Mar 31: The Matrix, most popular Mario characters
Plus NFL Europe, and how Friends saved TV theme songs from extinction
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
March 31st, 2023 • Issue 145
This week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
March 31st
24 years ago, on March 31st, 1999, The Matrix hit theaters.
The Matrix was one of the most influential of the ‘90s.
But where did it have the most enduring influence?
We’re now nearly a quarter of a century out from The Matrix. And as I was reading about the reactions to The Matrix 24 years ago and throughout the past few decades, two major aspects of its legacy recur over and over:
The philosophy of The Matrix
The visuals of The Matrix (in particular the elegant fight scenes paired with “bullet time” camera moves)
In the years immediately following The Matrix, the answer for “most influential” was easily the visual effects. It was almost a law that every action movie had to include shots of slow motion bullets. Even comedies loved including parodies, with fighters doing back bends to avoid slow motion bullets.
The gorgeous fight choreography and visual effects of The Matrix still regularly show up in movies today. But… we don’t really connect them to The Matrix anymore. They’re just a part of the American blockbuster filmmaking style.
The philosophy of The Matrix, though not as deep as we all made it out to be in 1999, is also well-baked into the world today. The right wing/incel communities have essentially adopted and ruined the concept of being “red pilled.” Meanwhile, on the good side of history, the fact that the Wachowskis both transitioned after the movie came out has given The Matrix a whole new metaphorical meaning.
So where did The Matrix have the bigger influence?
It’s close, but I lean toward the philosophy. One way or another, as technology expanded and became an increasingly large part of the big movies of today, we were probably going to arrive at the visual style. But the easily-digestible cultural shorthands borne from The Matrix’s philosophy have not been so efficiently replicated.
1981 - Ordinary People won Best Picture at the 53rd Oscars.
1982 - The Doobie Brothers broke up.
1983 - Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life hit theaters in the U.S..
1984 - Kenny Loggins’ single Footloose hit number one.
1985 - WrestleMania I took place in New York.
1987 - Max Headroom premiered on NBC.
1987 - Prince’s album Sign O’ the Times was released.
1989 - Heathers hit theaters.
1989 - The Guns N’ Roses single Patience was released.
1992 - Def Leppard’s album Adrenalize and Kris Kross’s album Totally Krossed Out were released, as was Sophie B. Hawkins’s single Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover.
1993 - Brandon Lee was shot and killed on the set of The Crow.
1994 - Madonna had a highly censored appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman.
1995 - Microsoft Bob debuted.
1995 - Tommy Boy hit theaters.
1995 - Selena was murdered.
1996 - Shawn Michaels defeated Bret Hart in a 60-minute Iron Man match at WrestleMania XII.
1998 - The video game Starcraft was released.
1998 - The Backstreet Boys single Everybody (Backstreet’s Back) was released.
1999 - 10 Things I Hate About You hit theaters.
1999 - The Cranberries announced tickets to their upcoming tour would only be sold via their own website.
2000 - Boys Don’t Cry, The Skulls, and High Fidelity hit theaters.
2001 - Shaggy’s single Angel hit number one.
April 1st
1984 - Marvin Gaye was murdered by his father.
1985 - David Lee Roth left Van Halen.
1989 - The Bangles’ single Eternal Flame hit number one.
1990 - The Ha! network, which would become Comedy Central, premiered.
1990 - The Ultimate Warrior defeated Hulk Hogan at WrestleMania VI.
1991 - Duke won its first NCAA men’s basketball title.
1991 - The Sega Game Gear was released to take on the Nintendo Game Boy.
1994 - Major League 2 hit theaters.
1994 - Sister, Sister premiered.
1997 - Alex Trebek and Pat Sajak switched hosting jobs as an April Fools joke.
1998 - South Park angered fans with a bait and switch episode instead of paying off a cliffhanger.
2001 - Stone Cold Steve Austin defeated The Rock at the highly-regarded WrestleMania XVII.
April 2nd
1984 - Georgetown defeated Houston to win the NCAA Tournament.
1985 - The NCAA adopted a 45-second shot clock.
1987 - Some U.S. interstates began testing a 65 mph speed limit.
1989 - Hulk Hogan defeated Randy Savage at WrestleMania V.
1989 - The New York Times declared the Cold War was over.
1990 - UNLV defeated Duke to win the NCAA Tournament.
1992 - John Gotti was found guilty of murder along with several other charges.
1993 - The Crush and Cop and a Half both hit theaters.
1995 - WrestleMania XI featured NFL player Lawrence Taylor in the main event.
1996 - MLB star Cecil Fielder stole his first base after 11 years.
1998 - Rob Pilatus of Milli Vanilli died in Germany.
2000 - A four-way match headlined WrestleMania 2000.
2001 - Ichiro made his MLB debut.
April 3rd
1981 - The first portable computer, the Osborne 1, was unveiled.
1987 - Police Academy 4 hit theaters.
1989 - Michigan defeated Seton Hall to win the NCAA Tournament.
1989 - Pepsi dropped Madonna as a spokesperson after the Vatican called her video for Like a Prayer “blasphemous”.
1990 - En Vogue’s album Born to Sing was released.
1992 - Beethoven hit theaters.
1993 - Mortal Kombat II was released.
1995 - Jon B’s single Someone to Love was released.
1995 - UCLA defeated Arkansas to win the NCAA Tournament.
1996 - The Unabomber was arrested.
1996 - Primal Fear hit theaters.
1996 - MC Hammer filed for bankruptcy.
April 4th
25 years ago, on April 4th, 1998, NFL Europe kicked off.
NFL Europe kicked off on this day in 1998, though it was not the beginning of the American-football-in-Europe experiment nor the end.
It was, however, the NFL’s strongest attempt to that point to get the game to take hold in the European market as more than a casual curiosity.
The experiment began in 1991 with the NFL creating the World League of American Football. That was a developmental league with seven North America-based franchises and three in Europe. After three seasons, the league paused to retool.
In 1995, it came back with six teams all in Europe. The retooling didn’t take. The league had been popular in Europe (but not the U.S.) during its initial incarnation. The 1995 version did not have such success. So the NFL figured they might be able to boost its image by officially attaching their name to it — branding it a part of the NFL in earnest.
NFL Europe kicked off on this day in 1998 with six teams: Amsterdam Admirals, Barcelona Dragons, Frankfurt Galaxy, England Monarchs, Rhein Fire, and Scottish Claymores. After a 10-game season, Frankfurt and Rhein met in World Bowl ‘98. Rhein won.
The league continued on from there, season after season, never figuring out a way to turn a profit (it was losing about $30 million a year) or really capture a fan base. It would undergo another name change in 2006, to NFL Europa. And then, in 2007, after World Bowl XV, the NFL shut the whole thing down.
Ultimately, NFL Europe died for two reasons. One: Minor league football is a really tough sell. Football is unique in that its real developmental league is the NCAA — a developmental league so popular it can make a reasonable claim as America’s second-most popular. So many other second-tier leagues have come and gone and not one has grabbed even a sliver of market share from the NFL (or NCAA).
To combat that problem, when NFL Europe shut down, the NFL switched its strategy to having its real teams play games in Europe every season. They continue to do so to this day.
There’s also a permanent rumor about putting a team in London, though that’s never materialized.
Because that brings us to the second fatal flaw that killed NFL Europe: Europeans didn’t immediately fall in love with the sport.
We’re now more than 30 years removed from the start of the WLAF and 25 years removed from NFL Europe. And according to the most recent survey, American football has about 3.3 million avid fans in the U.K. and Germany, as well as around 17 million casual fans. Those are encouraging numbers. But it’s been a long, extraordinarily expensive journey to that point — and it’s still unclear if those fan numbers are good enough to make the NFL more than a secondary sport in Europe.
But clearly, the NFL is going to keep trying. They tried 25 years ago. They try today. Sunk cost fallacy be damned. They’re not giving up on this white whale.
1987 - Starship’s single Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now hit number one.
1988 - Kansas defeated Oklahoma to win the NCAA Tournament.
1989 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played in his final NBA game.
1993 - Hulk Hogan surprisingly left WrestleMania IX as champion.
1994 - Arkansas beat Duke to win the NCAA Tournament.
1994 - Sheryl Crow’s single All I Wanna Do was released.
1994 - Netscape was founded.
1997 - Chasing Amy hit theaters.
1998 - K-Ci & JoJo’s single All My Life hit number one and The Verve’s one hit single, Bittersweet Symphony, peaked at number 12.
1999 - Alibaba was founded.
2000 - Pink’s debut album, Can’t Take Me Home, was released.
April 5th
1982 - Jerry Lawler wrestled Andy Kaufman in Memphis.
1984 - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar set the NBA career scoring record.
1987 - The FOX network debuted and premiered with Married… With Children and The Tracey Ullman Show.
1992 - Hulk Hogan defeated Sid Justice at WrestleMania VIII.
1993 - Assault charges were dropped against Mark Wahlberg after he reached an out-of-court settlement with the man he attacked.
1994 - Kurt Cobain committed suicide.
1997 - The Crocodile Hunter premiered.
1998 - A woman in France caused a fatal accident while distracted by a Tamagotchi.
2002 - Van Wilder hit theaters.
April 6th
1984 - The Gods Must Be Crazy hit theaters.
1987 - Sugar Ray Leonard defeated Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
1987 - Baseball executive Al Campanis made racist remarks on Nightline.
1990 - Cry-Baby and Ernest Goes to Jail hit theaters.
1992 - Windows 3.1 launched.
1992 - Barney the Dinosaur premiered.
1992 - Duke defeated Michigan to win the NCAA Tournament.
1996 - Marlon Brando made anti-Semitic comments on Larry King Live.
1997 - WCW wrestler Booker T (a Black man) accidentally called Hulk Hogan (an orange man) the n-word during an impassioned promo.
1998 - Teletubbies premiered.
1998 - Citicorp and Travelers Group merged to form Citigroup.
1999 - Carmen Electra divorced Dennis Rodman.
2001 - Blow and Along Came a Spider hit theaters.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
Lionel Richie says he no longer can last “all night long.”
Ryan Coogler of the Creed and Black Panther franchises is rebooting The X-Files for 20th Television.
Sharon Stone says she made $13.5 million less than Michael Douglas for Basic Instinct.
Rosie Perez says she auditioned to be Trinity in The Matrix and the Wachowskis were very nice to her when she bombed.
Jennifer Aniston says “there’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of Friends and find them offensive.”
The trailer is out for Amazon Prime’s reboot of Dead Ringers, the 1988 movie from David Cronenberg. The reboot stars Rachel Weisz and comes out on April 21st.
The MTV Gong, which Tina Turner once banged with her feet, is up for auction. The auction ends today at noon Pacific; the gong is expected to sell for $10,000 to $15,000.
An unreleased Atari 2600 game called Sonar has been found after being lost for 40+ years.
There’s a biopic in the works for Scatman John, the guy behind 1995’s one-hit wonder Scatman (Ski-Ba-Bop-Ba-Dop-Bop).
Brian “Brizz” Gillis of LFO passed away this week at age 47. He’s the second member of the three-person group to die young; Devin Lima passed away in 2018 at age 41.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Who are the most beloved characters in the Super Mario franchise? In honor of the new movie coming out, a survey asked 87,000 people for their picks and revealed the top 20 most beloved characters from the Mario universe. Luigi came in second. Mario came in third. There are some other weird results up and down the list.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
We’re 40 years removed from Billy Joey’s hit Allentown. But the city of Allentown, Pennsylvania, hasn’t forgotten — and they largely still dislike it. Here’s an NPR story on how Allentown feels about Allentown.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
Here’s the unknown story of how the Friends theme song saved TV theme songs from complete extinction.
Have a great week!
-Sam