We lost so many things in 2020 and now that we just listed what needs to go,it’s time for us to discuss what needs to come back in 2021. This is the biggest list we’ve ever done and it’s such a big list that we need two days just to give it to you. This is Part One of our list, where I will go over items 30-16. 

Disclaimer: Just like the Things That Need to Go list, this list is for entertainment purposes and is meant to be taken semi-seriously, so keep that in mind when you read the list. We’re just trying to have fun here!

Without further adieu, here’s #30!

30. A Current Affair

Even though there was a brief reboot of this show in 2005, I would love to see A Current Affair come back to TV. Not only was it tabloid journalism at its finest, it had that cool Ka-Chung sound that began and ended every story on the show. Me and another co-worker make that sound all the time at work. Why? Because it’s fun! We need more shows with cool sound effects on television nowadays, we don’t have as many as we used to.

29. Halloween Happy Meal buckets

File this under Things I Didn’t Know I Missed and I want to thank Ron from Corner Pub Sports for reminding me about these. Back in the day we had our Halloween candy bucket covered when McDonald’s would roll out these Happy Meal buckets that contained the Happy Meal initially and you could use as a candy bucket to take with you for Trick-or-Treating. Believe it or not, the last time McDonald’s did these was just four years ago in 2016. I think these are due for a comeback. 

28. Sergio Dipp

Back in 2017, ESPN needed a crew for the second game of their opening Monday Night doubleheader between the Los Angeles Chargers and Denver Broncos and Sergio Dipp, who is mainly seen on ESPN Deportes, was tapped to be the sideline reporter for the game. During his first and only on-camera appearance he appeared to nervously stumble over his words and said that new Denver head coach Vance Joseph was “having the time of his LIFE!”. He would not appear again on the telecast after trending on Twitter in a humiliating fashion. I,however, loved his enthusiasm and energy. I think he deserves a shot at redemption. Come on,ESPN, bring back the Dipp! 

27. The Trump Voter Fraud hotline

One of my biggest regrets of the year was not getting a chance to prank call the Trump National War Room that was fielding calls about voter fraud (which didn’t exist) and instead got a bunch of people prank calling them instead, so much so that they needed to change the number a few times only to have the prank callers spam them continuously. There is no more number to call to report voter fraud and I think that’s a mistake. I think that number should be left up for people to prank call and so I get a chance to call them. I have hella material that I need an outlet for and they’re the perfect target.

26. Monocles

Whatever happened to monocles? Why doesn’t anyone other than villains in movies wear one? It used to be that you would see these rich, sophisticated types wear one when they would go out on the town and they don’t anymore. It’s kinda sad actually. I think if you need only one corrective lens, the monocle is the way to go and I would love to see more people rock one if they need to.

25. Car antennas

One thing I do miss on cars is antennas. You used to be able to put cool antenna toppers on them as well (only to have them stolen in the parking lot of the mall!). Nonetheless I wish cars still had them. It’s because they don’t make cars with antennas anymore that Disneyland doesn’t sell antenna toppers anymore and as an owner of a vehicle with an antenna, I still wish they did because in the past I would buy many toppers for different holidays. Sure,some of them got swiped, but I still have other ones and would love to get new ones at places other than online. It would be great if carmakers brought back antennas so that Disney brings back the toppers.

24. Dress shoes

One thing I am getting pretty tired of is sneakers with suits. Why anyone is pairing expensive suits with not-so-expensive sneakers is beyond me. I do not get what is so difficult about getting a nice pair of dress shoes to make the suit work. It’s truly not that difficult,fellas. If you need help, let me be your guide. I know what works and what doesn’t work and those sneakers you’re wearing with that suit just don’t work. Maybe I’m just a stickler for this or am just old fashioned when it comes to dressing up, but yeah, sneakers are for casual wear only. That’s it!

23. The album cover lean

You know what I’m talking about. Back in the day when an album came out and the artist was leaning on the cover of it, you knew it was going to be fire. But hardly anyone does that anymore. Let’s bring back a time when a music artist leaned back on the cover and let the music say the rest. I know most people don’t buy albums anymore,but I probably might if they did this again, I still have a CD player.

22. POGs

One of the best things about the 1990s was POGs. This game was a popular one when I was in middle school, but unfortunately a lot of schools deemed it as a form of gambling in terms of kids gambling away their POGs and sometimes actual monies. It broke my heart that the fad came and went that fast. I would love to see it come back sometime as many things from the 90s have come back, why not one more?

21. Ray’s Lounge

We have had this on our list before and only people from my hometown will understand this. Back in the day before the current site became a Lego store, we had a watering hole called Ray’s Lounge and my childhood telephone number was one digit off from theirs and very so often we would get the wrong number asking for Ray’s instead of us. As I have said before, this is somewhere I never went to,but it would be neat to have a new Ray’s Lounge somewhere in Orangevale. Hell, if I hit that lotto, I may just open one up!

20. Win, Lose, or Draw

When it comes to 80s game shows, other than Press Your Luck, Win, Lose,or Draw was a show that screamed the 1980s. The celebrities, the couches, the sweaters they wore on the show, it was celebrities playing Pictionary and it was actually pretty awesome. It only lasted about four years, but it was fun to watch right before Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune came on. Let’s bring this show back, sweaters and all. Get Alfonso Ribeiro to host it,he would be great!

19. Public restrooms

I know this one is going to get a little people upset,but hear me out. During the pandemic I have been in many places where a restroom was not available because it was closed, especially at parks early on. As a diabetic, that’s a little upsetting because I have to use the bathroom more times than others and when you got to go, you got to go and go in a proper manner. In those parks where they were closed I had to find a secluded area to just piss in a bush. 

I hated to have to do that, but what choice did I have? I was about to explode! By the way, I am certain I wasn’t the only one who resorted to desperate measures as I had seen human feces in other spots. While that is by definition gross, I understood it. People need a place to go potty when they’re not at home and keeping restrooms closed is going to bring back things like the plague. We can’t let that happen!

18. Reading Rainbow

Reading Rainbow was a staple of my childhood and it made reading a lot of fun growing up and the host of that show was my birthday buddy,LeVar Burton. He introduced us to so many books and got kids excited about reading. We don’t have shows that get kids pumped up to read books anymore and as a result they just want to play video games and watch TikTok videos. I would love to see Reading Rainbow come back someday. I think kids would love to read again if this was back on TV,but you don’t have to take my word for it!

17. Mac Tonight

McDonald’s has had many wonderful and colorful characters over the years: Ronald McDonald, the Hamburglar, Jason Alexander, but none were as musical and cool as Mac Tonight, a play on words of Bobby Darin’s song “Mack the Knife”. He was the moon-headed,piano playing man wearing sunglasses  who sang about McDonald’s and eating it late at night. The ads came to a sad end in 1989 when Darin’s family sued McDonald’s for infringing upon the singer’s trademark without permission. 

I would love to see the character brought back,but singing songs not done by Darin. I would put this under the category of King of Wishful Thinking because of the Moon Man character created by the alt-right who looks similar to Mac Tonight. Why does the right have to ruin everything? Gah!

16. Traveling

While some people are still doing this, most people aren’t.

I have only traveled once since the never-ending pandemic began and was slated to do it again this week before stay-at-home orders were placed yet again. We all are tired of being cooped up in our houses or localities not having anywhere to go or anyone to see. It really sucks. I am dying to travel as many places I can once this terrible time is over. I wanted to before this pandemic hit and that has not changed. I want to be as busy as possible next year and go wherever I can. I haven’t been on a plane in almost 14 years and I want that streak to end soon and I am sure a lot of you have places you want to go as well. I hope you get that wish next year.

We’ll have Part Two tomorrow!