Let’s be the year 1980

Xanadu!

I'm Funkytown, and everyone wants to be taken to me.

I'm Nancy Reagan, and my dream of being First Fucking Lady has finally come true.

Now where are my pills?

I'm Upside Down with Diana Ross

I'm the boycotted Moscow Olympics. I'm the basis for a lot of would of, should of, could of hand wringing among some athletes that missed out and fans of those athletes.

I'm Mount St Helens erupting

I’m the Olympic Games.

I'm the Cold War

Thanks a lot, asshole.

I'm the first year of "The 8Os" - a distinctive cultural, music, media, etc. era. Though the defining characteristics of "The 80s" aren't fully formed, of even that prevalent when I appear - partially because MTV doesn't arrive until my sister 1981 comes into being.

I'm one of the gold medals one by one of the all time hottest pieces of ass, Eric Heiden.

I'm Abscam

I'm Nancy Reagan happy to see all the smiling white faces.

I'm Friday the 13th.

I'm February 29th.

I'm "Can't Stop the Music"!

Starring Caitlyn wearing Daisy Duke jean shorts and a Dorothy Hamill wedge!

I'm the bulge on jeans/white sleeveless tee guy that's far beyond what's visible on anyone else.

I’m Shelley Hack as Tiffany Welles.

I'm the Miracle on Ice!

I’m the Barbra Streisand and Barry Gibb Guilty album.

I'm the freshman college dorm roommate with the ripped jock body and huge cock who wakes up hard every morning and knows that you like to be teased so he invents clever ways like wearing your jeans without asking then giving them back and announcing "oh I went commando but I guess you don't mind".

I’m John Carpenter’s the Fog.

I'm Duvalier's overthrow in Haiti which is sort of relevant to threads we've had on Haiti recently.

I didn’t wear a T on my 1980 album, r17. That, and those ass-perfect Levis, would come along four years later, on Born in the USA.

I'm 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧 (1980), an Ursula K. LeGuin novel adapted for television, which aired on PBS.

Originally, it featured the Beatles' 'With a Little Help From My Friends,' but when it came time for home video release, there was a struggle over the rights to the song. It was replaced with a knock-off, which completely spoiled it for me.

I'm the Borg-McEnroe 4th set tiebreaker at Wimbledon.

I’m Private Benjamin, 6th highest grossing move of the year

I'm "Fame," but my star absolutely won't live forever, and no one's sure if she made it to heaven.

Movie*, oh dear

I'm Drakkar Noir cologne, stinking up the floors of every dance club.

I am fucking my brains out in every tea room, back room bar, and bathhouse I could find! Good times!

"What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target sex romp in every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in the area."

I am the MGM Grand Hotel Fire.

R30 Nope. Launched in 1982.

"I'm coming OUTTTTTT!!!"

Ordinary People us NOT what comes to my mind when I think 1980. Maybe if I was a misanthrope

I'm Chess King, a staple of every respectable Midwestern mall.

I have the latest trends for the contemporary man of style...especially for Flock of Seagulls fans!

Greg Louganis used to work at one of my stores!

I'm card gallery

I'm cruiding the Belmont Rocks, Chicago's gay beach I'm getting sucked off at the Biou by a priest from South Bend because I"m too young to go to the bars. I'm the Blues Brothers movie.

cruising obviously

Bijou

I'm 321 contact. Let's make contact.

R2 It’s funny I would have sworn that was a 70s song.

The very last year when an Afro was stylish on white people.

Christopher Atkins made the male perm super popular in 1980. Even my dad got one.

I'm 'Who Shot J.R.?'

^^^ I'm Lucy Ewing. I didn't shoot JR...I was at Burger King!

I'm the dumb ones in the crowd that thought because there were 52 hostages, one was taken for each state

I'm my bleeding anus from losing my virginity .

I'm the trio of young people who'd only recently moved to Miami who were driving home through Overtown after going to the beach unaware that a race riot had erupted after police officers were declared not guilty in the murder of a black man and who were set upon by a crowd for being the wrong color in the wrong neighborhood leading to one of them being pulled from the car and being beaten to death.

I’m really the last year of carefree unprotected gay sex.

I'm 11 years old and wondering how on God's green earth homely and cockeyed Kristy McNichol of all actresses has become popular and is starring in one of the summer's most popular movies "Little Darlings."

Are you blind, R52. Kristy was neither homely nor cockeyed. And she was a very good actress. If you're that bereft for material, just sit and read passively.

Holy crap, R50, I have not heard the word Overtown since I was a little kid, growing up in Ft. Lauderdale. I have not thought about the Overtown riots in over 40 years, but just seeing that word brings it all right back like it was yesterday. We watched it on the news for what felt like months.

I am lead singer, Mary Davis' dance steps on this memorable track.

I am your father, and I’m the most famous movie quote of the year that most people slightly misremember.

Eileen Brennan created one of the funniest characters ever in film for Private Benjamin. Right up there with Sally Kellerman’s “Hot Lips”.

I made a mistake. That particular incident/murder happened in Liberty City, 62nd and 17th Ave NW (on May 17, 1980), not in Overtown.

I am the elevator doors at the Overlook Hotel.

I'm "It's a Living", premiering October 30,1980 at 9:30pm on ABC.

r53 I think *you're* the one who should check their vision. She was NOT a pretty girl. And her face was somewhat asymmetrical (which is what i meant by cockeyed).

If you disagree, that's your opinion. I've always thought she was ugly and looked fairly butch/boy-like. And you can shut the fuck up telling me to sit back and be quiet...this is a website in which we express our opinions. Maybe you're new around here...

I'm Olivia. Stunningly gorgeous and top of the US charts for 4 weeks with this:

I’m the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. I finally had my drivers license. I’ve sucked so much cock and drank so much cum my skin was milky white.

I'm Jack Nicholson overacting my ass off in The Shining.

I'm the Empire Strikes Back. The best Star Wars film.

I’m fresh off a divorce and there’s a house for sale in my brother’s suburban cul de sac. My kids and I need a fresh start. I wonder if I there are any handsome neighbors … if they’re married, that’s not my problem.

I'm aisle 7 in the Piggly Wiggly.

I’m the murder of John Lennon

if that guy had aimed little to the left.

This is Kristy in Little Darlings, neither homely or asymmetrical. Now stop embarrassing yourself.

I’m R6’s ash traveling across the US

I’m the Solid Gold dancers

I’m John-Boy and Mary-Ellen’s secret love child

I'm really glad they made the Children's Aid Society.

r70 your pic only served to prove my point! She is both homely, and asymmetrical in your posted pic. When's your next optometry appointment?

Go have a hard-on for Kristy elsewhere, please.

I'm the debut of a wisecracking crypto-lesbo.

I’m a GM X-body car. The less said the better.

I'm ABC's Nightline and it's Day 23459965690 of the hostage crisis...

I'm the general oblivion to social and economic inequalities where a trailer about a movie that takes place in Lake Forest, IL (one of the wealthiest and whitest communities in America) can begin with the words: "In this typical town . . "

Buck would never have been in Highland Park.

I’m Dressed to Kill.

R61 = crotchety old coot. She was considered cute. There were even pin ups. You're welcome to your opinion but the general public thought otherwise. I'm not the DLer who shushed you upthread but you're really a miserable conversationalist.

I thought she was cute, but I felt sorry for her being a lesbian. Imagine being that close to Matt Dillon and not getting to lick his pole.

So because I think Kristy McNichol as a kid was homely and not cute like the "general public" renders me a miserable conversationalist. Interesting assessment.

For the record, the "general public" that I knew and hung around with also considered her ugly and didn't get why she became so popular. She actually became much more attractive as an adult, as often happens.

And seriously, I agree with the crime/waste it was having Matt Dillon as your co-star love interest and having no interest in anything to do with loving/hooking up with him.

I’m Julian-an American Gigolo, speaker of several foreign languages and have extremely good taste in music and designer clothing. Call me.

I'm the revival of "The Pirates of Penzance" with Kevin Kline (yum) and Rex Smith (yum).

What am I, r86, chopped liver?

I’m Dorothy Stratten, and I’m a STAR!

It's September. I'm seventeen. I'm a senior and doing well in school. I have a great group of friends (who truly are lifetime friends). I have two older brothers away in law school and medical school. My younger brother is a freshman in high school.

It's Sunday afternoon. My Dad is watching a football game and doing the Sunday Times' crossword puzzle. My Mom has finished preparing her work for Monday. She's in the kitchen preparing dinner. My Mom's amazing. She will leave for work tomorrow morning at 6:45. Before she leaves she has prepared breakfast for us and made lunches for me and my brother.

I passed my driver's test a few weeks ago, and I've gone to pick up my maternal grandmother, who's having dinner with us. She'll bring her copy of the puzzle with her to compare it with my Dad's.

I'm incredibly happy and unbelievably privileged and lucky. The last two I probably don't appreciate.

Today, my grandmother and parents are gone. I miss them still so much. Believe me, they had their faults, but they were intelligent, interesting, warm, and loving.

I wish I could go back to 1980. I would tell myself not to worry about coming out. It would be hard, but your family loves you...not to waste time worrying.

And i would tell my parents and grandmother how much I loved them and still carry them and what they taught me with me always.

Prince - Dirty Mind (song, video, album)

A tiny man who blends r&b, disco, and new wave into interesting new sounds. Wearing thong underwear, boots and a trench coat what could be more interesting in 1980??

I’m Yoda.

Charlie’s Angels - season 4 / episode 23 / Wednesday, April 2, 1980.

“Toni’s Boys”

After an attempt is made on the Angel’s lives, Charlie hires a rival detective agency run by his old friend, Antonia Blake (Barbara Stanwyck) to keep an eye on his employees. Blake, who likes to be called 'Toni', assigns her three boys to the case. They are: former U.S. Olympic champion Bob Sorenson, master of disguise Matt Parrish and champion rodeo rider, roper and tracker Cotton Harper. The Angels, feeling they can solve the case themselves, try to ditch the men as soon as possible.

Starring:

Jaclyn Smith - Kelley Garrett

Cheryl Ladd - Kris Munroe

Shelley Hack - Tiffany Welles

David Doyle - John Bosley

Stephen Shortridge - Cotton Harper

Bruce Bauer - Matt Parrish

Bob Seagren - Bob Sorensen

And…

Barbara Stanwyck - Antonia “Toni” Blake

I’m “The Wanderer” by Donna Summer, her first release for Geffen Records. While moderately successful, it is a noticeable drop off from her blockbuster Bad Girls just one year earlier.

R17 that is the infamous David Hodo! He and his bulge thank you for your recognition and support!!!

I’m “Coming Up,” Paul McCartney’s final #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.

The (pre-release) promotional blitz for the movie Xanadu (Universal) and its accompanying soundtrack was done on a massive scale. It rolled out by appearing in TV, radio and print media beginning in May of 1980 leading up to the theatrical movie release (August 8, 1980). I was a precocious 8 yrs old gayling, who idolized Olivia Newton-John. I recall the singles by ON-J and ELO being played A LOT on the radio. I also recall seeing TV commercials, interviews, an hour- long syndicated TV special “The Making of Xanadu”. Several major magazine features with Olivia appearing on the cover as well. Ah, to be a kid again during the summer of 1980…

Xanadu (theatrical trailer)

[quote] So because I think Kristy McNichol as a kid was homely and not cute like the "general public" renders me a miserable conversationalist. Interesting assessment.

Now you're talking intelligently. Quit while you're ahead.

The heatwave of 1980

I am Vidal Sassoon products in every gay mans shower in 1980. I made millions by adding a step to the hair care routine of women and gay men. My products smelled like almond extract!

[quote] I'm Nancy Reagan, and my dream of being First Fucking Lady has finally come true.

I'm Nancy Reagan, and my years of sucking cock for clout finally paid off!

I’m the ill-fated sixth season of SNL, the only with Jean Doumanian as executive producer.

r97 you seem unusually invested in defending Kristy's (homely) honor - any particular reason? Was she someone you touched yourself to over and over and over again as a youngster? Did you write her fervent and enthusiastic fan mail letters and one day finally got a canned letter rubber stamped with her "signature?" Was it the highlight of your teen years?

I'm one of the oldest Millennials, but I wasn't even a *zygote* in 1980! Ewww, kill it!!!

Still holds up

I’m Dalida’s two week run at Paris’ Palais des Sports in January 1980

I’m doing it to you one more time

I’m the troubled production of Mommie Dearest.

I’m who shot JR.

R108, you're a year early.

I'm Gena Rowlands filming Gloria in NYC

R109, the "Who Done It?" episode aired on November 21, 1980.

I'm Charlton Heston picketing during the SAG-AFTRA strike

R102 you seem to have quite the investment in being the most heinous, rancid cunt you can be.

Congratulations, you succeeded.

I'm sure r30 is thinking of Lagerfeld. The nastiest men's fragrance ever sold.

Queen - Another one bites the dust

I remember watching a “backwards masking expose” on the PTL Club with my mom. Jim Bakker and his secular music authority, spun the song’s vinyl backwards and they told the audience what they heard; “it’s fun to smoke marijuana”. I was in the 2nd grade, home sick from school. My mom said “oh my! How awful”. I just sucked it up.

I’m the Reebok high tops with the strap.

This thread is partially derailed by the "Kristy McNichol was homely" Troll

I'm my innocence.

I disappeared in the summer of 1980, along with my dignity and my Donna Summer On The Radio 45.

The people on the door at the Mineshaft knew me I was there so often. I always signed in as Shelly Winters. It's not like they checked ID.

Or perhaps the troll that kept insisting Kristy McNichol was *not* homely? That person is the one that just keeps insisting over and over again how inherently wrong I was - and how DARE I very think that, instead of just keeping it at one comment.

What if they had chosen to argue about r62 's assertion that Olivia Newton-John being "stunningly gorgeous?" What if they just KEPT on saying over and over that she WASN'T stunningly gorgeous, that she was simply pretty? And what if r62 chose to respond that *they* thought she WAS? Would that make r62 a troll too?

Or should that person who disagreed just let it go with one comment disagreeing? Yes, they should have. Instead, they've chosen to answer at least 5 times now (even as another poster, mind you) and draw this all out.

Why were they so insistent I was wrong, instead of just letting me have the opinion (and my friends and others I grew up with) that she was homely?

Ask yourself that.

Why does one person keep posting to himself about Kristy McNichol? Lack of good entertainment?

R89, what was your mom making for dinner, Princey?

Clearly "Kristy McNichol: Hot or Not" should've been the thread title.

I'll admit i am bored today (in between Fall cleaning), but it's more that i don't appreciate someone telling me over and over how wrong i am for my opinion of someone being homely. So i'm really just trying to ascertain why that person seems so emotionally invested in telling me how wrong I am in my opinion. It's now become a bit of an "armchair psychiatry" game to me at this point to find out why it's so important for him to tell me how very wrong i am.

All i really started off doing in this thread was thinking about the 1980 and what in particular struck me about that year as an 11 year old.

R123 here, I'm not that person. I'm just enjoying the back and forth on KM's looks.

I’m the last embers of Shelley Duvall’s sanity on the 127th take of her swinging the baseball bat walking backwards on the steps of the Overlook Hotel

I'm the Berlin teacher who's a cottage queen in Taxi Zum Klo.

Why aren’t the Kristy queens kvelling about Matt Dillon?

I’m Beth Jarrett’s goddamned maid. I was fired for not dusting the living room properly.

Buck never would have not dusted the living room properly!

I’m the mechanical bull in “Urban Cowboy”. John Travolta rode me.

I'm the decline of America. I began in 1980 with the election of a onetime B-movie actor as president.. Things are going to get much, much worse. In 2016, the host of a "reality" TV game show will become president, although whether he was actually elected is in question.

I'm housesitting for a wealthy couple that have cable TV! I watch my very first foreign film, Ingmar Bergman's "The Silence", and don't understand it at all.

I'm Cable News Network (CNN), founded by Mr. Jane Fonda (aka Ted Turner)! I was the first 24 hour channel for news. Eventually I will devolve into a right wing propaganda machine cheering on the Orange Anus.

I'm Madonna Ciccone.

My band Emmy & The Emmys recorded this demo in 1980 at the Music Building in New York City. I'll probably never amount to anything.

[quote] Instead, they've chosen to answer at least 5 times now (even as another poster, mind you) and draw this all out.

Nope. More than one person has told you what a massive cunt you are. I know it's hard to fathom for you, but the sooner you face facts, the better off you'll be.

Somebody seems like they need to have the last word. Do you feel better now? Also with the name calling; how utterly juvenile and banal you are. Go to bed now, that's a good boy.

[quote] Also with the name calling; how utterly juvenile and banal you are.

Careful in that glass house of yours.

McCartney’s final SOLO number one, r95. There were the massive duets with Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson still to come in ‘82 and ‘83.

We're the Misfits of Science.

[quote]Ordinary People us NOT what comes to my mind when I think 1980. Maybe if I was a misanthrope

It's really important to try and hurt me isn't it? Conrad

I'm Carly Simon's hit single "Jesse"

I'm "The Official Preppy Handbook", which was published in 1980.

I am the magic moment where the 70's and 80's sort of mixed together for a short time.

I am the controversial film Cruising, I am John Lennon's murder, I am the death of disco, I am Blondie (I'm huge), I am the year before Aids was 1st reported.

I'm Geoff Minger, Playgirl's Man of the Year, 1980.

The pickings are slim this year.

^One more time.

I’m 18 and my tube socks are cracking or soaked.

Wasn't Misfits of Science 1984?

[quote]I'm Geoff Minger, Playgirl's Man of the Year, 1980.

Geoff has a tiny dick, but maybe he's a grower.

Here's Geoff with his partner, Mike Davis, in Hawaii in 2012.

R150 Eeek! Did not age well at all, did he?

I'm Rubik's Cube, which first appeared in stores under that name in 1980. The inventor actually introduced it in 1974 under the name "the Magic Cube."

Nobody fucking ages well.

I'm 10 and I'm in 6th grade. Everyone knows me as the kid with the dead dad from the year before. I finally lost some baby fat but now I have a retainer. Life sucks.

I’m all the pre-cum I leaked into my underwear watching Christopher Atkins wiggle his cute little bare ass all over The Blue Lagoon.

I'm American Gigolo. I'm The Thorn Birds.

I am the looming death of disco

I'm the last year of indoor roller skating before it was no longer the thing to do on a Friday night or a Saturday afternoon.

I’m Conrad’s Jewish doctor.

I'm Hold Out, Jackson Browne's new album that summer.

I am super absorbent tampons and will call alot of women with my toxic shock syndrome

I am Luke and Laura's summer on the run on General Hospital

I'm FLASH...A AH!!!!

I'm Wikipedia wonder why there are now so many hits on things from 1980.

I'm Holly Hobby, you can barely see my profile past my bonnett, but little girls (and some gay boys) love me, I'm pretty much Laura Ashley for children.

I'm ranibow stickers, I appear on the rears of tons of hatchbacks. I am not a political statment yet...

I'm the Phillies, World Series champions of 1980! We won't win it again for another 28 years.

I'm the song played throughout the 1980 World Series

I'm shoulder pads.

It’s a living Life ain’t just a charity ball

I'm unleaded regular at $1.30 per gallon which is SO expensive compared to two years earlier when it was only 65 cents a gallon- which was not considered cheap in 1978 because people remembered when leaded regular was only 38 cents per gallon in 1973.

I'm bareback gay sex.

You're about to miss me.

We didn't yet know your name, r170.

I'm Barrie Youngfellow's pivot in the opening credits! You gaylings would copy me for years and years, not to mention those posers Susan Sullivan and Pamela Sue Martin!

Don't forget ME!

Clearly my gay card should be suspended or revoked for forgetting the Constance McCashin pivot!

I'm Chrissie Evert Lloyd squashing Tracy Austin in the US Open semis, ending a 5 match, one sided losing streak.

I'm Martina Navratilove, elbow-deep in Rita Mae Brown. My tennis game is in the crapper but all I can smell is tuna.

I’m could have, would have and should have in R5’s posting.

I’m Jessica Lange, floating around.

I still live off my King Kong money, take acting classes, and pray for change.

My brown eye could still snap back.

I'm the death of San Francisco's fabulously popular bath house scene as AIDS becomes the new boogieman hanging over the city.

Not in 1980, r180. Not yet.

The band played on until 1984 in the fabulously popular SF bath house scene. Trust me, I can report from personal experience that it was very lively in 1980. The CDC started investigating what later became known as HIV in April of 1981 and the first mainstream reporting appeared in the New York Times on July 3 of that year about clusters of cases in San Francisco and NYC.

I remember that date only because, on the other side of the country, I read that article in the Times and went to a NYC bar that might as well have been a bathhouse that night.

Yes, I actually meant to say looming... upcoming. I remember the fear growing in my friends that frequented the baths.

Prior to that July 3 article in the Times, I had one friend who started getting sick in Los Angeles in 1978. His doctors didn't understand it. His main symptom was that he kept losing weight. In 1981, I heard about a friend in New York who was in and out of the hospital because, I was told, of "amoebas." A lot of gay men, apparently, "had amoebas." The New York friend died very early on. I never saw him again.

I had amoebas but I'm still here. They weren't a euphemism.

Gays fought the closing of the baths, well after it was clear what was happening.

My best friend was among the first wave of deaths. He would frequently head up to SF for a weekend of fun at the bath houses. He was young, gorgeous, and lived the fabulous Hollywood lifestyle. I am forever thankful we were platonic friends or I'd be dead as well. I miss him to this day. His life was over in what felt like a blazing flash. Here one day and gone the next, poof ...

I'm the first Friday the 13th movie, and obviously a lower budget Halloween inspired rip off, I'll set the standard for sequels and rip offs throughout the decade.

R179 don’t it make my brown eye blue?

I’m a 1980 lady, but I bake like an old-fashioned girl.

I’m also me in 2023 with technology that lets me think of an obscure 43 year old jingle, find it on YouTube and watch the commercial again all in about 1 minute.

I’m Brooke Shields’ eyebrows, large and in charge

I'm Loretta Lynn's Crisco commercial.

R180 just popping in to repeat that your date is wrong, as other mentioned. If you don't know the history of AIDS, please don't just wing it.

R192 Grease IS the word...for what Loretta would slather on that dildo belt!

It's part of the scam of cringing closet cases to try to push a too-early date for AIDS awareness as part of their homophobia.

“It’s fun to smoke marijuanna”

I'm Lindy Chamberlain-Creighton. "A dingo ate my baby!!"

I’m Jaclyn Smith’s brief, humiliating foray into movies.

Next Up: queen of the mini series

R197 A dingo, eh?

Does anyone know if Qantas flies to Denver? Asking for a friend.

I’m the love boat. Soon I’ll be making … another run.

I'm Fred Silverman, soon to be unemployed.

I am this super macho totally heterosexual-y oriented video