Web Original / Dirty Laundry: An Alternate 1980s

Kick 'em when they're up... Kick 'em when they're down...

"Okay, Kootch, I get it," Don interrupted, still trying to clean up the mess. "Still, I can't shake this feeling that there's one more great song stuck up here." He pointed to his head, and then looked down at the mess. "But I think any chance of that just poured out into the carpet."

Inspired by the rise of pop-culture centered timelines brought about from That Wacky Redhead, AlternateHistory.com member Andrew T sought out to create his own, this one focusing on the 1980s. So, how did he go about doing it? Simple: with an album change.

If you are familiar with the Eagles, you should know this story: after the Eagles broke up in 1980, one of its founding members pursued a solo career. He was Don Henley and, in 1982, he released his very first solo album, I Can't Stand Still. From this came a song which managed to reach #3 on the charts, push the album to gold and help make Henley's solo career legitimate: "Dirty Laundry".

Now... what if Henley never recorded that song? Surely, one song wouldn't have that big an impact on history, right?

Well...

As of July 1, 2017, the timeline is more or less on extended hiatus. A summation of most topics is here.

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This work contains examples of:

• Actor Allusion: invoked This is the primary joke of a Crossover between Benson and Who's the Boss?, with Benson convinced he's seen Mona (played by Katherine Helmond, who was Jessica Tate in Soap) somewhere before.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Albeit it's ITTL's Back to the Future Part III, but Marty going to 1967 counts.
  • Mark Crispin Miller did write something called "Boxed In" IOTL, albeit it was a treatise on pop culture in TV written in 1988.
  • invoked An intentional version: the date Andrew chose to have the Atari staff meeting concerning the 5200 is December 7, 1982. That date ring a bell?
  Andrew: I picked this date because IOTL, Kassar sold $250,000 worth of Warner stock just twenty minutes before Warner reported lower-than-projected profits of 10% for the year. Warner stock tanked at the announcement, and Kassar ultimately was investigated by the SEC for insider training, leading to his resignation. The cloud of (justifiable) suspicion that hung over Kassar for all of 1983 crippled Atari's reputation on Wall Street and contributed to the cascade of disaster IOTL.
  • Just like OTL, we have a Mullins v. Coca-Cola case.
  • ITTL's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is essentially a Pac-Man clone. Just what Steven Spielberg wanted.
• All There in the Manual: Andrew had to point out in the footnotes for "The Kiss" that Michael Jackson didn't suffer the freak accident while filming that Pepsi commercial that set him on fire ITTL. "[He] couldn't find a way within the narrative structure of Dirty Laundry" to point this out.
  • It's not just the footnotes; as mentioned under Line to God, Andrew talks to the readers in regards to events of the timeline. Including stuff that isn't outright mentioned in the timeline proper.
• Alternate Techline: You can thank the Atari focus here for this trope's presence, especially with "The Home Computer Market Crash of 1984".
  • "Apple is in trouble ITTL" and "basically, the Mac is screwed".
• Anachronic Order: At one point, we jumped narrative wise from March 25, 1983, to December 7, 1982 (and January 6, 1983), then (technically, thanks to The Other Wiki) to August 15th, 1983.
  • He went backward "because researching and writing about Atari is so incredibly fun even though [he] had plans for politics, baseball, music and movies that all got pushed back."
  • Really, though, this is the crux of the timeline; it jumps around the decade (and, occasionally, beyond) instead of going about linearly.
• A World Half Full / Empty: As in That Wacky Redhead, while bad things do spring about in this version of The '80s, good things also happen.
  • To name an example of the bad: "Actually, things may go slightly worse for Queen ITTL, for reasons you can probably figure out..."
  • The 1986 Philippines revolution goes a whole lot bloodier.
• Bait-and-Switch: The narrative of "November 6, 1984: Election Day with Don Henley" makes it seem like the election was a closer race ITTL, until it's ultimately revealed that Reagan won all 50 states.
• The Big Damn Kiss: The 1984 Video Music Awards now have Madonna following her iconic "Like a Virgin" performance with one on Michael Jackson.^note Who did not attend the ceremony IOTL. This creates uproar and derails her career.
• Breather Episode: "May 31, 1985", considering the posts that proceeded/followed it. All it serves is to say that Fletch is more successful ITTL.
  • After "DRAWKCAB", which dealt with ITTL's Heavy Metal "Satanism" moral panic came a post concerning 1985's must-have toys.
• Book Ends: The Back to the Future film series ITTL begins and ends with Marty going back to 1955.^note You can thank TTL's Part IV having the plot of OTL's Part II in this regard.
• Butterfly of Doom: The absence of "Dirty Laundry" on I Can't Stand Still causes the album to flop and changes that resonate on the entire decade, starting with the musical world (as Don Henley gives up on performing), extending to entertainment (the album was issued to Warner Bros, mostly known as a film studio) and technology (as Warner purchased Atari the same year the album came out).
• Composite Character: The Punisher ITTL borrows from OTL's Wolverine. Considering that Chris Claremont wrote the 1986 reboot ITTL...
  • Two of the Unabomber's victims IOTL, James V. McConnell and Hugh Scrutton have been combined (at least the attacks anyway) into Original Character Murray Fishbein, "owner of a personal computer store in Sunnyvale, California".
  • Another example is with the TTL band "Magnatar", which is^note quite literally a combination of Slayer and the Beastie Boys.
• Creator Killer: invoked Barely avoided in regards to "E.T. II" for Steven Spielberg.
  • "The Kiss" appears to have damaged Madonna's reputation ITTL, having her blacklisted in radio stations in the South and causing "Like a Virgin" to only enter #2 on the charts, as opposed to #1.
• Darkest Hour: "As Election Season Continues" ends with it looking like Henley's campaign will still fail in spite of the turnaround, and Henley starting to lose hope.
  Dave: (choked up) "It's not over yet, Don. Make your calls. Pray, if that's your sort of thing. Just don't give up."
• Dead Artists Are Better: Invoked; Stevie Ray Vaughn is not as revered as IOTL because he didn't die in 1991.
• Different World, Different Movies: 1986 alone has I, Robot written by Harlan Ellison, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy directed by Robert Zemeckis, and Robert Bresson's ''Genesis'', all projects that fell victim to Development Hell IOTL. Not to mention Legend with John Cusack, Top Gun with Emilio Estevez, The Transformers: The Movie directed by Chuck Jones...
  • The music side has plenty of it. Mötley Crüe recorded Resurrection instead of Theatre of Pain (followed by Appetite for Destruction given their singer was now Axl Rose); Def Leppard had a third album in the 1980s, Euphoria, and their post-Steve Clark album was Erotomania instead of Adrenalize (and not only had Slash as their guitarist, but the band broke up shortly later); A Momentary Lapse of Reason is Notochord and Radio K.A.O.S. is Radio Waves and the Pink Floyd album is the latter.
  • A small example, TTL's answer to VH1's "I Love the '80s!" is MTV's "Hey, I Remember the '80s!".
• Downer Beginning: How this timeline starts: Don Henley's career tanking.
  • "Hey, Isn't This Timeline About Don Henley opens with the announcement of Anna Spheeris' death at age 15.
• Downer Ending: Sometimes.
  • Hanoi Rocks still breaks up ITTL because of Razzle dying in the car accident, but this time, all four people involved died.
  • "Bite the Wax Tadpole" ends with Coca-Cola being hit hard thanks to the "New Coke" debacle.
  • "February 1986: Of AIDS and the Philippines" ends with Defense Secretary Juan Ponce Enrile (with help from Lt. Colonel Gregorio Honasan) enacting a coup which results in him declaring himself being the Philippines' sovereign government.
• Election Day Episode: The posts concerning the 1984 presidential election and the 1985 congressional election.
• The '80s: Duh. Although, it's been hinted that this timeline may go past this decade.^note The occasional glimpse into the future aside, that is. Those were used to explain about past events in this timeline.
• Executive Meddling: invoked Honeywell bought Atari only with the intent of competing against IBM in the field of business computers, not sell high-end machines like the Amiga to challenge the Apple Macintosh or develop game console successors. Atari staff still manages to sneak some of the Amiga chipset into the new business machines, and Atari already made a deal with Nintendo before the Honeywell purchase.
• Flanderization: invoked Zig-zagged in regards to Mark Crispin Miller:
  Andrew: Possibly I have Flanderized poor Mr. Miller, who really has written some good stuff on the intersection of politics and pop culture. Or possibly I'm still reacting to his characterization of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" as (and I'm quoting here): " As hideous a cacophony as has ever met the airwaves."
  • An In-Universe example comes from Rush Limbaugh's 1986 stunt of essentially parodying himself by convincing his listeners that Slim Whitman^note a singer from the 1950s's songs contain Satanic messages. While the event also occurred IOTL, ITTL he's successful in gaining the national attention he desired.
• Footnote Fever: Another trope shared with That Wacky Redhead. For example, "1985 and the Small Screen" has 34.
• Foregone Conclusion: Mentioned in regards to the Intellivision 3:
  Andrew: At what is essentially the NEO GEO price point^note $599.99, well, you can probably guess it's fate.
• Foreshadowing: Near the end of the "May 31, 1985" post, after mentioning how Back to the Future, Rambo: First Blood Part II, and Rocky IV were "the 'Big Three' movies of 1985", like IOTL:
  Andrew: Spoiler: this will be the last year for which that holds true.
  • Another interesting case is the existence of "The Lost Episode", a sketch-comedy show that doesn't exist IOTL. Think of it as a better, well-recieved "The New Show". Why is this an example? It pretty much gives away the fate of Saturday Night Live ITTL.
    Andrew: [W]ithout OTL's bomb The New Show, Lorne Michaels doesn't go crawling back to NBC to write for SNL in 1985. Now, SNL['s] still on the air during a very lowly-regarded 1985 season, but if you think this bodes ill for its future, you'd be correct....
    • And, thanks to "January 26, 1986", confirmed.
  • In a similar vein, Fletch's increased success ITTL and that "The Goonies R Good Enough" is missing from Cyndi Lauper's discography gives away the fact that The Goonies doesn't exist ITTL.^note Confirmation.
• Formula-Breaking Episode: "The Slow Hand of Pink Floyd" plays with this: although the second half is a *Wikipedia article, the first half is a chat room discussion concerning one of Rolling Stones' "Greatest Guitarists of All Time" lists.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: While the timeline being Cut Short ended up not explaining it, the fact one of the quoted books is From Quarters to Bullets: The Real Story of Atari implies the company would be involved in some dangerous stuff.
• Futureshadowing: The "Where Are They Now?" transcript/episode which reveals, along with other minor details, Def Leppard breaks up in 1993.
  • Actually defied in "Hey, I Remember The 1980s!", where Andrew cuts the transcript short since, narratively speaking, the timeline is still in May 1986.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Coca-Cola's plan of releasing "New Coke" to compete with Pepsi in the cola wars. How badly did this go down? By 1989, the company only accounts for 11% of the soft-drink market, as opposed to the 50% it had originally. Yeah.
• Hand Wave: invoked While the specifics aren't yet clear, Bob Gale explained that because the "something has got to be done about your kids" bit at the end of Back to the Future wasn't meant to tease a sequel, they had to write around it for Back to the Future Part II^note which is actually the TTL equivalent to Back to the Future Part III. Especially ironic since we don't even get to that issue until Back to the Future Part IV...
• Historical In-Joke: It's a bit ironic how John Cusack played Marty in Back to the Future, considering that was a very likely possibility IOTL.
  • Mixing with Call-Forward, "The Kiss" combines the 2003 VMA (Madonna kisses two women) with the 2004 Super Bowl half-time concert (Janet Jackson suffers a Wardrobe Malfunction live) and makes Madonna kiss Michael in the 1984 VMA.
• History Repeats: The pose Michael Jordan made, holding up the "Steal of the Century" Chicago Tribune issue^note The specifics. is described as being "a mockup of the paper's other high-profile headline blunder".
• Honor Before Reason: Don's steadfast refusal to go along with Dave's plan to counteract Edd Hargett's plans to win the election, despite that it looking like they have no other options.
  Don: You're telling me that I have to choose between my principles and politics, and that's not a hard choice, Dave. If politics asks me to go back on my word, to lie, cheat, and steal the votes I need to get over the finish line, well, then politics asks too much.
• Hope Spot: Apparently, despite I Can't Stand Still flopping, Danny Kortchmar hoped that he and Henley would one day take another crack at making an album. Then Henley calls up on May 21, 1985 saying he's running for Congress.
• It Amused Me: invoked The reason why Andrew decided to keep IBM's logo as the Little Tramp bowler hat ITTL.
  • Also his reasoning behind having Coca-Cola's "Project Kansas" be in all capital letters.
  Andrew: [B]ecause (a) it sounds more ominous, and (b) it sounds more '80s. Can't you just picture a secret folder in Red Dawn labeled "PROJECT KANSAS"? I sure can.
  • Also his reasoning in keeping the picture of the "Credit Card Bank", with the kid in the suit, as is ITTL.
  Andrew: This toy is completely unchanged from OTL, but that picture is just so adorably ‘80s I had to include it. He’s wearing a little suit and tie!
• It Will Never Catch On: Near the end of his "Is New Wave Dead?" article, Kurt Loder says that he feels "[his] colleagues [arguing] that [Rolling Stone magazine] should declare Irish rockers U2 the 'Band of the '80s'" is "premature".
• Jerkass Has a Point: invoked Although Mark Crispin Miller was engaging in his usual demeanor when ragging on Miami Vice's potential spin-off show concerning Glenn Frey's character Jimmy Cole, Andrew is quick to point out something:
  Andrew: You want to punch Mr. Miller in the face here (I hope!), but this as-yet-unnamed backdoor pilot spinoff is modeled after OTL's South of Sunset, which – I am sad to tell you – is widely considered one of the very worst TV shows of all time. So Mr. Miller may, after all, have a point.^note 16th footnote.
• Kick the Dog: Yeah, Kevin Gardner wasn't too kind to Henley in informing him that his contract with Asylum was done:
  "Yeah, done. As in 'cancelling your contract.' As of now, you and your Uilleann pipes are headed for the discount bin at Tower Records. Your advance check is in the mail, but I wouldn't stay up late at night waiting to hear about royalties." Kevin laughed cruelly, and then hung up.
• Japanese Ranguage: A gag about TTL's Minoru Niihara's accent, which he plays into, starting with the "I glue up in Indianaporis!" campaign for placing the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Indiana. (Andrew notes that this is racist, but wouldn't have been seen as such in the eighties.)
• Killer App: invoked ITTL's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" for the Atari 2600}}. ... No. Really.
• Laser-Guided Karma: An example that played the long game: Danny Kortchmar accidentally caused Don Henley's solo carrier to fail by preventing "Dirty Laundry". Then Don decided to enter politics; then he decided to run for Congress. He asks Kootch to be his campaign manager, who (after having his hopes of he and Don try to make another album crushed) agrees. And then enters Les Francis who tells Don (while helping him fix his failing campaign) to fire Kootch. And then after saying he can't, Don mulls this over... and decides to do it.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: This episode of "Where Are They Now?" aired ITTL on the same day the post itself was posted: February 28, 2013.
• Life Imitates Art: invoked Having Michael Bolton play the lead member of the heavy metal band "Rampage" (the rival band to "Steel Cobra") on the CBS show "Dreams".
  • A minor example that's also Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The "Where Are They Now?" transcript post being posted on the day it took place: February 28th, 2013.
  • A similar example comes from "late April - early May, 1986"^note Concerning, amongst other things, TTL's Chernobyl disaster: It was posted on April 29th, 2014 and the post starts on April 29th, 1986.
• Little "No": Don's response to Dave's newest, last resort plan to help Don win the Senate election.
• Magnum Opus: invoked Roger Ebert uses this term to describe Robert Bresson's film "Genesis" in his September 26th, 1986 review for it.
• Mid-Life Crisis Car: Why the refurbished Atari 1200X has the codename 'Cadillac'.
• Money, Dear Boy: invoked Andrew states that this is the fundamental reasoning why The Weather Girls were so willing to not only Sell-Out, but also bother dressing up as raisins when touring as "The California Raisins". And yes, this means no claymation raisins ITTL.
• Mood Whiplash: After "1985 in Music: The Year In Review", we get... this.
  • "Violence and Tragedy" is a short two-subject post. It starts out dealing with "The Punisher"'s 1986 reboot... before switching gears into discussing the Challenger disaster. Yeah.
• Never Tell Me the Odds!: Don Henley's response to Les Francis' remarks about how his campaign's failing:
  Don: Mr. Francis, I've let you come into my house and insult me. I've watched, and I've listened while you've shattered my hopes and dreams. So maybe I am stupid, but I still believe I can make a difference in this world. I've met the people of this district, and I know many of them agree with me. And I'm going keep going out there until August the third and see if I can't prove you and your polling data wrong.
• Never Trust a Title: The "Lucy Meets the Harlem Globetrotters" sketch from "The Lost Episode", "an absurdist mashup of I Love Lucy, Scooby-Doo, Gilligan's Island, and – for some completely unknown reason – Mork & Mindy".
  Andrew: Note that the Harlem Globetrotters were not actually in this episode.^note 4th footnote
  • Dr. Ruth Sings "Hotel California", where we don't get an appearance by Dr. Ruth^note just a mention, nor do we get her singing "Hotel California".
• The New Rock & Roll: An "Interem Report" was proposed to Meese Commission Chairman Henry E. Hudson concerning "'more than 100' popular heavy metal songs from groups such as Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, Slayer, AC/DC and WASP '[containing] coded Satanic messages' that 'may be used to brainwash children'". It's rejected because Hudson feels it's "beyond the scope of [the] Committee’s authority to regulate and control pornography". That's despite agreeing with the findings, btw.
  • Really though, thanks to TTL's War on Satanism, this trope has a firm place in this timeline.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: As a result of the "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" game becoming so popular, Steven Spielberg decides to go through with making the sequel.
• Non-Indicative Title: Zig-zagged: "December, 1984: For Those About to Rock...." actually consists of a transcript of the February 28, 2013, episode of ITTL's MTV show "Where Are They Now?"^note Granted, December 1984 is discussed....
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Andrew had to point out in the footnotes that "E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears" was almost a real movie.
  • He also had to point out that Chuck Thompson really did like to say "Go to war, Miss Agnes!" as a Catchphrase.
  • And that Weird Al winning a Grammy for "Eat It" happened as well IOTL.
  • And^note along with some background info towards that regard that IBM also used the Little Tramp bowler hat for a logo IOTL.
  • And that there really was a TV adaptation of Stir Crazy.
• Nothing but Hits: Straight up defied. We experience the full brunt of 1980s music here, changes factored in where appropriate.
  • Of course, the Billboard Top 100 keeps making appearances.
• Number of the Beast: Concerning timing with posts, narrowly averted: "Night Stalker" was only the 668th post.
• Original Character: invoked Also as in That Wacky Redhead, it took a while for this to crop up in the form of Dave Orlovsky, Don's new campaign manager. However, he is based off of a real life person.
  • There's also Murray Fishbein, "owner of a personal computer store in Sunnyvale, California" and the Unabomber's first fatality ITTL. See Composite Character.
• Out of Focus: "Hey, Isn't This Timeline About Don Henley?"
  • Lately, however, more of a focus was given towards Henley's Senate campaign and the 1985 Senate election.
• Painful Rhyme: "I'm not a political singer. I wrote 'I Want a Panda' because there aren't too many words that rhyme with 'Amanda,' and I think I already used all of them in the song. And even then, I had to mispronounce 'Uganda.'"
• Pet the Dog: Atari manages to do better ITTL, even managing to go through with the deal with Nintendo to sell the Famicom overseas as the "Atari Nintendo".
  • "We Built This City" does better ITTL thanks to it being a Heart song.
  • Ryan White is allowed to return to his school in spite of having AIDS ITTL, even managing to live long enough to graduate (dying on June 23rd 1990 this time, as opposed to OTL's April 8th).
• Point of Divergence: A spill lands on the papers holding the lyrics to "Dirty Laundry" before Don Henley gets the chance to record it, scuttling his solo musical career before it starts.
• Punny Name: The usernames in the "Metal Strings: A Forum for Guitar Enthusiasts" chat room are, according to Andrew, based on the usernames of long-time Dirty Laundry commenters.
  Andrew: [N]o effort has been made to match up those contributors with their actual personalities ITTL. :)
• Questionable Casting: invoked Five words: BRIAN BLESSED as Mr. Belvedere.
  • Canadians Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd as the stars of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
• Real-Life Relative: invoked As John Cusack plays Marty McFly ITTL, Joan Cusack plays (along with other roles in the series) Linda McFly.
• Relationship Upgrade: A forced example: Les Francis tells Don Henley to propose to his girlfriend, Maren.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: invoked Believe it or not, the E.T. Atari game.
  • "We Built This City" thanks to two changes: it being a Heart song, and the decision to rework it so that it leads into an abridged "Rock and Roll" cover.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman: After his solo-career tanked, Don Henley decided to enter into politics. And, as of August 4th, 1985, he is now a Congressman.
  • Kurt Cobain, of all people, is revealed to have become a comedian/actor/TV presenter.
  • Not to mention Oakland Athletics outfielder Stanley "The Hammer" Burrell.
• Scrapbook Story: This makes up a large portion of the timeline currently. We have album info, movie reviews, TV Guide pages, written essays, interviews, transcripts, and so on.
  • Switching P.O.V.: This makes up the remaining portion, most often than not focusing on Don Henley.
• Sdrawkcab Name: Appropriately enough, the post concerning ITTL's Heavy Metal "Satanism" moral panic is titled "DRAWKCAB".
• Sequel Series: "Still The Big Chill".
• Self-Imposed Challenge: invoked A minor one, but Andrew revealed this in regards to Madonna's treatment ITTL:
  I think OTL's Madonna — you know, in my fantasy where she spends her off-hours reading alternate history forums — would be flattered by the implication, which is: [is it] possible to re-imagine the 1980s without Madonna?^note Second footnote.
  • And, given how "in the Dirty Laundryverse, Don Johnson had a more successful recording career in 1986 than Madonna", it seems like this challenge is proving successful...
• Sell-Out: This is what The Weather Girls have done ITTL by partnering with Raisin Bran to create the song "It’s Raisin Bran!", a parody of their hit "It's Raining Men", which becomes the cereal's most successful commercial.
  • This in turn leads to a resurgence of popularity for the group and a tour in 1987 as "The California Raisins". And, not making this up, this involved them wearing raisin costumes.
• Sequelitis: invoked Roger Ebert in particular was extremely displeased with "E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears", giving it one star and outright abandoning trying to recap the plot out of disgust.
  "E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears" is more than just a disappointment. It is a broken promise. Think ‎back to everything you (and I) loved about the first "E.T": the sense of innocence, awe, and ‎wonder; the recurring emphasis on the value of friendship, both human and non-human; the ‎ending (oh, the ending!) which frequently inspired audience members to stand up and cheer. ‎Now, make a movie with literally none of those things.
• Shout-Out: "April 11, 1985" features Bill Mensch referencing "Bunker Hill Bunny" during an interview with Calvin Thompson concerning Atari and Compaq uniting to develop the Atari Portable.
  So Bill's plan was simple. "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em," he said, giving his best Yosemite Sam impersonation.
  • Mark Crispin Miller brings up the idea of Soap handling the issue of an interracial kiss by having Guillaume and Helmond kiss.
  • On the topic of Mark Crispin Glover, enjoy the following actual line from his "Boxed In: TV after 1984" article, presented without comment:
    There’s plenty more schlock where that came from – word has it that CBS is planning an entire night of shows-adapted-from-hit-movies, if that can be believed – but, in the words of yet another famous philosopher, I’ve had all I can stand, and I can’t stands no more.
  • On the Metal Strings: A Forum for Guitar Enthusiasts chat room, as user '69 Mets decries "Eric Clapton singing bubblegum pop is NOT Pink Floyd":
    Soundwave: He's technically correct, you know.
    Purex99: The best kind of correct!
• Shown Their Work: As pointed out in the footnotes, "Election Results" doubles as "a helpful guide to election coverage in any timeline".
  • CBS's ill-fated "Movie Night in America!" block^note Concerning tv shows based on recent blockbusters., consisting of "Stir Crazy", "Still The Big Chill", and "Ghostbusters".
• Special Effect Failure: invoked A common problem in the Ghostbusters TV show.
  The special effects get more laughs than the scripts.
• Spiritual Successor: "Living in the Past: An Alternate 1970s".
• Star-Derailing Role: invoked Yeah, it should be obvious by now, but Henley's solo career died on impact ITTL.
  • You can thank E.T. II for doing this to Michael J. Fox.
    • Although, given that after 2.5 years of Hollywood blackballing, he got the role of Roy Stalin in Better Off Dead, things might be turning around. After all, Ebert gives it two stars ITTL.
  • Because of Purple Rain flopping ITTL, Prince counts as well.
• Take a Third Option: Sort of: Instead of outright firing Kootch as his campaign manager, Don gives him to Glenn Frey as to be the latter's new song writer.
  • Atari engineers had a debate on which sound chip would be better for games due to not only having the in-house developed AMY chip (made for reproducing speech), but also the PAULA chip (good for creating music) that came with the Amiga hardware, which they outright own ITTL. The solution? Combine both. The resulting chip is so good that it and variations end up in Atari computers for 10 years.
• Take That, Audience! / Self-Deprecation: What does Andrew say in response to his posting the lyrics to "I Want a Panda"^note which, if you recall, is a completely ITTL song?
  Andrew: Yes, I'm inflicting these on you.^note Last footnote
• Take That!: In-Universe, we have a stunt that also occurred IOTL: Rush Limbaugh making fun of the "Satanism" moral panic by claiming that Slim Whitman's songs had underlying Satanic messages. Given how much bigger said panic is ITTL and that this stunt got him the attention he sought out by doing this IOTL, this is an interesting case.
• Titled After the Song: Yes, even though the song doesn't exist ITTL, this counts.
  • "Let's Go Crazy", which is ironically not favorable towards Prince.
• Trilogy: Doesn't apply to Back to the Future ITTL, because there's four films in the series.
• True Companions: Don and Kortchmar, as per OTL. ...but recent evidence shows that this will be tested...
• Very Special Episode: Still prevalent ITTL, as evidenced by Family Ties having a string of these resulting in Elyse Keaton's pregnancy ending in a miscarriage and causing the Keatons to adopt a little girl they re-name Ariel Moonbeam Keaton (played by OTL's ill-fated Judith Barsi).
• Wham Episode: "January 27, 1984". Or, "Roger Ebert's Movie Reviews: E.T. II: Nocturnal Fears". The title alone says it all (providing you knew about the subject matter beforehand).
  Andrew: So there you have it: proof that this timeline is not a utopia.
  • "January, 1985 Consumer Electronics Show (CES)" which more or less states that the Macintosh is screwed.
  • "Let's Go Crazy" reveals that Prince isn't safe from the timeline... not at all.
  • "December, 1984: For Those About to Rock...." reveals that Guns N' Roses isn't founded ITTL because of Axl Rose being picked up as Vince Neil's replacement for Mötley Crüe. ... Because Vince died.
  • "July 5, 1985": Don receives a visit from Les Francis who, after revealing that Don "blew a thirty five point lead in five weeks", helps Don rework his campaign. This involves demanding Don to fire Kortchmar as his campaign manager and marry Maren.
  • "Bite the Wax Tadpole", which covers ITTL's "New Coke" debacle. The outcome is the equivalent of smacking someone upside the head. With a brick.
  • "January 30, 1986"^note Actually, it begins with a Flash Forward to 1993, but.... Why is this an example? Well, simply for the reveal that Bernhard Goetz, who had all charges dropped against him ITTL, becomes New York's mayor in 1989.
  • "'A Tale of Two IPOs'", while mostly covering how AtariSoft Inc.^note Atari had bought Infocom in 1983, creating the "Atari Software Group", or "AtariSoft". had created an IPO, ends revealing that Microsoft's IPO may be in trouble ITTL.
  "By circulating a heavily-amended prospects, Microsoft is essentially inviting rumors that the deal is fishy. This is the sort of thing that can scare off institutional investors and tank an IPO."
• Wham Line: From "July 27, 1982":
  "E.T. would, of course, become the best-selling Atari 2600 title of 1982, and eventually, all time."
  • From "December 7, 1982":
  "By the end of 1983, Commodore will drop the price of the C-64 to under $200, and it will become the best-selling computer of all time, selling more than fifteen million units, and driving Texas Instruments, Timex-Sinclair, Coleco, Tandy-Radio Shack, and the IBM PCjr from the personal computer market in what is now called the 'Home Computer Market Crash of 1984.'"
  • From "Let's Go Crazy":
  "'Purple Rain is the sixth and penultimate studio album by American recording artist Prince and The Revolution and is the soundtrack album to the 1984 film of the same name.'"^note Really, there's more Wham Lines in that post; only one was chosen as an example.
  • From "July 5, 1985"; also one that doubles as an In-Universe one for Don:
  Les Francis: I'm not here to lick envelopes, Don. I'm here so that I can meet the asshole who's managed to blow a thirty-five-point lead in five weeks.
  • A blink-and-you'll-miss-it one occurs in "APPENDIX TWO: The 1985 MLB June Amateur Draft":
    Other notable picks:
    LHP Bruce Ruffin (2nd round, Cleveland Indians)
    1B Tino Martinez (2nd round, Baltimore Orioles)
    OF Deion Sanders (5th round, Los Angeles Dodgers)
    OF Stanley Burrell (38th round, Oakland A's)
    • And if you did miss it, "Hey, I Remember The 1980s!" reminds you:
      Monday, September 29, 1986. Oakland Athletics outfielder Stanley "The Hammer" Burrell blasts his 11th home run in the month of September. The rookie did it in dramatic fashion, with two on in the bottom of the ninth, giving the A's a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Texas Rangers.
  • While there's a bigger one at the end of it, "Bite the Wax Tadpole" opens with one which gives a general idea of how things play out:
  "Most people today – having been thoroughly immersed in the spectacle that was the Mullins v. Coca-Cola lawsuit – point to 1985 as the 'Year That Coke Lost The Cola Wars'".
  • And then there's "Night Stalker"^note a *Wikipedia entry post:
    "Ramirez was identified, surrounded, and beaten to death the day after his mug shot was broadcast on national television and printed on the cover of every major newspaper in California."
    • Although, really, this was already revealed thanks to:
    Ricardo Leyva "Richard" Muñoz Ramírez (February 29, 1960 – September 1, 1985)
    • Not to mention:
      See also:

      * Satanism

      * War on Satanism in the 1980s

      * Crime in California

      * Notorious serial killers

      * Rise of vigilantism in the U.S.
  • A footnote version in "January 26, 1986":
    [6] If you're wondering, because Saturday Night Live is cancelled in 1986, there's never a Christopher Walken-Will Ferrell-Blue Öyster Cult "more cowbell" sketch to which this could be compared.
  • From "'A Tale of Two IPOs'":
    Meanwhile, another once-highly-anticipated IPO has been set back due to regulatory concerns. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued a strongly-written opinion letter criticizing what it called "gun jumping" and "illegal touting" by Seattle-based Microsoft, Inc. of certain of its products in advance of the planned IPO.
  • From "Hey, I Remember The 1980s!", we get informed of one of the most bizzare butterflies to occur so far:
    And now, here's our "big" star, Mr. Center Square himself, Kurt Cobain!
    CUT TO: Kurt Cobain, Actor/Comedian, "The New Hollywood Squares"
  • Similar to "Bite the Wax Tadpole", "Trump Things Never Change" gets one right off the bat with the title of a particular 1986 Sports Illustrated article:
    Why 1986 Will Be Forever Known as "The Year That Donald Trump Destroyed the NFL"
    • And if that's not enough for ya, here's the first line:
      A lot of people have pitchforks out for United States District Court Judge J. Frederick Motz of Maryland, who earlier this week rejected a motion for reconsideration and upheld a jury verdict awarding nearly $1.7 billion in damages to the United States Football League ("USFL") for monopolistic practices by the NFL.
  • Never heard of "Magnatar"? Well, actually, you have.
    The album spawned a Top 10 hit, "Fight For the Right to Rock," as well as the Top 40 successor, "Bombs Over Brooklyn." A third track, "Cooky Puss," was released as a music video for MTV and was frequently played during the "Headbanger's Ball."
    • Although, those more familiar with music trivia would have most likely already figured it out right from the get-go:
      Magnatar (album)
      Redirected from "Don't Be A Faggot"
      from *Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
• Wham Shot:
  • A minor one, but the fact that we see John Cusack's picture at the start of CNN's "Back to the Future, 25 Years Later" article.
  • From "January 30, 1986", we have the picture of New York's Mayor-elect from November 7th, 1989: Bernhard Goetz.
  • From "Violence and Tragedy", we have one which doubles as both Mood Whiplash and sad confirmation that a certain event couldn't be butterflied: a shot of the Challenger explosion.
• What Could Have Been: In-Universe, Don Henley responded with this after Danny Kortchmar said that the lyrics Henley and Mike Campbell wrote had the potential for a number one hit.^note For clarification, the song in question is "The Boys of Summer".
  When he'd shown the lyrics to Kortchmar, Kootch insisted he was sitting on a potential number one hit. For a few minutes, Kootch saw that spark and thought they might actually try and put together another album – but then Don just shook his head. "File it all under 'what could have been,' Kootch." And so he did.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not really explained why the Ghostbusters TV show left out Winston Zeddemore from the cast...
• What the Hell, Hero?: This is how Henley's New York Times' editorial is written in regards to Ronald Reagan using "Born In The USA" for he re-election campaign.
  "Apparently, Mr. Reagan — or whomever calls the shots on the President's staff — somehow managed to confuse Bruce's thoughtful, introspective lyrics with the usual mindless, flag-waving, America-love-it-or-leave-it nonsense one typically associates with the Reagan campaign."
  • Let's just say the critics had a field day when Reagan essentially called the Madonna / Michael Jackson kiss "pornographic".
  • Les Francis delivers a small one when meeting with Don, calling him "the asshole who's managed to blow a thirty-five-point lead in five weeks."
• Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Subverted in regards to Benson: in the crossover episode with Who's the Boss?, the setting is revealed to be in Connecticut (same as Who's the Boss? and Soap).

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The tropes that have been affected by butterflies:

• And a Diet Coke: While it's possible the trope still exists, it's doubtful that (given how badly Coca-Cola got screwed by the "New Coke" fiasco) it's going to be a Diet Coke involved...
• Any of the post 1986 Saturday Night Live tropes^note Ambiguously Gay, Common Knowledge, "El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Niño", Every Year They Fizzle Out, Germans Love David Hasselhoff, Happy Fun Ball, Why We Are Bummed Communism Fell: Take a wild guess.
• Fight Fur Your Right to Party: Due to Def Jam Records hooking up the Beastie Boys with Kerry King of Slayer, which winds up spawning the thrash metal band Magnatar, "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party!)"^note which the trope's name is based off of is replaced with "Fight For the Right to Rock". ...so, yeah...
• The Other Marty: invoked Eric Stoltz was only considered for the role of Marty McFly ITTL, he was never cast. As such, when John Cusack gets the role, there is no need to reshoot scenes to replace Stoltz with him; as such, the trope is gone.
  • Similarly, Melora Hardin doesn't get replaced with Claudia Wells (who is subsequently not replaced with Elisabeth Shue), so no dice on this being called "The Other Jennifer".

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But by and large, this TL is meant to be a trip back to the 1980s where up is down, black is white, and Saturday Night Live is cancelled in 1986. Doesn't that sound at least a little bit fun to you?