Why Do 80’s Movies Make Me Wish I Was a Teen in the 80’s?

Gen X was the best generation.

Because it was SO MUCH FUN.

Lucky you, R2.

John Hughes movies really did capture the teenage years.

Molly Ringwald sitting on the school bus among a bunch of rowdy kids and the way she says "I hate the bus" with so much disgust was so accurate.

I turned 13 in late 1983, so yes, the 80s were so rad, my worst year was ‘85 but the rest of the decade rocked. The movies of the time are iconic & many of them really hold up. My fave is Ferris Bueller, I watched it daily (on vhs) for a solid month!

I’m jealous of all you who got to experience the 80’s as a teen (so long as your parents had a decent income and you lived in a good neighborhood).

We all had that ConAir hair dryer. And the big hair.

I was in my 50s throughout the 80s and a kid at heart with brother’s kids, my nephews. Despite the AIDS crisis, I loved that decade. I would trade today for then.

r6 good neighborhoods had too many problems

The 80's were a blast.

The 90's tried too hard.

I mean...music videos!!! The totally fun horror, sci-fi and comic movies. We weren't embarrassed about having fun.

R4, it is "I loathe the bus!" I am only correcting you, as I said that line so many times as a bus riding student in suburban Chicago.

I was in high school in the 80s. I loved the music but I was never a fan of the teen movies.

Thank you, r12. I came to correct that as well. Ringwald’s dripping-with-contempt delivery was hilarious and so relatable.

Interesting choice for a cover photo, OP. Do you wish you had a friend like Terry or Rick?

I remember watching that movie on VHS as a kid, I don’t think my parents realized there was brief nudity.

I miss hanging out at indoor shopping malls that catered to teens and middle income families. I miss food courts and arcades. They did a really good capturing that atmosphere the last season of Stranger Things.

Of course I came of age in the early to mid nineties, but I still got a taste of it.

I remember seeing "One of the Boys" on regular TV during the daytime. I'd never seen tits at that time of day before.

I just love the movie, R15. I kept waiting for a sale on iTunes but ended up purchasing at the full price (something I rarely do). I have quite the 80’s collection that I can stream at anytime on my Apple TV and it felt incomplete without this gem.

I remember being 9 years old and seeing both The Breakfast Club and Just One of the Guys in cinemas and much preferred the latter. I still think it's a great movie, very funny and clever. But I've come to appreciate The Breakfast Club.

I watched Some Kind of Wonderful last night and while all three leads looked way too old to be teenagers, it was well made and acted, and a great soundtrack.

The '80s were so much fun. Going to the movies wasn't a chore like it was pre-pandemic. People didn't have phones as distractions and the movies were fun, and there was variety. In 1985 alone, I remember seeing TBC, JOOTG, Return to Oz, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, The Goonies, Jewel of the Nile, Clue, The Legend of Billie Jean, Maxie, One Magic Christmas and A View to a Kill. I miss those days.

The 80s were the best. Glad I came of age back then.

Maybe it was the depiction of (shopping mall) culture in the suburbs. A bubble within a bubble. Cocaine and alcohol were present. Everybody was too young to be in rehab yet.

There is something about the quality of the picture. The film itself. It’s very unique. It’s like a coarseness, a rough grain added to the texture. I want to touch it. Even in modern widescreen HD, the affect somehow transfers. It can’t be removed. From Ferris Bueller to all those Eddie Murphy classics. Like you can just tell something is from the 80’s. It’s fascinating.

William Zabka and some other guy from (I think) "Just One of the Guys".

Same guys in the shower - too bad there's so much steam.

I graduated in 1989. I grew up in a terrible neighborhood, and the crack epidemic really took a toll. Crackheads threatened to beat me up at the public bus stop, and called me names. Once the AIDS epidemic hit, people in high school said that they were afraid to be around me because they might ‘catch AIDS’. I looked at those John Hughes movies as fairytale lives that rich, white, straight kids lived. I enjoy them now though.

The 80s were my teens, and it was a fun time.

I always wondered why “Just One of the Guys” never gets played on tv.

[quote] There is something about the quality of the picture. The film itself. It’s very unique.

They weren't shot with a blue or yellow filter like 90% of Hollywood films nowadays. I imagine that most of the modern movies would look like shit on VHS.

It used to get played a ton on Comedy Central, r27, but I guess it was phased out in favor of Will Ferrell and Seth Rogan comedies.

I never realized it until this thread, but I think my favorite decade for movies was the 80s:

80: Caddyshack - Airplane - Empire Strikes Back - 9 to 5 - Ordinary People - The Blues Brothers 81: History of the World - Mommie Dearest 82: Making Love - Tootsie - An Officer and a Gentleman 83: Return of the Jedi - Risky Business 84: Ghostbusters 85: Back to the Future 86: Back to School - Ruthless People - Ferris Bueller's Day Off 87: Moonstruck 88: Die Hard - Big - Rain Man 89: Back to the Future Part II - Batman

Fast Times At Ridegmont High. That mall looked so cool.

R31 It no doubt was the best era for blockbuster films but the 70s and 90s were also noteworthy for indie and low budget films.

If you missed the 80s, you didn't miss anything much. The 80s were vacuous, fake, an extension of the hedonistic 70s. If shallow materialistic garbage is your thing, then the 80s were great. Fashion was ugly. Food was much worse. Bill Cosby was a huge star. America's Dad, I believe we called him. Yikes. "Wall Street" was a box office hit and with that many internalized the slogan, "Greed is Good". In other words, it was cool to be selfish pig.

On the bright side, there was less fear and more hope about the future (probably because the media was largely ignoring the problems we as a society were creating).

Les fear? Is this not a site for homosexuals?

The two Coreys!!

I can't stand watching Ferris Bueller's Day Off any more, for some reason.

r21

R34 ... Other than AIDS. I was thinking more about terrorism and the fear of being shot in a grocery store or punched in the face for walking down the street while Asian or murdered for jogging while Black. (The latter might have happened, but I don't recall reading about it in the news.) The world just seems more hostile and violent now.

r37

r39

r40

Just One of the Guys was a frothy fun movie.

It makes a campy double feature with She's the Man.

Just One of the Guys could NEVER be made today.

Yes it could. But instead of showing her tits, they'd show mucho dick in the changing room. I'm down.

They’d show her neo-cock??

[quote]Just One of the Guys could NEVER be made today.

Probably not. You just KNOW that the Ts would have found a way to be offended.

I was just trying thinking how fun that movie was and surprised it wasn’t cancelled.

[quote]Gen X was the best generation.

IS the best generation.

R35 I saw License to Drive recently and maybe I’m nostalgic but I still think it holds up. Obviously meant to be a Ferris Bueller knockoff but solid enough. I feel like Hollywood doesn’t even make purely ‘fun’ movies anymore unless it stars Ferrel or someone, and they’re not really fun so much as plain dumb.

The 80s were pretty good but everything else has been the hang over, and the hang over seems to only get worse and worse. Let us recall that Drumpf was a prominent public figure in the 80s, for example.

There ought to be Best Comedy category at the Oscars.

So this was when storytelling shifted to focusing on high school thereby helping to foster the preoccupation with adolescence and all that goes with it.

Then at some point in the early 90's Howard Stern's show went national and finished the job John Hughes movies started.

We remain a culture stunted by a fixation on what is "cool" clueless how to move into maturity.

AID's made being a teenager in the 80's a real drag but I had a blast with mall and goth culture. And the music was much better than it is now.

[quote] Yes it could. But instead of showing her tits, they'd show mucho dick in the changing room. I'm down.

Maybe if it were made outside of the US. The US had a sexual identity crisis. Back in the 80s and even 90s, it was mostly OK to show male nudity if it was funny. Nowadays, anything with nudity has to be hyper sexualized.

Those 80s movies bore no semblance to reality, which is why they were popular. They made being young and stupid look so COOL.

Those who remember the 80s as being "a blast" were too young or too stupid to know what was really going on back then: Ronald Reagan, nuns killed in El Salvador, Iran-Contra, the Challenger disaster, Chernobyl, and of course a little thing called AIDS.

"Just One of the Guys" is just a smutty brainless teen comedy. It starred Joyce Hyser, who is known precisely for two things: flashing her tits in "Just One of the Guys" and being Bruce Springsteen's girlfriend for about 4 years.

R55 The 60s and 70s were no walk in the park either. Every decade is defined by its pop culture, especially among teens. The 24 hour news cycle and Twitter didn't exist back then telling us what new thing to be outraged over and it was all for the better.

I think John Hughes' best was "Pretty In Pink". I was a teen in the 1980s and that movie perfectly captures high school life (for some people) during that era. I also went to a very white high school. There were literally 2 black kids in my senior class photo.

The 10s were a bore.

[quote]I also went to a very white high school. There were literally 2 black kids in my senior class photo.

Who cares.

R59 My favorite decade is the 70s (even though I mostly grew up in the 80s), but it's been a downhill slide since the 1990s.

I don't even know what decade we're in now (the 20s?) I think the fact that we don't have clearly-defined decades is part of the problem, lol.

“Those who remember the 80s as being "a blast" were too young or too stupid to know what was really going on back then: Ronald Reagan, nuns killed in El Salvador, Iran-Contra, the Challenger disaster, Chernobyl, and of course a little thing called AIDS.”

We’re precisely talking about being young, dumbass. That’s the point - being a teenager in the 80s. And a lot of us were very aware of the things you mentioned - we still had our rites of passage, first fucks, parties - music that we were obsessed with, club adventures.

You imply mutually exclusivity here. Which is absurd.

I was born 1979, the 80s were a good decade to be a child, so many film and TV classics.

R60 Thanks for your rude comment, but I was referencing earlier posts that said John Hughes films weren't representative of everyone's 80s high school experience.

So fuck off, asshole.

R26 shares my memory. TV and movies showed rich people problems that could be solved within 50 minutes with ten minutes allowance for commercial breaks. The trophies were heavily advertised - you were cool and powerful because of your Knight Rider, prep school, or Dad’s lake house. The work put in to earn these trophies was glossed over.

It felt like we were window shopping the success of the baby boom and anyone our age was just an accessory.

"We’re precisely talking about being young, dumbass. That’s the point - being a teenager in the 80s."

What was so great about being a teenager in the 80s, dimwit? The 80s was probably the most shallow, trivial decade in American history. I guess you would think it was great if you too were shallow and trivial. I think that's what why some poor dopes look back on their 80s teen years with such fondness; it was the decade where it was considered normal to be greedy and stupid and selfish and they MISS that. Dummies.

"The 80s were a good decade to be a child, so many film and TV classics."

You must have no knowledge of ANY other decade because the 60s and 70s produced a hell of a lot more film and tv classics than the 80s ever did.

R62 you could say the same about the 90s. I was a kid and had no idea the world trade center was attacked in 1993.

I remember seeing this mentioned in a middle school text book before 9/11 wondering how I missed this. Kids don't pay attention and are generally shielded from the news. Except for the Challenger explosion they were made to watch live in school.

Oh wake up OP, they are movies for a reason. Real high school? There were bullying, mean girls, judgy school teachers, ultra conservative PTA. Just look at Brett Kavanaugh's victims. It was hell to be gay because you are basically a leper. People hate you and licensed to kick you to the curb.

"Kids don't pay attention and are generally shielded from the news."

Young children probably don't keep up with the news. But teenagers in high school should be aware of what's going on. A teacher I had in high school, a history teacher, asked the students to write an essay on "what you think about what's happening in the world." She said in class for one girl to tell the class what she wrote in answer to that. What the girl wrote was this: "I don't know what's going on in the world." The teacher said that left her speechless.

R49, you hit it on the nail. Blockbuster movies from the 80s were fun, even the good ones. Now most main characters are so fkin cynical; not to mention hollywood's obsession with dark antiheroes who border on the line of sociopaths. All of the charm has been sucked out of the good commercial films--strong acting, soundtrack, production values etc.

"John Hughes movies really did capture the teenage years."

Yeah, there are SO many teenage boys out there like that dreamboat Jake Ryan. HAH! Actually, I thought his stupid teen comedies were ludicrous.

I think you're getting your decades confused, r33. The 1980s had MORE fear -- Cold War, AIDS, economy, etc. -- and the 1990s were when things started to look hopeful.

Hughes' movies were what a Boomer thought a GenX teen's life was like. They weren't relatable in the least. The sex comedies, horror movies and teen farces were more entertaining because they didn't try to be realistic or have any kind of heartwarming message.

One of the things I dislike about mainstream big-budget 80s films is their absolute insistence on portraying lives in caricatures and broad strokes.

A lot of Karens in this thread.The lack of Internet was truly a blessing.

I didn't appreciate the 90s at the time, but it was very comfortable - even the clothes. Endless new quality music, movies, TV shows, magazines.

You can't underestimate American life before 9/11.

Joyce Hyser (Teri from JUST ONE OF THE GUYS) is so cool and a total liberal. I follow her on Twitter and we often back-and-forth about the shitshow this country has become.

R46 I think the T's aren't so much the ones that are offended (there really are so few of them) it's the 'woke' that get easily offended at anything and there are lots of them.

"Why Do 80’s Movies Make Me Wish I Was a Teen in the 80’s?"

Because you were homophobic?

Because 80's teen movies were extremely homophobic.

It's difficult to find one that doesn't have the word "fag" in it.

Maybe you liked seeing an unconscious girl get raped and then say, "I think I liked it" like in16 Candles? Or you liked the racist humor that went with the character Long Duc Dong?

IIRC, one of the "decent" things about "One of the Guys" is when the girl dressed as a boy admits to her friend that she is attracted to him. And although he is not attracted to guys, his response is not homophobic. He does get angry at her for lying to him.

That and the fact that there was at least a minimal gloss of feminism to that movie.

BTW, that movie was already remade with Datalounge cuckoo bananas former favorite Amanda Bynes.

Never saw that version.

R58 John Hughes' best was the National Lampoon movies

I loved Clark Griswold

I graduated high school in 1987. I can't express how much I miss the 80s, I would give anything to go back. It was an amazing time to be a teen.

R79 God, you sound exhausting! Probably cynical about everything.

[quote]The '80s were so much fun. Going to the movies wasn't a chore like it was pre-pandemic. People didn't have phones as distractions and the movies were fun, and there was variety. In 1985 alone, I remember seeing TBC, JOOTG, Return to Oz, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo, The Goonies, Jewel of the Nile, Clue, The Legend of Billie Jean, Maxie, One Magic Christmas and A View to a Kill. I miss those days.

The Top 10 grossers of the year were also very diverse. For example, in 1985 the highest-grossing films were:

1) Back to the Future 2) Rambo: First Blood Part II 3) Rocky IV 4) The Color Purple 5) Out of Africa 6) Cocoon 7) The Jewel of the Nile 8) Witness 9) The Goonies 10) Spies Like Us

R32 Yes, Independent movies really flourished in the '90s. I would say they reached their zenith in that decade. I remember many Hollywood stars wanting to do Indies for 'street cred.' Johnny Depp was a major Indie darling in the '90s who eschewed blockbusters. Unfortunately, that changed in the 2000s when he got his first taste of superstardom when he starred in THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN and earned an Oscar nomination. But he may also have seen the writing on the wall and realized that Independent movies were on their way out.

R8 That means you were born in the 1930s. Wow. Could you tell us what it was like to be a kid/young person in the '40s/'50s? I think the main teen hangout then was the soda/malt shop, which became obsolete sometime in the '60s.

R66 You sound like a humorless SJW. They are so pessimistic all of the time and can never seem to enjoy themselves, because they are always angry and on a crusade about something, usually about 'how horrible America is and always has been.' Stop and smell the roses, for God's sake!

OMG R8! How are you still breathing?

R24 that’s what it’s all about for me. That ass, those thighs and pecs, that chest....

Uh, I mean—what? Forget I said anything!

R88 Over the past year, I binge-watched GIMME A BREAK! on YouTube and there was an episode where Zabka played the boyfriend of the youngest daughter. Not only did Zabka look yummy, but his tight jeans really showed his bubble butt and package.

I couldn't find any photos, but here's the full episode:

OP: If you were a gay teen in the 80s you were living in a waking nightmare of AIDS.

AIDS. Agonishing death. Got it?

The carefree 80s was purely a heterosexual reality, and a fantasy peddled by gay film makers like Allan Carr who were living in private terror that their last rentboy had infected them.

And, AND in 1982 it was sex that would kill you! They didn’t tell us that it was mainly gay sex until later and they didn’t tell you about safer sex until even later.

Add that shit to Mutually Assured Destruction and a president suffering visible dementia and tell me how fucking concerned I should be about getting into a shit college!

I was a kid in the 80s too. I looked up to Silver Spoons and Different Strokes as kids with perfect lives.

R92 For me it was The Brady Bunch even if Jan was a wet blanket and Cindy an annoying little cunt.

[quote]R53: AID's made being a teenager in the 80's...

‘Oh, Dear” is simply not enough for this. Instead, how about this? YOU ARE TOO STUPID FOR LIFE.

The 1980s did look like fun. Pity I was a teenager in the 1990s.

Maybe this is an incorrect assumption, but to me there is something appealing about the freedom to exist that ‘80s teens seemed to have had. At least, the hetero ones.

I was a 2000s teen, and imo it was a dark and sad time to be young. Yeah, we had the Wild West version of the Internet and cellophones without built-in cameras that were great, but most of us had neglectful-yet-helicoptering parents & authority figures constantly shoving threats down our throat and piling pressure on our heads. Culture and competition noticeably accelerated, while the world seemed to shrink. Cliques became more ferocious and insular; less fun and less good-natured than those of previous decades. Also the market crashed, terr0rism was on the rise, and everywhere was an oppressive feeling that shit was about to get even worse. We had known war criminals leading us. I think that might be why culture took on a desperately glittery and superficial tone—to offset the despair we all experienced (maybe like disco/dance culture did for the 70s?)

As a Millennial I feel my peer group had a sheltered, tortured, depressive existence compared to the ostensibly-carefree and ambitious youngsters of the 80s and 90s. There’s a reason that Goths became Emos became depressed nihilistic Hipsters in the space of 10 short years...

I know R86.

[quote] AIDS. Agonishing death. Got it?

Got it. Thank you Liza/r90.

R89 So Samantha was the Mackenzie Philips of that show?

R55, what kept you? You're usually much quicker to shit all over an 80s thread. The decade was not dark for everyone. The Snorks, Growing Pains, Kool Aid, Pizza Hut, riding bikes until dusk and a million other things made it quite enjoyable.

R100 lists THE SNORKS as an upside and the first one in a list no less💀💀💀

Listen to their theme song and tell me it doesn't put you in a positive mood.

It's interesting that the teen movies in the 80's were just silly fun, and the YA stuff now is all goth/emo formula- one unremarkable outcast "plain" kid discovers that they have special powers or mental fortitude, and saves their community/city/world, with an optional makeover montage to show that they've been gorgeous all along.

I don't want the internet anymore! I want to see you at the movies and mall! Not looking on your phone. Not looking on your phone! Hi, you wanted a like and text? I'm right here!

Maybe I'm romanticizing it a little.

'80s teen comedies had a lot of gratuitous nudity, too.

Robert Downey Jr was some of my first masturbation material.

R100 loves the 80s because of the fucking Snorks and he thinks it's OTHERS who are shitting all over the thread.

Don't forget the million other things you miserable cunt!

Teenagers take over the world!

Why is Regina always forgotten among the 80s final girls? Is she too chill, or too far from the usual idea of a final girl?

[quote] I was in my 50s throughout the 80s

So you are in your 90s now R8?

50s - 1980s

60s - 1990s

70s - 2000s

80s - 2010s

90s - 2020s

Props for still staying together and youthful and savvy enough to be online!

WRONG DECADE. All the easy-going sexual freedom was in the 70s. Unlike that decade, the 80s were hard edged and more manic, and as Rupert Everett has written, if you were a gay man you felt like you were living on one side of a glass wall. On one side was ‘normal life’ as it was then: Reagan, Gowns for Guns, cocaine, frizzed hair, and neon and pastel everything. On the other: creeping dread.

So I'm trying to reconcile everything I've read on DL about how awful the 80s were for gay men because of AIDS and everyone dying and fear that you could die from a single sexual encounter with the theme of this thread.

Maybe if you were a teenager AIDS wasn't a big deal yet as you were not having sex?

Overall, as a child of the late 90s and early 00s (born in 1985), the 80s were the last time high schoolers seemed to have unsupervised childhoods--spending all day at the mall, etc., and just dealing with high school and not worrying about what came next, parents only having a limited idea of what you were up to. (Or so it seems.)

By the time I was in high school, all our time was accounted for, building a resume for college was a thing (no after school jobs at the Gap unless you were helping build their IT systems) and everything just seemed much more intense. (9-11 didn't help, especially growing up in Manhattan, but even prior, things had gotten much more intense.)

A lot of that is because the massive gap between the top 15% and the lower 85% was just beginning to start and so there wasn't as much despair on one end and fear of getting shut out on the other and there seemed to be a national youth culture promulgated by MTV.

If you look at kids now, the gap between how that top 15% and the lower 85% live now--right down to fashion and musical tastes--is pretty massive while in the 80s it was still pretty much unnoticeable.

R109, because her sister, a lady scientist, and a little girl with a rabbit also survived.

It explains a lot about what's going on with Datalounge these days that this thread has people rightly pointing out the 80s weren't great, especially for gays or gay teens, and getting "fuck you, cunt, we had the SNORKS back then" in response.

I'm GenX and I don't know many people in my age cohort (gay or otherwise) who think their teens were their best years.

Makes sense though R114

For many DLers the world has been frozen in amber since around 1987 or so and they desperately wish the last 30 years had not happened.

OK, some of you SJWs or just down right touchy Marys have steered this thread away from its original topic. It was about 80s movies and how they made you nostalgic about that time. Just because some gays had a blast in the 80s does not invalidate your feelings of ostracization, oppression, and victimization. Stop hijacking threads with personal agendas. Or seek therapy and I mean that with no snark.

Always thought it would be cool to live in the world of Two Coreys. It just seemed like lurid, stupid, dramatic suburban-teen fun, without too much angst (Unlike their real lives, of course, which were sad and dark..).

My particular favourite comfort-movie is DREAM A LITTLE DREAM, which I’ve seen so many times that I know it by heart beat-for-beat. 1988-9 seemed like an awesome year (I was born in 1993, so idk if it really was).

The 80s had some of the best kids movies.

D.A.R.Y.L.

The Boy Who Could Fly

Flight of the Navigator

You're a dizzy little queen OP and I mean that in the best possible way ❤💕

Nighttime soap operas were huge in the 80s and dominated the ratings

I think a lot of young teen gay boys emulated Alexis from Dynasty, Abby from Knots Landing and even tragic figure Sue Ellen from Dallas from the soaps in in the 80s

Stand By Me

Red Dawn

The 80s and 90s were the last era where everyone grew up watching the same tv shows and movies. Nowadays, everything is so fractured.

Nah. A lot of present days young people grew up on "Teen Wolf." How do you think Colton has 6 million followrs?

Mr. Mom

[quote]Nighttime soap operas were huge in the 80s and dominated the ratings

Daytime soaps were big, too. The Daytime Emmys were on par with the Primetime Emmys. The fictional wedding of GENERAL HOSPITAL's Luke & Laura drew 30 million viewers. For comparison, Charles & Diana's wedding only drew 17 million the same year. (This is in the US, btw.)

Yes, soaps were big. I remember rushing home to watch Y&R which aired here in Canada at 4:30.

Films for kids were fun and about kids. Films could be 80 mins, 90 mins. They didn't need to be 2 1/2 hours like the recent Wonder Woman movie.

Best thing about these movies is people looked good.

I started watching what I thought was Valley Girl the other day but it turned out to be some horrid musical version of it? Horrid. Who designs these nightmarish ideas?

R131 why was that? No internet? No soy lecithin in all the food? Or was it just that the cameras were more forgiving?

People tried to watch their weight and portion sizes were smaller. Compare a commercial for food from the 80s to now.

Interesting how much more human togetherness is in these commercials.

Also, they tend to hire plain-to-ugly actors for movies/shows. My friend says it's because nowadays casting directors are mainly female SJWs who resent traditionally beautiful people.

For me, "War Games" (1983) and "Tron" (1982) were the two biggest influences on me as a teen. They both showed a world of computers that was on the horizon. It was just about at the same time that we got our Atari game system.

I was born right at the tail end of the decade, so I didn't get to really experience it the way others did, but there was some carryover into the 90's and almost all my favorite movies were either made in the 70's or 80's. It was such a creative time for both indies and Hollywood. Some great stuff in the 90's, too, but by the millennium, the remakes and reboots and comic book movies took over and, pretty soon, it was hard for a decent film to get made. I hope this changes soon.

[quote] Also, they tend to hire plain-to-ugly actors for movies/shows. My friend says it's because nowadays casting directors are mainly female SJWs who resent traditionally beautiful people.

Just like today, most A listers are the product of media hype and connections. There are exceptionally beautiful and talented actors in almost every decade but most work under the radar.

"I can't express how much I miss the 80s, I would give anything to go back. It was an amazing time to be a teen."

You'd give anything to do back to the 80s? You'd go back to when gay men were dying like flies of AIDS and Ronald Reagan was President. You are one crazy fuck.

You forgot young and hunky Robert Beltran, R113. I wouldn't have minded sharing the end of the world with him.

I sense many of the former gaylings on this thread were male versions of those heft Facts of Life leads. Dating and sex seemed like a pipe dream so AIDS wasn't even scary, sex was such a remote possibility.

*hefty

"Stop and smell the roses, for God's sake!"

There weren't that many roses to smell in the 80s. Do you remember anything about the 80s at all except for the John Hughes and Brat Back movies and the huge hair and Madonna and MTV and soap operas and the malls and coke binges? Was that what the 80s were for you? If so, that's really kind of pitiful.

Gimme a break!

R139 I get what both you and r138 are saying. The 1980s will still be my wonder decade. There was the horror of Reagan and AIDS and the exhilaration of ACT UP, Madonna and the Pyramid rip. The energy and creativity I felt in New York shaped me and has lasted throughout my life since.

Pretty people are still cast in American films, movies and TV show.

Riverdale for example.

There's a slight trend to more "British" style casting (e.g., more of acting talent less on beauty)

All of the same sort of teen movies are being made, they're just not shown in places where DL's Eldergays ever see them.

Exactly. Are those movies with Joey King and Jacob Elordi not the kind of brainless, bougie shit some are trumpeting in this thread?

I like visual beauty so I'm all for pretty boys. I sat through all of Riverdale, oh yeah.

Can KJ Apa act?

R147 Not really, movies like The Kissing Booth and Twilight are completely shallow and pale in comparison. There have been some good 80s style teen movies that have come out since, but back in the 70s there wasn't really anything that great told from the teen perspective. Last Picture Show was a great movie about the loss of innocence but it wasn't really about teenage issues that were relatable. Generally, teens and young adults became the most important demographic and you would start to see actors that were closer physically to the characters they were supposed to portray.

"Stranger Things" is largely from teens' perspective.

“Stand By Me” in 1986 is still my favorite coming-of-age movie.

Because that was the last decade that movies for young adults weren't sugar-coated and child-proofed.

Sugar coated like Larry Clark's "Kids"?

Stop trying to make 80s teen movies happen R153

They're not going to happen.

See also "Clueless."

Do people forget that Stand By Me was a Steven King movie?

Right, r38.

We could joke about blowing up the high school in HEATHERS because that was unheard of. Now motherfuckers be shooting up high schools every year.

REVENGE OF THE NERDS could joke about recording sorority girls nude without their permission and then selling the nude photos to the rest of the school because it was only fiction that seemed so far-fetched.

Nowadays, revenge porn is spread to millions of people every day and some victims actually kill themselves over it.

The '80s were a LITTLE more innocent.

Wasn't "I Don't Like Mondays" about a student blowing their classmates away?

R159 “It livens up the day!”

Don't forget this little gem.

I don't know what r84 is talking about.

There are far more independent movies today and they have better quality consistently than most in the '90s. I don't recall Johnny Depp being in anything independent in the '90s. Maybe quirky, but EDWARD SCISSORHANDS was still a wide release by a studio at the multiplex. CRY BABY in the '80s was pretty milquetoast for John Waters.

Depp started doing more character-driven indies around the time of PIRATES and never stopped doing them. I like THE RUM DIARY and BLACK MASS.

Anyone who says "SJW" is a reactionary shitstain, a hypocrite and totally dishonest about the world and his privileges.

r86 might be good to ignore.

I think MTV is the best part of being a teen in the 80s.

Maybe because NIGHT OF THE COMET is an obscure piece of shit that nobody liked in the '80s, r109?

Listen, all you "AIDS vs. Snorks" cunts:

Every decade has joy and sorrow. Every decade has good and bad. They don't negate each other and it's not a crime to love aspects of the '80s while hating others.

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have ... The Facts of Life.

And those are the facts!

It figures your post would be accompanied by a still of Lisa Welchel.

R165 I just watched Night of the Comet last month and it actually holds up quite well. Loved it then, loved it now.

KIDS was 1995, r154.

Hello?

Yes, and someone said the 1980s was the last decade before "sugar coating."

KIDS was an independent movie. Not Rated, so most movie theaters wouldn't even show it.

JUST ONE OF THE GUYS was in every mall.

In fact, sex comedies have almost never played in theaters for the last 30 years. Gratuitous nudity and sexual liberation all died out because of AIDS and political correctness.

You get novelty echoes of that genre, like SEX DRIVE, AMERICAN PIE or HOT TUB TIME MACHINE. But few of those are well-done and America is back to its Puritanical ways.

Back to its puritanical ways despite the rise of streaming and of course the continuance of cable?

As a child of the 80s, I know what you mean. I never felt that way about movies from the 50s. I hated all popular culture from the 50s and I'm not sure why.

Even Miss Julie London's "Cry Me a River"?

" They don't negate each other and it's not a crime to love aspects of the '80s while hating others."

What "aspects of the 80s" were worth "loving?" I can't think of any.

I suppose "a full head of hair" wasn't an aspect of the 1980s such as it was once had by posters in this thread DURING the 1980s.

R176, before pleats took over to favor the fat folk, higher waisted pants showed off ass and thighs - sometimes a nice mooseknuckle. Also, shoes lost their chunkiness and became sleek - more slipper-like. Shirts were too blousy, but the cotton was still thick.

Plus, you could purchase a car that ran for more than 18 miles to the gallon - without being foreign.

The movie in the link posted by OP has a lot to answer for in 2021.

So what was better 70s or 80s?

I wasn't alive in the 70s.

R180, people had jobs in the 70s. That’s why you were taught unions were bad and union workers were unqualified and lazy.

Did you have oil shortages?

If Molly Ringwald was the '80s teen movie princess, who was the prince?

I identify with those movies so much. *Sigh*

"I identify with those movies so much. *Sigh*"

You poor thing.

R183 probably Michael J Fox.

You want to be in the 80's because we all romanticize what happened a few decades ago when we hear about it from people who were there. It's different from reading about it an era where all the actors are now dead.

I grew up in the 80's and longed to have lived in the 60's. I heard all the stories from those years and they seemed so much better than my time.

Time creates the illusion that the past was better, but it wasn't. When you're old, if you're lucky enough to make it, you'll hear the youngsters saying they wish they had been around today.

I remember in the 80s, adults romanticized the 50s and in the early 90s it was the 60s. I just loved being a kid in the 80s and didn't really care for boomer nostalgia. Although interestingly enough, I enjoy 60s pop culture more than the 70s so some of that boomer nostalgia may have rubbed off on me. 80s is still my favorite though.

The 80s celebrated douchebaggery and pretentiousness. MTV celebrated style over substance. The rock bands all sang about partying, fighting and having sex. Even network TV shows were trashy and featured people wearing expensive clothes but speaking shitty dialog. All the movies were about winning and being the best athlete, stockbroker, etc. People boasted their materialistic possessions, including name-brand clothing. Clothing and hairstyles were over-the-top.

But at least latchkey kids had some freedom and independence to figure things out on their own.

Things started to change in the early 90s when grunge took over, and the Internet gave way to the rise of the nerds.

[Quote] But at least latchkey kids had some freedom and independence to figure things out on their own.

Wasn't Fiona Apple raped in the 80s?

[quote] The 80s celebrated douchebaggery and pretentiousness. MTV celebrated style over substance. The rock bands all sang about partying, fighting and having sex. Even network TV shows were trashy and featured people wearing expensive clothes but speaking shitty dialog. All the movies were about winning and being the best athlete, stockbroker, etc. People boasted their materialistic possessions, including name-brand clothing. Clothing and hairstyles were over-the-top.

No, there was a lack of cynicism and celebration of being young and carefree. Perhaps, the 80s sucked if you were an adult. But if you were a child or teen, it was the best. Plus, the music was really awesome.

R191, I was 5 to 14 in the 80s, and it sucked. But I wasn't cool, rich, and attractive, so maybe that's why it sucked.

[quote] Maybe if you were a teenager AIDS wasn't a big deal yet as you were not having sex?

There's nothing like a frau offering their perspective.

BITCH: if you're a gay male teenager you're either HAVING sex, or THINKING about 24/7! It fucking doesn't suddenly happen at 18! It consumes your consciousness. And the thought that it might KILL you poisoned what should have been the happiest years of tens of thousands of gay teenagers in the 80s. Jesus Christ.

[Quote] Nah. A lot of present days young people grew up on "Teen Wolf." How do you think Colton has 6 million followrs?

I really don't think it was solely because of Teen Wolf. The show isn't that well known.

[Quote] I started watching what I thought was Valley Girl the other day but it turned out to be some horrid musical version of it? Horrid. Who designs these nightmarish ideas?

I don't know, but the pastels certainly didn't help. Apparently it was a shitshow behind the scenes as well.

The 1980s was like Cinderella's ball, and on January 1, 1990, the world turned back into a pumpkin.

I loved Night of the Comet too r109. Its still one of my favorites.

[quote]Stop hijacking threads with personal agendas

I don't understand how immature people like you can even get through life, R116. We were having a conversation on this thread, an adult conversation where people brought their multiple viewpoints into the mix, and someone had to come along and cry like a baby about someone's perfectly normal opinion "shitting up the thread." No one was screwing up the thread at all, it was just some loser who couldn't handle a difference of opinion.

And you're the same, you can't seem to take other opinions without sobbing big hot rightwing tears about "SJWs." You're a child. A boring one, to boot.

This happens on every decent thread we have, people like YOU have to come along and start hurling insults, and if someone says anything about it, you get even deeper up your own asses and start bringing your weird online incel politics into it, and claim it's someone else's fault. But it's always yours.

Anyone who claims the 1980s lacked cynicism knows so little about the decade they shouldn't be listened to.

There's a famous NYT op-ed from 1992 hailing the 1990s as being the "End of Cynicism." Just type in "cynicism and the 1980s" (without the quotes) and read the endless articles and studies on the massive cynicism that overtook the entire culture in the 1980s.

I really feel like there are people here who were neither teens in the 1980s nor Americans (then or now) who are trying to stir up shit. Half this thread feels made up.

Internet is a double edged sword ⚔️. But I can't tell if it killed the 80s and 90s way of life and made people complacent and neglecting of other people, or if adults were always like this and I was a kid.

R183 hello? You even have to ask?

R172 god, I forgot how hilarious SEX DRIVE is. James Marsden is incredibly funny in it, one of his finest performances.

[quote][R183] probably Michael J Fox.

Good one, r186. I was thinking it might be Rob Lowe, Matthew Broderick or John Cusack. But Michael J. Fox definitely has them beat.

My initial attraction to Brandon from Sean Cody was because he looked like an '80s prep school kid in his early videos. That was before he built too much muscle and became a mess on social media.

Speaking of Rob Lowe, anyone remember Jaqueline Bisset as the '80s teen version of Mrs Robinson?

Yeah, I would say Michael J. Fox, too. Not only was FAMILY TIES (1982-1989) a ratings success, mainly because of him, but he also won 3 consecutive Emmys for the show (1986, 1987, 1988). Concurrently, he was also starring in some major blockbusters: in 1985, he had TEEN WOLF and BACK TO THE FUTURE, both of which were huge hits and the latter was even the #1 film of the year; in 1987, he had THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS, which was the #7 film of the year; in 1989, he had BACK TO THE FUTURE PART II, which was the #3 film of the year.

[quote] before pleats took over to favor the fat folk, higher waisted pants showed off ass and thighs

Wait... I thought pleated high waisted pants were 80s pants??

Whenever you see 80s movies everyone is wearing pleated pants.

[quote]My initial attraction to Brandon from Sean Cody was because he looked like an '80s prep school kid in his early videos.

LOL! He really did. So innocent and fresh-faced. His personality was very sweet, too.

[quote] BITCH: if you're a gay male teenager you're either HAVING sex, or THINKING about 24/7! It fucking doesn't suddenly happen at 18! It consumes your consciousness. And the thought that it might KILL you poisoned what should have been the happiest years of tens of thousands of gay teenagers in the 80s. Jesus Christ.

Imagine being the sort of person who gets this worked up about a nostalgia thread on an anonymous gossip board.

And he's making it sound like every gay teenager had his experience and was thinking about AIDS or even cared. Many gay teens back then were as vapid and uninterested in politics or stuff like that as many gay teens today. Pop culture was the main obsession of many teens, gay or straight. Even those gays who didn't have an ideal upbringing or were shamed to be gay, used pop culture as escapism. Not every gay teen was a mini crusader. They were a very small minority. Look at how many young people today don't care about Covid-19. Teens/twentysomethings think they're invincible.

R208, you were not there or you were busy adjusting that helmet you wore to ride the bus.

There needs to be a streaming service with nothing but 80’s content. All the TV shows and movies. Soap operas. Replays of sporting events. Music videos. Replays of award shows from that decade. It could be major.

Great idea R210. Sign me up for it.

[quote] There needs to be a streaming service with nothing but 80’s content. All the TV shows and movies. Soap operas. Replays of sporting events. Music videos. Replays of award shows from that decade. It could be major.

I mean there's already an entire message board, so why not a streaming service.

R210 Too many rights issues I assume. Although VH1 did those I love the 80s shows and they used tons of clips.

[quote] Anyone who claims the 1980s lacked cynicism knows so little about the decade they shouldn't be listened to.

[quote] There's a famous NYT op-ed from 1992 hailing the 1990s as being the "End of Cynicism." Just type in "cynicism and the 1980s" (without the quotes) and read the endless articles and studies on the massive cynicism that overtook the entire culture in the 1980s.

I haven't read the article but I can tell you we have become much, much more cynical over the years so the article would be wrong.

While I do think some people who grew up in the 80's are looking at that period with rose-tinted glasses, it's very hard to argue that movies weren't better back then. There was almost always a diverse group of movies playing in theaters at just about any given time. They had their big budget superhero movies and family films, but they also had mature dramas for adults, horror movies, and comedies all playing at once. Many of these films are still remembered and enjoyed to this day.

And to the person who called Night of the Comet a piece of shit, I feel sorry for you. What's it like to not be able to experience joy in your life?

In the 80's we had practically no access to foreign and independent films unless you lived in the big cities, and even then it was only 2 or 3 movies playing in tiny art houses. So much for how goos the 80's were in terms of movies.

Now we have that plus mature dramas, horror stories and comedies all playing at once, except on different platforms. One day those platforms will be gone and the new generation will be crying out that these were the good old days.

[quote] In the 80's we had practically no access to foreign and independent films unless you lived in the big cities, and even then it was only 2 or 3 movies playing in tiny art houses. So much for how goos the 80's were in terms of movies.

Are you forgetting about the whole home video boom? Film fans had access to a huge selection of indie films that catered to every taste. When I think of the 80s, I not only think of huge blockbusters, but all the horror, comedy, and action/martial arts films that were flooding the market.

What I love a lot about a lot of those 80s b movies is that they never aspired to be high art. They were just pure fun and often adventurous.

Any male who was a gay man or teen in the eighties and has lived to tell the tale is probably lucky to be alive. I can't understand why a decade where gay men were dying like flies of of a ghastly disease would be remembered so fondly, unless your stupid teen mentality remains with you to this day.

It’s better then, then today. At least gay had an identity. They don’t have one today.

[quote]unless your stupid teen mentality remains with you to this day

Like someone who endlessly lashes out on the internet?

[quote]The Snorks, Growing Pains, Kool Aid, Pizza Hut, riding bikes until dusk and a million other things made it quite enjoyable.

I loved the Snorks and I loved riding bikes. Do you remember the USA Cartoon Express? The 80s were such a great time to be a kid.

I loved Pinwheel.

I had never heard of Pinwheel until I watched the Nickelodeon documentary, The Orange Years, last week.

"The 80s were such a great time to be a kid."

Why is that?

I’m watching Fright Night.

Mmm r226 Chris Sarandon was so hot in that movie. I especially loved the scene in the club when he’s dancing with the girl and he takes her hand and puts it on his ass. To me that was one of the of the sexiest non sex scenes ever.

Buddy from Just One of the Guys was one of my favorite tv/movie little brothers. He was hilarious. I especially loved this scene.

My brother and I still quote it.

Once again, SMH in amazement at the DL Eldergay ability to recall specific scenes from movies and TV shows that aired over 30 years ago.

[quote] Buddy from Just One of the Guys was one of my favorite tv/movie little brothers

He is great. That’s Billy Jacoby of “Bloody Birthday,” “Cujo,” “The Golden Girls” (Blanche’s mouthy grandson) and “Parker Lewis Can’t Lose.” His brother, actor Scott Jacoby, is being discussed in the “Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane” thread as one of stars of that film. Their other brother Bobby was the kid in “Tremors.”

He was also Brad, who was to [italic]Silver Spoons[/italic] as Jolene was to [italic]Alice[/italic].

[quote] Now we have that plus mature dramas, horror stories and comedies all playing at once, except on different platforms

Many more platforms does not equal more creative control. The major streaming platforms are all censoring or trimming classic series for problematic content. I'm sure they exercise similar control on films and series currently in production.

And on the other hand end of the spectrum, you have digital technology making things a little too accessible and those are bad too. The era between the late 70s and early 90s hit that sweet spot where you had independent voices, but also plenty of people willing to work hard at their craft no matter the project.

There was hope in the mid 2000s that the streaming wars would lead to more opportunities for independent filmmakers. What actually is happening is all the major studios are consolidating their own platforms, Netflix and Amazon are spending absurd amounts of money on star salaries and famous properties, and the indies are getting shut out again.

I was able to live through the 80s by being in the closet and staying celibate

Why'd you ever stop, R234?

R227–watching it again, it’s such an allegory about two gay men living next door to a closeted gay teen who feared catching AIDS.

Charlie wasn’t gay, his best friend Evil Ed was.

I turned 18 in 1980, and yes, it was an exhilarating time to be alive. It was the last decade without computers and pocket electronics and CGI in movies. Gay bars were at their peak, but because of AIDS, gay culture was sobering up and becoming more cohesive. Everyone was just so....innocent then. Malls, TCBY, hair gel, spray deodorant, pleated pants, loose comfortable shirts, shaker knit sweaters, the movies,..literally an age of discovery.

[Quote] , gay culture was sobering up and becoming more cohesive.

?

I saw Fright Night a bunch growing up, but I never picked up on the fact that Jerry was supposed to be in a relationship with that guy. I just thought he was Jerry’s human lackey. I guess I was slow...

Evil Ed being gay makes total sense though.

Oh yes, and meeting guys through classified ads in the back pages of alt. Newspapers. The agonizing wait for responses!

[quote]Charlie wasn’t gay

“So, did she find out what you're really like?” - Ed to Charley

The greed and materialism of the 80s made me sick. If I ever mentioned to anyone that I had gotten a new job I was invariably asked "How much do you make?" No kidding, people would do that, and it was SO disgusting.

How much do you make now? ^^

R243 greed and materialism didn’t end with the 80s. The majority of today’s young people aspire to be influencers. Reality tv didn’t take off in the 80s. Today’s wealth gap is much worse today than in the 80s. Selling sex to teenagers ramped up significantly in the decades since.

R239 by “ gay culture was sobering up and becoming more cohesive” I mean that the gay community was coming together and fighting in a way that it had never before. The 80s were when we literally came out of the shadows and started becoming part of the mainstream. AIDS had a lot to do with it, but also the unique 80s sense of freedom. Pride parades, AIDS drives, the Quilt, a few celebs finally coming out the closet. More than that, non-porn magazines like the Advocate and gay literature becoming available in even in mall bookstores. It was literally the first time that gay people were openly mentioned. Remember the Benetton ad of a dying gay man? Jolting on so many levels, but the fact that it existed at all was very representative of the sea-change that had occurred within one decade.

Are you pretending the 1970s never happened?

The 70 were the foundation for the 80s, r247. But being gay was still seen as an illness in the 70s

And AIDS helped gay people go mainstream?

No, AiDs forced gay people to unify in a way they had not before. Not sure why you are nitpicking. I said nothing about AIDS being the cause of mainstreaming the gay community. In fact, mainstreaming occurred in spite of AIDs. The key difference between the 70s and the 80 culture is that had I come out in the 70s, even my ultraliberal parents would have suggested therapy. Coming out in the 80s, at least they were far more informed about it.

How did they get informed?

Divine revelation, Rose @251. The 80s were a time of miracles - and media. And libraries.

Andrew McCarthy, r183.

I have experienced monumental joy in my life, r215.

When NIGHT OF THE COMET ended.

[Quote] The 80s were a time of miracles - and media. And libraries.

And these began in the 1980s, huh?

[191] we are the same age. Also was 5-14 in the 1980's.

And for me it was FUN FUN FUN

Only sore spot was really wanting a boy Cabbage Patch Kid for Christmas (when they were the gigantic huge thing that year) and my parents saying "dolls are for girls". I was 8. Lol. And my buddy Eddie next door did get a boy CPK.

Nonetheless I did score an awesome collection of Star Wars toys & Transformers, & remember when Nintendo first appeared and I was the first kid on my block to "save the princess" on Super Mario Bros.

My brother and I had a vhs copy of Goonies and watched it a million times.

What was not to love? (Too young to know about AIDS ). I do recall the Challenger explosion tho.

Corey Haim was my first celebrity crush. And I did get a woody in my Bugle Boy pants from the hot blonde bully jock in Karate Kid.

[quote]No other decade of cinema produces this effect.

I feel like this part of OP has been quite ignored.

Does anyone watch movies made in the 1950s and pine to have lived then?

R257 I don't think 50's movies really offer as much insight into what life was really like back then. But maybe I'm wrong?

Many of the movies were very silly ideas but they were originals, in the worst case they were the modern version of classic stories like Cinderella. Even the franchises were mostly new ideas. In the 90s, the remades and superheroes started and they never left. Now is a plague.

R259 the Christopher Reeve starring 4 film Superman series (1978-1987) and one off spin off Supergirl (1984) film says hi

It’s neat to see the claims of the insufferable materialism from the 80s when everything out of Hollywood today is a brand or meant to serve a brand. (Let’s not forget catering content of blockbuster movies to the Chinese market purely for financial reasons.) Then we act like the 80s was the Wild West of movie making because titties were everywhere, but all that stuff got censored for TV broadcast - what the granny woke would call cancel culture today. Are they dicking around with problematic content in films today just like in the 80s? Yep. They don’t want their properties to rot away and be forgotten because young people find them lame and embarrassing. Again, a purely financial decision (more like desperate bid to stay relevant).

R226 You're so cool, Brewster.

We had a great DL thread about The Last American Virgin.

ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING (1987) was really fun! As a gayling, I developed a crush on George Newbern because of this movie, DESIGNING WOMEN, and FATHER OF THE BRIDE.

R263 Wasn’t that a remake of an Israeli film of all things?

R265 Yes, basically a shot for shot remake by the same creative team

R263 Love that film and that ending is still such a sucker punch. Lawrence Monoson became a hot gay daddy.

R265 I enjoy the Lemon Popsicle films, the first being the basis for Last American Virgin, as well as most of the sequels. Worth tracking down in Hebrew. Most of the copies I've seen online are poorly dubbed.

[quote] Then we act like the 80s was the Wild West of movie making because titties were everywhere, but all that stuff got censored for TV broadcast - what the granny woke would call cancel culture today.

Films were not meant to be viewed on broadcast television. You could still see those films if you had a copy or went to the theater. Now with films being released exclusively on streaming, there are fewer options to watch those films once you remove the traditional distribution model.

And by the way, I'm not opposed to there being a market that provides family friendly versions as long as people know that is what they are getting.

I didn’t know the great John Hughes died so young. Only 59 and he had a heart attack.

Just like John Candy.

r197, Bitch I'm not a fkin child nor right wing. Get a grip. The thread was veering off track in an annoying way, and i did not realize that was disgruntled poster was all the same person. Now Fuck off.