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An Awesome '80s Pop Culture Collage in Puzzle Form

2021 "THE 1980'S" 1000-PIECE JIGSAW PUZZLE

DETAILS:

Patchwork Graphic Featuring Iconic '80s Stars, Products, And Events!
In the massive collage image you'll notice artwork of John Rambo in Rambo III, Beastie Boys, Charlie Sheen in Platoon and Major League with Tom Berenger, Tom Cruise in Risky Business and Top Gun, Madonna "Like A Virgin" photo shoot, Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future, DeLorean time machine, Max Headroom, Sony Walkman cassette player, Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia) from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Boy George (Culture Club), Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey in Dirty Dancing, MC Hammer, The Police "Synchronicity" album, Artists United Against Apartheid "Sun City" album, Exxon Valdez oil spill, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev meet, R. Lee Ermey in Full Metal Jacket, Bartles & Jaymes commercial characters Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes, 1980 Olympics USA hockey team ("Miracle on Ice"), 1980 Olympics boycott, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, NASA astronaut and physicist Sally Ride, Rock Hudson, Prince "Purple Rain" photo, Mr. T, Sun-Maid Raisins, Ben Indasun from The California Raisins, Wayne Gretzky (Edmonton Oilers), Mike Tyson, Swatch watch, Bill Murray in Caddyshack, David Hasselhoff (Knight Rider), boombox radio cassette player, Michael Jackson "Thriller" album, Duran Duran group photo, Donkey Kong video game, Gary Coleman (Diff'rent Strokes), MTV (Music Television) logo, John Lennon death Daily Mirror tabloid newspaper, Mark David Chapman mugshot (John Lennon's murderer), Aqua Net hair spray, Sugar Ray Leonard, Pope John Paul II, Speak & Spell electronic toy, The Blues Brothers (Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi), Cyndi Lauper, Ghostbusters (Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, and Harold Ramis), Eddie Murphy (Delirious), Joe Montana (San Francisco 49ers), Dwight Clark "The Catch" (San Francisco 49ers), Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones, The Cosby Show cast (Bill Cosby, Phylicia Rashad, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, Keshia Knight Pulliam, Pee-Wee Herman (Pee-Wee's Playhouse), Bruce Springsteen "Born in the U.S.A." album, Leona "Queen of Mean" Helmsley, Geraldine Ferraro campaign button, Ruhollah Khomeini, Apple Computer, Inc Macintosh personal computer, Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver), VHS cassette tape, Family Ties cast (Meredith Baxter, Michael Gross, Michael J. Fox, Justine Bateman, Tina Yothers), Ted Danson (Cheers), Ben Cross in Chariots of Fire, Run-DMC "Walk This Way" single, Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses, Rubik's Cube magic cube puzzle, Time Magazine "TV's Dallas Whodunit?", Frogger video arcade game, IBM personal computer (model 5150), Alf, Mario Lemieux (Pittsburgh Penguins), Donald Trump "The Art of the Deal" book, Who's The Boss? cast, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen from Saved by the Bell, Hill Street Blues intro image, Bruce Willis in Die Hard, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Brooke Shields Calvin Klein jeans ad, Jack Nicklaus, red ribbon representing Red Ribbon Week, Christa Corrigan McAuliffe and the Space Shuttle Challenger failure, LL Cool J, Chevy Malibu car, L.A. Gear women's high-top sneakers, Dynasty soap opera cast, Ted Shackelford and Joan Van Arkand from Dallas and Knot's Landing, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in Miami Vice, Jane Fonda, Earvin "Magic" Johnson (L.A. Lakers), Axl Rose from GUns N' Roses, Jennifer Beals in Flashdance, Michael Douglas in Wall Street, Charging Bull bronze sculpture, "Captain" Lou Albano (WWF), Debbie Gibson, Pretty in Pink cast (Molly Ringwald, Jon Cryer, Andrew McCarthy), Atari 2600 video game console (1980-1982), Boris Becker first Wimbledon win, Adidas Superstar athletic shoes (Pro Model II/Superstar II), Pete Rose breaks hit record (Cincinnati Reds), Tom Selleck in Magnum P.I., and more!

Makes A Great Gift For Fans Of All Things 1980s!

Completed Size:

20" x 27" (51 cm x 69 cm)

CONDITION:

In good, pre-owned condition. Complete. Box has some wear. Please see photos.

To ensure safe delivery all items are carefully packaged before shipping out.

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*ALL PHOTOS AND TEXT ARE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OF SIDEWAYS STAIRS CO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.*

"The Terminator is a 1984 American science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, written by Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd and produced by Hurd. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence, in a post-apocalyptic future. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is a soldier sent back in time to protect Sarah. The screenplay is credited to Cameron and Hurd, while co-writer William Wisher Jr. received an "additional dialogue" credit.

Cameron devised the premise of the film from a fever dream he experienced during the release of his first film, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), in Rome, and developed the concept in collaboration with Wisher. He sold the rights to the project to fellow New World Pictures alumna Hurd on the condition that she would produce the film only if he were to direct it; Hurd eventually secured a distribution deal with Orion Pictures, while executive producers John Daly and Derek Gibson of Hemdale Film Corporation were instrumental in setting up the film's financing and production. Originally approached by Orion for the role of Reese, Schwarzenegger agreed to play the title character after befriending Cameron. Filming, which took place mostly at night on location in Los Angeles, was delayed because of Schwarzenegger's commitments to Conan the Destroyer (1984), during which Cameron found time to work on the scripts for Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Aliens (1986). The film's special effects, which included miniatures and stop-motion animation, were created by a team of artists led by Stan Winston and Gene Warren Jr.

Defying low pre-release expectations, The Terminator topped the United States box office for two weeks, eventually grossing $78.3 million against a modest $6.4 million budget. It is credited with launching Cameron's film career and solidifying Schwarzenegger's status as a leading man. The film's success led to a franchise consisting of several sequels, a television series, comic books, novels and video games. In 2008, The Terminator was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry." (wikipedia)

"Rambo III is a 1988 American action film directed by Peter MacDonald and co-written by Sylvester Stallone, who also reprises his role as Vietnam War veteran John Rambo. A sequel to Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), it is the third installment in the Rambo franchise.

The film depicts fictional events during the Soviet–Afghan War. In the film, Rambo sets out on a dangerous journey to Afghanistan in order to rescue his former commander and his longtime best friend, Col. Sam Trautman, from the hands of an extremely powerful and ruthless Soviet Army colonel who is bent on killing both Trautman and Rambo, while helping a local band of Afghan rebels fight against Soviet forces threatening to destroy their village.

Rambo III was released worldwide on May 25, 1988. At the time of its release, Rambo III was the most expensive film ever made with a production budget between $58 and $63 million. The film was not well received by critics and grossed less than its predecessor, Rambo: First Blood Part II, earning $189 million worldwide.

A sequel, Rambo, was released in 2008 with Stallone reprising his role and also directing the film." (wikipedia)

"The Beastie Boys were an American hip hop and rap rock band formed in New York City in 1981.[1] They were composed of Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam "MCA" Yauch (vocals, bass), and Michael "Mike D" Diamond (vocals, drums). The Beastie Boys were formed out of members of experimental hardcore punk band the Young Aborigines, which was formed in 1979, with Diamond on drums, Jeremy Shatan on bass guitar, John Berry on guitar, and Kate Schellenbach later joining on percussion.[2] When Shatan left New York City in mid-1981, Yauch replaced him on bass and the resulting band was named the Beastie Boys. Berry left shortly thereafter and was replaced by Horovitz.

After achieving local success with the 1983 comedy hip hop single "Cooky Puss", the Beastie Boys made a full transition to hip hop, and Schellenbach left. They toured with Madonna in 1985 and a year later released their debut album, Licensed to Ill (1986), the first rap album to top the Billboard 200 chart.[3] Their second album, Paul's Boutique (1989), composed almost entirely of samples, was a commercial failure that later received critical acclaim. Check Your Head (1992) and Ill Communication (1994) found mainstream success, followed by Hello Nasty (1998), To the 5 Boroughs (2004), The Mix-Up (2007), and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two (2011).

The Beastie Boys have sold 20 million records in the United States and had seven platinum-selling albums from 1986 to 2004.[4] They are the biggest-selling rap group since Billboard began recording sales in 1991.[5] In 2012, they became the third rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In the same year, Yauch died of cancer and the Beastie Boys disbanded.[6] The remaining members have released several retrospective works, including a book, a documentary, and a career-spanning compilation album." (wikipedia)

"Swatch is a Swiss watch company founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which inexpensive, battery-powered, quartz-regulated watches were competing against more established European watchmakers focused on artisanal craftsmanship producing mostly mechanical watches.

The name Swatch is a contraction of "second watch," its concept of "low-cost, high-tech, artistic and emotional" watches marketed as casual, disposable accessories." (wikipedia)

"Like a Virgin is the second studio album by American singer Madonna, released on November 12, 1984, by Sire Records. Following the success of her 1983 eponymous debut album, Madonna was eager to start working on its follow-up. She selected Nile Rodgers to produce the album due to his work on Let's Dance (1983) by David Bowie, which she was a fan of. To ensure it be exactly as she envisaged it, Madonna chose all the songs for the album: she penned five of her own, four of which were co-written with former boyfriend and collaborator Stephen Bray, and four were written by other artists. Recording sessions took place at Power Station studio in New York City. Rodgers enlisted the help of his former Chic bandmates Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson.

Upon release Like a Virgin received mixed reviews from music critics: Rodgers's production received praise, but Madonna's vocals were criticized. It became Madonna's first number one album on the Billboard 200, as well as the first female album to sell over five million copies in the United States. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) later certified it diamond for shipment of ten million units. Overseas, it reached number one in Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom. With sales of over 21 million copies worldwide, Like a Virgin remains one of the best-selling albums of all time. In the United States, four singles were released from the album ―all reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100, with the title track becoming Madonna's first number one, and "Material Girl" reaching number two.

The album was promoted on Madonna's first concert tour, the Virgin Tour of 1985, which only visited cities in North America. Like a Virgin has been noted as the album that made Madonna a superstar, as well as the one that proved she was not a one-hit wonder. On top of that, the younger female population began emulating the singer's fashion style. In 2023, Like a Virgin was selected for preservation in the United States' National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress due to it being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"." (wikipedia)

"Sally Kristen Ride (May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012) was an American astronaut and physicist. Born in Los Angeles, she joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman and the third woman to fly in space, after cosmonauts Valentina Tereshkova in 1963 and Svetlana Savitskaya in 1982. She was the youngest American astronaut to have flown in space, having done so at the age of 32.

Ride was a graduate of Stanford University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature in 1973, a Master of Science degree in 1975, and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1978 (both in physics) for research on the interaction of X-rays with the interstellar medium. She was selected as a mission specialist astronaut with NASA Astronaut Group 8, the first class of NASA astronauts to include women. After completing her training in 1979, she served as the ground-based capsule communicator (CapCom) for the second and third Space Shuttle flights, and helped develop the Space Shuttle's robotic arm. In June 1983, she flew in space on the Space Shuttle Challenger on the STS-7 mission. The mission deployed two communications satellites and the first Shuttle pallet satellite (SPAS-1). Ride operated the robotic arm to deploy and retrieve SPAS-1. Her second space flight was the STS-41-G mission in 1984, also on board Challenger. She spent a total of more than 343 hours in space. She left NASA in 1987.

Ride worked for two years at Stanford University's Center for International Security and Arms Control, then at the University of California, San Diego, primarily researching nonlinear optics and Thomson scattering. She served on the committees that investigated the loss of Challenger and of Columbia, the only person to participate in both. Having been married to astronaut Steven Hawley during her spaceflight years and in a private, long-term relationship with former Women's Tennis Association player Tam O'Shaughnessy, she is the first astronaut known to have been LGBTQ. She died of pancreatic cancer in 2012." (wikipedia)

"Purple Rain is the sixth studio album by the American singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Prince. It was released on June 25, 1984, by Warner Bros. Records as the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name. Purple Rain was musically denser than Prince's previous albums, emphasizing full band performances, and multiple layers of guitars, keyboards, electronic synthesizer effects, drum machines, and other instruments.

Much of the album had a grandiose, synthesized, and psychedelic sheen to the production and performances. The music on Purple Rain is generally regarded as the most pop-oriented of Prince's career, though a number of elements point towards the more experimental records Prince would release after Purple Rain. The music video for the album's lead single "When Doves Cry" sparked controversy among network executives, who thought its sexual nature was too explicit for television. The risqué lyrics of "Darling Nikki" raised complaints from Tipper Gore and the Parents Music Resource Center and contributed to the implementation of Parental Advisory stickers and imprints on album covers.

Purple Rain became Prince's first album to reach number one on the Billboard 200. The album spent 24 consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 and was present on the chart for a total of 167 weeks. "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy" reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100, while "Purple Rain" peaked at number two and "I Would Die 4 U" peaked at number eight. In May 1996, the album was certified 13× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It is Prince's commercial peak, with total sales standing at 25 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time. Prince and the Revolution won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, while Prince also won the Academy Award for Best Original Song Score for the film Purple Rain.

Music critics noted the innovative and experimental aspects of the soundtrack's music, most famously on the spare, bass-less "When Doves Cry". Other aspects of the music, especially its synthesis of electronic elements with organic instrumentation and full-band performances along with its consolidation of rock and R&B, were identified by critics as distinguishing, even experimental factors. Purple Rain is regularly ranked among the greatest albums of all time. Rolling Stone ranked the album number 8 on its 2020 list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that are "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"." (wikipedia)

"Thriller is the sixth studio album by the American singer and songwriter Michael Jackson, released on November 29, 1982, by Epic Records.[4][5] It was produced by Quincy Jones, who previously worked with Jackson on his album Off the Wall (1979). With the ongoing backlash against disco music at the time, he moved in a new musical direction, resulting in a mix of pop, post-disco, rock, funk, synth-pop, and R&B sounds, and darker themes; Jackson wanted to create an album where "every song was a killer". Paul McCartney is the first credited appearance of a featured artist on a Jackson album. Recording took place from April to November 1982 at Westlake Recording Studios in Los Angeles, California, with a budget of $750,000.

Upon its release, Thriller was lauded by critics. It was Jackson's first number-one album on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart, where it spent a record 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one, from February 26, 1983, to April 14, 1984. Seven singles were released: "The Girl Is Mine", "Billie Jean", "Beat It", "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'", "Human Nature", "P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)", and "Thriller". They all reached the top 10 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, setting a record for the most top 10 singles from an album, with "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" reaching number one. Following Jackson's performance of "Billie Jean" in the Motown 25 television special, where he debuted his signature moonwalk dance, the album began selling one million copies per week. Sales doubled after the release of the "Thriller" music video on MTV in December 1983.

By 1984, Thriller had sold 32 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling album of all time. It was the best-selling album of 1983 worldwide, and in 1984 became the first to become the best-selling in the United States for two years. It set industry standards, with its songs, music videos, and promotional strategies influencing artists, record labels, producers, marketers and choreographers. The success gave Jackson an unprecedented level of cultural significance for a black American, breaking racial barriers in popular music, earning him regular airplay on MTV and leading to a meeting with US President Ronald Reagan at the White House. Thriller was among the first albums to use music videos as promotional tools; the videos for "Billie Jean", "Beat It" and "Thriller" are credited for transforming music videos into a serious art form.

Thriller remains the best-selling album of all time, having sold an estimated 70 million copies worldwide. It is the best selling non-compilation album and second-best-selling album overall in the United States, and was certified 34× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2021. Thriller is frequently included in lists of the greatest albums of all time and continues to be recognized as an important event in American culture. It won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards at the 1984 Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year for "Beat It".[6] Jackson also won a record-breaking eight American Music Awards at the 1984 American Music Awards, including the Merit. In 2008, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry of "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant recordings"." (wikipedia)

"Donkey Kong[c] is a 1981 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for arcades. As Mario (also sometimes known at the time as "Jumpman"), the player runs and jumps on platforms and climbs ladders to ascend a construction site and rescue Pauline from a giant gorilla, Donkey Kong. It is the first game in the Donkey Kong series and Mario's first appearance in a video game.

Donkey Kong was created to salvage unsold arcade cabinets following the failure of Nintendo's Radar Scope (1980), and was designed for Nintendo of America's audience. Hiroshi Yamauchi, Nintendo's president at the time, assigned the project to first-time video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Drawing inspiration from "Beauty and the Beast" and 1930s American media such as Popeye and King Kong, Miyamoto developed the characters and scenario and designed the game alongside chief engineer Gunpei Yokoi. It was the most complex arcade game at that point, using graphics for characterization, including it and cutscenes to illustrate a plot, and integrating multiple unique stages into the gameplay. Donkey Kong pioneered the platform game genre before the term existed, is the first to feature jumping, and is the one of the first video games with a damsel in distress narrative, after Sheriff. It had a limited release in Japan on July 9, 1981, before receiving a wide release some weeks later.

Although Nintendo of America's staff was initially apprehensive, Donkey Kong succeeded commercially and critically, becoming the highest-grossing game of 1981 and 1982. It was ported to the Game & Watch, selling eight million units, while Nintendo licensed the game to Coleco, a developer of arcade conversions for home consoles, selling six million cartridges. It was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), designed to replicate its technological capabilities; both the game and NES were integral in spreading Japanese video games to Western audiences. Donkey Kong's various ports sold more than 15 million units worldwide. Other companies cloned the game and avoided royalties altogether. Universal City Studios unsuccessfully sued Nintendo, alleging that Donkey Kong violated its trademark of the King Kong franchise.

Donkey Kong's success positioned Nintendo for market dominance for the 1980s and 1990s. The game debuts Mario, who became Nintendo's mascot and one of the world's most recognizable characters. It was mass marketed in multitudes of products, including breakfast cereal, toys, and television cartoons. Donkey Kong is considered one of the most important games from the golden age of arcade video games and one of the greatest and most popular arcade games of all time. It has been frequently referenced in pop culture and subsequent video games and has an active high score competition." (wikipedia)

"John Winston Ono Lennon[nb 1] (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 1940 – 8 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and political activist. He gained worldwide fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's songwriting partnership with Paul McCartney remains the most successful in history.[3]

Born in Liverpool, Lennon became involved in the skiffle craze as a teenager. In 1956, he formed the Quarrymen, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Lennon initially was the group's de facto leader, a role he gradually seemed to cede to McCartney. Through his songwriting in the Beatles, he embraced myriad musical influences, initially writing and co-writing rock and pop-orientated hit songs such as "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Help!" then later incorporating experimental elements into his compositions in the latter half of the Beatles' career, as his songs such as "Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am the Walrus" became known for their increasing innovation. Lennon soon expanded his work into other media by participating in numerous films, including How I Won the War, and authoring In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, both collections of nonsense writings and line drawings. Starting with "All You Need Is Love", his songs were adopted as anthems by the anti-war movement and the counterculture of the 1960s.

In 1969, he started the Plastic Ono Band with his second wife, multimedia artist Yoko Ono, held the two-week-long anti-war demonstration bed-in for peace, and left the Beatles to embark on a solo career. Lennon and Ono collaborated on many works, including a trilogy of avant-garde albums and several more films. After the Beatles disbanded, Lennon released his solo debut John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band and the international top-10 singles "Give Peace a Chance", "Instant Karma!", "Imagine", and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)". Moving to New York City in 1971, his criticism of the Vietnam War resulted in a three-year deportation attempt by the Nixon administration. Lennon and Ono separated from 1973 to 1975, during which time he produced Harry Nilsson's album Pussy Cats. He also had chart-topping collaborations with Elton John ("Whatever Gets You thru the Night") and David Bowie ("Fame"). Following a five-year hiatus, Lennon returned to music in 1980 with the Ono collaboration Double Fantasy. He was shot and killed by Mark David Chapman, three weeks after the album's release.

As a performer, writer or co-writer, Lennon had 25 number-one singles in the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Double Fantasy, his second-best-selling non-Beatles album, won the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[4] That year, he won the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2002, Lennon was voted eighth in a BBC history poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. Rolling Stone ranked him the fifth-greatest singer and 38th greatest artist of all time. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (in 1997) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (twice, as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1994)." (wikipedia)

"Aqua Net is an American brand of aerosol hair spray created by Rayette of St. Paul, Minnesota. The company brought the product to retail stores in 1961.[3] By 1964, hairspray had become the top-selling beauty product in America.[4][5] The brand is known for its distinctive large purple spray cans, and the spray itself is known for its strong hold and distinctive odor." (wikipedia)

"Pope John Paul II (Latin: Ioannes Paulus II; Polish: Jan Paweł II; Italian: Giovanni Paolo II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła, Polish: [ˈkarɔl ˈjuzɛv vɔjˈtɨwa];[b] 18 May 1920 – 2 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his death in 2005.

In his youth, Wojtyła dabbled in stage acting. He graduated with excellent grades from an all-boys high school in Wadowice, Poland, in 1938, soon after which World War II broke out. During the war, to avoid being kidnapped and sent off to a German forced labour camp, he signed up for work in harsh conditions in a quarry. Wojtyła eventually took up acting and developed a love for the profession and participated at a local theatre. The linguistically skilled Wojtyła wanted to study Polish at university. Encouraged by a conversation with Adam Stefan Sapieha, he decided to study theology and become a priest. Eventually, Wojtyła rose to the position of Archbishop of Kraków and then a cardinal, both positions held by his mentor. Wojtyła was elected pope on the third day of the second papal conclave of 1978, and became one of the youngest popes in history. The conclave was called after the death of John Paul I, who served only 33 days as pope. Wojtyła adopted the name of his predecessor in tribute to him.[9]

John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope since Adrian VI in the 16th century, as well as the third-longest-serving pope in history after Pius IX and St. Peter. John Paul II attempted to improve the Catholic Church's relations with Judaism, Islam, and the Eastern Orthodox Church in the spirit of ecumenism, holding atheism as the greatest threat. He maintained the Church's previous positions on such matters as abortion, artificial contraception, the ordination of women, and a celibate clergy, and although he supported the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, he was seen as generally conservative in their interpretation.[10][11] He put emphasis on family and identity, while questioning consumerism, hedonism and the pursuit of wealth. He was one of the most-travelled world leaders in history, visiting 129 countries during his pontificate. As part of his special emphasis on the universal call to holiness, John Paul II beatified 1,344 people,[12] and canonised 483 saints, more than the combined tally of his predecessors during the preceding five centuries. By the time of his death, he had named most of the College of Cardinals, consecrated or co-consecrated many of the world's bishops, and ordained many priests.[13]

He has been credited with fighting against dictatorships for democracy and with helping to end communist rule in his native Poland and the rest of Europe.[14] Under John Paul II, the Catholic Church greatly expanded its influence in Africa and Latin America and retained its influence in Europe and the rest of the world. On 19 December 2009, John Paul II was proclaimed venerable by his successor, Benedict XVI, and on 1 May 2011 (Divine Mercy Sunday) he was beatified. On 27 April 2014, he was canonised together with John XXIII.[15] He has been criticised for allegedly, as archbishop, having been insufficiently harsh in acting against the sexual abuse of children by priests in Poland,[16] though the allegations themselves have been criticised.[17][18] Posthumously he has been referred to by some Catholics as Pope St. John Paul the Great, though that title has no official recognition.[19]

Under John Paul II, two of the most important documents of the contemporary Catholic Church were drafted and promulgated: the 1983 Code of Canon Law, which revised and updated the 1917 Code of Canon Law, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the first universal catechism to be issued since the Roman Catechism. " (wikipedia)

"The Speak & Spell line is a series of electronic hand-held[1][2][3] child computers by Texas Instruments that consisted of a TMC0280 linear predictive coding speech synthesizer, a keyboard, and a receptor slot to receive one of a collection of ROM game[4] library modules. The first Speak & Spell was introduced at the summer Consumer Electronics Show in June 1978 (46 years ago),[5] making it one of the earliest handheld[2] electronic[5] devices with a visual display[6] to use interchangeable game cartridges.[7] The company Basic Fun brought back a variant of the second-gen classic Speak & Spell in 2019 with a newly recorded voice and other minor changes.[8]

The Speak & Spell was named an IEEE Milestone in 2009." (wikipedia)

"Walkman (Japanese: ウォークマン, Hepburn: Wōkuman) is a brand of portable audio players manufactured and marketed by Japanese company Sony since 1979. The original Walkman started out as a portable cassette player[3][4] and the brand was later extended to serve most of Sony's portable audio devices; since 2011 it consists exclusively of digital flash memory players. The current flagship product as of 2022 is the WM1ZM2 player.[5]

Walkman cassette players were very popular during the 1980s, which led to "walkman" becoming an genericized label term for personal compact stereos of any producer or brand.[6] 220 million cassette-type Walkmen were sold by the end of production in 2010;[7] including digital Walkman devices such as DAT, MiniDisc, CD (originally Discman then renamed the CD Walkman) and memory-type media players,[8][9] it has sold approximately 400 million at this time.[7] The Walkman brand has also been applied to transistor radios, and Sony Ericsson mobile phones. " (wikipedia)

"Dirty Dancing is a 1987 American romantic drama dance film written by Eleanor Bergstein, produced by Linda Gottlieb, and directed by Emile Ardolino. Starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey, it tells the story of Frances "Baby" Houseman (Grey), a young woman who falls in love with dance instructor Johnny Castle (Swayze) at a vacation resort.

The film was based on screenwriter Bergstein's own childhood. She originally wrote a screenplay for the Michael Douglas film It's My Turn, but she ultimately ended up conceiving a story for a film which became Dirty Dancing. She finished the script in 1985, but management changes at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer put the film in development hell. The production company was changed to Vestron Pictures with Emile Ardolino as director and Linda Gottlieb as producer. Filming took place in Lake Lure, North Carolina, and Mountain Lake, Virginia, with the film's score composed by John Morris and dance choreography by Kenny Ortega.

Dirty Dancing premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on May 12, 1987 and was released on August 21 in the United States, earning over $214 million worldwide—$64 million in the US and Canada and $150 million in other territories.[2] It earned positive reviews from critics, who particularly praised the performances of Grey and Swayze, and its soundtrack, created by Jimmy Ienner, generated two multi-platinum albums and multiple singles. "(I've Had) The Time of My Life", performed by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes, won the Academy Award for Best Original Song, the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song, and the Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.[3] In 2024, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[4]

The film's popularity successfully launched its titular franchise, including a 1988 television series, multiple reality competition shows, a 2004 prequel titled Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, a stage production which has had sellout performances in multiple countries, a made-for-television musical adaptation in 2017, and an untitled sequel scheduled to be released in 2025, with Grey reprising her role." (wikipedia)

"Back to the Future is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985, it follows Marty McFly (Fox), a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean automobile built by his eccentric scientist friend Emmett "Doc" Brown (Lloyd), where he inadvertently prevents his future parents from falling in love – threatening his own existence – and is forced to reconcile them and somehow get back to the future.

Gale and Zemeckis conceived the idea for Back to the Future in 1980. They were desperate for a successful film after numerous collaborative failures, but the project was rejected more than forty times by various studios because it was not considered raunchy enough to compete with the successful comedies of the era. A development deal was secured with Universal Pictures following Zemeckis's success directing Romancing the Stone (1984). Fox was the first choice to portray Marty but was unavailable; Eric Stoltz was cast instead. Shortly after principal photography began in November 1984, Zemeckis determined Stoltz was not right for the part and made the concessions necessary to hire Fox, including re-filming scenes already shot with Stoltz and adding $4 million to the budget. Back to the Future was filmed in and around California and on sets at Universal Studios, and concluded the following April.

After highly successful test screenings, the release date was brought forward to July 3, 1985, giving the film more time in theaters during the busiest period of the theatrical year. The change resulted in a rushed post-production schedule and some incomplete special effects. Back to the Future was a critical and commercial success, earning $381.1 million to become the highest-grossing film of 1985 worldwide. Critics praised the story, humor, and the cast, particularly Fox, Lloyd, Thompson, and Glover. It received multiple award nominations and won an Academy Award, three Saturn Awards, and a Hugo Award. Its theme song, "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News, was also a success.

Back to the Future has since grown in esteem and is now considered by critics and audiences to be one of the greatest science fiction films and among the best films ever made. In 2007, the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. The film was followed by two sequels, Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990). Spurred by the film's dedicated fan following and effect on popular culture, Universal Studios launched a multimedia franchise, which now includes video games, theme park rides, an animated television series, and a stage musical. Its enduring popularity has prompted numerous books about its production, documentaries, and commercials. " (wikipedia)

"In the Back to the Future franchise, the DeLorean time machine is a time travel vehicle constructed from a retrofitted DMC DeLorean. Its time travel ability is derived from the "flux capacitor", a component that allows the car to travel to the past or future (though not through space). This occurs when the car accelerates to 88 miles per hour and requires 1.21 gigawatts of electricity.

In 2021, the time machine was added to the Library of Congress's National Historic Vehicle Register." (wikipedia)

"The Blues Brothers (formally, The Fabulous Blues Brothers’ Show Band and Revue) are an American blues and soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast members of Saturday Night Live.

The Blues Brothers Musical Revue consisted of lead vocalist "Joliet" Jake Blues (Belushi) and his brother, Elwood (Aykroyd), who played a harmonica that he carried onstage in a briefcase handcuffed to his wrist. The duo were usually dressed in matching black suits, black pencil ties, black trilby hats and sunglasses. The band itself was carefully constructed, and made up of experienced musicians of the time, including Steve "The Colonel" Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, "Blue" Lou Marini, Tom "Bones" Malone, and Alan "Mr. Fabulous" Rubin.

The act debuted as musical guest on the April 22, 1978 episode of Saturday Night Live, hosted by comedian Steve Martin. After recruiting a full band, the group opened for Martin during a residency at the Universal Amphitheatre in September 1978. Recordings from those performance were released on November 28 as a live album, Briefcase Full of Blues. The album rose to the top of the charts and was a platinum seller. Several subsequent albums followed. The act opened for the Grateful Dead at the closing of Winterland Arena in San Francisco, and gained further fame after spawning the comedy film The Blues Brothers in 1980. They remain the most successful blues revue act of all time.

Belushi died in 1982, but the Blues Brothers continued to perform with a rotation of guest singers and other band members. The band re-formed in 1988 for a world tour and again in 1998 for the sequel film Blues Brothers 2000. " (wikipedia)

"Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper (/ˈlɔːpər/ LAW-pər; born June 22, 1953) is an American singer, songwriter and actress.[2] Known for her distinctive image, featuring a variety of hair colors and eccentric clothing,[3] and for her powerful four-octave vocal range;[4] Lauper has sold over 50 million records worldwide.[5] She has also been celebrated for her humanitarian work, particularly as an advocate for LGBTQ rights in the United States.

Her album She's So Unusual (1983) was the first debut studio album by a female artist to achieve four top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100—"Girls Just Want to Have Fun", "Time After Time", "She Bop", and "All Through the Night"—and earned Lauper the Best New Artist award at the 27th Annual Grammy Awards in 1985. The music video for "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" won the Best Female Video Award at the inaugural 1984 MTV Video Music Awards and has been recognized by MTV, VH1 and Rolling Stone as one of the greatest music videos of the era.[6][7][8][9] Her second studio album, True Colors (1986), scored two more top-five hits; the title track and "Change of Heart". Lauper's chart success continued with the singles "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough" (1985), "I Drove All Night" (1989) and the dance club hit "That's What I Think" (1993).

Since 1983, Lauper has released twelve studio albums and participated in many other projects. In 2010, Memphis Blues became Billboard's most successful blues album of the year, remaining at number one on the Billboard Blues Albums chart for 13 consecutive weeks. In 2013, she won the Tony Award for Best Original Score for composing the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, making her the first woman to win the category by herself.[10] The musical was awarded five other Tonys, including Best Musical. In 2014, Lauper was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for the cast recording. In 2016, the West End production won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical.[11]

Lauper's accolades include two Grammy Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, a Tony Award, three MTV Video Music Awards, four Billboard Music Awards, two American Music Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She is one of the few singers to win three of the four major American entertainment awards (EGOT). In 2015, she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Lauper is featured in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Women Who Rock exhibit.[12] Her debut studio album ranked among Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time,[13] while "Time After Time" was included in VH1's list of the 100 Best Songs of the Past 25 years.[14] VH1 has ranked Lauper No. 58 of the 100 Greatest Women of Rock & Roll." (wikipedia)

"Ghostbusters is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, three eccentric parapsychologists who start a ghost-catching business in New York City. It also stars Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, and features Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, and William Atherton in supporting roles.

Based on his fascination with spirituality, Aykroyd conceived Ghostbusters as a project starring himself and John Belushi, in which they would venture through time and space battling supernatural threats. Following Belushi's death in 1982, and with Aykroyd's concept deemed financially impractical, Ramis was hired to help rewrite the script to set it in New York City and make it more realistic. It was the first comedy film to employ expensive special effects, and Columbia Pictures, concerned about its relatively high $25–30 million budget, had little faith in its box office potential. Filming took place from October 1983 to January 1984, in New York City and Los Angeles. Due to competition for special effects studios among various films in development at the time, Richard Edlund used part of the budget to found Boss Film Studios, which employed a combination of practical effects, miniatures, and puppets to deliver the ghoulish visuals.

Ghostbusters was released on June 8, 1984, to critical acclaim and became a cultural phenomenon. It was praised for its blend of comedy, action, and horror, and Murray's performance was often singled out for praise. It earned at least $282 million worldwide during its initial theatrical run and was the second-highest-grossing film of 1984 in the United States and Canada, and the then-highest-grossing comedy ever. It was the number-one film in US theaters for seven consecutive weeks and one of only four films to gross more than $100 million that year. Further theatrical releases have increased the worldwide total gross to around $370 million, making it one of the most successful comedy films of the 1980s. In 2015, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. Its theme song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., was also a number-one hit.

With its effect on popular culture, and a dedicated fan following, the success of Ghostbusters launched a multi-billion dollar multimedia franchise. This included the popular animated television series The Real Ghostbusters (1986), its follow-up Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), video games, board games, comic books, clothing, music, and haunted attractions. Ghostbusters was followed in 1989 by Ghostbusters II, which fared less well financially and critically, and attempts to develop a second sequel paused in 2014 following Ramis's death. After a 2016 reboot received mixed reviews and underperformed financially, a second sequel to the 1984 film, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), was released, followed by Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). " (wikipedia)

"Joseph Clifford Montana Jr. (born June 11, 1956) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 16 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. Nicknamed "Joe Cool" and "the Comeback Kid", Montana is widely regarded as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time.[1][2][3][4][5][6] After winning a national championship with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Montana began his NFL career in 1979 at San Francisco, where he played for the next 14 seasons.[7] With the 49ers, Montana started and won four Super Bowls and was the first player to be named the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times. He also holds Super Bowl career records for most passes without an interception (122 in four games) and the all-time highest passer rating of 127.8. In 1993, Montana was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs, where he played for his last two seasons and led the franchise to its first AFC Championship Game. Montana was inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2000.[8]

In 1986, Montana won the NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award, after suffering a severe back injury during week one.[9] In 1989 and again in 1990, Montana was named the NFL Most Valuable Player.[10] Montana was elected to eight Pro Bowls as well as being voted first-team All-Pro in 1987, 1989, and 1990. Montana had the highest passer rating in the National Football Conference (NFC) five times (1981, 1984, 1985, 1987, and 1989), and in both 1987 and 1989, Montana had the highest passer rating in the NFL.[11]

Among his career highlights, "the Catch" (the game-winning touchdown pass to Dwight Clark vs. Dallas in the 1981 NFC Championship Game) and a Super Bowl-winning 92-yard drive against the Cincinnati Bengals in Super Bowl XXIII are staples of NFL highlight films.

The 49ers retired Montana's No. 16 jersey number after the conclusion of his playing career. In 1994, Montana earned a spot on the NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team; he is also a member of the NFL 1980s All-Decade Team. In 1999, editors at The Sporting News ranked Montana third on their list of Football's 100 Greatest Players. Also in 1999, ESPN named Montana the 25th greatest athlete of the 20th century. In 2006, Sports Illustrated rated him the number-one clutch quarterback of all time." (wikipedia)

"Wayne Douglas Gretzky CC (/ˈɡrɛtski/ GRET-skee; born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian-American former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "the Great One",[1] he has been called the greatest ice hockey player ever by the NHL[2] based on surveys of hockey writers, ex-players, general managers and coaches.[3] Gretzky is the leading career goal scorer, assist producer and point scorer in NHL history,[4] and has more career assists than any other player has total points. He is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season, a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, Gretzky tallied over 100 points in 15 professional seasons. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular season records, 15 playoff records, and 6 All-Star records.[2]

Born and raised in Brantford, Ontario, Gretzky honed his skills on a backyard rink and regularly played minor hockey at a level far above his peers.[5] Despite his unimpressive size and strength, Gretzky's intelligence, stamina, and reading of the game were unrivaled. He was adept at dodging checks from opposing players, consistently anticipated where the puck was going to be, and executed the right move at the right time. Gretzky became known for setting up behind his opponent's net, an area that was nicknamed "Gretzky's office".[6]

Gretzky was the top scorer in the 1978 World Junior Championships. In June 1978, he signed with the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association (WHA), where he briefly played before being traded to the Edmonton Oilers. When the WHA folded, the Oilers joined the NHL, where he established many scoring records and led his team to four Stanley Cup championships. Gretzky's trade to the Los Angeles Kings on August 9, 1988, had an immediate impact on that team's performance, ultimately leading them to the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, and he is credited with popularizing hockey in California.[7] Gretzky played briefly for the St. Louis Blues before finishing his career with the New York Rangers. Gretzky captured nine Hart Trophies as the most valuable player, 10 Art Ross Trophies for most points in a season, two Conn Smythe Trophies as playoff MVP and five Lester B. Pearson Awards (now the Ted Lindsay Award) for most outstanding player as judged by his peers. He led the league in goal-scoring five times and assists 16 times. He also won the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and performance five times and often spoke out against fighting in hockey.[8]

After his retirement in 1999, Gretzky was immediately inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, making him the most recent player to have the waiting period waived. The NHL retired his jersey number 99 league-wide. Gretzky was one of six players voted to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team.[9] He was inducted into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2000, and received the Order of Hockey in Canada in 2012. Gretzky became executive director for the Canadian national men's hockey team during the 2002 Winter Olympics, in which the team won a gold medal. In 2000, he became part-owner of the Phoenix Coyotes, and following the 2004–05 NHL lock-out, he became the team's head coach. In 2004, Gretzky was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.[10] In September 2009, following the Phoenix Coyotes' bankruptcy, Gretzky resigned as head coach and relinquished his ownership share. In October 2016, he returned to the Oilers as a minority partner and vice-chairman of their parent company, Oilers Entertainment Group. He left in 2021 to become an analyst on Turner Sports' NHL coverage. " (wikipedia)

"Eddie Murphy Delirious is an American stand-up comedy television special directed by Bruce Gowers, written by and starring Eddie Murphy.[1] The stand-up set became a TV Special for HBO on October 15, 1983. The 70-minute special was Murphy's first feature stand-up and the predecessor to the wide theatrical release in 1987, Eddie Murphy Raw. Delirious was also released as an album on October 24, 1983, titled Eddie Murphy: Comedian, which won Best Comedy Album at the 1984 Grammy Awards." (wikipedia)

"The Cosby Show is an American television sitcom created by (along with Ed. Weinberger and Michael J. Leeson) and starring Bill Cosby that originally aired on NBC from September 20, 1984, to April 30, 1992, with a total of 201 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons, including an outtakes special. The show focuses on the Huxtables, an upper middle-class Black-American family living in Brooklyn, New York; the series was based on comedy routines in Cosby's stand-up comedy act, which in turn were based on his family life. The series was followed by a spin-off, titled A Different World, which ran from September 24, 1987 to July 9, 1993, with a total of six seasons consisting of 144 episodes.

TV Guide listed the series as "TV's biggest hit in the 1980s", adding it "almost single-handedly revived the sitcom genre and NBC's ratings fortunes",[1] while also ranking it 28th on their list of 50 Greatest Shows;[2] with this list, Cliff Huxtable was named as the "Greatest Television Dad" in 2014.[3] In May 1992, Entertainment Weekly stated that The Cosby Show helped to make possible a larger variety of shows with a predominantly black cast, from In Living Color to The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.[4]

The Cosby Show spent five consecutive seasons as the number-one rated show on television and, along with All in the Family, is the only sitcom in the history of the Nielsen ratings as the number-one show for five seasons, having spent the series in the top 20 ratings. It also remains the only scripted TV show with a predominantly African-American cast to top the Nielsen ratings, and to do so more than once. Its spinoff, A Different World, also became a ratings hit, featuring in the top 5 of the ratings for four of its six seasons. It launched the extended cast into stardom and Cosby, having already had a successful career on TV, films and stand-up, became the highest paid actor on television.[5]

It was also an international hit, garnering a following from across the world being a regular fixture in markets previously considered unattainable for African-American leads, such as Europe, where the show became a ratings and commercial hit and cemented itself as an international icon of 1980s pop culture. Its effects on Black American portrayal and gender politics on television were a major part of its success. The portrayal of Clair Huxtable, the matriarch of the Huxtable family, by Phylicia Rashad sparked an international wave of working mothers on television dubbed the "Clair Huxtable effect", and Bill Cosby was nicknamed "America's Dad" for his highly celebrated portrayal of Cliff Huxtable. The colourful sweaters he wore as Cliff became a fashion trend for a time which was temporarily revived in the early 2010s. Another sitcom starring Cosby and Rashad, Cosby, aired on CBS from 1996 to 2000, notable for its differences to The Cosby Show, garnering positive reviews." (wikipedia)

"Pee-wee Herman is a comedy character created and portrayed by the American comedian Paul Reubens. He starred in films and television series during the 1980s. The childlike Pee-wee Herman character developed as a stage act that quickly led to an HBO special in 1981. As the stage performance gained further popularity, Reubens took the character to motion picture with Pee-wee's Big Adventure in 1985, toning down the adult innuendo for the appeal of children. This paved the way for Pee-wee's Playhouse, an Emmy Award-winning children's series that ran on CBS from 1986 to 1991. Another film, Big Top Pee-wee, was released in 1988.

Because of negative media attention following a scandal in 1991, Reubens decided to shelve his alter ego during the 1990s, but gradually resurrected it during the following decade. It was at that time that Reubens addressed plans to write a new Pee-wee film, Pee-wee's Playhouse: The Movie. In June 2007, Reubens appeared as Pee-wee Herman at the Spike TV's Guys' Choice Awards for the first time on television since 1992.[1] After a lengthy hiatus, a third film, Pee-wee's Big Holiday, was released by Netflix in 2016 and was the last time Reubens portrayed the character before his death in 2023. " (wikipedia)

"Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984, by Columbia Records. Produced by Springsteen, Jon Landau, Steven Van Zandt, and Chuck Plotkin, the album was recorded in New York City with the E Street Band over two years between January 1982 and March 1984. Some of the songs originated from the demo tape that yielded Springsteen's previous album, the solo effort Nebraska (1982), while others were written afterward. The sessions yielded between 70 and 90 songs; some were released as B-sides, some later saw release on compilation albums, while others remain unreleased.

Born in the U.S.A. has a more pop-influenced sound than Springsteen's previous albums. Its production is typical of mainstream 1980s rock music, with prominent use of synthesizers. The lyrics contrast with the album's livelier sound and continue the themes of previous records, particularly Nebraska. Topics include working-class struggles, disillusionment, patriotism, and personal relationships, while some tracks incorporate humorous lyrics. The cover photograph of Springsteen from behind against a backdrop of the American flag has appeared on lists of the best album covers ever.

Accompanied by a vast promotional campaign that featured seven singles, five music videos, and three dance remixes, Born in the U.S.A. was a massive commercial success, becoming the best-selling album of 1985 and topping the charts in nine countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. All seven of its singles, including "Dancing in the Dark", "Born in the U.S.A.", "I'm on Fire", and "Glory Days", reached the U.S. top ten. The album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, making it Springsteen's best-selling album and one of the best-selling albums of all time. Upon its release, music critics praised the album's storytelling and musical performances, while others criticized the use of similar lyrical themes as Springsteen's previous albums. Springsteen and the E Street Band supported the album on the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.

Born in the U.S.A. transformed Springsteen into a worldwide superstar and brought him his largest amount of success to date as a recording and performing artist. He later expressed reservations about the album itself and the fame it brought him; its success influenced his career path for the rest of the 1980s and 1990s. Born in the U.S.A. helped popularize American heartland rock and influenced later artists who wanted to mimic its power and impact. In later decades, publications such as Rolling Stone and NME ranked Born in the U.S.A. one of the best albums by Springsteen, of the 1980s, and of all time. It was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2012. " (wikipedia)

"Leona Roberts Helmsley (born Lena Mindy Rosenthal; July 4, 1920 – August 20, 2007) was an American businesswoman. After allegations of non-payment were made by contractors hired to improve Helmsley's Connecticut home, she was investigated and convicted of federal income tax evasion and other crimes in 1989. Although having initially received a sentence of 4 years,[8] she was required to serve only 19 months in prison and two months under house arrest. During the trial, a former housekeeper testified that she had heard Helmsley say: "We don't pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes." This quote was identified with her for the rest of her life. Helmsley's flamboyant personality and reputation for tyrannical behavior earned her the nickname Queen of Mean." (wikipedia)

"Geraldine Anne Ferraro (August 26, 1935 – March 26, 2011) was an American politician, diplomat, and attorney. She served in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 1985, and was the Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1984 presidential election, running alongside Walter Mondale; this made her the first female vice-presidential nominee representing a major American political party.[nb 1] She was also a journalist, author, and businesswoman.

Ferraro grew up in New York City and worked as a public school teacher before training as a lawyer. She joined the Queens County District Attorney's Office in 1974, heading the new Special Victims Bureau that dealt with sex crimes, child abuse, and domestic violence. In 1978 she was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where she rose rapidly in the party hierarchy while focusing on legislation to bring equity for women in the areas of wages, pensions, and retirement plans.

In 1984, former vice president and presidential candidate Walter Mondale, seen as an underdog, selected Ferraro to be his running mate in the upcoming election. In doing so Ferraro also became the first widely recognized Italian American to be a major-party national nominee.[nb 2] The positive polling the Mondale-Ferraro ticket received when she joined soon faded, as damaging questions arose about her and her businessman husband's finances and wealth and her congressional disclosure statements. In the general election, Mondale and Ferraro were defeated in a landslide by incumbent President Ronald Reagan and Vice President George H. W. Bush. " (wikipedia)

"Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini[a] (17 May 1900 or 24 September 1902 – 3 June 1989) was an Iranian Islamist revolutionary, politician and religious leader who served as the first supreme leader of Iran from 1979 until his death in 1989. He was the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the main leader of the Iranian revolution, which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and ended the Iranian monarchy. Ideologically a Shia Islamist, Khomeini's religious and political ideas are known as Khomeinism." (wikipedia)

"The Macintosh, later rebranded as the Macintosh 128K, is the original Macintosh personal computer from Apple. It is the first successful mass-market all-in-one desktop personal computer with a graphical user interface, built-in screen and mouse. It was pivotal in establishing desktop publishing as a general office function. The motherboard, a 9 in (23 cm) CRT monochrome monitor, and a floppy drive are in a beige case with integrated carrying handle; it has a keyboard and single-button mouse.

The Macintosh was introduced by a television commercial titled "1984" during Super Bowl XVIII on January 22, 1984,[6] directed by Ridley Scott. Sales were strong at its initial release on January 24, 1984, at $2,495 (equivalent to $7,600 in 2024), and reached 70,000 units on May 3, 1984.[7] Upon the release of its successor, the Macintosh 512K, it was rebranded as the Macintosh 128K. The computer's model number is M0001." (wikipedia)

"Angus "Mac" MacGyver is the title character and the protagonist in the TV series MacGyver. He is played by Richard Dean Anderson in the 1985 original series. Lucas Till portrays a younger version of MacGyver in the 2016 reboot.[1]

In both portrayals MacGyver is shown to possess a genius-level intellect, proficiency in multiple languages, superb engineering skills, excellent knowledge of applied physics, military training in bomb disposal techniques, and a preference for non-lethal resolutions to conflicts. MacGyver works for the fictional Phoenix Foundation in Los Angeles, which in the original series was an independent think tank, and in the 2016 reboot is a clandestine government organization using the cover of a think tank. In addition to his scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items, he always carries a Swiss Army knife and refuses to carry a gun. " (wikipedia)

"VHS (Video Home System)[1][2][3] is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by the Victor Company of Japan (JVC). It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period throughout the 1980s and 1990s.[4][5]

Magnetic tape video recording was adopted by the television industry in the 1950s in the form of the first commercialized video tape recorders (VTRs), but the devices were expensive and used only in professional environments. In the 1970s, videotape technology became affordable for home use, and widespread adoption of videocassette recorders (VCRs) began;[6] the VHS became the most popular media format for VCRs as it would win the "format war" against Betamax (backed by Sony)[7] and a number of other competing tape standards.

The cassettes themselves use a 0.5-inch magnetic tape between two spools[8] and typically offer a capacity of at least two hours. The popularity of VHS was intertwined with the rise of the video rental market,[9] when films were released on pre-recorded videotapes for home viewing.[10] Newer improved tape formats such as S-VHS were later developed, as well as the earliest optical disc format, LaserDisc; the lack of global adoption of these formats increased VHS's lifetime, which eventually peaked and started to decline in the late 1990s after the introduction of DVD, a digital optical disc format.[11] VHS rentals were surpassed by DVD in the United States in 2003,[12] which eventually became the preferred low-end method of movie distribution.[13] For home recording purposes, VHS and VCRs were surpassed by (typically hard disk–based) digital video recorders (DVR) in the 2000s.[8] Production of all VHS equipment ceased by 2016,[14] although the format has since gained some popularity amongst collectors. " (wikipedia)

"Family Ties is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC for seven seasons, premiering on September 22, 1982, and concluding on May 14, 1989. The series, created by Gary David Goldberg, reflected the social shift in the United States from the cultural liberalism of the 1960s and 1970s to the conservatism of the 1980s.[2] Because of this, Young Republican Alex P. Keaton (portrayed by Michael J. Fox) develops generational strife with his ex-hippie parents, Steven and Elyse Keaton (portrayed by Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter).

The show premiered on September 22, 1982, and for the first two seasons, aired on Wednesday nights. In the show's third season, it started airing on Thursday nights. In 1987, for its sixth season, it was moved to Sunday nights where it stayed until the series' seventh and final season on May 14, 1989.

The show won multiple awards, including three consecutive Emmy Awards for Michael J. Fox as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. " (wikipedia)

"Cheers is an American television sitcom, created by Glen Charles & Les Charles and James Burrows, that aired on NBC for 11 seasons from September 30, 1982 to May 20, 1993. The show was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions in association with Paramount Television. The show is set in the titular bar in Boston, where a group of locals meet to drink, relax, socialize, and escape from their day to day issues.

At the center of the show is the bar's owner and head bartender, Sam Malone, who is a womanizing former relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. The show's ensemble cast introduced in the pilot episode are waitresses Diane Chambers and Carla Tortelli, second bartender Coach Ernie Pantusso, and regular customers Norm Peterson and Cliff Clavin. Later main characters of the show also include Frasier Crane, Woody Boyd, Lilith Sternin, and Rebecca Howe.

After premiering in 1982, it was nearly canceled during its first season when it ranked almost last in ratings for its premiere (74th out of 77 shows). However, Cheers eventually became a Nielsen ratings juggernaut in the United States, earning a top-10 rating during eight of its 11 seasons, including one season at number one (season 9). The show spent most of its run on NBC's Thursday night "Must See TV" lineup. Widely watched, its series finale in 1993 became the most-watched single TV episode of the 1990s, and the show's 275 episodes have been successfully syndicated worldwide. Nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series for all 11 of its seasons on the air, it earned 28 Primetime Emmy Awards from a record of 117 nominations.

During its run, Cheers became one of the most popular series in history and received critical acclaim from its start to its end and is frequently cited as one of the greatest television shows of all time.[2][3][4][5][6] In 1997, the episodes "Thanksgiving Orphans" and "Home Is the Sailor," aired originally in 1987, were respectively ranked No. 7 and No. 45 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time.[7] Its series finale was watched by an estimated 93 million viewers, almost 40% of the US population at the time.[8] The series also produced three spin-offs: The Tortellis, Wings, and Frasier; and a Spanish remake. " (wikipedia)

"Chariots of Fire is a 1981 historical sports drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Colin Welland and produced by David Puttnam. It is based on the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who runs for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who runs to overcome prejudice. Ben Cross and Ian Charleson star as Abrahams and Liddell, alongside Nigel Havers, Ian Holm, John Gielgud, Lindsay Anderson, Cheryl Campbell, Alice Krige, Brad Davis and Dennis Christopher in supporting roles. Kenneth Branagh and Stephen Fry make their debuts in minor roles.

Chariots of Fire was nominated for seven Academy Awards and won four, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Score for Vangelis's electronic theme tune. At the 35th British Academy Film Awards, the film was nominated in 11 categories and won in three, including Best Film. It is ranked 19th in the British Film Institute's list of Top 100 British films.

The film's title was inspired by the line "Bring me my Chariot of fire!" from the William Blake poem adapted into the British hymn and unofficial English anthem "Jerusalem"; the hymn is heard at the end of the film.[5] The original phrase "chariot(s) of fire" is from 2 Kings 2:11 and 6:17 in the Bible. " (wikipedia)

"Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses and eyeglasses have been manufactured by Ray-Ban since 1952. Made popular in the 1950s and 1960s by music and film icons such as Buddy Holly, Roy Orbison and James Dean, Wayfarers almost became discontinued in the 1970s, before a major resurgence was created in the 1980s through massive product placements.

The Ray-Ban brand was sold to Italian Luxottica Group in 1999,[1] who created a second revival in the mid 2000s." (wikipedia)

"The Rubik's Cube is a 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974[2][3] by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube,[4] the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978,[5] and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980[6] via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer.[7] The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2024, around 500 million cubes had been sold worldwide,[8][9][10] making it the world's bestselling puzzle game[11][12] and bestselling toy.[13] The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.[14]

On the original, classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces was covered by nine stickers, with each face in one of six solid colours: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. Some later versions of the cube have been updated to use coloured plastic panels instead. Since 1988, the arrangement of colours has been standardised, with white opposite yellow, blue opposite green, and orange opposite red, and with the red, white, and blue arranged clockwise, in that order.[15] On early cubes, the position of the colours varied from cube to cube.[16]

An internal pivot mechanism enables each layer to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to having only one colour. The Cube has inspired other designers to create a number of similar puzzles with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and mechanisms.

Although the Rubik's Cube reached the height of its mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and similar puzzles and compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association (WCA), the international governing body of the Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and has recognised world records. " (wikipedia)

"Dallas is an American prime time soap opera that aired on CBS from April 2, 1978, to May 3, 1991. The series revolved around an affluent and feuding Texas family, the Ewings, who owned the independent oil company Ewing Oil and the cattle-ranching land of Southfork. The series originally focused on the marriage of Bobby Ewing and Pam Ewing, whose families were sworn enemies. As the series progressed, Bobby's elder brother, oil tycoon J. R. Ewing, became the show's breakout character, whose schemes and dirty business became the show's trademark.[4] When the show ended on May 3, 1991, J. R. was the only character to have appeared in every episode.

The show was prominent for its cliffhangers, including the "Who shot J.R.?" mystery. The 1980 episode "Who Done It" remains the second-highest-rated primetime telecast ever.[5] The show also featured a "Dream Season", in which the entirety of season 9 was revealed to have been a dream of Pamela Ewing. After 14 seasons, the series finale "Conundrum" aired in 1991.

The show had an ensemble cast, with Larry Hagman as greedy, scheming oil tycoon J.R. Ewing, stage/screen actress Barbara Bel Geddes as family matriarch Miss Ellie and Western movie actor Jim Davis as Ewing patriarch Jock, his last role before his death in 1981. The series won four Emmy Awards, including a 1980 Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for Bel Geddes.

With its 357 episodes, Dallas remains one of the longest lasting full-hour prime time dramas in American TV history, behind Gunsmoke (635 episodes), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (551 episodes as of May 2024), Law & Order (501 episodes as of May 2024), NCIS (467 episodes as of May 2024), Bonanza (430 episodes), and Grey's Anatomy (428 episodes as of May 2024). Dallas also spawned spin-off series Knots Landing in 1979, which also lasted 14 seasons and a total of 344 episodes.

In 2007, Dallas was included in Time magazine's list of "100 Best TV Shows of All-Time".[6]

The series finale had a cliffhanger that was resolved in the first of two subsequent reunion films: Dallas: J.R. Returns. There was a second film Dallas: War of the Ewings, and a retrospective special Dallas Reunion: The Return to Southfork.

In 2010, TNT announced it had ordered a new, updated continuation of Dallas, ignoring the events of the two reunion films.[7] The revival series, continuing the story of the Ewing family, premiered on TNT on June 13, 2012, and ran for three seasons, ending its run on September 22, 2014. " (wikipedia)

"Frogger[a] is a 1981 arcade action game developed by Konami and published by Sega.[5] In North America, it was distributed by Sega/Gremlin. The object of the game is to direct five frogs to their homes by dodging traffic on a busy road, then crossing a river by jumping on floating logs and alligators.

Frogger was positively received as one of the greatest video games ever made. It was followed by numerous clones and several home-only sequels in the Frogger series. The 1982 Atari 2600 version from Parker Brothers sold 4 million cartridges, making it one of the best-selling Atari 2600 games. By 2005, 20 million copies of its various home video game incarnations had been sold worldwide. " (wikipedia)

"The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team of engineers and designers at International Business Machines (IBM), directed by William C. Lowe and Philip Don Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida.

Powered by an x86-architecture Intel 8088 processor, the machine was based on open architecture and third-party peripherals. Over time, expansion cards and software technology increased to support it. The PC had a substantial influence on the personal computer market; the specifications of the IBM PC became one of the most popular computer design standards in the world. The only significant competition it faced from a non-compatible platform throughout the 1980s was from Apple's Macintosh product line, as well as consumer-grade platforms created by companies like Commodore and Atari. Most present-day personal computers share architectural features in common with the original IBM PC, including the Intel-based Mac computers manufactured from 2006 to 2022. " (wikipedia)

"Gordon Shumway, also known as "ALF", is the protagonist and title character of the American television series ALF, and its animated spin-offs, ALF: The Animated Series, and ALF Tales. ALF also starred in the poorly received television film Project ALF, and hosted the short lived talk show ALF's Hit Talk Show. The name "ALF" is short for "Alien Life Form". Paul Fusco created and plays ALF, and he also provides the voice for the character. On ALF, Lisa Buckley and Bob Fappiano assisted Fusco with performing the furry brown alien. During the first season of ALF, Michu Meszaros occasionally wore a full costume when full body shots were needed of the character.

Since ALF, the character has appeared in various other media, including television series, comic books, and video games. " (wikipedia)

"Mario Lemieux OC CQ (/ləˈmjuː/; French: [ləmjø]; born October 5, 1965) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played parts of 17 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 and 2005, and he assumed ownership of the franchise in 1999. Nicknamed "the Magnificent One", "Le Magnifique", and "Super Mario", Lemieux is widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time for his combination of size, strength, athleticism, and creativity.[1][2][3]

Drafted first overall by the Penguins in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft,[4] Lemieux led Pittsburgh to consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 1991 and 1992. Under his ownership, the Penguins won additional titles in 2009, 2016, and 2017. He is the only man to have his name on the Cup both as a player and owner.[5] He also led Team Canada to an Olympic gold medal in 2002,[6] a championship at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and a Canada Cup in 1987. He won the Lester B. Pearson Award as the most outstanding player voted by the players four times, the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player (MVP) during the regular season three times, the Art Ross Trophy as the league's points leader six times, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoffs MVP in 1991 and 1992. He is the only player to score one goal in each of the five possible situations in a single NHL game, a feat he accomplished in 1988. At the time of his retirement, he was the NHL's seventh-highest career points scorer with 690 goals and 1,033 assists.[7] He ranks second in NHL history with a 0.754 career goals-per-game average, behind Mike Bossy (0.762).[8] He ranks second in NHL history with a 1.129 career assists-per-game average and a 1.883 points-per-game average, both behind Wayne Gretzky (1.320 and 1.921, respectively).

Lemieux was never able to play a full season, and only played in 70 or more games in a season on only six occasions during his career - four of which came before the age of 25. Lemieux's career was plagued by health problems that limited him to 915 of a possible 1,430 regular season games between the opening of the 1984–85 campaign and the conclusion of the 2005–2006 campaign. Lemieux's NHL debut was on October 11, 1984 and his final game took place on December 16, 2005.[9][10] His numerous ailments included spinal disc herniation, Hodgkin's lymphoma, chronic tendinitis of a hip-flexor muscle, and chronic back pain so severe that other people had to tie his skates.[11] He retired on two occasions due to these health issues, first in 1997 after battling lymphoma before returning in 2000, and then a second and final time in 2006 after being diagnosed with atrial fibrillation. Lemieux also missed the entire 1994–95 season due to Hodgkin's lymphoma.[7] Despite his lengthy absences from the game, his play remained at a high level upon his return to the ice; he won the Hart Trophy and scoring title in 1995–96 after sitting out the entire previous season. He was on pace for 188 points, but only played in 70 games. He was also a finalist for the Hart Trophy when he made his comeback in 2000.[2] In 1999, he bought the then-bankrupt Penguins and their top minor-league affiliate, the American Hockey League's (AHL) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, and was the team's principal owner until selling controlling interest in the team to Fenway Sports Group in 2021. However, he remains part-owner and chairman of the board.

The Hockey Hall of Fame inducted Lemieux immediately after his first retirement in 1997, waiving the normal three-year waiting period; upon his return in 2000, he became the third Hall of Famer (after Gordie Howe and Guy Lafleur) to play after being inducted.[2] Lemieux's impact on the NHL has been significant: Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review called him the saviour of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and after Lemieux's retirement, Wayne Gretzky commented, "You don't replace players like Mario Lemieux ... The game will miss him."[12] Bobby Orr called him "the most talented player I've ever seen." Orr, along with Bryan Trottier and numerous fans,[7] speculated that if Lemieux had had fewer health issues, his on-ice achievements would have been much greater.[12] In 2017, he was named one of the "100 Greatest NHL Players".[13] He was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame in 2004, and into the IIHF Hall of Fame in 2008. " (wikipedia)

"Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

Born in New York City, Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He became the president of his family's real estate business in 1971, renamed it the Trump Organization, and began acquiring and building skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. After six business bankruptcies in the 1990s and 2000s, he began side ventures. From 2004 to 2015, he hosted the reality television show The Apprentice. A political outsider, Trump won the 2016 presidential election against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In his first term, Trump imposed a travel ban on citizens from six Muslim-majority countries, expanded the U.S.–Mexico border wall, and implemented a family separation policy. He rolled back environmental and business regulations, signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and appointed three Supreme Court justices. In foreign policy, Trump withdrew the U.S. from agreements on climate, trade, and Iran's nuclear program, began a trade war with China, and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without reaching an agreement on denuclearization. In response to the , he downplayed its severity, contradicted health officials, and signed the CARES Act stimulus. Trump was impeached in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and in 2021 for incitement of insurrection; the Senate acquitted him in both cases. After his first term, scholars and historians ranked him as one of the worst presidents in American history.

Trump is the central figure of Trumpism. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged, racist or misogynistic, and he has made false and misleading statements and promoted conspiracy theories to a degree unprecedented in American politics. After losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump attempted to overturn the outcome, culminating in the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021. In 2023, Trump was held liable in civil cases for sexual abuse and defamation and for business fraud. In 2024, he was found guilty of falsifying business records, making him the first U.S. president convicted of a felony. After winning the 2024 presidential election against Kamala Harris, Trump was sentenced to a penalty-free discharge, and two other felony indictments against him were dismissed.

Trump began his second term by pardoning around 1,500 January 6 rioters, initiating mass layoffs of the federal workforce, and starting a trade war with Mexico and Canada. Trump's broad and extensive use of executive orders has drawn numerous lawsuits challenging their legality. " (wikipedia)

"Who's the Boss? is an American sitcom television series created by Martin Cohan and Blake Hunter, that aired on ABC from September 20, 1984, to April 25, 1992, with a total of 196 half-hour episodes spanning eight seasons. It was produced by Hunter-Cohan Productions in association with Embassy Television (later Embassy Communications and ELP Communications) and Columbia Pictures Television and stars Tony Danza as Tony Micelli, a former Major League Baseball athlete who strives to raise his daughter, Samantha Micelli (Alyssa Milano), outside of the hectic nature of New York City and relocates her to Fairfield, Connecticut, where he works as a live-in housekeeper for a single advertising executive named Angela Bower (Judith Light). The series' cast also includes Katherine Helmond as Angela's mother, Mona Robinson, and Danny Pintauro as Angela's young son, Jonathan Bower.

The show became one of the most popular sitcoms of the 1980s. The series was nominated for more than 40 awards, including ten Primetime Emmy Awards and five Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one of each, although early reviews of the series were lukewarm. Also very successful in the ratings, Who's the Boss? ranked in the top ten in the final primetime ratings between 1985 and 1989, and has since continued in syndication worldwide. " (wikipedia)

"Saved by the Bell is an American television teen sitcom created by Sam Bobrick for NBC. The series premiered, in prime time, on August 20, 1989, a Sunday night. Targeted at kids and teens, Saved by the Bell was broadcast in the United States on Saturday mornings, later as the flagship series in NBC's TNBC lineup.[1] A spin-off of the Disney Channel series Good Morning, Miss Bliss, the show follows a group of high school friends and their principal at the fictional Bayside High School in Los Angeles. Primarily focusing on lighthearted comedic situations, it occasionally touches on serious social issues, such as drug use, driving under the influence, homelessness, remarriage, death, women's rights, and environmental issues. The series starred Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Dennis Haskins, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, and Mario Lopez. The series ran for four seasons, airing its final episode, again in primetime, on May 22, 1993, a Saturday night.

The show spawned two spin-off series: Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993–1994), a primetime series that follows several of the characters to college, and Saved by the Bell: The New Class (1993–2000), a Saturday morning series that follows a new group of students at Bayside High School.[2] The series also spawned two TV movies, Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style in 1992 and Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas in 1994.

In later years, Saved by the Bell has been classified as educational and informational.[3] The show was named one of the "20 Best School Shows of all Time" by AOL TV." (wikipedia)

"Hill Street Blues is an American serial police procedural television series that aired on NBC in prime-time from January 15, 1981,[1] to May 12, 1987, for 146 episodes.[2] The show chronicles the lives of the Metropolitan Police Department staff of a single police station located on Hill Street in an unnamed large U.S. city. The "blues" are the police officers in their blue uniforms.

The show received critical acclaim, and its production innovations influenced many subsequent dramatic television series produced in the United States and Canada.[3][4][5][6][7] In 1981, the series won eight Emmy Awards, a debut season record surpassed only by The West Wing, in 2000. The show won a total of 26 Emmy Awards (out of 98 Emmy Award nominations) during its run, including four consecutive wins for Outstanding Drama Series. " (wikipedia)

"Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. It stars Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Alexander Godunov, and Bonnie Bedelia, with Reginald VelJohnson, William Atherton, Paul Gleason, and Hart Bochner in supporting roles. Die Hard follows a New York City police detective, John McClane (Willis), who becomes entangled in a terrorist takeover of a Los Angeles skyscraper while visiting his estranged wife during a Christmas Eve party.

Stuart was hired by 20th Century Fox to adapt Thorp's novel in 1987. His first draft was greenlit immediately, as the studio was eager for a summer blockbuster the following year. The role of McClane was turned down by a host of the decade's most popular actors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Known mainly for work on television, Willis was paid $5 million for his involvement, placing him among Hollywood's highest-paid actors. The deal was seen as a poor investment by industry professionals and attracted significant controversy towards the film prior to its release. Filming took place between November 1987 and March 1988, on a $25 million to $35 million budget and almost entirely on location in and around Fox Plaza in Los Angeles.

Expectations for Die Hard were low; some marketing materials omitted Willis's image, ostensibly because the publicity team determined that the setting was as important as McClane. Upon its release in July 1988, initial reviews were mixed: criticism focused on its violence, plot, and Willis's performance, while McTiernan's direction and Rickman's charismatic portrayal of the villain Hans Gruber were praised. Defying predictions, Die Hard grossed approximately $140 million, becoming the year's tenth-highest-grossing film and the highest-grossing action film. Receiving four Academy Award nominations, it elevated Willis to leading-man status and made Rickman a celebrity.

Die Hard has been critically re-evaluated and is now considered one of the greatest action films of all time. It is considered to have revitalized the action genre, largely due to its depiction of McClane as a vulnerable and fallible protagonist, in contrast to the muscle-bound and invincible heroes of other films of the period. Retrospective commentators also identified and analyzed its thematic concerns, including vengeance, masculinity, gender roles, and American anxieties over foreign influences. Due to its Christmas setting, Die Hard is often named one of the best Christmas films of all time, although its status as a Christmas film is disputed.

The film produced a host of imitators; the term "Die Hard" became a shorthand for plots featuring overwhelming odds in a restricted environment, such as "Die Hard on a bus" in relation to Speed. It created a franchise comprising the sequels Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007), and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013), plus video games, comics, and other merchandise. Deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress, Die Hard was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 2017. " (wikipedia)

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also known as Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles in some regions) is an American animated television series produced by Fred Wolf Films and based on the comic book characters created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Set in New York City, the series follows the adventures of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their allies as they battle the Shredder, Krang, and numerous other villains and criminals. The property was changed considerably from the darker-toned comics, to make it more suitable for children and families.

The pilot was shown during the week of December 28, 1987 in syndication as a five-part miniseries, and the show began its full-time run on October 1, 1988, and ended on November 2, 1996. The show was the first television appearance of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and helped launch the characters into mainstream popularity, becoming one of the most popular animated series in television history. Action figures, breakfast cereals, plush toys, and other merchandise featuring the characters appeared on the market during the late 1980s and early 1990s and became top sellers worldwide.[3] By 1990, the series was being shown daily on more than 125 television stations.

Characters from the show have been included in crossovers with later entries of the franchise, including the 2009 film Turtles Forever and recurring roles in the 2012 TV series for Nickelodeon. " (wikipedia)

"Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress. A child model starting at the age of 11 months,[2] Shields gained widespread notoriety at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film Pretty Baby (1978), in which she appeared in nude scenes shot when she was 11 years old.[3] She continued to model into her late teenage years and starred in several dramas in the 1980s, including The Blue Lagoon (1980), and Franco Zeffirelli's Endless Love (1981).

In 1983, Shields suspended her modeling career to attend Princeton University, where she subsequently graduated with a bachelor's degree in Romance languages. In the 1990s, Shields returned to acting and appeared in minor roles in films. She also starred in the NBC sitcoms Suddenly Susan (1996–2000), for which she received two Golden Globe nominations, and Lipstick Jungle (2008–2009).

In 2017, Shields returned to NBC with a major recurring role in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in the show's 19th season. Shields voiced Beverly Goodman in the Adult Swim animated series Mr. Pickles (2014–2019) and its spin-off Momma Named Me Sheriff. " (wikipedia)

"Jack William Nicklaus (/ˈnɪkləsˌ ˈnɪkəl-/; born January 21, 1940), nicknamed "the Golden Bear", is an American retired professional golfer and golf course designer.[2] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest golfers of all time.[3][4][5] He won 117 professional tournaments in his career. Over a quarter-century, he won a record 18 major championships, three more than second-placed Tiger Woods.[6]. Along with his 18 victories Nicklaus finished as a runner-up in 19 major championships this is also a record for any player. Nicklaus focused on the major championships—the Masters Tournament, U.S. Open, Open Championship and PGA Championship—and played a selective schedule of regular PGA Tour events. He competed in 164 major tournaments, more than any other player, and finished with 73 PGA Tour victories, third behind Sam Snead (82) and Woods (82). He is an inductee of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Nicklaus won the U.S. Amateur in 1959 and 1961 and finished second in the 1960 U.S. Open, two shots behind Arnold Palmer. Nicklaus turned professional at age 21 in 1961. He earned his first professional victory at the 1962 U.S. Open, defeating Palmer by three shots in a next-day 18-hole playoff and launching a rivalry between the golf superstars. He was part of "The Big Three" along with his rivals Arnold Palmer and Gary Player a name given to the trio due to the growing popularization of golf in the 1960's. In 1966, Nicklaus became the first player to win the Masters Tournament two years running; he also won The Open Championship, becoming at age 26 the youngest player to win all four golf majors.[7] He won another Open Championship in 1970.[7].

Between 1971 and 1980, Nicklaus won nine more major championships, overtook Bobby Jones’ record of 13 majors, and became the first player to complete double and triple career grand slams. After six years without a major victory when people thought he was a fading force in the game he won the 1986 Masters, a record sixth Masters title his 18th and final major championship at the age of 46, the tournament's oldest winner. Nicklaus joined the Senior PGA Tour (now known as the PGA Tour Champions) when he became eligible in January 1990, and by April 1996 had won 10 tournaments, including eight major championships despite playing a very limited schedule. He continued to play at least some of the four regular Tour majors until 2005 when he made his final appearance at the Masters Tournament and he played in his final major at the Open Championship which was fittingly staged at the Old Course at St Andrews which is referred to by historians as the "home of golf".

Today, Nicklaus heads Nicklaus Design, one of the world's largest golf course design and construction companies. Nicklaus runs an event on the PGA Tour, the Memorial Tournament, named after the annual honoring it bestows to individuals associated with the game of golf. Nicklaus's books vary from instructional to autobiographical, with his Golf My Way considered one of the best instructional golf books of all time; the video of the same name is the best-selling golf instructional to date. Nicklaus is one of only five players along with (Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Tiger Woods) to achieve the career Grand Slam. Nicklaus won the Ryder Cup with the USA five times as a player, he also captained the team twice in 1983 and 1987, winning the 1983 edition of the tournament. He received the Congressional Gold Medal from President Obama in 2015 in recognition of his service to the Nation in promoting excellence and good sportsmanship. " (wikipedia)

"Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco, smoking, and other drug and violence prevention awareness campaign observed annually in March in the United States. It began as a tribute to fallen DEA special agent Enrique Camerena in 1985. According to the United States DEA, Red Ribbon Week is the nation's largest and longest-running drug awareness and prevention program." (wikipedia)

""Just Say No" was an advertising campaign prevalent during the 1980s and early 1990s as a part of the U.S.-led war on drugs, aiming to discourage children from engaging in illegal recreational drug use by offering various ways of saying no. The slogan was created and championed by Nancy Reagan during her husband's presidency." (wikipedia)

"Sharon Christa McAuliffe (née Corrigan; September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher and astronaut from Concord, New Hampshire who died on the Space Shuttle Challenger on mission STS-51-L, where she was serving as a payload specialist.[2]

McAuliffe received her bachelor's degree in education and history from Framingham State College in 1970 and her master's degree in education, supervision and administration[3] from Bowie State University in 1978. McAuliffe took a teaching position as a social studies teacher at Concord High School in New Hampshire in 1983.

In 1985, McAuliffe was selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the NASA Teacher in Space Project and was scheduled to become the first teacher to fly in space.[4] As a member of mission STS-51-L, she was planning to conduct experiments and teach two lessons from Challenger. On January 28, 1986, the shuttle broke apart 1 minute 13 seconds after launch, killing all onboard. After her death, several schools were named in her honor, and McAuliffe was posthumously awarded the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 2004. In 2024, a statue of McAuliffe was installed on the grounds of the New Hampshire State Capitol. " (wikipedia)

"James Todd Smith (born January 14, 1968), known professionally as LL Cool J (short for Ladies Love Cool James),[3] is an American rapper and actor.[4] He is one of the earliest rappers to achieve commercial success, alongside fellow new school hip hop acts Beastie Boys and Run-DMC.

Signed to Def Jam Recordings in 1984, LL Cool J's breakthrough came with his single "I Need a Beat" and his landmark debut album, Radio (1985). He achieved further commercial and critical success with the albums Bigger and Deffer (1987), Walking with a Panther (1989), Mama Said Knock You Out (1990), Mr. Smith (1995), and Phenomenon (1997). His twelfth album, Exit 13 (2008), was his last in his long-tenured deal with Def Jam. He later re-signed with the label and released his fourteenth album, The FORCE (2024).

LL Cool J has appeared in numerous films, including Halloween H20, In Too Deep, Any Given Sunday, Deep Blue Sea, S.W.A.T., Mindhunters, Last Holiday, and Edison. He played NCIS Special Agent Sam Hanna in the CBS crime drama television series NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: Hawaiʻi. LL Cool J was also the host of Lip Sync Battle on Paramount Network.[5][6]

A two-time Grammy Award winner, LL Cool J is known for hip hop songs such as "Going Back to Cali", "I'm Bad", "The Boomin' System", "Rock the Bells", and "Mama Said Knock You Out", as well as R&B hits such as "Doin' It", "I Need Love", "Around the Way Girl" and "Hey Lover". In 2010, VH1 placed him on their "100 Greatest Artists Of All Time" list.[7] In 2017, LL Cool J became the first rapper to receive the Kennedy Center Honors.[8] In 2021, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Musical Excellence category." (wikipedia)

"The Chevrolet Malibu is a mid-size car that was manufactured and marketed by Chevrolet from 1964 to 1983 and from 1997 to 2025. The Malibu began as a trim-level of the Chevrolet Chevelle, becoming its own model line in 1978. Originally a rear-wheel-drive intermediate, GM revived the Malibu nameplate as a front-wheel-drive car in 1997.[2]

Named after the coastal community of Malibu, California, the Malibu is marketed primarily in North America, with the eighth generation introduced globally. The Malibu is the last sedan sold by Chevrolet in the US.[3]

Malibu production in the US ended in November 2024, as the Fairfax plant is being retooled for the upcoming second-generation Chevrolet Bolt." (wikipedia)

"LA Gear (or L.A. Gear) is an American shoe company based in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1983, it is currently part of Frasers Group brands.
History
LA Gear was started by Robert Greenberg, Ernest Williams, and Stephen Williams. Greenberg had moved to Los Angeles from his native Boston in 1978, where he picked up the Hang 10 license for shoe skates. Once he realized that it was the “uppers” that held the most promise, Greenberg began focusing on shoes instead of skates, which led to the birth of the LA Gear brand in 1983. Greenberg targeted the women's athletic shoe market, with an appeal to fashion and selection over technical features. The company went public in 1986." (wikipedia)

"Dynasty is an American prime time soap opera that aired on ABC from January 12, 1981, to May 11, 1989. The series, created by Richard and Esther Shapiro and produced by Aaron Spelling, revolves around the Carringtons, a wealthy family residing in Denver. Dynasty stars John Forsythe as oil magnate Blake Carrington, Linda Evans as his new wife Krystle, and later Joan Collins as his former wife Alexis.

Dynasty was conceived by ABC to compete with CBS's prime time series Dallas. Ratings for the show's first season were unimpressive, but a revamp for the second season that included the arrival of Collins as scheming Alexis saw ratings enter the top 20. By the fall of 1982, it was a top 10 show, and by the spring of 1985, it was the #1 show in the United States. The series declined considerably in popularity during its final three seasons, and it was ultimately cancelled in the spring of 1989 after nine seasons and 220 episodes. A two-part miniseries, Dynasty: The Reunion, aired in October 1991. A reboot series with a new cast premiered on The CW in October 2017.

Dynasty was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama every year from 1981 to 1986, winning in 1984. The series spawned a successful line of fashion and luxury products, and also a spin-off series called The Colbys. Other notable cast members included Pamela Sue Martin, Lloyd Bochner, Heather Locklear, Catherine Oxenberg, Michael Nader, Diahann Carroll, Emma Samms, Rock Hudson, Kate O'Mara, and Stephanie Beacham. " (wikipedia)

"Knots Landing is an American primetime television soap opera that aired on CBS from December 27, 1979, to May 13, 1993. A spin-off of Dallas, it was set in a fictitious coastal suburb of Los Angeles and initially centered on the lives of four married couples living on a cul-de-sac, Seaview Circle. Throughout its 14-year run, storylines included marital strife, rape, murder, kidnapping, assassinations, drug smuggling, politics, addictions, environmental issues, corporate intrigue, and criminal investigations. By the time of its conclusion, it had become the third-longest-running primetime drama on American television after Gunsmoke and Bonanza [Note 1] and the last scripted primetime drama show that debuted in the 1970s to leave the air.[Note 2]

Knots Landing was created by David Jacobs (one-time writer of Family and later producer of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman) in conjunction with producer Michael Filerman (who would also later co-produce Falcon Crest). Although a spin-off of Dallas, the concept predates that series, and was rebuffed by CBS in 1977, as the network wanted something more "saga-like". Jacobs then created Dallas, which the network accepted and premiered in 1978. After Dallas became a hit, Jacobs was then able to adapt Knots Landing as a spin-off series by way of incorporating the characters of Gary and Valene Ewing who were first introduced in Dallas. The series was largely inspired by a 1957 movie No Down Payment and also by the 1973 Ingmar Bergman television miniseries Scenes from a Marriage.

Though initially not as popular in the ratings as Dallas, Knots Landing ultimately outlasted it and garnered much critical acclaim. There were 344 episodes spanning 14 seasons of Knots Landing from 1979 to 1993. In 1997, much of the cast reunited for a two-part miniseries titled Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. In 2005, they reunited again for the non-fiction special Knots Landing Reunion: Together Again in which the cast reminisced about their time on the show. Dallas itself was revived in 2012, with Gary and Valene Ewing appearing in its second season. During nearly the entire run of the original series, Knots Landing occupied the same timeslot: Thursday nights at 10:00 p.m. For a while, it was moved to the 9:00 p.m. timeslot when Falcon Crest was moved to Thursday nights for the final four episodes of its run. When Falcon Crest ended its run, Knots Landing was moved back to its 10:00 p.m. timeslot and stayed there until it ended its run. On two other occasions, Knots Landing was also moved to Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. to make room for two short-lived dramas, Jessica Novak and Kay O'Brien. " (wikipedia)

"Joan Martha Van Ark (born June 16, 1943)[1] is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Valene Ewing on the primetime soap opera Knots Landing. A life member of The Actors Studio,[2] she made her Broadway debut in 1966 in Barefoot in the Park. In 1971, she received a Theatre World Award and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for the revival of The School for Wives.

In 1978, Van Ark landed her most famous role of Valene Ewing. The character first appeared on the CBS series Dallas, then was a leading character for 13 seasons on its spin-off Knots Landing (1979–92). For her performance on Knots Landing, she won the Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Actress in 1986 and 1989. She left the show in 1992, although she did return for the series' final two episodes in 1993 as well as the 1997 miniseries Knots Landing: Back to the Cul-de-Sac. In 1985, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination as host of the Tournament of Roses Parade on CBS. From 2004 to 2005, she starred in the soap opera The Young and the Restless. She reprised her role of Valene in an episode of the new Dallas series in 2013. " (wikipedia)

"Theodore Tillman Shackelford III (born June 23, 1946) is an American actor, known for his roles on television. He played Gary Ewing in the CBS prime time soap operas Dallas and its spin-off Knots Landing (1979–1993),[3] and had a recurring role portraying twin brothers William and Jeffrey Bardwell on the CBS daytime soap opera, The Young and the Restless (2006—2015)." (wikipedia)

"Miami Vice is an American crime drama television series created by Anthony Yerkovich and produced by Michael Mann for NBC.[1] The series stars Don Johnson as James "Sonny" Crockett and Philip Michael Thomas as Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two Metro-Dade Police Department detectives working undercover in Miami, Florida. The series ran for five seasons on NBC from September 16, 1984 to June 28, 1989. USA Network began airing reruns in 1988 and broadcast a previously unaired episode during its syndication run of the series on January 25, 1990.

Unlike standard police procedurals, the show drew heavily upon 1980s New Wave culture and is noted for its integration of contemporary pop and rock music, and stylish or stylized visuals. People magazine states that Miami Vice was the "first show to look really new and different since color TV was invented".[2]

Mann also directed a modernized film adaptation based on the series, which was released in July 2006. " (wikipedia)

"Jane Seymour Fonda[2] (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon,[3] Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for a Grammy Award and two Tony Awards. Fonda also received the Honorary Palme d'Or in 2007, the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2014, the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2017, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021, and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2025.

Born to socialite Frances Ford Seymour and actor Henry Fonda, she made her screen debut in the romantic comedy Tall Story (1960). She rose to prominence acting in the comedies Cat Ballou (1965), Barefoot in the Park (1967), Barbarella (1968), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), California Suite (1978), The Electric Horseman (1979), and 9 to 5 (1980). Fonda established herself as a dramatic actress, winning two Academy Awards for Best Actress for her roles as a prostitute in the thriller Klute (1971) and the woman in love with a Vietnam War veteran in the drama Coming Home (1978). She was Oscar-nominated for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Julia (1977), The China Syndrome (1979), On Golden Pond (1981), and The Morning After (1986). After a 15 year hiatus, she returned to acting in Monster-in-Law (2005), Youth (2015), and Our Souls at Night (2017).

On stage, Fonda made her Broadway debut in the play There Was a Little Girl (1960), for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. In 2009, she returned to Broadway for the play 33 Variations (2009), earning a Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play nomination. For her work on television, she won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Limited Series or Movie for the television film The Dollmaker (1984). She also was Emmy-nominated for her roles in The Newsroom (2012–2014) and Grace and Frankie (2015–2022).

Fonda was a political activist in the counterculture era during the Vietnam War. She was photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun on a 1972 visit to Hanoi, during which she gained the nickname "Hanoi Jane". Fonda protested the Iraq War along with violence against women, and she describes herself as a feminist and environmental activist.[4] Fonda has co-founded the Hollywood Women's Political Committee in 1984 and the Women's Media Center in 2005. Fonda is also known for her exercise tapes, starting with Jane Fonda's Workout (1982), which became the highest-selling videotape of its time." (wikipedia)

"Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. Often regarded as the greatest[under discussion] point guard of all time,[3][4][5][6] Johnson spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After winning a national championship with the Michigan State Spartans in 1979, Johnson was selected first overall in the 1979 NBA draft by the Lakers, leading the team to five NBA championships during their "Showtime" era. Johnson retired abruptly in 1991 after announcing that he had contracted HIV, but returned to play in the 1992 All-Star Game, winning the All-Star MVP Award. After protests against his return from his fellow players, he retired again for four years, but returned in 1996, at age 36, to play 32 games for the Lakers before retiring for the third and final time.

Known for his extraordinary court vision, passing abilities, and leadership, Johnson was one of the most dominant players of his era. His career achievements include three NBA Most Valuable Player Awards, three NBA Finals MVPs, nine All-NBA First Team designations, and twelve All-Star games selections. He led the league in regular season assists four times, and is the NBA's all-time leader in average assists per game in both the regular season (11.19 assists per game) and the playoffs (12.35 assists per game).[7][8] He also holds the records for most career playoff assists and most career playoff triple-doubles.[9][10] Johnson was the co-captain of the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team"),[11] which won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona; Johnson hence became one of eight players to achieve the basketball Triple Crown. After leaving the NBA in 1991, he formed the Magic Johnson All-Stars, a barnstorming team that traveled around the world playing exhibition games.[12]

Johnson was honored as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 and selected to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021, and became a two-time inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame—being enshrined in 2002 for his individual career and as a member of the Dream Team in 2010.[13] His friendship and rivalry with Boston Celtics star Larry Bird, whom he faced in the 1979 NCAA finals and three NBA championship series, are well-documented.

Since his retirement, Johnson has been an advocate for HIV/AIDS prevention and safe sex,[14] as well as an entrepreneur,[15] philanthropist,[16] broadcaster, and motivational speaker.[17] Johnson is a former part-owner of the Lakers and was the team's president of basketball operations in the late 2010s. He is a founding member of Guggenheim Baseball Management, managing entity of MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers, and is additionally part of ownership groups of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, MLS' Los Angeles FC, the NFL's Washington Commanders, and the NWSL's Washington Spirit. Johnson has won 15 total championships during his career; one in college, five as an NBA player, and nine as an owner.[18][19] Johnson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States, in 2025." (wikipedia)

"Max Headroom is a fictional character played by actor Matt Frewer. Advertised as "the first computer-generated TV presenter",[1] Max was known for his biting commentary on a variety of topical issues, arrogant wit, stuttering, and pitch-shifting voice. The character was created by George Stone,[2] Annabel Jankel, and Rocky Morton. Max was advertised as "computer-generated", and some believed this, but he was actually actor Frewer wearing prosthetic makeup, contact lenses, and a plastic moulded suit, and sitting in front of a blue screen. Harsh lighting and other editing and recording effects heighten the illusion of a CGI character.[3] According to his creators, Max's personality was meant to be a satirical exaggeration of the worst tendencies of television hosts in the 1980s who wanted to appeal to youth culture, yet were not a part of it. Frewer proposed that Max reflected an innocence, largely influenced not by mentors and life experience but by information absorbed from television.[3]

Max Headroom debuted in April 1985 on Channel 4 in the British-made cyberpunk TV movie Max Headroom: 20 Minutes into the Future, his origin story. In the movie, Edison Carter (portrayed by Frewer) is a journalist fleeing enemies into a parking garage, crashing his motorcycle through the entrance barrier reading "Max. headroom 2.3 metres" - UK vehicle clearance signs use the phrase "Max headroom". While Carter is unconscious, an AI program based on his mind is created. The AI develops a personality identified as "Max Headroom", and becomes a TV host who exists only on broadcast signals and computer systems. Like Carter, Max openly challenges the corporations that run his world, but using commentary and sarcastic wit rather than journalism.[4]

Two days after the TV movie was broadcast, Max hosted Channel 4's The Max Headroom Show, a TV programme where he introduces music videos, comments on various topics, and eventually interviews guests before a live studio audience. During its second and third year, it also aired in the US on Cinemax. Max Headroom became a global spokesperson for New Coke, appearing on many TV commercials with the catchphrase "Catch the wave!". After the cancellation of The Max Headroom Show, Matt Frewer portrayed Max and Carter in the 1987 American TV drama series Max Headroom on ABC. The series returns to Carter and Max challenging the status quo of a cyberpunk world, now portraying them as allies and providing a slightly altered version of Max's origin. The series was cancelled during its second year.

Max's appearance and style of speech has influenced and been referenced by different media, such as Ron Headrest, a fictional character in the comic strip Doonesbury who was a political parody of Ronald Reagan, and Eminem's 2013 "Rap God" video, in which the rapper resembles Max.[5] Max Headroom was emulated by an unknown person in a Max mask while hijacking a local television broadcast signal in 1987, later referred to as the "Max Headroom incident".[6][7] To advertise and promote Channel 4 and its subsidiary channels shifting from broadcast to digital signal, an aged Max Headroom (again portrayed by Frewer) appeared in new commercials in 2007 and 2008. Max has a cameo in the 2015 film Pixels. " (wikipedia)

"Stanley Kirk Burrell (born March 30, 1962), better known by his stage name MC Hammer (or simply Hammer), is an American rapper known for hit songs such as "U Can't Touch This", "2 Legit 2 Quit" and "Pumps and a Bump", flashy dance movements, extravagant choreography and his eponymous Hammer pants.[2] Remembered for a rapid rise to fame, Hammer has also been an entrepreneur[3][4] and celebrity spokesperson.[5][6] A multi-award winner, Hammer is considered a "forefather" and pioneering innovator[7] of pop rap (incorporating elements of freestyle music).

Born and raised in Oakland, California, Hammer served three years in the United States Navy before independently releasing his debut album Feel My Power in 1986. After signing a contract with Capitol Records, Hammer released his second album Let's Get It Started in 1988, which became his first multi-platinum hit. Hammer became the first hip hop artist to achieve diamond status with his next album Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em (1990), helping him become one of the most prominent media celebrities of the early 1990s. [8][9][10] After being labeled a sellout by the changing landscape of hip hop music which led to declining record sales for his fourth album, Too Legit To Quit (1992), Hammer unsuccessfully attempted to appeal to the rise of gangsta rap with his next album, The Funky Headhunter (1994).[11] However, due to commercial overexposure,[12] Hammer's popularity waned by the mid-1990s, which led to a highly publicized bankruptcy beginning in 1996.[13] He has since released five more albums.

Along with a Mattel doll and other merchandise, Hammer starred in a Saturday-morning cartoon called Hammerman in 1991. He became an ordained preacher during the late 1990s and hosted MC Hammer and Friends, a Christian ministry program on TBN. Hammer was also a dance judge on Dance Fever in 2003, was the co-creator of the dance website DanceJam.com,[14][15] and was executive producer of his own reality show titled Hammertime (which aired on the A&E Network during the summer of 2009).[16][17]

Throughout his career, Hammer has managed his own recording business as a record label CEO. As a result, Hammer has created and produced his own acts/music including Ho Frat Hoo!,[18] Oaktown's 3.5.7, Special Generation, Analise, DRS, B Angie B,[19] Gentry Kozia[20][21] and Oakland Fight Club.[22] A part of additional record labels, he has associated, collaborated and recorded with Psy,[23] VMF,[24] Tupac Shakur, Teddy Riley, Felton Pilate, Tha Dogg Pound, The Whole 9,[25] The Hines Brother,[26] Deion Sanders, Big Daddy Kane, BeBe & CeCe Winans and Jon Gibson. Hammer signed with Suge Knight's Death Row Records in 1995.[27]

BET ranked Hammer as the No. 7 "Best Dancer of All Time".[28] Vibe's "The Best Rapper Ever Tournament" declared him the 17th favorite of all-time during the first round. He continues to perform concerts at music venues and appears in television advertisements,[29][30][31] along with participating in social media and ministry/outreach functions.[32][33] Hammer is also active in community and sports activities,[34][35] being interviewed locally and nationally." (wikipedia)

"Ronald Lee Ermey (March 24, 1944 – April 15, 2018) was an American actor and U.S. Marine drill instructor. He achieved fame for his role as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Ermey was also a United States Marine Corps staff sergeant and an honorary gunnery sergeant.

Ermey was often typecast in authority figure roles, such as Mayor Tilman in the film Mississippi Burning (1988), Bill Bowerman in Prefontaine (1997), Sheriff Hoyt in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) and its prequel The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006), Jimmy Lee Farnsworth in Fletch Lives (1989), a police captain in Seven (1995), plastic army men leader Sarge in the first three films of the Toy Story franchise (1995–2010), Major "Maddogg" Madison in Rocket Power, and John House in House.

On television, Ermey hosted two programs on the History Channel: Mail Call, in which he answered viewers' questions about various military issues both modern and historic; and Lock n' Load with R. Lee Ermey, which concerned the development of different types of weapons. He also hosted GunnyTime on the Outdoor Channel. " (wikipedia)

"Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and producer. Regarded as a Hollywood icon,[1][2][3] he has received various accolades, including an Honorary Palme d'Or and three Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for four Academy Awards. His films have grossed over $12 billion worldwide,[4] placing him among the highest-grossing actors of all time.[5] One of Hollywood's most bankable stars, he is consistently one of the world's highest-paid actors.[6]

Cruise began acting in the early 1980s and made his breakthrough with leading roles in Risky Business (1983) and Top Gun (1986). Critical acclaim came with his roles in the dramas The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988), and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). For his portrayal of Ron Kovic in the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. As a leading Hollywood star in the 1990s, he starred in commercially successful films, including the drama A Few Good Men (1992), the thriller The Firm (1993), the horror film Interview with the Vampire (1994), and the romance Jerry Maguire (1996). For the latter, he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Cruise's performance in the drama Magnolia (1999) earned him another Golden Globe Award and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Cruise subsequently established himself as a star of science fiction and action films, often performing his own risky stunts. He has played fictional agent Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible film series since 1996. His other films in the genre include Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), Knight and Day (2010), Jack Reacher (2012), Oblivion (2013), Edge of Tomorrow (2014), and Top Gun: Maverick (2022).

Cruise holds the Guinness World Record for the most consecutive $100-million-grossing movies, a feat that was achieved during the period of 2012 to 2018.[7] In December 2024, he was awarded the US Navy's highest civilian honor, the Distinguished Public Service Award, in recognition of his "outstanding contributions" to the military, with his screen roles.[8] Forbes ranked him as the world's most powerful celebrity in 2006.[9] He was named People's Sexiest Man Alive in 1990,[10] and received the top honor of "Most Beautiful People" in 1997.[11] Outside his film career, Cruise has been an outspoken advocate for the Church of Scientology. An aviation enthusiast, he has held a pilot's license since 1994.[" (wikipedia)

"George Alan O'Dowd (born 14 June 1961), known professionally as Boy George, is an English singer-songwriter and DJ who rose to fame as the lead singer of the pop band Culture Club. He began his solo career in 1987. Boy George grew up in Eltham and was part of the New Romantic movement which emerged in the late 1970s to early 1980s. His androgynous look and style of fashion was greatly inspired by glam rock pioneers David Bowie and Marc Bolan. He formed Culture Club with Roy Hay, Mikey Craig and Jon Moss in 1981. The band's second album, Colour by Numbers (1983), sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Their hit singles include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away" and "I Just Wanna Be Loved".

Boy George was the lead singer of Jesus Loves You between 1989 and 1992 and still performs solo and with Culture Club, who have reformed twice since initially parting ways in 1986. He began his career as a DJ in the mid-1990s. Outside of music, Boy George's other creative activities involve mixed media art, writing books, designing clothes and photography. He has also made several appearances in television, most recently appearing as a contestant on the 22nd UK series of I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! in November 2022, eventually finishing in 8th place.

As a solo artist, Boy George has released nine studio albums, five compilation albums and forty-eight singles. He has also released seven DJ albums, three EPs and a soundtrack album. His solo hit songs include "Everything I Own", "Bow Down Mister", "Generations of Love" and "Love Is Leaving" and "The Crying Game", from the soundtrack for the film The Crying Game. He was featured as a vocalist on the 1984 charity song "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and was the last artist featured on the song to record his lines. Boy George's music features several genres, including pop, new wave, soul, soft rock, disco and reggae. He has received several awards as a solo artist and as a member of Culture Club. In 2001, he was voted 46th in a BBC poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.[3] In 2015, Boy George received an Ivor Novello Award from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for Outstanding Services to British Music." (wikipedia)

"Culture Club are an English new wave band formed in London in 1981. The band comprises Boy George (lead vocals), Roy Hay (guitar and keyboards), and Mikey Craig (bass guitar), and formerly included Jon Moss (drums and percussion). Emerging in the New Romantic scene, they are considered one of the most representative and influential groups of the 1980s.[1]

Led by singer and frontman Boy George, whose androgynous style of dressing caught the attention of the public and the media in the early 1980s, the band have sold more than 50 million records,[2][3] including over six million BPI certified records sold in the UK[4] and over seven million RIAA certified records sold in the US.[5][6][7] Their hits include "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me", "Time (Clock of the Heart)", "I'll Tumble 4 Ya", "Church of the Poison Mind", "Karma Chameleon", "Victims", "Miss Me Blind", "It's a Miracle", "The War Song", "Move Away", and "I Just Wanna Be Loved". In the UK they amassed twelve top 40 hit singles between 1982 and 1999, including the number ones "Do You Really Want to Hurt Me" and "Karma Chameleon", the latter being the biggest selling single of 1983 in the UK, and hit number one on the US Hot 100 in 1984. The song "Time (Clock of the Heart)" is included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll.

Their second album, Colour by Numbers, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. It appeared on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 Best Albums of the 1980s and is also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Ten of their singles reached the US top 40, where they are associated with the Second British Invasion of British "new music"[8][9] groups that became popular in the US due to the cable music channel MTV. Culture Club's music has been described as combining new wave and American soul and pop. It also includes some elements of Jamaican reggae and other styles such as calypso, salsa, and, with "Karma Chameleon", elements of country music.[10][11]

In 1984, Culture Club won Brit Awards for Best British Group, Best British Single ("Karma Chameleon"), and the Grammy Award for Best New Artist.[12] They were nominated the same year for the Grammy Award for Pop Vocal by Group or Duo. The band were also nominated for a Canadian Juno Award for International Album of the Year. In January 1985, Culture Club were nominated for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist, and in September 1985, they were nominated for two MTV Video Music Awards for Best Special Effects and Best Art Direction for their video "It's a Miracle". In 1987, they received another nomination for an American Music Award for Favorite Pop/Rock Band/Duo/Group Video Artist.[" (wikipedia)

"Major League is a 1989 American sports comedy film produced by Chris Chesser and Irby Smith, written and directed by David S. Ward, that stars Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, James Gammon, Bob Uecker, Rene Russo, Margaret Whitton, Dennis Haysbert, and Corbin Bernsen.

Telling the story of a single regular season of a fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians Major League Baseball team, Major League grossed $75 million worldwide from an $11 million budget and spawned two sequels (Major League II and Major League: Back to the Minors), neither of which repeated the success of the original film. " (wikipedia)

"W. Axl Rose (born William Bruce Rose Jr.; February 6, 1962)[3] is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in 1985.[4]

Possessing a distinctive and powerful wide-ranging voice,[5] Rose has been named one of the greatest singers of all time by various media outlets, including Rolling Stone, NME and Billboard.[6][7][8]

Born and raised in Lafayette, Indiana, Rose moved to Los Angeles, California, in the early 1980s, where he became active in the local hard rock scene and joined several bands, including Hollywood Rose and L.A. Guns. In 1985, he co-founded Guns N' Roses, with whom he had great success and recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Their first album, Appetite for Destruction (1987), has sold in excess of 30 million copies worldwide[9][10] and is the best-selling debut album of all time in the U.S. with 18 million units sold. Rose's high-profile relationships with Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour in the late 1980s and early '90s inspired multiple songs, including the number one hit "Sweet Child o' Mine". However allegations of abuse by Rose caused significant controversy,[11] as did the band's next release G N' R Lies (1988) due to his inclusion of multiple slurs on the song "One in a Million".[12]

Guns N' Roses' next releases, the twin albums Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II (1991), were widely successful; debuting at No. 2 and No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide.[13] Controversy followed Rose during the two-and-a-half-year Use Your Illusion Tour, with riots (including his arrest for inciting the Riverport Riot), rants against the media and bandmates between songs, and feuds with other artists including Metallica and Nirvana.[14][15][16] The punk covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993) failed to match the success of previous albums, with Rose's cover of a Charles Manson song gaining notoriety.

After the tour, in 1994, Rose disappeared from public eye while Guns N' Roses stalled on making a new album. The band started to fall apart due to personal and musical differences, primarily between Rose and lead guitarist Slash. By the time work on a new album was underway in 1998, only Rose and keyboardist Dizzy Reed remained from the previous tour lineup. In 2001, Rose, the only remaining original member, resurfaced alongside the new lineup of Guns N' Roses at Rock in Rio 3, and subsequently played the decade-long Chinese Democracy Tour to promote the long-delayed Chinese Democracy (2008), the most expensive rock album to ever be produced.[17]

In 2012, Rose was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Guns N' Roses, though he requested exclusion from the Hall. Rose's longstanding public feud with Slash ended when Slash and bassist Duff McKagan rejoined Guns N' Roses in 2016 for the record-breaking Not in This Lifetime... Tour. Also in 2016, Rose toured with AC/DC as a fill-in vocalist for two dozen shows. The NITL tour lineup of Guns N' Roses continued touring in 2020, as well as occasionally released new singles. " (wikipedia)

"Guns N' Roses[a] is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1985, as the result of a merger between local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKagan, and drummer Steven Adler. The current line-up consists of Rose, Slash, McKagan, guitarist Richard Fortus, drummer Frank Ferrer, and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Melissa Reese.

Guns N' Roses heavily toured the West Coast club circuit during their early years. Their debut album Appetite for Destruction (1987), supported by the eponymous tour, failed to gain traction, debuting at number 182 on the Billboard 200, until a year after its release when a grassroots campaign for the "Welcome to the Jungle" music video brought the band mainstream popularity. "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City" both became top 10 singles, with "Sweet Child o' Mine" becoming the band's only single to reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100. The album has sold approximately 30 million copies worldwide, including 18 million units in the United States, making it the country's best-selling debut album and eleventh-best-selling album. With their stylistic mix of punk rock, blues rock and heavy metal, the band helped move mainstream rock away from the glam metal era of the mid-late 1980s. In addition, they are credited with revitalizing power ballads in rock. Their next studio album, G N' R Lies (1988) combined an early EP, Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide (1986), with new acoustic songs and reached number two on the Billboard 200, sold ten million copies worldwide (including five million in the U.S.), and included the top 5 hit "Patience" and the controversial "One in a Million". Adler was fired due to his drug addiction in 1990 and was replaced by Matt Sorum.

The band's third and fourth albums, Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II, recorded and released simultaneously in 1991, debuted at number two and number one on the Billboard 200 respectively and have sold a combined 35 million copies worldwide (including 14 million units in the U.S.). The Illusion albums included the lead single "You Could Be Mine", covers of "Live and Let Die" and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", and a trilogy of ballads ("Don't Cry", "November Rain", and "Estranged"), which featured notably high-budget music videos. The records were supported by the Use Your Illusion Tour, a world tour that lasted from 1991 to 1993 and was amongst the most-attended concert tours of all time. Stradlin abruptly left the band near the beginning of the tour in 1991, replaced by Gilby Clarke. The punk covers album "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993) was the last studio album to feature Stradlin and Sorum, the only to feature Clarke, and the last for Slash and McKagan before their initial departure. While mostly well-received, it was the band's worst-selling studio album to date and was not supported by a tour.

Work on a follow-up album stalled due to creative differences and personal conflicts between Rose and other members; Slash and McKagan left the band while Clarke and Sorum were fired. In 1998 Rose, Reed, guitarists Paul Tobias and Robin Finck, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Josh Freese and multi-instrumentalist Chris Pitman started writing and recording new songs. Guitarists Buckethead, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and Fortus, and drummers Brain and Ferrer all contributed as the band's line-up changed over the following decade. Their upcoming sixth studio album, Chinese Democracy (2008), was promoted with the expansive Chinese Democracy Tour (2001–2011). With Rose failing to deliver the album on schedule, Geffen released Greatest Hits (2004), which became the 8th longest-charting album in the history of the Billboard 200, reaching 631 weeks by July 2023.[1] The long-awaited Chinese Democracy was released in November 2008, featuring the title track as the lead single. Featuring industrial and electronic influences, the album had an estimated $14 million in production costs, making it the most expensive rock album in history. It debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with a generally positive critical reception but undersold industry expectations. After years of publicly feuding with Rose, Slash and McKagan rejoined the band in 2016 for the quasi-reunion Not in This Lifetime... Tour, which became one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time, grossing over $584 million by its conclusion in 2019.

In their early years, the band's hedonism and rebelliousness drew comparisons to the early Rolling Stones and earned them the nickname "the most dangerous band in the world". Significant controversy followed the band due to late show starts and riots (notably the 1991 Riverport riot), lyrics perceived as problematic, Rose's outspoken persona, several other members' drug and alcohol abuse issues, lawsuits, and public feuds with other artists. Several members of the band are considered among the best in their fields, with Rose considered one of the best vocalists, Slash as one of the best guitarists and McKagan as one of the best bassists by various publications. The band, specifically Rose, Stradlin, McKagan, Slash, Adler, Sorum and Reed, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. Guns N' Roses have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, including 45 million in the United States, making them one of the best-selling bands in history. " (wikipedia)

"Top Gun is a 1986 American action drama film[2] directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired by an article titled "Top Guns", written by Ehud Yonay and published in California magazine three years earlier. It stars Tom Cruise as Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, a young naval aviator aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. He and his radar intercept officer, Lieutenant (junior grade) Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), are given the chance to train at the United States Navy's Fighter Weapons School (Top Gun) at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California. Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer and Tom Skerritt also appear in supporting roles.

When Top Gun was released on May 16, 1986,[3][4] although its visual effects and soundtrack were universally acclaimed, the film initially received mixed reviews from film critics. Despite this, four weeks after its release, the number of theaters showing it increased by 45 percent,[4] and it overcame initial critical resistance to become a huge commercial hit, grossing $357 million globally against a production budget of $15 million. Top Gun was the highest-grossing domestic film of 1986,[5][6] as well as the highest-grossing film of 1986 worldwide.

The film maintained its popularity over the years and earned an IMAX 3D re-release in 2013, while the retrospective critical reception became more positive, with the film also emerging as a cult classic. Additionally, the soundtrack to the film has since become one of the most popular film soundtracks to date, reaching 9× Platinum certification. The film won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for "Take My Breath Away" performed by Berlin.[7]

In 2015, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[8] A sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, in which Cruise and Kilmer reprised their roles, was released 36 years later on May 27, 2022, and surpassed the original film both critically[9] and commercially." (wikipedia)

"Platoon is a 1986 American war film written and directed by Oliver Stone, starring Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen, Keith David, Kevin Dillon, John C. McGinley, Forest Whitaker, and Johnny Depp. It is the first film of a trilogy of Vietnam War films directed by Stone, followed by Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven & Earth (1993). The film, based on Stone's experience from the war, follows a new U.S. Army volunteer (Sheen) serving in Vietnam while his Platoon Sergeant and his Squad Leader (Berenger and Dafoe) argue over the morality in the platoon and of the war itself.

Stone wrote the screenplay based upon his experiences as a U.S. infantryman in Vietnam, to counter the vision of the war portrayed in John Wayne's The Green Berets. Although he wrote scripts for films such as Midnight Express and Scarface, Stone struggled to get the film developed until Hemdale Film Corporation acquired the project along with Salvador. Filming took place in the Philippines in February 1986 and lasted 54 days. Platoon was the first Hollywood film to be written and directed by a veteran of the Vietnam War.[4]

Upon its release, Platoon received critical acclaim for Stone's directing and screenplay, the cinematography, battle sequences' realism, and the performances of Sheen, Dafoe, and Berenger. The film was a box office success upon its release, grossing $138.5 million domestically against its $6 million budget, becoming the third highest-grossing domestic film of 1986. The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards at the 59th Academy Awards, and won four: Best Picture, Best Director for Stone, Best Sound, and Best Film Editing.

In 1998, the American Film Institute placed Platoon at #83 in their "AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies" poll. In 2019, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"." (wikipedia)

"Flashdance is a 1983 American romantic drama dance film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Jennifer Beals as a passionate young dancer, Alex Owens, who aspires to become a professional ballerina, alongside Michael Nouri, who plays her boyfriend and the owner of the steel mill where she works by day in Pittsburgh. It was the first collaboration of producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, and the presentation of some sequences in the style of music videos was an influence on other 1980s films including Footloose, Purple Rain, and Top Gun, Simpson and Bruckheimer's most famous production. It was also one of Lyne's first major film releases, building on television commercials.[3] Alex's elaborate dance sequences were shot using body doubles (Beals's main double was the uncredited French actress Marine Jahan, while a breakdance move was doubled by the male dancer Crazy Legs).[4]

The film opened to negative reviews by professional critics, including Roger Ebert, who panned it as "great sound and flashdance, signifying nothing" (and eventually placed it on his "most hated" list).[5] It was a surprise box-office success, becoming the third-highest-grossing film of 1983 in the United States.[6] Its worldwide box-office gross exceeded $200 million.[2] The soundtrack, compiled by Giorgio Moroder, spawned several hit songs, including "Maniac" (performed by Michael Sembello), and the Academy Award–winning "Flashdance... What a Feeling", which was written for the film by Moroder, with lyrics by Keith Forsey and the singer Irene Cara. Flashdance is also often remembered for its film poster featuring Beals sporting a sweatshirt with a large neck hole (according to the actress, her look in the scene came about by accident after she simply cut a large hole at the top of one that had shrunk in the wash). " (wikipedia)

"Wall Street is a 1987 American crime drama film, directed and co-written by Oliver Stone, which stars Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, and Martin Sheen. The film tells the story of Bud Fox (C. Sheen), a young stockbroker who becomes involved with Gordon Gekko (Douglas), a wealthy, unscrupulous corporate raider.

Stone made the film as a tribute to his father, Lou Stone, a stockbroker during the Great Depression. The character of Gekko is said to be a composite of several people, including Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, Michael Milken, and Stone himself. The character of Sir Lawrence Wildman, meanwhile, was modelled on British financier and corporate raider Sir James Goldsmith. Originally, the studio wanted Warren Beatty to play Gekko, but he was not interested; Stone, meanwhile, wanted Richard Gere, but Gere passed on the role.

The film was well received among major film critics. Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor, and the film has come to be seen as the archetypal portrayal of 1980s excess, with Douglas' character declaring that "greed, for lack of a better word, is good." It has also proven influential in inspiring people to work on Wall Street, with Sheen, Douglas, and Stone commenting over the years how people still approach them and say that they became stockbrokers because of their respective characters in the film.

Stone and Douglas reunited for a sequel titled Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, which was released theatrically on September 24, 2010. " (wikipedia)

"Charging Bull (sometimes referred to as the Bull of Wall Street or the Bowling Green Bull) is a bronze sculpture that stands on Broadway just north of Bowling Green in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The 7,100-pound (3,200 kg) bronze sculpture, standing 11 feet (3.4 m) tall and measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) long, depicts a bull, the symbol of financial optimism and prosperity. Charging Bull is a popular tourist destination that draws thousands of people a day, symbolizing Wall Street and the Financial District.

The sculpture was created by Italian artist Arturo Di Modica in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. Late in the evening of Thursday, December 14, 1989, Di Modica arrived on Wall Street with Charging Bull on the back of a truck and illegally dropped the sculpture outside of the New York Stock Exchange Building. After being removed by the New York City Police Department later that day, Charging Bull was installed at Bowling Green on December 20, 1989. Despite initially having only a temporary permit to be located at Bowling Green, Charging Bull became a popular tourist attraction. Di Modica may have been influenced by a pair of huge metallic sculptures, a charging bull and a bear, placed in front of the Frankfurt, Germany Stock Exchange in 1985 as part of the 400th celebration of the exchange.

Following the success of the original sculpture, Di Modica created a number of variations of the Charging Bull which have been sold to private collectors. Charging Bull has been a subject of criticism from an anti-capitalist perspective, such as in the Occupy Wall Street protests of 2011, and has also been compared to the biblical golden calf worshiped by the Israelites shortly after their Exodus from Egypt. " (wikipedia)

"Louis Vincent Albano[8] (July 29, 1933 – October 14, 2009) was an Italian-American professional wrestler, manager and actor, who performed under the ring/stage name "Captain" Lou Albano. He was active as a professional wrestler from 1953 until 1969, before becoming a manager until 1996.

Over the course of his 42-year career, Albano guided 15 different tag teams and three singles competitors to championship gold.[8] Albano was one of the "Triumvirate of Terror", a threesome of nefarious WWF managers which included The Grand Wizard of Wrestling and Freddie Blassie. The trio was a fixture in the company for a decade until The Grand Wizard's death in 1983.

A unique showman, with an elongated beard, rubber band facial piercings, and loud outfits, Albano was the forefather of the 1980s Rock 'n' Wrestling Connection. Working first with NRBQ and later with Cyndi Lauper, Albano helped usher in wrestling's crossover success with a mainstream audience. Capitalizing on his success, he later ventured into Hollywood with various television, film, and music projects. He became well known to a younger generation of fans as the actor and voice of Mario in The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! " (wikipedia)

"Deborah Ann Gibson (born August 31, 1970)[1] is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She released her debut album Out of the Blue (1987) at age 16, writing and largely producing the material. The album spawned several international hits, later being certified triple platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.[2] One of those singles, "Foolish Beat", made Gibson the youngest female artist to write, produce, and perform a Billboard Hot 100 number-one single.[3] Her double-platinum second album[2] Electric Youth (1989) gave Gibson another U.S. number-one hit with "Lost in Your Eyes". Gibson is the sole songwriter on all of her singles to reach the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100. She was recognized by ASCAP as Songwriter of the Year, along with Bruce Springsteen, in 1989.

Gibson continued to record and release music throughout the 1990s and 2000s. In 2006, she reached number 24 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart with "Say Goodbye", a duet with Jordan Knight, and in 2017 achieved her highest-charting hit in more than 25 years[4] in her duet with Sir Ivan, "I Am Peaceman". Gibson's 2020 single "Girls Night Out" became her first top five and highest-charting hit after 30 years.[5] In addition to music, she then has had starring roles on Broadway and touring musicals including playing Eponine in Les Misérables[6] and Sandy in Grease[7] as well as television and independent film work." (wikipedia)

"Pretty in Pink is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about love and social cliques in American high schools in the 1980s. The film stars Molly Ringwald and Harry Dean Stanton alongside Jon Cryer, Annie Potts, James Spader, and Andrew McCarthy. A cult classic,[3][4] it is commonly identified as a "Brat Pack" film. The film follows high school senior Andie Walsh (Ringwald), and her relationships with her love interest Blane McDonnagh (McCarthy), her best friend Philip F. "Duckie" Dale (Cryer), and her father (Dean Stanton).

It was directed by Howard Deutch, produced by Lauren Shuler Donner, and written by John Hughes, who also served as co-executive producer. The film was named after a song by the Psychedelic Furs, and the film's soundtrack, which has been acclaimed as "among the most brilliant in modern cinema",[5][6] features a re-recorded version of the song. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark's "If You Leave" became an international hit and charted at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 in May 1986.

Pretty in Pink premiered at Mann's Chinese Theatre on January 29, 1986, and was released theatrically in the United States on February 28. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised Ringwald's performance, and grossed $40.5 million against a $9 million budget." (wikipedia)

"The Atari 2600 is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977 as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS), it popularized microprocessor-based hardware and games stored on swappable ROM cartridges, a format first used with the Fairchild Channel F in 1976. The VCS was bundled with two joystick controllers, a conjoined pair of paddle controllers, and a game cartridge—initially Combat[3] and later Pac-Man.[4] Sears sold the system as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. Atari rebranded the VCS as the Atari 2600 in November 1982, alongside the release of the Atari 5200.

Atari was successful at creating arcade video games, but their development cost and limited lifespan drove CEO Nolan Bushnell to seek a programmable home system. The first inexpensive microprocessors from MOS Technology in late 1975 made this feasible. The console was prototyped under the codename Stella by Atari subsidiary Cyan Engineering. Lacking funding to complete the project, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976.

The Atari VCS launched in 1977 with nine games on 2 KB cartridges. Atari ported many of their arcade games to the system, and the VCS versions of Breakout and Night Driver are in color while the arcade originals have monochrome graphics. The system's first killer application was the home conversion of Taito's Space Invaders in 1980. Adventure, also released in 1980, was one of the first action-adventure video games and contains the first widely recognized Easter egg. Beginning with the VCS version of Asteroids in 1980, many games used bank switching to allow 8 KB or larger cartridges. By the time of the system's peak in 1982-3, games were released with significantly more advanced visuals and gameplay than the system was designed for, such as Activision's Pitfall!. The popularity of the VCS led to the founding of Activision and other third-party game developers and competition from the Intellivision and, later, ColecoVision consoles.

By 1982, the 2600 was the dominant game system in North America, and "Atari" had entered the vernacular as a synonym for the console and video games in general. However, poor decisions by Atari management damaged both the system and company's reputation, most notably the release of two highly anticipated games for the 2600: a port of the arcade game Pac-Man and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. Pac-Man became the 2600's bestselling game, but was panned for not resembling the original. E.T. was rushed to market for the holiday shopping season and was similarly disparaged. Both games, and a glut of third-party shovelware, were factors in ending Atari's significance in the console market, contributing to the video game crash of 1983.

Warner sold the assets of Atari's consumer electronics division to former Commodore CEO Jack Tramiel in 1984. In 1986, the new Atari Corporation under Tramiel released a revised, low-cost 2600 model, and the backward-compatible Atari 7800, but it was Nintendo that led the recovery of the industry with its 1985 launch of the Nintendo Entertainment System. Production of the Atari 2600 ended in 1992, with an estimated 30 million units sold across its lifetime. " (wikipedia)

"Boris Franz Becker (German pronunciation: [ˈboːʁɪs ˈbɛkɐ] ⓘ; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 career singles and 15 doubles titles, including six singles majors: three Wimbledon Championships, two Australian Opens and one US Open. He also won 13 Masters titles, three year-end championships, an Olympic gold medal in men's doubles in 1992, and led Germany to two Davis Cup titles in 1988 and 1989. Becker is the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles Wimbledon title, a feat he accomplished aged 17 in 1985.

Becker is often credited as the pioneer of power tennis with his fast serve and all-court game.[2] He is among the top ten players with the best win percentages in the Open Era.[3] In 1989, he was voted the Player of the Year by both the ATP and the ITF. He holds a win percentage of 92.70% in Davis Cup singles rubbers, a win loss record of 38–3 and two championships for Germany.[4] In his autobiography, Andre Agassi described Becker as the world's most popular tennis star in the late 1980s. Becker was featured at number 18 in the list of Tennis magazine's 40 greatest players of all time in 2006.[5][6][7][8]

After his playing career ended, Becker became a tennis commentator and media personality, and his personal relationships were discussed in news outlets. He has engaged in numerous ventures, including coaching Novak Djokovic for three years, playing poker professionally, and working for an online poker company.[9] In October 2002, the Munich District Court gave Becker a suspended two-year prison sentence for tax evasion. He declared bankruptcy in the UK in 2017. In April 2022, he was sentenced by UK courts to two and a half years in prison for hiding assets and loans that the court required him to disclose to creditors and the bankruptcy trustee. On 15 December 2022, he was released from prison early, having served eight months, and was deported to Germany by UK authorities." (wikipedia)

"Adidas Superstar is a style of low-top athletic shoe which has been manufactured by the German multinational company Adidas since 1969. The design is nicknamed the "shell toe", "shell shoe", and "shell top" due to its rubber shell toe cap....

Around 1976, Adidas released updated versions of the original shoes called the Pro Model II and Superstar II. The designs of both shoes were updated with a new look and better materials. These specific versions of the shoes would eventually lose the "II" and be referred as just the "Pro Model" and "Superstar" by the company, taking the place of the original models.[4] As it was replaced by newer designs for basketball, the second iteration of the Superstar found a new market as casual footwear, propelled largely by the hip-hop and skateboarding scenes.[2] Hip hop group Run-DMC wore regular street clothes on stage instead of traditional pop-standard costuming. The trio continued to wear Superstars on their US concert tour, which in turn increased sales. Responding to an anti-sneaker rap song by Jerrald Deas called "Felon Sneakers", the trio released a song of their own called "My Adidas" in 1986.[5] The song paid tribute to the Superstar shoe and attempted to flip the stereotype of the 'b-boy'. Adidas eventually signed an advertising deal with Run-D.M.C., which was the first endorsement deal between hip-hop artists and a major corporation. The brand subsequently released a Run-D.M.C. clothing line." (wikipedia)

"Peter Edward Rose Sr. (April 14, 1941 – September 30, 2024), nicknamed "Charlie Hustle", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a member of the Cincinnati Reds lineup known as the Big Red Machine for their dominance of the National League in the 1970s. He also played for the Philadelphia Phillies, where he won his third World Series championship in 1980, and had a brief stint with the Montreal Expos. He managed the Reds from 1984 to 1989. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest hitters in MLB history.

Rose was a switch hitter and is MLB's all-time leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs (10,328).[1] He won three World Series championships, three batting titles, one Most Valuable Player Award, two Gold Glove Awards, and the Rookie of the Year Award. He made 17 All-Star appearances in an unequaled five positions (second baseman, left fielder, right fielder, third baseman, and first baseman). He won two Gold Glove Awards when he was an outfielder, in 1969 and 1970. He also has the third longest hit streak in MLB history at 44, and remains the last player to hit safely in 40 or more games.

In August 1989 (his last year as a manager and three years after retiring as a player), Rose was penalized with permanent ineligibility from baseball amid accusations that he gambled on baseball games while he played for and managed the Reds; the charges of wrongdoing included claims that he bet on his own team. In 1991, the Baseball Hall of Fame formally voted to ban those on the "permanently ineligible" list from induction, after previously excluding such players by informal agreement among voters. After years of public denial, he admitted in 2004 that he bet on baseball and on the Reds.[2] The issue of his election to the Hall of Fame remains contentious throughout baseball." (wikipedia)

"The "Miracle on Ice" was an ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. It was played between the hosting United States and the Soviet Union on February 22, 1980, during the medal round of the men's ice hockey tournament. Although the Soviet Union was a four-time defending gold medalist and heavily favored, the United States achieved an upset victory, winning 4–3.

The Soviet Union had won the gold medal in five of the six previous Winter Olympic Games, and they were the favorites to win once more in Lake Placid. The Soviet team consisted of professional players with significant experience in international play.[1] By contrast, the United States team, led by head coach Herb Brooks, was composed mostly of amateur players, with only four players with minimal minor-league experience. In addition, the United States had the youngest team in the tournament and in U.S. national team history.

In the group stage, both the Soviet and American teams were undefeated; the U.S. achieved several surprising results, including a 2–2 draw against Sweden,[2] and a 7–3 upset victory over second-place favorite Czechoslovakia.[3][4]

For the first game in the medal round, the Americans played the Soviets. Finishing the first period tied at 2–2, and the Soviets leading 3–2 following the second, the U.S. team scored two more goals to take their first lead midway in the third and final period, then held out to win by a score of 4–3.[5][6] Two days later, the U.S. secured the gold medal by defeating Finland 4–2 in their final game, while the Soviet Union claimed the silver medal with a dominant 9–2 victory over Sweden.[7][8]

The victory became one of the most iconic moments of the Games and in U.S. sports. Equally well-known was the television call of the final seconds of the game by Al Michaels for ABC, in which he declared: "Do you believe in miracles? Yes!" In 1999, Sports Illustrated named the "Miracle on Ice" the top sports moment of the 20th century.[9] As part of its centennial celebration in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) named the "Miracle on Ice" as the top international ice hockey story of the past 100 years.[" (wikipedia)

"Thomas William Selleck[1] (/ˈsɛlɪk/; born January 29, 1945)[2][3] is an American actor. His breakout role was playing private investigator Thomas Magnum in the television series Magnum, P.I. (1980–1988), for which he received five Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, winning in 1985. From 2010 to 2024, Selleck co-starred as NYC Police Commissioner Frank Reagan in the series Blue Bloods. From 2005–2015, he portrayed troubled small-town police chief Jesse Stone in nine television films based on the Robert B. Parker novels.

In films, Selleck has played bachelor architect Peter Mitchell in Three Men and a Baby (1987) and its sequel Three Men and a Little Lady (1990). He has also appeared in more than 50 other film and television roles since Magnum, P.I., including the films Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, and Lassiter. He appeared in recurring television roles as Monica Geller's love interest Dr. Richard Burke in Friends, as Lance White, the likeable and naive partner on The Rockford Files, and as casino owner A. J. Cooper on Las Vegas. He also had a lead role in the television western film The Sacketts, based on two of Louis L'Amour's books.

Selleck was a spokesman for the National Rifle Association of America (NRA), an endorser in advertisements for National Review magazine, and co-founder of the Character Counts! organization. He also served as an infantryman in the California Army National Guard from 1967 to 1973, attaining the rank of sergeant. " (wikipedia)

"A jigsaw puzzle (with context, sometimes just jigsaw or just puzzle) is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of often irregularly shaped interlocking and mosaicked pieces. Typically each piece has a portion of a picture, which is completed by solving the puzzle.

In the 18th century, jigsaw puzzles were created by painting a picture on a flat, rectangular piece of wood, then cutting it into small pieces. The name "jigsaw" derives from the tools used to cut the images into pieces—variably identified as jigsaws, fretsaws or scroll saws. Assisted by Jason Hinds, John Spilsbury, a London cartographer and engraver, is credited with commercialising jigsaw puzzles around 1760. His design took world maps, and cut out the individual nations in order for them to be reassembled by students as a geographical teaching aid.[1] They have since come to be made primarily of interlocking cardboard pieces, incorporating a variety of images and designs.

Jigsaw puzzles have been used in research studies to study cognitive abilities such as mental rotation visuospatial ability in young children.

Typical images on jigsaw puzzles include scenes from nature, buildings, and repetitive designs. Castles and mountains are among traditional subjects, but any picture can be used. Artisan puzzle-makers and companies using technologies for one-off and small print-run puzzles utilize a wide range of subject matter, including optical illusions, unusual art, and personal photographs. In addition to traditional flat, two-dimensional puzzles, three-dimensional puzzles have entered large-scale production, including spherical puzzles and architectural recreations.

A range of jigsaw puzzle accessories, including boards, cases, frames, and roll-up mats, have become available to assist jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts. While most assembled puzzles are disassembled for reuse, they can also be attached to a backing with adhesive and displayed as art.

Competitive jigsaw puzzling has grown in popularity in the 21st century, with both regional and national competitions held in many countries, and annual World Jigsaw Puzzle Championships held from 2019.
History
John Spilsbury is believed to have produced the first jigsaw puzzle around 1760, using a marquetry saw.[1]

Early puzzles, known as dissections, were produced by mounting maps on sheets of hardwood and cutting along national boundaries, creating a puzzle useful for teaching geography.[1] Royal governess Lady Charlotte Finch used such "dissected maps" to teach the children of King George III and Queen Charlotte.[4][5] Cardboard jigsaw puzzles appeared in the late 1800s, but were slow to replace wooden ones because manufacturers felt that cardboard puzzles would be perceived as low-quality, and because profit margins on wooden jigsaws were larger.[1]

The name "jigsaw" came to be associated with the puzzle around 1880 when fretsaws became the tool of choice for cutting the shapes.[1] Along with fretsaws, jigsaws and scroll saws have also been noted as tools used to cut jigsaw puzzles into pieces.[6] The term "jigsaw puzzle" dates back to 1906.
Jigsaw puzzles soared in popularity during the Great Depression, as they provided a cheap, long-lasting, recyclable form of entertainment.[1][7] It was around this time that jigsaws evolved to become more complex and appealing to adults.[1] They were also given away in product promotions and used in advertising, with customers completing an image of the promoted product.[1][7]

Sales of wooden puzzles fell after World War II as improved wages led to price increases, while improvements in manufacturing processes made paperboard jigsaws more attractive.[7]

Demand for jigsaw puzzles saw a surge, comparable to that of the Great Depression,... stay-at-home orders.
Modern construction
Most modern jigsaw puzzles are made of paperboard as they are easier and cheaper to mass-produce. An enlarged photograph or printed reproduction of a painting or other two-dimensional artwork is glued to cardboard, which is then fed into a press. The press forces a set of hardened steel blades of the desired pattern, called a puzzle die, through the board until fully cut.

The puzzle die is a flat board, often made from plywood, with slots cut or burned in the same shape as the knives that are used. The knives are set into the slots and covered in a compressible material, typically foam rubber, which ejects the cut puzzle pieces.

The cutting process is similar to making shaped cookies with a cookie cutter. However, the forces involved are tremendously greater.

Beginning in the 1930s, jigsaw puzzles were cut using large hydraulic presses that now cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. The precise cuts gave a snug fit, but the cost limited jigsaw puzzle production to large corporations. Recent roller-press methods achieve the same results at a lower cost.[citation needed]

New technology has also enabled laser-cutting of wooden or acrylic jigsaw puzzles. The advantage is that the puzzle can be custom-cut to any size or shape, with any number or average size of pieces. Many museums have laser-cut acrylic puzzles made of some of their art so visiting children can assemble puzzles of the images on display. Acrylic pieces are very durable, waterproof, and can withstand continued use without the image degrading. Also, because the print and cut patterns are computer-based, missing pieces can easily be remade.

By the early 1960s, Tower Press was the world's largest jigsaw puzzle maker; it was acquired by Waddingtons in 1969.[10] Numerous smaller-scale puzzle makers work in artisanal styles, handcrafting and handcutting their creations.[11][12][13][14]
Variations

Jigsaw puzzles come in a variety of sizes. Among those marketed to adults, 300-, 500- and 750-piece puzzles are considered "smaller". More sophisticated, but still common, puzzles come in sizes of 1000, 1500, 2000, 3000, 4000 and 5000 pieces.
Jigsaw puzzles geared towards children typically have significantly fewer pieces and are typically much larger. For very young children, puzzles with as few as 4 to 9 large pieces (so as not to be a choking hazard) are standard. They are usually made of wood or plastic for durability and can be cleaned without damage.

The most common layout for a thousand-piece puzzle is 38 pieces by 27 pieces, for an actual total of 1,026 pieces. Most 500-piece puzzles are 27 pieces by 19 pieces, for a total of 513 pieces.[citation needed] A few puzzles are double-sided so they can be solved from either side—adding complexity, as the enthusiast must determine if they are looking at the right side of each piece.

"Family puzzles" of 100–550 pieces use an assortment of small, medium and large pieces, with each size going in one direction or towards the middle of the puzzle. This allows a family of different skill levels and hand sizes to work on the puzzle together. Companies like Springbok, Cobble Hill, Ceaco, Buffalo Games and Suns Out make this type of specialty puzzle. Ravensburger, on the other hand, formerly made this type of puzzle from 2000 until 2008.
There are also three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles. Many are made of wood or styrofoam and require the puzzle to be solved in a particular order, as some pieces will not fit if others are already in place. One type of 3-D jigsaw puzzle is a puzzle globe, often made of plastic. Like 2-D puzzles, the assembled pieces form a single layer, but the final form is three-dimensional. Most globe puzzles have designs representing spherical shapes such as the Earth, the Moon, and historical globes of the Earth.

Jigsaw puzzles can vary significantly in price depending on their complexity, number of pieces, and brand. In the US, children's puzzles can start around $5, while larger ones can be closer to $50. The most expensive puzzle to date was sold for $US27,000 in 2005 at a charity auction for The Golden Retriever Foundation.
Puzzle pieces
Most puzzles are square or rectangular, with edge pieces with one straight side, and four corner pieces. However, some puzzles have edge and corner pieces cut like the rest, with no straight sides, making them more challenging to identify them. Some puzzles are round or in a more complex shape, such as profiles of animals, and their edge pieces are therefore curved. Spherical puzzles can have triangular edge pieces.

Otherwise, all or most pieces of a modern jigsaw puzzle interlock by means of rounded tabs (interjambs) and indentations (called "blanks") on adjacent sides. The pieces are normally four-sided and may be uniform in appearance except for the edges and corners. Some puzzles are termed "fully interlocking", which means that a group of assembled pieces fit together tightly enough to be moved without falling apart; sometimes the connection is tight enough that a solved section will remain attached when lifted by one piece. Uniformly shaped fully interlocking puzzles, sometimes called "Japanese Style", are more difficult because pieces are hard to tell apart.[citation needed]

Wooden puzzles fit together more loosely, with few tabs and blanks, because of the limits of the material and the cutting technology. They sometimes include pieces in recognisable shapes such as objects or animals, known as "whimsies", "silhouettes", or "figurals".[16] Designer Yuu Asaka has created monochrome jigsaw puzzles with five "corner" pieces (with two straight edges)[17] and consisting entirely of such pieces.[18][19] The former was awarded the Jury Honorable Mention at the 2018 Puzzle Design Competition....
Research studies

Studies have shown that the ability to solve jigsaw puzzles develops during early childhood. During this time there is significant development in cognitive abilities such as mental rotation and visuospatial ability, which can be used to solve a puzzle. Throughout life those abilities can continue to develop.

In 2021, researchers conducted a study during which a group of children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old were asked to complete three different types of jigsaw puzzles. Each child was given a normal jigsaw puzzle with a picture on it, another with normal shaped pieces but without an image on it and finally a puzzle with an image on it but all the pieces were shaped the same. They were shown the completed versions then asked to reassemble them. The children were given three minutes to complete each puzzle; half of the group was given a guide picture while the other half was not. The results revealed that 4 and 5 year olds were able to complete all three puzzles within the allotted time, meanwhile most 3-year-olds were able to complete the normal jigsaw puzzle and the puzzle of normal shaped pieces without an image on it but struggled more with the puzzle that had an image but all the pieces were shaped the same. With all of the children the fastest completion time was with the normal puzzle and the slowest was with the puzzle with an image and same shaped pieces; there were also fewer errors in with the children that had a guide.[24] The cognitive development between the different ages can be seen in their completion times and how many errors were made. The older children were able to complete the puzzles with fewer errors because their mental rotation abilities, which is the ability to rotate an object in your mind to see it from a different perspective, are further developed than they are for younger children who are more likely to resort to trial and error.

The difference in the visuospatial abilities between boys and girls were studied in 2017 using jigsaw puzzles. A second-grade class was asked to complete three different puzzles, the first was a neutral one of a horse, second was a male-oriented one of a tractor, and the third was a female-oriented one of the character Bambi. The Bambi puzzle had the fastest completion time with all the children which is believed to be caused by their previous experience, and because it was finished the fastest with all of the children researchers do not believe there is a connection between the puzzles' targeted audience and the sex of the children. Overall the girls in the class were faster, and made fewer errors.[25]
Society

The logo of Wikipedia is a globe made out of jigsaw pieces. The incomplete sphere symbolizes the room to add new knowledge.[26]

In the logo of the Colombian Office of the Attorney General appears a jigsaw puzzle piece in the foreground. They named it "The Key Piece": "The piece of a puzzle is the proper symbol to visually represent the Office of the Attorney General because it includes the concepts of search, solution and answers that the entity pursues through the investigative activity."[27]
Art and entertainment

The central antagonist in the Saw film franchise is nicknamed Jigsaw,[28] due to his practice of cutting the shape of a puzzle piece from the remains of his victims.

In the 1933 Laurel and Hardy short Me and My Pal, several characters attempt to complete a large jigsaw puzzle.[29]

Lost in Translation is a poem about a child putting together a jigsaw puzzle, as well as an interpretive puzzle itself.

Life: A User's Manual, Georges Perec's most famous novel, tells as pieces of a puzzle a story about a jigsaw puzzle maker.

Jigsaw Puzzle (song), sometimes spelled "Jig-Saw Puzzle" is a song by the rock and roll band The Rolling Stones, featured on their 1968 album Beggars Banquet.

In "Citizen Kane" Susan Alexander Kane (Dorothy Comingore) is reduced to spending her days completing jigsaws after the failure of her operatic career. After Kane's death when "Xanadu" is emptied, hundreds of jigsaw puzzles are discovered in the cellar.

Rhett And Link Do A Rainy Day Jigsaw Puzzle is a short video by self-described "internetainers" (portmanteau of "Internet" and "entertainers") Rhett & Link which portrays the frustration of discovering a puzzle piece is missing.

In 2022, Andorra issued a commemorative 2 euro coin, on the national side of which a figure of puzzle pieces was stamped, symbolising the Principality of Andorra and the countries belonging to the European Union." (wikipedia)

"Jigsaw puzzle accessories are the accessories used to assemble, store, and display jigsaw puzzles.
Jigsaw puzzle accessories for making, displaying and storing jigsaw puzzles.
History

Jigsaw puzzles were made commercially available in England by John Spilsbury around 1760.[1] Jigsaws are popular throughout Europe, and in the American Great Depression jigsaw puzzles sold at the rate of 10 million per week.[2]

The first references to any kind of jigsaw puzzle accessory can be found around 1900 when a "Frame" was first included in Dutch jigsaw puzzle boxes[3] so that a completed puzzle could be permanently saved. The idea was not successful and was soon discontinued. The same happened to the mahogany and walnut "Puzzle Trays" that were advertised in Viking's Picture Puzzle Weekly in America during the 1930s.[4]

In the late 1980s, Falcon Games in England applied for a trademark, and on 4th of August 1989 their self-explanatory Jigroll name was registered (UK Patent Office Reference 1318441). Although many companies have since copied the functionality of the Jigroll, none have been able to give their products the same name. Nowadays, the jigsaw puzzle parlance "Jigroll" has almost become a generic term for all jigsaw mats and rolls.[citation needed]

Jigsaw puzzle frames, in which a completed puzzle can be displayed, have never been very popular in either Europe or the US. However, in the case of Japan, the customary use of jigsaws is for wall decoration. From the time that jigsaws first became available in Japan, in the 1970s,[5] jigsaw frames have been available to fit the jigsaw sizes of all the leading manufacturers.
Modern jigsaw puzzle accessories

Illustrated below are the most widely used modern products. Most of the accessories come in a range of sizes to cater for jigsaw puzzles between 500 and 2,000 pieces with the 1,000-piece size being the most popular.
Stand-alone construction tray

Construction trays are the most basic of all jigsaw puzzle accessories and they come in many different materials. Sizes required for different piece counts are as follows:

    500 pieces: 520 mm x 395 mm (20.4" x 15.5")
    1000 pieces: Approximately 750 mm x 520 mm (29.5" x 20.4")
    1500 pieces: Approximately 915 mm x 660 mm (36.0" x 26.0")
    2000 pieces: Approximately 1016 mm x 711 mm (40" x 28")

The major problem with stand alone construction trays is that they cannot be packed away and stored with a part-assembled jigsaw. However, they can very easily be moved around from place to place in a home - the only functionality required by many people.
Roll-up mat

Launched in 1989, the Jigroll was the forerunner of modern jigsaw puzzle accessories. The jigsaw puzzle is constructed on a green cloth that has a coarse texture to which cardboard jigsaw pieces adhere. The non assembled pieces are also kept on the cloth. When the puzzle needs to be cleared away the entire cloth is rolled around a drum thus keeping both the assembled and non-assembled pieces trapped in position until the cloth is unrolled again....
Nesting boxes for unassembled pieces

The loose pieces of a jigsaw take up approximately twice the space of a completed puzzle and these nesting boxes aim to solve the problem of how best to store 1,000 loose pieces in a small area. The boxes can be used for sorting different shapes or colours of piece. Each box has a removable insert so that sections of the puzzle can be constructed in the box and then easily moved to the developing jigsaw.
Jigsaw puzzle frames

Traditionally (especially in Japan) jigsaw puzzles that are hung on a wall are glued onto a backing board. Once glued, it is a simple process to fit a puzzle into a frame in much the same way as a picture is fitted in a picture frame. However, gluing a puzzle to a board renders it unusable in the future as a puzzle. Products like the Jigframe resolve this issue with a shallow drawer incorporated into the frame that allows jigsaws to be framed without the use of glue.

Storage cases

The product is sold with 10 cardboard sheets on which completed puzzles are stored. The puzzles along with their cardboard sheets are stacked on top of each other in the manner of a multi-tiered sandwich. Ultimately the entire sandwich is held together with straps that are provided and then the whole is stored in an outer cardboard case. This accessory may be used by dedicated enthusiasts or at schools and clubs, where there is a requirement to keep and display many completed puzzles." (wikipedia)