The Eighties on CNN | The Boneyard

The Eighties on CNN

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I enjoyed The Sixties and The Seventies series; just a heads up that they started the next one last night. I only caught the last half or so, but the episode was all about Eighties television. I've set the DVR for the rest of the series but I've got to keep a lookout for a rebroadcast of the first one. Hard to remember how transformative that decade was in terms of television. Indeed, CNN itself started then; pretty incredible to think that there was no 24-hour news channel before then, and there were serious doubts about the demand for one.
 

Dove

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I want my MTV!!!!
 
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I enjoyed The Sixties and The Seventies series; just a heads up that they started the next one last night. I only caught the last half or so, but the episode was all about Eighties television. I've set the DVR for the rest of the series but I've got to keep a lookout for a rebroadcast of the first one. Hard to remember how transformative that decade was in terms of television. Indeed, CNN itself started then; pretty incredible to think that there was no 24-hour news channel before then, and there were serious doubts about the demand for one.

Wanna feel old? Consider that we're as far away from the 1980s as Michael J. Fox's Marty was from the 1950s in Back to the Future.

Last year, I read an article comparing the relative changes from the 50s to 80s and the changes from the 80s to now back. Person argued that we've changed much less culturally these most recent decades than we did from the 50-80s, and I think that's right. Could you see the theme---travel back to the 80s when your parents were in high school---having much effect if the series were rebooted? I don't, nor did the author, and that was her point.
 

nelsonmuntz

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Finally watching it on Netflix. Pretty good.

Didn't talk enough about the impact of cable on the entertainment industry.

The beginning of the tech industry episode was well done.

A few things I don't remember, like MTV not playing African American acts. My memory is that Michael Jackson and Prince were every other song in the early days of MTV. Apparently that wasn't the case.
 

Waquoit

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A few things I don't remember, like MTV not playing African American acts. My memory is that Michael Jackson and Prince were every other song in the early days of MTV. Apparently that wasn't the case.

It wasn't at all, the early years were mostly white-only. MTV pretty much said publicly they didn't have any blacks because they didn't think they rocked.
 

storrsroars

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It wasn't at all, the early years were mostly white-only. MTV pretty much said publicly they didn't have any blacks because they didn't think they rocked.

Which is part of the reason the debut of Thriller was a huge thing. I can't recall if they even had a way to measure cable audiences back then, but if you had access to MTV - or a friend did - you were likely glued to that 14 minutes of MJ and Ola Ray.
 

nelsonmuntz

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They got the Go-Go's flat out wrong. The documentary presented them as female rockers. While the Go Go's had a few really good songs, they were talentless hacks that always looked like they were on the back end of a 3 day bender, because they usually were. The Bangles, on the other hand, were talented and gorgeous. Susana Hoff is still smoking.
 

storrsroars

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They got the Go-Go's flat out wrong. The documentary presented them as female rockers. While the Go Go's had a few really good songs, they were talentless hacks that always looked like they were on the back end of a 3 day bender, because they usually were. The Bangles, on the other hand, were talented and gorgeous. Susana Hoff is still smoking.

That's one take. Another take would be that Carlisle had 19 top 40 singles in Europe as a solo act, Weidlen, Coffey and Schock have all written, co-written and/or produced #1 singles for other artists (including a massive C&W hit for Keith Urban) and have all contributed as session players on numerous albums.

That's merely history though. I'll defer to ADub or any other pr players here, should they wish to chime in, as to whether any of them had actual talent. I will grant you that ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson is probably the most talented of the lot. And Hoffs has nice legs for a spinner.
 
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nelsonmuntz

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That's one take. Another take would be that Carlisle had 19 top 40 singles in Europe as a solo act, Weidlen, Coffey and Schock have all written, co-written and/or produced #1 singles for other artists (including a massive C&W hit for Keith Urban) and have all contributed as session players on numerous albums.

That's merely history though. I'll defer to ADub or any other pr players here, should they wish to chime in, as to whether any of them had actual talent. I will grant you that ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson is probably the most talented of the lot. And Hoffs has nice legs for a spinner.

Of all the posts I make on the various boards, a post about the Go Gos has another poster ready to throw down with me. I gotta admit that I did not see this coming.
 

Waquoit

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They got the Go-Go's flat out wrong. The documentary presented them as female rockers. While the Go Go's had a few really good songs, they were talentless hacks that always looked like they were on the back end of a 3 day bender, because they usually were. The Bangles, on the other hand, were talented and gorgeous. Susana Hoff is still smoking.

The Go-Go's have better songs.
 

whaler11

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That's one take. Another take would be that Carlisle had 19 top 40 singles in Europe as a solo act, Weidlen, Coffey and Schock have all written, co-written and/or produced #1 singles for other artists (including a massive C&W hit for Keith Urban) and have all contributed as session players on numerous albums.

That's merely history though. I'll defer to ADub or any other pr players here, should they wish to chime in, as to whether any of them had actual talent. I will grant you that ex-Bangle Vicki Peterson is probably the most talented of the lot. And Hoffs has nice legs for a spinner.

Of all the posts I make on the various boards, a post about the Go Gos has another poster ready to throw down with me. I gotta admit that I did not see this coming.

The Go-Go's have better songs.

Why not go through a mountain of cocaine with both. It’s called win-win.
 

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