25 nostalgic things you remember from a specific year or decade!

[ER]

He had a bad reputation on Hogan's Heroes too. Ugh,  and now I think of it he didn't seem to mind sending those people out to die on the Running Man game show either that he hosted. I think they made a documentary movie about that....?

[ER]

Someone PM'd me and said The Running Man wasn't an actual game show but a movie based on a book by Stephen King.

I told him it was a game show in 2017, but he said Richard Dawson was dead by then, and I said no, he hosted The Running Man, and sent a clip off YouTube to prove it. Oh, he kept blathering on so I said we were going to have to agree to disagree. However, I did get this person to agree it was sheer pretentiousness of Richard Dawson to make an autobiographical series about growing up beside a creek in Massachusetts, a young man obsessed with Spielberg movies and his orphaned neighbor Katie Holmes, then shifting the time frame from WWII England to the fin de siecle US.

Though Dawson's series really did do a good job depicting how teenagers actually talk.

[retrorussell]

1985:
1. Oh man.. loved watching Nickelodeon at my mom's on the weekends.  And in 1985 they introduced this nonsense song in this bumper:
"Hon de laud hup hivvel up Nick, hon de laud hup hivvel up Nick Nick, hon de rikki tikki lo Y livin' #1 Nickelodeon!"
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
Even my mom loves that song!
2. Family Feud ends its initial run.  Richard Dawson had one more moment of coming unglued at a bad answer:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
3. Great albums: POWER STATION- Debut, BROTHERS IN ARMS- Dire Straits, SONGS FROM THE BIG CHAIR- Tears For Fears, NO JACKET REQUIRED- Phil Collins, CENTERFIELD- John Fogerty, SCARECROW- John Mellencamp, AFTERBURNER- ZZ Top, SHE'S THE BOSS- Mick Jagger, PROMISE- Sade, AROUND THE WORLD IN A DAY- The Revolution
4. Bad movies: CLUE, LEGEND OF BILLIE JEAN, THE SLUGGER'S WIFE, HOWLING II: YOUR SISTER IS A WEREWOLF, PORKY'S REVENGE, PERFECT, THE BRIDE, GYMKATA, SANTA CLAUS THE MOVIE, STICK, CREATURE, DEATH WISH 3, THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE, GODZILLA 1985, MISSING IN ACTION II (I called the series "Missing in acting"), MOVING VIOLATIONS, KING SOLOMON'S MINES, AMERICAN NINJA.
5. What the hell-- a new Friday The 13th movie WITHOUT JASON??  Yep-- part V featured an impostor.  I wasn't expecting anything good but boy was this a stupid letdown.  My friends still liked it for the high body count and gore.  Showed up on cable a lot.  FRIDAY THE 13TH PART V: A NEW BEGINNING.
6. The Titanic's wreckage is found, 73 years after it sank.
7. Rock Hudson's death of AIDS brings the disease to major national spotlight.  I remember a classmate telling the joke "What's Rock Hudson on roller skates?  Rolaids!"
More to come later..

[retrorussell]

A bit of older stuff I forgot about, and just to let you all know-- if you already posted 25 nostalgic things about a year and then remembered another one or two instead of a full blown new list of 25 for that year, you can just add the one or two.

Or, what the hell-- post as many as you want.  I'm flexible.  I just like reading the memories.

So:
1980
The awesome groundbreaking computer graphic intro for THE ABC SUNDAY NIGHT MOVIE debuts! 
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
1984
I loved the Pointer Sisters giving their blessing to the cable channel SHOWTIME for the use of their song "I'm So Excited" in Showtime's movie intro.  A refrain would also play during the "Coming Next" prompt.
Promo:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
Also 1984:
This goofy commercial was on all the time!  TWIZZLERS had been around forever, but they made a big comeback in the 80s with this claymation commercial brought to you by a mouth!
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
Back to a bit of 1985:
8. Another goofy commercial that was ever-present: the Colgate Pump had actually been around a few years already, but this weird British-made commercial (based on a Madness song) was embedded in every kid's head at the time.  Now there's the Colgate pump!  We love the Colgate pump!
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
9. GOONIES 'R GOOD ENUFF!  This Cyndi Lauper hit was not originally supposed to be tied to the film THE GOONIES, but Warner Bros. persuaded her otherwise.  Great music video with lots of wrestling stars-- Cyndi was a wrestling fan and close friend of Captain Lou Albano, who plays her dad here.
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
10. The collectible sticker line-- and spoof of the fat-looking Cabbage Patch Kids dolls-- GARBAGE PAIL KIDS debuts!  I loved collecting these, though never came remotely close to getting them all.  The ones I did have I stuck all over my bedroom window when I had the bedroom over the garage.

More to come!

[ER]

Well done, retro!

[retrorussell]

Well done, retro!

Thanks!
More 1985:
11. Ricky Nelson (OZZIE & HARRIET, musical career) dies in a plane crash on New Year's Eve.
12. More famous deaths: YUL BRYNNER, ORSON WELLES, ANNE BAXTER, CAROL WAYNE, JAMES BEARD, BARBARA COWSILL, CLARENCE NASH (voice of Donald Duck), EDDIE SHORE, MICHAEL REDGRAVE, DOLPH SWEET, EDMUND O'BRIEN, CHESTER GOULD, SELMA DIAMOND, MARGARET HAMILTON, KYU SAKAMOTO, GALE SONDERGAARD, RUTH GORDON, E.B. WHITE, NELSON RIDDLE, JOHNNY OLSON, RICKY WILSON (B-52's), PHIL SILVERS, BIG JOE TURNER, MAURICE PODOLOFF, BILL SCOTT (Bullwinkle), ROGER MARIS, IAN STEWART, DIAN FOSSEY.
13. Stephen King writes THE TALISMAN, THINNER and SKELETON CREW.
14. Other notable books: TEXAS- James Michener, THE POLAR EXPRESS- Chris Van Allsburg, SARAH, PLAIN AND TALL- Patricia MacClachlan, ENDER'S GAME- Orson Scott Card, THE CIDER HOUSE RULES- John Irving, and IF TOMORROW COMES- Sidney Sheldon.
15. The Commodore Amiga debuts!

16. After the debacle known as NEW COKE, the original formula is brought back and re-branded as COCA-COLA CLASSIC.
17. PICTIONARY debuts!  When I moved to Auburn/Federal Way the family had fun Pictionary parties with Little Ceaser's Pizza (back when it was good as well as cheap)!
18. The "Gay Elm Street" debuts in theaters: A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY'S REVENGE.  They called this one as such due to the close friendship of 2 young men in the film and the appearance of a "leather bar".  Turns out the lead actor in the film was indeed gay.  Not that I care one way or another about any of that, but it was kind of an interesting turn in the series. 
19. This was kind of the year when scary movies stopped getting to me so much-- they used to terrify the hell out of me.  I watched FRIGHT NIGHT at a friend's house this year and it just didn't scare me.  It is a good film though.
20. Other scary films of 1985: CAT'S EYE, THE STUFF, SILVER BULLET, BLOOD CULT (one of the first shot-on-video horror films for the rental market), THE BRIDE, DAY OF THE DEAD, DEMONS, THE HILLS HAVE EYES II, LIFE FORCE, THE MUTILATOR, RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD and the anime VAMPIRE HUNTER D.
21. Route 66 is officially decertified.
22. SOUR PATCH KIDS debut! 
23. Though the Dairy Queen BLIZZARD had been introduced decades ago, its re-introduction in 1985 proved super popular.  I snapped them right up when my local DQ started selling them.
24. SQUEEZ-IT fruit drinks debut!
25. Pizza Hut introduces the PRIAZZO pizza!  A deep dish pizza stuffed with meats/veggies and blanketed with tons of cheese.  It had big meatballs too.  I loved the hell out of this!  It disappeared in the early 90s.

[retrorussell]

More 1986:
1. Oh man were these tasty-- Hormel's FRANK 'N STUFF stuffed hot dogs!  They came stuffed with either chili or cheese.  They debuted in 1986 and disappeared by the 90s.  There was one brief instance where razor blades were found in a couple packages at a production plant but there was no recall (and that was the only incident).

2. My Aunt Amy and I spent a day housewatching for her friend.  We picked up a couple movies from 7-11 (remember when they rented them out??).  One was the great Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives, and the other was the abysmally awful Scream from 1981.  One of the few times in my life I ever slept on a waterbed.
3. Bad 1986 movies: SOLARBABIES, CLAN OF THE CAVE BEAR, THE GOLDEN CHILD (some funny parts, and Eddie Murphy is always great, but really not terribly good), HAMBURGER: THE MOTION PICTURE, SHANGHAI SURPRISE, JUMPIN' JACK FLASH, KING KONG LIVES, MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (saw this stinker at the drive-in), PSYCHO III, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2, RATBOY, TAI-PAN, VAMP, 9 1/2 WEEKS, HAUNTED HONEYMOON, HOWARD THE DUCK, UNDER THE CHERRY MOON, and DEADLY FRIEND.
4. The Calgary Flames reach their first Stanley Cup-- but unfortunately don't win (lost in 5 games to Montreal).
5. The cool game show with the giant cards CARD SHARKS returns, this time being hosted by Bob Eubanks and appearing on CBS.
6. Kids that saw TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE were sad to learn that both Orson Welles (Unicron) and Scatman Crothers (Jazz) had died while working on or shortly after the film.
7. The cool game show PRESS YOUR LUCK ends.  Fortunately it would rerun for several years on the USA Network.
Speaking of which:
One more 1985 moment-- One episode of PRESS YOUR LUCK had a glaring error by the staff, who thought the Looney Tunes character Daffy Duck said "Sufferin' Succotash!" and of course, it was Sylvester the cat.  Mel Blanc himself called in (staged to some degree, though Mel was probably a fan of the show and did contact the producers) in character to set the record straight!
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
More to come later..

[retrorussell]

A couple more quick 1985 entries:
Madonna appears nude in a September issue of PENTHOUSE.  Got to peruse this-- and other-- issues due to my friend knowing where his stepdad's stash was. 
Wink Martindale leaves as host of TIC TAC DOUGH and is replaced by Jim Caldwell.
1984 entry:
Jack Barry, host of THE JOKER'S WILD and producer of tons of game shows including TJW, dies of a heart attack while jogging in Central Park.
And 1983:
2 surprising episodes of DIFF'RENT STROKES air involving a bicycle shop owner molesting children!

Back to 1986:
8. The toy line of LAZER TAG debuts!  Pew pew!

9. Product debuts: A&W Cream Soda, Atari 7800, Intel 386 Microprocessor, and the 3D printer.
10. Geraldo Rivera opens up Al Capone's vaults on a 2-hour special and finds.. nada.
11. More album debuts: GRACELAND- Paul Simon, TRUE BLUE- Madonna, and SLIPPERY WHEN WET- Bon Jovi.
12. More debuts: The book IT (Stephen King), the game THE LEGEND OF ZELDA and METROID, and the bands ALICE IN CHAINS, CYPRESS HILL, THE GOO GOO DOLLS, and GREEN DAY (then known as STREET CHILDREN).
13. OFFICE DEPOT debuts in Fort Lauderdale.
14. Fox Broadcasting Company's channel is officially unveiled.
15. The first utterance of the phrase "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV": A Vicks Formula 44 commercial, by Peter Bergman (ALL MY CHILDREN).
16. Rod Roddy replaces Johnny Olson as the announcer for The Price Is Right.
17. Acclaimed TV film RETURN TO MAYBERRY airs.  16 original ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW cast members appear.
18. A hacker naming himself "Captain Midnight" hacks HBO's signal, protesting its monthly fee.
19. Lucille Ball makes one last attempt at a series with LIFE WITH LUCY.  It is a colossal flop.
20. Series endings: BENSON, THE FALL GUY, HARDCASTLE AND MCCORMICK, INSPECTOR GADGET, RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT, DIFF'RENT STROKES, THE JOKER'S WILD, THE LOVE BOAT, KNIGHT RIDER, T.J. HOOKER, RIPTIDE, TIC TAC DOUGH, TRAPPER JOHN M.D., and SEARCH FOR TOMORROW.
21. THE HOLLYWOOD SQUARES returns!  Not with Peter Marshall hosting, but John Davidson.  It runs till 1989.  Jim J. Bullock, Joan Rivers, Vincent Price, Phyllis Diller, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Richard Simmons, Tom Poston, John Byner, Steve Allen and many others appear.
22. Food/drink debuts: POP SECRET, FIVE GUYS restaurant, POWER BAR.
23. THE CALIFORNIA RAISINS, MY PET MONSTER and the game OUTBURST debut.
24. A Mad Cow disease outbreak occurs in the UK.
25. LAPUTA: CASTLE IN THE SKY is the first Studio Ghibli animated film.

[retrorussell]

A 1985 nugget I missed:
An episode of FAMILY TIES with Alex falling hard for a girl to the song AT THIS MOMENT helps launch the song to a belated #1 spot on the music charts.
Another 1990 nugget:
The silly animated special CARTOON ALL STARS TO THE RESCUE airs.  Various characters including Garfield, Alvin & The Chipmunks, the Smurfs, Bugs Bunny, the Muppet Babies and others try to keep kids from doing drugs.  This well-intentioned but cheesy misfire has endured as a cult classic.


1987 re-visited:
1. Oh man.. Pennsylvania Treasurer R. Budd Dwyer commits suicide on live tv in Harrisburg, PA at a press conference.  After a lengthy reading, protesting his innocence on charges of conspiracy, mail fraud, perjury and aiding in racketeering, he then gives criticisms of those who charged him with these crimes and thanks friends and family.  At the end of his speech he opens a manila envelope and pulls out a pistol.  He warns panicked onlookers to stay away-- "Don't, don't, don't; this will only hurt people."  He then blows his brains out.

2. Televangelist Jimmy Bakker is forced to step down from his program The PTL Club after an alleged rape attempt of a church secretary, and the hush money he gave her.
3. Valerie Harper gets a bug in her britches over a contract dispute and is let go from the sitcom VALERIE.  Sandy Duncan replaces her and the show is eventually re-named THE HOGAN FAMILY.
4. Shelly Long leaves CHEERS and her role as Sam's love interest is taken up by Kirstie Alley (rip).
5. Crispin Glover's appearance on LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN is a disaster, as he nearly kicks Letterman in the head while apparently in character for his future film RUBIN AND ED.  Glover is gone after the commercial break.
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
6. Notable video of Michael Jackson's BAD:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
7. What a weirdo cartoon: BRAVESTARR!  A Native American Indian marshall on an Old West-styled planet-- with an anthropomorphic talking horse!  Dafuq?!

8. Another weird cartoon, with 4 shorts: COMIC STRIP!  Created by Rankin-Bass, it featured TigerSharks, Karate Kat, Street Frogs and Mini-Monsters.  I did like the theme song: "C-O-M-I-C.. S-T-R-I-P.. Come on take a trip down the Comic Strip!"
9. 1 1/2 year old baby Jessica McClure falls down a well in Midland, TX; the event draws national exposure.  She is safely freed over the next few days.
10. ESPN is the first cable channel to air an NFL game, as ESPN SUNDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL debuts.
11. The Facts Of Life get a made for tv movie where the girls visit Australia: THE FACTS OF LIFE DOWN UNDER.  There was also one 5 years prior when they went to Paris.
12. Hit songs: GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU- George Harrison, SHAKE YOU DOWN- Gregory Abbott, ALWAYS- Atlantic Starr, (I'VE HAD) THE TIME OF MY LIFE- Bill Medley/Jennifer Warnes, HEART AND SOUL- T'Pau, SHAKEDOWN- Bob Seger, I WANNA DANCE WITH SOMEBODY- Whitney Houston, NOTHING'S GONNA CHANGE MY LOVE FOR YOU- Glenn Medeiros, HEAD TO TOE- Lisa Lisa & The Cult Jam, NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP- Rick Astley, TOGETHER FOREVER- Rick Astley, RHYTHM IS GONNA GET YOU- Gloria Estefan, I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW- Tiffany, DUDE LOOKS LIKE A LADY- Aerosmith, CAUSING A COMMOTION- Madonna, ALONE- Heart, LOST IN EMOTION- Debbie Gibson, WHO'S THAT GIRL- Madonna, POUR SOME SUGAR ON ME- Def Leppard, NEED YOU TONIGHT- INXS
13. More bad movies: JAWS THE REVENGE, MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE, WHO'S THAT GIRL, FATAL BEAUTY, OVER THE TOP, RENT A COP, CREEPSHOW 2 (saw this with my mom at the drive-in), PINOCCHIO AND THE EMPEROR OF THE NIGHT, and TOUGH GUYS DON'T DANCE.
14. Also, this bad movie was forgotten for many years and later gave birth to the meme: GARBAGE DAY!! 
SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT PART 2.  I have a signed poster from the villain's actor!
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
More to come..

[retrorussell]

One more 1986 memory:
The final school assembly of jr. high for our grade (9th) played a film of various school events over the years with the hit song of late last year "That's What Friends Are For" playing.

Ahem-- back to 1987:
15. The ARENA FOOTBALL LEAGUE plays its debut season!  There are only 4 teams.
16. A players strike shortens the NFL season to 15 games.  Three weeks' games are played mostly with replacement players!  These replacement players largely came from the recently folded USFL or Montreal Alouettes of the CFL.  Only about 15% of the NFL players continued to play during the strike weeks.
17. Mercurial coach Bobby Knight and his Indiana Hoosiers win the NCAA Basketball title.  I remember seeing some of his blowups on sports recaps, including a famous chair-throwing incident in 1985.
18. This was the first year I got an NES (Nintendo Entertainment System).  Bought it at Toys R Us with the game Super Mario Bros. included, and also bought Kung Fu.  Kept it in the downstairs den at my stepdad's house, and he enjoyed playing it on occasional (caught him pulling an all-nighter on NINJA GAIDEN once or twice).  This nudged out the Atari 2600 which we were still playing all these years.  The den was all carpeted and there was a big stereo system on the same unit as the NES-- I developed a serious aversion to static shock thanks to touching the stereo system knobs.
19. Home video game debuts: MEGA MAN, CASTLEVANIA (at least, the US-released version), MIKE TYSON'S PUNCH-OUT!!, METAL GEAR, MANIAC MANSION, FINAL FANTASY, RAD RACER, GOONIES II, WIZARDS & WARRIORS, SHADOWGATE, CASTLEVANIA II: SIMON'S QUEST, TECMO BOWL, PHANTASY STAR, FAXANADU, TOP GUN, BASES LOADED (US release in 1988).
20. More arcade hits: PAC-MANIA, THUNDER BLADE, BLASTEROIDS, OPERATION WOLF, the first STREET FIGHTER, AFTER BURNER/II, SKY SHARK, ALIEN SYNDROME, TWIN COBRA, 1943, BIONIC COMMANDO, TECMO BOWL, BLACK TIGER, BOOT CAMP/COMBAT SCHOOL, FINAL LAP, GALAGA '88, GUERRILLA WAR, HEAVY BARREL, KARNOV, QUARTERBACK, R-TYPE, RBI BASEBALL, ROAD BLASTERS, XENOPHOBE, RASTAN, SHINOBI, TERRA FORCE, and XYBOTS.
21. Larry Mize (Masters) and Scott Simpson (US Open) win their only Major golf championships.
22. 1987 commercials:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
23. Another bad movie I could never understand why anyone liked: PRINCE OF DARKNESS.  I think that was one we rented from the library (they had a lot of movies) and my inquisitive little stepbrother would come down to watch well after his bedtime, right when someone was getting chopped up with an axe. :)  John Carpenter had some serious turds on his resume.
24. The series that propelled Ron Perlman to stardom: BEAUTY AND THE BEST, with Linda Hamilton.
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
25. I already mentioned Robocop, but wanted to kind of re-visit it (what a great movie that still holds up with its dark humor): saw it at the cinema with my mom.  She had a hard time making it through some of the extreme violence.  She was sitting right next to me, and when Robocop stabs Clarence through the neck and the blood squirts out.. she accidentally grabbed my leg (there was no drink holder arm between us like theaters have today) recoiling in terror and almost grabbed me.. elsewhere..

[retrorussell]

1988 revisited:
1. My neighbor/friend and I went to a Freddy-fest: they played all 4 current NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET movies, including the brand new one.  Can't remember which theater this was but it was kind of fun.  The place was packed.  I thought the 4th movie was the beginning of the end for the franchise.. Freddy was too jokey and certain events in the film were forced or WTF.  Freddy was reanimated by dog p*ss??  Still a fun night.
2. Also went with a classmate from my graphic arts class on my birthday to see FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VII: THE NEW BLOOD.  Kind of stupid (and heavily cut by the MPAA) even for a F13 movie but still enjoyable.  The "Carrie vs. Jason" motif had some good moments.  Didn't realize at the time that super prominent voice actress Susan Blu ("Arcee" from TRANSFORMERS among many others) was in it!
3. Took shop class this year.  Got acclimated with all kinds of welders.  Also took up weightlifting class this year, which was super necessary because I was nauseatingly skinny.  Even at such a slight frame I was still able to squat fairly well-- my shoulders have always been among my better attributes.  Probably got that from my dad (who is not tall but massively built).
4. Winters in Washington State got BRUTALLY cold.  One walk to school this year got my hair frozen!
5. Nickelodeon's programming block for young children, NICK JR., is released.
6. This might have been the year I bought a 19" Symphonic TV/VCR combo-- this lasted me quite a while (about 15 years or so) and my only quibble was that certain frequencies would make it wig out for a second.
7. The FAMILY FEUD returns!  New host Ray Combs is a hoot.  Sometimes when we were waiting for a class video presentation we'd be allowed to watch some Feud.
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
8. The SMOTHERS BROTHERS returned!  Their new show was pretty funny-- even my classmates in Electronics class were remarking about how funny it was.
9. Ugh-- my jerk friend/neighbor/classmate pulled a prank on me.. he had a still hot circuit board (I thought it was off) that he asked me to pull a resistor out of.  I did it by hand... even the SERIAL NUMBER was burned into my skin!  F***er...  Of course, he thought it was hilarious.
10. What a messed up mofo.. legend James Brown appears in a CNN interview hopped up on who-knows-what to address his take on a recent assault of his wife.  He shouts out nonsense and totally avoids the subject.
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
11. The USA Men's Olympic Basketball team fails to win the gold with a loss to the USSR (but still wins Bronze).
12. Aww.. Daws Butler dies.  Just 3 days after wrapping up a Hanna-Barbera cartoon series called HANNA BARBERA SUPERSTARS 10 for which he voiced Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Huckleberry Hound, Quickdraw McGraw, etc.
13. WHEEL OF FORTUNE employs a major format change: The letters R, S, T, L, N and E are automatically given during the bonus round.  The contestant then gets to choose 3 more consonants and one vowel.  This was due to RSTLNE being chosen most of the time.
14. The cable channel TNT debuts.
15. Macon GA's NBC affiliate is hijacked for 10 seconds during World Series' Game 1-- showing a porn movie!
16. Geraldo Rivera famously gets his nose broken during a fight on the set of his talk show.
More later..

[retrorussell]

17. Bad 1988 movies: ERNEST SAVES CHRISTMAS, YOUNG EINSTEIN, TWINS, 18 AGAIN, VAMPIRE'S KISS, MYSTIC PIZZA, COCKTAIL, MONKEY SHINES, FRESH HORSES, WAXWORK, A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF JIMMY REARDON, TIGER WARSAW, MAC AND ME, RED HEAT, ABOVE THE LAW, ACTION JACKSON, THE HERO AND THE TERROR, LICENSE TO DRIVE, HALLOWEEN 4, JOHNNY BE GOOD, ELVIRA MISTRESS OF THE DARK and NIGHT OF THE DEMONS.
18. The awesome MEGA MAN 2 debuts!  I still love this game.  Beat it back in the day (probably a couple years later or so) with only one life!  Same for Mega Man 1 and 3!
19. The mighty TETRIS makes its debut in the US.
20. The big fat players you can choose to play as in ICE HOCKEY cracked me up-- but they would eff up those skinny players if they collided.  What a fun game for the NES, as was THE GUARDIAN LEGEND.  I also loved the 2 player simultaneous play on DOUBLE DRAGON II: THE REVENGE, along with the awesome new helicopter kick.  And BIONIC COMMANDO was quite a bit different on the NES than the arcade, but I thought it was much better!
21. I think the family went to Circus Circus in Las Vegas this year.  Not a ton for kids to do, except for an excellent arcade and some good restaurants.  I prefer Reno, and would love to go back there someday (though there are some strange people there..).
22. Microsoft Office debuts.
23. Bubble Tape (gum), Croonchy Stars (cereal), Diet Mountain Dew, HP Deskjet, Lunchables, The McChicken (loved these), Microsoft Works, Pepsi Wild Cherry, Powerade, Teddy Grahams (whenever someone sings Elvis' "Teddy Bear" I always think of the commercial for Teddy Grahams), and Windows 2.1x debut.
24. The Sega Mega Drive is released in Japan.  It will debut the following year in the US as the Sega Genesis.
25. Famous deaths: ANNE RAMSEY, JOHN CARRADINE, CHARLES ADDAMS, HEATHER O'ROURKE (Carol Anne from POLTERGEIST; sad that she was only 12), ROY KINNEAR, PETE MARAVICH, TREVOR HOWARD, ANDY GIBB, DIVINE, BROOK BENTON, B.W. STEVENSON, ROBERT A. HEINLEIN, CHET BAKER, LOUIS L'AMOUR, ADRIAN ADONIS, BRUISER BRODY, DUANE JONES, JUDITH BARSI (cartoon voice actress, murdered by her father at 10), TRINIDAD SILVA, RALPH MEEKER, ALAN NAPIER, ROY BUCHANAN, LEONARD FREY, ART ROONEY, GERT FROBE, BILLY CARTER, WAYLAND FLOWERS, KEN MURRAY, JOHN HOUSEMAN, BILLY CURTIS, CARL HUBBELL, and HAL ASHBY.

[retrorussell]

One more 1986: The first of Pierce Brosnan's Diet Coke "Bond before he was Bond" commercials:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
And another 1988: A classmate neighbor down the street drove me to school here and there.  He played this awful song all the time on tape: SUPERSONIC- JJ Fad
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

More 1989:
1. People were trying to get me to go to the Senior Prom.  I had zero interest.  Never cared about dancing or really interacting much with others.  When the final day of school ended (piano class), I went right home.  Done with that crap.  Didn't really want to think about college.. though my stepdad's family helped pool some money for college for me (really nice gesture) and his garbage niece stole it.
2. It was this year, I think, that my family took the RV and went on a really nice trip across America over the span of 2-3 weeks.  My science teacher was really not happy with me missing time but tough s**t.  He was a weird old bastard anyway.  We saw the Grand Canyon, Salt Lake, Disney World, Mt. Rushmore, etc. 
3. The awesome Sega Genesis debuts in the US-- it had been released in Japan the previous year as the Sega Mega Drive.  I saw this at Toys R Us and its demo didn't really show off its full potential, though I thought the graphics of James Buster Douglas Knockout Boxing looked very nice.  It was at least another year before I bought one.  Altered Beast was slightly underwhelming (it came with the system).
4. It was about time a slasher movie came to a home system-- I was eager to check out FRIDAY THE 13TH for the NES-- and it sucked.  I mean, a purple Jason?  Well, at least I liked the Game Over screen: "All your friends are dead.  GAME OVER"
5. More home video game debuts: DUCK TALES, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (hard as f***!), the awesome RIVER CITY RANSOM, IRONSWORD, CASTLEVANIA III, TETRIS, COBRA TRIANGLE, and the very cool MENDEL PALACE.
6. I just about crapped myself at how cool the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES arcade game by Konami was-- the opening to the cartoon was perfectly captured!
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
I first saw this as SKATEWORLD, which was a very cool bowling alley, arcade and rollerskating rink in one.  Played a lot of Mr. Do and Vs. Super Mario Bros. there.  In Federal Way WA a few miles or so from my house.
7. Got a cool stein with my high school logo (Thomas Jefferson Raiders) on it-- I still have it in my cupboard!  "1989" and my name in gold engraving on it too-- though the name is almost completely faded.

8. Made friends with the wheelchair bound kid down the street a year back or so-- he lost his leg (and a sister) to cancer and was lazy as eff but we got along.  During the graduation ceremony we went up to the lectern together.  He was renowned for his football prowess before the cancer diagnosis (the Seattle Seahawks gave him signed jerseys and footballs) and was friends with a lot of students so it was cool that I got to stand with him (well, I got to stand, anyway).
9. Poor Bengals.. they got so close again to beating the 49ers but that squad was just too stacked.  Jerry Rice won the Super Bowl MVP for the then-three time champs (who also beat the Bengals in the 1982 Super Bowl).
10. One-handed MLB pitcher, Jim Abbott, debuts for the California Angels.  He has spent no time in the minor leagues, yet becomes part of the starting rotation!
11. Pete Rose is banned for life from baseball after it is found that he gambled on the sport.
12. Yuuuuck... NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk gets his neck accidentally slit open by a skate.  He bleeds all over the ice, and miraculously his life is saved by a trainer and he is stitched back up at the hospital (300 stitches!).  He returns to action in 10 days!
13. Boris Becker wins 2 Tennis Grand Slam events (Wimbledon, US Open) and Steffi Graf wins 3 (Australia Open, Wimbledon, US Open).
14. The latest Jason movie has him invading Manhattan-- though it was actually filmed in Vancouver BC-- in the stupid FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN.  I did like when he sees a billboard with a hockey mask on it.

15. Popular songs: SO ALIVE- Love And Rockets, SHE DRIVES ME CRAZY- Fine Young Cannibals, BLAME IT ON THE RAIN- Milli Vanilli, 18 AND LIFE- Skid Row, ONCE BITTEN TWICE SHY- Great White, MISS YOU MUCH- Janet Jackson, IF YOU DON'T KNOW ME BY NOW- Simply Red, EXPRESS YOURSELF- Madonna, HEAVEN- Warrant, CHERISH- Madonna, PUMP UP THE JAM- Technotronic, BUST A MOVE- Young MC, WHEN I SEE YOU SMILE- Bad English, LIKE A PRAYER- Madonna, BATDANCE- Prince, IF I COULD TURN BACK TIME- Cher, RIGHT HERE WAITING- Richard Marx, ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE- Phil Collins, BLACK VELVET- Alannah Miles (WAY overplayed), and POISON- Alice Cooper.
16. Bad movies: HARLEM NIGHTS (Eddie Murphy directed!), K-9, TANGO & CASH, ROAD HOUSE (maybe good-bad), HALLOWEEN 5, PINK CADILLAC, STAR TREK V, SEE NO EVIL HEAR NO EVIL, SHE'S OUT OF CONTROL, KARATE KID PART III, THE FLY II, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM ST. 5 THE DREAM CHILD, and GHOSTS CAN'T DO IT.
17. Some debuts: Keystone Beer, Kid Cuisine, Koosh Ball, the stupid Power Glove, and the candy bar Symphony.
18. And this shoe was really big:
THE REEBOK PUMP!
Yes, there was a pump to put air into the sole.  I had a pair.  It was heavily promoted by Atlanta Hawks forward Dominique Wilkins: Pump Up and Air out! (slamming Michael Jordan's Air Jordan shoes)

19. The first in the computer screensaver series AFTER DARK is released.
20. TV series debuts: SEINFELD, QUANTUM LEAP, COPS, AMERICA'S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS, FAMILY MATTERS, BAYWATCH, SAVED BY THE BELL, MAJOR DAD, COACH, NBA ON TNT, RESCUE 911, LONESOME DOVE, BABAR, DOOGIE HOWSER MD, AMERICAN GLADIATORS, ARSENIO HALL, USA UP ALL NIGHT, INSIDE EDITION, FATHER DOWLING MYSTERIES, RESCUE RANGERS, JOAN RIVERS, CAPTAIN N: THE GAME MASTER, EUREEKA'S CASTLE, BEETLEJUICE, LIFE GOES ON, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. SUPER SHOW and THE YOUNG RIDERS.
21. And of course, THE SIMPSONS tv series debuts in late 1989 with a Christmas special.
22. Long running shows ending: IT'S A LIVING, CARD SHARKS, RYAN'S HOPE, SNORKS, SIMON & SIMON, WEBSTER, SALE OF THE CENTURY, SUPER PASSWORD, BROTHERS, DYNASTY, FAMILY TIES, MOONLIGHTING, MIAMI VICE, KATE & ALLIE, HOLLYWOOD SQUARES, THE EQUALIZER, HIGHWAY TO HEAVEN, THUNDERCATS, AMERICAN BANDSTAND, and THE SMURFS.
23. Famous deaths: Gilda Radner, Emperor Hirohito, Salvador Dali, Sugar Ray Robinson, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Lee Van Cleef, Ferdinand Marcos, Laurence Olivier, Mel Blanc, John Cassavetes, Victor French, Graham Chapman, Jim Backus, John Matuszak, Irving Berlin, Sergio Leone, Billy Martin, Guy Williams, Osamu Tezuka, Andrei Sakharov, Barry Sadler, Joe Spinell, Cornel Wilde, Jay Stewart, and Franklin J. Schaffner.
24. Commercials of 1989:
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1
25. The awesome Ken Griffey, Jr. makes his debut for the Seattle Mariners!

Hope you all had a great New Years.  Sometime I'll have to make a top 25 events list for 2022.  Oh goody..

[Trevor]

1987: the year that changed my life.

1. I came down to Pretoria from Zimbabwe and at 19, I got my eyes opened wide to big city life.
2. South Africa was a different country then, all laws and no mercy: I got detained walking to class at www.tut.ac.za (when it was still in the city centre) and because I had no ID book, I was nearly arrested until I produced my passport with study visa and residence permit. Since then, I have always carried my ID book with me wherever I go.
3. No cinemas open on Sundays.
4. Restrictions on life down to the fact that black SA's had to be off the street by 6 pm.  
5. Very few shops open on Sundays and forget about going to the local bar for a drink: that was against the law called "The Sunday Observance Act" which remained in force until 1993!
6. Censorship was rife, sadly: even libraries enforced this.
7. Very little crime in the city centre: you could walk around and window-shop at 8 pm, no problem. Try that now:  
8. I was first made aware of the Scientology cult by a fellow student: after doing some reading on it, I thought, nah, not for me. After seeing Going Clear, definitely not for me.  
9. Pretoria Centre these days is a filth pit: back then, you would get fined if you littered or loitered.
10. I made my first acquaintance with strange things called video shops and game arcades.
11. I also became aware of things I wasn't familiar with in Zimbabwe: namely drunks, drug addicts and prostitutes.
12. I met the first teacher who ever gave a damn about me, recognized potential in me and encouraged me: thank you Jeanette.
13. All the Afrikaans students I was living with in the residence found me more than a little odd as I was English but spoke their language fluently: I never bothered to explain.
14. One thing I found very difficult was living with people I didn't know, almost all of whom were raised differently to how I was, especially in terms of relating to people who were not Caucasian. I was always taught to see people as people, regardless of differences and I still follow that today.
15. It was difficult being away from my folks and I only saw them twice a year when I rode the bus back home to Zimbabwe. I loved leaving Pretoria for a while and hated coming back.
16. I met my first atheist and my first so-called Satanist while living in this residence: I had no problem with any of them and they had no issues with me.
17. I joined a youth group at my local church and was easily the oldest "youth" there: fun times.
18. The Ninja Turtles craze hit SA that year: most preachers condemned the "new age intrusions" in their lives and asked the censor board to ban the turtles.
19. The "rock and roll is bad and evil" movement also evolved here around that time: we were told at church that listening to rock and rock would send us to hell and don't get them started on albums which supposedly had "back masking". I was personally condemned because I liked listening to The Moody Blues.
20. One stupid thing I did: I started smoking as "it looked cool". Took me until 2009 to quit.  
21. I saw Star Trek IV The Voyage Home and The Untouchables at the cinema here that year.

I took a trip back to my old neighbourhood a few hours back: amazing to see the deterioration wrought by our so-called "democratically elected government" since 1994. My old haunts of Pretoria Central and Sunnyside are haunted by crime, corruption, drug use and general deterioration, sadly.

[ER]

1987: the year that changed my life.

1. I came down to Pretoria from Zimbabwe and at 19, I got my eyes opened wide to big city life.
2. South Africa was a different country then, all laws and no mercy: I got detained walking to class at www.tut.ac.za (when it was still in the city centre) and because I had no ID book, I was nearly arrested until I produced my passport with study visa and residence permit. Since then, I have always carried my ID book with me wherever I go.
3. No cinemas open on Sundays.
4. Restrictions on life down to the fact that black SA's had to be off the street by 6 pm.  
5. Very few shops open on Sundays and forget about going to the local bar for a drink: that was against the law called "The Sunday Observance Act" which remained in force until 1993!
6. Censorship was rife, sadly: even libraries enforced this.
7. Very little crime in the city centre: you could walk around and window-shop at 8 pm, no problem. Try that now:  
8. I was first made aware of the Scientology cult by a fellow student: after doing some reading on it, I thought, nah, not for me. After seeing Going Clear, definitely not for me.  
9. Pretoria Centre these days is a filth pit: back then, you would get fined if you littered or loitered.
10. I made my first acquaintance with strange things called video shops and game arcades.
11. I also became aware of things I wasn't familiar with in Zimbabwe: namely drunks, drug addicts and prostitutes.
12. I met the first teacher who ever gave a damn about me, recognized potential in me and encouraged me: thank you Jeanette.
13. All the Afrikaans students I was living with in the residence found me more than a little odd as I was English but spoke their language fluently: I never bothered to explain.
14. One thing I found very difficult was living with people I didn't know, almost all of whom were raised differently to how I was, especially in terms of relating to people who were not Caucasian. I was always taught to see people as people, regardless of differences and I still follow that today.
15. It was difficult being away from my folks and I only saw them twice a year when I rode the bus back home to Zimbabwe. I loved leaving Pretoria for a while and hated coming back.
16. I met my first atheist and my first so-called Satanist while living in this residence: I had no problem with any of them and they had no issues with me.
17. I joined a youth group at my local church and was easily the oldest "youth" there: fun times.
18. The Ninja Turtles craze hit SA that year: most preachers condemned the "new age intrusions" in their lives and asked the censor board to ban the turtles.
19. The "rock and roll is bad and evil" movement also evolved here around that time: we were told at church that listening to rock and rock would send us to hell and don't get them started on albums which supposedly had "back masking". I was personally condemned because I liked listening to The Moody Blues.
20. One stupid thing I did: I started smoking as "it looked cool". Took me until 2009 to quit.  
21. I saw Star Trek IV The Voyage Home and The Untouchables at the cinema here that year.

I took a trip back to my old neighbourhood a few hours back: amazing to see the deterioration wrought by our so-called "democratically elected government" since 1994. My old haunts of Pretoria Central and Sunnyside are haunted by crime, corruption, drug use and general deterioration, sadly.

I don't know what to think about South Africa except it seems to have replaced one-race rule with one-race rule, and the results look to me to be a catastrophe in so many ways. I like watching Wild Earth put its safaris online live twice a day from game reserves in northeastern South Africa, and have watched almost daily for seven years. Most of the guides and presenters are white, a few are black, as are many of the trackers and guides, and they all seem to get along great with one another, and the whites speak about how good life is, most come from what seems like suburban backgrounds comparable to anything in the US or the UK, they drive home, go to university, talk about going to the mall for Christmas, do all the normal things and seem perfectly happy to be South African. One white guide always opens his safaris by saying, "Welcome to South Africa, the most beautiful country in the world." Another white guide there has talked about going to college for a time in the UK and how after a few months there he couldn't wait to get home to South Africa.

I saw a documentary last year in which a black woman outside Johannesburg said that Apartheid used to mark her as a second-class citizen, unfree to walk the streets of her own country, but now crime is so bad she is afraid to set foot on those same streets. That same documentary showed crosses all over marking those killed by black on black violence. It showed electrical power lines torn to the ground, potholes making roads unusable, and blocks of burned-out, looted once-white-owned stores, with nothing coming in to replace them.

I hear about white people emigrating because the racism they face is unbearable, how unqualified black people get elected to office in the face of more qualified white people, and yet I also hear about how beautiful the country is, how everyone now has opportunities in the aftermath of ending the injustices of Apartheid, and how South Africa is a global model for ethnic parity. Short of going there myself and seeing what experiences I'd have, I truly don't know what to believe.