About this episode

The episode explores the pop culture of July 18-20, 1986, focusing on the film ALIENS and other media from that weekend.

The Summer of 86 at 40 is a weekly retrospective journey through United States pop culture surrounding the films released in May, June, July and August of 1986. Brandon Peters, Scott Mendelson and Aaron Neuwirth take a weekend by weekend look at the films released as well as the news stories, commercials, television and music that rounded out the general public’s lives as they lined the pockets of the box office to see these movies. July 18-20, 1986: A rather rough week has us all perplexed at one of the worst movies we’ve ever had to sit through in this series that should be a more historically noted high profile failure than it is. But, its all worth it as the main feature this week is James Cameron’s ALIENS! We’ll also be discussing the box office report, notable news stories, a 1986 commercial, the top 10 Nielsen rated tv programs for the week and the top 10 of Casey Kasem’s American top 40 from the week these films were released. Brandon Peters and the show are on Facebook and social media @brandon4kuhd. Subscribe to the YouTube channel for visual versions as well as 4k, Blu-ray, DVD reviews & additional material. Scott Mendelson is on…

People in this episode

Host: Brandon Peters

Guests: Scott Mendelson, Aaron Neuwirth

Topics covered

• 1986 pop culture
• film retrospectives
• box office analysis
• television ratings
• music charts

Keywords

• 1986 films
• box office
• television programs
• music charts
• commercials

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: ALIENS

More episodes of The Brandon Peters Show

• The Summer of 86 at 40: July 25-27, 1986 · July 20, 2026 · 1h 57m
• The Summer of 86 at 40: “Take My Breath Away” by Berlin with Jennifer Wreyford · July 17, 2026 · 26 min
• The Summer of 86 at 40: “Invisible Touch” by Genesis with Matt Pelsor · July 10, 2026 · 26 min
• The Summer of 86 at 40: July 11-13, 1986 · July 6, 2026 · 1h 54m
• The Summer of 86 at 40: “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel with Jessica Alsman · July 3, 2026 · 25 min
• The Summer of 86 at 40: July 4-6, 1986 · June 29, 2026 · 1h 55m

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