That said, here are six haunting 80s music videos.

6 – Ghostbusters

No music video is complete without a Chevy Chase cameo.

How could we have a list of haunting 80s music videos and not include Ghostbusters?  Whereas the movie is 80% comedy and 20% scary, the music video is the other way around.  Ray Parker Jr. seems to get off on creeping out a pajama clad woman in her house built of neon lights.  The special effects are cool, but the premise is a little on the awkward side.  I’ve never been able to shake the visual of Ray Parker Jr. doing his hand move while slowly walking down the stairs.

5 – When We Was Fab

One time I saw a violin this big.

I once saw a Pop-Up Video tidbit that claimed George Harrison didn’t like to move around much in his music videos.  As a solution, directors started making the world around him move.  George’s buddies Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, and even Elton John lend their appearance to this video with special effects beyond their time.  See if you can spot the John Lennon “cameo”.

4 – La Bamba

I wish county fairs were actually this exciting.

The video for “La Bamba” by Los Lobos was played in pretty heavy rotation when I was a kid.  I always interpreted the video as a dance party rave for ghosts.  Throughout the night, the band plays to a high energy crowd.  In the morning, clearly the band is only performing for the custodian.  Where did the audience go?  Ghosts.  That’s the only explanation you need.

3 – Take On Me

Which is better, this video or the end credits for Harry and the Hendersons?

Some videos get so artistic that it’s hard for me to decipher the message.  If I understand the video for “Take On Me” correctly, it’s about a woman who falls in love with a comic book character.  Later, he struggles to come to life to be with her while she has a mental breakdown.  So, it’s sort of like Cool World and The Little Mermaid?  Great song, strange video.

2 – Leave Me Alone

The teeth scene!!  Ahhh, the teeth scene!!!

Say what you will about Michael Jackson, you have to admit this video was a pretty gutsy way to acknowledge he knew the public thought he was weird.  Unfortunately, the weirdness of the video didn’t really help his case.  If some suppressed memories of chattering teeth tunnels and dog people surface while watching this video, you’re not alone.  There are plenty of creepy visuals throughout this four and a half minutes for everybody!

1 – Got My Mind Set On You

Birds can dance.  Who knew?

Leave it to George Harrison to end up with two videos on this list.  Once again, George preferred to sit this one out and let the world around out stage him.  I have memories of watching this on my floor model console television, immediately followed by an evening of nightmares.  The moving decorations on the wall feel like some mash-up of Applebee’s and Evil Dead 2.

Did we miss some of your favorite haunting 80s music videos?  Tell us about it in the comments below!

I’ll preface this by saying I’m not a fan of reality shows. I’ve never watched anything like Survivor, Real Housewives, The Bachelor—nothing. So when a co-worker mentioned that Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod were going to be on The Amazing Race Canada, I lost my shit. Well, I tried to keep it cool because I’m attempting to not get fired. #FUNemployment! How could I miss such big Canadian news?

No official list is out, but Amazing Race Canada participants made their way through the Kelowna International Airport in British Columbia last week and according to AM 1150 Kelowna News there were unconfirmed reports that Hal and Joanne were there and hell that’s good enough for me!

For those not in the know, accomplished athletes Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod hosted Body Break—quick 90-second clips between TV programs where they encouraged kids to keep fit and have fun, whether that was through playing sports or eating healthy (ideally both). This was made through the ParticipACTION non-profit organization that promoted a healthy lifestyle.

These shorts ran so often and were so engrained in our culture that even just saying “Body Break” to a Canadian gets them to immediately retort “with Hal Johnson and Joanne McLeod” and some humming along of the theme. In unison.

I always assumed that Hal and Joanne were married, but they only married in 1999 and had kept their relationship secret for well over a decade. Even at five years old I wasn’t fooled, but nice try, guys. According to this article “early TV execs felt that the 1988 public was not yet ready for an integrated relationship—40 agencies rejected the show, before the Canadian government picked up Body Break for its Participation promotions.” This is just insane to me. INSANE. I honestly never thought about it growing up besides a quick recognition in my brain that said “yeah, married. Moving on!” and to find out that they had to hide their relationship because they’re interracial? Come on, Canada!

At any rate, I’m super happy for Hal and Joanne and now I have to watch The Amazing Race Canada, which starts July 15 on CTV. Here’s to hoping those rumors are true!

Will you be watching The Amazing Race Canada? Who would you like to see Hal and Joanne go up against?

Here we are again with another League of Extraordinary Bloggers post! This week’s assignment—You are stranded for 10 years on a deserted island. You can take with you the following: one food item (in a never-ending supply), one movie, one game, and one pop culture character.

Since we’re largely the same person, we agreed on quite a few of these things right off the bat.

One food item (in a never-ending supply): Tacos

One movie: Back to the Future or Ghostbusters

One game: Sonic 1 or Monster Party

One pop culture character: Gandhi from Clone High

Who would you pick? Here are some posts from fellow League members about what they’d go with:

Retro Toy Safari is spot on with Chili Cheese Burritos and Tetris!

The 30is Year Old Boy’s picks include pizza and Batman. Sounds like a stellar first date to me!

Nerd Rage Against The Machine picks an excellent companion for his deserted island trek

Rediscover the 80s has an awesome lineup with Ghostbusters and Mr. T among others!

Diary of a Dorkette wins ultimate extra bonus points for her creative photos on this one!

Cool and Collected, home of The League, picks King Kong (didn’t see that coming…;)) and a Firehouse sub. Sandwiches are freaking fantastic!

Yesterday, it was announced on Rick’s official site that he’s releasing a new album, his first since 2005’s Agoraphobic Cowboy, but third solo album overall. Check out 1989’s You, Me, the Music and Me. You can also listen to his melodic voice and comedy stylings as Bob McKenzie on the 1981 album The Great White North Album and the 1983 Strange Brew Soundtrack. Rick’s new album, My Mother’s Brisket and Other Love Songs, will be available for pre-order on May 21, and you can bet I’ll be refreshing that website well into the night on May 20 to get me that pre-order.

But why do I love Rick Moranis so much? My penchant for nerdy guys in glasses is epitomized in Rick. This is a long-standing crush/appreciation of the man. I was faking sick in grade school so I could go home and watch SCTV reruns (this was in 1994-ish when SCTV was long gone and I was too young to get most of the jokes) and later constantly watching and re-watching Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves since that was the last movie he’d been in that wasn’t comprised of voice acting. He’s got a great voice, as we learned from watching Little Shop of Horrors and various SCTV sketches (Gerry Todd!) and his comedy is top-notch (Spaceballs, Strange Brew, Ghostbusters, and of course SCTV).

My love of Rick Moranis really peaked in high school when I discovered eBay and was able to stockpile lots of rare Rick Moranis stuff—mainly press kits and promo items, which sounds small time these days, but back in 1997, those things were hard to come by.

Moranis’ likeness even made its way into a couple of my school projects, namely these two sketches from 2000. My high school art teacher gave me a 17/20 on the Little Shop of Horrors picture, saying it needed “more graded value and variety (hair)”. I followed that up with an improved 18/20 score on my Splitting Heirs portrait with the comment “The hair is much better”. Oh, what my art teacher must have thought of me…

My giddiness at seeing Rick releasing a new album came at a time when I was beginning to think this whole “retirement” thing meant “retirement” and not “eh, I’ll still do some cool stuff.” All had been quiet on the Moranis front for years and while there were rumors that he’d return for Ghostbusters 3, there were just as many rumors saying he wasn’t—and I wasn’t getting my hopes up. After all, he hadn’t participated in any of the SCTV reunions nor had he voiced his character on the Bob & Doug cartoon (subjecting us to Dave Coulier). He seemed happy staying out of showbiz.

Whether or not he’ll appear in GB3 (if that does indeed happen) is still up in the air, but at least we have another great album from him on the horizon. And although Conan is now in L.A. and Rick in N.Y., hopefully he’ll make the trek out to appear on Conan’s TBS show because Rick and Conan are magic together. Fun fact: Conan is another Obsession of My Life, so I freaked out when that show aired (my favorite author Sarah Vowell followed Rick’s performance. Mind explosion). They also have the same birthday. I’m just going to stop now.

Are you excited for Rick’s return? Leave some Moranis memories in the comments so we can reminisce!

I was obsessed with movies when I was a wee lad.  Ghostbusters and Back to the Future were my absolute favorites.  When I found out they were each getting their own theme park treatments, my young brain couldn’t comprehend the situation.  At Universal, I would have the opportunity to participate in my favorite films.  All around the state, there were billboards featuring Doc Brown and Slimer.  I was totally immersed in a movie fantasy world.  Even today, the memories of this experience seems surreal to me.  I still feel as if the natural progression of every movie I like is to be drowned in advertisements for an amusement park version of the film.  Needless to say, I begged (and pleaded and begged and asked a few more times) and was granted a few lucky trips to the park growing up.

Theme park legends.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about just how amazing the Ghostbusters Spooktacular stage show was.  There was a giant prop version of the firehouse that served as the entrance to the attraction.  Can you imagine the thrill of standing in line behind the doors of the Ghostbusters headquarters?  That’s one line I never complained about waiting in!

Talk about immersion!

Eventually, guests were shuffled into what appeared to be a generic tour of a replica set from the infamous Gozer scene.  An unsuspecting host conveyed trivia about the movies while strange things began to happen on set.  Before too long, ghosts started to appear.  Let me rephrase that:  ghosts started to appear on stage at a live show.  Using glass and a complicated projector system, it seemed to the audience that ghosts were actually interacting with the cast.  Ironically, the cast wasn’t really interacting with the audience.  They were miming to a pre-recorded dialogue track, featuring Maurice LaMarche and possibly Dave Coulier, both of the animated series.

A condensed, though professionally produced, video of the show.

Taking the host by surprise, Gozer eventually showed up and zapped her with lightning.  Well, you can take a wild guess as to who arrived to save the day (hint: the Ghostbusters).  The boys showed up in full proton gear and blasted away Gozer, while facing a bigger problem in the form of a giant marshmallow mascot.

Ghostbusters Spooktacular had it all.  Not only was the set amazing, but there were lights and smoke and special effects… and did I mention live ghosts?  Because I really don’t think I can emphasize that enough.  There was one thing the show was missing, actually:  a good script.  The humor was a little too campy and never quite nailed the tone of the movies.  They later retooled the show to involve Louis Tully as the host and added an interactive pre-show element, which at least branded the experience a little more.

The Ghostbusters gift shop was equally mind meltingly awesome.

So, what became of this truly unique attraction?  Well, Universal didn’t promote this as much as the other attractions.  As a park-goer, I always had the impression they considered it a “lesser” part of the park.  Eventually, it was replaced by a mediocre Twister special effects show.  It hurt my feelings to walk past the firehouse and see remnants of Ghostbusters Spooktacular to enter Twister… Ride it Out.  Universal Studios Orlando has been doing away with classic attractions over the last few years, but somehow Twister… Ride it Out has managed to outlive anyone’s interest in the movie on which it is based.  Life remains a mystery.

Things like this show at another park just rub the salt in deeper.

As sort of a side note, I’ll never forget a letter I received from a penpal around the time Universal Studios Orlando opened.  He said he had an amazing first trip to the park and “went on everything except Ghostbusters and Nickelodeon Studios”.  Agh!  I hadn’t yet been to the park, so I was incredibly jealous he got to go and didn’t even bother to check out Ghostbusters Spooktacular.  Obviously, I still haven’t let this go over twenty years later.

Did you ever experience Ghostbusters Spooktacular?  Share your experience below!

Oh Sonic X-treme, you could have saved the Sonic franchise, yet sadly you were cancelled and never to be. Unless—wait, what’s this upon the thrift store bookshelf? Sonic X-treme paperback? Ah, smells like the 90s.

Sonic X-treme, of course, is the long ago cancelled and forever lusted after Sonic game for the Saturn. Lots of lore exists online, so I’ll leave that up to your own research abilities for now. While the Sonic X-treme video game was never finished, I guess Sega had some merchandise and promotion so ready to go that they just went with it anyway—a Christmas cartoon special titled “An X-Tremely Sonic Christmas” (later renamed to Sonic Christmas Blast), Sonic X-treme ice cream bars, and now the Sonic X-treme paperback novel.

Written by Michael Teitelbaum and published by Troll in 1997, Sonic X-treme follows Sonic as he tries to save Bunnie from the Swatbots and Dr. Robotnik. The book pits Sonic and Robotnik in an X-treme sports battle—“Sonic knows he’s better than Robotnik at Bungee jumping, rocking climbing, and surfing. But Robotnik has some tricks up his sleeve.”

And now for the big, sad, spoiler—the book has nothing to do with the game we’d been waiting for. By 1997, X-treme was toast. I’m assuming Sega and Troll already had this book in progress and instead of losing all the work, just cleaned it up and removed any actual Saturn X-treme mentions. It’s a sad reality, but still a cool thrift store find.

Not all is lost—the illustrations are pretty amazing:

Sonic stays stylish and safe with his hedgehog bike helmet.

Dr. Robotnik bungee jumps. What even.

Soccer is X-TREEEEEME!

No worries, just Sonic headed back to space.

To go along with this, I found another Sonic paperback penned by Michael Teitelbaum in my collection: Sonic the Hedgehog: Fortress of Fear, also from Troll. This one was published in 1996.

Were there more Sonic X-treme books? None that were actually released. But, I’d love to live in a world where I could fire up my Sega Saturn, play Sonic X-treme, eat a Sonic X-treme ice cream, and unwind with a Sonic X-treme book.

Were you looking forward to Sonic X-treme? Leave us a comment and let us know!

In the film, young Kevin McCallister beholds a magical recording device toy known as the Talk Boy.  Aside from being one of the coolest movie props ever, it’s used as a plot device several times throughout the story.  Early on, Kevin sneaks into the bathroom while his uncle Frank is singing wildly in the shower.   After Kevin’s presence is discovered, Uncle Frank offers some pretty serious threats, sending the lad running off in fear.  The groove tunes don’t stop there, as the karaoke fun picks up right where it left off in Uncle Frank’s shower.

Sometimes, it gives me a chuckle.  Other times, I get angry that I’m thinking about Home Alone again while washing my hair.  The rest of the time, I’m just sad knowing that my destiny if forever plagued by memories of Uncle Frank’s voice.  Honestly, I think the thing that upsets me most is the second movie is nowhere near as good as the first.  Creepy shovel man beats pigeon lady, no question.

Now, get out of here you nosy little pervert or I’m gonna slap you silly!

Did Home Alone 2: Lost in New York ruin your life?  Share below!

We thought of all the obvious answers, such as the Ghostbusters headquarters or the Jetson’s home.  We made sure to steer clear of anything worth avoiding, such as the Poltergeist house or anywhere Urkel or Skippy might show up unannounced.  Ultimately, we each settled on the following…

Linz: Barbie’s Townhouse

This was a difficult decision, but when it came down to it, I had to go with Barbie’s Townhouse as my pop culture residence of choice.

Oh that lovely decor!

I was big into Barbie when I was little. I probably had 50 dolls and a ton of the Living Pretty furniture (the first Christmas I remember, I asked Santa for a Barbie bed. Not a Barbie-branded bed for me, but a bed for my Barbie so she could sleep well at night), the airplane and the motor home, but for years I didn’t have any actual house for Barbie. My dad would build houses out of cardboard boxes for me, and that actually worked really well. We’d even decorate them with catalog clippings so they were “carpeted” and had windows and all that.

Those columns were a big deal (and something my dad was so pleased about putting together).

Later on, my dad’s friend gave him a Barbie Townhouse that his daughter no longer used. I was crazy excited for one reason: Barbie now had an elevator! No stairs for this long-legged bitch, no. She could leisurely travel up three flights by hopping on an elevator. My house had three floors, and I had to use the stairs. What the hell is that all about?

My Barbie’s Townhouse was slightly more “modern” but even then… yikes.

Barbie was pretty happy with the elevator (mine was white, I think it was the 80s version) and even more so with those white pillars, which I imagined were white marble columns. We definitely didn’t have those kickin’ around.

In closing, if I could shrink down to 11.5” size and bang my Luke Perry doll, I’d be all over the Barbie Townhouse.

Lee: House on Haunted Hill

That’s a cheerful picture.

You read my choice and are wondering why on Earth I would want to stay overnight in a haunted house?  Because a stay in that creep hole is worth ten thousand big ones.  In the film, horror icon Vincent Price invites a host of people over and promises to write checks to anyone who doesn’t run away screaming at the sight of his fake skeletons.  Spending the evening being entertained by Vincent Price and earning ten grand?  Geez, I should be paying him for the privilege!

Pretty sure I could’ve outrun him!

Anyway, I’m pretty convinced that I could have made it through the night as long as I didn’t have to memorize the plethora of other guest’s names.  I’ve seen enough episodes of the Twilight Zone and the Real Ghostbusters to know how to handle myself against bad props and ridiculous ghouls.  Honestly, I probably would’ve figured out it was Vincent Price behind the scares pretty early on during my stay.  Between the two of us, the night probably would’ve gone from scary to wacky as we shoved bananas in car tailpipes like it was some bad scene out of Beverly Hills Cop.

I have the same recurring dream.

Go ahead, laugh at my choice of pop culture houses I could stay at for the night.  I’ll be the one laughing all the way to the bank with a big pile of Benjamins, holding my autographed 8×10 photo of Vincent Price.

So where did other members of the League want to go?

Vikki Verka wants to spend some time in Darla Dimple’s extravagant home from Cats Don’t Dance

Rediscover the 80s would love to spend a night in the ‘Burbs

Achievements in Gaming is keen on a sleepover with Dog the Bounty Hunter & Beth

The Vault of 3D Schlpts thinks 1313 Mockingbird Lane is the place to be!

Diary of a Dorkette would like to go to Llanview from One Life to Live. Today I learned that Llanview had a secret underground city called Eterna. Why was I wasting my time on General Hospital?!

Retro Toy Safari would spend a night at the Addams’ Family Residence

Cold Slither Podcast wants to visit The Stratton Mansion from Silver Spoons

3B’s Toy Hive picks a spaceship! Aw yeah!

The year is now, the place is your day job, and you just uttered one of your regularly used catch phrases for the thousandth time.  You’ve been using this phrase so often for the last two decades that you don’t even realize it’s a reference to a Nickelodeon show from your past.  Sometimes, the phrase is actually relevant, but other times it makes no sense in the context of anything.

Here are six Nickelodeon catch phrases you still use.

6 – [blank] day is a very dangerous day

Why is Rocko always fighting appliances?

It doesn’t really matter what chore it is, as you could be ironing your socks or cleaning the garage when you hurt yourself mildly.  After taking a breather and assessing the situation, between the swearing, you mutter under your breath that “[insert chore here] day is a very dangerous day”.  Thanks for that one, Rocko.

5 – I Heeeeaaaard That

Who do you think is in the burgers?

Remember Nickelodeon’s obsession with green slime?  Well, it all started on a show called You Can’t Do That on Television.  It was one of my personal favorites growing up, but it seems the show has fallen into obscurity outside of Alanis Morissette trivia questions.  Even though you only vaguely remember the show now that I mention it, you realize you still say “I heeeeaaaard that” with a strange inflection every time you overhear someone speaking ill of you.

4 – No Mister, Accent on the “Do”

Why didn’t anyone ever report this magic shop to the Better Business Bureau?

It’s a Friday, you have a coupon for your sandwich, and the clerk at Schlotzky’s asks what bread you would like.  Of course, you tell them sourdough because it’s the best bread they have.  Immediately after placing your order, a little voice whispers in the back of your mind, “No mister, accent on the ‘do’”.  The clerk flashes you a puzzled look after you merrily let out a “tee hee!”

3 – Next time, Gadget

Meeeeeooooowwww!

You are proud of yourself for accomplishing one of the most boring adult tasks of all time: late night grocery shopping.  As you pull the cans and boxes from your cart and toss them on a dirty conveyor belt, you run through your mental shopping list one more time.  Soda, yep.  Cheese crackers, got ‘em.  You exchange money, grab your bags, and head toward the vestibule.  An unspecified amount of time later, you pull in your driveway and that’s when it hits you.  Beans… nope.  Don’t worry, you’ll get them next time, Gadget… next time!!!

2 – Simmer Down

They brought the Stick back.

After your grocery store trip puts you in a fit of rage, you chant the mantra that helped you make it through high school, your first day of work, two failed marriages, and an anger-management support group: simmer down.  It must be comforting to know that a Popsicle stick offered the best advice of your life.

1 – Strongest man… in the world!

If only I could motivate myself to exercise like this on a daily basis.

Admit it, each time you take out the trash you feel like a superhero.  Not only did you magically create clean in your kitchen, but you were also able to lift some really heavy garbage!  Go ahead and continue proclaiming “Strongest man… in the world!” when you lift anything in the air.  No, really, it’s okay to compare yourself to Artie, Little Pete’s personal super hero… twenty years later.

Honorable Mention – Skeeter’s Honk

Why did he do this?

You know you have that one friend who still honks at the end of each sentence.

Did we miss some of your favorite Nickelodeon catch phrases?  Tell us about it in the comments below!

My geekdom goes so deep that I don’t realize what’s common knowledge and what’s not about pop culture trivia.  Did you know Chuck E. Cheese was having financial trouble, so Showbiz Pizza bought them out and decided to re-brand every restaurant to the Chuck E. Cheese marketing?  Or is that too dorky to know?  Either way, it’s true and I hadn’t experienced either since the changeover.

I assumed the robotic band would still exist in some form, but not at the particular location I visited.  Instead, the “party room” had a few tiny TV screens with music videos.  One of them was playing this song…

Thanks to the magic of the Internet, this can now be stuck in your head for twelve years!  You’re welcome.

FYI:  This is what Chuck E. Cheese is now…

Your 80s childhood: it’s officially over.