What was it like growing up in the 80's.

I'm really fond of the 80's since my childhood was influenced by it. I feel it was a fantastic era. We had great TV shows/cartoons, decent music and movies!
 
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ThatAsianGuy said:
I have seen the lost boys, and Ferris Bueller, what is the Breakfast Club?, and my keyboard is very old, it dosent register the keys properly sometimes, but hey its the internet not a english exam
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It has very little to do with your keyboard. That might account for some missing letters, but it can't account for your missing knowledge of how to write in English. If English is your second language, you're good with it.

My use of English is suitable for the internet but not for an English exam - it's appropriate for casual use but it's not formally correct. Your use of English is a combination of ignorance and not giving a damn. Language matters - it's essential for expressing thought and for civilisation to function. It's not just for exams and it's a feeble excuse to claim that it is.

The Breakfast Club is a brilliant film about stereotyping. Five youths (brain, athlete, princess, basket case and criminal) are in an all-day detention at school at the weekend. The only other people present are a teacher and a janitor (who only appears for a couple of minutes). The film is about the interactions between the 6 main characters, especially the youths in detention, and how they answer the question given to them as an essay they have to write as part of their punishment: "Who do you think you are?".

It doesn't sound like much described like that, but it's superb.
 
People of any given generation have been saying that things were better in their childhood for at least 2400 years (it was being said in ancient Greece at least that far back).

I think it's a combination of selective memory and a person's own aging. For example, the few bits of children's TV I've seen recently suck. Of course they suck to me - I'm in my 40s! If I was the age they're aimed at, I'd probably rate them much more highly. Selective memory applies to everything. 1980s...hear a thousand tracks, most of which are mediocre or worse. 2012...remember the couple of dozen that were great (why would you remember the rest?)...wow, 1980s music was great! Much better than now, when almost all the music is mediocre or worse.

In short, people are comparing an idealised memory of parts of their past with the reality of the whole of their present.
 
While I'm a total 80s freak I'm not going to dismiss current films or TV

Heroes season 1 and the Sopranos are up there with the best TV series' ever made IMO.

The move Drive, out last year, was probably the best film I'd seen in years & IMO highlighted the fact that the Oscars are fairly irrelevant.
 
Fuzz said:
Born in 73
Winters were snow covered and the world didn't grind to a halt.
You walked to school on your own, rain or shine and if you forgot your PE kit you did it in your underpants, no one brought you the kit from home for you.
Schools didn't close because it was a bit windy or there was a dusting of snow on the ground
You had a paper round if you wanted money
and you went to cub scouts and knocked on doors for spare change (forgot the cause :o)
You messed around in the woods and built hideouts without fear of being anally raped
You didn't worry about getting mugged or having the **** kicked out of you
You wondered what the hell that white poo was from on the pavements.
You mowed the lawns without question
You mowed your neigbours lawns for extra pocket money
You helped wash the dishes without question
and you certainly didn't back chat your parents teachers or elders, well unless you liked getting slippered / belted or caned that is.
If you got caught by a copper doing something you shouldn't, you were dragged back to your home by the ear lobe and got more slippering / belting or caning by your parents.
Your parents thanked the police for this service!
You didn't get £1 million quids worth of Christmas presents, you got a few wooden toys, maybe a Tonka toy if you were really lucky and you were thankful.
Your parents had big hair, beards and frilly clothes and didn't sit you in front of a TV to keep you quiet.

OK bored now. :D
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^ this, exactly. And I was born in 91. It really depends on the nature of your parents and the crowd of friends you fall in with at school. Some of us are lucky to have an awesome childhood. I'd say that my upbringing was atypical of my generation though, and that the more recently someone was born, the less like the post I quoted their experience would have been.
 
Angilion said:
The Breakfast Club is a brilliant film about stereotyping. Five youths (brain, athlete, princess, basket case and criminal) are in an all-day detention at school at the weekend. The only other people present are a teacher and a janitor (who only appears for a couple of minutes). The film is about the interactions between the 6 main characters, especially the youths in detention, and how they answer the question given to them as an essay they have to write as part of their punishment: "Who do you think you are?".

It doesn't sound like much described like that, but it's superb.
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Dear Mr. Vernon, we accept the fact that we had to sacrifice a whole Saturday in detention for whatever it was we did wrong. What we did was wrong. But we think you're crazy for making us write an essay telling you who we think we are.

You see us as you want to see us, in the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain ... and an athlete ... and a basket case ... a princess...and a criminal.

Does that answer your question?

Sincerely yours, the Breakfast Club.
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I can actually still picture this ending and the music and the feelings I had 27 years later.

Jesus, 27 years. How did that happen?


e : ha, just found this while youtubing. Not sure on the current music but I remembered every scene :)

Also :(

 
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I was also born in 1972 - makes me feel really old sometimes :(

The 80's was a brilliant time for growing up though especially with the tv shows, films and music.

[FnG]magnolia;21792449 said:
Jesus, 27 years. How did that happen?
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The Breakfast Club really is a brilliant film - and Molly Ringwald looks so hot in it. ;)
 
Dimple said:
How may remakes?
About 10?
Tell you what I'll give you 20 out of the 1000s & 1000s of films that have been made since the 80s.
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I'll cheat a bit and link you to a short list of film remakes that Wikipedia has. From a quick look the majority of them are after 1980 and that quite obviously doesn't include films where they've simply made a series of uninspired cash-ins after an initial decent attempt.

However it seems almost inevitable that after a while there will be repetition of films and storylines since it's difficult to always be inventive - in some ways a bit like exploration of the physical world, after a certain point almost every challenge has been done in one form or another so you've got to take the same basic route and try something different with it.

A better question might be why these films are getting remade when there is not the slightest chance they will be improved on but then the answer will be, as it usually is, for the money. I can understand better remaking a terrible film that had potential because then it might be improved but when you're talking about a film such as 12 Angry Men there's simply no improvement to be made.

[FnG]magnolia;21792449 said:
e : ha, just found this while youtubing. Not sure on the current music but I remembered every scene :)
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Why oh why didn't they finish that clip as the film did with Estevez walking across the football field with arm raised?
 
Making me feel old. Late 80's and 90's for me though was pretty uneventful for me, sheltered upbringing in very small villages. Pretty boring really. So i can't really add anything, i think people were less paranoid though, you could mix more freely, then sometime in the 90s people seemed to become a lot more suspicious and untrusting of anyone they didn't know. TV was good, much better, so many good shows, and people generally watching a lot more TV i think, no internet or mobile phones.
 
semi-pro waster said:
Why oh why didn't they finish that clip as the film did with Estevez walking across the football field with arm raised?
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It wasn't Estevez it was Judd Nelson.

dbeafe14.jpg
 
Blues Brothers
The Breakfast Club
Risky Business
Summer School

That's why the 80s were awesome.
 
As i lived in small villages out in the country we would spend most nights playing football or american football, "yellow 42, yellow 42, hut hut" Good times. We used to roam about the place, wander all through the woods, we had so much space and freedom, i guess it was idyllic. I remember one time we took a screwdriver and turned the screw inside the lollypop ladies light signal thing, so it stopped working, and this was like a major deal. Lol, we must have been about 8.

Living in small villages people are highly personal. One of the local girls who was probably about 5 years older than me came storming up to our front door once and demanded that i give back her "fags", she used to hide them under the school wooden makeshift hut, i did actually see them although i never touched them, somebody must have seen me near that area, again i was about 9, she made me crawl under the whole floorspace under the hut and find them and wouldn't let me out till i did, can't believe my parents actually let me go with her!, someone else must have taken them. Again this was like big news.
 
80's were just as ****.
Everybody loves their youth era, whatever decade that may be.
Probably something to do with only having to deal with school and nothing else.
 
RDM said:
No, I completely disagree. You only managed a half dozen films across two decades, TV today is much better, considerably more choice, lots of decent programmes and the ability to Sky+/TIVO means you no longer have to rely on dodgy VCR timers working and worrying about tapes being overwritten. Also Quantum leap was rubbish (And only just something from the 80s)... :D

Kids TV is much more varied and much better than the two hours of pap we had to endure. Cinema is much more entertaining, with a much wider range of flims due to the widespread mutliplexes. Especially for kids, the sheer joy on my daughters face whilst she watched the Avengers today was great.
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You're talking about technology (SKY+ / TIVO / Multiplex Cinemas) which I actually agreed on. I could have drawn a massive list like Predator, Airwolf, Beverly Hills Cop, 48 Hours, Commando, Blue Thunder, Knight Rider, Ghostbusters, Aliens, Blade Runner, Platoon, Indiana Jones, Full Metal Jacket, etc. but they get very boring very quickly.

Kids TV? Really better now? You're talking Telly Tubbies and **** like that which was made (or looks like) by people on drugs? To name but a few: Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Thundercats, MASK, He-Man, Cities of Gold, Star Fleet, Ulyses, Dogtanian, Dungeons and Dragons, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Dangermouse, Trap Door, Count Duckula, Catch the Pigeon, etc. (again another boring list but it goes on and on)

When was the last time you went to a multiplex with 12 screens and you were literally spoilt for choice? I'm talking where you wanted to watch everything that was on. You may have more choice but you certainly have a lot more rubbish on.

A hell of a lot of films are being redone or sequels made. It's because they have no idea and the originals were brilliant. Look recently you have a remake of Total Recall another Terminator film, Fright Night, Freddy vs Octoshark (this may be a lie). But they all have throw backs to a time when films were a bit more original or new ideas were being tested. Look at how films would have turned out if, for example, George Lucas had his original way - then there would be no decent Star Wars just the rubbish that are 1 to 3.


M.

P.S. You do realise that the Avengers is based on something from wayyyyy back (like 60s when the comics came out).
 
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Loved the 80's, although I think everyone is going to look back at the decade they grew up in with fondness and nostalgia.

Here's a list of some of my memories.

ZX Spectrum, Chuckie Egg, Manic Miner, Atic Atac and I remember buying Sabre Wulf on holiday in Southport one year.
Those story books were you chose a number and turned to it depending on the option you had taken. Eg: Warlock of Firetop Mountain & Forest of Doom etc..
Discos, Spaundau Ballet, , Duran Duran, U2, The Alarm and so on..
Ridiculous hairstyles and clothing in hindsight of course, back then it was cool but that probably applies to most kids looking back.
First girlfriend was in the 80's. I bumped into 2 girls I was really friendly with in the 80's a few weeks backs and that was fantastic. Not that that has anything to do with growing up in the 80's, just saying. :p
We got caned in school back then, seriously kids, does you no harm..
Pirating was done with a double cassette deck, not that I participated in this activity or encourage pirating.
Them roller boots come to mind but that might have been the 70's, can't quite remember.

As for growing up, I'm glad my kid is growing up now, rather than then. On a local level there was so much bitterness and hatred, I remember crazy riots in the 80's, shootings & bombings on what seemed like an almost daily basis. Glad to see that for the best part behind us.
 
As cool as the 70s, 80s and 90s were, now would be a great time to be born. Nothing you can't do now that was done back then, with the added plus that the kids from back then are making their dream real. Games, film and music, just think how mind blowing it is for kids to experience for the first time todays games.
 
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