This poll is based upon changes that will be pretty much be with us for quite some time and have little chance of regressing to their original style. (Imagine a world without the Internet for a year, along with TV "downsizing" to around 30 channels.) It would be crazy, yet many people still miss this atmosphere and want it back even though at the bottom of their hearts it will almost certainly never return.

I just like it because it was a time when I could say I like Michael Jackson and not have to get in a fistfight about it.  >:(

Also fashion was much more inventative. People had thier own looks. Now everyone looks like a damn extra from The Hills.

Other: the music was diverse

Other because I was a teenager in the 80's and the stuff makes me happy.  I feel young again, which is nice when you are stuck in the middle of a bill stress-fest. ;)

This could be answered for why people like nostalgia in general.

There was a certain niche to the 80's and early 90's. You could tell something was from the 80's or early 90's by the look or sound of it. This gives the 80's and early 90's a certain charm and mystique you could say.

It's the same thing with the 50's with the nicely clothed suburban people and the way they talk, 'That's rad' or 'Swell'. Or when you mention Elvis or Marilyn Monroe, people think "50's"! The black and whiteness of the 50's makes the era makes it distinct from the more colored tv 60's. Unlike today if you watch a 90's show or 00's show, there's little difference.

This is why people like nostalgia because there's a certain mystique to the past.

Oh sh*t, I just got too analytical!  ;D

This poll is based upon changes that will be pretty much be with us for quite some time and have little chance of regressing to their original style. (Imagine a world without the Internet for a year, along with TV "downsizing" to around 30 channels.) It would be crazy, yet many people still miss this atmosphere and want it back even though at the bottom of their hearts it will almost certainly never return.


I put 'other'.

The 80's seemed more innocent, at least when compared to the 90's and 00's.  The movie's were unrealistic and cheesy for the most part, but you can still watch and enjoy them.  Plus, the 80's was when the cold war was ending and the USSR was declining.

dont forget:  before cell phones!!  when people actually talked together in person!  oh and fewer car accidents too! ::)

I grew up in the 80's, so there is the natural appeal of my childhood.  I don't think the poll is fair to those of us who lived it.  Some of us just want to be able to listen to Men At Work and wear high top Reeboks again.

A big 80's nostalgia thing is looking at the fashion and how bad it is, but when everyone has it it makes it fine. You might look through your old yearbook and view "the most pouplar girl" and someone who wasn't around in the 80's might say "how was she popular? Her hair looks like a big frizz ball." and then you see a girl who generally looks normal with straight hair, and remember her for being a nerd.  :P

A big 80's nostalgia thing is looking at the fashion and how bad it is, but when everyone has it it makes it fine. You might look through your old yearbook and view "the most pouplar girl" and someone who wasn't around in the 80's might say "how was she popular? Her hair looks like a big frizz ball." and then you see a girl who generally looks normal with straight hair, and remember her for being a nerd.  :P


80's fashions were much cooler than the pathetic unimaginative grunge of the 90's.  Everyone in the 90's seem to have had lobotomies.  That big ball of frizz was called teasing your hair.  Having the frizzies was entirely different.  Before you try and post about the 80's kindly learn something about it before you say something bizarre. ::)

Is it just me or does Family Guy have a lot of 80's nostalgia?

President Obama is bringing back the 80's Chrysler K-Cars I think with the new US fuel miledage standards he announced today for 2016!!! :)

Is it just me or does Family Guy have a lot of 80's nostalgia?


It's not just you.  It's what gives it such great cross-demographic appeal.

Silents get the references (they watched the shows/movies with their kids), even if they don't care for all the fart jokes.  Boomers and Xers love 'em both (we grew up with them, and longed for TV with fart jokes).  Young 'uns get some of the references (in the hipster/retro sense), and grew up with fart jokes.

Family Guy (and to a lesser extent, American Dad) are the lawn from which nobody is asked to leave on grounds of age.

I agree with most of the choices (although I do like modern tech, and some scattered pop culture), but I went with pre-hip hop culture.

Even in the '90s when a rap song got on my nerves, it was at least tolerable since it wasn't everywhere. Alot of people would probably agree that it's annoying how pervasive hip hop culture has become now, where it basically influences everything.

Admittedly I'm giving a little kids' firsthand perspective (although I tended to pay attention to things early on), but especially looking back now, the '80s had that nice suburban feeling. It was nice to not hear gangsta or crunk blasting out of some dude's car all the time.

I voted other:JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING ABOUT THE 80S WAS BETTER THAN NOW!!

I voted "Other"

I think the most appealing part of the 80s is that those times were safe.  We know how it ended.  The music has a way of taking us back to specific moments in time, whether it was a first date, hearing a cassette that you remembered buying and putting it into the tape deck of your car so you and your friends could play it loud and over and over again, or those moments of nothing in particular going on.  There was no pressure that we experience today.  We lived at home, could cruise or have football games on Friday nights.  We just enjoyed life.  That's why the 80s were most appealing.

I voted other:

The music was fresher sounding, the TV shows were memorable, the clothing was chessy, but atleast looked like it came from a decade, terrorism had yet to reach North America, MTV still played videos, Tom Cruise wasn't bat sheesh crazy, and the movies were fun to watch.

I think it was quite insightful to include the 'before the internet' option (I voted for this).  I am just after having a discussion with my partner about the 'scorched earth policy' that is the digital age.  Without wanting to put too fine a point on it, it has changed EVERYTHING!  Everything is so immediate now, no anticipation, no patience, no reward, just instant gratification.  The instant gratification would be alright if something was invested, but it is achieved without any effort or sacrifice.  Anything digital can be obtained so easily, the arts must surely be trembling, movies, music, television, literature...... all can be obtained with a few simple clicks.  One of the pros of this may have been a more culturally literate and intellectual populace.  To my utter amazement I still can't believe with all this access to information just how vacuous the general population seems to be, it seems to be a world awash with ringtones, twittering, filmed playground brawls, Celebrity idolatry, reality TV, Britney Spears etc etc. 

So to get back on subject, I look back to the 80s as the time just before the collapse.  It hinted at the future, gave us a tantalizing glimpse but held off on the unlimited pleasure receptor overload that is the modern era.....we truly do seem to be "amusing ourselves to death".