Remember Chunk?
I actually wrote this Saturday afternoon, saved it, then forgot about it.
I rarely ever blog during the day, I’m usually too busy or I simply can’t be bothered. But today is different; today I’m Ryan the Babysitter or Uncle Ryan “king of the kids”. One interesting caveat to the babysitting gig is that I have to monitor Marellie for side effects due to the fact she started a new ADHD medication today. You can imagine all of the unlikely scenarios which raced through my anxious and paranoid imagination. As it were, she’s acting just fine.
Anyways, my mother insisted that I spend some quality time with her today so we watched four episodes of “The Facts of Life” together. I’m sure you all subscribe to this as well, but we have this great On Demand channel called Tubetime whose programming specializes in some of the greatest, albeit, erstwhile eighties sitcoms. From my all time favorite “Who’s the Boss” to the terrible “Jeffersons”, and on to the always entertaining “Family Ties”, Tubetime is, well….quite good.
Half of the episodes we watched were part of a two show arc where the girls reflected on how their respective friendships matured and how they came to be living under the same roof. As a matter of fact, I still don’t fully understand the premise of the show, but if I’m not mistaken, it’s sort of a fictional “Real World” before there ever was a “Real World”. You take four young women from completely different backgrounds (black, fat, pretty, tomboy), add a wise old woman, and watch the group fight and solve problems. Interestingly enough, if you watch really closely, there is a lot of sexual innuendo and jokes about hormones. And before I forget, the character Blair (the hot one), is a real fox. On a related note, it turns out that she (the actress) found God and became an evangelical Christian.
Part of the flashback episode featured a cut scene where Mrs. Garret (the older lady) found a bong in the house. That was amusing. But by far the most entertaining yet disturbing episode was a particularly insensitive one featuring Tuti’s black boyfriend. As it turns out, not only was he a star athlete but he was also illiterate. I was a bit disappointed that “The Facts of Life” would perpetuate a racial stereotype like that.
Another interesting episode had a fat little brat run amok and terrorize the girls by pulling their hair and playing pranks. But much to my delight, that little brat was the same kid who played Chunk in “The Goonies”.
That’s it. Not much really, but Saturday afternoon did afford me the opportunity to relive a bit of my eighties childhood and perhaps enrich the childhood of another.
-that’s not really true because those episodes aired before I was born and I don’t think Marellie really enjoyed herself.
P.S. Does anyone remember the scene in “The Cable Guy” where Jim Carrey says, “I learned the facts of life from watching The Facts of Life….ohh Tuti”.
P.S.S. The very same night I wrote this, SNL made two references to “The Facts of Life”, creepy huh?
posted by Ryan McClune @ 8:57 PM
11 Comments:
Instant thoughts while reading this are as follows: I don't remember facts of life that much, when I would watch it as a kid it was part of a USA morning lineup that included Just the Ten of us and maybe my all time favorite show from the 90's, Wings.
That being said, I have never seen the goonies, I know, I am sorry. In my defense, Jeff hasn't seen Sixteen Candles.
Good Post, I will analyze it more later, including my experiences with ADHD medicine as a child.
Vince, I have seen Sixteen Candles many times. Regardless, Goonies is far better than Sixteen Candles could ever hope to be. They're both great...but Goonies is much better. You haven't had a childhood unless you've seen the Goonies.
On a Chunk related topic, I saw Chunk (the guy who lived in our dorm, not the Goonies character) at the mall the other day. He works at the shoe store, Journeys.
Who is the guy that played "Sloth"? And does he look like that in real life?
Sloth's name is John Matuszak, and apparently he was a defensive lineman for the Oakland Raiders. I'm pretty sure that's how he looks in real life.
I meant to mention on my last post that Wings might be one of the lamest shows ever.
Sad Update: John Matuszak died in 1989
RIP JM...yeah wings is lame
That is kind of sad about the death of Sloth. But although it would of been in bad taste, it certaily would of been hilirous if the actor playing Sloth really was a "special needs" person rather than an defensive lineman. But when you really think about it, teaching complicated lines like: "Rocky Road?" and "Sloth love Chunk" would have been pretty difficult for a huge hulking retard.
-that was pretty mean of me.
This article showed up on yahoo today: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/getback-goonies.html
And SNL mentioned the facts of life after I privately wrote about it.
Ergo, powerful hollywood writers are stealing my solid gold material.
Or perhaps its coincidence.
Wings was a great show. Jeff, I meant Say Anything, you haven't seen Say Anything.
From what I understand, all of the Oakland Raiders are "special needs."
Vince, I have seen Say Anything. I still say that Better Off Dead is much better...and Goonies is better than both of them.
Ryan, I think Hollywood is actually monitoring this blog very closely. There's nothing but solid gold on here.
I really thought this post was going to be about the other Ryan at Naismith, who surely went on to continue smoking weed and hating the nickname "Chunk."
I remember how we would get him to dance the truffle shuffle on the smoker's tables outside of Naismith when he got really drunk. People, ladies especially, with low self esteem really made my freshman year memorable.
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