12/15 - What's the #1 '80s Song with a Sax Solo?
Plus trivia on Rain Man, Shaq's rap career, The State, Robin Williams, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 15th, 2023 • Issue 182
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
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.
1993 - Schindler’s List premiered in theaters.
Robin Williams would call into the set of Schindler’s List to help lift the cast and crew’s spirits — often working through his Aladdin genie material in the process.
The mood was as dark and depressing as you’d expect on the Schindler’s List set. So director Steven Spielberg enlisted Robin Williams to call the set and entertain everyone with jokes.
Robin Williams was working on Aladdin at the time and some of his time on the Schindler’s List phone calls was him working through his Genie material.
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.
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.
When airlines show Rain Man, all of them (except one) edit out the scene where Dustin Hoffman reels off plane crash stats.
When airlines started showing Rain Man in 1989, they edited out the scene where Dustin Hoffman’s Ray rattles off plane crash stats.
But one airline left the scene in tact: Qantas. That’s because in the movie, Ray (accurately, both then and still) says Qantas has never had a crash.
1993 - Nirvana’s Unplugged performance aired on MTV.
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.
1993 - The State sketch comedy show premiered on MTV.
Every member of The State comedy troupe met at New York University in the late ‘80s.
The future cast of The State — including Michael Ian Black, Ken Marino, and the rest of the crew — were all part of NYU’s improv comedy troupe called The Sterile Yak.
They eventually split off to create their own troupe, which they called The State.
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.
1982 - Hall and Oates’s single Maneater hit number one.
Maneater was the most successful (from a Billboard charts perspective) ‘80s song with a saxophone solo.
Maneater featured a sax solo from Hall and Oates’s sax player, Charles “Mr. Casual” DeChant.
Maneater spent four weeks as the number one single in the U.S. No other ‘80s song featuring a sax solo had that long of a run at number one.
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.
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.
Mean Green Mother From Outer Space is one of only two Oscar-nominated songs performed by a villain.
Mean Green Mother From Outer Space is performed by the kilelr planet, Audrey II.
It was the first song nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song sung on film by the bad guy.
The other Oscar-nominated song performed by a villain is Blame Canada from South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. (Yes, all the kids’ parents are considered villains in that movie.)
It’s possible Peaches from The Super Mario Bros. Movie could become the third when nominations are announced in January.
Mean Green Mother From Outer Space is also the first Oscar-nominated song to include profanity.
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.
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.
December 20th
1985 - The Color Purple and Out of Africa hit theaters.
1987 - The Bangles’ single Walk Like an Egyptian hit number one.
Toni Basil (of Mickey fame) turned down Walk Like an Egyptian.
Toni Basil had a shot at Walk Like an Egyptian — which could’ve been her second hit, in retrospect — but she passed on it.
The Bangles needed one more song to fill out their album, so they took it.
1989 - The U.S. invaded Panama.
1989 - Born on the Fourth of July hit theaters.
1991 - Father of the Bride and JFK hit theaters.
1995 - LL Cool J’s single Doin’ It was released.
1996 - Beavis and Butt-Head Do America hit theaters.
1996 - Apple purchased Steve Jobs’s NeXT.
1996 - Scream hit theaters.
1999 - The Vermont Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples were entitled to the same benefits as opposite sex couples.
2003 - Joe Namath tried to kiss Suzy Kolber during a sideline interview.
December 21st
1985 - Lionel Richie’s single Say You, Say Me hit number one.
1985 - Heart’s self-titled album hit number one.
1988 - Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland.
1988 - Working Girl, Beaches, and Dangerous Liaisons hit theaters.
1989 - The U.S. sent troops to Panama.
1989 - Vice President Dan Quayle sent out his Christmas card containing a typo (“beakon of hope”).
1991 - Mr. Big’s single To Be With You was released.
1993 - Ace of Base’s single The Sign was released.
1993 - Shaquille O’Neal’s single (I Know I Got) Skillz was certified gold.
(I Know I Got) Skills made Shaquille O’Neal a two-hit wonder.
Shaq had his first hit as a featured guest on Fu-Schnickens’ What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock) in the summer of 1993. That song peaked at number 39, just cracking the top 40 which qualifies as a hit.
Then, in October, (I Know I Got) Skillz peaked at number 35.
Shaq never had another hit song after that four-month run in 1993.
1994 - Little Women, Richie Rich, and Mixed Nuts all hit theaters.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
There’s a new teaser trailer for Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F. It’s going direct to Netflix in summer 2024.
Mattel is making a live-action movie based off the American Girl dolls.
Ray Romano pretty definitively shot down the idea of an Everybody Loves Raymond reboot. “It’s out of the question” because Doris Roberts and Peter Boyle, who played his parents, have both passed away. Oh, and also, “[Reboots] are never as good. We want to leave with our legacy what it is.”
David Hyde Pierce says he turned down the Frasier reboot because he “[didn’t] want to be committed to a show” and “they don’t actually need me.”
Tony Danza is still up for the Who’s the Boss? revival which was announced in 2020. “I’m just waiting to hear like everybody else.”
A week after Sega announced reboots of five ‘80s and ‘90s games, they’ve filed trademarks on three more of their retro titles: Altered Beast, Eternal Champions, and Kid Chameleon.
The original animatronic E.T. head sold at auction for $635,000.
Andre Braugher passed away this week at age 61.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s a list of 20 cartoons from the ‘90s that should be rebooted. I’m glad they went with 20 because most of the list is are highly generic options (Doug, Captain Planet, Goof Troop, you know the drill) but they get into a handful of obscure gems stretching to 20.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Julia Stiles recited her famed poem from 10 Things I Hate About You at a book festival in New York last weekend. (Then the next day, she recreated her dance from Save the Last Dance in a surprise SNL cameo. So she’s going through a nostalgia thing right now.)
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Apparently one of the enduring mysteries of The X-Files is… a random, unknown country song that played in the background of a December 1998 episode. Now, almost 25 years to the day, a fan push got back to the show’s music supervisor… and he hunted down the songwriters and the original track.
Have a great week!
-Sam