The Goldbergs : When did the '80s end for you?

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

OK. But, we aren't talking about putting 90's stuff on The Goldbergs. We're talking about how it felt when the decade ended. When 2000 came around people weren't thinking as if they felt the 90's were over. What changed?

I'm guessing you meant that 1989 was the final time IN THE 80'S that the major pop-culture institutions of the 1990's were launched. Obviously, that's true, as the 80's ended in 1989, literally speaking.

If you want to be hyperliteral about it that's your choice, but the thread is about perception, not absolute reality.

It's generally considered amongst historians that the 20th Century didn't begin until 1914 because the attitudes held were still 19th Century. WWI was greeted as a fun little diversion, like any war in the past, but it wasn't to be.

Even if A LOT of stuff preceded the 1900s or even 1914, it all coalesced around that time and foreshadowed the rest of the century.

To most people, I think, its the same with decades.

I think I could go as far as the beginning of 1991 as the beginning of the 1990s with the end of that year coming with the 90's more in full. 1990 was the year of pregnancy, with 1991 giving birth, and 1992 or 1993 coming full as a person.

I could go as early as that because of the Gulf War. No one had seen live footage of war like that, it was over quickly, and so on. By the end of the year, movies had caught up to the changes with T2, music with Nirvana et al.

But, overall 1990 was a nothing year.

I could imagine that conception was achieved in 1989 (a lot of things happened in 1989 that would affect the rest of the world eventually) but it didn't give birth until years later. Nobody knew what the word was going to be like in 1990. What was to be made of the Berlin Wall coming down? It took years before the effects were understood. It was all a gestational period.

To me, I still think it's basically the fall of 1991. This was the time, I think, most people realized the culture, feel, etc of the 80's was over.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

What changed?

I don't remember seeing these words and numbers in an issue of Spy magazine from 1989:

"At the '70s Preservation Society, we believe that the forgotten music of the 1970s must live on forever…Do Your Part, Buy "Those Fabulous '70s". 23 Original Songs By The Original Superstars. To order call: 1-800-933-1970"

'70s music was not played on The Wonder Years in the late '80s, either.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

As I wrote, your being hyperliteral.

This thread is about feelings not a calendar.

Maybe you are grasping the concept and disagree, but I don't think so.

Everyone knows when the new year comes, it's a new year, but does it FEEL like a new year to most people? No, because not much has changed from the couple of days before.

It doesn't matter if there's a million TV shows chronicling the past year, or magazines saying goodbye to 2015, or 2014, or 2013, etc. Or the 80's.

Dozens of magazines said goodbye to the 80's. So what?

Spy was a satirical magazine. Mad magazine saying goodbye to the 80's doesn't mean it FELT like the 80's were gone to most people.

Look at the title of this thread. It's about when people felt the 80's were over.

I think you are in the very, very small minority who thinks when the clock strikes midnight, it feels like a new day!

Technically, it is, but almost nobody is going to think that because they stayed up after midnight that it's a different day. If they go to sleep at 1:00 AM, they don't say I went to sleep in the morning. They say they went to sleep last night.

Technically, they didn't.

The feel of the 80's didn't end when the clock struck 12:01 January 1, 1990. People don't work like that.

Technically, legally, adulthood begins at 18, but it doesn't necessarily feel like a person is an adult when they hit 18. They may still be in high school! Answering the question when did it feel like you were an adult is different than saying 18 is adulthood.

It's all about perception not a calendar.

Nobody was talking about 90's stuff being on this show, but even if it was, the show is about faulty memories and such. They never pin down a date in the show.

The Wonder Years, on the other hand, passed time in chronological order. So, there shouldn't have been any 80's songs back then, esp since it was no where near the 80's.

1990 is one year removed from the 80's. 1980 was 6 years removed (or more) from the last year in the Wonder Years. If however, they had an anachronism from say winter 1974, it's reasonable, if an error.

But, The Goldbergs isn't as linear as TWY. Erica's room has posters for Rick Springfield, which is basically 1981 and NKOTK which is late 80's.

So, there's no point in comparing TWY.

Anyway, you may or may not seem to get the concept. I'll leave it at that.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?


I'm sorry, Jimbofinesse. I cannot help but see 1989 as the last year of the 1980s. '89 was the final time in history when the major pop-culture institutions of the 1990s were launched.

Law and Order premiered in September of 1990 and carried on well into the 2000s. Most hit '90s shows, like Roseanne, were off the air before the 2000s rolled around. So, to me, 1990 was not an '80s year and I refuse to see it as such.
I was thinking about this, too, and while I don't think the 90's started until 92-93, if you look at it from a television standpoint, they did happen earlier. Seinfeld, Law and Order and The Simpsons, three of the most defining television shows of the 90's were all 1989 or 1990 and the next most defining shows (X-Files and Friends) weren't until 93-94. It would be easy to argue that those were "second generation" 90's shows.

However, so much other culturally significant stuff happened in late 91-93 that I don't think the rest of pop-culture was defined until then. The Rodney King verdict was 92, Clinton took office in 92, Desert Storm was early 91, and people have mentioned all of the music that came out at the end of 91 and got huge in 92.

Much of it has to do with where we were in our own lives at the time as well. I was a freshmen in high school in 92-93 so not only was all that cultural stuff happening, but it was a big change for me, too. I remember being entertained at how many seniors had mullets in their senior pictures that year while there were almost none after that. It's like they were the last of the 80's high school kids. By the time second semester came around it was all Pearl Jam, Nirvana and RHCP shirts. Anyone with a mullet would have been behind the times but tolerated because GnR was still huge.\

88-91 was a weird time. The 80's seemed to be winding down but it wasn't clear what was coming up next. People were getting tired of all of the 80's stuff but there wasn't anything else out yet to latch on to. Everyone wanted the next big thing so bad that the "music revolution" happened so quickly once the Seattle bands broke.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

And don't forget the grunge movement, very big in the early 90s.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

Well, that would be most of the music I mentioned that came out in late 91. ;)

What I did forget was the movie "Singles" that came out in September of 92. It was like an instruction manual of how to dress in the 90's for those of use who didn't live in Seattle. The funny thing about that movie was he managed to make it before all that stuff became popular.

Post deleted

This message has been deleted.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

Items from the '90s that Appeared on The Goldbergs So Far

- The New Kids on the Block "Hanging Tough" merchandise (sold in the spring of 1990)

- The Hypercolor shirt

- The "Bo Knows" slogan shirt

- The Dancing Coca Cola can

- The 8 Ball jacket (as you mentioned)

Post deleted

This message has been deleted.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

Post deleted

This message has been deleted.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?



Not sure you read my post. I am aware this band existed in the 90s, but everything the show used was from the first 2 albums.


You must not remember the dawn of the 1990s. "Hanging Tough" merchandise was not in stores until early 1990.


So you're saying that I Love the 80s and the entire internet is wrong?


Yes, Hypercolor was invented in 1988 and sold in January of 1991.


Why not link to the 5th Bo Knows commercial. The rules the show are 1980something. It existed in 89, as did the shirts.


The first Bo Knows commercial, poster (http://www.posters57.com/index.php?main_page=popup_image&pID=669&zenid=dl6jk0ljkg90l25hctinpvsld0, and shirt (http://www.ebay.com/itm/VtG-Nike-Bo-Jackson-You-Dont-Know-DIDDLEY-Bo-Knows-Swoosh-T-Shirt-RARE-/221785141922) existed in 1989, not the slogan t-shirt.


THE CAN SAYS 1989 ON IT. NOT SURE YOU CAN DEBATE THAT. IT LITERALLY HAS THE WORD 1989 ON IT.



That is because it was made in 1989. Copyright dates are not release dates.

Post deleted

This message has been deleted.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?



You are wrong and that makes no sense even. The song was released '88 as was the album. Are you saying it took TWO years to get any merch off that album? Why can't you admit the owning.


The song was released in the summer of '89, not 1988. Yes, I remember seeing the shirts at Spencer Gifts in 1990.



Okay, the entire internet is wrong as is the show I love the 80s. I was in Florida where the factory was, there was hyper color in 89.




http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-19/news/vw-2501_1_color-change


http://articles.latimes.com/1991-09-19/news/vw-3743_1_high-school-students

http://articles.philly.com/1991-09-11/business/25800234_1_t-shirt-disney-characters-retailers

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1991-09-18/news/9102060052_1_hypercolor-t-shirt-heat


https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11543149.html


Your Bo knows refute was all jumbled and hard to read...


Sorry about that.


but I see you admitted it existed in 89 so yeah.


The first ever commercial, shirt, and poster existed in 1989, but not this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Bo-Knows-Jackson-Nike-t-shirt-90s-Baseball-Football-Raiders-Royals-/262404059588



As for the can, feels like a stretch to say it wasn't released in '89. Why?

IT SAYS IT RIGHT THERE ON THE CAN.


So, why wasn't this article made in 1989: http://articles.dailypress.com/1990-09-02/features/9008290329_1_spencer-gifts-cool-shades-fad

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

January 1st 1990 had a lot more in common with December 31st 1989 than it did December 31 1999.

We call it "the 80s" but really it's a blurred together time that combines the 80s with the early 90s. Yes, a few things that defined the 90s like the Simpsons or 90210 officially started in 1990, but the overall feel of the era's pop culture wasn't too different from the late 80s. Just like something that was popular in the late 90s was still popular in the early 2000s.

For example, I think we can all agree that the dominant rock genre of the 80s was hair metal, and it was grunge in the 90s. Well, if you were making a mixtape (or playlist for the youngins) of 80s hair metal songs and another one of 90s grunge songs, which tape would you place Warrant's "Cherry Pie" on? Sure, the song was released in the 90s, but it's still very much an 80s hair metal song, not a 90s grunge song.

I think most of us that were alive during that period, the late 80s and early 90s always blur together. For me, that was my childhood. For some people it may have been their teen years, for others maybe their young adult years. You don't separate it that drastically just because the date change on the calendar.

As far as the Goldbergs go, I don't care if they're using some stuff from the early 90s because just like Adam, I remember all of that from my childhood. I watched the Transformers cartoon and a lot of the other 80s stuff they reference during childhood, but I also remember and wearing (or at least wanting) Hypercolor shirts, also during my childhood. By the time I was a teenager, Hypercolor wasn't a thing anymore, so I do consider them a part of my childhood. My childhood started in the 80s, but it leaked through to the early 90s too, that's all basically one era.

Post deleted

This message has been deleted.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

The '80s were leading up to the year 1990, so I can see why some young people think of 1990 as an "'80s year". However, I will always see 1990 as the first year of the '90s. The early '90s were far cheesier than the '80s.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

From a geo-political standpoint, arguably when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved or when Bill Clinton was elected as president (ending about 12 years of Reagan-Bush).

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

The world definitely changed when the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

For me the '80s ended Fall 1990 when I turned 18 and started college living away from home for the first time. Grunge soon arrived which further established the new decade of the 90's.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

I was born in the late 80's but was raised with a big, boxy TV with faux-Walnut paneling, a brown rotary phone, and a boombox that only played cassettes. My parents never let go of old things so I feel like the 80's hung on (at least around my house) a lot longer than they probably should have.

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

1992-93 pretty much felt like an "end of an age" or last hurrah (before the it was time to "clean house") so to speak from a TV standpoint. It was when many shows that were big hits during the '80s ended their respective runs:
*Growing Pains

*MacGyver

*Perfect Strangers

*Designing Women

*Night Court

*Who's the Boss

*Cheers

*The Cosby Show

*Johnny Carson's Tonight Show

*The Golden Girls

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

I hated to see many of these shows end especially Golden Girls, Designing Woman and Johnny Carson. You are right, that was at the end of 80s tv.

~ Whoever said diamonds were a girls best friend never owned a dog ~

Re: When did the '80s end for you?

You make a good point, TMC. A lot of good 80s tv shows ended in the early 90s. I know millions hated to see Johnny Carson leave the Tonight Show. That was an end of the 80s era.

<“Every man of courage is a man of his word.” - Pierre Corneille>
Top