Today we're throwing it back to the year 1993, when Pearl Jam's "Vs" set a first-week sales record with an estimated 950,000 copies sold. When Jurassic Park Dominated the box office, and we first met Matthew McConaughey. Here's what we uncovered about the year:
Music Producer Rick Rubin held an actual funeral complete with a casket and grave for the word "Def" after finding out it had been accepted into the standardized dictionary. Those who attended included Tom Petty, Flea, and Trent Reznor.
Popular Films"
- Jurassic Park
- Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” beats “E.T” to become the highest-grossing film worldwide at the time.
- The sound of the velociraptors barking at each other in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park was actually the sound of tortoises mating.
- Mrs. Doubtfire
- The Fugitive
- The Firm
- Sleepless in Seattle
- Indecent Proposal
- In the Line of Fire
- The Pelican Brief
- Schindler's List
- Cliffhanger
- Philadelphia
- Robin Hood: Men in Tights
- Dazed & Confused
- Groundhog Day
- The Biggest TV Shows (according to Nielson TV Research):
60 Minutes - Home Improvement
- Seinfeld
- Roseanne
- Grace Under Fire
- Coach
- Frasier
- Monday Night Football
- Murphy Brown
- CBS Sunday Movie
The first episode of “The X-Files” aired in 1993, showing that the Truth Is Out There.
The first “Got Milk?” ad runs.
Screech and the gang graduate high school on the “Saved by the Bell” series finale.
Clerks by Kevin Smith was first screened at the Independent Feature Film Market in 1993. Only 12 people showed up, including Kevin himself and 7 people from the cast and crew, and 2 random people.
We lost two young celebrities that year: Brandon Lee, son of actor Bruce Lee, was fatally shot during an accident on the set of the film "The Crow."
River Phoenix was at The Viper Room when he died from an alleged drug overdose on the sidewalk. Flea, Johnny Depp, Joaquin Phoenix and Samantha Mathis were all with him at the time.
1993 was also the year we were introduced to Matthew McConaughey and his infamous, "alright, alright, alright," thanks to the movie, Dazed & Confused. Matthew's audition tape below.
We also took a tour of Eddie's 5150 Studios. It was a promotion for the Live: Right Here, Right Now album, complete with an interview and 2 live songs.
A couple of big changes to The Super Bowl happened in 1993:
The Super Bowl has required national anthem vocals to be pre-recorded since 1993 when country star Garth Brooks declined to pre-record and then refused to sing live until a dispute over debuting his music video -We Shall Be Free- during the game could be settled, resulting in a delayed kickoff. They did play the video.
The reason the Super Bowl has big-name performers is because in 1992 FOX counter programmed Super Bowl XXVI's halftime show with In Living Color, who did a live Super Bowl spoof, complete with a game clock so viewers could see when the second half of the Super Bowl was going to start and switch back to CBS. FOX was not a Superbowl-airing entity at the time. The NFL brought Michael Jackson in for 1993 (XXVII) and have had huge artists ever since.
The official poll for today's Dirty Thirty Throwback Thursday below
Sources: WorldOfPopCulture, The People History, Daily Break,