Dec 31: MTV New Year's Eve, the BCS, Billie Jean
Plus the moment when all three networks aired dueling Amy Fisher movies
The Retro
by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
December 31st, 2021 • Issue 80
This week in nostalgic history
December 31st
40 years ago, on December 31st, 1981 - MTV held its first New Year’s Eve special.
MTV, from its very beginning, was focused on creating “cool” alternatives to various long-in-the-tooth institutions. It took on radio. It took on awards shows. And mere months after the network went on air, it took on New Year’s Eve specials.
The live NYE concert, held in a fairly modest hotel ballroom in New York City, featured Karla DeVito, Bow Wow Wow, and David Johansen. Not exactly a murderers’ row of ‘80s talent, but the sheer temerity to rock in opposition to Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve was what really mattered anyway.
MTV would air a New Year’s Eve special every year from then on — usually with way bigger names involved — until 2015 when budget cuts and dwindling viewership killed the New Year’s Eve star.
So that New Year’s Eve, MTV did what it now does best: It aired a marathon of Ridiculousness.
Also on December 31st: CNN Headline News debuted (1981)… Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen lost his left arm in an accident (1984)… singer Ricky Nelson died in a plane crash (1985)… the Sci-Fi Channel debuted (1990)… Mega Man 5 was released (1992)… Howard Stern held his infamous New Year’s Rotten Eve Pageant (1993)… Boyz II Men’s single On Bended Knee hit number one (1994)… Calvin & Hobbes ended after a 10-year run (1995)… Microsoft purchased Hotmail email service (1997)… 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 (1999)
January 1st
37 years ago, on January 1st, 1985 - The domain name system was created and the first domain was registered.
It’s well known “internet firsts” trivia (at least in the trivia circles I, yeah, run in) that the Symbolics.com was the first domain name. But… I just learned while researching this, that fact isn’t quite right. While Symbolics.com was the first .com registered, another domain beat it — by going live on New Year’s Day 1985, upon creation of DNS.
That true first-ever domain was Nordu.net, a nonprofit information-sharing website for the Nordic countries.
And Nordu.net remains alive today, making it not just the oldest domain name but the oldest continuously-used domain name as well.
I looked it their Whois and it appears they finally sprung for the high end 10-year domain package last time they renewed, because they’re registered through December 31st, 2030.
Also on January 1st: The Far Side comic strip debuted, and would end exactly 15 years later to the day (1980)… Evil Dead hit theaters (1983)… the Apple Lisa was released (1983)… VH1 debuted on cable TV (1985)… American Gladiators premiered in syndication (1989)… Mr. Bean premiered (1990)… Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman premiered (1993)… Bill Gates and Melinda French were married (1994)… NAFTA went into effect (1994)… History Channel debuted (1995)… Taxicab Confessions premiered (1995)… the World Trade Organization began (1995)… Betty Rubble appeared as a Flintstones vitamin for the first time in the brand’s 27 years (1996)… the TV ratings system went into effect (1997)… California’s smoking ban in bars went into effect (1998)… the Euro was introduced (1999)… the Biography Channel and DIY Channel both debuted (1999)
January 2nd
39 years ago, on January 2nd, 1983 - Michael Jackson’s single Billie Jean was released.
Although MTV went live on August 1st, 1981, it took nearly one-and-a-half years before a music video by a Black artist actually cracked their main rotation. That was Michael Jackson’s video for Billie Jean.
MTV’s reasoning behind that long delay? In its early days it was focused on rock music — a genre that was not the early ‘80s domain of many (if any) prominent Black artists. MTV says it then became a chicken and egg scenario; Black artists and their labels weren’t motivated to budget for videos because MTV wasn’t playing their videos, MTV didn’t have videos to play.
Was that true? There’s probably some reality in there. MTV did debut with a Black VJ and one of the key tenants of its brand identity was being youthful and progressive, so it’s hard to imagine there were spoken discriminatory mandates. More likely, diversity wasn’t a priority and the institutional and inertial racism of the time meant the issue wouldn’t really come up as an urgent situation requiring remedy.
Anyway, the two years without a video by a Black artist came to an end with Michael Jackson doing Michael Jackson things.
By 1983, Michael Jackson had more than enough fame to crack MTV’s rotation, he had more than enough pull to get his record label to pony up the budget to make quality music videos, and he had the theatricality to even want to make a video.
So Billie Jean broke through as the first video by a Black artist on MTV and they would certainly now prefer we all forgot it took two years for that to happen.
Also on January 2nd: Sid Vicious’s trial began for the murder of Nancy Spungen (1979)… Karyn White’s single Superwoman was released (1989)… Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of D.C., the first Black woman to become mayor of a major city (1991)… Chris Farley’s autopsy revealed his cause of death from opiates and cocaine (1998)… Sugar Ray’s single Every Morning was released (1999)
January 3rd
29 years ago, on January 3rd, 1993 - ABC and CBS both aired made-for-TV movies about the Amy Fisher story, a week after NBC aired their made-for-TV movie.
The Amy Fisher story was one of the biggest ‘90s tabloid (and non-tabloid media) sensations — a 17-year-old having an affair with a married man shoots his wife. That story had all the makings of an overly dramatic made-for-TV movie. Apparently too many of the makings.
Because the three largest TV networks in the country all pushed out Amy Fisher made-for-TV movies — all within a week of each other. Including two head-to-head on this day in 1993.
The movies were:
NBC’s Amy Fisher: My Story starring Noelle Parker.
CBS’s Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story starring Alyssa Milano.
And ABC’s The Amy Fisher Story starring Drew Barrymore.
I haven’t watched any of them, but according to a writer at Esquire who did, NBC’s is the most emotional and features a remorseful, in-over-her-head Amy Fisher; CBS’s has the highest production values; and ABC’s is easily the trashiest.
The fascination with the Amy Fisher story was excessive but not exactly an anomaly. True crime TV (and podcasts) are bigger today than they ever were; even if the major broadcast networks haven’t all simulcasted true crime movies since 1993, there are now entire TV networks devoted to those stories and nothing else.
Also on January 3rd: Apple was incorporated (1977)… the USA cable network was founded (1979)… the game Plinko debuted on The Price Is Right (1983)… dear God we need term limits; Mitch McConnell was sworn in as a senator from Kentucky for the first time (1985)… Unsolved Mysteries premiered (1987)… Aretha Franklin became the first female artist inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1987)… the Arsenio Hall Show premiered (1989)… Blossom premiered on NBC (1991)… 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 (1993)… the Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone, was released (1996)… the series finale aired of Animaniacs (1998)… the final daily edition of the Peanuts comic strip ran (2000)
January 4th
23 years ago, on January 4th, 1999 - Tennessee defeated Florida State in the first BCS Championship game.
College football throughout most of its history had a problem determining an undisputed national champion, mainly because each team only plays a fraction of the other teams each year and there was no playoff (lest it interfere with the lucrative classic bowl games).
The BCS was the NCAA’s first attempt to add some semblance of quantitative reasoning to determining a champion.
Sure, the BCS heavily weighed the traditional writer and coaches polls of the past as it determined its rankings and its championship game competitors. But it also factored in computer- and algorithm-driven rankings; which (in theory) would mean less focus on the apocryphal eye test and the eternal bias toward brand name schools, more credence to the numbers.
The BCS championship kicked off on this day in 1999, with Tennessee (still temporarily stuffed with talent in its post-Peyton Manning era) winning to become the definitive national champion.
The BCS system was not bad, although it didn’t fully solve the issue of an undisputed national champion; just five years later, the final AP poll would name USC the champions over BCS winners LSU.
But it was lucrative enough (especially after 2006, when it created a new, fifth major bowl game for the championship) to hang on for 16 seasons before college football finally instituted a playoff. A flawed playoff, no doubt, that brought much more human element and much less quantitative analysis into the process, but a playoff.
Because ultimately, people prefer a flawed qualitative playoff to a flawed quantitative alternative.
Also on January 4th: The musical Frankenstein premiered on Broadway and closed on the same night (1981)… the USFL held its first draft (1983)… the Eurythmics released their album Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) (1983)… Night Court premiered on NBC (1984)… Nick Jr. began on Nickelodeon (1988)… Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (1995)… the marble rye episode of Seinfeld aired (1996)… 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)… Mark Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks (2000)
January 5th
52 years ago, on January 5th, 1971 - The Washington Generals accidentally beat the Harlem Globetrotters for the last time.
Although this event happened outside of the time parameters of this newsletter, it certainly impacted and shaped the Harlem Globetrotters of the ‘80s and ‘90s.
The Washington Generals are a traveling team of basketball players who toured with the Harlem Globetrotters for years. The only mission of the Generals: Lose. And also, be fooled in perpetuity by shenanigans like a ball under the shirt.
However, in order for the Harlem Globetrotters’ gimmick to work, their events needed to maintain some semblance of a real basketball game. That meant the Generals, in between all of the shtick, needed to simulate a real basketball team.
Unfortunately, that went too well a few times (there are no definitive records); somewhere between three and six times out of thousands and thousands of games, the Generals accidentally defeated the Globetrotters.
This day in 1971 was the most recent defeat — yes, it’s been 50+ years since the Globetrotters lost to the Generals. Apparently, the Generals’ shots were just falling that night, the Globetrotters players realized too late they were down 10 points, and despite trying to actually hit shots to win, there wasn’t enough time and the Globetrotters lost. Kids cried in the stands, it was a whole mess.
The Globetrotters kept on playing (and beating) the Generals until the teams cut ties in 2015.
Metamodern suggestion (and prediction): The Globetrotters should play the Generals again and lose. The social media buzz alone of a Generals victory might be an “in case of emergency, break glass” marketing salvo to spark new interest in the Globetrotters.
Also on January 5th: KC and the Sunshine Band’s single Please Don’t Go hit number one (1980)… Price Is Right model Janice Pennington sued over an on-set accident (1993)… Sister Act won best picture at the 26th annual NAACP Image Awards (1994)… Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula announced his retirement (1996)… Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident (1998)
January 6th
30 years ago, on January 6th, 1992 - The FDA called for a moratorium on the use of silicone breast implants.
Breast implants were on a roller coaster for about two decades before things finally settled down, and the event on this day 30 years ago was the biggest shake-up of the entire saga.
Silicone breast implants were invented in 1962 but didn’t receive FDA approval until 1988. And even then, it seems the FDA wasn’t thrilled its decision.
After four reluctant years jammed with confirmation bias, on this day in 1992, the FDA changed course on silicone breast implants and essentially banned them. They ordered a 10-year study on the health impact of breast implants which took 14 years to complete, turned out they weren’t bad after all, and in 2006, silicone breast implants were re-approved for use.
Silicone implants are the most popular option today and breast augmentation is still among the most popular cosmetic surgeries in the U.S., although according to a tsunami of trend pieces, the modern movement is for a more “natural look” with breast implants today.
Also on January 6th: Schoolhouse Rock premiered (1973)… Wheel of Fortune premiered (1975)… the Red Hot Chili Peppers were formed (1983)… Olympic ice skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked (1994)… Houseguest hit theaters (1995)… Mac OS X was released (2000)… Joe Millionaire premiered on FOX (2003)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
It was just discovered Nintendo had plans in 1998 to sell a peripheral that would turn Game Boy Colors into PDAs that could send email and search the internet.
Lego is releasing a Sonic the Hedgehog set on January 1st. It will retail for $70.
Peacock has decided not to go forward with its Clueless reboot.
The producers of Ace Ventura 2: When Nature Calls are suing the producers of Tiger King 2 for using unauthorized movie footage in the series.
Pat Sajak celebrated 40 years as Wheel of Fortune host earlier this week.
James Cameron has confirmed a Hollywood myth about him that he pitched a sequel to Alien by going into a meeting, writing the word “Aliens” on a board, then putting a line through the S to make it a dollar sign.
A new DAO (here’s my article on what a DAO is) is attempting to buy the Blockbuster brand and turn it into a decentralized web3 streaming service.
End of an era: BlackBerry is ending BlackBerry OS for all of its legacy devices as of January 4th.
John Madden, the voice of football in the ‘90s both on TV and in his eponymous video games, passed away this week at age 85.
Throwbacks and recommendations
Here are 25 songs turning 25 in 2022.
Check out a short YouTube documentary on how Vanilla Ice was the originally “industry plant.”
And here’s another short YouTube doc on the decline of KB Toys.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam