Introduction

I was born in 1978. Which made the early to mid 1980's my formidable years. A good portion of this time was spent sitting (probably Indian-style) in front of the old mahogany cabinet-style television in our living room (or family room, anyone know the difference?). It was there that countless movies passed through my mind and left their mark in some way, shape or form. HBO was a godsend for kids in the 80's, this was before all the parental controls you have for cable and satellite today. Back then at any given time of day, rated R movies were shown which exposed us to questionable scenes of violence, nudity and bad language. The only parental control we knew of was after said scene, Mom or Dad would get up, utter those classic words: "you shouldn't be watching this" and change the channel. But by then the damage was done. Believe me, the scars are still healing to this day. Here is the intro HBO played immediately before a feature started. Watching it at night always gave me chills for some reason. The early to mid 1980's was the golden age of the "family film" with countless studios producing quality pictures aimed at a new and prophitable demographic. Star Wars and E.T. paved the way for these films and as the decade rolled on the flood gates were opened. These films tapped into our collective imaginations using themes of science fiction and fantasy and challenged us with valuable lessons about life. This blog is a chronicle of the films that I remember watching during that time period that had some impact on me, to the point where they still linger somewhere in the deep recesses of my memory. I will post them as they come to mind, some may take days, weeks or months to dig up. Most of these films still hold up very well today (aside from the godawful dated soundtracks) and are worth checking out even just for nostalgic purposes. It is worth noting that a good number of these films are still unavailable on DVD, and while the original VHS copy can get fairly pricey on ebay, there are other ways to get access to them. Youtube is now posting some of them (in sections or as a whole) and for diehard fans, there may be a VHS copy lurking at your local library or Goodwill store.