1990

The 80s had finally come to an end, and a new era known as the 90s had just begun, though would still take a few years to fully define itself as a decade. Oakland rapper and master showman M.C. Hammer brought hip hop to the masses with his smash single "U Can't Touch This", while white counterpart rapper Vanilla Ice took it another step further by making "Ice Ice Baby" the first rap song to hit #1 on the pop charts. Irish pop singer Sinead O'Conner had chart-topping success with a cover of the Prince song "Nothing Compares 2 U", two years before her infamous SNL moment, while then-fledgling talent Mariah Carey had already achieved two #1 hit singles that year off her self-titled debut album. Controversy was prevalent in 1990 when then-Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry was busted by FBI agents on hidden camera smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room, while disgraced pop duo Milli Vanilli came under huge fire when their producer Frank Farian revealed that the group never sang a note on their award-winning album, causing their grammy to be revoked as well as an extreme backlash against pop music. With teens and young 20-something adults fixated on the very good looking cast of the soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, preteens were fixated on the very colorful and flexible cuffing toy the slap bracelet. Finally, animated sitcom family and brainchild of Matt Groening known as the Simpsons, got their own prime time series on Fox after a few years appearing in cartoon shorts on The Tracey Ullman Show, becoming the longest running series in television history that still continues to this day. The following are my personal memories of the year that was 1990.





Super Mario Bros 3


A couple years after the release of the US version of Super Mario Bros 2, and a couple months after being unveiled to American audiences in the Fred Savage movie The Wizard, Nintendo's famous Italian plumbers Mario and Luigi were back, in a very big way, where they would continue to fight goombas and koopa troopas in eight colorful and fantastic worlds, defeat the evil King Koopa and save Princess Toadstool. Super Mario Bros 3 was also the introduction of the seven Koopa kids known as the Koopalings. The adventure would take on a much larger challenge than the first Super Mario Bros game, which would allow players to move Mario and Luigi to both the right and left, store items in inventory, play fun puzzles, and even a Mario Bros arcade type battle game in 2 player mode. In Super Mario Bros 3, the Mario brothers would do more than just grow after consuming mushrooms and spit fireballs at enemies after consuming fire flowers. The introduction of the magic leaf, p-wing, and tanooki suit each allowed them to fly and the hammer bros suit allowed them to chuck hammers at enemies, something the last two Mario games had not previously done.





The success of the Super Mario Bros 3 game led to its DIC Entertainment produced Saturday morning cartoon that fall, though with the absence of late WWF wrestler Captain Lou Albano as the voice of Mario, the show wasn't as memorable or likable as Super Mario Bros Super Show, or internet meme worthy as the Super Mario World cartoon a year later.





Club Mario


Speaking of Mario TV shows, in 1990, while the making of new episodes for the Super Mario Bros Super Show had ceased after just one season, it was still one of the most popular in syndicated children's programming. That summer, the series was given an "extreme" makeover, when live action clips of Mario and Luigi were replaced with hip and happening teenagers Tommy Treehugger and Co-MC, and given the name Club Mario. With more wild and colorful sets, the duo would introduce cartoon episodes of the show, including the shorter run The Legend of Zelda series, which only aired on Fridays, wreak havoc at DIC studios, often harassing its CEO Andy Heyward, and go "satellite surfing", which featured video montages, usually with some informative or political message such as saving the rain-forest. Finally, Club Mario featured one-to-two minute segments of Space Scout Theater or Spaced Out Theater, hosted by green alien woman Princess Centauri, taken from the children's science fiction program Photon.





"Opposites Attract" Music Video


80s pop singer and future American Idol judge Paula Abdul had a string of chart-topping hits off her debut album "Forever Your Girl", including its title track, "Cold Hearted", and the smash single "Straight Up". In 1990, Abdul released her next #1 song, along with its Grammy award-winning music video, later parodied in an episode of Family Guy.





Inspired by the movie Anchors Aweigh, starring her idol and late movie icon Gene Kelly, Abdul dances alongside cartoon feline MC Skat Kat, voiced by Romany Malco and Derrick "Delite" Stevens in the rap segments and animated by members of the Disney animation team, working outside the studio, under the direction of Chris Bailey, who was involved in projects like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Hercules. The success of the "Opposites Attract" music video led to the release of the MC Skat Kat solo album "The Adventures of MC Skat Kat and the Stray Mob", which was a critical and commercial disappointment. It was also rumored that a cartoon series based on the dancing rapping feline had been in the works, though that project had never panned out.





Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie


They became one of the biggest franchises in marketing history. After the comic book series, cartoon series, and countless merchandise, it seemed fitting for Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo to make their silver screen debut. While straight-laced critics like Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert have panned the live action film, young boys could not get enough of those ninjitsu-fighting, pizza-loving reptiles as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie became a huge box office success that year, spawning two sequels, one of which would tone down the violence and profanity of its predecessor, and another that nearly killed the franchise, until its CGI release 14 years later.





In Living Color


Considered the black Saturday Night Live, the prime time sketch comedy show on Fox, which lasted a good five seasons on the air, brought some of the most memorable sketches from some of the best comedians in entertainment, including tough streetwise Homey D. Clown, fabulously gay critics Blaine Edwards and Antoine Merriweather of "Men on Films", and crazed pyromaniac Fire Marshall Bill, played by comedic actor Jim Carrey, then credited as James Carrey. In Living Color helped to pave the way for other sketch comedies of the 90s like Mad TV and Nickelodeon's All That, as well as launch the careers of actor Jamie Foxx and fly girl dancer Jennifer Lopez. Like Carrey, both Foxx and Lopez went on to become huge movie making stars in Hollywood.





Madonna - Vogue


Featured on the soundtrack album "I'm Breathless" to the Warren Beatty film Dick Tracy, the pop diva's chart-topping smash single gave the world a new dance that even white people could do while also paying homage to Hollywood's greatest and most fashionable icons.





The black and white video received some controversy for Madonna's bare breasts underneath a sheer lace blouse, but not nearly as controversial as her banned-from-MTV music video "Justify My Love" later that year. "Vogue" would not only win three MTV Video Music Awards, but would become a huge staple on the 90s dance music circuit, especially among the gay community, where the material girl had established herself as a fashion icon.





Tiny Toon Adventures


In 1990, Warner Brothers and Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment treated kids to a new and zany creation, keeping up with the spirit and legacy of the Looney Tunes that previous generations had loved and cherished so dearly in prior decades. The cartoon series had a great cast of characters, accompanied by many of the best voice actors in show business, wonderful, often fast-paced animation, and very sharp and witty writing in each episode, which included humorous fourth wall jokes, innuendoes, and pop culture references. Much like The Ren and Stimpy Show, some episodes would rely on sentimental storylines to induce its young audience into more complex emotions, two of which even paid tribute to the animated classic An American Tail, a project Spielberg had worked on with director Don Bluth. Like many Bluth projects, for every sad or heartbreaking moment in an episode, children would not be left without a happy ending. Despite a change in voice cast in later episodes with its main character Buster Bunny from Charlie Adler to John Kassir of Tales From The Crypt fame, the success of Tiny Toons would lead to numerous spin-offs and TV movies, including "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" and would pave the way for other zany Warner Brothers cartoons of the 90s like Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and Freakazoid.





Home Alone


After starring in Uncle Buck, opposite the late John Candy, then-child actor Macaulay Culkin would star in the late John Hughes' next project, a coming-of-age film about a young precocious 8 year old named Kevin McCallister who is accidentally left behind by his family on a flight bound for Paris, France for their Christmas vacation, only to have his mother fly back to Chicago to be with him. During the time of his being home alone (hence the title), Kevin learns a few real world lessons about being a responsible adult, including confronting child-like fears, protecting the home from bungling burglars, and befriending a very misunderstood outcast in the neighborhood. Much like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, critics were very dismissive of Home Alone for its cartoon-like violence and over-the-top physical humor, but with young audiences completely in love with the film, as well as its main star, it would go on to become one of the most iconic family comedies of all time, making Mac an overnight sensation. While he would reprise the role of Kevin two years later in the sequel Lost in New York, and while that movie was still a box office hit, though unable to match its predecessor, it would not only mark the beginning of the decline in the Home Alone movie franchise, but also for Culkin's career as a child actor, ending with Richie Rich in 1994.





The Rescuers Down Under


While it wasn't a major hit at the box office, especially with its being overshadowed that holiday season by Home Alone, this overlooked and underrated magnum opus would achieve greater success and viewership as a home video release a year later. With the reprisal of Bob Newhart as Mr. Bernard and the late Eva Gabor as Miss Bianca, the mouse agents of the Rescue Aid Society set out this time for the land down under to help save a kidnapped boy and an endangered eagle from an evil poacher Percival C. McLeach, played by George C. Scott of Patton fame. Also included in the voice cast was John Candy as Wilbur, the klutzy but lovable albatross and brother of Orville, whose vocal delivery at times bears some similarity to his Spaceballs costar, the late Dom Deluise, who has also been known to play very klutzy but cute characters who befriend mice. Unlike many other animated films, The Rescuers Down Under didn't follow the classic fairytale formula Disney was best known to employ in its movie making process, or utilize any pop ballads or musical numbers in its soundtrack to raise commercial appeal. As a Disney animated picture, especially one from its Renaissance era, it has become a cult classic, even outshining the original 1977 release in story, film score and animation style.





Dr. Mario


The enormous popularity of Tetris led Nintendo to release its own falling object puzzle game for both the NES and Game Boy in 1990. Though instead of using blocks and shaping them up to eliminate lines, the game dealt with two-colored medical capsules that are thrown into a jar by Mario assuming the role of doctor as they must be moved around and rotated so they fall on the viruses of matching color, and by eliminating them all, players get to move on to the next level. While the game's objective didn't involve going through eight levels, defeating an evil lizard or saving a princess, after saving seven toadstools, all of which would say "Our princess is in another castle", video gamers enjoyed Dr. Mario for its simple fun as a puzzle game, memorable background music, especially the Fever song, and increased difficulty with every level, giving them a whole new reason to love Nintendo's ubiquitous video game character. Dr. Mario would be re-released and remade on multiple systems for many years to come, including its 2 in 1 game pack with Tetris for the Super Nintendo four years later.