Tabla de contenidos para PEOPLE Celebrate the 80s: 1984 Edition en People

*The Best in Music, Movies, TV & More *The Ultimate Pop Culture Quiz 1984—AN AWESOME YEAR IN POP CULTURE Dynasty’s TV Reign • Tina Turner’s Comeback • The Terminator Debuts ONLY IN PEOPLE On Tour With the Boss • On-Set With Splash, Footloose & More…

WHEN DISNEY CAST its $9 million bread upon the unlikely waters of Splash, nobody expected it would net a monstrous audience. Yet everyone is hooked. It marks the emergence of director Ron Howard, 30, as a new force in Hollywood. “People buy the fantasy,” he says. “The mermaid story has always been a negative thing, the love you can never have. We flipped that, and it came out fresh.” Ironically, what spooked Howard as a youngster in California was the ocean deep. “It always scared me,” he says. “I never wanted to go surfing out by the breakers.” The underwater shoot in the Bahamas added a new challenge. He and the cast and crew trained for scuba diving, and Howard, weighted down in his wet suit, learned to direct…

FOUR LITTLE WORDS sum up the year in music: I want my MTV! Although its all-music-videos-all-the-time format had debuted in the summer of 1981, it wasn’t until 1984 that the network truly came of age, as more Americans tossed out their rabbit-ear antennae and signed up for cable. Soon record labels poured more of their marketing budgets into flash-and-sizzle videos, helping the channel cement its role as rock’s new national jukebox. ‘ALL OF A SUDDEN HERE COMES TINA TURNER FLYING AND KICKING AND JUMPING. AND THEY GO, “WOW! LOOK AT THAT!”’—TINA TURNER, ON HER APPEAL TO NEW FANS RAISED ON ROCK BANDS, TO PEOPLE, 1984 This was the year that MTV started a weekly “Top 20 Video Countdown,” and People began running reviews of the artists’ clips. “Cool and ethereal, this splendid…

FOUR HOURS before opening-night showtime, and the Jacksons’ sixth-floor enclave of Kansas City’s Alameda Plaza Hotel—where “Do Not Disturb” signs hung on the doorknobs—was absolutely still. Inside Michael’s suite, the Man himself was running through vocal exercises. In a room nearby, brothers Randy, Tito, Jermaine and Marlon—minus Jackie, sidelined by a knee operation—were rehearsing harmonies and bracing for the start of the $50 million, 13-plus-city tour that could mark the farewell of the family act that debuted in 1965. Randy was psyching himself up, trying to sear away pain in his left leg caused by an auto accident in 1980. “You know how a boxer feels before a fight?” he asked. “That’s how I feel. I want to knock them out.” “Pain pills,” added Marlon. “We tell the audience…

Boycotting the 1984 summer Games, the Soviet government tried to sabotage the Olympic narrative. Leaders from 14 Eastern Bloc nations and Soviet allies also refused to send athletes—payback for the U.S. sitting out the 1980 Moscow Games in protest of the host country’s invasion of Afghanistan. The grand political tantrum couldn’t compete with the big story of the 23rd Olympiad in Los Angeles: a 4'9" teenager from West Virginia, Mary Lou Retton, who charmed crowds—and the 180 million Americans who tuned in to women’s gymnastics. Retton dominated just five weeks after undergoing surgery on her knee. Locked in a tight battle for the gold with Romania’s Ecaterina Szabo, Retton was trailing by mere decimal points when she scored a magical pair of perfect 10s in the floor exercise and vault,…

In the fall of 1984 Bishop Desmond Tutu was in New York City when he learned he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Tutu’s relative anonymity in America was in contrast to his standing at home, in a nation still riven by the institutionalized racism of apartheid. “This award is a tremendous political statement,’’ said Tutu, 53, at a press conference held in the courtyard of the Manhattan church where he was a visiting professor. The honor, he added, “belongs to all the Black people of South Africa who have suffered, to all who have felt and lived with the evil of apartheid and are trying and striving for peace.’’ Among those was Nelson Mandela, whose leadership in the government-banned ANC party led to a life sentence in 1964; his…

IT’S A STORY as old as Gone With the Wind. The movie is ready to go, but there’s still no star. Just when every possibility seems exhausted, a new name comes up. Someone points out that he’s not a dancer, and since this is a dance movie, that sounds serious. The studio vice president shepherding the project has another problem. She insists he’s not embraceable (her actual word was far more pungent, but unprintable). Despite the objections, the nondancer is cast, the movie is made, and—what do you know? Footloose is a smash, and in Hollywood this month there’s no one more embraceable than spiky-haired, pug-nosed Kevin Bacon. “Paramount had a very neutral juvenile in mind, more like Rob Lowe,” explains director Herbert Ross, “but I thought we needed…

HE GLITTERED IN A WHITE SEQUINED CAPE, ornately futuristic atop a bank of speakers in the darkened hall. And as confetti rained down, 19,000 fans at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena saw the song and spectacle of Prince Rogers Nelson. “Detroit,” he thundered, “I’ve come to play with you!” For Prince, a playground is a place where the id runs free. His former manager once said that “his worst fear is being normal.” At 26, the musical polymath, film star and stage stud is currently the hottest act in show business. Prince’s ascendancy began two years ago with his rhapsodic dance LP 1999, which still rides the charts after 105 weeks. He followed that with a feature film, Purple Rain, a surprise summer hit. The film spawned a soundtrack that he…

THE LADY HAD just finished a Broadway run of a hit play, and she was suffering “a letdown,” as she delicately puts it. “My bedroom became my cocoon,” she recalls. “I just couldn’t leave it.” Like lots of folks, she found herself dialing for drama on the tube. To her surprise, it was the nighttime soaps that she enjoyed and their women that she envied. But among the prime-time villainesses, she saw a void—and an opportunity. So she turned down the sound, rang up her agent and said, “I want you to call everybody you possibly can…. I want to be wealthy and ruthless.” Or as Diahann Carroll phrases her fantasy these days: “I want to be the first Black bitch on television.” Cut to La Mirage hotel. Up…

The 1984 winter Olympics would be remembered as the last glorious moment for the host city, Sarajevo, before the former Yugoslavia spiraled into a brutal civil war in 1992. And the most glorious moments of the Games would take place on the ice. While several Americans medaled in other disciplines—including Bill Johnson’s out-of-nowhere gold-winning run in the downhill and twin brothers Phil and Steve Mahre taking the top two spots in the slalom—the most dramatic, white-knuckle competition took place in Zetra Olympic Hall. It was there that the British ice-dancing duo of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean won gold by turning in what remains the highest-scoring single program of all time, racking up 12 perfect 6.0s to the strains of Ravel’s “Bolero.” Meanwhile, the impossibly glamorous East German figure…

It reads like the cruelest of Greek tragedies. On April 1, 1984, legendary R&B singer Marvin Gaye was killed by his own father. One of the most affecting voices of his generation, Gaye had vaulted to stardom as one of Motown’s most visionary talents in its ’60s and ’70s heyday. With such landmark albums as 1971’s What’s Going On and 1973’s Let’s Get It On, Gaye channeled his silky, seductive voice into both the soundtrack of the streets and in between the sheets. In 1982 Gaye would parlay his infectious Top 40 hit “Sexual Healing” into a Grammy-winning comeback following several years away from the spotlight because of cocaine addiction and run-ins with the IRS. People called the hit “America’s hottest pop turn-on since Olivia Newton-John suggested she wanted to…

A No-Strings Space Walk Fifteen years after putting Neil Armstrong on the moon, NASA could still make folks back on Earth reach for sci-fi terms like “Buck Rogers jetpack” to explain the latest reality. On Feb. 7, 1984, Capt. Bruce McCandless (top) strapped into a “manned maneuvering unit” (the Buck Rogers thing), exited the shuttle Challenger, fired his pack’s thrusters, and for nearly seven hours, flew free, making history. “It may have been a small step for Neil,” he told his crew, “but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.” Another first: Astronaut Ronald McNair, an accomplished jazz saxophonist, played on the same mission. McNair, who had hoped to record in space, died in the 1986 shuttle disaster and was memorialized in music by Jean-Michel Jarre in “Last…

IF YOU HAD TO NAME the top box office draw of 1984, you might reasonably guess Stallone or Schwarzenegger. Good try. The biggest stars were, in fact, a trio of spirit-chasing, proton-pack-wearing parapsychologists named Peter Venkman, Raymond Stantz and Egon Spengler (with an assist from Winston Zeddemore). Released on June 8, Ghostbusters became the action-comedy blockbuster that defined a decade of irony and became the top-earning comedy to date. It was the crest of a wave of 1984 comedies that included rom-coms, teen flicks, horror humor and a hilarious rock mockumentary. But it was Ghostbusters, showing off the merry-prankster, Marx brothers chemistry between Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, that won the box office title at year’s end, marking the first time in years that Hollywood’s top…

THE NEW STATUETTE being handed out this week at the 1st Annual MTV Video Music Awards doesn’t even have a nickname yet. Yet if any one performer can steal the show’s spotlight, it may be Cyndi Lauper, a 31-year-old belter from Brooklyn and Queens who has emerged as the undisputed clown princess of video pop. Lauper’s videos for “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” and “Time After Time” (both from a debut solo LP of astonishing range, She’s So Unusual) reaped eight nominations—more than any other artist. Moreover, they have propelled her into a state of heavy rotation on MTV, which has helped boost Unusual sales past the 3 million mark. “It’s clear she’s for real as an artist, not just a novelty,” says Les Garland, vice president for…

IT WAS AN AGE before streaming, before binge-watching, before the Fox network, which wouldn’t arrive for two more years. Reality TV? Nope, not yet. In 1984 the country was still watching a small set of shows on just three broadcast networks. But what shows they were! After a decade of economic turmoil, the U.S. economy finally began to rebound in 1984. And the shows that topped the ratings reflected a spirit of affluence and escapism. CBS had a long-running hit with Dallas, featuring those oil-rich, Lone Star State schemers, the Ewings. Then came the upstart Denver Carringtons of Dynasty, who brought an international reach (British accents!), which in 1984 knocked Dallas to No. 2 in the ratings and reigned supreme in a guilty-pleasure era of villains and voyeurism, sex…

In July 1984, weeks before her term as Miss America would come to its natural end, Vanessa Williams, the first Black woman to hold the title, stepped down when nude modeling photos of her were sold, without her consent, to Penthouse magazine. She went on to enjoy a long career (in 2024 she was cast as Miranda Priestly in the musical of The Devil Wears Prada) and received an apology from the Miss America organization in 2016. She spoke to People in 1984, the morning after announcing her resignation. Excerpts from the story, told in Williams’s own words, follow. I feel relieved. The time spent preparing for my decision meant sleepless nights and a lot of thought. It made me feel good that everyone perceived me as a strong fighter,…

1 In October 1984 the NBA banned rookie player Michael Jordan from doing what? ❏ A. Sticking out his tongue❏ B. Wearing an early version of Nike Air Jordans❏ C. Trash talking❏ D. High-fiving spectators 2 The year 1984 had the fewest No. 1 albums in Billboard chart history: Thriller, Purple Rain, Born in the U.S.A., the Footloose soundtrack and … which of these? ❏ A. Make It Big by Wham!❏ B. Sports by Huey Lewis and the News❏ C. Private Dancer by Tina Turner❏ D. Diamond Life by Sade 3 Presidential candidate Walter Mondale endured a crushing loss in his 1984 run against Ronald Reagan, losing every state except: ❏ A. Massachusetts❏ B. Maine❏ C. Minnesota❏ D. Wisconsin 4 This 1984 film earned Sally Field her second Oscar…