All language subtitles for The.80s.Top.Ten.S01E05.Gadgets.1080p.DSNP.WEB-DL.DD+5.1.H.264-NTb_track4_[eng]

♪ ♪

ROB: We all love
the '80s, right?

It's the decade we
just can't quit.

It's a time when the world kicked in
to technological overdrive.

So, now we're gonna celebrate
some of the gadgets which have

stood the test of time,
and some that haven't.

ROB (off-screen):
Call them what you will,

gadgets, gizmos,
mechanical lifesavers,

the '80s heeded their siren call.

LONI: How does it work?
I don't know.

I just put the food in and it cooks.

ROB (off-screen): They
told us how to play.

CRISTELA: Game Boy
for me was my life.

ROB (off-screen): How to work.

DEE: If you had one of
these you had attitude like,

"That's right,
I'm on the phone."

ROB (off-screen): And how to be.

DMC: A boombox is
gonna make you look.

TONY: Swatch came along.
I'll wear two, It was fun.

TIFFANI: Walkman was your own
individual little dance party.

ROB (off-screen): Now we're
going back to the future to

count down the top ten
gadgets of that decade

that changed our world.

MEAT LOAF: It's not a gadget,
it's a necessity.

(theme music plays)

ROB: We're gonna start with a bang.

Our number ten is a gadget
that defines '80s cutting edge, literally.

NARRATOR: In the '80s,
inventors and their inventions

came in many forms,
factual and fictional.

MAN: She's alive. Alive!

NARRATOR: But it took an
unlikely combination of a

German manufacturer
and a TV show

to give the '80s male a
not so close shave.

MAN (off-screen): The cop show
just graduated to the '80s.

NARRATOR: When
the decade began,

America was deeply polarized.

Men were either
beard-loving ex-hippies,

or clean-shaven
office workers.

There was no such
thing as halfway.

ALVIN: Before the 1980s, if
you showed up in a meeting

with stubble on your face,
people thought something

was desperately wrong.

MAN: Sure do get a smooth
shave with this electric razor.

NARRATOR: All that
changed in 1984.

TUBBS: Freeze.
SONNY: Freeze. Miami Vice.

ELLEN: They were
sexy, they were hot.

It was brand new.

NARRATOR: When a steamy and dreamy
lawman named Sonny Crockett.

STAN: Yo, Sonny.

NARRATOR: Took the Miami drug scene
and men's style by storm.

LONI: He had that
designer stubble.

It was like god darn, yeah sexy.

DON: I like the idea of
a guy standing around in a

$800-$900 suit unshaven
and kinda looking like,

you know, he just, he just,

he was a derelict off
the pages of Vogue.

NARRATOR: But Johnson's
derelict look was anything but.

Designer stubble symbolized
a new kind of masculine cool

and, surprise, this sexy
plumage particularly

appealed to women.

DON: When I was asked by the American
press here "why the stubble",

I said that Sonny Crockett
seldom woke up in his own bed.

NARRATOR: But it takes a lot of care
to look like you don't care.

STACY: I think Don Johnson
absolutely represented this

idea of, you know,
effortless chic,

but effortless takes effort.

NARRATOR: Enter Braun with
its Micron Vario 3 shaver.

This miracle of German
engineering claimed to deliver

the closest shave ever,

using their innovative
three-stage setting,

but men quickly
discovered they could use

these variable settings to
maintain their stubble at

just the right designer length.

JAMES: What Braun and, ultimately,

a couple of other
manufacturers did,

was come up with an electric
shaver where you adjust

the distance of the shaving
head from your cheek.

NARRATOR: Thanks to Braun,
anyone could achieve that

casual, scruffy, chic look.

JON: It just became hip not
to shave and be really cool,

and it was kind of a relief, like,

I don't have to shave
every day and people like it.

NARRATOR: Other manufacturers followed
with stubble clippers of their own.

MAN (off-screen): The company wants
to call this the Miami Device.

NARRATOR: But it's the Braun
that led the way for

male grooming in the '80s.

Designer stubble is only the
beginning of what will become

a male grooming revolution,
but Braun and the look it

helped to create have
stood the test of time.

JAMES: Now they come in everything
from one millimeter to 10 millimeters.

So I used one this morning.

You know, I mean everybody who has
a beard uses one of these things,

even if you don't want that
just rolled out of bed look.

NARRATOR: We're pretty sure
Don Johnson still agrees.

ROB: It's tricky getting
the ratio of cool stubble

to slightly derelict

to Civil War photograph.

I've tried to pull it off
myself from time to time.

Speaking of time, that
bring us to our number nine,

an item that adds new
meaning to the phrase,

"runs as well as
a Swiss watch."

MAN (off-screen): Maybe some
day all watches will be made

like the Seiko
digital alarm chronograph.

NARRATOR: In the late '70s,
cheap mass-produced quartz

watches from Asia
flooded the market.

MAN (off-screen): Maybe someday
all watches will be made this way.

NARRATOR: By the early
'80s, traditional European

watchmakers had a big problem.

Their products were
seriously out of date.

(cuckoo)

Swiss watchmakers needed
to keep up with the times,

and had to come up with
a product that was both

affordable and fashionable

and thus the Swatch was born.

SHAWN: Swatch brought the
precision of a Swiss timepiece,

it brought the affordability
that, you know,

the average
American was looking for.

NARRATOR:
Retailing at just $25 to $35,

the Swatch launched
in the US in 1983,

but the first batch wasn't
exactly eye-catching and

left consumers unmoved.

Swatches marketing boss
hatched a radical plan.

FRANZ: The first
collection was not very great,

so I came in with the idea
we are not selling a watch,

we are selling a
fashion accessory.

MAN (off-screen): Swatch.

WOMAN (off-screen): Swatch.

MAN (off-screen): Always different,
always new.

Fashionable.

TIFFANI: It started off
as just a user-friendly,

easy watch to wear to then
becoming this kind of great,

bright, vibrant sort of jewelry.

JACKIE: I had Swatch watches
in every color of the rainbow.

They're all neon, but that's
all the colors you needed in

the '80s anyway and you
could match any outfit.

NARRATOR: Swatch released up
to 48 new designs every year,

meaning you could fit
in by being different,

and in the '80s
it was just perfect:

an accessory with attitude.

SHAWN: Right from the start,
this made them counter-culture

because they were doing
something that was very

un-Swiss at the time.

MAN: The Swatch is
water and shock resistant.

Brr, Swatch-o, ha,
ha, ha Swatch-o.

NARRATOR: The Swatch was cool,
colorful and collectible and

best of all for
their manufacturer,

one was never enough.

MARK: Swatch came from second
watch and it was a completely

different concept for a watch.

TIFFANI: You got to a point
where you were wearing two or three,

and you would turn the face, like,

slightly this way and
then another one with the face this way.

It was like a bracelet.

TONY: I actually got a
sponsorship with Swatch and

in my contract it said
I had to wear two.

I was like, "Yeah,
sure, I'll wear two.

Why wouldn't I?"

NARRATOR: By launching
a timely revolution,

Swatch reinvigorated the Swiss
watch industry and kept an

entire decade on time.

MARK: Swatch understood that
it was a youth market and what

an untapped market
this audience was.

TIFFANI: Swatch watch, I think
is probably the one accessory

that you can say
defines the '80s.

I loved 'em.

ROB: Now, how did we
arrive at our top ten?

Good question.

We recruited eight brilliant
cultural historians who ranked

the highlights from ten to one by
carefully considering two factors:

'80s wow,
their importance at the time,

and impact, their legacy today.

The panel's mission was to
uncover the greatest gadgets

of the entire decade.

Our number eight definitely
has the '80s thing going for it,

and it has inspired a
musical legacy that we

still haven't quite lived down.

♪ Down, show me the way ♪

♪ Get down, go ladies ♪ ♪

NARRATOR: "Planet Rock" by
Afrika Bambaataa sold over

a million copies in 1982.

♪ Do what you want,
but breathe ♪

JASON: "Planet Rock" is probably
the most famous hip hop beat

of all time.

There was no beat
that sounded like that.

It was kind of nervous and
twitchy and really unusual.

NARRATOR: "Planet Rock's" beat
sparked a musical revolution

and it was all created thanks
to one amazing '80s gadget:

the Roland
TR-808 drum machine.

DMC: The 808 drum was a
global sonic revolution.

NARRATOR: Launched in 1980,
the 808 generated sounds using

analog rather than
digital technology,

which gave its
drumbeats a futuristic vibe.

This unique sound caught the
ear of early hip hop artists,

one of whom was pioneering
producer, Egyptian Lover.

EGYPTIAN LOVER: The best thing ever
is it doesn't sound like real drums.

It's a totally
different sound.

Then we'll add a little
jazzy hand clap.

So, when I made my
records back in '83,

I mean, 35 years later,
it's still futuristic.

NARRATOR: In addition to
its unique drum sounds,

the 808 freed users from the
pre-set rhythm patterns found

on other machines.

Legendary music producer, Trevor Horn,

was quick to take advantage.

TREVOR: Things before, they
came with pre-set everything,

an 808, you could get
it to play any rhythm.

When I first worked with ABC,
the first song that I did with them,

it meant that I could
program the rhythm section

♪ Shoot that poison
arrow to my heart ♪

♪ Shoot that poison arrow ♪ ♪

TREVOR: Back in 1982,
that was ground-breaking.

NARRATOR: In 1983, supplies of the old
analog components had dried up,

so Roland replaced the 808
with a more advanced model,

but thanks to
hits like "Planet Rock",

its sound had
already become iconic.

JASON: It suddenly
became a kind of cult's tool, instrument.

People wanted that 808 sound.

It was so specific.

NARRATOR: Used 808s started being
snapped up by DIY music producers,

often for less than
100 bucks in thrift stores.

EGYPTIAN LOVER: All the
producers heard this sound in

the clubs and they loved the
sound and they bought the 808.

NARRATOR: Hip hop acts
like Run DMC, LL Cool J

and Public Enemy started to
incorporate the 808 sound.

♪ Oh, I wanna dance
with somebody ♪

NARRATOR: And by the mid '80s,
it was being used by everyone

from Whitney Houston
to Talking Heads.

♪ Yeah, I wanna dance
with somebody, ♪

♪ With somebody who loves me ♪ ♪

JASON: That drum sound became
part of the DNA of so much

hip hop and so much popular
music, even to this day.

♪ So keep your
love locked down ♪

NARRATOR: Today, the 808's
beats are included with music

software and modern drum
machines and are still being

used by some of the
world's biggest artists.

Kanye West dedicated an
entire album to its sound.

40 years on, the 808 continues to define
the sound of pop music.

♪ I got no-one new ♪

NARRATOR: So far, we've had the Braun
stubble clipper at number 10,

the Swatch watch at
number nine and

the 808 drum machine at,
yep, number eight,

but our number seven was
more than a mere gadget,

it was an addiction.

CRISTELA: Now you could go to
the grocery store and while

your mom's looking at bread,
you're like right here

boo, boo, boop, do, do, do.

Like, it... I love it.

ROB: The '80s developed
some serious weapons of mass distraction.

Our number seven was invented
by a guy who used to work as

a janitor for an electronics firm.

One day on his way to work, he
noticed somebody idly playing

with his pocket calculator,
and lightning struck.

MAN (off-screen): They said
it wasn't humanly possible,

but now you can have all
the power and excitement of

Nintendo right in
the palm of your hand.

Introducing...

TIFFANI: Game Boy.
I mean, these were huge.

DMC: Everybody had one.

CRISTELA: Game Boy,
for me, was my life.

DMC: It allowed you to
bring your arcade with you.

CRISTELA: If I had a new game,
I would play it in the morning

till I went to sleep.

That was my life
until I beat the game.

MAN (off-screen): Game Boy,
only from Nintendo.

Now you're playing with power.

Portable power.

JAMES: You got
this tiny screen,

these low resolution games

and consumers really
loved the simplicity.

You didn't need
to have, you know,

- a 4
- K image for it to
really be a great experience.

NARRATOR: In 1989, the
Game Boy is ready to launch.

They just need a killer
game to go along with it.

Nintendo spies find
the perfect candidate.

The trouble is, it's on the
wrong side of the Iron Curtain.

♪ Do, do, do, do, do,
do, do, do, do, do ♪

♪ Do, do, do, do ♪

♪ Do do ♪

♪ Do, do, do, do, do, do ♪ ♪

ASHLEY: Tetris was not
a Nintendo invention.

It was actually a
Soviet Union invention.

It came from someone
named Alexey Pajitnov,

who worked at a computer
sciences organization in the USSR.

SETH: It just kinda built it
to test out computers and for

his own amusement
thinking, like,

maybe some people will like this.

Turns out a lot of people liked it.

MAN: We play only in our free time.

NARRATOR: The addictive
game became wildly popular and

started to circulate for free
via the good, old floppy disc.

SETH: Just about everybody
in Russia had Tetris on their computer,

so when Nintendo was
getting ready to release the

Game Boy they wanted Tetris.

They viewed it as this perfect
match for their new system,

but first they needed the
rights to Tetris and in order

to get the rights, they
launched what might be called

almost a spy mission.

NARRATOR: But two other
software developers had the same idea.

The race was on.

SETH: These three competing
parties all tried to track

down whoever controls
Tetris in the Soviet Union

and convince them to
let them make Tetris.

NARRATOR: After a
cloak and dagger search,

Nintendo's agents finally
make contact with Alexey.

MAN (off-screen): Mr Alexey Pajitnov?
He's the author of Tetris.

(speaking Russian)

ALEXEY: Play Tetris,
my friends.

NARRATOR: The deal was done.

BOY: You need a Tetris shot.

MAN (off-screen): Tetris.

♪ Nintendo ♪

NARRATOR: Nintendo
had hit the jackpot.

Tetris was an addictively
simple game that cut through

the gender divide.

ASHLEY: It was a game that
appealed to women and men,

so you really saw women start
getting into gaming as well.

Nearly half of the people that
had a Game Boy by the 1990s

were women.

WOMAN: Harry and I can't
keep our hands off it.

HARRY: I hate it.
I can't stand it.

Get the monkey off my back.
This thing is addicting.

TIFFANI: This was
the start of, like,

all our problems that
we have now with our kids

on these games, right?

ROB: Gadgets like the Game Boy
wasted hours of our time,

but our next one sped
life up in seconds,

and in a strange way, helped
pave the way for equality in

the workplace too.

(beeping)

SHAWN: Microwaves came on
the scene when the American

household was changing.

NARRATOR: In the 1980s,
American lifestyles were

changing rapidly and
technology was adapting

to the way we lived.

JAMES: Divorce
rates had gone up,

so there were a lot of
single people and they didn't

necessarily wanna spend 90
minutes making a meatloaf.

SHAWN: We were starting to
work further from our homes,

so we were traveling longer,
we had longer commute times.

We were starting to
engage in more activities.

NARRATOR: Meanwhile, a revolution
was taking place in the workplace,

with a record number of
women joining the workforce,

but women were still doing
80% of the cooking at home.

It was high time for a
revolution in the kitchen.

WOMAN: I'm a working woman.

That means every minute I've
got has got to be well spent.

NARRATOR: The microwave
promised to be a time-saving

appliance for the modern home,
but its path to becoming a

fixture of domestic
life was far from smooth.

WOMAN: People sometimes
feel intimidated about their

microwave ovens.

They don't feel
comfortable with 'em.

NARRATOR: Fears of microwave
radiation had been around

since they first
appeared in the '40s,

and as microwaves became
more popular as a household

appliance in the
'70s and '80s,

these fears intensified.

MAN (off-screen): Widespread
public concern over the safety

of food that's been cooked or heated up
in microwave ovens.

TIFFANI: You started hearing
the stories about how terrible

it is and we shouldn't be
cooking our food this way.

JAMES: It's got
radiation in it,

so if I open it too soon,
will the radiation come out.

(explosion)

KATIE: There were all
these urban myths about them,

like if you stood in front of
the microwave while something

was being cooked, you
were frying your liver.

NARRATOR: In 1988, scientists
were able to debunk the myths

linking microwave
exposure to cancer.

WOMAN: Get
comfortable with it.

It's not going to bite you.

NARRATOR: And as anxiety
surrounding the use of

microwaves eased,

a flurry of microwave
cookbooks and

adventurous menu
items was unleashed.

MAN (off-screen): Stuffed
mushroom caps with cheese and sausage.

NARRATOR: As buying on credit
became more accessible in the

1980s, they became
easier to afford.

SHAWN: The role of credit now
becoming more widely available

saw a massive uptake
of microwaves throughout US households.

NARRATOR: And by the
end of the decade,

they were in 70% of
American households,

more common than
toaster ovens,

video recorders or cable TV.

KATIE: It continues to be one
of the most effective things

that improves our lifestyle.

MEAT LOAF: It's not a gadget.
It's a necessity.

NARRATOR: The microwave joins
our scoreboard at number six,

but as we enter our final five,

size really did matter
with the '80s gadget that

guaranteed you were
both seen and heard.

DMC: You're gonna notice
me and you're gonna like it

whether you like it or not.

(Game Boy beeping)

ROB: Hang on.
Oh, whatever.

We're halfway home with
our top five in our sights,

but if we've inspired you
to hunt for a used Game Boy,

I have some bad news, they are
right there next to the used

VHS tape bin in your
local thrift store.

Our number five is an '80s
innovation that is still

rattling windows and
scaring off small pets,

even as we speak.

NARRATOR: Throughout the '80s,
advances in technology meant

that gadgets were
getting smaller,

but there was one loud
exception: the boombox.

That gadget just got
bigger and bigger.

DMC: The boombox was amazing
because it allowed us to take

our hi-fi our stereos with us to
let everybody know you was here.

Boombox is gonna make you look
and you're gonna recognize me,

physically, mentally and spiritually.

NARRATOR: Unlike the traditiona
home entertainment center

or car radio, the
boombox was very public.

That was kind of the point.

LONI: You put it down and
you're partying and then,

you know, everybody's beat
boxing and they're doing all

kinda dances and everything.

It was just a wonderful time.

EGYPTIAN LOVER: The
boombox, I think,

was like a personal
studio, personal club.

You can bring your
club everywhere you went.

DANA: If you had one
of these in the hood,

it was a symbol of real juice.

NARRATOR: The boombox was all about
maximum bass and maximum volume,

and in the early '80s,
it provided the back beat

for a musical revolution.

JASON: The boombox was
incredibly important for

early hip hop and rap.

First of all, all hip hop is rooted
in the idea of sound system culture,

and Jamaican immigrants
and immigrants from

other places in the Caribbean,

brought that to the United States to

neighborhoods like the Bronx,

and started a tradition
of parties using these mobile speakers,

and that's really
the early roots of hip hop.

JACQUES: The bigger you
got with the boombox,

the more bass at the
bottom end that you can get,

which was a big part
of hip hop at the time.

ASHLEY: In New York City, DJs
recorded their sets on tapes

and were able to trade it around
in the city and with boomboxes,

you could really play
that out loud.

MARK: Their contribution
to the growth of hip hop is unparalleled.

NARRATOR: The flashier
and louder the boombox,

the more status it carried,
but the more power it needed.

JACQUES: Oh, the batteries.

That was another thing
is getting the batteries for your boombox

because it took either C or D
sized batteries and it was,

like, eight batteries that it
took in order for it to play.

DANA: You had to go buy
batteries for people sometimes.

You couldn't just go and
listen to the boombox,

you had to put up money.

Y'all I ain't
playing my joint man,

go buy some batteries, dude.

Go buy some batteries.

NARRATOR: But this
brash, bold and

battery hungry powerhouse
was not for everyone.

MAN: If you're a music lover
who likes to indulge wherever

you go, including
on mass transit,

then some tickets
might be coming your way,

but these ticket's will
get you into a courtroom,

not a concert.

NARRATOR: By the mid '80s,
the public's patience with the

boombox was
beginning to wear thin.

DANA: Moms, back in the day,
they didn't take you.

They just come out
the window and go,

"Hey, get your ass...

Take that (bleep)
somewhere else, okay."

NARRATOR: And it wasn't
just moms who had a problem.

In the early '90s, the
New York Police Department

launched Operation Soundtrack,
a war on noise targeting the

boombox and some
say, their owners.

With the threat of $500 fines
and equipment confiscation,

the golden age of the
box that boomed was over.

ROB: Everybody was having way
too much fun in the '80s and

the only thing
that we were missing,

was a way to capture it.

Our number four marks the true
invention of selfie culture,

and nothing would
ever be the same again.

DOC: This is truly amazing.

A portable television studio.

No wonder your
president has to be an actor.

He's gotta look
good on television.

NARRATOR: In the '80s, the
American public suddenly

became producers as well
as consumers of content.

MAN: Look at me, look
at me, I'm a TV star, mom.

NARRATOR: And one budding star was
award-winning director, Kevin Smith.

KEVIN: I was in eighth grade
and I was the videographer.

So, like, you know, there's
a picture of me somewhere

holding this big ass, clunky
video camera and it literally

made my life, and
that's where I,

you know, kind of
learned to shoot.

Oddly enough, it probably
looks about as good as Clerks,

my first movie.

NARRATOR: But it
wasn't just the movies.

The camcorder's role in the '80
was about to get all too real.

MIKE: Hello, and
congratulations on buying

your new JVC GR-45 VideoMovie.

NARRATOR: In 1982, JVC
launches the first portable

camera which records
directly on to VHS tape.

TONY: I got familiar
with camcorders very early.

We were hyped.

We were filming skating,
we were doing it ourselves.

NARRATOR: The camcorder
revolutionized '80s culture,

shaking up everything
from skating to the news to,

of course, porn.

KEVIN: You used to
have to rent pornography.

Now you could create
your own pornography.

You became the studio.

The video cassette
camera democratized media,

put media into
other people's hands.

You used to have to watch the news to get
somebody's perspective.

Now you could create the news.

NARRATOR: Like in 1988 when
a camcorder captured police

brutality during a
protest in New York.

The footage lead to the
indictment of six police

officers for excessive force.

While some were using the camcorder
as a tool for social justice,

for most it was an
instrument of fun.

TONY: It was the birth of
America's Funniest Home Videos.

ASHLEY: You shoot
something funny,

no matter how,
it could be short,

you are gonna show up on TV
and you're gonna get your

15 minutes of fame and
that's gonna be cool.

MAN (off-screen):
Going for the gold.

(laughter)

SETH: People saw that this
content was interesting.

People wanted to watch this.

They wanted to laugh at
other people's misfortune.

That's what gave us YouTube.

NARRATOR: The camcorder paved
the way for the performance

culture of today where what
you record and share online

sometimes seems as important
as what you experience in real life.

GIRL: Chevvy,
let's take a selfie.

ASHLEY: This is something that
sticks through to now with

user-generated content,
memes and TikTok.

It's just amazing how a camcorder
really kick-started that trend.

MAN: Mind-boggling, a nation of people
taking pictures of each other.

Taking pictures of each other.

ROB: We're now ready for
our top three '80s gadgets.

Any idea what they may be?

Well, when you look
back at the '80s,

you can see some irresistible
trends converging,

like portability and craving
for constant stimulation.

The smartphone was only a
pipe dream at this point.

The need for connection did
lead to one of the defining

gadgets of the '80s
and our number three.

Hello, Hard Rock Cafe, I need
a table for 27 for Brat Pack.

(dial tone)

NARRATOR: It was a long
time ago in a land far away,

a time when phones had
things attached called cords.

TIFFANI: I had memories of
the telephone at home with the

long cord, so you could actually
take it into another room

and then you were,
like, dunking under it,

you know, to make sure that
you didn't get tangled into it.

JON: The only phone was
in your house or at work,

or a pay phone.

That was it.

NARRATOR: And then,
in the '80s,

thanks to Ronald Reagan's
deregulation of the airwaves,

a new gadget would save
us from the tyranny of the land line.

REAGAN: You ain't
seen nothing yet.

NARRATOR: A gadget, which
according to its inventor,

was directly inspired by the
communicator from Star Trek.

KIRK: Kirk to Enterprise.

SCOTTY (off-screen):
Scotty here, sir.

KIRK: We're beaming up.

Notify transporter room.

EGYPTIAN LOVER: The very first
cellphone I ever had was this

big, mama jamma right here.

NARRATOR: The Motorola Dynatac
cellphone launched in 1983 and

became an instant icon.

TIFFANI: To all of a sudden
see that sort of idea of

talking to somebody
outside your home was huge,

and kind of weird.

JON: You can call
somebody from your car,

which was insane.

(phone ringing)

MAN (off-screen): Mobile
telephones are in your future.

If you don't have one now, you
probably will have one in a

decade, say the phone makers.

EGYPTIAN LOVER: You
had one of these,

you were definitely a baller.

You've really got
it going on, like,

"Yeah, I do got it going on."

NARRATOR: The cellphone's
time had arrived, but

it was bulky, expensive and
definitely not for everyone.

JON: At the time, if anyone
was walking down the street

with a cellphone, in my
mind they were very wealthy.

MEAT LOAF: My first
sighting of a cellphone,

was in the car of the manager
that sued me for $100 million.

In the early '80s it
was a status symbol.

SHAWN: That's why we saw them
embraced by the Gordon Gekkos

of the culture in
which we lived.

GORDON: Astonish me, pal.
New info.

I don't care where
or how you get it.

Just get it.

TONY: This meant that you had
too much money in the '80s.

You had made it if
you had a cellphone.

NARRATOR: And for
those that hadn't made it.

WOMAN: Let me
roll up my window.

I can't hear you.
There's some trucks coming by.

NARRATOR: There was
even an option to fake it.

NARRATOR: The Motorola Dynatac
goes on sale in 1983 for an

eye-watering $4,000,

but another product emerges
that delivered status

at something of a discount.

WOMAN: Oh, I love it.

MAN (off-screen):
She's talking to herself.

There's nobody on the
other end of the call.

This is what the cellular
car phone has spawned,

a phony car phone.

Status without the static.

WOMAN: Our motto is,
it's not what you own,

it's what people
think you own.

NARRATOR: As the cellphone
market grows and technology

develops, the size
shrinks and prices fall.

SHAWN: By the
end of the decade,

we've got a little over five
million subscriptions in the US.

That would grow to 109 million
subscriptions by the end of the '90s

and today we have over 330
million cellular connections.

NARRATOR: The brick-like
cellphone was a nostalgic '80s gadget,

but it also transformed
our lives forever,

transporting us into the
always-connected smartphone

universe which
we live in today.

MAN: Hang it up, and the
only thing I can say is,

what will they think of next?

ROB: Well, as I mentioned earlier,

trends were converging in
the '80s that would literally

invent much of
our modern world,

and our number two
was no mere gadget,

it was a revolution in a box.

Only we didn't know it yet.

MAN (off-screen): Like
many young Californians,

Steven Jobs has a penchant for
the western casual and a love

of the scenic outdoors.

NARRATOR: It's 1981.

26-year-old Steve Jobs has
built Apple from a scrappy

start-up in a California
garage into one of America's

biggest electronic companies.

Jobs is on a mission
to convert America to personal computing.

STEVE: The effects that it's
going to have on society are

actually going to far
outstrip even those that the

petrochemical revolution has had.

NARRATOR: But Jobs'
revolution had a problem.

In the early '80s, only a
fraction of Americans could

actually operate a computer.

You had to be able to speak fluent
computer if you wanted to use one.

SHAWN: Everything
was command prompts.

Everything was writing
out essentially code,

and so it was only accessible
by those who were willing to

learn how to code a computer.

Computing was an
exclusive club.

NARRATOR: It was enough to
drive some early users to

distraction and
sometimes destruction.

(gunshot)

SHAWN: Steve Jobs was a big
thinker and so he saw that the

computer could be accessible
to the masses if he could

create a better way of navigating the
computer environment.

(applause)

MAN (off-screen):
Hello, I am Macintosh.

NARRATOR: In 1984, Jobs
was ready to launch the

computer for the masses.

MAN (off-screen): You can draw a picture,

or it can draw conclusions.

It's a personal computer from Apple
and it's as easy to use as this.

Macintosh: the computer
for the rest of us.

NARRATOR: The Apple Macintosh
promised to put the word home

into home computing.

SETH: The Mac wasn't the
first portable computer,

but it was the first one that
had any personality to it.

It was the first one that
was friendly to use and

felt friendly as a device.

NARRATOR: The key to the Mac's
simplicity was an innovation

called the
graphical user interface,

a revolutionary display system
which used icons and a mouse.

JAMES: Look at
this home screen.

It's almost a little funny.

There's little pictures of everything.

If you wanna find your file, look,

it looks like a file folder.

JON: I remember getting
my first Apple computer.

It came out with a mouse.

You could move the arrow
around and type something

and correct it.

It was just amazing.
You had to have one.

NARRATOR: Finally, Americans
could use computers without

having to learn to code.

STEVE: We wanna bring this to
tens of millions of people.

NARRATOR: Apple sold
275,000 units in 1984,

but Jobs' genius idea
wasn't exactly his own.

SHAWN: In 1981, Xerox introduced
what was called the Xerox Star,

and it's the first computer to
use a graphical user interface.

STEVE: I was so blinded by
the graphical user interface.

I thought it was the best
thing I'd ever seen in my life.

It was obvious to me
that all computers would

work like this some day.

NARRATOR: Priced at a
mere $17,000 however,

the Xerox Star is beyond
most consumers' budgets.

SHAWN: In 1981, that computer
does not go on to see any

commercial success.

NARRATOR: Jobs wasted no time,
perfecting Xerox's original

vision into the user very
friendly interface that has

today conquered the world.

STEVE: They just grabbed
defeat from the greatest

victory in the
computer industry.

Xerox could have owned the
entire computer industry today.

SHAWN: Today, we think
that everybody should have a

computer in their pocket
or in their hand or on their desktop,

but that was an idea
that really came to fruition

early on with the Mac.

STEVE: Thanks.

(applause)

ROB: It's nearly time for
our panelists' number one,

a game-changing device
that inspired the future,

but ironically didn't really
make it too far out of the '80s.

ROB (off-screen): So far,
we've seen nine amazing

gadgets that defined a decade,
from an iconic timepiece to a

revolutionary computer, but
there can only be one winner.

ROB: To make it to number
one, you better be an absolute

game-changer and
for me, this was it,

and the panel agreed.

It's unimaginable today, but
being able to suddenly have

your own music with
you wherever you went,

was revolutionary and
this number one certainly started a trend.

BILL: How many times have you been
on a bus or a subway train

when someone next to you would
turn on a radio at full blast?

NARRATOR: While some
extroverts of the '80s were

eager to boom their
music at those around them,

the more silent majority
embraced a new gadget that

allowed them to pretend the rest of
the world didn't exist.

DEE: Sony Walkmans
were a revelation.

MEAT LOAF: Everybody and their
mother's grandson wanted one.

ALVIN: I loved walking down
the street and just watching

people bop to their own beat.

MAN (off-screen): Sony
introduces the only cassette

player as small as
a cassette case.

NARRATOR: Many great
ideas start small.

Some greater ideas stay small.

Our number one
gadget took technology,

art and the power
of the individual,

and attached a pair
of headphones to it.

♪ You really feel the music
with the Sony Walkman ♪ ♪

NARRATOR: Launched in the US
in 1980 and helped along by

some classic '80s advertising,
consumers soon picked up on

the Walkman's key
appeal: privacy.

MAN (off-screen): Put on a
Walkman and see the world

in a whole new light.

♪ Sony Walkman ♪

MAN (off-screen):
The Walkman from Sony,

the one and only.

NARRATOR: But
for some parents,

not knowing what their
kids were listening to,

was a frightening thought.

JAMES: They could be listening
to any kind of scary

death metal or something.

There was a lot of paranoia and fear
about music during that era.

BROKAW: Rock and roll
is here to stay,

but it will never make
everyone happy and the latest

controversy involves
sexual and violent lyrics.

DEE: And that brings us to
the Washington wives and

their paranoia over music
lyrics, and the PMRC.

WOMAN: Young minds are at stake.

TIPPER: Pre-teenagers and
young teenagers having access

to this material.

NARRATOR: In 1985, with
an estimated four million

Walkmans sold in the US,

the Parents Music Resource
Committee got busy.

JEN: Parents were always
concerned about the Walkman,

about what kids could be
listening to you that you

weren't aware they
were listening to.

NARRATOR: The PMRC draws up a
list of songs featuring sex

and violence which
it wants to censor.

♪ We're not gonna take it ♪

DEE: Twisted Sister was on there for
"We're Not Gonna Take It"

because they felt
it was too violent.

They were very thorough in
their misinterpretation of

musical lyrics.

NARRATOR: In defense of free speech,

Dee went to Washington to
plead his case alongside the

unlikely duo of Frank Zappa
and John Denver?

DEE: I felt like I was
being given the flag to

lead everybody into battle.

The beauty of literature,
poetry and music is that they

leave room for the audience
to put its own imagination,

experiences and
dreams into the words.

I was able to articulate a powerful
statement against censorship.

There is no authority who
has the right or the necessary

insight to make these judgments.

Not myself, not the Federal government and
certainly not the PMRC.

NARRATOR: The PMRC failed
to censor explicit tracks.

Its only victory was the
parental advisory label,

which can still be found stuck
on morally dubious records.

Meanwhile, the
Walkman thrived.

JAMES: The Walkman probably
more than any other product,

just sums up the '80s.

It was launched in 1980,
by 1990, 50 million had been sold.

NARRATOR: The Walkman's
earphones made it possible to

escape the outside world and
when its small size collided

with the technology
of the home computer,

a new world would be born.

For that reason, the
Walkman is our number one.

JAMES: We still have that principle,

everybody has earbuds or headphones.

Everybody walks around with their music.

We just do it in a different way today.

MEAT LOAF: The Walkman changed the world.

♪ ♪