4/26 - What '90s NBA Team Was Almost Called the "Spirit"?
Plus trivia on Dinosaurs, Entrapment, Cutting Crew, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
April 26th, 2024 • Issue 201
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
April 26th
1982 - Rod Stewart was mugged in Los Angeles.
1983 - John Elway was the number one pick in the NFL Draft by the Baltimore Colts.
1985 - Just One of the Guys hit theaters.
1986 - Arnold Schwarzenegger married Maria Shriver.
1986 - The Chernobyl disaster occurred in Kiev.
1989 - Kevin Mitchell made a famous barehanded catch.
1989 - Lucille Ball passed away.
1991 - Dinosaurs premiered on ABC.
Dinosaurs was one of the last projects Jim Henson worked on before his death.
Henson came up with the idea for a sitcom about a family of dinosaurs in 1988 and continued working on it until he passed away in 1990.
Animatronic dinosaurs were always on Henson’s radar; a few years earlier, he’d also worked on a movie called The Natural History Project with the same concept.
1993 - NBC announced Conan O’Brien would replace David Letterman as the host of Late Night.
1995 - The first game was played at Coors Field in Colorado.
1995 - Friday hit theaters.
1999 - Replay TV shipped the first DVR.
1999 - Caroline in the City aired its series finale.
1999 - Lycos launched five live web radio music channels.
April 27th
1981 - Wings broke up.
1983 - Nolan Ryan became the MLB career strikeout leader.
1990 - Axl Rose got married for 27 days.
1991 - The series finale aired of 21 Jump Street.
1991 - Amy Grant’s single Baby Baby hit number one.
Amy Grant’s Baby Baby was originally going to be a romantic song, not a song about a literal baby (baby).
Amy Grant got the music for the song from a writer named Keith Thomas. His only condition: The song had to have the title Baby Baby.
So when Grant was trying to write lyrics, she kept going the romantic direction. She struggled to come up with anything decent.
Then she decided to try to write Baby Baby lyrics for her actual six-week-old baby — and came up with them in 10 minutes.
1992 - The first Kirby game for Nintendo, Kirby’s Dream Land, was released on Game Boy.
1996 - Spacehog’s one hit, In the Meantime, peaked at number 32.
1999 - 702’s single Where My Girls At and K-Ci and JoJo’s single Tell Me It’s Real were both released.
April 28th
1986 - Tony Bennett’s album The Art of Excellence strategically became the first album released on CD before vinyl.
1987 - Ozzy Osbourne sang over a plane’s PA system.
1987 - The NBA announced it would be expanding to Charlotte, Miami, Minneapolis, and Orlando.
When the NBA announced its four expansion teams, Charlotte’s team was going to be called the Spirit.
The NBA announced its four expansion teams in 1987: Miami Heat, Minneapolis Timberwolves, Orlando Magic… and Charlotte Spirit.
But after the announcement, the Charlotte team’s ownership decided to hold a name-the-team contest to drive interest. “Hornets” was the big winner, so that replaced “Spirit.”
1989 - Jon Bon Jovi got married to his high school sweetheart.
1993 - College basketball coach Jim Valvano passed away.
1994 - All-4-One’s single I Swear was released.
1994 - Warren G and Nate Dogg’s single, Regulate, was released.
1994 - The 100th episode of The Simpsons aired on FOX.
1999 - The Verve broke up right after finally having commercial success.
2003 - The iTunes music store launched.
April 29th
1980 - Alfred Hitchcock passed away.
1980 - Black Sabbath began their first tour with Ronnie James Dio.
1985 - Billy Martin became manager of the New York Yankees for the fourth time.
1986 - Roger Clemens struck out 20 batters in a game.
1988 - Eric Clapton filed for divorce from Patti “Layla” Boyd.
1992 - The L.A. riots began after the Rodney King verdict was announced.
1992 - TLC’s single Baby Baby Baby was released.
1994 - With Honors and PCU both hit theaters.
1995 - Tupac got married while in jail.
1995 - The series finale of Empty Nest aired on NBC.
1996 - The TV Land network debuted.
TV Land was called “Nick at Nite’s TV Land” through 1996 — then the “Nike at Nite” part was dropped for good.
The network was a spinoff of the concept behind Nick at Nite (basically, airing classic TV shows that weren’t on anywhere else).
The “Nick at Nite” branding from Viacom lasted from the network’s debut through December 31st, 1996.
After that, they stopped emphasizing the Nick at Nite association and let the network stand on its own.
1996 - Rent made its Broadway debut.
1999 - Tommy Lee quit Motley Crue.
April 30th
1981 - Friday the 13th Part 2 hit theaters.
1983 - Michael Jackson’s single Beat It hit number one.
1987 - Madonna’s song La Isla Bonita became her 11th-straight top five single.
1988 - Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon dropped out of the Billboard 200 for the first time in 725 weeks.
1988 - Celine Dion won the Eurovision Song Contest.
1989 - CNBC launched as the first financial-focused cable network.
1990 - The long lost pilot to I Love Lucy aired.
1992 - The series finale aired of The Cosby Show.
1992 - Nickelodeon buried a time capsule of kid-voted items, to be opened in 2042.
1993 - Monica Seles was stabbed by a crazed fan during a tennis tournament in Germany.
1994 - Beck’s only top 40 hit, Loser, peaked at number 10.
1997 - Ellen on Ellen became the first openly gay TV character.
1998 - During a brawl between the Knicks and Heat, Jeff Van Gundy wrapped around Alonzo Mourning’s leg.
1999 - Entrapment hit theaters.
Entrapment was Sean Connery’s last time playing the romantic lead in a movie.
And that romance was between him and the (much, much, much, much, much) younger Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Despite the age difference — or maybe because of it — Connery and the producers felt the romantic side of the movie worked better than the heist elements. They even toned down the special effects and action sequences to focus more on the romance.
1999 - Idle Hands both hit theaters.
2002 - The series finale aired of Spin City.
May 1st
1981 - Billie Jean King announced her relationship with a woman and was now the first prominent openly gay female athlete.
1987 - Castlevania was released for the NES.
1988 - The series finale aired for Magnum P.I.
1989 - Police reported to a call about a suspicious person in a jewelry store, who turned out to be Michael Jackson in disguise.
1989 - Disney-MGM Studios theme park opened in Florida.
1991 - Nolan Ryan threw his record seventh no-hitter and Rickey Henderson broke the career record for stolen bases.
1992 - Rodney King asked, “Can we all get along?”
1993 - Silk’s single Freak Me hit number one.
1996 - The series finale aired for the original American Gladiators.
1997 - The series finale aired for Martin.
1998 - He Got Game hit theaters.
Spike Lee wanted Kobe Bryant to play the lead in He Got Game — but Kobe wanted to spend the summer working on his actual game.
Spike Lee reached out to Kobe about playing the lead in He Got Game, and Kobe was into it.
But then… in the 1997 NBA Playoffs, Kobe performed below his expectations as his Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Utah Jazz.
He decided he couldn’t afford to take the rest of the summer off to film a movie, and instead needed to work on building his strength and growing his game.
Spike Lee reached out to Ray Allen next, and Allen took the role.
2000 - ABC aired the first celebrity edition of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
2001 - Chandra Levy was seen for the last time in Washington, D.C.
May 2nd
1981 - Sheena Easton’s single Morning Train (Nine to Five) hit number one.
1982 - The Weather Channel debuted.
1987 - Cutting Crew’s single (I Just) Died in Your Arms hit number one.
The title of (I Just) Died in Your Arms was inspired by Cutting Crew’s lead singer saying that during sex.
Nick Van Eede, the lead singer of Cutting Crew, says he was having sex with his girlfriend… blurted out “I just died in your arms”… wrote it down… then woke up the next morning and wrote the entire song.
1991 - Paula Abdul’s single Rush Rush was released.
1994 - Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first democratic election.
1996 - The Michigan bottle deposit episodes of Seinfeld aired.
1997 - Police arrested a prostitute with Eddie Murphy.
1997 - Breakdown hit theaters.
1997 - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery hit theaters.
1998 - The (fictional) Battle of Hogwarts took place.
1999 - John Elway retired from the NFL.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced its 2024 class this week and it’s filled with ‘80s and ‘90s acts including Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews Band, Foreigner, and A Tribe Called Quest. Artists who were up for possible induction but didn’t make the cut this year include Lenny Kravitz, Sinead O’Connor, and Mariah Carey.
Kevin Bacon returned to the high school in Utah where he filmed Footloose 40 years ago. He visited the school on its prom night.
Steve Carell and Tiny Fey will star in The Four Seasons, a Netflix series that’s a reboot of a 1981 Alan Alda film.
Jennifer Aniston is producing a remake of the 1980 film 9 to 5.
Sony bought the TV and film rights to the board game Clue and will reboot the 1985 movie. They’ll also make a TV series around the game.
The Simpsons killed off another character last Sunday. It was Larry, one of the regulars/background characters at Moe’s Tavern who almost never spoke.
John Travolta says he got his comeback role in Pulp Fiction after he helped Quentin Tarantino get his finances in order.
Richard Simmons says a biopic about his life starring Pauly Shore “does not have [his] blessing.” He says he’s working on his own movie about his life.
After Blur had a disappointing crowd reception during the first weekend of Coachella, they said their performance at the second weekend was “probably our last gig.”
Lisa Rinna, who was on the original Melrose Place, says she’d love to be part of the new reboot.
We’re closing in on the 25th anniversary of The Blair Witch Project and the three cast members published a public letter to Lionsgate asking for more compensation and “meaningful consultation” on future Blair Witch… um… projects.
Janet Jackson says she was offered the role of Storm in X-Men in 1999, but she had to turn it down because she was going on tour. Halle Berry got the role. In the same interview, Drew Barrymore says she was up for a role in Boogie Nights but passed to do Ever After; she didn’t say which role.
The hotel from The Shining caught on fire last week. Fire crews kept the damage to a minimum.
Sammy Hagar is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
A list of the 25 best movie trailers of all time includes several from the ‘80s and ‘90s, from The Shining through The Matrix.
Meet the first person ever to beat The Legend of Zelda — he was 13 when he did it, and here’s an interview with him decades after the fact.
Check out this ranking of all the various He-Man TV series and reboots. The original did not fare well, which seems like a strange choice.
Have a great week!
-Sam