Oct 2: Mighty Ducks, SimCity, Zack and Kelly wedding
Plus Aladdin, dueling '80s Ghostbusters cartoons, and more
The Retro by 11 Points
Modern perspectives on ‘80s and ‘90s nostalgia
October 2nd, 2020 • Issue 15
🛑 It’s time to spread the word ⤵️
This week in nostalgic history
October 2nd
28 years ago, on October 2nd, 1992 - The Mighty Ducks hit theaters.
The Mighty Ducks movie was released by Disney in October of 1992. Anaheim, California (and an ownership team from Disney) was awarded an NHL expansion franchise in December of 1992. The team name — “Mighty Ducks of Anaheim” — was announced in March of 1993. They played their first game in October of 1993.
A question I’d never looked into before is: What came first? It’s a chicken and egg scenario, just replace the chicken with a duck and the egg with hockey’s obsession with franchises in warm weather areas. Seamless analogy.
Movies take a long time to develop, film, and release — and they’re never guaranteed to be a success. But sports franchise bids, expansion plans, and major corporate marketing initiatives also take a long time to develop.
Based on the above timeline, Disney’s play to own a hockey team had to be in the works before The Mighty Ducks was successful — the turnaround is just too short. But which started first? I’m thinking movie by a hair.
Here’s the best I can put together. The CEO of Disney at the time, Michael Eisner, was a hockey fan. He was also heavily focused on expanding Disney’s empire. So the movie Mighty Ducks got a green light in large part because of Eisner’s hockey fandom — but then dovetailed with their corporate expansion plans when the NHL was looking to rapidly expand across the U.S. The NHL was so eager for Disney’s involvement they let them name the team after the movie — the first and only time to date one of the four major U.S. pro sports leagues allowed a team to be named after a brand.
Also on October 2nd: Mr. Baseball and Glengarry Glen Ross hit theaters (1992)… Oasis’s album What’s the Story, Morning Glory was released (1995)… the Chicago Bulls traded for Dennis Rodman (1995)… the jurors in the O.J. Simpson trial reached a verdict (1995)… Antz and A Night at the Roxbury hit theaters (1998)
October 3rd
31 years ago, on October 3rd, 1989 - SimCity and Prince of Persia were both released.
Two very different PC games came out on this day in 1989. At the time, it might’ve been hard to predict which would become a more lucrative franchise — after all, one was a high-action swashbuckling adventure game and the other involved slowly laying down segments of roads and hoping, over time, imaginary people would develop imaginary businesses in your commercial property zones.
Three decades later, both franchises are still going and both successful — but SimCity (thanks in large part to its more successful spinoff, The Sims), has lapped Prince of Persia several times over.
Also on October 3rd: Charles in Charge premiered (1984)… Sinead O’Connor ripped up a picture of the Pope on SNL (1992)… Mariah Carey’s album Daydream was released (1995)… the O.J. Simpson not guilty verdict was delivered (1995)
October 4th
34 years ago, on October 4th, 1986 - Dan Rather was attacked by someone yelling, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
“What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” — a phrase baked deep into ‘90s pop culture thanks largely to the eponymous R.E.M. song — is a misquote of the attack on Dan Rather. As he was mugged in New York City in 1986, the person attacking him kept asking, “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
It took quite a while before the mugger was identified; in 1997, the crime was finally traced to a man who was serving a prison sentence for murdering an NBC employee in 1994. That man believed TV networks were beaming signals into his brain, which is most likely the origin of “Kenneth, what is the frequency?”
It’s not entirely clear why R.E.M. chose that quote as the title (and hook) of a song eight years later. The song isn’t related to Dan Rather, the attack, mental illness, nor anything else associated with the incident itself — it’s all about a member of an older generation futily trying to understand the younger generation. So… shrug?
Also on October 4th: Commando hit theaters (1985)… Beverly Hills 90210 premiered (1990)… Suburban Commando hit theaters (1991)… the 3DO was released (1993)… That Thing You Do hit theaters (1996)
October 5th
29 years ago, on October 5th, 1991 - The series finale aired for The Real Ghostbusters.
The success of the Ghostbusters movie in 1984 led to any number of spin-offs, one of which was an animated series. But there was a problem — in the form of a direct competitor.
Filmation, the company behind He-Man among others, created a live-action series called The Ghost Busters in 1975. When Ghostbusters the movie was in the works, Columbia Pictures paid Filmation for the rights to use the name — but Filmation still had some legal claims to it. So they drafted off the success of Ghostbusters by creating an animated series similar to 1975’s live-action show (one of the Ghost Busters was a gorilla, for instance, obviously).
The Ghost Busters (pictured above, right) animated show premiered on September 8th, 1986. The Real Ghostbusters (pictured above, left) premiered less than a week later, on September 13th, 1986.
Inexplicably I still have some memories of watching The Ghost Busters (which was later called Flimation’s Ghostbusters for further legal differentiation) — even though the movie spinoff version far outperformed it. I have no memory of watching The Real Ghostbusters. Filmation’s show lasted just one season, from September through December of 1986. As per this entry, the movie spinoff lasted seven seasons through 1991.
Also on October 5th: Lloyd Benson defeated Dan Quayle in a vice presidential debate (1988)… PM Dawn’s single Set Adrift on Memory Bliss was released (1991)… Angel premiered (1999)
October 6th
27 years ago, on October 6th, 1993 - Michael Jordan announced he was leaving the NBA to play baseball.
Conspiracy theories have transitioned from “fun diversions” to “rapidly leading to the end of society” in the past few years. So two-and-a-half decades ago, there was still a lot of fun to be had with conspiracy theories — and the real reason behind Michael Jordan quitting basketball at the peak of his powers to play minor league baseball is one of the all-time great conspiracy theories.
The most popular theory — the “grassy knoll” of Jordan’s two-year baseball fantasy camp, if you will — is the NBA issued Jordan a secret suspension, probably over something surrounding his legendary love of/addiction to gambling. But openly discussing such a thing would fatally wound the league as it was finally achieving top levels of popularity by tarnishing its most popular star ever, so the suspension was kept a secret — and Jordan went to play baseball for a few years until the heat died down.
The reason that conspiracy theory works is because no other reason makes any sense. There’s no Occam’s razor here. It’s a case where the conspiracy theory is leaps and bounds more believable than the claimed “truth.” Yes, it’s possible Jordan was so competitive that after three straight NBA Championships, basketball no longer lit the fire under him, so he wanted a new challenge. Yes, it’s possible he was just fatigued after carrying his team to three championships as well as his trip to the Olympics in 1992. And yes, it’s possible he’s just an insane human being who was famous enough to do literally anything he wanted and he chose baseball while he was still at his athletic peak.
But really — it’s gotta be the gambling thing, right?
Also on October 6th: Soul Asylum’s album Grave Dancers Union was released (1992)… Ross Perot aired his first presidential infomercial (1992)… Matchbox 20’s album Back 2 Good was released (1998)
October 7th
26 years ago, on October 7th, 1994 - The Saved by the Bell special with Zack and Kelly’s wedding in Las Vegas aired.
Saved by the Bell: The College Years was an experiment that didn’t work, lasting one season and just 19 episodes in prime time for NBC. In large part, the show didn’t work because rather than letting us mainline “Zack Morris in college” hijinks, it tried to play it safe by going to one of the most tried-and-true arcs of the original Saved by the Bell run: Zack trying to win back Kelly from the arms of some handsome jerk.
But when you go back to that plotline with Zack and Kelly as adults — well, 18- or 19-year-old canonically but the actors were pushing 30 at this point — you have to raise the stakes. Those stakes came in the form of Zack and Kelly getting back together not just to date again — but to get married.
Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas was a made-for-TV movie which aired roughly seven months after the season/series finale of Saved by the Bell: The College Years. The movie was your standard “church on time (terrifies me!) church on time (makes me party!)” film, although it did attempt to put one final bow — again — on Saved by the Bell.
Spoiler alert on a movie that happened a quarter of a century ago: Jessie shows up at the wedding making the full SBTB gang complete for one last goodbye. Well, sans Tori, who remains a canonical fever dream.
Also on October 7th: American Bandstand’s series finale aired (1989)… the FOX News channel debuted (1996)… Eagle Eye Cherry’s single Save Tonight was released (1997)… Charmed premiered (1998)
October 8th
28 years ago, on October 8th, 1992 - The video game Mortal Kombat was released.
Mortal Kombat was an arcade fighting game that came out as arcades were winding down in the early ‘90s. But Mortal Kombat managed to get a broader buzz, with much of the credit going to its unabashed celebration of graphic violence, heretofore unseen in mainstream games. Never before had kids been presented with the opportunity to rip off an opponent’s head, then hold it up as a trophy, spine dangling below.
Mortal Kombat would quickly make the leap to home video game systems — and play a large, large hand in the creation of the video game ratings system. A dangling spine will do that.
Also on October 8th: Empty Nest premiered (1988)… Demolition Man and Mr. Nanny hit theaters (1993)… Ted Danson appeared in blackface at a Friars Club roast (1993)… Boogie Nights hit theaters (1997)
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news.
Peacock’s Saved by the Bell reboot, about which I remain extremely skeptical, has received its premiere date: the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.
A rare vintage Aladdin t-shirt just sold at auction for $6,000.
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast reunited for a tour of the Fresh Prince mansion and there’s a YouTube video. I can’t really remember which Fresh Prince reunion stuff I’ve covered here before and which I haven’t. It’s relentless.
Mariah Carey says she recorded an angsty alternative album “just for laughs” when she was making her album Daydream in the mid ‘90s.
Jessica Alba says when she was a guest star on Beverly Hills, 90210 she wasn’t allowed to make eye contact with the cast.
A man went viral on TikTok for skateboarding while drinking cranberry juice and lip syncing to Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams. Fleetwood Mac says they love it, and after the video went viral, sales of Dreams went up 184 percent.
A recut version of The Godfather: Part III with a new beginning and ending will be released on December 8th.
The guys from Spinal Tap are reuniting on October 14th for a fundraiser for the Pennsylvania Democrats.
The source code for Windows XP has leaked.
Throwbacks and recommendations
A new battle royale version of Super Mario Bros. was just released for Nintendo Switch online. The reviews aren’t amazing but it looks interesting enough.
An article on how America’s teenagers have just discovered Eddie Murphy’s Party All the Time and they’re loving it.
The cast of Father of the Bride reunited on Zoom for charity.
Check out a trailer for the reboot of Supermarket Sweep.
Thanks for reading!
-Sam