That '80 and ’90s Quiz

Donning black sunglasses, Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton sat in with Arsenio’s band and played a rendition of Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel.”

Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green, did not care for the Rachel, saying it was difficult to maintain and “the ugliest haircut I’ve ever seen.” Despite being a ’90s cultural phenomenon, Aniston only sported the Rachel for a little more than two of Friends’ ten seasons.

The attack orchestrated by the husband of rival ice skater Tonya Harding left Nancy Kerrigan with a severely bruised knee and quadriceps tendon. Kerrigan missed the U.S. figure skating championship held that month, but she went on to win the silver medal the following month in Lillehammer, Norway.

During a slow news cycle, the press took notice of President Bush banishing broccoli from Air Force One. When asked about it, Bush said he never liked the vegetable as a child and certainly wouldn’t eat it now that he was the leader of the free world. Broccoli vendors reported a 10 percent spike in sales thanks to the presidential publicity.

Despite assurances from the president of Tiger Electronics that the talking toy had no recording capability, in 1999 the NSA insisted on a ban, requiring employees to leave their Furbies at home.

Pac-Man’s name is derived from the Japanese slang phrase paku paku, an onomatopoeic term for eating. Launched in 1980, Pac-Man arcade games took in an estimated $1 billion (or four billion quarters) during their first year alone.

Not expecting Cabbage Patch dolls to be such a hit, toy manufacturer Coleco’s 1983 supply could not keep up with demand. Toy store owners rationed their dolls, at least one even fended off desperate parents with a baseball bat. By August 1986 Coleco had made $1.2 billion in revenue off Cabbage Patch dolls and accessories.

Sony’s portable cassette tape player, Walkman, as well as knockoffs by competitors, helped cassettes outsell records for the first time in 1983. Ironically, that is the same year CDs, which would eventually supplant cassettes, were introduced.

Director Robert Zemeckis said the DeLorean DMC-12 was chosen to house Back to the Future’s time machine because it had gull-wing doors and resembled a spaceship.

Although it may seem like a pointless indulgence, lead singer David Lee Roth claimed that the brown M&Ms were a red flag. A venue that was lax on that point might also be lax on more important matters, like safely rigging the stage.

Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers squared off against Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals in 1984, 1985, and 1987 (Celtics won the first contest, Lakers the following two). Many sports analysts, including Hall of Famer Charles Barkley, credit their rivalry for saving the league during a difficult period.

Jim Carrey saw a lot of success in the 1990s, starring in hits like Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask, and Batman Forever. Columbia Studios agreed to pay him a record-breaking $20 million to act in 1996’s The Cable Guy. Today that is still more or less the standard for many A-list actors.

Only four songs have spent more time at number one on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart than the dance sensation by Los Del Rio. The song and its relatively-easy-to-replicate dance took the United States by storm; in 1996 the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team as well as delegates at the Democratic National Convention could be seen doing the Macarena.

In 1984, commercials for Wendy’s used the phrase “Where’s the beef?” to attack the bun-to-patty ratio of their competitors’ hamburgers. During the Democratic primary that year, candidate Walter Mondale borrowed the phrase to question the substance of competitor Gary Hart’s “new ideas.” Mondale won the tight race to become the Democratic candidate.

Roger Maris’s home run record stood from 1961 until 1998, when two players, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, were able to topple it. McGwire was the first to hit 62 but then hit a slump, allowing Sosa to briefly take the lead. McGwire then regained his stride, finishing the season with 70 homers to Sosa’s 66. Years later McGwire admitted to using steroids, and, while Sosa maintains that he did not, neither were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.