Monsters and Aliens of the 1980s

We’re in the home stretch of the year, a time that pumps more nostalgia through our work-addled minds than ever.  Sure, Thanksgiving and Christmas play a big part in those memories, thick as eggnog, but in this changing season, the flip from October to November, memories really start to pile up like leaves on a frosty lawn.

I think a big part of this nostalgia has to do with Halloween.  Let’s face it, you’re likely to remember dressing up as a superhero or monster or princess only to slither around in the dark receiving freebies from strangers.  You see yourself behind those masks as the years pass, each pillowcase wielding visitor another spark for stagnant brain files.  Autumn is filled with powerful imagery–the death of nature which is strangely attractive, leaves to be piles and jumped on, and festivals that draw us from the gut over our inborn need to harvest.

Maybe I’m over thinking this.  Maybe it’s just about monster cereals.

You can make a lot of money selling people their childhood back.  If you don’t believe me, drop by eBay later and search vintage toys.  I may know when I’m being had, but sometimes it just tastes too good.  So the other day I was stopped undead in my tracks by brilliant marketing at the grocery store.  Piled in neat pyramids adorned with WOW-shaped sale signs were three of my old friends–Count Chocula and Franken and Boo, the Berry brothers.  I bet you forgot about Yummy Mummy.

I spent many mornings with those three, especially Boo who I must confess was my favorite.  They’d play games and quiz me and even slip me a few surprise gifts buried deep beneath their bounty when mom’s back was turned.  You could always position their faces just so, diagonal at a forty-five degree, so no one could see you ducked below their faces in an imaginative discussion.  I guess Casper was okay, but I much preferred friendly monsters to friendly ghosts.

It’s a great way to stay young, you see.  While most people are fretting over the problems of the universe, I wax nostalgic about breakfast.  Careful though, nostalgia comes with risks.  Feelings of loss will try to seep into fond moments of memories, so you must keep moving and opening drawer after drawer in the dusty file cabinets of your mind.

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Now in the midst of this time machine of a season, network television is dropping a massive memory bomb on me again.  Tonight, a new pilot for an old show is airing on ABC.  The show is V.  That’s V for Visitors, not a Roman numeral for five.  That’s also a big one to cross of the list of the Old Stuff That Somebody Better Bring Back For Movies Or Television list.

If you’re not familiar with V, you’re missing out.  The original version aired in 1983.  The cast included more familiar faces than names, but you might know Robert Englund just before he became Freddy Kreuger, Michael Ironside, and The Beastmaster himself, Marc Singer.  It’s your typical aliens are here, end of the world unless humanity sticks together tale.