3/29 - Beetlejuice Almost Had What Other 2 Titles?
Plus trivia on Rock Me Amadeus, Eternal Flame, John Hughes, Heathers, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
March 29th, 2024 • Issue 197
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
March 29th
1979 - The WWWF rebranded as the WWF.
1982 - Michael Jordan led North Carolina to the NCAA title.
1982 - Chariots of Fire won Best Picture at the 54th Oscars.
1985 - Police Academy 2 hit theaters.
1986 - Falco’s single Rock Me Amadeus hit number one.
Rock Me Amadeus was the first number one hit in the U.S. by a German-speaking artist.
Nena got close with 99 Luftballoons a few years earlier… but it peaked at number two.
The next German-speaking artists with a number one were Milli Vanilli.
1987 - Hulk Hogan bodyslammed and pinned Andre the Giant at WrestleMania III.
1989 - Rain Man won Best Picture at the 61st Oscars.
1989 - The pyramid at the Louvre opened.
1991 - Career Opportunities hit theaters.
1993 - Unforgiven won Best Picture at the 65th Oscars.
1994 - Ellen premiered (under the title These Friends of Mine).
1996 - The Baltimore Ravens chose their team name.
1996 - DJ Kool’s one hit, Let Me Clear My Throat, peaked at number 30.
1997 - Luscious Jackson’s one hit, Naked Eye, peaked at number 36.
1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin won his first WWF title by defeating Shawn Michaels at WrestleMania XIV.
1998 - BBC America debuted on cable.
March 30th
1981 - President Reagan was shot just a few hours after my wife was born.
1984 - Romancing the Stone hit theaters.
1985 - Phil Collins’s single One More Night hit number one.
1987 - Fraggle Rock aired its series finale.
1987 - Platoon won Best Picture at the 59th Oscars.
1988 - Beetlejuice hit theaters.
Warner Bros. hated the name “Beetlejuice” and proposed calling the movie “House Ghost” instead.
Director Tim Burton says he thought “House Ghost” was so bad he made a joke that they should call it “Scared Sheetless”… and Warner Bros. actually considered it.
Eventually he won the battle and got the (real) title he wanted.
1990 - The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie hit theaters.
1991 - Gloria Estefan’s single Coming Out of the Dark hit number one.
1992 - Snap’s single Rhythm Is a Dancer was released.
1992 - The Silence of the Lambs dominated the 64th Oscars.
1993 - Charlie Brown hit his first home run in Peanuts.
1998 - Rolls-Royce was purchased by BMW.
1999 - Craig Kilborn took over as host of the Late Late Show on CBS.
1999 - Fabio was hit in the face by a goose while on a roller coaster.
2001 - Someone Like You, SPY Kids, and Tomcats hit theaters.
2001 - The Fairly Odd Parents and Invader Zim premiered on Nickelodeon.
March 31st
1981 - Ordinary People won Best Picture at the 53rd Oscars.
1982 - The Doobie Brothers broke up.
1983 - Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life hit theaters in the U.S..
1984 - Kenny Loggins’ single Footloose hit number one.
1985 - WrestleMania I took place in New York.
1987 - Max Headroom premiered on NBC.
1987 - Prince’s album Sign O’ the Times was released.
1989 - Heathers hit theaters.
The original book that suicidal students would underline in Heathers was The Catcher in the Rye — but switched to Moby-Dick when the producers couldn’t get permission.
J.D. Salinger refused to let the movie use The Catcher in the Rye, so they switched to Moby-Dick — since it was public domain.
1989 - The Guns N’ Roses single Patience was released.
1992 - Def Leppard’s album Adrenalize and Kris Kross’s album Totally Krossed Out were released, as was Sophie B. Hawkins’s single Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover.
1993 - Brandon Lee was shot and killed on the set of The Crow.
1994 - Madonna had a highly censored appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.
1995 - Microsoft Bob debuted.
1995 - Tommy Boy hit theaters.
1995 - Selena was murdered.
1996 - Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart in a 60-minute Iron Man match at WrestleMania XII.
1998 - The video game Starcraft was released.
1998 - The Backstreet Boys single Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) was released.
1999 - The Matrix hit theaters.
1999 - 10 Things I Hate About You hit theaters.
1999 - The Cranberries announced tickets to their upcoming tour would only be sold via their own website.
2000 - Boys Don’t Cry, The Skulls, and High Fidelity hit theaters.
2001 - Shaggy’s single Angel hit number one.
April 1st
1984 - Marvin Gaye was murdered by his father.
1985 - David Lee Roth left Van Halen.
1989 - The Bangles’ single Eternal Flame hit number one.
Susanna Hoffs of The Bangles recorded Eternal Flame in the nude.
Hoffs had heard, incorrectly, that Olivia Newton-John liked to record naked — so Hoffs decided to try it.
She says, “I imagined it would feel like skinny dipping, vulnerable yet freeing.”
She liked it enough to record the rest of the album Everything in the nude.
1990 - The Ha! network, which would become Comedy Central, premiered.
1990 - The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI.
1991 - Duke won its first NCAA men’s basketball title.
1991 - The Sega Game Gear was released to take on the Nintendo Game Boy.
1994 - Major League 2 hit theaters.
1994 - Sister, Sister premiered.
1997 - Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting jobs as an April Fools joke.
1998 - South Park angered fans with a bait and switch episode instead of paying off a cliffhanger.
2001 - Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock at the highly-regarded WrestleMania XVII.
April 2nd
1984 - Georgetown defeated Houston to win the NCAA Tournament.
1985 - The NCAA adopted a 45-second shot clock.
There were three early ‘80s NCAA games with total combined scores under 36 points.
In 1980, Charleston beat Charleston Southern 18-15. That year, Oregon State also beat Stanford 18-16. And in 1983, Kentucky beat Cincinnati 24-11.
Those were part of the reason why the NCAA instituted a shot clock — but another was that shot attempts were way down, even when teams weren’t running a stalling offense.
In the 1983-84 season, teams only shot an average of 55.6 times combined per game. That was down from 69.6 per game a decade earlier. (Today, almost every team averages more than 55 shots per game.)
1987 - Some U.S. interstates began testing a 65 mph speed limit.
1989 - Hulk Hogan defeated Randy Savage at WrestleMania V.
1989 - The New York Times declared the Cold War was over.
1990 - UNLV defeated Duke to win the NCAA Tournament.
1992 - John Gotti was found guilty of murder along with several other charges.
1993 - The Crush and Cop and a Half both hit theaters.
1995 - WrestleMania XI featured NFL player Lawrence Taylor in the main event.
1996 - MLB star Cecil Fielder stole his first base after 11 years.
1998 - Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli died in Germany.
2000 - A four-way match headlined WrestleMania 2000.
2001 - Ichiro made his MLB debut.
April 3rd
1981 - The first portable computer, the Osborne 1, was unveiled.
1987 - Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol hit theaters.
1989 - Michigan defeated Seton Hall to win the NCAA Tournament.
1989 - Pepsi dropped Madonna as a spokesperson after the Vatican called her video for Like a Prayer “blasphemous”.
1990 - En Vogue’s album Born to Sing was released.
1992 - Beethoven hit theaters.
The screenwriter of Beethoven was Edmond Dantes… which was a pseudonym used by John Hughes. (And also the name of The Count of Monte Cristo.)
John Hughes wrote Beethoven while he was under contract with Universal Studios — but left before it was produced.
He agreed they could make the film as long as they didn’t use his name, and instead used his pseudonym.
Edmond Dantes is also credited as the writer of Maid in Manhattan and Drillbit Taylor.
1993 - Mortal Kombat II was released.
1995 - Jon B’s single Someone to Love was released.
1995 - UCLA defeated Arkansas to win the NCAA Tournament.
1996 - The Unabomber was arrested.
1996 - Primal Fear hit theaters.
1996 - MC Hammer filed for bankruptcy.
April 4th
1987 - Starship’s single Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now hit number one.
Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now was the first number one hit for famous songwriter Diane Warren.
She’d had two top 10 hits prior, with Laura Branigan’s Solitaire and DeBarge’s Rhythm of the Night.
Warren wrote nine more number one hits over the next decade and dozens more top 10 hits.
1988 - Kansas defeated Oklahoma to win the NCAA Tournament.
1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in his final NBA game.
1993 - Hulk Hogan surprisingly left WrestleMania IX as champion.
1994 - Arkansas beat Duke to win the NCAA Tournament.
1994 - Sheryl Crow’s single All I Wanna Do was released.
1994 - Netscape was founded.
1997 - Chasing Amy hit theaters.
1998 - K-Ci & JoJo’s single All My Life hit number one and The Verve’s one hit single, Bittersweet Symphony, peaked at number 12.
1998 - The NFL Europe kicked off.
1999 - Alibaba was founded.
2000 - Pink’s debut album, Can’t Take Me Home, was released.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Christopher McDonald, who played Shooter McGavin in Happy Gilmore, says Adam Sandler showed him the first draft of Happy Gilmore 2.
A Simpsons joke from 1996 is coming true as Cypress Hill is going to play a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra.
The trailer is out for the newest Bad Boys sequel. And there’s a full trailer out for the reboot of Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is getting a theatrical re-release for its 25th anniversary. It will be back in theaters on May 3rd.
Kevin Bacon is going to attend a prom at the school in Payson, Utah, where Footloose was filmed. The school is relocating to a new building in the fall.
The floating door from Titanic sold at auction for $718,750. So whoever bought it can test out whether it holds two people, I suppose.
The owner of Vans thanked Sean Penn for helping the shoes become a cultural phenomenon when he wore them in Fast Times at Ridgemont High.
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Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
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Here’s the story of the rise and fall of Adobe Flash, from its birth in the early ‘90s through its late ‘90s online heyday through its decline and death. (Or, perhaps, murder at the hands of Steve Jobs.)
Conan O’Brien reminisced on his time as a writer on The Simpsons and how “it wasn’t sexy or fun or cool.”
Have a great week!
-Sam