Thje 1970s and ’80s were a gloriously goofy time. Here are 35 pop culture references from that time and the answers as to where they came from:
1. “Are you calling me a pussy communist?”
G.D. Spradlin played a lot of heavies, and he was a mean redneck sheriff in the 1984 James Garner movie “Tank.” The line comes after Spradlin demands that the military help him arrest Garner and the commanding officer tells him about posse comitatis. Spradlin mishears him.
If you wonder what G.D. stands for, it’s Gervase Duan. And along with Jason Robards and Tom Hanks, Spradlin actually played Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in a movie — 1999’s “Dick.”
2. “Dinosaur Victrola.”
John Fogerty sings of “Dinosaur Victrola, listening to Buck Owens” in the wonderful 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival song “Looking Out My Back Door.”
3. What was Chachi’s last name?
Before he was Charles in Charge or a celebrity Trumpanzee, Scott Baio played Fonzie’s cousin Chachi Arcola on “Happy Days.”
4. What baseball player was most famous for his massive Afro?
Oscar Gamble played a lot of years in the big leagues and hit 200 home runs, but he was best known for his huge head of hair.
5. “There are a lot of mediocre people in this country. They deserve representation too.”
When President Nixon tried to play to Southern racists by nominating G. Harrold Carswell to the Supreme Court, Carswell was attacked as a mediocre judge. Republican Sen. Roman Hruska of Nebraska, no great shakes himself, gave the famous quote. The Senate rejected Carswell.
6. “Fo, fo, fo.”
The 1983 Philadelphia 76ers were dominant en route to the NBA championship. Center Moses Malone predicted they would sweep all three of their best of seven series (fo(ur), fo(ur), fo(ur)). It actually took them 13 games as they lost once in the semifinals.
7. “I hate spunk!”
On the first episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” Mary Richards applies for a TV newsroom job. Editor Lou Grant (Ed Asner) tells Mary she has spunk and Mary smiles sheepishly. “I hate spunk,” he says. She got the job anyway.
8. The killer rabbit.
On April 20, 1979, during a few days of vacation in Georgia, President Carter was fishing in a canoe or rowboat in a pond in his farm, when he saw a swamp rabbit, which Carter later speculated was fleeing from a predator, swimming in the water and making its way towards him, “hissing menacingly, its teeth flashing and nostrils flared, so he reacted by either hitting or splashing water at it to scare it away, and it subsequently went away from him and climbed out of the pond.
9. Who was Bette Midler’s original piano player?
A fellow named Barry Manilow.
10. “I’d purely love to see it angry.”
From the 1970 movie “M*A*S*H,” characters commenting on the Painless Pole, the unit’s dentist with a huge cock.
11. 66-64.
The score of the 1985 NCAA championship game in which Villanova stunned Georgetown in maybe the greatest college basketball game ever.
12. What did Herschel Walker want to be before he wanted to be a football player?
An FBI agent.
13. “A red chariot to take my ass straight to hell!”
Gerrit Graham as Jeff in “Used Cars.” He’s superstitious about driving red cars.
14. Who were George McGovern’s two running mates in 1972?
Thomas Eagleton, replaced by Sargent Shriver.
15. “You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime.”
A line from Al Stewart’s wonderful 1976 song, “Year of the Cat.”
16. Who are the only two vice presidents never to be elected?
Gerald Ford, who replaced Spiro Agnew, and Nelson Rockefeller, who replaced Ford.
17. “… till she’s sitting on your face.”
The uncensored version of the 1979 Knack hit, “Good Girls Don’t.”
18. “No yankee my wankee.”
The line is actually “No more yankee my wankee,” the great Long Duk Dong from “Sixteen Candles.”
19. Name the Brat Packer whose virginity (and loss thereof) was a key plot point in a 1985 movie.
Mare Winningham in “St. Elmo’s Fire.”
20. Who did Jane’s voice in “Greystoke?”
Andie McDowell played Jane, but could not do a believable English accent, so an uncredited Glenn Close did the voice.
21. Oklahoma, the Seahawks and “Stone Cold.”
Perhaps the most overrated, overhyped athlete of the 1980s, Brian Bosworth.
22. “I said get some sleep and dream of rock ‘n’ roll.”
From 1973, “Chevy Van.”
23. Who were Nixon’s “twin Germans?”
John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman.
24. William Marshall, in the movie and its sequel.
Marshall played Blacula in two blaxploitation vampire movies.
25. “No grinding!”
This is kind of a cheat, an inside joke. In 1971-2, two friends and I used to go clubbing several times a week. They were both named Chris — one male and one female — and when they would slow dance together, female Chris had to remind male Chris, “No grinding!”