The Must See TV Era

It's pretty much of a given that in the mid to late 1980's, NBC dominated the prime time television schedule with classic ground breaking shows like The Cosby Show, Family Ties, Cheers, Highway to Heaven, Night Court, L.A. Law and Miami Vice. Indeed, such dominance by one network was not only unprecedented, it's probably something that will never be seen again, what with the subsequent expansion over the years of cable and satellite television, as well as the internet. To this extent, the mid to late 1980's can rightly be regarded as a golden age for network television, with NBC at the head of the pack.

Like the Watercolors of My Mind

This is the Ambassador Hotel just two years before it closed to the public in 1989.



As of January 2006, this is the site where the Ambassador Hotel used to stand.



Sigh.

Freeze This Moment A Little Bit Longer

Check out the soundtrack for '87 at this blog's MySpace page!

Senior Class of 1987 (Part V)

This is the Cool page. Get it? And, double whammy-Cousin It-p*rn mustache alert! (see bottom row)

Peaked in 1987

Well, yes, some of us might have in an Al Bundy sort of way, but this is a reference to a fairly recent article about gas mileage for cars. An excerpt:

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the average gas mileage for cars sold in the United States during 1980 was 23.1 mpg, while the average gas mileage for cars sold in the U.S. during 2004 was 24.7 mph - a whopping increase of less than 7%.

In the NHTSA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) report, it states that the peak gas mileage for cars sold in America was 26.2 mph and was achieved in 1987. After peaking during the end of the Ronald Reagan administration, the average gas mileage fluctuated between 24.5 and 25.6 mpg. Not exactly advancing with technology.

Higher Education Circa 1987

Most of us who had graduated and were heading off to college in 1987 probably didn't know it at the time, but we were about to enter into an educational environment that was less about classical liberal education and more about liberal ideological indoctrination. Such was disclosed in the best selling book, The Closing of the American Mind, which was first published in 1987. The book was, and continues to be, the most significant indictment on so-called higher education in America, and the moral relativist culture which permeates it.

Here's a link to a review of the book by public policy and social commentator Roger Kimball that appeared in the New York Times in April 1987. It's a nice little introduction to the late Allan Bloom's work, which even today, is very much worth reading, if you already haven't done so.

Update: In case you aren't registered with the NY Times, here's a link to the cached version of the Kimball review.

The Lookers

Davina Kent and Marc Alvillar were voted the "Best Looking" students of the Class of '87. So, where are they now? Thanks to a little "googling", we can see that Davina is an exec for TiVo, while Marc is the head baseball coach at L.A. Harbor College.

Senior Class of 1987 (Part IV)

P*rn mustache alert! It shouldn't be hard to see who's got it.

Top Grossing Movies of 1987

According to the Internet Movie Data Base, the top 3 money making movies in 1987 were:

1). 3 Men and a Baby (Steve Guttenberg has rarely been heard from since.)

2). Fatal Attraction (No, no, no. You look at a naked Glenn Close in order to get turned off from sex. )

3). Beverly Hills Cop II (When a guy with a CPA name hit the top of the music world with a catchy theme song.)

Senior Class of 1987 (Part III)

Page tres of the Senior Class section of the yearbook. What evil thoughts were going through the mind of John Bruner? And is this the same dude that is two spaces to the right of John? (Update: P*rn mustache alert!)

Senior Class of 1987 (cont.)

Page deux of the Senior section of the '87 yearbook. Shake it!

Flashback: June 1987

High school is ovah for us! Outside of all our glee, and maybe some sorrow, the following events occurred in the world this month:

• President Ronald Reagan famously demands Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
• With the first pick in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, the Seattle Mariners select high school standout Ken Griffey, Jr.
• Danny Harris beats Edwin Moses and ends Moses' nine year streak of 122 consecutive high hurdle race wins.
  
• The Lakers beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals to win their fourth championship of the 1980's.
  
• Margaret Thatcher wins a third consecutive term as Britain's Prime Minister.
  
• The media dubbed "Subway Vigilante", Bernhard Goetz, is acquitted for the shooting of four young black men who had tried to rob him.

No.1 Pop Songs for June 1987

According to Billboard™, they were "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by Kim Wilde, "Always" by Atlantic Starr, "Head to Toe" by Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam and "I Wanna Dance with Somebody" by Whitney Houston.

All in all, a pretty crappy month in Top 40 pop music.

Senior Class of 1987

First page of the Senior Class section from the yearbook that year. I actually remember eleven of these people, including Jared Klumker and Tina Okawa (in the big non-portrait picture down in the corner).



Update: The guy in the middle in the first row of pics.