1984 is our "Year of the Month", as we work towards the Supporting Actress Smackdown on the last Sunday in the month (more on that soon). So let's steep ourselves in that year that was a bit. It was an Olympics year (Los Angeles in summer, Sarajevo in winter), the Ethiopian famine alarmed the world and prompted that "Do They Know It's Christmas" music world response, the first Apple Macintosh went on sale, TV brought us the premiere of the ubiquitous Wendy's commercial "Where's the beef?", several franchises that still won't go away debuted in early forms, for better and worse (The Terminator, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers), the first MTV Video Awards was held, featuring Madonna's historic "Like a Virgin" performance, and there were two sudden confusing celebrity deaths (35 year old comedian Andy Kaufman to cancer -- which later prompted hoax theories -- and 26 year old beefcake superstar Jon-Erik Hexum who died of an accidental gunshot on the set of his TV show).
Indiana Jones becomes a franchise | Madonna, Kathleen Turner, and Daryl Hannah all become superstars, Geraldine Ferraro is first female VP candidate, and Rob Lowe is the hot new boytoy
Marinate in the Juices of 1984 via Movies, Music, Theater, and Television after the jump...
1984 IN MOVIES
Oscar: Amadeus (11 nominations), A Passage to India (11 nominations), The Killing Fields and Places in the Heart (7 nominations each) and A Soldier's Story (3 nominations) were our best pictures nominees
...but if there'd been 10 nominees? My guess is they would have added titles in this order... Broadway Danny Rose (2 nominations, but major ones) and The Natural (4 nominations) for sure and then either The River (4 nominations + a special prize) or Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan Lord of the Apes (3 nominations) for the final slot but perhaps genre bias would have kept the Tarzan film out? (Despite five tech nominations for the 'why?' sequel 2010, it never felt like a particularly well liked title.)
The "pop" smashes that year -- Romancing the Stone, Beverly Hills Cop, Splash, Karate Kid, (a couple of which we'll be talking about this month) - got stuck at one nomination each except Footloose and Ghostbusters with 2. None of them were getting anywhere near Best Picture even though most of them are still popular in their particular ways 32 years later.
Golden Globe: (drama) Amadeus*, The Cotton Club, The Killing Fields, Places in the Heart, A Soldiers Story (comedy/musical) Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, Micki + Maude, Romancing the Stone*, and Splash
Top Box Office Hits:
- Beverly Hills Cop
- Ghostbusters
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
- Gremlins
- The Karate Kid
- Police Academy
- Footloose
- Romancing the Stone
- Star Trek III: Search for Spock
- Splash
- Purple Rain
- Amadeus... yes lengthy Oscar bait dramas used to sometimes be huge hits.
Nathaniel: Because 1984-1986 is when I really became a movie mad nut, my lists from the 80s are always strange combinations of what I loved as a kid and what I love now in retrospect so who knows but I loved and sometimes still love: Amadeus, The Terminator, Romancing the Stone, Splash, Greystoke, Choose Me, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Birdy, Places in the Heart, This is Spinal Tap, Gremlins and Another Country
1984 IN TELEVISION
Most Popular Shows:
Dynasty, Dallas, The Cosby Show, Family Ties, The A-Team, Simon & Simon, Knots Landing, and Falcon Crest... the 80s were the era for the prime-time soap as you can see there. The single biggest ratings draw of the year though was Farrah Fawcett in the domestic abuse TV movie The Burning Bed.
Debuting Series: The Cosby Show, Who's The Boss?, Miami Vice, Murder She Wrote, Charles in Charge, E/R, Muppet Babies, and Punky Brewster Series Finale of Long-Running Programs: Captain Kangaroo, Fantasy Island, Hart to Hart, One Day at a Time, Happy Days, and Three's Company
Emmy Winners of 84 - photo via LA Times
Emmy Winners
Drama Series: Hill Street Blues had its fourth consecutive win beating Cagney & Lacey, Fame, Magnum PI, and St Elsewhere - the exact same lineup as the year before; Drama Actor: Tom Selleck, Magnum PI (only win for this show); Drama Actress: Tyne Daly, Cagney & Lacey (2nd of 4 wins); Drama Supporting Actor: Bruce Weitz, Hill Street Blues (6 nominations for this role, only win); Drama Supporting Actress: Alfre Woodard, Hill Street Blues (1st Emmy nomination and 1st win - many more would follow but not for this show); Comedy Series: Cheers enjoyed its second consecutive win (of an eventual four, non-consecutive) beating Buffalo Bill, Family Ties, Kate & Allie, and Newhart; Comedy Actor: John Ritter, Three's Company (only win for this character with spotty nominations); Comedy Actress: Jane Curtin, Kate & Allie; Comedy Supporting Actress: Pat Harrington, One Day at a Time (his only nomination for this character); Comedy Supporting Actress: Rhea Perlman, Cheers (1st of 4 wins for this show); MINISERIES: Concealed Enemies; TV MOVIE: Something About Amelia starring Glenn Close & Ted Danson
1984 IN THEATER
Did you see this recent tribute to Harvey Fierstein/"La Cage Aux Folles" by Ginger Minj from RuPaul's Drag Race? Just marvelous. Fierstein is the greatest... seeing him tearing up watching this is heaven.
Tony Awards
Musical: La Cage Aux Folles wins (the year following Fierstein's win in Best Play for Torch Song Trilogy) beating Baby, The Tap Dance Kid and Sondheim's classic Sunday in the Park with George; Actress, Musical: Chita Rivera in The Rink; Actor Musical: George Hearn in La Cage Aux Folles; Featured Actress Musical: Lila Kedrova in Zorba; Featured Actor Musical: Hinton Battle in The Tap Dance Kid; Play: The Real Thing triumphs over Glengarry Glenn Ross, Noises Off, and Play Memory; Actress, Play: Glenn Close in The Real Thing (right in between her 2nd and 3rd consecutive Oscar nominations for The Big Chill and The Natural); Actor Play: Jeremy Irons in The Real Thing; Featured Actress Play: Christine Baranski in The Real Thing; Featured Actor Play: Joe Mantegna in Glengarry Glenn Ross
Other New Plays: David Rabe's Hurlyburly, August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and Charles Busch's Lesbian Vampires of Sodom all premiered this year, too.
1984 IN MUSIC
Top Singles of the Year
- "When Doves Cry" - Prince *Oscar Win - Best Song Score*
- "What's Love Got To Do With It" - Tina Turner
- Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson "Say Say Say"
- "Footloose" - Kenny Loggins *Oscar nominated*
- "Against All Odds" - Phil Collins *Oscar nominated*
- "Jump" - Van Halen
- "Hello" - Lionel Richie
- "Owner of a Lonely Heart" - Yes
- "Ghostbusters" - Ray Parker *Oscar Nominated*
- "Karma Chameleon" - Culture Club
- "Missing You" - John Waite
- "All Night Long (All Night)" -Lionel Richie
- "Let's Hear it For the Boy" - Deniece Williams *Oscar nominated*
- "Dancing in the Dark" - Bruce Springsteen
- "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" - Cyndi Lauper
- "The Reflex" - Duran Duran
- "Time After Time" - Cyndi Lauper
- "Jump (For My Love)" - The Pointer Sisters
- "Talking in Your Sleep" - The Romantics
- "Self Control" - Laura Branigan
Grammy Wins (held in February 85)
Album: Lionel Richie's single-machine LP "Can't Slow Down" inexplicably beat four true miracle albums "She's So Unusual" by Cyndi Lauper, "Purple Rain" by Prince, "Born in the USA" by Bruce Springsteen and "Private Dancer" by Tina Turner; Record/Song of the Year: "What's Love Got To Do With It"; Best New Artist: Cyndi Lauper beat Corey Hart, Sheila E, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, and The Judds; Curiosity: Ben Kingsley also won a Grammy this year for Gandhi audio recordings so he can EGOT if he ever wins an Emmy (4 nominations thus far) and a Tony (zero nominations but he's been on Broadway twice... albeit decades and decades ago)
Pulitzer: Bernard Rands for "Canti del Sole"
Music Video of the Year (according to MTV Video Music Awards)
Cars "You Might Think". This song is currently a revived earworm thanks to its bizarre new prevalence on CBS's inexplicable but highly watchable Braindead show starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and a bunch of Broadway stars.
1984 IN LITERATURE
Best Sellers: (no particular order) "The Witches of Eastwick" (John Updike), "The Aquitaine Progression" (Robert Ludlum), "Full Circle" (Danielle Steele), "The Talisman" (Stephen King & Peter Straub), "Who Killed the Robins Family" (Bill Adler & Thomas Chastain), "....and Ladies of the Club" (Helen Hooven Santmeyer), "First Among Equals" (Jeffrey Archer), "The Fourth Protocol" (Frederick Forsyth), "The Butter Battle Book" (Dr Seuss), "Lincoln" (Gore Vidal), "Heretics of Dune" (Frank Herbert), "The Haj" (Leon Uris), "Tough Guys Don't Dance" (Norman Mailer)
Pulitzer Prizes
Fiction: "Ironweed" (William Kennedy); Drama: "Glengarry Glenn Ross" (David Mamet); Biography "Booker T Washington: The Wizard of Tuskegee, 1901-1915 (Louis R Harlan); Poetry: "American Primitive" (Mary Oliver); Non-Fiction "The Social Transformation of American Medicine" (Paul Starr)
Eagle Awards for Comics
Best New Title "Power Pack" (Louise Simonson for Marvel Comics); Group Book: "The New Teen Titans" (Marv Wolfman for DC)