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One thing that I appreciated a lot in the moment and forgot about subsequently is that Will's family is depicted as financially struggling fairly realistically with Joyce having to work all the time (and Jonathan helping out with the family's finances) at least in S1. I really dislike shows that allow their characters to do whatever they want, completely divorced from how much their actions cost them in a monetary sense, and I feel like the 80's is the last time there were a slew of movies that actually tried to make poverty (or at least working class people's ability to afford things) a visible part of the show.
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# ? Nov 26, 2017 10:48 |
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# ? Apr 28, 2024 04:07 |
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JawKnee posted:One thing that I appreciated a lot in the moment and forgot about subsequently is that Will's family is depicted as financially struggling fairly realistically with Joyce having to work all the time (and Jonathan helping out with the family's finances) at least in S1. I really dislike shows that allow their characters to do whatever they want, completely divorced from how much their actions cost them in a monetary sense, and I feel like the 80's is the last time there were a slew of movies that actually tried to make poverty (or at least working class people's ability to afford things) a visible part of the show. I also appreciated just how they depict the family. The family in the home is not dysfunctional and is very loving. In contrast, I feel that every other show that brings up the topic of "single mother households" always shows how broken families are due to the lack of a "man in the house".
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# ? Nov 26, 2017 11:38 |
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JawKnee posted:One thing that I appreciated a lot in the moment and forgot about subsequently is that Will's family is depicted as financially struggling fairly realistically with Joyce having to work all the time (and Jonathan helping out with the family's finances) at least in S1. I really dislike shows that allow their characters to do whatever they want, completely divorced from how much their actions cost them in a monetary sense, and I feel like the 80's is the last time there were a slew of movies that actually tried to make poverty (or at least working class people's ability to afford things) a visible part of the show. I never thought of this before, but you're right on all accounts.
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# ? Nov 26, 2017 11:41 |
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I liked that Joyce bought Will an Atari 2600 for Christmas in 1983, at which point the home console market was already crashing and Joyce probably could have better afforded it. They should have ended Season 2 with Reagan's re-election if they really wanted to leave it on a scary note though.
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# ? Nov 26, 2017 15:00 |
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sweetmercifulcrap posted:
I am glad I am not the only person who was waiting for the revelation to drop that Billy was 006 and Max was 015 or something. Especially the line about not really being siblings, I thought they were on the run. I don't know if that was an intentional bait-and-switch, or if I was just looking for clues that weren't there.
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# ? Nov 26, 2017 15:53 |
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sticklefifer posted:Something they haven't really touched upon in this show is the Conservative "Satanic Panic" craze in the 80s where everything dark or weird or offbeat was seen by society as "in league with Satan". It's a surprising omission for such a dark show set in that specific time. D&D in particular was accused of it all the time, and the earliest scenes in the show were the boys playing it - only after which the things they're talking about manifested in reality. Of course it's explained via the lab experiments going too far, but I wonder if there's also an intentional tongue-in-cheek undertone of the show that the kids' "Satanic D&D playing" caused a portal to Hell to open and now evil monsters are pouring out and/or possessing children. Has that idea ever been addressed by the showrunners? I'm almost surprised there isn't a religious character addressing that angle in the show (and probably played by Beth Grant). Good question! But I would also say: it might not be as unrealistic to leave strong religion out of it as we might guess. I was born in 1979, and fundamentalism played a less important role in the 1980s than people might guess. Like, I grew up in a small town, pretty much everyone went to some type of church as a matter of course, but the few kids who didn't celebrate Halloween or couldn't see scary movies were the exception. (The largest group would probably be Jehovah's Witnesses). Other people might disagree, but fundamentalism really started taking hold once the type of casual agreement to certain things started to disappear. Like, in the 1980s, people weren't homophobic because The Bible Said So, people were homophobic, in a casual way, because obviously its weird (even if not wrong) to be gay. Once people started questioning a lot of those tacit beliefs, starting in the 1990s, fundamentalism started to become a bigger thing, because they arose in opposition to mainstream society. At least, that is how I interpret it. But yeah, it is weird that no one in their small town makes even a token trip to church or something. Other than the funeral, there really isn't much religious reference in the story.
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# ? Nov 26, 2017 15:59 |
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https://twitter.com/sesamestreet/status/933560766774382592
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:25 |
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Ratios and Tendency posted:After her jawline surely. https://i.imgur.com/wIfkXTr.mp4
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 18:52 |
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 19:23 |
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Last 30 seconds really makes it.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 20:07 |
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Wamsutta posted:There's zero chance I'm reading this entire thread but what do people reckon will come of the demodog in the freezer? It has to be relevant given the time they dedicated to showing it being done. I think Dustin will try to get famous off it and someone will recognize it and then they'll reveal some whole other gate to the Upside Down that exists in like, Alabama, or whatever, and we'll go to a new locale to fight the baddies Otherkinsey Scale posted:I'm just disappointed we didn't get to see Joyce opening the fridge and finding out all the food has been replaced by a dead dog.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 21:25 |
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I did not think doing a 2nd season w/ the same characters was a good idea at first- and the season started off pretty uneven for me. But I think the ending was very good. I hope they do not try to do a 3rd season.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 21:59 |
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:I did not think doing a 2nd season w/ the same characters was a good idea at first- and the season started off pretty uneven for me. But I think the ending was very good. I hope they do not try to do a 3rd season. Good news: they’re doing 2 more. I agree the plot of both seasons is weak, but the characters are so charming I didn’t really mind just watching them live their lives for half a season this time. This show is basically about throwing a bunch of broadly drawn strong characters together and seeing what happens.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:08 |
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business hammocks posted:Good news: they’re doing 2 more. I agree the plot of both seasons is weak, but the characters are so charming I didn’t really mind just watching them live their lives for half a season this time. This show is basically about throwing a bunch of broadly drawn strong characters together and seeing what happens. Just have Steve hit the road and make next season an 80s version of Supernatural, IMO.
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:18 |
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Fidel Cuckstro posted:Just have Steve hit the road and make next season an 80s version of Supernatural, IMO. We've already agreed that the next season will involve Paul Reiser settling into retirement at a quiet resort town, only to call Hopper for help when he discovers that a large shark has been eating people and that the mayor has no intention of closing the beach down before the big holiday weekend. Also maybe it's in 3D. Who knows?
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# ? Nov 27, 2017 22:57 |
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Supernatural should have died like 9 years ago, why would you want more?
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# ? Nov 28, 2017 14:44 |
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So Sesame Street did a Stranger Things 2 parody and it's equal parts adorable and hilarious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npcqBt_e4k0
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# ? Nov 29, 2017 04:38 |
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Yeah, it's weird that it hasn't been posted and quoted on this page already. Very strange.
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# ? Nov 29, 2017 06:01 |
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If the goal of Sesame Street is to teach kids, then the person in charge of their Twitter should know the difference between its and it's
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# ? Nov 29, 2017 06:36 |
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Well Manicured Man posted:So Sesame Street did a Stranger Things 2 parody and it's equal parts adorable and hilarious: They should have hired Sesame Street's writers for S2.
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# ? Nov 29, 2017 13:08 |
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Finally finished a complete rewatch of the series a couple of days ago. While this did give me a higher opinion of the first season than I remember having--it alone has one of the show's greatest villains, Lonnie--I end up sticking with my first impression, that the second season is better. A lot of it comes down on how I grade, so to speak. I don't hold a season's lowest points or episode against it. I don't think I even go by the median episode or moments of a season, though the way Stranger Things deploys its secret weapon, Noah Schnapp as Will, this season I think season 2 wins that way anyhow. I go by the best moments, and for me that was easily the Mind Flayer episode in general and especially the "interrogation" sequence and its immediate run-up in particular. With that this season gave Stranger Things its [Mad Men] Carousel scene, a sequence that relies on most of what came before and compresses it into one short superlative bit that shows off how good the show is. With those seemingly random stories told out of nowhere at a climax, it reminded me a bit of the Jeopardy story in The Leftovers, and it's also the best television I've seen since the Jeopardy story in The Leftovers. At first I must have only thought it was a great scene on its surface. Mike's line "It was the best thing I've ever done" just aches with beauty. The whole thing is a roller coaster of human emotions, starting with a truly terrifying, even nauseating bit where this sinister mechanical music plays while everyone pitches in to build what seems like an impromptu torture chamber for a child, then it swings to hope then defeat then finally to victory. In that middle part you have a narrow focus on only acting and dialogue with no music; at the end everything is happening at once, with dialogue continuing as the show's theme of connecting with Will, Should I Stay or Should I Go, plays diegetically while we finally get the message about closing the hole in the world, which is the show's greatest metaphor. However, there's much more below the surface since in this sequence Stranger Things is being layered and deep in a way I'm not used to it trying. The stories are interrelated in multiple important ways. I barely know where to begin. Try nostalgia. The show's always been about nostalgia and references, of course, but these are aimed at the viewer, and it's fun and all but it's not the best part of the show, imo. Here the nostalgia from the stories is in-universe, and it's something the characters employ. Nostalgia is a weapon. One way season 2 exceeds season 1 is by introducing a battle of wits and ultimately psychological combat with its monster, and nostalgia plus Will's psychological functionality are what allow the characters to defeat the Mind Flayer in the final battle of minds. The stories told combine to create a rich irony that is not sarcastic and is the opposite of cruel. During the course of two seasons of Stranger Things and what precedes them, Will is [incomplete list?] hunted, captured, infested, possessed, given a harsher backstory than his friends, repeatedly terrified, given a fake death, mocked and demeaned by characters and even the editing (that cockroach scene!), given bad advice, punished for showing agency by standing up for himself, tied up, treated like a lab specimen, played for a fool, and repeatedly burned alive psychically, then the show proceeds to quite sincerely explain to him and the audience why his life is not a tragedy. By showing all at once how Will wasn't degraded by growing up without much money and having a poo poo father and being alone at first, the show finally proves that Will actually isn't its whipping boy and sets the stage for portraying him as resilient in the face of all the supernatural poo poo that happens to him. Doubling down on torturing a child repeatedly is a risky move for a show; the risk is that it's a cheap and manipulative way to get a reaction from the audience, so the result has to be something that's either great or garbage. Stranger Things 2 takes this risk and ends up great, though I can still see why it seemed like it veered toward the excessive at times. (Billy's life is a tragedy, and it's appropriate that the scene revealing this is put in episode 8.) The reason Will ends up being pretty drat good at coping for all the hells he's put through is because of the theme introduced for the second season. A good theme for a season will utilize the best parts of the season while justifying some of the more lacking ones. The theme of Stranger Things 2 is that shared trauma and hardship leave people with connections that enable them to survive and thrive intact, while trauma suffered alone creates individual monsters. This actually isn't something I can necessarily agree with out in real life, but this show pushes it hard this season and it works well for its purposes. The interrogation stories explain how Will was never alone when he suffered from his family's lack of money, his terrible father, or his relative isolation at school. The show is trying to build him up even when a cursory examination would make it look like it's always trying to tear him down. That creepy, awkward conversation with Murray the amateur armchair psychologist is not a great drama moment, but it's necessary because that is when the show is getting very blunt about stating one of its themes out loud ("the real poo poo, shared trauma," or some line like that). Episode 7, not a phenomenal hour of television taken altogether, is definitely necessary because it shows a group of individually traumatized monsters banding together to do more monstrous stuff, not a group of people banding together to heal. Billy turns out to be an important character to the season for the sake of the theme even though his main importance to the plot has been pushed off to future seasons. The theme provides a roadmap for Eleven's future too, though it's one that's pretty obvious anyway: she's currently trapped in a limbo between a functional future and becoming an anger-fueled psychic monster, between being shaped by her individual trauma from growing up in the lab and by her shared travails with Mike, Hopper, and co. I have the uneasy feeling Max was put into this show mainly to be in danger of being killed by Eleven, though I would bet on that ultimately not happening. Mike is mostly a good relationship for Eleven, but he is in danger of becoming an obsession and possession for her; what ultimately speaks well for how Eleven will turn out is how much she cares about Will, someone she's never really met. Stray observations: of the four or five parental figures Eleven has had in this show, Joyce is the best; and, holy poo poo, Eleven has almost certainly not yet learned that Hopper sold out her location at the middle school to get to go through the gate at the end of season 1.
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# ? Nov 30, 2017 05:20 |
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Onomarchus posted:Finally finished a complete rewatch of the series a couple of days ago. While this did give me a higher opinion of the first season than I remember having--it alone has one of the show's greatest villains, Lonnie--I end up sticking with my first impression, that the second season is better. A lot of it comes down on how I grade, so to speak. I don't hold a season's lowest points or episode against it. I don't think I even go by the median episode or moments of a season, though the way Stranger Things deploys its secret weapon, Noah Schnapp as Will, this season I think season 2 wins that way anyhow. I go by the best moments, and for me that was easily the Mind Flayer episode in general and especially the "interrogation" sequence and its immediate run-up in particular. With that this season gave Stranger Things its [Mad Men] Carousel scene, a sequence that relies on most of what came before and compresses it into one short superlative bit that shows off how good the show is. With those seemingly random stories told out of nowhere at a climax, it reminded me a bit of the Jeopardy story in The Leftovers, and it's also the best television I've seen since the Jeopardy story in The Leftovers.
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# ? Dec 1, 2017 20:20 |
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I’d imagine the Hopper betrayal thing will come up in Season 3 to get Eleven out of Hawkins or into an antagonist role for a while, since Eight seems like she might have telepathy in addition to illusion poo poo. Otherwise, how would she know what present-day Brenner looked like, or what he’d say to Eleven to upset her? It’s not like it’s even a secret: Lucas figured it out instantly.
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# ? Dec 1, 2017 20:30 |
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Fister Roboto posted:After Jonathon kicked Steve's rear end, Steve went to Jonathon's house to apologize. Just an all around great guy. This was the point in Season 1 where Steve redeemed himself in my eyes. You'd think he'd first try to patch things up with Nancy, but actually, he first tries to talk things out with the guy he thought was his rival for Nancy's affection, and who'd just beaten him to a bloody pulp earlier that day. Steve was unselfishly trying to set things right.
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# ? Dec 3, 2017 23:28 |
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sweetmercifulcrap posted:Anyone try the Stranger Things mobile game? It's a nice little diversion and ad free. I'm kind of impressed at the quality for a free promotional game. Though inexplicably you can't play as Steve. I haven't played much, but I love the 8-bit graphics and puzzles. Much better than most "freemium" games.
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# ? Dec 8, 2017 05:15 |
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It's not even freemium that I can see. There's nothing to buy. You just play.
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# ? Dec 8, 2017 17:16 |
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Yeah the game was created to generate hype for the second season, not to make money on its own.
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# ? Dec 10, 2017 21:31 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-4rhjO6xYg
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# ? Dec 10, 2017 22:20 |
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That sure is random.
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# ? Dec 11, 2017 02:46 |
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And More posted:That sure is random. Yeah I'm at 5:00 now and this is extremely not random. You're just under 35. e: sorry, that was snotty. This is a really dense sequence of jokes mostly about watching 80s sitcoms that were so bad that if you didn't watch TV every single night from 6:00 - 9:00, you have no idea they even existed. WE WATCHED THESE UNIRONICALLY. AND WERE GLAD TO HAVE THEM Christ. First thing I looked up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb4C7vSByMM TRY TO WATCH THAT WHOLE loving VIDEO. WE WATCHED THAT WHOLE loving VIDEO EVERY NIGHT FOR ETERNITY Perfect Strangers was a great show. Like, loving great, in comparison. wellwhoopdedooo fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Dec 14, 2017 |
# ? Dec 14, 2017 06:12 |
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:Yeah I'm at 5:00 now and this is extremely not random. You're just under 35. I’m 43 and it’s pretty random.
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# ? Dec 14, 2017 06:16 |
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Dr. Tim Whatley posted:I’m 43 and it’s pretty random. I mean yeah, it's a pretty random sequence of references to deep-cuts '83-85, but I dunno, I feel like you'd call it that before just "random" if you got the references. Eh, I tried to be cool, fuckin whiff. e: Oh, and they're references to the experiences of watching those loving shows more than the shows themselves. The Wonder Years intro queues you what you're in for. HAHAHA I'M A GENIOUS *runs into the distance ironically* e2: Not the intro song, the intro voiceover and dinner scene. Like, they remixed Stranger Things into these shows that nobody even talks about. It's enjoyable on the same level as that guy who does 50 dances, and stupid as it might be, it wasn't accidental, a lot of work went into it. gently caress it, I'm dying on this hill. wellwhoopdedooo fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Dec 14, 2017 |
# ? Dec 14, 2017 06:44 |
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Bad Lip Reading's quality dropped off a cliff after they started having characters just say wacky random things when you can't see their faces. Instead of sticking with, you know, lip reading. haha this guy offscreen is talking about chickens in an airplane wow isn't that random
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# ? Dec 14, 2017 07:10 |
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the greatest american hero has the most mismatched theme song of all time. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg-TqEFYcfM
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# ? Dec 16, 2017 15:14 |
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Onomarchus posted:So what 80s thing looks like the Stranger Things title but isn't one of the Stephen King novel covers it's supposed to be based on? I can't remember if anyone clocked this in the S1 thread, but:
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 15:25 |
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CainFortea posted:Supernatural should have died like 9 years ago, why would you want more? Try 13 years ago actually
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# ? Jan 1, 2018 20:33 |
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Groovelord Neato posted:the greatest american hero has the
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# ? Jan 2, 2018 10:41 |
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Astroman posted:I can't remember if anyone clocked this in the S1 thread, but: Clocked what? I don't see the similarity if that's what you're saying?
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# ? Jan 2, 2018 11:21 |
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wellwhoopdedooo posted:WE WATCHED THESE UNIRONICALLY. AND WERE GLAD TO HAVE THEM Christ, I had forgotten how painful that was. Mike Post wrote all the iconic 80's theme songs from Night Court to the A-Team, if you ever watched TV in the 80's and 90's you've heard his work. Most TV themes of the 80's didn't have lyrics, I'm guessing that it's Pete Carpenter's fault The Greatest American Hero has them.
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# ? Jan 2, 2018 14:19 |
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# ? Apr 28, 2024 04:07 |
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Greatest theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAZp_wbv0h4
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# ? Jan 2, 2018 15:11 |