80s News Today

The snow had started falling again in late January 1980, the kind of wet, clinging snow that sticks to everything like bad memories you can't quite shake. In living rooms across America, people were still arguing over whether the picture on their new television sets looked better with the lights on or off, and the machines—those big, clunky VCRs and Betamax players—sat like squat, patient animals in the corners of dens and family rooms, waiting for something to feed them. Up until then, if you wanted to see a flick like Deliverance , you had to wait for it to show up at the local cinema or pray the network censors didn’t chop it into confetti for the Saturday Night Movie. But around January 30, 1980, the world shifted on its axis just a hair. Warner Home Video dumped a whole bucket of titles onto the market—VHS and Betamax—and suddenly, the cinema wasn't a place you went; it was a thing you owned. Imagine it. You’re sitting there in your wood-paneled den, the smell of stale Pal...

January 14, 1981! Mark it, folks— today's the day Walt Disney's enchanted empire, that sprawling fantasia of castles and critters, makes its first audacious foray into home video releases for the everyday Joe and Jane to buy, not just rent. No more begging the video store clerk for a weekend loaner; now you can own the magic, slap it into your hulking VCR beast, and rewind Old Yeller's heart-tug tears until the tape squeals for mercy (or unravels out and jams up your machine)! Can you see them? The suburban legions, the station-wagon commuters, the beige-polyester titans of the cul-de-sac—they are descending upon the electronics boutiques with a new, frantic glint in their eyes! They aren’t looking for Zenith consoles or those clacking Teletype machines. No! They are after the TAPE. The Magnetic Ribbon of Dreams! For years, the high priests at Disney kept their treasures locked in a literal vault, dolefully releasing them to theaters once every seven years like some druidic...

Replacing the legendary Casey Kasem as host of American Top 40 wasn't enough of a challenge for Shadoe Stevens in 1988. No, siree, the man was going to conquer Hollywood in the same year. Backed by no less than Dino De Laurentis, a budget of $6.5 million, and the screenwriter of Raw Deal , Stevens would make his bid for celluloid greatness as disgraced former Texas state trooper and soldier of fortune Traxx .  Yes, Traxx! The very name hangs in the air like the faint aroma of stale Pop Secret and forgotten dreams! And those forgotten dreams would ultimately include Shadoe Stevens' movie career. For, you see, he shot for the moon, but merely landed among the stars...on videocassette shelves. Not destined for the gilded multiplexes, those temples of celluloid illusion where the masses flocked for their weekly dose of manufactured heroism and pre-packaged romance. No, no, my velvet-collared voyeurs of the VCR, Traxx bypassed all that. It slithered directly into the plastic clamsh...