Gen Z Meets The 90s: A Family Talks About Analog Life

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What if the best parts of culture weren’t the content, but the rituals around it? We crack open a lively, honest family debate about why so many people are reaching for analog life again—malls with arcades and theaters, mix tapes and CDs with hand‑drawn covers, Friday night TV blocks, and couch co‑op games that made a living room feel like an arena. We don’t pine for the past so much as ask what those old habits gave us: presence, boundaries, and the joy of stumbling onto something new.

We trace how physical media shaped connection. A mix tape was a gift with intention; vinyl still slows you down with lyrics and artwork; DVDs tucked craft into commentaries and bloopers. Streaming is incredible for access, yet the infinite scroll dulls discovery and turns movie night into decision fatigue. We revisit Blockbuster as a cultural ritual—browsing aisles, committing to a pick, and letting the night begin at the store—and weigh it against the speed and choice of streaming. From there we jump to phones: why flip phones enforced limits, how GPS genuinely improved life, and how always‑on screens eroded attention and made us permanently reachable.

We also hit the shared touchstones that built community: TRL’s daily countdown, late night talk shows you half‑watched before bed, AIM away messages that signaled you were truly offline, and the TGIF lineup that gave teens a weekly meeting point. Along the way, we tackle couch co‑op versus online gaming, the disappearance of the teen comedy, and the creative squeeze from remakes and algorithms. We close with a film recommendation that nails the episode’s themes—tech addiction, AI, and the cost of convenience—without losing humor, heart, or momentum.

If you’re craving more discovery and less doom‑scrolling, this one’s for you. Listen, share with a friend who misses liner notes, and tell us: which analog ritual are you bringing back this week? And if you enjoyed the conversation, subscribe and leave a quick review to help more people find the show.

Fighting The Suck Since ©2026 Relatively Terrible

Transcript

Cold Open And Birthday Banter

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, so what was terrible this week? Oh. Oh. That's a good question. Probably having Chipotle. I'm just kidding. I'm kidding, Dad. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

So my birthday was terrible?

unknown 0:12

It wasn't.

SPEAKER_02 0:13

No.

SPEAKER_04 0:14

That Chipotle catering order was actually some of the best Chipotle I've had.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

So good. If you ever have a chance to get Chipotle catering, it's worth it. Get it. It's very good. But I think the minimum is 10 people.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

So we didn't have 10 people.

SPEAKER_04 0:29

No?

SPEAKER_02 0:30

So I just ate it three or four more times.

SPEAKER_04 0:33

I I mean I had two bowls.

SPEAKER_01 0:36

I had two bowls. I mean, I never could feed 10 people, or it could feed five big people.

SPEAKER_04 0:44

It all depends on how much rice you use. If you can back off on the rice, you can that's how I got away with two bowls.

SPEAKER_02 0:50

Also, if you go light on the rice, you could have rice for 20 days.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

So many so much rice.

SPEAKER_04 0:56

So much rice.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

Calvin loved it. He's just lying to you. How many tacos did you have? Four. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:02

And then didn't you like make some kind of like almost like nachos?

SPEAKER_01 1:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06

I was hungry. Oh man, but the Doritos in the queso? Oh. And then you add a little bit of that steak in the queso and then a little pico and their queso. I just I put some pico in it.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

It was a little better. But their queso is.

SPEAKER_01 1:23

It's good for bowls, and that's pretty much it. And with Doritos, but I would never eat it with a Chipotle chip.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

I can't get past creamy jalapeno and Doritos, so I'm uh I don't know. It was great though.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

Yeah, that wasn't terrible.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

So thank you guys for an amazing birthday. It was awesome. You're wild. It was a really fun weekend. I'm Josh.

SPEAKER_04 1:40

I'm Rachel.

Why Analog Is Back On Our Minds

SPEAKER_02 1:41

I'm Calvin. I'm Jackson. And this is relatively terrible. I love you, but you're all terrible.

SPEAKER_04 1:48

So there's a lot of talk online and just in culture in general, where people seem to be wanting to move to a more analog lifestyle. Um, I think I've seen it a lot on social media tied to people's New Year's resolutions, but I think it started last year, really more so. But people wanting to engage with more physical media and activities that don't need a Wi-Fi connection.

SPEAKER_01 2:16

Okay, I was about to ask you what analog meant, but now Wow!

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Is that what you were asking me?

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Why would I know that? Wow. So Rachel and I came up with a list of things that we enjoyed in the 90s and the 2000s. We're gonna go over them. You know, you know, the 1900s, remember that? We're gonna go over the No, I don't remember that. Talk about them and get their Gen Z take on all of this stuff. It's Gen Alpha. You're not Gen Alpha. It's Gen Alpha. You're not Gen Alpha. 6'7 Gen Alpha.

SPEAKER_04 2:50

We went over this already. You you were both Gen Z.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

You guys are both Gen Z. We are we are millennials. You guys are not Gen Alpha, Calvin. You don't want to be Gen Alpha. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

But the interesting thing is that a lot of the conversation around the nostalgia for 90s and 2000s is being driven by Gen Z, who has no experience with any of those activities.

SPEAKER_02 3:21

Number one. The mall. So you guys go to malls, but there's nothing there. There's nothing there. It is not like it used to be. I'm talking, you're missing out on arcades, video game arcades. You're missing out on an actual good food court.

SPEAKER_00 3:37

Yeah. You're missing out. What? Well, you've never been to it.

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Let's just preface this by saying Memphis's mall is not the greatest. It was when we first moved here, it was pretty good. I mean, there was the Disney store, FYE, but so much of that is closed. Yeah. Thanks to the It closed even before the pandemic. Yeah, I don't think it was pandemic. No, it wasn't.

SPEAKER_04 3:58

That was way pre-pandemic.

SPEAKER_01 4:00

Compared to like the mall that we went to in Ohio, which they had, what what did they have in their food court? They had a Dairy Queen, they had a Mr. Hero. They had a hot topic there, box lunch. Okay, I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 4:12

You guys have experienced a good mall, good mall. South Park Mall in uh Strongsville, Ohio is very good because it also still has a Cinemark theater. That's the other thing. Oh, that I miss so much from the Parmatown Mall is the theater.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Going into a mall. See, that's where parents go, though. But parents could used to be able to drop their kids off at the mall. The kids could go there and eat, shop, go to a movie, go to an arcade, you stayed all day with friends.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

You could stay all day. It's it yeah. It was a much more of a social thing.

SPEAKER_02 4:48

So do you guys think that that's something that you would want to bring back or something you're interested in, or is there something in your Gen Z world that's like, no, this is better than a mall?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Well, malls haven't really gone away, they just need to go back to the way they were.

SPEAKER_04 5:02

They need a revival revealing. A revival, yeah. That's what I was gonna say.

SPEAKER_01 5:06

No, why didn't you say it?

SPEAKER_04 5:07

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:08

Well, you know, the sad thing is that at one point, at one point our mall would have said, Oh yeah, we have an arcade. Because remember that when they put in an arcade? Yeah. That's not an arcade, no.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

Yeah, now if you want to go to an arcade, you know, you're you're at um uh Dave and Buster's, and what's the other one?

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Oh, um Main events. Main events.

SPEAKER_04 5:30

And they're so expensive. Rip-off. You need a couple hundred bucks to be able to get a couple hours worth of gameplay.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

You should be able to go into an arcade with a little cup of quarters and just play as many games as you want. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 5:46

Whenever I think of Rampark Action Cheer, which is really good.

SPEAKER_04 5:49

But I agree with him. He's not wrong.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Whenever I think of arcades, I think of Bob's burgers. Yes. Family function. Yeah, family fun time. And the age always went to the birthday parties and got free food. Um I mean, I know it's animated, but the food always looked good.

SPEAKER_02 6:06

You know, there used to be a chain of arcades, that's how old I am, called Aladdin's arcades. Yes, and they were in all of the malls, yeah, and that just went away, and then there started to be these little mom and pop arcades, they couldn't keep up. So then you got Dave and Busters and main event, like you guys said, trash and also way too expensive. I don't know how those places stay in business. Whoever whoever thought$2 for a video game would be a thing.

SPEAKER_04 6:34

And it's funny because I remember when we were younger that Chuck E. Cheese was a more um expensive option.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

And now it's the cheap option.

SPEAKER_04 6:43

And now Chuck E. Cheese. I mean, when you guys were younger, we did birthday parties there and they were great. I mean, I'll I'll go to Chuck E. Cheese anytime.

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Is that pizza actually like recycled? No. I'm sure it's not. Okay.

unknown 6:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

All right, number two. Number dos. Physical media, such as DVD, CD, vinyl, and mix tapes. Do you guys even know what a mixtape is?

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, that's something like songs that are like on a loop or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

No, that's a mix.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

It's where you take multiple songs and you're able to burn it on a disc and make your own playlist, but on a CD for the code. That's a mixed CD. I'm talking about a mixed tape. Okay, well then.

SPEAKER_04 7:21

I mean, same thing, just a cassette tape.

Arcades, Chuck E. Cheese, And Rising Costs

SPEAKER_02 7:22

It's not a cassette tape. That's it. Oh, cassette tape. That's what we actually modify for. No, I used to actually, we had a couple of different little mini boom boxes. They were pretty small, but you could record on them, so I would actually hold it up to the TV sometimes and record stuff.

SPEAKER_04 7:39

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

It was so bad. It sounded terrible. I actually used to use tapes from my mom's, uh, my mom and grandma's church. Uh they had sermons on there, so I would just record straight over the sermons. We would also take those sermons and use them to make comedy bits, like taking a little bit of what the pastor said and then adding in your own stuff and then putting the pastor's stuff back in. It's pretty great. That's how you pass the time. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 8:07

I did have one of those dual cassette players though, where you could record from one to the other.

SPEAKER_00 8:12

This stuff sounds ancient. Like dual cassette cassette tape players, like that what?

SPEAKER_04 8:18

Listen, I will say the Spotify playlist is such an improvement. I mean, it was the mixtape, the mixed CD, hassle and a half. But what a mixtape represented though was was you gave mixtapes to really good friends and to like crushes, your boyfriend, girlfriend. It was a it was a it was a sign of affection.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

Do you remember the one that I made for you? Damn. Oh boy. Damn! That was cold. No, no, you don't. I what was on the cover? I made a cover for it too. It was a CD.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

You made covers?

SPEAKER_02 9:00

I made a cover.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Covers? You can make covers? Yikes.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

I made a I made a CD cover. I put it in a case, I gave it to you.

SPEAKER_03 9:08

What was on it?

SPEAKER_04 9:09

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_02 9:10

I don't remember one song from it at all.

SPEAKER_04 9:14

I'm sorry, but that was over 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Nothing compares. Nothing compares.

SPEAKER_04 9:19

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

And this is why everything's digital now. But hold on. How many songs do you have in your playlist, Calvin?

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Go ahead. Uh over 2300. Yeah. So you're not giving that to anyone. You're not if you share that with someone. But you can make multiple.

SPEAKER_04 9:35

But you shared it with me, and it's like it's not helpful because it it's too many songs. It's it's not.

SPEAKER_02 9:42

You freeze up when you're trying to find something to listen to.

SPEAKER_04 9:45

Yeah. It's like 2300 songs, it's almost like just walking into a store and just being like pick a CD then.

Physical Media: Mix Tapes, CDs, Vinyl

SPEAKER_02 9:52

But don't you guys I miss with CDs, and this is coming back with vinyl, but I miss like opening up the booklet, looking at the lyrics, looking at the name of the band members, the artwork. Oh my gosh. Now it's just a blue cover. Turns out. You know who I'm talking about. Oh yeah. And it's just ridiculous. Now I did get a vinyl album for Christmas from the Devil Wars Prada. Jackson, you got that for me. That was awesome. It had a booklet. It had, I mean, it was like old school. And I sat there and listened to it and looked at the lyrics and everything. That was really cool.

SPEAKER_04 10:28

And that used to be something you would take to a show and try to get it signed.

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yep. Um now what do you do? Take your phone and have them sign your phone? No.

SPEAKER_04 10:36

The other thing I missed was new music always released on Tuesdays and very frequently on Tuesdays. Yeah, it used to be Tuesday, and I would be up at Best Buy pretty much every Tuesday. Again. Tuesday? Yeah. And then you would go up there on Tuesday and go through and see what new music came out.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

I don't know, but and then everyone knows that the third song is the hit.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

The third song is the hit. That used to be the thing. The third song is a hit. And I I think I figured out later that that was because of vinyl. I think because like you have your vinyl, and I think either the third or fourth song is before you flip to the B side. Yeah. And B side is usually like songs that bands don't care about. But then when you when you came to that's why they're called B sides. Yeah. Like some people, some bands released it.

SPEAKER_04 11:27

Some people never flipped it over.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah, some bands release a whole album full of B sides because no one ever listened to them. So now with CDs, everything was the A side. You actually had CDs too that you could flip over.

SPEAKER_04 11:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

Do you remember enhanced media CDs?

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Yes, I do. Those were those were cool.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Enhanced media Cs.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

So you put them in your computer. And there could be extra tracks. There was there video on something.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

Videos, yep.

SPEAKER_04 11:52

Yeah, so that was really cool as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

That is something with vinyls I like. There are sometimes exclusive songs. Yep. Also with DVDs, we're missing out now on comic books.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

Special features. Special features. Glooper reels. Yep. I mean, it's all gone now. But those are it's out there.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

It's out there. You just have to really search for it now, unlike when unlike 20 years ago, where it was more readily available.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

But I mean, Calvin and I, I mean, how many vinyls do you have? Oh, I don't know. Last time I counted, I had 60.

SPEAKER_04 12:27

Wow. Yeah. I'm a fan of digital music. I do think it's very convenient. Um but I think you guys really would have enjoyed it. I had a couple Christmases where I was just, I remember getting cassettes for Christmas. I remember getting CDs for Christmas. I remember um taking birthday money, and every couple years I get a new stereo. You know, it was one of those like the bigger, the better kind of deals.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

Oh, that's what she's talking about.

SPEAKER_04 12:54

When I inherited the 1986 Chevy Nova from my great aunt, I remember going to Circuit City because all it had was an AM radio. I took it to Circuit City, got a CD player installed, and I got speakers put in the back. I mean it was I dedicated a decent amount of my teenage McDonald's paycheck into music.

SPEAKER_02 13:15

Yeah, now you read. But see, this is true. But see, you guys also kind of you guys appreciate music. And a lot of times I don't like listening to it on my phone. I'd rather listen to it in the car because the car stereo sounds better. And then the speakers that we have upstairs with the record player sound a lot better. Stuff coming off your phone, it's digital, it's automatically lower quality. And if it's coming from Spotify, depending on your settings, it's not gonna sound good. On PC, it sounds good. Huh? On PC it sounds good. Your headphones are insane.

SPEAKER_04 13:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

So yeah, anything you're listening to there is gonna be really good.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

But that's definitely something that needs to come back. And it's starting to what's that what did you call it? Oh, physical media. Oh, physical media. Yeah, physical media needs to come back.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:03

Uh, because I collect a lot of it, Calvin does, and our generation is finally starting to see it doesn't all need to be digital. Right.

SPEAKER_04 14:12

I agree, and that was a huge thing since you brought up books. I'm gonna bring up books. When the Kindle came out and ebooks became a thing, there was a whole debate about, you know, is the book dead? Like, are books gonna stop being printed? And they haven't been because there's plenty of people like me. I'll read a book on Kindle once in a while, but my preference is to hold that book in my hand and have that experience. I like looking at the book, I like seeing on my shelves, I like the tangible physical copy. And I I can see the same with music that you would want to have it. It's something that you admire, it's something you're collecting, it's a way to support the artist.

SPEAKER_01 14:53

Um, well, there's something about going into a record shop and flipping through everything they have and just saying.

SPEAKER_04 14:59

That's how I feel about bookstores.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

So I want more record shops.

SPEAKER_04 15:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:05

Number three is a perfect segue here. It's another piece of physical media that I used to really love, and that's magazines. And I don't think you guys now which type of magazines did you like? Come on, Calvin. I'm not talking. Wow, that's what he thinks magazines are for. No, no, thank you, internet. Wow, magazines. Just so I'll let for an example, alternative press. Yeah, I worked there, I'll say it. But you know, bands that you guys liked would be covered by that magazine, and you'd have photos in there that you couldn't get anywhere else. You'd have articles that you couldn't get anywhere else, and it was just really cool to see who was going to be on the cover, to collect them. You could put stuff up on your wall that you couldn't get anywhere else except for this magazine. And some of the magazines weren't even sold in stores, so you had to get a subscription, you had to wait, you know, it was like the anticipation of getting it every month. It was really cool, and I really, really, really miss that because now you go online and you might get one picture in an article.

SPEAKER_03 16:13

We'll see it.

Liner Notes, Tuesday Releases, And B‑Sides

SPEAKER_01 16:14

We'll see. That's the problem. Magazines are only good if the media is good, if what they're talking about is good, and most of the media today is garbage.

SPEAKER_02 16:24

Yeah, but I'm talking this that's a great point, and that's why I like magazines because you can have all your niche categories. You don't have to go on one media source, which is what you're talking about, and scour through all the crap to get something that you like. You're gonna get uh Metal Legends magazine, and you're gonna like 50% of the stuff in there.

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Well, I even have two magazines of my own. When Ozzy Passate Rolling Stone came out with one, that one was good. Then Alice Cooper, when he made the new album with his old band, he came out with a magazine. A lot of magazines came out because of that. And I've bought you guys magazines before. Like I've yeah, I got you that uh Muppets one.

SPEAKER_04 17:05

They are expensive. Wait, how much? Magazines. 20 bucks a piece. Yeah, they can be, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

So they used to be$3.99. Yeah. Because they would produce so many.

SPEAKER_04 17:14

And the demand just isn't there for them anymore. You know, people go online and read the article. Yep. But again, there's something about the magazine. And I was wondering if we had, I see we have these um entertainment weekly um covers, but remember when, you know, I don't know if who remembers when the Office ones came out and they had the different covers, and then you were trying to collect all the covers.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

And we got all of them. Um I don't know where they are, but we have them.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

We have them, they're somewhere around here. Um, you know, so they were they were a collector's item as well.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

But that's the same thing on those Walking Dead movies. It's all it's four covers, and you want to collect them all, and it's really cool.

SPEAKER_04 17:50

And it was also the thing that you did. I I tend to think of magazines, also I associate them with the dentist office because I spent a lot of time there as a kid. But, you know, when you were in waiting rooms and things, you didn't have a phone, you flipped through a magazine. That was just the socially acceptable way to pass time waiting.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah, and always loved like great covers. There's you know, National Geographic, even if you're not into like all that stuff, you're into the imagery.

SPEAKER_04 18:22

It's the pictures were always incredible.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

Yes, they were top-notch, and now you just don't get that stuff anymore. And I've there is at uh Barnes and Noble, which I hate that place, but there is a magazine section there, and that's kind of where you have to go now. But it's so expensive. I would never buy one.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

It's exp it's expensive, but you know, you used to be able to buy magazines anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah. I mean, comic books are still a thing. That's the thing I'm glad that hasn't gone away is comic books. We're not gonna really talk much about comic books, but you know, you still have comic shops, you still have comic books. They're still a huge fan of the streets. Yeah, they haven't gone completely online.

SPEAKER_04 19:00

Yeah, because I think again, the there's something about those visuals that turning them digital just completely alters the experience.

DVDs, Special Features, And Collecting

SPEAKER_01 19:09

That takes away everything from it. And comic books, depend look, depending on what you get, aren't usually that expensive. Now, if you want some type of variant or something, yeah, it's gonna cost a couple hundred bucks or thousands.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:23

But if you want to just go into a comic shop and just grab a normal comic book, it's four bucks. Right, because they're still producing a ton of them.

SPEAKER_02 19:31

Number four, blockbuster. Make it a blockbuster.

SPEAKER_04 19:35

I was just about to say that. I remember our first date. Our first date, we went to Stancato's for dinner, and then we went to Blockbuster.

SPEAKER_02 19:46

And did it in the back. Whoa! Just kidding. We didn't. We didn't. What movie did you do?

SPEAKER_04 19:50

We didn't even touch each other. I don't even remember what movie we did.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Why are you gonna say it like that? We didn't even touch each other.

SPEAKER_04 19:56

Because it was the first date.

SPEAKER_02 19:59

Oh my gosh, it was the first date. Listen, we went to Blockbuster, nothing happened to Blockbuster.

SPEAKER_04 20:05

I don't remember what we got, though.

SPEAKER_02 20:07

I was gonna say, what movie was it?

SPEAKER_04 20:08

I don't remember. But Blockbuster, you rented movies. So you could go in, and it's just like in in um the well, you guys haven't seen the holiday have I'm trying to think of a Stranger Things Family Video. Yes, yes. Or like King of Queens when uh Okay, yeah, I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

I get it. Yeah. But to be fair, I this is gonna sound real Gen Z, but I prefer the convenience of being able to just go on my TV and rent. I agree.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

I don't want to travel five miles and waste some gas just to get a DVD.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

So you want to sit there for an hour and a half on your couch, on your dairy air, trying to pick something.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Now, look, that's the only downside of it being digital.

SPEAKER_04 20:56

I see both sides of it because it's super convenient. And also, you know, the the downside of Blockbuster was the new movies, like you had to get there right when they opened or as they were putting stuff on the shelf because they would be gone. So you were limited by whatever they had on the shelf when you got there. On the other hand, you saw movies on the shelves that maybe you hadn't heard of before. It was your one of your main ways to get exposed to different movies and different genres. Uh-oh, I didn't know this actor was in this.

SPEAKER_02 21:29

So if something I was gonna say, if something wasn't there that you wanted, all the other hits are in the other sections. The new release walls were the first to go.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Um see, that's where I think record stores today could come in. Because I've seen a lot of places uh such as record stores, even just collectible shops where they have old VHS tapes of old movies, DVDs. And even though I wouldn't buy one, I still look through to see what there is. I even Saw an Uncle Buck VHS tape somewhere at one time. And I could appreciate that, but I have no way to play it.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

Yeah.

Blockbuster Culture Vs Streaming Convenience

SPEAKER_02 22:05

So do you know why they started places like Blockbuster and Family Video? They didn't have the internet. Well, keep that thought in mind. But when they when there was a VHS, you had VHS and you had beta. Okay. And when that was early on, when they would put a Hollywood movie onto a VHS, they would charge upwards of$200 a piece. Damn. So what they did was they started places like Blockbuster where Blockbuster would order six of them and then rent them out.

SPEAKER_00 22:40

Six or seven of them?

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Yeah, six or seven of them. Please, we need to end that now. Just we need to start an online petition. So then, I mean, obviously, once it came down in price, people could buy them, but Blockbuster was already a thing and people liked it. It was, it was like a part of culture and people loved it.

SPEAKER_04 22:57

Yeah, it was it was part of the activity was going and picking something out and figuring out, you know, and then you also, you know, then you were committed. When you got home, you knew what you were gonna watch. This was what you what you got at Blockbuster. It was already decided. There was no, you know, sitting there scrolling and no argument, debate, trying to find something.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 23:18

You already had it, you played it.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

Um it was to me, it was a lot better. I love streaming services. I love especially Amazon Prime and being able to basically rent any movie that we want anytime. Even the other night for my birthday, we watched a movie called Sunshine. No one had ever heard of it. It was out in 2007. Looked it up, there it is, you rent it, and you're able to watch it. I love that. I love no commercials, all that stuff. But Blockbuster is something that I do miss. Also, you were able to rent video games there.

SPEAKER_04 23:50

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:51

So for kids like me. Well, what about GameStop? Oh, you can't rent. But you can't get it. GameStop sucks. Yeah, but see, if you rent, and and this was, I know we didn't have a lot of money growing up, and this, so this wasn't just like a thing my parents would tell me to get me over that, but you rent the game. You play it, you play it, you beat it, you take it back, and you take it back.

SPEAKER_04 24:14

Instead of spending sixty-some dollars on something that you're gonna never play again.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

When's the last time you bought a game? I don't know. Yeah, exactly. See, now there's games like Fortnite where it's all in-app purchases.

SPEAKER_04 24:28

Yeah. Or you're just paying some kind of monthly fee to get access to all kinds of different things, as opposed to just, you know, forking over a good chunk of change for one game. Yeah. Blockbuster, I think, I get why you guys don't see the appeal of that at all. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

It's not that I see the appeal, but the convenience outweighs it. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

I I agree. I think for us that really is sort of a nostalgia thing. It was part of the date. It was part of the theory.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Culture has just changed so much to where Blockbuster just got.

SPEAKER_04 25:00

Oh yeah. Well, it was, you know, and Netflix. I mean, I remember, man, when Netflix came out, that was Netflix is is expensive though, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 25:09

No.

SPEAKER_04 25:10

Not no. And I mean, I remember when Netflix was the three, the three DVDs. You can get up to the DVDs. When it went streaming, holy.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

Wait, do you guys understand what Netflix was to start? So my gosh. So Netflix, you got DVDs in the mail and these little red packages.

SPEAKER_04 25:30

You went online and you had a queue. It's just like the way Kelly Kapoor explains it. And I go, click, click, click. Remember when she tells Ryan how and they bet on it how long it's gonna take her to explain Netflix?

SPEAKER_02 25:40

So you get three in the mail, right? Yeah. You watch them when you're done, you send them back. Once you send them back, they send you three more.

SPEAKER_04 25:46

Whatever's next in your queue, then they would mail it to you. What the f heck no. And that was like$9.99 a month or something.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

I'd rather go to Blockbuster. Yeah, seriously. But they almost died when they were gonna turn to streaming. They were gonna separate the company into two, and people lost their minds.

SPEAKER_04 26:05

Well, and then they had both for a while. You could have the streaming or you could have the DVDs.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

And also Blockbuster did the same thing. Blockbuster had a streaming service and the DVD thing, but theirs never panned out.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

Never panned out. All right, number five is flip phones. When a phone used to be just a phone. Yeah. And I I would love to go back to that. Eh, I'm gay. When a phone was is what do you need your phone for the I mean, other than being a phone?

SPEAKER_01 26:41

Can you send text messages on a flip phone?

SPEAKER_02 26:45

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

What what T9? Okay, so there are two things.

SPEAKER_02 26:48

You can, it's just really hard.

SPEAKER_04 26:50

The the one one of the major things I would miss going back to a flip phone is I'm really gonna age myself here, but anytime you needed directions and you had to go to map quests and you had to print them out.

SPEAKER_00 27:02

Wait, can you FaceTime? No. There was no video.

SPEAKER_04 27:06

No, I mean they had they barely had a camera, Calvin.

Netflix By Mail To Streaming Shift

SPEAKER_00 27:10

I mean, it was terrible. Nope, I'm not nope, I would never go back to the camera.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Did you really just ask, can a flip phone face? Oh, period.

SPEAKER_04 27:19

No, listen, mom's right about the directions because I'm GPS in your phone to me is one of the best things ever. I remember having a print map quest directions. You're trying to drive, you're trying to read, it's dark. Awful. So I would miss that. Um and yet texting again.

SPEAKER_02 27:39

Really tough.

SPEAKER_04 27:41

Very tough. Um other than that, you really just had a very big separation between when you wanted to go online, you went to the computer, you connected to the internet first, when you had dial-up, you had to connect, you had to make sure no one else was on the phone, and you had to connect, and it was a very intentional action, one person at a time. And your phone was just your phone.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yep. I remember one time specifically, it was something for a photography job I had. I had map quest directions printed out, and it was to the wrong place, or they weren't there anymore. And I had to call Rachel and she had to read me directions over the phone. Oh my gosh. Because how else was I gonna find it? Yeah, was I gonna get like I didn't have a map, I wasn't that analog. Yeah, it was ridiculous. But I think the phones have taken us to a a place, uh a bad place. Being connected to the internet constantly, 100% of the time, we're we're glued to our phones too much, uh, attention spans are gone away. I heard two people at the barbershop both say the the one kid was like, I always got my phone out all the time during movies, and the and the girl said, I cannot do anything without a separate distraction like my phone.

Flip Phones, GPS, And Attention Spans

SPEAKER_04 29:02

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And now, I mean, now they're making those brick devices and and it's it's become an addiction. And really, I mean, the reason I initially got a flip phone, I was 16, and um I Office Max used to sell cell phones and that I worked there at the time, so that's why I bought a phone, and I really had it mostly for emergencies. Like I think it my parents were okay with it because I paid for it, it was very much not cheap. Um, but I paid for it and it was a safety, yeah, sprint, and it was a safety thing, you know. But having the phone.

SPEAKER_01 29:39

I understand where we've gone too far with cell phones, but it's not phones that have gone too far, it's people. I mean, I feel better about myself after you said that because I hate it when people get on their phones at the movies. Oh god. Because I'm paying attention to the movie. I don't need uh what do I need my phone for?

SPEAKER_00 29:57

I don't think we should feel bad because it's like they wasted their money. I mean, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 30:02

It's just it's just a weird thing that people are doing now. And but you gotta understand, this is one of the reasons I say that we've gone too far with phones, is because companies are literally out there trying to get you addicted to it. So all the apps are trying to get you addicted, all of the games and everything, it's trying to get you addicted to that screen, it's trying to make you feel bad so it can bring you back up and take you back down. It's ruining our psyche. And I know you guys are are young, and I think you guys are diligent about trying not to let this happen, but be careful because it'll be like anything else. You'd be like, well, not me, not me. But I'm telling you, I think too. It's just it's it's bad, it's bad.

SPEAKER_04 30:49

And I think one of the bigger things that I notice, and I'm sure you do too, is like I brought up earlier about like looking at magazines in a waiting room. We're to a point in society where we can't ever just do nothing. If you're in line at the grocery store, look at the people around you. They're not just unless their arms are full, and even then they probably have earbuds in and they're listening to something or they're talking to somebody. Um, but very rarely do you ever see people just standing there waiting, not on their phone. Yeah. We can't sit through traffic lights without being, and that is the thing I think that is most scary, is that we we just have to be again, it it's addiction. I have to be constantly on this device and I can't wait.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Yeah. Oh. Next up is something that I don't know if the boys have ever heard of. It was something called TRL Total Request Live. Now, what this was is it was on MTV every day, every weekday. Is it MTV like canceled now? There is no more than it hasn't been on MTV for a while, but thank God Total Request Live was hosted by Carson Daly, and it was the top 10 videos of the day.

SPEAKER_03 32:02

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

So and it was and they had they had guests on there, they had a live studio audience, they had live performances. So, like if a band um had been on the top 10 videos for like so many weeks, they would come on there and they would perform the song or something. It was really cool. I I really did enjoy it, and it had a wide mix of music. Yeah, it wasn't like a radio station where it'd be like all pop, all rock, all metal. It was a wide rate, whatever was top 10 on MTV, it was on Total Request Live. Carson Daly was a great host. He actually still now works for uh Good Morning America. I mean, he's he's just a great host all around. Um yeah, and it was something you could also do with your friends. Watch it.

SPEAKER_01 32:52

There's nothing even close to that that's going on today. I mean, even late night television today sucks. When was the last time you actually sat down to watch an episode of just random random host, Jimmy Fallon? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

Because people watch it the next day via clips on TikTok or YouTube.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

That's that's all it is. To be fair about that, though, those are the most entertaining parts. I've tried watching a full episode of Jimmy Fallon.

SPEAKER_04 33:20

It's boring as heck.

SPEAKER_01 33:22

Yeah. I don't care. But TI Is it boring though, or is it your attention span? No, I can watch a full episode, but I don't feel I don't get anything out of it. I don't go, oh, that was worth watching. Okay. Unless they get a really good guest. Well, that's the thing about and it's so subjective.

SPEAKER_02 33:39

Well, that's the thing about those shows is if the guest and the musical guest or the guest that's on, you like them, you're gonna be more engaged. I think people just usually would put that on at night before they go to sleep. Yeah. They may pay attention to a little bit of it.

TRL, Late Night TV, And Shared Culture

SPEAKER_04 33:53

Again, it was something you have to understand that I think I think that late night TV was a substitute for like our phones have substituted that out now. You know, there were things like you watched the news, you watched late night TV, you watched TRL to know what all the new music was. Like you didn't have the internet and you didn't have social media. So it was it was a way to stay in tune with what was going on in the world. It was a way to stay in tune with what new stuff was happening, with what was happening in pop culture. Those were your outlets, those were your sources.

SPEAKER_01 34:30

No, we just have social media and stuff that it's that's why it's hard.

SPEAKER_02 34:36

It's harder to find bands now, it's harder for bands to break out. In some way, it's easier for bands to break out, but not really. You could get lost in the shuffle.

SPEAKER_04 34:45

The technology has made it a lot easier for bands to you know make, produce, record, release albums for sure. But then the market is also flooded now.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

Well, technology has ruined music, in my personal opinion, because now it's all you know about the production and you know the money and the popularity and stuff, and no one really seems to care about the music aspect about it. Because if I hear it's just personal opinion, Sabrina Carpenter, is she real music?

SPEAKER_02 35:15

No, no, now the people that make her music are real musicians. Is she? Nope. No, she is she's a pop star. Next up is AOL Instant Messenger, also known as AIM. That's how we first talked.

SPEAKER_01 35:30

We have text messaging. Yeah, we have text.

SPEAKER_02 35:32

We have text messaging now. Why do we need AOL? Because you don't need to be messaging people 24 hours a day.

SPEAKER_04 35:37

I actually Googled this to try to understand why people miss AIM. And the answer I found is that people don't like always being available. When again, like I was talking before about you intentionally went online, you intentionally signed into AOO and St Messenger, and when you were away, you had an away message. And of course, that was all you know very personal, whatever. And so you were kind of judged on your away message status or whatever. But now when somebody calls or texts, you're expected to answer. Yep. There's there is no I can't talk now. I'm at work, I'm at school, I'm driving, I'm watching a movie. We have made ourselves available 24-7. And I think it is for some of us exhausting.

SPEAKER_01 36:35

Is was AOL on your phone? No. No. So just your computer.

SPEAKER_04 36:40

Yeah.

unknown 36:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

See, not too much.

SPEAKER_04 36:42

That was how you talk to people.

SPEAKER_01 36:45

Because how would that even work today with your phone? How would AOL work? Maybe they should add maybe they should add a feature on your phone for messages where when you're well, that's that was what you pointed out was you can actually have a way message statuses on top of the phone.

SPEAKER_02 37:04

I don't think people use it.

SPEAKER_04 37:05

No. But it's just that whole idea of again, we I don't think people want to bring AIM back and use it today. I think people are just nostalgic for a period of time when you weren't always expected to answer your phone and answer your messages right away.

SPEAKER_02 37:21

But but if I want to have like a conversation with a friend, I can go on it. I'm like, you know, we could have it on AIM. When it's over, I'm gonna be like, I'll talk to you later. And I sign off. Conversation's over. Done. So it's like a phone call in text. Texting, there's nothing stopping that person from continuing to text you for the next 10 hours, even though you don't respond.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 37:44

And that sucks. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

The only part about texting I hate is when someone texts you, you text back, you text again, and then they stop. Yes. Well, okay, so that's rude. That's rude. Why? Don't text me then unless you're completely available. Or you that's like giving me a bite of a Kit Kat bar and then taking it away from me. Hey, I was gonna finish that.

AIM, Away Messages, And Boundaries

SPEAKER_02 38:09

That's rude. Well, especially if someone's texting you back and forth a couple of times and you're having a conversation and then they stop completely. Rude as hell. It just says delivered.

unknown 38:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:20

Well, even if it says sometimes it says red.

SPEAKER_04 38:23

Yeah, and they don't they don't respond.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

They still don't respond. It's like, what stopped you from responding? We were having a conversation.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

And it's funny because I think that most people would agree there is some sort of um social etiquette around text messaging.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

There should be.

SPEAKER_04 38:39

But not everybody honors it or respects it or treats it the same way. So that's why sometimes texting is great for like, I've got a quick question, yes or no, boom, I did not need to call you for that. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

I I agree.

SPEAKER_04 38:53

But if you're having a conversation over text, if that's how it's practically playing out, then you need to say something before you just ghost them.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Because if we talked, if we interacted in real life, like we texted, oh my gosh. People are so screwed because, hey, how are you doing? I'm doing great. I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

No, they should turn it around. Okay, I'm back. I just had to help my mom out with the dishes. Yeah, exactly. I mean, you would have to be.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

BRB, I gotta eat. Yeah, you wouldn't walk away from someone mid-conversation.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

BRB, I gotta use a bathroom text. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:32

So text does have some flaws. Maybe AOL should be brought back, but on our modern day phones somehow, if that could be made possible.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

Just take advantage of some of the features that are there that people don't use because they they think they always need to be available. You know, and you can actually set those around people you want to be always available for. Like I can make sure you can always reach me and you guys can always reach me, but everyone else I could say only during these times.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

Yeah. I think people have too much uh FOMO. And that's that's what prevents people from putting more guardrails.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

What does FOMO stand for? Guess right now, go. Oh, wait, I know it's fear of missing out. See, yeah, I I bonus question. Six seven. Bonus question. What was your AL instant messenger name, the last one you had? Do you remember?

SPEAKER_04 40:21

Ari Gabe, probably.

SPEAKER_02 40:23

Oh, mine was Frozen City 7. Gabe.

SPEAKER_04 40:26

Where was that from? I don't.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Yeah, why was it Frozen City? Because I wrote a song called Frozen City. It was kind of a big deal. Like those how many songs have you written, Calvin? Nine. Thank you. All right. Number eight. Eight. Couch co-op gaming. And that means like you had Nintendo, your friends came over, you had hopefully more than one controller. Because if you didn't, no one else could play. But you could probably play up to a lot of them were four players at a time.

SPEAKER_04 40:59

Split screen.

SPEAKER_02 41:00

Maybe six to seven. Probably the most popular one was Nintendo 64, and it was uh Goldeneye. Do you remember Goldeneye? No. Yep. Goldeneye was very popular because it was like the first, like one of the first on Nintendo first-person shooter games.

SPEAKER_04 41:16

What do you guys think about stop gaming?

SPEAKER_00 41:19

I mean, it's cool, but I don't know. I like gaming online. No, I think gaming online is better. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

Why?

SPEAKER_04 41:30

In what way?

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Like Well, you get to play with people like I mean, if they don't live in your neighborhood. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:37

Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:38

You know, kaboom, he lives like far away, right? But I still get to play with him.

SPEAKER_04 41:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Okay.

Couch Co‑Op Vs Online Gaming

SPEAKER_04 41:44

And I do think, I think we saw that especially during the pandemic, all of the pros to online gaming and online community and finding a way to connect with people who share your interests and all of that. What I think the downside is though, is that we have allowed that to replace, completely replace a lot of in-person socializing, whether it's gaming or book clubs or whatever. We're all doing it online now and never in the same room with anybody.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

A lot of these technological advancements aren't bad. We just overuse them. We abuse them. I agree. That's the main problem.

SPEAKER_02 42:23

Yeah, I think with gaming online, it is there is some really big advantages and and good things that can come out of it. I think it's these kids, like I was joking earlier, but yeah, they just they sit in their room, all they do is they're online constantly, there's no social interaction, and when there's time to be social interaction, they have no idea like what to do.

SPEAKER_00 42:48

Something that kids should learn when they're gaming, limit yourself. Like, don't play all day, play for like one to two hours and then get off. Okay, I think. And another advantage with online gaming is like if a new game comes out and you go to GameStop and it's not there, you can just buy it online.

SPEAKER_02 43:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 43:06

So well, on gaming online, I'm not a gamer, so I really don't have much to say about this, but as of recently, games look so much better than they used to. Oh yeah. But that vintage look of older games still, I'm there's still a lot of uniqueness to that.

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Yeah, but you could still do what you could do back then with PlayStation and with Xbox, with the newest versions and even with PCs. Like there's kids that will get together, they'll take their PC setup to somebody's house and they'll do a network game in the house. There's still people that do that. You can still do that, but now it's just people think I can just do it online. I don't have to leave my house. I'd rather do that. That's not a good mindset to have. That's not a good mindset to have. I understand like having friends across the country and you want to hang out with them.

SPEAKER_03 43:59

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

A little bit different than what we're talking about. There's some people that they're online all day, they don't, and they talk to maybe the same people all they they don't consider any of them friends. These are just people they play games with online. See, I consider my friends my actual friends. Right. I understand that. I understand that. Um, number nine is okay. I think we can we have number nine, teen movies. Teen movies.

SPEAKER_04 44:30

Teen comedy movies. You guys don't even know what that is. So teen comedy movies were a huge thing in the 90s and the early 2000s, and some of them were rather raunchy. You had American Pie, you had Super Bad. But the more I thought about it, you had Napoleon Dynamite, you had Juno, you had Orange County. These were movies, they were written for teens. They were they starred teens in teen situations dealing with teenager problems.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

They're coming of age movies.

SPEAKER_04 45:08

Coming of age movies. And I think right now what you see in the coming of age movie categories is they're not comedies.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

Oh, high school musical.

SPEAKER_04 45:17

I guess all the coming of age things are really, they a lot of them seem very serious. They're they're more romantic.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Or they're not realistic.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Right.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

They make you not they make you not want to grow up.

SPEAKER_04 45:32

Yeah. And and but but like the teen comedy movie, they were funny and they were just things you could relate to. They were Jack Black. They were, you know, I I They're just gone.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Now everything we have is a remake or a rehash or a sequel. Or it's a pre-screen.

The Vanishing Teen Comedy

SPEAKER_04 45:49

Or it's some kind of, you know, it's based on some sort of YA romance novel. I was trying to think of something newer that I had seen, you know. So I think Netflix has The Summer I Turned Pretty and all that, but that's I cannot think of a movie that's been made in the last five years that's like Orange County.

SPEAKER_03 46:06

Oh no. No.

SPEAKER_04 46:08

A very underrated performance by Catherine O'Hara, by the way. Like if you have not seen Orange County, you need to again go.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

I've never seen it.

SPEAKER_04 46:15

Hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 46:16

It's written by Mike White, who wrote School of Rock, and he also did a lot, he's done he's written a lot of other movies and shows, including The White Lotus. I think that was, I think he created White Lotus.

SPEAKER_04 46:27

You got Colin Hanks, you got John Lithgau, you got Catherine O'Hara, you got Jack Black.

SPEAKER_00 46:33

Who's Colin Hanks?

SPEAKER_04 46:34

Tom Hanks' son.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Oh, okay. See, I he was in the Jumanji movie. What?

SPEAKER_04 46:40

Wasn't he? Yes. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 46:43

Yes. Anyway. But Calvin. You always don't know names. You still have not learned. Just because you don't know a name. You're like, who? They must not be anyone because I haven't heard of them. No, I don't think like that. When were they born? Are they dead? Are they dead?

SPEAKER_04 47:00

Yeah. But I I think this is something that's missing is the teen comedy. But you know, like I said, there's not all the movies that come out that today that are funny, um, they're either incredibly raunchy or they're just not actually funny. Yeah, they're not.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

You can't make simple jokes anymore. Everyone gets offended by everything. And that's starting to like kind of pour over into comedy movies and movies in general. It's like uh good fortune with the Z's and Seth Rogan. Disappointing, terrible, so many opportunities, and they just miss the movie. Seth Rogan's new show, The Studio. Every other word is the F-word. And it's like, I'm cool with some F words in a movie, it's fine. But when you start talking like that, it's like this is stupid. And then you're then these people will try to tell you that's how people talk. Where?

SPEAKER_04 47:53

Yeah. Not in, I mean, I not in my circles, they don't.

SPEAKER_02 47:57

This is really stupid. Yeah. Uh, and one thing, the last thing on our list is something you guys missed out on big time. Uh is TGIF.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 48:08

On ABC's on Friday night, you had the TGIF lineup, which was uh Fool House, Family Matters, Hanging with Mr. Cooper.

SPEAKER_04 48:18

Step by step.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

Step by step, and then I mean Perfect Strangers was in there at some point, Fool House was in there at some point. Did I say Fool House?

SPEAKER_04 48:25

You did, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:26

I'm trying to think of it. It did change a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 48:28

Boy Meets World.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

Boy Meets World was in there, yes.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Um it was like a streaming service?

SPEAKER_04 48:32

No, it was just it they called it, it was a block of time. I think it was from We didn't have any streaming, anything streaming. Oh, was it from 8 to 10 p.m. usually? Yep. And that was TGIF, and it was a block of shows.

SPEAKER_02 48:44

Like four shows. Camera.

SPEAKER_04 48:46

And they were geared towards like, you know, families, but like also teams, like Boy Meets World.

SPEAKER_00 48:52

Okay. Um see now try doing that today with like shows from Netflix. That would be terrible. It'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 49:01

That would be terrible. The main problem is that no no one's making anything original, and the writing is garbage.

TGIF And Weekly Appointment Viewing

SPEAKER_04 49:10

I don't think dad and I are sitting here saying TGIF was like comedy gold. But the point was is that when you were a teenager, these were the shows that everyone was watching. They were coming out once a week, and you tried to watch TGIF, and you knew you kind of reached a point. I think it was really like middle schoolers, because once you got older and then you got a job. You know, I started working Friday nights, you had ban practice, you started missing out, and then it was like, well, I don't know what's going on on Boymeets World anymore. Because I remember that you know, you couldn't, if you didn't watch it live, everyone would spoil it for you. That was the other thing.

SPEAKER_01 49:48

And that maybe we need something such as that today because that was a pretty difficult thing for me to do with my peer group in middle school is to relate to what they were watching or what they were doing.

SPEAKER_04 50:00

Wait, did you guys see the new episode of Outer Banks? Like Oh my god. Yeah, TJF at least, it wasn't Disney shows. And in fact, I don't even think Disney shows were a thing at that time, were they?

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Well, I mean, ABC was owned by the company that owns Disney and all this stuff. So it's like it was all intertwined. Um, but there wasn't any Disney shows.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 50:21

We put it.

SPEAKER_01 50:22

But the problem is that what some people consider, you know, uh, you know, what teens watch, and you know, going back to our other point, coming of age movies is stuff like high school musical. I mean, it depends on who you ask. See, and that's just I can't.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Oh, and yay, together. No, we're not.

SPEAKER_02 50:45

No, we're not. No, we're not. High school musical is not a coming of age thing. It's a it's a high school musical. It's a it's basically like an iCarly level show, like that level of but in movie form. And it's a musical. People loved it. So hate on it all you want, which I will continue to do, but people did love it.

SPEAKER_04 51:07

When did that come out? Wasn't it like 2005?

SPEAKER_02 51:10

2000 something.

SPEAKER_01 51:10

Something like that.

SPEAKER_04 51:11

I mean, again, we were getting married at that point.

SPEAKER_01 51:13

So we were I can't. I can't stand it. It must have been 2000 something because Zach Efron had no wrinkles yet. And now he's trying to cover now he's trying to cover everything up with surgery and tanning.

SPEAKER_04 51:26

Oh my word. Look at him now.

SPEAKER_01 51:28

He's he's oh my god. Also, like, isn't he jacked now?

SPEAKER_02 51:32

Like, he's always been I really don't want to talk about Zach Efron. Why don't we go ahead and talk about what was good from this last week?

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Well, the movie we saw today was amazing. Good luck, have fun, don't die. Yeah, it was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 51:47

It was a great movie. Badly it's gonna be underrated.

SPEAKER_01 51:49

Get more coverage. Why we didn't even know it was out! All the times we went to the movies this past year, and they were pushing hoppers and all this.

SPEAKER_00 51:59

And wuthering heights.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

And wuthering heights, and they didn't once mention good luck have fun, don't die.

SPEAKER_00 52:05

No offense to anyone who sees hoppers, bud uh yesak.

SPEAKER_04 52:10

You little kids, bud, little kids.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

But it's just it's a typical story. But animals trying to fight humans. You have to understand That's not original.

SPEAKER_04 52:21

But you have to understand there's gonna there's a group of people out there with young kids who are gonna be looking for something to do and they're gonna be the ones to go see it.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

And maybe a couple Disney adults who Wait, why did we talk about my birthday at the beginning if we were talking about terrible stuff at the beginning?

SPEAKER_04 52:35

Well, we couldn't think of anything terrible. Oh, because he said Chipotle. And then that spiraled into your birthday. So your birthday was not terrible, your birthday was awesome. So that was something really good this week. Chipotle was a good one. And then yeah, I'm with the Chipotle, it was really good. And then yeah, I'm on board with the movie we saw today. Was I mean, it was funny, it was entertaining. The story was really the story was unique, it was good pacing, it was good acting. I I I want to watch it again.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

You also had some gory type moments without being too much.

SPEAKER_04 53:06

Yeah, yeah.

Weekly Wins: Movie Shoutout And Themes

SPEAKER_01 53:07

It was a good blend of everything. The fact that it didn't get more recognition or coverage makes me so angry.

SPEAKER_04 53:14

It was definitely, if you watch that movie, you will understand our taste. I think that's what you said. It was a movie that like suited us very well because uh each one of us had something about it that we really liked. I mean, we all kind of have strong, we all definitely have strong opinions, but we all have different tastes and stuff. But that type of movie that's gonna tick a box for every single one of us.

SPEAKER_01 53:41

And it's the only movie where you get to see Sam Rockwell punch a nine-year-old.

SPEAKER_04 53:46

Hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 53:46

Spoiler alert. I mean, the reason it's gonna be underrated is because it had a very serious underlying message that's a very true thing. And it's a lot of what we talked about today about people on their devices too much, AI, AI, addiction, addiction. It was all there, and people don't want to hear that. I mean, but the people that are reviewing it, it's got great rotten tomatoes, it's got a great IMDB score. And I thought it was really good. Usually I'm walking out of movies lately saying that could have been 30 minutes shorter or something like that. This was this was I really liked it. Had good twists. I like talking about all the different things that we don't have anymore. But I think we need to have another episode soon where it's the opposite. What has technology made worse or just ruined completely? Yeah. Because there is so much, so much out there. What's one real quick? What's one thing technology's made worse? Go. The news, media, yep.

SPEAKER_04 54:47

Yeah, the news, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

Subscriptions. Everything is a subscription, and I'm I'm sick of paying for everything. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

You know what? Technology has made music worse, and I don't I don't know if this has anything to do with the technology, but when bands announce a new album and you have to wait 100 days. Oh my god. I remember DGD announcing their new album, Pantheon, and I had to wait four months.

SPEAKER_02 55:14

And that has ruined it for you because before you wouldn't even have known how long you had to wait.

SPEAKER_04 55:20

Yeah.

What Tech Has Made Worse

SPEAKER_02 55:21

And then you would it would have made it better because it would just been out of sight, out of mind. Now it's like, here's when it's coming out, and you're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 55:28

You know what? That is what technology has ruined. It has ruined the uh the how to word it, but like the stumbling upon new things.

SPEAKER_03 55:39

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 55:40

You always know what's coming. There's no wandering into the store and being like, oh, I didn't know about this. We know about everything.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

Yeah. And that sucks, and that is relatively terrible.