In this TIme Capsule, we’re going to 1985 and the early days of cable. Back when HBO was the channel we all wanted, but not all of us had. CHeck out the full guide to HBO programming from August 1985, and see what shows and movies you would have been circling to watch!
Garfield in Paradise is a half-hour animated special that debuted in 1986. It was the fifth animated Garfield special and ran as a special presentation in primetime in the summers for a few years.
Now for me, no other Garfield special tops the Christmas one, but Garfield in Paradise was a close second for a very long time. It may still hold that spot. I’d have to sit and think on it for a bit to confirm that though. But since we are now in the heart of summer, I thought it would be a great time to watch it again. Here it is in all its glory for you to enjoy. But if you’d rather watch it on some large screen, I believe it’s available on Pluto TV.
Recently in the Watch & Listen category, I shared the episode of the TRN Drive-In Podcast focusing on the movie Ernest Goes to Camp. While listening to the episode myself, I heard either Adam or Wyatt mention a TV special called Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain.
Somehow, this Ernest offering had eluded me throughout my life, as I had never even heard of it before listening to the podcast. So I had to do a little research on this lost gem and see what it was all about. As it turns out, Ernest Goes to Splash Mountain was a special created by, and aired on The Disney Channel on July 7, 1989, as a way to promote their newest Disneyland attraction. It would later air in syndication beginning in August.
In the special, Ernest trains as America’s first “Splashtranaut” destined to become the very first person to conquer the mountain. Ralph Story, a veteran news anchor, and his team are determined to cover the momentous event from every angle possible.
I looked it up on YouTube, and it exists in its entirety, so I am presenting it here to you in case you’re like me and have never seen it before. Enjoy.
Here is yet another old pack of trading card that you can watch me open from my Wax Pack Flashback series on the TRNTV YouTube Channel.
In this video, I open a pack of Yo! MTV Raps cards from 1991. Yo! MTV Raps was a daily show that was on MTV every afternoon at the time featuring the best and latest rap videos of the era. These cards feature shots of many of the artists whose videos appeared on the show at the time. Legendary names like Run D.M.C, M.C. Hammer, Heavy D, and more.
So take a little stroll back in time and live vicariously through me as I open this old pack of cards!
One of the things I miss most about the past is just how much info used to come packed in an issue of TV Guide. In the ’90s, that thing became quite a thick publication that was filled with the nightly TV grids so you’d know what was on TV when, and cool ads for various shows and movies each night.
But as good as normal issues of TV Guide were, their best issue of the year was always their fall preview issues where they’d run down all of the new series debuting on network television that fall. Every year was sure to bring hits and misses, and going back through those old issues now is a real trip back in time.
With that in mind, I present this Time Capsule and all of the fall preview pages for the fall of 1984. There were some epic shows that debuted in 1984, plus a few not so epic ones too. Give the pages a look and remember what it was like flipping through a TV Guide fall preview back then.
