What (if anything), did you remember from the year that was 1986?

That year, I was 10 years, still in grade school, went to summer camp, had a pet dog and cat, and moved the following year.

Memorable films.....

Aliens

An American Tail

Back to School

Big Trouble in Little China

Blue Velvet

Critters 

Crocodile Dundee

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Flight of the Navigator 

The Fly

The Great Mouse Detective

Highlander 

The Hitcher

Howard the Duck

Labyrinth

Little Shop of Horrors

Legend

and of course....

Top Gun

Memorable TV shows.....

ALF

Macgyver

The Cosby Show

Family Ties

Murder, She Wrote

Newhart

Miami Vice

Night Court

Who's The Boss

Kate and Allie

  Junior/Senior in high school.  I remember when the Challenger 'sploded.  The first time I did it.  Went to my second Van Halen concert - sold my comic book collection for tickets :\'(

  I got my girlfriend preggers and I remember her weird food cravings - peanut butter and pickle sandwiches. Banana, tomato and honey sandwiches, &etc...

  Got kicked-out of the house and had to live with my dad and step-mom at crackhead central for a short time, where I was kept under tight lockdown and constant surveillance...

  I remember going to watch F.B.D.O., Star Trek 4, Pretty In Pink/Lucas double feature.  Maybe others, but I forget...

  I liked MTV and Macgyver.  My girlfriend liked The Cosby Show, Hunter, Moonlighting, General Hospital and some other soap opera (the one with Scorpio and the guy from Charlie's Angels), so I watched with her.  I think we watched Alf early-on...

  Skipping school.  Getting high.  My Mongoose BMX got stolen.  I enlisted in the navy in my senior year of HS.  Was addicted to taco salads...

  Two of my old favorites, 5150 and Licensed To Ill, were released that year...

  1986 was the last year of the 'eighties.  Everything after doesn't count... :P

I was probably watching Family Ties for sure, and Moolighting, Cosby Show, Cheers.

Music I was listening to? Current stuff was  Heart, New Order, Bangles, Peter Gabriel, Weird Al. Went to lots of clubs that year.

Went to Europe for 1 month in the summer, hung out in youth hostels, met some cool people. Went to a nude beach in Italy with my cousins and their (female) friends. Saw my Montreal Canadiens wins the Stanley Cup  :)

Wrote lots of poetry and wrote my first novel ( I really should get it published)
Had a great summer job and got lots of free tickets to Baseball games
My Red Sox lost the World series in a very sad way.

Lots if good stuff that year

Memorable TV shows.....

ALF




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EbwV3_2GqM

I was 10 too. Probably my most favourite year of the 80s... great music, great tv and great films!

Santa Claus The Movie was a memorable film for a kid too.

What (if anything), did you remember from the year that was 1986?


Not much...apart from mainstream music going rapidly down the pan from hereon in (my opinion only...)

What (if anything), did you remember from the year that was 1986?


The first half of the year, I was in kindergarten. The second half of the year, I entered first grade.

I also remember my 6th birthday in July, and had a "beach" themed party, even though it was held in a clubhouse.

In August of that year, I went on my first ever vacation trip, with my parents...to the Monterey-Carmel area and saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Cannery Row and lots of playgrounds and parks. I loved the experience.

In October my parents celebrated their 10th anniversary and had a party at home.

I also remember lots of game shows being on TV, especially at night. These included:

The $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime
$100,000 Pyramid
Hollywood Squares (with John Davidson)

I was 10 too. Probably my most favourite year of the 80s... great music, great tv and great films!

Santa Claus The Movie was a memorable film for a kid too.


Unfortunately, I also remember Santa Claus The Movie, too.

;D

I was 10 as well (so many 76ers on here!). I remember:

-bits and pieces of the Challenger

-Expo '86 and my first time going out to western Canada. My dad rented a car and we drove to Victoria, Toffino (unfortunately remember being sick with a serious ear infection there), Vancouver, Kamloops, Banff, and Calgary (went to the Stampede)

-my softball team being the champions

-my family meeting up with some friends in the Greater Toronto Area over the Thanksgiving weekend and going to Canada's Wonder while we were there with the park almost empty so we didn't have to wait in long lines

-switching Halloween costumes with a friend. For two Halloweens I had been a witch while she had been a strawberry, but on that Halloween I was the strawberry!

-I was a late bloomer so I was still into cartoons and toys.  Cartoons: Rainbow Brite, Alvin and the Chipmunks, JEM, Muppet Babies... 

-Toys that I wanted for Christmas: Barbie and the Rockers, JEM

-Wasn't a late bloomer when it came to music and some of the songs I liked: You Can Call Me Al (Paul Simon), How Many Rivers (Luba), Somewhere Out There (Linda Ronstadt), Invisible Touch (Genesis)

The final season of 'Too Close For Comfort' when it was re-titled 'The Ted Knight Show'.  I remember being so upset over that because they re-tooled the show, changed setting (Still in Frisco though) and wrote out Jackie and Sara.

I still watched it because it was the love/hate friendship between Henry and Monroe that gave the show it's best gags.  Had Ted Knight not passed away, the show would have ran longer than a single season.  When it aired in reruns, it became a part of 'Too Close For Comfort' with the with the original TCFC logo instead of the 'Ted Knight Show' logo and is officially the 6th season of the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKvviAEvgDE

I didn't lose my virginity, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
:(

Depeche Mode, The Cure, Ministry, New Order, The Smiths

First suicidal thoughts.

I mentioned them to my therapist and they put me away for six weeks. 

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help to protect me from the enemy, myself.
--Suicidal Tenancies

The place was somewhere between summer camp with therapy and a posh prep school where you didn't have to do any work.  I resented my parents for coercing me to sign into the place, but by the time it was time to be discharged, I was having so much fun, I didn't want to leave.  Cost my dad $21,000 via insurance, but it wasn't my idea to sign in to Charles River.

Depeche Mode concert in June.  Cure concert in July.

Fun with rum & coke and/or gin & tonic. 

Drinking wine coolers and making out with one of the local sluts during the fireworks.

I meet somebody I shall call the Green Guy.  Cough. Cough.

Adventures with the Green Guy.

Orange hair with spikes and bad blazers from second-hand shops.  Looked like Johnny Lydon.  Real dorky.

The managers at the supermarket where I shucked produce didn't like that look!

I started school again in the fall only to start spending half my days loafing in Harvard Square.  I'd start out for school, but end up turning left on Main Street and hopping the bus for Boston.

I wasn't institutionalized again, but I was removed from public high school and placed in the alternative program, owing to despondent affect and chronic truancy.  Alternative program -- reform school without bars and you go home every day.

1987, things get a little darker.

I didn't lose my virginity, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
:(

Depeche Mode, The Cure, Ministry, New Order, The Smiths

First suicidal thoughts.

I mentioned them to my therapist and they put me away for six weeks. 

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help to protect me from the enemy, myself.
--Suicidal Tenancies

The place was somewhere between summer camp with therapy and a posh prep school where you didn't have to do any work.  I resented my parents for coercing me to sign into the place, but by the time it was time to be discharged, I was having so much fun, I didn't want to leave.  Cost my dad $21,000 via insurance, but it wasn't my idea to sign in to Charles River.

Depeche Mode concert in June.  Cure concert in July.

Fun with rum & coke and/or gin & tonic. 

Drinking wine coolers and making out with one of the local sluts during the fireworks.

I meet somebody I shall call the Green Guy.  Cough. Cough.

Adventures with the Green Guy.

Orange hair with spikes and bad blazers from second-hand shops.  Looked like Johnny Lydon.  Real dorky.

The managers at the supermarket where I shucked produce didn't like that look!

I started school again in the fall only to start spending half my days loafing in Harvard Square.  I'd start out for school, but end up turning left on Main Street and hopping the bus for Boston.

I wasn't institutionalized again, but I was removed from public high school and placed in the alternative program, owing to despondent affect and chronic truancy.  Alternative program -- reform school without bars and you go home every day.

1987, things get a little darker.




The late 80's sound like a dark time for you. Were things better by 1990?

I was six years old, this wa sthe year I started to notice more of the songs on the radio and growing a likeness to them. Was in kindergarten and started first grade. I always saw 1986 as sort of the peak of 80's culture.

Aliens


I still say "dust off and nuke the site from orbit; it's the only way to be sure" when I reimage a drive.


Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Flight of the Navigator


And I still want a red Ferrari and a chrome spaceshipi.


Top Gun


And I'm still bummed that they scrapped the remaining F-14s in order to deny the Iranians the possibility of obtaining spare parts.  I understand, but I'm still bummed about it.

But since an F-14 is even further out of my budget than a ride on a spaceship or a Ferrari, I'll settle for a Cessna, a pair of headphones, and the track that never made it onto the released version of the Iron Eagle soundtrack: Old Enough to Rock and Roll.  (Even if flying the Grand Canyon like that is a simulator-only pastime, at least I get to crank up the music :)

http://img.youtube.com/vi/Nrq31J6RbgU/0.jpg

Remember 1986?  Shoot, I never left 1986.  Where's my hot tub, I wanna go home!

I also remember lots of game shows being on TV, especially at night. These included:

The $1,000,000 Chance Of A Lifetime
$100,000 Pyramid
Hollywood Squares (with John Davidson)



I was a HUGE fan of John Davidson's HSQ.  Shadoe Stevens in the lower right.  Joan Rivers in the center and JM J. Bullock with his funny quips.  It was awesome 8)

Speaking of Game Shows, 1986 was the year 'Chain Reaction' returned to TV.  Hosted by Geoff Edwards and taped in Montreal for the Global Television Network in Canada, it was re-titled 'The New Chain Reaction' and was seen in the States via the USA Network.  I watched that show religiously!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCqEkuh59Y8

1986 wasn't such a bad year, though I don't remember everything in detail.

We spent 3 weeks of summer in the little town of St. Hubert, on the premises of the Jansen family. They had a very attractive daughter by the name of Nanda. I had no idea how old she was, and to save me the embarrassment I bluntly asked her. All she said was "That's not a very decent thing to ask", leaving me even more confused.
It wasn't until recently (thanks to Schoolmates) that I discovered she must've been 15 (or maybe even 14) at the time, so I'm glad I didn't push things.

Another girl I met that summer was Tyora. She (and a friend) suddenly showed up one night at the bungalow we were staying, and even though only me and my younger brother were in at the time, they agreed to come in. We talked for a while, they ate all our chips/crisps and then they left. I remember I ran after Tyora, to ask her some silly question when I really wanted to ask her if we could meet again.
I've never seen her since, but I never could forget her. For years, I kept a note that she wrote, but I think I lost it when moving.


Coincidentally, this year we'll be going on holiday in the same area. That's sparked some memories.


Another thing about 1986: it was the last year we were to have a 'regular' holiday, because in Spring 1987 my mother suffered a stroke and ended up in wheelchair.

I was 11 years old. In fifth- sixth grade and felt invincible. Had a lot of good friends. The year I discovered sex, and the only reason is because the apartment complex I lived at was filled with girls. It was me, two boys(Jayme and Brian), the rest girls. Was really into horror films at the time, and also started reading Stephen King books. My grandpa died from cancer, and while we obviously moved on, my family was never really the same after that. Went to the mall and the arcades all the time with two of my cousins that were the same age. Went fishing a lot with my dad, and he would let me drive our truck out in the country. Favorite music was David Lee Roth, Bon Jovi, Twisted Sister, Madonna,etc.

After summer was over and I went back to school, found out this really shy but cute girl I had been infatuated with since 4th grade had moved away. I actually cried for several days and it was incredibly devastating to me. That girl will never know the impact she had on my life. It's what Dr. Phil would probably consider a "defining moment", and definitely a huge loss of innocence for me. It actually made me start to question the meaning of life, my own mortality, how nothing stays the same, the whole nine yards. Her moving had a bigger emotional impact on me than my grandpa dying. Sounds pathetic, but its how I felt then and how I look back on it.







I didn't lose my virginity, but it wasn't for lack of trying.
:(

Depeche Mode, The Cure, Ministry, New Order, The Smiths

First suicidal thoughts.

I mentioned them to my therapist and they put me away for six weeks. 

They stuck me in an institution,
Said it was the only solution
To give me the needed professional help to protect me from the enemy, myself.
--Suicidal Tenancies

The place was somewhere between summer camp with therapy and a posh prep school where you didn't have to do any work.  I resented my parents for coercing me to sign into the place, but by the time it was time to be discharged, I was having so much fun, I didn't want to leave.  Cost my dad $21,000 via insurance, but it wasn't my idea to sign in to Charles River.

Depeche Mode concert in June.  Cure concert in July.

Fun with rum & coke and/or gin & tonic. 

Drinking wine coolers and making out with one of the local sluts during the fireworks.

I meet somebody I shall call the Green Guy.  Cough. Cough.

Adventures with the Green Guy.

Orange hair with spikes and bad blazers from second-hand shops.  Looked like Johnny Lydon.  Real dorky.

The managers at the supermarket where I shucked produce didn't like that look!

I started school again in the fall only to start spending half my days loafing in Harvard Square.  I'd start out for school, but end up turning left on Main Street and hopping the bus for Boston.

I wasn't institutionalized again, but I was removed from public high school and placed in the alternative program, owing to despondent affect and chronic truancy.  Alternative program -- reform school without bars and you go home every day.

1987, things get a little darker.


We would have been great friends in 1989/early 90s. Sounds like our lives took a similar path but in different years.

1986
    The year I should of graduated from high school but I got left back in the third grade.

    Music was my escape I still tuned into MTV but New Wave morphed into synth-pop. (Depeche Mode Erasurse Bizarre Love Triangle)
    I remember Sledgehammer by Peter Grabriel was popular and I loved the remake of Lean On Me by Club Nuveau.
    The song 'Papa Dont Preach' by Madonna was another favorite Im glad she reinvented herself  The 'Like A Virgin' look was overly
      saturated.
   
      My favorite tv shows Moonlighting, the Cosby Show, MacGuyver, Cheers, Night Court, and Dynasty.

    I wasnt a sportsnista but Game 6 when that ball went thru Bill Buckner's legs I swear it felt like New Year's Eve midnight. There was
    so much cheering noone was able to sleep that night.
    The Mets beat the Red Sox in the World Series noone was talking about the Yankees that year.

    I loved the film Aliens I think this was the film put James Cameron on the map.(I know he directed 'The Terminator'). Tom Cruise and Val
    Kilmer were both hot in Top Gun.

I turned 14, was in 8th-9th grade.

Our Golden Retriever, Ginger, passed away that year after my mom returned home from a trip to Hawaii with her friends. :( My dad stayed with us while mom was on the island.  The first day he had a cookout and invited some friends who brought a single friend to play matchmaker.  They've been married for 22 years as of yesterday.

Hot Mix moved from Saturday nights on  KOPA-FM to Friday nights on KZZP-FM in May.  Late '85 or early '86 I was teaching myself how to beatmix, MacGuyvering my boom box to have another tape deck and turntable fed into the Auxiliary inputs and would "drop the needle" until I could get beats to match up.  A lot of tape-editing was done to get my mixes to sound somewhat decent.

I got rid of the mullet in May right before 8th grade graduation.

Seemed like it was the summer of Stacey Q on Top 40 Radio...

Took my first trip to SoCal in July.  Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, Universal Studios, Sea World, the beach all in a week.  Was digging Power 106-FM in L.A.  Remember hearing Prince & The Revolution, Janet Jackson, Nu Shooz, Level 42, Timex Social Club...and Stacey Q. :D

As we got close to Phx on the way back, KZZP had put Daryl Hall's "Dreamtime" in heavy rotation.

Enter freshman year:  Transformed from the stoner/burnout look to skater/prep look.  Started rolling/cinching/pegging my pant legs, Chuck Taylors or Airwalks on my feet.  Got a cheap-azz skateboard for Christmas.

Some stray chihuahua/terrier/desert rat dog wandered around our front yard.  We brought him into our home and put up found posters.  Nobody claimed him.  My mom had Scruffy until he passed away.

That's about all I remember, other than riding my dad's old POS bike 3 miles to my best friend's house and often staying over and helping him with his morning paper route.  I was pretty shy back then; didn't date or anything.

I was 8 years old in 1986.

I definitely remember the Challenger explosion and the Chernobyl disaster.... :\'(  :\'(  :\'(

I remember listening to lots of Madonna, Bananarama, Whitney, Bryan Adams, The Bangles, Prince, and Phil Collins that year, plus watched great TV shows like Family Ties, The Facts of Life, The Golden Girls, and Growing Pains.  8)

Also started the worst year of my school life, 3rd grade, in September 1986.  8-P  :\'(

I was 8 years old in 1986.

I definitely remember the Challenger explosion and the Chernobyl disaster.... :\'(  :\'(  :\'(

I remember hearing the vice principal announce the Challenger explosion over the school P.A.  Then I went home and watched President Reagan trying to console a country in mourning.  The press pumped the January 28th Challenger Mission because the first "civilian" set to go into space was aboard, Christa McAuliffe, a 37-year-old high school teacher from Concord, NH. 
:\'(
The Chernobyl disaster happened on my sister's 18th birthday (4/26/86), that's what I always associate it with. 


Also started the worst year of my school life, 3rd grade, in September 1986.   8-P  :\'(


At least you got the worst out the way early!

I definitely remember the Challenger explosion and the Chernobyl disaster.... :\'(  :\'(  :\'(


On Chernobyl:

"I could be teaching you math right now, but what's more important is to teach you physics.  We're taking today off because something more important is going on.  If you lived there, you should be worried, if you don't live there, you shouldn't worry.  Here's why... (By the way, all those word problems about exponents and half-lives?  Well, some of you wanted to know the real-world applications for this math stuff, now's where you find out...)"

Just to be sure we had our pens down, he took the class on a 1-hour hike around town while delivering the day's lecture.

- Some anonymous math teacher to some random high school math class, but at least one of his students remembered it.

"'Top Gun': On Its 30th Anniversary, A Look Back at the 1986 Reviews"

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/top-gun-on-its-30th-anniversary-a-look-back-at-183443444.html

https://tarahanks.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/album.jpg

This 7 million selling (US sales) was released that year.

https://tarahanks.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/album.jpg

This 7 million selling (US sales) was released that year.


so many good songs came out of that album.

so many good songs came out of that album.


Yup, three #1 singles too.....

Live To Tell
Papa Don't Preach
Open Your Heart

My favourite album from 1986 - Five Star "Silk & Steel". Got to no 1 in the UK and spawned 6 top 20 hits (5 of which were top 10).

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71e3taF1IAL._SY355_.jpg

My favourite album from 1986 - Five Star "Silk & Steel". Got to no 1 in the UK and spawned 6 top 20 hits (5 of which were top 10).

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71e3taF1IAL._SY355_.jpg


That's a lot of hits!  :o

My favourite album from 1986 - Five Star "Silk & Steel". Got to no 1 in the UK and spawned 6 top 20 hits (5 of which were top 10).

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/71e3taF1IAL._SY355_.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sng4JWYn-o8
My favorite from that album is "Can't Wait Another Minute". :)

I had turned 6 that year. In June I graduated Kindergarten, and later in September started first grade(grade school). I would watch music television even more than cartoons and knew every one of them by heart.

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/logopedia/images/6/6c/VH-1_logo_1985b.png/revision/latest?cb=20091122070317

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/600x315/6c/47/0c/6c470cfa739e82ccfd624f6196791730.jpg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkcU2_Vs7Xw

http://farm8.static.flickr.com/7324/10496912796_cd637a067e.jpg