A Few Reflections on the 80's

Thank heavens my memories of the 80's are what they are: mostly having babies and the early years of raising my children. There is a blessed fog about much of the rest of the 80's.

A couple of weeks ago I found the Game Show Network showing on my TV downstairs. I grew up watching game shows. I love them, and have watched way too many of them over the years. I even was on a game show in the early 80's (I wrote about it here). I can't stand watching the games live now--the commercials are so terrible--so I recorded a few episodes to watch while I'm on the treadmill.

All the episodes I've seen were originally recorded in the 80's. Mostly I've watched $25,000 Pyramid, and a few episodes of Password. They are still somewhat intellectually stimulating, but mostly I've been fascinated by observations about other features of the shows--mostly what is revealed about that particular decade. Thirty years later, here's what I think:

• Fashion.  The 70's bring back fun memories and the 90's make me cringe a little, but the 80's were hideous. Everything was big. The hair was big. The shoulders were big. The collars were big. The ties were enormous. The fabric was all big prints. I'll sum it up this way: nothing was flattering. I remember my dad saying, "the ugly look is in." He was right.
• Television. What we thought were icons (both actors and shows) have disappeared into oblivion. No one now remembers or references almost anything from that decade. Much like the fashion of the day, that is perhaps a good thing.
• Jokes. Wow. No one was worried about being politically correct. And no one was safe from being made fun of. I must admit to laughing out loud all by myself at some of the jokes. Too bad we've become so careful. It was just innocent humor, nothing more. 
• Music. We won't even go there.

Definitely the best things to come out of the 80's were my children.