There are a few decades in film history that have been as scrutinized as the 1980s, but to really understand the decade and its movies, it's going to take a couple of someone's who were there for it the first time around.

Drew McQueenie and Scott Weinberg are ready to review every major film of the decade, one month at a time. The look at what worked then, what endoers now, and how it felt to be there when it all went down. Turn back to calendar with us. It's the 80s all over. I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel.

I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel.

I'm gonna have to go back to the hotel. It's the 80s all over. Rock and roll legends, the who announced they were breaking up. The Christmas parade from Epcot Center in Florida's Walt Disney World Park was televised live for the very first time and 13-year-old Drew McQueenie Mayer may not have acted the fool near one of the cameras, hoping to get some screen time. Severe political unrest in Bevery led to an escalation of attacks on American forces as well as attacks by American forces. Car bombs, snipers, and more were involved in it felt like the world was going crazy everywhere. The IRA blew up herds in London, two jets collided with dread and Carbons in Israel and Kuwait played many more lives. On a positive note, though, El Salvador adopted its first constitution ever. Someone stole the original World Cup trophy from the headquarters of the Brazilian football confederation of Rio, which is hilarious. And Pope John Paul II somehow found the grace

to actually pardon the man who shot it. It's kind of a beautiful way to wrap up December of 1983. Hi, everybody. I'm Drew McQueenie and welcome to the last regular episode of the fourth season of 80s all over. And I'm joined as always by my co-host, Scott Weinberg. Scott, how are you, buddy? Damn, sir. That was a lot of syllables in a row.

Don't always, always happy to hear your new- I'm like, co-host, Scott Weinberg. Scott, how are you, buddy? Damn, sir. That was a lot of syllables in a row.

Don't always, always happy to hear your news. What do we call those? The news feeds? We'll call those the 80s news feeds. Thank you, Drew. Very happy to finish 1983. We'll be back in two weeks with our recap episode. But as many of our listeners know, I am not a fan of this year overall.

I am happy to announce that there are a handful of truly great films, but I think history has borrered out my theory even back then, that if you were to just do a master list of the top 100 films of this year compared to 82 and 84, I think 83 would come up markedly short. I got really excited, because 84, 85, 86 right in a row, holy crap, there's a lot of amazing stuff coming. And yeah, it does feel like 83 is the year where everything was shifting and grinding and kind of trying to get started. And when the rip engine, when you're trying to start at lawnmower, 1982 was the first rip off that 1983 was kind of sputtering. And then 84 was the engine kicking into full gear and old boy. Before we kick in, we have to of course, as it's always thank every single listener and our patrons. We've had some great bonus episodes recently and we have some really great ones coming up very soon. One of my favorite things is when we, you or I, hop on Twitter and go, new episode up November 1983 and we get like four people who go, I was born that month. That's my love that. That'll happen a lot. By the time we get to like January of 87, half of Twitter will be like, I was born that. This, before we kick into the film's proper, we're going to discuss a short film that was one of the most seen films of the entire decade and it probably remains one of the most viewed films of all time. Michael, I think this is gonna be the citizen cane of the videos I really do. It is. It's gonna be the most revolutionary thing and they just give up in the videos, you know. Well, the videos are getting to be, uh,

I mean, it's a new art form now,

but I think this is leading the way.

Deed it, and this one is leading the way.

Tonight on a special holiday edition of Friday Night Videos, the network television premiere

of Michael Jackson's Thriller. I want to ask where and when you saw it first because I know I remember Michael Jackson's Thriller like a lightning bolt. I want to say I saw the long version within the first day or two that it hit MTV, being young at the time. I wasn't a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I didn't dislike him and you couldn't escape him. The day it came out, we went somewhere with some friends and then we went back to their house and when we got to their house, their younger brother and sister who had not with us, came running up and they said,

there's a Michael Jackson video now. There's a new Michael Jackson video. MTV was treating it like the event that it was. And so every hour on the hour, Michael Jackson's thriller premiered again, and they had the big build up to it. So we walked in about nine minutes before it was supposed to start again. And we watched the whole countdown and everybody was very excited. and then the thing played and about halfway through

the dad who had gone with us

got really and we watched the whole countdown and everybody was very excited. And then the thing played.

And about halfway through, the dad who had gone with us got really mad that the little kids were watching it and that they'd already seen it and that this was okay for that. He got very upset by Thriller and everybody shushed him because we all wouldn't see what was happening. And I'll never forget that first viewing. I couldn't believe what MTV was getting away with. It felt really crazy and bold and it definitely felt like something had just changed. I didn't notice this at the time, but looking back, it was another notch on the mainstreaming of horror. Clearly Michael Jackson likes horror movies, and this is fun and funny and scary, and you know, elaborately put together. I like the video, don't love the song. I mean it's like, do do do do do. It's a catchy song though, it's an earworm, and it's funny just the other day I was listening to another podcast in the car, Boogie Monster, and that's Kyle Kanane and Dave Stone, Duke Medians, just talking about the paranormal, although they rarely get around with the paranormal, mostly it's talking about food and life on the road as comics. And they were talking towards the end of their episode, and for some reason Kyle just turned on Michael Jackson's twitter, turned on the song, and lost his mind for it again, and talked about what a big deal it was when he bought the album and what the song was, and he couldn't get over the fact that all it is Michael Jackson just saying scary things. And he's like, I don't even understand how that's a hit song, but it's the greatest song of all time. And I don't understand why! And I think part of the appeal of Michael Jackson's that whole album was the first time you heard it it was undeniable. Like you just heard it went, oh okay well that's what pop music sounds like now. So now we move into December proper, we'll stick with the musical arena, I'm going to predict it dammit, Drew you liked this film. Ladies and gentlemen, straight from this fantastically successful world tour for the last time The pen of beckards Ziggy starred us and the from Mars. He was at that point the King of the Rock music documentary because of Monoary Pop and Don't Look Back. Clearly if you were going to hire somebody to do an important rock documentary, he's the guy you would go after. They wanted to get David Bowie's Ziggy starred us character on film. This was when he was really into the sort of T-Rex glam rock End of Things, watch that man, all the young dudes, oh you pretty things The the technical end of this thing. It was kind of thrown together the last minute I don't think Pennebaker. I don't think he nailed it technically the way he nailed some of his earlier live things that he shot It is historic because at the end of the show Bowie announces This is the last time you'll ever see the Ziggy Stardust character. It was something that Pennabacker said he was not aware of. He didn't understand what this show was going to be until that moment happened. And they have that on film and they have that moment where the audience hears that and it sinks in that Bowie's about to shed this skin and move on to whatever the next one is. It's kind of a historic, amazing thing to be able to witness.

And... in that Bowie's about to shed this skin and move on to whatever the next one is. It's kind of a historic, amazing thing to be able to witness.

And you don't always get rock history in front of the camera.

This is a moment where you did.

My tastes for Bowie are a bit more conventional than people who are slightly older than me,

but I had a good time with this.

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