On the Beach...fuck. For years, every time I heard “Waltzing Matilda,” I got a chill of horror and despair down my spine. That’s a bleak film.

I was twelve. I was pretty horrified by it. The way the aftermath was portrayed was, to my dim memory, brutal. (For 1980s network TV, naturally.) I’ve talked to many fellow Gen-Xers who feared nuclear war as tweens and teens. The Day After was definitely a contributing factor in that fear. (Also Reagan’s…

So strange, I just saw him on a Golden Girls re-run last night and thought how nice it was to see him and how many shows I remembered him from. Too young to go, but may he rest in peace.