Jul 12 - What '90s Movie Set a Guinness Record for Longest Film Shoot?
Plus trivia on Super Nintendo, Ghost, Destiny's Child, Kiss from a Rose, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
July 12th, 2024 • Issue 212
Be Kind, Rewind
What happened on this day in the ‘80s and ‘90s — plus lots of bonus trivia
July 12th
1979 - The Chicago White Sox held the infamous Disco Demolition Night.
1984 - Geraldine Ferraro became the first female major vice presidential candidate.
1985 - Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome hit theaters.
1986 - Simply Red’s single Holding Back the Years hit number one.
1990 - The series premiere of Northern Exposure aired.
1990 - Final Fantasy was released for NES.
Final Fantasy got its name because its creator, Hironobu Sakaguchi, was strongly considering quitting the video game industry and making it his last hurrah.
But due to the game’s massive popularity, he didn’t quit… and produced eight more Final Fantasy games among many others.
1991 - Point Break hit theaters nationwide.
1995 - Enrique Iglesias’s debut album was released.
1996 - Kirby Puckett retired from MLB due to going blind in one eye.
1997 - The series premiere of Oz aired on HBO.
1997 - Meredith Brooks’s one hit, B****, peaked at number two.
1998 - France won the men’s World Cup.
1999 - Disney announced it was going all-in on Go.com.
July 13th
1985 - Live Aid benefit concerts were held in the U.K. and U.S.
1985 - Duran Duran’s single A View to a Kill hit number one.
1987 - Kylie Minogue’s debut single, Locomotion, was released.
1990 - Ghost hit theaters.
The famous pottery scene in Ghost turned out so sensual that the director cut an actual sex scene.
The script originally had an actual sex scene between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze’s characters. But the pottery scene turned out to do an even better job at conveying that passion and intimacy — so the sex scene didn’t make the cut.
1993 - Randy Johnson and John Kruk did some shtick during the MLB All-Star Game.
2001 - Legally Blonde hit theaters.
July 14th
1985 - The final USFL game ever was played.
1989 - When Harry Met Sally… hit theaters.
1989 - License to Kill marked Timothy Dalton’s second and final appearance as James Bond.
1993 - Super Mario All-Stars for Super Nintendo was released in Japan.
Super Mario All-Stars got rid of the famous “minus world” glitch from the original Super Mario Bros.
One of the first game glitches to go “‘80s viral” was the minus world in Super Mario Bros. — a never-ending water world that players could trigger through forcing their way through a brick wall. (The minus world is pictured above.)
Super Mario All-Stars, which was a compilation of the 8-bit Mario games, updated the games’ graphics and physics… and glitches. So in the Super Mario All-Stars version of SMB, players could no longer access the “minus world.”
1995 - Nine Months hit theaters.
1999 - The Blair Witch Project opened in limited released.
2000 - X-Men hit theaters.
July 15th
1988 - Die Hard hit theaters.
1988 - A Fish Called Wanda hit theaters.
1989 - Simply Red’s single If You Don’t Know Me By Now hit number one.
1992 - Bill Clinton received the presidential nomination at the Democratic National Convention.
1994 - Hulk Hogan admitted to taking steroids during the WWF’s steroid trial.
1994 - True Lies hit theaters.
True Lies was the first film with a $100 million budget.
Though $100m+ budgets are standard now, True Lies was the first movie to cross that threshold.
The film’s box office gross was about $380 million, so it did more than cover the budget.
1994 - Angels in the Outfield hit theaters
1997 - Sarah McLaughlin’s album Surfacing was released.
1997 - Gianni Versace was shot.
1997 - Real World: Boston premiered on MTV.
1998 - There’s Something About Mary hit theaters.
July 16th
1986 - Dollywood opened.
1991 - Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch’s single Good Vibrations was released.
1993 - Free Willy hit theaters.
1993 - Hocus Pocus hit theaters.
1994 - Baseball Night in America premiered.
1995 - Amazon.com launched, selling books online.
1999 - Eyes Wide Shut hit theaters.
Eyes Wide Shut is in the Guinness Book of World Records for “longest constant film shoot.”
Eyes Wide Shot was in production for more than 15 months total, including one streak of 46 weeks without a single break.
That landed the movie and director Stanley Kubrick a world record which still stands today.
1999 - Blair Witch Project hit theaters.
1999 - John F. Kennedy Jr. was killed in a plane crash and/or will be appearing in Dallas any day now.
July 17th
1982 - Soft Cell’s one hit, Tainted Love, peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100.
1984 - The drinking age in the U.S. was changed from 18 to 21 nationwide.
1987 - Robocop hit theaters.
1991 - Color Me Badd’s single I Adore Mi Amor (the inspiration for the “thanks for subscribing” email you get from this newsletter) was released.
1992 - Honey, I Blew Up the Kid hit theaters.
1994 - Brazil won the men’s World Cup.
1996 - Multiplicity hit theaters.
1998 - The Mask of Zorro hit theaters.
1998 - The series finale of Family Matters aired.
1999 - Destiny’s Child’s single Bills, Bills, Bills hit number one.
Bills, Bills, Bills was Destiny’s Child’s only number one hit before the original group broke apart.
Bills, Bills, Bills featured the group’s original lineup of Beyonce Knowles, Kelly Rowland, LaTavia Roberson, and LeToya Luckett.
A few months after it became a number one hit, Roberson and Luckett tried to drop Mathew Knowles (Beyonce’s father) as their manager.
In February 2000, just before Say My Name became Destiny’s Child’s next number one hit, they were cut from the group and replaced by two new members.
July 18th
1984 - Prince’s single Let’s Go Crazy/Erotic City was released.
1986 - Aliens hit theaters.
1988 - The Beach Boys single Kokomo was released.
1992 - Whitney Houston married Bobby Brown.
1994 - Hootie & the Blowfish released the single Hold My Hand.
1994 - Seal’s single Kiss from a Rose was released for the first time, in the U.K.
It took eight years from Seal writing Kiss from a Rose to it becoming a hit.
Seal wrote the song in 1987, years before he released his debut album.
He didn’t love the song, but eventually shared it with a producer for his second album. It was part of that album in 1994, but didn’t catch on worldwide. (It was the number four song on the U.K. singles chart that year.)
Then, in 1995, it made it onto the Batman Forever soundtrack. It was re-released as a single in the U.S. — and became a massive hit.
It also won the top two awards at the 1996 Grammys.
1995 - Selena’s album Dreaming of You was released posthumously.
1996 - The Los Angeles Lakers signed Shaquille O’Neal.
1998 - The Seattle Mariners held a “Turn Ahead the Clock” night.
What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
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No news updates this week.
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Have a great week!
-Sam