Things I Like #1: The Retroist

For 2019, I’ve decided to start blogging about things I like. For my first entry, I’d like to share “The Retroist Podcast”, and associated media. The Retroist podcast is devoted to pop-culture from the late 70’s to early 90’s mostly. Each episode is about 20 minutes long, and covers a single topic, such as a TV series, a movie, a video game, a fad, or some other relevant bit of culture from yesteryear. The episode archive goes back as far as 2009 and is quite comprehensive. At this point, he’s already covered just about every prominent (and obscure) TV series, movie, and video game from 1980 to 2000.

When I first discovered this series, about 6 months ago, I binged on it, listening the the ones that covered all of my favourite TV shows. I started with the Night Court episode because it was the one that I happened to stumble upon first. The episode was full of interesting facts about the series, but it was the introduction/opening anecdote that made me take notice. He connected Night Court to his own personal memories of the time, sharing anecdotes about how Harry Anderson’s comedic brand of magic sparked his imagination as a child. While it only lasted a few minutes, it briefly transported me back to my childhood when I would sometimes tune into Night Court late at night (when I was watching TV after my bed time). His story-telling style is calm, fluent and descriptive.

I went on to binge on the extensive library of past episodes, listening to all of my favourites. Another “thing I like” is going for walks around town while listening to podcasts, so this podcast fit right in with my schedule.

Every episode follows the same structure. He opens with a short introduction and anecdote with a personal connection to the topic. These are always my favourite parts. He follows this with an “info-packed episode” full of facts and trivia bits. Most of the episode just the Retroist talking, but most episodes include a segment by another contributor (e.g. Vic Sage’s “Also-ran” segment that lists the ‘other’ movies or TV shows that were running at the same time as the episode’s subject), and some even include an interview with someone affiliated with the subject.

I’m fairly well versed in 80’s and 90’s pop culture – especially TV and Movies of that era; but I’m not in the same league as the Retroist. This guy is uniquely qualified to run a podcast like this, as his commitment (particularly to TV) is truly next level. He has a personal library of old TV recordings on VHS, that must take up a room or 5 in his house. His episodes’ commercial breaks are used for airing old toy commercials and the like. In one of his episodes he shares that he once informed his coach that he wouldn’t be able to attend Saturday morning practices because he had to watch Saturday morning cartoons. He also likes to watch edited-for-TV versions of some movies (e.g. Halloween), even preferring them to their theatrical release. I had never heard of this before, but apparently this is a thing.

He typically releases one new episode per month. I’m sure he must be running into some difficulty thinking of topics by now since he’s covered just about everything I can think of already. Browse the archive – it’s all there.

When I was a kid, I used to listen to Jack Cullen’s “Network Replay” late at night on CKNW. It used to play old radio shows from before the TV era. I think it would be really cool if some network would pick up the Retroist and let him host a similar thing with his extensive library – providing some context and background for each movie or TV show that he airs. He really has a knack for painting a dreamy, nostalgic picture of the context surrounding all things retro.

It is worth noting that the Retroist also has a website where he and contributors post stories about 80’s and 90’s pop-culture. It is pretty active, with a new post every few days. He is also on Facebook and Twitter.