If you’re a true child of the 80’s then you need no explanation for the above graphic. You remember staying up waiting for Saturday Night Live to end so you could tune into Friday Night Videos. For those of you that didn't have cable yet, because that was a "new" luxury making it's way into American homes (much like the microwave oven, computer and video game system), you could turn to NBC and see your favorite artist's latest music video. For those of you unlucky enough to have missed growing up in the BEST decade EVER then let me give you a little background.
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far away – ok maybe that far away – the music video was just an infant. There were no i-pods and no cell phones (unless you were really rich or on Miami Vice and even then they were as big as a car batteries). If you wanted to listen to music, there was the radio, cassette tapes and record albums. MTV was new to the scene and actually played music videos (there was no Real World, and definitely no Real World/Road Rules Gauntlet - are these people ever gonna grow up and get jobs?) In response to the popularity of MTV, music channels/shows started popping up all over. There was MTV, BET and VH-1 to name a few. Friday Night Videos was NBC's answer for network television. Every Friday night they played the latest videos.
As a tribute to the many nights I spent in front of the TV I am resurrecting Friday Night Videos, well my version of it anyways. Every Friday I will be posting a video from the 1980s for your viewing enjoyment. For my inaugural video I want to take you back to December 1983. My best buddy, Lisah (or Li-shasha as I liked to call her much to her chagrin) and I sat in front of the 19 inch anxiously awaiting the WORLD PREMIERE of Michael Jackson's Thriller. My parents and Heather Locklear (if it wasn't Menudo then she wasn't forfeiting any zzzzz's) had gone to bed hours before. We had been listening to the Thriller album all year and could sing along with every line and every "HeHe". Michael Jackson was definitely the "it" man of the year. In my peer group if you weren't "in love" with Prince then it was for sure Michael (unless of course you were me and it was Lionel Richie). The video was being dubbed as having made video history. It was directed by John Landis, the premiere movie director of that time. At 14 minutes long, it costs an estimated $800,000 to make. Michael Jackson was still brown skinned and was rockin' the Jheri curl with pressed down baby hair. Ola Ray (Playboy model) with her bushy Jheri curl and red lipstick was the luckiest girl in the world for getting to work up close and personal with MJ. And when "The Making of Thriller" came out on VHS, I made sure to get a copy at the local video store.
"And now the WORLD PREMEIRE of Michael Jackson's Thriller."
(HHHMMM. I bet this is where my fear of zombies originated...cause this video scared the crap out of me back in the day!!!)
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