big hair on the small screen

I was cleaning out my DVR last night by watching a bunch of Twilight Zone episodes I recorded during a recent SyFy marathon. I selectively recorded ones I vaguely/fondly remembered from my youth, and ones with well-known actors before they were so well known (such as young Jack Klugman—playing his part like every other part of his career—or William Shatner). I was watching The Miniature, which I recorded because it starred Robert Duvall, and realized it was one I loved as a child, but really only the last five minutes for the magically payoff which is sort of the trademark of The Twilight Zone. This episode was from the season when the series was expanded from a half to a full hour.



I kept pondering the actress playing younger sister, and how she seemed so familiar. Knowing that many TZ actors later went on to immense popularity, I did and IMBD search and found the impressive resume of Barbara Barrie, perhaps most recently well known as Nana on the 90s Brooke Shields vehicle Suddenly Susan.

That search led me to clips from the two-half-seasons 80s froth Double Trouble, where Barbara played the twins Aunt in New York, and even Tucker's Witch, which I had been researching just last week.

Okay, I don't know what's going on but I have been all over bad 80s television nostalgia this month. Something led me to recall Tucker's Witch, a short lived but beloved series of the clever detective and his magically incompetent witch of a wife. Someone is selling recorded-off-TV-on-VHS-and-converted-to DVD-R disc sets online. The series, in the same sort of canned premise as I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched featured a young and not yet so successful Tim Matheson and Catherine Hicks (the former I will always remember from Animal House and the latter screaming "I have got to help those whales!!"). Barbara Barrie played her non-witch mother, the magic having skipped a generation (as it does).

My computer is still in the shop so I was doing this all on the iPhone. The YouTube clips were pretty awesome. After viewing Double Trouble clips, YouTube suggested similar clips, which included scenes from Jennifer Slept Here, basically another magic-based 80s television show with the wonderful Ann Gillian. Those clips led me to clips from It's a Living, which I also loved as a kid and now realize I probably never really understood the joke. I do recall loving and trying to learn the theme song. And I can't believe the other talent on these shows—or that the first season of It's a Living featured a very young Crystal Bernard or that the show itself went on for a surprising seven seasons. And of course now I recognize the then super swank building as the Hotel Bonaventure.

How much do I love YouTube? And some of the comments on all these clips are priceless. I was amazed at the active fan base for all of these shows, and the clamor for DVD sets. Admittedly, I'd probably buy a lot of them too.









These shows certainly do not stand the test of time, but the clips are so entertaining for the sake of early 80s nostalgia. I'd love to see some of the ads too.