A look back at the popular Starting Lineup sports figures. Behind the scenes of Behind the Music. Some of the most controversial songs ever written.
Episode 203 of the podcast unloads a tidal wave of nostalgia for you to enjoy, no matter where you are.
We start off with a deep dive into the world of Starting Lineup sports figures. Straddling the line between toys and collectibles, these figures were desired by 80s and 90s boys, from preteens to much older collectors. What made them so popular?
VH1 Behind the Music was a compelling and, at times, depressing television show. It delved into the lives of musical acts, showing them as humans and not just celebrities. We will examine the show in general, some of its most well-known episodes, and also explore why the show resonated with so many for so long.
Controversy is on the menu in this week's Top 5. We will look at some of the most controversial songs ever written. This spans genres and decades. These songs caused discussions, arguments, and boycotts. We will try to give the reasons behind the controversy.
There is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule looking back at the infamous Roswell, New Mexico UFO incident.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello, world! And welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 203.
Fourth of July weekend has justpassed.
It's a sprint through summer toLabor Day.
(00:24):
I'm bringing the fireworks inthe form of fun Gen X nostalgia.
We're gonna kick off the showwith a look back at collectibles
that were favorites of lots of80s and 90s boys, and that was
the starting lineup's sportsfigures.
We're gonna go way, way back inthe day and look at the VH1
(00:47):
Behind the Music series.
There will be a brand new topfive.
These are the top five mostcontroversial songs ever
released.
Some of them will surprise you.
And there'll be a brand newthis week in history and time
capsule looking back at thefamous Roswell UFO incident.
(01:08):
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 203 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
Oh man, you have no idea howmuch that was needed.
(01:28):
As most of you know, I recordthe podcast on the Friday
before, and it goes live onWednesday.
Well, those of you listening onWednesday, you know the
previous Friday was 4th of July.
And living on Cape Cod, it'slike pouring 50 pounds of sand
into a bucket that holds fivepounds.
It's just insanity.
(01:48):
I went for a run this morning,Friday morning, and I saw so
many people on the back roads,the route that I like to go, I
felt like I was in a road race.
I was passing people on thestreet, dodging cars, dodging
dogs and strollers.
The line to get into the beachparking lot was 25 cars deep,
(02:14):
and when I got to the beachparking lot, there was a sign
that said lot full.
It was like a Seinfeld moment.
I looked at the sign and I justsaid, Oh, that's a shame.
That run is the reason I needthis energy drink.
I am wiped out.
I did more miles than I thoughtI would, but that energy drink
and the fun content I have forthis week will get me through
(02:36):
Fourth of July weekend.
I hope wherever you are, you'rehaving the best week, the best
day possible.
I hope your fourth was fun, wassafe.
You know, I kind of made thejoke last week at the end of the
podcast, you know, be safe.
I don't want to have any of youblowing your hands off with
fireworks.
Well, what ended up happening afew days ago from when I record
(02:57):
this in the town of Mashpee,which is probably 20 minute
drive from me, there was goingto be a fireworks celebration,
and a few hours beforehand theymust have been setting it up,
and most of the fireworksexploded in one huge cloud.
Luckily, I know there were somepeople injured.
I think none of them werelife-threatening, but it just
(03:19):
goes to show you that evenprofessionals with a
professional setup, there can beaccidents.
It's not just the drunkenYahoos out there stumbling
around firing fireworks off intothe trees.
Before I get started with themain meat of the podcast, you
know I cannot start the show offwithout thanking my Patreon
subscribers, Laurie, Mary Lou,Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite,
(03:46):
Neglectoid, Crystal, Matt.
Thank you all so much for beingthe biggest backers, the
biggest supporters.
I hope you enjoyed the newbonus subscriber-only podcast
episode that went up a few daysago, July 1st.
For those interested inbecoming subscribers, five
dollars a month gets you accessto the bonus podcast episodes.
(04:09):
It gets you access to theremastered without a map live
streams.
They were the podcast post-gameshows that I did a few years
ago, usually on Instagram live.
You get access to YouTubevideos early, and there's more
stuff up there.
I'm constantly trying to findnew things to share.
I've got an ever-growing freetier also for those of you that
(04:32):
want to just go and check outwhat I've got there.
But we can save the rest of thehousekeeping portion of the
podcast for the end.
Let's get into the main show.
Whether you're at a picnic, abarbecue, sitting on the beach,
stuck in traffic, unfortunately.
I'm sorry if you are.
Let's bring the fun with theGen X nostalgia, and let's kick
(04:53):
it off with a look back at afavorite of my childhood and
maybe some of yours.
The starting lineup sportsfigures coming up right now on
episode 203 of the In MyFootsteps Podcast.
I started collecting baseballcards, sports cards when I was
eight, nine years old.
(05:14):
I think I started collecting orgetting into action figures
around the same time,Transformers, He-Man.
So when I was probably 10, 11years old, there was something
that combined my love of sports,sports cards, and action
figures, and that was somethingcalled the starting lineup
(05:34):
figures.
Those of you listening that aremy age, around my age, you're
probably familiar with thestarting lineup figures.
They were a big deal for youngboys, teenage boys, probably
collectors also, older guys.
From the late 80s through, Iwould say, maybe the early
(05:56):
2000s, maybe my timeline's off.
Starting lineup figures, theywere a line of collectible
action figures that broughtprofessional athletes to life in
plastic form.
Those of you that collectedthem or at least know what they
are, you can picture them inyour head.
But where did they come from?
So the concept for startinglineup figures, it was born from
(06:18):
the mind of Pat McInally, whowas a former wide receiver and
punter for the CincinnatiBengals of the NFL.
Macinally, who was a Harvardgraduate, had a keen eye for
business and marketing, and henoticed the lack of
sports-themed action figures ontoy shelves that were dominated
by the things I mentionedearlier: G.I.
(06:40):
Joe, Transformers, He-Man.
He was smart.
He knew there was a desire, aneed in the market.
McAnally envisioned detailedfigures modeled after real
athletes, packaged with atrading card to add both play
and collectability.
In a bit of serendipity, beingfrom Cincinnati where his
(07:03):
football roots were, McAnallypitched the idea to Kenner
Products, and the company wasbased in Cincinnati.
Kenner was already known forits wildly successful Star Wars
action figures, which at somepoint on the podcast, I'll have
to do a deep dive into thoseoriginal figures and kind of how
much some of those are worth ifyou had them in their original
(07:25):
packaging.
But Kenner was all about it.
They jumped at the opportunity,and the starting lineup figures
made their debut in 1988.
Maybe I just forgot, but Ididn't realize that the initial
(07:53):
1988 starting lineup series,which was focused on Major
League Baseball, there were 124different figures, different
players.
I don't know why I thoughtthere was maybe two or three
players per team.
These original figures, theywere about four inches tall.
They had a baseball card withthem, and they were displayed in
(08:16):
some kind of an athletic pose.
They were pitching or battingor catching.
1988 in baseball, there were alot of big stars.
So some of the standout namesfrom that first year, there was
Don Mattingley from the New YorkYankees, Roger Clemens and Wade
Boggs from the Boston Red Sox,Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire
from the Oakland Athletics,Daryl Strawberry from the New
(08:39):
York Mets, Cal Ripkin Jr.
from the Baltimore Orioles,Ozzie Smith from the St.
Louis Cardinals.
So all of them, you think, ifyou know sports, you say, oh
yeah, of course they deservetheir own action figures.
But just for the fun of it, Iwent and did my research to find
you some of the, I guess youwould say, lesser known, I don't
(09:00):
want to say bad baseballplayers that had their own
action figures, but these wouldprobably be the ones that would
be peg warmers.
You'd go into any Toys R Us orChild World, and you would
absolutely find these there.
There was Franklin Stubbs, whowas a first baseman slash
outfielder for the LA Dodgers,who batted a whopping .223 in
(09:21):
1988.
He had his own action figure.
There was Zane Smith, thepitcher for the Atlanta Braves,
who won five games and lost 10with a 4.3 ERA in 1988.
He had an action figure.
There was Jody Davis, a catcherfor the Chicago Cubs, who
batted a whopping .230.
(09:41):
He had his own action figure.
And there was Chris Brown, athird baseman for the San
Francisco Giants, who batted awhopping .235.
He had his own action figure.
I guess you had to give acertain amount for each team.
I think it was four for eachteam, and if your team stunk,
you kinda had no choice.
But it makes it seem like a lotof us could have had our own
(10:04):
action figures.
Despite some of the less thanstellar players that had their
own figures, they quickly becamehot commodities.
The big thing with the startinglineup's figures is that their
value was at its peak if youkept them in their original
packaging, which me being about10, 11 years old when they first
came out, I wasn't gonna dothat.
(10:25):
In fact, I didn't learn aboutthe whole collectibles thing and
keeping products in theirpackaging until I met my
stepfather, Serpa, in 1995.
That's his last name, Serpa.
His first name is Chris likeme.
But he was the one that taughtme, oh, if you want these to be
collectible, keep them in theirpackaging.
So all of my starting lineupfigures I had were worth
(10:48):
nothing.
And they're all gone now.
They've been thrown away overthe years, so I can't complain.
The baseball figures were ahuge success, and starting
lineup, they expanded theirproduct line.
Eventually they had by theearly 90s NFL football, NBA
basketball, NHL hockey, boxingand Olympic athletes, college
(11:11):
sports legends.
Each of these lines maintainedthe format of action figure plus
trading card, but the designsbecame more detailed over time.
In some years, they evenincluded mini posters or
commemorative cards, which wouldprobably make it harder for
kids to not open the package ifthey were told, keep it sealed,
(11:32):
it'll be worth more.
Another big part of the valueof the starting lineup figures
was their regional distribution.
So you get me living on CapeCod, I would get Boston Red Sox,
New England Patriots, BostonBruins, Boston Celtics.
And obviously you'd get some ofthe bigger names.
But if you were looking forsome of the lesser known
(11:53):
players, you're not gonna findthem outside of their home
market.
I wouldn't have been able to goto my local Toys R Us and get a
Chris Brown from the SanFrancisco Giants action figure.
Although if you did want hisaction figure, I just went on
eBay and I found one sealed inits package for $21.99.
So there you go.
(12:13):
So what made the startinglineup figure special?
First, it was real athleterepresentation.
You could find your favoriteplayer from your favorite team
instead of fictional charactersor nameless, faceless people.
This then led to thecollectability with the limited
releases, and like I said,regional availability.
(12:35):
You've got many figures thatare rare collector's items,
especially the Hall of Famersand short print rookies.
For example, I went back toeBay and do my research.
I found the 1988 startinglineup Chicago Bulls Michael
Jordan figure going for as highas $5,000 in its package.
(12:58):
Which I don't think I ever had,so I cannot feel too bad or be
kicking myself.
Obviously, starting lineupfigures were a big deal for
kids, people my age, teenagers.
When I was coming up in thelate 80s, getting to have a
Roger Clemens, a Larry Bird, aRay Bork.
(13:18):
I don't think the Patriotsreally had anyone good in the
late 80s, but having theiraction figures in my room, that
was a big deal.
For a few years into the early90s, the starting lineup figures
were everywhere.
There were tons of commercialsfor them with the real players
in the commercials.
Speaker (13:36):
Only today's greatest sports heroes make it to
starting lineup.
Collect basketball's LarryBird, Michael Jordan, and Magic
Johnson to be a winner! Detaileduniforms.
Every home team and theirofficial collect starting
lineup, each sold separately.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
But things changed.
Kenner was bought by Hasbro in1991, and starting lineup
continued under the Hasbro name,but enthusiasm started to wane
due to the increasing popularityof video games, trading card
games, and more sophisticatedsports memorabilia.
(14:14):
By 2001, the original startinglineup toy line was officially
discontinued.
This is where the collectorsstarted to make their mark
because eBay was big already in2001.
If you go on eBay and just typein starting lineup figures, you
will find tons of them forthousands.
I know in my collection I hadmaybe a dozen different ones at
(14:39):
its peak.
The only one I still have, andit's in my mother's basement, in
its original packaging, is aBarry Sanders starting lineup
figure.
He was my favorite footballplayer, so naturally I'd have
one of him.
I just went back on eBay to tryto find out how much it was
worth, and I'm getting sosidetracked, I'm like, I gotta
actually record the podcast andnot research how much my old
(15:01):
toys are worth.
That's for late nights andedibles, not for now.
There have been attempts tomake comebacks with the starting
lineup figures, including the2000s NBA Legend box sets, 2005
Cooperstown Baseball Legendsseries, a McFarland Sports Pick
series, which was a spiritualsuccessor with more realistic
(15:24):
sculptures.
In 2022, Hasbro announced anofficial revival of starting
lineup, this time with modernNBA stars, and a focus on
premium articulation, digitalcollectibility, including NFTs.
These new figures, they lookgreat and they move a lot more.
It's like you could get them tofight and wrestle each other.
(15:46):
Overall, starting lineupfigures represent a unique
chapter in sports and popculture history.
They captured a time whensports fandom was deeply
personal, which I mean it stillis.
But as a child of the 1980s, ifyou loved sports, your sports
team was everything.
You had loads of posters onyour wall, maybe you had some
(16:09):
jerseys, tons of differentsports cards, and starting
lineup figures.
It gave you street cred to havea starting lineup figure of
your favorite player.
Today though, collectors stillhunt for the mint condition
figures, the rarities.
I just told you how much the1988 Michael Jordan one is
worth.
Five grand.
(16:30):
There's also the Ken GriffeyJr.
rookie action figure, which Ican't find on eBay.
Yes, I keep going back to look,I'm sorry.
More importantly, and thisthing for me as a kid growing up
in the 80s, the starting lineupfigures helped to bridge the
gap between play and passion.
I always wanted to playbaseball and basketball, so
(16:52):
having those action figures, itstoked those dreams and desires.
I could think of playing in themajors and then look at my
Roger Clemens starting lineupfigure and say, Yup, I'm gonna
be like you someday, Rocket.
And then yell at him when Ididn't make the school team and
say it's your fault.
(17:12):
In the end, the starting lineupfigures, it was never just
about toys, it was about heroes,hometown pride, and holding on
to the magic of the game, onefigure at a time.
This week in history, we aregoing back 78 years to July 7th,
(17:36):
1947, and the infamous Roswell,New Mexico UFO incident.
There are some weeks that Ijust get lucky with what I find
for this week in history.
The fact that I get to talkabout Roswell, one of the most
famous extraterrestrial UFOincidents ever, that's just luck
(17:58):
and good researching.
I am sure most of you listeninghave heard of at least a little
bit of the Roswell incident.
It was a small desert town inNew Mexico, became ground zero
for what would become one of themost famous and controversial
events in UFO lore.
Before Roswell, the idea offlying saucers wasn't yet
(18:20):
embedded in American popculture.
Interest in mysterious aerialphenomena, it was rapidly
rising.
In fact, just weeks earlier, onJune 24, 1947, private pilot
Kenneth Arnold reported seeingnine crescent-shaped objects
flying at incredible speeds nearMount Rainier in Washington
(18:42):
State.
He described their movement asresembling a saucer skipping
across water, inadvertentlycoining the now iconic term
flying saucer.
Arnold's account sparked amedia frenzy, and within days,
numerous similar sightings werereported across the United
States.
The cultural atmosphere wascharged with Cold War anxiety,
(19:07):
and anything unexplained in theskies became a matter of
national concern.
So, what exactly is the Roswellincident?
Something strange crashed at aranch about 75 miles north of
Roswell, New Mexico.
Rancher Mac Brazzel discovereddebris scattered across a field,
(19:27):
metallic rods, rubber strips,and foil-like material.
He reported the find to localauthorities, and soon the
Roswell Army Airfield wasinvolved.
On July 8, 1947, the RAAF,Roswell Army Airfield, issued a
stunning press release statingthey had recovered a flying disc
(19:49):
from the ranch.
The announcement made headlinesacross the nation, but within
24 hours the story changeddramatically.
Now military officialsretracted the statement and
claimed the debris was from aweather balloon, not a
spacecraft.
Photos were released showingmilitary personnel posing with
(20:09):
tin foil, wooden sticks, andrubber remnants, supposedly
proving the mundane origin ofthe wreckage.
The Roswell case was quietlyclosed for a time.
For over 30 years, Roswellfaded from public consciousness,
dismissed as amisunderstanding.
In 1978, the story wasreignited when UFO researcher
(20:32):
Stanton Friedman interviewedMajor Jesse Marcel, the
intelligence officer who hadfirst handled the debris.
Marcel insisted that what hesaw in 1947 was not from Earth
and that the weather balloonexplanation was a cover-up.
This sparked a new wave ofinterest.
In the 1980s and 90s, dozens ofbooks, TV documentaries, and
(20:56):
supposed eyewitness accountsemerged.
Some claimed that not only hada craft crashed in Roswell, but
alien bodies were recovered andwhisked away by the U.S.
military.
In response to the mountingpublic interest, the United
States Air Force released twoofficial reports in the 1990s.
(21:16):
The first confirmed that debriswas from Project Mogul, a top
secret program usinghigh-altitude balloons to detect
Soviet nuclear tests.
The second, in 1997, attemptedto explain alleged sightings of
alien bodies as dummies used inhigh-altitude parachute tests.
(21:38):
Despite these explanations,belief in a government cover-up
remains strong among UFOenthusiasts and conspiracy
theorists.
Roswell has since evolved intoa cultural phenomenon with an
annual UFO festival and adedicated UFO museum drawing
thousands of visitors each year.
(21:58):
Since Roswell, the U.S.
has been home to numerous otherfamous UFO sightings.
There was the Washington, D.C.
UFO incident of 1952, thePascagoula abduction of 1973,
the Phoenix Lights of 1997, theUSS Nimitz UFO Encounter of
(22:19):
2004.
I don't have time to go superdeep into detail with all those.
I just wanted to give them toyou, give you homework if you
want to look them up.
For us New Englanders, therewas the story of Betty and
Barney Hill in New Hampshire.
I did a segment on that on thepodcast way back in episode six,
so if you want to go diggingdeep into the archives, you can
(22:41):
find out about Betty and BarneyHill.
The Roswell incident of 1947stands as a pivotal moment in
American history whereskepticism, secrecy, and a
thirst for the unknown collided.
Whether it was a weatherballoon, an alien spacecraft, or
something in between, theRoswell incident launched the
(23:02):
modern UFO era.
And that Roswell incidentoccurred 78 years ago, this week
in history.
Oh, it's time.
I have abducted a brand newtime capsule.
We're going to stick to thesame day.
(23:23):
July 7th, 1947.
The Roswell incident isoccurring.
What is going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was CheBaba Che Baba by Perry Como.
I deserve credit for gettingthrough reading that without
laughing at that name.
(23:43):
I did a couple times and had toedit it out.
Pericomo sang lead on this,being backed up by a group
called the Satisfiers, and LloydSchaefer and his orchestra.
This was a single, and the flipside, When You Were Sweet 16,
was also a big hit for PerryComo, topping the charts at
(24:04):
number two.
Other famous recordings of thissong were done by Peggy Lee and
The Wiggles, which I neverthought I'd have.
Those two in the same sentence.
So there you go.
The number one movie was TheGhost and Mrs.
Muir, and you could get intothe theater with a ticket
costing 35 cents.
(24:25):
This is a fantasy romancestarring Gene Tierney, Rex
Harrison, and Natalie Wood.
It's about a young widow whoflees with her daughter to a
quaint seaside town, but thehouse she moves into is haunted.
I couldn't find any box officenumbers for it, but it is 100%
(24:48):
fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so ifthat sways you, go and check it
out.
There was no number one TV showbecause it was 1947, but the
number one radio show was theLux Radio Theater.
This was the standard radioanthology show that you would
expect from the 1930s and 40s.
(25:11):
There was music, songs, comedyskits, and some of the notable
guest stars on the show, it wasa who's who of who was famous
back then.
Abbott and Costello, LaurenBacall, Humphrey Bogart, Bing
Crosby, Betty Davis, JudyGarland, Catherine Hepburn.
(25:31):
I could keep going on and on,but you get the idea.
And if you were around backthen, July 7th, 1947, you're
starting a family, you've gotthat American dream of the house
with the little white picketfence out front.
Well, I got something for you.
No, it's not the house.
(25:52):
It's the white picket fence.
You can get it in the Searscatalog.
It will only cost you 49 centsa foot, or about $7 a foot when
adjusted for inflation to 2025.
So you can just buy all thisfence and buy the land and then
just fence it off and live in atent in the middle.
(26:13):
That wraps up the time capsule.
That wraps up this week inhistory.
We go from the sweet andsterile idea of the American
dream and the white picket fenceto the most controversial songs
of all time.
This top five will not be alist that I make a playlist out
of on Spotify, just so you know.
(26:35):
Oh, you will not find any safe,sterile, PG kid-friendly music
on this list.
We're going straight to themost controversial songs ever
released.
This is a top five that one ofthe songs that's on the top five
(26:57):
popped into my head randomly afew weeks ago, and the first
thing I thought of was, man, Iremember all the controversy
around that song.
And it went from there.
I wonder what the mostcontroversial songs are ever.
What I'm doing with this list,controversy, it comes in all
different shades.
You could probably easily makea top five most controversial
(27:18):
from any genre, any decade ofmusic, and maybe that'll happen
in the future.
Maybe I'll start milking thattopic for all it's worth.
But for this week, we're justdoing all time.
It goes all across genres, allacross decades.
Your list will likely vary frommine, but as with most top
(27:40):
fives, there are some honorablementions, and the top five
itself is in no particularorder.
So let's start diving into thecontroversy pool here.
We'll start with the honorablementions.
So I'm gonna kind of glossthrough these, get through
pretty fast so we can go to thetop five.
Honorable mentions for mostcontroversial songs of all time
(28:02):
include The Pill by LorettaLynn.
This is a country song from1975 about birth control.
Another honorable mention isJustify My Love by Madonna.
This is from 1990 and was morecontroversial for its video that
(28:23):
was eventually banned from MTV.
Another honorable mention isSuicide Solution by Ozzie
Osborne.
The song is from 1980, butgained controversy in 1985 when
a lawsuit was filed by theparents of teenager John
McCollum, who took his lifeallegedly after listening to the
(28:47):
song.
Another honorable mention is HeHit Me by the Crystals.
The full name of this song isHe Hit Me and It Felt Like a
Kiss.
This is from 1961, and it's asong about domestic abuse.
So just the subject materialand the time frame tells you why
(29:07):
this was so controversial.
And the final honorablemention, to keep this as PG as I
can for you listening, is F thePolice by NWA.
This song is from 1988 and it'sabout police brutality and
corruption.
Is it any wonder why my motherdidn't want eleven-year-old me,
(29:31):
a white kid from Cape Cod,listening to NWA?
Although she did let me listento Public Enemy.
That was the compromise.
But that wraps up the honorablementions.
Have you heard of any of thosesongs?
I would think Madonna, Ozzy,maybe NWA.
Oh, let's get into the actualtop five though.
(29:54):
Most controversial songs of alltime.
We'll start with number one.
Cop Killer.
This is a song by the metalgroup Body Count that was
fronted by rapper Ice T.
This is from their 1992 album,also entitled Body Count.
The song was recorded andwritten two years earlier by Ice
(30:18):
T.
He said he got inspiration fromthe talking head song Psycho
Killer.
But a song about murdering lawenforcement agents, it's not
going to go over well no matterwhen you release it or what the
sentiment is behind it.
Ice T said it was a protestrecord.
In 1992 America, that's notgoing to matter.
(30:39):
President George H.W.
Bush criticized it.
Eventually, the outcry from thepublic, from other politicians,
lawmakers, it became too much,and Body Count pulled the album
and then re-released it withoutthe song Cop Killer.
I just remember me myself in1992 being more interested in
(31:02):
the idea that Ice T was frontinga heavy metal band.
But I mean I was 14 years old,so I wasn't very worldly and
knowledgeable yet growing up onCape Cod.
Number two is God Save theQueen by the Sex Pistols.
This is from their one and onlyalbum, Nevermind the Bollocks,
(31:24):
Here's the Sex Pistols, from1977.
They're one of the mostinfluential kind of one-hit
wonders ever, as far as breakingopen the genre of punk music.
But much like heavy metal,hip-hop, punk was not
mainstream, so controversiescoming from that type of music,
they were always going to beamplified.
(31:46):
It's got a lot of controversiallyrics speaking about Queen
Elizabeth II.
Upon its release, it wasreleased as a single.
It was immediately banned.
Despite it being banned, thissong went to number two on the
UK charts.
And it didn't hurt its legacy.
Rolling Stone ranked it number175 on their top 500 greatest
(32:11):
songs of all time.
So as pro wrestling promoterlegend Eric Bischoff says,
controversy creates cash, andthe Sex Pistols got some cash
out of that song.
Number three is Strange Fruitby Billy Holliday.
For this song, we go all theway back to 1939.
(32:33):
Billy Holiday, for those whodon't know, was a jazz and blues
singer, an absolute legend ofmusic from the pre-television
days.
The controversy with this songis its depictions of lynching of
African Americans in theAmerican South.
And obviously the racist,ignorant white people at the
(32:56):
time did not want to have theirracism and ignorance played on
the radio.
So they had the song banned, orat least tried to have it
banned.
Despite that, it became thebest-selling song of Billy
Holliday's career.
And Rolling Stone rated itnumber 21 on their top 500 best
songs of all time.
(33:16):
So again, controversy createscash.
And speaking of controversy,this next one is the song that
got me thinking of this list inthe first place.
And that is number four, Me SoHorny by Two Live Crew.
Now I know a lot of you aregonna be like, why were you
thinking of this song?
(33:38):
I don't remember why.
I know that sounds like acop-out.
I think I was just wonderingwhat in the world happened to
the members of Two Live Crew.
This song is from 1989, fromthe album As Nasty as They Wanna
Be.
And oh boy, there were fewmusical acts more controversial
(33:58):
than Two Live Crew.
This is a song, if you've neverheard it, and your parents
don't listen to it for the firsttime in front of your kids.
It's got some graphic sexuallyrics.
Obviously, the title, you canfigure out what the song's
about.
When this song, when this albumcame out, Two Live Crew was
(34:18):
brought up on charges ofobscenity.
The band was eventuallyoverturned on appeal, and the
album eventually went platinum.
There are a total of 18 trackson the album as nasty as they
wanna be.
Me So Horny is the lead track.
I'll try to keep this PG.
I'm gonna read a few of them toyou.
(34:38):
Maybe earmuffs for the kids.
There's one song called DickAlmighty.
There's one called the F shop.
Figure out what the F word was.
There's another one called Getthe F Out of My House.
And if you're wondering, TwoLive Crew did release an edited
version of the album called AsClean as They Wanna Be.
(35:01):
It did not sell as well.
And they covered Oh PrettyWoman by Roy Orbison, which
okay.
Alright, enough Two Live Crew.
Let's finish this off withnumber five on the list of top
five most controversial songs ofall time.
A surprise.
Rock Around the Clock by BillHaley and the Comets.
(35:22):
This song is from 1955.
It is from the album RockAround the Clock.
Some of you, probably my ageand older, might remember this
song from the beginning of HappyDays for a few of the seasons.
The controversy came from itsinclusion in the film Blackboard
Jungle and its association withTeenage Rebellion.
(35:44):
The lyrics weren't obscene, butit was the idea that the
government thought that it wasgoing to lead to teenage
rebellion and delinquency.
This song and the movieBlackboard Jungle are seen as a
few of the catalysts for thepopularity of rock and roll
music in general.
Which I'm sure to the oldergeneration in the 1950s, they
(36:07):
saw it as something so new andscary and controversial they
were trying to stamp it out, butthey failed.
So that wraps up the top fivemost controversial songs of all
time.
What do you think about mylist?
I'm sure some of these you'regonna say, that's not
controversial.
I tried to give the reasoningwhy.
So if you like this segment,you can thank Two Live Crew for
(36:30):
giving me the idea.
As far as I know, Two Live Crewwas never on VH1's behind the
music.
So what we're gonna do now iswe're gonna take a look at that
show and some of the notablemoments and controversies that
came from that show.
During the golden age of musictelevision, VH1's behind the
(36:58):
music carved a distinctive nichefor itself by peeling back the
glamorous veneer of fame andoffering raw, unfiltered stories
of the musicians we thought weknew.
Debuting in 1997, the showquickly became a cultural
touchstone known for its mix ofnostalgia, scandal, tragedy, and
(37:20):
redemption.
With its dramatic narration,archival footage, and candid
interviews, Behind the Music seta new standard for music
documentaries.
Behind the Music obviously hadthat well-known intro theme.
Yeah, that's the one.
(37:47):
So Behind the Music was createdduring a time when VH1 was
actively trying to rebranditself.
When it first came out in themid-1980s, it was viewed as more
adult, the more adultcounterpart to MTV.
But VH1 in the mid-1990s soughtto capture Gen Xers like me and
(38:08):
baby boomers like our parentswith music-focused programming
that leaned into storytellingand artist retrospectives.
Jeff Gaspin, who was then VH1'sexecutive vice president,
developed the idea for behindthe music as a way to blend
entertainment with biography.
The idea was simple yetpowerful.
(38:30):
Tell the real story behind theartist's fame, including the
struggles, scandals, andpersonal demons they faced.
The show's structure borrowedelements from classic narrative
nonfiction, but then added acinematic flair.
So it made it accessible tohardcore fans and casual
(38:51):
viewers, younger, older.
In total, there were 259episodes of Behind the Music.
Now, despite there being somany different episodes, the
shows typically followed asimilar structure.
It would start with the rise,the artists' early days, their
breakout moments, the climb tofame.
(39:12):
Then there was the fall,personal issues like drug
addiction, band conflict,industry exploitation or
tragedy, and then it would endwith the redemption, hopefully.
An ending showcasing comebacks,healing, or at least lessons
learned.
The show was narrated primarilyby actor Jim Forbes, and it was
(39:35):
narrated with this gravitas,the seriousness of it.
The show used interviews withband members, managers, family,
critics, and industry insiders.
There was footage fromperformances, press events, and
behind-the-scenes moments thatgave the series a dynamic edge.
It was equal partsrockumentary, melodrama.
(39:58):
Behind the music debuted onAugust 17th, 1997, and they hit
the ground running with theirvery first episode about Millie
Vanilli, where band members RobPilates and Fabrice Morgan
talked about their rise to fame,the controversy with lip
syncing.
For those of you interested,later this year is going to be
(40:21):
35 years since Milli Vanilli hadto give back their Grammy
Awards for Best New Artist.
So later this year there'sgoing to be a whole full segment
about the history of MillieVanilli for those that didn't
live through it like me.
A big thing with Behind theMusic, at least for me, even if
it was a musician and artistthat you didn't like their
(40:43):
music, their stories were allcompelling.
Just in season one, Behind theMusic did episodes on Jim Croce,
The Carpenters, Meatloaf,Robbie Robertson, Tony Orlando.
I'm just naming ones wherethese were the musicians I
wasn't interested in theirmusic, but their stories were
(41:03):
all fascinating.
Over the 17 seasons that Behindthe Music was on, they had
pretty much anyone you couldthink of in music that was a
part of that series.
Sure, a lot of them were sadand depressing.
I think maybe MC Hammer'sepisode is the most famous
(41:23):
because it details just how bighe got and then how quickly he
fell off.
I mean, at his peak, MC Hammerhad a net worth of over 70
million dollars.
This episode was even parodiedon The Simpsons when they did a
behind the laughter episodewhere when the Simpsons got
famous, they bought MC Hammer'shouse and they show Homer out
(41:46):
there.
So it's supposed to be MCHammer's Gates, it said Hammer
Time, and Homer's out there witha sledgehammer changing the A
to an O so it says Homer time.
There were some other episodes.
I just remember how sad theywere.
The episode about Selena,because that was in 1998, so it
had only been a few years sinceshe was murdered.
You had the TLC episode thathad to deal with Lisa Left Eye
(42:10):
Lopez after her death.
Notorious B.I.G., another onetalking about his murder.
They even did an episode aboutRick James in 1998, which ended
up, I don't think Dave Chappelleparodied it, but we needed his
Charlie Murphy True Hollywoodstories about Rick James.
It definitely felt like a morecomedic behind the music
(42:33):
episode.
There were times that segmentson Behind the Music were
breaking revelations that thepublic hadn't heard about.
The episode about Death RowRecords delved into the violent
underworld of 90s West Coastrap.
There was the episode aboutCourtney Love, where she gave an
interview regarding KurtCobain's death that sparked
(42:56):
renewed conspiracy theories.
One of the most emotional andcontroversial moments ever on
Behind the Music was singer LeafGarrett confronting the friend
who was paralyzed in a caraccident that Garrett caused.
Like I said, there's 259episodes.
You could throw a dart at thewall and pick one of those, and
(43:16):
I guarantee you'll findsomething in there interesting.
Even if you didn't listen tothe music of that artist or you
had no interest in them, you'llfind yourself compelled to sit
and watch.
And that's a testament to VH1and the people that made the
series.
If you were curious about whatis seen as the best episodes
(43:38):
ever of Behind the Music,Ranker.com, which has lists
about everything voted on bypeople, they have a list of the
best behind the music episodes,which you can go and vote in.
I'll quickly go from ten to oneif you want to go and watch
them.
Ten is Alice Cooper, nine isAlanis Morissette, eight is
(44:00):
Metallica, seven is FleetwoodMac, six is TLC, five is Poison,
four is Depeche Mode, three isLeonard Skinnard, two is Motley
Crue, and number one is DefLeopard.
And in case you were wondering,and I'm sure you were, the top
(44:20):
five lowest rated behind themusic episodes, according to
Ranker, are David Crosby, RobbieRobertson, Nick Lachey, Lil
Wayne, and the lowest rated wasthe image makers, which is rock
and roll photographers.
Despite its popularity, like Isaid, over 250 episodes, by the
(44:42):
mid-2000s, Behind the Music sawits influence waning.
There was viewer fatigue.
There was the formula thatbegan to feel repetitive.
There were critics that notedthe show's pension for
melodrama.
Because you want people towatch.
So even if there's not dramathere, you're probably going to
try to play up those things.
(45:02):
There was the changing medialandscape with the rise of
reality TV and social media.
This gave artists the platformsto share their own stories
directly with fans.
You didn't need VH1 or anyother company to make the story
for you.
You just turn on your webcam orlater on your smartphone and
(45:24):
film your own video explainingyour story to people.
Another big issue was the shiftin VH1's programming because
they, like MTV, started totransition towards reality shows
like Flavor of Love, Rock ofLove, whatever other stupidity
of love.
This left less room in theirschedule for documentary-style
(45:48):
content or actual music.
Behind the Music was officiallycancelled in 2006, but has been
revived several times since.
Briefly in 2009, again in 2012,and once more in 2021 as a
streaming reboot for ParamountPlus.
These newer versions updatedthe format with more modern
(46:12):
artists like Jennifer Lopez andFat Joe, but they never fully
recaptured the original'scultural impact.
I also think that eventuallyyou do run out of content.
259 episodes, it must be hardto find 259 musical acts or
(46:32):
stories surrounding music thatare controversial.
So I do think that was part ofit too, as you start to run out
of controversies to cover,unless you want to just do
reboots of the old episodes whensome of the musicians keep
screwing up.
You're like, yeah, there's anew episode.
Behind the music didn't justchange VH1, it influenced the
(46:55):
entire landscape of musicstorytelling.
The signature format has beenechoed in countless other
productions like MTV's Diary,BET's Music Moguls, Netflix's
This Is Pop.
Even the title, the term behindthe music moment, entered the
cultural lexicon as a shorthandfor dramatic, life-changing
(47:17):
revelations.
Moreover, these shows theyhumanized artists.
Fans learned that the peoplebehind chart-topping hits also
struggled with insecurities,addiction, heartbreak, and
trauma, just like all the restof us.
Sometimes the biggestdifference between you and the
musician you see on TV is theygot their big break.
(47:41):
They've got all the same issuesthat any of us do.
Behind the music, it was morethan just a television show.
It was a pop culturephenomenon.
It was appointment viewing alot of the times for me.
Like I said, even if I didn'tlisten to the music of whoever
was the subject of the show, Iknew for the most part it was
(48:02):
going to be compelling for anhour.
Even as the media landscape haschanged, behind the music's
influence lives on in today'smusic documentaries and biopics.
Its enduring appeal proves thatno matter how flashy the
surface, what audiences trulycrave is the real story behind
the music.
(48:22):
And I may never be the subjectof a behind the music, maybe a
behind the podcast one day.
But until next week, that'sgonna wrap up episode 203 of the
In My Footsteps Podcast.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Thank you for making me a partof your week.
Thank you for making it to theend of the show, wherever you
(48:44):
are listening from, if it's yourkitchen, your car, the beach, a
picnic.
It's always fun for us oldpeople to talk about the good
old days and nostalgia.
And lucky for you, I'm alwayson the lookout for new topics to
talk about on future podcastepisodes.
Next week is going to beepisode 204, and we're going to
(49:06):
take a look at the top fivecould have been athletes.
These are the ones that were sohyped, but something happened,
whether it was personal demonsor injuries.
Coming up the week after, I'mgoing to debut something new for
the podcast.
Something called a mixtape.
You might have heard me talkabout it.
I've mentioned it a lot onPatreon.
(49:28):
I've seen through my 203 nowepisodes of the podcast that
I've got a lot of segments thatcould be collected together into
a larger, self-standingpodcast.
I've been combing through allof my archives to find these
groups of segments that I canturn into a mixtape.
You'll know it when the firstone drops in two weeks.
(49:52):
It's going to be classic mallstores of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
I've done two differentepisodes, part one, part two, of
these stores, so I thought, whynot start it off with something
pretty simple?
I'm going to stitch those twosegments together, give you a
new intro and outro, and thenyou can spend your time learning
(50:14):
about the classic mall storesthat we used to love going to.
Those mixtapes, they'll besomething that I sprinkle in
every now and then.
I'm not going to be doing awhole bunch of like greatest
hits packages for you.
I just thought it was somethingnew and a little bit different
that you might enjoy.
If you enjoy my work, mycontent, and you want to support
(50:37):
me, five dollars a month onPatreon.
I've mentioned that.
You can also buy me a coffee.
Those can be as low as adollar, which I always joke
won't buy me a coffee.
You can support me by going tomy website,
ChristopherSetterlund.com.
It's got links to all nine ofmy books.
There is a tenth one on the waythat I'll be self-publishing.
(50:58):
I'm hoping before the end ofthe summer.
It's a Cape Cod HistoryAnthology.
The thing is, when youself-publish a book, you're the
one in charge of everything.
Layout, cover work, grammar,spelling.
So I'm always super nervousthat I'm gonna forget something
and then the book goes out andpeople are like, you misspelled
(51:21):
this word, and I'm like, yeah, Iknow.
Of course, when it comes tosupporting any content creator,
the best thing you can do isshare what they do.
It takes like two seconds toshare a link on social media,
and you never know when the linkyou share of someone's content
you like gets them viewed by theperson that gives them their
(51:42):
big break.
So rather than seeing the postwith a link that I put up and
just liking it, just share it.
It takes the same amount oftime.
Before I get out of here, itthis is kind of like a little
bit of a PSA.
I won't get too preachy, but ifyou're not feeling right
physically, go and get checked.
(52:03):
Go to the doctor.
I bring this up because I havea cousin, Jen.
She passed away a little over aweek ago, and it was something
that didn't need to happen.
I'm not going to get into thedetails and share that that's
private family stuff.
It's just something that shedidn't feel right, didn't
(52:25):
immediately go to the doctor fora few days, and it ended up
being something that if caughtat the beginning, she would
still be here, but because shedidn't, you know, it's a family
tragedy, someone in your earlyforties, it shouldn't be the end
of your story.
And for my cousin Jen, uh shebattled demons for years.
(52:48):
And she fought them and shebeat them, and she was living
her life helping others who hadbattled the same demons, and she
had just gotten married, andnow I'm speaking of her in the
past tense.
It's really sad and it sucks.
So if you feel something's notright, at least go get checked.
(53:10):
Maybe it's nothing, or maybeit's something that literally
could kill you in four daysbecause you didn't get it
checked out.
Maybe her death will helpsomeone else live because they
go and get checked, one of youmaybe out there.
I'm starting to ramble becausewhen it comes to talking about
death and family, it's hard tosound professional and polished.
(53:34):
So just take care of yourself.
Wherever you are, whateveryou're doing, be safe, be smart,
and enjoy the summer weather.
I'll be back next week, andremember, in this life, don't
walk in anyone else's footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life, becauseyou never know what tomorrow
(53:57):
will be.
Hello, world! And welcome to the In My Footsteps
podcast.
I am Christopher Setterlund,coming to you from the vacation
destination known as Cape Cod,Massachusetts, and this is
episode 203.
Fourth of July weekend has justpassed.
It's a sprint through summer toLabor Day.
(00:24):
I'm bringing the fireworks inthe form of fun Gen X nostalgia.
We're gonna kick off the showwith a look back at collectibles
that were favorites of lots of80s and 90s boys, and that was
the starting lineup's sportsfigures.
We're gonna go way, way back inthe day and look at the VH1
(00:47):
Behind the Music series.
There will be a brand new topfive.
These are the top five mostcontroversial songs ever
released.
Some of them will surprise you.
And there'll be a brand newthis week in history and time
capsule looking back at thefamous Roswell UFO incident.
(01:08):
All of that is coming up rightnow on episode 203 of the In My
Footsteps podcast.
Oh man, you have no idea howmuch that was needed.
(01:28):
As most of you know, I recordthe podcast on the Friday
before, and it goes live onWednesday.
Well, those of you listening onWednesday, you know the
previous Friday was 4th of July.
And living on Cape Cod, it'slike pouring 50 pounds of sand
into a bucket that holds fivepounds.
It's just insanity.
(01:48):
I went for a run this morning,Friday morning, and I saw so
many people on the back roads,the route that I like to go, I
felt like I was in a road race.
I was passing people on thestreet, dodging cars, dodging
dogs and strollers.
The line to get into the beachparking lot was 25 cars deep,
(02:14):
and when I got to the beachparking lot, there was a sign
that said lot full.
It was like a Seinfeld moment.
I looked at the sign and I justsaid, Oh, that's a shame.
That run is the reason I needthis energy drink.
I am wiped out.
I did more miles than I thoughtI would, but that energy drink
and the fun content I have forthis week will get me through
(02:36):
Fourth of July weekend.
I hope wherever you are, you'rehaving the best week, the best
day possible.
I hope your fourth was fun, wassafe.
You know, I kind of made thejoke last week at the end of the
podcast, you know, be safe.
I don't want to have any of youblowing your hands off with
fireworks.
Well, what ended up happening afew days ago from when I record
(02:57):
this in the town of Mashpee,which is probably 20 minute
drive from me, there was goingto be a fireworks celebration,
and a few hours beforehand theymust have been setting it up,
and most of the fireworksexploded in one huge cloud.
Luckily, I know there were somepeople injured.
I think none of them werelife-threatening, but it just
(03:19):
goes to show you that evenprofessionals with a
professional setup, there can beaccidents.
It's not just the drunkenYahoos out there stumbling
around firing fireworks off intothe trees.
Before I get started with themain meat of the podcast, you
know I cannot start the show offwithout thanking my Patreon
subscribers, Laurie, Mary Lou,Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite,
(03:46):
Neglectoid, Crystal, Matt.
Thank you all so much for beingthe biggest backers, the
biggest supporters.
I hope you enjoyed the newbonus subscriber-only podcast
episode that went up a few daysago, July 1st.
For those interested inbecoming subscribers, five
dollars a month gets you accessto the bonus podcast episodes.
(04:09):
It gets you access to theremastered without a map live
streams.
They were the podcast post-gameshows that I did a few years
ago, usually on Instagram live.
You get access to YouTubevideos early, and there's more
stuff up there.
I'm constantly trying to findnew things to share.
I've got an ever-growing freetier also for those of you that
(04:32):
want to just go and check outwhat I've got there.
But we can save the rest of thehousekeeping portion of the
podcast for the end.
Let's get into the main show.
Whether you're at a picnic, abarbecue, sitting on the beach,
stuck in traffic, unfortunately.
I'm sorry if you are.
Let's bring the fun with theGen X nostalgia, and let's kick
(04:53):
it off with a look back at afavorite of my childhood and
maybe some of yours.
The starting lineup sportsfigures coming up right now on
episode 203 of the In MyFootsteps Podcast.
I started collecting baseballcards, sports cards when I was
eight, nine years old.
(05:14):
I think I started collecting orgetting into action figures
around the same time,Transformers, He-Man.
So when I was probably 10, 11years old, there was something
that combined my love of sports,sports cards, and action
figures, and that was somethingcalled the starting lineup
(05:34):
figures.
Those of you listening that aremy age, around my age, you're
probably familiar with thestarting lineup figures.
They were a big deal for youngboys, teenage boys, probably
collectors also, older guys.
From the late 80s through, Iwould say, maybe the early
(05:56):
2000s, maybe my timeline's off.
Starting lineup figures, theywere a line of collectible
action figures that broughtprofessional athletes to life in
plastic form.
Those of you that collectedthem or at least know what they
are, you can picture them inyour head.
But where did they come from?
So the concept for startinglineup figures, it was born from
(06:18):
the mind of Pat McInally, whowas a former wide receiver and
punter for the CincinnatiBengals of the NFL.
Macinally, who was a Harvardgraduate, had a keen eye for
business and marketing, and henoticed the lack of
sports-themed action figures ontoy shelves that were dominated
by the things I mentionedearlier: G.I.
(06:40):
Joe, Transformers, He-Man.
He was smart.
He knew there was a desire, aneed in the market.
McAnally envisioned detailedfigures modeled after real
athletes, packaged with atrading card to add both play
and collectability.
In a bit of serendipity, beingfrom Cincinnati where his
(07:03):
football roots were, McAnallypitched the idea to Kenner
Products, and the company wasbased in Cincinnati.
Kenner was already known forits wildly successful Star Wars
action figures, which at somepoint on the podcast, I'll have
to do a deep dive into thoseoriginal figures and kind of how
much some of those are worth ifyou had them in their original
(07:25):
packaging.
But Kenner was all about it.
They jumped at the opportunity,and the starting lineup figures
made their debut in 1988.
Maybe I just forgot, but Ididn't realize that the initial
(07:53):
1988 starting lineup series,which was focused on Major
League Baseball, there were 124different figures, different
players.
I don't know why I thoughtthere was maybe two or three
players per team.
These original figures, theywere about four inches tall.
They had a baseball card withthem, and they were displayed in
(08:16):
some kind of an athletic pose.
They were pitching or battingor catching.
1988 in baseball, there were alot of big stars.
So some of the standout namesfrom that first year, there was
Don Mattingley from the New YorkYankees, Roger Clemens and Wade
Boggs from the Boston Red Sox,Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire
from the Oakland Athletics,Daryl Strawberry from the New
(08:39):
York Mets, Cal Ripkin Jr.
from the Baltimore Orioles,Ozzie Smith from the St.
Louis Cardinals.
So all of them, you think, ifyou know sports, you say, oh
yeah, of course they deservetheir own action figures.
But just for the fun of it, Iwent and did my research to find
you some of the, I guess youwould say, lesser known, I don't
(09:00):
want to say bad baseballplayers that had their own
action figures, but these wouldprobably be the ones that would
be peg warmers.
You'd go into any Toys R Us orChild World, and you would
absolutely find these there.
There was Franklin Stubbs, whowas a first baseman slash
outfielder for the LA Dodgers,who batted a whopping .223 in
(09:21):
1988.
He had his own action figure.
There was Zane Smith, thepitcher for the Atlanta Braves,
who won five games and lost 10with a 4.3 ERA in 1988.
He had an action figure.
There was Jody Davis, a catcherfor the Chicago Cubs, who
batted a whopping .230.
(09:41):
He had his own action figure.
And there was Chris Brown, athird baseman for the San
Francisco Giants, who batted awhopping .235.
He had his own action figure.
I guess you had to give acertain amount for each team.
I think it was four for eachteam, and if your team stunk,
you kinda had no choice.
But it makes it seem like a lotof us could have had our own
(10:04):
action figures.
Despite some of the less thanstellar players that had their
own figures, they quickly becamehot commodities.
The big thing with the startinglineup's figures is that their
value was at its peak if youkept them in their original
packaging, which me being about10, 11 years old when they first
came out, I wasn't gonna dothat.
(10:25):
In fact, I didn't learn aboutthe whole collectibles thing and
keeping products in theirpackaging until I met my
stepfather, Serpa, in 1995.
That's his last name, Serpa.
His first name is Chris likeme.
But he was the one that taughtme, oh, if you want these to be
collectible, keep them in theirpackaging.
So all of my starting lineupfigures I had were worth
(10:48):
nothing.
And they're all gone now.
They've been thrown away overthe years, so I can't complain.
The baseball figures were ahuge success, and starting
lineup, they expanded theirproduct line.
Eventually they had by theearly 90s NFL football, NBA
basketball, NHL hockey, boxingand Olympic athletes, college
(11:11):
sports legends.
Each of these lines maintainedthe format of action figure plus
trading card, but the designsbecame more detailed over time.
In some years, they evenincluded mini posters or
commemorative cards, which wouldprobably make it harder for
kids to not open the package ifthey were told, keep it sealed,
(11:32):
it'll be worth more.
Another big part of the valueof the starting lineup figures
was their regional distribution.
So you get me living on CapeCod, I would get Boston Red Sox,
New England Patriots, BostonBruins, Boston Celtics.
And obviously you'd get some ofthe bigger names.
But if you were looking forsome of the lesser known
(11:53):
players, you're not gonna findthem outside of their home
market.
I wouldn't have been able to goto my local Toys R Us and get a
Chris Brown from the SanFrancisco Giants action figure.
Although if you did want hisaction figure, I just went on
eBay and I found one sealed inits package for $21.99.
So there you go.
(12:13):
So what made the startinglineup figure special?
First, it was real athleterepresentation.
You could find your favoriteplayer from your favorite team
instead of fictional charactersor nameless, faceless people.
This then led to thecollectability with the limited
releases, and like I said,regional availability.
(12:35):
You've got many figures thatare rare collector's items,
especially the Hall of Famersand short print rookies.
For example, I went back toeBay and do my research.
I found the 1988 startinglineup Chicago Bulls Michael
Jordan figure going for as highas $5,000 in its package.
(12:58):
Which I don't think I ever had,so I cannot feel too bad or be
kicking myself.
Obviously, starting lineupfigures were a big deal for
kids, people my age, teenagers.
When I was coming up in thelate 80s, getting to have a
Roger Clemens, a Larry Bird, aRay Bork.
(13:18):
I don't think the Patriotsreally had anyone good in the
late 80s, but having theiraction figures in my room, that
was a big deal.
For a few years into the early90s, the starting lineup figures
were everywhere.
There were tons of commercialsfor them with the real players
in the commercials.
Speaker (13:36):
Only today's greatest sports heroes make it to
starting lineup.
Collect basketball's LarryBird, Michael Jordan, and Magic
Johnson to be a winner! Detaileduniforms.
Every home team and theirofficial collect starting
lineup, each sold separately.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
But things changed.
Kenner was bought by Hasbro in1991, and starting lineup
continued under the Hasbro name,but enthusiasm started to wane
due to the increasing popularityof video games, trading card
games, and more sophisticatedsports memorabilia.
(14:14):
By 2001, the original startinglineup toy line was officially
discontinued.
This is where the collectorsstarted to make their mark
because eBay was big already in2001.
If you go on eBay and just typein starting lineup figures, you
will find tons of them forthousands.
I know in my collection I hadmaybe a dozen different ones at
(14:39):
its peak.
The only one I still have, andit's in my mother's basement, in
its original packaging, is aBarry Sanders starting lineup
figure.
He was my favorite footballplayer, so naturally I'd have
one of him.
I just went back on eBay to tryto find out how much it was
worth, and I'm getting sosidetracked, I'm like, I gotta
actually record the podcast andnot research how much my old
(15:01):
toys are worth.
That's for late nights andedibles, not for now.
There have been attempts tomake comebacks with the starting
lineup figures, including the2000s NBA Legend box sets, 2005
Cooperstown Baseball Legendsseries, a McFarland Sports Pick
series, which was a spiritualsuccessor with more realistic
(15:24):
sculptures.
In 2022, Hasbro announced anofficial revival of starting
lineup, this time with modernNBA stars, and a focus on
premium articulation, digitalcollectibility, including NFTs.
These new figures, they lookgreat and they move a lot more.
It's like you could get them tofight and wrestle each other.
(15:46):
Overall, starting lineupfigures represent a unique
chapter in sports and popculture history.
They captured a time whensports fandom was deeply
personal, which I mean it stillis.
But as a child of the 1980s, ifyou loved sports, your sports
team was everything.
You had loads of posters onyour wall, maybe you had some
(16:09):
jerseys, tons of differentsports cards, and starting
lineup figures.
It gave you street cred to havea starting lineup figure of
your favorite player.
Today though, collectors stillhunt for the mint condition
figures, the rarities.
I just told you how much the1988 Michael Jordan one is
worth.
Five grand.
(16:30):
There's also the Ken GriffeyJr.
rookie action figure, which Ican't find on eBay.
Yes, I keep going back to look,I'm sorry.
More importantly, and thisthing for me as a kid growing up
in the 80s, the starting lineupfigures helped to bridge the
gap between play and passion.
I always wanted to playbaseball and basketball, so
(16:52):
having those action figures, itstoked those dreams and desires.
I could think of playing in themajors and then look at my
Roger Clemens starting lineupfigure and say, Yup, I'm gonna
be like you someday, Rocket.
And then yell at him when Ididn't make the school team and
say it's your fault.
(17:12):
In the end, the starting lineupfigures, it was never just
about toys, it was about heroes,hometown pride, and holding on
to the magic of the game, onefigure at a time.
This week in history, we aregoing back 78 years to July 7th,
(17:36):
1947, and the infamous Roswell,New Mexico UFO incident.
There are some weeks that Ijust get lucky with what I find
for this week in history.
The fact that I get to talkabout Roswell, one of the most
famous extraterrestrial UFOincidents ever, that's just luck
(17:58):
and good researching.
I am sure most of you listeninghave heard of at least a little
bit of the Roswell incident.
It was a small desert town inNew Mexico, became ground zero
for what would become one of themost famous and controversial
events in UFO lore.
Before Roswell, the idea offlying saucers wasn't yet
(18:20):
embedded in American popculture.
Interest in mysterious aerialphenomena, it was rapidly
rising.
In fact, just weeks earlier, onJune 24, 1947, private pilot
Kenneth Arnold reported seeingnine crescent-shaped objects
flying at incredible speeds nearMount Rainier in Washington
(18:42):
State.
He described their movement asresembling a saucer skipping
across water, inadvertentlycoining the now iconic term
flying saucer.
Arnold's account sparked amedia frenzy, and within days,
numerous similar sightings werereported across the United
States.
The cultural atmosphere wascharged with Cold War anxiety,
(19:07):
and anything unexplained in theskies became a matter of
national concern.
So, what exactly is the Roswellincident?
Something strange crashed at aranch about 75 miles north of
Roswell, New Mexico.
Rancher Mac Brazzel discovereddebris scattered across a field,
(19:27):
metallic rods, rubber strips,and foil-like material.
He reported the find to localauthorities, and soon the
Roswell Army Airfield wasinvolved.
On July 8, 1947, the RAAF,Roswell Army Airfield, issued a
stunning press release statingthey had recovered a flying disc
(19:49):
from the ranch.
The announcement made headlinesacross the nation, but within
24 hours the story changeddramatically.
Now military officialsretracted the statement and
claimed the debris was from aweather balloon, not a
spacecraft.
Photos were released showingmilitary personnel posing with
(20:09):
tin foil, wooden sticks, andrubber remnants, supposedly
proving the mundane origin ofthe wreckage.
The Roswell case was quietlyclosed for a time.
For over 30 years, Roswellfaded from public consciousness,
dismissed as amisunderstanding.
In 1978, the story wasreignited when UFO researcher
(20:32):
Stanton Friedman interviewedMajor Jesse Marcel, the
intelligence officer who hadfirst handled the debris.
Marcel insisted that what hesaw in 1947 was not from Earth
and that the weather balloonexplanation was a cover-up.
This sparked a new wave ofinterest.
In the 1980s and 90s, dozens ofbooks, TV documentaries, and
(20:56):
supposed eyewitness accountsemerged.
Some claimed that not only hada craft crashed in Roswell, but
alien bodies were recovered andwhisked away by the U.S.
military.
In response to the mountingpublic interest, the United
States Air Force released twoofficial reports in the 1990s.
(21:16):
The first confirmed that debriswas from Project Mogul, a top
secret program usinghigh-altitude balloons to detect
Soviet nuclear tests.
The second, in 1997, attemptedto explain alleged sightings of
alien bodies as dummies used inhigh-altitude parachute tests.
(21:38):
Despite these explanations,belief in a government cover-up
remains strong among UFOenthusiasts and conspiracy
theorists.
Roswell has since evolved intoa cultural phenomenon with an
annual UFO festival and adedicated UFO museum drawing
thousands of visitors each year.
(21:58):
Since Roswell, the U.S.
has been home to numerous otherfamous UFO sightings.
There was the Washington, D.C.
UFO incident of 1952, thePascagoula abduction of 1973,
the Phoenix Lights of 1997, theUSS Nimitz UFO Encounter of
(22:19):
2004.
I don't have time to go superdeep into detail with all those.
I just wanted to give them toyou, give you homework if you
want to look them up.
For us New Englanders, therewas the story of Betty and
Barney Hill in New Hampshire.
I did a segment on that on thepodcast way back in episode six,
so if you want to go diggingdeep into the archives, you can
(22:41):
find out about Betty and BarneyHill.
The Roswell incident of 1947stands as a pivotal moment in
American history whereskepticism, secrecy, and a
thirst for the unknown collided.
Whether it was a weatherballoon, an alien spacecraft, or
something in between, theRoswell incident launched the
(23:02):
modern UFO era.
And that Roswell incidentoccurred 78 years ago, this week
in history.
Oh, it's time.
I have abducted a brand newtime capsule.
We're going to stick to thesame day.
(23:23):
July 7th, 1947.
The Roswell incident isoccurring.
What is going on in the worldof pop culture back then?
Well, let's find out.
The number one song was CheBaba Che Baba by Perry Como.
I deserve credit for gettingthrough reading that without
laughing at that name.
(23:43):
I did a couple times and had toedit it out.
Pericomo sang lead on this,being backed up by a group
called the Satisfiers, and LloydSchaefer and his orchestra.
This was a single, and the flipside, When You Were Sweet 16,
was also a big hit for PerryComo, topping the charts at
(24:04):
number two.
Other famous recordings of thissong were done by Peggy Lee and
The Wiggles, which I neverthought I'd have.
Those two in the same sentence.
So there you go.
The number one movie was TheGhost and Mrs.
Muir, and you could get intothe theater with a ticket
costing 35 cents.
(24:25):
This is a fantasy romancestarring Gene Tierney, Rex
Harrison, and Natalie Wood.
It's about a young widow whoflees with her daughter to a
quaint seaside town, but thehouse she moves into is haunted.
I couldn't find any box officenumbers for it, but it is 100%
(24:48):
fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, so ifthat sways you, go and check it
out.
There was no number one TV showbecause it was 1947, but the
number one radio show was theLux Radio Theater.
This was the standard radioanthology show that you would
expect from the 1930s and 40s.
(25:11):
There was music, songs, comedyskits, and some of the notable
guest stars on the show, it wasa who's who of who was famous
back then.
Abbott and Costello, LaurenBacall, Humphrey Bogart, Bing
Crosby, Betty Davis, JudyGarland, Catherine Hepburn.
(25:31):
I could keep going on and on,but you get the idea.
And if you were around backthen, July 7th, 1947, you're
starting a family, you've gotthat American dream of the house
with the little white picketfence out front.
Well, I got something for you.
No, it's not the house.
(25:52):
It's the white picket fence.
You can get it in the Searscatalog.
It will only cost you 49 centsa foot, or about $7 a foot when
adjusted for inflation to 2025.
So you can just buy all thisfence and buy the land and then
just fence it off and live in atent in the middle.
(26:13):
That wraps up the time capsule.
That wraps up this week inhistory.
We go from the sweet andsterile idea of the American
dream and the white picket fenceto the most controversial songs
of all time.
This top five will not be alist that I make a playlist out
of on Spotify, just so you know.
(26:35):
Oh, you will not find any safe,sterile, PG kid-friendly music
on this list.
We're going straight to themost controversial songs ever
released.
This is a top five that one ofthe songs that's on the top five
(26:57):
popped into my head randomly afew weeks ago, and the first
thing I thought of was, man, Iremember all the controversy
around that song.
And it went from there.
I wonder what the mostcontroversial songs are ever.
What I'm doing with this list,controversy, it comes in all
different shades.
You could probably easily makea top five most controversial
(27:18):
from any genre, any decade ofmusic, and maybe that'll happen
in the future.
Maybe I'll start milking thattopic for all it's worth.
But for this week, we're justdoing all time.
It goes all across genres, allacross decades.
Your list will likely vary frommine, but as with most top
(27:40):
fives, there are some honorablementions, and the top five
itself is in no particularorder.
So let's start diving into thecontroversy pool here.
We'll start with the honorablementions.
So I'm gonna kind of glossthrough these, get through
pretty fast so we can go to thetop five.
Honorable mentions for mostcontroversial songs of all time
(28:02):
include The Pill by LorettaLynn.
This is a country song from1975 about birth control.
Another honorable mention isJustify My Love by Madonna.
This is from 1990 and was morecontroversial for its video that
(28:23):
was eventually banned from MTV.
Another honorable mention isSuicide Solution by Ozzie
Osborne.
The song is from 1980, butgained controversy in 1985 when
a lawsuit was filed by theparents of teenager John
McCollum, who took his lifeallegedly after listening to the
(28:47):
song.
Another honorable mention is HeHit Me by the Crystals.
The full name of this song isHe Hit Me and It Felt Like a
Kiss.
This is from 1961, and it's asong about domestic abuse.
So just the subject materialand the time frame tells you why
(29:07):
this was so controversial.
And the final honorablemention, to keep this as PG as I
can for you listening, is F thePolice by NWA.
This song is from 1988 and it'sabout police brutality and
corruption.
Is it any wonder why my motherdidn't want eleven-year-old me,
(29:31):
a white kid from Cape Cod,listening to NWA?
Although she did let me listento Public Enemy.
That was the compromise.
But that wraps up the honorablementions.
Have you heard of any of thosesongs?
I would think Madonna, Ozzy,maybe NWA.
Oh, let's get into the actualtop five though.
(29:54):
Most controversial songs of alltime.
We'll start with number one.
Cop Killer.
This is a song by the metalgroup Body Count that was
fronted by rapper Ice T.
This is from their 1992 album,also entitled Body Count.
The song was recorded andwritten two years earlier by Ice
(30:18):
T.
He said he got inspiration fromthe talking head song Psycho
Killer.
But a song about murdering lawenforcement agents, it's not
going to go over well no matterwhen you release it or what the
sentiment is behind it.
Ice T said it was a protestrecord.
In 1992 America, that's notgoing to matter.
(30:39):
President George H.W.
Bush criticized it.
Eventually, the outcry from thepublic, from other politicians,
lawmakers, it became too much,and Body Count pulled the album
and then re-released it withoutthe song Cop Killer.
I just remember me myself in1992 being more interested in
(31:02):
the idea that Ice T was frontinga heavy metal band.
But I mean I was 14 years old,so I wasn't very worldly and
knowledgeable yet growing up onCape Cod.
Number two is God Save theQueen by the Sex Pistols.
This is from their one and onlyalbum, Nevermind the Bollocks,
(31:24):
Here's the Sex Pistols, from1977.
They're one of the mostinfluential kind of one-hit
wonders ever, as far as breakingopen the genre of punk music.
But much like heavy metal,hip-hop, punk was not
mainstream, so controversiescoming from that type of music,
they were always going to beamplified.
(31:46):
It's got a lot of controversiallyrics speaking about Queen
Elizabeth II.
Upon its release, it wasreleased as a single.
It was immediately banned.
Despite it being banned, thissong went to number two on the
UK charts.
And it didn't hurt its legacy.
Rolling Stone ranked it number175 on their top 500 greatest
(32:11):
songs of all time.
So as pro wrestling promoterlegend Eric Bischoff says,
controversy creates cash, andthe Sex Pistols got some cash
out of that song.
Number three is Strange Fruitby Billy Holliday.
For this song, we go all theway back to 1939.
(32:33):
Billy Holiday, for those whodon't know, was a jazz and blues
singer, an absolute legend ofmusic from the pre-television
days.
The controversy with this songis its depictions of lynching of
African Americans in theAmerican South.
And obviously the racist,ignorant white people at the
(32:56):
time did not want to have theirracism and ignorance played on
the radio.
So they had the song banned, orat least tried to have it
banned.
Despite that, it became thebest-selling song of Billy
Holliday's career.
And Rolling Stone rated itnumber 21 on their top 500 best
songs of all time.
(33:16):
So again, controversy createscash.
And speaking of controversy,this next one is the song that
got me thinking of this list inthe first place.
And that is number four, Me SoHorny by Two Live Crew.
Now I know a lot of you aregonna be like, why were you
thinking of this song?
(33:38):
I don't remember why.
I know that sounds like acop-out.
I think I was just wonderingwhat in the world happened to
the members of Two Live Crew.
This song is from 1989, fromthe album As Nasty as They Wanna
Be.
And oh boy, there were fewmusical acts more controversial
(33:58):
than Two Live Crew.
This is a song, if you've neverheard it, and your parents
don't listen to it for the firsttime in front of your kids.
It's got some graphic sexuallyrics.
Obviously, the title, you canfigure out what the song's
about.
When this song, when this albumcame out, Two Live Crew was
(34:18):
brought up on charges ofobscenity.
The band was eventuallyoverturned on appeal, and the
album eventually went platinum.
There are a total of 18 trackson the album as nasty as they
wanna be.
Me So Horny is the lead track.
I'll try to keep this PG.
I'm gonna read a few of them toyou.
(34:38):
Maybe earmuffs for the kids.
There's one song called DickAlmighty.
There's one called the F shop.
Figure out what the F word was.
There's another one called Getthe F Out of My House.
And if you're wondering, TwoLive Crew did release an edited
version of the album called AsClean as They Wanna Be.
(35:01):
It did not sell as well.
And they covered Oh PrettyWoman by Roy Orbison, which
okay.
Alright, enough Two Live Crew.
Let's finish this off withnumber five on the list of top
five most controversial songs ofall time.
A surprise.
Rock Around the Clock by BillHaley and the Comets.
(35:22):
This song is from 1955.
It is from the album RockAround the Clock.
Some of you, probably my ageand older, might remember this
song from the beginning of HappyDays for a few of the seasons.
The controversy came from itsinclusion in the film Blackboard
Jungle and its association withTeenage Rebellion.
(35:44):
The lyrics weren't obscene, butit was the idea that the
government thought that it wasgoing to lead to teenage
rebellion and delinquency.
This song and the movieBlackboard Jungle are seen as a
few of the catalysts for thepopularity of rock and roll
music in general.
Which I'm sure to the oldergeneration in the 1950s, they
(36:07):
saw it as something so new andscary and controversial they
were trying to stamp it out, butthey failed.
So that wraps up the top fivemost controversial songs of all
time.
What do you think about mylist?
I'm sure some of these you'regonna say, that's not
controversial.
I tried to give the reasoningwhy.
So if you like this segment,you can thank Two Live Crew for
(36:30):
giving me the idea.
As far as I know, Two Live Crewwas never on VH1's behind the
music.
So what we're gonna do now iswe're gonna take a look at that
show and some of the notablemoments and controversies that
came from that show.
During the golden age of musictelevision, VH1's behind the
(36:58):
music carved a distinctive nichefor itself by peeling back the
glamorous veneer of fame andoffering raw, unfiltered stories
of the musicians we thought weknew.
Debuting in 1997, the showquickly became a cultural
touchstone known for its mix ofnostalgia, scandal, tragedy, and
(37:20):
redemption.
With its dramatic narration,archival footage, and candid
interviews, Behind the Music seta new standard for music
documentaries.
Behind the Music obviously hadthat well-known intro theme.
Yeah, that's the one.
(37:47):
So Behind the Music was createdduring a time when VH1 was
actively trying to rebranditself.
When it first came out in themid-1980s, it was viewed as more
adult, the more adultcounterpart to MTV.
But VH1 in the mid-1990s soughtto capture Gen Xers like me and
(38:08):
baby boomers like our parentswith music-focused programming
that leaned into storytellingand artist retrospectives.
Jeff Gaspin, who was then VH1'sexecutive vice president,
developed the idea for behindthe music as a way to blend
entertainment with biography.
The idea was simple yetpowerful.
(38:30):
Tell the real story behind theartist's fame, including the
struggles, scandals, andpersonal demons they faced.
The show's structure borrowedelements from classic narrative
nonfiction, but then added acinematic flair.
So it made it accessible tohardcore fans and casual
(38:51):
viewers, younger, older.
In total, there were 259episodes of Behind the Music.
Now, despite there being somany different episodes, the
shows typically followed asimilar structure.
It would start with the rise,the artists' early days, their
breakout moments, the climb tofame.
(39:12):
Then there was the fall,personal issues like drug
addiction, band conflict,industry exploitation or
tragedy, and then it would endwith the redemption, hopefully.
An ending showcasing comebacks,healing, or at least lessons
learned.
The show was narrated primarilyby actor Jim Forbes, and it was
(39:35):
narrated with this gravitas,the seriousness of it.
The show used interviews withband members, managers, family,
critics, and industry insiders.
There was footage fromperformances, press events, and
behind-the-scenes moments thatgave the series a dynamic edge.
It was equal partsrockumentary, melodrama.
(39:58):
Behind the music debuted onAugust 17th, 1997, and they hit
the ground running with theirvery first episode about Millie
Vanilli, where band members RobPilates and Fabrice Morgan
talked about their rise to fame,the controversy with lip
syncing.
For those of you interested,later this year is going to be
(40:21):
35 years since Milli Vanilli hadto give back their Grammy
Awards for Best New Artist.
So later this year there'sgoing to be a whole full segment
about the history of MillieVanilli for those that didn't
live through it like me.
A big thing with Behind theMusic, at least for me, even if
it was a musician and artistthat you didn't like their
(40:43):
music, their stories were allcompelling.
Just in season one, Behind theMusic did episodes on Jim Croce,
The Carpenters, Meatloaf,Robbie Robertson, Tony Orlando.
I'm just naming ones wherethese were the musicians I
wasn't interested in theirmusic, but their stories were
(41:03):
all fascinating.
Over the 17 seasons that Behindthe Music was on, they had
pretty much anyone you couldthink of in music that was a
part of that series.
Sure, a lot of them were sadand depressing.
I think maybe MC Hammer'sepisode is the most famous
(41:23):
because it details just how bighe got and then how quickly he
fell off.
I mean, at his peak, MC Hammerhad a net worth of over 70
million dollars.
This episode was even parodiedon The Simpsons when they did a
behind the laughter episodewhere when the Simpsons got
famous, they bought MC Hammer'shouse and they show Homer out
(41:46):
there.
So it's supposed to be MCHammer's Gates, it said Hammer
Time, and Homer's out there witha sledgehammer changing the A
to an O so it says Homer time.
There were some other episodes.
I just remember how sad theywere.
The episode about Selena,because that was in 1998, so it
had only been a few years sinceshe was murdered.
You had the TLC episode thathad to deal with Lisa Left Eye
(42:10):
Lopez after her death.
Notorious B.I.G., another onetalking about his murder.
They even did an episode aboutRick James in 1998, which ended
up, I don't think Dave Chappelleparodied it, but we needed his
Charlie Murphy True Hollywoodstories about Rick James.
It definitely felt like a morecomedic behind the music
(42:33):
episode.
There were times that segmentson Behind the Music were
breaking revelations that thepublic hadn't heard about.
The episode about Death RowRecords delved into the violent
underworld of 90s West Coastrap.
There was the episode aboutCourtney Love, where she gave an
interview regarding KurtCobain's death that sparked
(42:56):
renewed conspiracy theories.
One of the most emotional andcontroversial moments ever on
Behind the Music was singer LeafGarrett confronting the friend
who was paralyzed in a caraccident that Garrett caused.
Like I said, there's 259episodes.
You could throw a dart at thewall and pick one of those, and
(43:16):
I guarantee you'll findsomething in there interesting.
Even if you didn't listen tothe music of that artist or you
had no interest in them, you'llfind yourself compelled to sit
and watch.
And that's a testament to VH1and the people that made the
series.
If you were curious about whatis seen as the best episodes
(43:38):
ever of Behind the Music,Ranker.com, which has lists
about everything voted on bypeople, they have a list of the
best behind the music episodes,which you can go and vote in.
I'll quickly go from ten to oneif you want to go and watch
them.
Ten is Alice Cooper, nine isAlanis Morissette, eight is
(44:00):
Metallica, seven is FleetwoodMac, six is TLC, five is Poison,
four is Depeche Mode, three isLeonard Skinnard, two is Motley
Crue, and number one is DefLeopard.
And in case you were wondering,and I'm sure you were, the top
(44:20):
five lowest rated behind themusic episodes, according to
Ranker, are David Crosby, RobbieRobertson, Nick Lachey, Lil
Wayne, and the lowest rated wasthe image makers, which is rock
and roll photographers.
Despite its popularity, like Isaid, over 250 episodes, by the
(44:42):
mid-2000s, Behind the Music sawits influence waning.
There was viewer fatigue.
There was the formula thatbegan to feel repetitive.
There were critics that notedthe show's pension for
melodrama.
Because you want people towatch.
So even if there's not dramathere, you're probably going to
try to play up those things.
(45:02):
There was the changing medialandscape with the rise of
reality TV and social media.
This gave artists the platformsto share their own stories
directly with fans.
You didn't need VH1 or anyother company to make the story
for you.
You just turn on your webcam orlater on your smartphone and
(45:24):
film your own video explainingyour story to people.
Another big issue was the shiftin VH1's programming because
they, like MTV, started totransition towards reality shows
like Flavor of Love, Rock ofLove, whatever other stupidity
of love.
This left less room in theirschedule for documentary-style
(45:48):
content or actual music.
Behind the Music was officiallycancelled in 2006, but has been
revived several times since.
Briefly in 2009, again in 2012,and once more in 2021 as a
streaming reboot for ParamountPlus.
These newer versions updatedthe format with more modern
(46:12):
artists like Jennifer Lopez andFat Joe, but they never fully
recaptured the original'scultural impact.
I also think that eventuallyyou do run out of content.
259 episodes, it must be hardto find 259 musical acts or
(46:32):
stories surrounding music thatare controversial.
So I do think that was part ofit too, as you start to run out
of controversies to cover,unless you want to just do
reboots of the old episodes whensome of the musicians keep
screwing up.
You're like, yeah, there's anew episode.
Behind the music didn't justchange VH1, it influenced the
(46:55):
entire landscape of musicstorytelling.
The signature format has beenechoed in countless other
productions like MTV's Diary,BET's Music Moguls, Netflix's
This Is Pop.
Even the title, the term behindthe music moment, entered the
cultural lexicon as a shorthandfor dramatic, life-changing
(47:17):
revelations.
Moreover, these shows theyhumanized artists.
Fans learned that the peoplebehind chart-topping hits also
struggled with insecurities,addiction, heartbreak, and
trauma, just like all the restof us.
Sometimes the biggestdifference between you and the
musician you see on TV is theygot their big break.
(47:41):
They've got all the same issuesthat any of us do.
Behind the music, it was morethan just a television show.
It was a pop culturephenomenon.
It was appointment viewing alot of the times for me.
Like I said, even if I didn'tlisten to the music of whoever
was the subject of the show, Iknew for the most part it was
(48:02):
going to be compelling for anhour.
Even as the media landscape haschanged, behind the music's
influence lives on in today'smusic documentaries and biopics.
Its enduring appeal proves thatno matter how flashy the
surface, what audiences trulycrave is the real story behind
the music.
(48:22):
And I may never be the subjectof a behind the music, maybe a
behind the podcast one day.
But until next week, that'sgonna wrap up episode 203 of the
In My Footsteps Podcast.
Thank you all for tuning in.
Thank you for making me a partof your week.
Thank you for making it to theend of the show, wherever you
(48:44):
are listening from, if it's yourkitchen, your car, the beach, a
picnic.
It's always fun for us oldpeople to talk about the good
old days and nostalgia.
And lucky for you, I'm alwayson the lookout for new topics to
talk about on future podcastepisodes.
Next week is going to beepisode 204, and we're going to
(49:06):
take a look at the top fivecould have been athletes.
These are the ones that were sohyped, but something happened,
whether it was personal demonsor injuries.
Coming up the week after, I'mgoing to debut something new for
the podcast.
Something called a mixtape.
You might have heard me talkabout it.
I've mentioned it a lot onPatreon.
(49:28):
I've seen through my 203 nowepisodes of the podcast that
I've got a lot of segments thatcould be collected together into
a larger, self-standingpodcast.
I've been combing through allof my archives to find these
groups of segments that I canturn into a mixtape.
You'll know it when the firstone drops in two weeks.
(49:52):
It's going to be classic mallstores of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
I've done two differentepisodes, part one, part two, of
these stores, so I thought, whynot start it off with something
pretty simple?
I'm going to stitch those twosegments together, give you a
new intro and outro, and thenyou can spend your time learning
(50:14):
about the classic mall storesthat we used to love going to.
Those mixtapes, they'll besomething that I sprinkle in
every now and then.
I'm not going to be doing awhole bunch of like greatest
hits packages for you.
I just thought it was somethingnew and a little bit different
that you might enjoy.
If you enjoy my work, mycontent, and you want to support
(50:37):
me, five dollars a month onPatreon.
I've mentioned that.
You can also buy me a coffee.
Those can be as low as adollar, which I always joke
won't buy me a coffee.
You can support me by going tomy website,
ChristopherSetterlund.com.
It's got links to all nine ofmy books.
There is a tenth one on the waythat I'll be self-publishing.
(50:58):
I'm hoping before the end ofthe summer.
It's a Cape Cod HistoryAnthology.
The thing is, when youself-publish a book, you're the
one in charge of everything.
Layout, cover work, grammar,spelling.
So I'm always super nervousthat I'm gonna forget something
and then the book goes out andpeople are like, you misspelled
(51:21):
this word, and I'm like, yeah, Iknow.
Of course, when it comes tosupporting any content creator,
the best thing you can do isshare what they do.
It takes like two seconds toshare a link on social media,
and you never know when the linkyou share of someone's content
you like gets them viewed by theperson that gives them their
(51:42):
big break.
So rather than seeing the postwith a link that I put up and
just liking it, just share it.
It takes the same amount oftime.
Before I get out of here, itthis is kind of like a little
bit of a PSA.
I won't get too preachy, but ifyou're not feeling right
physically, go and get checked.
(52:03):
Go to the doctor.
I bring this up because I havea cousin, Jen.
She passed away a little over aweek ago, and it was something
that didn't need to happen.
I'm not going to get into thedetails and share that that's
private family stuff.
It's just something that shedidn't feel right, didn't
(52:25):
immediately go to the doctor fora few days, and it ended up
being something that if caughtat the beginning, she would
still be here, but because shedidn't, you know, it's a family
tragedy, someone in your earlyforties, it shouldn't be the end
of your story.
And for my cousin Jen, uh shebattled demons for years.
(52:48):
And she fought them and shebeat them, and she was living
her life helping others who hadbattled the same demons, and she
had just gotten married, andnow I'm speaking of her in the
past tense.
It's really sad and it sucks.
So if you feel something's notright, at least go get checked.
(53:10):
Maybe it's nothing, or maybeit's something that literally
could kill you in four daysbecause you didn't get it
checked out.
Maybe her death will helpsomeone else live because they
go and get checked, one of youmaybe out there.
I'm starting to ramble becausewhen it comes to talking about
death and family, it's hard tosound professional and polished.
(53:34):
So just take care of yourself.
Wherever you are, whateveryou're doing, be safe, be smart,
and enjoy the summer weather.
I'll be back next week, andremember, in this life, don't
walk in anyone else's footsteps.
Create your own path and enjoyevery moment you can on this
journey we call life, becauseyou never know what tomorrow
(53:57):
will be.
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