9/8: What '80s Kids Hit Was Just a Re-Edited Japanese Cartoon?
Plus: Mambo No. 5 almost ruined Stephen King's marriage?
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
September 8th, 2023 • Issue 168
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
September 8th
1986 - Oprah Winfrey’s talk show became nationally syndicated.
1986 - Herschel Walker made his NFL debut after leaving the USFL.
1987 - Gary Hart admitted to adultery.
1989 - Jean-Claude van Damme’s movie Kickboxer hit theaters.
1990 - Bon Jovi’s single Blaze of Glory hit number one.
1990 - Bobby’s World premiered.
The Bobby’s World theme song was co-composed by TV host/musician John Tesh.
It’s one of the two ‘90s theme songs which Tesh composed… along with Roundball Rock, the famed NBA on NBC theme.
1991 - Herman’s Head and Darkwing Duck both premiered.
1993 - MLB’s plan to split into three divisions was approved for the American League.
1994 - Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley appeared together at the MTV VMAs.
1995 - To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar hit theaters.
1996 - Arthur and Blue’s Clues both premiered.
1997 - Ally McBeal premiered on FOX.
1997 - America Online acquired CompuServe.
1998 - Mark McGwire hit his record breaking 62nd home run.
2001 - Afroman’s one hit, Because I Got High, peaked at number 13 and Jennifer Lopez and Ja Rule’s single I’m Real hit number one.
September 9th
1985 - She-Ra: Princess of Power premiered.
1988 - Chicago’s single Look Away was released.
1989 - American Gladiators premiered.
The initial plan for American Gladiators was to have each season’s winners become new gladiators.
The show dropped that plan during the first season… likely because the contestants didn’t quite have the looks, glamour muscles, or perma-tan of the gladiators.
1989 - New Kids on the Block’s single Hangin’ Tough hit number one.
1991 - The Maury Povich Show premiered.
1995 - Pinky and the Brain premiered as a standalone show.
1995 - Skee Lo’s single I Wish peaked at number 13 and Coolio’s Gangsta’s Paradise hit number one.
1995 - The Sony PlayStation was released in North America.
1998 - Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols appeared on Judge Judy.
1999 - The Sega Dreamcast was released.
2001 - Band of Brothers premiered on HBO.
September 10th
1983 - Inspector Gadget premiered.
1983 - Michael Sembello’s single Maniac hit number one.
1984 - Alex Trebek’s first episode as Jeopardy! host aired in syndication.
1984 - Apple’s Macintosh 512K was released.
1984 - Voltron premiered.
Voltron was almost entirely made up of re-edited footage from two Japanese cartoons.
The first season of Voltron was almost entirely re-edited footage from a Japanese show called Beast King GoLion. Then the second season of Voltron was almost entirely re-edited footage from a completely different and unrelated show, called Armored Fleet Dairugger XV.
And despite just being repurposed footage, Voltron was the top-rated syndicated cartoon show for two years.
1988 - Steffi Graf won the grand slam in tennis.
1988 - Guns N’ Roses’ single Sweet Child O’ Mine hit number one.
1989 - Deion Sanders made his NFL debut after hitting a home run in an MLB game five days earlier.
1990 - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air premiered.
1990 - The New Adventures of He-Man premiered.
1991 - Nirvana’s single Smells Like Teen Spirit was released.
1992 - Howard Stern appeared as Fartman at the MTV VMAs.
1992 - Lamb Chop’s Play Along premiered.
1993 - True Romance hit theaters.
1993 - The X-Files premiered.
1994 - The Tick premiered.
1998 - Everlast’s single What It’s Like was released.
September 11th
1977 - The Atari 2600 (aka the Atari VCS) was released.
1982 - Chicago’s single Hard to Say I’m Sorry hit number one.
1985 - Pete Rose collected his record 4,192nd hit.
1987 - Prince’s Paisley Park Studios opened.
1990 - Jesus Jones’s single Right Here, Right Now was released.
Jesus Jones’s Right Here, Right Now contains a line thought to be a jab at Tracy Chapman.
The opening line of Right Here, Right Now is: “A woman on the radio talks about revolution when it's already passed her by.”
That’s widely believed to be a shot at Tracy Chapman and her song Talkin’ Bout a Revolution.
She wasn’t talking about the same revolution in her song as Jesus Jones is in their song. She’s talking about social issues in the U.S., they were more literally focused on the fall of communism in Europe and the Soviet Union.
But still: Shots fired.
1992 - Sneakers hit theaters.
1993 - Mariah Carey’s single Dreamlover hit number one.
1993 - Legends of the Hidden Temple and Saved by the Bell: The New Class both premiered.
1994 - Andre Agassi won his first U.S. Open.
1998 - Rounders hit theaters, as did Simon Birch.
2001 - Jay Z’s album The Blueprint was released on an unfortunate release date.
2002 - Nick Nolte was arrested for drunk driving and took an infamous mugshot.
September 12th
1981 - The Smurfs premiered.
1983 - G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero premiered in syndication.
1989 - Linda Rondstadt and Aaron Neville’s duet Don’t Know Much was released.
1989 - Life Goes On premiered.
1992 - NBC canceled Saturday morning cartoons to focus on live-action shows.
1992 - California Dreams premiered.
1993 - Lois and Clark premiered.
1994 - Party of Five premiered.
1994 - Netscape Navigator launched.
Netscape introduced the idea of webpages loading gradually while the images downloaded.
Before Netscape, browsers wouldn’t load a webpage until all text and images were fully downloaded and ready to display. And since people were on glacially-slow modems in that era… it could take minutes to load one page.
Netscape’s progressive loading made the web a much better experience.
Which is likely why Netscape captured more than half of the browser market within a year of launch.
1995 - Mariah Carey’s single Fantasy was released.
1995 - The Harlem Globetrotters lost a game to a team featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
1997 - The Game hit theaters.
1999 - The Cleveland Browns 2.0 made their debut.
1999 - Farm Aid ‘99 took place in Virginia.
September 13th
1985 - Super Mario Bros. was released for the very first time.
1986 - Pee-Wee’s Playhouse premiered.
1986 - Double’s one hit, The Captain of Her Heart, peaked at number 16 and Berlin’s single Take My Breath Away hit number one.
1990 - Law & Order premiered.
1993 - Animaniacs, the Ricki Lake Show, and Conan O’Brien’s Late Night show all premiered.
1994 - Notorious BIG’s Ready to Die was released.
Notorious BIG recorded Ready to Die during two separate periods in 1993 and 1994… and in between, he sold drugs in North Carolina.
Biggie started recording the album in 1993, after Puff Daddy signed him to Uptown Records.
But Puffy was fired before the album was done, which left the Notorious BIG’s career in limbo. So… Biggie went to North Carolina, where he’d spent some time a few years earlier, and got back into the drug game.
Puffy started his own company, Bad Boy Entertainment, and sent Biggie a ticket back to New York. Biggie got out of North Carolina one day before his drug house was raided by the police.
Then he recorded the second half of Ready to Die in early 1994.
1994 - Blues Traveler’s album four was released.
1995 - The Drew Carey Show premiered.
1996 - Tupac died less than one week after being shot.
1996 - Everybody Loves Raymond premiered.
1997 - Elton John’s Candle in the Wind tribute to Princess Diana was released.
1997 - The Weird Al Show premiered.
1997 - Mariah Carey’s single Honey was released.
1999 - Blind Date premiered.
September 14th
1981 - Entertainment Tonight premiered.
1984 - MTV held the first VMAs.
1985 - The Golden Girls premiered.
1985 - Care Bears premiered in syndication.
1989 - The Duck Tails NES game was released.
1990 - LL Cool J’s Mama Said Knock You Out was released.
1990 - Tiny Toon Adventures premiered.
1990 - Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. hit back-to-back home runs for the Seattle Mariners.
The Griffeys are the only father-son duo to hit back-to-back home runs in a Major League game.
The Griffeys were also the first father and son to play simultaneously in the MLB and the first to be teammates.
The only other father-son pair to play simultaneously were Tim Raines and Tim Raines Jr. They were teammates on the Baltimore Orioles in 2001.
1991 - Paula Abdul’s single The Promise of a New Day hit number one.
1993 - The song Yakko’s World debuted on the second-ever episode of Animaniacs.
1994 - MLB commissioner Bud Selig cancelled the World Series in the strike-shortened baseball season.
1996 - Primitive Radio Gods’ one hit, Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth, peaked at number 10.
1998 - TRL premiered.
1999 - US magazine changed its name to USWeekly.
2000 - Windows ME was released.
2001 - The Nintendo GameCube was released in Japan.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Stephen King says he loved Mambo No. 5 by Lou Bega… he listened to the instrumental version on repeat while writing 11/22/63… and he played it so much his “wife just said, ‘One more time, and I’m going to [effing] leave you.’”
Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel, which has been running on HBO since 1995, is ending after its current season (its 29th).
James Cameron cut a scene in Terminator after the company financing the film demanded he include their friends in the scene. So he filmed it that way… then cut it.
Here’s a trailer for The Super Models, an Apple TV+ docuseries about the rise of four of the most iconic ‘80s supermodels.
And here’s a teaser for the new show based on the Goosebumps books, which reveals it’s going to debut on Friday, October 13th on Disney+.
John Stamos released a lullaby version of the Beach Boys’ Forever… the song he performed three different times on episodes of Full House.
Friends director James Burrows has revealed why Ross’s wife Emily was quickly written off the show.
The two surviving Beastie Boys will be in attendance tomorrow when New York names an intersection “Beastie Boys Square.”
A 30th anniversary edition of Nirvana’s final album, In Utero, is coming out later this month — and includes 53 unreleased tracks.
John Oates says he hasn’t heard from Daryl Hall about the reggae version of Maneater that Oates released in May.
Steve Harwell, the lead singer for Smash Mouth, passed away this week at age 56 from acute liver failure.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Rolling Stone put together the 150 greatest hip-hop videos of all time. As expected, so many of them — including the top 4 — are from the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
I’m so excited, I’m so scared: Here’s a look at the rise of TV’s Very Special Episodes — and how they actually changed people’s lives.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Airplane was a parody of a disaster film — in particular a 1957 film called Zero Hour! Here’s a YouTube video showing how Airplane featured tons of shot-for-shot (and line-for-line) parodies — so much so that the Airplane producers bought the rights to Zero Hour! to make sure they didn’t get in legal trouble.
Have a great week!
-Sam