Recent Memories is a half-assed retelling of 1979-2009, one year, one story and one conversation at a time.
Season Three: 2004
It’s Bush vs Kerry. Bennifer. Paris Hilton. And American Idol. You’ve heard those stories before. We’re gonna talk about the other ones.
Baseball Malfunction
Season 3. Episode 4: And here’s the story we wanted to figure out for history: In the summer 2004, in the middle of an otherwise rational baseball season, Manny Ramirez dove to cut off a Johnny Damon throw from 20 feet away. Eventually, the Red Sox would reverse an 86 year old World Series curse after making a historic comeback to beat the Yankees. And, along the way, a 40 year old man had the greatest offensive season in the history of baseball. What the shit happened? And, moreover, did I somehow cause all of this?
Man Scream
Season 3. Episode 3. And here’s the story we wanted to figure out for history: In January of 2004, Howard Dean gave an impassioned speech to his supporters following a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses. That speech was punctuated by an unusually shrill call to arms that was quickly dubbed “The Dean Scream.” Within weeks, Howard Dean’s once promising presidential campaign was over. Now, nearly 20 years later, it's time to ask: What was the big deal? And moreover, are we sure it was even a scream?
Rico Dynamite
Season 3. Episode 2: With very special guest Dave Dameshek! And here’s the story we wanted to figure out for history: Twenty years after his high school prime, we got the briefest of glimpses of a broken dreamer who claims he could have single-handedly won state and who could still throw a football over a mountain. If we could get into that time machine with Uncle Rico and head back to 1982, what would we see? Would he have gone pro? Would he have outplayed Bubby Brister? And, perhaps most pressing, would he have kept the toupee on under his helmet?
Expos Funeral
Season 3. Episode 1. And here’s the story we wanted to figure out for history: In the Fall of 2004, following a decade of fits and starts, Major League Baseball finally announced that the Expos would be leaving Montreal for Washington D.C. Just weeks later, a band of indie rockers from Montreal, calling themselves Arcade Fire, would arrive in New York and begin to take America by storm. Did Arcade Fire right a wrong? Were they manifested by Andre Dawson and Gary Carter?
Bellagio
Season 2. Episode 5. And here’s the question we want to answer for history: We know that Las Vegas was changed forever when Steve Wynn built the Bellagio. We know that bachelor parties would never be the same. We know that, for millions of men and maybe dozens of women, the Bellagio gets “it.” But -- here’s the question -- what exactly is “it”?
There’s Something About Pat Healy
Season 2. Episode 4. There’s Something About Pat Healy. And here’s the question we want to answer for history: When Mary Jensen chose that dorky, neurotic, stalker, Ted Stroemann, over the handsome, confident, entrepreneur, Pat Healy, are we sure that she made the right choice? Join us as we deep dive semen as pomade, Brett Favre the actor and the deep mystery of Matt Dillon, underrated comic genius.
Bad Therapy
Season 2. Episode 3. We all love Frasier and Niles Crane. Right? We know that Frasier is the most decorated sitcom in the history of the Emmys. We know that the show was almost flawlessly written and acted. We know that the Crane brothers were lovable, erudite and pretentious. We know so much about them. But do we know -- I mean, do we have even the slightest idea -- if they were competent psychotherapists?
The Death of Childhood
Season 2. Episode 2. Stick with us on this “very special episode” of Recent Memories as we try to find an ounce of humor in all of this. From 1978 to 1985, Gary Coleman, Todd Bridges, Dana Plato and Conrad Baine were part of TVs most loving and lovable family on “Diff’rent Strokes.” But then, when the show ended, things got gruesome. On July 20, 1998, when Gary Coleman assaulted a fan while buying a bulletproof vest for his job as a security guard, was that the saddest day of the saddest post-script in TV history? Moreover, was this the day that Generation X’s childhood officially died?
Flaccid
Season 2. Episode 1. In the 1980s, we had Reagan, Stallone and Schwarenegger. In the 90s we had Clinton, Ross and Chandler. But, in 1998, everything changed. Pfizer launched Viagra, a drug that allowed men with erectile dysfunction to achieve and maintain erections for hours. Simultaneously, major league baseball players began to take performance enhancing drugs in unprecedented volumes. There is no way that these events -- the launch of Viagra and the dawn of baseball’s steroid era -- are not correlated.
McNugget
Season 1. Episode 5. In the late 1970s, Jimmy Carter tried to convince Americans that they were eating too much red meat. McDonald’s panicked. In response, though, Kroc and Co eventually brought us the greatest innovation in the history of “poultry-ish meals.” We’ve never been the same since. Without the McNugget, Bill Clinton never become President, the Indians win the 1994 World Series and Kurt Cobain becomes a sales executive for an Aberdeen based probiotic supplement company.
1983 Person of the Year: Laurence Turaud
Season 1. Episode 4. When she sat on Mr T’s lap and kissed his cheek at the White House Christmas party, was Nancy Reagan confirming something that most of America already knew? That Laurence Turaud, aka Mr T, and not Ronald Reagan, actually had the best year of any American in 1983?
Total Eclipse of the Heart
Season 1. Episode 3: Was an over the top power ballad performed by a Welsh bar singer with the most bat shit, inscrutable video ever made really the greatest Pop song in the greatest year in the history of Pop music? Better than Thriller-era MJ? Better than 1999 Prince? Really?
The Devastation of The Pine Tar Home Run
Season 1. Episode 2: In 1980 George Brett missed three innings of a World Series Game to get treated for hemorrhoids. Three years later, he would blow a gasket for getting called out for using a bat with an excessive amount of pine tar. Roughly a quarter century later, Brett would confess that roughly twice a year he would shit his own pants. It seems impossible that these three things are unrelated. Just how traumatic was that game? For Brett? For the players? For all of us?
All The Right Moves
Season 1. Episode 1: If Tom Cruise is willing and able to do everything that is possible on film, why the fuck can’t he act like an actual decent athlete? Are we sure that Tom Cruise knows how sports are actually played? And, perhaps moreover, why did he spend a quarter century trying to prove to the world that he did?
Season Two: 1998
It’s Clinton vs. Lewinsky. Dotcom boom 1.0. Britney & NSYNC. The end of Seinfeld. You’ve heard those stories before. We’re gonna talk about the other ones.
Season One: 1983
It’s peak Reagan. Thriller. MTV. Bird vs Magic. Return of The Jedi. You’ve heard those stories before. We’re gonna talk about the other ones.