March 12: Never Gonna Give You Up, Muppet Show, WCW
March 12: Never Gonna Give You Up, Muppet Show, WCW
Plus cassette singles, the CFL, the bestselling album ever, and more
The Retro by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
March 12, 2021 • Issue 38
This week in nostalgic history
March 12th
33 years ago, on March 12th, 1988 - Rick Astley’s Never Gonna Give You Up hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
Never Gonna Give You Up was a big hit in the ‘80s, but it somehow, some way became something far larger two decades later. In its time, Never Gonna Give You Up was the hopelessly catchy debut single from babyfaced British singer Rick Astley that became a number one single in 25 countries (including the U.S. on this day in 1988).
Then several years passed, YouTube happened… and somehow, Rickrolling became a thing. Its origins have been traced to 4chan (when won’t they stop making positive contributions to the world!?) in 2007, when users pulled a prank by posting links claiming to be a new trailer for Grand Theft Auto IV but which actually went to Astley’s music video.
The prank spread far beyond the back alleys of the internet, becoming so mainstream by 2008 that Astley himself got in on it and pulled an in-person Rickroll with a surprise Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade cameo.
But there was an unexpected side effect of Rickrolling. Never Gonna Give You Up became the prank song of choice because, one would think, it’s an overly cheery ‘80s time machine that was just begging to be goofed on. But the more people got Rickrolled… the more it seems people began to actually like the song non-ironically. It’s since rejuvenated Rick Astley’s career. It’s the song he uses to close out concerts now that he’s been so in demand he’s been touring again. And since Rickrolling began, it’s even afforded him the chance to release two new albums and five greatest hits albums.
Also on March 12th: Les Miserables opened on Broadway for the first time (1987)… the eternally-filled-with-wanderlust Raiders announced they were returning to Oakland from Los Angeles (1990)… REM’s album Out of Time was released (1991)… Ace of Base’s song The Sign hit number one (1993)… Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf was suspended by the NBA for not coming out of the locker room for the national anthem (1996)
March 13th
34 years ago, on March 13th, 1987 - The first cassette single went on sale nationwide in the U.S.
If we look at what music costs today — for most people, less than $10-a-month for unlimited streaming access to something like 90 percent of the songs ever recorded in the post-phonograph history of the world — it becomes more and more amazing people willingly paid $2 to $4 for a cassette of one song. How is the list of the world’s richest people not just a list of music executive from the early ‘90s?
The music industry tried a few times to get cassette singles going as the successor to seven-inch vinyl singles. As early as 1982, the industry began trying to get some traction with the format, but interest was so low cassette singles were never widely available in stores.
That changed in 1987, when all of the major labels decided it was time to take a shot together. And on this day, a cassette single of Bryan Adams’ Heat of the Night went on sale everywhere around the country, with several dozen more to follow in the coming months. The labels also designed a special point-of-purchase display for stores to use, to guarantee them better placement and more attention for the new format.
And this time, it worked. Cassette singles became extremely popular, and only reached their end-of-life when CDs took over and CD singles really never got any traction. And then, of course, we started entering the era of mp3s, ensuring CD singles would never have a second chance like cassette singles did.
Also on March 13th: William Shatner’s show T.J. Hooker premiered on ABC (1982)… Microsoft had its initial public offering (1986)… My Cousin Vinny hit theaters (1992)… the underrated CB4 hit theaters (1993)… Snow’s classic Informer hit number one (1993)… Bryce Drew of Valparaiso hit a famous March Madness buzzer beater (1998)… Cher’s single Believe hit number one (1999)
March 14th
25 years ago, on March 14th, 1996 - A Canadian Football League team drafted a dead player… for the second year in a row.
For my entire lifetime, the U.S. has been in search of an alternative pro football league. (Well, at least until about 15 years ago when everyone realized we already had it with college football.) We’ve seen the USFL, the Arena League, two iterations of the XFL, and a whole host of other attempts.
Oddly enough, the Canadian Football League — which has been around the whole time — never gets any real consideration to become that alternative league. They once even tried expanding into the U.S. and still didn’t gain any traction. (Anyone remember the Memphis Mad Dogs?)
There’s no one answer why the CFL hasn’t become a viable RC Cola, but incidents like this one in 1996 certainly didn’t help the case. In April of 1995, the Ottawa Rough Riders drafted a player — then learned he’d died in a car accident in December of 1994. You’d think that type of thing would spook the teams in the league into better vetting of their draft picks. But… nope. On this day in 1996, the Montreal Alouettes selected a player in the fifth round of the CFL draft — then found out a few hours later he’d died from cancer in December.
The Alouettes called the player’s family to apologize and the owner blamed it on “[with] 560 names on this list … the research process can be very difficult. It’s not as easy as people think. I think we as a league have to hire more people.”
Also on March 14th: Huey Lewis and the News’ single Jacob’s Ladder hit number one (1997)… Heart’s single All I Want to Do Is Make Love to You was released (1990)… Farm Aid V was held in Irving, Texas (1992)… the Soviet newspaper Pravda shut down (1992)… the Goo Goo Dolls’ album A Boy Named Goo was released (1995)… KP & Envyi’s one hit, Swing My Way, peaked at number six (1998)… the Harvard women’s basketball team became the first NCAA tournament 16-seed to defeat a number one seed (1998)… Will Smith’s Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It hit number one (1998)… Ray Charles made his first solo performance in 53 years on QVC of all places (1998)
March 15th
40 years ago, on March 15th, 1981 - The series finale aired of the original version of The Muppet Show.
The Muppet Show was an early case of a show ending on its own terms and not being canceled. (Until Disney+ totally #canceled it when they put a disclaimer on some episodes last month amirite???? Rob the poor and shoot the money!)
According to the reports, Jim Henson wanted to cancel the show after five seasons because his team found they were running short of ideas and didn’t want to hang on until after the show stopped being funny. Also, they hit the syndication threshold of 100 episodes, which was the goal of a TV series in the era. And finally, it was time to lean in harder on the successful Muppet movies — plus all of the other puppet-related projects for which Henson and co. were now the go-tos.
I was surprised to see the Muppets ended in 1981; it was my first big primetime TV love as a little kid, but I thought I was watching it in real time. The math there doesn’t check out at all. I must’ve been watching it mostly in syndication and just thought I was seeing episodes in real time. How did my four-year-old self not understand the nuances of syndication?
In retrospect, the decision to end The Muppet Show after five seasons and before it lost its juice was probably a good call. Had the show continued until it met the mother, so to speak, the Muppet characters may have lost some of their specialness and wouldn’t continue to pop up, generation after generation, to continue charming audiences with their own unique brand of humor. Plus, as the many failed attempts to reboot The Muppet Show have proven, it’s not just a plug-and-play formula; it requires a skilled hand and the right confluence of factors to succeed.
Also on March 15th: Julius Caesar was stabbed to death despite prophetic warnings (44 B.C.)… Symbolic.com was the first domain name ever registered (1985)… Starship’s song Sara hit number one (1986)… the St. Louis Cardinals NFL team moved to Phoenix (1988)… Madonna’s single I’ll Remember was released (1994)… the movies Ed and Executive Decision hit theaters (1996)
March 16th
20 years ago, on March 16th, 2001 - WCW Monday Nitro and WCW Thunder were both canceled by Turner Broadcasting, bringing an end to wrestling’s Monday night wars.
The biggest boom period in pro wrestling was in the late ‘90s, when the two promotions of the WWF and WCW were competing head-to-head on Monday nights and bringing their A++ game as they battled for fans’ eyeballs and dollars. And while WCW entered a downward spiral in 1999 and 2000 — as short-term thinking and YOLO booking decisions repeatedly came back to bite them — what ultimately ended the Monday Night Wars was a finishing move even the mightiest pro wrestler couldn’t kick out of: The fickle pen of bureaucracy.
In 2000, TV executive Jamie Kellner became the head of the Turner networks. Kellner was not a pro wrestling fan. Normally, that wouldn’t have mattered, because before Kellner, there were two factors keeping WCW’s pro wrestling on the Turner networks. One, the ratings were fantastic. Two, Ted Turner himself was a massive wrestling fan and essentially mandated that wrestling (or, as he called it according to legend, “rasslin’”) appear on his networks.
But as 2001 approached, both factors changed. WCW’s creative spirals led to plummeting ratings — ratings that no longer justified the outsized costs of WCW, including the massive guaranteed contracts they’d recklessly doled out to tons of stars to lure them away from the WWF. And as the AOL-Time Warner merger was finalized, Ted Turner no longer ruled his kingdom as anything other than a figurehead — at best.
The choice, then, became an easier one for Kellner as he decided to retool the networks and steer them in what he viewed as a more prestigious direction. So on this day 20 years ago, Kellner Appomattox’d the Monday Night Wars and canceled both of WCW’s shows. One week later, WWF acquired WCW for pennies on the dollar.
Also on March 16th: Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s one hit Relax peaked at number 10 (1985)… Tonya Harding plead guilty to conspiracy in the Nancy Kerrigan attack (1994)… Eazy E announced he had AIDS (1995)… the famous prohibition episode of The Simpsons aired on FOX (1997)… the PC game Everquest was released (1999)
March 17th
24 years ago, on March 17th, 1997 - The Eagles’ album Their Greatest Hits tied Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the bestselling album in U.S. history.
The Eagles — or rather, their record label, as the band often says they had no part in the decision-making process for this album — did a smart thing with their first of their 11 (and counting) greatest hits albums. They put the album out early in the band’s career — after just four years — and included nothing but massive mega hits. There was no filler (other than Desperado, which was never a hit, but turned out to be a smart inclusion as it’s one of the band’s more enduring songs).
The album was such a good collection of Eagles songs that it sold… and sold… and sold. Finally on this day in 1997, it caught up with Michael Jackson’s Thriller — then passed it. The Eagles would stay on top until Michael Jackson’s death, after which a surge in Thriller sales vaulted it back to number one. But the Eagles would slowly overtake Thriller again, and Their Greatest Hits is still the bestselling album in U.S. history today. (Worldwide, it trails Thriller by a significant margin.)
It’s hard to imagine any album will ever overtake it with the way music distribution has changed. It’s doubtful millions of people will decide to buy any album en masse again, at least not in quantities enough to move the needle.
Also on March 17th: Apple sued Microsoft for copyright infringement over Windows (1988)… Biz Markie’s one hit Just a Friend peaked at number nine (1990)… reforms to end apartheid passed in South Africa (1992)… En Vogue’s single My Lovin’ was released (1992)… the first chickenpox vaccine was approved by the FDA (1995)… K-Ci and Jojo’s single All My Life was released (1998)… my car was stolen while I was on a bad date (2008)
March 18th
31 years ago, on March 18th, 1990 - The largest art heist in the history of the world went down in Boston.
This sounds like something straight out of a movie. At 1:24 A.M. on March 18th, as St. Patrick’s Day crowds stumbled around the streets of Boston, two fake cops showed up at the city’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. They duct taped and handcuffed the two guards and embarked on a massive smash-and-grab. They stole roughly $500 million worth of art, but in an absurd way — like, they left the museum’s most valuable piece of artwork but stole candy bars out of the vending machine.
When it was all over, it was the biggest art heist in history, and the largest private property theft as well. The crime continues to hold both distinctions today.
So who did it? In 2013, the FBI essentially confirmed the top public theory, that one of Boston’s organized crime gangs was behind the robbery. The wheelman for the head of one of the organizations stole the art, ostensibly as a bargaining chip to spring his boss, who was locked up on racketeering charges at the time, from prison. Shockingly, that plan didn’t work.
The statute of limitations on prosecuting the crime ended in 1995, but the suspected perpetrator was murdered in 1991, so no one has ever faced prosecution. The art all still remains missing to this day, and the Gardner Museum still has the stolen paintings’ empty frames on its walls, eternally waiting for their return.
Also on March 18th: The Greatest American Hero and its theme song premiered on NBC (1981)… Police Academy 5 hit theaters (1988)… Leona Helmsley was sentenced to four years in prison for tax evasion (1992)… Duice’s single Dazzey Duks was released (1993)… Santa Clara upset Arizona in the NCAA tournament (1993)… Naked Gun 33-and-a-third hit theaters (1994)… Michael Jordan announced his comeback to the NBA (1995)… Mark Morrison’s single Return of the Mack was released (1996)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
Dictionary.com added three made-up words from ‘90s TV shows to their dictionary this week, validating them as real words: Cromulent and embiggen from The Simpsons, and supposably from Friends.
The latest episode of The Simpsons was written by the woman whose dad wrote the “Baby on Board” episode from the golden era — which was inspired by her as a baby.
A new film called Kid 90 is out on Hulu, featuring Soleil Moon Frye’s camcorder filming of the famous child stars of the ‘90s living some kind of life.
Coming 2 America had the biggest streaming opening weekend of the pandemic era. Also, here are side-by-side looks at characters in the original versus the sequel.
Atari is launching a cryptocurrency based on its old games.
A Dawson’s Creek reboot could be happening, at least according to the actress who played Dawson’s mom with no other sources confirming.
Batman Forever almost cast Eric Nies as Robin, at least according to Eric Nies with no other sources confirming. Chris O’Donnell would’ve been a good host of The Grind, too, come to think of it. Sliding doors, man.
Mayim Bialik says she’s been trying to get a Blossom reboot going for a while but is having trouble getting a TV network (and possibly a haberdashery) on board.
A new Child’s Play TV spinoff called Chucky has announced its cast, including Jennifer Tilly. The show will be on USA Network or Syfy or maybe both?
In the ultimate flex, Netflix is releasing a documentary about the last Blockbuster store later this month.
The inventor of the audio cassette tape passed away this week at age 94.
Throwbacks and recommendations
Someone turned an old version of Pong into a playable work of art.
Here are 28 popular movies that mostly flopped as TV shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Dirty Dancing, and many more from this newsletter’s scope.
A survey found the most famous commercial jingles of all time.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam