Jan 20: G.I. Joe, Apple Macintosh, '90s Dance Hits
Plus the best MTV shows that were actually about music
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
January 20th, 2023 • Issue 135
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
January 20th
31 years ago, on January 20th, 1992, the series finale aired of the G.I. Joe animated series.
Every major ‘80s toy line had a half-hour commercial masquerading as a cartoon series. Those were table stakes.
But G.I. Joe was different. It had two series.
All because the first time around they made the cardinal mistake of ‘80s toy-based cartoons: Trying too hard.
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero debuted in 1983. Hasbro funded it out of pocket and it was produced by Marvel’s TV production arm alongside a studio called Sunbow Entertainment.
The team created 95 episodes which aired from 1983 to 1986 and didn’t cut nearly as many budgetary corners as the likes of He-Man and Transformers did.
A big cost suck: The two production companies split up the duties. Sunbow would write the scripts (based on Hasbro’s notes on the latest toys), then Marvel would create storyboards and record the voice actors. After all that, a company in Japan would handle the animation.
Which is why after two seasons, Hasbro pulled the plug. G.I. Joe toys weren’t fading in popularity, but the numbers still didn’t work on the commercial/show.
Hasbro focused their effort on a movie instead — but after other animated toy movies were box office bombs (Transformers and My Little Pony), G.I. Joe’s entry went straight to video.
G.I. Joe toys stayed resiliently popular through it all, though. So Hasbro decided to get back into the animated TV game — at a significant cost reduction. And they decided to revive the TV series with the exact same title… and, I guess, hope no one noticed.
Rather than working with Marvel/Sunbow again, Hasbro gave the contract to the lowest-priced production company in the business: DIC. (In fact, the industry joke was DIC stood for “Do It Cheap.”)
DIC managed to squeeze another two seasons and 44 episodes out of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero — and yes, they cut every corner they could find. For instance, the second season they’d introduced almost all new characters and got rid of all the U.S.-based voice actors for less expensive Canadian ones.
And Hasbro managed to keep the G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero toy line alive until 1994 before they retooled for the ‘90s with new G.I. Joe Extreme in 1995.
Along with, of course, its own accompanying animated series.
1981 - 52 American hostages were released in Iran 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.
1982 - Ozzy Osbourne bit the head off a bat.
1985 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins in the Super Bowl.
1989 - Ronald Reagan became the first president elected in a year ending with “0” to leave office alive since 1840.
1990 - Michael Bolton’s single How Am I Supposed to Live Without You hit number one.
1990 - Digital Underground’s single The Humpty Dance was released.
1990 - Roseanne Barr married Tom Arnold.
1991 - The Scorpions’ single Winds of Change was released.
1992 - The Heights’ single How Do You Talk to an Angel was released.
1993 - Aubrey Hepburn passed away.
1996 - FOX debuted the glowing hockey puck in its NHL coverage.
1996 - Deep Blue Something’s one hit, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, peaked at number five.
1998 - Dawson’s Creek premiered on the WB as the network expanded to Tuesday night programming.
1998 - Wyclef Jean’s single Gone till November was released.
2002 - Michael Jordan played in Chicago for the first time as a member of another team.
January 21st
1984 - Bon Jovi’s debut album as released.
1984 - Yes’ single Owner of a Lonely Heart hit number one.
1985 - President Reagan’s second inauguration was the coldest history; his first had been the warmest in history.
1989 - Phil Collins’s single Two Hearts hit number one.
1990 - John McEnroe was ejected from the Australian Open for throwing his racket.
1990 - MTV Unplugged premiered.
1994 - Lorena Bobbitt was found not guilty by reason of insanity.
2000 - Down to You and The Boondock Saints both hit theaters.
January 22nd
29 years ago, on January 22nd, 1994, Culture Beat’s one hit, Mr. Vain, peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
The only strange thing about Culture Beat’s top 20 hit in Mr. Vain is that its winning formula wasn’t replicated more frequently.
Culture Beat was a Eurodance group with plenty of traction in the U.K., Austria, and their home country of Germany — but no presence at all in the U.S.
They changed that with Mr. Vain by hopping aboard a trend that seemed to work every time anyone tried it: Catchy dance beat, bold and brassy female vocals, deep-voiced male rapper.
It worked for Snap with The Power and Rhythm Is a Dancer. It worked for C+C Music Factory. It worked for 2 Unlimited.
And on this day, it worked in the U.S. for Culture Beat, as Mr. Vain peaked at number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tragically, Culture Beat’s founder Torsten Fenslau never got to see the breakthrough, as he died in a car accident in November 1993 at age 29.
Because, somehow, the American-friendly Eurodance genre never became oversaturated, its formula continued to work throughout in the ‘90s. Everyone from Haddaway with What Is Love to Real McCoy with Another Night to Aqua with Barbie Girl would seize international success, much like Culture Beat did in 1994.
1984 - The L.A. Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins to win the Super Bowl.
1984 - Apple’s famous “1984” commercial aired during the Super Bowl.
1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer committed suicide on live TV.
1989 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals to win the Super Bowl.
1994 - Bret Hart and Lex Luger both fell from the ring and were declared co-winners of the WWF Royal Rumble.
1994 - Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, and Sting’s single All for Love hit number one.
1998 - The Unabomber plead guilty.
2003 - Chappelle’s Show premiered on Comedy Central.
January 23rd
1983 - The A-Team premiered on NBC.
1984 - Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik to win his first WWF Championship.
1985 - ThunderCats premiered in syndication.
1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted its first members.
1988 - Michael Jackson’s single The Way You Make Me Feel hit number one.
1989 - Salvador Dali passed away at age 84.
1996 - The Smashing Pumpkins single 1979 was released.
1996 - Moesha premiered on UPN.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language was released.
1998 - Spice World hit theaters.
1999 - Eagle Eye Cherry’s one hit, Save Tonight, peaked at number five.
January 24th
39 years ago, on January 24th, 1984, the first Apple Macintosh went on sale two days after its famous dystopian Super Bowl commercial.
Apple’s Macintosh went on sale today in 1984, two days after its famous dystopian Super Bowl commercial.
And to see how far computing has come in just under four decades, I was reading the New York Times’ glowing review of the Macintosh from 1984… and this paragraph stood out.
The Macintosh was all-in on a mouse-driven visual environment — a new innovation at the time. So new, in fact, that the Times review features this paragraph:
[You] find either a word or an icon or pictogram on the screen representing what you want the computer to do, then slide the mouse on your desk to move the cursor into position over that screen object, then press the button on the mouse to activate that particular part of the program.
That alone shows how much the Macintosh changed the course of personal computers. Of all the innovations since 1984, has there been anything that rose to the level of the mouse? Any change that would warrant an entire paragraph in a review explaining how the function worked? I’m coming up empty. (Though Apple would try with the Touch Bar… and not pull it off.)
1982 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals in the Super Bowl.
1987 - Billy Vera and the Beaters’ single At This Moment hit number one.
1988 - The WWF held its first Royal Rumble, won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan.
1989 - Serial killer Ted Bundy was executed by electric chair in Florida.
1991 - Boyz II Men’s debut single, Motownphilly, was released.
1995 - The O.J. Simpson trial began.
1996 - The FDA approved the fat substitute olestra in spite of the potential for “anal leakage”.
January 25th
1980 - Paul McCartney was released from jail in Japan after being held nine days on drug charges.
1981 - 52 American hostages arrived back in the U.S. after 444 days in Iran.
1981 - The Oakland Raiders defeated the Philadelphia Eagles to win the Super Bowl.
1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl.
1992 - Color Me Badd’s single All 4 Love hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
1994 - R. Kelly’s single Bump n’ Grind was released.
1995 - Adina Howard’s single Freak Like Me was released.
1998 - The Denver Broncos defeated the Green Bay Packers in the Super Bowl.
1998 - David Beckham and Posh Spice got engaged.
1999 - The first-ever hand transplant in the U.S. was performed.
1999 - The Tom Green Show premiered on MTV.
1999 - The Blair Witch Project premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
January 26th
1979 - The Dukes of Hazzard premiered on CBS.
1986 - The Chicago Bears defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
1988 - Phantom of the Opera opened on Broadway.
1991 - Surface’s one hit, The First Time, hit number one.
1992 - The Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl.
1994 - The Critic premiered on ABC.
1995 - My So Called Life aired its series finale.
1997 - The Green Bay Packers defeated the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl.
1998 - Edwin McCain’s single I’ll Be was released.
1998 - Bill Clinton said “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”
2001 - The Wedding Planner hit theaters.
5 ‘80s and ‘90s trivia facts
The slogan “Don’t Mess with Texas” comes from an anti-littering ad campaign in the ‘80s.
So it’s not the centuries-old rallying cry it’s often made out to be.
New Coke beat original Coke (and Pepsi) in taste tests.
That’s likely because New Coke was sweeter, which plays well in one-sip taste tests. But over the course of a whole can, it wasn’t so enjoyable.
The N.W.A. song Boyz-n-the-Hood didn’t make the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it came out in 1987… but did 28 years later.
The song finally cracked the charts when the movie Straight Outta Compton came out in 2015.
Despite his reputation, M. Night Shyamalan has only had one movie lose money at the box office: Wide Awake in 1998.
His next movie after that was The Sixth Sense, which was hugely profitable… and every movie since has been profitable as well. (Even Lady in the Water, which made $73 million against a $70 million budget.)
The “chung chung” sound from Law & Order is the combo of a half a dozen other sounds.
They include a jail door slamming, a judge’s gavel… and 500 Japanese men walking on a hardwood floor.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Hulu has released the first trailer for History of the World: Part II. It’s a “four-night event” starting on March 6th.
That ‘90s Show debuted on Netflix yesterday. And the Night Court reboot had the highest-rated premiere of any new non-streaming TV show so far for 2022-23.
Ben Savage is considering running for Congress in California in 2024. He’s looking at Adam Schiff’s seat covering West Hollywood and Burbank, when Schiff likely takes a shot at Dianne Feinstein’s (theoretically vacant) Senate seat.
And speaking of Boy Meets World… William Daniels, who played Mr. Feeny, has been married for 72 years. And his wife just revealed it began as an “open marriage.”
Channing Tatum has the rights to Ghost and wants to “do something different” as his production company has begun work on rebooting the movie.
A stage musical adaptation of Thelma & Louise is in the works, with Amanda Seyfried and Evan Rachel Wood.
Ron Howard wants to reboot his 1991 film Backdraft as a TV series. Though it sounds like he’s not pushing all that hard.
A Mighty Morphin Power Rangers 30th anniversary reunion will stream on Netflix starting April 19th. Amy Jo Johnson will not be a part of it because she “didn’t say yes to what was offered.”
In honor of the 25th anniversary of Korn’s album Follow the Leader, Korn released a makeup palette that looks like the album’s CD case.
George Michael’s family says they are not endorsing the biopic that’s in the works about the singer’s life.
Madonna announced her Celebrations greatest hits tour in honor of the 40th anniversary of her debut; it kicks off in July. And 75-year-old Kenny Loggins has announced his farewell tour, called the This Is It Tour. It begins on March 10th.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s a list of the 11 best MTV shows that were actually about music. They include TRL, Unplugged, Yo! MTV Raps, Alternative Nation, Making the Video, and more.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Here’s an eight-minute YouTube documentary exploring the mystery behind the time in 1999 when Fabio got hit in the face by a goose when he was riding a roller coaster. Because… it turns out he now says the whole thing was a cover-up by Busch Gardens.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Here’s a video of about 11 minutes of mundane (but now, historically engrossing) footage from a Starbucks in Seattle in 1993. The prices are lower, everyone pays with cash, and there’s not a cell phone nor laptop in sight. But other than that… Starbucks doesn’t feel like it’s changed all that much.
Have a great week!
-Sam