When we look back on the year 1980, it sometimes feels like it wasn’t that long ago. But put it this way: the year 2050 is closer to us than 1980 was. You can also put it this way: it’s the same length of time when we look back on 1980 from now, as looking back at 1940 was for people in 1980.
My head hurts.
Those comparisons do seem frightening in a way, but I wanted to take this time to look back at the year that kicked off the greatest decade ever: 1980.
This will mostly be focused on the pop culture-related aspects of this inaugural year as if we were to cover everything–we’d be here until 2050.
So let’s take a look back on the year that kicked off this monumental decade: 1980.
Setting The Stage For 1980
I was born in 1977, so I didn’t get to experience what the 70s were all about. From what I’m told, it wasn’t the best decade.
There were all the issues regarding the Vietnam War, Watergate, economic downturns, disco, and other horrible things like that. Would the 1980s usher in a new and bountiful era?
It starts with a changing of the guard to new president Ronald Reagan. There was now an actor as president, but of course, their president had to be an actor—he needed to look good on TV!
We’re not going to get into the political climate of the 1980s, but Ronald Reagan is VERY important when it comes to pop culture—and it all has to do with deregulation. Reagan was big on pulling back the reigns on everything that had been regulated—especially the economy. He believed that the free market should determine what succeeds and what doesn’t.
When it comes to kids growing up in the 80s, this is very important. Until then, there were a lot of restrictions when it came to advertising to children. I’ve got a whole blog that goes way deeper on this subject, but here’s the quick rundown.
One of the first things Reagan did was pulled back the restrictions on advertising. This is why you see an explosion of pop culture going into the decade. The use of licensed characters rose by 300% and you could no longer tell what was a cartoon and what was a commercial. Kids were being protected from this—up to that point—as younger ones cannot differentiate between what was a show and what was an ad.
Since the floodgates were now open, we would get this tidal wave of new cartoons, junk food, breakfast cereals, and any other crap they could slap a logo on. We didn’t care, as we now got shows like G.I. Joe, Transformers, My Little Pony, Strawberry Shortcake, and He-Man. We didn’t realize that what we were watching were basically 22-minute long commercials.
Some Other Notable Moments from 1980
We’re going to mainly focus on pop culture related things from 1980, specifically movies, TV shows, music, etc, but here are some other notable things that happened to kick off the decade.
- CNN debuted on June 1, 1980
- Mount St. Helens erupted on March 27th
- Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” premiered and the phrase “billions and billions” would annoyingly be used from that point forward
- Pauly D from Jersey Shore was born on July 5th
- “The Dingo ate your Baby,” phrase was born
- Bread was 50 cents, the minimum wage was $3.10, and a brand new car would set you back around $7,500.
- Eddie Murphy first debuted on Saturday Night Live
- Some notable books came out including “The Bourne Identity (I had no idea they were that old), Congo by Michael Crichton, “Catch Me if you Can,” ”the Twits” by Roald Dahl, and “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan.
And specifically to me—and all other Canucks–“Oh, Canada” officially became our national anthem on July 1. Tear…
The Movies That Came Out in 1980
Movies usually reflect the tone of the time period they are released in. Many of the movies of the 70s followed disaster themes, as this was the mindset of many people at the time. The 80s would move into more adventurous, science-fiction, and fantastical releases.
In 1980, we got some very significant releases. The first we will look at is:
The Empire Strikes Back-
Star Wars was an obvious hit, but how do you follow up such a blockbuster? Many sequels try to rehash the original and try to recapture the magic. George Lucas, and writer Lawrence Kasdan, went in a different direction and told a story that was darker and more intense.
Kasdan has stated that the Empire Strikes Back serves as the second act of a three-part play where everything tends to go to hell—and that is often the best act of the play. In the case of Star Wars; it really was. We went much deeper into the psyche of the characters, and we get one of the best reveals in movie history.
“No, I am your father,” which is the correct line compared to the other oft-repeated “Luke, I am your father.”
The Shining
I was definitely too young to see the Shining when it came out in 1980 (I don’t know if I was ever really old enough for it, honestly) but we got a movie that changed the horror genre and gave us some of the most iconic imagery in film history.
I’ve got a blog that goes way more in-depth on this monumental movie, but it’s notable as the movie is filled with hidden meanings and different interpretations. Stanley Kubrick was notorious for his hidden messages. (was it about the moon landing? The Native American genocide??) and he was also notorious for pushing his actors to the edge.
This is notable with Shelley Duvall, who was pushed to the brink and would have breakdowns on the set. The scene where she is on the stairs with the baseball bat took a record 127 takes. She wasn’t even informed of what the scene was all about and just had to react.
What you are watching is her genuine breakdown, and her hands were bleeding by the end from gripping the bat so hard.
This movie has just grown over time and has been a massive influence on not just horror movies—but movies in general. (check out my blog all about this amazing movie here)
So, the highest-grossing film of 1980 is unsurprisingly The Empire Strikes Back, bringing in $538 million worldwide. Converted for today, that’s $1.6 billion. And remember, films opened on WAY fewer screens back then.
Here are some of the other notable movie releases in 1980:
- Airplane
- 9 to 5
- The Gods Must be Crazy
- The Blue Lagoon
- The Blues Brothers
- Smokey & the Bandit
- Caddyshack
- Flash Gordon
- Friday the 13th
- And of course, Herbie Goes Bananas
The Best Music of 1980
1980 was a very interesting year when it came to music. You are still riding that disco/funk wave, and many of the styles that would dominate the airwaves in the 80s had not been released yet.
The band that may have best defined the year 1980 was Blondie. They took that disco sound from the 70s but were starting to incorporate in different styles. They incorporated the sound of “New Wave” which would be a big style of the 1980s.
“Call Me” was originally pitched to Stevie Nicks, but Blondie jumped on it and it would also be featured in the film “American Gigolo.”
Even though bands like Devo, Depeche Mode, and Duran Duran would be the poster boys for New Wave, classic rock wasn’t going anywhere. Bands like Queen, AC/DC, and the Rolling Stones were still prominent.
The most groundbreaking work would also be the number one album of the year. “The Wall” by Pink Floyd, was a groundbreaking album that would influence hundreds of bands and musicians, and would also be watched, perfectly synced, with the Wizard of Oz for years to come. “Another Brick in the Wall: Part 2” would be the number 2 Billboard single for 1980.
The Days the Music Died
1980 was also significant because, on September 25th, the greatest rock drummer of all time—John Bonham—passed away. Led Zeppelin decided they couldn’t continue without the greatest backbone in rock history, and it’s mind-numbing to think of all the lost music that could have been created had Bonham survived.
I’m a drummer myself, and it’s hard to explain how great Bonham was. It was like he was from another planet, and you just cannot create the guy’s grooves and feel.
And, of course, we can’t mention 1980 without bringing up the passing of the great John Lennon. I was too young to remember this, but the Beatles have been a huge part of my life—and everyone’s—for a long time. I’ve visited Strawberry Fields in Central Park many times and losses in music don’t get bigger than this.
The Video Games & Technology
Things were starting to take shape when it came to technology in 1980. The biggest of these would have to be the evolution of video games, and it’s probably all in thanks to a yellow pizza-shaped character.
Pac-Man was first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. Pac-Man fever was an actual thing, and this simple game would dominate the culture. All you were doing was chomping little pellets while trying to avoid the ghosts: Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and, for some reason; Clyde.
Pac-Man would lead to a massive amount of commercialism in the form of toys, bed sheets, lunch boxes, and anything you can slap a label on. It would lead way to the Pac Man cartoon (check out my blog all about that here) and also, Pac Man cereal (which was basically just Kix with some marshmallows).
If you want to read more about some other iconic 1980s cereals, check out this blog.
When it came to home video games, it was all about Atari. Nintendo wouldn’t come around for another 5 years, so they ruled the roost for home video game entertainment. With their beautiful wood-grained console (to match your giant wood-grained floor TV) the games were simple but still addictive.
Besides Pac Man, some of the top video games of 1980 included:
- Missile Command
- Berzerk
- Rally-X
- Battlezone
- Star Castle
This was considered the Golden Age of arcade games, but this would all literally come crashing down just a few years later in the great video game crash of 1980. Check out more about the collapse of the industry in my blog here.
On the home computer front, we weren’t quite there yet—but things were moving. Commodore had the VIC 20, but it was essentially just a keyboard. Seagate invented the first hard disc drive for microcomputers. And—even though it didn’t have the practical implications then—Tim Berners Lee invented the hypertext, and he would help in the creation of the World Wide Web.
Speaking of everything to do with computers and internet, 1980 is when Apple first put forth their Initial Public Offering taking the company public. It would be a few years until they shifted the culture with the Mac, but the heels were in motion.
The Important TV Shows of 1980
It’s hard to emphasize how important TV was in 1980. There were only 3 networks, and everything was put into the creation and production of shows. There wasn’t cable, and obviously no streaming services, so anything that was put out by the networks could be seen by 1/3rd of the viewing public.
Television events in the 80s were just that: events. And there was none more eventful than the “who shot J.R.” episode of Dallas. This was “must-see TV’ before that phrase had been coined. This was the definition of “water-cooler talk,” and everything about this show, and episode, went viral before that was even a thing.
In the final scene of the 1979-80 season, the scoundrel J. R. Ewing is shot twice by an unknown assassin. This was on March 21, 1980, and the public would have to wait—and speculate—an agonizing 9 months to find out it was Kristin Shepherd.
Sorry for the spoiler.
The “Who Done it” episode was—at the time—the highest-rated episode in TV history. 83 million people tuned in to watch it, which is getting into Super Bowl viewing territory.
But it wasn’t all just rich people getting murdered (Who Shot Mr. Burns would do it much better if you ask me…) and there were other very significant TV shows from 1980. Here are a couple of standouts:
The Dukes of Hazzard
I can’t even begin to explain how significant this show was to me as a kid. It was the ultimate in redneck adventure—and even though it’s pretty offensive today—the General Lee was a pretty cool car. It didn’t even have doors that could open, so you had to jump through the window and slide across the hood to do so.
Bosom Buddies
Bosom Buddies debuted on November 27th, 1980, and introduced the world to a young Tom Hanks. Like a lot of things, we look back on with a better perspective. This show is probably not the most sensitive, as it featured two men dressing up as women to save money on rent.
I’ve done a lot of things to save money on rent too, but we don’t have to get into that now…
What is interesting about it is that it was one of the few that actually featured improvisation between Tom Hanks and costar, Peter Scolari. Even though it only lasted two years, it was a pretty big ratings hit.
The David Letterman Show
Anything you see comedy-wise on late-night shows today probably has its roots with the David Letterman show. Letterman changed the course of late-night TV and brought it to an edgier, wackier level. But before that, it started as a morning show if you can believe that, on June 23rd, 1980.
What the David Letterman show did is set the stage for what would become Late Night with David Letterman. It was edgy, inappropriate, and was pushing the limits of comedy. And this was a morning show, so you can imagine how it went over with the early morning crowd.
But it was a critical success, and even though it only lasted two years, it led to Letterman getting his own late show and changing the trajectory of television comedy.
So those are a few standouts, but let’s look at the top ten rated shows in 1980:
| 1 | Dallas | CBS | 34.5 |
| 2 | The Dukes of Hazzard | 27.3 | |
| 3 | 60 Minutes | 27.0 | |
| 4 | M*A*S*H | 25.7 | |
| 5 | The Love Boat | ABC | 24.3 |
| 6 | The Jeffersons | CBS | 23.5 |
| 7 | Alice | 22.9 | |
| 8 | House Calls | 22.4 | |
| Three’s Company | ABC | ||
| 10 | Little House on the Prairie | NBC | 22.1 |
Side note: Look at those ratings and you can see how powerful television was back then. The highest-rated sitcom we’ve had in the last few years—by far — was the finale of The Big Bang Theory, and its ratings wouldn’t even put it in the top 5 in 1980.
Another way to look at this is with a huge show like Game of Thrones. At its very highest, its ratings wouldn’t even be in the top 25 in 1980.
You can also see how CBS dominated television in the early 80s. Spoiler alert: that would not last…
Major Sporting Events in 1980
Do you believe in miracles? That may be the best way to sum up 1980 when it came to sporting events. There was no sporting event bigger than the Miracle on Ice when an upstart team of college hockey players representing America took on the juggernaut that was the Soviet Union.
It’s hard to explain how big a moment this was, but the closest you could compare it to is an average college basketball team knocking off the Bulls in their prime. You also have to look at the fact that you can be pretty sure the Soviet players were all using a lot of “enhancement” as it appears that all other Russian athletes were at the time.
And this Soviet/American issue would carry over into the summer Olympics of 1980. The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan, and the Americans decided to boycott the summer Olympics, which just happened to be in Moscow that year.
If you want to see this play out in a much funnier example, you just have to watch that Simpsons episode when Krusty Burger tries to rig their Olympic contest.
Let’s look at the champions of the big sports here in North America:
- NHL – The New York Islanders (those golden years would never return…)
- NBA – The L.A. Lakers (with a rookie named Magic Johnson)
- MLB – The Philadelphia Phillies (powered by cheesesteaks)
- NFL – The Pittsburgh Steelers (a good year for PA teams)
Here are a few other notable sporting performances from 1980:
- Bjorn Borg wins Wimbledon, and his hair wins second place
- Sugar Ray Leonard defeats Roberto Duran in the “No Mas” fight
- Larry Holmes defeated Muhammad Ali in Ali’s last title bout
- Jack Nicholas wins the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open
- Genuine Risk wins the Kentucky Derby
1980 Toys
Star Wars action figures were going strong going into 1980. If you’re familiar with your toy history, you know about the debacle of Star Wars toys in 1977. Star Wars was such a surprise hit that everyone was caught completely off guard: especially toymaker Kenner.
No one was interested in this “robots and monsters space movie” and they all unfortunately passed on it. Kenner didn’t think the movie would be anything great, but was interested in putting out a modest line of space toys. When Star Wars became a smash, they were not even close to ready.
This led to the infamous “Empty Box Campaign” where people would buy a box that had a voucher that you sent in to have the toys delivered to you when they were ready—which was almost a year later. Eventually, things settled down, and in 1980—with The Empire Strikes Back being released—Star Wars toys were at an all-time high.
If you have any of these kicking around in your attic, hold on to them like grim death as they are worth serious money.
But the hands-down; number one; no contest; most dominant toy of 1980 was the Rubik’s Cube. It’s hard to not understate what a phenomenon this toy was; not just of 1980—but of all time.
Erno Rubik, who was a professor from Hungary, invented the Rubiks Cube. He was looking for something for his architecture students to use to learn about the possibilities of space alteration of objects when it came to design.
The first prototype of the Rubik’s Cube—or Magic Cube—as he first called it, was just blocks of wood and elastic bands. The students loved it, and Rubik wondered if this was something that could be mass-produced for other students.
The now named Rubik’s Cube took 6 years to put into production before it was released by Ideal Toys. The success of the Rubik’s Cube happened almost immediately. It has sold 350 million units and won toy of the year awards for three straight years.
It also led to the infamous Rubik the Amazing Cube cartoon show which you can read all about here.
The Rubiks Cube was so big that books devoted to learning strategies to solve it would end up on the best-selling book lists for that year.
Wapping It Up
Phew, I’m exhausted. I understand that this is a very general overview of the year 1980, but I think we got a good snapshot of everything. The 1980s would bring with it a lot of change, progression, evolution, etc, but at the start of the decade, it was still trying to figure itself out.
1980 had to take much of the burden of the 70s, but try to shake that off into a new direction. This direction would definitely happen—again thanks to Ronald Reagan—as the age of wealth and Yuppies dominated the landscape.
The 80s would experience a cultural and aesthetic change, including pastel colors, leg warms, giant cellphones, and Walkmans everywhere you looked.
It would be a few years until all of this happened, but 1980 gave a brief glimpse into what this decade would become.
Since you made it this far, how about going a little further and checking out my reviews of the following years:
