Television and movies can be pretty powerful sources for fashion inspiration, but when you’re constantly watching the black and white classics, as I am, your wardrobe can easily become increasingly drab. Lately, The Dick Van Dyke Show has been continually playing in the corner of my computer as I get work done, or on our tv screen when I’m nursing baby Lucy. I’ve become obsessed with Laura Petrie’s (Mary Tyler Moore) classic wardrobe, but in turn, I’ve noticed that I’m starting to favor black, white, and gray in my personal style choices. It’s silly, really, because do you think those are the only colors Laura Petrie wore? Doubt it! After that realization struck me, I began to daydream about what colors Laura’s outfits really were. Here’s a little peek inside my head, and Laura’s newly technicolor wardrobe.

It gets pretty Pleasantville, doesn’t it? Colorizing Laura Petrie’s wardrobe was sort of addicting, and now I want to do the rest of the characters, and the Petrie’s living room too! It’s like a coloring book for crazy adults. Kind of therapeutic! I know. You guys probably think I’m pretty nutso. But when inspiration strikes… you just gotta do what ya gotta do.

Laura’s my most recent style icon to emulate in my own personal fashion choices. Who are your favorite style icons from tv shows?

Waldo Pepper (Robert Redford) isn’t only devilishly handsome, but he’s also a fearless dare-devil flier during a time when flying was a new and quickly changing freedom. I enjoy any chance to watch Redford on screen during his glory years (Hello, Mister Studly!), but I was especially interested in a period movie about early aviation’s stunt fliers. Also, I wanted to see a young Susan Sarandon. Curiosity piqued. About halfway through The Great Waldo Pepper, during an intensely nerve-wracking stunt scene, I began to remember watching this with my dad when I was a kid. And then I remembered that this movie isn’t the fanfare and fluff that I thought it might be. It’s actually pretty heavy-hitting and metaphorical, if you’re a thoughtful movie-watcher.

The movie begins with Waldo Pepper eeking out a living by flying through Midwestern towns, drawing in crowds with his stunts, and giving people rides in exchange for five dollars. When he has a run in with another pilot stuck in a similar kind of life, they team up and scheme together to create thrilling and death-skirting stunts that will draw bigger crowds and give them the adventurous careers they always dreamed of in the wide open sky.

After World War One, men who trained as pilots didn’t have anywhere to employ their skills except for in circuses and on Hollywood sets. Aviation was a new concept, and commercial flying wasn’t a career in demand, or particularly an appealing prospect for men who had battled in dogfights during the war. Men like the fictitious Waldo Pepper risked their lives just for the thrill of flying, the prestige of conquering a new feat, and the freedom they found in the air. But that freedom was quickly changing, and men like Waldo Pepper fought against it in their own daring ways.

I love the nostalgia of the Midwest during the 1920s, and The Great Waldo Pepper captures its beauty so well with the sweeping scenes of brightly colored planes against the American landscape. The cinematography sweeps you up in the carefree attitude of the fliers, contrasting itself with the tragedy and abandon in the characters’ lives. The Great Waldo Pepper isn’t a light watch, and be careful watching it with kids- I can remember being very agitated at the stunts and crashes that occurred in the story. But it’s a great one to analyze and find a fellow movie geek to pick it apart with after the credits have rolled.

You can rent or buy The Great Waldo Pepper instantly here!

Spring break is finally here, though outside my window all I can see is freezing rain and gloomy skies. Same goes for the gals in Where the Boys Are. The four of them decide to take off from a snowy campus to the tropical weather of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to enjoybathing suits, beaches, and boys. Though the ingredients to this movie are all the makings of just another silly ’60s beach movie, this one definitely stands apart as a refreshingly honest look at sexuality and culture at the start of the ’60s.

Where the Boys Are begins with a young woman’s shocking announcement in a cultural studies class that she doesn’t see anything wrong with premarital sex, and that everyone in their classroom is familiar with making out, or “backseat bingo,” as they call it. Not surprisingly, she is sent to the counselor’s office, where she doesn’t recant her beliefs, and storms off with her alarmed friend to take off for a week of independence at the beach.

Most of the girls tricked their parents into thinking they were at another girl’s home for Spring break, though really they’re jammed into a small hotel room sleeping on beds and floors with a total of 6 girls. They each begin their own spring flings with guys they meet around the pool or at the beach, and we begin to see that their ideologies and how they actually behave are very different. The girl who made her shocking statements in class turns out to be more prudish than her seemingly innocent friend who begins to be passed around from man to man. And just one short week at the beach seems to turn into quite a life changing time for the girls.

Where the Boys Are is a vibrant and fun film, visually-speaking, and I thought it did a decent job of following the stories of four different girls without becoming too disjointed. The plot isn’t thick, but the characters develop interestingly, and there’s plenty of comedy mixed in with some heavier themes. The stories definitely revolve around the stereotypical mid-century female gender role of needing a man, or craving romance, but for its time, Where the Boys Are is strikingly frank. The girls aren’t afraid of their sexuality, and the boys aren’t afraid to ask for sex. But actions aren’t without consequences, and just like any wholesome movie from this area, the audience is reminded of this as the week at the beach unfolds.

You can rent and view Where the Boys Are instantly here.