Nostalgic G

Straight out of 1989's "All New Double Dare Game Book" we present a collection of facts and trivia regarding the making of the greatest game show in the history of television. - Marc, Harvey, and the producers of Double Dare have all run through the obstacle course. According to producer, Mike Klinghoffer, the Gumball Machine is the most fun. - When the first episode of Double Dare was made they had to stop and start the obstacle course four times. Multiple problems included contestants not being able to find the flag since Marc Summers thought the producers had put the flag in the obstacle, and the producers thought Marc had done it, so there was no flag. When they restarted after putting the flag a cameraman got in the way , and the kids ran into him. - Some obstacles are designed, but never make it to the show. For example, they tried to do an obstacle called the barber chair. The idea was, you'd pump yourself up high in the chair until you were high enough to rea...

We are only 10 days away from the official start of Halloween season here at the Nostalgia Factory. We will be celebrating the season with our 2008 countdown aptly titled: "It's the great Halloween countdown, Charlie Brown". Join us every night as we cover anything and everything Halloween. I'll be sharing some classic Halloween memories along with articles about some of my favorite Halloween related TV specials, movies, toys, books, and candy. Don't miss out!!!

It's 11:00 PM on Saturday night...this can only mean one thing. Time for USA's Up All Night. Unfortunately the show has been off the air for ten long years now. Back in the late 80s to the mid 90s "Up All Night" exposed my pre-teenage mind to such cult cinema classics as "Return of the Killer Tomatoes", "The Toxic Avenger", "Class of Nuke 'Em High", "Bikini Car Wash Company", and "Bufford's Beach Bunnies". The show was hosted by the one and only Gilbert Gottfried, one of my all time favorite comics. The combination of Gottfried plus all the campy B-movies aired on the show made for a perfect Saturday night recipe. On Friday nights the show was hosted by Rhonda Shear, who replaced Caroline Schlitt after the show's first two years. Rhonda annoyed the piss out of me, more than Gilbert's voice ever could. Gilbert was soothing compared to Rhonda in my opinion. The show first aired on June 6, 1986 and was fin...

The greatest daredevil of them all: Super Dave Osbourne just made another appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" this week with a hilarious video clip of his recent appearance at the democratic convention. This is one of the funniest skits I've seen on Kimmel in some time so check it out: The Super one also mentioned during the interview how there's a chance he'll return with another show of his own in the near future. It's been a long time since his last show; USA's "Super Dave Vegas Spectacular" back in 1995. In the meantime you can catch him as Marty Funkhouser during the new season of HBO's "Curb your enthusiasm" next spring. And stay tuned for our retrospective article on Super Dave coming soon.

Anyone who grew up with classic Nickelodeon programming during the 80s is very familiar with slime. It was, and still is one of the key elements of the Nick brand. Many of us will never forget our first introduction to the substance during Nick's "You Can't do that on Television". The show was a Canadian production which got picked up for US broadcasts by Nickelodeon during the early days of the network. When someone said "I don't know", green slime would pour on them from above. This became known as being "slimed." The first time in which "I don't know" was used as a trigger phrase for the green slime was one of the local episodes seen only in Canada and broadcast on March 17, 1979 - fittingly, St. Patrick's Day For many years, the slime consisted of a mixture of lime green gelatin powder and flour; eventually, oatmeal was added to the recipe, as was baby shampoo so that it would wash out of the actors' hair more easily. ...

Growing up in the 80's one of the staples of Sunday evening was "The Wonderful World of Disney". Every week we'd get an original kid friendly film or a network premiere of receent Disney theatrical releases. One of the most enjoyable and fun filled TV movies to come out of this line up was "The B.R.A.T. Patrol". The film follows a group of adventure seeking kids living with their parents at a military base who discover a plot by a rotten officer to steal and sell military equipment. The brats tend to get into so much trouble that as soon as they tell their parents about their discovery no one really believes them, leaving them no choice but to take matters into their own hands and stop the criminal operation. The film stars Sean Astin, and Nia Long in some of their earliest roles. Surprisingly the film was writeen by Chris Carter, who would go on to create The X-Files. This was the kind of movie that after watching made you want to play out the scenarios in ...

This past weekend multiple T.V. stations across the country aired the final episode of "Ebert and Roeper at the movies", formerly "Siskel and Ebert at the movies". Even though Ebert was not able to join in for the finale, Roeper closed the show by announcing that this was in fact his final episode, and that the same went for Ebert too. Ebert had a great entry on his Journal at the Chicago Sun Times website where he went on to reminisce about the 3 decades on the air as well as assure his fans that the thumbs will return. The weekend of September 6 will mark the beginning of the show's 23rd season on the air. It will also mark a new beginning for the show when hosts Ben Lyons and Ben Mankiewicz take over the seats previously occupied by our beloved critics. Not many of us are looking forward to this and would have preferred for Buena Vista to simply cancel "At the Movies" instead of changing it and handing it off to the newcomers. Why not come up with a...

Joe Dante was one of the greatest director's of the 80's. He's still great, just check out his recent episode of Masters of Horror titled "Homecoming". Back in the 80's he gave us such treats as "Gremlins", "Innerspace", and "The 'Burbs"-- some of the most imaginative movies of the decade. In the 90's he continued his career with such hits as Gremlins 2 and also directed one of the must underrated movies of the decade: "Small Soldiers". Dante grew up on the thrills of sci fi and horror movie matinees and has now turned his attention to putting together a very cool website called "Trailers from Hell". On the site the director, as well as other luminaries such as John Landis and Rick Baker share their encyclopedic knowledge on some of the crappiest movies ever filmed through commentary tracks which accompany each trailer. You can also choose to watch the trailers without the commentary. Show some support...

In 1978 director John DeBello and his friends unleashed the cult comedy classic "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". The film was a cheap semi-homemade horror movie spoof that chronicles the chaos and mayhem humanity had to endure during The Great Tomato War. Ten years later during the summer of 1988 "Return of the Killer Tomatoes" made it onto a couple of screens across the country and the world would never be the same. I first caught this masterpiece of 80s cinema on cable TV as part of "USA Up All Night", USA network's block of cheapo horror and skin comedies hosted by the one and only Gilbert Gottfried. As I watched this film I was completely fascinated by its absurd blend of comedy and B-movie elements. I popped in a tape into the VCR and recorded the rest of the flick. Days later I ran to my local video store to find this piece of insane crap that had just rocked my world. I rented it multiple times that year. As the film opens a decade has passed si...

One of the great sub genres of 80's teen flicks was the teen genius movie. In a multitude of films released during the decade we were introduced to a series of kids who could outwit any parent, teacher, and government agency with their smarts, last minute ideas, and clever (if perhaps doubtful) use of technology. Many of these films such as "Real Genius" and "Weird Science" used the concept for laughs, but few of them managed to use the dynamics of this genre for compelling story telling. Two of the smartest and most successful examples of this genre are the lesser known "The Manhattan Project" and the classic "WarGames". "WarGames" benefits immensely from the great dynamic and charm between its two teen heroes: David, played by Matthew Broderick, and Jennifer, played by Ally Sheedy. Roger Ebert even hailed the film as one of the best movies of the year during its original theatrical release in 1983. The impressive supporting cast i...