Hulk Hogan’s Rock ‘n Wrestling – A Look Back

In the mid 80s there wasn’t much of anything that was more front and center of the pop culture zeitgeist than professional wrestling. The popularity of wrestling, specifically the WWF, was white hot and off the charts thanks to their crossover with MTV and the “rock ‘n’ wrestling connection” which started off as a bit on Roddy Piper’s “Piper’s Pit” when “Captain” Lou Albano – a “heel” (bad guy) manager claimed that he was pop star Cyndi Lauper’s manager.  The story of how that all played out – how Mr. T became involved, how the first Wrestlemania got its main event – is a story unto itself and deserves its own multi-part look back.  But for our purposes here all we need to know is “rock ‘n’ wrestling” was a thing and it was a very popular thing at that.

8 From the 80s - Saturday Morning Cartoons

Each installment Mike will look back to the decade of decadence and provide a list of eight things – from movies to music to memorable moments and everything in-between.  Keep in mind, this isn’t a TOP 8 list and any numerical notations are included to merely designate one item from another. Because, frankly, how can you rate one thing over another when it comes from a decade as totally tubular as the 80s?

Saturday Morning Cartoons

While it was no 1970s, the 80s had its fair share of memorable cartoons.  And, unlike today when you can just turn to a specific channel dedicated to cartoons, we had to wait until Saturday mornings.  Sure, there was syndicated stuff during the week like old Bugs Bunny, The Flintstones and what not – but if you wanted the good stuff, it was once a week.  Here’s eight cartoons that were worth waiting seven days for.

8- Mr. T

I never liked Mr. T much.  He was the bad guy in Rocky III and he was Roddy Piper’s opponent and friend to Hulk Hogan around the time of the original Wrestlemania.  But he had a cartoon for a few years and a lot of fans, so he was a part of the pop culture zeitgeist in the 80s and gets a spot here.

Saturday Morning Cartoons?!?

 

Okay, yeah - we know. With dedicated TV channels like Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and almost all of the streaming services having some type of animated show(s), watching cartoons on Saturday morning is something that you can still do today.  Much easier, in fact, than it was back in the 70s and 80s.

But back then... it was a ritual. Wake up, grab a spoon and bowl, a box of cereal, the milk, and plop down in the living room in front of the TV with your game plan ready.  CBS for a half hour, then NBC for an hour and a half, and the the final hour over on ABC - or some combination along those lines, depending on where your favorites shows were at on the dial.  THOSE days are gone now, but MeTV is doing their part to bring a little of the magic back by starting their own Saturday morning cartoon block.

Starting on January 2nd, and every Saturday at 7AM, they will have a three-hour "all cartoons, all the time" block that promises to be "reminiscent of the Saturday morning broadcasts from your childhood"!!

We're big fans of MeTV here at Uphill Both Ways thanks to their great line up of classic shows and we're looking forward to this long-awaited addition to their schedule.

Check out a few more details HERE.

"The Sun Always Shines on T.V."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Joseph does questionable impersonations of Joe E. Ross and Paul Lynde, and Mike regales us with his rendition of a 1970s Levi's jingle! All this and much more on episode 4 of our "Uphill Both Ways" podcast, "The Sun Always Shines on T.V."!

http://www.whenitwascool.com/up-hill-both-ways-04