Redartz: Good day, and welcome to another excursion back into our collective past. Today we depart our time-travelling public transport and find ourselves at Wednesday, December 9, 1981. As we look around and get oriented, let us see what's going on:
Blaring from radios everywhere is the current number 1 song on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100: Olivia Newton John with "Physical":
Olivia is in the middle of what will be a 10 week run at the top of the chart. "Physical" will be named Billboard's number 1 single for 1982. The video is pretty popular as well; music videos are getting a lot of attention these days. There is a club that my art school friends and I frequent that shows videos of the new bands from the UK on Friday nights. One memorable example was "Girls on Film" by a group called Duran Duran.
Rounding out the top five hits:
2. Foreigner- "Waiting for a Girl Like You"
3. The Police- "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic"
4. The Commodores- "Oh No"
5. Earth, Wind and Fire- "Let's Groove"
I'm in college now, and my tv viewing has decreased a bit (I'm spending a lot of evenings in the photolab), but I still like some entertainment to unwind. On schedule for this evening:
 |
| "The Greatest American Hero" |
CBS: "Mr. Merlin", then "WKRP in Cincinnati", "Nurse" and "Shannon"
NBC: "Real People", "The Facts of Life", "Love, Sidney" and "Quincy, M.E."
BBC2: Showing "Life on Earth", "M*A*S*H*", and "The Borgias"
Personally, I often catch "Greatest American Hero"- it is, after all, right up any comic book fan's alley. Still love WKRP, and must admit to watching "Real People" from time to time.
And a big thumbs up to PBS for showing David Attenborough's excellent "Life on Earth" on this side of the Atlantic. You'll never catch me watching "Dynasty", though- not a fan of the soaps. What are you going to be watching ?
Hey, tomorrow is new comic day! I'm pretty excited, as this is shaping up to be a great month for comics. On the racks today:
That JLA Anniversary issue is bound to be a classic. That wraparound cover is beautiful, and what an array of talent inside! I've also been loving Roger Stern's work on Amazing Spider-Man, here we have the Black Cat returning. On the down side, this month's Avengers is helping convince me to drop the title. However, I'll be replacing it with Marvel Fanfare. Also noticing now the increasing variety of independent comics available at our local comic shop, such as Kirby's "Captain Victory". Hard to afford many on an art student's budget, but I try...
Well, as we see, pop culture has a lot to offer in 1981. Pretty good time to be out and about. Thanks for joining the tour, come back again for our next trip back!
14 comments:
Oh, yeah. JLA 200. That was probably my favorite comic offering of that month. Still love that issue. And since this was when I was still in my absolute peak of comics-reading, I had a bunch of the other stuff you pictured, like Spider-man, Avengers (yep, pretty grim stuff at that point), Captain Victory, the spellbinding Marvel Fanfare...
As to the other pop culture signifiers of the time, man, "Let's Get Physical" grated on my nerves (still does), and so did Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You" for that matter - and I was a minority in my 8th grade class at the time, as most of the other kids seemed to love that song, and also the similarly sappy offerings of Air Supply ... ugh. I was loving the Police, though, and really liked the no. 3 song listed.
On the TV front, I totally remember that line-up of Greatest American Hero followed by The Fall Guy. Loved those shows! Never watched Dynasty though, which again, put me in a minority among my peers at school. I generally liked WKRP, too, but I mainly caught those later seasons during summer reruns, because it conflicted with that guy in the cape and red long-johns.
Thanks for the nostalgia trip, Redartz!
Gosh, where to start. I was 15 at the time and December 9th would have been during the week of the school Christmas exams - Christmas began when they finished !! The UK #1 single was the Human League's "Don't You Want Me" - the new BBC Top 40 came out on Tuesdays in those days and The Human League had begun their five-week run at #1 just the day before, replacing Julio Iglesias and "Begin The Beguine" as I recall. And congratulations on discovering BBC Genome, Redartz - yes, "Life On Earth" is considered to be a classic and David Attenborough is still around at the age of 90 - he is currently the presenter of "Planet Earth 2" (sequel to Planet Earth from 2006) and a couple of weeks before the U.S. election he suggested that somebody should shoot Donald Trump (obviously he was joking...or was he ???). My father was a massive fan of M*A*S*H* and it was always shown on British TV without its' laughter track - the BBC removed it. As I recall, "The Borgias" was considered to be awful - Adolfo Celi who played Rodrigo Borgia (Pope Alexander VI) had a very strong Italian accent which was difficult to understand. American comics were sold in the UK in the actual month on the cover so the ones shown here weren't on sale till March 1982 but in December '81 I was just getting into John Byrne's Fantastic Four. I remember ordering a small parcel of American Marvel comics via mail order from a comics club and when they arrived I desperately wanted to read them but it was just before the school Christmas exams I mentioned earlier so I stuffed the parcel behind a cupboard till the exams were over - it was agony having to wait but it was worth it :D
Finishing my first year of college, certainly wasn't following any comics at the time, which 'course made me wonder a few years later who this 'Wolverine' guy was. Loved WKRP and other shows at the time, when I could catch 'em (didn't have a TV in my room...). Besides, was too busy dating coeds.
Agreed on the Avengers comments, when I started filling my collection holes a few years later, these were purchased out of curiosity, not at all for the writing/art/storyline. I will say the Fanfare issues sounded like a marvelous idea to spotlight new artists and away-from-title storylines which don't quite fit into a team-up book. Many here will stand by their ground on Byrne's stellar work during this time, but frankly, my head just wasn't in it, even as I collect the back issues of this time. The Zuvembie spark was gone, folks. My focus quickly switched to the new Titans book, and back-filling early issues I missed.
MTV was still the coolest thing, with the rise of the Police, Prince and other Eighties stars.. Leg warmers and Izod shirts in huge abundance. Wish I was back there some days.
Sorry to go off topic, but I just saw, and felt the need to share, the trailer for the next Spider-man film by Marvel Studios - it looks like we may finally get an awesome Spidey movie. Also, and crucially, judging by this trailer it looks like we won't get another re-hash of his origin. I'm really looking forward to this one...
I've just taken a look at the UK singles chart for that week. As Colin said, the Human League were Number One. Other singles that I approved of on the chart that week were:
5. Bedsitter - Soft Cell.
7. It Must Be Love - Madness.
12. Cambodia - Kim Wilde (possibly my favourite single of the 1980s).
13. I Go To Sleep - The Pretenders.
24. The Land of Make Believe - Bucks Fizz.
30. Tears Are Not Enough - ABC.
32. Joan of Arc - OMD.
As Colin says, "The Borgias," was the subject of much ridicule at the time and was mostly watched by people who wanted to laugh at it. I suspect it was a product of BBC2's desire to replicate the success it had had with the classic show, "I Claudius," but every time it made that attempt, it'd fail embarrassingly. The most spectacular example of that syndrome being, "The Cleopatras," one of the most derided shows in history, every episode of which is on YouTube, possibly because the BBC can't even be bothered to protect its copyright.
I was a big fan of Greatest American Hero and Fall Guy. I think I was still watching WKRP and MASH as well. My mom was a big Jack Klugman fan, so she watched Quincy religiously, and both my parents liked Dynasty.
I had a few of the comics mentioned (JLA, Amazing, and maybe DC Presents), plus a couple more not featured here: Marvel Tales #137 (beginning reprints of the classic Lee/Ditko run) and New Teen Titans #17 (with Frances Kane freaking out on the cover).
As for music, I was mostly buying those K-Tel compilation records back then, though I may have had the odd album (Styx's Paradise Theater came out in '81, didn't it?)
Mike Wilson
Mike W., yep, Paradise Theatre did indeed come out in (early) 1981. Had it, as I was a big Styx fan at the time (...now not so much...). That was a really popular album by the way: I remember that some of the songs from it, like Rockin' the Paradise, Snowblind and Nothing Ever Goes as Planned, got played a lot on the radio, and during my older brother's high school graduation ceremony that year, the senior class choir members sang The Best of Times (and then, the irony apparently lost on them, Loverboy's Turn Me Loose was played as the graduates left the auditorium at the end of the ceremony).
The Avengers during this time was hard to enjoy with the fall of Hank Pym, but I kept reading for another year. Marvel Fanfare was good in the beginning, but quickly decreased in quality for me.
Watched the Greatest American Hero, WKRP and MASH.
1981 was a good year! I don't know what was going on at CBS because other than WKRP I don't recognize any of those shows at all.
When I was reading this post I felt like I had a time-screw-loose....some things just didn't match out in my mind. I thought Real People aired much earlier in my life and I thought Marvel Fanfare appeared much later. But nope... it was all during my first year of high school.
It seems like we all liked the same shows for the most part. 1981 was a good year for movies too with Raiders of the Lost Ark, Stripes, Superman II, Time Bandits, and even Canonball Run.
Nice job Red! (But I also blame you for putting Physical in my head on replay!)
Like Eric, I only had about another year and I was done with comics for about 30 years or so.
For Junior Prom, the song was voted on and Styx and Lionel Ritchie came in a tie:
the theme was "Truly, The Best of Times"
Getting old kinda sucks but it also is kinda cool to think back to when Life was so full of Promise, and how little we knew...
Yoyo
@Edo: I STILL have my cassette (remember those?) of Paradise Theater; also Pieces of Eight and Grand Illusion. I used to have Cornerstone and Kilroy Was Here, but they disappeared years ago. Yeah, I was a big Styx fan too :)
Mike W.
Steve, I'd forgotten about "The Cleopatras" - I bought the novel that was based on the series. I might have a look at one of those episodes on YouTube just to remind myself what they were like...
Thanks for riding along today, everyone! Like many here, I have a load of good memories from 1981...
Edo- "Physical" definitely had earworm potential. I liked it the first few times it played, but it got tiring quickly. Also, Air Supply was one of the soft brown spots on the ripe banana of 80's music...
And, good take on the Spider-Man trailer. Looks promising indeed.
Colin Jones- M*A*S*H would be so much better without the laugh track. BBC was wise to remove it. And you showed an admirable level of self-restraint, holding off reading those comics!
Steve Does Comics- thanks for the UK chart info! ABC and OMD were very big among my group at school, and on my turntable (maybe we just had a thing for letters?). You picked some great tunes on your list. Once again, the UK chart was much more 'cutting edge' than the US pop chart.
Mike W.- always good to hear from another fan of K-Tel compilation albums! We did a post on those back at BAB awhile back. Might be something to revisit one of these days.
Yoyo- rather creative way to deal with a tie at your Prom...
Mike W., how can ever forget cassettes? Most of my music collection in HS and college consisted of them. As for Styx, as I said, big fan back then, so I had pretty much their entire catalogue: I inherited Grand Illusion, Pieces of Eight (LPs) and Cornerstone (cassette) from my older sister after she went off to college, and then got on my own Paradise Theater, Equinox (LPs), Kilroy (cassette) and the cassette reissues of their first four albums, which I found for $2 each in a bargain box at a record store. I think the only album of theirs I never had was Crystal Ball. Anyway, like my original collection of comics and books, those are all long gone now...
Martinex, good call on 1981's movies; Raiders and Superman II were particular high points for me back then.
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