1/12 - The Last #1 by Any Beatle Was What '80s Song?
Plus: The ill-advised follow-up game to Oregon Trail only lasted 4 months... here's why
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
January 12th, 2024 • Issue 186
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
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, Bio-Dome, and Don’t Be a Menace [etc.] all hit theaters and the theaters said “no mas.”
1997 - King of the Hill premiered on FOX.
Stephen Root, voice of Bill Dauterivie among others, was uncredited for the first three seasons of King of the Hill.
The reason: Root was on NBC’s NewsRadio at the time, and his contract stated he couldn’t be credited on another network’s show.
After NewsRadio was canceled in 1999, Root started getting credited on King of the Hill.
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.
The YMCA sued the Village People for copyright infringement and eventually settled out of court.
The YMCA’s official position now is that they “celebrate the song” and “it’s a positive statement about the 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.
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 - Bobby Brown’s single My Prerogative hit number one.
Bobby Brown met Whitney Houston because he was performing My Prerogative at an awards show.
They met at the 1989 Soul Train Music Awards, which Bobby Brown attended because he was performing My Prerogative.
He was also nominated for (and won) Best R&B/Urban Contemporary Album of the Year - Male. He and Whitney both lost in the best single categories.
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.
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.
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.
The original title for Moonstruck was The Bride and the Wolf.
Director Norman Jewison begged the screenwriter to change the title because “it sounds like a horror film.”
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.
Got My Mind Set on You was the last number one U.S. hit by any Beatle.
No former Beatle’s song (or “new” Beatles song) has hit number one in the 36 years since.
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.
1998 - Half Baked hit theaters.
1999 - Brandy’s single Have You Ever hit number one.
January 17th
1984 - The Supreme Court ruled it was legal to use your VCR to record TV shows.
1986 - Iron Eagle hit theaters.
1987 - Gregory Abbott’s single Shake You Down hit number one.
1988 - “The Fumble” cost the Cleveland Browns a trip to the Super Bowl.
1992 - A method to cheat to win ToppsGold baseball cards was revealed on Prodigy.
1994 - A 6.7-magnitude earthquake hit Northridge, California.
There has not been a deadlier earthquake in the U.S. since the 1994 Northridge quake.
Knocking on the biggest piece of wood I can find…
There were 57 people killed in the earthquake in 1994. No other earthquake since in the U.S. has been close to that deadly; in fact, no earthquake since has had more than two fatalities.
1997 - Beverly Hills Ninja hit theaters.
1998 - Savage Garden’s single Truly, Madly, Deeply hit number one.
1998 - Matt Drudge broke the Clinton-Lewinsky story.
1999 - Gary Anderson’s missed field goal cost the Minnesota Vikings a trip to the Super Bowl.
1999 - Shawn Mullins’s one hit, Lullaby, peaked at number seven.
January 18th
1986 - Dionne Warwick’s single That’s What Friends Are For hit number one.
1987 - Degrassi Junior High premiered.
1990 - Washington, D.C., mayor Marion Berry was arrested for smoking crack in a sting operation.
1991 - Eastern Airlines went out of business after 62 years.
1991 - Amy Grant’s single Baby, Baby was released.
1993 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day became official in all 50 states.
1995 - Yahoo.com was registered.
The previous name for Yahoo was “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.”
The founders, Jerry Yang and David Filo, created the website in January 1994 and decided on the name Yahoo in March 1994. (They also toyed with just “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web” first.)
They didn’t register the domain name until the following January.
1996 - The Major League Baseball owners approved interleague play.
1996 - Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson.
1998 - Ally McBeal beat Seinfeld to win the Golden Globe for Best TV Comedy.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
There’s a new movie in production about Miss Cleo. And Sanaa Lathan is going to star as the famed ‘90s psychic hotline pitchwoman.
Seth MacFarlane confirmed the long-delayed Naked Gun reboot he’s producing “is in development… it is still very much alive.”
Here’s a look at the logo for the Karate Kid reboot, via Sony’s CES presentation.
Selena Gomez is going to play Linda Ronstadt in a biopic that’s inexplicably not going to be called The Woman Who Didn’t Know [Too] Much.
The Orlando Magic will be retiring Shaquille O’Neal’s jersey next month. It’s the first number they’ll retire in the franchise’s 35-year history.
Tom Selleck never made an appearance on CBS/NBC’s Magnum P.I. reboot. The showrunner says it’s because “we never thought getting him was a real possibility.”
RoboCop and Total Recall director Paul Verhoeven shared his thoughts on why both films’ reboots flopped. (In brief: RoboCop was too tragic, Total Recall wasn’t mysterious enough.)
Cindy Morgan, who starred in Caddyshack and TRON, passed away last weekend at age 69.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here are the results of a survey on the ‘80s/‘90s snacks and drinks people miss the most. They’ll all be relived to hear Dunkaroos are back, I guess.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here’s an ode to 1985-1989’s The Twilight Zone reboot on CBS — which comes “closer to capturing the spirit and integrity of the original” than people remember.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
In 1992, the company behind The Oregon Trail released a new game called Freedom! — a journey along the Underground Railroad. It was pulled from the market in less than four months. Here’s its story.
Have a great week!
-Sam