33 years ago, on March 4th, 1989 - Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers premiered on The Disney Channel.
Disney’s foray into TV cartoons started gradually — then had to ramp up fast. Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers was an early part of that ramp up.
Disney tried a few syndicated animated shows in the ‘80s, starting with Adventures of the Gummi Bears and including a few other less prominent or successful endeavors (like The Wuzzles).
Then they made DuckTales and it was a serious hit. Disney needed to hustle to create a second half-hour series to pair with it so their syndication partners would buy two shows, not one. That second show was Rescue Rangers.
From there, Disney’s venture into syndicated animation snowballed. The Disney hour expanded to a Disney afternoon with shows like Darkwing Duck and TaleSpin. After that, new shows started coming so fast it’s hard to even pin down a timeline.
As for Rescue Rangers itself, as much as it sparked the acceleration it was also part of the churn. The show only lasted three seasons and 65 episodes, although it established a very powerful core fan base during that time.
And though it took longer than some other shows of the era to get the reboot treatment, a new Rescue Rangers movie is coming out on Disney+ in May.
Also on March 4th: Police Squad! premiered on ABC and didn’t work as a TV show but became the Naked Gun films (1982)… the series finale aired of Silver Spoons (1987)… Debbie Gibson’s single Lost in Your Eyes hit number one (1989)… the first ESPY Awards were held (1993)… John Candy passed away (1994)… NBA Jam was released for Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo (1994)… Michael Jordan grounded out in his first at-bat in spring training (1994)… Dish Network went live (1996)… Just Shoot Me premiered (1997)… Savage Garden’s self-titled album was released (1997)… the PlayStation 2 went on sale for the first time, in Japan (2000)… Lonestar’s single Amazed hit number one (2000)
March 5th
27 years ago, on March 5th, 1995 - The Simpsons-Critic crossover episode aired on FOX.
The Simpsons crossover episode with The Critic is a deeply polarizing one for longtime Simpsons fans.
On one hand, fans are supposed to loathe the episode. FOX essentially forced The Simpsons team to make the episode as a way to promote The Critic. Matt Groening was so upset about that he took his name off it entirely; as you can see below in a screenshot, he doesn’t appear in the opening credits.
So, because this episode was made under coercion, it should therefore earn our scorn and resentment.
But on the other hand… it’s one of the funniest and most quotable Simpsons episodes of the entire golden era of the show. This episode brought memes (like football in the groin), a strong plot and a very memorable half hour of comedy. Jon Lovitz’s Critic character arguably slots in better in Springfield than in his own show.
In the episode, as Homer weighs the merits of two films from the Springfield Film Festival, he muses, “Barney’s movie had heart, but ‘Football in the Groin’ had a football in the groin.” On a meta level, this episode had both: Heart and (both a metaphorical and literal) football in the groin.
So what to make of it? At this point, almost three decades later, it’s fine to just enjoy it without an asterisk. Matt Groening is probably over his beef at this point. The Critic endures just as much as a one-time Simpsons character as the star of a (much shorter-lived) series. And in this era where there are so many old favorites than have become genuinely problematic, it’s hard to call this episode of The Simpsons a problem. So just enjoy it.
Also on March 5th: The Sinclair ZX81 hit the market (1981)… John Belushi passed away at age 33 (1982)… Michael Jackson’s single Billie Jean hit number one (1983)… Swing Kids hit theaters (1993)… Ben Johnson was banned for racing for life (1993)… the Weird Science TV show premiered (1994)… US3’s one hit Cantaloop peaked at number nine (1994)… Yahoo.com went live (1995)… the Jenny McCarthy Show premiered (1997)… Analyze This, Cruel Intentions, and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels hit theaters (1999)… The Osbournes premiered on MTV (2002)
March 6th
29 years ago, on March 6th, 1993 - A Whole New World hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
I’ve written about A Whole New World in this newsletter before (back in October 2020); however, not in the context of its commercial performance. And its commercial performance has become a renewed discussion topic of late.
Until last month, A Whole New World held the distinction of the only number one song ever from a Disney animated movie. From Can You Feel the Love Tonight to Let It Go, from Part of Your World to How Far I’ll Go and You’re Welcome, somehow no other song from a Disney animated movie managed to hit that pinnacle.
Then, on February 5th of this year, We Don’t Talk About Bruno from Encanto recently became the second-ever number one from a Disney animated movie. And while the song is unbelievably catchy, and while today’s Billboard charts take into account online streaming (which didn’t exist in Aladdin’s time or, I guess, the real Aladdin’s time either), We Don’t Talk About Bruno’s performance still seems surprising.
While A Whole New World feels mostly universal and the Aladdin references within the song could be seen as romantic metaphors, We Don’t Talk About Bruno is entirely in context in Encanto and makes little sense independent of the movie.
If nothing else, Bruno’s success speaks to the power of Disney+ and what it will most likely do for all Disney movies to come in the foreseeable future. I know in my home, like tens of millions of others across the country, Encanto had played on a near loop for the past month. And since the kids know how to shout at Google to “Play We Don’t Talk About Bruno”… those streaming numbers just keep on going up.
Also on March 6th: Walter Cronkite had his final broadcast as the anchor of CBS Evening News (1981)… the Sponge was approved as a contraceptive device (1983)… the CMT cable network debuted (1983)… the USFL debuted (1983)… Mike Tyson won by knockout in his first professional fight (1985)… Lethal Weapon hit theaters (1987)… the movie Gladiator — the boxing one — premiered (1992)… the Michelangelo virus hit computers (1992)… Digable Planet’s one hit, Rebirth of Slick, peaked at number 15 (1993)… MTV’s Liquid Television came to an end (1994)… The Big Lebowski hit theaters (1998)… Eric Clapton became the first three-time inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2000)
March 7th
35 years ago, on March 7th, 1987 - Bruce Willis’s only hit single, Respect Yourself, peaked at number five.
In last week’s newsletter, I covered Patrick Swayze’s lone hit song and discussed Swayze’s music career — which was essentially just him getting a handful of songs onto his movie soundtracks.
Bruce Willis’s approach to a music career, a few years prior to Swayze’s, was quite different.
Respect Yourself, off Willis’s debut album (where he channeled a “soulful working class Joe” alter ego named Bruno), was a duet with the Pointer Sisters and a cover of a 1972 song by The Staple Sisters. In fact, most of the songs on The Return of Bruno were covers.
Bruce Willis is a, perhaps surprisingly, fine singer. But with an album of covers, the bar is higher than “fine.” Meaning Willis was relying on his star power to close the gap.
The best example is his cover of Under the Boardwalk. He gives a nice performance, a full step better than “good singer at karaoke night.” The production is expensive and professional. But if you didn’t know it was Bruce Willis and just heard the song cold, you would never say “Whoa, I need to hear more of that guy singing.”
Respect Yourself was the album’s only hit because it didn’t try to sell Bruce Willis’s voice, just his growing ‘80s star power from Moonlighting. You can barely even hear him over the production. (You can hear June Pointer of The Pointer Sisters a lot better in her verse, which feels subtle but intentional.)
Willis would release another album after this, one with fewer covers, then abandoned his music career as his action movie career took off. All in all, Willis was a good enough singer that it was worth a shot (and a worthy allocation of his fame capital) — but he was savvy enough to recognize his better path was elsewhere.
Also on March 7th: The NCAA’s Selection Sunday was broadcast live on TV for the first time (1982)…the TNN cable network launched (1983)… We Are the World was released (1985)… Highlander hit theaters (1986)… Mike Tyson became the youngest boxing world heavyweight champion (1987)… Milli Vanilli’s album Girl You Know It’s True was released (1989)… the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parody falls under fair use (1994)… Dr. Dre’s single Keep Their Heads Ringin’ was released (1995)… Howard Stern’s movie Private Parts hit theaters (1997)… Stanley Kubrick passed away (1999)
March 8th
29 years ago, on March 8th, 1993 - Beavis and Butt-Head premiered on MTV.
When Beavis and Butt-Head debuted near 30 years ago, it launched a popular debate. Was this show pure lowbrow humor catering to the lowest denominator of burnouts… or were Beavis and Butt-Head vessels for subtle social commentary on everything from the zombified and alienated suburban TV generation to society’s descent toward pure lowbrow humor.
Mike Judge’s future work proves it was unequivocally the latter. Idiocracy was the social commentary of eight seasons and 200+ episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head distilled down into an hour-and-a-half.
Beavis and Butt-Head’s brand of humor — whether people took it at face value or recognized an underlying message — lasted a lot longer than most MTV shows (at least ones without the word “Challenge” in their titles).
The pair also landed a movie in 1996 with, finally, another one coming in July of this year.
Also on March 8th: President Ronald Reagan referred to the U.S.S.R. as an “evil empire” (1983)… the series finale of The A-Team aired on NBC (1987)… Nintendo held its first ever World Championships (1990)… New Jack City hit theaters (1991)… Beck’s single Loser was released (1993)… Coolio’s single Fantastic Voyage was released (1994)… The Birdcage and Fargo both hit theaters (1996)… Celine Dion’s album Falling Into You was released (1996)… Joe DiMaggio passed away (1999)
March 9th
23 years ago, on March 9th, 1999 - Al Gore sort of claimed he invented the internet.
Back in the era when misinformation campaigns were a bit harder to pull off, the “Al Gore claims he invented the internet” one still managed to gather significant steam.
The origin point of the misinformation campaign came on this day in 1999, when then-Vice President Al Gore had an interview with Wolf Blitzer on CNN.
Blitzer asked Gore to differentiate between himself and another Democratic presidential hopeful, Senator Bill Bradley. And one of Gore’s responses was:
“During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country’s economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.”
In context, he wasn’t claiming he invented the internet, rather that he saw its potential and helped push it forward with the financial and political support it needed. But… his statement was twistable enough to spark a go-to smear against him in the coming presidential campaign.
And it worked well enough that the propaganda machine has reliably played the same type of card every presidential election since: John Kerry’s Swift boat, Barack Obama’s birthplace, Hillary Clinton’s emails, and Joe Biden’s son’s laptop full of secrets he just kinda left at a Delaware electronics store.
Also on March 9th: Splash hit theaters (1984)… REO Speedwagon’s single Can’t Fight This Feeling hit number one (1985)… Rags to Riches premiered (1987)… U2’s album The Joshua Tree was released (1987)… Joe Versus the Volcano and House Party both hit theaters (1990)… Mariah Carey’s single Someday hit number one (1991)… Arizona and Tampa were granted MLB expansion teams (1995)… George Burns passed away (1996)… Oasis’s Wonderwall peaked at number eight, the band’s only top 40 hit in the U.S. (believe it or not) (1996)… Notorious B.I.G. was killed in Los Angeles and his murder remains officially unsolved (1997)… Dr. Dre signed Eminem (1998)…
March 10th
41 years ago, on March 10th, 1981 - Kim Carnes’ single Bette Davis Eyes was released.
Kim Carnes wears sunglasses for a good amount of her breakthrough video for this song, perhaps not to compete with Bette Davis.
Bette Davis Eyes is a fantastic song, just a hint of the beloved musical elements of the ‘80s but timeless enough it could earn listens from new fans today, not just people with nostalgia.
I was one of those new fans. I was too way young for the song (or any non-Raffi songs) in 1981 and somehow never heard it through high school or college.
My first introduction to Bette Davis Eyes was in 2002, shortly after I moved to Los Angeles. I was trying to become a stand-up comic and mainly performed at a show in the back room at a Hollywood sushi bar (RIP Amagi). After stand-up would end on Saturday nights, karaoke would kick off in the same room. A few of my comedy friends and I stayed for karaoke one night and a woman performed Bette Davis Eyes. Everyone in the room seemed like they knew the song. I didn’t… but I knew I was hearing something good. I tracked down the song when I got home that night and was now a new forever fan of Bette Davis Eyes.
Anyway, my taste isn’t always that good. I was also instantly mesmerized that year when I heard Avril Lavigne’s Complicated, everything Ja Rule did, and most of the Zack Braff music picks that played in the background on Scrubs. So yeah, my ear cuts both ways.
Also on March 10th: Willard Scott became the weatherman on the Today show (1980)… Prince’s album Lovesexy was released (1988)… Police Academy 6 hit theaters (1989)… the series finale of Webster aired, as did the series finale of game show Finders Keepers (1989)… Jodeci’s single Come and Talk to Me was released (1992)… Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on The WB (1997)… the first PalmPilot was released (1997)… Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place premiered on ABC (1998)… Fastball’s album All the Pain Money Can Buy was released (1998)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
NBC’s attempt to create a Eurovision Song Contest but with the 50 states competing has a surprising number of famous ‘80s and ‘90s music acts involved (it seemed like it would just be up-and-comers or unknowns going in). The contest will feature Jewel representing Alaska, Michael Bolton representing Connecticut, Sisqo representing Maryland, The Crystal Method representing Nevada, and Macy Gray representing Ohio.
