The Enchanted Pot

Via SomethingWeirdDotCom

Ad Nauseum

The new T.V. ad for J. C Penney is a somewhat faithful recreation of The Breakfast Club, which begs the question,"Why?" The target demographic, high school kids, would have been -10 years old when this movie came out in theaters. Maybe it's an ad directed at the parents, because we all know teenagers will wear whatever their parents think is cool. And if it is directed at the parents, are they supposed to forget that it's a movie about social misfits that are trapped in detention? Is that what they want for their kids? Where's Principal Vernon? I'm so confused.

Static Cling

There was a time that TV stations did not continuously broadcast 24 hours a day. After the late news and the late shows, the station would sign off, as if to give it (and the viewer) a much needed break to rest and recharge for the next day of television viewing.



As a child, I got a real sense of achievement if I could stay awake until the conclusion of the broadcast day. It was if I had outlasted TV in some way. I would watch with a sense of pride the images of fighter jets superimposed over waving American flags as The Star Spangled Banner played. Then the song would end, the images would fade and the TV picture would abruptly cut to static. It would be then, bathed in the flickering glow of static, that I would realize exactly how late it was, how dark it was, and how completely alone I was. Suddenly, sneaking into the farthest room from my parents bedroom to watch TV didn't seem like such a great idea.

There is something inherently scary about static. Maybe it's the way static moves and sounds like insects that triggers some deeply buried cultural memory. Maybe static is scary because nothing good is associated with it. If you see or hear static you instantly know that something is wrong. The most famous, and in my opinion the best, use of static to set a scene is in POLTERGEIST (1982). When you see Carol Anne crawling towards the TV full of static you just know that no good can come from it.

The Boy In The Plastic Bubble (1976)

Sure, everyone remembers when John Travolta had his "breakthrough" in 1977 as the disco dancing swine Tony Manero in the classic flick "Saturday Night Fever."

But how many people realize 1976 was arguably, an ever bigger year for the "only Sweat Hog with a future" who had a very prominent role in the horror smash "Carrie," an abominable soft-rock hit single called "Let Her In." And, perhaps most distressing of all, was his decidely odd turn as Todd Lubitch--the lad who was born with an immune system deficiency--in the aggressively sucky television drama "The Boy in The Plastic Bubble."



In our feature presentation, Bubble Freak is kept in a germ free enclosure in his room in his parents' house and has no actual contact with other humans. Still, he's secretly popping a boner over the girl next door (as was I), Gina (the preternaturally adorable Glynnis O'Connor). Gina is a pot smoking, booze-sucking high school senior who--quite reasonably--thinks Todd is a complete turd.



But the casting of Todd's parents is the REAL story here! Former Brady Bunch dad Robert Reed is on hand to play Todd's permed father, and his mom was portrayed by Diana Hyland--who Travolta was supposedly dating, and who was fated to tragically drop dead from cancer the following year--saving her from an embarassing few years on "Eight is Enough" tolerating Willie Ames.



Amyway, this hellish load of horse manure of course lurches to a phoney "happy ending," as Travolta throws caution to the wind and bounds out into his yard looking to get his bad self down with the (by-now lovestruck) Gina. Everyone is grinning foolishly and all is well with the world.