Dec 17: Breakin' 2, Scream, You've Got Mail, Pacino
Plus the final number one song of every decade and what they represent
The Retro
by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
December 17th, 2021 • Issue 78
This week in nostalgic history
December 17th
34 years ago, on December 17th, 1987 - Mega Man was released for Nintendo in North America.
I’ve been trying to think of a solid pop culture analogy for the Mega Man franchise. In its three-and-a-half decades there have been 50 games, covering almost every major system ever, selling at least 37 million copies. Those numbers are all incredible. And yet… it’s not really a household name on the level of other major video games.
It’s a franchise that would be quite simple to forget in, say, a Family Feud scenario. (Although in modern Family Feud, Steve Harvey would say “Name a video game character that describes you in bed” and some guy would say “Mega Man” and the Harvey would stare at him in faux appalled silence for 30 seconds while the audience goes wild.)
The analogy I’ve settled on is the Choose Your Own Adventure series. Because you liked it as a kid in the ‘80s or ‘90s, have a couple but not many solid memories about it, and had no idea it kept going and wound up being a series of 184 books selling 250 million copies. (Analogies that I also considered include Guiding Light, the TLC Network, Enya, and the city of San Jose, California which is somehow America’s 10th biggest city.)
Also on December 17th: Tootsie and The Dark Crystal both hit theaters (1982)… Final Fantasy was released in Japan (1987)… The Simpsons premiered on FOX (1989)… MC Hammer’s Addams Groove was released (1991)… the Chuck Norris-Jonathan Brandis movie Sidekicks hit theaters (1992)… The State premiered (1993)… The Pelican Brief, Beethoven’s 2nd, and What’s Eating Gilbert Grape hit theaters (1993)… Ini Kamoze’s Here Comes the Hotstepper peaked at number one (1994)… Cleveland Browns fans destroyed the stadium after the team’s final home game before relocating to Baltimore (1995)… Dru Hill’s single In My Bed was released (1996)… the term “weblog” was first used (1997)… Stuart Little hit theaters
December 18th
23 years ago, on December 18th, 1998 - You’ve Got Mail hit theaters.
The goal: Recapture the chemistry of Sleepless in Seattle with the same actors and same director, almost like you’re making a romantic comedy anthology.
The twist: Name the movie after an American Online catchphrase. (A devotion to product placement that didn’t just date the movie, but also felt hypocritical considering the film discussed all the negatives of giant corporations and their effect on small businesses.)
But in spite of vivid strikes against it, You’ve Got Mail was still a big, big hit — so big it would help power the romantic comedy boom that would soon follow.
Romantic comedies continue to recognize, at least on some level, what You’ve Got Mail taught: it’s fine to build your romantic comedy around something relevant in the moment (in this case AOL) even if it doesn’t necessarily have longevity. As long as you hit all the right notes, people will watch in droves — and go back to the movie long after.
Must Love Dogs is about early 2000s dating sites. The Holiday features home-swapping websites of the mid 2000s. Because I Said So is another online dating movie. Every romantic comedy in the past decade features text messages represented onscreen through graphics. There’s even a new Netflix movie called Love Hard that’s a “fun catfishing” Christmas romcom. And they all have You’ve Got Mail to thank.
Also on December 18th: How the Grinch Stole Christmas premiered on CBS (1996)… Hall and Oates’s single Maneater hit number one (1982)… Eddie Murphy Raw premiered (1987)… women’s wrestler Madusa appeared on WCW Nitro and famously threw the WWF Women’s Championship belt in a garbage can (1995)… HTML 4.0 was published by W3C (1997)… Chris Farley died of a drug overdose at age 33 (1997)… The Prince of Egypt both hit theaters (1998)… after two years of living in a tree to protect it, environmental activist Julia Hill returned to the ground (1999)… Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers hit theaters (2002)
December 19th
41 years ago, on December 19th, 1980 - Raging Bull hit theaters.
Raging Bull was part of the post-Rocky boxing movie boom; in fact, it was from the same producers as Rocky, who only agreed to make a Rocky sequel if they could also make their brutally artsy boxing movie too.
Raging Bull was shot in black and white, in large part to differentiate from Rocky. It was also less of a triumphant underdog story and more a “things fall apart” tragedy. Unfortunately for Raging Bull, audiences (and critics) wanted Rocky and this wasn’t it; but despite middling box office and reviews, the movie received a slew of Oscar nominations. Robert De Niro would even win his only Best Actor Oscar here.
Time and perspective — and distance from Rocky mania — has been kinder to Raging Bull. It’s now viewed as a masterpiece and not a disappointment — a disappointment in its time because of Rocky, even though it only existed in the first place because of Rocky.
Also on December 19th: 9 to 5 hit theaters (1980)… Platoon and Little Shop of Horrors both hit theaters (1986)… Bo Jackson made the NFL Pro Bowl to become the first person to be selected for an all-star game in two pro sports (1990)… the Oakland, Calif., school board passed a resolution declaring Ebonics a language (1996)… Tomorrow Never Dies hit theaters (1997)… Titanic crashed into theaters (1997)… President Clinton was charged with lying under oath to a federal grand jury (1998)… Bret “Hitman” Hart’s wrestling career was ended by a kick to the head from Goldberg at WCW Starrcade (1999)… Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring hit theaters (2001)
December 20th
25 years ago, on December 20th, 1996 - Scream hit theaters.
There’s a point in the life cycle of popular film genres where the films inevitably enter a meta space; the audience is so familiar with the rhythms and tropes of the genre that movies, while not parodies in whole, begin playing with those expectations and winking at the audience while doing so. It happened with westerns as the genre’s popularity entered its third decade. It started happening with modern superhero movies with Deadpool and has continued through The Suicide Squad and others. And in between, it happened with horror movies, with Scream.
Scream arrived about two decades after horror movies became a major movie genre and Scream reveled in breaking down the genre’s conventions. The sexy teens in the movie were both in a horror movie and (mainly via Jamie Kennedy’s exposition) commenting on how things would be going if they were in a horror movie.
In the case of westerns, once the meta rubicon was crossed, the genre essentially couldn’t recover and faded away. Scream, however, had an opposite effect on horror movies. Scream modernized the genre for a new generation and spawned a teen horror boom — a boom which unabashedly continued using all the horror tropes Scream tried to deconstruct.
So Scream, a mega hit itself, shrugged and began pumping out sequels — that act itself a mockable staple of horror franchises. There’s even a new Scream movie coming out next month.
Also on December 20th: The Color Purple and Out of Africa hit theaters (1985)… The Bangles’ single Walk Like an Egyptian hit number one (1987)… the U.S. invaded Panama (1989)… Born on the Fourth of July hit theaters (1989)… the world’s first website went live (1990)… Father of the Bride and JFK hit theaters (1991)… LL Cool J’s single Doin’ It was released (1995)… Beavis and Butt-Head Do America hit theaters (1996)… Apple purchased Steve Jobs’s NeXT (1996)… the Vermont Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples were entitled to the same benefits as opposite sex couples (1999)… Joe Namath tried to kiss Suzy Kolber during a sideline interview (2003)
December 21st
37 years ago, on December 21st, 1984 - Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo hit theaters.
Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo is one of those movies with such a good title that everyone’s heard of it but — I’m pretty sure — no one’s seen it.
It joins others in that category like Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (take that spell check), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, Freddy Got Fingered, Sharknado 5: Global Swarming, and Air Bud: Golden Receiver.
However, having now read the plot summary of Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo, I do kind of want to see it — even though, on some level, it sounds like I’ve seen it before. In note-perfect ‘80s fashion, the plot of Breakin’ 2 is: a rich guy wants to bulldoze a teen center and it’s up to a plucky, misfit group of breakdancers to stop him. Of course it is. Of course it is.
Also on December 21st: Lionel Richie’s single Say You, Say Me hit number one (1985)… Heart’s self-titled album hit number one (1985)… Pan Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland (1988)… Working Girl, Beaches, and Dangerous Liaisons hit theaters (1988)… the U.S. sent troops to Panama (1989)… Vice President Dan Quayle sent out his Christmas card containing a typo (1989)… Mr. Big’s single To Be With You was released (1991)… Ace of Base’s single The Sign was released (1993)… Shaquille O’Neal’s single I Know I Got Skillz was certified gold (1993)… Little Women, Richie Rich, and Mixed Nuts all hit theaters (1994)
December 22nd
42 years ago, on December 22nd, 1979 - Rupert Holmes’ single Escape (The Pina Colada Song) became the final number one song of the decade.
The final number one hit of a decade carries with it outsized notoriety; that song serves as the representative of the bridge between the prior decade and next decade of music.
I’m not sure Escape (The Pina Colada Song) is a great representative of ‘70s music — it doesn’t really encapsulate the good or the bad of the decade’s popular genres. If anything, it feels much more like an ‘80s song than a ‘70s one, perhaps making its spot as the transition between the two decades quite fitting.
I was curious at the other decade bridge songs in recent history as well...
The final number one song of the ‘80s was Phil Collins’s Another Day in Paradise. Feels more ‘80s than ‘90s but we would be entering a period of very melancholy music just a few years after this song was number one.
The final number one of the ‘90s was Santana and Rob Thomas’s Smooth. Not a fantastic representation of the ‘90s but very good for the early ‘00s.
The final number one of the ‘00s was Alicia Keys and Jay-Z’s Empire State of Mind. Feels like a symbolic bridge as hip-hop (and specifically hip-hop collaborations) became the undisputed top pop genre.
And the final number one of the ‘10s was Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You, which really does represent the decade of music sales plummeting to the point where a song from the ‘90s could so easily grab enough sales to top the charts.
Also on December 22nd: Madonna’s single Like a Virgin hit number one (1984)… Bernie Goetz shot four Black teenagers on the New York subway when they may or may not have been attempting to rob him (1984)… Tango & Cash, Born on the Fourth of July, and Roger & Me hit theaters (1989)… Castlevania III was released (1989)… Kindergarten Cop hit theaters (1990)… Philadelphia hit theaters (1993)… Waiting to Exhale and Grumpier Old Men hit theaters (1995)… the series finale aired of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1995)… the FDA approved Propecia (1997)… Any Given Sunday and Man on the Moon hit theaters (1999)… the final game was played on the parquet floor at the Boston Garden (1999)… Cast Away and O Brother Where Art Thou? hit theaters (2000)
December 23rd
29 years ago, on December 23rd, 1992 - Scent of a Woman hit theaters.
Scent of a Woman was a turning point in Al Pacino’s career, because it’s the moment when he started just playing “caricature of Al Pacino” — and he got rewarded well enough for doing so he never stopped.
Yes, there are a few movies before Scent of a Woman with unhinged, in your face, I can’t control the volume of my voice Pacino, but they’re few and far between. And there are a few movies after Scent of a Woman where Pacino tries to play someone other than Al Pacino, but those are also few and far between.
The tipping point was Scent of a Woman, where Pacino got to unleash the Pacino character — and he earned his only Oscar victory in the process. From then on, whether it was a dead serious film like Heat or a lowbrow comedy like Jack and Jill, Al Pacino was just a Xerox of a Xerox of Scent of a Woman.
Also on December 23rd: Good Morning, Vietnam hit theaters (1987)… Gerald Ford attempted assassin Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme escaped from prison (1987)… Street Fighter and Legends of the Fall both hit theaters (1994)… Whitey Bulger escaped from Boston to begin 16 years on the run (1994)… As Good As It Gets hit theaters (1997)… ECW held its final event at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia (2000)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
It was an insane news week around Peloton and the Sex and the City reboot. Turns out (spoiler) Mr. Big dies in the reboot while riding a Peloton. Peloton’s stock actually dropped as a result of that fictional death and the company publicly blamed it on Mr. Big’s other lifestyle factors. Then they quickly whipped up a commercial with Mr. Big actor Chris Noth capitalizing on the publicity. But…then they pulled the viral ad yesterday when two women spoke out about Noth sexually assaulting them.
Bel-Air, the dramatic reboot of Fresh Prince which I always feel compelled to reiterate is an actual real thing, has landed the coveted post-Super Bowl slot for its premiere.
O.J. Simpson’s parole has ended and he is now “a completely free man” according to his attorney.
Avril Lavigne is turning Sk8er Boi into a movie.
Snoop Dogg is working with 50 Cent on an anthology series for Starz about Snoop’s murder trial in 1993.
Analogue Pocket, a fancy new retro device that plays Game Boy cartridges, has been released and here is Kotaku’s review.
Pillsbury has released Lisa Frank unicorn cookie dough.
Ken Kragen, the guy who organized We Are the World and Hands Across America, has passed away at age 85.
Throwbacks and recommendations
Courtney Thorne-Smith was on the podcast Inside Conan and spoke about the famous moment on Late Night with Conan O’Brien where Norm Macdonald comically hijacked her interview. (As I covered in depth in the May 14th issue of The Retro.)
A survey found the TV house people most want to move to would be the mansion from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. The survey also covered TV shows with the best furniture and more.
Here are the most popular Christmas songs for dogs, with WHAM!’s Last Christmas coming in number one.
The first ever ‘90s Con is happening in Connecticut in March and will feature appearances from lots of ‘90s stars, including pretty much everyone from Boy Meets World.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam