97 Fun Facts About 80s Pop Culture

Whose video was the first ever shown on MTV?

The Buggles' Video Killed the Radio Star opened MTV on August 1, 1981, and in 2000 the channel chose it again as the one-millionth video it aired.

Which 1985 film strands a teenager in 1955, where his own parents must still fall in love?

Back to the Future's script was rejected more than 40 times before a studio agreed to make it, as co-writer Bob Gale has often recalled.

Which Michael Jackson album became the best-selling album of all time?

Thriller owes its rock edge to Eddie Van Halen, who played the guitar solo on 'Beat It' as an unpaid favour to producer Quincy Jones; the 1982 album went on to outsell every other.

Who directed the 1982 sci-fi film about an alien stranded on Earth who befriends a young boy?

Steven Spielberg's team first offered the alien's trail of sweets to M&M's, but Mars said no; Hershey's Reese's Pieces took the part instead, and their sales soared.

Which 1980 arcade game was designed to bring women and couples into arcades that were mostly a male hangout?

Pac-Man designer Toru Iwatani found arcades gloomy places where only boys hung out, so he built a cheerful game around eating in the hope that women and couples would come in and play.

Which 1979 Sony gadget was first sold in America as the Soundabout and in Britain as the Stowaway?

The Walkman went on sale abroad as the Soundabout in America, the Stowaway in Britain and the Freestyle in Australia, until the Japanese name caught on and Sony adopted it worldwide.

Which band's 'Every Breath You Take' topped the Hot 100 for eight weeks in 1983?

The Police saw 'Every Breath You Take' taken for a tender love song, but its writer has called it sinister, a lyric about surveillance and control; it was America's biggest hit of 1983.

Which 1984 comedy has three sacked university scientists set up a paranormal pest-control business in New York?

Ghostbusters was written by Dan Aykroyd for himself and John Belushi; after Belushi died in 1982, the script was reworked with Harold Ramis and Bill Murray joined the team.

Rubik's Cube, the puzzle craze of the early 1980s, was invented by an architecture professor from which country?

Hungary's Ernő Rubik built his first cube in 1974 from wood, rubber bands and paper clips; sold at home as the Magic Cube, it was relaunched under his name in 1980 and swept the world.

Which 1980s cop show made pastel suits and sockless loafers a fashion trend?

Miami Vice was filmed under a famous production rule, 'no earth tones', so reds and browns gave way to flamingo pink, lime green and Caribbean blue on screen, and soon in menswear.

Which 1982–93 sitcom's theme song sang of a place 'where everybody knows your name'?

Cheers opened to dismal ratings and nearly died in its first season; NBC programming chief Brandon Tartikoff kept the Boston bar comedy alive, and it ran for eleven years.

Which doll line caused shopping frenzies in 1983, each doll coming with adoption papers?

Cabbage Patch Kids were 'adopted', not sold: the originals were 'delivered' at a former clinic in Georgia fitted out as a baby hospital, and by late 1983 shoppers were brawling in stores to get one.

Which Prince album and film of the same name featured 'When Doves Cry' and 'Let's Go Crazy'?

Purple Rain also changed record shops: after Tipper Gore heard her 11-year-old daughter play its song 'Darling Nikki', she co-founded the group whose campaign put Parental Advisory stickers on albums.

Which home console, test-marketed in New York in October 1985, revived the American video game industry?

The NES reached America when retailers wanted nothing to do with video games after the industry's collapse, so Nintendo pitched it with a light gun and a toy robot called R.O.B. to make it seem new.

Which 1986 comedy has a teenager fake an illness to go joyriding around the city in a borrowed sports car?

Ferris Bueller's Day Off was written in a single week: John Hughes's logbook shows the story pitched one day and the script finished six nights later, at up to 26 pages a night.

Which band released "Livin' on a Prayer" in 1986, with its talk box guitar riff?

Bon Jovi nearly left it off Slippery When Wet: Jon Bon Jovi thought the song wasn't good enough until he was talked round, and Richie Sambora's talk box riff became its hook.

Which sitcom featured four older women sharing a home in Miami and ran from 1985 to 1992?

The Golden Girls cast Estelle Getty as Sophia, mother of Bea Arthur's Dorothy, even though Getty was a year younger than Arthur and needed a wig and heavy make-up to play the part.

Which Apple computer launched in January 1984, two days after a Ridley Scott commercial inspired by George Orwell?

The Macintosh ad appalled Apple's board, and the agency was told to sell off the airtime; it kept one slot, claiming no buyer could be found, and the film ran once nationally.

Which 1985 charity single did Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie write to raise money for African famine relief?

We Are the World was recorded in one all-night session straight after the American Music Awards, when the stars were already in Los Angeles; a sign on the door told them to check their egos.

Which 1983 film used an uncredited double, Marine Jahan, for many of Jennifer Beals's dance scenes?

Flashdance drew on the life of dancer Maureen Marder, who went uncredited, just like Marine Jahan, the double who performed many of Jennifer Beals's dance scenes.

Which film out-grossed every other release of the 1980s?

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial began at Columbia, which spent about $1 million developing it and then let it go to Universal, where it overtook Star Wars as the biggest box-office earner yet seen.

Which John Hughes film puts five students from different cliques in Saturday detention?

The Breakfast Club turned 'Don't You (Forget About Me)' into a US number one, though Bryan Ferry had turned the song down and Simple Minds only recorded it reluctantly.

Which pop star kept a $5 million fee in 1989 after Pepsi pulled the ad over a controversial video?

Madonna's 'Like a Prayer' video, with its burning crosses, drew condemnation from the Vatican and a boycott threat; Pepsi dropped her commercial and its tour sponsorship but let her keep the money.

What was the hero of 1981's Donkey Kong called before Nintendo gave the character a famous new name?

Jumpman was what Nintendo called its carpenter hero until Nintendo of America renamed him after Mario Segale, the landlord of its warehouse in Washington state.

Which 1987 film has Patrick Swayze's resort instructor fall for a guest played by Jennifer Grey?

Dirty Dancing was a low-budget gamble by Vestron, a video company that meant to show it in cinemas for a weekend and then put it on tape; it became a worldwide hit instead.

Which Cyndi Lauper hit did its writer, Robert Hazard, first record in 1979 from a man's point of view?

Girls Just Want to Have Fun began as Robert Hazard's 1979 demo, sung as a girl-crazy bad boy; Lauper rewrote the lyrics, with his blessing, into a feminist anthem.

Midge Ure and which other musician organised the London-Philadelphia benefit of 13 July 1985?

Bob Geldof was spurred by Michael Buerk's BBC reports on the Ethiopian famine: he and Midge Ure wrote Band Aid's Christmas single in 1984, then staged Live Aid at Wembley and in Philadelphia.

Which cartoon heroes began in a 1984 comic that two friends self-published as a parody of superhero books?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began as a black-and-white spoof that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird paid for with a tax refund and a loan from Eastman's uncle; a 1987 toy deal and cartoon made them a craze.

Which 1988 film mixed live action and animation, with cartoons living alongside humans?

Who Framed Roger Rabbit left Bob Hoskins in trouble at home: his young son refused to speak to him for two weeks, furious that a father with friends like Bugs Bunny had never brought them round.

Which 1987 Def Leppard album includes "Pour Some Sugar on Me"?

Hysteria took more than three years to make, delayed when drummer Rick Allen lost an arm in a car crash on New Year's Eve 1984; he taught himself to play one-armed and stayed in the band.

Which invention of Doc Brown's is 'what makes time travel possible' in his DeLorean?

The flux capacitor is, in the film's words, what makes time travel possible; Doc Brown dreamed it up in 1955 after slipping while hanging a clock and hitting his head on the sink.

Which Whitney Houston ballad about an affair with a married man was her first US number one?

Saving All My Love for You was first recorded in 1978 by Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr.; Houston's mother Cissy disliked her daughter singing about adultery, but it began a run of seven straight number ones.

Which 1983 film has a teenage hacker dial into a military supercomputer and nearly trigger a nuclear launch?

WarGames unsettled a real president: Ronald Reagan watched it at Camp David the weekend it opened, then asked his advisers whether a hacker could really break into America's defence computers.

Which accessory gave the women's power suit of the 80s its silhouette?

Shoulder pads were a revival: Joan Crawford had made them famous in the 1940s in suits by the designer Adrian, and the 1980s versions often fastened with Velcro so they could be taken out.

Which 1985 hit's video pulls a young woman from a café into a pencil-sketch comic strip?

Take On Me flopped on its first release in 1984; a re-recording and the new video, drawn over filmed footage frame by frame, took it to number one in America and won six MTV awards.

Which 1984 Hasbro toy line pitted Autobots against Decepticons?

Transformers were Japanese first: Hasbro bought the rights to several shape-changing robot lines from Japan, united them under one new name, and launched a cartoon and a Marvel comic to tell their story.

Which 1989 blockbuster drew a storm of fan protest when comedy actor Michael Keaton was cast as its hero?

Batman fans complained that a comedy actor wasn't serious enough for the role, yet the film became 1989's biggest hit at the US box office.

Which 1984 Wham! chart-topper is known for its upbeat 'Jitterbug' intro?

Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go took its title from a note Andrew Ridgeley left his parents: he wrote 'up' twice by mistake, so he finished it with a deliberate 'go go'.

Which 1986 Tom Cruise film featured fighter pilot training and Kenny Loggins's "Danger Zone"?

Top Gun doubled as a Navy advertisement: when it opened, recruiters in some cities set up tables outside the cinemas to catch would-be pilots on their way out.

Which 1984 Rob Reiner mockumentary about a hapless English heavy-metal band gave the language the idiom 'up to eleven'?

This Is Spinal Tap gave its guitarist amplifiers whose dials go to 11, 'one louder' than 10; in tribute, IMDb rates this one film out of 11 instead of 10.

Which game came in the box with Nintendo's basic Control Deck set when its console went nationwide in 1986?

Super Mario Bros. came in the cheaper Control Deck box, not the Deluxe Set with its toy robot; the game was already such a craze in Japan that a guide to its secrets was the country's best-selling book of 1985.

Which 1980s primetime soap followed Denver oil magnate Blake Carrington, his scheming ex-wife Alexis, and the rival Colby family?

Dynasty was ABC's answer to the CBS hit Dallas; its first season fell flat until Joan Collins arrived in the second as scheming Alexis and helped lift it into the top ten.

Which film star's 1982 workout tape launched a home-video series that sold some 17 million copies?

Jane Fonda made the tape to raise money for the Campaign for Economic Democracy, the political group led by her husband Tom Hayden; it also gave many households a reason to buy a VCR.

Which band's 1987 debut album featured "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Sweet Child O' Mine"?

Guns N' Roses were going nowhere until MTV, after months of lobbying by their label, agreed to show 'Welcome to the Jungle' in the small hours; that single airing made them overnight stars.

Which 1983 animated series featured the catchphrase "By the power of Grayskull"?

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was built around Mattel's action figures; its 1983 ratings were so strong that toy companies rushed to fund a wave of cartoons of their own.

Which 1985 Richard Donner film follows kids searching for pirate treasure to save their neighborhood?

The Goonies filmed its streets and coastline in Astoria, Oregon, but the pirate cavern and One-Eyed Willy's ship were built indoors, on one of the largest sound stages in Burbank.

Which electronic memory game, a craze by the early 80s, had four colored buttons that lit up in sequence?

Simon was the idea of Ralph Baer, the engineer behind the first home video game console, and Milton Bradley unveiled it in 1978 at a party in New York's Studio 54 nightclub.

Which 1982 Ridley Scott film has Harrison Ford hunt runaway androids in a future Los Angeles?

Blade Runner disappointed at the box office in 1982, but video kept it alive, a devoted cult following grew around it, and a director's cut reached cinemas ten years later.

Which street dance, born in the Bronx, went mainstream through 1984 films such as Beat Street?

Breakdancing was created in the Bronx by Black and Puerto Rican youth in the 1970s; half a century later, under the name breaking, it became an Olympic sport at Paris 2024.

Which Soviet engineer created Tetris in the mid-1980s at a Moscow computing centre?

Alexey Pajitnov wrote Tetris on a Soviet Academy of Sciences computer in Moscow; as a state employee he saw the early royalties go to the Soviet Union, not to him.

Which company replaced its flagship drink's recipe in April 1985, then reversed course within three months?

Coca-Cola launched New Coke after taste tests of nearly 200,000 people favoured a sweeter drink; the uproar brought the old formula back 79 days later as Coca-Cola Classic.

On Dallas, which sister-in-law and mistress of J.R. Ewing turned out in 1980 to have shot him?

Kristin Shepard was unmasked on November 21, 1980, after an eight-month wait; the crew filmed several alternative scenes, so even the cast did not know who had pulled the trigger.

On the sitcom ALF, the wisecracking alien came from which exploded home planet?

ALF escaped the explosion of his home planet Melmac and crashed through the garage roof of the Tanners, a suburban California family who took him in as a permanent houseguest.

KITT, the talking car in Knight Rider, was a heavily modified version of which model?

KITT, a black Pontiac Firebird Trans Am, got the sweeping scanner light on its nose from Battlestar Galactica: Glen A. Larson created both shows and borrowed the roving eye of the Cylon robots.

Which sitcom's Alex P. Keaton was a Young Republican raised by ex-hippie parents?

Family Ties was sold to NBC as 'hip parents, square kids', and Alex P. Keaton wasn't meant to draw so much attention; Michael J. Fox turned the tie-wearing teenager into the show's star.

The Huxtable family of The Cosby Show lived in which New York City borough?

Brooklyn was the Huxtables' home on screen, but the brownstone façade viewers saw stands in Manhattan, at 10 St. Luke's Place in Greenwich Village.

On which 1983 TV special did Michael Jackson first perform the moonwalk?

Motown 25 nearly went without him: by Berry Gordy's account, Jackson meant only to watch from the audience until Gordy begged him, and by Jackson's own he asked on the spot for a solo number, which became 'Billie Jean'.

In Gremlins (1984), the three rules for keeping a mogwai forbid bright light, water, and feeding it after what?

Midnight is the deadline in the last and gravest of the three rules; writer Chris Columbus got the idea for the film from the mice he heard scurrying around his student flat at night.

Which 1988 film about an autistic savant and his hustler brother won the Best Picture Oscar?

Rain Man was inspired by the real savant Kim Peek; screenwriter Barry Morrow later gave Peek his Oscar statuette, which Peek carried with him to public appearances.

Which 1985 toy told stories from a cassette deck built into its back, moving its mouth in time?

Teddy Ruxpin was the work of Ken Forsse, who had worked for Disney: one track of each tape carried the story and a second carried the signals that worked the toy's face.

Which company released the gross-out Garbage Pail Kids sticker cards in 1985?

Topps, the chewing-gum firm best known for baseball cards, created the grotesque stickers in 1985 to spoof a wholesome doll craze of the day.

Trivial Pursuit, released in 1981, was invented by two journalists from which country?

Canada's Chris Haney and Scott Abbott, a photo editor and a sports journalist, dreamed the game up in Montreal in December 1979; the accounts differ on the details, but nearly all of them begin with a game of Scrabble.

Which 1982 home computer is listed by Guinness as the best-selling desktop model ever?

The Commodore 64 sold somewhere between 12.5 and 17 million units, a Guinness record for one desktop model; nostalgia ran so deep that its beige keyboard was revived in 2011 with a modern PC inside.

Who sings the falsetto 'I want my MTV' intro on Dire Straits' 'Money for Nothing'?

Sting sang the 'I want my MTV' line to the tune of one of his own band's hits, so his record company insisted on a co-writing credit that he had not wanted.

Run-DMC's 1986 rap-rock hit 'Walk This Way' was recorded with which band?

Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry came in for vocals and guitar; the collaboration revived the rockers' career and put hip-hop in heavy MTV rotation.

Which 1986 album, home of 'Fight for Your Right', was the first rap LP to top the Billboard 200?

Licensed to Ill reached No. 1 in March 1987; its biggest single began as a goof on dumb rock songs, recorded as a joke, and was embraced by the very party crowd it mocked.

Which 1990 Grammy was revoked from Milli Vanilli after the lip-syncing scandal broke?

Milli Vanilli's Best New Artist Grammy was withdrawn in November 1990 after producer Frank Farian admitted session singers had recorded the vocals while Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus mimed.

Which production team wrote and produced Rick Astley's 1987 hit 'Never Gonna Give You Up'?

Stock Aitken Waterman gave Astley a number one in 1987; in 2007 the song found a second life as the bait in rickrolling, the prank that tricks people into clicking a link to its video.

Who, at 17, became the youngest woman to write, produce and sing a US No. 1 single, 'Foolish Beat'?

Debbie Gibson had been recording songs in a home studio since her early teens; 'Foolish Beat' topped the Hot 100 in June 1988, and days later she graduated from high school.

In Footloose (1984), Kevin Bacon's character fights a dancing ban in which fictional town?

Bomont's ban had a real model: Elmore City, Oklahoma, had outlawed dancing since 1898, until its high-school juniors won the right to hold a prom in 1980.

Who played the karate mentor Mr. Miyagi in The Karate Kid (1984)?

Pat Morita nearly missed the part: producer Jerry Weintraub didn't want a comedian from Happy Days as Mr. Miyagi and made him test five times, yet the role brought an Oscar nomination.

Which actor played the Soviet boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky IV (1985)?

Dolph Lundgren was a Swedish karate black belt with a degree in chemical engineering who turned down a Fulbright scholarship to MIT for show business, then broke through as Ivan Drago.

Which Indiana Jones film's violent scenes prompted the MPAA to create the PG-13 rating in 1984?

Temple of Doom's heart-ripping sacrifice scene brought an uproar from parents; its own director then urged the ratings board to add a step between PG and R, and Red Dawn was the first film released with it.

In Die Hard (1988), terrorists seize which Los Angeles skyscraper on Christmas Eve?

Nakatomi Plaza was played by Fox Plaza, a new tower in Century City owned by the film's own studio; it was still under construction, so the crew could stage action on its unfinished floors.

In Big (1988), Tom Hanks plays 'Heart and Soul' on a giant floor piano in which toy store?

FAO Schwarz saw Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia dance out 'Heart and Soul' and 'Chopsticks' on a floor piano that inventor Remo Saraceni built specially for the film, at 16 feet more than twice his original.

Which 1987 film's corporate raider Gordon Gekko declared that greed is good?

Wall Street borrowed its most famous line from life: financier Ivan Boesky had told Berkeley business graduates, 'I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.'

In Risky Business (1983), Tom Cruise slides across the floor in his briefs to which song?

Old Time Rock and Roll had peaked at only No. 28 in 1979; Tom Cruise's living-room dance gave Bob Seger's song a second life and inspired countless parodies.

In Say Anything... (1989), Lloyd Dobler hoists a boombox playing which Peter Gabriel song?

In Your Eyes was not the first choice: director Cameron Crowe cut the scene to another song, found it didn't fit, and only then swapped in Peter Gabriel's ballad.

The Princess Bride (1987) was adapted from his own 1973 novel by which Butch Cassidy screenwriter?

William Goldman won Oscars for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and All the President's Men; he presented his novel as the 'good parts' of a classic by S. Morgenstern, an author he had invented.

Which rock star played Jareth the Goblin King in Jim Henson's Labyrinth (1986)?

David Bowie also wrote and sang the film's songs, but star power wasn't enough: it took only about $13 million in American cinemas against a budget of $25 million.

In which 1984 film did Arnold Schwarzenegger first say 'I'll be back', a line he struggled to pronounce?

The Terminator nearly lost the line as written: Schwarzenegger, who struggled to pronounce 'I'll', asked to say 'I will be back', but James Cameron refused; the AFI ranks it 37th among film quotes.

Stand by Me (1986) was adapted from which Stephen King novella?

The Body became Stand by Me on screen, and the film was nearly never made: days before shooting, the studio's new owners shut it down, until former owner Norman Lear agreed to pay for it himself.

The Simpsons began in 1987 as a series of animated shorts on which sketch series?

The Tracey Ullman Show ran the Simpsons as minute-long fillers between sketches from 1987; when the family became a merchandising goldmine, Ullman sued for a share of the profits and lost.

Who hosted the daily syndicated version of Jeopardy! from its premiere in 1984?

Alex Trebek took over a format Art Fleming had fronted on NBC and never left: he hosted more than 8,200 episodes, a Guinness record, working on until his death from cancer in 2020.

Who replaced Susan Stafford as Wheel of Fortune's letter-turner in 1982?

Vanna White was picked from some 200 hopefuls after Susan Stafford quit in 1982 to work with cancer patients; Guinness has since certified her as television's most frequent clapper.

The Wonder Years premiered on ABC in January 1988 immediately after which broadcast?

Super Bowl XXII handed the pilot a huge audience on January 31, 1988; after a first season of only six episodes, the show won the Emmy for best comedy series.

In November 1987, an intruder in a Max Headroom mask hijacked two TV signals in which city?

Chicago's WGN was cut into during its sports report, and two hours later WTTW lost part of a Doctor Who episode to the same masked prankster; no one was ever caught.

'Where's the beef?' was a 1984 advertising slogan for which fast-food chain?

Wendy's ran the 1984 ad in which octogenarian Clara Peller barked the line at a rival's oversized bun; Walter Mondale borrowed it to needle Gary Hart in that year's Democratic primaries.

The 1986 coast-to-coast human chain Hands Across America raised money for which cause?

Hunger and homelessness in America were the cause: some five million people joined hands, each asked to give $10, but the chain had gaps and raised far less than its organisers had hoped.

In 1983, Atari buried truckloads of unsold game cartridges in a landfill in which state?

The Alamogordo, New Mexico dump was treated for decades as an urban legend; a 2014 excavation dug up the cartridges and proved that the September 1983 burial was real.

Which handheld did Nintendo launch in North America in 1989, bundled with Tetris?

The Game Boy's free pack-in was Tetris, a puzzle anyone could pick up, and the pairing carried the handheld far beyond the usual audience for video games.

Duran Duran's 'Hungry Like the Wolf' video was shot on location in which country?

Director Russell Mulcahy shot it in Sri Lanka in 1982 as a jungle adventure in the Indiana Jones mould, and heavy MTV rotation helped break the band in America.

Which Frankie Goes to Hollywood single topped the UK chart in 1984 despite a BBC ban?

The BBC pulled 'Relax' in January 1984 over lyrics deemed overtly sexual, which only boosted sales as it went to number one; 'Frankie Say' slogan T-shirts became a defining look of 1984.

Paul Simon's 1986 album Graceland drew heavily on street music from which country?

South Africa's township music reached him on a bootleg cassette and pulled him out of a creative slump, though recording in Johannesburg during apartheid drew criticism for breaking the cultural boycott.

Which 1984 Bruce Springsteen song did Reagan's campaign embrace despite its bitter lyrics?

Born in the U.S.A. tells of a Vietnam veteran who comes home to no job and no welcome, yet its roaring chorus led Reagan to praise Springsteen's 'message of hope' at a 1984 New Jersey rally.

Which 1984 Tina Turner comeback single won Record of the Year at the Grammys?

What's Love Got to Do with It had been turned down by Cliff Richard, and Turner herself disliked it at first; it became her only US number one, at the age of 44.

How did Phil Collins manage to play both Live Aid stages, London and Philadelphia, in one day?

He flew on Concorde: after his Wembley set Phil Collins crossed to New York, took a helicopter to Philadelphia and drummed in a Led Zeppelin reunion that the band later kept off the official DVD.