Dec 2: SportsCenter, 1st NFL video game, My Heart Will Go On
Plus the greatest TV theme songs and the death of the key change
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 2nd, 2022 • Issue 128
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
December 2nd
34 years ago, on December 2nd, 1988, the 10,000th episode of SportsCenter aired on ESPN.
It took SportsCenter 10,000 episodes to figure itself out.
SportsCenter premiered alongside ESPN itself in September of 1979 and has aired every day since. We’re now sitting at more than 60,000 episodes of SportsCenter — the most of any program in the history of U.S. television.
But it took almost a decade before SportsCenter figured out what it was — and what it wasn’t.
At its inception, SportsCenter was like an extended, national version of the sports segment on any local news broadcast. Baseball highlights and baseball scores. Football highlights and football scores. Maybe a notable blooper. Nothing particularly special or fancy.
The SportsCenter anchors showed flashes of personality — but ultimately, the show was about the sports.
Around the 10,000-episode mark on this day in 1988, the format began to evolve.
Rather than using the traditional sports news format, the show began prioritizing individual events from top to bottom. For instance, a marquee NFL game might be the first thing featured… less crucial games might come later in the show, with NBA, MLB, and anything else in between.
The network also began embracing the humor and personalities of its anchors. Dan Patrick would come to the network in 1989, Keith Olbermann would join him in 1992, and their nightly co-anchored edition of SportsCenter — where they were as much a comedy duo as pair of sports anchors — would become the show’s signature style.
The network even created a hypnotic six-note fanfare for SportsCenter, further building its identity.
The template from SportsCenter would spread to every other show on ESPN and, eventually, to pretty much every other sports show everywhere.
And the changes ESPN made right around this milestone in 1988 continue on today — with no signs of changing or slowing down.
1982 - Barney Clark became the first recipient of an artificial heart, created by Robert Jarvik.
1983 - The almost 14-minute Thriller music video premiered on MTV.
1988 - The Naked Gun hit theaters.
1989 - The series finale aired of The Smurfs.
1990 - Roxette’s single It Must Have Been Love was released.
1993 - Pablo Escobar was killed by police in Medellin, Colombia.
1994 - Cobb hit theaters.
1995 - Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s single One Sweet Day hit number one.
1995 - Ace of Base’s album The Sign was certified by Guinness as the bestselling debut ever.
1997 - Janet Jackson’s single Together Again was released.
2000 - The Smashing Pumpkins played their final concert.
2001 - Enron filed for bankruptcy.
December 3rd
1984 - The Band Aid single Do They Know It’s Christmas was released.
1988 - Barry Sanders won the Heisman Trophy.
1988 - Will to Power’s single Baby, I Love Your Way / Freebird Medley hit number one.
1990 - Nightline aired Madonna’s Justify My Love video.
1991 - Phillips launched the CD-i.
1992 - The Simpsons episode “Lisa’s First Word” aired.
1994 - Boyz II Men’s On Bended Knee hit number one.
1999 - The Mars Polar Lander crashed into Mars.
2001 - The Segway was released.
2002 - Christina Aguilera’s album Stripped was released.
December 4th
1980 - Led Zeppelin broke up.
1981 - Falcon Crest premiered on CBS.
1981 - Warren Beatty’s movie Reds hit theaters.
1982 - Herschel Walker won the Heisman Trophy.
1987 - Madonna filed for divorce from Sean Penn.
1991 - Pan Am ceased operations.
1992 - The Distinguished Gentleman hit theaters.
1997 - The NBA suspended Latrell Sprewell for choking his coach.
December 5th
39 years ago, on December 5th, 1983, NFL Football, the first NFL-licensed video game, hit arcades.
The NFL licensed its first video game in 1983 and there’s a likely explanation why it took them so long. (So long, in fact, that this game came out after the 1983 video game crash that posed an existential threat to the entire industry.)
Video games in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s featured simple graphics and impossible, quarter-draining gameplay. The NFL, always aiming to be a polished, middle-of-the-road product for its entire history, wasn’t amenable to those circumstances.
Which is why NFL Football was not a football video game — at least not in the purest sense of the word.
This game had graphics that resembled the Nintendo graphics of almost a decade later. And it’s because there was plenty of room for nice graphics… because you didn’t actually play football in the game.
It was more like you coached it.
You’d choose an offensive or defensive play. 8-bit teams would run out onto the field. And then… the game would cut to actual footage (via a laserdisc player inside the box) to show you a Raiders-Chargers play with your “result.”
The game had three years’ worth of Raiders-Chargers highlights inside, spliced up to handle any scenario you chose.
So you weren’t playing football; you were picking plays, then watching highlights. Often old highlights of mundane NFL plays. (Here’s some gameplay footage.)
The game was not anything close to a hit. It cost 50 cents to play for two minutes and, once the novelty wore off, everyone saw it for what it was.
But this game itself wasn’t important. What was important was the NFL had unlocked the door to video games. And since then, they’ve had at least one officially-licensed video game (sometimes more) nearly every year since. From John Elway’s Quarterback to Tecmo Bowl to Madden to 2k, this game set the precedent for the NFL to get into the video game realm.
Even if it was a terrible game itself.
1984 - Beverly Hills Cop hit theaters.
1986 - Heartbreak Ridge hit theaters.
1987 - Belinda Carlisle’s single Heaven Is a Place on Earth hit number one.
1992 - Alabama beat Florida in the first SEC championship game.
1997 - Good Will Hunting hit theaters.
1998 - A collaboration I have no memory of and can’t believe existed, a duet between Celine Dion and R. Kelly called I’m Your Angel, hit number one.
1998 - James P. Hoffa, Jimmy Hoffa’s son, became head of the Teamsters’ union 23 years after his father’s disappearance.
2000 - The O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack was released.
December 6th
1964 - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer debuted on NBC.
1986 - Peter Cetera and Amy Grant’s single The Next Time I Fall hit number one.
1990 - The NHL approved two new franchises: Tampa Bay Lightning and Ottawa Senators.
1991 - Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country hit theaters.
1994 - Aaliyah’s single Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number was released.
1994 - Warner Bros. announced The WB, the first new U.S. broadcast network in nearly a decade.
1995 - Michael Jackson was hospitalized after collapsing at a HBO special rehearsal.
1997 - As Good As It Gets hit theaters.
1997 - Tonic’s only hit, If You Could Only See, peaked at number 11.
1998 - Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela, six years after staging a coup and 22 years before he would tamper with U.S. voting machines from beyond the grave.
2001 - Newfoundland was renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.
December 7th
1980 - John Lennon’s single (Just Like) Starting Over hit number one.
1984 - City Heat hit theaters.
1985 - Mr. Mister’s single Broken Wings hit number one.
1985 - Bo Jackson won the Heisman Trophy.
1987 - Remote Control premiered on MTV.
1990 - Ted Turner and Jane Fonda announced their engagement.
1990 - Edward Scissorhands hit theaters.
1994 - Howard Stern talked a caller out of committing suicide.
1995 - The Galileo spacecraft arrived at Jupiter.
1996 - “Celebrity Jeopardy” debuted on Saturday Night Live.
1996 - Toni Braxton’s Un-break My Heart hit number one.
1999 - Blue Man Group’s debut album Audio was released.
2001 - Ocean’s Eleven hit theaters.
December 8th
25 years ago, on December 8th, 1997, Celine Dion’s single My Heart Will Go On was released.
No one involved in My Heart Will Go On was all that hot on doing My Heart Will Go On.
Celine Dion was not particularly enthused to record yet another movie theme (she’d done the signature themes for Beauty and the Beast and Up Close & Personal already).
James Cameron was not so hot on having a mega-commercial song sully the otherwise highfalutin, orchestral Titanic soundtrack.
But Celine ultimately relented and recorded a demo of the song (in one take, as the mythology goes). And Cameron relented and decided a guaranteed-to-be-a-hit theme song would help his standing with the studio. (They were in constant battles over his astronomical budget and creative demands for the film.)
And, from a commercial perspective at least, both made the right decision. The song and movie went on to be stratospheric hits. And it’s largely because, as much as there was reluctance across the board, the song and movie were perfect for each other.
They’re both so far over the top in their cheesiness it’s hard to take them seriously — but both the song and movie take themselves so seriously, people bought in en masse.
And it’s a formula that continues to work over and over — when people are self-aware enough to capitalize on it.
8 Mile’s soundtrack needed “serious” Eminem, not goofy lyric Eminem; Lose Yourself is one of Eminem’s few tracks devoid of puns or comedic wordplay.
Juno’s a quirky indie-ish movie with a quirky indie-ish soundtrack.
The O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack enhanced the movie’s visual aesthetic, characters, and themes.
And that alignment — and its commercial potential — is usually enough to overcome any resistance.
1978 - The Deer Hunter hit theaters.
1980 - John Lennon was shot and killed.
1980 - Bravo debuted on cable.
1982 - Sophie’s Choice hit theaters.
1984 - The series finale aired of Captain Kangaroo.
1984 - The series finale of He-Man aired.
1984 - Larry Flynt was found innocent of libel against Jerry Falwell.
1984 - Hall and Oates’s single Out of Touch hit number one.
1990 - Stevie B’s single Because I Love You (The Postman Song) hit number one.
1993 - NAFTA was signed into law in the U.S.
1994 - The 111th element on the Periodic Table was given the fantastic name Unununium with the symbol Uuu.
1995 - The Grateful Dead announced they were breaking up.
1997 - Celine Dion’s single My Heart Will Go On was released.
2000 - Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon hit theaters.
5 ‘80s and ‘90s trivia facts
Carlton on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is named after the guy who created Lost.
Andy Borowitz, one of the creators of Fresh Prince, named Carlton after his nerdy college roommate, Carlton Cuse. Cuse would go on to create several TV shows including Nash Bridges and Lost.
Nicholas Cage turned down the role of Shrek… because he didn’t want to look ugly as an animated character.
And that’s one of many major film roles Cage turned down. He also passed on Aragorn in Lord of the Rings, Neo in The Matrix, Harry in Dumb and Dumber, and Joel in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
In January of 1996 there were approximately 100,000 websites.
Today there around 1.88 billion.
The sound effects in Jurassic Park where the raptors are communicating are actually tortoises mating.
The sound engineers also used horses for the raptors’ breathing and geese for their hissing.
Salmon sushi didn’t come from Japan — it came from Norway in the ‘80s.
In the ‘80s, Norway had a salmon surplus. So the government hired a trade expert who pitched it as the “next big sushi” to Japanese fish industry executives. They got on board — especially since he offered salmon at rock bottom prices — and salmon sushi took off.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Joe Pesci says he got actual “serious burns” on the top of his head while filming one of the booby trap massacres in Home Alone 2.
The official trailer is out for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which comes out in theaters on June 30th, 2023.
And the official trailer is out for the Super Mario Bros. Movie (including a surprise appearance of the characters in karts).
A teaser trailer is out for That ‘90s Show, the That ‘70s Show spinoff. It comes out on Netflix on January 19th. The only original cast members in the trailer are the parents.
Whoopi Goldberg says the script is finished for Sister Act 3.
There’s a new video game based on Starship Troopers. The game comes out on PC in 2023.
The new Willow reboot series has started on Disney+. And it turns out Val Kilmer was supposed to be in it, but had to back out (at least for this season) because of his health.
The Addams Family reboot Wednesday had the biggest opening week of any English-language show in Netflix history. (Squid Game was bigger.)
Amazon Prime is doing a TV remake of Just Cause, a 1992 novel that became a 1995 Sean Connery movie. In that movie, Scarlett Johansson played Connery’s son. She’s going to star in the new TV series.
After reuniting for their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction this year, the Eurythmics are getting ready to go on a world tour.
Irene Cara of Flashdance and Fame passed away at age 63.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Rolling Stone just put out a list of the 100 greatest TV theme songs of all time. And naturally, a ton of them are from the era covered in this newsletter — especially since TV theme songs became a dying art in the decades that followed.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
The Duck Hunt light zapper gun was a staple of the early Nintendo days. So… how did that thing work? Here’s a layman’s terms explanation of the technology.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
The key change — a staple of pop music throughout the ‘80s (and earlier) — has all but vanished from current hit songs. Here’s what changed throughout the ‘90s and then codified in the modern era to kill the key change.
Have a great week!
-Sam