10/20 - Did the Title Reservoir Dogs Come From French Cinema?
Plus the best Disney animated soundtracks and lots more fresh '80s and '90s trivia
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
October 20th, 2023 • Issue 174
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
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.
1994 - The website WhiteHouse.gov launched.
A porn website called WhiteHouse.com captured many confused early internet users.
Less than three years after the launch of WhiteHouse.gov, a web designer named Dan Parisi bought the domain name WhiteHouse.com. Since early internet users weren’t as familiar with search engines or .gov extensions, lots of people directly typed in WhiteHouse.com while trying to find the official White House website.
Parisi started off in May 1997 by making his website a news parody site. But when that wasn’t profitable… in September 1997 he turned WhiteHouse.com into a porn site.
By 2003, he was making $1 million per year from the site.
The site passed around different owners after that (and has gone back and forth on porn several times).
Today, it’s in a more lucrative online niche than porn: Gambling. You can bet on elections now on the site.
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.
1992 - Wario made his first appearance, as part of Super Mario Land 2.
1992 - Madonna’s book Sex went on sale.
Madonna’s Sex is the most sought-after out-of-print book ever.
According to BookFinder, Sex has been the most sought after out-of-print title for several years.
There are also several websites that claim, at 1.5 million copies sold, Sex is the world’s best- and fastest-selling coffee table book ever.
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.
1991 - Shanice’s single I Love Your Smile was released.
Shanice was part of the original cast of Kids Incorporated.
Shanice was a dancer in the first 13 episodes of the series when it debuted in syndication in 1984. The first season also starred Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Marta “Martika” Marrero, and Mario Lopez.
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.
Quentin Tarantino has never confirmed the explanation for naming the film Reservoir Dogs.
The only thing we know is it’s probably connected to French cinema.
Tarantino told investors that “reservoir dog” was a term for gangsters from some classic French films. That wasn’t actually true, he just wanted to give them some explanation and he knew they wouldn’t have the knowledge of French cinema to argue.
There’s also a rumor that Tarantino was talking about the 1987 movie Au Revoir Les Enfants and someone mispronounced or misheard it as “reservoir dogs.”
Whatever the reason, he’s never confirmed or explained the title in any interviews.
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.
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.
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.
The music video for Bullet with Butterfly Wings was Billy Corgan’s last time ever appearing on film with hair.
Bullet with Butterfly Wings was the first single off the Smashing Pumpkins’ album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and marked two aesthetic milestones in Billy Corgan’s career.
The music video introduced the band’s more “glam rock” look — most famously Corgan’s black shirt with the word “ZERO” written in silver.
It was also the last time Corgan appeared on film with hair; he’d shave his head afterwards. In their next video, for 1979, he was bald.
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.
October 25th
1978 - Halloween hit theaters.
1980 - Barbra Streisand’s single Woman in Love hit number one and her album Guilty hit number one.
1982 - Newhart premiered on CBS.
1986 - Cyndi Lauper’s single True Colors hit number one.
True Colors was released as True Colours in the U.K.
Yes, Cyndi Lauper’s record label regionalized the title of the song for the British audience. The song reached number 12 on their charts.
1987 - The Minnesota Twins won their first World Series, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.
1988 - An ABC News report aired on the popularity of pygmy pigs as pets.
1990 - The first Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror” episode aired.
1990 - Evander Holyfield knocked out Buster Douglas to win boxing’s heavyweight championship.
1991 - House Party 2 and Curly Sue, two real cinematic classics, hit theaters.
1993 - The Jon Stewart Show premiered on MTV. It would last 24 episodes.
1993 - The Rocky Horror Picture Show aired on TV for the first time, on FOX.
1994 - Madonna’s album Bedtime Stories was released.
1996 - High School High hit theaters.
1996 - The Crocodile Hunter premiered.
1997 - The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ one hit, The Impression I Get, peaked at number 23 on the Billboard chart.
2001 - Windows XP was released.
2002 - Jackass the Movie hit theaters.
October 26th
1981 - The L.A. Dodgers won the World Series over the New York Yankees.
1984 - The Terminator hit theaters and Michael Jordan played in his first NBA game.
1985 - Whitney Houston’s single Saving All My Love for You hit number one.
1990 - D.C. mayor Marion Barry was sentenced to six months in prison for crack.
1993 - The NFL announced the Carolina Panthers expansion team.
The Carolina Panthers owners chose the name “Panthers” even though there weren’t any panthers in or near the Carolinas.
The closest panther population to the Carolinas is a small one in south Florida (which was the inspiration for the NHL’s Florida Panthers). Most of the other panthers in the U.S. are in the western part of the country.
But the Richardson family chose “panthers” for their new team because: “It’s a name our family thought signifies what we thought a team should be. Powerful, sleek, and strong.”
1996 - The New York Yankees defeated the Atlanta Braves to win the World Series.
1997 - The Florida Marlins bought their first World Series.
1998 - A U.S. federal judge refused to issue an injunction banning the sale of mp3 players.
1999 - The CDC released a study declaring an obesity crisis in the U.S..
2000 - The New York Yankees won the World Series over the New York Mets in a Subway Series.
2000 - The PlayStation 2 was released.
2001 - The U.S. passed the PATRIOT Act.
2001 - Donnie Darko and the Lance Bass movie On the Line both hit theaters.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
A new Disney animated short called Once Upon a Studio premiered on ABC last Sunday. The big headline: They used audio from Robin Williams’s Aladdin outtakes to have the Genie speak new dialogue.
Disney+ is creating a live-action Gargoyles reboot.
There’s a new reality show based on Top Gun coming to Nat Geo. Top Gun: The Next Generation will follow U.S. Navy pilots in training.
Analogue, a company that makes stunning and functional (and expensive) versions of old video game consoles, just announced they’re releasing a reboot of the Nintendo 64.
Last week, Jerry Seinfeld teased that something is going to happen that has to do with [the Seinfeld] ending.” Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the first cast member to comment on it, and said… “I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about.”
Even though the Frasier reboot is set in Boston, Frasier never goes to the bar from Cheers. (If you’re unfamiliar, Frasier was a Cheers spinoff.) The show’s creators are selling it as a mystery of why he’s not going there. And not because no one from Kelsey Grammer’s past wants to work with him anymore.
The director of Hocus Pocus did not dispel a longtime rumor that Vinessa Shaw’s Allison character is a witch.
Suzanne Somers passed away on Sunday at age 76 from breast cancer.
Burt Young, who played Paulie in the Rocky movies, passed away this week at age 83.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s a ranking of the 15 best Disney animated movie soundtracks. The ‘90s movies rank even higher than expected.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Snickers has rebooted its 1996 commercial where a groundskeeper painting the endzone for the Kansas City Chiefs accidentally writes “CHEFS” instead. Here’s the original commercial, and here’s the new version starring Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
When Atari stopped making its Jaguar video game system in 1996 and temporarily went out of business, they abandoned the Jaguar molds. A dental equipment company purchased the molds and used them to make a dental imaging system. And one of those was just spotted in the wild (at a convention) for the first time.
Have a great week!
-Sam