It happened way too late, but it couldn't have happened to a better patron: The show finally makes good on its promise to dedicate an entire bonus episode to shooting the breeze with one of its most-constant listeners, Jeff the Movie Man, an unmissable and vital presence in the '80s All Over social media circle. So it's like getting to hang out with the guys on Twitter, except, you know - you can HEAR everyone in real time. And just like Twitter... there's no edit button.

John Cassavetes wants a Gloria of his own, Eddie Deezen gets evil with some mutant punks, and Jodie Foster is somehow romantically involved with Ed Asner. Good lord, 1984, this is how you start?

We’ve got a fistful of foreign-language classics like El Norte and Entre Nous, the obligatory teen sex comedies like Hot Dog… The Movie!, and the first film from the great Kathryn Bigelow. All that, plus a Woody Allen gem and a Steven Martin almost? It’s time to kick off the fifth season with January of 1984.

Yes, the main purview of '80s All Over is the films of the decade, some unjustly forgotten, some rightfully so (but we're going to remind you anyway!) - but a huge part of the '80s was its television, and who better to talk about the way the tube set the tone for that decade's cultural explosions than Ken Reid, the TV Guidance Counselor... who talks about movies a little too.

We started the year grumbling and mumbling so it seems like progress to go out cheering for the undeniable highs that the year ended up offering in the end.

James L. Brooks. Philip Kaufman, Martin Scorsese... these are names you might expect to see on a list like this. But there are plenty of surprises in store as well. What movie surprises both of the guys with an almost side-by-side placement on their lists, considering they'd never seen it before this year? What filmmaker ends up on one of the lists twice? And how many times does Scott sing?

We are thrilled to finish up season four, and in the end, maybe we can admit that we're a little more fond of 1983 than we used to be. And that's huge, considering where we began.

No matter how many times they try to empty it, the '80s All Over mailbag never actually hit inbox zero. Pretty sure it never even got close. Maybe it was due to all the kibitzing and old-school-breakdancing going on in this episode, but then again—what good is efficiency in answers if you're robbed of the high-quality kibitizing Drew and Scott are known for. (The dancing? Not so much). Topics include the goodies found in movie novelizations, the filmmaker who had the best filmmaking streak in the '80s (it's not Spielberg!), and what '90s film was the film that actually closed the door on the '80s?

Wait… did we actually do it? Did we finish 1983?! OH MY GOD WE CAN DO ANYTHING!! WE ARE INVINCIBLE!

One last time around the track, though, with another Stephen King adaptation (this one helmed by the great John Carpenter), Mel Brooks doing Ernst Lubitsch cosplay, Meryl Streep taking some really unpleasant showers, and Mickey Mouse’s return to the bigscreen. We’ve got superstar misfires, one of the weirdest horror movies of the year, Ziggy Stardust, and a special look at one of the biggest music videos of all time.

That’s not enough for you? Really? Whattaya want, a mountain of cocaine and Al Pacino? WELL THEN YOU GET A MOUNTAIN OF COCAINE AND AL PACINO! Go ahead, make our day, and listen up for December 1983.

'80s All Over becomes a little more of a Happy Place thanks to this episode's special guest, A.V. Club legend, Dissolve hero, Weird Al biographer, and yes, coiner of the phrase "Manic Pixie Dream Girl," Nathan Rabin. Nathan, unsurprisingly, has a lot of very deeply held opinions about the cinema of the '80s, some surprising, some not as surprising; but the passion that made him one of the most-read (and most-celebrated) culture writers on the internet can't be stopped from shining like the frickin' sun.

And just like that, we round the corner and can see the end of the year looming up suddenly. It's a crazy month of releases, too. There are not one but two nuclear nightmares, obscure teen wig-outs, a giant rat, America's favorite haunted house in 3-D, and a Smurfs movie with no damn Smurfs.

Chevy Chase in a comedy from the director of The Exorcist and The French Connection? Sure.

How about a movie about an out of work aerospace engineer, his schoolteacher wife, and the male stripper who comes between them from the director of Rockyand The Karate Kid? Sure!

We've got a pirate film written by John Hughes, Robbie Benson as a Native American Olympic athlete, and a genuine no-shit embarrassment from the legendary Sam Peckinpah. All that, plus a holiday classic and the last film of the '70s?

Sure, Drew and Scott could probably do this movie by themselves, verbatim, due to how magical it is and how often they've both seen it, but that wouldn't make for a fun commentary, really. What would be fun would be getting former film critic, current educator of the youth, and—most importantly—Canadian person of renown and acclaim James Rocchi to join them for a truly ahead-of-its-time comedy that still worked within its time because drunken SCTV stars saying "hoser" a lot will never not be funny.

Do you have the right stuff to make it through this month?

It's a fair question, because even though there are some highs, like, oh, one of the greatest movies of the entire decade and one of the best Stephen King adaptations and one of the great unsung horror movies of the decade, there are some lows.

And, man, do we mean lows.

But that's what we've gotten used to here at '80s All Over, and so we dove in without hesitation, and somehow lived to tell the story of October 1983.