Free Nights And Weekends

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This week on the Free Nights and Weekends Podcast, Scott dives straight into the retail mayhem of a true Gen-X Black Friday — back when parents fought strangers for Cabbage Patch Kids, Atari games were stacked like sandbags, and leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches were the fuel that powered America’s bravest shoppers.

From 1983’s infamous Cabbage Patch riots to bargain-bin Atari cartridges and the sacred post-Thanksgiving sandwich that kept families alive in mall parking lots, Scott breaks down the holiday madness.

Strap in, layer up, and meet us by the Orange Julius. It’s Black Friday in the 80s… and it was glorious.

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Scott takes a solo dive into 1980s photography: Fotomat drive-up kiosks, disposable cameras, one-hour photo labs, and the unforgettable feeling of opening a yellow envelope filled with freshly developed prints. From mystery film rolls to the family photo album era, this episode explores what we lost when photos stopped taking time — and why those imperfect old snapshots still matter.

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Original music provided by a few of the gentlemen of Supernal Endgame 

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Michael Knight is back on the highway—whether we asked for it or not. 

In this week’s episode of Free Nights and Weekends, Scott and Adam dust off the Trans Am, fire up the red scanner light, and dive head-first into all things Knight Rider. We break down the original 1980s phenomenon, the cultural impact of KITT (television’s sassiest AI long before Alexa got snippy),  and the bizarre but real announcement of a Knight Rider movie reboot. 

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Did you have a ridiculous drivers ed experience in high school? I can't imagine it tops this.  Hang on as some voices from the past come together to retell how we all survived the craziest drivers ed story I've ever heard of. And I was right there!

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This week we welcome the guys from Fried Okla to unwrap Halloween.  — when every parent swore there were razor blades in apples, LSD in Smarties.  

Scott revisits trick-or-treating in suburban Oklahoma — the haunted houses, the good candy, and the one neighbor who gave out full-size bars and nightmares. Then Marc storms in and adds a dash of New England for contrast, and together they uncover what really matters, braving the weather to get a bag of the good stuff. 

It’s nostalgia, nonsense, and neighborhood paranoia — the perfect Halloween hangout from Free Nights and Weekends.

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Fire up the flux capacitor, because Back to the Future just turned 40—and we’re feeling old. 

Scott and Marc hop in the time machine to revisit 1985, when Michael J. Fox ruled the screen, Pepsi Free was a thing, and where’s our hoverboards? From the guitar-shredding Enchantment Under the Sea dance to Doc Brown’s wild-eyed inventions. Ronald Reagan?! Who’s the Sec of the Treasury? Jack Benny? 

We also hit on why Back to the Future still hits harder than most modern blockbusters—and what it says about the time-traveling optimism of the ‘80s.

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MTV didn’t just play music videos—it invented pop culture. From “Video Killed the Radio Star” to “The Real World,” we look back at the rise and inevitable collapse of MTV as YouTube and reality TV took over. In this episode of Free Nights and Weekends, Marc Boucher joins as we revisit the VJs, the early days, and the moment the music died—again.

*Update: a quick Google search tells me that I was spectacularly wrong about how long Peter Gabriel‘s Sledgehammer video took to produce. Turns out it didn’t take a year. But I was close. It was less than a week.

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Remember the Yugo — that infamous box of bolts from the 1980s Eastern Bloc? Turns out, it’s back. In this episode, Scott and Chase Cammack take a joyride through the history, the hype, and the horror stories of the world’s most mocked automobile. From Cold War car factories to Craigslist comeback attempts, we explore how the Yugo went from punchline to cult classic. It’s nostalgia, bad engineering, and Free Nights and Weekends “energy” — where even broken cars still have mileage.

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Original music provided by a few of the gentlemen of Supernal Endgame 

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Napster is in the news again. We didn't even know there was still a Napster! 

This week, Scott welcomes Rick Toops to the mic. They discuss how Napster revolutionized music sharing and just what even is a Napster. Or was.

Listen to Rick Toops here

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The beloved neighborhood electronic store, RadioShack is back! Well, it was back briefly. But not really. In this episode, Marc joins Scott for a discussion about this once ubiquitous American brand. 

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Original music provided by a few of the gentlemen of Supernal Endgame