April 30: Austin Powers, Smash Mouth, Castlevania

Plus the first iMac, Ellen comes out, and more

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The Retro by 11 Points

Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia

April 30th, 2021 • Issue 45

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This week in nostalgic history

April 30th

24 years ago, on April 30th, 1997 - Ellen on Ellen became the first openly gay TV character.

To see how much society can change in a quarter of a century, look no further than this moment in TV history. On this day, 24 years ago, it was a legitimate groundbreaking moment when Ellen DeGeneres, starring as Ellen on the sitcom Ellen, aligned her TV character’s sexual orientation with her own — as in this episode, she came out as gay. (And the show played the moment well, both recognizing its historic nature but also respecting its sitcom roots. As Ellen comes out, she accidentally announces it to an airport over a live microphone; the studio audience responds with both cheers and laughs.)

There’s no doubt Ellen grappled with the decision to come out at the time, both in real life and on the show, and worried about the potential negative effects on her thriving career. However, in a twist few could’ve seen coming, as the years have gone on, history and society have shined far more kindly on gay TV characters than, well, Ellen herself. Today, a gay character on a TV show (or even, of late, in a commercial) registers nary a blip on the radar, at least not outside of the dutiful dunces of the perpetual outrage society. Meanwhile, Ellen’s stock has dropped because, pioneer or not, countless reports of her behavior toward her staff and the environment she fostered at her talk show cast too strong a shadow over her success. It’s fitting, really, that this moment 24 years ago that some, no doubt, believed could be the beginning of the end of her career was not — in fact, it was a springboard. Everyone loved Ellen (remember when she got a standing ovation after hosting the post-9/11 Academy Awards?) and her downfall came not from external bigotry but from her own internal actions after reaching unprecedented heights of success.

• Also on April 30th: Friday the 13th Part 2 hit theaters (1981)… Michael Jackson’s single Beat It hit number one (1983)… Madonna’s song La Isla Bonita became her 11th-straight top five single (1987)… Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon dropped out of the Billboard 200 for the first time in 725 weeks (1988)… Celine Dion won the Eurovision Song Contest (1988)… CNBC launched as the first financial-focused cable network (1989)… the long lost pilot to I Love Lucy aired (1990)… the series finale aired of the Cosby Show (1992)… a time capsule was buried in front of the Nickelodeon Studios, to be opened in 2042 (1992)… Monica Seles was stabbed by a crazed fan (1993)… Beck’s only top 40 hit, Loser, peaked at number 10 (1994)… during a brawl between the Knicks and Heat, Jeff Van Gundy wrapped around Alonzo Mourning’s leg (1998)… Entrapment and Idle Hands both hit theaters (1999)

May 1st

34 years ago, on May 1st, 1987 - Castlevania was released for the NES.

As I tried to think of a metaphor to sum up Castlevania, the best I could come up with is: Castlevania is like the Meat Loaf of video games. The singer, not the food, although I could try to make that labored metaphor work as well I suppose.

If you were listing your favorite video game franchises, you probably wouldn’t think of Castlevania, even though you probably loved at least one of the games as a kid (or even as an adult). One of the first games I ever got for Nintendo was the game that came out this day in 1987, Castlevania, and I played the hell out of it (even though, to date, it remains one of the few NES games I owned that I never beat). I also loved Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest. And Castlevania III sort of, I think. Similarly, if you were listing some of your favorite musical acts of all time, you probably wouldn’t think of Meat Loaf, even if all eight minutes of I’d Do Anything for Love will get stuck in your head in about three bars.

Also, if you were listing the bestselling video game franchises of all time, you probably wouldn’t think of Castlevania, even though it’s encompassed dozens of games (not to mention numerous spinoffs in other mediums, including the Netflix animated series). But there it is on the bestseller list, with ~20 million copies sold, alongside franchises like Prince of Persia, Frogger, and Spider-Man. Ditto Meat Loaf, who sits at ~80 million albums sold, right by Tom Petty, Van Halen, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and (although I’m not sure this helps or hurts the strength of my analogy) Flo Rida.

Oh, and Castlevania and Meat Loaf both had all their success through being dark, spooky, and dramatic in the campiest possible way.

• Also on May 1st: Billie Jean King announced her relationship with a woman and was now the first prominent openly gay female athlete (1981)… the series finale aired for Magnum P.I. (1988)… police reported to a call about a suspicious person in a jewelry store, who turned out to be Michael Jackson in disguise (1989)… Disney-MGM Studios theme park opened in Florida (1989)… Nolan Ryan threw his record seventh no-hitter and Rickey Henderson broke the career record for stolen bases (1991)… Rodney King asked, “Can we all get along?” (1992)… Silk’s single Freak Me hit number one (1993)… the series finale aired for the original American Gladiators (1996)… the series finale aired for Martin (1997)… He Got Game hit theaters (1998)… SpongeBob SquarePants premiered on Nickelodeon (1999)… ABC aired the first celebrity edition of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” (2000)

May 2nd

24 years ago, on May 2nd, 1997 - Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery hit theaters.

I always think of Mike Myers movies dominating the ‘90s, but that wasn’t really the case. Wayne’s World came out in 1992, followed by So I Married an Axe Murderer and Wayne’s World 2 in 1993… and then Mike Myers doing movies as he returned to Saturday Night Live even after his initial success branching out.

So it wasn’t until 1997 that he’d re-emerge in theaters with Austin Powers — two years after he left SNL and four years since his last movie. As a result, he was not exactly a red hot commodity at the time. And that wasn’t the only misstep in the timing — James Bond wasn’t a red hot commodity at the time either. I was a member of Myers’ target demographic in every way in 1997, and the Bond films weren’t on my radar. Many of my fellow teenagers were no doubt in the same boat. The only Bond movies to come out since Myers’ key fanbase were moviegoing age were Timothy Dalton’s License to Kill in 1989 and Pierce Brosnan’s GoldenEye in 1995. The franchise was as close to dead in the water as ever. An entire generation barely knew the tropes, the beats, the kitsch of the Bond movies. And that generation was the one that Mike Myers needed to get his new Austin Powers franchise off the ground.

Yet somehow, even with quite a bit working against him… he managed to do it. Austin Powers wasn’t a runaway hit in the movie theaters (it debuted at number two, then settled into the mid top 10 range through May and June) — but it found a massive second life as a “hey, you gotta watch this” movie on VHS. It was so funny, and Myers was so committed to the characters, you didn’t need a base of Bond knowledge to appreciate it. You would’ve probably needed a base of Bond knowledge to be motivated to see it in theaters, which is why it stagnated there and truly thrived only after it hit the word-of-mouth zone.

The Austin Powers franchise would end after three movies, in large part due to Myers’ eccentricities (as well as one hell of a shark jumping third movie); in retrospect, the franchise probably could’ve continued just as indefinitely as the Bond series it parodied, constantly reinventing itself and adapting from era to era and audience to audience.

• Also on May 2nd: Sheena Easton’s single Morning Train (Nine to Five) hit number one (1981)… the Weather Channel debuted (1982).. Cutting Crew’s single (I Just) Died in Your Arms hit number one (1987)… Paula Abdul’s single Rush Rush was released (1991)… Nelson Mandela won South Africa’s first democratic election (1994)… police arrested a prostitute with Eddie Murphy (1997)… Breakdown hit theaters (1997)… John Elway retired from the NFL (1999)

May 3rd

43 years ago, on May 3rd, 1978 - The first spam email was sent by the Digital Equipment Corporation.

Email spam was around well before most people had ever heard of email. The spam we still receive today started on this day not in a malicious fashion, per se, but definitely a reckless one. A marketing rep from the Digital Equipment Corporation sent an unsolicited, all caps promo (it more resembles a long telegraph message than what we know email to look like) for a new line of computers to every email address at his disposal: all 393 of them.

The response was reportedly negative — although it did lead to a few sales. And that’s essentially the perfect start of this medium. It emblematic of every spam email since, even if modern spam is sent to 393 people per millisecond rather than in total. Everyone hates it. Everyone wonders why people would send it. And yet, it leads to a few sales; just enough to keep the spam coming and coming indefinitely.

• Also on May 3rd: Dell Computers was founded (1984)… Robert Palmer’s single Addicted to Love hit number one (1986)… Poison’s album Open Up and Say… Ahh! was released (1988)… Nancy Reagan admitted to using psychic advisors (1988)… 2 Live Crew’s single Banned in the U.S.A. was released (1990)… the series finale aired of Dallas (1991)… the L.A. riots ended after five days (1992)… The Craft hit theaters (1996)… White Town’s only hit, Your Woman, peaked at number 23 (1997)… The Notorious B.I.G.’s single Hypnotize hit number one (1997)… Katrina and the Waves won the Eurovision Song Contest (1997)

May 4th

22 years ago, on May 4th, 1999 - Smash Mouth’s single All Star was released. (see below: as were two others)

There were three major singles released on this day. There was Jennifer Lopez’s debut single, If You Had My Love. There was Will Smith’s latest movie tie-in rap (back in the glorious era when he used to make those) with Wild Wild West. And then, there was Smash Mouth’s All Star.

Jennifer Lopez’s song was the biggest hit. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and would even reach number 46 on Billboard’s 1990s decade chart.

Wild Wild West was also a big hit; a bigger success than the movie from which it came. It was also a number one hit in 1999.

All Star wasn’t quite as successful as those (although it did reach number four on the chart). But as time has gone on? All Star is the crown jewel of the May 4th, 1999, single release date. Because from the moment All Star came out, it was everywhere — and it’s stayed everywhere ever since. It was in two movies in 1999, Mystery Men and Inspector Gadget. It showed up a few years later with a Smash Mouth concert serving as the super random climax of Rat Race. More notably, it showed up in Shrek, exposing it to an even wider audience (and younger generation).

In the two decades that have followed, All Star has shown up in YouTube videos, commercials, TV shows, memes, and viral videos galore. Smash Mouth sometimes even fights with people on Twitter when they mock the song. And while it’s not at the level of, say, Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up, it’s in the same ballpark of songs that have transcended whatever they once were and have become part of the collective internet weirdness. Truly, the song was a shooting star that broke the mold.

• Also on May 4th: Breakin’ and Sixteen Candles hit theaters (1984)… Voices That Care peaked at number 11 on the Billboard charts (1991)… the BoDeans’ one hit, Closer to Free, peaked at number 16 (1996)… Mariah Carey’s single Always Be My Baby hit number one (1996)… one of the “darkest comedy” Simpsons episodes, Homer’s Enemy, aired (1997)… the Unabomber received four life sentences (1998)… Jennifer Lopez’s debut single, If You Had My Love, was released, as was Will Smith’s single Wild Wild West (1999)… the series finale aired for NewsRadio (1999)

May 5th

27 years ago, on May 5th, 1994 - American teenager Michael Fay was caned in Singapore for theft and vandalism.

The Michael Fay saga was a pure pre-internet phenomenon. Today, a story like Michael Fay’s would certainly spark tweets and thinkpieces and primetime cable news shout-o-ramas — until people moved on in roughly 23 hours to the next story worthy of the tweet/thinkpiece/shout-o-rama treatment.

But in 1994? The Michael Fay story all the time it needed to breathe. Fay was an American teenager living in Singapore with his mother and stepfather who was caught vandalizing cars and stealing road signs. Singapore is famous for vigilant cleanliness (chewing gum has been banned there since 1992, for instance), so a vandalism charge wouldn’t just get you a slap on the wrist. (Pun I guess intended but I’m not proud of it.) Fay was sentenced to six lashes from a cane; corporal punishment that was certainly not commonplace in the U.S. And Fay, as an American citizen, was the first of such to receive this punishment.

President Clinton tried to intervene and asked for leniency; as a result, Fay wound up receiving four lashes on his buttocks on this day, not the original six. He would be deported back to the U.S. in June of 1994 and as of 2018, he was living in Ohio and working as a casino manager.

If this story were to happen today, yes, there would be some anger over this punishment — but we’d also see plenty of counterarguments on privilege, ugly Americanism, and entitlement. In a look at how society has changed, I don’t recall much of that in 1994; instead, all fixation was on Singapore and its archaic punishment, perceived by an angry west as medieval and inhumane.

• Also on May 5th: Cleveland was chosen as the site of the future Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (1986)… Billy Idol’s single Cradle of Love was released (1990)… TaleSpin premiered (1990)… Calloway’s one hit, I Wanna Be Rich, peaked at number two (1990)… Wolfenstein 3D was released (1992)… House of Pain’s single Jump Around (1992)… Quantum Leap’s series finale aired (1993)… the final basketball game was played at the Boston Garden (1995)… the series finale aired of Boy Meets World (2000)

May 6th

23 years ago, on May 6th, 1998 - Steve Jobs introduced the original iMac.

Before the iMac came out in 1998, computers were, almost by rule, utilitarian in their design. Big, ugly, usually beige or gray computer towers accompanied big, ugly, usually beige or gray monitors. Function took precedence over form in basically all major electronics in that era, but especially computers.

As Apple tried to concoct a plan to stand out in the marketplace following Steve Jobs’ return to the company, they zeroed in on design as an area with real opportunity. The iMac marked the first computer designed by the team of Jobs and new lead designer Jony Ive and, well, it was bright blue and translucent and looked quite literally nothing like the other computers on the market. It also featured the one-piece monitor/computer and, famously, no floppy disc drive. (The first, but certainly not last, time Apple successfully forced obsolescence a traditional component of the computer.)

The computer was designed to be fun and easy — fun to look at, easy to set up, easy to use, easy to get online. And it achieved those goals, forging along the way a sharp contrast to the more complex computer systems of the time, systems which required plugging lots of things into the correct places in the correct order.

But it all comes back to the design on the iMac. Its success empowered Apple to become, well, just about the most obsessive company in history about its hardware design. The reverberations of the iMac were felt in every subsequent product launch, from the iPod to the Mac Pro and everything in between.

Now, 23 years later, Apple just unveiled its ninth generation of iMacs… and the first to bring in eye-catching colors since the O.G. iMac in 1998.

• Also on May 6th: The design was chosen for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial (1981)… the series finale aired of 227 (1990)… Sierra Network was released (1991)… Clean Slate hit theaters (1994)… Paula Jones sued Bill Clinton (1994)… the Channel tunnel between England and France opened (1994)… Bobcat Goldthwait lit the couch on fire on the Tonight Show (1994)… the Hartford Whalers relocated to Raleigh (1997)… Amy Fisher received parole after seven years (1999)

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Everything old is new again

A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.

• Domino’s is bringing back the Noid. His new evil plan is to stop Domino’s emergent technology, like self-driving delivery cars.

• A woman in Texas found out she had outstanding felony charges after she rented a VHS of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch TV series back in 1999 and never returned it. The video store went out of business in 2008 and the DA’s office has decided to drop the charges.

• Someone on YouTube created the Game Man — a custom 3-D printed giant (but functioning) Game Boy.

• Patrick Renna (Ham from The Sandlot) recreated his famous “wear a striped shirt, hold a bat, and point” scene in honor of the movie’s 28th anniversary.

• Gloria Estefan is now part of the Father of the Bride remake, along with Andy Garcia.

• Someone managed to mine for Bitcoin on a Commodore 64.

• The actor who was set to play He-Man in the Masters of the Universe reboot movie has dropped out.

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Throwbacks and recommendations

• Here’s a look back at McDonald’s McJordan burger from the early ‘90s.

• 32 bands that don’t actually have ‘the’ in their names — lots in the ‘80s and ‘90s timeframe, and some real surprises.

• A jaw-droppingly creepy scene from the pilot for Doogie Howser, M.D. is going viral.

• Someone made a ‘90s extreme comic book character generator. Look out for Motorpower the Sharpshooter, member of Punk Force.

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Thanks for reading!

-Sam