September 1979 in Pop Culture
Lining up and analyzing other media from the era that produced ESPN and SportsCenter. Because a single podcast episode is not enough
Analyzing a single piece of popular culture, even for over an hour, on a podcast isn’t enough to make determinations about a time and place. Here are some other pop items that Western culture produced and consumed in the same period that gave us ESPN and SportsCenter.
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September, 1979 in Music
“My Sharona” by The Knack was enjoying the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in early September, 1979. Sharona Alperin appears on the single cover (above) of the song written about her. She was the girlfriend of and songwriting muse (obviously) for Knack band leader Doug Fieger, who had moved to LA in the late 70s specifically to start a rock band. The single would go on to be the number one song for 1979.
The Knack’s sound is hard to categorize, but it falls in with a lot of what other popular rockers of the time period were producing. Not quite as abrasive as punk or “new wave” bands, but certainly not as soft as Neil Diamond or James Taylor, The Knack and their huge Capitol Records recording contract reflect a listening audience that wanted a return to straight-forward rock n roll but with just a touch of modern crudeness (the noises made in “My Sharona” and the cover art would not have flown in the early days of rock n roll). The Eighties were fast-approaching and the Knack helped set the tone for the new decade.
September, 1979 in Television
Benson first appeared on September 13, 1979 and was one of a growing number of shows in the era featuring an African American lead. Although the program was a spin-off of the soap-opera parody, Soap, Benson was made it in the more recognizable sitcom format. Its very popular parent show was only on for two seasons before Benson came along and that alone must have prompted board room conversations about how to capitalize on Soap’s success. With a cast as large as Soap’s, the decision to give Robert Guillaume’s character his own show speaks volumes about the late 70s in America. By 1979 nearly every American household had at least one television, which, in turn, prompted programmers to attempt to reach a wider and more diverse audience than before. Benson and Soap coexisted for a few years but the spin-off proved to have a longer lifespan—seven seasons compared with Soap’s four.
A lot of folks (myself included) anxiously await the reboot of Frasier, easily the most successful spin-off TV series of all time. The very first episode of Frasier premiered 30 years ago this week. The decision to make a spin-off in lieu of an original program could be looked at as a document of each time it has happened, because it communicates quite a bit about audience tastes and interests. Frasier Crane, for instance, was voted the least desired character to get a continuing story by Cheers fans, but the show’s creators did everything right to make the show match the values of the time period perfectly.
September, 1979 in Books
British author Mary Stewart spent the 1970s publishing her version of the Legend of King Arthur which looks at the story from the perspective of Merlin, the magical advisor to the British hero king. Arthurian legend had been revived for modern audiences 20 years before with the highly popular The Once and Future King by TH White and would see a major motion picture version in the form of Excalibur two years after The Last Enchantment was published. Let’s not forget Disney’s 1963 effort The Sword and the Stone and Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). It was Arthur-rama on both sides of the Atlantic for several decades, as it turns out.
Each time a legend is retold it begs the question why now? The Arthur Legend always involves political intrigue and there was not shortage of that anywhere in the world in the 1970s. It also speaks to the complicated question of who should be in leadership positions and who is actually in charge once they’re there. By having her series Merlin’s story and not Arthur’s, the complexity of such questions in both Britain and America is reflected.
September, 1979 in Movies
Alien hit theaters in June of 1979 but was still a draw as late as the second week in September. Two years earlier Star Wars brought back the public’s fascination with space and optimistically saw its possibilities. Ridley Scott’s dystopian space horror is essentially the anti-Star Wars in the ideas it conveys about outer space as no more an extension of early greed and corporatism.
The movie’s continued popularity three months after its release speaks to a number of factors. Most notably is its feminism, which doesn’t reveal itself until about three-quarters the way through the movie when Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley emerges as the clear protagonist. The role of women in society by 1979 matched the story arc and The Alien saga boasts one of the strongest sequels in 1986’s Aliens, but also some of the worst directions for a franchise to take.
New decades don’t really begin until a few years into them because society and culture is still being influenced by the years that came before for a bit. But the pop culture of the latter half of 1979 indicate a public ready for a change, to get shake off the gloomy 1970s and enjoy the last part of the century and all its fresh, computer-age promise that it held.