Mental Floss

THE '80S

YouTube

After his career-changing performance in 'Airplane!,' Leslie Nielsen teamed up with Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker again for the ABC parody show 'Police Squad!' in 1982.

Roger Cormier








YouTube

Think Chewbacca’s luxurious brown mane is wash-and-go? Guess again. 'Allure' beauty writer Jenna Rosenstein recently interviewed Maria Cork, the Jedi Master—ahem, supervisor—of the hair department in creature effects on 'The Force Awakens.'

Kirstin Fawcett

In the 1980s, the lure of cheap commercial time led to many legendary mail order offers. There was the Ginsu knife, the 'Sports Illustrated' football phone, and a laundry list of compilation records that assembled hit songs without the pain of B-side clun

Jake Rossen
YouTube

Sean Connery helped guide Terry Gilliam through the beginning—and the ending—of the children's (sort of) classic.

Roger Cormier


YouTube

Paul Newman won an Oscar for his second go-around as “Fast Eddie” Felson in 1986's 'The Color of Money,' a one-time collaboration between the iconic film star and acclaimed director Martin Scorsese.

Roger Cormier


YouTube

The movie has scared audiences for over 30 years, and has remained popular to this day thanks to a 2015 reboot and continued discussion over the 1982 movie’s controversial production and alleged curse.

Roger Cormier




YouTube

In what would be their final movie together, in 1983 the classic comedy troupe Monty Python gave the world a collection of funny sketches meant to document every stage of a person's life, from “The Miracle of Birth” to “Death” (give or take a Terry Gillia

Roger Cormier
YouTube

In 1989's 'Look Who’s Talking,' Kirstie Alley played Mollie, a single mother whose love life is manipulated by her newborn son Mikey, so she ends up with a cab driver named James, played by John Travolta.

Roger Cormier


YouTube

In the 1990s, the magazine industry was having some issues. 'People' suffered a five percent drop in circulation in the first half of 1990; 'Sports Illustrated' dropped by seven percent that same year.

Jake Rossen




Shannen Doherty, Lisanne Falk, Kim Walker, and Winona Ryder star in Heathers (1989).

It’s doubtful that the dark comedy 'Heathers,' with its shocking violence and politically incorrect teen-speak, would likely ever be made today.

Roger Cormier


Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall in The Breakfast Club (1985).

On February 15, 1985, John Hughes's 'The Breakfast Club' showed that, despite their labels, a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal aren't really so different from one another.

Kate Erbland
getty images

They came. They cried. They conquered. Here are 23 things you might not know about the late-’80s weepie.

Jennifer M Wood