6/9: Which Unexpected Show Inspired "It's Not TV, It's HBO"?
Plus the top 10 songs of the summer for every year in the '80s & '90s!
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
June 9, 2023 • Issue 155
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
June 9th
1980 - Richard Pryor was burned in a freebasing accident.
1981 - Donkey Kong hit arcades.
1984 - Cyndi Lauper’s single Time After Time hit number one.
1985 - The L.A. Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Finals.
1987 - Magic Johnson hit a sky hook to lift the L.A. Lakers over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
1989 - Prince’s single Batdance was released.
1993 - The NHL’s Minnesota North Stars left the hockey hotbed of Minnesota to relocate to Dallas.
1993 - Heidi Fleiss was arrested.
1994 - TLC’s Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes set fire to her boyfriend, NFL star Andre Rison’s, house.
1997 - Married… With Children aired its series finale on FOX.
After playing shoe salesman Al Bundy for a decade on Married… With Children, Ed O’Neill’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was in front of a shoe store.
It’s unclear if the people who run the Walk of Fame picked the spot in front of the Designer Shoe Warehouse on purpose.
1998 - Pras’s solo single Ghetto Superstar was released.
1999 - Mets manager Bobby Valentine was ejected from a game and came back in a disguise.
2000 - Gone in 60 Seconds hit theaters.
June 10th
1978 - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John’s single You’re the One That I Want hit number one.
1983 - Octopussy hit theaters.
1989 - Bette Midler’s single Wind Beneath My Wings hit number one.
1989 - Tales from the Crypt premiered on HBO.
Tales from the Crypt is credited for inspiring the “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” slogan.
As the legend goes, HBO’s most famous slogan — “It’s not TV, it’s HBO” — came from a test audience screening of Tales from the Crypt.
The show featured content that simply wasn’t seen in other TV shows in that era, from gore to violence to nudity — which made a test audience member say, “It’s not TV.” And another responded, “No, it’s HBO.”
1990 - The Damn Yankees single High Enough was released.
1991 - Twin Peaks aired its series finale.
1991 - Miami and Denver were announced as the new cities for MLB franchises.
1994 - Speed hit theaters.
1994 - City Slickers II: The Search for Curly’s Gold hit theaters.
1996 - The Rosie O’Donnell Show premiered.
1997 - The Backstreet Boys single Quit Playing Games (with My Heart) was released.
June 11th
1979 - John Wayne died from cancer.
1981 - The first MLB players strike began.
1982 - E.T. hit theaters.
1982 - Grease 2 hit theaters.
Tom Cruise auditioned for Grease 2 — but was rejected.
Tom Cruise auditioned for one of the lead roles, Johnny Nogerelli, but the director went with Adrian Zmed for the role since he was older and taller.
1983 - Naked Eyes’ one hit, Always Something There to Remind Me, peaked at number eight.
1986 - Ferris Bueller’s Day Off hit theaters.
1990 - Nolan Ryan pitched his sixth no-hitter.
1991 - Microsoft released MS-DOS 5.0.
1991 - Natalie Cole’s album Unforgettable… with Love was released.
1993 - Jurassic Park hit theaters.
1993 - What's Love Got to Do With It hit theaters.
1994 - Hulk Hogan signed with WCW on live TV.
1997 - Michael Jordan won the “flu game” against the Utah Jazz in the NBA Finals.
1998 - Amazon.com branched out from just selling books to also selling CDs.
1999 - Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me hit theaters.
2001 - Fear Factor premiered.
2002 - American Idol debuted on FOX.
June 12th
1981 - Raiders of the Lost Ark hit theaters.
Neither Karen Allen nor her stunt double wanted to stand in the 7,000 snakes in the Well of Souls for Raiders of the Lost Ark… so the movie’s male snake handler shaved his legs, put on a dress, and stepped in.
Steven Edge, the snake handler for the film, says it was Steven Spielberg’s idea — and offered up the extra opportunity to be a bigger part of the movie.
1984 - The Boston Celtics defeated the L.A. Lakers to win the NBA Championship.
1987 - Ronald Reagan gave his “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall” speech.
1987 - Predator hit theaters.
1989 - Hulk Hogan’s movie No Holds Barred hit theaters.
1989 - Dead Poets Society hit theaters.
1990 - Final Fantasy debuted on NES.
1991 - The Chicago Bulls defeated the L.A. Lakers as Michael Jordan won his first title.
1993 - Robin S.’s one hit, Show Me Love, peaked at number five.
1993 - Green Jelly’s one hit, Three Little Pigs, peaked at number 17.
1994 - O.J. Simpson (allegedly, but, well, you know) murdered his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.
1995 - The Bridges of Madison County hit theaters.
1997 - The U.S. Treasury unveiled a new $50 bill.
1998 - Can’t Hardly Wait hit theaters.
1998 - Dirty Work hit theaters.
1998 - The Geraldo Rivera Show ended after 11 seasons.
1999 - Courteney Cox married David Arquette.
1999 - Jennifer Lopez’s single If You Had My Love hit number one.
1999 - The Style Network debuted.
2000 - Big Momma’s House hit theaters.
June 13th
1986 - Rodney Dangerfield’s movie Back to School triple lindy’d into theaters.
1987 - Atlantic Starr’s single Always hit number one.
1988 - Paula Abdul’s album Forever Your Girl, featuring four #1 singles, was released.
1988 - George Harrison’s This Is Love was released.
1989 - The Detroit Pistons defeated the L.A. Lakers to win their first NBA Championship.
1991 - The National all-sports daily newspaper stopped publishing.
1993 - Hulk Hogan wrestled his last match for WWF before jumping to WCW, losing to Yokozuna at King of the Ring.
1994 - Exxon was found liable for the Exxon Valdez crash.
1995 - Bjork’s album Post was released.
1995 - Alanis Morissette’s breakthrough album Jagged Little Pill was released.
1995 - Del Amitri’s single Roll to Me was released.
The group Del Amitri got their name by picking a random name from the credits of a random movie.
According to the founder of the group, Justin Currie, he got the name from a movie he was watching in 1979.
“Probably Dimitri something, but we couldn’t remember… ‘Dimitri’ became ‘Del Amitri.’”
Oh… and I guess “Del Amitri” is a group and not just one person. Didn’t know that one, either.
1997 - Disney’s Hercules hit theaters.
1997 - Speed 2: Cruise Control hit theaters.
1997 - The Chicago Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz to win the NBA Championship.
June 14th
1986 - Patti LaBelle and Michael McDonald’s single On My Own hit number one.
1987 - The L.A. Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics to win the NBA Championship.
1988 - The Fat Boys sued Miller Beer and Joe Piscopo over the Miller Lite Rappin’ Fats ad.
1989 - Zsa Zsa Gabor was arrested for slapping a police officer.
1989 - The groundbreaking for the world’s largest shopping mall, Mall of America, was held in Minnesota.
1990 - The Detroit Pistons won their second consecutive NBA title, defeating the Portland Trailblazers.
1991 - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves hit theaters.
1992 - The Chicago Bulls defeated the Portland Trailblazers to win their second straight NBA title.
1993 - Ruth Bader Ginsburg was nominated for the Supreme Court by President Clinton.
1993 - The public freaked out over syringes allegedly found in cans of Pepsi.
The FBI wound up arresting 20 different people for planting syringes and other objects in their cans of Pepsi during the 1993 panic.
After an elderly couple in Washington said they found a syringe in a can of Pepsi in 1993, it set off a wave of more than 50 people in the U.S. claiming to find syringes and more in their cans.
None of the cases was ever proven — and nearly two dozen people were arrested for trying to cash in with demonstrably false claims.
1994 - The New York Rangers won their first Stanley Cup in 54 years.
1995 - Michael Jackson and his wife, Lisa Marie Presley, had a live televised interview with Diane Sawyer.
1995 - The Houston Rockets defeated the Orlando Magic to win the NBA Championship.
1996 - The Cable Guy hit theaters.
1997 - Puff Daddy and Faith Evans’ single I’ll Be Missing You hit number one.
1998 - The Chicago Bulls beat the Utah Jazz to win Michael Jordan’s final championship.
1999 - Eminem married his wife Kim for the first time.
1999 - Destiny’s Child’s single Bills, Bills, Bills was released.
2002 - Scooby-Doo and The Bourne Identity hit theaters.
June 15th
1979 - Rocky II hit theaters and Rocky actually got to win this time.
1987 - Compuserve created a new GIF format allowing for animation.
1988 - Bull Durham hit theaters.
1989 - Nirvana’s debut album Bleach was released.
1990 - Dick Tracy hit theaters.
1990 - Tony Toni Tone’s single Feels Good was released.
1991 - Paula Abdul’s single Rush Rush hit number one.
1992 - Vice President Dan Quayle misspelled the word “potato”.
1994 - The Lion King hit theaters.
1995 - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony’s single 1st of tha Month was released.
1995 - O.J. Simpson struggled to get the glove to fit at trial.
1999 - Enrique Iglesias’s single Bailamos was released.
Enrique Iglesias’s Bailamos was written and produced by the same British team who wrote and produced Cher’s Believe.
Even though Bailamos is a Spanish song, it was the product of some late ‘90s British hitmakers. The songwriting team of Paul Barry and Mark Taylor wrote the song, and Barry and Brian Rawling produced it; the same pairings were behind Cher’s hit Believe.
And lightning struck again, as Bailamos was also a number one hit.
1999 - The Real World season eight in Hawaii premiered on MTV.
2001 - The L.A. Lakers defeated the Philadelphia 76ers to win the NBA Championship.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Disney+ is now developing Hocus Pocus 3, after last year’s Hocus Pocus 2 broke the platform’s streaming records.
After the runaway success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, a Hollywood insider podcast reported Universal and Illumination are now close to making a deal for a Legend of Zelda movie.
The Fugees reunited on stage last weekend to perform at the Roots Picnic music festival in Philadelphia. It will likely be the last time for a while, as Pras was recently found guilty of several federal crimes and is facing up to 20 years in prison.
The bar from Cheers sold at auction for $675,000.
Tupac received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame this week.
Shaggy says people have always misunderstood the meaning of It Wasn’t Me — it’s not a cheating anthem, “it’s an anti-cheating song.”
Steven Spielberg says he felt being in E.T. “robbed [Drew Barrymore] of her childhood, yet I felt very helpless because I wasn’t her dad.”
Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park have poured more than $40 million into rebuilding Casa Bonita restaurant just outside Denver since they purchased it in 2020. One of their missions was improving the food quality. It’s now set to reopen.
There’s a guy in Florida whose goal is to collect 1 million copies of Titanic on VHS. He currently has 1,600.
The Iron Sheik, who was the WWF world champion who famously lost the belt to Hulk Hogan to begin Hogan’s first championship run, passed away this week at age 81.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Billboard just released their lists of the top 10 songs of the summer for every summer from 1958 through 2022.
You can start with 1980 here (or 1990 here) and scroll down quickly through all of them to see the most popular songs from each of the two decades of note.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Comic book fans hating movie casting choices is not a modern phenomenon. All the way back in 1988 fans were skeptical — and hostile — over the choice of Michael Keaton as Batman. And some were also not thrilled about Jack Nicholson as the Joker, either.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
After Richard Donner finished filming The Goonies, he was so exhausted from working with all the kids that took a trip to Hawaii to just be alone. So Steven Spielberg pulled a prank on him and flew the entire cast out to crash the vacation. Here’s a rare video that just surfaced of that moment.
Have a great week!
-Sam
That video of Donner is incredible