12/13 - Which 1 Character Wasn't the Killer in Any Clue Movie Ending?
Plus trivia on Shania Twain and Brad Pitt, Bo Jackson, Chuck Norris's Sidekicks, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 13th, 2024 • Issue 234
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
December 13th
1985 - Clue hit theaters.
Only one of the six main Clue characters is not revealed as a killer in the movie Clue’s multiple endings.
The movie Clue famously had three different endings which showed in different theaters.
The first ending had Miss Scarlet as the killer. The second ending had Mrs. Peacock. And the third had Professor Plum, Mrs. White, and Colonel Mustard.
That means of the six “core” characters from the board game, only Mr. Green was not revealed as a killer in the movie. In fact, in that more convoluted third ending, he’s revealed as an undercover FBI agent.
1985 - A Chorus Line and Jewel of the Nile hit theaters.
1986 - Bruce Hornsby & the Range’s single The Way It Is hit number one.
1989 - Tecmo Super Bowl was released.
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy hit theaters.
1990 - C+C Music Factory’s single Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) was released.
1996 - Jerry Maguire and Mars Attacks hit theaters.
1997 - Charles Woodson became the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy.
1997 - Norm MacDonald anchored SNL’s “Weekend Update” for the final time.
2000 - Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush after the Supreme Court stopped the Florida recount.
December 14th
1979 - The Jerk hit theaters.
1984 - Dune hit theaters.
David Lynch turned down Star Wars to make Dune.
At the time when he was hired to direct Dune — which had been in development hell for a decade and had already churned many directors — David Lynch was in high demand.
In fact, he turned down George Lucas’s offer to direct Return of the Jedi in order to make Dune.
And since Dune was ultimately a famous box office flop which Lynch has even disavowed… maybe it was the wrong choice.
1984 - Starman, A Passage to India, and 1984 hit theaters.
1988 - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels hit theaters.
1988 - I’m Gonna Git You Sucka hit theaters.
1989 - Glory hit theaters.
1990 - Mermaids hit theaters.
1990 - Look Who’s Talking Too hit theaters.
1999 - Charles Schulz announced his retirement from drawing the Peanut comic strip.
2000 - Miss Congeniality hit theaters.
2001 - Vanilla Sky, Not Another Teen Movie, and The Royal Tenenbaums hit theaters.
December 15th
1984 - Eddie Murphy’s sketch “White Like Me” aired on SNL.
1989 - The Wizard hit theaters.
1990 - 2 in a Room’s one hit Wiggle It peaked at number #15.
1992 - Dr. Dre’s album The Chronic was released.
1994 - Netscape 1.0 launched.
1995 - Jumanji and Heat both hit theaters.
1997 - Bret Hart made his debut on WCW Monday Nitro.
1998 - Shania Twain’s single That Don’t Impress Me Much was released.
Brad Pitt has played a film role corresponding to everything that does not impress Shania Twain in That Don’t Impress Me Much.
In the lyrics to That Don’t Impress Me Much, Shania Twain says the following things don’t impress her much: Being a rocket scientist… being Brad Pitt… having a car… and thinking you’re Elvis.
Brad Pitt is, obviously, Brad Pitt. But in the 26 years since the song came out, he’s also played roles that fulfill those other not-impressive things.
He was a rocket scientist in Ad Astra.
He plays a Formula One driver in the upcoming movie F1.
And he plays an Elvis-inspired character as a voice in Megamind.
2000 - Dude Where’s My Car, What Women Want, and The Emperor’s New Groove all hit theaters.
2001 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after 11 years of renovations — not including a de-leaning.
December 16th
1983 - The Who broke up for the first time.
1988 - Rain Man hit theaters.
1993 - Nirvana’s famous Unplugged performance aired on MTV.
Nirvana’s only Grammy win came from their Unplugged performance.
The album featuring Nirvana’s famous (mostly) acoustic performance, MTV Unplugged in New York, led to the band’s only Grammy win.
The album won for Best Alternative Music Performance in 1996.
Nirvana had lost all six of their prior nominations.
1994 - Dumb and Dumber hit theaters.
1995 - The series finale of Ren & Stimpy aired on Nickelodeon.
1996 - The Spice Girls’ single 2 Become 1 was released.
December 17th
1982 - Tootsie and The Dark Crystal both hit theaters.
1987 - Final Fantasy was released in Japan.
1989 - The Simpsons premiered on FOX.
1991 - MC Hammer’s Addams Groove was released.
1992 - The Chuck Norris-Jonathan Brandis movie Sidekicks hit theaters.
Sidekicks was financed by a locally famous Houston-area furniture store owner who was friends with Chuck Norris.
Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale is a Houston-area celebrity, known for his TV commercials for his furniture store.
He also had a friendship with Chuck Norris, and agreed to put up $16 million for Norris’s pet project, Sidekicks — a movie that is basically The Karate Kid but with Chuck Norris dream sequences.
Sidekicks’ box office was $17.1 million, so the project was probably something of a loss for McIngvale.
1993 - The Pelican Brief, Beethoven’s 2nd, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape hit theaters.
1994 - Ini Kamoze’s only hit, Here Comes the Hotstepper, hit number one.
1995 - Cleveland Browns fans destroyed the stadium after the team’s final home game before relocating to Baltimore.
1996 - Dru Hill’s single In My Bed was released.
1997 - The term “weblog” was first used.
1999 - Stuart Little hit theaters.
December 18th
1966 - How the Grinch Stole Christmas premiered on CBS.
1987 - Eddie Murphy Raw hit theaters.
1995 - Women’s wrestler Madusa appeared on WCW Monday Nitro and famously threw the WWF Women’s Championship belt in a garbage can.
1997 - HTML 4.0 was published by W3C.
1998 - The Prince of Egypt hit theaters.
1998 - You’ve Got Mail hit theaters.
1999 - After two years of living in a tree to protect it, environmental activist Julia Hill returned to the ground.
The Redwood tree that Julia Hill lived in for two years is still standing today.
Julia Butterfly Hill, at age 23, lived 180 feet up on a California redwood tree named “Luna” from December 1997 to December 1999. She came down after she and her organization reached an agreement with the logging company that planned to chop it down.
Luna is still standing today.
2002 - Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers hit theaters.
December 19th
1980 - 9 to 5 hit theaters.
1980 - Raging Bull hit theaters.
1986 - Platoon hit theaters.
1986 - Little Shop of Horrors hit theaters.
1990 - Bo Jackson made the NFL Pro Bowl to become the first person to be selected for an all-star game in two pro sports.
Bo Jackson remains the only person ever to make an all-star game in two pro sports.
While Deion Sanders is an NFL Hall of Famer, he never reached an all-star level in baseball.
1996 - The Oakland, Calif., school board passed a resolution declaring Ebonics a language.
1997 - Tomorrow Never Dies hit theaters.
1997 - Titanic crashed into theaters.
1998 - President Clinton was charged with lying under oath to a federal grand jury.
1999 - Bret “Hitman” Hart’s wrestling career was ended by a kick to the head from Goldberg at WCW Starrcade.
2001 - Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
As is the new annual tradition, Mariah Carey’s 1994 song All I Want for Christmas Is You has returned to the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100. This is it’s 15th week on top — all of which has come in two-to-four week chunks since 2019.
Filming is done on Happy Gilmore 2, and Adam Sandler says the movie could be out on Netflix as early as July.
Jennifer Love Hewitt says she’s close to a deal to be part of the I Know What You Did Last Summer revival.
The Voltron live-action movie has started filming, with Henry Cavill as the star.
Several unreleased Michael Jackson tapes, recorded between 1989 and 1991, were found at a storage unit in the Valley.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
Here’s the story of an ‘80s toy that was considered a threat to national security.
Listen to a short clip of every number one song of the 1990s in this video.
Check out this story about when Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life upended the Cannes Film Festival in 1983.
Have a great week!
-Sam