Mental Floss

THE '80S

Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon’s 'Double Dare', which ran from 1986 to 1993 and taped more than 500 episodes, gave its kid contestants bicycles or boom boxes in exchange for fetching giant balls of snot from oversized noses.

Jake Rossen


Lucy Quintanilla

R.L. Stine’s Fear Street novels terrified teens in the late 1980s and early '90s. Now, the Fear Street books are heading to Netflix in a three-film trilogy. Here's what you should know about the books.

Erin McCarthy




Star Wars © & TM 2015 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

After the massive success of the 1977 original, and the downer ending of 'The Empire Strikes Back' in 1980, space opera mastermind George Lucas returned in 1983 to produce what everyone thought would be the final installment of 'Star Wars'.

Sean Hutchinson


Peter Parks, AFP/Getty Images

Although it doesn’t have quite the same archaeological provenance as hieroglyphs or dinosaur bones, historians believe there’s ample evidence to suggest that the mullet has been around for centuries. And it's gaining popularity once again.

Jake Rossen
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

Five years after the release of 'Return of the Jedi' (1983) and four years after 'Indiana Jones' and the 'Temple of Doom' (1984), George Lucas gave audiences the story for another film about an unlikely hero on an epic journey, but this time he had three

Andrew LaSane


iStock

In the fall of 1923, street vendors in Santa Barbara, California received an unexpected bit of attention regarding one of their more popular wares: 'The San Francisco Chronicle' wrote about the sellers' “freakish little brown seeds” that “cavorted about t

Jake Rossen






Photo Illustration by Mental Floss. Woody Image: iStock. Background: IFC Midnight

It’s no surprise (or maybe it is) that several references to 'The Shining,' from the obvious to the obscure, have snuck into Pixar’s lineup over the years. Here are nine of them.

Rebecca Pahle
CBS

The man who was nearly Indiana Jones helped give life to one of the most popular shows of the '80s, which ended its run 30 years ago.

Jason Serafino
Dan Kitwood, Getty Images

One sure sign of a toy craze is annoyed toy store owners, and in 1976, there were plenty of them. The reason? The Kenner Company had introduced a novel 10-inch latex doll that never remained on shelves for more than a few minutes at a time.

Jake Rossen