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Go Home The Cultural Smearing Of the 1980s

JONATHAN CHAIT JANUARY 13, 2010

The Cultural Smearing Of the 1980s

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

Having been born in 1972, I know full well that the 1980s did not produce the finest moments in popular culture. But why is it that Hollywood must recycle the worst elements of that culture? First they remade Knight Rider. Now, Lord help us, an A-Team movie:

This was a television show that insulted my intelligence when I was ten. (My younger brother insisted on watching.) The premise of the show is a group of wrongly-convicted commandos who roam the land helping people by confronting whatever bad guy is tormenting them, shooting up his liquor cabinet -- you couldn't shoot people on network television so the liquor cabinet always took the hit -- and then embarking upon some complicated mechanical project that will produce an ultimate victory. There weren't a lot of great shows on television then, but there were a lot better ones than this. I mean, if you're going to make an A team movie, why not just make a movie of "Silver Spoons"? Jason Bateman's career is hot again.

And you know who else must be angry? Mr. T. Here's an actor who made the show, such as it was. For twenty five years he couldn't get a role anywhere because, in addition to what I admit are limited acting skills, he was too deeply associated with his A-Team character. And now, more than two decades later, there's a movie with a role for which he's perfectly suited. And they didn't pick him! They picked some other black guy with a mohawk.

This is just going to gibe the younger generation an unrealistically negative portrait of 1980s culture. It was bad. But it wasn't that bad.

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9 comments

funny you mention Bateman. I used to loath him when I was young (the same with Michael J. Fox) but now I am big fans of them both. Sometimes it is just the role and not the actor.

- blackton

January 13, 2010 at 12:16pm

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Jon- I was born in 1973, and I couldn't agree more with the sentiments you express in this post. It's a broader issue, though, as I think that the 80's are unfairly disrespected, despite the decade being a time of great creativity in art, music, and pop culture (some quality issues duly noted). A lot of the creativity was an artistic response to Reagan and Thatcher (think Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes" or Boy George's "No Clause 28"), and still sounds pretty good. Matt

- witten

January 13, 2010 at 2:04pm

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Jon's got a point. We've had A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard, GI Joe, and Transformers remakes, but not Magnum PI, Equalizer, or Hill Street Blues? No Max Headroom or Sledge Hammer!? It's like they're trying to make the 80s look as bad as possible. Just to rub salt in the wound, the best recent TV remake, Battlestar Galactica, was from the 70s. With the Rockford Files also being remade, I smell a pro-70s, anti-80s conspiracy. On the plus side, there are currently no plans for a Night Court movie.

- rhubarbs

January 13, 2010 at 2:24pm

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Mr. T. would surely feel a form of compassion tinged with disdain for the comically unwise individual who would disrespect him this way. Hmm. There must be a pithier way of stating that....

- adaglas

January 13, 2010 at 2:40pm

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"They picked some other black guy with a mohawk." Don't you mean THE other black guy with a mohawk? I didn't watch "The A-Team" when it was on and will probably miss the current cinematic interpretation. However, I look forward to "LOL Cats A-Team": "iz pity da fool" etc. It's kind of like the '80s now except instead of Dr. Huxtable and family on NBC on Thursday nights, he's in the White House. I heard Foreigner's "I Want To Know What Love Is" this past weekend on the radio. Reports thereafter of a screaming, obese middle-aged maniac in my neighborhood setting fires, smashing store windows, and otherwise engaged in a frenzy of civic mayhem are no doubt purely a coincidence.

- williamyard

January 13, 2010 at 2:47pm

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There is one area where the '80s were the equal of any other decade. The music coming out of the UK was absolutely brilliant, as was the music coming up from the US underground. '80s fashions, on the other hand... well, I know why my British friends call it "the decade that taste forgot."

- zardoz67

January 13, 2010 at 5:28pm

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The greatest television work of the '80s is the work of Mike Post, who is responsible for the themes for Hill Street Blues, L.A. Law, Magnum, P.I., The Greatest American Hero, The Commish, Doogie Howser, Remington Steele, Quantum Leap, Hunter, MacGyver, and, yeah, the A-Team, any one of which would mike an initially humurous but quickly irritating ringtone, like all ringtones.

- jhildner1

January 13, 2010 at 6:36pm

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adaglas: No, you said it perfectly.

- jhildner1

January 13, 2010 at 6:39pm

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Star Wars meets the A-Team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWR0_0YaEzI

- drheingold

February 17, 2010 at 2:52am

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