M*A*S*H isn't a war show. True, a lot of it is about war, but it is not a war show. It is more like our modern doctor shows like ER or Grey's Anatomy except the doctors in M*A*S*H happen to be in the middle of a war; oh, and the show is a Sit Com.

*pops in for moment*

I was no where near the 70's, but I thought I would post about two movie that strangely no one has mentioned.....

Quick Disclaimer: I am in no way a horror movie fan, but these two films did impact the coming decades of film and popular culture in a BIG way.

Halloween (1978) Directed by John Carpenter

The film that helped to kick-off all those gory, stupid slasher flicks that we still have to deal with today. While no where near as scary as it's reported to be, this little indie film makes up for the scares with an eerie mood. While the film was most likely very scary when first it came out, over the years of various knock-offs and parodies, it has lost it's edge.

Still, a good and creepy horror film with little to no gore. Good performances by Donald Pleasance and Jamie Lee Curtis (her breakout role). And of course you can't forget that creepy synth theme....

Alien (1979) Directed by Ridley Scott

Wow, what to say that has not already been said a million times.... A film as groundbreaking as Star Wars in many respects, Alien gave us the eerie production design of H.R. Giger, Sigorney Weaver and the instantly recognizable and disturbing Alien. Oh yeah, and the chestbuster scene.

The film was the directing debut of Ridley Scott, who would later make such genre classics as Blade Runner and Legend in the 80's. The film is still one freaky picture even over 30 years later.

*is a huge M*A*S*H fan*

This thread is fun, reminds me of my parents -and my granparents (their era, not mine -and a cool one it was, too. ). Pretty sure I've seen a photo of my grandpa with bell bottom pants and flowing hair, tucked away in a corner of the their house.

The 'seventies' reminds me of the avocado green VW comvy parked up my street with a giant peace sign painted on the side. Which is possibly the coolest car a teenager could drive, I've been planning on writing them a sticky note of appreciation and leaving it on their van...

Perhaps the best thing (ok, I'll limit it to TV show) that came out of the iconic 70's is the British comedy Fawlty Towers -starring John Cleese and Connie Booth.

I think the first song I remember being played on the radio and TV was "Staying Alive" by the Bee Gees!

Of course, I did not speak English back then, so I misheard it as something that translates as "come on and dance" (it would be "Ven a bailar" in Spanish). While it IS possible there was a Spanish version with those lyrics, it was probably my very first mondegreen.

I was showing my mom this thread, hoping she'd have some thoughts I could share as she was a teen in the 70's, growing up in Montreal. She wanted to mention the October Crisis, which is as wikipedia says, "a series of events triggered by two kidnappings of government officials by members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) during October 1970 in the province of Quebec."

I remember the October Crisis of October , 1970. I lived in Montreal. The FLQ (Front de Liberation de Quebec) kidnapped 2 government officials. The Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau , enacted the War Measures Act, the only time it has been enacted in peacetime, at the request of the premier of Quebec, Robert Bourassa ,and the Mayor of Montreal, Jean Drapeau.
I remember Canadian Forces troops downtown, and I remember my mother telling us how the police came around asking about an old house a few doors down , that looked abandoned. They were checking out such places, looking for the kidnapped men. Sadly , one of the men , Pierre Laporte, was killed before the crisis ended.

Here's the full wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_Crisis

So I thought that was kind of interesting.

Oh, and SL, great opening post again! And thanks for the fashion tribute "for Val"

PrinceCor, I very much agree with your two movie selections there. I first watched Halloween in 1982 at the tender age of 10. Suffice it to say it scared me out of my wits. As the progenitor of the modern day "slasher" film it is surprisngly free of gore. There is some blood but not nearly to the levels you see other films of that type, and much of the horror aspect is gotten psychologically. Half the time you can't see where Michael Myers is, although occasionally it gives you his POV (which is kind of creepy in itself). Jamie Lee Curtis had some lungs, didn't she?

By the way, here's the link to the Halloween theme music PC referenced. It fits the movie quite well. Would you believe that John Carpenter came up with it on the fly just messing around on his piano over the course of a half hour?

Dittos Alien. One of the great sci-fi/horror films of all time, if not the best one of all time. Much has already been said about it in the Past Movies thread, but it was a noteworthy film and definitely worth the watch. I can't help but wonder if we've got some of the same movies on our respective DVD shelves.

And thanks for the fashion tribute "for Val"

You're very welcome. By the way, was Keira Knightly even alive in the 70's?

One of my favorite Classic Rock bands from the 70's is Rush, and I think Tom Sawyer is their best song, but their whole repetoire was always quite good. I also enjoy a little Edgar Winter Group (Frankenstein! Groovy, baby!). I was listening to Frankenstein last night and started air drumming suddenly (if you know the song you'll know which part you do that to), which sort of frightened my coworker a little bit.

About Halloween: Indeed. Most of the horror for me was not seeing Michael kill people, but hearing Dr.Loomis talk about Michael and how he was pure evil. I also found it perfectly creepy how you never know the why behind anything. Of course, the later films had to ruin this creepiness with graphic gore and "explaining" why Michael was doing what he was doing.

About Alien: Yeah, I think ya'll got on ww nerves talking about the Alien series for a full page or two awhile back...

At this point, I do not own either Halloween or Alien. I did see the former last year during Halloween (big surprise there ), but have yet to see Alien all the way through. I keep catching bits and pieces on TV.

We may have some of the same DVD's, though my collection is rather on the small side compared to my soundtrack collection. I'm working on getting more titles, though.

Edit: post 3676.

This brings back so many memories for me....the styles were crazy but I see some of them coming back. I remember when Star Wars came out...saw it in the movies with my father. I remember the Exorcist...that scared the daylights out of me!!!

Anyone remember Good Times, Sanford and Son and All in the Family? Dont make shows like that any more!

Three movies stand out to me from the 70's, especially in the comedy realm. The 70's brought out one of the best westerns in Blazing Saddles. Then about the same time a group of British film-makers did the all time spoof of King Arthur: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Easily the best in the series, Holy Grail is so full of quotables. And also in the 70's, another movie by the name of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was released. It was one of my favorites to watch as a kid, even though I was born in the 80's.

I didn't realise how many 70's films were my faves I must defend the Rocky sequels, everyone knows Rocky V was pretty dodgy but the others are awesome That winter scene in Russia in IV where he climbs a mountain and helps some Russian peasants at the same time...what on earth I love those films.

I'm also a fan Halloween and it's many cheesy sequels. I love the rash of horror films that came out around that time (mostly in the early 80's though). You know the kind I'm talking about, you can tell who's going to live 5 seconds in and there's always some crew member standing just off camera with a bucket of fake blood having the time of his life

1970 was also the year the inimitable Janis Joplin died, one of my favourite artists -

Why did I miss the 60's thread? Most of my favorite musicians were most active then - Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead...still going strong in the 70's and beyond but still.

"It's just a flesh wound! - I'd forgotten about Holy Grail being a 70s movie until a friend quoted it this weekend. Definitely quotable (though with a few parts not quite family-friendly), though the end kind of....drops off.

A few thoughts on space exploration, prompted in part by the science discussion over in Christianity, Religion, and Philosophy:

The last 5 Apollo moon flights occurred in the 70s, and it still amazes me that they were successful (computer-wise) despite the fact that the lunar module's computer had less computing power than the PCs we're using right now to post on the forum.

And the Voyager arrival at Neptune, in almost the perfect spot and time predicted in advance by engineers, after years of flight through space and several gravitational 'slingshots' by other planets - was like making a 3600-mile golf putt. Pretty astonishing use of the laws of gravity.

Why did I miss the 60's thread?

No worries! We're actually going backwards in time from the present, so the 60s thread is yet to come.

I wasn't alive in the 70's, but I some times think I should have been.

If for no other reason than to own and operate a Big Wheel! Oh you poor, deprived woman!

According to my mom, I actually did have a Big Wheel. (She actually got quite defensive when I tried to find a picture on the internet to confirm it. ) Anyway, the one I had had a seat that flipped up and had storage underneth. The seat was also adjustable; there was a section that could be removed to give more room. I think the seat and wheels were purple. Of course, it wasn't a 70s Big Wheel. By the way, I meant by my statement that I like so many of things from the 70s I seem to fit better there than when I did grow up.

I watched that when I was very young...well, specifically I watched Hardy Boys because Nancy Drew was "for girls....ewwww" . I think there were some episodes where the Hardy's and Nancy would team up to tackle an investigation together, but it's been a really long time. I seem to recall Shaun Cassidy was the younger Hardy brother...I could be wrong, it's been an awful long time!

You are right on both accounts. That's were I first heard Shaun Cassidy's songs. Pamela Sue Martin actually quit the show because they were going to show Nancy Drew only with Hardy Boys and she didn't like that.

Not only did it mark the end of the Apollo era, it marked Skylab as well as the start of the shuttle era. While the shuttle did not fly until 1981, the research and early test flights were done in the 70s.

The Buran program began during the 70s as well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buran_program

Also, ASTP (Apollo-Soyuz Test Project) flew in 1975. It was the first joint space flight between the Americans and the Russians. It also was the first flight of Mercury Astronaut, Deke Slayton. He never flew until ASTP due to an erratic heart beat that prevented him from flying, Shortly before the ASTP crew was chosen, he discovered that the condition had seemingly disappeared and was cleared for flight status. (According to the book "Moon Shot")

The last 5 Apollo moon flights occurred in the 70s, and it still amazes me that they were successful (computer-wise) despite the fact that the lunar module's computer had less computing power than the PCs we're using right now to post on the forum.

Actually they had less power than today's graphing calculators.

Apollo 13 was also launched in 1970. Jim Lovell commanded the flight. And for those who may have seen the 1995 film, there are only a handful of inaccuracies in that film. I've read the book by Lovell so many times that I had it memorized before the film came out. For a Hollywood movie, it was surprisingly accurate and pretty much dead on. I heard Gene Kranz, Gerry Griffen, John Aaron, and Jerry Bostick speak at Johnson Space Center's very first open house after the movie came out and they spoke on how accurate it was. I believe Kranz remarked (somewhere) that Ed Harris' portrayal of him was accurate enough that they should give him a seat in the real mission control. At the end of the movie, the crew shakes hands with an white haired Navy officer. That officer is the real Jim Lovell.

While I am not old enough to have seen Star Wars in theaters in the original run, my parents went to see it on a date night before they were married. My mom took me to see the original trilogy when it was re-released in theaters back in the 90s.

Ah Doctor Who... just recently got into that one in the last few years. I've seen a handful of the older episodes and have to say that Tom Baker did a marvelous job.

Loved that version of Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. The show was great!

Not only did it mark the end of the Apollo era, it marked Skylab as well as the start of the shuttle era.

To anyone not in the know on the subject of Skylab this was a small 3-4 man space station NASA put up in orbit after the old Apollo program went kaput. They used it several times in the early to mid 70's and then pretty much abandoned it until they could figure out what to do with it.

Then in 1979, due to increased solar activity Skylab was in imminent danger of atmospheric reentry. NASA tried to squeeze it down into the Indian Ocean, but upon reentry some of the debris landed in Western Australia. From what I've read some fell on the town of Esperance, Australia and the town decided to fine NASA $400 for littering, which just recently got paid to them.

At any rate, Skylab and later Mir both set the stage for the ISS now in orbit, where quite a bit of scientific research goes on.

There were 3 Skylab flights. It was actually shut down because the shuttle wasn't available to boost it into a higher orbit. Just think of what may have happened if the shuttle hadn't been delayed and they were able to extend the life of Skylab.

Edit: Today is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 13 splashdown.