ABC’s The Goldbergs is a love letter the 1980s and contains a veritable cornucopia of pop culture references and jokes about decade in each and every single episode. While it’s next to impossible to list every single 1980s reference on The Goldbergs, we’re going to run down some of each episode’s geekier and more obscure pop culture moments. Please note that this column tries to cover only the “unique” references that appear in each episode, while passing on the posters, toys and other background pieces that appear in every episode and are irrelevant to the plot.
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Porky’s
Adam’s decision to obey his mother’s request not to see Porky’s leads to Murray encouraging him to start breaking some rules.Porky‘s was one of those 1980’s sex comedies beloved by pubescent boys and disliked by just about everyone else.Porky‘s revolved around a group of boys trying to lose their virginity by hiring a prostitute at a local nightclub.Although the movie was a string of cheap sex jokes framed with female nudity, it was a smash hit at the box office, earning over $111 million despite poor reviews.Porky’s also spawned two sequels, which also were awful.
The A-Team and Delta Force
While arguing over whether Adam should see Porky’s, Adam and Beverly trade hypothetical scenarios involving the A-Team and Delta Force.Everyone probably remembers the A-Team from the TV series featuring Mr. T as part of a group of “soldiers of fortune” helping others while trying to clear their own name for crimes they didn’t commit.Bradley Cooper and Liam Neeson starred in a film remake of The A-Team in 2010.Delta Force was one of Chuck Norris’s most popular films, released in 1986 during the height of his movie career.Norris starred as the leader of an elite Special Forces unit (based on the real life Delta Force) who disrupt a terrorist hijacking of a passenger flight.Based on their training and the high body count, I’d be far more afraid of Delta Force than the A-Team.
“Hello”
Barry tries to replicate the climactic scene from the music video for Lionel Richie’s “Hello”, with hilarious and grotesque results.”Hello” was one of Lionel Richie’s many popular R&B hits, although it had a very bizarre and slightly creepy music video.In the video, Richie plays a theatre teacher who falls in love with one of his blind students. Although Richie thinks his feelings are unrequited, he realizes she’s in love with him too when she makes a clay sculpture of his head….which looks nothing like him.
Sloth from the Goonies
Erica comments that Barry’s sculptures look like Sloth from The Goonies, which is actually quite accurate.Sloth was the deformed younger brother of the Fratellis, a gang of criminals who plague the Goonies through much of the film.After the Goonies befriend Sloth, he turns on his family and save the Goonies at the end of the movie.
Team Banzai
Adam wears a “Team Banzai” shirt for much of the episode, a reference to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.Buckaroo Banzai was a comedic science fiction film starring a multitalented rock star scientist who discovers and thwarts an alien invasion.The movie is filled with wacky, weird comedy with hints of a larger mythology that’s never really touched upon outside a few throwaway lines and teases.The movie was a flop at the box office, but gained a massive cult following, especially by geeks growing up in the 1980s. Nowadays, Buckaroo Banzai is considered as an underrated classic, a cult film beloved by its fans but largely forgotten by everyone else.
