6/2: 80s Nat'l Spelling Bee Words Were *This* Easy?
Plus trivia about Tetris, summer blockbusters, and the debut of the term "NBA Finals"
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
June 2nd, 2023 • Issue 154
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
June 2nd
1981 - Barbara Walters asked Katharine Hepburn what type of tree she would be.
1985 - RJ Reynolds and Nabisco proposed their merger.
1987 - Ken Griffey Jr. was the number one pick in the MLB Draft.
1989 - No Holds Barred and Dead Poets Society hit theaters.
1990 - Partners in Kryme’s one hit, Turtle Power, peaked at number 13.
1991 - Liquid Television premiered on MTV.
1992 - Wilson Phillips’ album Shadows & Light was released.
1995 - The Bridges of Madison County hit theaters.
The film rights for The Bridges of Madison County sold before the book was published (and became a massive bestseller) — so they only cost $25,000.
Steven Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, bought the film rights to the novel in 1991, the year before The Bridges of Madison County was published. By the time the film came out, the book had sold nearly 10 million copies.
1998 - Nicole’s single Make It Hot was released.
1999 - The series finale aired of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
1999 - Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets was released in the U.S.
2000 - Big Momma’s House hit theaters.
2001 - Christina Aguilera and co.’s Lady Marmalade hit number one.
2002 - The Wire premiered on HBO.
2002 - The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Sacramento Kings in one of the all-time great (and only slightly rigged) playoff series.
June 3rd
1980 - Darryl Strawberry was the top pick in the MLB Draft.
1983 - WarGames hit theaters.
The NORAD movie set in WarGames was the most expensive movie set ever built at the time.
WarGames featured quite a bit of action in the NORAD command center, including its climactic scene — but couldn’t, of course, film inside the actual NORAD command center. So the production designers built a fake NORAD based purely on their imagination, which cost a then-record $1 million.
It turns out the actual NORAD command center wasn’t anywhere close to as elaborate as the one in WarGames. At the time, NORAD was still using ‘50s-era computer equipment and didn’t even have color computer monitors.
1985 - Larry King Live premiered on CNN.
1988 - Big and Funny Farm both hit theaters.
1989 - The Tiananmen Square Massacre began.
1989 - Michael Damian’s single Rock On hit number one.
1992 - Bill Clinton played the saxophone on the Arsenio Hall Show.
1992 - Michael Jordan shrugged after hitting a three-pointer against the Portland Trail Blazers in the NBA Finals.
1994 - Renaissance Man hit theaters.
1995 - Bryan Adams’ single Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman? hit number one.
1996 - Zenith introduced the first HDTV in the U.S..
2000 - Alice DeeJay’s one hit, Better Off Alone, peaked at number 25.
2001 - Six Feet Under premiered.
June 4th
1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Poltergeist hit theaters.
1984 - Bruce Springsteen’s album Born in the U.S.A. was released.
Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the U.S.A. was the first CD produced in the U.S.
In September of 1984, CBS and Sony opened the first U.S.-based plant to manufacture compact discs, located in Terre Haute, Ind. And the first CD produced was Born in the U.S.A.
Up to that point, CDs were only manufactured in Japan and Germany.
1984 - Sheila E.’s album The Glamorous Life was released.
1992 - The USPS announced the “young Elvis” stamp won a nationwide vote.
1993 - Life with Mikey hit theaters.
1996 - Keith Sweat’s single Twisted and 2pac’s single (featuring K-Ci and JoJo) How Do U Want It were released.
1996 - Jewel’s debut single, Who Will Save Your Soul?, was released.
1996 - Metallica’s album Load was released.
2000 - Kobe Bryant threw a famous alley-oop to Shaquille O’Neal to win the NBA Western Conference Finals.
2002 - Avril Lavigne’s debut album Let Go was released.
June 5th
1977 - The Apple II went on sale.
1981 - The CDC reported on a “rare pneumonia” which were the first recognized cases of AIDS.
1985 - Ferris Bueller skipped school.
1987 - Harry and the Hendersons and The Untouchables both hit theaters.
1989 - An unknown man stood in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square.
1989 - The SkyDome in Toronto hosted its first Blue Jays game.
1990 - New Kids on the Block’s album Step by Step was released.
1991 - Michael Jordan switched hands on a layup in the NBA Finals for one of his most iconic moments.
1992 - Patriot Games and Class Act both hit theaters.
1995 - Shaggy’s single Boombastic was released.
1995 - Singled Out premiered on MTV.
1998 - The Truman Show hit theaters.
Dennis Hopper quit The Truman Show after two days on set — then wound up in the other late ‘90s movie about a person having their every moment filmed.
Dennis Hopper was originally cast as Christof in The Truman Show — but either quit or was fired (different reports claim both) within a couple of days. Ed Harris wound up coming on board to take over the role.
Then… Dennis Hopper was cast in EDtv in the role of Ed’s father — and this time, he stuck it out. That movie that came out in 1999 and was endlessly compared to The Truman Show, as it was also a semi-dark comedic exploration of a guy being filmed and watched 24 hours a day.
1998 - A Perfect Murder and Mulan hit theaters.
1999 - Reese Witherspoon married her Cruel Intentions co-star Ryan Philippe.
June 6th
1983 - Reading Rainbow premiered on PBS.
1984 - The first playable version of Tetris was finished in the USSR.
The original version of Tetris was all made out of text, no graphics.
When Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris at the Academy of Sciences in the USSR for the Electronika 60 computers, the game was entirely text-based. The blocks were made out of brackets [], the lines of the game were made out of <! …… !> and the bottom line was separated with <!======!>.
1984 - Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics nearly decapitated Kurt Rambis of the L.A. Lakers with a clothesline during a game.
1987 - Kim Wilde’s single You Keep Me Hangin’ On hit number one.
1990 - A judge in Florida rules 2 Live Crew’s album As Nasty As They Wanna Be was obscene and therefore illegal to sell.
1991 - NBC announced Jay Leno, not David Letterman, would be taking over The Tonight Show.
1995 - Notorious B.I.G.'s single One More Chance was released.
1997 - Con Air hit theaters.
1997 - Farrah Fawcett had an infamous interview on Late Night with David Letterman.
1998 - Brandy and Monica’s single The Boy Is Mine hit number one.
1998 - Sex and the City debuted on HBO.
2000 - The Anaheim Angels debuted the Rally Monkey, which would feature prominently in their run to the World Series championship a few years later.
June 7th
1975 - Sony introduced Betamax.
1982 - Graceland opened to the public.
Elvis didn’t give Graceland its name — it was named after the daughter of its original owners.
Graceland was originally a farm that was owned by a family behind a commercial printing firm in Memphis. They named it after their daughter, Grace. Elvis bought the property when he was 22 and kept the name.
1985 - The Goonies hit theaters.
1986 - Madonna’s single Live to Tell hit number one.
1989 - The time hit 1:23:45 on 6/7/89.
1991 - City Slickers, Jungle Fever, and Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead all hit theaters.
1996 - The Rock hit theaters (the Sean Connery/Nic Cage movie, not the wrestler).
1997 - Mark Morrison’s one hit, Return of the Mack, peaked at number two on the Billboard charts and The Verve Pipe’s one hit, The Freshmen, peaked at number five.
June 8th
1979 - The New Orleans Jazz moved to Utah and inexplicably kept the name “Jazz”.
1982 - The L.A. Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers to win the NBA Championship.
1983 - Trading Places hit theaters.
1984 - Ghostbusters and Gremlins both hit theaters.
1985 - Tears for Fears’ single Everybody Wants to Rule the World hit number one.
1986 - The Boston Celtics won the NBA Championship.
1986 marked the first time the “NBA Finals” branding was used.
Up until 1986, the NBA had branded its final as the “NBA World Championship Series” — though they unofficially called it the NBA Finals. In 1986, the NBA officially began using the NBA Finals branding, which they’ve kept ever since.
1990 - A record store owner in Florida was arrested for selling 2 Live Crew’s album to an undercover cop.
1990 - The series finale of It’s Garry Shandling’s Show aired on FOX.
1991 - Washington, D.C., hosted the Gulf War victory parade.
1993 - RuPaul’s debut album was released.
1998 - Charlton Heston became president of the NRA.
1999 - 98 Degrees’ single The Hardest Thing and the Goo Goo Dolls’ single Black Balloon were both released.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
A 25-year-old man in North Carolina was arrested on Tuesday after using a Nintendo Duck Hunt zapper gun (painted black) to rob a convenience store.
Kim Cattrall will make a one-scene cameo in the season 2 finale of the Sex and the City reboot series, And Just Like That. She will not be on camera or interact with the other three leads of the show.
Amazon’s new Cruel Intentions reboot series has its cast, which includes Sean Patrick Thomas from the original film.
Paramount+ has bought the rights to a new Milli Vanilli documentary.
In a new interview, Scottie Pippen says Michael Jordan was “a horrible player, he was horrible to play with.”
Julia Louis-Dreyfus says one of the underrated challenges of Seinfeld was figuring out something for the characters to do whenever they entered Jerry’s apartment. “You’re not just going to come in and sit on the couch every time.”
A new Devo action figure is on sale, featuring a red pyramid hat, a whip, and a bowl of whipped cream. It’ll set you back $20.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here are the biggest summer blockbusters from every year of the past half century (which, of course, includes every year from the ‘80s and ‘90s). Movies from the ‘80s include Raiders, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, and Batman… movies from the ‘90s include Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Jurassic Park, and Independence Day.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here’s an ode to the George Foreman Grill, which this writer sums up in a way I’ve never really considered before — as a “fascinating emblem of the ‘90s [that] inspires a complicated nostalgia.”
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
If you watched the Scripps National Spelling Bee last night — with the winning word of psammophile — know that back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, the winning words were considerably easier. Here’s a list of all the winning words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee, including these from a mere three to four decades ago…
1981 - sarcophagus
1982 - psoriasis
1983 - Purim
1984 - luge
1992 - lyceum
1993 - kamikaze
1997 - euonym
1999 - logorrhea
Have a great week!
-Sam