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 McLean 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. Professional baseball players began what would become a 50-day strike, their third since the formation of the Major Leagues. Steely Dan pulled the plug as a band and Donald Fagan and Walter Becker went their separate ways. The AIDS epidemic officially began with reports of pneumonia affecting five gay patients in Los Angeles according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. And finally, Barbara Walters unforgettable, as Katherine Hepburn. What kind of a tree are you? I like that everybody would like to be an oak tree. That's very strong, very

pretty.

So how do we ever find time for all of the movies that came out in June of 1981? Hi, everybody. I'm Drew McQueenie and welcome to another episode of 80's All Over. I'm joined as always by my illustrious co-host, Scott Weinberg. What's up, sir? Hi. How is everybody out there in 80's All Overland? Thank you for listening. We should probably remind our listeners who aren't subscribers that are Patreon. Got it? OK? Our Patreon account. We have the Fog Audio Commentary. We have interviews with Nancy Allen and Amanda Whist. That's a true funny story. So I go to meet with the casting director, Welle Nassita, at Warner Brothers. And in the script, they describe my character Phoebe as like, I forget the words they use. But in my head, I had it that they described her as a model or something like that. So I, you know, only a 23-year-old would have this sort of ignorance, but I walk in and

I went, I went, you know what? Let's just save us both time. I'm never going to get this movie. I'm not a super model. So I just wanted to meet you and tell you how much I like the script, but I'm not going to waste your time. And she just looks at me and she goes, okay, this is what's going to happen. You're gonna stop talking.

You're gonna get up.

You're gonna leave my office.

You're gonna stand leave my office. You're going to stand outside my door and you're going to knock. And when I say you come back in, you're going to come back in and we're going to start over. You're going to read the damn script. So if you are interested, check out our Patreon page and poke around and see if that interest you and if not, you can just join us on the freebie episodes and have a ball. I am so excited about the next commentary recorded. It's a pop-eye commentary and it is a full two hours of Scott and I, filmmakers who grew up influenced by the movie, behind the scenes stories that I'm guessing you've never heard before. It is truly my favorite thing we've done so far. And I think we may top it today because the lineup is unbelievable this month. Last month we had a lot of the B titles and then the A titles. This episode is so backloaded with big titles that let's just jump right into it, Drew. Why don't you explain how common re-releases used to be? Reissues were big business back then. And it was because there was, you know, cable heads started by this point, but it was in a very limited amount of the country and in terms of how many homes had cable or VHS versus how many homes were still just the three networks in UHF. There was no comparison. People had not gone home video crazy yet. 1981, it was still basically theatrical was the big game and then they'd show stuff on TV, cut up and rearranged and stuff. So if you really love the movie, that theatrical re-release was your chance to actually see the real film. Like for example, the double feature we're about to talk about, these are Disney films. They already had the prints. What overhead do they have to re-release Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo and and herbivose bananas there are perfect answer for parents i think a lot of times we have two disney movies in an afternoon oh my god that's gotta be having because you know you have the kid kind of out of commission for three plus hours you should we drop the other shoe uh... yeah as most of our listeners will probably know this, this franchise began in 1968 with the Love Bug and continued in 74 with Herbie Rides again. Herbie goes to Monte Carlo with 77 and Herbie goes bananas just came out just a year earlier. Well, this is after they kind of shifted the focus because the series was originally all focused on the Dean Jones character and then gradually they kind of had, once they lost Dean Jones, they'd just shift away from him

and figure out how to keep it going,

keep some human connection.

Which is always the joke in these movies. It's like the JAWS series, the idea that the Brody family is in any way the star that series is fucking ridiculous. The star that series is giant sharks eating people. That's when you get the three and four, That's what you care about.

All you care about was Herbie and what Herbie did.

And that was what was fun about them.

You need Herbie and you need somebody to cut to with bug eyes

who goes, whoa!

Whenever Herbie and what Herbie did, and that was what was fun about them.

You need Herbie, and you need somebody to cut to with bug eyes who goes, whoa! Whenever Herbie does something. June is what they used to be considered the beginning of the summer movies season. So now you're looking at June, which we'll soon get to, has a ton of what looked like Blockbuster movies and would prove to be Blockbuster movies. But now you have Disney going, okay, in June we're going to re-release a double feature

of two Herbuster movies. But now you have Disney going, okay, in June we're going to re-release a double feature of two herbie movies and we're going to re-release Freaky Friday. And you know what my theory is, Drew? I honestly believe they put these back into theaters for simple spillover. You know what I mean? Like if the big, big release was going to be sold out, the parents would look at what's left because I'm telling you, Drew, how often did that happen to us as kids?

I would say at least one out of every 10 times,

my dad and my mom and dad would take us to see a movie on a Friday or Saturday night and it was a big, big movie. It would sell out. Maybe even one out of five. It was very common. Yeah, you had a lot fewer prints. You didn't have it, you didn't have it every 50 feet.

You could go see the same film.

You'd be lucky if you had three places in the same city

that had something and that's if you had a big city.

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