7/5 - What Classic '90s Music Video Was Filmed in the Jaws Lake?
Plus trivia about Weekend at Bernie's, Married with Children, New Coke, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
July 5th, 2024 • Issue 211
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
July 5th
1989 - Seinfeld premiered on NBC.
1989 - Weekend at Bernie’s was released.
Weekend at Bernie’s was originally going to be a “two Cories” movie.
The initial plan was to have Corey Feldman and Corey Haim star in the movie.
The producers eventually decided they wanted older actors to play the roles, so they went with Jonathan Silverman and Andrew McCarthy.
1990 - Blossom premiered on NBC.
1991 - The Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins were officially approved as MLB expansion teams.
1993 - Bjork’s self-titled debut album was released.
1994 - Hootie & the Blowfish's album Cracked Rear View was released.
1994 - Warren G’s single This DJ was released.
1994 - Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.
1996 - The movie Phenomenon was released.
1996 - Eric Clapton’s single Change the World was released.
1996 - Dolly the Sheep was born.
July 6th
1990 - Die Hard 2 hit theaters.
Both Die Hard and Die Hard 2 were based on books — but those books were totally unrelated and from different authors.
Die Hard was based on a 1979 novel by Roderick Thorp called Nothing Lasts Forever.
Die Hard 2 was based on a 1987 novel by Walter Wager called 58 Minutes.
And then the third movie in the series, Die Hard with a Vengeance, was based on an unrelated screenplay called Simon Says. The screenwriter originally wrote that script on spec envisioning it as a Brandon Lee movie (before Lee’s death). Much like the books before it, it was molded into a Die Hard movie.
1990 - Jetsons: The Movie hit theaters.
1991 - Marc Cohn's only hit, Walking in Memphis, peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1994 - Forrest Gump hit theaters.
1995 - Alanis Morissette’s single You Oughta Know was released.
July 7th
1981 - Sandra Day O'Connor was the first woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1984 - Prince’s single When Doves Cry hit number one.
1989 - Lethal Weapon 2 hit theaters.
1990 - Dream On premiered on HBO.
1994 - The mp3 format, then called I3enc, was released.
1994 - Real McCoy’s single Run Away was released.
1998 - Lauryn Hill's single Doo Wop (That Thing) was released.
Doo Wop (That Thing) was the first number one hit written, produced, and recorded by a female artist since Debbie Gibson.
Debbie Gibson had a number one hit in March 1989 with Lost in Your Eyes, which she wrote, produced, and recorded.
Lauryn Hill was the next woman to achieve that distinction nearly a decade later.
Doo Wop (That Thing) was also the first song by a female rapper to hit number one.
2000 - Scary Movie was released.
July 8th
1989 - Fine Young Cannibal’s single Good Thing hit number one.
1990 - West Germany won the World Cup.
1992 - Melrose Place premiered on FOX.
1995 - Better Than Ezra's Good peaked at number 30.
1995 - The first CFL game was played between two U.S. teams, featuring the Baltimore Stallions defeating the San Antonio Texans 50-24.
1995 - TLC’s Waterfalls hit number one.
The music video for Waterfalls was filmed in the same backlot lake as Jaws.
TLC shot their video for Waterfalls in a lake in the Universal Studios backlot. It’s the same lake that was used for Jaws two decades earlier.
1996 - Wannabe by the Spice Girls was released in the U.K.
1999 - Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban, the final Harry Potter book to get separate U.K. and international release dates, came out in the U.K.
2000 - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire was released worldwide.
2000 - Real World: New Orleans premiered on MTV.
July 9th
1981 - Donkey Kong was released at arcades in Japan.
1982 - TRON hit theaters.
1983 - Irene Cara’s single Flashdance... What a Feeling hit number one.
1992 - Bill Clinton announced Al Gore as his running mate.
1993 - Rookie of the Year and Weekend at Bernie's II hit theaters.
1993 - The series finale aired of A Different World.
1995 - The Grateful Dead played their final show with Jerry Garcia.
1996 - Prince’s album Chaos and Disorder was released.
1996 - LeAnn Rimes’s debut album, Blue, was released.
1997 - Married with Children aired its series finale.
Despite running 11 seasons, Married with Children did not receive an actual series finale.
The producers of Married with Children always expected they’d get a 12th and final season, one where they could’ve given the show a proper sendoff.
But FOX cancelled Married with Children at the last moment — after all the season 11 episodes were written and produced.
So rather than a real series finale, the last episode to air was called “Chicago Shoe Exchange” — just a regular episode of the show.
(The intended season finale, where Kelly Bundy almost gets married, aired earlier and out of order.)
1999 - American Pie hit theaters.
2001 - The Office (U.K.) premiered.
July 10th
1981 - Escape from New York hit theaters.
1985 - Coca-Cola relented on its New Coke experiment and announced Coke Classic would return.
Coke’s decision to drop New Coke and go back to the original formula generated so much free marketing it more than made up for their wasted research and development costs.
The free advertising Coke received for backpedaling to original Coke was worth an estimated three times more than Coke spent researching, developing, and advertising New Coke.
1985 - Prince’s single Poplife was released.
1987 - Revenge of the Nerds 2 premiered.
1989 - The Chicago Bulls hired Phil Jackson as head coach.
1989 - Legendary voice actor Mel Blanc passed away.
1990 - Andrew Dice Clay cried on the Arsenio Hall Show.
1993 - Duice’s one hit, Dazzey Duks, peaked at number 12 on the Billboard charts.
1993 - SWV’s single Weak hit number one.
1995 - Hugh Grant appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to address his prostitution scandal and shifted the power balance in the late night wars for good.
1996 - Real World: Miami premiered on MTV.
1996 - The Harriet the Spy movie hit theaters.
1998 - Lethal Weapon 4 hit theaters.
2000 - Coldplay’s debut album, Parachutes, was released.
July 11th
1987 - Bo Jackson became a two-sport professional athlete by signing with the L.A. Raiders.
1987 - Heart’s single Alone hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
1989 - Mega Man 2 for the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in North America.
1991 - “Blood Feud”, the season two finale of The Simpsons, aired.
1995 - Shaggy’s album Boombastic was released.
1997 - Timbaland and Magoo’s debut single, Up Jumps Da Boogie, was released.
1997 - Notorious B.I.G.’s single Mo Money, Mo Problems was released.
1997 - Contact hit theaters.
Contact is the only feature film based on Carl Sagan’s work — and sadly, he passed away during production.
Though Sagan’s work influenced a ton of documentaries and TV series, Contact was the only feature film based on his work. (It was the adaptation of his 1985 novel, Contact.)
Sagan passed away while the movie was in production. The film was subsequently dedicated to his memory.
2001 - South Park’s seminal Scott Tenorman episode premiered.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Cyndi Lauper says, at first, she didn’t want to record Girls Just Want to Have Fun because it was written from a male perspective.
The 2024 Bet Awards included O.J. Simpson in their “In Memoriam” segment… and the families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman aren’t happy about it.
Sammy Hagar says before he wrote I Can’t Drive 55 in 1984, he’d received 34 speeding tickets and was paying $135,000-a-year in car insurance. But things changed since he wrote the song.
Anthony Michael Hall says it was his choice not to be in the Brat Pack documentary.
Martin Mull passed away this week at age 80.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
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Here’s an interview with the screenwriter of Air Force One where he addresses, among many other things, the origins of “Get off my plane.”
Have a great week!
-Sam