Spending an hour a year on the 1980s

Any decade that saw the rise of designer jeans as well as the fall of the Berlin Wall merits some serious scrutiny, and except for the serious part, VH1 takes on the challenge in its five-day, 10-hour series, “I Love the ‘80s.”

Far too scattershot to be called ambitious, the series nevertheless manages to serve as an entertaining diversion as it slices and dices the people, places and events of the decade’s pop-culture landscape into messy but filling one-year portions. The hourlong segments -- two air each evening -- continue nightly through Friday, where Milli Vanilli awaits to help wrap up the decade. The year 1980 kicks things off tonight at 9, with 1981 following at 10 p.m.

Rather than assign a lone narrator to lead us through the jungle of video clips chronicling the wild and woolly ‘80s, VH1 enlists an army of celebs and semi-celebs to weigh in with sound bites that provide some measure of perspective, however warped, fawning or irreverent. The 200 or so talking heads include everyone from John Travolta and Juliette Lewis to Mary Lou Retton and Carrot Top.

With the average clip lasting about five seconds and the average interview reflecting on it only slightly longer, the special would seem to be a film editor’s nightmare, but the precious little structure to each hour must have made things easier.

Every so often a coolness debate breaks out along the lines of Debbie Harry versus Pat Benatar or Han Solo versus Luke Skywalker, and occasionally there’s a “Hot Guys” and “Hot Gals” interlude, but then it’s quickly back to the blizzard of scattered clips and quips. The latter can get a little salty, but usually it’s just good-natured sniping.

Says Lea Thompson tonight of the film “Xanadu”: “You have to be on drugs to understand anything about it.” Saucy words for an actress with “Howard the Duck” on her resume, a movie that takes its own turn in the barrel Thursday during the 1986 installment.