March 2023 – saleintothe90s

woAh, its joey from Blossom this month.

I’m always obsessed with these Prom issues from the mid 90s, they’re always bittersweet to look at because I remember young me fantasizing about going to the prom while looking at these, and then once in 2001 I didn’t go because I was like, the ugliest girl in my class and most people treated me like a leper.

I adore that Versus by Gianni Versace dress.

Oh yeah here are some Angela Chase fashions.

Now if Almay cosmetics still looked like THIS, I might buy it. But also, they have a terrible shade range.

Now this sporty look is miles better than the 1995 one I featured last year. I thought those were Converses, but they’re from Bakers. I love the look, but also it reminds me of those Yasmine Sahid Instagram “who said I can’t wear converse with my dress” reels that are so funny.

I think Walmart sells this dress every Summer.

Ahh! So this is the origins of those black mini Caboodles you always see on eBay.

YAAS to this dress but also what 14 year old goes to the prom? Sounds like Nina goes to a private school, so maybe prom is open to all at some private schools?

Bang goals!

Oh WOW. I’m not too crazy about the first look, but this second look with the knee highs heels and tapestry clothing is breathtaking. And the name brand is ANXIETY. And look!!! The vest and skirt is currently on Poshmark, I’m so mad its a size medium.

These black and white dresses didn’t just have a moment, they held on for years. I still remembered seeing them at stores when I was in high school.

I don’t think New Freedom is still being made? I assume it was just folded into the Kotex brand.

Wait, hold up, Sharlynn, you had a fiancé your senior year of high school?!

Her man is looking at her like, “is that your sister’s dress from the 1989 prom?”

I never really put much thought into how much going to the prom really costs. I just thought it was dress, shoes, makeup, Claire’s jewelry. Do kids these days still rent limos?

Did proms have dress codes back then? Because I feel like these would break a dress code.

I just like this illustration in a quiz about whether you are a control freak or not.

These type of bandages took forever to be available to a mass market. I see the Band Aid Ourtone ones when I go to Target.

Protip: do not wear a backpack while shopping.

I just saw a glittery fabric in those exact colors at Joann’s yesterday.

This red dress is giving off pageant vibes though.

via GIPHY

I have so many questions and theories about this. Is Michael a family friend? Does he work with her dad? Is this letter even real or something created by the editors about a similar situation they read about? I always wondered that about these Q&A in teen magazines, were the questions really sent in, or were they curated from events in the news, or a blend of several questions sent in? Former teen magazine editors give advice.

wow, this was ahead of its time. I couldn’t find any information about this other than a coupon in the Commercial Appeal.

More Blossom!

I feel like things haven’t improved much.

(part 1)

7. The Buffalo Bills lose their third Super Bowl in a row.

8. The Red Shoes loses $8 million on broadway (12/19)

I don’t know much about Broadway shows, but I tried watching some clips from what I’m guessing was the press reel? and (this is just me) the performances looked so stiff. I got straight up Balki vibes from George de La Pena.

The day the reviews were published, box-office sales dwindled to $20,000, Mr. Starger said, a death knell for a show that cost more than $400,000 a week to run. It might have lost $200,000 to $300,000, he said, if he had kept it open another week and invited the Tony voters, fulfilling the award requirements, and it would have taken an infusion of $1.5 million to allow the show to run through January, thus giving it a chance, however slim, to go on. He decided not to take it.

(Tallahassee Democrat, April 16, 1993)

9. The Mega Mac (April)

Anybody else think it wasn’t a coincidence that McDonalds tested this large burger in Washington D.C. — where former McDonalds lover President Bill Clinton had just moved to? Were they trolling ol Bill?

That burger doesn’t even look that big now.

10. People killed while copying The Program (October)

Michael A. Shingledecker Jr., 18, of Polk, Pa., was killed almost instantly about 1 A.M. Saturday when he and a friend were struck by a pickup truck while lying on a two-lane highway in Polk, a small borough in western Pennsylvania. His friend, Dean G. Bartlett, 17, was critically injured. And Michael Macias, 17, of Syosset, L.I., was critically injured when he was hit by a car at 10:40 P.M. Saturday as he lay in the middle of Bayville Avenue in Bayville.

Law-enforcement authorities and family members said the teen-agers were apparently copying the daredevil stunt from “The Program,” in which the college football hero shows how tough he is by lying down in the middle of a busy highway as cars and trucks whiz by in the dark. There are fears that scores of other young men are copying the stunt. 2

A few days later:

The Walt Disney Company said today that it would delete a scene in its new movie “The Program” after one teen-ager was killed and two others critically injured while apparently imitating the scene.

The brief sequence near the film’s start involves several drunken college football players lying in the middle of a busy road to prove their toughness. The scene will be removed by Friday, Disney said today, and the film’s coming attractions trailer will be pulled.

[…]

“While the scene in the movie in no way advocates this irresponsible activity, it is impossible for us to ignore that someone may have recklessly chosen to imitate it,” the film’s writer and director, David Ward, said in a statement released along with Touchstone Pictures, the division of Disney that released the film. “In light of the incidents reported, we are deleting the scene from the movie.”

The movie is playing in about 1,220 theaters and was the nation’s 12th-most popular release last weekend. 3

11. Major advertisers turn their back on NYPD Blue

So, remember when NYPD Blue premiered and there was a huge controversy on how violent and graphic it was

…

and how Dennis Franz showed his butt in the shower or something? (source)

Some ABC stations wouldn’t air it, (including my local ABC station which is something I didn’t know until just now! 4) Major advertisers refused to buy commercial time during the show:

And while each episode of the series has been fully sponsored, at prices averaging around $115,000 for a 30-second spot, almost all the commercials so far were bought by marketers of over-the-counter drugs and film distributors, which are far less susceptible to complaints over program content, because they are much more interested in quick mass-market impressions.

Many spots are for products that are far from household names: Permathene-12 diet aid, Wash ‘n Curl shampoo, Cortizone-10 anti-itch cream. But those advertisers on the show seem satisfied. 5

I found a commercial break, and sure enough it felt more like a day time talk show commercial break instead of one for a major television program. I know people don’t really pay attention to commercial breaks, but you could really tell a difference.

OH. I thought it was kind of funny that Caruso bought an ad for their curler system. Get it? David Caruso?

Weber, Bruce. “What Went So Very Wrong With ‘Red Shoes.’” The New York Times, December 30, 1993, sec. Theater. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/12/30/theater/what-went-so-very-wrong-with-red-shoes.html. https://archive.is/U3eW3
Hinds, Michael Decourcy. ‘Not Like the Movie: A Dare Leads to Death’. The New York Times, 19 October 1993, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/19/us/not-like-the-movie-a-dare-leads-to-death.html. https://archive.is/E8O6
Press, The Associated. ‘Disney Plans to Omit Film Scene After Teen-Ager Dies Imitating It’. The New York Times, 20 October 1993, sec. U.S. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/20/us/disney-plans-to-omit-film-scene-after-teen-ager-dies-imitating-it.html. https://archive.is/4wsDW
Bonko, Larry. ‘CHANNEL 13 REVERSES POLICY, WILL AIR “NYPD BLUE’’’. Virginian Pilot , 27 September 1994. https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1994/vp940927/09270336.htm.
Elliott, Stuart. ‘THE MEDIA BUSINESS: Advertising; A Hit Prime-Time TV Show without Most Mainstream Advertisers? Dial “N.Y.P.D. Blue.”’ The New York Times, 2 November 1993, sec. Business. https://www.nytimes.com/1993/11/02/business/media-business-advertising-hit-prime-time-tv-show-without-most-mainstream.html. https://archive.is/i9PBi

Month: March 2023

480. Seventeen Magazine, March 1994

478. 93 things about 1993, part 2