That 80s Show SA

Milli Vanilli, Young MC and C+C Music Factory - ultimate 80s party playlist - or the latest artists to feud with Donald Trump? Someone needs to stop. Collaborate. And listen. Divorce became a really hot topic in the 80s, and who better to navigate kids through it than one of TV's favourite dads? And a floating ghost from Masters of the Universe. Some 80s songs didn't mean what you think th...

Corey Feldman falls ill on a flight and makes the news — conveniently just a week before releasing new music for the first time in years. He has our attention. We imagine John Stamos with Michael Jackson's nose, and Paulo finds a movie that just may send him to hell. Dori picks Paulo's next movie to review. It doesn't involve a lady whipping fight, but it does travel to 2017 in search...

Dori tried to watch the Kylie documentary on Netflix but gave up the moment she saw Jason Donovan and his amazing, not technicolour — spray-on leather pants. Danny Pintauro, AKA Jonathan from Who's the Boss? , has a new project with Amazon, and Balki turns into a d*ck when he puts on a pair of deck shoes. The names of Masters of the Universe toys sounded so made up, so Paulo made some up, whic...

The ultimate 80s weekend outing was pointless if it didn’t include a stop at Santarama Miniland. But Jan van Riebeeck’s Lilliputian empire has crumbled — and it’s given Paulo an idea for a very specific, very tiny heist. Naturally, it somehow involves Michael Jackson. And because we said “Michael Jackson” three times in a row, we accidentally summoned Corey Feldman. Unfortunately, we seem to be th...

What’s up, docs? Culture Club, Knight Rider and Kylie Minogue all get their own documentaries — will we find out if Michael Knight had a bonnet as smooth as K.I.T.T.'s? And what does it have to do with Optimus Prime reading a cake recipe? In the 80s, we’d watch almost anything, yet somehow we missed shows like The Powers of Matthew Star, Supertrain, We Got It Made, Manne­tjie and Man met ’n Ja...

The Michael Jackson biopic has hit the big screen — Dori wants scandal, Paulo just wants to know who plays Bubbles. One thing we must know by now is that when you say Michael Jackson’s name three times in a row, you’ll summon impersonator extraordinaire Corey Feldman — with his trusty sheer shirt allowing the world to see his disappointingly tiny nipples. That’s not the only thing he has in common...

More llamas per minute than a Falcon Crest binge-watch, Paulo’s latest obsession covers semi-nude photo shoots, Urban Dictionary definitions, and a movie about breakdancing, graffiti, and rapping — in which Lorenzo does none of the three. But before we get to #LamLear, Paulo found Hell — and it’s in the Namib Desert, where the rains are certainly not blessed. We reveal a man who is part historian,...

Paulo takes Dori on a tour of fictional ’80s hospitals, where the nurses were snarky and the doctors were Doogie. We take a look at Phil Collins now as he spends another day in paradise called the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We have a new favourite ’80s power couple who find love over 30 years after they were pin-ups, and Dori shares her rider in case she ever gets stuck down a well. We look at TV...

We’re breaking format like Chuck Norris broke teeth, as we take a moment to remember the man who had his own line of “Action Jeans.” The perfect jeans for karate kick slap action. With 13 movies in the 80s alone and a projected on-screen body count of over 400, Chuck Norris was a star long before he became the world’s deadliest meme. But because Paulo loves a good lie, there’s still time for a rou...

LEVEL ORANGE ALERT – Noël Opperman has crossed the Pretoria border and is soiling our new couch. He’s here to tell us about the latest edition of The Retro Fair and how he wanted to be Madonna’s boy toy. Paulo is apparently in a sitcom with Tony Danza, while Dori offers to replace Noël’s water-damaged Scope magazines. Michael Jackson was in the dark with a two-headed dwarf, Paulo watched an ’80s v...

Dori is back from her 80s cruise and we find out how she didn’t waste a single sway(ze), met the Mattress Brothers, and hear about the scariest thing in her cabin. Corey Feldman is a free man, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t give you hives. And while we find out that he won’t be on stage at the Oscars, he might just be popping up in a seat next to some celebs. We look at things from the 80s that...

Vanilla Ice is back in the charts and he just wants to dance — and for a podcast that can’t play music, there sure is a lot of singing. We discover the original He-Man theme song, and somehow it leads us directly to Michael Jackson and E.T. How much is too much for 20 minutes of CDogg and John, Paul, Ringo and George taking us on a journey into the mind of a young Dori? Michael McDonald is too bea...

How did a German Italo-disco song by two men named Hayo get Paulo banned from the internet? Spoiler… it involves the numbers 6 and 9. Dori is going on a cruise, but she’s not allowed to take her own music unless it’s something by Bo(u)y George. We take time to reminisce about the items EVERY 80s house had and question our collective sanity over putting so many crocheted items near a toilet. Dori m...

Dubai chocolates are just Peppermint Crisps that went to private school - thank God we never fell for trends in the 80s. What was going on with Mastermind? Dori tells us how she made it a game for one whereas some of the covers suggested it was a game more enjoyed as a ménage à trois. We invent a new social network just for fans of The NeverEnding Story while trying to figure out what make s song...

Caffeine is Dori’s mortal enemy, while Paulo regrets eating quite that many I&J Steakhouse Melts. Can you say “In the centre, Mr Cholesterol”? Sure, Alex Honnold did a bit of a climb, but he’s no match for the barrel-obsessed daredevils of the 80s. Michael J. Fox is back on our screens — and he’s not here for a haircut. And while we were finding out where the cast of 1987’s Masters of the Univ...

WE. HAVE. THE POWER!!! We knew it wouldn’t be long before another 80s pop-culture phenomenon filled the Stranger Things -shaped hole in our content. Paulo wasted far too much time watching MOTU … and he’s not done yet. The saga of Freddie Mercury’s secret daughter takes a macabre turn, while Julio Iglesias is a sex pest. We’ll try our best to look surprised. Dori can’t remember much of anything, y...

Paulo is very satisfied with Thomas Anders’ vacation Reels, and a man called Flexasaurus Rex gives us the MTV we remember — complete with the Bat Dance . Speaking of Prince, we look at the Stranger Things effect on his catalogue and the literal seven figures his estate is in line to receive from Spotify royalties. Paulo had a terrible time watching ’80s movies, which means it’s time to get into a...

We kick off the 40 year anniversary of 1986 by discovering that Alphaville were big in the U.S.S.R. Opus played the hit, and the words didn’t come easy for F.R. David in Russian either. We still don’t know what Dieter did, though. He may not have started the fire, but Billy Joel has some explaining to do as we discover the deadliest song of all time. Bob Dylan watch your back. Which would you pref...

Last Christmas may have lost the battle for Christmas Number 1 this year, but in reality – The Best Song Ever™ doesn’t need trinkets!! Not when it makes bank every year! We also find out how Manchester United’s inconsistency in the 80s may just have led to its creation. God only knows the genre-defining songs being created thanks to their current iteration. We remember Rob Reiner and his impact on...

The wheels for a Last Christmas three-peat are in locomotion, and we’re prepared to go to war with Kylie over it! A hop into Howick hurls Paulo into a hole of hard-hitting anti-apartheid hits — but will it make him heed the hedonistic call of Sun City? Hell, yes! Dori loves Paul Rudd’s  beard and dedicates a soundtrack to it, while Paulo finds out what Sean Connery was up to between James Bond and...

A special episode streamed live from Rage Expo onto (checks notes) TikTok . Young people found that interesting, so who are we to argue? The Curator Supreme of all things retro, Noel Opperman , joined us for a special show that made sure all the gamers around us knew that without the ’80s, there would be no video games. Paulo impresses no one with stories of how he finished Contra and Super Mario...

Jessica Rabbit fan fiction is about to enter the mainstream — and it’s going to be even sexier than anything Sora could imagine. While comparing sitcoms and s*itcoms, Paulo remembers how much he hates flashback episodes, but at least we all grew up to be Al Bundy. An R.B.F. brings Dori to The Golden Girls , and Paulo unpacks a movie so bad it’s actually dangerous to watch. Last Christmas is alread...

We all want to live in Milli Vanilli Land , where dreadlocks are made of Fizzers and the rivers run with the tears of “what-if” careers. Is Fab finally going to get Milli Vanilli the Grammy they deserve — and will it upset the Dalai Lama? You know who’s never been in a superhero movie? Charlie Sheen. But we just found the character he was born to play. What do Whoopi Goldberg and a nightclub in Su...

Being chased by hundreds of Marty McFlys is a fantasy only Dori — and maybe Lorraine McFly — could have, and we find out how it came true at the real Twin Pines Mall. We rediscover the man who directed nearly every iconic music video of the 80s and brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Coneheads to the big screen. Oh, how the latex manufacturers of the 90s rejoiced. Dori uncovers a Once in...

Here’s an 80s kid test: complete this Roxette lyric — “I’m gonna get dressed…” If you didn’t say “for some sex” we can’t be friends. But you should still listen to this unintentionally creepy show as we discover that Suzanne Somers is definitely not a pleasure bot. Jumping on a bandwagon 40 years too late, Stranger Things resurrects ALF and another That 80s Show favourite. Dori has caught Paulo’s...