The 80's were awesome

DunderMifflin · December 9, 2016

9 minutes ago, zelticgar said:

Speaking of Children of the Corn - not sure if this has been mentioned but I think the 80's were pretty great for horror movies.

Yeh the grainy audio and video quality of the 80s seemed to make a more spooky atmosphere than HD

drawkcabi · December 9, 2016

5 minutes ago, zelticgar said:

I had no idea Ricky was Rico Suave! My mind is officially blown! I knew about Seth Green. I actually think he kind of stole the show with his performance. I went online to look at some photos of Amanda Peterson and there are some really depressing mugshots of her. The drugs and alcohol really messed her up. Courtney Gains will always be Malachai from Children of the Corn but I enjoyed his performance.

Speaking of Children of the Corn - not sure if this has been mentioned but I think the 80's were pretty great for horror movies.

I knew about Seth Green too. He was also in Radio Days as Woody Allen or The Narrator as a kid. I'm not a big Woody Allen fan but I love Radio Days. It's another one of those movies I forget how much I love until it's on TV or it's brought up in conversation. It matches up so well with stories my grandmother told me life was like when she was a kid/teen/young woman. I think it's an important movie for capturing that aspect of what life was like in the U.S. during that time. If it wasn't made when it was made, even if Allen is still around today, maybe we wouldn't ever have such an authentic recreation of that time period and cultural phenomenon to show future generations what it was like.

So nostalgic about a movie about nostalgia in a decade I'm nostalgic for. That's some Inception shit there.

I was never into horror movies much when I was a kid or young adult but I'm gaining more of an appreciation for them. While all types of movies can have a certain feel of the time they were made in, I think the horror genre is the genre most defined by the decades they were made.

When I think 30's/40's I think Universal monster movies, Dracula, Frankenstein, Wolfman, and The Mummy, also King Kong.

When I think 50's/60's I think sci-fi Commie mutant atomic insect invaders from Mars movies and Godzilla too.

When I think 70's I think The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby (1968 I know but some overlap with this), body horror, and the first age of Zombie films beginning with Night of the Living Dead (1968, overlap again), all the copycat and it's own sequel Dawn of the Dead as well. I think of "serious" sci-fi horror movies like Alien and the Body Snatchers remake. A big decade for horror films but most with that claustrophobic, dreary, malaise, surreal feeling that matched the nation's mood that decade. There was some fun and classics revival with the Hammer horror films though. Also the beginning of the slasher film era with Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween.

When I think 80's I think of horror movies being more fun again. think Jason, Freddy, and Michael Myers. I think of Stephen King adaptations. I think of Hell raiser, Child's Play, Return of the Living Dead, Night of the Creeps, Night of the Comet, Fright Night, and while I don't really think of Gremlins as a horror film some movies it "inspired" like Critters and Ghoulies were, but fun and silly too. A lot of fun and silly in this decade yet there were also the more serious less campy remakes of 50's horror, The Thing, The Blob, The Fly.

I never saw Children of the Corn as a kid. The trailer/posters scared me to much. I always called it "Monster kids".

The 90's things seemed to get serious again with down to earth horror/suspense like Silence of the Lambs. Still a lot of hold over from the 80's with franchise sequels, but this also seemed a decade where many died out. By the end of the decade I think of more cynical tongue in cheek movies like Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Bride of Chucky, and Halloween H2O. Also a revival of sorts of the vampire movies Coppola's Dracula remake, Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire, Blade (it may be a comic book movie and the proto stage of the comic book genre phenomenon of the 21st century, but it was a horror series too).

The 2000's were the American remakes of Japanese horror films, The Ring, The Grudge, etc. Also movies like Saw and Hostel. Failed/Semi-failed attempts to reboot 70's/80's franchises, Texas Chainsaw Massacre Halloween, Friday the 13th. Zombie movies getting really popular again.

The 2010's: jump scares and found footage. Technically found footage first hit with 2000's Blair Witch Project, but it became a big thing with Paranormal Activity and all those movies like that. More dumb remakes, Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist.

Manhole Eunuchsbane · December 9, 2016

3 hours ago, Crazy Cat Lady in Training said:

Same here. They neglected to teach us that one in school.

That's interesting, as it was covered in our History books from like Jr. High on. Maybe that's a California thing. I know one of the biggest camps (if not the biggest camp) was located in California.

DunderMifflin · December 10, 2016

How about the 80s thing where ppl refered to women by measurements.

As in "I met this lady last night, she's a 36-26-20". I never quite figured out what the measurements actually refered to.

Dan Feilding would say it quite a bit on Night Court. I believe Sam Malone said it a few times on Cheers as well.

drawkcabi · December 10, 2016

22 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said:

How about the 80s thing where ppl refered to women by measurements.

As in "I met this lady last night, she's a 36-26-20". I never quite figured out what the measurements actually refered to.

Dan Feilding would say it quite a bit on Night Court. I believe Sam Malone said it a few times on Cheers as well.

and Larry from Three's Company

Chest-Waist-Hips

zelticgar · December 10, 2016

28 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said:

How about the 80s thing where ppl refered to women by measurements.

As in "I met this lady last night, she's a 36-26-20". I never quite figured out what the measurements actually refered to.

Dan Feilding would say it quite a bit on Night Court. I believe Sam Malone said it a few times on Cheers as well.

That reference came up in Sitcoms all the time. I suspect there were only a small number of writers spread out across all those shows and they just recycled the joke. Any 80's sitcom worth a nickel had the creeping guy who always hit on women.

Changing subject a little - one other dynamic about the 80's that really stands out to me was the hairstyles. People did all kinds of whacky shit to their hair. Almost every guy I know had the big poofy layered hair style parted in the middle. we called it feathered hair. A lot of guys had mullets and then some people would grow really long strings of hair and braid it but it would only be the very middle. We called it a Rat Tail. The hipster guy on the sitcom Square Pegs had one (that show is a great 80's show BTW). I also remember a fad where guys would get perms but only the back mullet part. So feathered in the front and permed on the mullet. All the girls had huge hair and would go through bottles of Aquanet. Mousse became popular during the 80's and dippty do hair gel was pretty big. People spent a lot of time on their hair and no one looked very good. I remember the cool thing was to carry a plastic comb in your back pocket.

DunderMifflin · December 10, 2016

26 minutes ago, zelticgar said:

That reference came up in Sitcoms all the time. I suspect there were only a small number of writers spread out across all those shows and they just recycled the joke. Any 80's sitcom worth a nickel had the creeping guy who always hit on women.

Changing subject a little - one other dynamic about the 80's that really stands out to me was the hairstyles. People did all kinds of whacky shit to their hair. Almost every guy I know had the big poofy layered hair style parted in the middle. we called it feathered hair. A lot of guys had mullets and then some people would grow really long strings of hair and braid it but it would only be the very middle. We called it a Rat Tail. The hipster guy on the sitcom Square Pegs had one (that show is a great 80's show BTW). I also remember a fad where guys would get perms but only the back mullet part. So feathered in the front and permed on the mullet. All the girls had huge hair and would go through bottles of Aquanet. Mousse became popular during the 80's and dippty do hair gel was pretty big. People spent a lot of time on their hair and no one looked very good. I remember the cool thing was to carry a plastic comb in your back pocket.

It never really went away.

See Neil Patrick Harris in How I met your mother.

The horndog that only talks about scoring and hooking up.

There would always be that one episode where we find out they are really scared to get close but desperately want to be loved.

Sometimes they would shake up the trope and make it be a woman. See Golden Girl Blanche Devereaux

The Marquis de Leech · December 10, 2016

2 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

When I think 50's/60's I think sci-fi Commie mutant atomic insect invaders from Mars movies and Godzilla too.

When I think 70's I think The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary's Baby (1968 I know but some overlap with this), body horror, and the first age of Zombie films beginning with Night of the Living Dead (1968, overlap again), all the copycat and it's own sequel Dawn of the Dead as well. I think of "serious" sci-fi horror movies like Alien and the Body Snatchers remake. A big decade for horror films but most with that claustrophobic, dreary, malaise, surreal feeling that matched the nation's mood that decade. There was some fun and classics revival with the Hammer horror films though. Also the beginning of the slasher film era with Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween.

Hammer's golden age was the late 1950s. The 1970s was a case of realising that it couldn't beat American gore content, so it decided to ratchet up the sex and general weirdness. Sometimes it actually worked.

Oh, and 1970s horror has The Abominable Doctor Phibes, which goes for full-on surreal.

1960s horror I associate with Hitchcock (Psycho, The Birds), and Hammer living off its earlier success. Curiously, the one time Hammer did zombies (1966's The Plague of the Zombies), they actually predated Romero.

TheKitttenGuard · December 10, 2016

3 hours ago, DunderMifflin said:

How about the 80s thing where ppl refered to women by measurements.

As in "I met this lady last night, she's a 36-26-20". I never quite figured out what the measurements actually refered to.

Dan Feilding would say it quite a bit on Night Court. I believe Sam Malone said it a few times on Cheers as well.

There is a Gilligan Island where the measurement was used and it is usually 36-24-36.

I think Dan Fielding was the best creepy dude hitting on women of the '80s.

A True Kaniggit · December 10, 2016

Having been born in 1991I maintain that the '80s are a myth fabricated by people older than me for no other reason than to try and make me jealous.

DunderMifflin · December 10, 2016

2 hours ago, A True Kaniggit said:

Having been born in 1991I maintain that the '80s are a myth fabricated by people older than me for no other reason than to try and make me jealous.

There was actually a character on a primetime family sitcom named Boner.

I watched the show just to hear them say his name.

Martell Spy · December 10, 2016

Miami Vice and all the resulting fashion.

Frosted jeans.

Max Headrom and New Coke.

Another 80's sitcom trope. The dumb and slightly dangerous/disreputable boyfriend. See Family Ties.

Not made in the 80's, but GTA Vice City is a great 80's game.

TheMightyKC · December 10, 2016

6 minutes ago, Martell Spy said:

Another 80's sitcom trope. The dumb and slightly dangerous/disreputable boyfriend. See Family Ties.

Oh my goodness yes. Remember when Carol on Growing Pains was with Matthew Perry until he died in a drunk driving accident? Or when Kevin sprayed DJ with beer on Full House at the school dance?!?!

Ok quick poll:. Best 80s TV dad

Definitely Alan Thicke.

drawkcabi · December 10, 2016

49 minutes ago, TheMightyKC said:

Ok quick poll:. Best 80s TV dad

Definitely Alan Thicke.

Optimus Prime

If he doesn't count, then Edward Stratton III, he lived in a mansion, owned a freaking toy company, had arcade video games (and that train!) in his living room, John Houseman was his father, and Wilma from Buck Rogers was his secretary!