8/30 - What '90s Show Was Canceled During Its 1st Episode?
Plus trivia on one-hit wonders, NES spinoffs, children's game shows, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
August 30th, 2024 • Issue 219
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
August 30th
1980 - Christopher Cross’s single Sailing hit number one.
1982 - A 16-year-old claimed he invented email and attempted to copyright the word “email.”
1983 - Guion Bluford became the first Black astronaut.
1984 - The space shuttle Discovery launched.
1986 - Steve Winwood’s single Higher Love hit number one.
1994 - Usher’s self-titled debut album was released.
1996 - The Crow: City of Angels hit theaters.
The director of The Crow: City of Angels had such a bad experience he didn’t make another film for 20 years.
Tim Pope, the director of the sequel to The Crow, dealt with endless tampering and interference from Miramax during the production and (especially) editing of the movie.
He directed numerous music videos after but didn’t direct another movie until Drone in 2018. That movie still hasn’t been released.
1997 - Sister Hazel’s one hit, All For You, peaked at number 11.
1997 - The Houston Comets defeated the New York Liberty to win the first WNBA championship.
August 31st
1987 - Michael Jackson’s album Bad was released.
1990 - Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. became the first father-son pair to play on the same MLB team.
1991 - 3rd Bass’s one hit, Pop Goes the Weasel, peaked at number 29.
1991 - Metallica’s self-titled album (commonly referred to as the “Black Album”) hit number one.
1993 - Mariah Carey’s album Music Box was released.
1994 - Milk Money hit theaters.
1994 - 20 Fingers’ novelty song Short D* Man was released.
During the promotional tour for Short D* Man, singer Sandra Gillette performed the song on a children’s show.
Gillette performed the song on Xuxa Hits, a children’s show in Brazil with the famous host Xuxa.
Gillette performed the uncensored version of the song… and some of the kids in the crowd appeared to be singing the original, uncensored lyrics.
1999 - The Dixie Chicks album Fly was released.
September 1st
1984 - Tina Turner’s single What’s Love Got to Do with It hit number one.
1985 - The remains of the Titanic were discovered.
1987 - Stadium Events, the rarest of all the games for the original Nintendo Entertainment System, was released.
1988 - Hudson’s Adventure Island was released for NES.
Adventure Island was originally developed as a direct port of a Sega arcade game… but due to a rights issue, it got a different name and different looking characters.
Adventure Island was a direct port of Sega’s Wonder Boy game. But since Sega had the exclusive rights to those characters, the developers at Hudson Soft changed the name, characters, and settings for Adventure Island.
Adventure Island has had many sequels since, but those are not related to the Wonder Boy series.
1990 - Luther Vandross’s single Here and Now was released
1990 - Stevie B.’s single Because I Love You (The Postman Song) was released.
1991 - E! News premiered.
1994 - The Head premiered on MTV.
1994 - The Independent Film Channel debuted.
1997 - The Disney Channel went from a paid channel to part of regular cable.
1998 - Harry Potter & the Sorcerer’s Stone was released in the U.S.
1999 - Outside Providence hit theaters.
September 2nd
1989 - Paula Abdul’s Cold Hearted hit number one on the Billboard charts.
1991 - Garth Brooks’s album Ropin’ the Wind was released.
Ropin’ the Wind was the first album to debut at number one on both the Billboard Country Albums chart and the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.
The album has also sold more than 14 million units and won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance.
1995 - Michael Jackson’s single You Are Not Alone hit number one.
1995 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame officially opened to the public in Cleveland.
1998 - David Bowie launched his ISP, Bowienet.
September 3rd
1983 - The Eurythmics’ single Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) hit number one.
1991 - Naughty By Nature’s debut album was released.
1992 - A TV show called Australia’s Naughtiest Home Videos was canceled just over a half hour into its premiere.
Australia’s Naughiest Home Videos is quite possibly the only TV show ever pulled off the air and canceled during its debut episode.
The show was a spin-off of Australia’s Funniest Home Video Show, featuring the more risque videos that weren’t right for such a family-oriented program.
But the owner of Australia’s Nine Network was so offended by the show — which aired at 8:30 P.M. — that he ended the airing after 38 minutes and 55 seconds. The network aired a rerun of Cheers for the rest of the timeslot.
While there have been plenty of TV shows canceled after one episode, this remains the only documented case where a show was cut off for good during its debut episode.
1999 - Mario Lemieux became the first pro athlete to buy a team he once played for when his group took over ownership of the Pittsburgh Penguins.
September 4th
1991 - The asterisk next to Roger Maris’s home run record was dropped.
1993 - Jim Abbott, the MLB pitcher who was born without a right hand, threw a no-hitter.
1994 - The NFL saw its first two-point conversion.
1994 - Season six of The Simpsons began with the episode “Bart of Darkness.”
1995 - Xena: Warrior Princess debuted.
1995 - WCW Monday Nitro premiered on TNT.
1998 - Google was incorporated.
1998 - Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? aired for the first time ever, in the U.K.
No one won the million on the first run of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in the U.K. — and no one would for more than two years.
The original Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? was a six-episode run in the U.K., where the top winner took home £64,000.
The first winner of £1,000,000 wouldn’t come until November 20th, 2000.
(Which is probably why the U.S. spinoff version lobbed contestant John Carpenter a series of softballs to quickly get a $1,000,000 winner on the books.)
1999 - Enrique Iglesias’s single Bailamos hit number one.
2002 - Kelly Clarkson won the first season of American Idol.
September 5th
1976 - The Muppet Show premiered.
1983 - Sports Illustrated became the first full-color weekly magazine.
1987 - American Bandstand aired for the last time on ABC after 30 years (it went on two more years in syndication).
1988 - The children’s game show Fun House premiered.
Fun House was the first FOX Kids’ show to be canceled.
Fun House was part of the wave of children’s game shows to come out in the wake of Double Dare’s success.
Fun House aired in syndication for two years, then became a FOX show for its third and final season. When FOX canceled it in April 1991, that was the first casualty ever of their nascent FOX Kids’ lineup.
1989 - Deborah Norville became the anchor of the Today Show.
1989 - Chris Evert retired from tennis.
1997 - Mother Teresa passed away at age 87.
1998 - Aerosmith’s single I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing hit number one.
2001 - The Amazing Race premiered on CBS.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Oasis is reuniting (they haven’t played together since 2009) and will be going on tour in the U.K. next summer.
A remake of 1987’s La Bamba is in the works.
Here’s the official teaser for Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. It comes out on Netflix on September 19th.
Michael Crichton’s estate is suing Warner Bros. Television over its upcoming drama The Pitt on MAX. Why? Because they say it’s an unauthorized ER spinoff. Noah Wyle is starring in The Pitt after originally planning to reboot ER… so that all tracks.
Alex Proyas, the director of the original Crow movie in 1994, has been very publicly celebrating the new remake flopping at the box office.
Nicole Kidman says she took a role in 1995’s Batman Forever because “I get to kiss Batman.”
The old timey baseball field where A League of Their Own was filmed burned down last week. The field, in Ontario, Calif., was designated a historical landmark in 2003.
Get Your Book-It Stickers Here
Recommended articles about ‘80s and ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, and never knew existed
Why 1994 was the “last good year” — just before everything began to migrate online and change the culture forever.
Check out Entertainment Weekly’s list of the 25 best TV series finales ever, many of which are from ‘80s and ‘90s classics.
50 times celebrities made cameos in music videos — a lot of which I’d completely forgotten or never knew about in the first place.
Have a great week!
-Sam
The "Australia's Naughtiest Home Videos" wikipedia page is hilarious. Thanks for the find.