Death of Disco: 7 Ways It Became 80s New Wave
The death of disco was never a clean ending. Here is how the 1979 backlash turned into new wave, synth-pop, house, and the sound of the 80s.
-
-
April 11, 1984: NASA Saved Solar Max in Orbit
On April 11, 1984, astronauts aboard Challenger completed the first successful satellite repair in orbit and made the shuttle era feel like the future.
-
Drinking From the Garden Hose: The Taste of an 80s Childhood Summer
There’s a specific taste that exists only in the memory banks of people who grew up in the ’70s, ’80s, and early ’90s. It’s warm and rubbery with a metallic edge, followed immediately by a rush of cold water that was somehow the most refreshing drink you’d ever had. It came from a green garden…
-
Secret of My Success: 7 Wild 80s Truths From April 10
On April 10, 1987, The Secret of My Success hit theaters and bottled peak yuppie-era ambition, Michael J. Fox charm, and pure 80s corporate fantasy.
-
The Muppet Show: 9 Reasons Jim Henson’s Legacy Still Rules
The Muppet Show still holds up because Jim Henson built a chaotic, funny, brilliantly human variety show that played just as well for adults as kids.
-
Super Mario Bros 1993: 7 Wild Facts From April 9
Super Mario Bros. 1993 hit theaters on April 9, 1993, and even now it feels like a transmission from the weirdest possible alternate timeline. This was the first live-action movie ever built from a video game juggernaut, years before Hollywood figured out how to make game adaptations feel remotely coherent. For kids who grew up…
-
Harlem Globetrotters: From Saturday Morning Cartoons to Basketball Legends
Before Michael Jordan was soaring through the air, before Magic and Bird made the NBA must-see television, there was another basketball team that dominated the cultural landscape — and they did it with comedy, impossible trick shots, and a Saturday morning cartoon. The Harlem Globetrotters were sports entertainment before anyone used that term, and for…
-
Fraggle Rock: How Jim Henson Smuggled World Peace Into a Cave
Fraggle Rock hit HBO on January 10, 1983, and within five minutes of the first episode, Jim Henson had pulled off something nobody in children’s television had even tried. The show wasn’t really about furry creatures dancing in a cave. It was a five-season experiment in how to talk to kids about war, prejudice, and…
-
Twin Peaks Premiere 1990: The Night TV Changed Forever
Thirty-six years ago tonight, on April 8, 1990, a dead girl washed up on a rocky shore in the Pacific Northwest. She was wrapped in plastic. Her name was Laura Palmer, she was the prom queen of a town no one had ever heard of, and by the time ABC cut to the closing credits,…
-
Calculator Watches & Transformer Watches: The 80s Wrist Game That Started It All
There was a time when the coolest thing you could strap to your wrist wasn’t a smartwatch that tracked your heart rate and sent passive-aggressive reminders to stand up. It was a calculator watch — a tiny, improbable computer on your arm that could do basic math and made you feel like a secret agent…
-
ALF TV Show: The Alien Who Crash-Landed in Prime Time and Never Left
If you grew up in the late 1980s, there’s a decent chance a hairy, sarcastic alien named ALF took up permanent residence in your living room — and maybe a little corner of your heart. The ALF TV show, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1986, was unlike anything that had ever aired in…
-
Ryan White, Elton John & Farm Aid 1990: The Night That Changed Everything
On April 7, 1990, while Ryan White lay dying in an Indianapolis hospital bed, his friend Elton John stepped onto the stage at the Hoosier Dome and did something nobody expected. He wasn’t on the bill. He wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near Farm Aid IV. But grief has a way of rewriting schedules, and…
