Dec 9: The Chronic, Saved by the Bell's Pilot, MTV Remote Control
Plus a sequel to Election, Palm Pilot apps are back, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
December 9th, 2022 • Issue 129
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
December 9th
33 years ago, on December 9th, 1989, the Saved by the Bell pilot called “King of the Hill” finally aired as the 15th episode of season one.
When the kiddie show Good Morning, Miss Bliss jumped to NBC as Saved by the Bell, there were a lot of changes.
Three of the kids (Zack, Lisa, Screech) and their principal teleported from Indiana to California when they moved from middle school to high school. The focus shifted onto the kids, not their teacher. And the show introduced three foundational new characters in Slater, Kelly, and Jessie.
As a result, the creators shot a pilot episode for the retooled show. The pilot focused on A.C. Slater’s arrival at Bayside High School. (It glossed over all the other changes, like geography.)
It was a high-wire move to try to turn a show for little kids into a show cool enough for teenagers. So NBC wanted to put its best foot forward.
They clearly did not consider the pilot episode the best foot.
The pilot episode, titled “King of the Hill”, aired on this day in 1989 as the 15th (and penultimate) episode of season 1.
The way the show got around airing the pilot 15th? They added one solitary line of Zack Morris voice over to the beginning of the episode saying, “I’ll never forget the day Slater showed up.”
So if the pilot wasn’t a good intro to Saved by the Bell, what episode was?
The first episode NBC ever aired was “Dancing to the Max”, the episode where the characters enter a Casey Kasem-hosted dance contest at The Max. (Winning dance: The Sprain.)
And that debut was not in the show’s eventual Saturday morning timeslot. Instead, it aired on a Sunday night in August to try to catch more viewers.
Two more primetime episodes followed, the one where Lisa overspends on her father’s credit card and the one where Screech is struck by lightning so he can see the future. Neither is great.
The first Saturday morning episode for Saved by the Bell was its fourth, the one where Zack bugs Jessie’s room to listen in on whether or not Kelly likes him.
Of course, Saved by the Bell wasn’t the first (or close to the last) series to air episodes out of order — even at the expense of major plot points. Here’s a partial list of the many, many series that have done it — from the successful to the fleeting.
I guess NBC figured it was asking Good Morning, Miss Bliss viewers to make so many logic leaps that a tidy intro to Slater’s arrival was unnecessary. After all, no episode explained all the other overhauls — so why be beholden to the one episode that tried?
1983 - Scarface hit theaters.
1983 - Sudden Impact and Christine hit theaters.
1984 - The Jacksons played their final show.
1987 - Windows 2.0 was released.
1988 - Twins, Mississippi Burning, and My Stepmother Is an Alien hit theaters.
1988 - Ninja Gaiden was released for the NES.
1989 - Billy Joel’s single We Didn’t Start the Fire hit number one.
1992 - Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation.
1994 - Disclosure hit theaters.
1995 - The Beatles’ single Free As a Bird was released as their first new song in 25 years.
1997 - Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz’s single Deja Vu (Uptown Baby) was released.
December 10th
1982 - 48 Hrs. and Airplane II both hit theaters.
1983 - Paul McCartney and Michael Jackson’s single Say, Say, Say hit number one.
1988 - Chicago’s single Look Away hit number one.
1992 - Naughty by Nature’s Hip Hop Hooray was released.
1993 - Doom was released.
1993 - Wayne’s World 2 and Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit both hit theaters.
1994 - The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat.
1996 - Whitney Houston’s single I Believe in You and Me was released.
1997 - Amistad hit theaters.
1999 - The Green Mile, Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, and The Cider House Rules all hit theaters.
December 11th
1980 - Magnum P.I. premiered on CBS.
1981 - Muhammad Ali lost his final fight.
1987 - Throw Momma from the Train and Wall Street were released.
1991 - Hook hit theaters.
1992 - A Few Good Men and The Muppet Christmas Carol hit theaters.
1993 - Janet Jackson’s single Again hit number one.
1993 - K7’s one hit, Come Baby Come, peaked at number 18.
1998 - Rushmore and Shakespeare in Love hit theaters.
December 12th
1980 - Apple filed its IPO.
1986 - Three Amigos hit theaters.
1987 - Fraggle Rock premiered.
1987 - George Michael’s single Faith hit number one.
1989 - Leona Helmsley was sentenced to four years in prison for tax fraud.
1997 - Scream 2 hit theaters.
1998 - The Alec Baldwin “Schwetty Balls” sketch premiered on Saturday Night Live.
2001 - Winona Ryder was arrested for shoplifting.
December 13th
32 years ago, on December 13th, 1990, the series finale of Remote Control aired on MTV.
Remote Control was MTV’s first non-music program. “Well this non-music programming experiment was a one-time thing,” I’m sure some executive thought at the time.
The reason for the show? MTV noticed their format led to an engagement problem. If a video came on for a song a viewer didn’t like they’d (ready for wordplay?) grab for their remote control.
A game show was the easy pick for a first non-music video show. Game shows are cheap and easy to produce (it’s why a lot of networks go to game shows early in their lives). Plus another Viacom property, Nickelodeon, was having a ton of luck with their game show, Double Dare.
MTV’s plan was to create something that both functioned like an actual game show but also fit the network’s rebellious spirit. Remote Control was the result. It featured traditional trivia categories and questions, but also lots of pure randomness, cameos, and an intentional lack of a “shiny floor, shiny studio” aesthetic.
The show was a hit for MTV largely because it embraced the MTV spirit… but that was also why it died a premature death.
Even though the show was a success, MTV pulled the plug after five seasons and three years.
Because… a big part of the MTV spirit at the time was always feeling fresh and new. Three years was a lifetime back then.
Based on other series that would follow like The Real World and The Challenge, the network obviously changed its tune shortly after. But not soon enough to save Remote Control.
1985 - Clue, A Chorus Line, and Jewel of the Nile hit theaters.
1986 - Bruce Hornsby & the Range’s single The Way It Is hit number one.
1989 - Tecmo Super Bowl was released.
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy hit theaters.
1990 - C+C Music Factory’s single Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now) was released.
1996 - Jerry Maguire and Mars Attacks hit theaters.
1997 - Charles Woodson became the first defensive player to win the Heisman Trophy.
1997 - Norm MacDonald anchored SNL’s “Weekend Update” for the final time.
2000 - Al Gore conceded the presidential election to George W. Bush after the Supreme Court stopped the Florida recount.
December 14th
1979 - The Jerk hit theaters.
1984 - Dune, Starman, A Passage to India, and 1984 hit theaters.
1988 - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and I’m Gonna Git You Sucka hit theaters.
1989 - Glory hit theaters.
1990 - Mermaids hit theaters.
1990 - Look Who’s Talking Too hit theaters.
1999 - Charles Schulz announced his retirement from drawing the Peanut comic strip.
2000 - Miss Congeniality hit theaters.
2001 - Vanilla Sky, Not Another Teen Movie, and The Royal Tenenbaums hit theaters.
December 15th
30 years ago, on December 15th, 1992, Dr. Dre’s album The Chronic was released.
The Chronic gets deserved credit for ushering in quite a few seismic shifts in hip-hop — and across the entire music industry.
It defined the sound of hip-hop in the ‘90s. It took gangsta rap mainstream and proved its commercial viability (not to mention the commercial viability of edgier rap in general). It moved rap instrumentation away from samples-and-a-beat to something far more artistic.
It also accomplished something else that gets a bit less notoriety: It established the idea of rappers featuring other artists on their tracks.
For all of Dr. Dre’s musical talents, he’s not an amazing rapper. Which is why out of the 16 tracks on The Chronic, Dr. Dre is solo on exactly one. (A N* Witta Gun, the eighth track.)
The most-frequently featured artist on The Chronic was (a then unknown) Snoop Doggy Dogg. The Chronic gets credit for showcasing and breaking Snoop as an artist, but that minimizes his contribution. Though this is a Dr. Dre album, it’s nearly as much a Snoop Dogg album. He’s the credited co-writer on 13 of the 16 tracks and performs on 11.
But he’s not the only featured artist — nor the only one who would go on to launch a career from The Chronic. The album also features Warren G, Nate Dogg, and the Dogg Pound (Kurupt and Daz Dillinger).
Before The Chronic, other albums and songs had featured guest artists — but not at this volume (or with these successful of results).
This album is as much a showcase for Dr. Dre’s eye for talent as it is a showcase of what he can do.
The formula was so successful it became the norm in hip-hop. (And beyond. Remember that Santana album that won a billion Grammys where every track featured another artist?)
And that legacy continues today. Over the past few decades it’s been rarer for an hip-hop album to find success without featured artists than with. (Here’s a Vibe article, for example, called “20 Hip-Hop and R&B Albums That Went Platinum With No Features” — which had to span four decades to find 20 noteworthy entries and skips the 2000s decade entirely.)
1984 - Eddie Murphy’s sketch “White Like Me” aired on SNL.
1989 - The Wizard hit theaters.
1990 - 2 in a Room’s one hit Wiggle It peaked at number #15.
1993 - Schindler’s List premiered in theaters.
1994 - Netscape 1.0 launched.
1995 - Jumanji and Heat both hit theaters.
1997 - Bret Hart made his debut on WCW Monday Nitro.
1998 - Shania Twain’s single That Don’t Impress Me Much was released.
2000 - Dude Where’s My Car, What Women Want, and The Emperor’s New Groove all hit theaters.
2001 - The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopened after 11 years of renovations — not including a de-leaning.
5 ‘80s and ‘90s trivia facts
La Croix’s fancy French-sounding name comes from Wisconsin.
The name is a blend of LaCrosse, Wisc., where the company is headquartered… and the St. Croix river, which runs along the Wisconsin/Minnesota border.
Quaker Oats had a video game division in the ‘80s.
In 1982, Quaker Oats acquired the U.S. Games Corporation, which made games for the Atari 2600. Quaker Oats released 14 titles total — none of which did well — and they closed the division during the video game crash of 1983.
The name Madison came from the movie Splash… and grew to be the second-most popular name for girls in the U.S. in less than two decades.
In 1984’s Splash, Daryl Hannah’s mermaid character picks her name from the Madison Ave. sign in New York City. The following year, Madison started showing up in the Social Security Administration’s baby names database when parents started using it. And by 2001, it was the second-most popular name for girls in the U.S.
The first Google Doodle logo came in 1998, when the founders wanted to let people know they were headed to Burning Man.
Before Google was even incorporated, the founders changed the logo to include a stick figure — representing the Burning Man festival — when they were headed to the event. The second Doodle came in 2000, for Bastille Day.
Stephen Colbert was on The Daily Show two years before Jon Stewart.
Colbert joined the cast in 1997, during the show’s second season, when Craig Kilborn was host. Jon Stewart took over in 1999.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
There’s a sequel to Election in the works with Reese Witherspoon coming back as Tracy Flick. The movie will be on Paramount+.
The upcoming Tetris movie has been rated R? The film comes out in March.
Amazon and Steph Curry’s production company are turning the Sega video game series ToeJam & Earl into a movie.
Ice Cube says Warner Bros. won’t give him the rights to the Friday franchise and he won’t pay for them. “[Eff] no. They need to give it to me and they’re going to make money. I’m not about to pay for my own stuff, that’s stupid.”
In honor of the famous leg lamp in A Christmas Story, Miller High Life is selling a leg lamp beer tower. It’s almost four feet tall, holds six beers, and a limited number went on sale at 7:00 A.M. PST today.
Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You is back on the Billboard Hot 100. It’s at number two right now, behind Taylor Swift’s Anti-Hero. It reached number one each of the three previous years.
Matthew Perry says he’s never watched Friends because all he can focus on is how his looks reflected his various addictions.
Here’s a trailer for Teen Wolf: The Movie, a movie spinoff of the TV show that rebooted the original movie. In other words, this is awfully disconnected from the Teen Wolf any of us cares about, but if you want to watch it, it comes out January 26th on Paramount+.
An entire truck’s worth of retro gaming handhelds called the Evercade EXP Limited Edition were stolen in the U.K.
Kirstie Alley passed away this week at age 71 after a short battle with colon cancer.
Mills Lane, the boxing referee who rose to fame in 1997 during the Tyson-Holyfield ear biting match, passed away on Tuesday at age 85.
Bob McGrath, who was a human on Sesame Street when you were watching, passed away this week at age 90.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s an essay on how Kurt Cobain dealt with being the world’s most famous outcast from a new collection of Cobain interviews.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Miss the apps you once used on a Palm Pilot? The Internet Archive has a collection of 565 classic Palm apps and games which you can use in any browser, including the one on your phone.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Atari has resurrected an arcade game that only made it into test markets because it was deemed too difficult in 1982. And if a game was too hard in 1982, when all games were impossible… wow. It’s called Akka Arrh and will be available on all modern platforms early next year.
Have a great week!
-Sam