ally high for the Cabbage Patch Kids, fueled by Rob-
erts’s marketing genius, including the 1985 publicity
coup of sending an astronaut Cabbage Patch Kid
into outer space.
Impact With 65 million dolls sold throughout the
1980’s, the Cabbage Patch Kids are considered one
of the most successfully marketed dolls in the toy in-
dustry. The dolls fulfilled the usually contradictory
criteria for toy sale success: They were steadily selling
products that sold annually in relatively anticipated
quantities, and they were a fad that required a high
level of promotion yet brought in significant profits.
In addition, the dolls proved that computer technol-
ogy could be used to create one-of-a-kind, mass-
produced products, and the uniqueness of each unit
could be used effectively as a marketing device to
drive mass consumer demand.
Further Reading
Hoffman, William.Fantasy: The Incredible Cabbage
Patch Phenomenon. Dallas: Taylor, 1987.
Lindenberger, Jan.Cabbage Patch Kids Collectibles: An
Unauthorized Handbook and Price Guide. Atglen,
Pa.: Schiffer, 1999.
Official Cabbage Patch Kids Web Site. http://www
.cabbagepatchkids.com.
Sullivan, Kathleen A. “As Luck Would Have It: In-
credible Stories from Lottery Wins to Lightning
Strikes.”Librar y Journal129, no. 7 (April 15,
2004): 148.
Taylor Shaw
See also Advertising; Children’s television; Com-
puters; Consumerism; Fads; Toys and games.
Cable television
Identification Television distribution system in
which programming is delivered to subscribers
from a centralized provider by cable
Cable television greatly expanded the number of channels
and program choices available to viewers, whose willing-
ness to pay for the service radically changed the medium’s
revenue model. In addition to paying monthly fees, cable
subscribers developed new habits of viewing to which adver-
tisers in the 1980’s had to respond.
The relaxation of federal rules regulating cable tele-
vision, the improvement of satellite delivery sys-
tems, and the expansion of the cable infrastructure
throughout the United States combined with Ameri-
can consumers’ enthusiasm for choice to fuel cable’s
growth in the 1980’s. By the end of 1983, 40 percent
of American television households had cable; by
1990, cable reached 60 percent of those households.
The success of cable television stations made them
effective competitors with the Big Three broadcast
networks—the Columbia Broadcasting System
(CBS), the National Broadcasting Company (NBC),
and the American Broadcasting Company (ABC).
Even the minimum tier of programming, basic ca-
ble, offered multiple channels, usually including
broadcast stations, in return for a set monthly fee.
Premium, or pay, cable channels required a fee in
addition to the monthly cost of basic cable. The ma-
jority of cable channels that entered the market be-
tween 1980 and 1989 were offered on basic cable.
Cable programmers mined television audiences
for specific interests and demographics and cre-
ated dedicated cable channels with programming
designed to appeal directly to those more limited
audiences—a practice known as narrowcasting. Ad-
vertisers quickly recognized the potential of narrow-
casting, which allowed them more easily to tailor
commercials to particular demographics. The re-
sponse was overwhelming: Viewers wanted around-
the-clock information and entertainment and be-
came cable subscribers, while advertisers leapt at the
chance to spend less money to reach more specific
audiences.News, Music, and Sports In 1980, Ted Turner
launched the Cable News Network (CNN), a twenty-
four-hour news channel. Broadcast news organiza-
tions dismissed CNN, but Turner correctly identi-
fied a public hunger for news and information. CNN
gained legitimacy through instant coverage of news
events such as the attempted assassination of Presi-
dent Ronald Reagan in 1981. In 1981, CNN ex-
panded to launch CNN2, later named CNN Head-
lines. The network built a global presence as well,
with CNN International launching in Europe in- By 1989, it broadcast in Africa, Asia, and the
Middle East as well. CNN turned a financial corner
in 1985, when five years of losses turned into $13 mil-
lion in profit. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan
known as the Great Communicator held an end-of-
the-year press conference with anchors from the Big
Three networks and Bernard Shaw of CNN, demon-
The Eighties in America Cable television 165