Every month, I like to start by reminding you of what pop culture was like 20 (2004), 25 (1999), and 30 (1994) years ago! Starting next month, if you believe it, we'll cover 1995 as 30 years ago! Seems like yesterday!!
Below, you'll find a little time capsule of what was significant in the world back then. Hopefully, as you read these brief recaps of the past, you'll remember the who, when, and where of some long tucked-away memories! That's the whole point of this site!
POINTS OF REFERENCE
December is a relatively slow news month compared to most months I cover here, it seems.
2004: In college football's SEC championship game, #3 Auburn defeats #15 Tennesee 38-28 on the 4th. On the 9th, facing public pressure, Mary-Kate Olsen allows the women in her garment factory in Bangladesh to take paid maternity leave. On the 13th, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is placed under house arrest over 9 kidnapping and manslaughter accusations. The house arrest is lifted the same day based on appeal. On the 15th, Clint Eastwood directed "Million Dollar Baby," starring Hillary Swank and Morgan Freeman, opens in theaters. NASA's Voyager 1 is the first object to cross the "termination shock," where interstellar and solar winds merge, on the 16th. On the 26th, a 9.3 magnitude earthquake causes a tsunami that kills 230,000 people in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia.
1999: On the 1st, Jay-Z stabs producer Lance Rivera at a nightclub in New York. On the morning of the 2nd, the United Kingdom hands over power in Northern Ireland to the Northern Ireland Executive. The next day, NASA loses contact with the Mars Polar Lander as it enters Mars' atmosphere. On the 8th, Creed, Brittney Spears, and The Backstreet Boys win top honors at the Billboard Music Awards. On the 17th, Boston Bruin's Ray Bourque becomes just the 3rd player in NHL history to earn 1,100 assists. At the same time, the Bruins' goaltender Byron Dafoe records his 100th NHL victory in Boston's 3-1 win over the Atlanta Thrashers. On the 20th, Portugal returns control of Macau to China. Pope John Paul II opens "St. Peter's Holy Door" on Christmas Eve to welcome the new millennium. On Christmas morning, Pope John Paul II personally opened the doors of St. John Lateran in Rome to celebrate the start of the Jubilee. On December 31st, Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in charge.
1994: On the 1st, convicted fraudster and former televangelist Jim Bakker is released from prison. On the same day, the manuscript of Roger Schumann's 2nd Symphony sells in London for $2.3 million. Also that day, rapper Tupac was convicted of sexual assault and sentenced to 4.5 years in prison. In the third-ever SEC Championship game, #6 Florida defeated #3 Alabama 24-23. On the 6th, Warner Brothers announced that they would launch a 5th network television station that would begin in January 1995, eventually known as "The WB." Ace of Base and Mariah Carey won at The Billboard Awards on December 7th. Darryl Strawberry was convicted of tax evasion on the 8th. On the 16th, Davy Jones of the Monkees was charged with DWI. On the 23rd, fearing arrest by the FBI, Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger flees Boston and successfully hides for 16 years. On the 31st, the world's largest free concert occurred when Rod Stewart performed in front of four million people at Copacabana Beach in Rio.
TOP MOVIES
2004: "Meet the Fockers"
Meet the Fockers, most often called "Meet the Parents 2," is a romantic comedy sequel to the 2000 movie "Meet the Parents." It stars Robert De Niro, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, and Teri Polo.
Following up from the last film, Greg (Ben Stiller) and Pam (Teri Polo) are now engaged and decide to introduce their parents to each other. They fly from Chicago to New York to join Pam's parents, retired CIA operative Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), and Dina (Blythe Danner). Instead of flying, Jack informs them he will drive them to Miami to meet Greg's parents in his new RV. They will also have Pam's one-year-old nephew, "Little Jack," along for the trip. In Miami, they are greeted by Greg's eccentric and fun-loving, free-spirited parents, Bernie (Dustin Hoffman) and Roz (Barbara Streisand). The contrasting personalities of each family cause several misunderstandings and hijinx, and to make matters more complicated, Pam informs Greg that she is pregnant and wants to keep it a secret until they are married.
Despite mixed reviews, the film was a box office success, grossing $522 million worldwide and becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 2004. It is Robert De Niro's second highest-grossing film, behind Joker. A sequel, "Little Fockers," was made six years later.
The film used twins Spencer and Bradley Pickren as Little Jack because their mother, a pediatric nurse, had taught them to use sign language from birth. Reports from the set say the children were easy to work with but did not like Ben Stiller due to his "head-butt" sequence. Although the head-butt itself was digitized, Stiller grabbed his face, cursed loudly, and smeared fake blood under his nose, all of which upset the twins.
1999: "Toy Story 2"
Toy Story 2 is an adventure/comedy film produced by Pixar Animation for Walt Disney Pictures. It's the second installment in the franchise, following the 1995 original film. It stars a voice cast of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf and Jeff Pidgeon.
In this film, Woody is stolen by a greedy toy collector, prompting Buzz Lightyear and friends to save him. Woody, however, is tempted by the idea of immortality in a museum.
Disney initially planned for Toy Story 2 to be a direct-to-video sequel. The film began production in a building separate from Pixar with a smaller staff since most of the main Pixar crew was busy working on A Bug's Life (1998). When the initial story proved promising, Disney upgraded the film to a theatrical release, but Pixar was unhappy with the movie's quality. The Pixar team redeveloped the entire plot in one weekend. Although most Pixar features take years to develop, Disney's established release date could not be moved, and production for Toy Story 2 was compressed into nine months.
Despite its struggles, Toy Story 2 debuted on November 24, 1999, to a successful box office run, eventually grossing over $511 million. It received widespread critical acclaim from critics and audiences, with a 100% rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes. Toy Story 2 would become the third-highest-grossing film of 1999, behind Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and The Sixth Sense.
A second sequel, Toy Story 3, was released in 2010, and a third sequel, Toy Story 4, was released in 2019.
1994: "The Santa Clause"
The Santa Clause is a Christmas comedy film directed by John Pasquin that stars Tim Allen. Allen plays Scott Calvin, an ordinary man who accidentally kills Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. When he and his young son, Charlie, finish the late St. Nick's trip and deliveries, they fly to the North Pole to learn that Scott must become the new Santa and convince those he loves that he is indeed Santa Claus.
The Santa Clause premiered on November 5, 1994, and was theatrically released in the United States on November 11. It grossed $190 million worldwide and received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics. It has since become a Christmas-time staple among viewers.
Its success led to two sequels, The Santa Clause 2 (2002) and The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause (2006), both financially successful despite the mixed reception. The franchise continues with a follow-up series, The Santa Clauses, which premiered November 16, 2022, on Disney Plus.
During research, I came across an interesting statistic from USA Today. The film gets credit for most Americans' misspellings of Santa Claus. Many people add an "e" at the end of Claus, not realizing the film title has to do with "a clause" in the legal sense and not Santa's name.
TOP SONGS
2004: "Drop It Like Its Hot" by Snoop Dog and Pharrell
1999: "Smooth" by Santana and Rob Thomas
1994: "Here Comes the Hotstepper" by Ini Kamoze
TOP TV NEWS
December 2004:
2nd - Tom Brokaw resigns from NBC Nightly News and is replaced by Brian Williams.
15th - CNN shuts down its financial news channel, CNNfn.
16th - "All My Children" broadcasts its 9,000th episode!
29th - General Electric, owner of NBC, purchases Universal Studios (the film company), leading to what is known today as NBC Universal. This purchase also made all six U.S. broadcast networks part of a company that owns a movie studio.
December 1999:
1st - Richard Pryor appears in the cold open on ABC's sitcom Norm. This was his final television appearance before his death in 2005.
10th - Cartoon Network canceled Dexter's Laboratory. It was on air from 1996 to 1999 and briefly returned in 2001.
15th - NASCAR strikes a new deal with Fox Sports, FX, NBC, and TBS (later moved to TNT) worth $2.4 billion for a new six-year television rights deal. Capitalizing on the popularity of NASCAR during the late 90s, NASCAR centralized its television deal, meaning the networks would negotiate with NASCAR directly to broadcast their races. Previously, each individual track had a deal with television networks, and as a result, the NASCAR racing schedule was on a difficult-to-follow variety of networks each week.
31st - Just hours before the new millennium, ABC participates in the global broadcast "2000 Today" with ABC 2000 Today. Peter Jennings broadcasts the special from New York City. He was joined later by Dick Clark, who hosted the ABC broadcast of the countdown in Times Square.
December 1994:
3rd - Roughly a month and a half after making his final appearance on WWF television, Randy "Macho Man" Savage debuts on WCW Saturday Night.
4th - "Sonic the Hedgehog," the syndicated cartoon series, ends after one full season. Also, the CBS animated Saturday morning cartoon "Beethoven," based on the film, ends after 12 episodes.
10th - A staple of my generation, "Garfield and Friends" ended after airing on CBS since 1988. Tales from the Cryptkeeper " also ended on FOX after one season but returned briefly in 1999.
18th - "Life with Louie" debuts on Fox Kids, starring Louie Andersen.
20th - "Romper Room," the famed children's program, is cancelled after over 40 years.
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