05-02-2025
Totally Rad: Celebrate National 80s Day
It's not a federal holiday — but maybe it should it be. National 80s Day takes place annually on February 6. Ostensibly that's because it's the birthday of two 80s icons, American President Ronald Reagan and ultimate 80s one-hit wonder Rick Astley ("Never Gonna Give You Up" AKA the "RickRoll" song). But do we actually need a justification to look back on one of the most exciting decades in pop culture? Like, never!
Celebrate this 80s day by looking back at the most-popular American films, TV series, and albums from the decade, listed below.
What is more iconically 80s than Michael J. Fox (in a puffer vest!), in a Delorean, living in 1950s nostalgia, with a Huey Lewis & the News soundtrack? Nothing! Robert Zemeckis' zany time-travel comedy would earn $381 million at the worldwide box office, and ultimately become a trilogy series.
Swinging in at the very end of the decade, Tim Burton's audacious adaptation of the DC Comics caped crusader was a massive success, earning $411 million at the global box office. Movie audiences had never seen Batman like this, a dark and gritty protector — ironically played by Michael Keaton, then known primarily for his comedy work — but it may be Jack Nicholson's Joker who stole the show with his gleefully menacing performance.
Originally intended as the final chapter in the trilogy starring Harrison Ford's dashing archaeologist, The Last Crusade took Indy to Europe and the Middle East as he attempted to track down the fabled holy grail, a cup from which Jesus Christ himself drank. Some still consider it the best of the five Indiana Jones movies, and it's important to remember that in the 1980s, we all knew Nazis were the bad guys. The film earned $474 million at the box office.
Speaking of the best movies in a franchise, The Empire Strikes Back may have been chronologically only the second of the nine (so far) Star Wars movies, but 45 years later it is still considered the pinnacle of the series. Improving in every way from the original film, and giving us twists that shocked the cinemas — plus that bold bummer of an ending — the film captivated audiences, earning a total of $538 million worldwide.
Absolutely loaded with 80s iconography, from kids on bikes, to the Speak and Spell, to the Reese's Pieces of it all, Steven Spielberg's E.T. was the undisputed champ of the 1980s box office, and it wasn't close — it earned $792 million worldwide. While E.T. would not spawn any sequels (at least, not yet), it did introduce America to a young superstar in Drew Barrymore, now a wildly popular talk-show host, and the Atari video-game adaptation of the movie was such a monumental bomb it quite literally destroyed not only that company, but the home video-game market for the first half of the decade.
The convergence of two things really taking off in the 80s — Miami, FL, and police procedural shows — made for an iconic series that helped define the style and sound of the decade, and arguably changed television as well. The show gave a flashy look at the illicit drug trade and organized crime, and it helped to launch the careers of Don Johnson and Edward James Olmos. Along with Hill Street Blues, Miami Vice is the reason we now have a proliferation of prestige police shows on virtually any TV network or streaming service.
Medical dramas have aired on television almost since the beginning of the medium, but St. Elsewhere was something different. The medical answer to prestige police series Hill Street Blues (they were both produced by Mary Tyler Moore's production company), it focused on a struggling urban hospital in Boston's South End. The large cast and overlapping plots both personal and professional were novel at the time, but would heavily influence future series like ER, Grey's Anatomy, and House. The series featured early work from future stars including Denzel Washington, Mark Harmon, Howie Mandel, Alfre Woodard, and of course, Ed Begley Jr. That bonkers series finale also set a high bar for future small-screen twist endings.
Let's acknowledge right out of the gate that the legacy of this show is incredibly complicated. That said, it is impossible to consider TV in the 1980s without mentioning The Cosby Show. From 1985 to 1989 it was the No. 1 show in the country every single year. It was not only popular, it was GREAT. The writing was excellent, the cast was truly extraordinary — Phylicia Rashad, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Lisa Bonet, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pullam, and later in the series, Raven-Symone were quite literally family goals for any American. It also had a profound impact on pop culture, following an affluent African-American family, and showing that such a concept was not novel — it was in fact incredibly ordinary.
While its inspiration and direct competition, Dallas, was arguably the more successful show, it lacked the pop-culture cache that Aaron Spelling's Dynasty held on global culture (aside from Dallas' "Who Shot J.R.?" stunt; that was major). Dynasty transformed to an earnest family drama exploring class differences in the Denver, CO, oil world to an outrageously sudsy primetime soap that arguably has never been matched. Evil twins! Secret children (not one, but two!)! Lead poisoning! Astonishingly physical catfights! Dynasty had everything, as well as glamour, opulence, and attitude courtesy of stars like Joan Collins and Heather Locklear. Leads Krystle and Alexis became household names, leading to perfumes, fashion dolls, and other tie-ins. What other 80s show is specifically namechecked by Prince in a hit song? Only Dynasty.
Technically not a show, MTV was absolutely essential to the 1980s. Launching as a plucky cable start-up in August 1981, MTV's initial pitch to its young and restless viewing audience was to shout loud and proud, "I WANT MY MTV!" And it worked. Within a few years, MTV would become a dominant force in music and pop culture in general. Its 24/7 rotation of music videos could supercharge a burgeoning act's career (Michael Jackson, Madonna) or return a former superstar to relevancy (Tina Turner). MTV has now become unending repeats of internet-fail videos, Catfish: The Series, or Teen Mom, but for the entirety of the 1980s it was mandatory viewing for anyone in their teens or 20s who wanted to be part of the culture.
Toward the end of the 1980s, the upbeat neon and pout of New Wave was pushed aside aggressively by the coltish, screaming energy of hair metal. Leading that charge was Guns N' Roses, a group of young and unapologetic L.A. musicians who welcomed us to the jungle and led us into the November rain. Appetite sold 30 million copies worldwide. As the album heads toward 40 years old, it remains an astonishing opening salvo for a band that would deliver some of the most seeing rock music of the late 20th Century.
As crazy as it sounds now, movie soundtracks were massive business in the 1980s. After the astonishing sales of the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack in the 1970s, movie studios and record labels wised up and brought some of music's biggest names — or most promising newcomers — to work creating new songs for major films. Top Gun, Footloose, Pretty in Pink — there are so many iconic, successful 80s film soundtracks. But none of them beat 1987's Dirty Dancing, which sold 32 million copies on the strength of such hits as "Hungry Eyes" by Eric Carmen, "She's Like the Wind" by Patrick Swayze (who also starred in the film), and of course "(I've Had) The Time of My Life," the big finale that makes literally no sense in the context of the 1950s-set movie, but who cares, because it's that good.
While the 1980s gave us no shortage of mega-watt music stars — Madonna, Bon Jovi, Sting and The Police come immediately to mind — absolutely nobody could touch Michael Jackson in that decade. Following up another album we'll get to in a second, Jackson delivered Bad with a more dangerous look and even more intense songs, including the title track, "Smooth Criminal," "Dirty Diana," and some more upbeat jams like "The Man in the Mirror" and "The Way You Make Me Feel."
An unexpected entry, Back in Black marked a major comeback for the Australian hard-rock group, and the first to feature new vocalist Brian Johnson. Based on the strength of singles "Hells Bells," "You Shook Me All Night Long," and the title track, plus great album tracks like "Shoot to Thrill," the record would go on to sell 50 million copies and spend more than 200 weeks on the Billboard Hot 200 list, an incredible run.
Simply put, Michael Jackson's Thriller was not an album, it was a phenomenon. Jackson had already experienced huge success as a member of the boy band Jackson 5, and as a solo artist in the late 70s with his Off the Wall album. But nobody could have predicted just how big Jackson would blow up due to both this album and his legendary Moonwalk on the "Motown 50" TV special. Thriller is widely regarded as a perfect album, generating smash singles "Beat It," "Billie Jean," "Wanna Be Startin' Something," "P.Y.T." and of course that title song, and its accompanying video, which completely revolutionized what music videos could do and how successful they can be. Thriller would go on to sell 66 million copies, and forever Jackson as an all-time great in the music industry, even accepting his complicated legacy.
