Vintage TV Guide Ads: Awesome 80s, Tough Guys, TV & Terror Part 2

Remember when VHS tapes--after surpassing Beta and laserdiscs--were the 'In Thing'? Remember how expensive they were to buy the first several years they were too hot to handle? I remember my dad felt compelled to own three different copies of ALIEN when they retailed for a steep $99.99. Hell, it cost $7.00 just to rent a movie back then.


Irwin Allen was a behind a number of disaster movies, some of which were spectacular and others were disasters in a different sense of the word. He also dabbled in television with hits like LOST IN SPACE, VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA and LAND OF THE GIANTS. This non science fiction series called CODE RED was his last. It was an action-drama series about the lives and dangers of a group of LA firefighters. The cast included Lorne Green (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA), Sam J. Jones (FLASH GORDON), Julie Adams (CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON) and Andrew Stevens (TEN TO MIDNIGHT). The series first episode premiered Sunday, November 1st, 1981.


Here's an ad for an 1986 television remake of the 1958 classic THE DEFIANT ONES starring Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis. This do-over starred Robert Urich (VEGA$) and Carl Weathers (ROCKY series).

Atari pretty much eradicated all its competition till Nintendo and SEGA came along. I still have affection for games like CENTIPEDE, SPACE INVADERS, GALAGA and MOON PATROL.

Check out this ad from 1982 about an Atari home computer system. Anybody out there ever have one of these?

I vaguely remember this store called Heck's. Check out these specials from 1982. It would be great if these prices applied to today's games.

For you sports gaming lovers out there, this was cutting edge excitement back in the day.

DON'T GO TO SLEEP (1982) is one of the best of the Made For TV horror pictures. It sports a great cast, performances and still has some chilling moments in this pseudo POLTERGEIST enhanced semi-supernatural shocker. If you missed the review, click HERE.

HE'S THE MAYOR from 1986 premiered Friday night, January the 10th. It was about Carl Burke, a bright young man who becomes mayor of his town at the age of 25 while his father toils away as the janitor of City Hall. I never saw the series, but it was a short lived one. Looking back, there were so many shows that came and went abruptly.

TV movie co-starring Marilu Henner (TAXI). I don't remember it, but Henner being featured prominently on the ad warrants posting it.

Ken Wahl was a pretty popular face back in the 1980s. Here's an ad for a great and sadly defunct local station, WNRW channel 45. This was a theatrical movie directed by James Glickenhaus (THE EXTERMINATOR, THE PROTECTOR). And that brings us to another Ken Wahl movie....

THE GLADIATOR, a 1986 television movie directed by Abel Ferrara (MS. 45, THE DRILLER KILLER, BAD LIEUTENANT). Wow, a TV movie from one of trash cinemas most talented hands? This was a Vehicular Vigilante movie in the spirit of THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981).

Both SUPERMAN 1 and 2 got tons of airplay on the small screen. This is an ad from one of its many repeat performances. Christopher Reeve quickly became the cinematic blueprint for the Man of Steel that will be hard for Hollywood to duplicate.

"Know-whut-I-mean?" was a classic phrase from the late Jim Varney, alias Ernest P. Worrell. He was a staple of the 1980s much like Pee Wee Herman. He also had a series of kid friendly flicks over the course of two decades.

Panasonic wireless remote controlled VCR from the early 1980s. With just 13 buttons, a lot has changed to the remote control since then. Note this top loader doesn't have the 'tape recorder' buttons on it, but is digital instead.

ALICE was 'goin' through life with blinders on' throughout this hit series that ran for nine seasons from 1976 to 1985. Linda Laven was Alice Hyatt from New Jersey who, on her way to LA to take a shot at a singing career, breaks down in Phoenix, Arizona. She ends up taking a job as a waitress at Mel's Diner run by Vic Tayback. Polly Holliday as Flo got her own spin-off series called FLO and also uttered a famous TV catchphrase, "Kiss my grits".

Clint Eastwood was big business in the 1980s and his movies were always on television somewhere during the week. One of his most popular, and frequently aired flicks was this hilariously memorable movie with Clint as Philo Beddoe, a kindly, but bad ass fist fighter and his ape partner, Clyde who does a mean Orango-Tango. Here's another ad for EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978) from a 1986 airing.

Burt Reynolds had been an old hat at action movies, particularly westerns such as the ultra violent NAVAJO JOE (1966) and 100 RIFLES (1969) starring Jim Brown and Raquel Welch. Reynolds became a well known and reliable commodity in the 'Good Ol' Boy' action sub genre that popularly played at drive in's across the country. He tried a few times to do a DIRTY HARRY, but could never escape his stigma as a smug and smirkin', fast drivin' Bandit throughout a series of car crash comedy pictures helmed by former stuntman, Hal Needham.


Speaking of Raquel Welch, she, too, carved a brief niche for herself in strong woman roles like the Roller Derby classic, KANSAS CITY BOMBER (1972). The ad above is for the weak revenge western, HANNIE CAULDER (1971). A strong cast that includes Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, Christopher Lee and Robert Culp make it a watchable, if unremarkable western.

Here's a portion of a TV article/interview with a very young, 21 year old Heather Locklear from April, 1983. Locklear had hit it big on two shows at roughly the same time--T.J. HOOKER and DYNASTY.

I had hundreds of these Hotwheels--Matchbox Cars and a few of those suitcase things with the trays to carry them around in.

Charles Bronson was a co-star in the great revolution western, VILLA RIDES (1968). Yul Brynner was the main star, but you couldn't tell by this TV ad from 1981.

WOLFEN (1981) got separated from the werewolf pack during its theatrical release while both THE HOWLING and AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON got all the good stuff leaving only scraps for Michael Wadleigh's gruesome and thought provoking cinematic adaptation of Whitley Strieber's novel. This ad is from 1986.

This 80s Tough Guys, TV & Terror special concludes in Part 3!

Vintage TV Guide Ads: The Awesome 80s, Tough Guys & the Macabre Part 1

MASCULINITY & THE MACABRE

This was one show I looked forward to back then and here's the premiere from Friday night, November 6th, 1981. I had first seen Palance up on the big screen the previous year in WITHOUT WARNING (1980) and this eerily intimidating actor was now carving a creepy niche for himself on television with this bizarre series. This first episode includes a Czechoslovakian cathedral adorned with the bones of over 40,000 skeletons and a museum of criminality in Germany with medieval masks made to fit the crime of the wearer.

Above and below are three ads for the short lived western series starring legendary tough guy William Smith, J. Eddie Peck, Howard E. Rollins Jr., John Di Aquino and wrestling legend Terry Funk.

The series revolved around five elite law enforcers maintaining peace in "Wildside" territory. William Smith was the fast gun leader, his skilled gunfighting son, an explosives expert, a knife fighter and a master rope wrangler. Famed action-exploitation director Jack Starrett guest starred as a renegade general ransacking towns in his search for gold. Meg Ryan also was among the shows cast.

Sadly, the series didn't catch on and only lasted for six episodes. It debuted on ABC at 8pm, March 21st. 1985. There was also another ABC series that was debuting after it at 9pm that likewise was canceled before it really had a chance to catch on called EYE TO EYE starring Charles Durning.

FAWCETT'S ON FIRE!

This intense movie brought Farrah Fawcett a good deal of critical acclaim and was, at the time, the highest rated television movie of all time. It occasionally airs on various cable and satellite channels.

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

*CLICK THE PICS TO READ THE ARTICLE*

Check out this article above and below from December, 1982 about the best video games of that year. Remember how we were all in awe of Atari and the other systems as they brought the arcade experience into your home.

I had an Atari 2600 and do recall playing such games as PIT FALL, YARS REVENGE and favorites like MISSILE COMMAND, CENTIPEDE and SPACE INVADERS. An Atari 7800 came later with games such as KARATEKA and JOUST.

Intellivision was a pretty interesting system in its own right. My favorite game to play on it was ROBOTRON 2084.

Yes, those were the days back in the 80s! Would you wanna go back?

MONKEY'S & MACHO MEN

Above is the TV Guide ad of the Network Television Premiere for the Clint classic EVERY WHICH WAY BUT LOOSE (1978), Clint's biggest box office success at the time.

The hit sequel to the above film. At the time, and for a good number of years, Clint Eastwood movies were on television almost on a weekly basis.

This was one of Clint's cop thrillers that didn't veer too far from DIRTY HARRY territory. It's one of the few films I thought Sondra Locke looked good in. It's also one of Eastwood's most violent pictures as well as one in which he directed himself.

RANDOM STUFF

Shows and other television specials like these were a big deal back then and now the closest we get is the Dancing With the Stars thing.

I never watched this series that ran for two seasons, nor do I remember it, but it sounds like fun.

I never watched ST. ELSEWHERE but little did I know that my favorite show of all time, CHEERS, did a crossover episode with that series!

Chevy ad from 1985. My, my how these things have changed over time. I used to own a Caprice Classic myself, and the station wagon at the bottom left is like the one my parents had that we would make trips to two different drive in theaters in.

I never saw the first film on this CBS double header, but I did stay up to watch CRASH! (1977); once on Shock Theater and again on its Network Television Premiere as the CBS Late Night Movie, Friday, November 6th, 1981. I haven't seen it years but the film revolves around a hospital bound man who plots the death of his wife. Only she survives and ends up possessed by a magical idol that also takes the wheel of a driverless car to both take out her enemies and blow things up in spectacular fashion. It's directed by Charles Band.

Formerly known as THE LEGACY (1978), this was the Network Premiere of this England set Occultism movie about a couple who end up at a creepy mansion and run afoul of satanism that includes several OMENesque death scenes. Sam Elliott (FROGS), who would later appear in numerous westerns would also later become associated as the voice uttering the popular slogan, "Beef--it's what's for dinner."

PART TWO COMING SOON!