I Love the '80s

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.

I stumbled across this little gem when my mom shouted up the stairs to me to come downstairs and check out what was on TV. She (along with everyone else who knows me well) knows that I'm a huge fan of '80s culture and insisted that I would love it. Right she was. I'm quickly approaching my 25th birthday this year (in a little over a month); therefore, I lived through my childhood years and two of my preteen years during the '80s. I believe that the first episode that I saw of this series was the 1986 episode; I found myself fixated on the witty commentary and reflections of the good and the not-so-good trends and happenings of that year. I knew that I wanted more. Luckily, there was another episode following that one, and I was so excited. I've taped every episode since and I still catch them if they're on when I'm hanging out at home.

The series is divided into ten hour-long episodes for 1980 - 1989. There is a wonderful cross-section of interviewees that range from '80s icons to some of today's stars. My one teensy-weensy gripe about the show is that a few of the interviewees are, in my opinion, too young to wax nostalgia on the '80s (Raven-Symone & LeAnn Rimes, for example). However, Raven-Symone was on the most popular sitcom of the '80s (The Cosby Show), so maybe that's the reason that she was interviewed. VH1 also may have decided that they wanted some young stars integrated into the mix to reach a younger viewer demographic as well. Anyway, it's too small of a turn-off to be bothered with, I suppose.

I found myself laughing and gasping at some of the things that I could relate to owning, remembering, wearing, and admiring from those years. It's how I sum up childhood and beginning to come of age; those years remind me of what my life was like before the onset of my teenage years and being stressed out over silly things. It was truly a happy time and this series captures the cultural aspects of that time.

9/10

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.

I caught this on television when it first aired back in December of 2002. After watching the very first episode ("1980"), I instantly became addicted. This was unlike any mini-series I had ever seen on television before. It was absolutely incredible. It was funny, it had good music, it was entertaining, it was simply the best thing I had ever seen on VH1 at the time. I never knew that watching a mini-series could be so fun. What makes "I Love the '80s" and "I Love the '80s Strikes Back" so great are the commentators. Tom Arnold, Rich Eisen, Greg Fitzsimmons, Natasha Henstridge, Ron Jeremy, Wallace Langham, Hal Sparks, Donal Logue, Mo Rocca, Henry Rollins, Stuart Scott, Dee Snider, Joel Stein, and Weird Al all provide great commentary. The best line of the entire series comes from Hal Sparks when commenting on STAR WARS EPISODE VI-RETURN OF THE JEDI: "Lucas says that he planned out all these stories from the very beginning, so why are they kissing in the first one? It's gross. Why in the first poster of Star Wars is she clinging to his leg, like an inch and a half from his crank, and then two years later it's his sister. Eww." Hopefully, VH1 will release this fantastic mini-series along with "I Love the '80s Strikes Back" to DVD soon. Judging from the number of fans they have, I have a feeling it would sell millions and millions of copies.

My rating: 9/10

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!