# What did you like about the 80s? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 14, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900 "2001-03-14T04:32:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dodge\_this](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dodge\_this](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dodge_this)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/1 "2001-03-14T04:32:57Z")
I’m guessing most people here are old enough to remember the decade. So what’s your fave 80s moment? ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/2 "2001-03-14T04:39:08Z")
Well, personally, getting laid for the first time was pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/3 "2001-03-14T04:48:40Z")
During the decade, not very much. In retrospect, I like having been witness to the birth of MTV, barren wasteland that it may be now. Having lived through and remembering moments you can only now hear about on VH1’s various documentary programs. Being one of the first kids in my school to have Metallica’s ‘And Justice for All…’ tape. Bearing witness to the slow and torturous demise of big hair bands and power ballads. ---
**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/4 "2001-03-14T04:49:59Z")
The Saturday morning cartoons ruled! [list] [li]_Kidd Video_[/li][li]_The Snorks_[/li][li]_The Smurfs_[/li][li]_Galaxy High_[/li][li]_Dungeons & Dragons_[/li][li]_Shirt Tales_[/li][li]_GI Joe_[/li][li]_He-Man_[/li][li]_Care Bears_[/li] It was awesome! ---
**Author:** ![Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/41988e/32.png) [@Tequila\_Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tequila_Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/5 "2001-03-14T05:05:16Z")
The SHOES!!! Bring back the SHOES!!! ---
**Author:** ![Eo\_Echo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ebca7d/32.png) [@Eo\_Echo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eo_Echo)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/6 "2001-03-14T05:24:54Z")
Live Aid. My overwhelming love of music pretty much dates back to my watching the coverage on MTV. Especially Queen. ---
**Author:** ![Heath\_Doolin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Heath\_Doolin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heath_Doolin)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/7 "2001-03-14T06:39:01Z")
-Some of the best of the Police (Sting dammit, swallow the ego and reunite you tard!) -Dragon’s Lair, Bezerk, Galaga, and Discs of Tron (being 12 and finishing Dragons Lair certified me as number one cool for a summer)and for that matter…25 cent games -Atari and Kaboom, River Raid, and Pitfall -Vans checkerboard slipon shoes, Town and Country shorts, Mr Zogg’s Sex Wax shirts, and a duck tail in your hair -The Porky’s trilogy (still funny) -2nd on Dungeons and Dragons (still the most underrated of all Saturday Cartoons) but you missed one The Transformers -The A-Team, Dynasty, Silver Spoons, Magnum P.I. (wanted to be a detective in Hawaii for about 5 years) -Michael Jackson was cool, looked normal, and made Thriller -Talking like Jeff Spicoli and not seeming like a total dork -Girls in those short skirts and white thigh high stockings -Skating at Del Mar Skate Ranch and joking around with a young and dynamic skater called “Bony” Tony Hawk, who everyone thought ruled due to him being able to do the McTwist ---
**Author:** ![Maera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maera/32/3190_2.png) [@Maera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maera)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/8 "2001-03-14T07:29:48Z")
Cable TV coming to town, and my parents signing up to get the Playboy channel! (In retrospect, I think they were just too scared to bring up the whole birds and the bees thing, and saw an easy way out 😃 ) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/9 "2001-03-14T08:19:29Z")
SAFETY DANCE!!! “Oh you can dance if you want to, you can leave your friends behind…” –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/10 "2001-03-14T08:24:16Z")
Ok, what else? Atari. Cable TV. No Playboy Channel, but the next best thing: Cinemax. Our first VCR. My first computer (Apple IIe). Those first few years when MTV actually played music. Finishing high school and getting to leave town (although technically that was early 1990). Some fun stuff indeed, but all in all I thought the 90’s were better. –sublight. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 9:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/11 "2001-03-14T09:00:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dodge\_this \* > \*\*I’m guessing most people here are old enough to remember the decade. So what’s your fave 80s moment? \*\* There’s to many to list. However one of my most fondest memories was eating roasted chestnuts in Munich around Christmas. Sure this isn’t necessarily 80’s related but it was for me. Marc PS: Oh, and watching Woodstockbirdybird getting laid for the first time. ---
**Author:** ![frobozz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ed8c4c/32.png) [@frobozz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/frobozz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/12 "2001-03-14T12:24:50Z")
I had a ColecoVision. It was _twice_ as cool as an Atari because it had an adaptor that would let you play Atari games. Two for the price of one! All right! ---
**Author:** ![Xploder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/a183cd/32.png) [@Xploder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xploder)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/13 "2001-03-14T13:11:00Z")
I was stationed in Germany for pretty much all of the 80’s. My favorite things would just have to be the fact that all three of my children were born during that time. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/14 "2001-03-14T14:28:04Z")
On a personal level, meeting the man who is now my husband was definitely the highlight of the '80s. If we’re talking more “public” events, the night the Berlin Wall fell. Nothing else that’s happened in my life can touch all the changes symbolized by that one night - and nothing to come is likely to top it. Otherwise? Some of the music was great, but some of the music of every decade is memorable. The clothes and hair looked stylish at the time, but only because we were comparing them to what was hip in the '70s. And I was stuck in adolescence. So the '80s had their drawbacks. I’m glad I experienced them, but if given a time machine I would not choose to go back. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/15 "2001-03-14T15:21:23Z")
The Replacements performing “Unsatisfied” and “Never Mind”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/16 "2001-03-14T15:28:41Z")
Ah, yes, how fondly I recall the Eighties of my girlhood—Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee! Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show! Coming home after school and playing “bingo” by the new electric lamp, or playing lawn tennis in the summer! New York was so exciting then—Journeying by elevated to see the new Brooklyn Bridge; stopping by Tony Pastor’s on 14th Street to hear Lillian Russell or the Irwin sisters sing! And the authors——Messrs. Stevenson, James and Doyle, and the clever Miss Burnett. And did any of you see those new “Impressionists,” or try that new “Cocoa-Cola” or pourable salt? I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who looks back nostalgically on the '80s . . . ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/17 "2001-03-14T16:00:36Z")
Time for your sedative, hon… (bonks **Eve** on the head with the Big Cartoon Mallet) The skinny ties. Definitely the skinny ties. I still have two in the closet, which I love to wear with black suits and white shirts for that devastatingly sexy “Hazel Motes” look. _Hey, baby, it’s the 1980s Baby Doc sent it up from Haiti Can’t get it on, or even get high Come on baby, fuck me and die_ – Alex Chilton, “No Sex” ---
**Author:** ![El\_Smasho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f9ae1b/32.png) [@El\_Smasho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Smasho)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/18 "2001-03-14T16:47:40Z")
Billy Idol and Max Headroom. God! I would have cut off my left hand to meet Billy Idol! \>sigh\< Oh, Billy…\>wibble, swoon, **thud** \< ---
**Author:** ![Arden\_Ranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b487fb/32.png) [@Arden\_Ranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arden_Ranger)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/19 "2001-03-14T17:17:34Z")
Oooh! The video games! A lot of the music and I even have fond memories of some of the clothes (except the polyester That stuff is napalm.). Television was great. **evilbeth** has already covered the cartoons. A-Team, Berenger’s (a Dynasty inspired show with Claudia Christian)and Magnun PI rocked! Oh, and movies. There were some great movies from the Eighties. Hey, **Ukulele Ike**. I still have a shoebox full of those ties. ---
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900/20 "2001-03-14T17:53:11Z")
Some of the music was great. Cyndi Lauper, Billy Bragg, Thomas Dolby (who did have a career beyond the single), New York Dolls, early B-52’s… Feathered hair. Skinny ties. Big sneakers. Members Only jackets. Wow, now I’m getting all nostalgic… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-you-like-about-the-80s/57900.md?page=2)