10/18 - Who Let Weird Al Film the Parody Video on the Same Set?
10/18 - Who Let Weird Al Film the Parody Video on the Same Set?
Plus trivia on Pearl Jam, Roxette, Madonna, Pearl Jam, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
October 18th, 2024 • Issue 226
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
October 18th
1977 - Reggie Jackson hit three home runs in a World Series game, inspiring the game of baseketball in the process.
1991 - My Own Private Idaho hit theaters.
1991 - Vanilla Ice’s movie Cool As Ice hit theaters.
The director of photography on Vanilla Ice’s Cool As Ice won the Oscar for Best Cinematography two years later… for Schindler’s List.
Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski was just beginning his career when he took the role of director of photography on Cool As Ice.
And though Cool As Ice was a failure in every way, it didn’t slow down Kaminski’s career. He almost immediately began work on Schindler’s List, for which he won an Oscar. He also won an Oscar five years after that for Saving Private Ryan.
1996 - Sleepers hit theaters.
1996 - Swingers hit theaters.
1997 - The infamous Walker, Texas Ranger AIDS episode premiered.
2002 - The Ring hit theaters.
October 19th
1982 - St. Elsewhere premiered on NBC.
1985 - a-ha’s single Take On Me hit number one.
1987 - The stock market had the “Black Monday” stock crash.
1988 - Roxette’s album Look Sharp! was released.
American record companies rejected Roxette despite their success in their native Sweden — and they only broke through when an exchange student brought their album back to the U.S.
EMI America, the U.S. branch of Roxette’s record label, felt that the duo’s music wouldn’t work in America. So even though Look Sharp! was a sensation in Sweden, the label didn’t try it out in the U.S.
An American exchange student from Minneapolis named Dean Cushman was studying in Sweden. He brought Roxette’s album home, and gave it to his local top 40 radio station.
They started playing the music… then passed it along to other stations that started playing it… and Look Sharp! became an international success.
1994 - Clerks hit theaters.
1994 - Dinosaurs premiered during TGIF.
1998 - Cher’s single Believe was released.
1999 - Being John Malkovich hit theaters.
2001 - Riding in Cars with Boys and Mulholland Drive both hit theaters.
2002 - Making the Band 2, which made a group literally called Da Band, premiered.
October 20th
1980 - U2’s debut album Boy was released.
1988 - The Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series, defeating the Oakland A’s.
1989 - Drugstore Cowboy hit theaters.
1990 - The Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, defeating the Oakland A’s.
1990 - James Ingram’s single I Don’t Have the Heart hit number one.
1990 - 2 Live Crew were acquitted on obscenity charges in Florida.
1992 - Madonna’s album Erotica was released.
Erotica was Madonna’s first album since she debuted not to reach number one.
Erotica the album and Madonna’s coffee table book Sex came out on the same day — and maybe that divided or oversaturated the publicity-friendly backlash.
Because Erotica peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 — her first album since her self-titled debut not to reach number one.
1992 - Madonna’s book Sex went on sale.
1995 - Ace of Base’s single Beautiful Life was released.
1995 - Get Shorty hit theaters.
1995 - Mallrats hit theaters.
1998 - 98 Degrees’ album 98 Degrees and Rising was released.
October 21st
1980 - The Philadelphia Phillies won their first-ever World Series.
1991 - Apple introduced the PowerBook.
Apple introduced the “laptop with a palm rest and centrally-positioned pointing tool” design with the PowerBook — the design concept still in use today.
The PowerBook had a palm rest with a trackball in the middle.
This new design for navigation on laptops stuck — and continues to be the standard design to this day (though it’s been decades since there was a trackball involved).
1992 - Wario made his first appearance, as part of Super Mario Land 2.
1995 - Shannon Hoon, lead singer of Blind Melon, died.
1997 - The Backstreet Boys’ single As Long As You Love Me was released (sort of).
1998 - The New York Yankees won the World Series, defeating the San Diego Padres.
2000 - Baha Men’s only hit, Who Let the Dogs Out, peaked at number 40.
2000 - The TV show Cheaters premiered.
October 22nd
1982 - First Blood hit theaters.
1988 - Phil Collins’s single A Groovy Kind of Love hit number one.
1988 - Geraldo’s special “Devil Worship: Exposing Satan’s Underground” aired on NBC.
1990 - Pearl Jam debuted at a cafe in Seattle.
Pearl Jam’s first show was under their original band name — but featured early versions of some of their best-known songs.
Pearl Jam performed at the Off Ramp Cafe in Seattle under the band name Mookie Blaylock — that being the name of a semi-random NBA player.
During the set, they played early versions of the songs Release, Alive, Once, Black, and Even Flow — all of which were on their debut album Ten.
(Ten, by the way, was Mookie Blaylock’s jersey number.)
1996 - En Vogue’s single Don’t Let Go was released.
1999 - The Best Man hit theaters.
2000 - Roger Clemens threw a broken bat at Mike Piazza.
2001 - Pardon the Interruption premiered on ESPN.
October 23rd
1988 - The Mission: Impossible TV reboot premiered.
1991 - Wilt Chamberlain’s biography was released, in which he claimed to have had 20,000+ sexual partners.
1992 - Reservoir Dogs hit theaters.
1993 - The Toronto Blue Jays won their second consecutive World Series as Joe Carter hit a series-winning home run to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies.
1995 - The Smashing Pumpkins album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was released.
1998 - Pleasantville hit theaters.
Pleasantville held the record for most digital effects shots in a movie (until Phantom Menace the next year).
It took around 1,700 digital effects shots for Pleasantville to pull off its famous black and white-to-color transitions.
The producers were the first ever to use a visual effects process that’s standard now, called digital intermediate.
Their record for digital effects lasted less than one year, though, until Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace. That movie had 1,800 shots.
1998 - Britney Spears’ single …Baby One More Time was released.
1998 - Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s movie Orgazmo hit theaters.
1999 - Santana and Rob Thomas’s single Smooth hit number one.
October 24th
1982 - Steffi Graf had her first professional tennis match.
1986 - The movie Soul Man hit theaters.
1987 - Michael Jackson’s single Bad hit number one.
Michael Jackson let Weird Al use the Bad music video set for the parody Fat video.
Weird Al always gets artists’ permission before parodies — but Michael Jackson did him one better.
Jackson not only gave him the green light to make Fat, a parody of Bad, but also let Weird Al film the video at the same subway station set he used. (It was on a soundstage in Culver City, Calif., and still hadn’t been struck.)
1992 - The Toronto Blue Jays won their first World Series, over the Atlanta Braves.
1994 - Merril Bainbridge’s one hit, Mouth, was released.
1995 - Smashing Pumpkins’ single Bullet with Butterfly Wings was released.
1998 - TQ’s single Westside peaked at number 12 on the Billboard charts.
2000 - Linkin Park’s debut album, Hybrid Theory, was released.
2002 - The D.C. sniper was caught and arrested.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Rainbow Brite is making a comeback as a feature film and a TV series. And also from the toy front (though this one is a toy that predates, but was still popular in, the ‘80s) Sony is making a live-action movie based on the View-Master.
In 1995, Mariah Carey recorded a secret grunge album. She says she’s upset it still hasn’t been released.
Kevin Smith finally got the distribution rights to Dogma away from Miramax, so now he’s bringing it back to theaters for its 25th anniversary.
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Heather Graham says she did Boogie Nights over the objections of her religious family.
Henry Winkler says he did The Waterboy as a last-minute favor for Adam Sandler after the original actor cast as the coach didn’t show up. (He didn’t say who that original actor was.)
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
We’re living in the era of a CD revival. Here’s Rolling Stone on why CDs have made a comeback.
A few weeks ago I had the books that defined the ‘80s; here are the 10 books that defined the 1990s.
Here’s a story you’ve likely never heard about Ghostface Killah’s lifelong friend and original collaborator… who went to prison for a murder he didn’t commit.
Have a great week!
-Sam