Lovin the 80′s – The Year is 1980….

It’s 1980, I’m just a rugrat at 3 years old and the 70′s is behind us. Ronald Reagan has been beat out Jimmy Carter as US President, John Lennon was shot and killed,  kids are going crazy over the Rubik Cube, the Intellivision is introduced and a bunch of amazing arcade games such as Pac-Man have launched. Obviously quite a bit of other notable events occurred in 1980, but this post is going to focus on the entertainment aspect of the great year of 1980.

MOVIES

Top 10 Grossing U.S. Films in the US

1. The Empire Strikes Back – $209 Million
2. 9 to 5 – $103 Million
3. Stir Crazy – $101 Million
4. Airplane! – $83 Million
5. Any Which Way You Can – $70 Million
6. Private Benjamin – $69 Million
7. Coal Miner’s Daughter – $67 Million
8. Smokey and the Bandit II – $66 Million
9. The Blue Lagoon – $58 Million
10. The Blues Brothers – $57 Million

Academy Awards

• Best Picture: Ordinary People
• Best Director: Robert Redford – Ordinary People
• Best Actor: Robert De Niro – Raging Bull
• Best Actress: Sissy Spacek – Coal Miner’s Daughter

Notable Births

• Feb 12th – Christina Ricci
  

  Rubik Cube

• Jul 18th – Kristen Bell
• Dec 19th – Jake Gyllenhaal

Notable Deaths

• Apr 29th – Alfred Hitchcock
• Jul 24th – Peter Sellers
• Nov 7th – Steve McQueen

TELEVISION

Events

• Black Entertainment Television debuts as a block of programming on USA Network
• Millions of viewers tune in to find out who shot J.R. Ewing in TV Series Dallas.
• Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting
• Hollywood Squares presents its 3,536th and final network telecast on NBC
• The David Letterman Show debuts on NBC as a morning show
• Eddie Murphy debuts on Saturday Night Live
• Spin-Off of All in the Family, The Jeffersons, ranks at #3 on the Nielsen Ratings for three seasons in a row: 1979-80, 1980-81 and 1981-82

Television Debuts

• Mystery! premieres on PBS (1980-present).
• Nightline officially debuts on ABC following the success of the network late-night Iran Crisis updates.
• Moneyline, now known as Lou Dobbs Tonight, premieres as one of the first shows on the newly launched CNN.
• Solid Gold premieres in syndication (1980-1988)
• Too Close for Comfort premieres on ABC (1980-1985)
• Bosom Buddies premieres on ABC (1980-1982)
• Magnum, P.I. premieres on CBS (1980-1988)

Top 10 TV Shows

1. Dallas
2. 60 Minutes
3. The Dukes of Hazzard
4. Private Benjamin
5. M*A*S*H*
6. The Love Boat
7. The NBC Tuesday Night Movie
8. House Calls
9. The Jeffersons
10. Little House on the Prairie

MUSIC

Top Billboard Hits

• Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2) – Pink Floyd
• Upside Down – Diana Ross
• Woman in Love – Barbara Streisand
• Funky Town – Lipps Inc.
• (Just Like) Starting Over – John Lennon
• Rock With You – Michael Jackson
• Crazy Little Thing Called Love – Queen
• Call Me – Blondie
• Lady – Kenny Rogers
• Another One Bites the Dust – Queen
• Magic – Olyvia Newton-John
• It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me – Billy Joel
• Coming Up – Paul McCartney and Wings

Grammy Awards

Notable Births

• Jan 25th – Alicia Keys
• Jul 10th – Jessica Simpson
• Dec 18th – Christina Aguilera

Notable Deaths

• Feb 19th – Bon Scott, Lead Singer of AC/DC dies of Alchohol Poisoning
• Jul 23rd – Keith Godchaux, keyboardist of Greatful Dead dies in car accident
• Sep 25th – Jon Bonham, Drummer of Led Zepellin dies by choking on vomit
• Dec 7th – Darby Crash, member of the Germs, dies of suicide
• Dec 8th – John Lennon, singer, guitarist and songwriter of the Beatles dies by gunshot

VIDEO GAMES

Gaming Platforms

1. Mattel releases the Intellivision Video Gaming Console
2. Sinclair Research releases the ZX80 home computer

Intellivision

Games

• Namco releases Pac-Man
• Stern Electronics releases Berzerk
• Atari releases Missile Command and Centipede
• Williams Electronics releases Defender
• Infocon releases Zork

I hope you’ve enjoyed the listing. I’ve learned quite a bit rooting around in 1980 on the net. Thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to gather quite a bit of information, relive some childhood memories and thoroughly enjoy this entry. Does any of the content above bring back memories?