The 80s Movie Podcast
Introduce yourself.
I’m Edward Havens, the host of The 80s Movie Podcast. As a child of the 70s and teenager of the 80s, I spent a lot of time at the movies in order to stay away from a not very good home. I’d see anything and everything. Didn’t matter what it was about or who was in it. Which gives me a much greater wealth of material to draw on than most podcasts which cover the sane topic. I’m less interested in being the 83rd podcast to talk about Back to the Future or Roadhouse. I want to remind you of the movie you may have forgotten about, or never knew existed. There were 10,000 movies released in the 1980s. Someone needs to talk about the other 9,900 movies that aren’t spoken about so much.
“I think the most important for any podcaster, whether they are a hobbyist like myself or someone who is looking to monetize their show to the point of it becoming their primary source of income, to remember is to stay open to any possibility or suggestion as to how you can make your show better."'
- Edward Havens
Share an experience that has shaped who you are today.
When I was 18, I was home for the summer from school, and I got a job at a movie theatre. I mean, what kid who loves movies wouldn’t want to work at a movie theatre? Spend a summer watching free movies when I wasn’t working, and then go back to school when time was up. I ended up staying with that job for 34 years.
Tell us about your podcast audience.
My audience are listeners who enjoy learning as they’re being entertained. When they listen to The 80s Movie Podcast, they expect to hear about how the movie came together, or why a distributor flew so high only to come crashing down, or how a filmmaker overcame a personal tragedy to make a comeback. The human stories. The personal connections. The things that bring us closer to the movies we love, or didn’t even know we needed in our lives.
What makes your podcast unique?
As I previously mentioned, I try to talk about the movies that aren’t covered as much by other podcasts. Not that there’s anything wrong with talking about Raiders of the Lost Ark or Die Hard. I love Raiders and Die Hard. But there were so many other films to talk about.
Some movies teach their stars lessons that stay with them for the rest of their careers.
This week on The 80s Movie Podcast, host Edward Havens looks at Losin’ It, the 1983 teen comedy that began as Tijuanaand starred a young Tom Cruise alongside Jackie Earle Haley and Shelley Long. Four teenagers head across the border in 1965, expecting an unforgettable adventure. Instead, they stumble into a chaotic night of bad decisions, romance, and trouble.
But the real story begins with the movie audiences first saw during its 1982 test engagements. Originally titled Tijuana, the film later changed distributors, changed titles, and was re-edited before its wider 1983 release as Losin’ It. For Tom Cruise, the experience offered an early lesson about how much a filmmaker can lose control of a movie after production ends.
We explore how watching Tijuana become Losin’ It gave Cruise an early glimpse into the realities of Hollywood filmmaking. Years before he became one of Hollywood’s most powerful stars, the experience helped shape his understanding of creative control, filmmaking, and the importance of protecting the quality of a movie.
Along the way, we revisit the film’s unusual history, its brief 1982 theatrical test, and the version audiences eventually received in 1983. Losin’ It may be a forgotten early Tom Cruise comedy, but its troubled journey offers a fascinating glimpse at the lessons that helped shape one of Hollywood’s biggest careers.
Vinnie Potestivo, Editor-in-Chief of
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