Just now, 25 years later, it occurs to me that "Strip Off" is redundant.

My friends dad took us to see Zardoz when it opened - My first R rated film - we were big on James Bond so it was a must. With all the topless women I think I had a sustained erection for the duration of the film

Some of the scariest movies I ever saw were on network tv, and those gave me more nightmares than anything I saw in the theatre or drive-in. (NA, €uro and I had a convo about Trilogy of Terror when I was visiting- anyone else remember that?)

Alex, your parents showed great wisdom in not allowing you to watch the A-Team.

Oh, I watched it anyway. I just wasn't allowed to.

I also wasn't allowed to steal the quarters out of my mom's laundry so that I could play Super Mario Brothers at the IGA all afternoon either. But I did that too.

I suddenly want to see pictures of Alex when he was a kid, hanging out at the arcade.

Of course then I'd have to pull out my kiddie pictures and that might not be as fun. :blush:

And just for the record - my parents let me watch anything and everything.

Did they also take you to a really hilarious movie and thus you've never laughed again? Did they wear smilie face shirts all the time, thus your dislike for emoticons? Were you forced onto a roller coaster at the ripe age of 5, thus taking the thrill taken out of thrill rides forever? Suddenly the stoicism of Alex Stroup is explained. :p ;)

Strangely, I was allowed to watch the A-team. Yet Scooby Doo, Smurfs, and I Dream of Genie were off limits. :confused: My dad snuck in James Bond movies every time my mom left the house. I loved them when I was 8.

'Poltergeist' freaked me out as a kid. The face ripping part was too much for me. It made me gag. :D
My first rated R movie was 'Conan the Barbarian'. If I remember correctly.
:)

But what kind of access did you really have to media? With Netflix, blockbusters, Internet, cable and Tivo I think my kids have access to a lot more mature material than kids of your generation. Plus the content has changed. When I was a kid the only thing I was "forbidden" to watch was the three stooges. There was no nip-tuck or WWF coming into your home on a daily basis. TV, even basic cable was for the most part not too bad for kids but I do think the relentless violence, hate and adult issues you see on shows like the Shield or SVU is not something kids need to see.

My family was one of the first people in Hawai'i to test out cable in our homes. We moved to a condo when I was 5 or so and had cable installed. Oceanic Cablevision.
My sister and I watched it non-stop. We had WTCG (now TBS) and HBO (which showed porn late at night) and others. My parents were never around so we figured out a lot about things by watching TV. We watched movies ('Suspiria', 'Play Misty for Me', 'The Island of Dr. Moreau' etc.) that went unexplained which in hindsight probably wasn't good for us.
(Now that I think of it, I may have seen my first X rated film before my first rated R film. IN fact, 'Conan' may not have been my first R film, it may have just been my first R film in the theatre...)