January 15, 2003

Show totally tubular guilty pleasure

By GARRET LEIVA
Herald editor

      Life is full of guilty pleasures: singing in the shower, reading the National Enquirer in the checkout lane and Red Dye # 2 junk food.
      Recently, I discovered something more sinful than high fructose corn syrup: a television show dedicated to the 1980s. Unfortunately, it is more addicting than Reese's Pieces.
      All things pop culture are celebrated in VH1's I Love the '80s, a television miniseries that examines the good, the bad and the totally bogus. Each episode is a stream-of-consciousness tour of the Eighties with vivid flashbacks of the people, music, movies, TV shows, fashion, fads and major events that defined pop culture that year. The result is an offbeat nostalgia trip through the decade of greed.
      Painful as it sounds, it is like watching a rerun of my awkward teenage years.
      I stumbled upon this show while channel surfing one night and I've been suffering from retro reflux ever since. It doesn't help that '80s TV characters like Mr. T and Alf hawk present day 10-10-220 long distance service during commercial breaks.
      For many people, the 1980s invoke memories of AIDS, Iran-Contra and the end of the Cold War. As a 10-year-old approaching teen angst, I remember the other '80s - Atari, Rubik's Cube and break-dancing. I also recall dutifully chanting "I want my MTV" until a behemoth satellite dish appeared in our backyard.
      Amazingly, I've found a show of kindred spirits who had their belief systems shattered when Darth Vadar uttered those fateful words, "I'm your father."
      Author Elbert Hubbard said yesterday is the tomorrow that got away. However, past regrets have a way of becoming marketable nostalgia after a few passing decades. Like sticking your tongue to a flag pole in January, I know better than to watch this show. Dark recesses of my mind have awoke; yesterday I caught myself singing The Great American Hero theme song.
      Frankly it is odd that I'm enraptured with a show in love with a decade of life I often despised.
      I wasn't allowed to wear a mullet or parachute pants. Worst of all, I had a bad case of Pac Man fever and no Atari console cure. Thankfully, my friend Matt had every game from Asteroids to Warlords - until he ditched it all for Intellivision. He also carries the horrible memory of owning a Members Only jacket.
      Of course not everything was fun and games. Growing up in a tumultuous Cold War time, I would lie awake at night and wonder if you could really start Global Thermonuclear War with a crummy TRS-80 computer.
      Thankfully time has a way of healing all wounds, even senior photo Flock of Seagulls haircuts. Today I relish these hour-long trips down memory lane courtesy of Sonny Crockett's Lamborghini, the General Lee or the A-Team van. Despite my better '00 judgment, I Love the '80s, too.
      Perhaps I should tape a few episodes for pop culture posterity sake. After all, Ella might want to know about the good old 1980s - even if it is junk food for thought. I might, however, first have to explain to her what a video tape is. Like, totally.
      Grand Traverse Herald editor Garret Leiva can be reached at 933-1416 or e-mail gleiva@gtherald.com