I Love 1980's

I`ve only got a patchy recollection of the 1980`s since I decided to spend much of it in an alcohol induced coma , and if you can recall the music of 1985-86-87 then you can hardly blame me . But even I can point out the amateurish factual errors this nostalgic series made

1984 for example includes a feature on " The brat pack " most especially THE BREAKFAST CLUB complete with the title song by Simple Minds . Only thing is THE BREAKFAST CLUB was released in 1985 !

Same with 1988 which was presented by the teenage mutant hero turtles who didn`t introduce Britain to turtle mania untill a year later . The programme even showed a clip of the film which didn`t get released untill 1990 ! Same with BILL AND TED`S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE which hit cinema`s in 1989 not as stated here in 1988 !

If the BBC want to employ researchers can they employ ones who are capable of doing what they`re paid to do and that is to RESEARCH something . I could have done a better job myself drunk or sober

Unfortunately there are countless anachronisms present in this series which detracted from it, plus one wonders if some of the minor celebrity contributors were old enough to really have lived through the decade and experienced much of what they commented on!

Do you remember Rubik's Cubes? Jason Donovan? Rick Astley? Trans-Formers? He-Man And The Masters Of The Universe? A-Ha? Adam & The Ants? Boxer shorts? Knight Rider? Spandau Ballet? Nik Kershaw? Bros?

This is a ten-part series, each hour-long part covering a year at a time, from 1980 to 1989 inclusive. Stars and stars-to-be of that era reminisce about fads, fashions, toy ranges, merchandise and developments that occurred in this decade in a humorous and entertaining fashion.

Definitely worth a laugh or two, particularly for people that were children and/or teenagers in that decade.

Sadly, "I Love 1980s" was spoilt by poor research and the poor research on the "I Love 1970s" series also affected this series badly.

Several items of 1980s pop culture had wrongly been included in the 70s programmes, and in consequence the early 80s looked curiously empty without the CB radio craze, the release of the Rubik's Cube (based on the Hungarian Magic Cube and named and released in 1980), the personal stereo (invented in Japan in 1979, released in Britain in 1980) or the impact of Space Invaders. Indeed, Pac-Man was included in "I Love 1980" but was not actually available to play.

The show also seemed to have an agenda of portraying the decade as greedy - although for the first few years we were knee deep in recession. Many of us were struggling financially, and there were thriving environmental and charitable movements to counter balance the "yuppie" ethos later in the decade.

I found "I Love the 1980s" to be as poorly researched as "I Love the 1970s" and in this case the people working on the series did not actually appear to have any affection for the era.

Or a great deal of reliable knowledge about it.

Following the success of "I Love 1970's," BBC2 did it again with "I Love 1980's," which replicated the formula with much the same success. But as pointed out, it suffered from some poor research (among other things, is it fair to mention "The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" as a TV success when it's best known in its radio version? And as for having the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles [hosts of the 1988 edition] singing along to Bros' "When Will I Be Famous?"... which they never were in the US - plus the Turtles didn't take off until the following year), and the same recurring talking heads being fatuous...

That said, it was great to see Stephen J. Cannell, Donald P. Bellisario, Glen A. Larson and Alan Oppenheimer (the voice of Skeletor) in front of the cameras for once; and for an idea of how bad this could have been, look no further than Sky One's ripoff "TV Years." Followed by "I Love 1990's," but I refuse to watch that - how can you be nostalgic for the 1990s?

Not to be confused with VH-1's "I Love The 1980s," the US version of th show - which I would love to see. Not even the Bush administration can halt my life-long love affair with American pop culture...