Dec 18: I Saw the Sign, Titanic, Chris Farley
Plus Big Poppa, the first website, the ECW Arena, and more
The Retro
by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
December 18, 2020 • Issue 26
This week in nostalgic history
December 18th
23 years ago, on December 18th, 1997 - Chris Farley died of a drug overdose at age 33.
Chris Farley’s death was one of those tragedies that’s shocking but not, sadly, surprising. He had demons that played out in the public eye. He was in and out of rehab. But, maybe worst of all, the world had become accustomed to comedy figures who looked like Farley and performed like Farley dying young. So when he died at age 33—the same age the John Belushi was when he died from a drug overdose—the callous but inevitable interpretation was a tragic data point in a pattern.
It’s still so very sad we lost Farley young. If there is any silver lining to glean posthumously, however, it’s that the more or less pattern stopped there. Whether it was the next generation of comedians seeing the damage drugs had done to all of their heroes and deciding not to continue down that road, changes on an industry-wide level in the attitude toward and acceptance of drug use and abuse, or both, there is no longer an preordained inevitability that full-bodied comedy figures doing full-bodied comedy at 200 miles-per-hour were destined to crash and burn.
Also on December 18th: Eddie Murphy Raw premiered (1987)… HTML 4.0 was published by W3C (1997)… You’ve Got Mail and The Prince of Egypt both hit theaters (1998)
December 19th
23 years ago, on December 19th, 1997 - Titanic crashed into theaters.
The story of Titanic (the movie) is well known at this point — it was the most expensive movie ever made and also the highest grossing (until Avatar). So instead, I’m going to talk about a behind-the-scenes story from Titanic that’s a lesser-known but captivating unsolved Hollywood crime.
During one late night Titanic shoot in Nova Scotia, Canada, someone spiked the clam chowder at craft services with PCP. (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet were not on set at the time; but James Cameron was and ate the chowder. Although I’m not sure anyone would be able to spot how it altered his personality in any way.)
The movie had to stop production for the night as the entire crew was rushed to the hospital in the middle of the night. The hospital tried to treat everyone but, you know, they were all hopped up on PCP so they were running amok, racing wheelchairs, and causing chaos. Eventually the staff got them all to drink something to detox, and they all went home. Then they were back the next day to keep filming.
To this day, no one knows who spiked the clam chowder on the set of Titanic. But if you ever watch the movie again, just know that at some point, you’re watching a scene behind shot by something like 100 people all of whom were dealing with raging PCP comedowns.
Also on December 19th: Raging Bull hit theaters (1980)… Platoon and Little Shop of Horrors both hit theaters (1986)… Tomorrow Never Dies hit theaters (1997)… President Clinton was charged with lying under oath to a federal grand jury (1998)
December 20th
30 years ago, on December 20th, 1990 - The world’s first website went live.
Today is a milestone anniversary in the early internet, the 30th anniversary of when Tim Berners-Lee at CERN in Switzerland put up a website about, well, the concept of a website. (That website is still live, sort of; it’s lost to time, but was “restored” to its original URL in 2013.)
You can see Berners-Lee’s vision for the modern internet in both what’s said and unsaid in this website. Notably absent are any pictures or even references to a visual component of the internet; he envisioned the web as a place for the exchange of ideas and written words, not graphics. The web in practice hasn’t turned out that way, although much to the chagrin of everyone who’s ever made the ill-fated “pivot to video,” people still have some desire to just read interesting stuff on the internet.
Also on December 20th: The Color Purple and Out of Africa hit theaters (1985)… The Bangles’ single Walk Like an Egyptian hit theaters (1987)… the U.S. invaded Panama (1989)… 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 and Scream both his theaters (1996)… Joe Namath tried to kiss Suzy Kolber (2003)
December 21st
27 years ago, on December 21st, 1993 - Ace of Base’s single The Sign was released.
The Sign wasn’t just one of the catchiest and most popular songs of the ‘90s — it was also the moment when Ace of Base looked like they just might live up to all the “next ABBA” talk.
There were a lot of… ok fine, I’ll say the line… signs that Ace of Base was groomed and positioned to take over the mantle from ABBA. They were a Swedish pop foursome, two male and two female, who made addictive earworms. And, well, that was enough.
The Sign was an international hit, reaching number one in 10 counties (including the U.S. but, oddly enough, not Sweden where they peaked at number two).
So… what happened? It was a mix of things, mainly Ace of Base’s follow-up album failing to catch on or have any huge hits, followed by a decade-long struggle to recapture any of the lightning in the bottle of The Sign days. And also, there was only one will only ever be one ABBA.
Also on December 21st: Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo hit theaters (1984)… Mr. Big’s single To Be With You was released (1991)… Little Women, Richie Rich, and Mixed Nuts were released (1994)
December 22nd
30 years ago, on December 22nd, 1990 - Kindergarten Cop hit theaters.
Kindergarten Cop was a movie I’d give a grade of “fine plus.” I doubt it’s anyone’s favorite movie, or a movie anyone’s felt compelled to watch more than once. But Kindergarten Cop played a seminal role in defining the career template of a big-time action star. After an action star knocks out (1) a bunch of hardcore action hits and then (2) an adult-focused comedy or two to prove their charisma transfers cross-genre, they move on to (3) a family movie. Schwarzenegger was the first, but movies like The Pacifier, The Tooth Fairy, The Spy Next Door, Daddy’s Home, My Spy, and Suburban Commando show he established a template with staying power.
Also on December 22nd: Rupert Holmes’ single Escape (The Pina Colada Song) became the final number one song of the decade (1979)… Madonna’s single Like a Virgin hit number one (1984)… Tango & Cash, Born on the Fourth of July, and Roger & Me hit theaters (1989)… Castlevania III was released (1989)… Waiting to Exhale and Grumpier Old Men hit theaters (1995)… the series finale aired of Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1995)… Man on the Moon hit theaters (1999)… the final game was played on the parquet floor at the Boston Garden (1999)… O Brother Where Art Thou? and Miss Congeniality hit theaters (2000)
December 23rd
20 years ago, on December 23rd, 2000 - ECW held its final event at the ECW Arena in Philadelphia.
ECW, short for Extreme Championship Wrestling, was a small, low-budget wrestling promotion that wound up redefining the genre and ushering the pro wrestling industry’s most successful era (the late ‘90s boom). It redefined the genre through a formula of ultra-talented but undersized international wrestlers putting on artistic undercard matches — followed by charismatic, non-cartoonish, outlaw American wrestlers putting on ultraviolent main events.
ECW’s home was, famously, a bingo hall in south Philadelphia. Over time, the site became a wrestling mecca. (For instance, when Tony Khan, now the owner of the U.S.’s up-and-coming wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling, was offered the opportunity by his billionaire father to go anywhere in the world as a high school graduation present, he picked the ECW Arena.)
But ECW’s impact far outpaced its revenue; it was impossible to compete with the budgets of WWF and WCW at the time, as the minimalist authenticity of wrestling in a grimy bingo hall did have its limitations. Eventually, the larger promotions hired away all of ECW’s top talent with offers they couldn’t refuse and began infusing ECW’s renegade spirit into their presentations. (For an analogy, think of the hip-hop industry over the past three decades.)
So ECW wrapped up its short (less than six years) but legendary run in the ECW Arena on this day in 2000, holding a show with whoever was left on their roster for a gate of 1,000 fans. The promotion officially went out of business less than four months later.
Also on December 23rd: Good Morning, Vietnam hit theaters (1987)… Scent of a Woman hit theaters (1992)… Street Fighter and Legends of the Fall both hit theaters (1994)… As Good As It Gets hit theaters (1997)
December 24th
26 years ago, on December 24th, 1994 - Notorious B.I.G.’s single Big Poppa was released.
Big Poppa, the song that confusingly gave a new rapper on the scene his third nickname, was the second single off Notorious B.I.G.’s debut album, Ready to Die. It was also the song that took him from “the audience-at-large is starting to recognize him” to “oh, this guy is a huge deal.” The song would reach number six on the Billboard chart, outpacing the first single, Juicy, a better song but one that only made it to 27th place.
Big Poppa is an interesting moment in hip-hop not just because of what it did to Notorious B.I.G.’s overall popularity, but because it was a declarative respite in the snowballing celebration of misogyny in hip-hop lyrics. Sure, the lyrics aren’t exactly 2020-level woke, but they were a statement in the wake of all the Ain’t No Funs of the hip-hop world. Biggie sharing his pickup technique (“Ask you what your interests are, who you be with, things to make you smile”) and then agreeing to follow up on at the woman’s convenience and based on her preferences are downright charming, especially considering the overarching attitudes toward women and exaggerated hyper masculinity of that era of hip-hop.
Also on December 24th: Poison’s single Every Rose Has Its Thorn hit number one (1988)… Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman got married (1990)… Tombstone hit theaters (1993)… Woody Allen married Soon-Yi Previn (1997)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
Rachael Leigh Cook has joined the She’s All That reboot, not as the focus of a f****** bet but as the mom of the main character.
A new survey on the annual debate over whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie had 34 percent saying yes, 44 percent saying no, and 13 percent of people I do not choose to associate with saying they’ve never seen it.
Seth MacFarlane is rebooting Revenge of the Nerds but without all of the stuff that holds up beyond horribly.
The Library of Congress’s National Film Registry added 25 new movies for 2020 including The Blues Brothers, The Joy Luck Club, and several others from this newsletter’s time frame of note.
Hilary Duff announced the Lizzie McGuire reboot is off: “The stars just didn’t align.”
The CEO of Cameo has apologized for revealing that Larry “Soup Nazi” Thomas makes “six figures a year” on the site.
An L.A. Law sequel featuring Blair Underwood reprising his role is in the works for ABC.
Throwbacks and recommendations
On my website 11 Points, I wrote about the nuances and influences of the first-ever episode of The Simpsons, their Christmas special which aired 31 years ago yesterday.
Here’s a surprisingly scientific attempt to figure out the sexiest movies of all time based on quantitative data. A good number of the movies on the list are from this newsletter’s target time frame. (Basic Instinct, et. al.)
The original reviews of 10 Christmas movie classics show some prominent critics were not on board with movies like National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation or Home Alone at first.
Here’s a dive into the “worst episode ever” of the Super Mario World cartoon, an ill-advised Christmas episode.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam