The Life and Times of a Midwestern Movie Addict

What exactly was it about the 1980s that made old people bankable on both television and in film?  I mean suddenly the elderly were in vogue in shows like The Golden Girls , Murder She Wrote , and Matlock ...I suppose because this was the first time that spunky old people were given lead roles rather than side roles (Jessie Royce Landis in To Catch a Thief and North by Northwest comes to mind...but she wasn't front and center...more of a curiosity to the side).  These were real people with real problems and personalities, not stereotypes in rocking chairs and playing shuffleboard, and I suppose that's where the appeal came from (and perhaps there was a little bit of morbid curiosity as well...wondering if old people really do talk about sex and all that).  However it was David Saperstein who combined sassy old people and science fiction for the first time in his novel, Cocoon , which proved to be a hit combination.  Ron Howard enjoyed the book so much that he decided to make

Well, my senior class play is over and now I can get back to the blog.  Technically, I could have blogged these last several days...but I've just needed to be lazy, you know how that is?  I have another week (a few days actually) until I have to leap right back into production, this time for the musical, and so I'm relishing these days off.  That will be another six weeks of craziness and then done for the year...well done with shows.  Then I've got a mere two weeks left of classes until Summer.  Oh I do love summer...its nice out, I'm off work, and there are endless possibilities for things to do.  For one, I plan to save my money to be more prepared for the rest of the year but I'm gonna take some quick trips to cheap places too.  I've got to go visit my new nephew when he comes too.  I'm so pumped for the summer, its scary.  I think these last months of school will go well too, I just have to get everything squeezed in.  Anyhoo, for St. Paddy's Day th