Surviving the 80s The Decade s Timeline
Surviving the '80s: The Decade's Timeline Events & History
— Mike Eruzione led the U.S. hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union at the Winter Olympics. He’s now director of special outreach at Boston University. Manny Millan/Getty Images With veteran star Kareem Abdul Jabbar sidelined for Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Magic Johnson (32) played all but one minute and scored 42 points to clinch the title for the Lakers.
IN DECEMBER 1981, I was the new editor of Ladies’ Home Journal, trying to find a way to improve newsstand sales at the respected but then flagging women’s magazine. I decided to take a chance and put a young, blond ex–nursery school teacher named Diana on the cover of the February issue. Earlier that year I and many other women in America had watched, at 3 in the morning, the royal wedding on TV. But did American women really care that much about 20-year-old Princess Di? They certainly did! The issue sold extremely well. By October 1982, when Diana was on the cover again, her photo guaranteed at least 1 million copies in sales at the newsstand for my magazine and for many others. That next June, I went to a ball at Broadlands, an estate in the English countryside. The royal couple were the guests of honor. Diana wore a white and silver one-shoulder gown and was very slender and very beautiful. We shook hands, and I told her how much American women loved her. I turned our five-minute conversation into an “exclusive” and another best-selling cover.
Diana was extremely photogenic, and all through the ’80s we wrote stories about her style and charm, about her as a doting mother and as a betrayed, unhappy wife. The public couldn’t get enough of the fairy tale that ended more than a decade later as a tragedy. — Myrna Blyth is the editorial director of AARP Media Focus On Sport/Getty Images Fernando Valenzuela finished his rookie year with a 13-7 record and 2.48 ERA in a strike-shortened season.
— Nina Blackwood was one of MTV’s five original VJs. Today she is a DJ on SiriusXM Radio.
“You mean like a horse that can count, or a circus elephant?” I said, incredulous.
“Exactly,” the executive answered, nodding.
So I reported back to the show and we decided to ignore everything he said. — Merrill Markoe was head writer for Late Night With David Letterman. Her most recent book is Cool, Calm & Contentious: Essays.
— Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s sexual-advice program Sexually Speaking premiered on radio in 1980 and television in 1982. Her latest book is The Doctor Is In: Dr. Ruth on Love, Life, and Joie de Vivre.
— Jim Davis’ Garfield now appears in more than 2,000 newspapers.
— Mike Ditka coached the 1985 Chicago Bears. William “Refrigerator” Perry scored the Bears’ final touchdown in the team’s 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.
Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Comedian Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Aloysius Herman.
—Oliver North helped engineer the scheme to sell arms to Iran and direct the profits to Contra rebels in Nicaragua; the ensuing Iran-Contra scandal resulted in indictments for several figures in the Reagan administration, including North. He now hosts War Stories With Oliver North on Fox News. AFP/Getty Images President Ronald Reagan delivers the "Tear Down This Wall" speech in Berlin.
— Hulk Hogan (born Terry Bollea) defeated André the Giant in WrestleMania III.
Moviestore collection/Alamy Candace Bergen, second from left, with the cast of "Murphy Brown" in 1988.
— TV and film producer Diane English won three Emmy awardsfor the CBS show Murphy Brown.
AFP/Getty Images East German border guards demolishing a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square.
Surviving the ' 80s
Was it a decade to be savored or endured Let s rewind the Betamax tape and find out
QUICK: THINK ’80S! WHAT DO YOU SEE? A blur of regrettable haircuts? That synth-pop song you hate yourself for humming? A supercut of shoulder pads, boxy hatchbacks and trickle-down economics? It’s hard to know how to feel about this change-filled decade. Sometimes is seems long ago—a distant world dominated by three TV channels and something called the Soviet Union. Then you see Donald Trump or Hulk Hogan on the news and it feels like the ’80s are with us still. So asked some survivors to reflect on the high and low-lights of an oft-maligned era.1980
B Bennett/Getty Images USA hockey team captain Mike Eruzione (21).Miracle on Ice
“THE HOSTAGES HAD BEEN TAKEN in Iran. We had gas lines, inflation. Americans needed something to feel good about. I don’t know how many times people told me, ‘I remember where I was when we won.’ That game touched our whole country. People saw it as a way to show the world what we still could do.”— Mike Eruzione led the U.S. hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union at the Winter Olympics. He’s now director of special outreach at Boston University. Manny Millan/Getty Images With veteran star Kareem Abdul Jabbar sidelined for Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Magic Johnson (32) played all but one minute and scored 42 points to clinch the title for the Lakers.
Magic is Here
“WE GOT TO the airport and I saw the faces of everybody. I knew that Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] wasn’t going to play. I said, ‘We’re still going to win.’ They looked at me: ‘Man, rookie, sit down.’ When we got on the plane, I sat in Kareem’s seat. I said, ‘Never fear, Magic is here.’ By the time we landed, they started believing.” — Earvin “Magic” Johnson became the first rookie to win the NBA Finals MVP award.Intimidation br of AIDS
“I WAS AT FIRE Island Pines [on Long Island], and there were two friends of mine, one very tall, the other very short. The tall one, Enno, was carrying the small one, Nick, in his arms, going along the beach, saying, ‘Do you have any idea what’s wrong with Nick?’ No doctor had been able to diagnose him. These guys were some of the first. Then the cases began to accumulate. It was so sudden, and they were so young." — Activist and author Larry Kramer cofounded the Gay Men's Health Crisis in 1982. Courtesy Everett Collection Larry Hagman played J.R. Ewing.Being the one who shot J R made me a trivia question
— Mary Crosby played Kristin Shepard, sister-in-law and assailant of Larry Hagman’s J.R., on the CBS series Dallas.1981
Tim Graham/Getty Images An estimated global TV audience of 750 million tuned in to watch Lady Diana Spencer wed Charles, Prince of Wales, on July 29, 1981 at St Paul's Cathedral in London.The Princess Bride
By Myrna BlythIN DECEMBER 1981, I was the new editor of Ladies’ Home Journal, trying to find a way to improve newsstand sales at the respected but then flagging women’s magazine. I decided to take a chance and put a young, blond ex–nursery school teacher named Diana on the cover of the February issue. Earlier that year I and many other women in America had watched, at 3 in the morning, the royal wedding on TV. But did American women really care that much about 20-year-old Princess Di? They certainly did! The issue sold extremely well. By October 1982, when Diana was on the cover again, her photo guaranteed at least 1 million copies in sales at the newsstand for my magazine and for many others. That next June, I went to a ball at Broadlands, an estate in the English countryside. The royal couple were the guests of honor. Diana wore a white and silver one-shoulder gown and was very slender and very beautiful. We shook hands, and I told her how much American women loved her. I turned our five-minute conversation into an “exclusive” and another best-selling cover.
Diana was extremely photogenic, and all through the ’80s we wrote stories about her style and charm, about her as a doting mother and as a betrayed, unhappy wife. The public couldn’t get enough of the fairy tale that ended more than a decade later as a tragedy. — Myrna Blyth is the editorial director of AARP Media Focus On Sport/Getty Images Fernando Valenzuela finished his rookie year with a 13-7 record and 2.48 ERA in a strike-shortened season.
¡Fernandomania
“I WAS A 20-year-old rookie pitching against the Yankees in Game 3 of the 1981 World Series. We were back in Dodger Stadium after dropping the first two games; I had lost the first one. It was the end of a long season. When I took the mound, I knew I didn’t have my best pitches. But I hung in there and pitched the whole game. We won, 5-4, and went on to win the Series.” — Fernando Valenzuela won Rookie of the Year and the Cy Young Award in the same year. He’s now a commentatorMTV is Born
“I READ AN ARTICLE in Billboard saying that a 24-hour music channel was looking for hosts. I wasn’t sure it was going to last six months. A ‘VJ’ was a whole new animal. Initially, MTV wasn’t broadcast in New York, where we filmed, so we weren’t aware of how popular we were becoming. At one of my earliest personal appearances, at a record store in San Antonio, there was a line around the block. I figured there was a rock star in town doing autographs and I asked my driver, ‘Who’s here?’ He said, ‘You.’ ”— Nina Blackwood was one of MTV’s five original VJs. Today she is a DJ on SiriusXM Radio.
1982
George Rose/Getty Images David Letterman with head writer Merrill Markoe in 1982.The Dawn of Late Night
By Merrill Markoe WHEN LATE NIGHT With David Letterman was in its cocoon stage, the NBC brass arranged a meeting with me to explain the data gathered from audience focus groups for the David Letterman Show, the short-lived morning show David did in 1980. “This chart shows a drastic drop-off when a music act comes on,” said the executive. “Notice how the televisions all turn off when a band performs? The good news is the focus groups liked Stupid Pet Tricks. But they all agreed they’d rather see it done with trained animals.”“You mean like a horse that can count, or a circus elephant?” I said, incredulous.
“Exactly,” the executive answered, nodding.
So I reported back to the show and we decided to ignore everything he said. — Merrill Markoe was head writer for Late Night With David Letterman. Her most recent book is Cool, Calm & Contentious: Essays.
Dr Ruth Gets Frank
“MY PRODUCER told me at the beginning, ‘You’re going to be the talk of the town.’ I didn’t even know what that meant. I remember the first time somebody called and said he was a premature ejaculator. I had to stop and catch my breath. This was probably the first time that anybody had spoken so openly on the radio about sexuality.”— Sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s sexual-advice program Sexually Speaking premiered on radio in 1980 and television in 1982. Her latest book is The Doctor Is In: Dr. Ruth on Love, Life, and Joie de Vivre.
The lily pond was so shallow They had us fight on our knees so that it looked more dangerous
— Linda Evans played Krystle Carrington, who famously battled rival Alexis in a 1983 episode of the ABC nighttime soap Dynasty. United Archives/AlamyGarfield Rises
“I WAS WORKING on my first TV special at Bill Melendez’s studio in Hollywood. One day, I was having trouble getting Garfield to dance on his back feet. Fortunately, Peanuts creator Charles Schulz was in the next room. I told him I was struggling. He said, ‘That’s because you’re drawing Garfield with little cat feet.’ He took my pencil and showed me how Snoopy had little feet when he was on all fours but big feet when he stood up. From that moment, Garfield was usually on two feet.”— Jim Davis’ Garfield now appears in more than 2,000 newspapers.
1983
The Day After
“MY FIRST REACTION when I read the script is, ‘You’re never gonna get this on the air.’ I decided the only way to do the movie was to make it like a public service announcement: If you have a nuclear war, this is what it’s going to look like. Originally, it was supposed to run over two nights. I told the network, ‘Do you really think anyone’s going to tune in for another night of Armageddon?’ Ronald Reagan came into office believing in the concept of the winnable nuclear war. The movie had a shattering effect on him. It’s crude. It’s not great cinema. But it will still scare the living crap out of you.” — Nicholas Meyer directed The Day After, the most-watched TV film in history.1984
NBC/Getty Images Vanessa Williams crowned Miss America in 1984.Miss America Makes History
“I WAS THRUST into the world at 20 years old, making brave political statements and experiencing events no other Miss America had known because of being a young black woman. People would want to shake my hand, and you’d see tears in their eyes, and they’d say, ‘I never thought I’d see it in my lifetime.’ But when you’ve got sharpshooters on buildings because there have been credible threats on your life, or when strangers tell you they’re going to throw acid on your face because of who you are — it was terrifying. You think you can control things when you’re 20, and I certainly could not.” — Vanessa Williams was forced to resign her title in July 1984, following the unauthorized publication of photos by Penthouse magazine. Now a singer and actor, she was a Miss America pageant judge in 2015. In 2016, she launched a clothing line, V. by Vanessa Williams.Enter the Yuppie
By Jay McInerney I WASN'T EXPECTING much, having worked in publishing and having watched many first novels disappear without a trace. But mine, miraculously, caught fire. I was cast in the unlikely role of spokesman for my generation, and as a kind of representative figure of the era. Nothing in my life had prepared me for these roles; I was more prepared to talk about sentence structure and narrative modalities than to make statements about the zeitgeist and the newly identified demographic group called yuppies. I’m not sure I did such a great job as a spokesman. — Jay McInerney’s latest novel is, Bright, Precious Days.Confronting AIDS
By Diane Feinstein I WAS THE FIRST mayor to raise the subject of AIDS at the Conference of Mayors in 1984. No one wanted to talk about it. There was no treatment; fear was widespread. San Francisco was the first city to devote major funds to research. The HIV/AIDS epidemic was one of the most formative, difficult experiences of my career in public service. We took strong actions, some of which were controversial. But the epidemic was a key moment in the effort to achieve equality for LGBT Americans. The gay community came together to fight for their dignity — and their lives. — Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) was the mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988.1985
Bill Smith/NFL/Getty Images William "The Refrigerator" Perry, played for the 1985 Super Bowl Champion Chicago Bears.The Fridge Runs br
“THE FRIDGE was a great athlete. He couldn’t run 40 yards worth a damn, but he could run five yards really good. We first put him on offense as a fullback. I realized there was no way that with a guy the size of Fridge blocking upfront that they were going to stop us. And they didn’t. Then the thinking was, well, if he can block, maybe he can run. So we gave him the ball and he scored. If he can block and run, maybe he can catch. He did that, too! What’s next, except maybe he can throw? That he couldn’t do.”— Mike Ditka coached the 1985 Chicago Bears. William “Refrigerator” Perry scored the Bears’ final touchdown in the team’s 46-10 victory over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XX.
The Power of Pee-Wee br
"AFTER THE PREMIRE of Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, CBS approached me about doing a kids show. I immediately said yes. I always knew that if I was going to have a kids show, it would be important to have a really great kids show. I never took that lightly. That all came out of my own childhood, of just loving the shows I grew up on. Even when I was a kid watching them, I always felt, Thank goodness for this. I’m really proud of Pee-wee’s Playhouse. I meet young people almost every day who say, ‘I’m an artist because of your show.’ ” — Paul Reubens created Pee-wee’s Playhouse, which aired from 1986 to 1990. In 2016, he starred in the Netflix feature Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection Comedian Paul Reubens as Pee-wee Aloysius Herman.
1986
Ebet Roberts/Getty Images Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, left, Joseph "Run" Simmons and Jam Master Jay.Run DMC Walks That Way br
“[PRODUCER RICK [RUBIN] gives us this yellow notebook pad. He tells us, ‘Go down to D’s basement, put the needle on the record.’ We go down to my basement and put on the record, and then you hear ‘Backstroke lover always hidin’ ’neath the covers,’ and immediately me and Joe get on the phone and say: ‘Hell no, this ain’t going to happen. This is hillbilly gibberish.’ ” — Darryl “D.M.C.” McDaniels and Joseph “Run” Simmons recorded — reluctantly — their cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” in 1986. The single would go on to sell more than 1 million copies, paving the way for other rap artists’ commercial success.1987
Oliver North Testifies in Iran-Contra Affair br
“REGAN WAS a polarizing figure for the media. This particular event crystallized a lot of that angst. You had pundits and politicians on one side, and the American people on the other. If they picked me to go and try to indict Ronald Reagan, they picked the wrong guy. I understood what the words ‘semper fidelis’ really meant, and I was not ashamed to say so.”—Oliver North helped engineer the scheme to sell arms to Iran and direct the profits to Contra rebels in Nicaragua; the ensuing Iran-Contra scandal resulted in indictments for several figures in the Reagan administration, including North. He now hosts War Stories With Oliver North on Fox News. AFP/Getty Images President Ronald Reagan delivers the "Tear Down This Wall" speech in Berlin.
I d written the thing but I thought wow that s more powerful than I realized
— Speechwriter Peter Robinson wrote the “Tear down this wall!” address delivered in West Berlin on June 12, 19871988
AARP via YouTube Hulk Hogan celebrates after defeating André the Giant in Wrestlemania III.Hulk Hogan Slams André the Giant br
“[WORLD WRESTLING Federation owner] Vince McMahon came to my hotel room the night before the match and asked me what I saw. I said, ‘I think this is classic David vs. Goliath.’ Fight, fight, fight. He’s beating me down until I get one up on him and make this crazy Hulkamania comeback. André was so kind and so generous. Believe me, if he didn’t want to get slammed, he wouldn’t have gotten slammed. He was 600 pounds.”— Hulk Hogan (born Terry Bollea) defeated André the Giant in WrestleMania III.
Moviestore collection/Alamy Candace Bergen, second from left, with the cast of "Murphy Brown" in 1988.
Inventing Murphy Brown br
“CBS ASKED if I could change her from a recovering alcoholic to somebody who was coming back to work after being at a spa, because she was very stressed out. They also asked if, instead of turning 40, she could be turning 30. Then the big 1988 writers strike hit, so I couldn’t touch that script. If they wanted to shoot that pilot, they had to shoot that first draft. And that’s what they did. We let this woman carry the comedy, rather than be the person who reacts to funny things men are doing. You didn’t see much of that in the ’80s.”— TV and film producer Diane English won three Emmy awardsfor the CBS show Murphy Brown.
1989
We thought if we let the international community know what is happening to China America would rescue us
—Chai Ling was a student leader in the Tian’anmen Square protests of 1989.AFP/Getty Images East German border guards demolishing a section of the wall in order to open a new crossing point between East and West Berlin, near the Potsdamer Square.