1/10 - What '90s Song Had Different Videos for MTV & VH1?
Plus trivia on David Letterman, White Town, Bio-Dome, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
January 10th, 2025 • Issue 238
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
January 10th
1983 - Fraggle Rock premiered on HBO.
1990 - Time Warner was formed.
1991 - Gloria Estefan’s single Coming Out of the Dark was released.
1992 - The Hand That Rocks the Cradle his theaters.
1995 - The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder premiered.
David Letterman picked Tom Snyder as Late Late Show host roughly 13 years after NBC replaced Snyder with Letterman.
Tom Snyder hosted a late night show called Tomorrow from 1973 through 1981; it was on after The Tonight Snow Starring Johnny Carson on NBC.
When NBC canceled Tomorrow in 1981, they replaced the show (and Snyder) with Late Night with David Letterman.
So when Letterman and his production company were in charge of CBS’s new post-Late Show programming in 1995, Letterman chose Tom Snyder to host.
1999 - The Sopranos premiered on HBO.
January 11th
1980 - The Pretenders’ self-titled debut album was released.
Though The Pretenders are considered a British rock band, their lead singer is from Akron, Ohio.
Chrissie Hynde was born in Akron, Ohio, but moved to London in 1973 to write for the weekly music publication NME.
The rest of the original Pretenders lineup were all British born.
1987 - John Elway orchestrated “The Drive” in the NFL playoffs against a team I can’t recall right now.
1995 - The WB Network premiered.
January 12th
1980 - Sugarhill Gang’s one hit, Rapper’s Delight, peaked at number 36 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1981 - Dynasty premiered.
1991 - The Chicago Superfans debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1995 - The O.J. trial began.
1996 - Dunston Checks In hit theaters.
1996 - Bio-Dome hit theaters.
Bio-Dome has the lowest Metacritic score in history.
Pauly Shore has never been a critical darling, but he bottomed out with Bio-Dome.
The movie has a Metacritic score of 1 out of 100 — the lowest score ever.
But believe it or not, two of the scientists who were in the Biosphere later watched the movie and actually liked it.
1996 - Don’t Be a Menace [etc.] hit theaters.
1998 - The Price Is Right featured the game SuperBall for the final time.
1999 - Britney Spears’ debut album Baby One More Time was released.
2000 - Next Friday hit theaters.
2001 - Save the Last Dance hit theaters.
2001 - The National Geographic Channel premiered.
January 13th
1979 - The YMCA sued the Village People over their song, YMCA.
1992 - Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer pleaded guilty by insanity.
1994 - Tonya Harding’s goons were arrested for clubbing Nancy Kerrigan.
1995 - Higher Learning hit theaters.
1997 - White Town’s single Your Woman was released.
White Town is not a group but rather a single guy.
Much like Five For Fighting and Owl City, White Town is a solo artist with a stage name that makes him sound like he’s a group.
White Town is Jyoti Mishra, a music producer in India.
And yes, despite being a one-man group, his one and only hit single is entirely from the female perspective.
1999 - Michael Jordan retired for his second (of three) times.
2000 - Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft.
2001 - ECW held its final show ever.
2002 - President W. Bush fainted after choking on a pretzel.
January 14th
1989 - Paul McCartney’s album Back in the USSR was released exclusively in Russia.
1990 - “Bart the Genius” kicked off the official run of The Simpsons on FOX.
1991 - Cathy Dennis’s single Touch Me (All Night Long) was released.
1992 - Vanessa Williams’s single Save the Best for Last was released.
There were two different music videos for Save the Best for Last to appeal to MTV and VH1’s different audiences.
Save the Best for Last got two music videos.
The MTV video was Vanessa Williams singing in various locations: Walking in front of a (poorly green screened) snowy village, in black-and-white footage against a background, projected on a blue screen in front of an orchestra, and in living room with a fireplace.
That was the version for young people, apparently.
To make sure the video would equally appeal to VH1’s older audience, there was a second video.
This one just focused on Vanessa Williams being projected on a blue screen while the orchestra played. To fill it out, they even use some behind-the-scenes footage of the orchestra film shoot.
1993 - David Letterman announced he was leaving NBC for CBS.
1993 - “Marge vs. the Monorail” — often called one of the best Simpsons episodes ever — aired on FOX.
1994 - House Party 3 hit theaters.
January 15th
1981 - Hill Street Blues premiered on NBC.
Hill Street Blues was the first non-procedural police drama.
Hill Street Blues was the first police drama to break from the standard procedural “crime-of-the-week” style where every episode was essentially self-contained.
Instead, it used what was then, basically, a soaps-only format with serialized, multi-episode storylines.
Critics loved it. Audiences took a while to warm up.
1983 - Men at Work’s single Down Under hit number one.
1983 - President Reagan signed legislation to make Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday.
1987 - Moonstruck hit theaters.
1988 - Jimmy the Greek made infamous racist comments.
1989 - Big John Studd won the WWF’s second Royal Rumble.
1992 - Mega Man 4 was released.
1994 - Snoop Doggy Dogg’s single Gin and Juice was released.
1997 - Dennis Rodman kicked a cameraman.
1999 - Varsity Blues hit theaters.
2000 - Christina Aguilera’s single What a Girl Wants hit number one.
2001 - Wikipedia went live.
January 16th
1984 - Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested in Barbados for cannabis.
1985 - Playboy announced the end of stapling centerfolds.
1988 - George Harrison’s single Got My Mind Set on You hit number one.
1990 - Depeche Mode’s single Enjoy the Silence was released.
1991 - Operation: Desert Storm began.
1995 - Hercules and Star Trek: Voyager both premiered.
1995 - The UPN Network premiered.
UPN was the result of almost 50 years of effort by Paramount to get its own TV network.
Paramount Pictures had been trying to get its own network since 1948, when it was a partner in the DuMont TV network.
In the late ‘70s, they got close with plans for Paramount Television Service — which would mostly run movies — but they failed to secure advertising so they scrapped it.
Then, finally, in the mid ‘90s, as independent TV networks were struggling and needed a larger affiliation, Paramount got on the air with UPN.
Which stands for United Paramount Network.
1998 - Half Baked hit theaters.
1999 - Brandy’s single Have You Ever hit number one.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Steve Guttenberg gave an interview to local news while he was helping with the Pacific Palisades evacuation and the reporter didn’t recognize him.
David Schwimmer says the thing people most frequently yell at him in the streets is “PIVOT.”
For the 45th anniversary of The Shining in October — yes, things 45 years old are now in The Retro’s timeframe — there will be a screening at the hotel in Oregon where the movie was shot. Tickets are $75.
Julianne Moore says she was secretly pregnant while filming the bowling dream sequence in The Big Lebowski.
Ariana Grande says The Waterboy makes her cry. “I love Bobby Boucher.”
Nintendo and LEGO are releasing a Game Boy set in October.
Zachery Ty Bryan of Home Improvement was arrested last week for domestic violence.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
Sure, we all know Duck Hunt. But how about another game that used the NES Zapper called Chiller — where you get points by how successfully you torture prisoners and various creatures.
Now that it’s been 25 years, here’s a look back at what really happened surrounding the Y2K bug.
It’s not just Hollywood rebooting everything from the ‘80s — now orcas have brought back the ‘80s fashion trend of wearing dead salmon as hats.
Have a great week!
-Sam