1982 saw technology continue to emerge and Michael Jackson soar with his monumental Thriller album. Meanwhile, President Reagan continued to revolutionize American politics, but the economy lagged behind.
In the News
At age 52, Princess Grace died of injuries suffered when the car she was in fell off a mountain road. The British overwhelmed Argentina during the Falklands War, and the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) fails to earn ratification. Meanwhile, Columbia was sent on its first official, non-experimental mission; the world’s first human artificial heart is successfully implanted; and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines debut in Great Britain.
Movies, Music, and Television…Oh My!
Steven Spielberg continued to his run of successful movies with the release of E.T., The Extraterrestrial. Meanwhile, Tootsie, The Verdict, and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khanalso perform well in movie theaters. “Centerfold” (The J. Geils Band), “Ebony And Ivory” (Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder), “Eye Of The Tiger” (Survivor), “Jack & Diane” (John Cougar), “Up Where We Belong” (Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes), and “Mickey” (Toni Basil) were popular top songs on the radio. However, the music scene clearly belonged to Michael Jackson, whose Thriller sells millions of copies and, to this day, remains among the best-selling albums of all time. Television options included such shows as Dynasty, Archie Bunker’s Place, The A Team, Trapper John, M.D., and The Love Boat. Final airings of Mork and Mindy and Barney Miller occurred, and fans of late-night talk shows got to watch the ending of Tom Snyder’s Tomorrow Coast to Coast (formerly called Tomorrow) and the subsequent debut of Late Night with David Letterman.
Play Ball!
The San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals 26-21 in Super Bowl XVI and the St. Louis Cardinals took seven games to win against the Milwaukee Brewers in the World Series. The Los Angeles Lakers claimed victory in the NBA Championships when they played against the Philadelphia 76ers (4-2), and the New York Islanders again won the Stanley Cup when they squared off against the Vancouver Canucks.
Other Interesting Tidbits
The median American household income managed to climb above the $20,000 mark in 1982 (reaching $20,171), but unemployment continued to escalate, reaching a staggering average of 9.7%. Meanwhile, Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev passed away at the age of 75, which is older than the average life expectancy for the 231,664,458 people who called America home in 1982; that year, the average American could expect on blowing out 74.5 birthday candles on their cake.
The End of the Year
With major technological advances, the emergence of Reaganomics, the release of Thriller, and the growing popularity of such shows as T.V. shows such as Dynasty and The A Team, 1982 clearly saw many significant contributions to archetypal 1980s culture. Yet, the decade was still quite early on in building its unique identity. Keep reading The 1980s to see how this exciting decade continued to evolve.
Resources:
Information Please. “1982.” 20 August 2007.
McNeil, Alex. Total Television. 4th ed. New York: Penguin, 1996.
Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits. 7th ed. New York: Watson-Guptill, 2000.
