12/6 - What Was the 1st Movie to Show a Cell Phone?
Plus trivia on Disclosure, Celebrity Jeopardy on SNL, Doom, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 6th, 2024 • Issue 233
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
December 6th
1964 - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer debuted on NBC.
1986 - Peter Cetera and Amy Grant’s single The Next Time I Fall hit number one.
1990 - The NHL approved two new franchises: Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators.
1991 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country hit theaters.
1994 - Aaliyah’s single Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number was released.
1994 - Warner Bros. announced The WB, the first new U.S. broadcast network in nearly a decade.
1995 - Michael Jackson was hospitalized after collapsing at a HBO special rehearsal.
1997 - As Good As It Gets hit theaters.
Betty White turned down a role in As Good As It Gets over the scene where Jack Nicholson puts the dog down a garbage chute.
Betty White was a major animal rights activist, so she turned down the role in the movie (playing Helen Hunt’s mother, the role that ultimately went to Shirley Knight).
She says she couldn’t be in a movie with a scene that involved putting a dog down a garbage chute. “It lands on some cushions and it’s fine, but I didn’t want to set that example because you never know what nuts or kids will see and think ‘I can do that.’”
1997 - Tonic’s only hit, If You Could Only See, peaked at number 11.
1998 - Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela, six years after staging a coup and 22 years before he would tamper with U.S. voting machines from beyond the grave.
2001 - Newfoundland was renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.
December 7th
1980 - John Lennon’s single (Just Like) Starting Over hit number one.
1984 - City Heat hit theaters.
1985 - Mr. Mister’s single Broken Wings hit number one.
1985 - Bo Jackson won the Heisman Trophy.
1987 - Remote Control premiered on MTV.
1990 - Ted Turner and Jane Fonda announced their engagement.
1990 - Edward Scissorhands hit theaters.
1994 - Howard Stern talked a caller out of committing suicide.
1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter.
1996 - “Celebrity Jeopardy” debuted on Saturday Night Live.
The very first “Celebrity Jeopardy” sketch on Saturday Night Live introduced its two most frequently-recurring impressions.
The first “Celebrity Jeopardy” featured Norm Macdonald as Burt Reynolds and Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery. (Plus host Martin Short as Jerry Lewis.)
Macdonald would do Burt Reyonlds in five of the 15 occurrences of the sketch. Hammond would do Sean Connery in 12 of the 15.
1996 - Toni Braxton’s Un-Break My Heart hit number one.
2001 - Ocean’s Eleven hit theaters.
December 8th
1978 - The Deer Hunter hit theaters.
1980 - John Lennon was shot and killed.
1980 - Bravo debuted on cable.
1982 - Sophie’s Choice hit theaters.
1984 - The series finale aired of Captain Kangaroo.
Captain Kangaroo still holds the record for the most episodes ever of a children’s TV show.
The show lasted 29 seasons and 6,090 episodes before it was canceled by CBS and went off the air to end 1984.
Though both Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and Sesame Street lasted more seasons (with the latter still going), neither is anywhere close to 6,090 episodes.
Sesame Street is still in the 4,700s, and Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ended at 912.
1984 - The series finale of He-Man aired.
1984 - Larry Flynt was found innocent of libel against Jerry Falwell.
1984 - Hall and Oates’s single Out of Touch hit number one.
1990 - Stevie B’s single Because I Love You (The Postman Song) hit number one.
1993 - NAFTA was signed into law in the U.S.
1994 - The 111th element on the Periodic Table was given the fantastic name Unununium with the symbol Uuu.
1995 - The Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up.
1997 - Celine Dion’s single My Heart Will Go On was released.
2000 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon hit theaters.
December 9th
1983 - Scarface hit theaters.
1983 - Sudden Impact and Christine hit theaters.
1984 - The Jacksons played their final show.
1987 - Windows 2.0 was released.
1988 - Twins, Mississippi Burning, and My Stepmother Is an Alien hit theaters.
1988 - Ninja Gaiden was released for the NES.
1989 - Billy Joel’s single We Didn’t Start the Fire hit number one.
1989 - The Saved by the Bell pilot called “King of the Hill” finally aired as the 15th episode of season one.
1992 - Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.
1994 - Disclosure hit theaters.
Disclosure was the first movie press kit that came with multimedia files — distributed on a floppy disc.
Which is a funny twist, since in Disclosure, the Michael Douglas and Demi Moore characters work for a tech company’s CD-ROM division.
1995 - The Beatles’ single Free As a Bird was released as their first new song in 25 years.
1997 - Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz’s single Deja Vu (Uptown Baby) was released.
December 10th
1982 - 48 Hrs. and Airplane II both hit theaters.
1983 - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s single Say, Say, Say hit number one.
1988 - Chicago’s single Look Away hit number one.
1993 - Doom was released.
The video game Doom got its name from a Tom Cruise movie quote.
The developers of Doom liked a quote from The Color of Money in 1986. It’s when Tom Cruise opens his pool cue case, a guy asks “What you got in there?”, and Cruise says “Doom.”
1993 - Wayne’s World 2 and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit both hit theaters.
1994 - The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat.
1996 - Whitney Houston’s single I Believe in You and Me was released.
1997 - Amistad hit theaters.
1999 - The Green Mile, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, and The Cider House Rules all hit theaters.
December 11th
1980 - Magnum P.I. premiered on CBS.
1981 - Muhammad Ali lost his final fight.
1987 - Throw Momma from the Train hit theaters.
1987 - Wall Street hit theaters.
Wall Street was the first movie to show a character using a cell phone.
In Wall Street, Michael Douglas’s character Gordon Gekko uses the Motorola DynaTAC 8000X mobile phone — yes, the same phone Zack Morris uses — while he’s on the beach.
The phone was the first commercial cell phone, and went on sale in 1984. It took three years for someone to use one in a movie. (Though a few years earlier, Sixteen Candles showed a car phone.)
1991 - Hook hit theaters.
1992 - A Few Good Men and The Muppet Christmas Carol hit theaters.
1993 - Janet Jackson’s single Again hit number one.
1993 - K7’s one hit, Come Baby Come, peaked at number 18.
1998 - Rushmore hit theaters.
1998 - Shakespeare in Love hit theaters.
December 12th
1980 - Apple filed its IPO.
1986 - Three Amigos hit theaters.
1987 - Fraggle Rock premiered.
1987 - George Michael’s single Faith hit number one.
1989 - Leona Helmsley was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.
1997 - Scream 2 hit theaters.
The version of Scream 2 that came out in theaters was gorier than the filmmakers planned.
The original Scream had a ton of trouble getting down to a R rating from the MPAA because of its gore.
So for the sequel, the team submitted a version that was intentionally too gory. Their hope was it would make the real cut of the film (which they would submit after the first cut was rejected) seem tame in comparison.
But the MPAA gave an R rating to the first submission, so that’s the version that went to theaters.
1998 - The Alec Baldwin “Schwetty Balls” sketch premiered on Saturday Night Live.
2001 - Winona Ryder was arrested for shoplifting.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
One of the chain restaurant staples of the ‘80s, Chi-Chi’s, is making a comeback — with new locations opening next year. Its last physical location closed in 2004, though its branded salsas and other Mexican foods have remained in stores.
After a long rights battle, the Nintendo people and Tetris people are finally back on good terms. The NES version of Tetris is coming to the Nintendo Switch’s online library next Thursday.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air dramatic reboot, Bel-Air, will end after its fourth season on Peacock.
On the Kelce brothers’ podcast, Bill Murray shared a story about how every time he’d see Road House on TV, he’d call his friend Mitch Glazer — who’s married to Kelly Lynch — during Lynch’s sex scene with Patrick Swayze.
Danny Pintauro from Who’s the Boss? was hospitalized after a scooter accident on Thanksgiving.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
Here are the surprising name origins of 20 famous ‘90s bands.
Check out this great ‘80s TV commercial for Mattel’s Intellivision starring George Plimpton.
Was Will Smith’s derided 1999 movie Wild Wild West actually pretty good?
Have a great week!
-Sam