Nov. 20: Mrs. Doubtfire, Snoop Doggy Dogg, America's Funniest Home Videos
Plus how Sonic the Hedgehog 2 inexplicably changed the video game industry forever
The Retro
by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
November 20, 2020 • Issue 22
This week in nostalgic history
November 20th
38 years ago, on November 20, 1982 - “The Play” — one of the most memorable moments in college football history — took place.
There are a certain group of iconic plays in different sports every fan has seen; they’re inescapable, part of every montage, eternally drawing comparisons to modern plays. The final play in the 1982 rivalry game between the University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University certainly qualifies.
Cal, trailing by one point with four seconds left, used five laterals to return the kickoff for a touchdown and earn a shocking victory.
The craziness of the play would be qualify it for legend status in and of itself (even if plays with multiple laterals are more “slapstick” and less “pure athletic beauty”). But the scene on the field as Cal scored the touchdown is what elevated “The Play” into the top two or three plays in history. The Stanford band, assuming the game was over, prematurely took the field. So, with the TV broadcaster screaming, “The band is on the field!”, the Cal player navigates through the band to score. And he wallops a Stanford trombone player as an exclamation point on the whole bit.
Also on November 20th: SETI was founded (1984)… Windows 1.0 shipped (1985)… Teen Wolf Two hit theaters (1987)… LL Cool J’s single Around the Way Girl (1990)… Home Alone 2 hit theaters (1992)… Enemy of the State and A Bug’s Life hit theaters (1998)
November 21st
28 years ago, on November 21, 1992 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was released, changing video game release cycles permanently.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 went on sale in most markets across the world on a Tuesday. They marketed it as “Sonic 2sday.” This doesn’t sound a big deal — or a small deal — but it inadvertently changed the video game industry for good.
Before Sonic 2, video games were kind of just released whenever their publishers decided to release them. (As a result, finding the original release dates of many of the ‘80s and early ‘90s video games is extraordinarily difficult, as many went undocumented; it’s one of the primary reasons I don’t feature more of them in this newsletter.)
After Sonic 2sday, somehow, the Tuesday release date — and from that point on, and continuing to this day, virtually all major platform video games are released on Tuesdays. All thanks to some so-so wordplay.
As for this Sonic game itself, it was the second-bestselling Sega Genesis game of all time, moving more than six million copies. It also introduced the character of Tails, who was, I guess, Sonic’s Scrappy Doo.
Also on November 21st: An American Tail hit theaters (1986)… the finale of She-Ra aired (1987)… Three Men and a Little Lady hit theaters (1990)… the Flamin’ Moe’s episode of The Simpsons premiered (1991)… Coolio’s album Gangsta’s Paradise was released (1995)
November 22nd
25 years ago, on November 22nd, 1995 - Toy Story and Casino both hit theaters.
I was in an in-between spot when these movies came out: Too old to see Toy Story, too young to see Casino. I saw them both anyway. I wasn’t particularly enamored of either at the time, once again because of my age. I couldn’t appreciate Toy Story on the kid or adult level — the cynical high schooler level was the worst place to be. (Plus, ain’t no cynical high schooler like a cynical ‘90s high schooler.) And I couldn’t appreciate Casino without the context of mafia movie history (and the Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci role in that history) — again because I was too young. So in the end, I did the only thing I could do: I compared both movies to Animaniacs. Toy Story didn’t measure up in the humor, Casino was basically a real-life version of the Animaniacs pigeons. No wonder both movies missed the mark for me.
Also on November 22nd: Back to the Future: Part II hit theaters (1989)… The Addams Family hit theaters (1991)… Jingle All the Way hit theaters (1996)
November 23rd
27 years ago, on November 23rd, 1993 - Snoop Doggy Dogg’s debut album Doggystyle was released.
It would be hard to create a list of the most significant hip-hop albums of all time and not include Snoop Dogg’s (née Snoop Doggy Dogg’s) debut. Well before the album was released, Snoop was a known quantity in both the hip-hop world and, for my purposes, the suburban hip-hop poser world. This was thanks to his work on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic one year earlier.
As much as that album made him, and as much as it gave him multiple places to shine, he got to shine far more when his debut album exploded onto the scene. His sing-songy, hopelessly catchy, id-dripped tales of gangster bacchanalia instantly hooked all quadrants of music fans and scorched his album to the top of the charts. While Snoop’s career is still going — and he’s had many, many hits since this album — this album remains his most popular and successful offering to date.
Also on November 23rd: Speaking of legendary college football plays earlier in this newsletter, Doug Flutie threw a famous Hail Mary (1984)… Scrooged hit theaters (1988)… the Atari Jaguar was released (1993)… Merril Bainbridge’s one hit Mouth peaked at number four and Cake’s The Distance peaked at 35 (1996)… Matchbox 20’s single 3 AM was released (1997)… Will Smith’s single Miami was released (1998)
November 24th
27 years ago, on November 24th, 1993 - Mrs. Doubtfire hit theaters.
The conventional screenwriting wisdom says: Every movie can ask its audience to make one major leap. We, as an audience, will suspend our disbelief one time, and that suspension of disbelief will then be the conceit upon which the movie hinges. A man relieves Groundhog Day over and over. There’s a hidden treasure map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. We can hear that baby’s inner monologue and it has the voice of Bruce Willis. And so on.
Some movies ask for a bigger leap than others. Mrs. Doubtfire is one of those. We are required to believe that, much like Superman in his Clark Kent glasses or Marlon Wayans in Paris Hilton makeup, no one in Mrs. Doubtfire’s family realizes their nanny is their dad. Not from the eyes, the voice, the smell, the gait, the stream of consciousness ramblings, nor the super coincidental timing of British nanny the size of their dad showing up every time their dad is out of the room.
This isn’t to say Mrs. Doubtfire is bad, per se. I liked it when I saw it in theaters in 1993 (even a much younger version of me found it absurd and somewhat cloying) and I’d probably be fine with it now. The reason, however, that it’s considered a classic is it was an ideal vehicle for Robin Williams in that era; giving him a way to channel his manic comedic energy in an infinite number of new, heretofore untested gags. And ultimately, he managed to make the movie work, giant suspension of disbelief request and all.
Also on November 24th: The ill-advised Running Zack episode of Saved by the Bell aired (1990)… Dan Marino became the first quarterback to fake a spike (1994)… The Tick aired its series finale (1996)… Sarah McLachlan’s single Angel was released (1998)
November 25th
23 years ago, on November 25th, 1997 - Will Smith’s album Big Willie Style was released.
Big Willie Style came at an interesting time, as it was Will Smith’s first album after he went from TV star to world’s biggest movie star. While his acting career had evolved and grown up, this album made it clear his music was still where it always was: Fun, safe, dogmatically PG, chock full of lyrics that could be, should be, and would be punctuated with a timely “ha ha.”
Hip-hop was evolving rapidly as an art form in 1997, but Will Smith wasn’t going to get in on the change. Big Willie Style isn’t recognized as an artistic triumph by any means, nor a contributor in any way to the growth of the genre, but the album still found a way to leave its mark. You’d be hard pressed to find anyone of a Certain Age who couldn’t sing along to at least a few lines of Gettin’ Jiggy wit It, Men in Black, Miami, or Just the Two of Us. Ha ha!
Also on November 25th: Roberto Duran said “No mas” (1980)… Bobby Brown quit New Edition (1986)… Three Men and a Baby and Planes, Trains, and Automobiles were released (1987)… The Bodyguard hit theaters (1992)… Elian Gonzalez was rescued at sea (1999)… even though it’s just outside the scope of this newsletter, it’s important to note Jim Mora’s “Playoffs?!” rant (2001)
November 26th
31 years ago, on November 26th, 1989 - America’s Funniest Home Videos premiered.
Would there be a YouTube if there weren’t an America’s Funniest Home Videos? This show, above all else, scientifically proved one hypothesis that altered the course of media for good: People really like seeing incredible, painful, and/or incredible and painful videos of random strangers.
After America’s Funniest Home Videos premiered on this day in 1989, camcorder sales began to take off. Like, expontentially so. People wanted to record their own videos for the show. Video recording hasn’t really ceased since — and the smartphone era just propelled it that exponential growth even more exponentially. And we were primed for that growth — and to make space in our mental entertainment budgets for videos of real people getting hit in the groin — by the early days of this show.
Also on November 26th: MASK aired its series finale (1986)… The Heights aired its series finale (1992)… R. Kelly’s single I Believe I Can Fly was released (1996)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
Tower Records is back! Sort of! Fourteen years after going out of business, it’s coming back as an online brand. Which is good, because it’s tough to find a place to get music on the internet.
The fifth Scream movie has been given an SEO disaster of a title… it’s called Scream.
The first trailer for a cartoon/live-action hybrid movie reboot of Tom and Jerry came out on Tuesday.
Julia Sweeney says she still feels bad for breaking during the SNL sketch in 1993 where Chris Farley was talking about his van down by the river.
Jerry Bruckheimer confirmed on a podcast that the original cast picks for Bad Boys were Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey.
Seth Rogan and his crew are rebooting Darkwing Duck for Disney+.
Lee Daniels is rebooting Waiting to Exhale as a show for ABC.
The NHL has revealed retro-inspired jerseys for all 31 of its teams. Yes, who can forget those classic uniforms from the Arizona vs. Nashville hockey classics of the 1960s?
Ted Danson is reuniting the casts of Cheers, Three Men and a Baby, and his more recent The Good Place for a virtual fundraiser. Ouch for the cast of Becker.
Ryan Phillippe says he was worried his religious parents would “disown him” after Cruel Intentions came out. I wonder what they thought about his celery scene in MacGruber.
A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and A Charlie Brown Christmas won’t just air on Apple TV+ after all. Apple reached a deal with PBS to air the specials.
Will Smith and the original Aunt Viv, Janet Hubert, addressed her departure from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and their feud during the reunion special on HBO Max this week. The special also featured Will Smith talking about how James Avery coached him through the “how come he don’t want me, man?” scene.
Throwbacks and recommendations
Here’s a look from Buzzfeed at the members of the Home Alone cast exactly 30 years after the movie came out. Is it weird I’m most thrown by Joe Pesci?
When the present is so rocky and the future is uncertain, the only safe place is the past. Here are the top TV shows and movies people are rewatching during the pandemic. (Seinfeld and Jurassic Park are numbers one, respectively.)
The reboot of Animanics premieres on Hulu today, but the reviews are surprisingly poor.
A documentary that appears to be worth checking out: The Orange Years is a look back at the golden age of Nickelodeon. It came out on Tuesday.
Here’s the new opening title sequence for the Saved by the Bell revival, featuring an autotuned version of the original theme by Lil Yachty. I mean, it makes sense. No other musical act would be appropriate for remixing the Saved by the Bell theme. Back when they announced the revival of the show, my first thought was, “Well it’s gotta be Lil Yachty doing the theme song, right?” And would you look at that? It is. Very prescient of me, slam dunk by the producers.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam