Dec 30: Calvin and Hobbes, Unsolved Mysteries, TV-MA LSV
Plus the best New Year's Eve episodes of '80s and '90s TV shows
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 30th, 2022 • Issue 132
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
December 30th
1980 - NBC canceled The Wonderful World of Disney after 25 years.
1981 - Stevie Wonder’s single That Girl was released.
1990 - George Harrison and his wife were attacked during a robbery.
1990 - Scott Skiles set the NBA single-game assist record with 30.
1991 - Genesis’ single I Can’t Dance was released.
December 31st
27 years ago, on December 31st, 1995, Calvin and Hobbes ended after a 10-year run.
Calvin and Hobbes has an outsized footprint considering three factors:
Its relatively short run
That run coming in the waning days of the funny pages
And considering how mercurial and eccentric its creator, Bill Watterson, was from start to finish
Watterson took two sabbaticals during the comic’s 10-year run: A nine-month break in 1991-92 and another nine-month break for most of 1994.
He refused to merchandise the comic strips; there’s never been an official line of stuffed animals and outside of compilation books, he signed off on less than five products total. (And no, he makes no money on unauthorized images of Calvin peeing on things.)
He rejected an animated series.
He demanded a half-page of newspaper space and non-traditional layouts for his comics after Calvin and Hobbes became a phenomenon.
But as difficult as Watterson may have been to work with… from an artistic perspective, he got it.
Calvin and Hobbes arrived fully baked; there were almost no character or tonal changes from day one in 1985 to this day in 1995.
The comics were deep, philosophical, and complex yet accessible and engaging. They were simultaneously for children and adults — appealing and entertaining for both. Even the final line of the final comic strip (“It’s a magical world, Hobbes ol’ buddy… let’s go exploring”) is a work of art.
And yes, the run was relatively short but the legacy was permanent.
More than one critic has called Calvin and Hobbes the last great American comic strip. So in their eyes, this day in 1995 marked the final blow to a medium that was struggling to hang on.
1981 - The CNN Headline News network debuted.
1984 - Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an accident.
1985 - Singer Ricky Nelson died in a plane crash.
1990 - The Sci-Fi Channel debuted.
1992 - Mega Man 5 was released.
1993 - Howard Stern held his infamous New Year’s Rotten Eve Pageant.
1994 - Boyz II Men’s single On Bended Knee hit number one.
1997 - Microsoft purchased Hotmail email service.
1999 - The U.S. officially gave control of the Panama Canal to Panama.
1999 - Vladimir Putin took over as acting president of Russia.
1999 - Prince’s “Rave Un2 The Joy 2000” concert aired.
1999 - The Y2K panic loomed large as the turn of the century approached.
January 1st
26 years ago, on January 1st, 1997, the TV content ratings system went into effect.
We’re now more than a quarter century into the TV content ratings system. They are:
TV-Y
TV-Y7
TV-G
TV-PG
TV-14
TV-MA
With add-on descriptors of:
D for sexual/suggestive dialogue (though this is not used with TV-MA)
L for crude language
S for sexual situations
V for violence
FV for fantasy violence
I wrote them out because I’m guessing most people couldn’t rattle off that list.
Which speaks to the argument I’m going to make here about TV content ratings: They didn’t take.
We can all rattle off the movie ratings. We know them and they instinctively signify something in our minds. TV content ratings? Who knows?
I even have to keep writing “TV content ratings” because “TV ratings” are something different entirely — and better known.
The goal of the TV content ratings system was to give a warning to parents — but, more than that, to automate things for parents. TV content ratings are tied to the V-chip, which has been mandatory in TVs since 2000. If a parent sets it up, the V-chip can block any content above their chosen rating threshold.
Much like TV content ratings, the V-chip also didn’t take. Here’s why both flopped.
One, parents rarely ever use the V-chip. They forget it exists or don’t know how to program it. (And who knows if it even works now in the streaming era?)
Two, the V-chip is about as soft of protection as you can get. Every TV has a way to override it — mainly for parents who forget their PIN — and kids are generally far more tech-savvy than their parents. So any kid who can access the TV owner’s manual (or the internet) could defeat it.
And three, if TV ratings were supposed to make TV shows think twice before going more graphic — they had the opposite effect. TV-MA opened up the doors for the most hardcore era of TV ever where nothing is out of bounds.
But even today, TV content ratings remain — in all their ineffectual glory. You’ll see them in the top corner of the screen when you watch a show (even on some streaming services, where they’re optional).
Or you won’t see them. Because we’re all blind to them since they’ve never meant anything to any of us.
1980 - The Far Side comic strip debuted, and would end exactly 15 years later to the day.
1983 - Evil Dead hit theaters.
1983 - The Apple Lisa was released.
1985 - VH1 debuted on cable TV.
1985 - The domain name system was created and the first domain was registered.
1990 - Mr. Bean premiered.
1993 - Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman premiered.
1994 - Bill Gates and Melinda French were married.
1994 - NAFTA went into effect.
1995 - History Channel debuted.
1995 - Taxicab Confessions premiered.
1995 - The World Trade Organization began.
1996 - Betty Rubble appeared as a Flintstones vitamin for the first time in the brand’s 27 years.
1998 - California’s smoking ban in bars went into effect.
1999 - The Euro was introduced.
1999 - The Biography Channel and DIY Channel both debuted.
January 2nd
1979 - Sid Vicious’s trial began for the murder of Nancy Spungen.
1989 - Karyn White’s single Superwoman was released.
1991 - Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of D.C., the first Black woman to become mayor of a major city.
January 3rd
36 years ago, on January 3rd, 1987, Unsolved Mysteries premiered on NBC.
The true crime genre has become popular enough now to sustain TV networks, podcast franchises, and the documentary industry as a whole. (Seriously. In April 2021, a TV analytics firm found documentaries are the fastest-growing streaming genre, with true crime accounting for nearly two-thirds of the growth.)
Unsolved Mysteries wasn’t America’s first true crime show when it premiered 36 years ago today. That was a short-lived CBS show called Wanted in 1955.
But it was the first one to become a cultural sensation.
By 1990, Unsolved Mysteries was the 11th highest-rated show in primetime (out of 131 total shows). And it hit that mark with half the budget of the hour-long dramas against which it competed.
There’s plenty about true crime that intrigues people — much of which treads into the less appealing nuances of human nature — but Unsolved Mysteries managed to tap into at least one positive one.
Deep down, we all think we’d make good detectives. And Unsolved Mysteries gave people that chance.
Of the 1,300 or so cases featured during Unsolved Mysteries’ initial run, at least 260 were solved — often with help from viewers calling into the show’s tip line.
The original run lasted nine seasons on NBC, then two more on CBS. After CBS canceled the show in 1999, it would come back two years later on Lifetime. It lasted 103 episodes there, ending in 2002. Spike TV picked it up from 2008 to 2010. And most recently, it’s found a home on Netflix since 2020.
With the modern true crime boom, it only makes sense the O.G. would continue to find a home. Others may be flashier, tawdrier, and fresher… but there’s still a permanent piece of the pie available for the pioneer of modern true crime docuseries.
1977 - Apple was incorporated.
1979 - The USA cable network was founded.
1985 - Come on, man, we need term limits so bad; Mitch McConnell was sworn in as a senator from Kentucky for the first time.
1987 - Aretha Franklin became the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1989 - The Arsenio Hall Show premiered.
1991 - Blossom premiered on NBC.
1993 - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered.
1993 - The Buffalo Bills pulled off the greatest comeback in NFL history, coming back from 32 points down to defeat the Houston Oilers in a wild card playoff game.
1996 - The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone, was released.
1998 - The series finale aired of Animaniacs.
2000 - The final daily edition of the Peanuts comic strip ran.
January 4th
1981 - The musical Frankenstein premiered on Broadway and closed on the same night.
1983 - The USFL held its first draft.
1983 - The Eurythmics released their album Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).
1984 - Night Court premiered on NBC.
1988 - Nick Jr. began on Nickelodeon.
1995 - Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
1996 - The marble rye episode of Seinfeld aired.
1999 - Jesse “The Body” Ventura was sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
1999 - WCW’s infamous “butts in seats” night featured the Fingerpoke of Doom.
1999 - Tennessee defeated Florida State in the first BCS Championship game.
2000 - Mark Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks.
January 5th
1971 - The Washington Generals accidentally beat the Harlem Globetrotters for the last time.
1980 - KC and the Sunshine Band’s single Please Don’t Go hit number one.
1993 - Price Is Right model Janice Pennington sued over an on-set accident.
1994 - Sister Act won best picture at the 26th annual NAACP Image Awards.
1996 - Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula announced his retirement.
5 ‘80s and ‘90s trivia facts
The Backstreet Boys and TLC both passed on recording …Baby One More Time.
So it went to a new artist, Britney Spears.
Crayola didn’t change the name of the “Indian Red” color (to “Chestnut”) until 1999.
They changed “Flesh” to “Peach” in 1963… but it took them until the late ‘90s to change the name of this other color.
70% of Will Smith’s wages on the first three seasons of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were garnished to pay for back taxes.
One of Will Smith’s primary motivations for doing the show was he owed $2.8 million to the IRS.
When Outback Steakhouse started in 1988, none of its four founders had ever been to Australia.
The four lived in Tampa, Florida and were mostly inspired to start the restaurant chain because of the popularity of Crocodile Dundee.
Only three of the top 15 highest-grossing movies from the ‘80s have not had a sequel or reboot.
Now that Top Gun got a sequel, only E.T., Tootsie, and Rain Man still stand alone.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
As always, it’s the slowest news week of the year…
Courtney Love says she was going to play Marla in Fight Club but Brad Pitt got her fired — because she wouldn’t let him play Kurt Cobain in a movie.
Here’s a review of the reboot of The Best Man — The Best Man: The Final Chapters, an eight-episode limited series that premiered last week on Peacock.
A Swedish billionaire has been buying up every video game studio he can… and also building a collection of every video game in history.
The co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, Yuji Naka, was charged by prosecutors in Tokyo this week for illegally trading $1 million in stock based on inside knowledge about the future of the Final Fantasy franchise.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Read the behind-the-scenes story of how We Are the World beat the odds to come together.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
In honor of New Year’s Eve, here’s a list of the best New Year’s Eve episodes of classic shows including Friends, Golden Girls, My So-Called Life, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, and Seinfeld.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Here’s a video of a guy in Sweden (not the billionaire mentioned earlier) who built an 8-bit music-playing accordion out of two Commodore 64s and a bunch of floppy disks.
Have a great week!
-Sam