History Podcast / EightiesAllOver

* TheSeventies: The two "test episodes" subsequently released as bonus episodes cover August and December of 1979 (including ''Film/ApocalypseNow'', ''Film/LifeOfBrian'', ''Film/NineteenFortyOne'', and ''Film/BeingThere''). In addition, it's pointed out that up through 1983, many films are reflecting '70s culture and priorities rather than those of TheEighties, with Drew calling November of '83's ''Film/Star80'' the last film of TheSeventies.

* DorkAge: [[invoked]] The Walt Disney Company spent most of the decade in a ''serious'' Dork Age and Drew and Scott examine how their identity crisis is reflected in the films they produced at the time.

** The middle-aged protagonists of many ''other'' comedies, particularly the [[RomanticComedy romances]] and/or "midlife crisis" farces. They're all white men prone to selfish, entitled libidos, usually well-off and married. They're bickering, harassing, dishonest, unprofessional, even lawbreaking -- yet get happy endings all the same. Creator/DudleyMoore (the lead in the film that kicked off the midlife crisis subgenre, ''Film/{{Ten}}'', in 1979) ended up playing '''a lot''' of these characters post-''Arthur''[[note]]the films discussed: ''Lovesick'', ''Romantic Comedy'', ''Best Defense'', ''Micki + Maude'', and -- due to {{Flanderization}} -- the title character in ''Arthur 2: On the Rocks''[[/note]], to the point that by ''Best Defense'' the hosts note that they ''like'' Moore himself and [[MeanCharacterNiceActor they don't want listeners to be confused and think he was a scumbag]]. Creator/BurtReynolds also did a run of these films[[note]]''Paternity'', ''Best Friends'', ''The Man Who Loved Women''[[/note]], and Creator/GeneWilder had ''The Woman in Red'' -- which Wilder '''wrote and directed''', making Drew wonder about what kind of a person Wilder must have been in real life.

* {{Corpsing}}: Drew and Scott's casual, generally upbeat discussions sometimes have them breaking into fits of laughter -- often when they're discussing particularly ridiculous horror movies (as in September 1981, when they discuss a bunch of them in a row).

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Occasionally the show covers a production that doesn't fit the stated criteria of a feature film that saw a U.S. theatrical release, either because it was ''supposed'' to see a release but was cancelled/couldn't find a distributor or had cultural significance in its own right.
** May 1981: ''Roar'' (Released overseas in '81; brought up by way of comparison to that month's ''Savage Harvest'', which is also about a family terrorized by lions...but not nearly as infamous)
** June 1983: ''Film/TheReturnOfCaptainInvincible'' (Not released in the U.S. because the distributor went belly-up '''one week''' before it was to open; previously discussed with screenwriter Steven E. de Souza in a bonus interview episode)
** November 1983: ''Film/TheDayAfter'' (The most famous TV movie of the decade; for bonus points it's compared and contrasted with ''Testament'', another post-nuclear holocaust drama which was made for television but sent to theaters the same month)
** December 1983: [[Music/{{Thriller}} "Thriller"]] (THE MusicVideo of the decade) '''and''' ''WesternAnimation/MickeysChristmasCarol'' (Disney animated featurette attached to a reissue of ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers''; first use of Mickey Mouse and company on the big screen in decades)
** September 1984: ''Nothing Lasts Forever'' (Cancelled by MGM/UA due to complex rights issues that have since allowed the film to air on Creator/TurnerClassicMovies but not be released on home media)
** The bonus episode on musicals noted they would cover ''Film/{{Moonwalker}}'' in 1988 although it did not see a U.S. theatrical release (the common explanation is that Music/MichaelJackson's people asked for too big a cut of the grosses, but Drew says it's because the studio didn't know how to sell it). This was another film that went unreviewed when the show was CutShort.
** One bonus episode from Spring 2018 has them review the then-new ''Film/ReadyPlayerOne'', which is heavily steeped in 1980s culture, and interview its co-writer Zak Penn.
** One of the November 2018 bonus episodes is about video games and their fraught relationship with film, particularly in the 1980s when the medium really took off.

** ''Film/TheFog''

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys:
** Scott says in the January 1981 that he personally believes the ''opposite'' of this trope applies to gorillas in 1980s comedies. He cites the film under discussion at the time, ''The Incredible Shrinking Woman'', and ''Film/TradingPlaces'' as examples of movies that suffer once a gorilla is brought on in Act Three.
** In their discussion of ''Going Ape!'' (April 1981), Drew wonders why orangutans became Hollywood's go-to funny animal for a few years at the turn of the 1980s. Did people just suddenly become aware of their existence in 1978? Later on, however, Scott admits that Creator/GeorgeARomero's ''Knightriders'' "really could use Creator/ClintEastwood and an orangutan."

* HypotheticalCasting: In the first Viewer Mailbag episode from August 2017, Drew and Scott find themselves wondering who would have played Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse characters had it launched in the 1980s. With the help of Twitter followers, their answers are:
** Iron Man: Creator/KurtRussell (Runners-up: Creator/TimothyDalton or Creator/BruceCampbell)
** Captain America: Creator/DennisQuaid
** Bruce Banner/The Incredible Hulk: Creator/JeffGoldblum / Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger (the Hulk would be TheSpeechless to get around Schwarzenegger's accent)[[note]]Goldblum was actually considered for Banner for 2003's ''Hulk'' movie and plays the Grandmaster in the actual MCU[[/note]]
** Thor: Creator/DolphLundgren
** Black Widow: Ellen Barkin (Runner-up: Creator/SigourneyWeaver[[note]]they saw her as too much of a leading lady for this ensemble part[[/note]])
** Hawkeye: Creator/BillPaxton
** Loki: Creator/EddieMurphy
** Black Panther: Creator/DenzelWashington
** The Winter Soldier: Creator/BruceWillis
** Vision: Creator/CrispinGlover (Runner-up: Creator/DavidBowie)
** Scarlet Witch: Creator/AnjelicaHuston
** Ant-Man: Creator/MichaelDouglas[[note]]Working off his playing Hank Pym in the actual MCU, of course[[/note]]
** Spider-Man: Creator/MichaelJFox
** [[AndStarring And Dabney Coleman as Agent Phil Coulson!]]

* WeirdAlEffect: [[invoked]] While discussing the film adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Betrayal}}'' (February 1983), Drew points out that their listeners may well be familiar with the ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' episode that parodies its BackToFront structure yet have never heard of the original work until now.

** Scott loves Creator/DudleyMoore's performance in ''Film/{{Arthur}}''...aside from ''that cackle''.

** The "demolition derby of [[TheAlcoholic charming drunks]]" that started with ''Film/{{Arthur}}'' and continued with ''Film/MyFavoriteYear'', ''Film/EducatingRita'', and ''Reuben, Reuben'' ([[OscarBait ALL FOUR]] saw their respective leads nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award over 1981-83. Note that the 1983 winner was Creator/RobertDuvall in ''Film/TenderMercies'', whose character is an alcoholic as the movie begins but soon starts cleaning his life up, thus not qualifing for this list).

* OnTheNext: Drew wraps up each episode by teasing several of the films that will be covered in the next one, but rarely if ever by titles. For example, June 1981 ends with "Next month guys, we've got [[Film/{{SOB}} Blake Edwards doing one of his strangest and most personal films]], we've got [[Film/{{Wolfen}} Albert Finney fighting... werewolves, sort of?]] We've got [[Film/TheDeclineOfWesternCivilization punk rock]], and [[Film/EscapeToVictory Pele playing soccer in World War II]] and we've got [[Film/BlowOut the best Brian De Palma movie]] and we've got [[Film/EscapeFromNewYork John Carpenter icons]] and [[Film/{{Arthur}} drunk British people]] and [[WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound Disney cartoons]] -- it's unbelievable!" Because the show was CutShort, the final regular episode teases the May 1985 episode even though it was ultimately never produced.

* SuddenDownerEnding: Discussed and spoofed in the December 1983 episode regarding ''Reuben, Reuben'', which has a much darker ending than they expected though it doesn't quite fit this trope (it's closer to ShootTheShaggyDog). Drew then imagines an alternate version of ''Film/{{Arthur}}'', which has a somewhat similar protagonist, in which the title character suddenly pulls out a gun and kills himself complete with gunshot sound effect. (Beat) [[MoodWhiplash Cue the chorus]] of [[AwardBaitSong "Arthur's Theme"]]!

** With both ''Film/{{Arthur}}'' and ''Film/RomancingTheStone'', they lament this trope applying to the films' respective screenwriters, Steve Gordon (second-time screenwriter/first-time director) and Diane Thomas (first-time screenwriter). Both were practically destined for other, bigger things based on those films' success but both died young, he of a heart attack in 1982, she in a car accident in late 1984. It doesn't help that both movies ended up getting notoriously poor sequels by other writers.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: While the format barely changed from its launch, up through August 1980 "boners" regarding release dates and missed movies that have to be caught up on were much more frequent than they were later, as Drew and Scott had trouble finding the relevant, correct information on such. (Only ''one'' of the movies featured in the January 1980 episode actually came out in January, as Drew realized later while doing further research for ''The Last '80s Book (You'll Ever Need)''.) This is partially because many of these films had gradual rollouts across the country (especially {{B Movie}}s) and thus multiple dates exist for when they opened in certain territories. Drew and Scott tried to stick to the earliest U.S. general release date possible. (This is why they don't cover 1981's ''Porky's'' until March 1982, when 20th Century Fox released it in the U.S. after its huge success in Canada. It was one of several Canadian or U.S. independent hits they snapped up for a wide U.S. release.) Also, the January 1980 episode has a slightly different OpeningNarration. There's a little more of this in the December 1979 test episode in that only a few of the movies covered are really ''discussed''; ''Film/ScavengerHunt1979'' and ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'' each get more time than ''Film/AllThatJazz'', for instance.

* NotSoDifferent: Drew points out in the June 1980 look at ''[[Film/TheLoveBug Herbie Goes Bananas]]'' that, given that the sentient Volkswagen Beetle helps its various male owners find romance and fortune in the preceding three films, "Herbie's basically Literature/{{Christine}}." (Cue "Bad to the Bone".)

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: While the format barely changed from its launch, up through August 1980 "boners" regarding release dates and missed movies that have to be caught up on were much more frequent than they were later, as Drew and Scott had trouble finding the relevant, correct information on such. This is partially because many of these films had gradual rollouts across the country (especially {{B Movie}}s) and thus multiple dates exist for when they opened in certain territories. Drew and Scott tried to stick to the earliest U.S. general release date possible. (This is why they don't cover 1981's ''Porky's'' until March 1982, when 20th Century Fox released it in the U.S. after its huge success in Canada. It was one of several Canadian or U.S. independent hits they snapped up for a wide U.S. release.) Also, the January 1980 episode has a slightly different OpeningNarration. There's a little more of this in the December 1979 test episode in that only a few of the movies covered are really ''discussed''; ''Film/ScavengerHunt1979'' and ''Film/CannibalHolocaust'' each get more time than ''Film/AllThatJazz'', for instance.

In June 2021 [=McWeeny=] not only announced that a book project created as a companion to this show, ''The Last '80s Book (You'll Ever Need)'' (featuring capsule reviews of all the films covered), was still in progress but also launched a Substack newsletter, ''The Last '80s Newsletter (You'll Ever Need)'', for interested patrons to follow that progress with, turning this podcast into a case of TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised as the book(s) will completely cover the 1980s.

Unfortunately, the scope and ambition of the show proved too much for Drew, Scott, and their producer to maintain along with their other jobs. What began as an 80-day hiatus in April 2019 was followed by the formal announcement of the show's cancellation come July, [[CutShort meaning it ended with the April 1985 episode rather than seeing the decade through to December 1989]]. All regular episodes remain available, and the bonus episodes have gradually been added since that September.

One of [=McWeeny=]'s current projects, ''The Last '80s Book (You'll Ever Need)'', began as a companion to this series featuring his capsule reviews of all the films covered. He intends to complete it, in which case the series will become a case of TheResolutionWillNotBeTelevised.

* FirstWorldProblems: By the time they got to ''Film/IrreconcilableDifferences'' in September 1984, Drew and Scott had '''completely''' lost patience with comedies involving the relationship travails of well-off white people (especially the men) in part because their central crises boiled down to these, resulting in characters that were extremely hard to emphasize with.

* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: [[invoked]] Discussed in April 1980. When Scott points out that ''Film/LoneWolfMcQuade'' seeded the ground for Creator/ChuckNorris's later TV vehicle ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ([=McQuade=] being a Ranger himself), Drew specifies that it's that show made by someone who took bad mescaline and then watched a bunch of {{Spaghetti Western}}s.

** The "demolition derby of [[TheAlcoholic charming drunks]]" that started with ''Film/{{Arthur}}'' and continued with ''Film/MyFavoriteYear'', ''Film/EducatingRita'', and ''Reuben, Reuben'' ([[OscarBait ALL FOUR]] saw their respective leads nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award over 1981-83).

Patreon supporters of the show accessed additional content. The $5-a-month donation level, "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Deezen Eddie Deezen]]", allowed access to bonus episodes aired in the weeks between regular episodes, which included interviews with performers from/creators of 1980s films, crossover discussions with hosts of other film-related podcasts, an overview of 1980s movie musicals, a retrospective of the "career" of AlanSmithee, viewer feedback and mailbag shows, full-length commentaries for favorite films, and more. The $10 level ("[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dabney_Coleman Dabney Coleman]]") added material from in-progress book companions to the show and $15 and up ("[[Film/{{Caddyshack}} Ty Webb]]") allowed access to video content featuring Drew and Scott.

* ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs: Discussed in April 1980. When Scott points out that ''Film/LoneWolfMcQuade'' seeded the ground for Creator/ChuckNorris's later TV vehicle ''Series/WalkerTexasRanger'' ([=McQuade=] being a Ranger himself), Drew specifies that it's that show made by someone who took bad mescaline and then watched a bunch of {{Spaghetti Western}}s.

* LimitedAnimation: Drew has little patience for theatrically-released animated features that fall into this trope, and is especially frustrated by the poorer-quality animation used to piece together the Looney Tunes ClipShow films. Unfortunately, for much of the decade (in particular, after the early wave of adults-only films through 1983 and before Creator/DonBluth's breakthrough to audiences with ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' and the Disney animation studio finally finding its footing again) this was about all that was produced for theatrically-released animated features, namely a wave of MerchandiseDriven films. Interestingly the first animated feature the show covered, ''WesternAnimation/BonVoyageCharlieBrown'' (May 1980), was not dinged for this trope, likely because it was just part and parcel of the ''Peanuts'' franchise by that point.

* DumpMonths: Then as now, January-February and August-September periods tend to have much weaker overall slates than the rest of the year, but Drew and Scott find that November is prone to weak lineups until 1983. They're also surprised to find that '''May''' was not a big deal in 1983 and '84. May '83 had only 11 then-new releases beyond ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''; with the highest-profile of those being ''Film/BlueThunder'' and ''Film/DoctorDetroit'', no less than '''four''' hits from the previous year (''Film/RockyIII'', ''Porky's'', ''Friday the 13th Part III'', and ''Film/{{Poltergeist}}'') were brought back as quickie reissues to keep the month from drowning in {{B Movie}}s. In the HalloweenEpisode, they ponder why so many of the most beloved horror movies were not released in October, and they chalk it up to that month traditionally being a dumping ground -- especially for ''bad'' horror movies. Occasionally they are pleasantly surprised by a good dump month, such as February 1985 (which had two standouts in ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' and ''Film/{{Witness}}'', plus some films Drew was really happy to revisit such as ''Film/IntoTheNight'').

** ''Used Cars''
** Also, Drew notes in the bonus episode featuring DVD producer/filmmaker Charles de Lauzirika that he and Charles worked on an ''official'' commentary for ''Film/TheFlyII'' in 2005 that was ultimately omitted from that film's DVD release. Drew chalks that up to "I think we told too many stories" (it had a troubled development/production).

* TheStinger: In addition to (or on top of) the traditional EveryEpisodeEnding, many episodes add this. It's usually either a soundbite from a favorite film covered in the episode or a TakeThat at a not-so-favorite film.

* TheStinger: In addition to (or on top of) the traditional EveryEpisodeEnding, some episodes add this. It's usually either a soundbite from a favorite film covered in the episode or a TakeThat at a not-so-favorite film.

** September 1980: Replay of Scott discussing ''The Exterminator'': "Let's drop a guy in a meatgrinder! Rah! (beat) Rah!"

** June 1982: Drew's...''profane'' goodbye to riders of [[Ride/UniversalStudios E.T. Adventure]] is replayed, followed by the closing seconds of the finale music from ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''

** January 1983: The sound effect of the rewinding tape is ''completely'' played through, followed by [[spoiler: Drew and Scott's review of ''Hell Night'' at last!]]
** February 1983: The screech of the pod people in ''Film/InvasionOfTheBodySnatchers1978'' (the payoff to a RunningGag in the episode; see above), followed by static and an intonation of "Film/{{Videodrome}}".
** July 1983: Replay of Drew moaning that one of the ingredients of ''Film/{{Krull}}'' is "Butt", with Scott patiently replying "No, not 'butt'..."

** January 1984: Replay of Drew mock-retching during the discussion of ''Surf II''

** January 1982: ''Death Valley'' has a character played by Peter Billingsley, inspiring Drew's introductory comment "[[Film/AChristmasStory Ralphie]] made a horror film"! Later, ''Film/{{Evilspeak}}'' has Drew lamenting "Bob from ''Series/ThatSeventiesShow'' should never be your bully!"

** Inverted with ''Threshold''. This hard sci-fi film about a fictional artificial heart's development and first implanting in a human was not released in the United States until March 1983, a few months after the implanting of the Jarvik-7 artificial heart into Barney Clark (who passed away the month of the film's release, in fact). But it was released in '''1981''' in Canada, so it actually predated that event, drawing upon the in-progress development of the Jarvik-7. Drew notes that the filmmakers must have been anxious that their movie would be dated before it even wrapped filming!

** January 1982: ''Death Valley'' has a character played by Peter Billingsley, inspiring Drew's introductory comment "[[Film/AChristmasStory Ralphie]] made a horror film"!

** January 1982: ''Death Valley'' has a character played by Peter Billingsley, inspiring Scott's introductory comment "[[Film/AChristmasStory Ralphie]] made a horror movie!"