This time it’s personal: the sequel
The search continues for the origin of the expression “this time it’s personal.” (See Non Sequitur of the week post). I’m no closer to the answer but the journey has been interesting. Google returns about a million hits for “this time it’s personal”, reinforcing the obvious: that this phrase is entrenched in our vernacular. But where did it come from?
There is no smoking gun at Google. Most of the examples on the web using “this time it’s personal” are testimonials of people taking on something as a cause: a man fighting spam on his computer, a blogger prophesizing the second coming of Christ, a woman battling a life-threatening disease. Whatever it is, it’s personal for them. There is a book: “Advanced Sex Tips for Girls: This Time it’s Personal.” And a surprising number of music CDs sharing the title. Michael Ball, Somethin’ for the People, Scratching Post, Fury of Five, Crooked Eye Q all have CDs out called “This Time It’s Personal.”
The expression is often used with the words “he’s back” as in: “He’s back and this time it’s personal.” As such, it has that Arnold Schwarzenegger feel to it (perhaps grope would be a better word). It also could be the tagline for a slasher film: Jason/Freddie/Chuckie’s back…
One thing is for certain, “He’s back and this time it’s personal,” has to have originated from a movie. I can almost hear the gravely voiced announcer delivering the line at the end of a movie trailer on TV: “He’s back…”
The definitive website for info on movies is IMDb. So I went there to see if I could solve this mystery. I did a search of movie taglines with the words “this time it’s personal.” One movie turned up: “Scary Movie 3. This time it’s personal. You’re warned.” So the only movie using this expression is a spoof of the entire slasher genre. Not much help there.
A search with the words “He’s back and this time it’s personal” didn’t turn up any hits. It did, however, bring up a host of “He’s back” taglines. The big surprise for me was that the whole “He’s back…” thing didn’t originate with Arnie in the Terminator. (He said, “I’ll be back.”) In fact, the first movie to use the words “He’s back” in a tagline was Song of the Saddle (1936): “He’s back. With a new bag of tricks swinging from his saddle…and a new round of thrills blazing from his guns.” Hmm.
Since then, a host of movies has used the term. Listed together like this, these taglines are almost poetic. Well, almost.
He’s back.
He’s back for seconds.
He’s back with a vengeance.
He’s back and it’s about time.
He’s back and he’s better than ever.
He’s back from the dead with a message from hell.
He’s back from the past to pick up the pieces.
He’s back to protect the innocents.
He’s back but he’s not happy.
He’s back and very angry.
He’s back. You’re dead.
He’s back? Whatever!
Okay, that last one was mine. I think I’ve been on this topic for too long. I hope you can find the original source for the expression “this time it’s personal” before it drives me crazy. Otherwise, someone is going to write a tagline for me: “He’s gone and this time it’s for good.”
11:01:03 AM 
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