Mental Floss

THE '80S

Steven Leung via Flickr

When art school dropout Ralph Shaffer was hired by American Greetings to illustrate greeting cards in 1964, the 23-year-old was tasked with depicting delicate flower petals and hopping bunny rabbits.

Jake Rossen
By Diego Moya - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

As we now know, 'Pac-Man' was a massive hit, and its grip on pop culture is still strong today. But 'Pac-Man's success was far from certain; its designer initially had no interest in games, and the public reaction to it was initially mixed.

Mental Floss UK
Mike Mozart, Flickr // CC BY 2.0

When U.S. Army Corps bombardier Max Spencer Adler was shot down over Europe and imprisoned by the Nazis during World War II, it’s not likely he dreamed of one day becoming the czar of penis-shaped lollipops and lava lamps.

Jake Rossen








ABC

For nearly 10 years, TV viewers got to experience a journey aboard a cruise ship nearly every Saturday night as The Love Boat brought the misadventures and romantic escapades of the luxury liner life right into their living rooms.

Jason Serafino
Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid (1984).

You'd better start practicing those crane kicks again! More than 30 years after Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence faced off in one of cinema's most iconic showdowns, The Karate Kid has officially made a comeback.

Tim Lybarger








© Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Mel Brooks hadn’t directed a movie in six years when he committed to 1987’s 'Spaceballs,' a joke-saturated spoof of 'Star Wars' and other popular genre films of the era.

Jake Rossen


Paramount Pictures

In the face of a looming mid-1980s writers strike, John Hughes presented Paramount executive Ned Tanen with a one-sentence pitch: "I want to do this movie about a kid who takes a day off from school and ... that's all I know so far."

Roger Cormier






LightFieldStudios/iStock via Getty Images

The 1980s were a magical time that gave birth to so many things that have become commonplace in our lives, including personal computers, 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' movies, and two-pound cell phones.

mentalfloss .com
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

In one of Die Hard's most memorable scenes, John McClane stumbles upon criminal mastermind Hans Gruber, who puts on a pretty good American accent and pretends to be a hostage. McClane realizes Gruber is up to no good, though—but how?

Jennifer M Wood