I Love the '80s

Great Mini series that I must have seen at least each year 10 times. Hal Sparks, Michael Ian Black, Mo Rocca, and Rich Eisen were the funniest of the bunch. I recommend this to anyone who has any kind of a sense of humor and it's great to watch when you're bored. 10/10.

Kudos to VH1 for "I love the 80's". The new direction of the network seems to be the "Behind the Music Channel" with the majority of their shows being similar pop culture-type Documentaries. Which is fine by me as long as they keep the standards up to par with Behind the Music, such as they have with "I love the 80's". This show covers nearly all the bases and leaves very few items out. It's a must-see for everyone who lived through the 80's.

The one and only drawback (and perhaps the thing that keeps this show from achieving near-flawlessness) are the interviewees, who are certainly funny and interesting, but not exactly experts on the subject matter. All too often it is blatantly obvious that the "celebrity" has completely forgot and/or is totally unknowledgeable of the pop culture topic they're covering (and had to be reminded). It REALLY would have been nice if they had interviewed FANS of the shows/movies they were discussing, and not just people who can only say "oh, yeah, that was a good movie" or some such drivel that anyone can spout. Especially to counter the constant jokes at the expense of the many of the quality flicks they were trying to praise. And the new "200 Pop culture Icons" took this problem and ran with it- they brought in Reality TV NOBODIES to comment! People whose 15 minutes are up, and have nothing relevant to say. ["I love the 80's" has a DISTINCT subject of discussion, unlike "Pop culture Icons" which can't decide if it's an "100 greatest actors" list or "100 greatest characters" list.] Don't waste your time - stick with "I love the 80's" reruns and hope VH1 does better next time around with "I love the 70's".

Despite that oversight, I think just about anyone will thoroughly enjoy this nostalgia trip, as this show overcomes those relatively minor flaws (your average viewer probably won't care anyway. Its probably just rabid fans like myself who doesn't like to see his favorite films bashed by non-fans just making fun of it.) I highly recommend this mini-series.

Take a bunch of entertainers from different genres and mix their thoughts in about the movies, TV series, hot musical items, and fads of the 1980s with clips thereof, and you have the most entertaining anthology that VH1 has ever produced (which is saying a lot). The reminiscing is real, but neither the interviewees nor producers take the show too seriously. Giving each year, 1980-89 inclusive, an hour makes for a guaranteed marathon of "oh yeah! I remember that!" television. Some of it makes you laugh, some of it makes you roll your eyes, but all of it takes you in. There was also nice casting in declaring the more notable names and moments, namely Andrew "Dice" Clay declaring "Mr. & Mrs. 198x", Lionel Richie "giving you" the Make-Out Songs of 198x, Bret Michaels declaring the babes of that year, and Traci Elizabeth Lords (who has never looked better) introducing the prime hunks. The public service announcements were the cherries on each annual cake.

Only one flaw: devoting time to "Wheel of Fortune." That show actually got its start on NBC in 1976 with Chuck Woolery as host, but it went into syndication with Pat Sajak in the mid '80s, and continues still today. I consider WoF a timeless classic, not an '80s fad.

As one who graduated high school in 1985, I always feel that the 80s was "my" decade. I'm glad VH1 put something together that remembers it like I do.

Best line, Michael Ian Black on Debbie Gibson vs. Tiffany: "Please don't make me choose .... that's like asking me to choose between my kids."

It's 2025 and I just found this on YouTube and I'm watching the episode about 1988 realizing that this episode aired in 2002. So there's only a 14 year difference between the year they're reminiscing on and the year that the episode aired. That would be like us today describing 2011. It's crazy how different things looked and sounded from '88 to 2002, yet how similar things look between 2025 and 2002-which is a 23 year gap. Time is a man-made construct and it blows my mind. Because 2011 is obviously even more similar to 2025 than 2002 is similar to 2025. Anyway I'm thinking too hard about this but I adored this series when it first aired. Long live the 80s!

In response to users Nick-337 comment about you having a hard time believing Beyonce and Leeann Rhimes remembering anything about the 1980s. First of all I was born in 1982. Persons born in 1981 and 1982 like Beyonce and Leeann were 7 and 8 when the 80s ended. We started elementary school when the decade ended. Many of us remember Challenger, Ronald Reagan and the Berlin Wall falling. Do you mean to tell me that you don't remember anything when you were a child. Many people born in the early 1960s remember when JFK was killed, and even more so when RFK, and MLK were killed, the Vietnam War, the Beatles and Woodstock, and NO ONE disputes them. Why is is SOOO hard for you to believe that persons born in the 1980s remember many aspects about the decade. As a child my favorite shows were Knots Landing and Family Ties. My first crush was on Michael J. Fox and Ted Shackleford. I think its safe to say anyone born from 1980-1983 (early 80s) would have enough memories to relate to the decade. I would find it "hard to believe" if a person lived 7 or 8 years and did not remember anything about their life.