Remember That Decade: The Goldbergs Bring the 80's Back

     The Goldbergs is a unique family sitcom based on the real life of Adam F. Goldberg, who grew up in the 1980's outside of Philadelphia. Adam is the youngest of three kids, and he follows his family (a real cast of characters) with a video camera. You may recognize these types of people in your own family.  You may have been a kid in the 80's and relate to some of the very humorous story lines. You may even enjoy watching with your own family to be grateful they're not this neurotic. If you family is this neurotic, let's chat!

     The most recent episode pitted siblings Erica and Barry in a fight about a school dance, which Erica planned with a Dirty Dancing theme (which school administration and Mrs. Goldberg changed their mind about after thinking what qualifies as "dirty"). Barry insists he will show up at the dance dressed like Kevin Bacon from Footloose and encourages Erica to dance out her frustrations in an "angry dance" scene. In the end, Erica gets humiliated and then has her spotlight dance with Barry's friend Geoff, who is obsessively (Say Anything boombox-style) in love with her. In another recent episode, Adam also tries to sneak into the movies to see the R-rated Weekend at Bernie's, shocking his mother and making poppa Murray proud.

     In a third hilarious episode (Laney Loves Lionel), Barry decided to create a clay bust of his girlfriend Lainey for valentine's day in honor of her affection for the Lionel Ritchie song Hello. It does not end well as Barry has a short temper and very few artistic skills.   I love this show and it's made it three seasons full of amusing anecdotes and embarrassing coming-of-age stories, similar to the beloved early 90's classic, The Wonder Years. Older Adam (voiced by Patton Oswald) narrates the beginning of each episode and a video tape is inserted into the VCR to begin the story. Here are the reasons to watch and catch up.

Photo from the web. 

Murray- Dad (Jeff Garlin)
     Murray comes home from work and drops his pants, taking up residence on.the armchair. He loves football, watching football, his dog Lucky, and calling his kids morons.  He does not like to talk about mentions and you will rarely see him dance, but he's got a deep heart in there somewhere. He also has one friend, Bill.

Photo from Pintrest. 

Pops (Beverly's Dad) (George Segel)
     Pops lives nearby in a retirement community, but he hangs at the house on a regular basis. The kids get upset when pops buys a timeshare in Florida because he might not be around as much. Adam regularly declares Pops is his best friend, and pops dispenses advice to everyone, whether they are ready to hear it, or they are too stubborn. He attempts to bail Erica out of jail, despite not having a license. Most important, Pops agrees to go along with all of Adam's crazy ideas (filming an alternate ending to Transformers, auditioning for Double Dare, bringing two girls to the school dance).

Beverly - Mom (Wendy McLendon-Covey)

Photo from Pintrest.

     Adam's mother is often called a "smother" because she mothers to the umpteenth degree.  She calls all three kids schmoopie (or schmoops) and tries to get her "snuggles" in with each of them whenever possible. She does not want the kids to ever meet anyone they will love more than her, which can cause a lot of problems. She also scares the high school principal into getting her way often.

Photo from the web.

Erica - Sister (Hayley Orrantia)
     Adam's big sister Erica is 1980's cool. She wears crop tops, ripped lace and rocks a scrunchy like no other. She gets invited to cool parties with beer, sneaks out to go to concerts, sings in bands, tries to get out of her mom's clutches, and at the end of the day always has her brothers' backs. Beverly and Erica's conflict drives many of the stories, including one where Beverly  showed up at Erica's department store job to constantly use Erica's associate discount.. It's important to note, Adam Goldberg doesn't have a sister, he had two older brothers. But they would not have looked as good in a fringed jacket as she does. Erica's best friend Lainey (A.J. Michalka) is a close adopted member of the Goldberg family and slowly grows to love Barry, much to Erica's disgust.

Barry- Brother (Troy Gentile)

Photo courtesy of pintrest. 

Barry is the middle child and likes ka-ra-tae (and he is terrible at it). Barry is good at one thing and one thing only, a made-up game he and Adam play called "Ball Ball." When the school jock joins Barry's ball ball club at school, Barry is kicked out and competes in a series of events Adam sets up that only Barry could win at. Barry chases after his sister's friend Lainey for a good chunk of time before she finally gives in and begins dating him, although she is a quintessential cool girl and sometimes embarrassed by Barry' bold declaration of love (See Laniey Loves Lionel). When he has free time, Barry can be found trying to rap under the name "Big Tasty", break dancing, or hanging out in the WaWa parking lot with his friends, the JTP (Jenkinstown Posse).

Adam F. Goldberg (Sean Giambrone)

Photo from the web.

     Adam is a cute little middle school pipsqueak beginning puberty (or as Barry calls it, "The Pubening.") Adam carries a hefty video camera around to record his family's actions and to recreate his favorite movies, His best friend is pops, although he is also close with an elementary school pal Emmy, called Muscles Mirsky. Their clash over auditioning to Double Dare was priceless, as Adam got jealous of Emmy teaming up with the class jock, and he demands that pops be his partner. Pops is disgusted with picking through noses and kiddie pools of slime to find a flag and ultimately both kids lose out of the tryouts. The ultimate 80's fanboy, Adam is always found wearing shirts from his favorite movies, Star Wars, The Goonies, Tron and Transformers. Adam is the most willing to let mom indulge in her smothering, promising snuggies for small bits of freedom and dates with his first love, Dana, who moves away to Seattle.

13 Reasons I Love "13 Going on 30"

Eleven years ago, Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo starred in a romantic comedy* (kids this is a dying movie genre so you might not recognize it) called 13 Going on 30. For this movie, a young 13 year old Jenna Rink (in 1987) is having a tough time with a clique of frenemies that make the West Beverly girls look tame. They want her to turn her back on her best guy friend, Matty. With some magic glitter and a wish, she wakes up "thirty, flirty, and fabulous," and she is co-editor of a top women;s magazine with the same girl that she was trying to be friends with in middle school. Her life is pretty empty, and she heads home and reconnects with grown-up Matty... and so on. An important lesson is taught here that every choice you make as a kid can change your adult future.

Here are the 13 best things about the movie:

13. Razzles Candy
Razzles are basically pop rocks, something that gets into your mouth and makes a big sugary mess when combined with liquid. Jenna insists on getting some Razzles when she and Matty reunite as adults.

12. Bad Bestie (YOUNG) ALEXANDRA KYLE
Jenna's mean friend Tom-Tom (real name Lucy), also known in my circle of friends as "the girl that looks like little Helen Hunt", and Jenna herself (Christa B. Allen from Revenge), who is a dead ringer for Jennifer Garner. 



11. Bad Bestie (OLD) JUDY GREER
This girl has gotten so famous as playing the best friend, she wrote a book about it! (And I love her for it).  As a constant best friend/pain in other movies like (The Wedding Planner, 27 Dresses, Love and Other Drugs). Judy looks like she has resting-Beyotch face in almost every scene, even when she's happy.  She plays older Tom-Tom and says such memorable gems like: "Jenna, if you're gonna start lying about your age, I'd go with 27."


10. BRITISH BOSS
Jenna's boss is played by Gollum for Lord of the Rings. He is snippy, antsy, British, and you still can't stay mad at him. He's on the left!

9. THE THRILLER DANCE!
Naturally at an office party. Watch it here!

8. TINY DOLLHOUSE
Matty gives Jenna a home-built dollhouse with all the coolest things- MTV on the television, and that rough rockstar Rick Springfield.

7. Thirty, Flirty and Thriving
Jenna chants this phrase when she gets her magical transformation.


6. The Dude: MARK RUFFALO
I'm not sure I can even justify Ruffalo well enough. He plays the every man and the reluctant leading man to a T every time.

5. NY RANGERS
Jenna wakes up to find out she is dating a very sexy NY rangers player.

4. SLUMBER PARTY
Jenna invites a bunch of 13 year old girls over to her apartment to hang out and sing Pat Benatar songs. Their parents find no trouble with this arrangement.

3. FANTASY MAGAZINE PHOTO SHOOT
Jenna creates a fun non-model driven photo shoot for her magazine, securing a promotion some someone... (no spoilers).

2. The CLOSET
There will come a day when i can display all of my beautiful shoes on selves in a walk-in closet.

1. The Girl: JENNIFER GARNER
Because without her, this movie wouldn't be THIS movie. Her bubbly personality and innocent wonder make me long for the days when Ben Affleck was seeing another Jen.



* A romantic comedy is a story where two people (who usually don't know each other) meet in an embarrassing or cute way, fall in love (or deny it for a while until something changes their mind), fight, break up, and end up happily ever after (usually with some wedded bliss in sight). To see a more modern version of this, you can view Amy Schumer's Trainwreck as a rom-com in today's day and age.

A Love Note: Live From Daryl's house

Things I love:
80's music
live music
current artists doing their acoustic thing
recipes

Where I found it: Live from Daryl's House
Daryl, the Hall half of Hall and Oates, has been hosting a monthly web series for about 2 years, where he invites artists from Train to Oates to join him for some jam sessions, dinner, and conversation. The first epiosde I saw was a few months ago, where Hall hosted John Reznik from the Goo Goo Dolls, and I was in love. Nothing like GGD and Buffalo wings to win me over! Now the show is on TV. I caught episode 31 (there are 48 as of today) with guest rob Thomas of Matchbox 20. Through his engaging persona on Twitter, I have developed a massive friend crush on Rob T. Rob if you see this- let's hang out!!!!!!! So thanks to Hall! Let's let the good music keep rolling.

An 80's Flashback Note!

     I'm not even joking how timely this is: Perfect Strangers (the lovely 80s sitcom with lovable Bronson Pinchot as Cousin Balki, and the show that launched Family Matters (and later Urkel)) celebrates 25 years since its premiere. I just saw Cousin Larry (Mark Lynn-Baker) in the late 2010 movie "How Do You Know?"earlier tonight through rental). AOL offers a "Where are they now" and clips piece here. iTunes also recently offered first episodes of 80s sitcoms for free. An yes, I downloaded perfect strangers.I will post more when I finish watching. The other day I revisited the first episode of "Charles in Charge," and yes it was glorious.

     AOL also released "Greatest 80s Catchphrases," which I can only offer,"Watcha talking 'bout cowabunga did I do that?" But I think we were missing the classic Full House quotes "You've got it dude," "Haaaaave Merrrrrcy!" and "Cut it out."