CNN has announced that the news network will be premiering the first episode of its latest historical documentary series, The Eighties, in March of this year.
Produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman and Mark Herzog, the multipart doc, which will be aired in seven different episodes, will tackle cultural events, the rise of the tech industry, the AIDS pandemic, the last act of the Cold War and everything in between. Like its predecessors The Sixties and The Seventies, the show will take on the era from an eyewitness perspective — or rather, intersperse photos, clips and more with commentary and interviews from people who were there.
However, there's a bit of levity to it all, too — like CNN's digital promo for the series, which asks potential viewers to match theme songs to popular '80s shows like Murder She Wrote and Who's the Boss?
Previous guests on The Sixties and The Seventies have ranged from journalists to artists to innovators to movie stars, including actress Sally Field, presidential portraitist Aaron Shikler, news anchor Dan Rather and Reading Rainbow and Star Trek cult hero Levar Burton.
Here's the official description from CNN:
"The Eighties explores the individuals and events that shaped a decade of exceptionalism and excess. Through its use of rarely seen archival footage and interviews with journalists, historians, musicians and television artists as eyewitnesses to history, The Eighties will look at the age of Reagan, the AIDS crisis, the end of the Cold War, Wall Street corruption, the tech boom, and the expansion of television and the evolving music scene."
The first episode of CNN's The Eighties will air on Thursday, March 31, at 9 p.m. EST.
To get an idea of what The Eighties has in store, check out the trailers for CNN's The Seventies and The Sixties in the video clips below.
Source: CNN
Photo: William Warby | Flickr
