Made in '87
Features
Why 1987 was a turning point for animation, Disney, and the future of TV cartoons
Animation historian Jerry Beck looks back on how 1987 was a turning point in animation history, even if no one knew it at the time.
November 30, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
In 1987 Cheers aired its most problematic episode
The 1987 Cheers episode ‘Chambers vs. Malone’ went a bit too far with the Sam and Diane romance
November 30, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
Marvel Comics had to quickly break up Spider-Man and Black Cat to make way for 1987's Spider-Marriage
Spider-Man was living with Black Cat when he proposed to Mary Jane Watson (and Marvel wants us all to forget it)
November 30, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
Joker's Last Hunt: The rejected Batman story that became a Spider-Man classic and informed a secret sequel back at DC
Spider-Man: Kraven’s Last Hunt began life as a rejected Batman story
November 29, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
Why was Jean Claude Van Damme really fired as the Predator? No one quite remembers
Was it that Bloodsport star Van Damme broke a Predator head prototype? Or was it that he passed out too much?
November 29, 2025
Grant DeArmitt
News
How did Danny Tanner’s wife die in Full House? Bob Saget had a macabre theory
How did the mom on Full House die? It depends on who you ask and when you ask them
November 29, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
The Lost Boys cast would go to the grocery store in full vampire makeup while shooting the movie
Kiefer Sutherland and Alex Winter hit the streets of Santa Cruz in vampire makeup from The Lost Boys
November 28, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
Features
Inside the grim genius of Kraven’s Last Hunt, the Spider-Man comic that hunted the Marvel hero’s soul
I answered a phone call at my comic shop from a Sony Pictures exec looking for Kraven comics, and I had one answer: Kraven's Last Hunt.
November 28, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
News
How The Golden Girls tackled HIV in one of their most memorable episodes
The team behind Golden Girls’ HIV episode say it was an episode that needed to be done
November 28, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
Full House star John Stamos believes the show broke new ground with its unconventional family
Full House star John Stamos praises the show for normalizing non-traditional families with the Tanners
November 28, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
Why Superman IV became a disaster: Christopher Reeve’s inside story of the studio's cost-cutting chaos
Christopher Reeve's final outing as DC's Man of Steel was a flop with audiences and critics, and Reeve said he knew it wasn't going well even while the movie was being made
November 28, 2025
Graeme McMillan
Features
Fist of the North Star created the modern seinen anime the same way Dragon Ball created the modern shonen [Popverse Jump]
Both Fist of the North Star and Dragon Ball debuted in Weekly Shonen Jump in the 80s, but would become the foundation for two different genres of anime.
November 28, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
Billy Crystal broke into "2 hours of medieval Yiddish stand-up" while filming the Miracle Max scene in The Princess Bride - and no one could stop laughing
Both Cary Elwes and Rob Reiner had to be removed from the set because they kept ruining every shot of the Miracle Max scene in The Princess Bride by laughing
November 28, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
Kiefer Sutherland wouldn’t mind if The Lost Boys was remade today: It's "a compliment”
For Kiefer Sutherland, the continued interest in The Lost Boys isn't a bad thing
November 27, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
Features
Predator was defined by the man behind the effects of Aliens, Terminator and Jurassic Park
The only monster ugly enough to make a xenomorph look cuddly could've have had an entirely different (and probably worse) design. Thankfully, the man who designed the Terminator, Stan Winston, had other plans
November 27, 2025
Grant DeArmitt
News
The Princess Bride cast discuss why the 1987 movie remains so funny today: "Comedy is serious business"
Playing it straight might not be the most natural thing to do in a comedy, but it is what makes The Princess Bride work so well
November 27, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
RoboCop looked so good because the movie had almost no budget, declares director Paul Verhoeven
RoboCop director Paul Verhoeven believes the film’s tight budget forced them to get creative
November 26, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
Is Predator a horror franchise? The original filmmakers had to keep it from slipping into a different genre
Predator producers did not want audiences thinking they were watching a war movie despite hiring actual soldiers, the A-Team stunt guy, and the folks that did Commando
November 26, 2025
Grant DeArmitt
News
How Spider-Man’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon was saved by a fired Marvel boss — and Ronald McDonald
The chaotic true story behind Spider-Man’s 1987 Macy’s parade balloon and the Marvel fight that fixed it.
November 26, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
NBC had concerns about The Golden Girls cast, until they realized Bea Arthur’s roughness and Betty White’s sweetness cancelled each other out
NBC was worried that Bea Arthur would be too mean for The Golden Girls, until they realized Betty White’s sweetness cancelled her out
November 26, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
How Disney used DuckTales to launch its TV animation empire — and why Carl Barks’ comics made it possible
The real story behind DuckTales: Disney’s high-risk 65-episode gamble that transformed 1980s animation.
November 26, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
Full House almost jumped networks and continued for two more years after ABC cancelled the show
The Full House cast reflect on the show’s surprise cancellation (and the failed plan to save it)
November 26, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
The Lost Boys were originally all intended to be tweens, according to notable non-tween Kiefer Sutherland
The vampires of The Lost Boys were supposed to be closer in age to Corey Haim and Corey Feldman's characters
November 26, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
News
The Princess Bride's best line works on multiple levels, says the movie's Prince Humperdinck
The Princess Bride is full of iconic lines, but this one is the actor who played Prince Humperdinck's favorite.
November 26, 2025
Trent Cannon
Features
The hidden hardware hack that made the original Legend of Zelda a breakthrough for the NES and all game systems
Being able to save your game seems totally normal now, but Nintendo had to work around the limitations of the NES cartridges to make it happen.
November 26, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
NBC did not want Bea Arthur for Golden Girls, but the creator wouldn’t accept anyone else
NBC wanted Elaine Stritch to play Dorothy on Golden Girls, but the creator was adamant about getting Bea Arthur
November 25, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
Marvel Comics fires their longtime boss Jim Shooter in 1987 - and it might have been because he threatened to sue over unpaid royalties to creators
Jim Shooter kept quiet about why he was fired from Marvel for decades - was it because he'd tried to sue the company and failed?
November 25, 2025
Graeme McMillan
Features
The 1987 Justice League reboot that made superheroes weird, hilarious, and unexpectedly human
If you've ever thought DC's Justice League was a bunch of buttoned-up superheroes who never have any fun, Justice League International would like a word
November 25, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
News
Did Mary Jane Watson sleep with Batman the night before she married Spider-Man? The hidden story on the eve of the Spider-Man marriage
Former Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada says Mary Jane Watson spent the night with Batman before she married Spider-Man - but it's not what you'd think.
November 25, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
Inside the chaotic rise and fall of The Lost Boys TV series that never made it to air
From the creator of Veronica Mars and the director of the first Twilight film - The CW almost reimagined cult hit The Lost Boys for the small screen. Here's what went wrong
November 25, 2025
Grant DeArmitt
News
The Lost Boys would have been bloodier and more violent if Kiefer Sutherland had his way
Kiefer Sutherland pushed director Joel Schumacher to make the bonfire scene in The Lost Boys all the more gory
November 25, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
News
Sorry Full House fans, but the cast says that their iconic intro sequence is a lie
The Full House intro sequence is not what you think it is
November 25, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
Predator producers killed Shane Black’s character because he was too busy acting beside Arnold Schwarzenegger to rewrite the screenplay
That is, they killed Rick Hawkins, Shane Black's role in the OG Predator movie, who wasn't so much a victim of Yautja bloodthirstiness as he was studio necessity
November 25, 2025
Grant DeArmitt
Features
Star Trek: The Next Generation is iconic now, but few were impressed when it first debuted
The initial critical and fan response to the second Star Trek television series was not a good one, based on the reviews for its 1987 pilot episode
November 25, 2025
Graeme McMillan
News
The Princess Bride star Cary Elwes admits that any hope for a sequel died with writer William Goldman
William Goldman died in 2019 and took our hopes of a Princess Bride sequel with him, says the man who was the Dread Pirate Roberts
November 25, 2025
Trent Cannon
Features
Why Captain America quit: The political crisis that reshaped Marvel’s most iconic patriotic symbol
Steve Rogers quit being Captain America to show the US hero doesn't always agree with the US government
November 25, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
How NBC panicked after Diane left Cheers — and why Kirstie Alley’s casting sparked a quiet battle inside the hit show
Inside the chaos Shelley Long’s departure unleashed on Cheers, from cast tensions to a secret finale.
November 24, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
Marvel Comics killed the X-Men in 1987 to reset the franchise - but it didn’t stick
1987's 'Fall of the Mutants' was intended to change the status quo of Marvel's X-Men, so why didn't it happen?
November 24, 2025
Graeme McMillan
Features
The surprising low-tech genius behind the original Predator movie's shimmering camouflage reveal
The Predator filmmakers wanted to give their titular monster an 'almost invisible' power, leaving the audience just a bit more cued in that Arnold Schwarzenegger and the gang. Hynek explains how they pulled it off
November 24, 2025
Grant DeArmitt
Features
Inside Spider-Man’s chaotic 1987 bachelor party that Marvel turned into a real-life spectacle
The unbelievable true story of Spider-Man’s 1987 bachelor party, from zingers to Green Goblin mayhem.
November 24, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
Why Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Running Man feels shockingly accurate — and even more disturbing — in 2025
The Running Man’s dystopian satire hits harder than ever in today’s reality-TV obsessed America.
November 24, 2025
Jules Chin Greene
News
How The Golden Girls became a staple at gay bars in the 80s
The Golden Girls has a huge LGBTQIA+ fanbase, and the team behind the sitcom have a pretty good idea why
November 24, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
News
The Full House cast address some of the series’ biggest continuity errors
The Full House cast explore some of the show’s unanswered questions (and wildest continuity mistakes)
November 24, 2025
Joshua Lapin-Bertone
Features
Why the Princess Bride’s iconic duel is an even better swordfight than you remember
How the Princess Bride’s cliffside duel became a masterclass in movie swordfighting.
November 24, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
Discovering the original Legend of Zelda game's aborted time travel storyline has changed the way I view my favorite video game series [Gamify My Life]
Nintendo almost made the first Legend of Zelda a time-travel game, and it explains so much about the series’ future.
November 24, 2025
Trent Cannon
News
How Bart Simpson was quietly toned down from being "so mean" before The Simpsons' first episode, as revealed by his long-time voice actor Nancy Cartwright
From a pretty blatant bully to America's trickster, Bart Simpson was changed significantly when The Simpsons turned into a full series.
November 24, 2025
Trent Cannon
Features
Made in '87: Rewinding to the movies, comics, games, and TV shows that define pop culture to this day
Why 1987 became one of pop culture’s most important years across movies, games, TV, and comics.
November 24, 2025
Chris Arrant
Features
How anime’s punk era in the US 1980s set the stage for today’s global fandom
Before anime went mainstream, it survived as underground punk — and one producer saw its future first.
November 24, 2025
Trent Cannon
Features
The surprising story of Christopher Reeve’s abandoned lead role in Running Man — and how Arnold Schwarzenegger changed everything
When Christopher Reeve was signed on to star in The Running Man, the story was more dour than the Arnold Schwarzenegger film
November 17, 2025
Jules Chin Greene