Tag Archives: Nostalgia Nugget

Christmas Comes to Willow Creek

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In today’s Retro Ramblings, I’m supplying you with a full-length Christmas movie to watch. It’s a made-for-TV Christmas movie from 1987. And it stars Bo and Luke Duke (well, the actors anyway) driving a big rig full of presents to Alaska. Can you think of any Christmas movie that sounds cooler than this? Well, with the exception of Rocky IV.

Somehow I went almost all of my life without knowledge of this movie’s existence. Then a couple of years ago I was browsing through a TV Guide from 1987 and saw an ad for it. That ad stopped me in my tracks. I immediately went on a hunt for the movie. IT wasn’t on YouTube or any streaming service, and I couldn’t even rent it from Amazon. So I turned to some pirate services and I found it. They say the best things in life are worth waiting for, and in this case, they may be right. I thoroughly enjoyed it when I finally got to watch it.

Here is the synopsis from Google:

Two feuding brothers and one’s teenage son spend four days in an 18-wheeler taking toys from California all the way to Alaska, facing blizzards and their own complicated history together.

Looking at the time this came out, it seems logical that this was the first project that either John Schneider or Tom Wopat worked on after wrapping up their hit TV series The Dukes of Hazzard. And it caught both of them at a great time. The dynamic of their characters in this is unique. While Tom Wopat’s character seems very much in line with his Luke Duke character, John Schneider’s character is a 180 degree flip from Bo Duke…at least at the beginning of the film. But that just adds to the allure of this movie. It may seem cheesy at times, but at the end of the day, I was certainly glad I discovered it and it has worked its way into my Christmas movie rotation. Not quite on a yearly basis yet, but every other year.

I thought I would share this with you this year in case you’ve never heard of it, or have heard of it but didn’t know how available it was now. So when you have some time on your hands this holiday season, give it a watch.

A Christmas Story Ad from 1992

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TBS was one of my favorite TV channels in the late ’80s and the early ’90s, so I like to go back in time and talk about the things that made me love it so much.

A Christmas Story hasn’t always aired as a 24-hour marathon on Christmas on TBS.  That tradition didn’t begin until 1997.  Before that though, TBS did show the movie at various times throughout the holiday season.  The ad pictured above is from 1992 and was from the time that TBS was running the TBS Award Theater movie most days at 10:35 am.  The criteria for the award feature was pretty simple I think, in that as long as a movie had won any kind of award, that was all the excuse they needed to run a movie in that block.  

This ad in particular is one I come across advertising a TBS Award Theater showing of A Christmas Story from an issue of TV Guide from the week of Christmas in December of 1992. I can’t remember the date of the showing though, because I didn’t think to write it down or keep up with it, but it was almost certainly on a weekday. Being out of school on Christmas break that week every year means that I may have very well watched this exact airing in 1992.

The as is a good one as it features Ralphie in his cowboy get up from his dream sequence of ridding the neighborhood of Black Bart and his gang with his trusty Red Ryder B.B. Gun. While I’m a huge fan of the thought of this movie airing in its now traditional 24-hour marathon on Christmas Eve, I also like the idea of it being destination viewing on random days in the month of December.

And if you’re someone who likes the movie and/or the marathon (and I know you are), then check out my friend Jeff’s feature A Brief History of the “24 Hours of A Christmas Story” Marathon over at The Retro Network!

1985 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

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If you’re like me, you just can’t get into the modern Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. While parades, in general, are still very much entertaining, the modern parade features way too much current pop culture for my tastes. I prefer my pop culture to be the ’80s and/or ’90s centric. So I’m presenting you with an alternative to today’s parade with this full video of the 1985 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This way you can still enjoy a parade, and at the same time take a walk down memory lane.

Wax Pack Flashback: Fright Flicks Cards (1988)

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Last year, I did a series of Wax Pack Flashback videos for The Retro Network that focused on “spooky” or Halloween-themed cards. I’m re-rolling these episodes here on Retro Ramblings for the Halloween season, and this week I’m highlighting the Fright Flicks cards from 1988. Watch me open this pack and see what treasures have laid hidden inside for over 30 years!

Wax Pack Flashback: Skeleton Warriors Cards (1995)

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Last year, I did a series of Wax Pack Flashback videos for The Retro Network that focused on “spooky” or Halloween-themed cards. I’m re-rolling these episodes here on Retro Ramblings for the rest of the month, and this week I’m highlighting the Skeleton Warriors cards from 1995. Watch me open this pack and see what treasures have laid hidden inside for almost 30 years!