7/19 - What '90s Teen Movie Was First Pitched as a Sitcom?
Plus trivia about Steal My Sunshine, AC/DC, Color Me Badd, Apple iBook, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
July 19th, 2024 • Issue 213
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
July 19th
1980 - The summer Olympics opened in Russia, with the U.S. boycotting.
1980 - Billy Joel’s single It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me hit number one.
1986 - Genesis’s single Invisible Touch hit number one.
1991 - Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey hit theaters.
1994 - Ceiling tiles collapsed at Seattle’s Kingdome.
1995 - Clueless hit theaters.
The original pitch for Clueless was as a TV series called No Worries.
Writer and director Amy Heckerling originally pitched her concept as a TV show called No Worries. FOX rejected it because they thought no one would be interested in a show about a bunch of high school girls.
Heckerling reworked her idea into a film, which became Clueless.
And then, after the movie’s success, Clueless DID become a TV series on ABC and then UPN. It ran for three seasons.
1995 - Road Rules premiered on MTV.
1996 - Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame during the opening ceremony in Atlanta.
1996 - Kazaam and Trainspotting hit theaters.
1996 - The series finale aired of Tales from the Crypt.
July 20th
1984 - Vanessa Williams was asked to resign as Miss America after nude photos were published in Penthouse.
1984 - The NeverEnding Story hit theaters.
1984 - Revenge of the Nerds hit theaters.
1991 - EMF’s single Unbelievable hit number one.
1993 - DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s Boom! Shake the Room was released.
Boom! Shake the Room was DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s final hit song before Will Smith went solo.
Boom! Shake the Room peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the final hit song for the duo.
It was also the only hit single off their final album (at least their final album that wasn’t just a compilation of hits).
1994 - The subversive and depressing series finale of Dinosaurs aired.
1994 - OJ Simpson offered a reward for the capture of the “real killers”.
1998 - Will Smith’s single Just the Two of Us was released.
1999 - The Y2K act went into effect.
July 21st
1987 - Guns N’ Roses debut album, Appetite for Destruction, was released.
1987 - Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight famously had her legs insured.
1989 - “Weird Al” Yankovic’s only feature film, UHF, was released.
1990 - Glenn Medeiros’s single featuring Bobby Brown, She Ain’t Worth It, hit number one.
1990 - Pink Floyd performed The Wall at the former site of the Berlin Wall.
1995 - The controversial movie Kids was released.
1996 - Wayne Gretzky signed with the New York Rangers.
1998 - Eagle Eye Cherry’s debut album, Desireless, was released.
1999 - Apple’s colorful iBook laptop was released.
Apple’s iBook was the first mainstream laptop to have Wi-Fi.
The iBook — best remembered for its bright blue, orange, and other color shells — was the first computer to bring Wi-Fi into the mainstream.
It was the first commercial laptop or desktop computer to come Wi-Fi enabled — even if, in 1999, there weren’t a whole lot of Wi-Fi networks set up. (Especially since the Wi-Fi wireless network standard was also established in 1999.)
July 22nd
1988 - Big Top Pee Wee and Caddyshack 2 both hit theaters.
1991 - Jeffrey Dahmer was arrested.
1994 - OJ Simpson pleaded “absolutely 100% not guilty” to murder.
1994 - North hit theaters.
1998 - The series finale aired of the sitcom Ellen.
1999 - Len’s single Steal My Sunshine was released.
The reason the guys from Len ride scooters and not motorcycles in the Steal My Sunshine video is because they spent most of the video’s budget on alcohol — and were too drunk to drive.
The video had a budget of around $100,000, and the guys from Len say they spent most of it on alcohol.
So they ride Vespa scooters, rather than motorcycles or motorbikes like they planned, since that was (somewhat less il-)legal.
July 23rd
1984 - Vanessa Williams forfeited her Miss America crown after Penthouse published unauthorized nude photos of her.
1985 - Commodore introduced the Amiga personal computer.
1987 - One year after his World Series error, the Red Sox waived Bill Buckner.
1988 - Richard Marx’s single Hold on to the Nights hit number one.
1991 - Color Me Badd’s album C.M.B. was released.
The debut single from C.M.B., I Wanna Sex You Up, was turned down by several other acts before it fell to Color Me Badd.
Bell Biv DeVoe, Keith Sweat, Christopher Williams, and others turned down I Wanna Sex You Up before producer/songwriter Dr. Freeze took it to Color Me Badd.
1993 - Poetic Justice hit theaters.
1993 - The Coneheads movie hit theaters.
1995 - The Hale-Bopp comet was discovered.
1996 - Kerri Strug landed a gold-winning vault with a broken ankle at the 1996 Summer Olympics.
1996 - Freak Nasty’s single Da Dip was released.
1999 - The live action Inspector Gadget hit theaters, as did Drop Dead Gorgeous.
2000 - Tiger Woods became the youngest golfer ever to achieve a career Grand Slam.
July 24th
1983 - The George Brett pine tar incident.
1984 - Wham!’s single Careless Whisper was released.
1985 - Disney’s The Black Cauldron hit theaters.
The Black Cauldron was Disney’s first non-musical animated film.
The movie was also the first Disney animated film to get a PG rating… and one of the studio’s least successful animated films ever.
1987 - Summer School hit theaters.
1987 - La Bamba hit theaters.
1987 - Superman IV hit theaters.
1990 - Judas Priest was accused of sending subliminal messages in their music.
1990 - Pantera’s debut major label album, Cowboys from Hell, was released.
1993 - UB40’s single Can’t Help Falling in Love hit number one.
1996 - A Time to Kill hit theaters.
1998 - Saving Private Ryan hit theaters, as did Disturbing Behavior.
1999 - Will Smith’s single Wild Wild West hit number one.
July 25th
1980 - AC/DC’s album Back in Black was released.
Back in Black is the second-bestselling album in history… but never made it higher than #4 on the Billboard album charts.
Back in Black has sold a reported 50 million copies, putting it only behind Michael Jackson’s Thriller.
But even with that success, it’s never hit number one on the Billboard 200. Back in Black has only made it as high as number four (on several occasions).
1980 - Caddyshack hit theaters.
1981 - Air Supply’s single The One That You Love hit number one.
1983 - Metallica’s debut album Kill ‘Em All was released.
1990 - Roseanne Barr infamously butchered the national anthem.
1990 - Microsoft became the first software company with $1 billion in sales in a year.
1995 - Bone Thugs N Harmony’s album E. 1999 Eternal was released.
1997 - Good Burger hit theaters.
1997 - Air Force One hit theaters.
1998 - The series finale aired of the Weird Science TV spinoff.
1999 - Woodstock 99 ended disastrously.
1999 - Lance Armstrong won his first Tour de France.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Here’s a trailer for the new Lifetime movie about Miss Cleo. There’s also another new trailer out for the Beetlejuice sequel.
NASA just sent its first hip-hop song into space, and it’s Missy Elliott’s 1997 single The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly).
David Duchovny says he auditioned for all three of the male lead rolls in Full House and, obviously, went 0-for-3.
Cypress Hill performed with the London Symphony Orchestra last week… just like The Simpsons predicted in 1996.
A docuseries about Baywatch is coming to Hulu on August 28th.
Sadly, lots of ‘80s and ‘90s celebrities passed away over the last two weeks: Richard Simmons… Shannen Doherty… Benji Gregory, the kid from ALF… Dr. Ruth… and Bob Newhart.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
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Have a great week!
-Sam