12/29 - What Was the First Video Played on VH1?
Plus trivia on Mario Party, Dan Marino, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 29th, 2023 • Issue 184
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
December 29th
1982 - Jamaica issued a Bob Marley postage stamp.
1982 - Dolby released the first home surround sound system.
1989 - Wayne Gretzky and Martina Navratilova were named athletes of the decade by the Associated Press.
1990 - Do the Bartman, from The Simpsons Sing the Blues, peaked at number 24 on the Billboard charts.
1993 - Todd Bridges was arrested for transporting drugs.
1995 - Mr. Holland’s Opus hit theaters.
Mr. Holland’s Opus was marketed as a sequel to Dead Poets Society in Taiwan.
In fact Mr. Holland’s Opus was retitled Dead Poets Society 1996 for its Taiwan run.
(The movie is not, of course, a sequel.)
1995 - Dead Man Walking and 12 Monkeys hit theaters.
1998 - Lenny Kravitz’s single Fly Away was released.
1998 - Mankind won the WWF Championship at a taped Monday Night Raw which would famously air the following week.
1999 - The Hurricane hit theaters.
December 30th
1980 - NBC canceled The Wonderful World of Disney after 25 years.
Disney’s anthology series has tried the title The Wonderful World of Disney four separate times over its nearly 70 years.
Disney has produced an anthology TV series almost continuously since 1954 — but it’s seen many titles, many cancellations, and many network switches.
The title it uses most, though, is The Wonderful World of Disney. That was the title on NBC from 1969-1980… on CBS from 1991-1997… on ABC from 1997-2020… and (slightly altered as The Wonderful World of Disney: Presented by Disney+) again on ABC through the present.
1981 - Stevie Wonder’s single That Girl was released.
1990 - George Harrison and his wife were attacked during a robbery.
1990 - Scott Skiles set the NBA single-game assist record with 30.
1991 - Genesis’ single I Can’t Dance was released.
December 31st
1981 - The CNN Headline News network debuted.
1984 - Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an accident.
1985 - Singer Ricky Nelson died in a plane crash.
1990 - The Sci-Fi Channel debuted.
1992 - Mega Man 5 was released.
1993 - Howard Stern held his infamous New Year’s Rotten Eve Pageant.
1994 - Boyz II Men’s single On Bended Knee hit number one.
1997 - Microsoft purchased Hotmail email service.
Right before Hotmail was acquired, it accidentally wiped out 25% of its users’ entire inboxes.
Even though all those customers were angry, Hotmail apologized… people more or less accepted it… and the acquisition still went through.
1999 - The U.S. officially gave control of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1999 - Vladimir Putin took over as acting president of Russia.
1999 - Prince’s “Rave Un2 The Joy 2000” concert aired.
1999 - The Y2K panic loomed large as the turn of the century approached.
January 1st
1980 - The Far Side comic strip debuted, and would end exactly 15 years later to the day.
1983 - Evil Dead hit theaters.
1983 - The Apple Lisa was released.
1985 - VH1 debuted on cable TV.
The first music video that aired on VH1 was Marvin Gaye’s rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner.
The second video was Missing You by Diana Ross. And the third was You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling from Hall and Oates.
1985 - The domain name system was created and the first domain was registered.
1990 - Mr. Bean premiered.
1993 - Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman premiered.
1994 - Bill Gates and Melinda French were married.
1994 - NAFTA went into effect.
1995 - History Channel debuted.
1995 - Taxicab Confessions premiered.
1995 - The World Trade Organization began.
1996 - Betty Rubble appeared as a Flintstones vitamin for the first time in the brand’s 27 years.
1998 - California’s smoking ban in bars went into effect.
1999 - The Euro was introduced.
1999 - The Biography Channel and DIY Channel both debuted.
January 2nd
1979 - Sid Vicious’s trial began for the murder of Nancy Spungen.
1989 - Karyn White’s single Superwoman was released.
1998 - Chris Farley’s autopsy revealed his cause of death from opiates and cocaine.
January 3rd
1977 - Apple was incorporated.
1979 - The USA cable network was founded.
1985 - Come on, man, we need term limits so bad; Mitch McConnell was sworn in as a senator from Kentucky for the first time.
1987 - Aretha Franklin became the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1987 - Unsolved Mysteries premiered on NBC.
1989 - The Arsenio Hall Show premiered.
1991 - Blossom premiered on NBC.
The inspiration for Blossom was the famous 1960s singer Dion.
Don Reo, the TV writer who created Blossom, got the idea when he was at Dion [DiMucci]’s 50th birthday party. He saw that Dion, despite being famous, acted like a normal parent with his daughters. That gave him the idea for a family sitcom about a “cool dad” and his kids.
1993 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered.
1993 - The Buffalo Bills pulled off the greatest comeback in NFL history, coming back from 32 points down to defeat the Houston Oilers in a wild card playoff game.
1996 - The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone, was released.
1998 - The series finale aired of Animaniacs.
2000 - The final daily edition of the Peanuts comic strip ran.
January 4th
1981 - The musical Frankenstein premiered on Broadway and closed on the same night.
1983 - The USFL held its first draft.
The #1 draft pick in the first USFL draft was Dan Marino.
The Los Angeles Express used the first pick in the first-ever draft to select Dan Marino.
Marino even went to a press conference with the Express after and said he was considering both the NFL and USFL… but, of course, ultimately chose the NFL and never played for the Express.
1983 - The Eurythmics released their album Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).
1984 - Night Court premiered on NBC.
1988 - Nick Jr. began on Nickelodeon.
1995 - Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1996 - The marble rye episode of Seinfeld aired.
1999 - Jesse “The Body” Ventura was sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
1999 - WCW’s infamous “butts in seats” night featured the Fingerpoke of Doom.
1999 - Tennessee defeated Florida State in the first BCS Championship game.
2000 - Mark Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Next summer’s movie Twisters is “definitely not a reboot” of 1996’s Twister according to its star, Glen Powell. He says “it’s a completely original story.”
In an interview with Business Insider, Home Alone 2 director Chris Columbus said Donald Trump “bull[ied] his way into the movie” in exchange for letting them film inside his Plaza Hotel. And Trump, who can’t let anything go, devoted one of his 17,000 social media rants of the week to claiming the movie was lucky to have him.
Also, the New York City townhouse from Home Alone 2 (where Kevin turns Daniel Stern into a skeleton) is on sale. It’s listed for $6.7 million.
Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You has been number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, extending Mariah Carey’s record of most weeks total in a career at number one to 93.
There may be a reboot of 1998’s Jack Frost, though it’s just in the “interest in doing this” stage right now.
Laura Lynch, one of the founding members of the Dixie Chicks, died in a car accident this week at age 65.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s a quick look back at Mario Party, which debuted 25 years ago this month and “perfected the party game formula.”
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here’s a list of 10 actors who turned down the chance to return for TV reboots.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Here’s an oral history of Conan O’Brien’s “wild first year” on NBC’s Late Night. No one was watching and he was up to some crazy stuff.
Have a great week!
-Sam