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Monday, September 30, 2013

Monday Discussion: 1980s Popular Materials

We are fully entrenched in Ready Player One mode here at the BPL as the Berwyn Reads! programming has begun in earnest. 

Tomorrow, Kathy and I are hosting an 1980s themed Trivia Night at Garv Inn at 7pm.  

Although the questions have already been prepared, I thought I would continue the 80s fun here on the Monday Discussion and let people list their favorite books, music, TV and movies from the decade.


But help add to these lists.  For today's Monday Discussion share your favorite 1980s popular culture moments.

Click here for past Monday Discussions

4 comments:

  1. There were no other movies in the 80s besides John Hughes' movies - at least in my world. "Sixteen Candles" was my favorite, I could basically recite it. The one night of the week that I could stay up late was when "Hill Street Blues" was on. And the first 45 I bought with my own money was "Oh Sheila" by Ready for the World. And as I just reread this list, I believe it explains many things about me now!

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  2. Big hair, Sony Walkmans with individual headsets, and running shoes worn with your skirted business suit on your commute to work……… a look captured best in the movie Working Girl. TV throughout most of the decade included Tom Selleck as Magnum, P.I., and you prided yourself that you’d found Hunt for Red October through Naval Institute Press before Tom Clancy became a best seller. Thrillers and espionage books were about the Cold War, not terrorism, and that eventual change made a big difference. And it seemed that every woman I knew read ….And Ladies of the Club by Helen Santmyer.

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  3. I agree about John Hughes. For me, the 80s were also the GOLDEN ERA of horror films. Many of the iconic horror characters of film came from that decade: Freddy, Jason, Chuckie, Pinhead, the list goes on and on. It was also a time when horror had some of the greatest directors. Wes Craven, John Carpenter and even Stephen Spielberg made big budget movies.
    Of course, the 80s were also a great time for horror literature. Stephen King, Anne Rice, Clive Barker, Joyce Carol Oates, they all were popular at the time.

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  4. It was also a great decade for science fiction and fantasy. I definitely formed my roots as a SF/F geek during the 80s. My favorites were The Last Unicorn, Legend, Labyrinth, Ladyhawke, Back to the Future, ET, Cocoon, Spaceballs, Gremlins, and (my all-time favoritest movie EVER) The Princess Bride. The 80s is when I discovered The MythAdventures by Robert Asprin and the Xanth novels by Piers Anthony, as well as his Incarnations of Immortality and Out of Phaze series. The majority of the Star Wars (the original trilogy - not the abomination) and the Star Trek movies came out during the 80s and Star Trek: the Next Generation started during the late 80s. And Thundercats; Thundercats are still made of awesome!

    In the non-SF/F realm, I also loved Indiana Jones, Pee-Wee Herman, Diff'rent Strokes, The Facts of Life, anything by Judy Blume, and Nancy Drew.

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