Episode 1: Season Two! Push The Button!

[0:00] Bobby: Jay, yo, push the button.

[0:02] Jason: No, you push the button.

[0:04] Bobby: Come on, man, we’ve been through this, you just push the button, come on, just do it.

[0:08] Jason: But you are a much better button pusher than I am.

[0:11] Bobby: I’m a little scared to push the button, should I just do it?

[0:14] Jason: Dude, just push the damn button.

[0:16] Bobby: All right, I’m gonna push it.

[0:19] Jason: I don’t think it worked, try it one more time.

[0:22] Bobby: All right, I’m gonna push the button, I’m going for it, here we go.

[0:25] Speaker: Let’s take a trip back in time, so strap yourselves in tight. It’s time for Bobby and Jason’s Awesome ’80s Podcast.

[0:43] Bobby: Officially back, buddy. Whoa, we are officially back. It’s been, we’ve been on hiatus from the podcast world for like, what, four or five years?

[0:52] Jason: I think longer than that, it was the end of 2016.

[0:55] Bobby: Wow, so it’s long overdue. We’ve been getting messages, emails, everything from you guys saying, “When are you guys gonna do the Awesome ’80s podcast again?” And well, here we are.

[1:09] Jason: Here we are.

[1:10] Bobby: We are here in 2022, so you know we’re not lying.

[1:14] Jason: We are here, and as you like to say, we are live.

[1:17] Bobby: We are live. So I am Bobby Catalano, and if you didn’t know, on the other end is Jason Pasco. He loves when I say his name.

[1:24] Jason: Ooh, I love it when you say my name.

[1:24] Bobby: Jason Pasco. And the girls scream.

[1:32] Bobby: So what’s going on, buddy? What are we doing?

[1:34] Jason: What are we doing? We’ve been talking about this for a while, about resurrecting the podcast.

[1:40] Jason: I mean, if you follow the page and you follow us, you know that we attempt to do the things the kids do these days.

[1:49] Bobby: Well, we did have a lot of fun doing a few Lives, and I know you guys liked those, and they may come back in the future here and there, but it’s not our cup of tea. We really do enjoy doing the podcast and reaching out to you guys.

[2:05] Jason: You know what else is really fun? We’re really enjoying, due to the fact that we can use videos of the show.

[2:13] Bobby: The show, Dance Party USA and Dance On Air.

[2:16] Jason: That’s right. Well, since we can, a lot different than it was back in 2016, we love doing our commentary videos for our YouTube channel, and all the little things that we like doing. We do have a nice kick out of doing that stuff.

[2:32] Bobby: Yeah, exactly, that’s why we do it. So if you’re not subscribed to our YouTube channel, you definitely need to do that, we’re gonna be adding content there, lots of cool stuff from the show and commentary from us, and things you probably never seen.

[2:48] Jason: Stuff that I barely remember.

[2:50] Bobby: I know, exactly.

[2:50] Jason: It’s all a dream.

[2:52] Bobby: All a dream, yeah, it’s reminiscent, going back in time, and that’s what we do, ’cause we love the ’80s.

[2:57] Jason: We love it, and we know you love the ’80s, or else you staggered on this podcast some weird way.

[3:03] Bobby: Right, exactly. So anyway, now let’s talk about what’s coming up, because Valentine’s Day is coming up shortly, and I know it’s a special day for you, Jay.

[3:17] Jason: I mean, you, though, are Mr. ’80s Valentine Guy, I will say, I don’t know how I fell into that.

[3:21] Bobby: Do you wanna hear the story?

[3:24] Jason: Well, I’ve heard the story a bajillion times, but the fact that everybody out there, well, hold on, before you jump into the story, anybody who’s out there used to watch the show back then, you guys know that old Bobarino here did a little something something with the shades where he took ’em off for a second, and then all of a sudden everybody freaked out.

[3:45] Bobby: I took off my Batman mask.

[3:48] Jason: Yeah, exactly, just for two seconds.

[3:51] Jason: And we’re still talking about it, how many years later is this? Oh my God, 36 years later or something like that, or it’s ’87, right?

[3:58] Bobby: Man, time just is flying, buddy.

[4:00] Jason: Yes, it does. So giving you a little bit of a perspective from this side of the desk, go ahead and tell them exactly how that came about.

[4:10] Bobby: Well, many of you know I wore the sunglasses, it was kinda my trademark, and honestly they made me feel more comfortable and confident when I was on television, kinda could hide from everybody. So for me to take them off after a few years wearing them was a big deal for me, and I was reluctant to do it. But the producer at the time, Lauren Getz, she.

[4:32] Jason: Threatened to beat him.

[4:33] Bobby: This was her brainchild, she approached me, she said, “We would love if you would do this on Valentine’s Day and reveal, do a reveal of your eyes or whatever.” And it took a lot of convincing. Eventually, I said, “Okay, let me do it.” And I said, “What kind of song can I use?” And of course, we are the Wham guys.

[4:55] Jason: The Wham guys.

[4:55] Bobby: And I needed something romantic, and so I went with a ballad, and of course “Careless Whisper” is timeless, you can hear it today and it’s just as great a song as it was back in the ’80s when George Michael and Wham released it.

[5:11] Bobby: So I needed a saxophone player, and Jason helped me out there, ’cause we have a mutual friend, and Larry.

[5:20] Jason: Larry, great guy, I’d known Larry for several years before I came on the show, and you asking him to do that, that was like a community saxophone that we had laying around there.

[5:32] Jason: And he always was such a great guy, he just recently passed away, the past couple years, rest in peace, buddy. And he would be in a lot of different lip syncs, I think he did something with Rennie for the dark side where he played the sax. And you having him do that, when you guys get a chance to see this video, it was great, stroke of genius, my friend.

[5:55] Bobby: He looks phenomenal, he fit the part, he did his thing, and it really helped me make a better lip sync having him there. I was frightened ’cause I was standing up there alone, usually I’m with you doing our Wham rap or Freedom or our other lip syncs we did.

[6:13] Bobby: So I think it was the first time I stood up there by myself, so I was frightened.

[6:18] Jason: It’s a very intimidating, for you watching at home, but you playing the home game of Dance Party USA, it is very intimidating being up there by one’s self, with a lot of props for you for that, because not only do you see the girls sitting at the risers.

[6:37] Jason: But then there are about 100 other people behind the cameras that are watching.

[6:41] Bobby: And the thing about it is, when you do a lip sync, usually you’re doing it to an up-tempo song, and you’re dancing. So the dancing is a big part of it. When you’re doing a ballad and a song like Careless Whisper, there’s not a lot of movement.

[6:54] Bobby: So you really have to feel the music and project that in the song and what you’re doing, because you can’t fall back on the dancing with a song like that. It’s really about the emotion of the lyrics, and I remember Rennie Harris would tell me that I was very intense.

[7:13] Bobby: He was one of the producers for a few, he even made fun of me a few times, said, “Oh, you’re very intense, Bobby.” I was like, “Well, I get into it, man, I play the role, and I feel it.”

[7:23] Jason: Yeah, and 36 years later, it really looks that way. And another thing that people seem to lose track of, nowadays it’s very common when you watch online or you watch your thousands of channels, people doing lip syncs and doing all stuff like that, like on Jimmy Fallon at night they have contests where you can see, “I can see you sing,” or something like that.

[7:43] Jason: Back then, stuff was never done, lip syncing was done by acts if they were doing an MTV video or something, but regular people lip syncing to songs like that, what we did, it was never done before.

[7:56] Bobby: Dance On and Dance Party, they kinda pioneered that, like you said, just normal kids getting up on stage and doing a lip sync to a song.

[8:07] Bobby: And there were a lot of great lip syncs on the show back in the day, not just by us, but many of the regulars did some great lip syncs. I don’t know if you remember this, but I took the glasses off toward the end, and I was reluctant, I almost didn’t wanna do it, so I pulled them off for like two seconds.

[8:27] Bobby: So since Lauren Getz was not happy that I only did it for one or two seconds, she froze the screen, I remember that.

[8:43] Bobby: But she froze it for the first year, and then they replayed it the second year, and I think they let it go, they didn’t freeze it.

[8:49] Jason: I don’t think they did either. But see, the thing is, when you recorded those lip syncs, they were usually recorded weeks in advance. So let’s say he recorded that three weeks in advance, so when they would play it during the show, it would be the first time that any of us got a chance to see it, or he’d see it.

[9:06] Jason: Exactly. So if he did a lip sync or we did a lip sync together, somebody, one of the, Marlon or Joe were in something, or we would all go around, they had a big monitor on the side that we’d go and watch it.

[9:15] Jason: So we’re watching Careless Whisper, remember, for the first time. And I remember the look on your face and us looking at each other, and you’re being like.

[9:26] Bobby: Yeah, she froze me, “They fucking froze it.” It’s all good, Lauren’s good people.

[9:29] Jason: Yeah, I wanna give a shout-out to Lauren, she.

[9:31] Bobby: Yeah, she was a big part of Dance Party USA’s success. I think she had vision for.

[9:38] Jason: She absolutely did. And going back now that all of these videos, thanks to everybody who’s putting them up online, are available now.

[9:46] Jason: All the stuff over YouTube, I’ve gotten a chance to watch a bunch of stuff, you sent me a bunch of stuff. And one thing I wanna say about Lauren is the remixes and the songs and the club mixes and different things that she chose, rather than just the radio stuff you’d hear every day, was, she was great.

[10:04] Jason: She really knew what versions of what tracks and how to make it breathe.

[10:12] Bobby: How to make it move. Lauren also brought, and all the viewers know, Lauren let the dancers be themselves, she let them play to the camera, even though technically it was against the rules that you weren’t supposed to play to the camera.

[10:24] Bobby: But I think Lauren saw that this was a good thing for the show, and people enjoyed watching different people doing their thing to certain songs. There were certain songs that would trigger us, and we’d come together, and we’d act like knuckleheads, ’cause we were just having a good time.

[10:43] Bobby: We didn’t rehearse these things, we were kids, we just got up there, pointing the finger and doing all that stuff we did, it was like a blast.

[10:52] Jason: It was like that movie where they, the dog, you hear him go, “Squirrel? Squirrel.”

[10:57] Bobby: Yeah, and we would just run to each other, like Marlon and Jason and Joe and myself, we would just run to wherever we were in the center and just start doing whatever, throw Marlon around, that kind of stuff.

[11:11] Jason: Yeah, and then the camera’s right there. I mean, we’ve talked about this before, but just pretend the first season of this didn’t happen.

[11:18] Jason: Like, we were there all the time every day for two years, it gets to the point where sometimes you do go a little stir crazy.

[11:31] Bobby: You know, there was a time where we would do two shows, Dance On Air and Dance Party USA, in the same week.

[11:37] Bobby: We’re talking about, it was like 10 to 11 shows per week, because we had the Saturday show also, and that was a lot of work, a lot of commitment.

[11:47] Jason: Yeah, and they expanded it to an hour.

[11:49] Bobby: Yeah, exactly.

[11:50] Jason: And the thing is, Dancing On Air was live, at 4:00, so doing live TV is like.

[11:56] Bobby: Yep.

[11:56] Jason: You stop and everything’s gotta be, like everybody’s frantic, all the producers, everything’s gotta be right. And then you hear the floor manager go, “All right, five, four, three,” and it’s live.

[12:06] Bobby: Yeah, usually I think that was Charlie at that time, or was it, Art.

[12:10] Jason: Art’s Art.

[12:10] Bobby: It’s Art. That’s right, I think Charlie was a cameraman, right?

[12:14] Jason: Yeah, Charlie was the cameraman.

[12:16] Bobby: Yeah, Art was the guy with the countdown, and it was exciting actually doing it live. It was exciting knowing that in the next 10 seconds you’re live, it was 4:00 PM Eastern Standard Time in Philly, and there we were.

[12:31] Bobby: And whatever you did, if something went wrong, if you dropped the F-bomb, which didn’t happen, by the way, don’t do that, it didn’t happen, but it would’ve been on air, so.

[12:40] Jason: Yeah, and you would’ve had a lot of trouble. There was one particular thing I remember, we’ll get into this later, where one live thing happened where I think they had a swimsuit thing where all the girls were up on the stage wearing swimsuits during the 4:00 show.

[12:54] Jason: And some of them were a bit risque. And then all the way, like halfway through the show, Laura and them started throwing guys up there to dance. I don’t know, we’ll have to talk to her one day about it.

[13:04] Bobby: I do not remember that.

[13:05] Jason: I remember that very clearly, ’cause she pulled me away from Christina and I had to go up on right high for like 20 minutes.

[13:14] Jason: Oh, man. So Valentine’s Day is upon us.

[13:18] Bobby: It is, man, it comes every year quickly.

[13:23] Jason: Are you serious? It comes every year?

[13:25] Bobby: Just always comes back, I know.

[13:27] Jason: I know, Mr. Valentine’s Day. And I think it’s really cool, especially now that we’re able to get a little bit more done with this, like we’re doing the contest.

[13:38] Bobby: Which is awesome, yeah, the contest is running right now.

[13:40] Jason: Right now as we’re doing this.

[13:41] Bobby: And if you haven’t entered the contest, or you don’t even know what the hell the contest is, you need to go to our Facebook page, our page there, and we have all the information there.

[13:53] Jason: This is only applicable if you’re listening to this before February 14th, 2022.

[13:59] Bobby: Exactly.

[13:59] Jason: So if you happen to listen to this in 2026, there’s no contest, you missed the boat.

[14:04] Bobby: You missed the boat, that’s exactly it.

[14:04] Jason: So we got some more stuff planned. The fact that these videos are out there is fantastic, the fact that we’re able to see these things, the one thing I would bring up, it’s hard to wrap your mind around, and you and I have had this discussion many times, is that when you and I talk, when we see ourselves, we’re always like, “Yeah, that guy.”

[14:28] Jason: “I remember that guy, I recognize that guy, look at him.”

[14:32] Bobby: Yep, that guy with the Aquanet.

[14:34] Jason: The guy with the Aquanet?

[14:35] Bobby: Yep, I remember that guy, the oversized clothes.

[14:37] Jason: And what a unique thing to be able to every day get a chance to see yourself or everybody else who was on there.

[14:49] Jason: You’re just basically growing up, none of it was scripted. I mean, that’s you growing up. Usually in your mind you’d think, “I wanna think back to when we were like 21 or 22,” I have no video of that, we just remember different things that we did.

[15:02] Jason: So in our mind, we remember this edit or this movie that we create ourselves, and we remember all this stuff and hopefully forget all the things that embarrassed us or whatnot. But with the show and things popping up for several years every day, I can watch and get blown away by it, myself grow up like, for real.

[15:23] Jason: Yeah, it wasn’t like we were on a sitcom, nothing was scripted, it was just.

[15:27] Bobby: Crazy. It was like we’ve said this before, and many people have said this, was kind of like a reality show before there were reality shows, because really the show was about the dancers, the regulars, their lives, who they were dating, the Jason and Christinas of the world.

[15:48] Bobby: And who you were dating, Chris Kelly and the Kelly Rippers, that they shared with anyone. And all these couples, people were invested in what you guys were doing on the weekend, what you guys were wearing, what you guys were just all about. You got to know everyone on the show on a personal level.

[16:07] Bobby: And I think that’s the connection between the viewer and you and I with the viewer and all the other regulars. We connected with everyone.

[16:18] Jason: I agree with you, just to watch us as best friends, we’ve known each other for what, 36 years, it’s still the same as it’s always been.

[16:25] Bobby: Yeah, we’ve been in car accidents together, we’ve traveled many different states doing performances and all kinds of stuff, done cool stuff.

[16:37] Bobby: That we don’t get to talk about, all kinds of stuff. We went to Miami and recorded music, we did so many things that you don’t see on the TV.

[16:46] Bobby: But, I don’t know, I love the ’80s, I love that time period.

[16:52] Jason: Oh, the ’80s are amazing.

[16:52] Bobby: Like we always say 1987 was the highlight, the high point of Dance Party USA, I think.

[17:02] Jason: It’s like when they say in the ’60s that the Summer of Love, ’67 I think it was, was the summer if you’re gonna go back for the ’60s. And all the videos, or excuse me, the documentary stuff you see from the ’60s, that’s the one thing that really defines it.

[17:17] Jason: ’87 was just it, and everyone who’s listening to this, unless your parents or even grandparents are making you listen to this old-timey stuff, you remember. And part of me I actually really feel bad for kids these days, for people growing up in this world that is just blasted by 1,000 different channels and 1,000 different shows, and everybody’s copying everyone else.

[17:44] Bobby: Social media and everything else, yeah.

[17:46] Jason: Social media, what’s that?

[17:48] Bobby: Right, we didn’t have social media back then, we had Flip Magazine and Teen Beat and Tiger Beat, and that’s how you caught up on your favorite celebrity or what they were doing.

[18:01] Bobby: Get your little poster and put it on the wall.

[18:03] Jason: Flip Magazine, huh?

[18:04] Bobby: Flip Magazine, that was a short-lived teen magazine published by, I think it was Dance Party USA, they were partnered with a publishing company, and it lasted for, I don’t know, about eight months.

[18:18] Jason: It’s got some classic pictures of you in different headgear.

[18:22] Bobby: Oh, yeah, that I think is fabulous, I look great back then. You know another cool thing about the show when you look back at the old shows, I think a lot of the regulars and the guests that came, I bet they enjoy when they can see their family, ’cause there were shows where we were able to bring family members to dance.

[18:40] Bobby: And sometimes people pass away, and you can go back and revisit and see your family or your friends at the time that you may have lost contact with, ’cause it’s cool to look back at not just yourself, but the people that were around you.

[19:01] Jason: Yeah. Because for us, and I’m sure for people who watched it, that was real life, every day, our lives in those formative years in high school, was every day. I watched me and my girlfriend on there every day, like for years and years.

[19:19] Jason: And you and me, you know, nobody gave us a manual on how to deal with all this kind of stuff that was outside of it, we had to make it up as we went along. We didn’t have a manager or an agent or something like that.

[19:35] Jason: We’re going out into the world, not saying it was some crazy, I’m just not trying to make it sound like we were some big whatever. But for a certain subsection of people who watched it every day, they’d be like, “Hey, there’s those dudes from that dance show.”

[19:49] Jason: And they’d either say something very nice or something very not so nice.

[19:54] Bobby: Oh, I love the haters too, come on.

[19:56] Bobby: Hey, you gotta have a hater, if you don’t have a hater, then you’re not doing it right.

[20:00] Jason: Oh, we had plenty of haters.

[20:02] Bobby: Had plenty of them, shit, I think we still have haters today, but that’s okay.

[20:05] Bobby: That’s okay, we welcome everybody, equal opportunity peeps here, so haters are welcome, everybody’s welcome. Bro, I’m just super excited to get back on this podcast horse that we’ve neglected for the last five, six years. And I think that doing a podcast and hearing voices, you could be doing all kinds of stuff.

[20:27] Bobby: Like Jason could be cleaning the dishes.

[20:30] Jason: Oh, how did you know, ’cause I like to do that? So tell us why we think podcasts sometimes are better than doing video.

[20:41] Jason: Just because you can sit here like me in my jammies and my fuzzy feet right now, and we just, it’s basically just a big brain.

[20:51] Jason: You’re basically hanging out with me and Bobby hanging out.

[20:56] Jason: Where we’re just talking about stuff. And when we did the one in 2016, we were really, really green as far as technical stuff goes, you go back and listen to some of that stuff, you guys will hear it, and then there was all this problem with not being able to see videos of the show and all this stuff going on.

[21:13] Jason: Yeah, and things have really changed over the past couple years. Things have changed a lot. And you know what, we’re all getting older now, we’re all pushing that 50 threshold, getting older, and we all gotta more or less stick together and remember.

[21:30] Jason: It’s a good thing to remember these good things, especially in a world where good things at times seem to be in very short supply.

[21:38] Bobby: Well, it’s an absolutely different world in 2022 than 1987. That’s why we say the ’80s were the best decade ever, we were lucky to be growing up in that time.

[21:51] Bobby: And the cool thing is you guys are listening to podcast, you could be doing anything, you can be doing your errands, you could be driving around, because if you’re watching YouTube, watching a video while you’re driving, the police might stop you, they probably will. But if you’re listening to Bobby and Jason’s Awesome ’80s podcast, you have no problem.

[22:12] Bobby: You can just be listening to it like radio.

[22:14] Jason: Hey, it works for me, sometimes it can help you fall asleep, sometimes I fall asleep when he goes on these long rants, I do particularly do that sometimes.

[22:22] Bobby: But we’re not gonna neglect video, we’re definitely gonna make cool content for our YouTube channel, so you’re gonna get the best of both worlds.

[22:30] Bobby: You’re gonna get.

[22:32] Bobby: Our podcast, our Awesome ’80s podcast, and you’re also gonna get lots of cool content on our YouTube channel. So there’s lots of stuff coming in 2022, we’re committed to this.

[22:44] Jason: There’s lots of stuff, we really enjoy doing this. The life has kinda gotten a little slower for us right now, and we’re able to do more stuff, so it’s kind of a, we’re gonna do YouTube stuff, we’re gonna give you our commentary over different things just to make it interesting.

[22:58] Jason: We enjoy it, change it up a little bit.

[23:00] Jason: We can all enjoy it together, that’s what we’re looking at. So the podcast is gonna be on iTunes and a couple other services, we’re gonna be on Spotify soon, so this is just gonna be the first of hopefully many, many more times that we can spend in your ears.

[23:19] Jason: So welcome back to the E’s.

[23:19] Bobby: Let me give a shout-out, a little plug, some of you may be new listeners or may not know, we have a website, bobbyandjason.com, if you go there, you can access our old podcasts and all the new ones, and also there’s links to all our social media and everything that we’re doing.

[23:40] Jason: Yeah, and we’re doing it so we all can enjoy this together.

[23:45] Jason: We can all enjoy going back to a time when it was just less stress, less aggravation, and just the good times. We’re fortunate enough, like you just said, to be able to, when we go to sleep at night, sometimes it’s you and me sitting there putting on the hits.

[24:04] Jason: Doing Edge of Heaven, you know what I’m saying?

[24:05] Bobby: It’s just nice to go back in time, as we say, let’s go back in time, let’s go to the ’80s. The time when the music, the fashion, movies, were great.

[24:18] Jason: And that guy with the sunglasses.

[24:20] Bobby: You know, what’s funny is when I work out or I’m in the car, I have my headset and all I listen to is ’80s music and ’90s, but mostly ’80s.

[24:31] Bobby: I have my playlist, and it gets me pumped up, I don’t get tired of those songs.

[24:36] Jason: 65 Love Affair.

[24:39] Bobby: Yeah, I love that song, boom, boom. The list is too long, too many songs. But yeah, man, it’s good to be back.

[24:50] Bobby: It’s good to be here with you.

[24:51] Jason: I cannot believe that we just did a podcast.

[24:54] Bobby: We did, man, and I can’t believe we just did one. Let me say his name again because he kinda likes this, Jason Pasco and Bobby Catalano are back.

[25:02] Jason: And Bobby Catalano are back, we’re back in your ear.

[25:05] Bobby: So follow us on social media, go to our website bobbyandjason.com, keep track of what we’re doing, because all kinds of stuff are gonna be coming your way. And don’t forget about this contest that we’re having, and I’m sure we’re gonna do other contests in the future.

[25:20] Jason: Yes, we will, if you don’t win this one, there’ll be other opportunities, ’cause I found lots of cool shit in the vault, in the ’80s vault.

[25:29] Bobby: So there’s more.

[25:29] Jason: He’s an ’80s hoarder.

[25:29] Bobby: More, there’s more to come, thank God, more to come, buddy, more to come.

[25:34] Jason: So do you remember how we used to end it?

[25:36] Bobby: I sorta do, I think we said, “Okay, it’s time.”

[25:39] Jason: Are you ready?

[25:42] Bobby: And in five, four, three, two, one. Boom, goodbye, everybody.

[25:50] Jason: Good night, everybody, and welcome back to the podcast.

[25:52] Jason: It’s good to be back, see ya, take care.