Well, Michael Jackson was pronounced dead yesterday at 50 years old. Very sad. I loved Michael Jackson during the ’80s and ’90s. The guy was a phenomenal performer, whose career success and problems later in life mirrored fellow superstar, Elvis Presley.
Jackson’s most popular album, Thriller, was released in late 1982. It earned Jackson a record breaking 7 Grammy awards and stayed in the Billboard Top Ten for over a year. Seven of the album’s nine songs were released as singles. The videos for Beat It, Billie Jean and Thriller have become industry classics. Michael Jackson’s performance on the TV special Motown 25 in 1983 cemented his status as a performing sensation and kept Thriller on the top of the charts.
20 Years ago today, June 23, 1989, Tim Burton’s first Batman film with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson was released in theaters.
The release of this movie in 1989 was an event not seen probably since the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983. The merchandising and hype leading up to this movie was at near-Star Wars levels. There were daily news stories, TV specials, t-shirts, hats, posters, toys, product tie-ins etc. The bat signal was seen everywhere. People were talking about missing work to see it opening day.
I totally bought into the Batman hype that summer; hook, line and sinker. I was so excited I bought the movie novelization and read it before I saw the movie. I still have that novel as well as every other Batman movie novelization after it.
A Batman movie had been in development in some form or another since the late ’70s. Superman co-writer Tom Mankiewicz wrote a first draft of what would become the modern Batman movie in 1980. After the success of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985, Warner Bros asked Tim Burton to take over the Batman movie development. Burton threw out Mankiewicz’s draft, wrote his own 30 page treatment and hired Sam Hamm to write the script. However, due to a writer’s strike in the late ’80s, development dragged on and Sam Hamm had to leave the project. Warren Skaaren was hired to finish the script. The final script was green-lit in 1988 after the success of Beetlejuice at the box office.
The Batman movie development went through many iterations before finally landing on the final script and cast; Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Kim Bassinger. Here’s some behind the scene trivia for the movie:
Just a quick note, I was asked by the blog at Skooldays to write a few nostalgic articles for them. So every once in a while I’ll be posting a nostalgic memory about an item from our pop culture past, much like I do right here on this blog. Only, over there, the articles will be a bit shorter. This week, I had an article posted about Crystal Pepsi. Hop on over to their very cool, nostalgic site and take a look at my article, first, of course, then check out the myriad of other remembrances from our pop culture past.
Most of us remember waking up as kids on Saturday morning around 6am just to watch cartoons. It was a ritual. I did it, and I loved it. There were so many good cartoons when I was a kid. But it wasn’t just cartoons shows I remember from my early Saturday morning viewings, I remember fun and musical public service announcements that would air during commercial breaks. We’ve all seen them. They have colorful characters, clever songs and wind up teaching us about our government, good eating habits or proper hygeine. The most remembered and visible of these public service announcements were the Schoolhouse Rock shorts. Airing on the ABC network, Schoolhouse Rock taught kids the Preamble to the Constitution, how your nervous system works and how a bill becomes a law. But ABC produced more than just the Schoolhouse Rock shorts. ABC produced scores of other cartoon PSAs with catchy tunes and fun mascots that taught kids about healthy eating and how to get a job. Many times these PSAs are lumped into Schoolhouse Rock when we think back on them, but they were separately produced with different voice actors.
Let’s look at some of the other awesome cartoon PSAs produced by ABC in the ’70s and ’80s. You will probably remember most of these, if not, your welcome for putting songs about nutty snack mix into your head for the next 12 hours.
Time for Timer – ABC starting producing these “Timer” commercials in the early ’70s. These are probably the most remembered shorts next to Schoolhouse Rock as they played well into the 1990s. I actually didn’t realize this little guy’s name was Timer, even though I’ve seen the clips a thousand times and at the beginning of every one he says, “Time for Timer!”. I’m not even sure I knew what that meant. Now, I get it. Timer was supposed to represent a person’s “biological clock”. He carried around a giant stopwatch that went off whenever something was about to happen in the body (hunger, sleepiness, etc). None of the Timer shorts have titles, they are known by their catchy songs. His most famous is probably “Hanker for a Hunka Cheese!”. Another favorite of mine is “Sunshine on a Stick” where Timer teaches us how to make ice pops using orange juice. I remember actually doing this several times. I also love the “Eat Breakfast” short because the song is catchy (it actually reminds me of the songs in a Rankin-Bass Christmas Special). There’s also “U Are What U Eat” which features cool animation of the “factory” in your body. Timer was so popular that he actually made an appearance on Family Guy.
Here’s some Friday fun for everyone. A new phenomenon has taken over the internet. The 3 Wolf/Moon shirt.
This seemingly trailer park attire has become incredibly popular the last few months causing the shirt to become the #1 best selling apparel item on Amazon.com. That’s right, this shirt is the #1 selling clothing item on Amazon. WTF, you ask? The popularity is based on the customer reviews. People have started writing ironic and snarky comments expounding the virtues of wearing one of these shirts. People talk about how the shirt will increase your success with the opposite sex, fill the empty void in your soul, raise the dead, transport you to another dimension to meet the Wolf God and many, many other incredible feats.
Here are some of my favorite reviews (Click the images to see them full size):
Cavalcade of Awesome 