Sept 16: Why Tim Allen’s Highly-Calculated Post-Prison Stand-Up Was Destined for Sitcom Success
Plus lots of reboot trailers, obscure '80s cereal, and more
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved, forgot, or never knew existed
September 16th, 2022 • Issue 117
Why Tim Allen’s Highly-Calculated Post-Prison Stand-Up Was Destined for Sitcom Success
31 years ago, on September 17th, 1991, Home Improvement premiered on ABC.
When Home Improvement premiered on this day, 31 years ago, it wasn’t all that much of a gamble for ABC.
Sure, any new TV series could flop — that was true before Home Improvement and true after.
But in that era, where the TV sitcom development strategy was largely “take a successful comedian and build a show around them” — Home Improvement was as safe a bet as it got.
Which was a surprise — considering where Tim Allen was exactly one decade earlier.
In 1978, 25-year-old Tim Allen was busted for cocaine trafficking in a sting at the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport in Michigan. He was looking at up to a life sentence but wound up getting that knocked all the way down to 3-7 years when he gave up the names of more than a dozen other dealers and suppliers. He wound up serving two years and four months in prison and was released in June of 1981.
10 years and three months later, he had his own sitcom.
Allen hasn’t talked all that much about his early drug dealing days, not even in his books. That’s because it’s not a part of his self-curated mythology.
Only one aspect of the entire affair is. Allen shared that the judge who gave him a lenient sentence saw potential in him and directed him to really make a go of his fledgling stand-up comedy career once he got out of prison.
And he did. But, as far as I can find, Tim Allen’s post-prison stand-up career was never an authentic, gritty, honest, likely-captivating look at the darker realities of his life. He wasn’t Richard Pryor, who famously did a stand-up routine where he had a conversation with his crack pipe on stage.
Not that Tim Allen was obligated to turn his past into stand-up material — he was not.
Instead of authenticity, he went for character. And, in particular, a character crafted perfectly for a sitcom.
It was a less real but much more business-savvy choice. In short order, Tim Allen created his persona: the stereotypical macho “guy” living in a time that had, at least somewhat, passed that guy by.
Importantly, he was always the butt of the joke. He grunted and drooled over car engines and lamented the changing tides of masculinity — but it always came back to him being the punchline. That was important for connecting with the audience — and for spoon-feeding networks a sitcom-ready character.
He undeniably knew what he was doing. As offers for movie roles began to come in, Allen turned them down. He was holding out for his sitcom. He knew that’s where he belonged — and where he could find the most success. And when he finally got the sitcom, it was a massive hit out of the gate and stayed at or near the top for most of its run.
There was only one other comedian of the era with such a strong ready-made sitcom persona: Roseanne. Who also had a hit sitcom on ABC at the same time.
(It’s also not a coincidence both ended up going off the deep end politically decades after their signature sitcoms ended. Both got so wealthy and so tyrannically famous they lost all tethering to their original comedic personas and even, on some level, to the realities of the world.)
And both wound up needing to ultimately revisit their original comedic personas later in their careers.
Allen would create another show in the vein of Home Improvement with Last Man Standing, though it traded laughs for political grandstanding. Barr would take part in the Roseanne reboot, until she was booted for a racist tweet and killed off in the show.
In large part, both were too far from their original characters to make it work, and too famous, too powerful, and too deep down the political rabbit hole to be as calculated as they once were in the ‘80s.
But originally? The characters were perfect for network TV. Which is why Home Improvement was one of the least-risky sitcoms ever developed — just like Tim Allen knew it would be from the first time he ever grunted on stage.
Other momentous moments from this week in the ‘80s and ‘90s
September 16th
1979 - Rapper’s Delight by Sugarhill Gang went on sale, becoming the first rap song on vinyl.
1983 - Webster premiered.
1984 - Punky Brewster premiered.
1984 - Miami Vice premiered on NBC.
1989 - Gloria Estefan’s single Don’t Wanna Lose You hit number one.
1993 - Frasier premiered.
1994 - Timecop and Quiz Show both hit theaters.
1996 - The Jackpot wedge debuted on Wheel of Fortune.
1996 - Judge Judy premiered in syndication.
1997 - Twelve years to the day he resigned from Apple, Steve Jobs was rehired and named CEO.
1999 - Big Brother aired for the first time, in the Netherlands.
2000 - Madonna’s single Music hit number one.
September 17th
1982 - George Thorogood and the Destroyers’ single Bad to the Bone was released.
1983 - Vanessa Williams became the first Black woman crowned Miss America.
1984 - Transformers premiered.
1986 - Head of the Class premiered.
1990 - The kids game show Video Power premiered.
1991 - Guns N Roses’ albums Use Your Illusion I & II were released.
1993 - The Age of Innocence hit theaters.
1995 - The Simpsons revealed Who Shot Mr. Burns? in their season premiere.
1996 - Spin City premiered.
1996 - The OJ Simpson civil trial began.
1998 - The Goo Goo Dolls single Slide was released.
1998 - Ol’ Dirty Bastard was arrested for making terrorist threats after getting kicked out of the House of Blues in Los Angeles.
1999 - Blue Streak and For Love of the Game both hit theaters.
1999 - Eminem’s mother sued him for $10 million for defamation.
2002 - Kelly Clarkson’s single A Moment Like This was released.
September 18th
1983 - KISS appeared with no makeup for the first time, on MTV.
1983 - Hardcastle and McCormick premiered on ABC.
1985 - David Letterman debuted his top 10 list bit with the Top 10 Words That Almost Rhyme with Pea.
1987 - Fatal Attraction hit theaters.
1987 - Duck Tails and Full House both premiered.
1989 - Alien Nation premiered on FOX.
1990 - Atlanta was chosen as the host city for the 1996 centennial Olympics.
1992 - School Ties hit theaters as did Captain Ron.
1994 - Ken Burns’s Baseball premiered.
1996 - WebTV launched.
1998 - Rush Hour hit theaters.
1999 - TLC’s single Unpretty hit number one.
2001 - The first letters containing anthrax were found.
September 19th
1980 - Ordinary People hit theaters.
1982 - A programmer named Scott Fahlman created the first emoticons.
1983 - The (nighttime) version of Wheel of Fortune premiered.
1984 - Highway to Heaven premiered on NBC.
1988 - Greg Louganis hit his head during a dive at the Olympics.
1988 - Bon Jovi’s album New Jersey and Erasure’s single A Little Respect were released.
1989 - Doogie Howser M.D. premiered.
1989 - Janet Jackson’s album Rhythm Nation 1814 was released.
1990 - Goodfellas hit theaters.
1994 - E.R. premiered.
1995 - The Washington Post and New York Times published the Unabomber’s manifesto.
1997 - In & Out and L.A. Confidential hit theaters.
1997 - Family Matters and Step by Step switched networks and premiered on CBS.
1998 - John Stamos and Rebecca Romijn were married.
2000 - Best in Show hit theaters.
September 20th
1977 - The episode of Happy Days where the Fonz literally jumped a shark premiered.
1980 - Ozzy Osbourne’s debut solo album was released.
1984 - Who’s the Boss? premiered on ABC and The Cosby Show premiered on NBC.
1986 - Huey Lewis and the News’ single Stuck with You hit number one.
1990 - The Flash premiered on CBS.
1991 - Step by Step premiered.
1991 - Tom Cochrane’s single Life Is a Highway was released.
1996 - Sheryl Crow’s single If It Makes You Happy was released.
1996 - The First Wives Club hit theaters.
1998 - Cal Ripken Jr.’s consecutive games streak ended.
1999 - Blind Date premiered.
1999 - Law & Order: SVU premiered.
2001 - President George W. Bush declared a “war on terror”.
September 21st
1982 - The first-ever NFL players’ strike began.
1985 - Dire Straits’ single Money for Nothing hit number one.
1991 - Color Me Badd’s single I Adore Mi Amor hit number one.
1991 - The roster of the U.S.A. basketball Dream Team was announced.
1993 - Nirvana’s album In Utero and Melissa Etheridge’s album Yes I Am were released.
1993 - Salt-n-Pepa’s single Shoop was released.
1993 - NYPD Blue premiered.
1995 - No Doubt’s single Just a Girl was released.
1995 - Caroline in the City and The Single Guy premiered.
1996 - JFK Jr. married Carolyn Bessette.
1998 - King of Queens, Will & Grace, and Felicity all premiered.
1998 - Florence Griffith-Joyner passed away.
2001 - Ghost World and Mariah Carey’s movie Glitter hit theaters.
September 22nd
1981 - Sandra Day O’Connor became the first woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1982 - Family Ties premiered on NBC.
1984 - Scandal’s one hit, The Warrior, peaked at number 7 and Twisted Sister’s one hit, We’re Not Gonna Take It, peaked at number 21.
1984 - John Waite’s single Missing You hit number one.
1985 - The first Farm Aid benefit was held.
1986 - ALF premiered on NBC.
1989 - TGIF debuted on ABC along with the new show Family Matters.
1989 - Baywatch premiered.
1992 - Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper premiered.
1992 - Bruce Springsteen played an electric guitar on MTV Unplugged.
1993 - Nolan Ryan pitched his final game.
1994 - Friends premiered on NBC.
1995 - Se7en, Showgirls, and Empire Records all hit theaters.
1997 - Elton John’s Candle in the Wind 1997, a tribute to Princess Diana, was released.
1998 - Barenaked Ladies’ biggest hit, One Week, was released as was the Goo Goo Dolls’ album Dizzy Up the Girl, Dru Hill’s single How Deep Is Your Love, and Shawn Mullins’s single Lullaby.
1999 - The West Wing premiered.
5 ‘80s and ‘90s trivia facts
One of the original members of Ace of Base got his start in a white supremacist band.
He’s apologized since then and blamed it on “teenage mistakes I did make in terms of my chosen ideas.”
In 1990, almost one-third of households in the U.S. had a Nintendo.
That was more than the number of households that had a computer, which was 23%.
The Violent Femmes broke up because Blister in the Sun wound up in a Wendy’s commercial.
Their song from 1983 wound up in a Wendy’s commercial in 2007. Some members were for that, some were against it. The sides wound up suing each other and the band broke up in 2009.
The creator of The Big Bang Theory wrote the theme song to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Chuck Lorre wrote the famous TMNT theme song before he went on to become a top TV producer. He created The Big Bang Theory, Two-and-a-Half Men, and more. (Charlie Sheen’s character in Two-and-a-Half Men is a jingle composer, like Lorre was.)
Lorre also says he’s never been paid royalties for the TMNT theme song.
The A&E Network originally shared a channel with Nickelodeon.
When A&E started in 1984, it would come on the same channel as Nickelodeon after Nick had signed off for the night.
Everything old is new again
A look at the reboots, revivals, throwbacks, retro insights, and nostalgia in the news
The finalists for this year’s class of the National Toy Hall of Fame include Lite-Brite, Masters of the Universe, Nerf, Phase 10, and Pound Puppies.
Disney released the official teaser trailer for The Little Mermaid live-action reboot and Ariel being played by a Black actress made the race-baiting grifters lose whatever is left of their minds.
The official trailer is out for the Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The movie will be in theaters in December.
The official trailer is out for Hocus Pocus 2, which streams on Disney+ starting on the 30th of this month.
A Blade Runner sequel series is coming to Amazon Prime.
There’s a movie about Sublime in the works.
Scott Bakula confirmed he has “no connection with the new [Quantum Leap reboot], either in front of the camera of behind it.” He says it was a “very difficult decision to pass on the project.”
Nintendo is bringing Goldeneye along with several other popular Nintendo 64 games to the Nintendo Switch over the next year-and-a-half.
Disney is remastering the 1995 Sega Genesis cult classic video game Gargoyles.
Cary Elwes — who played Westley in The Princess Bride — will appear at a screening of the movie in Denver in December.
Al Jean, the showrunner for The Simpsons, answered a question about Lisa Simpson being queer, “That is definitely a possibility.”
Kobe Bryant was scheduled to film a cameo on the Saved by the Bell reboot only a few days after his death.
Harrison Ford and Ke Huy Quan (who played Short Round) saw each other this week for the first time in 38 years at Disney’s D23 Expo.
Simon Cowell says he tried to get the song …Baby One More Time for his British boy band 5ive but the songwriter had already promised it to Britney Spears.
The jersey Michael Jordan wore in Game 1 of the “Last Dance” 1998 NBA Finals just sold at auction for $10.9 million.
Recommendations of the week
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you loved
Here’s an oral history of “Homer’s Barbershop Quartet” from The Simpsons season five, a classic episode that satirized Baby on Board window signs, The Beatles, and the ‘80s.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you forgot
Hidden Treasures cereal was an… intriguing?… idea for a cereal. All the pieces looked identical, but some had fruit flavor hidden inside and some didn’t. The cereal only lasted on the market for two years because, it turns out, no one wanted that surprise. People will eat something like this as a gimmick (like those jelly beans where some taste terrible) — but not as an ongoing meal option.
The ‘80s & ‘90s pop culture you never knew existed
In 1981, a group of four women in Boston formed a group called The Afternoon Delights and recorded a Blondie-style novelty rap song about General Hospital. And their song, General Hospi-Tale, inexplicably became a one-hit wonder — it reached number 33 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October of that year. The Afternoon Delights broke up soon after that.
Have a great week!
-Sam