he could give even a murderous, fascist dictator a sense of humanity. Sutherland, who had a history of left-wing activism, sought out the part, hoping it would radicalize the movie’s young viewers. After Sutherland secured the role, President Snow was given additional dialogue to fully exploit the actor’s prodigious talents.
These albums are all turning forty this year. This list is in chronological order by release date and covers albums released between January and April of 1984.
1984 – Van Halen
CHART POSITION: #2 in the US, #1 in Canada, #15 in the UK, #11 in Australia, top 15 in ten more countries
SINGLES: “Jump”, “I’ll Wait”, “Panama”, “Hot for Teacher”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, particularly “I’ll Wait” and “Panama”, plus “Drop Dead Legs”
FUN FACT: I was today years old when I learned that Michael McDonald co-wrote “I’ll Wait”. It seems that David Lee Roth was struggling to finish the song’s lyrics and melody; producer Ted Templeman, who had previously collaborated with The Doobie Brothers, brought McDonald in to help Roth complete the tune. “I’ll Wait”, my favorite track off the album, made it to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 despite no music video accompanying the single.
The “Jump” video is the perfect showcase for Van Halen’s flamboyant and acrobatic lead singer, David Lee Roth. The four members of the band seemed to be having a blast but underlying creative tensions between Roth and Eddie Van Halen – along with the success of Roth’s first solo album, Crazy from the Heat – contributed to Roth’s departure from the band the following year.
Learning to Crawl – The Pretenders
CHART POSITION: #5 in the US, #11 in the UK, #18 in Australia
SINGLES: “Back on the Chain Gang”, “2000 Miles”, “Middle of the Road”, “Show Me”, “Thin Line Between Love and Hate”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “My City Was Gone”
FUN FACT: “My City Was Gone”, one of the album’s most popular tracks despite never having been released as a single, is a scathing indictment of Chrissie Hynde’s home state of Ohio:
I went back to Ohio But my pretty countryside Had been paved down the middle By a government that had no pride
Bon Jovi – Bon Jovi
CHART POSITION: #43 in the US, #71 in the UK
SINGLES: “Runaway”, “She Don’t Know Me”, “Burning for Love”
MY FAVORITE TRACK: “Runaway”
FUN FACT: “Shot Through the Heart” should not be confused with the opening refrain of Bon Jovi’s 1986 smash hit “You Give Love a Bad Name”.
Footloose: Original Soundtrack of the Paramount Motion Picture – Various Artists
CHART POSITION: #1 in the US and Canada, #7 in the UK, top 10 in ten more countries
SINGLES: “Footloose”, “Holding Out for a Hero”, “Dancing in the Sheets”, “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”, “Almost Paradise”, “I’m Free (Heaven Helps the Man)”, “Somebody’s Eyes”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Girl Gets Around” by Sammy Hagar (which, disappointingly, is not available on Spotify) and “Never” by Moving Pictures – literally the entire album
FUN FACT #1: Footloose was nothing short of a juggernaut. “Footloose”, the first single released from the album, was an international smash and went to #1 in the US, where it was also the fourth-most popular song of the year. Six of the album’s seven singles made it to the Billboard Top 40, and the soundtrack was the ninth-most popular album of 1984.
FUN FACT #2: A 1998 re-release of the album included four songs that were used in the film but not included on the original soundtrack – John (Cougar) Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good”, Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You”, Quiet Riot’s “Bang Your Head (Metal Health)” and a remix of Shalamar’s “Dancing in the Sheets”.
One of my favorite scenes from Footloose is set to “Let’s Hear It for the Boy”. Chris Penn didn’t know how to dance, so the sequence was added to the film so that Chris and Willard could both learn.
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Anxious”
FUN FACT #1: General Public was something of a British new wave supergroup, which included members of The Beat (known as The English Beat in the US), The Specials, Dexy’s Midnight Runners, and The Clash. Mick Jones, recently booted from the latter by Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon, left midway through production on All the Rage and was replaced by Kevin White. Though White appears on the back cover, Jones actually performed most of the guitar work heard on the album.
FUN FACT #2: “Tenderness”, General Public’s biggest hit by far, is the band’s only single to make the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #27. “Tenderness” has remained in the public consciousness for forty years thanks to appearances in Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Clueless, The Goldbergs, and The Deuce.
Sparkle in the Rain – Simple Minds
CHART POSITION: #64 in the US, #1 in the UK and New Zealand
SINGLES: “Waterfront”, “Speed Your Love to Me”, “Up on the Catwalk”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “White Hot Day”
FUN FACT: In 1984, Simple Minds were a year away from their US breakthrough but wildly successful in their UK home (the band is Scottish). Around this same time, I was introduced to Simple Minds by my nephew’s dad; I’ve been a fan ever since.
It’s My Life – Talk Talk
CHART POSITION: #42 in the US, #35 in the UK
SINGLES: “It’s My Life”, “Such a Shame”, “Dum Dum Girl”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: “It’s My Life”, Talk Talk’s highest-charting single in the US, failed to make much of an impact in the band’s native UK until a 1990 reissue. A 2003 cover by No Doubt achieved even greater success than the original, reaching the top 10 in 23 countries.
Declaration – The Alarm
CHART POSITION: #50 in the US, #6 in the UK
SINGLES: “Marching On”, “The Stand”, Sixty Eight Guns”, “Where Were You Hiding When the Storm Broke”, “The Deceiver”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Blaze of Glory”
FUN FACT: In 1984, I was already a big fan of the arena rock coming out of the UK at the time – U2, Simple Minds, and Big Country, to name a few – so The Alarm was right up my alley. It helped that I was also a fan of the I.R.S. label, whose artists included R.E.M. and The Go-Go’s (more on both of them later). While The Alarm was never as successful in the US as in their native UK (Wales, to be precise), I adored them.
Mister Heartbreak – Laurie Anderson
CHART POSITION: #60 in the US, #93 in the UK
SINGLES: “Sharkey’s Day”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Sharkey’s Day”, “Gravity’s Angel”, “Excellent Birds”
FUN FACT: Mister Heartbreak features appearances by William S. Burroughs (“Sharkey’s Night”) and Peter Gabriel (“Excellent Birds”). A version of the latter, titled “This Is the Picture (Excellent Birds)”, appears on Gabriel’s 1986 masterpiece, So.
Out of the Cellar – Ratt
CHART POSITION: #7 in the US, #12 in Canada
SINGLES: “Round and Round”, “Wanted Man”, “Lack of Communication”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: I was never a huge fan of the glam metal genre, but “Round and Round” is such a banger.
FUN FACT #1: Tawny Kitaen, the model on the Out of the Cellar album cover, was in a relationship with Ratt guitarist Robbin Crosby for six years. She went on to famously (infamously?) star in the video for Whitesnake’s “Here I Go Again”, as well as marry (and divorce) its lead singer, David Coverdale.
FUN FACT #2: The video for “Round and Round”, which stars the legendary Milton Berle (uncle of Ratt manager Marshall Berle), was in regular rotation on MTV that summer (the clip also features Lisa Dean, who would later appear in Michael Jackson’s “Dirty Diana”). The song charted again in 2020 after the band appeared in a GEICO commercial. “Round and Round” has been used in a number of films and television series, including Supernatural, Stranger Things (a PBandJulie fave), Cobra Kai, and The Wrestler.
Into the Gap – Thompson Twins
CHART POSITION: #10 in the US, #1 in the UK (where it was the twelfth-most popular album of the year), top 10 in seven more countries
SINGLES: “Hold Me Now”, “Doctor Doctor”, “You Take Me Up”, “Sister of Mercy”, “The Gap”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Day After Day”
FUN FACT: After experiencing their breakthrough in 1983 with Quick Step & Side Kick (simply titled Side Kicks in the US) – and with synth-pop’s popularity at a peak – Thompson Twins were poised for chart success with the release of Into the Gap. The band – whose name was inspired by bumbling detectives Thompson and Thompson in the English language version of The Adventures of Tintin – achieved their greatest chart success with Into the Gap, selling five million copies and yielding three UK Top 5 singles.
For more on Quick Step & Side Kick – and other great albums from 1983 – click here:
CHART POSITION: #150 in the US, #2 in the UK, #77 in Australia
SINGLES: “What Difference Does It Make?”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Reel Around the Fountain”, “Pretty Girls Make Graves”, “This Charming Man”, “Hand in Glove”, “What Difference Does It Make?”
FUN FACT: The Smiths, the band’s debut, was an instant hit in their native UK (they formed in Manchester in 1982). The Smiths achieved only cult status in the US – none of their albums cracked the Billboard Top 50, and none of their singles made the Hot 100 – but my friends and I were among the devotees.
Keep Moving – Madness
CHART POSITION: #109 in the US, #6 in the UK
SINGLES: “Michael Caine” and “One Better Day” (UK), “Wings of a Dove (A Celebratory Song)” and “The Sun and the Rain” (US)
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus the title track and “Victoria Gardens”
FUN FACT #1: “Michael Caine” features an appearance by the two-time Oscar winner, as well as backing vocals by Afrodiziak. Comprised at the time of Caron Wheeler and Claudia Fontaine, Afrodiziak also provided backing vocals for The Jam’s “Beat Surrender” and Elvis Costello’s “Everyday I Write the Book” (and with the addition later of Naomi Thompson, “Free Nelson Mandela” by The Specials). If Wheeler’s name sounds familiar, it’s because she found success in the late ’80s as a member of Soul II Soul with hits like “Keep on Movin'” and “Back to Life”.
FUN FACT #2: Dave Wakeling and Ranking Roger of General Public, who appeared earlier on this list, provided backing vocals for “Waltz Into Mischief” and “Victoria Gardens”.
Dead Can Dance – Dead Can Dance
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: None
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Fatal Impact”, “The Trial”, “Ocean”, “Threshold”, “Wild in the Woods”
FUN FACT: Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard, who would later share a Golden Globe win with the legendary Hans Zimmer for their haunting Gladiator score, utilizes a unique vocal style known as glossolalia (literally, speaking in tongues). A talented multi-instrumentalist (her signature instrument is a Yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer), Gerrard and her Dead Can Dance partner Brendan Perry helped usher in a musical style known as neoclassical dark wave or ethereal wave. They were joined in that musical movement by their 4AD labelmates Cocteau Twins; more about them in volume three of this post.
WARNING: The following video contains a strobe effect, in case you’re sensitive to that sort of thing.
Human Racing – Nik Kershaw
CHART POSITION: #70 in the US, #5 in the UK
SINGLES: “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”, “Wouldn’t It Be Good”, “Dancing Girl”, “Human Racing”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: Kershaw, vastly more popular in his native UK, is the definition of a one-hit wonder in the US; “Wouldn’t It Be Good” made it to #46 on the Billboard Hot 100. Two years later, Danny Hutton Hitters performed a cover version of the song for the Pretty in Pink soundtrack. In the UK, “I Won’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” was the bigger hit, peaking at #2.
The legendary Storm Thorgerson, known for his work with Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Peter Gabriel, and countless more, directed the music video for “Wouldn’t It Be Good”. The clip features a technique known as chroma key compositing (essentially, a layering of images) to achieve the alien suit’s effects.
The Works – Queen
CHART POSITION: #23 in the US, #2 in the UK, top 10 in ten more countries
SINGLES: “Radio Ga Ga”, “I Want to Break Free”, “It’s a Hard Life”, “Hammer to Fall”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Keep Passing the Open Windows” and “I Go Crazy”
FUN FACT #1: Lady Gaga, whose birth name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, took her stage name from “Radio Ga Ga”.
FUN FACT #2: David Mallet, a legend in the music video industry, directed the clips for both “Radio Ga Ga” and “I Want to Break Free”. I could write an entire post about Mallet’s work; among the videos he’s directed are Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays”, Peter Gabriel’s “Games Without Frontiers”, David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face”, and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”.
The “Radio Ga Ga” video paid homage to Orson Welles’ 1938 radio broadcast of War of the Worlds and was nominated for Best Art Direction at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards.
The clip for “I Want to Break Free”, which features the band members in drag, is a parody of popular British soap opera Coronation Street. The single topped out at a disappointing #45 on the Billboard Hot 100, which band members have blamed on MTV’s reluctance to play the video (I’ll give you one guess why).
FUN FACT #3: Stranger Things fans will recognize “Hammer to Fall” from the season two episode “The Spy”.
Queen AND the return of the nail bat!!
“Weird Al” Yankovic in 3-D – “Weird Al” Yankovic
CHART POSITION: #17 in the US, #61 in Australia
SINGLES: “Eat It”, “King of Suede”, “I Lost on Jeopardy”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “The Brady Bunch” (sung to the tune of “Safety Dance”) and “Polkas on 45”
FUN FACT #1: “Theme from Rocky XIII“, a parody of Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”, suggested a possible thirteenth film in the Rocky series. He wasn’t that far off; a fourth Creed film (in development now) brings the franchise’s grand total to ten.
FUN FACT #2: “Polkas on 45”, a riff on Stars on 45 (IFKYK), contains snippets of seventeen different songs, including Berlin’s “Sex (I’m a …)”, The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”, The Doors’ “L.A. Woman”, Jimi Hendrix’s “Hey Joe”, Talking Heads’ “Burning Down the House”, and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”.
This Is Spinal Tap – Spinal Tap
CHART POSITION: N/A
SINGLES: None
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Hell Hole”, “Tonight I’m Going to Rock You Tonight”, “Big Bottom”, “Stonehenge”, “Christmas with the Devil”
FUN FACT: Though all the tracks were written by Christopher Guest, Harry Shearer, and Michael McKean (along with director and co-star Rob Reiner), the album is credited to their Spinal Tap alter egos Nigel Tufnel, Derek Smalls, and David St. Hubbins.
About Face – David Gilmour
CHART POSITION: #32 in the US
SINGLES: “Blue Light”, “Love on the Air”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “Murder”, “Love on the Air”, “Blue Light”, “All Lovers Are Deranged”, “You Know I’m Right”
FUN FACT: “Love on the Air” and “All Lovers Are Deranged” were co-written with The Who’s Pete Townshend, whose version of the latter appeared on his 2001 solo album Scoop 3. Among the musicians who performed on About Face are Steve Winwood, TOTO’s Jeff Porcaro, and classical pianist Anne Dudley. Dudley, who won an Oscar in 1998 for her The Full Monty score, has worked extensively as a session musician and was also a member of the art-rock outfit Art of Noise (more on them in volume two of this post).
Human’s Lib – Howard Jones
CHART POSITION: #59 in the US, #1 in the UK (where it was the sixteenth-most popular album of the year)
SINGLES: “New Song”, “What Is Love?”, “Hide and Seek”, “Pearl in the Shell”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Conditioning”
FUN FACT: I bought this album the same day I saw Sixteen Candles in the theater, so the two are inextricably linked in my mind.
Love Life – Berlin
CHART POSITION: #23 in the US
SINGLES: “No More Words”, “Now It’s My Turn”, “Dancing in Berlin”, “Touch”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Beg, Steal or Borrow” and “Pictures of You”
FUN FACT: “No More Words,” co-produced by the legendary Giorgio Moroder and supported by a Bonnie and Clyde-inspired music video, was Berlin’s first Top 40 hit, peaking at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100. I was mildly obsessed with Terri Nunn; I thought she was the sexiest, most confident woman I’d ever seen, and my little fourteen-year-old mind was blown.
Heartbeat City – The Cars
CHART POSITION: #3 in the US, #25 in the UK, #5 in Canada
SINGLES: “You Might Think”, “Magic”, “Drive”, “Hello Again”, “Why Can’t I Have You” (UK only), “Heartbeat City”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT #1: Driven by the album’s six singles, Heartbeat City is the band’s best-selling album. Accompanied by a music video directed by actor Timothy Hutton and starring Ric Ocasek’s future wife Paulina Porizkova, “Drive” was the album’s biggest hit.
Paulina was just 19 when she starred in the “Drive” video (and met the 40-year-old – and married – Ric Ocasek)
FUN FACT #2: The video for “You Might Think,” which utilized (for the time) cutting-edge computer graphics, won five awards at the inaugural VMAs, including Video of the Year. The clip was parodied, along with David Lee Roth’s “California Girls”, Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing”, and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”, in the video for “Don’t Lose My Number” by Phil Collins.
FUN FACT #3: Andy Warhol directed the video for “Hello Again”. It’s…something.
Café Bleu – The Style Council
CHART POSITION: #56 in the US, #2 in the UK
SINGLES: “My Ever Changing Moods”, “You’re the Best Thing”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: “The Whole Point of No Return”, “The Paris Match”, “My Ever Changing Moods”, “You’re the Best Thing”
FUN FACT: Café Bleu (which was retitled My Ever Changing Moods in the US to capitalize on the single of the same name) was the studio debut for The Style Council, which was co-founded in 1982 by The Jam’s Paul Weller and Dexy’s Midnight Runners’ Mick Talbot. “The Paris Match” features guest musicians Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt of the English pop duo Everything But the Girl.
Talk Show – The Go-Go’s
CHART POSITION: #18 in the US
SINGLES: “Head Over Heels”, “Turn to You”, “Yes or No”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “You Thought”, “Beneath the Blue Sky”, “I’m the Only One”
FUN FACT: Talk Show was The Go-Go’s’ final album until a 2001 reunion. Simmering tensions over royalties, personal conflicts, and creative differences led to Jane Wiedlin’s departure in October 1984 and the band’s breakup the following May.
The video for “Turn to You”, co-directed by future Pet Sematary helmer Mary Lambert, stars an absurdly young Rob Lowe
The Swing – INXS
CHART POSITION: #52 in the US, #1 in Australia
SINGLES: “Original Sin”, “I Send a Message”, “Burn for You”, “Dancing on the Jetty”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Melting in the Sun”, “Love Is (What I Say)”, “Face the Change”, “All the Voices”
FUN FACT #1: INXS didn’t achieve their commercial breakthrough in the US until 1985’s Listen Like Thieves, but thanks to their 1982 album Shabooh Shoobah and a slot as the opening act on Men at Work’s 1983 Cargo tour, I had already fallen for the Ozzie sextet.
FUN FACT #2: “Original Sin”, the band’s first (and only) #1 in their native Australia, was produced by the iconic Nile Rodgers and features Daryl Hall on backing vocals.
FUN FACT #3: With over 15 million copies sold, INXS is the third-best-selling Australian artist in US history behind AC/DC and Bee Gees. That’s pretty great company.
The Icicle Works – The Icicle Works
CHART POSITION: #40 in the US, #24 in the UK, #20 in Canada
SINGLES: “Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream”, “Love is a Wonderful Colour”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: In the US, The Icicle Works (named for Frederik Pohl’s sci-fi short story “The Day the Icicle Works Closed”) is a legitimate one-hit-wonder; “Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)” is their only appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 (it topped out at #37).
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above, plus “Sucker M.C.’s (Krush Groove 1)
FUN FACT: The hugely influential “Rock Box” is considered to be the first song in the rap-rock genre. The single features session musician Eddie Martinez on guitar; in 2015, his contribution to “Rock Box” topped Guitar World’s list of “The Top 10 Uses of Guitar in Hip-Hop” (https://www.guitarworld.com/features/top-10-uses-guitar-hip-hop).
Love at First Sting – Scorpions
The original Love at First Bite album cover (left), with photography by the legendary Helmut Newton, and the “clean” version (right) put together by PolyGraph Records after Walmart filed a complaint about the original cover
CHART POSITION: #6 in the US, #17 in the UK, #6 in the band’s native Germany
SINGLES: “Rock You Like a Hurricane”, “Still Loving You”, “Big City Nights”, “I’m Leaving You”
MY FAVORITE TRACKS: All of the above
FUN FACT: “Rock You Like a Hurricane” is somehow both completely of its time and utterly timeless. It rocks times infinity. Appearances in film and television – Stranger Things, It’s Always Sunny inPhiladelphia, and Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, to name a few – have kept the song in the limelight for forty years.
Here’s the 1984 playlist, which will be updated for volumes 2 and 3:
Originally posted in 2021; edited for content and clarity.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Most of us have our Thanksgiving viewing favorites, and while football and Planes, Trains and Automobiles are classic staples (as is my dad’s personal fave, watching the backs of his eyelids), here are some not-so-traditional suggestions:
Friends, “The One Where Ross Got High”
“The One with Chandler in a Box” (season four)“The One with All the Thanksgivings” (season five)“The One with the Late Thanksgiving” (season ten)
Everyone has their favorite Friends Thanksgiving episode. My informal poll on Twitter yielded a clear winner, “The One with All the Thanksgivings”, which is my runner-up. My personal fave? “The One Where Ross Got High”, because of this scene…
…and this scene:
You can stream Friends on Max.
Dan in Real Life
L-R: Steve Carell, Juliette Binoche, Dane Cook
The supporting cast of this charming romantic comedy is to die for – John Mahoney, Dianne Wiest, Allison Pill, Amy Ryan, Emily Blunt, and Jessica Hecht, among others – but at its core is the delightful Steve Carell. Carell’s Dan is a widower with three daughters, spending Thanksgiving weekend at his family’s oceanside house. On a trip to town, Dan meets Marie (the lovely Juliette Binoche) and finds himself attracted to her, only to return home and discover that Marie is his brother’s girlfriend.
You can stream Dan in Real Life on Disney+.
How I Met Your Mother, “Slapsgiving”
Marshall has promised Barney the third slap in their ongoing slap bet before sundown on Thanksgiving, and the entire affair is très awkward because exes Robin and Ted slept together the night before. Oh, and Robin’s new beau Bob is in attendance. Slap bet commissioner Lily, hosting her first Thanksgiving, finally breaks the tension by allowing the slap, and the results are hilarious. My favorite part? Marshall’s post-slap serenade.
You can stream How I Met Your Mother on Hulu.
Addams Family Values
Best. Thanksgiving. Pagent. EVER.
Addams Family Values is available to stream on Paramount+.
WKRP in Cincinnati, “Turkeys Away”
The plot is simple: bumbling station manager Arthur Carlson intends to pull off the biggest promotion in the history of WKRP by dropping live turkeys out of a helicopter. Fortunately for the viewer, it doesn’t go well, leading to one of the funniest lines in television history: “As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!”
WKRP in Cincinnati is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.
The Ice Storm
Based on Rick Moody’s novel, Ang Lee’s gorgeous ode to 1970s suburban dysfunction is set over the long holiday weekend, culminating in the titular weather event the day after Thanksgiving. The cast – headlined by Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, and BAFTA winner Sigourney Weaver – is divine. The Ice Storm isn’t an easy watch, but if you’re in the mood for a tragedy, this could be the perfect option.
The Ice Storm is available to rent or buy on Prime and Apple TV.
Cheers, “Thanksgiving Orphans”
“Thanksgiving Orphans”, which originally aired on November 27, 1986, was ranked seventh by TV Guide on their list of the 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time. It is best remembered for its climactic food fight and the long-awaited appearance of Norm Peterson’s oft-heard but previously unseen wife Vera.
Fun fact: Everything after Sam throwing the cranberry sauce in Diane’s face was unscripted
Cheers is available to stream on Hulu and Paramount+.
Home for the Holidays
Home for the Holidays, the second feature film from director Jodie Foster, stars Holly Hunter as Claudia, whose personal and professional lives are a mess. When her teenage daughter decides to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia opts to visit her dysfunctional family. The supporting cast (Anne Bancroft, Charles Durning, Geraldine Chaplin, Robert Downey Jr, Dylan McDermott, Steve Guttenberg, Cynthia Stevenson, Claire Danes, Austin Pendleton, and David Strathairn) is an absolute embarrassment of riches.
You can stream Home for the Holidays on Paramount+.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving
Although it’s not quite as iconic as its Christmas counterpart, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is a delight nonetheless. The special, which earned Charles M. Schulz a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children’s Programming, features the music of Vince Guaraldi and a storyline where children are inexplicably responsible for preparing Thanksgiving dinner. In 2024, the pro-Pilgrim message feels terribly dated, but I still love the interplay between BFF’s Snoopy and Woodstock.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving is available for streaming on Apple TV.
***** CONTENT WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS REFERENCES TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ADDICTION-RELATED ISSUES *****
Matthew Perry is dead at the age of 54. A five-time Emmy nominee, Perry starred in films like The Whole Nine Yards and 17 Again, as well as series such as Studio 60 on the SunsetStrip and Mr. Sunshine. He also made several notable guest appearances on dramas like TheWestWing and TheGoodWife. But he will always be best remembered for his iconic performance as Chandler Bing on Friends. 1
Matthew Langford Perry was born on August 19, 1969, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, to Canadian journalist (and Pierre Trudeau press secretary) Suzanne Marie Morrison and American actor John Bennett Perry (fun fact: the elder Perry appeared as Joshua’s dad on the Friends episode “The One with Rachel’s New Dress”). His parents divorced before his first birthday and he was raised primarily by his mother, who remarried in 1981 (his stepdad is journalist and DatelineNBC correspondent Keith Morrison). Perry attended Rockcliffe Park Public School alongside future Canadian PM Justin Trudeau. At the age of 14, he began consuming alcohol; he was drinking alcohol daily by the time he was 18.
Perry with his dad (L) and with his mom and maternal half-siblings (R)
At the age of fifteen, Perry moved from Ottawa to Los Angeles to live with his father and pursue an acting career. He graduated from the Buckley School in Sherman Oaks in 1987 and almost immediately got his first starring role, in the FOX sitcom SecondChance. The following year, Perry made his film debut in the River Phoenix-led A Night in the Life ofJimmyReardon. More TV work followed, including a three episode arc on GrowingPains, the Valerie Bertinelli sitcom Sydney, and a guest spot on BeverlyHills, 90120.
Perry with River Phoenix in A Night in the Life ofJimmyReardon (L) and with Jason Priestley on BeverlyHills, 90120 (fun fact: Perry was a top-ranked tennis player in Canada and at one point contemplated a career as a professional tennis player)
Perry’s biggest break came in 1994 when he was cast as Chandler Bing in a pilot called SixofOne (later renamed Friends). But he almost missed out on the series that would make him a household name. Perry was committed to another pilot, LAX2194, about baggage handlers at LAX in the year 2194 (no, I’m not making that up). Fortunately – and not terribly surprisingly – that pilot didn’t get picked up, leaving Perry available for Friends. The rest, as they say, is history.
Over the next ten years, Perry and his castmates became superstars and millionaires. It’s impossible to overstate how completely Friends dominated the pop culture landscape in the mid-1990s. In this era of endless streaming options, a network series rarely makes that kind of impact anymore. Amongst the six main characters, Chandler was absolutely my favorite. Smart, sarcastic and self-deprecating, Chandler hated his job and was unlucky in love (that is, until the end of season four, when he figured out that the love of his life lived right across the hall). In front of the camera, Perry often provided the comic relief, but behind the scenes, he was battling several addictions. In 1997, he became addicted to Vicodin after a jet ski accident (he lost a ton of weight during this time, which was evident during season three of Friends). In 2000, Perry was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for alcohol-induced pancreatitis. In early 2001, he entered rehab for multiple addictions, including alcohol and amphetamines. Perry has admitted that he doesn’t remember much about the filming of seasons three through six
After ten seasons and 236 episodes, Friends went off the air in 2004. Perry continued to act in films and television, and continued to battle his demons. In 2018, he was given a 2% chance of survival after his colon burst due to his opioid use. More recently, while taking Oxycontin and ketamine, Perry was given propofol for a surgery and his heart stopped beating for five minutes. The CPR done to revive his heart broke eight of his ribs.
On October 28, Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home. No cause of death has been established; autopsy results could take months. Police found no proof of drug use at the scene, but there’s little doubt his decades of substance abuse could have contributed to his death. Perry once estimated that his addiction cost him roughly $9 million, including fourteen stomach surgeries and fifteen rehab stays. And in the end, it may have cost him his life.
In the end, we’ll always have our favorite Friend. In Perry’s memory, here is a selection of my favorite Chandler-centric Friends episodes.
“The One with the Blackout”
The lights go out in NYC and five of the six friends spend the blackout together in Monica’s apartment. Chandler, on the other hand, is trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre. The encounter begins awkwardly, as is typical for Chandler, but things get a lot more intimate after Jill (credited as Jill Connick) administers the Heimlich maneuver on a choking Chandler. They part ways sweetly, with a kiss on the cheek, after which Chandler hilariously requests “a copy of the tape” from the bank.
*
“The One with the Candy Hearts”
Chandler once again finds himself linked to Janice, his ex- and future-girlfriend, this time through an inadvertent blind date. When Joey and Janice’s friend Lorraine leave to go lick chocolate mousse off each other, Joey leaves behind his credit card (this is literally the only time Joey ever paid for anything). Chandler and Janice order a bottle of champagne each – and inevitably wind up in bed together. The series got a lot of mileage out of the Chandler & Janice relationship, and this episode is my favorite of the bunch.
“OH MY GOD!”
“The One Where Heckles Dies”
Perry got to show his sentimental side in this season two standout. Monica and Rachel’s annoying upstairs neighbor Mr. Heckles passes away unexpectedly. As the gang clears out Heckles’ apartment, Chandler is dismayed by the similarities between himself and the hermit-like Heckles. Worried he’ll die alone too, Chandler resorts to drastic (and hilarious) measures. But it’s the end – “Goodbye, Mr. Heckles. We’ll try to keep it down” – that tugs at your heartstrings.
“The One After the Superbowl, Part 2”
In January of 1996, the cast of Friends were among the biggest stars on the planet and Perry was dating fellow A-lister Julia Roberts. Roberts was cast on the post-Super Bowl episode, the imaginatively titled “The One After the Superbowl”. Roberts plays Susie “Underpants” Moss, a former classmate of Chandler’s with a longstanding score to settle. More than 52 million people tuned in to “The One After the Superbowl”; it remains the highest rated Super Bowl lead-out of all time.
“The One Where Eddie Won’t Go”
Joey has gotten a role on DaysofOurLives and with his newfound financial freedom, his own place. Chandler finds a roommate, Eddie (Adam Goldberg), who seems a little eccentric at first but ultimately reveals his true (cuckoo) nature. Chandler tries to kick Eddie out, but he proves difficult to get rid of. When Joey is written off DaysofOurLives, Chandler hatches a plan to bring Joey back and rid himself of Eddie once and for all.
Fun fact: Adam Goldberg isn’t the only DazedandConfused star to guest on Friends. Nicky Katt appears on the season two episode “The One with the Bullies” and Marissa Ribisi plays one of Rachel’s friends in season three’s “The One with the Flashback”. Marissa’s twin Giovanni also had a pivotal role in the series, appearing in eight episodes as Phoebe’s brother Frank Jr.
“The One Where No One’s Ready”
Friends took a cue from Seinfeld for this season three standout, with the episode playing out in real time as the gang gets ready for a museum benefit. The episode’s funniest subplot involves Chandler and Joey one-upping each other over a coveted chair cushion. Perry and Matt LeBlanc seized the opportunity to show off both their comedic skills and their sparking chemistry.
“The One Where Chandler Can’t Remember Which Sister”
The occasion is Joey’s birthday and Chandler, still lamenting the end of his relationship with Janice, makes out with one of Joey’s seven sisters. To make matters worse, he can’t remember which sister. Chandler attempts to repair the situation without Joey finding out, but c’mon, this is a sitcom so of COURSE Joey is going to find out, and all the better for the audience.
“The One with the ‘Cuffs”
Rarely do we get a Chandler-Rachel subplot, but when it happens, it’s pure gold. Perry and Jennifer Aniston bring out the best in each other; he also has a chance to show off his physical comedy chops. This episode also contains one of my favorite unscripted moments ever, as the cabinet drawer Chandler is handcuffed to hits his head; Perry and Aniston, like the professionals they are, stayed in character and the take made the final cut.
“The One with Chandler in a Box”
Chandler has fallen in love with Joey’s new girlfriend Kathy (the lovely Paget Brewster) and vice versa; in the previous episode, “The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line”, the two shared a kiss. Joey forces Chandler to atone for his sin by spending Thanksgiving in a box. Perry manages to somehow be both funny and poignant using only his fingers, demonstrating his substantial gift for physical comedy.
“The One with the Embryos”
Arguably the best episode of Friends, “The One with the Embryos” is a fantastic showcase for what makes the series so beloved – the chemistry amongst the cast. Everyone has the chance to shine here, as Phoebe embarks on her surrogate journey and the remainder of the gang participate in an increasingly hilarious quiz that will determine who gets the ladies’ apartment. The situation devolves into chaos before Phoebe delivers the happy news – she’s pregnant with Alice and Frank’s baby – and the fighting turns into a celebration.
“The One with the All the Rugby”
Chandler, getting over his breakup with Kathy, runs into Janice and finally sees what his friends find so annoying about her. He never could break up with Janice, so to extricate himself, he tells her he’s being transferred to Yemen. After giving Janice a fake address (“15 Yemen Road, Yemen”), Chandler literally gets on a plane to the middle east and finally leaves Janice in his past (and in a matter of weeks, he’ll be off the market for good – see next entry).
“The One with Ross’s Wedding, Part 2”
In the season four finale, the Friends writers threw us a doozy of a twist when, halfway through the episode, it’s revealed that Monica and Chandler spent the previous night together. We don’t see the lead-up until the season seven episode “The One with the Truth About London”, but frankly, we didn’t need to see it. The reveal led to some of the funniest episodes in the series’ history, as the pair attempted to hide their burgeoning relationship from the rest of the gang.
“The One with All the Thanksgivings”
The Thanksgiving episodes are a favorite amongst Friends fans, and this season five standout is no exception. As the six share their worst Thanksgiving memories, we learn more about how Monica and Chandler first met – and Chandler finally learns the truth about how he lost his little toe.
Fun fact: “The One with All the Thanksgivings” earned costume designer Debra McGuire an Emmy for Oustanding Costume Design for a series.
“The One with All the Resolutions”
The gang all make New Years resolutions – Monica is going to take more pictures of the group, Ross will try a new thing each day (including, hilariously, wearing leather pants), Joey will learn to play guitar so something on his resume is true – and Chandler vows to make fun of his friends less. By the end of the week (and the end of the episode), he’s already caved. Meanwhile, Rachel (whose resolution is, inconveniently, to gossip less) overhears a suggestive phone call between Monica and Chandler, setting the stage for the following entry.
“The One Where Everybody Finds Out”
My personal favorite episode, “The One Where Everybody Finds Out” sees the remainder of the group learn about Monica and Chandler’s relationship in the most hilarious way possible. Still not ready to reveal the truth, Chandler pretends to be attracted to Phoebe, who is attempting to seduce him in order to get him to confess. Eventually, she breaks him and the episode ends on a tender note, with Chandler and Monica declaring their love for one another.
“They don’t know that we know that they know” is one of my favorite quotes of all time
“The One on the Last Night”
Chandler is moving in with Monica and doesn’t want to leave Joey in a financial jam, so he offers to give Joey money. When Joey refuses the offer, Chandler attempts to lose at foosball. When that fails, he goes about it another way, inventing a card game called “Cups” and “losing” all his money to his bestie, who chalks his windfall up to beginner’s luck.
“The One with the Proposal”
Chandler, in an effort to throw Monica off his proposal trail, tries to convince her he never wants to get married (it works like a charm). Then, when he’s finally ready to pop the question, the pair runs into Monica’s ex, Richard (Tom Selleck). Richard confesses that he’s still in love with Monica, who now believes she’s in a dead-end relationship with Chandler. It all comes together in the end, and season six ends not with a cliffhanger, but with a proposal.
Courteney Cox, the only member of the cast to never receive an Emmy nomination for her performance, is so freaking good in this scene
“The One with the Halloween Party”
The only Friends Halloween episode, “The One with the Halloween Party” features some fantastic costumes (most memorably, Ross as “Spudnik” AKA “Space doody”). Monica picks out Chandler’s costume, selecting a pink bunny because Chandler loves The Velveteen Rabbit. Chandler points out that the velveteen rabbit was brown and
“No bunny at all, always no bunny at all!”
“The One with the Mugging”
Season nine finds Chandler finally quitting his soul-sucking job in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration (whatever that means) and embarking on a new career in advertising. Feeling ancient next to his fellow interns, Chandler uses his age to his advantage and comes up with the best campaign slogan for this weird sneaker on fire/roller skate hybrid (“Not suitable for adults”).
“The Last One”
Monica and Chandler have packed up the apartment for their move to the ‘burbs. Matthew Perry really wanted the final line in the series and the writers granted his wish. Rachel asks if they should go get coffee and Chandler, ever the smart ass, simply asks, “Where?” Just a perfect sendoff.
1Since I began working on this post, I watched a clip of Perry saying he hopes he is remembered not for Friends but for the help he gave others during their own addiction journeys. I also watched an interview with Perry’s good friend (and frequent Friends guest star) Hank Azaria, who described Perry as having helped him get sober. He was obviously well-loved by people on a personal level and I’m so impressed by his commitment to helping others. My heart goes out to his friends and family, who are mourning a deep personal loss. Peanut Butter and Julie is a pop culture blog and my emphasis will always lie there, but I also want to honor him as, by all accounts, a really great person who genuinely cared for and helped others in need.
PB & Julie + Julie C. Trivia 