memories of the ’80s – Hi Infidelity by REO Speedwagon

Formed in the 1960s, under the influence of the 1970s, it was 1981 when this rock band from southern Illinois produced Hi Infidelity.

REO Speedwagon, named after a vintage flatbed truck, was Neil Doughty and Alan Gratzer, both students at the University of Illinois, and joined by fellow students.

During the 1970s, the lineup changed, but the sound kept consistent with a dedication to focus on hard rock, producing several studio albums and in 1977, produced their first live album.

In 1980, the band went into the studio and it was the writing results of Gary Richrath and Kevin Cronin that made Hi Infidelity popular.

The album was released in November 1981, with the lead single Don’t Let Him Go – which hit the charts and went high on the Billboard Hot 100. The pop  influences took this band to regular airplay and onto many mainstream radio stations .

The duo’s collaborations led to six charting singles from the album – including Take it on the run, Tough Guys, Out of Season and Keep on Loving You, the band’s first number one single.

Hi Infidelity would go on to be the bestselling album of 1981, and reach 10 million sales.

For this burgeoning teenager, this album was all the talk of the older kids, and it was a popular choice to be blared from the car stereo systems in the highschool parking lots.

For the band, this became their bestselling album ever, and went on to continued success in this decade, including a performance at the memorable Live Aid concert.

memories of the ’80s – Simon and Simon

Private detective shows never go out of style, and in this decade two brothers were the focus of finding out what really happened in the series Simon & Simon.

The brothers were portrayed by Gerald McRaney and Jameson Parker and were polar opposite. Rick was a Marine, a Vietnam War veteran, and was laid-back make your own rules kind of guy. AJ was the college educated, flashy, gentleman, who liked order.

AJ lives in a small house that is also their office for the private investigation company, while Rick lives on a boat in the front yard. Mary Carver played Cecelia their secretary, while Tim Reid played their police buddy Lt. Brown.

Created by Philip DeGuere, the series debuted on CBS in November 1981, loosely based on the film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But the first year had very low ratings and was in danger of being cancelled by the network.

The producers asked for a reprieve and the network moved the series to Thursday nights, after their successful show Magnum PI, and the series took off, finding viewers and fans.

Although the pilot was set in Florida, the series was moved to San Diego, where the brothers took on cases, although they had very differing styles and were often clashing over their methods of finding out information.

Each episode showed the different traits of each brother, figured out a case and threw in some humour as well as action scenes for good measure.

The series did a crossover episode with Magnum PI to drive ratings for both shows, and until 1988 kept pace. In 1989, the series was moved to Saturday nights, and with low ratings, was cancelled at the end of its eighth season.

The buddy genre is a popular theme in television and toss in the private detectives, crazy clients, a brotherly affection and regular disputes, this series was an easy to watch one hour of drama each week.

memories of the ’80s – Donkey Kong

An animated ape made us all want to become more competitive with the game Donkey Kong.

The game was the result of the failure of Radar Scope – a game tested that didn’t meet expectations of gamers. Nintendo hired designer Shigeru Miyamoto to redesign the game to make it more appealing.

The basic premise of the game is Mario’s rescue of Pauline from Donkey Kong through a construction site (Mario appeared four years later in his own game, Super Mario Brothers).

For all those gamers, it was a wildfire response to the rescue game and avoiding the Donkey’s barrels, which were used as weapons and transport.

The game was available for many platforms including arcade, Atari, Apple and Commodore in 1981 and in 1983 was launched via Family Computer as one of its three lead titles.

The success of the game spawned many sequels including Donkey Kong 2, Donkey Kong Jr.,  and Donkey Kong Country. The success also spawned a lawsuit from Universal Studios, who claimed the game was an infringement of their copyright of the film King Kong.

The court found Universal Studios claim was not valid and that the public would never confuse an animated video game with a black and white screen classic.

For Nintendo, Donkey Kong was a major success for this company, which in the early 1980s was in its infancy in its presence in North America.

For this occasional arcade visitor, I could never get close enough to the machine, as the obsessed gamers dominated the lineup for Donkey Kong – only the hardcore seemed to want to spend hours just playing that game.

One of the first games that created a family of games and merchandise, Donkey Kong was awarded seven Guinness Book of World Records for their achievements in video gaming. To date, the franchise has sold 40 million units worldwide.

memories of the ’80s – Bow Wow Wow

In the early 1980s, video and radio combined to make  Brit punk/new wave group Bow Wow Wow a pop sensation with their top hit: I Want Candy.

Created by Malcolm McLaren, the band was made from musicians who had played with Adam Ant: Matthew Ashman, Leigh Gorman and David Barbe.

Fusing pop melodies and African drum beats, the band took six months to find a singer – which ended up being 14 year old Annabella Lwin.

McLaren encouraged Lwin to switch schools so she would have more time to work with the band. At early gigs in London, Boy George (then known as Lieutenant Lush) was considered as another singer for Bow Wow Wow, but was considered too wild.

First signing with EMI in 1981, the band then moved to RCA and had a hit single with Go Wild in the Country in 1982.

It was followed up with cover of The Strangeloves I Want Candy, which went to number one in the UK and North America.

McLaren put the band on tour, with an extensive number of dates in the US, which helped push the song on radio playlists and on MTV and MuchMusic.

Although the band did well in this time period, it was common knowledge the band was a vehicle to promote McLaren’s partner Vivienne Westwood’s clothing line and their vision of popular culture.

Even as an avid fan of new wave from this time period, I suspected this band was as real as Boy George’s extensions.

After the release of the third album in 1983, tensions among band members caused Lwin to be pushed out as the lead singer and Ashman becoming the front man of the newly formed Chiefs of Relief.

Bow Wow Wow faded out as fast as it had developed on the charts – a one hit wonder of the early 1980s.

memories of the ’80s – Kathleen Turner

With a distinctive voice and her mysterious smile, Kathleen Turner became Hollywood’s favourite leading lady in the 1980s.

Born in Missouri, Turner’s father was an American diplomat in the Foreign Service, and she lived with her family in Venezuela, Canada, and England, and was living in Cuba when Castro took power of that island nation. As a teenager she took gymnastics as well as did theatre and music classes.

In the late 1970s after getting her university degree, Turner acted in many theatre productions before landing her first role in 1978 in daytime television soap The Doctors.

But it was her role in 1981′s Body Heat, that made everyone in Hollywood take a second look. Playing the sexy femme fatale, Turner’s distinctive voice led her to be dubbed a young Lauren Bacall.

Her next role in The Man With Two Brains showed her comedic talent and lured many viewers with her contagious laugh. Her next film,  with Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone, led her to the top of the box office and for film critic Pauline Kael to say “Turner knows how to use her dimples amusingly and how to dance like a woman who didn’t know she could.”

She was now the actress of choice teaming up with Jack Nicholson in Prizzi’s Honor, in the sequel The Jewel of the Nile with Michael Douglas and in Peggy Sue Got Married with Nicolas Cage, gaining her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress.

Her voice landed her in the toon-drama Who Framed Roger Rabbit? voicing the sultry Jessica Rabbit, who spoke the line “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way…”

Turner finished her trilogy with Douglas and sidekick Danny Devito with The War of the Roses, the final Romancing…film earning her many accolades including “each of her is at his or her comic best as being as awful as both are required to be here….” said a review of the time.

For women, Turner was strong and smart, not afraid to show her fears or vulnerability in her characters, while for men, her voice and sultry style was alluring no matter what her role.

By the end of the 1980s, she was a blockbuster star and had left her mark as a femme fatale.

memories of the ’80s – Masters of the Universe

For the young kids of the 1980s, a new action figure and its cohorts was all the rage: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

In 1976 Mattel was offered to work with George Lucas to create toys for the Star Wars film. Mattel said no, but saw the increase interest in action figures thanks to the success of the Star Wars trilogy.

Mattel designer Roger Sweet decided to focus on creating a new action figure, something that would capture the attention, and he created He-Man.

He-Man was initially designed based on a barbarian, and had one nemesis – Skeletor – who was trying to take over the planet Eternia. The figures debuted in the market in 1981.

Initially a dark-haired, darker skinned version of He-Man was created, but the skin and hair were lightened.  He-Man’s alter ego was Prince Adam, a spoiled son of King Randor of Eternia,

Mattel also hired comic book writers to create mini-comics, poster, packaging and additional characters for the Masters of the Universe series. Kids got an action figure with a comic, poster and other fun information in each package – but every kid really wanted a Castle Greyskull for their own epic battles between He-Man and Skeletor.

Mattel was soon in hot water with Conan Licensing Company, who alleged He-Man and the other action figures were too close to the creation of Conan the Barberian, which hit the big screens in 1982 starring Arnold Schwarznegger. The courts ruled Mattel had not copied the Conan image, despite its creation as a comic book figure 50 years previously.

Masters of the Universe was chosen as the toy of the year, and was a popular choice for young boys of the 1980s. I remember well several friends’ younger brothers would be planning their battles with He-Man, Man-at-arms and Skeletor.

The series was animated into cartoons and became a Saturday morning staple for the mid 1980s – and still exist, brought into the next century to continue the battle for Eternia.

memories of the ’80s – The Smurfs

For kids of the 1980s, Saturday mornings were filled with little blue creatures – The Smurfs.

Based on a Belgian comic strip by Peyo, The Smurfs was animated and debuted on NBC TV in 1981, thanks to production by Hanna Barbera.

The comic books and merchandise had already debuted in North America, and tv executives were confident kids would be excited to know about the adventures of Les Schtroumpfs aka The Smurfs.

Fifteen actors lent their voices to the cast, including Jonathan Winters, Danny Goldman and Julie McWhirter.

A success for NBC, the 30 min segments were a hit – kids loved seeing the forest world of Papa Smurf, Brainy Smurf, Smurfette and their colleagues as they battled against the evil Gargamel and his sidekicks Johan, Peewit and cat Azarel. Each year the network did a one hour special of The Smurfs.

The series was nominated for several Daytime Emmy Awards and won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Daytime Children’s Series in 1982.

I was never a fan of The Smurfs – perhaps I was too old or just didn’t love the little Belgian creatures, but it never caught my attention, despite it being on television and merchandise in every store.

By 1989, the series had run its course with low ratings and was put in syndication on other networks as NBC had eliminated its Saturday morning cartoon lineup.

The Smurfs were everywhere in the 1980s, but no one still has answered the question why there were so many male Smurfs, but only one Smurfette.

memories of the ’80s – Hill Street Blues

In the 1980s, television drama broke new ground with the creation of a police series that decided to change it up from the traditional style of hour long shows.

Debuting on NBC in January 1981, Hill Street Blues was the brainchild of Steven Bochco and Michael Kozoll, and the producers were given a lot of control to create a police procedural that took drama tv down a different path.

With a main cast of 15 characters, this police series was a one where everyone had a storyline, and that catching the bad guy was just as important as showing the reality of everyone’s life on the job.

Bochco and Kozoll and their writing teams created styles which are now a standard in tv lexicon but were all started here, including having multiple storylines in an episode, showing events happen in one day, using unique camera angles to give the series the style of a documentary and used many real-life issues and slang in a greater amount than had been seen on television previously.

Every episode began with the role call of officers arriving at the station for their shift. Led by Captain Frank Furillo, the teams would be assigned their tasks in an unnamed US city, modelled on Chicago or Detroit, although the series was filmed in Los Angeles.

The team of officers would be shown dealing with their day, crimes and the court system, but kept the focus on the individuals, and not on solving the crime – from racism to alcoholism, interracial relationships to friendships, the series carved out the realities of 1980s America. Each episode would usually end with Furillo and his girlfriend, public defender Joyce Davenport discussing their jobs at the end of the day.

Hill Street Blues was the first series awarded eight Emmys in its debut season and has made the list of TV Guide’s 50 Greatest TV Shows of all time. In its seven years, the series was nominated for 98 Emmys.

I watched this series regularly and had my favourite characters, including those played by Betty Thomas, Ed Marinaro, Dennis Franz, Bruce Weitz and Veronica Hamel. It was a unique show where storylines were intricate and interesting and where it was the norm to make a difference, make a mistake and show how they dealt with the stress of the job.

The series ended in 1987, but its influence carries on today with the way tv dramas are scripted and shown – an intricate pathway that has become the gold standard.

memories of the ’80s – The Fall Guy

You could run, but you can’t hide from The Fall Guy.

Debuting in 1981, this ABC drama created by successful tv producer Glen A. Larson, starred viewer favourite Lee Majors.

He played Colt Seavers,  a Hollywood stuntman who in his spare time worked as a bounty hunter. Along with his cousin Howie, the two used their stuntman skills to grab up the bad guys on the lamb.

The theme song of the show, written by Larson and David Somerville, The Unknown Stuntman, was sung by Lee Majors.

For so many viewers, the third character was the 1980 GMC truck – which had been enhanced by many accessories to help in the luring and catching when on the hunt for the crimina, such as six inch lift, off road tires, custom-made roll bar with lights and a secret compartment. Peppered with Hollywood cameos, The Fall Guy’s debut episode features Majors soon-to-be-wife Farrah Fawcett.

And there was the prerequisite pretty blonde girl Friday who was helping to coordinate Seavers’ life – played by Heather Thomas.

Fro six seasons, this show captured viewers with its simple premise – a few cameos and a bad guy captured by Colt and Howie, who used their ingenuity and skills from their latest movie job to lure and arrest the guy on the run. It was a simple premise but the show had its audience – mainly guys who loved seeing the interesting ways the show would use stuntman skills.

I occasionally watched this show – mainly because it was on. I didn’t truly understand why this show was popular (unlike The Six Million Dollar Man which was amazing) but then soon realized it wasn’t made for me, but for guys. And with this simple premise, it was on air for six seasons, fueling the viewer delight for quick thinking to find the bad guy on the run.

memories of the ’80s – DeLorean

With the numerous cars produced each year, in a decade is there one that is memorable? For the 1980s, the DeLorean was the talk of the auto world and also became a Hollywood star.

Created by auto executive John DeLorean, DeLorean Motor Company was originally founded in 1975. As the youngest person to become a senior auto executive at General Motors Company in Detroit, DeLorean decided to create his own brand and car company.

Working with a variety of financial backers, including entertainers Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr., DeLorean put together his business plan to create his vision of a sports car.

In order to find the right spot for manufacturing, DeLorean looked at Ireland, Puerto Rico and finally settled on Northern Ireland as the place to manufacture his car. He believed choosing a place with high unemployment would also help him gain access to reduced tarriffs and better government support of his business.

DMCL was built in a suburb of Belfast, but although the construction started in 1978, delays due to engineering and inexperience continued until 1981. DeLorean created Quality Assurance Centers in the US in order to streamline any small issues with the cars and by 1982, the DMC 12 a stainless steel gull-winged car was being sold in the US. DeLorean needed sales of 12,000 to break even, and in its first year, the sportscar sold 6000 units.

Many felt the car was an impractical plaything and its price of $25,000 too high for the marketplace. DeLorean tried to raise money for his flailing company and was refused funding from the British government unless he could find matching funds in 1982. And then things took an odd turn, with DeLorean arrested in a sting operation with the FBI accusing him of cocaine trafficking. DeLorean was found not guilty, but his reputation was forever tarnished by this odd turn of events.

By the end of 1982, DMCL went bust, taking the $100 million investment and 2500 jobs with it. In total 9000 cars were made in the manufacturing time periord, but the records can’t confirm all were released out of production to be sold.

But in 1985, DeLorean had its Hollywood moment, becoming the third lead in the box office smash Back to the Future with Michael J. Fox. The car was modified by Doc Brown to become a time machine, and was the definite cool symbol of the future when driven by Fox through this film and its consequent sequels.

To this day, there are 6500 DMC 12 cars on the road – a unique symbol of one man’s attempt at creating his own brand in the competitive car world.