1980s:
Era of pat sentimentality and cynically calculated optimism
The critic Pauline Kael has observed that the only fresh elements in American movies of the 1980s was the kind of humor that a new generation of comedians brought with them.
The groups included Richard Pryor, Bette Midler, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Eddie Murphy.
Needless to say that many of them came from the then popular and inventive TV program, Saturday Night Live.
