Featuring the best 80s music videos, TV shows, 80s celebrities and more!
George Carlin had Johnny Carson in stitches during his visit on November 26, 1986. Carlin talked about his wacky health problems, his family, and everything else that was on his mind that tonight. If you need a good laugh, enjoy this look back at George Carlin’s appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson!
On January 15, 1987, Richard Pryor made his only appearance on Late Night with David Letterman. The two seemed to really get along, and Pryor was his usual humble yet hilarious self. Dave actually seemed a little nervous during the interview, but Pryor was as cool as ever.
Enjoy this look back at the great Richard Pryor’s only appearance on Letterman in 1987!
Don Rickles, the king of insult comedy was on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1980, and he ripped into anyone and everyone, and it was hilarious! Enjoy this look back at the one-and-only Don Rickles on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson back in 1980!
As a bonus, we’ve also got one of our all time favorite clips of Don Rickles on the Tonight Show. In 1976, Rickles surprised Frank Sinatra on the show, and what ensued was five minutes of comic genius!
Check out more interviews from The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the ’80s:
Legendary singer/songwriter Rod Stewart has been releasing music since 1964, and in the ’80s, he scored a number of top ten hits on the charts including Passion, Young Turks, Infatuation, Some Guys Have All The Luck, Love Touch, My Heart Can’t Tell You No, This Old Heart of Mine, and Downtown Train, his last top ten hit of the ’80s when it peaked at number three on the Hot 100 charts and number one on both the AC and Rock charts..
Stewart is back and is releasing a new album on November 12th titled The Tears of Hercules. The first single from the album is a catchy and cheeky tune called One More Time. In the sleeve notes about the album, Stewart proudly states,
“I’ve never said this before about any previous efforts, but I believe this is by far my best album in many a year.”
He also said about the song One More Time:
The story behind the song is you know when you break up with somebody and the sex was amazing and you just want to do it one more time? That’s what the song is about. It’s happened to all of us I’m sure.
via TheScottishSun.co.uk
Enjoy this look at ’80s rock legend Rod Stewart’s new music video for his latest single One More Time!
Johnny Carson always treated his guests with respect, and Boy George’s first interview on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was a perfect example of how great Carson was. Even though he wasn’t quite sure what to make of Boy George, he treated him with respect and asked some pretty bold questions at the time. They seemed to get along well, and this was a really good interview. George was also calm, respectful, and answered his questions openly and honestly.
If you’ve got a few minutes, I think you’ll really enjoy this one. Enjoy this look back at Boy George’s first interview on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson back in 1984!
Talk Talk are one of those bands who released some great music in the ’80s, but for some unknown reason, their songs never picked up much traction on the mainstream charts. Their biggest hit in the U.S. was It’s My Life, the lead single from their 1984 album of the same name. While it only made it to number 31 on the Hot 100 charts, it did top the Dance charts in the U.S. in 1984.
The official music video for It’s My Life was released as a statement against the banality of lip-synching, and consists almost entirely of footage from the 1979 BBC wildlife documentary Life on Earth, interspersed with shots of Talk Talk lead singer Mark Hollis standing in various places throughout the London Zoo. It’s definitely an interesting music video to watch!
The second video below is an awesome live performance of the song. Enjoy this look back at one of our favorite songs from the ’80s, It’s My Life from Talk Talk!
Shattered Dreams was the lead single released from Johnny Hates Jazz’s 1988 debut album Turn Back the Clock. It was a top five hit in the UK, and in the U.S. it peaked at number two on the Hot 100 charts and number one on the AC charts. The band scored one more top 40 hit in the U.S. with their next single I Don’t Want to Be a Hero, which peaked at number 31.
Enjoy this look back at the UK color version of the music video for Shattered Dreams as well as the B/W version shot for the U.S.!
In 1986, the late Eddie Money released his sixth studio album titled Can’t Hold Back. The lead single from the album was Take Me Home Tonight. The chorus interpolates the Ronettes’ 1963 hit Be My Baby, and original vocalist Ronnie Spector provided the vocals, and she also appeared in the official music video.
Take Me Home Tonight was Money’s second number one song on the Mainstream Rock charts, and it was his highest charting song of his career on the Hot 100 charts when it peaked at number four in 1986. His first number one on the Rock charts was 1982’s Think I’m In Love. He scored one more number one on the Rock charts in 1989 with The Love In Your Eyes.
Enjoy this look back at the music video for Take Me Home Tonight as well as a look at the music videos for his other two number one rock hits as well!
1985 was a big year for Michael J. Fox. His role as Marty McFly in Back to the Future changed his life forever. In this clip from the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Fox talks about buying his first house and his current love life. The exchange between Johnny and Michael regarding their latest “lady friend” is priceless. They both keep throwing it back to the other.
Enjoy this look back at Michael J. Fox’s first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1985!
In 1988, Henry Lee Summer released a self-titled album that produced one of 1988’s biggest rock hits. I Wish I Had a Girl topped the Mainstream Rock charts in ’88, and it peaked at number 20 on the Hot 100 charts. He scored three more top 30 hits on the Rock charts in ’88 and ’89 with Darlin’ Danielle Don’t, which peaked at number nine, Hands on the Radio, which peaked at number 28, and Hey Baby which peaked at number six on the Rock charts and number 18 on the Hot 100 charts.
Enjoy this look back at Summer’s music video for I Wish I Had a Girl as well as videos for Darlin’ Danielle Don’t and Hands on the Radio!
In 1981, Van Halen released their fourth studio album, Fair Warning. The album produced four top 30 hits on the Mainstream Rock charts. The fourth single was Unchained, which peaked at number 13 on the Mainstream Rock charts in 1981.
Chuck Klosterman of Vulture.com named it the second-best Van Halen song, writing that it “merely feels like insatiable straight-ahead rock, but the lick is freaky, obliquely hovering above the foundation while the drums oscillate between two unrelated performance philosophies.”
We agree! Simply put, Unchained is a damn good rock song!
Enjoy this incredible live performance of Unchained from Van Halen in Oakland Coliseum Stadium back in 1981!
During season eight of The Voice Australia in 2019, Vendulka Wichta performed her own version of Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon in front of the four judges. One of the judges happened to be Boy George, and his reaction when he realizes she is covering Karma Chameleon is priceless.
In his words, “All my favorite singers always say that if you’re gonna cover one of my songs, take it somewhere else. I don’t want to hear a repeat of what I did. I want to hear someone twist it up.”
Twist it up she did in a wonderful way. I think you’re gonna love this. Boy George even goes up and does a quick impromptu duet with her. This really is a beautiful cover of Karma Chameleon.
Just for fun, we’ve also got Culture Club’s music video for Karma Chameleon below as well! Enjoy both versions of one of the ’80s greatest songs!
Saturday Night Live alum Norm Macdonald’s comedy career began in his native Canada where he performed in stand-up clubs in Ottawa in 1985. His appearance at the 1986 Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal was heralded by the Montreal Gazette as “One of the country’s hottest comics.”
He would go on to appear on Saturday Night Live from 1993-1998. Sadly Macdonald passed away on September 14, 2021 after a nine year battle with cancer that he kept private from his family, friends, and the public. Only a few trusted friends knew about his illness.
To honor Macdonald, we’ve got a really cool and rare video below of his appearance at the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in ’86 as well as our favorite skit from SNL featuring Macdonald as Burt Reynolds (or is that Turd Ferguson) on Celebrity Jeopardy. We’ll miss you. RIP Norm…
A Different Corner was a 1986 single released by George Michael. It was included on WHAM!’s compilation album titled Music from the Edge of Heaven released in 1986 in Japan and North America only. The song was a huge hit in the UK where it peaked at number one on the charts. It was also a top ten hit the Hot 100 charts in the US when it peaked at number seven in 1986.
According to Wikipedia, Michael was at a really low point in his life when he wrote A Different Corner:
“I felt like shit. I went in and recorded exactly the way I felt, and that’s the way it sounds. It was partly Wham! and partly the end of a relationship. It was the farthest I’d ever fallen, and in a very short period of time. I had to get rid of it somehow, I had to write about it. That’s a really perverse side that I’m sure a lot of writers have -‘I feel like shit, but maybe I’ll get a good song out of it.’”
George Michael
Enjoy this look back at George Michael’s music video for A Different Corner from 1986!
The intro scene of season 4, episode 20 of Miami Vice called A Bullet for Crockett is a great scene. Like the pilot episode, the entire scene is shot with Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight in the background. If you loved Miami Vice, you’ll love this look back at the intro scene to Miami Vice’s A Bullet for Crockett episode. Enjoy!
On February 3, 1988, Merritt Heaton, a 97-year old farmer from Toulon, Illinois appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. This has to be one of my all time favorite interviews. Mr. Heaton talks to Johnny about why he initially declined the invitation to come on the show, the biggest change he’s seen since he’s been born, and his younger girlfriend he visits when he’s in California.
You’ll also love the end of the video when his girlfriend joins them on the set. This interview is a breath of fresh air and will definitely leave you with a smile on your face.
On September 4, 1980, Mr. Rogers made his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Before he came out, Johnny played a snippet of a past skit called Mr. Codgers’ Neighborhood. If you never saw this, you’re gonna love this one. Mr. Rogers was such a genuine human being who took it all in stride.
Enjoy this look back at Mr. Rogers making his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson back in 1980!
The Running Man was a 1987 action film that starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, María Conchita Alonso, Richard Dawson, Yaphet Kotto, and Jesse Ventura. It also had a large ensemble cast that included football legend Jim Brown and ’80s guitarist Dweezil Zappa.
The film took place in a dystopian United States between 2017 and 2019 and centered around a television show called The Running Man where convicted criminal “runners” must escape death at the hands of professional killers with nicknames like Buzzsaw, Fireball, Captain Freedom, Dynamo, and Professor Subzero.
Enjoy this look at the cast of The Running Man then and now from YouTube’s BIG STAR-X!
Reverend Jim is our favorite character from the sitcom Taxi. There are so many great scenes featuring Reverend Jim, and this is just one of them. If you didn’t already know, Jim’s a genius! LOL
If you haven’t scene the Reverend Jim takes his driving test scene, you’ve gotta check it out as well. It’s one of the funniest scenes we’ve ever seen!
Enjoy this look back at Reverend Jim from Taxi!
Let’s take a video trip back to 1988 with Len Enders. Len recorded the video below on October 9, 1988 in Port Hadlock and Port Townsend, MA. Like most bored ’80s rocker teens, his day consisted of going to an arcade, driving around town, walking around town, going to a record store, going to a video rental store, visiting his friend Scott’s house, going to McDonald’s, throwing eggs at cop cars, and jamming with his buddies!
Enjoy this trip down memory lane with an ’80s rocker teenager whose dad was away, so the boys went out and played! Oh, and just a head’s up, their language and behavior isn’t exactly rated PG.
This video was summed up perfectly by one of the comments under the video: “What I appreciate most about pre social media days is that people didn’t record things for other people to see. We recorded things for ourselves to see later. So it was NEVER FAKE!”
In 1981, NBC aired a special called The Stars Salute the President. It was a musical/variety tribute show to President Ronald Reagan at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. Rodney Dangerfield was one of the performers, and he had President Reagan laughing up a storm.
Enjoy this look back at the late Rodney Dangerfield doing what he did best!
In 1980, I was 10 years old, and I can still vividly remember watching the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union during the medal round at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, New York. While the crowd was going wild on the screen, I was jumping up and down in my bedroom and going crazy as well. I’ll never forget my dad running into my bedroom asking what the he** is going on? I started yelling, “We beat the Soviets! We beat the Soviets!” I remember him smiling and saying, yes we did son, yes we did. The U.S. would go on to defeat Finland to win the gold medal!
In 2004, the movie Miracle came out that portrayed the 1980 United States hockey team. It starred Kurt Russell as head coach Herb Brooks, and in this scene from the movie, Russell as Brooks gives one of the greatest pre-game speeches of all time. Our guys were ready to run through a wall, and that’s exactly what they did!
Enjoy this look back at the Miracle on Ice pre-game speech by Coach Herb Brooks as well as footage of the last moments of the game with Al Michaels’ iconic statement, “Do you believe in miracles? YES!”
In 1983, Laura Branigan released her second studio album titled Branigan 2. The first single released from the album was Solitaire, which peaked at number seven on the Hot 100 charts and number 16 on the AC charts. The previous year, she had scored a number two hit on the Hot 100 charts with Gloria. The follow up single to Solitaire was How Am I Supposed to Live Without You, which was her first number one single in America when it topped the AC charts.
Enjoy this look back at the music video for Solitaire as well as a look at her video for Gloria and a live performance of How Am I Supposed to Live Without You.
Glenn Frey’s The Heat is On was released as a single in 1984. It was written by Harold Faltermeyer and Keith Dorsey, and Glenn Frey recorded it for the soundtrack to Eddie Murphy’s movie Beverly Hills Cop. At the time, it was Glenn Frey’s highest charting single to date when it peaked at number two on the Hot 100 charts and number four on the Mainstream Rock charts. The next year, he scored another number two hit on the Hot 100 charts, but his first number one rock hit for You Belong to the City from the Miami Vice soundtrack.
Soundtracks were good to Frey. In addition to the above two songs, he also scored a top 20 hit on both the Hot 100 and Rock charts in 1985 with Smuggler’s Blues, also from the Miami Vice soundtrack.
Enjoy this look back at Glenn Frey’s music video for The Heat Is On as well as a look at his other two soundtrack hits Smuggler’s Blues and You Belong to the City!
During the 59th Academy Awards in 1987, Rodney Dangerfield came out to announce the winner of the Oscar for Best Makeup, but not before he delivered more than a few classic one-liners. Rodney Dangerfield was the best in the business, and in just three minutes, he stole the show!
Enjoy this look back at Rodney Dangerfield stealing the show at the 59th Academy Awards!
Big Time was track number one on Rick James’ 1980 album Garden of Love. It was a top 20 hit on the R&B charts, and a top 40 dance hit. He followed up Big Time with two of his most recognizable hits of his career, Give It To Me Baby, a number one hit on the R&B charts, and Super Freak, a top 20 hit on the Hot 100 charts. Big Time has always been one of our favorite songs from James.
Enjoy this look back at Rick James performing Big Time live back in 1980!
Christine was a 1983 supernatural horror film directed by John Carpenter and based on Stephen King’s novel Christine. It starred Keith Gordon as Arnie, Christine’s owner, as well as John Stockwell, Alexandra Paul, Robert Prosky, and Harry Dean Stanton. We had forgotten Keith Gordan was in this movie. We remember him as Jason Melon, Rodney Dangerfield’s character’s son in 1986’s Back to School.
The real star of the movie was Christine, a red-and-white 1958 Plymouth Fury! The movie grossed over $21 million at the box office on a $10 million budget.
In this video, Minty Comedic Arts explore the movie and ten things you may not know about Christine. Enjoy this look back at Christine and ten things you might not know about this iconic horror movie from the early ’80s!
During Taxi’s season four two-part finale, the gang are all reminiscing about how and why they all ended up working at the Sunshine Cab Company. Everyone tells their story, but the episode centers around Reverend Jim Ignatowski’s story. It’s the first time we get to see what Reverend Jim was like before he became the Sunshine Cab Company’s resident pot head. The episode also featured a young Tom Hanks as one of Rev. Jim’s girlfriend’s stoner friends.
Enjoy this look back at Reverend Jim before the drugs!
In 1985, Don Rickles roasted President Ronald Reagan during his second inaugural in January 1985, and it was so refreshing to see a public figure with a sense of humor. In typical Don Rickles fashion, he didn’t hold back when roasting President Reagan, and Reagan laughed the entire time.
To us, this is one of the reasons why we loved the ’80s. Jokes were jokes, and like Reagan, nobody took things too personally. And, as you can see from Rickles comments at the very end, he meant no harm and was happy for Reagan. He was a friend poking fun at another friend, and it was funny. As simple as that. It was funny!
Enjoy this look back at Don Rickles roasting President Ronald Reagan during his 2nd inaugural in 1985!
Spaceballs was released in theaters in June of 1987. It was co-written produced, and directed by Mel Brooks and starred Mel Brooks, John Candy, Rick Moranis, Bill Pullman, George Wyner, and Daphne Zuniga. Like a lot of ’80s parody comedies, Spaceballs was mildly successful at the box office at the time, but has become immensely more popular over the years and has garnered a significant cult following.
MGM put together the awesome video below featuring the funniest moments from Spaceballs. Enjoy this look back at the funniest moments from one of the ’80s quirkiest and funniest movies!
