1/19 - What Ad Won the 1st Super Bowl Ad Meter?
Plus trivia on ThunderCats, FOX's glowing hockey puck, Bon Jovi, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
January 19th, 2024 • Issue 187
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
January 19th
1980 - Michael Jackson’s single Rock with You hit number one.
1983 - A minor league hockey player was traded for a bus.
1985 - Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas? peaked at number 13.
1988 - 48 Hours premiered on CBS.
48 Hours is one of only two first-run prime time shows currently airing on Saturday nights on broadcast TV.
48 Hours still airs on CBS on Saturday nights — a night that’s basically been left for dead due to low viewership.
The only other first-run show that airs on Saturday nights on a broadcast network is Sabadazo on Univision.
1989 - Ronald Reagan pardoned George Steinbrenner for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.
1990 - Tremors hit theaters.
1991 - “Deep Thoughts with Jack Handey” debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1991 - “Coffee Talk” debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1991 - Janet Jackson’s single Love Will Never Do (Without You) hit number one.
1992 - Ric Flair won the vacated WWF title at the Royal Rumble.
1993 - Snow’s album 12 Inches of Snow was released.
1993 - Fleetwood Mac reunited to play at Bill Clinton’s inauguration.
1993 - FOX expanded its prime-time lineup to seven days a week.
1996 - From Dusk Till Dawn hit theaters.
2000 - The WWF’s Times Square restaurant opened.
2000 - Michael Jordan joined the Washington Wizards as part owner.
2002 - The NFL’s Tuck Rule game helped kick off the New England Patriots’ decades of success.
January 20th
1981 - 52 American hostages were released in Iran 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.
1982 - Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat.
1985 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in the Super Bowl.
1989 - Ronald Reagan became the first president elected in a year ending with “0” to leave office alive since 1840.
1990 - Michael Bolton’s single How Am I Supposed to Live Without You hit number one.
1990 - Digital Underground’s single The Humpty Dance was released.
1990 - Roseanne Barr married Tom Arnold.
1991 - The Scorpions’ single Winds of Change was released.
1992 - The series finale aired of the G.I. Joe animated series.
1992 - The Heights’ single How Do You Talk to an Angel was released.
1993 - Aubrey Hepburn passed away.
1996 - FOX debuted the glowing hockey puck in its NHL coverage.
FOX’s glowing puck lasted less than two seasons — but not (as it’s believed) because of criticism from hockey fans.
FOX’s FoxTrax system was supposed to make it easier for casual fans to follow the puck — but it affected the game broadcasts too much for seasoned fans.
FOX stuck with it, and probably would’ve kept on sticking with it — but they lost their deal with the NHL.
The glowing puck’s final appearance was in Game 1 of the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals. FOX had the broadcast rights to games 1, 5, and 7; the series ended in four. FOX lost the NHL broadcast rights that summer, which brought the end of FoxTrax.
1996 - Deep Blue Something’s one hit, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, peaked at number five.
1998 - Dawson’s Creek premiered on the WB as the network expanded to Tuesday night programming.
1998 - Wyclef Jean’s single Gone till November was released.
2002 - Michael Jordan played in Chicago for the first time as a member of another team.
January 21st
1984 - Bon Jovi’s self-titled debut album as released.
Bon Jovi’s debut album features the song She Don’t Know Me — the only song in the band’s entire catalog that wasn’t written by one of the members.
The third track on Bon Jovi was She Don’t Know Me, which was written by Mark Avsec of Wild Cherry.
Every other song on this album and every other Bon Jovi album was either written or co-written by a member of the band.
1984 - Yes’ single Owner of a Lonely Heart hit number one.
1985 - President Reagan’s second inauguration was the coldest history; his first had been the warmest in history.
1989 - Phil Collins’s single Two Hearts hit number one.
1990 - John McEnroe was ejected from the Australian Open for throwing his racket.
1990 - MTV Unplugged premiered.
1994 - Lorena Bobbitt was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
2000 - Down to You and The Boondock Saints both hit theaters.
January 22nd
1984 - The L.A. Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins to win the Super Bowl.
1984 - Apple’s famous “1984” commercial aired during the Super Bowl.
1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer committed suicide on live TV.
1989 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl.
The USA Today Super Bowl Ad Meter debuted for Super Bowl XXIII.
The winning commercial was an American Express ad featuring Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey.
1994 - Bret Hart and Lex Luger both fell from the ring and were declared co-winners of the WWF Royal Rumble.
1994 - Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting’s single All for Love hit number one.
1994 - Culture Beat’s one hit, Mr. Vain, peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1998 - The Unabomber plead guilty.
2003 - Chappelle’s Show premiered on Comedy Central.
January 23rd
1983 - The A-Team premiered on NBC.
1984 - Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik to win his first WWF Championship.
1985 - ThunderCats premiered in syndication.
The ThunderCats all appear naked in the first episode of the series.
ThunderCats begins with the characters on a spaceship, watching the destruction of their home planet. And they’re all naked. (Though, of course, there’s no visible genitalia.)
They get their signature uniforms later in the episode to prepare them for the conditions on their destination of Third Earth.
1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first members.
1988 - Michael Jackson’s single The Way You Make Me Feel hit number one.
1989 - Salvador Dali passed away at age 84.
1996 - The Smashing Pumpkins single 1979 was released.
1996 - Moesha premiered on UPN.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language was released.
1998 - Spice World hit theaters.
1999 - Eagle Eye Cherry’s one hit, Save Tonight, peaked at number five.
January 24th
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl.
1984 - The first Apple Macintosh went on sale two days after its famous dystopian Super Bowl commercial.
1987 - Billy Vera and the Beaters’ single At This Moment hit number one.
1988 - The WWF held its first televised Royal Rumble, won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
The first Royal Rumble was part of a televised special on the USA Network, not on pay-per-view.
The WWF pulled out the Royal Rumble concept when the executives at USA weren’t happy with the card scheduled for the special.
The event — which also featured a contract signing for the WrestleMania III main event between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant — set a record for the highest-rated wrestling show on cable to that point.
Starting the following January, the Royal Rumble became its own pay-per-view event.
1989 - Serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida.
1991 - Boyz II Men’s debut single, Motownphilly, was released.
1995 - The O.J. Simpson trial began.
1996 - The FDA approved the fat substitute olestra in spite of the potential for “anal leakage”.
January 25th
1980 - Paul McCartney was released from jail in Japan after being held nine days on drug charges.
1981 - 52 American hostages arrived back in the U.S. after 444 days in Iran.
1981 - The Oakland Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl.
1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl.
1992 - Color Me Badd’s single All 4 Love hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
1994 - R. Kelly’s single Bump n’ Grind was released.
1995 - Adina Howard’s single Freak Like Me was released.
1998 - The Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.
1998 - David Beckham and Posh Spice got engaged.
1999 - The first-ever hand transplant in the U.S. was performed.
1999 - The Tom Green Show premiered on MTV.
1999 - The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
It took eight months to cut down the Blair Witch Project footage into a movie for Sundance.
The filmmakers shot 19 hours of footage for the movie in eight days… then spent eight months cutting it down to 90 minutes to show at Sundance.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Pauly Shore is going to play Richard Simmons in a new movie! And Richard Simmons isn’t happy about it.
It’s the 25th anniversary of The West Wing and two of its stars, Josh Malina and Mary McCormack, both hinted at a reboot.
Meanwhile, with the 25th anniversary of The Sopranos earlier this month, its creator, David Chace, called the anniversary a “funeral” for the golden age of television. He says now he’s being told to stop making smart TV shows and “dumb it down.”
Alex Winter, who plays Bill in the Bill & Ted movies, said they’re “tinkering with a fourth movie idea that all of us like, and the guys are going to write.”
Atari is releasing a mini version of the Atari 400, an 8-bit system with a keyboard.
Sharon Stone says she pitched a Barbie movie in the ‘90s but “was laughed out the studio … how far we’ve come.”
Here’s a list of the 10 most-searched movie sex scenes, which includes three major ‘90s movies… one of which is American Pie. Specifically, the scene involving a pie.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
An ode to the Choose Your Own Adventure books, which “taught a generation how to make bad decisions.”
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here’s a video of the 10 defining dance moves of the 1990s.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
It’s the 25th anniversary of a low-budget Canadian reboot of Total Recall, called Total Recall 2070. Here’s how it managed to pave the way for some modern dystopian TV shows.
Have a great week!
-Sam