Remember These Embarrassing 1980s Kitchen Gadgets? Every House Had Them

By 1987, one of the best-selling small appliances in America could send a piece of lettuce flying six feet across a kitchen counter. In half the pantries in the country there was a fondue pot that had been taken out exactly twice, used at a dinner party, and never seen again until the next Christmas. And by the middle of the decade, buying a microwave meant walking out of the store with a box of plastic attachments whose only job was convincing you the microwave could also grill, poach, and pop popcorn. This was the 1980s kitchen. A room where any appliance company could walk in with a bold promise and walk out having sold a million units, whether or not anyone ever used the thing twice. Some of these gadgets earned a permanent spot on the counter. Most got a demonstration, a proud spot in the cabinet, and years of silence after that. Here's what was sitting in almost every kitchen in the country.