Archive for » February, 2010 «

Breakout Stars of 80′s TV

26 Feb 2010 | By Tinalicious

You know, there are a lot of big name celebrities today who got their start (or at least got their best initial exposure) on 80′s TV shows.  In many cases, the roles these stars had were small, but they sure launched some Titanic-sized careers. Here are my Flashback Friday picks for 5 of the best breakout stars of 80′s TV.

Tom Hanks on Bosom Buddies

Seriously, who can forget the TV show that brought us the two guys who had to dress like women to live in an all female apartment building to have an affordable place to live. Yes, really!

Bosom Buddies

Kip Wilson and his alter ego Buffy Wilson were played by Tom Hanks. His friend Henry Desmond and his alter ego Hildegarde were played by Peter Scolari.  Buffy and Hildegarde were supposed to be Kip and Henry’s sisters.  Quite the striking resemblance to their siblings, to be sure. The show only lasted a few seasons, but it sparked a really BIG career for Tom Hanks.

George Clooney on Facts of Life

I used to love the Facts of Life, the show about the all girls boarding school. Who can forget miss perfect snooty, Blair;  the tomboy, Jo, who loved to give Blair a hard time; cutie Miss Tooty, who spent a lot of time on roller skates in the first season or two; and the funny girl we all loved, Natalie. I was a teenager, and they were teenagers, so of course I loved them.

Facts of Life

I also loved the first time I saw the handyman character, George  Burnett (who didn’t appear until a later season), who was played by none other than future Oscar winner, George Clooney. His role was fairly minimal, only making occasional appearances. But hey, he got noticed (and I don’t mean by just me). He later appeared on Roseanne and that little medical drama, what was it called? Oh yeah, ER. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Leonardo DiCaprio on Growing Pains

Growing Pains is known for launching the career, and teen heartthrob status, of its teen star, Kirk Cameron (brother of Candace Cameron, one of the stars of the 80′s show, Full House). But it also gave a helping hand to a then up-and-comer with a very long name: Leonardo DiCaprio.

Growing Pains

Leo’s character, Luke Brower, didn’t appear until the show’s 7th season. He was a complete unknown at the time. The show had sank in the ratings by this time, and Leo’s character was an attempt to give it a jump start. It didn’t work for the show, but hey, it worked for Leo. He went on to star in (need I say it?) Titanic, and while that ship sank too, the movie sure didn’t. And Leo’s film career has been sailing on ever since.

Johnny Depp on 21 Jump Street

I think I have to be one of the few people who didn’t watch 21 Jump Street. Not sure why I didn’t watch it, but I definitely knew of the show, and of one of its stars in particular, Johnny Depp. You kind of had to be living under a rock not to know about that show and its stars. Their faces were all over the place.

21 Jump Street

The show was a police drama, about young looking police officers, who went undercover to investigate crimes in high schools and other teen hangouts. There wasn’t much undercover about Depp’s career though, which this show helped to catapult. He also became a teen idol, which he apparently detested being, so he left  after the 4th season. Depp has appeared in a lot of movies since then, but he didn’t win my heart until he became Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. Come on, who doesn’t love a pirate? Savvy?

Bruce Willis on Moonlighting

Before he was kicking ass on Die Hard, before he was saving the world in Armageddon, before he was Unbreakable, Bruce Willis was my favorite PI in the 80′s show,  Moonlighting.

Moonlighting

Bruce played David Addison, who partners up with Maddie Hayes, played by Cybill Shepherd; she is a former model and owner of the agency. She was swindled by her investment adviser, who took off with all her money and left her with only the detective agency. I think the show was good because of the chemistry between David and Maddie, which is kind of funny, considering that at the time, rumor had it the two of them couldn’t really stand each other in real life. But you know what they say, there’s a fine line between love and hate, and the show worked great until the two characters finally consummated their relationship. Not long after, the show pretty much dissolved into TV nothingness. But hey, Bruce’s moonlighting days are long over. I’d say he’s made a pretty good name for himself. And rumor has it that Die Hard 5 is coming to a theater near you in 2012. Yippee-ki-yay, mother f****r!

Tina Siggy

Category: Flashback Friday, My Faves, Remembering  Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,  Leave a Comment

Random Rantics and Murphy’s Law

16 Feb 2010 | By Tinalicious

Just some things I feel like ranting about…things you can probably attribute to Murphy’s Law, or something equally as sinister.

Why is it that as soon as you finish spending over an hour shoveling your sidewalks, driveway and patio areas, it starts snowing again…and even harder than it did before? And you know darn well that if you had waited to do the shoveling, it wouldn’t have snowed again at all. What is that about?

I hate washing my car because doing it myself is a giant pain (so I don’t) and going through the car wash is so, you know, strenuous…or at least expensive. So I don’t do it often. But when I do, you can bet your bottom dollar–or mine, more like–that it will rain within a half an hour. There are 365 days in a year, and I probably get my car washed on 3 of those days. You’d think that the odds would be a little bit more in my favor. Come on, Mother Nature, show some pity!

Why can I go the whole day sometimes without the phone ringing, but then as soon as I sit down to eat dinner, that damn phone will ring. And who is it? A telemarketer, of course. You know what, Mr. Too-Lame-To-Get-A-Real-Job-So-You-Harass-Folks-On-The-Phone-Instead? Interrupting my dinner, which I have so carefully and almost lovingly prepared for the Hubs and myself, and pissing me off in the process, is not really the best way to get a potential commission.  Here’s an idea: how’s about you give me your phone number, and I’ll call you back when you’re at home eating? Better yet, how about I wait until you are nestled in your comfy bed, sleeping off the remnants of the crappy karma that your job generates on a daily basis, and then I call you, eh? A-hole.

How come people have to put music players on their websites? Do they really think I enjoy surfing, landing on their site, and then having the c-r-a-p scared out of me by their music as it comes blaring out of my speakers? Just because they like the music, does not mean that everyone else will.  And I personally do not like the sticky goo that now covers my monitor, caused by the too-numerous-to-count times that I have been jerked out of my seat at loud website music, resulting in the uncontrollable projectile spitting out of my  favorite beverage. {OK, there’s not really goo on my monitor, but there could be. And my point is still valid regardless. } Here’s a tip to all the annoying website music lovers out there. You can listen to music without making us listen to music. You don’t have to hijack our speakers and bombard us with your favorite ditties (did I just say, ditties?!).  Just turn on your stereo or ipod, or flop a CD into your computer.  Turn it up. Go crazy. But leave the rest of us to listen to our own music, if and when we choose to. Our PC monitors  will thank you.

And one more for the road…not only does this one baffle me, it seriously makes me question the future of humanity. (All right, I might be exaggerating, just a little.) One of my husband’s business bills came the other day; it’s for a credit card on which he purchases materials for customer jobs. Nothing amiss, just a typical bill, or so I thought…until a few days later, another something arrived in the mail from that company. Inside were the coupons that were mistakenly left out of the invoice mailing, along with a letter explaining that they’d apparently neglected to include their regular coupons with their monthly invoice.  So let me see if I have got this straight. They generated and printed a letter, stuck it in an envelope, along with the missing coupons, and affixed postage and sent it on to us with their sincerest apologizes for this incredible oversight on their behalf.  Apparently the crappy economy isn’t affecting those idiots at all. How much did it cost, I wonder, for them to send out this missing coupon mailing to who knows how many people? Guess I see now where our credit card interest is going. Sheesh.

Here’s to you, Murphy, or your evil twin, as the case may be.

Tina Siggy

Category: Have Blog, Will Babble, Rantics  Tags: ,  Leave a Comment

Twilight Forever

16 Feb 2010 | By Tinalicious

I was speaking with my sister on the phone on Valentine’s Day, which also happens to be her birthday. I got her turned onto the Twilight books, and she finally finished reading them all, so we were chatting about that. I think she’s as strangely addicted hooked on the books as I am. Once I finished reading the first book, I read the following three in rapid succession, as did she. In the words of Edward, they were “like my own personal brand of heroin“…definitely like a drug to me.  {Twilighter’s Anonymous, anyone?}

It’s not really that often that a book, let alone a series of books, becomes so popular, so quickly, and across all age levels. And it’s quite the accomplishment, in my opinion, considering how long those books are. The final book, Breaking Dawn, tops out at 754 pages. I had never, ever, read a book so long in my entire life! And they are all l-o-n-g. If I had a nickel for every page I’ve read in the Twilight saga, well, I’d have a lot of  damn nickels! But the best part is that these books don’t feel like long reads. They are page-turners, and time passes by all too quickly while you’re reading them.

If you don’t like Twilight I don’t like you either that’s OK. It’s not everyone’s cup of vampire tea. In my experience, you either love Twilight or you hate it. There’s just not too much middle ground. But I have to say that Twilight’s author, Stephenie Meyer deserves some hearty kudos for making so many people, both young and old, fall in love with reading again. And, um, Robert Pattinson did a little something for the hot blood sucker franchise as well. Go Team Edward!

As I anxiously await the DVD release of New Moon (even though I’ve seen it at the theater, you just have to know I’m buying every DVD too), I decided to make a graphic that I think fits in with New Moon and Eclipse. I was bored, and I had some time to kill, so what the heck. See what’cha think.

Twilight Forever

The moon through the trees part of the graphic is my own photo, taken during our last full moon. That photo didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped, but it made me think of New Moon, so I figured it would make a nice backdrop for a graphic.

I guess that’s enough Twilight talk for now. Time to get back to pretending to work.

Tina Siggy

Category: Twilight-a-Holic  Tags: , , , , ,  Leave a Comment

Revamped the Blog

09 Feb 2010 | By Tinalicious

What can I say, I was bored with the look of Tinalicious and decided it was time for a redo. So I guess now it’s only fair to call the blog, Tinalicious 2.o? Hope you will stop by and take a peek.

I also wanted to share a funny little tidbit from the world of grandparenthood as well. My grandson, Dylan spent the night recently, which he doesn’t do so often anymore so it’s a treat when he does. Anyhoots, he needed a bath so I got him in my tub. This is something he really enjoys, because, well, I have a really big tub.  I also have a TV at the foot of the tub, and I’m sure the ability to bathe while watching Sponge Bob has a little something to do with his sudden affection for bath time at gramma’s house.  And FYI: Sponge Bob can be equally entertaining to bathing adults. Just sayin.

So he was in the tub and I decided to brush my teeth. So I’m brushing away when I hear him giggling repeatedly. I looked myself up and down to make sure that I was not the subject of his prolonged amusement, and I couldn’t find anything amiss (nothing out of the ordinary anyway). And just about the time I finished the rinse and spit routine in the sink, he finally enlightens me.

“Gramma, gramma…guess what? I can make my own bubbles. Watch.”

Can you guess where this is going, folks? Sure enough, Dylan has discovered that age-old practice of farting in the bathtub, which naturally creates bubbles…albeit temporary ones.  I couldn’t help but laugh as he beamed at his new-found discovery.  From the sound of his giggles echoing through the bathroom, I’d say this was the highlight of his day….and mine.

Face it: sometimes, farts are funny. Admit it. Come on.

I hear you laughing.

Category: Brag Book, Have Blog, Will Babble  Tags: , ,  2 Comments