5/3 - What '90s Afternoon Cartoon Was a Cheers Ripoff?
Plus trivia about Voices That Care, Sir Mix-a-Lot, The Golden Girls, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
May 3rd, 2024 • Issue 202
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
May 3rd
1978 - The first spam email was sent by the Digital Equipment Corporation.
1984 - Dell Computers was founded.
The original name of Dell Computers featured a punctuation error (or, at least, a punctuation gray area).
When Michael Dell started a computer company out of his University of Texas dorm room, he called it PC’s Limited.
“PC’s” is incorrect usage of punctuation — using an apostrophe s for pluralization — though using it to pluralize an acronym is loosely considered a gray area.
Unless, of course, he was saying his name was PC and the company was his. In which case the apostrophe plays.
Anyway, he renamed the company to Dell (his undisputed name) shortly after.
1986 - Robert Palmer’s single Addicted to Love hit number one.
1988 - Poison’s album Open Up and Say… Ahh! was released.
1988 - Nancy Reagan admitted to using psychic advisors.
1990 - 2 Live Crew’s single Banned in the U.S.A. was released.
1991 - The series finale aired of Dallas.
1992 - The L.A. riots ended after five days.
1996 - The Craft hit theaters.
1997 - White Town’s only hit, Your Woman, peaked at number 23.
1997 - Katrina and the Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest.
1997 - The Notorious B.I.G.’s single Hypnotize hit number one.
2000 - The series finale aired of Party of Five.
2000 - The first geochaching event took place.
2002 - Spider-Man hit theaters.
May 4th
1984 - Breakin’ hit theaters.
1984 - Sixteen Candles hit theaters.
1991 - Voices That Care peaked at number 11 on the Billboard charts.
There were four artists that participated in both We Are the World and Voices That Care.
Al Jarreau, Jeffrey Osborne, Kenny Rogers, and The Pointer Sisters sang on both of these famed charity singles of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
1996 - Mariah Carey’s single Always Be My Baby hit number one.
1996 - The BoDeans’ one hit, Closer to Free, peaked at number 16.
1997 - One of the “darkest comedy” Simpsons episodes, “Homer’s Enemy,” aired.
1998 - The Unabomber received four life sentences.
1999 - Smash Mouth’s single All Star was released, as were Jennifer Lopez’s debut single, If You Had My Love, and Will Smith’s single Wild Wild West.
1999 - The series finale aired for NewsRadio.
May 5th
1986 - Cleveland was chosen as the site of the future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
1990 - Billy Idol’s single Cradle of Love was released.
1990 - TaleSpin premiered.
The characters of TaleSpin were based off two characters from Cheers.
Even though TaleSpin was ostensibly a spinoff of The Jungle Book, it was heavily inspired by — of all unlikely things — Cheers.
The lead female, Rebecca, is both modeled after (visually and personality-wise) and named after Kirstie Alley’s character Rebecca from Cheers. And her dynamic with Baloo in TaleSpin is based off Rebecca and Sam Malone’s relationship on Cheers.
1990 - Calloway’s one hit, I Wanna Be Rich, peaked at number two.
1992 - Wolfenstein 3D was released.
1994 - American teenager Michael Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.
1995 - The final basketball game was played at the Boston Garden.
2000 - The series finale aired of Boy Meets World.
2000 - Gladiator hit theaters.
2000 - Angelina Jolie and Billy Bob Thorton got married.
2002 - The WWF officially became the WWE.
May 6th
1981 - The design was chosen for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.
1990 - The series finale aired of 227.
1991 - The Sierra Network went live.
The Sierra Network came up with the concept of users creating graphical avatars for online communities.
TSN had a feature called FaceMaker, where its members could design their own avatar.
The creators said they got the idea for the design from Mr. Potato Head.
1994 - Clean Slate hit theaters.
1994 - Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton.
1994 - Bobcat Goldthwait lit the couch on fire on The Tonight Show.
1994 - The Channel tunnel between England and France opened.
1997 - The Hartford Whalers relocated to Raleigh.
1997 - David Duchovny and Tea Leoni got married.
1999 - Amy Fisher received parole after seven years.
2002 - Elon Musk founded SpaceX.
May 7th
1987 - Shelly Long made her final appearance as a regular on Cheers.
1988 - The series finale aired of the Facts of Life.
1988 - Terence Trent D’Arby’s single Wishing Well hit number one.
1989 - Michael Jordan hit “The Shot” against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
1990 - The series finale aired of Alien Nation.
1991 - EMF’s album Schubert Dip was released.
1992 - Sir Mix-a-Lot’s single Baby Got Back was released.
Baby Got Back was originally going to be a slow song.
Sir Mix-a-Lot says, “I didn’t really do up-tempo stuff” so he envisioned it as a slower song. After he listened to famous producer Rick Rubin and made it a faster track, Sir Mix-a-Lot says he “hated” it. He also thought “it was going to piss everybody off.”
So Sir Mix-a-Lot pushed for a song called One Time’s Got No Case to be the lead single off his album. When it bombed, he agreed to release Baby Got Back next.
1992 - The 27th amendment was ratified, banning Congress from giving itself a raise.
1993 - Dave hit theaters.
1993 - Tag Team’s single Whoomp! (There It Is) was released.
1994 - The Denver Nuggets upset the Seattle Supersonics in the NBA Playoffs.
1994 - Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream was recovered three months after it was stolen in Norway.
1997 - Apple’s eMate 300 went on sale.
1997 - The Fifth Element hit theaters.
1998 - The infamous “Puerto Rican Day” episode of Seinfeld aired.
1998 - Steve Perry left Journey.
1998 - Daimler-Benz bought Chrysler.
1999 - The Jenny Jones Show was found liable after one guest killed another after the show.
1999 - The Mummy hit theaters.
May 8th
1980 - The WHO announced smallpox had been eradicated.
1984 - The Soviet Union announced they were boycotting the ‘84 Olympics in Los Angeles.
There were two countries that boycotted both the 1980 Summer Olympics and 1984 Summer Olympics.
The U.S. led a large boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, with 67 countries overall choosing not to participate.
So naturally, in 1984, the Soviet Union led a boycott of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
No country flip-flopped enough to take both sides, but there were two countries that boycotted both.
Albania and Iran both chose to boycott both games. However, both skipped the 1984 games citing political reasons unrelated to the Soviet boycott.
1984 - Joanie and Chachi were married on Happy Days.
1990 - Wilson Philips’ debut album was released.
1992 - Will Smith married his first wife.
1993 - Haddaway’s single What Is Love was released.
1993 - Chris Farley’s character Matt Foley debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1998 - Deep Impact hit theaters.
1999 - Ricky Martin’s single Livin’ La Vida Loca hit number one.
2002 - Allen Iverson gave his “Practice?!” interview.
2002 - About a Boy hit theaters.
2002 - The TNA wrestling federation was announced.
May 9th
1980 - Friday the 13th hit theaters.
1984 - The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers played the longest game ever, lasting 25 innings.
1985 - Phil Collins’ single Sussudio was released.
1986 - Short Circuit hit theaters.
1987 - Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers were married.
1989 - Dan Quayle messed up the “A mind is a terrible thing to waste” slogan.
1990 - Sinead O’Connor refused to perform on Saturday Night Live when Andrew Dice Clay was named host.
1992 - The series finale aired of the Golden Girls.
The Golden Girls finale was really just a reason to write off Bea Arthur’s character — the other three stars were part of an immediate spin-off.
The Golden Girls ended in 1992 because Bea Arthur wanted to leave the show (she’d been doing TV nonstop since Maude in 1972). So in the finale, she got married and moved away.
Meanwhile, the other three actresses in Golden Girls jumped right into the spin-off called The Golden Palace. But it didn’t catch on quite as well and lasted just one season on CBS.
1994 - The famous “dad” episode of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air aired.
1997 - Bob Saget hosted his final episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos.
2003 - A Mighty Wind hit theaters.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
The new Karate Kid reboot has been bumped from this December to May 30, 2025.
The live action Masters of the Universe reboot just received its theatrical release date: June 5th, 2026.
The Matlock reboot starring Kathy Bates will be on CBS’s fall schedule, airing Thursdays at 9:00 P.M.
In honor of the 40th anniversary of Tetris, 7-Eleven is holding a contest to give away 20,000 Slurpee-shaped handheld Tetris gaming devices.
Boyz II Men always do a gimmick at their concert where they hand out roses to some female fans. And in a new interview, they say they started doing that back when they first got together in high school. “[Girls who] probably didn’t even know our names… while we were passing out the roses, those same girls were screaming and reaching for us.”
Chris Hemsworth says he named one of his sons after Brad Pitt’s character, Tristan, in 1994’s Legends of the Fall. Because “there’s never been a more beautiful man on screen.”
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
Here’s the inside story of Animaniacs — and how such a different type of kids’ show somehow made it onto TV.
Madonna has been going strong for 40 years — here’s a ranking of her 40 greatest songs. (Spoiler: 14 of the top 15 are from the ‘80s and ‘90s.)
Here’s a history of Zork, the text-based adventure game from the beginning of the ‘80s.
Have a great week!
-Sam