AB and I had a debate last night. One of those which I couldn’t just let drop. Because I know I am right! Here is what it came down to – how popular really, was the movie Dirty Dancing? (I know, great topic to occupy your time with on a Monday evening with your spouse.) And the more subjective portion of the debate was, how good was the movie, Dirty Dancing?
AB and I have narrowed down our sitcom watching to one, How I Met Your Mother. Hilarious. Ok, most of the time it is AB who is cracking up laughing on the couch. Last night it was me. Who saw it?
In the same vane as Friends, it is about a group of five friends, in their late 20’s to early/mid 30’s living in New York City. I had to add in “mid” 30’s since a lot of the references hit hard to me, but I have a harder time seeing my sister (who is 31) getting the full jist.
One of the characters, Robin, has her little 17 year old sister visiting. The sister announces to Robin that she plans to lose her virginity to her boyfriend, a kind of creepy kid named Kyle that reminded me far too much of the guys I knew and dated in high school. Although no way could they have gotten a girl as hot as Robin’s sister. Poor Robin is horrified and determined that her sister is making a mistake. She enlists her friends help to convince her to wait.
It starts with a bunch of vague references with the characters who I relate to sounding like old fogeys. It obviously isn’t working. Then each starts recounting their first time experiences. They are humorous and silly. Robin does the deed and her guy immediately announces he is gay. Lilly (the band camp girl – love her) and Marshall talk about being each others firsts and how special that is. Then we hit Barney, played by Neil Patrick Harris.
Barney starts recounting his experience with, “I was at the Catskills at a camp, working as a dance instructor, her name was Francis…” Right there I lost it. I knew where it was going… to one of the BEST movies of the 80’s – Dirty Dancing! They threw in a clip from the movie with Baby dancing in the studio to Love is Strange by Mickey and Sylvia with Harris’ head morphed onto Swayze’s body lounging on the floor. Ok, if you love the movie as much as I did, you KNOW which scene I am talking about. Hi-lar-i-ous!
I am busting a gut laughing (very glad I peed before we started the show), while AB sits on the couch, motionless, quiet and with more of a stunned look on his face.
I ask him in all honesty, “you do get the reference don’t you?”
“Yes,” he replies, “but how lame. No one actually liked that movie.”
I am not quite sure how he could be married to me for seven years (dating for 13) and actually state that “no one actually liked that movie”. Twenty years after its original release and I still manage to catch it at least once a year. Reliving that feeling of the unrequited first love, the crush on the bad boy, the first sexual experience…
AB didn’t get it.
This, of course, prompted discussions of what were the top movies of that genre (we agree, Better Off Dead tops the list), but truly, how popular were they? I don’t think they (Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink, all the John Hughes favorites – what happened to him anyways?) met the level of popularity that Dirty Dancing did. AB disagrees. I have blinders on according to him, because I was a teenaged girl, I had to have assumed that *everyone* loved the movie as much as I did.
What do you think?
(And for the record… The Dirty Dancing soundtracks ARE going to be downloaded to my iPod tonight.)
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