Happy Holidays, one and all!

Barely getting in before the last holiday bell, in this episode of the podcast we bring you 7 holiday promotions from the 70s, 80s and 90s including the likes of Hardees, Taco Bell, McDonalds, Arbys and beyond!

If you've ever bought Grinch socks from a McDonalds drive-thru, this is the episode for you!

As always, check us out - RETRO SLEEPOVER on Facebook or email us, [email protected]

Welcome to the holiday season! In this bite-sized episode, a stocking stuffer, if you will, we will be looking at the origins and impact of various Christmas songs. The first song we are going to look at is "Last Christmas" by WHAM!

Don't worry -- this pint sized podcast will not cause you to lose WHAMAGEDDON, but it will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about "Last Christmas."

There is no better record of pop culture for any given year than than the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. It has been recording and producing relevant pop culture content for more than a hundred years. The 60th anniversary of the event was a truly iconic performance of the parade with nightmare inducing Chipettes, rogue Smurfs and a series of balloons with missing arms.

Join Ron Martin as he discusses the highlights of the 1986 parade including the music, the pop culture and the costumes.

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In the spirit of the season, we are looking bad 30 years at some pop culture turkeys to see if they have aged gracefully or still smell of rancid stuffing and grandma's famous canned cranberry sauce. In today's episode, Ron Martin will revisit video games, movies, tv shows and music that didn't quite go over well in it's time to see if it would be embraced better 30 years later.

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In this episode of the podcast, Ron with special guest, Jay of the Dead, celebrate Halloween by going all the way back to the 80s to celebrate Halloween 80s style discussing the events, school, the Halloween specials and costumes of a 1980s Halloween!

You can find Jay of the Dead at Jay of the Dead's New Horror Movies: https://www.newhorrormovies.com/

And at Horror Movie Weekly: https://horrormovieweekly.com/

In the lates 70s and through the 80s into the 90s, educational film companies were contracted to teach kids how to survive Halloween. Latchkey Gen Xers would often roam the streets barely being able to see what where they were going spilling their bag of peanuts all over the sidewalk!

A moral panic rose up surrounding the poisoning of candy making it important for adults to check the stash before kids ate.

Most importantly drivers were out gaining points for every kid they ran over on Halloween. Over 50% of cheesy Halloween PSAs are about kids trying not to get hit by cars.

Our first ever co-ed sleepover takes place with Channy Dreadful dropping by to give us a 90s kid perspective and catch some bonus coverage of a Disney Haunted Halloween and DTV: Monster Hits.

LINKS

1977 Halloween PSA: https://youtu.be/whc7IS94s1k?si=CPh4DDSDeiGgsFSG

1985 Halloween PSA: https://youtu.be/ZCi3zb8QFhE?si=_RsZuWQvEtUDLjCI

Disney's Haunted Halloween: https://youtu.be/V24qg3DdM-U?si=I5RD-DEiL2icLPzu

DTV: Monster Hits: https://youtu.be/WGV0Khe9Mjg?si=AI-iBiEr739iP2iS

In the years 1999 - 2001, pop culture was trying to find itself. Escaping the realism of the 90s into what would be fake reality of the 00s, a lot of projects were thrown at the wall to see what would stick. Freakylinks was one of those projects. The story of a paranormal invetigative team with a an accompanying website using the found footage genre as part of its draw was a new concept in 2000 (it would still be new today) - maybe too new. FOX executives sabotaged their X-Files replacement to the point where Freakylinks would become a freakylink in and of itself.

Join Ron Martin as he discusses the origins, the show, the interference, the downfall and what could have been on Freakylinks. He even discusses the show with fellow Freakylinks watcher, Gillman Joel.

Catch Ron and Gillman Joel over at Jay of the Dead's New Horror Movies: https://www.newhorrormovies.com/

Subscribe to Gillman Joel's youtube channel, Mom and Pop Video Shop: https://www.youtube.com/@momandpopvideoshop

In this episode of the podcast, we take a look at Monsters Attack! magazine - a short run horror magazine from 1989/1990. Monsters Attack! was a spinoff of Cracked magazine and an homage to the popular monster magazines and horror comics of the 1950s and 60s.

In this episode we discuss the inspirations from Monsters Attack!, horror hosts, the quick downfall of Monsters Attack!, what the magazine did well and what it could have done better. We even end up with a TOP FIVE best things about Monsters Attacks!

Included is a conversation with Gillman Joel, who sneaks into the sleepover to steal our grandma's stale Marlboro cigarettes!

You can find Gillman Joel and Ron Martin as two of the ten Horror Avengers on Jay of the Dead's New Horror movies: https://www.newhorrormovies.com/

You can see Gillman Joel in person on his youtube channel discusses horror and other classic movies, the Mom and Pop Video Shop: https://www.youtube.com/@momandpopvideoshop

For more information and to discuss the topic, please join the Retro Sleepover Facebook Page or email the podcast; [email protected]

From 1989 to 1999 the Disney company experience a measure of growth unlike any other time in its history. Executives Michael Eisner and Frank Wells dubbed the time period The Disney Decade and layed out their plans for the entire decade as far as theme park expansion, animated films, Disney experiences for the masses and other creative endeavors.

Unforseen challenges followed and its long been questioned whether or not the Disney Decade was successful. However, for those who grew up in the 90s, that decade of Disney products certainly spoke to them with the Disney Channel at its height, the them park expansion as well as the movies.

Join the discussion as we try to figure out if the decade was overall successful and maybe even talk with one of those 90s Disney kids!

Catch Ron Martin and Count Mackula discussing horror movies on Jay of the Dead's New Horror Movies - https://www.newhorrormovies.com/

In this episode of the podcast, we are going to travel back in time to a an era where McDonald's did not have the appearance of a place you could go in order to purchase a new iPhone. An era where there were employees standing at cash registers and apple pies were fried to a point that the top of your mouth would be shredded if you ate it.

In the late 70s/early 80s a birthday party at McDonalds was almost a status symbol. Cheeseburgers, playgrounds and all the orange drink you could hold! In this episode of RETRO SLEEPOVER, we revisit those birthday parties going through an itinerary of birthday party events, discussing McDonaldland and what ultimately became the downfall of birthday parties at McDonalds.

Memories of a McDonalds birthday? Comment below!