The 80's also had a number of comedic films. Ever heard of Police Academy? 1, 2, 3.... well, there are six of them that I know of. While unfortunately a bit raunchy, the cast of Mahoney, Lt Harris, Hightower and the rest of the helpless, clueless cop recruits keeps us laughing. I could tell you many, many stories of these fine, fine cadets, but I'll save that for the equally ditzy captain.

Another sci-fi movie of the 80's involving the Police Academy cast of Steve Guttenburg and the guy that played Lt Harris (can't remember his name) went by the name of Short Circuit. The story about a high tech robot that after getting hit by lightning gained self-awareness and an ability to think for itself. That wasn't a bad movie, but I will say that Short Circuit 2 lacked. Ah, the good old days.

The story about a high tech robot that after getting hit by lightning gained self-awareness and an ability to think for itself.

Number 5 is alive! Ha, I remember that one. And you're right, Short Circuit 2 wasn't particularly good. Actually...it was pretty bad.

And the Police Academy movies...the first couple are the best but some of the later ones were rather craptacular (although they did give a few laughs). My favorite was and always will be Michael Winslow, the guy who can do the sound effects with his mouth. Especially when he's doing kung-fu and his lips move out of synch with his words like the old kung-fu flicks.

As funny as those were I was always partial to The Naked Gun series, with Lt. Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen)...a little off color sometimes but still very funny.

Yeah, Conan the Destroyer and Red Sonja were pretty hokey, but I agree with you Shadow. They are guilty pleasures. It really was a good era for Fantasy/Sword and Sorcery flicks. I'm glad LotR and Narnia revived the Genre. Now we have new cheesy S&S flicks to enjoy that sort of echo those of the 80s (like Dungeon Siege: In the Name of the King). In fact that one reminds me a lot of Beastmaster for some reason.

I'm a little surprised you liked the Police Academy movies Fencer . I do remember them as being kind of raunchy. I always remember Revenge of the Nerds too when I think of those types of comedies.

Short Circuit was amusing but not high on my list of Fave 80s movies (pretty far down actually). But I'm amazed the other huge sci fi film that set a new bar for all sci fi films to overcome hasn't been mentioned yet:

In fact, I am hard pressed to think of a sci fi film since then that wasn't influenced to varying degrees by the Art Design and Themes of Blade Runner. I think more Sci Fi Films and TV Shows have been made based on that template (and a dash of Terminator) than Star Trek or Star Wars.

Another hugely influential director from the 80s whose work has influenced Sci Fi and Horror is David Cronenberg:
Scanners (1981)
Videodrome (1983)
The Dead Zone (1983)
The Fly (1986)

Nowadays, when I see films like The Matrix, Dark City, Equilibrium, (among others), I see a clear debt owed to Videodrome, Blade-Runner, and Terminator.

GB

While following this thread from the beginning, I am surprised that nobody has brought up the the "cheesy cop/P.I. show" breakthrough of the '80s. Although the '80s came before my time, I have had the pleasure to enjoy many of "these" TV shows on DVD: Magnum P.I., The Rockford files -- "Oh, I almost forgot" -- the end of the series Colombo, and (for the "Basil, pass the tea" people) Murder She Wrote. Maybe some of these shows don't display the pinnacle of acting or storyline, but you have to admit that they left their mark in history. Personally, I still love to watch them, despite what shortcomings they have.

Just to throw in one more show that was a first, and a last: Knight Rider. It was the first and last TV show... I think... which had a talking-car main character. I have also had the pleasure of watching this show in all its "premium cheddar" glory. Even so, there is something cool to be said about a talking car.

Blade Runner is a good film but was never really my cup of tea. As art the film is breathtaking stuff and the noirish aspects really amplify the film tenfold to me, but it's just too moody and dark for my tastes. For anyone who hasn't seen Blade Runner there's at least a dozen different versions out there but primarily two you'll need to check out.

The Theatrical release features voiceover narration by Harrison Ford's character and a happier ending. The Director's Cut gets rid of the narration and leaves a dark and almost unresolved ending. Personally I'm going to go against the grain here and say I prefer the Theatrical version as the narration gives you a better look into this dystopian world the characters inhabit, plus I liked the ending better.

Watz, I almost put in a plug for Magnum P.I. at the very beginning but I just ran out of time . I watched Magnum when I was much younger, but mostly because I liked Higgin's red Ferrari. I also almost put in Knight Rider...this show was a fixture on our TV's for the better part of the decade. We watched a lot of Airwolf too...that was one of my favorites.

Well, no-one can cover it all in one post Watzi.

I would've got to Magnum PI eventually, but i had to leave something for you to post .

You're a decade off with The Rockford Files though, it ran from Sep 1974 to Jan 1980. And neither of those shows were "cheesy" (though arguably Selleck's moustache could be ).

Columbo can't be considered an 80s show either. It ended it's regular series run in 1978 (NBC). It was picked up for sporadic one-off "episodes" by ABC in 1989 and the most recent "episode" last aired in 2003.

You're on firmer ground with Murder She Wrote as an "80s" show though, which ran from 1984 to 1996.

Knight Rider was definitely 80s all the way (and one of my Faves to boot ), and yes, it was cheesy...deliciously cheesy . But it wasn't the last show with a talking car. There were a number of failed attempts to spin-off/reboot the franchise:

Knight Rider (1982 TV series), the original 1980s television series
Knight Rider 2000, a 1991 sequel movie to the 1980s television series
Knight Rider 2010, a 1994 made-for-television movie loosely based on the 1980s series
Team Knight Rider, a 1997 spin-off television series based on the 1980s series
Knight Rider (2008 film), a made-for-television film pilot to the 2008 television series
Knight Rider (2008 TV series), a series following both the 2008 film and the 1980s TV series

Now for a couple of awesomely cheesy and yet utterly entertaining series that can qualify as "80s shows", I submit Fantasy Island and The Love Boat . They both began in 1977 but ran till the mid 1980s (the 80s zeitgeist kind of kicked into gear, in '77-'78 and ended about '87-'88 anyway).

Actually Shadow, depending on my mood, I sometimes prefer the Theatrical version of Blade Runner myself. The ending is much more upbeat. Oh, and Airwolf Rocked too .

I almost forgot another groundbreaking 80s movie, then I came across the preview for the sequel. Here's the original, the one and only:

And released in Dec 1979, this eye-popping film kicked off the 80's :

And speaking of Eye-Candy, I saw another favourite 80's Sci Fi flick recently: The Last Starfighter featuring this awesome (great 80's slang word "Awesome" ) space ship:

GB

Girls do many strange fashion-related things, but two of the strangest are Jellies shoes (a plastic shoe with glitter mixed in) which makes their feet sweat a lot, and wearing shoulder pads. Huge shoulder pads. I'm sure johobbit remembers this well.

Uh, yes. I've never been into fashion or dressing up, but during that decade I was given a fancier top by my dear mother, so of course I just had to wear it now and then. One Sunday we were sitting in church with our then 4 year old daughter (Nellie of Narnia here). She had her little arm stretched up around one of my shoulders and was kind of rubbing it. All of a sudden she stopped dead still for a minute as she reached that infamous shoulder pad, then began squeezing it between her fingers, obviously quite puzzled. In a rather loud voice she exclaimed "Mommy. Mommy! That's not you!" Yeah.

And in other news, I graduated with a Fine Arts university major (music) in April 1980 and was married two months later in June. Two of our three children arrived in that decade (Nellie in 1985; her brother in 1989). We moved three different times: 1980, 1986, and then settling in our current location in 1988. So, this decade was the beginning of a whole new era in terms of my personal life.

You're a decade off with The Rockford Files though, it ran from Sep 1974 to Jan 1980.

Columbo can't be considered an 80s show either. It ended it's regular series run in 1978 (NBC). It was picked up for sporadic one-off "episodes" by ABC in 1989 and the most recent "episode" last aired in 2003.

Oops! There, that just goes to show: I wasn't around in the '80s. Even so, I could have done my research a bit better. Oh well. I still like The Rockford Files and Colombo.

As for the cheesy parts of the Rockford Files and Magnum P.I., I was referring to how Rockford or Magnum are always getting beat up. They always start a fight and then have the worst bout of it. That may not be cheesy to you, but at least it is kind of ironic.

I wasn't born in the 80s, but my parents were around then and they have told me lots! my dad remembers when the cabbagepatch dolls came out and how it was the big thing to have one. I laughed. I mean, those dolls aren't anything I would ever have wanted to have! lol! yeah, and The Beatles.....they were popular then and ironically they are becoming popular again! weird......

It's been fun reading the comments about '80s movies and TV shows. I've forgotten many of them. Just the other day I watched Krull online, prompted by comments over in the Past Movies thread. Enjoyable enough little flick, though James Horner's musical score seemed to use a lot of the same themes he'd previously used in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (as was also noted in that thread).

The 1980s saw the return of a long-awaited celestial visitor, perhaps that most well-known: Comet Halley. (I remember anticipating its return since the late 1960s; the spectacular appearance of Comet West in 1976 only increased the excitement).

However, the orbital geometry for the 1985-86 pass of Halley was about the worst possible; rather than the glorious view it presented in 1910 (and will again in 2061) it was just a dim little fuzzball as seen from the earth.

The early 1980s also saw a lot of hoopla surrounding the "Jupiter Effect" - a 1974 book by that title predicted a planetary alignment in March 1982 would cause massive solar flares and significant damage to earth. The only effect attributed to this 'alignment' was a 0.04-millimeter rise in the tides.

Tron is one of my favorite movies, one that got brought up in the Past Movies thread not too long ago. And Disney's Black Hole was also great fun. When I was a little kid I saw it at the theater and thought the Cygus was a weird looking ship but as I got older I came to change my opinion and now think it's a beautiful vessel. My only concern is why they made the entire outer hull out of rice paper, but that aside it's still a great film, if you can look past the fact that black holes don't look like they do in the movie. The Last Starfighter...wow, I haven't watched that one in several years but always loved it. My understanding was that they were originally going to release an actual arcade video game to match the one Alex plays in the movie...they just recently unveiled a real life Space Paranoids arcade game to tie in with the upcoming Tron 2 film (there's clips on youtube...it looks awesome!). Anyways, The Last Starfighter has very primitive CGI but the sequences were far longer than they were in Tron and the movie still looks pretty good, and the message of the film is great.

The 1980s saw the return of a long-awaited celestial visitor, perhaps that most well-known: Comet Halley.

That was 1986, wasn't it? I remember that it was in all the newspapers but for the short time it was visible North Carolina had mostly overcast skies and I was never able to see it. In the 90's I saw Hale-Bopp though so that made up for it a bit...I always regretted not getting to see Halley though.

The early 1980s also saw a lot of hoopla surrounding the "Jupiter Effect" - a 1974 book by that title predicted a planetary alignment in March 1982 would cause massive solar flares and significant damage to earth.

There's always a big stink when the planets align. Back in 1981 or 82 HBO had this feature on Nostradamus which was hosted by Orson Welles (The Man Who Saw Tomorrow, it was called), and he was talking about how Nostradamus would use planetary alignments and other celestial phenomenon to predict calamities. The part of the film I thought was the best (and by far the most terrifying) was when the Middle-Eastern guy with the blue turban starts launching nukes at NYC...it scared the pants off of me! Here's the link to the video since we're cruising down memory lane.

*jumps in on the movie discussion*

The 80's also gave us some great film score composers such as the following:

Alan Silvestri
James Horner
Hans Zimmer
James Newton-Howard
Christopher Young

And some classic scores including:

Empire Strikes Back: John Williams
Legend: Jerry Goldsmith
Poltergeist: Jerry Goldsmith
Back to the Future: Alan Silvestri
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: James Horner
Chariots of Fire: Vangelis
Terminator: Brad Fiedel
Predator: Alan Silvestri
Aliens: James Horner
The Mission: Ennio Morricone
Raiders of the Lost Ark: John Williams
E.T: John Williams
Conan the Barbarian: Basil Poledouris
-----------------------------------

O.K, I'll leave now before I bore ya'll to death with my film score chatter.....

*will be back to discuss films*

"I'll be back...."

If I remember correctly, it was still rainy season in California when Halley's Comet dropped by for a visit. But I do recall seeing it on one of the clear nights between weather fronts. It was a once in a lifetime experience (literally) . Here's a shot for those of you who weren't around to see it:

I still had The Last Starfighter on my DVR Shadow, and I watched it again last night . I'm actually amazed at how cool it still looks. The CGI at least matches what you will find on the cut-scenes of most video games today. Is it just me, or does Grig the navigator look just like Dennis Quaid's Drac buddy (played by Louis Gossett Jr) in Enemy Mine?

Speaking of Enemy Mine, that was another cool 80's Sci Fi film. I'm not sure exactly why, but some scenes always reminded me a little of Charlton Heston in The Ten Commandments.

I always liked its music score too. Maurice Jarre had been composing for films traditionally since the 1960's. But in the 1980's he scored a number of Sci Fi films and utilized a lot more electronics in some of his films (Firefox Shadow ).

But then I've always been partial to synthesizer film scores, like John Carpenter's score for Escape from NY and Big Trouble in Little China, or Wendy Carlos's scores for TRON and The Shining, and the aforementioned Vangelis for Blade Runner, Chariots of Fire, and the TV Show Cosmos.

GB

Did someone say Firefox?!

I love this film...sometimes I miss the Soviets just because they provided such great film premises. The special effects are terribly dated...woefully dated. I almost wish they'd do a George Lucas on this film and replace all the exterior airplane shots with updated CG, or at least with some new model work. It's such a good movie that I hate for it to fall by the wayside because of old effects. "Boy, is this a machine".

Great opening post, Shadowlander! I can easily believe it took you 7 hours. Make sure you find a way to make it up to your wife.

However, I can’t believe you forgot the Narnia milestones. The BBC’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out in 1988 and Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader came out in 1989.

The 80s were an important time in my family’s history. My parents were married in 1980, I was born in 1984, and my sister was born in 1988.

Rainbow Brite - A color-saturated young girl's show that has me convinced that LSD was alive and well in the 80's.

What! Where do you come up with these ideas? I had a set of Rainbow Brite towels growing up. In fact, they still might be around here in the rag pile.
I remember watching Muppet Babies and I have a vague memory of The Littles (people with tails in an airplane). The Care Bears and My Little Pony are also from the eighties. Both have been resurrected in changed form. It makes me feel old that they have been brought back. I don’t like the new ones of either. The look weird and kind of creepy. I have a lot of My Little Ponies (from the eighties and perhaps the 90s). This thread made me want to go dig them out of the boxes in the basement. My sister and I both like(d) the Care Bears. I was more interested in the stuffed animals than the shows though. I remember really wanting a Care Bear. I remember one Christmas snooping at the presents and not thinking that any of them looked like a Care Bear. My sister pointed at one and said some like “what about that one?” She was right (I think she probably knew what it was). This had to be in the 90s since according to the information I found online my Care Bear didn’t come out until then. My mom told us (or maybe just me?) that we would only be able to have one Care Bear because they were so expensive. When I saw two Care Bear Cousins at a yard sale, I didn't ask for them because of that. My sister did, and she got them. I was so mad. If you promise not to laugh, you can look at the spoiler.

Ha! When I was really little (so, not 80's but actually early 90's) I remember reallllllly wanting a pair of Jellies. … I was dying for a pair, but my sensable mother of course told me my feet with just sweat a lot. I never got a pair of Jellies... *sniffle* :'(

Me too! Except my sensible mother told me that would wear out very quickly. I never got any either.

As for toys, I have a cabbage patch doll. I think it is in a box in the basement. My mom was not happy that my aunt bought them for us. She didn't want us to get into those.

Boy, I feel out of the loop – at least as far as movies go. I’ve seen Space Camp, about ½ of Back to the Future and some of Honey I Shrunk the Kids. Actually, I have heard much 80s music either.

Although I didn’t watch them at the time, I have watched Knight Rider, Murder She Wrote, one episode of Magnum P.I., Family Ties, and the Cosby Show. I saw a little bit of a Murder She Wrote when I was a kid. I had wandered downstairs when my parents were watching it and saw a scene with a dead guy in a bathtub. It traumatized me a bit. I’ve since identified which episode it is in. When I was young, I heard the title as Murdershewrote. In other words, I heard it as one strange nonsense type word instead of three words. My sister is a huge Murder She Wrote fan. We watched them as reruns. She has seasons 1-10 on DVD. When she is on break from school / college, we end up watching episode after episode. (We are usually cross stitching or doing something else while we watch). After a while I end up suffering from Murder She Wrote overdose. Hart to Hart was on in the 80’s. My mom says she couldn’t watch it when I was around because I would cry. Scarecrow and Mrs. King is another 80s show (1983-1987). It is one of my family’s favorite shows (at least the female part of the family. I’m not sure what my dad thinks of it). The first season was just released on DVD.

I hope to post some 80s related pictures soon.