11/3 - The 1st Movie to Make $100m Before Coming to the U.S. Was...
11/3 - The 1st Movie to Make $100m Before Coming to the U.S. Was...
Plus trivia on a Simpsons grudge, Meat Loaf, Billy Ocean, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
November 3rd, 2023 • Issue 176
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
November 3rd
1983 - The Nashville Network debuted on cable TV.
1988 - Billy Ocean’s single Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) hit number one.
Billy Ocean released different versions of Caribbean Queen (No More Love on the Run) for different markets, including European Queen and African Queen.
Of all the local variations, Caribbean Queen version was the biggest success by far.
And Ocean, who was Trinidadian-British, had a theory why. “Europe conjures up a vision of rain and snow and cold, but Caribbean sounds like sunshine and blue skies.”
In fact, after Caribbean Queen took off in the U.S., that version made it over to the U.K. — where it was a bigger hit than European Queen. (As for African Queen, it only charted in South Africa, peaking at 7th on that country’s charts.)
1988 - Geraldo’s nose was broken during a fight on his show.
1989 - The Minnesota Timberwolves played their first game.
1990 - The NBA debuted on NBC.
1990 - EMF’s single Unbelievable was released.
1990 - The legendary Saved by the Bell episode where Jessie gets hooked on caffeine pills aired.
1992 - Whitney Houston’s single I Will Always Love You was released.
1992 - Paperboy’s single Ditty were released, as was Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled debut album.
1992 - Carol Moseley-Braun was the first Black female elected U.S. senator.
1992 - Bill Clinton was elected president.
1993 - The Nanny premiered.
1994 - Susan Smith of South Carolina was arrested for drowning her sons.
1995 - Mr. Show premiered.
1996 - The Hank Scorpio episode of The Simpsons aired.
1996 - Kobe Bryant made his NBA debut, then the youngest NBA player ever at 18 years, two months old.
1998 - Jesse Ventura was elected governor of Minnesota.
1998 - Juvenile’s album 400 Degreez and Alanis Morissette’s album Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie were released.
2000 - Charlie’s Angles and the Legend of Bagger Vance hit theaters.
November 4th
1979 - Jaws aired on TV for the first time, on ABC.
1980 - Sadaharu Oh retired from baseball with 868 home runs (all in Japan).
1981 - The Fall Guy premiered on ABC.
1987 - The NBA announced four new expansion teams coming in the next two years in Charlotte, Miami, Minneapolis, and Orlando.
1988 - They Live hit theaters.
1989 - The Orlando Magic played their first game.
1989 - Roxette’s single Listen to Your Heart hit number one.
1995 - Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated.
1996 - The Spice Girls’ debut album Spice was released.
1997 - Shania Twain’s album Come On Over was released.
Come on Over is the best-selling album by a solo female artist in history.
Shania Twain’s Come on Over has sold an estimated 40 million copies worldwide, 7 million more than second place (Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill).
Come on Over is also the best-selling country music album, the best-selling by a Canadian artist, and the best-selling of the 1990s.
1997 - Marcy Playground’s single Sex and Candy was released.
2001 - The Arizona Diamondbacks defeated the New York Yankees to win the World Series.
November 5th
1985 - Stone Pillow, a CBS TV movie starring Lucille Ball as a homeless woman, premiered.
1992 - Bobby Fischer defeated Boris Spassky in a revenge chess match.
1993 - Corona’s single Rhythm of the Night was released.
1994 - George Foreman won boxing’s heavyweight title at age 45.
1995 - The “King Size Homer” episode of The Simpsons aired.
The Simpsons writers had a vendetta against Faye Dunaway and took their first shot in “King Size Homer”.
Apparently Faye Dunaway once turned down a guest spot on The Simpsons — and must’ve done it rudely. Because the writers held a grudge.
So in “King Size Homer”, Homer tries to go to a (fictional, déclassé) movie called Honk If You’re Horny starring Pauly Shore and Faye Dunaway.
The writers have taken two more shots at Faye Dunaway since. (One about plastic surgery, once with a headline on an issue of The Springfield Shopper.)
1995 - The Wizard of Oz in Concert event took place.
1996 - Bill Clinton was re-elected president of the United States.
1996 - Derek Jeter was unanimously voted AL Rookie of the Year.
1998 - ODB was arrested for threatening to kill his ex.
1998 - Liam Gallagher of Oasis was arrested for attacking a photographer.
1999 - Dennis Rodman and Carmen Electra were arrested after a fight in a hotel.
November 6th
1982 - Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’s Up Where We Belong hit number one.
1984 - Ronald Reagan was re-elected in a landslide.
1986 - Freddie Jackson’s album Just Like the First Time was released.
1990 - Whitney Houston’s album I’m Your Baby Tonight was released.
1993 - Meat Loaf’s single I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) hit number one.
The female singer on I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That) was only credited as “Mrs. Loud” in the album notes.
“Mrs. Loud” was actually a British singer named Lorraine Crosby.
But she didn’t appear in the music video, instead a model named Dana Patrick lip synced her lines. Then when Meat Loaf promoted and performed the song live, he was accompanied by a singer named Patti Russo.
And the Grammy that Meat Loaf won for the song was “Best Rock Vocal Performance - Solo.”
1993 - The Fan Man flew into the Evander Holyfield vs. Riddick Bowe boxing match.
1995 - The Cleveland Browns announced they were relocating.
1998 - The Waterboy hit theaters.
1999 - Pokemon: The First Movie hit theaters.
2001 - 24 premiered on FOX.
2001 - Britney Spears’s album Britney was released.
2002 - Winona Ryder was found guilty of shoplifting.
November 7th
1981 - Hall and Oates’s single Private Eyes hit number one.
1986 - Sid and Nancy hit theaters.
1987 - Tiffany’s single I Think We’re Alone Now hit number one.
1989 - Douglas Wilder was elected governor of Virginia, the first Black governor elected in the U.S., and David Dinkins was elected mayor of New York City, the first Black mayor of NYC.
1991 - Silk Stalkings premiered on USA.
1991 - The infamous “Lisa’s Pony” episode of The Simpsons aired.
1991 - Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive and retiring immediately from the NBA.
1991 - Paul Reubens pleaded no contest to indecent exposure charges.
1995 - The Tony Rich Project’s single Nobody Knows and Whitney Houston’s single Exhale (Shoop Shoop) were released.
1995 - Queen released their first album after Freddie Mercury’s death.
1995 - Howard Stern’s book Miss America was released.
1995 - Madonna’s album Something to Remember was released.
1997 - The Mr. Bean film called Bean hit theaters.
Bean was the first movie ever to gross $100 million before opening in the U.S.
Bean opened in Australia in July 1997, then in the U.K. and other European countries in August 1997.
It made more than $100 million before opening in the U.S. in November — and it wouldn’t duplicate that achievement here either, reaching just $45 million.
1997 - Starship Troopers hit theaters.
1999 - Destiny’s Child’s single Say My Name was released.
2000 - Dot com-era sensation Pets.com shut down.
2000 - The U.S. presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was too close to call and Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S. Senate in New York.
2003 - Elf hit theaters.
November 8th
1986 - Boston’s single Amanda hit number one.
1988 - George H.W. Bush was elected president of the United States.
1990 - The “Dancin’ Homer” episode of The Simpsons aired.
1996 - Ransom hit theaters.
Mel Gibson’s Ransom was a remake of 1956’s Ransom! — in which Leslie Nielsen had his first-ever movie role.
1956’s Ransom! starred Glenn Ford and Donna Reed. Nielsen played a newspaper reporter.
1999 - The world’s first “internet murder” occurred when a woman in Michigan convinced her online boyfriend to kill her husband.
1999 - Andrea Bocelli’s Sacred Arias album was released, and would become the top-selling solo classical album ever.
2000 - Al Gore prematurely conceded the U.S. presidential election, giving the presidency to George W. Bush.
2001 - The Tick premiered on FOX.
2002 - 8 Mile hit theaters.
November 9th
1982 - Sugar Ray Leonard retired from boxing for the first time.
1984 - Larry Bird and Dr. J got into a mid-game fight.
1985 - Jan Hammer’s Miami Vice theme hit number one.
1988 - Child’s Play hit theaters.
1989 - The Berlin Wall came down.
1990 - Dances with Wolves hit theaters.
The stampede of 3,500 buffalo in Dances with Wolves was real — and the crew got one shot at filming it each day.
In order to get the shot, 20 wranglers, a helicopter, and 10 pickup trucks would start herding the buffalo at 5:00 A.M. to get them in position by 11:00 A.M.
Then the crew would film the stampede. The buffalo ran for miles without stopping, so there was no chance at a second take.
It took eight days, with one shot each day, to film the sequence.
1990 - Child’s Play 2 hit theaters.
1990 - Madonna’s album The Immaculate Collection was released.
1991 - Prince’s single Cream hit number one.
1993 - Queen Latifah’s single UNITY was released.
1993 - R. Kelly’s album 12 Play was released.
1996 - Evander Holyfield defeated Mike Tyson.
1996 - Blackstreet’s single No Diggity hit number one.
1996 - The Montreal Screwjob occurred at WWF Survivor Series, changing pro wrestling forever.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Matthew Perry of Friends died tragically at age 54 this week in an apparent drowning in his hot tub. The cause is still under investigation.
Here’s the full trailer for Good Burger 2, which comes to Paramount+ on the 22nd. I once wrote about how Good Burger was accidentally the first anti-GMO movie; could Good Burger 2 turn out to be prescient about AI?
And here’s a trailer for a movie reboot of the ‘80s TV series The Fall Guy. The movie stars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt and will be in theaters in March.
Amazon MGM Studios is developing a TV reboot of 1982’s Poltergeist.
Alan Ruck of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had a notable car crash this week, though this time it wasn’t his dad’s classic Ferrari but rather his own electric pickup truck into a pizza restaurant. Fortunately no one was hurt and no charges are coming.
Darryl “DMC” McDaniels says he spiraled into a deep depression as Run-DMC started losing its way and he “was drinking a case of Olde English a day.”
Duane Davis, the man charged with killing Tupac in September of 1996, pleaded not guilty yesterday.
Mariah Carey has been sued once again for copyright infringement over All I Want for Christmas Is You.
Richard Moll, who played Bull on Night Court, passed away last Thursday at age 80.
Former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight passed away this week at age 83.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
For the 65th anniversary of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, the Billboard staff picked the 500 best pop songs that have charted since 1968. The list runs deep with ‘80s and ‘90s songs, including the number one song (I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)) and the number 500 song (Macarena (Bayside Boys Mix)).
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
“Hey you guys!” is now fully associated with Sloth from The Goonies… but if you forgot (or never knew), it was from the intro to PBS’s The Electric Company.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, no pro wrestling theme song was as iconic as Hulk Hogan’s Real American. (With all due respect to Demolition.) Incredibly, someone did a full oral history on the story behind Real American.
Have a great week!
-Sam