80's High

Whether during indoor recess or a weekend with friends, we couldn't get enough of those fun, silly, amazing, frustrating board games of the 80's. Whether commanding troops or sliding chutes, using our brains or leaving it to chance, we tear through the games of yore like hungry hippos, exploring the good, the bad, and the ugly. Games like Mouse Trap, Pictionary, Connect Four, Risk, Clue, Life, Mall Madness, Crossfire, the dreaded Monopoly, and too many more to name, we explore our cherished memories and those of our listeners. We even uncover the oldest board game to ever exist, and it's way older than you think. Enough talk, let's play!

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• 80s Then, 80s Now - Board Games

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

When the bulldozers arrive and the goons start harassing, it seems all is lost for our group of tenants in their historic,  lone apartment building in the Lower East Side. What they need is a miracle. And who should answer the call but two little sentient spaceships hungry for metal, dying for power, and eager to start a family. The Fix-Its bring joy not only to our downtrodden residents but to us as the audience. Can our alien pals foil the big bad's plans and repair everything that's been lost? Gather up your nuts-n-bolts, make room in your rooftop shack, and for everything holy, do NOT jam a shovel into a fuse box because we're revisiting the heartwarming classic film, * batteries not included.

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• Batteries Not Included Fandom Wiki

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

After taking his first accordion lesson at the age of six, "Weird Al" Yankovic catapulted from Lynnwood, CA to become one of the greatest parody (and accordion) artists of all time! Michael Jackson to Madonna, George Harrison to Nirvana, Weird Al flipped our perspective of cool on its head and gave us catchy, hilarious tunes that were sometimes better earworms than the originals. Just in time for this fall’s “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” and his current 2022 tour, join us as we travel back to the 80’s to commentate on the Pop Culture Commentator himself!

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• "Weird Al" Yankovic official website

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

In the 1980's, we would do anything to convince our parents to roll through the drive-thru just for the chance to snag the latest toy from our favorite cartoon or movie. Whether you longed for Barbie or Hot Wheels, McRobots or Boo Buckets, cruise on back with us to discover the hotly debated origin of kids meals, unlock the memories of your favorite prizes, and find out how the fast food chains have fared amidst the legal battles, health concerns, and plastic waste.

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• Did McDonald’s Invent the Fast Food Kid’s Meal? (Culinary Lore)

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

When Gordon Shumway smashed through the roof of the Tanner's home 36 years ago, his blunt, sarcastic, comedic quips made him our favorite Alien Life Form. Whether you saw yourself as an ALF mocking humanity’s strange behaviors and beliefs or as a Willie trying to kick out that annoying family member LONG after the party was over, these four seasons had an undeniable impact on pop culture. We peek behind the puppet and beneath the stage, uncovering the drama on set and figuring out if this show passes the Shumway Bechdel Test. So grab the popcorn and hide your cats, because we’re tuning back into ALF! HA!

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• ALF TV website

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

Join us as we set off on a globetrotting adventure, following a trail of discarded kettles, walking sticks, snorkels, and more in search of the most elusive champion of hide-and-seek to ever grace the pages of our childhoods. Whether you knew him as Wally or Waldo, Martin Handford’s incredibly detailed and delightful illustrations had us peering into rich scenes of Hollywood sets and epic pirate battles, magnifying glass in-hand, muttering to ourselves, “Where’s Waldo?”

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• 14 Facts About Where's Waldo? (Mental Floss)

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

Only the cleverest SCUMM could solve these puzzles! Grab two of your iconic friends - Bernard, Jeff, Michael, Razor, Syd, or Wendy - and boldly enter the kooky Edison Mansion to save your ensnared girlfriend, Sandy Pantz! We’re headed back to 1987 to explore the cult classic video game from LucasFilm Games, Maniac Mansion. This game is full of iconic music, foundation-building game systems, and enough creative twists, turns, and cyphers to make you wonder, “did a dastardly meteor and two unlikely tentacles write this thing?!” Let's step inside and see the world of point-and-click adventures this game and many of its offspring have given us.

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• Maniac Mansion: The classic graphic adventure game (Classic Gaming)

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

When something strange goes bump in the night, who ya gonna call? The REAL Ghostbusters! That's right, we're dusting off the Ecto-1 and traveling back to the cartoon spinoff that expanded the franchise in a bid to sell us awesome toys... and it worked! And we get into all the ghoulish details, from the rivalry brewing with Filmation's Ghost Busters to the controversial decisions to change the cartoon, as well as the metaverse of Garfield and the coolest toilet toy ever. And as a bonus to you AMSR fans, Ben crinkles a lot of paper bags as he excitedly reveals his 80's toy collection!

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• Ghostbusters Wiki (Fandom)

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

Every kid in the 80s remembers the craze that hit the schoolyards and drugstores overnight... the arrival of those colorful wax packs of Garbage Pail Kids. Adam Bomb, Nasty Nick, New Wave Dave, Phony Lisa... with misfits and mayhem on every card, the characters we came to love were reviled by parents, banned in schools, slapped with a lawsuit, and even turned into one of the worst movies ever. And it's no surprise with their depictions of murder, mutilation, drugs, guns, and gross-out humor... they said so much about counter culture and lampooning of the era. Classmate Aaron returns with his stack of well-worn cards in hand as we flip through the trashy collection of crass and creepy curios that was Garbage Pail Kids.

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• GEEPEEKAY.com

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]

Dust off your stereo and dig out those old cassette tapes, because in this episode we're going back to the lost art of making mix tapes (mixtapes). Whether crafting a message for your crush, mixing a sweet road trip playlist, or looking back on hip hop culture's influence on getting your DJ sets into the public, we reminisce on all the feels that made this phenomena so memorable and connect the dots to where we are today. Press play and record, listeners, you don't want to miss this one.

-- Can I Borrow Your Notes? -- 

• Exploring the Lost Art of the Mixtape (EDM Identify)

-- Teacher's Pets -- 

• Join the Class of 80's High: [email protected]