There are a few decades in film history that have been as screwed nuts 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 the calendar with us. It's the 80s all over. Michael Jackson released a song called Thriller and just imagine how different his where might have been if it had been a hit. A bomb exploded in the US Capitol and thankfully no one was hurt, maybe that was because the federal government shut down. Terry Pratchett published the color of Magic, the first book in his lawn running and utterly charming Discworld series and it was chaos out there. Beer executive Alfred Heineken was kidnapped and rescued by police and Amsterdam.

Sam Sheppard 12th love opened on Broadway.

The night space shuttle mission was launched.

In the Heathrow Airport, a daring robbery of the Brink's Mac warehouse that had $38.7

million in gold bars.

Along with diamonds and cash and what may be one of the biggest hikes of all time.

Man, that's a hell of a way to kick off November of 1983. Hi everybody, I'm Drew McQueenie and welcome to 80s. All of her I'm joined as always by my co-host Scott Winder. Scott, what's up? Hello Drew, I noticed that in your news recaps at the beginning, you never talk about like new cartoons or candy bars or breakfast cereals. It's all very serious stuff. You're in the big leagues. Big league chew, bad-sized wads, a great taste and shredded bubble gum stuffed into a giant, stay-fresh pouch. You're in the big leagues. Big league flavor and big league bubble. You're in the big league too. It's very serious stuff, very. but I'll draw in some breakfast cereal for you. I would appreciate that if you made me some Hannah Barbarra cartoon, something to that effect. The speakers are here. Say the man, tell him to crunch. Say the man, the sugar, we're baking up a bunch. Into see the man. To crunch. Let's keep it light and roll right into our first film, a special presentation, because although it wasn't a theatrical event, it was an event in every other sense of the word. I'm talking, of course, about the day after. These people have just seen a special preview of the day after. This is the most dramatic and realistic I've seen. Excellent. And I would consider it a privilege to have my daughter say this. I think everybody should say this thing and see it more than one.

Good day after Sunday at 8 7 Central and Mountain, rental discretion advised. You know, we had a very brief discussion about this about a year ago or are we going to cover TV movies? No. And then I think Bobby went dot, dot, dot, dot, what about the day after? And we both went, oh, yeah. Oh yeah, well, yeah, we got to include the day after because it is just that impactful.

This is a really fantastic film directed by Nicholas Meyer, who genre fans will of course know from time after time, start track two, lots of great stuff. Very scary and sobering portrayal of a nuclear war that is much different than most films, and that it's not an action film or even a thriller. It is a drama, Drew. Well, it's interesting because I think you wanted to also talk about there was a movie that PBS made that Paramount released for them called Testaman. It was a day like any other. Television's glowed, radio's blared. Breakfasts were being served. Children were playing. Everything was as it should be. When suddenly, it could never be that way again. The two of them, both being November 1983, really speaks to where we were right then. As much as any of the opening stuff we do, I think the movies really are a milestone of where we were socially. I remember at 13, the conversation around whether or not families were going to let their kids watch the day after. And that was a big back and forth.

And my parents really, really, really strongly felt like it would be a mistake to let us watch it. But I was already having nuclear nightmares. I was already afraid of this stuff. It was already part of the conversation. Right. It's like, how can you avoid it? on one hand to fight a 15 year old kid.

I'd be like, gosh, but on the other hand,

it's like, how do you keep something that huge

away from a smart kid?

And I think that the different... on one hand to fight a 15 year old kid, I'd be like, gosh, but on the other hand, it's like, how do you keep something that huge

away from a smart kid?

And I think that the difference in the two films,

it's interesting that testaments don't

have any theatrical, because it feels smaller.

And it's more focused on just how you live

after something like this goes down.

And the day after feels like the more sensational sort

of, we're really trying to get this across what this is going to be like. And I think it's the exaggerated sped up version. But the day after gets that the nuclear war itself, the bombs going off is not the thing that is terrifying. It is living afterwards. Aside from the main plot, what I think draws the two films together, is they both do good jobs of creating empathy for these small town characters. Jane Alexander was nominated for her work in Testamine. It is a little bit more low key and more harrowing the day after, though it does get personal, it still is trying to show a town as a whole, whereas Testamine is centered around this woman and all the people she knows. Testiman, I think, nails the survivor's guilt more and the horror of survival more. There is a scene where they're still trying to live normally to some degree after all this has happened and they put on the school play of the Pied Piper and just watching the parents in that crowd. You feel like you're watching a parent sitting at the deathbed of a child. It's so well done. It's so well directed. That whole sequence, I think some of it does waver a bit into melodrama, but it's well intentioned and well presented melodrama. I don't, neither of them are necessarily fun movies. They're both extremely well made, and I don't know if I would ever recommend them in a double feature, but it just seems like for many years, the day after and testament in another film in from 84 called Threads, it's like they were often discussed as these harrowing films about the potentials of Ward War three. And then they became a little bit outdated and a little kitschy. And oh, remember when we were afraid of this and boy with some distance, we feel feel safe. Now all of a sudden, I hate to say it, but they're scary again in a new way. Let's move on to some slightly lighter fair drew, all right? Oh, boy. This one is sleazy. I was down for this. This is, I looked at the credits, of course, beforehand. And I polished directed humongous and prom night. Sure. That was slightly positive or optimistic for a film I'd never heard of called Cross Country. Between passion a sort of proto erotic thriller. This is that genre the Joesterhust later sort of made mainstream and show time made into an industry. Man, it is a sleazy movie. It's sleazy and dreary. And I like to call that dreasy. Richard Bamer, who we all know from Twin Peaks and from a terrific career before that, shows

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