The 70's House

Tonight a new reality show will debut on MTV. It's called "MTV's The 70's House" (why it has "MTV's" in the title... I don't know...are there other networks having their own version of The 70's House too?).

NOTE: This post is from the Retropolis archives and was originally posted July 5, 2005.

The preview actually does look great because I get the feeling that it is going to be funny (I hope). These young people, who probably never lived in the 70's, will be living in a 70's split level house that is decorated in 70's decor. From what I can see, it's not all of the funkiest decor of the 70's either... I actually saw some calico patchwork stuff. Of course, it also has the coolest of the 70's stuff, such as the "donut" phone.

They all have to dress in 70s attire and use only stuff that existed in the 70s. They have a record player. And that donut phone I mentioned is a rotary.

But what looks hilarious about it is that they have to do The Hustle every time they hear a certain signal (not sure if it's a sound they hear or actual music). The preview showed a guy waking up, half asleep, doing the Hustle. So, it looks sort of game show-ish.

I'm hoping it's funny. We'll see. Regardless, I'm looking forward to seeing a 70's house filled with 70's decor.

My life began in the 70's. Anybody born or raised in the 70's had a colorful childhood. It was kind of like being raised in a circus. Everybody had butterfly collars and wild patterns on their clothes. Pants were flared out like crazy. We wore all sorts of goofy patches on the knees of our jeans. There were all sorts of sideburns and moustaches. I remember when I was really young I saw a man whose hair was pulled back in a bandana and he had one large hoop earring in one ear. I thought he was a pirate.

My bedroom had yellow shag carpeting and my brother's room had red shag carpeting. Our kitchen appliances were all avocado green. We had a child size table for two that had big colorful daisies all over it. I had a set of hippie dolls called The Sunshine Family.

In 1976 everyone got very patriotic and colonial (because of America's bicentennial celebration). I remember seeing people dressed as George Washington in parades and his picture was suddenly everywhere, so I was confused about who really was the president and what time period we were living in. The American Eagle was on everything - from lamps to dinnerwear to wall hangings above garages. Everybody was wearing red, white, and blue... only it was often in all sorts of wild flower, striped, or mod patterns.

Soon the movie Grease came out and we were living in the 50's for a year. I had a pair of saddle shoes and bobby socks and my mom sewed a poodle on a skirt for me. When I wasn't living in the 50's, I was being one of the Ingalls girls, wearing my hair in braids and pretending to be living on a prairie in the 1800's. Somehow Holly Hobbie got mixed in with the whole Little House On the Prairie thing too. Of course, during this same time period we were going roller skating to disco music while colorful lights flashed all around us. So, I was feeling very peace-n-love, colonial, sock hop, prairie chic, disco queen in the 70's. You know the feeling, right?