Golden: A Pop Culture Timeline

[TheDetailer]

“I was going to sell my story so I could maybe get some money from his conviction, to News of the World to be exact. But with all this stuff coming out about drugs and assault, I started to reconsider what I was going to do, and eventually, after I looked over my story, I decided I couldn’t take that risk of endangering more girls to him, so I resisted.”
- Alison Brown, in an interview in 2001, entitled "Two Years Later: The Revelations of the Sex Scandal Ring of Britain"

"It is probably the most, if not, most defining sex scandal of the 20th century."
- Nick Abbot on the LBC, on the 10th anniversary of the scandal, October 13th, 2009

While America was having a good year in general for popular culture. 1999 was both a polarizing one for Britain. With the revelation of a hidden and dark series of activities concerning some of Britain's most beloved figures involving physical and sexual absue, it has usually been referred to in British Social Circles as 'The Year Television Died.'

It had started in 1997, when famous 70s music star Gary Glitter handed over his laptop to a Bristol-based technician in order to get repairs for it. When the technician discovered images of child abuse, they subsequently phoned the police and had Glitter taken in and had him questioned. Further investigations by police discovered more images of such material in his home, to which a full-on trial soon started in which Glitter was faced with multiple charges of child porn possession, which alone caused public controversy and outrage.

But things only continued to go downhill from there, when Alison Brown, who had a particularly complicated relationship with Glitter in the past, gave her story to the police, detailing the sexual acts he committed upon her. This alone has been sighted as the main reason why Gary Glitter would be found guilty and convicted of child pornography possession on October 13th, 1999. After which multiple girls and women came forward with their own stories about Glitter acting inappropriate with them or abusing them.

After his conviction, in order to get a lighter sentence, Glitter began revealing crucial information about a network of pedophiles in the top rungs of the British entertainment industry, among those who were ratted out were journalist Max Clifford, singer and artist Rolf Harris, and children's television host Jimmy Savile of being guilty of similar, if not worse, actions. Each of the three men denied the charges against them when they were released by the press, but are ultimately later convicted by authorities. Clifford in 2000, Savile in June 2001, and Harris finally in January 2002.

As soon as it became clear that some of Britain's top stars were sexual abusers and harassers. The fan was destroyed.

Clifford was fired from his job as a publicist. Showings of Top of the Pops reruns featuring Savile were scrubbed to remove his presence while preserving the performances, and copies of the show Jim'll Fix It was destroyed by the BBC. In Australia, the native son Harris was also denounced, with copies of his famous anthems "Sun Arise," "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport" and "Jake The Peg" being burned in bonfires, his writings and paintings faced a similar fate, and his honors revoked.

The amount of outrage that followed against the convicted men was probably one of the greatest in history, with a 'pedo scare' soon following as many parents feared that their kids could become the next victims of television hosts or actors with dark intentions. This saw a large decline in popularity for many shows involving children interactions between the hosts and their audiences, with even Blue Peter taking a big hit, in which it would not see a re-increase in pre-exposure until the mid-00s.

The effects of Gary Glitter being arrested, along with the subsequent snowballing of others has been said to be the cause of something much greater that made itself known in the later years...

 

[TheDetailer]

Robert Thompson had been working in the U.S Immigration service in Miami for over two years now after he had been fired from his previous job of a janitor at a fast food dump. He managed the refugees at a desk with any luggage, passports and other whatnot items, making sure that there wasn't anything dangerous amongst them, all the faces he met were not special, some of them were from little-known countries like Guadeloupe, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago, some from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic, but most of the people he greeted all came from one singular island: Cuba.

After the whole revolution in '59 caused a ruffle between the two nations, the U.S. enacted The Cuban Adjustment Act in 1966, which sought to provide political asylum for Cubans who fled their country in the hopes of a new life. Under this act, Cuban refugees, without visas, entering the United States were paroled, and after a year could apply for permanent resident status. Additionally, the nation also issued 20,000 lottery visas every year to Cuban emigrants as per the Wet Foot/Dry Foot Policy. Under this policy, those who reached the mainland were granted asylum, while those who were intercepted at sea by the US Coast Guard were sent back to Cuba.

Apparently, today, which was the day after Thanksgiving, was a special day, as a small aluminum boat filled with 13 Cubans had recently arrived. The special thing about it was that during its voyage starting on the 22nd, they had nearly been lost to a storm, which could have resulted in all of their deaths, the only thing that saved them was the engine, which the ship's engineer attributed to him making some extra repairs to it on the day it was supposed to take off, while the passengers weren't happy with the fact that they had to wait a few hours until they could get to America than they were promised, they were grateful that they didn't drown when it seemed that the storm would tip over their boat and do so.

Robert was off his usual shift as the person who usually greeted the refugees at the desk, instead he was asked by his manager to get more personal with the refugees, talking to them to help them pass the time while the Bureau helped them find new homes. He was observing the group when one particular sight caught his eyes.

Among those who were in the waiting room, a young boy and his mother were sitting at the very back, the boy looked sad as if he was being put in a situation that he didn't feel comfortable in, his mother was talking to one of his coworkers, he picked up and learned alot of Spanish during his time, so he knew what she was saying. He managed to hear something about a divorce, and wanting to get away from Castro.

He felt bad for the boy, wanting to cheer him up, he walked up to him and started to talk.

"Hey their bud, what's your name?"

The boy looked up shyly, showing himself not wishing to talk.

His mother noticed this and said, "Its okay son, the man just wants to talk to you, he's friendly."

The boy, taking his mother's words, said: "Elián, my name's Elián sir."

"That's a nice name, Elián, rolls off the tongue" Robert faked a cheerful laugh, which managed to get a chuckle out of the young boy, "My names Robert, Robert Thompson."

He would continue to be friendly with the child, chatting to him what he was feeling and what he was like, the small child was conflicted with his anti-Castro mother, and his pro-Castro father, saying that while he was mostly happy with the fact he was with his mother, he didn't know which side to pick. Robert assured him that, while his relatives back in Cuba were probably good and well-meaning people, said that they should let him look at both sides and chose his own path, instead of teaching him to go down a certain road. Elián took these words to heart, remembering them well into his later life.

That was when the immigration officers came, they would be relocating all the refugees to a nearby shelter for temporary housing until they could find them new homes or send them to relatives.

As the refugees were preparing their belongings and luggage to get on the bus that would take them to the shelter, Robert's friend Shelly Gallewick would come in with a camera, asking if everybody would like a group photo, to which everybody, including the other employees, agreed to do. The all began to huddle up, some making poses like squats or v-signs, Robert crouched next to Elián with his hand on his shoulder, while another employee stood next to his mother, with nearly everyone having a smile on their faces.

As the camera snapped, Thompson whispered one last thing into González's ear before they would leave to find a new home in the Land of the Free.

"Welcome to America, González."

 

[TheDetailer]

(A/N: Here is a new kind of chapter that I'm introducing to the timeline, in which this will be written at the conclusion of every year. It might be a bit rough for the first one though. Criticisms and Suggestions are welcome!)

1999: The Year in Review

Movies

Most Notable Films

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

The Matrix

Fight Club

American Beauty

The Blair Witch Project

Toy Story 2

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut

Tarzan​

The Sixth Sense

The Iron Giant

The Mummy

Notting Hill

The World Is Not Enough

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Magnolia

Stuart Little

Being John Malkovich

She's All That

Office Space

Sleepy Hollow

8mm

The 13th Warrior

Audition

Fantasia 2000

Forces of Nature

Friends & Lovers

Baby Geniuses

The Green Mile

10 Things I Hate About You

The King and I

Big Daddy

Deep Blue Sea

American Pie

Eyes Wide Shut
Events in Movies​

March 7th: Legendary film director Stanley Kubrick dies in his sleep at the age of 70, not long after showing his cut of his last film Eyes Wide Shut to Warner Bros. His films, known for their surrealism, dark humor, and masterful storytelling, are celebrated by future generations as classics.

Rest in Peace
Stanley Kubrick
(July 26th, 1928 – March 7th, 1999)​

July 16th: The Phantom Menace is released in theatres Worldwide, becoming the first in a series of prequels.

October 22nd: Walt Disney's Tarzan is released throughout theatres worldwide, marking the end of the 90s Disney Renaissance.

November 5th: M. Night Shyamalan has his career revived with the release of his supernatural horror film The Sixth Sense.

Columbia Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer both celebrate their 75th anniversaries.

71st Academy Awards

Shakespeare in Love for Best Picture

Television

Newest Shows

The Sopranos

The West Wing

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit

Freaks and Geeks​

Spongebob Squarepants

Family Guy

Ed Edd n Eddy

Events in Television​

January 31st: Seth's McFarlane's new adult cartoon Family Guy debuts on the FOX Network.

February 20th: Famous film critic Gene Siskel narrowly survives his brain surgery, after numerous complications involving his surgery crew. He would soon make a full recovery and return to host the television show At The Movies alongside his friend Roger Ebert.

March 21st: Andy Dick is arrested in Las Vegas for escorting fugitive David Strickland, who was supposed to turn up at court the previous day. After Dick was apprehended, Strickland locked himself in a hotel closet, where he tried but failed to commit suicide, he would later try to jump from the window, but ultimately failed to do so and gave himself up.

May 1st: One of the most famous, if not the most famous kid's cartoon of all time premieres on Nickelodeon; Stephen Hillenburg's Spongebob Squarepants.

May 12th: Media executive Garth Ancier, while rushing to work, gets involved in a car accident that severely injures him and puts him in a two-month coma. This results in Jeff Zucker being chosen as the new successor of NBC Entertainment's President instead of Ancier.

September 25th: Freaks and Geeks, a teen comedy-drama, debuts on NBC, quickly becoming one of the network's highest viewed and critically-successful shows.

October 13th: The Day Television Died begins after British 70s star Gary Glitter begins revealing that several other stars within the Entertainment Industry are sexual predators and abusers. Among those name-dropped are Max Clifford, Jimmy Savile, and Rolf Harris.

November 19th: John Carpenter becomes the first player on ABC's game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? to win $1,000,000.

Music​

Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100 Singles of 1999 (Top Ten)
​

Britney Spears - Baby One More Time

Ricky Martin - Livin' La Vida Loca

Lou Bega - Mambo No 5 (A Little Bit of ...)

Rob Thomas & Santana - Smooth

TLC - No Scrubs

Eiffel 65 - Blue (Da Ba Dee)

The Backstreet Boys - I Want it That Way

Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle

Jennifer Lopez - If You Had My Love

Offspring - Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)​

Events in Music​

January 12th: Britney Spears releases her debut album, "...Baby One More Time", which peaks at number one on the Billboard 200 and sells 121,000 copies in its first week. Over 10 million copies of ...Baby One More Time were sold in the United States during 1999 alone.

February 14th: Elton John appears as himself in a special episode of the animated series The Simpsons

February 15th: "Rolling Stones Day" is declared in Minnesota by Governor (and former Rolling Stones bodyguard) Jesse Ventura

February 24th: American Soul/Neo-Soul/Hip-Hop Lauryn Hill makes history at the 1999 Grammy Awards by being the first female artist to win five Grammys in one night.

March 17th: Japanese recording artist Namie Amuro is forced to fly back over to her hometown of Naha, Japan when her mother and father are nearly murdered by an in-law in a hit and run.

June 1st: Peer-to-peer file sharing network Napster is launched.

July 3rd: Indie rock icon Mark Sandman collapses on stage at the Giardini del Principe in Palestrina, Latium, Italy (near Rome) while performing with Morphine. He is soon pronounced dead of a heart attack at the age of 46. Morphine immediately disbands.

Rest in Peace
Mark Sandman
September 24th, 1954-July 3rd, 1999​

July 23rd-25th: Woodstock 99' takes place during this brief timeframe, Approximately 400,000 people attended the festival. Cable network MTV covered the concert extensively and live coverage of the entire weekend was available on pay-per-view. Unlike the previous four incarnations of Woodstock, Woodstock '99 was portrayed by the media as being marred by violence, rape, and fires.

August 14-15th: The Artist Formerly Known as Prince holds a weekend yard sale at his Paisley Park Studios, with part of the proceeds going to benefit underprivileged youth.

August 27–29th: The third Terrastock festival is held in London, starring Bardo Pond, Man, Green Pajamas, Lucky Bishops, Windy and Carl, and many others.

August 31st: Megadeth release their eighth studio album titled Risk.

September 17th: Rapper Eminem is sued by his mother for $10 million, claiming that public comments he made about her were slanderous and had caused emotional stress and financial harm. She eventually collects a mere $1,600 settlement in 2001.

September 21st: David Bowie releases his twenty-first studio album Hours, which becomes the first complete album by a major artist legally available to download over the Internet, preceding the physical release by two weeks.

October 13th: 1970s rock star Gary Glitter is convicted for downloading child pornography off the Internet. This starts off what will be known as "The Day Television Died", where fellow British celebrities like Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris are investigated of similar crimes.

November 5th: Australian independent record label Liberation Music is formed.

• Gary Cherone leaves Van Halen.

November 15th: Korn performs their entire album Issues at the Apollo Theater in New York City, becoming the first rock band ever to perform at the Apollo.

November 16th: Korn's fourth studio album, Issues, debuts at number 1 on the Billboard 200 with 575,000 copies being sold in the first week alone.

November 23rd: University of Oregon student Jeffrey Levy, having downloaded MP3s without permission, is the first person ever convicted for copyright infringement under the NET Act of 1997. He is sentenced to two years of probation and a limit on Internet access.

December 4th: The Spice Girls start their Christmas Tour around the UK, dubbed as the Christmas in Spiceworld Tour.

December 27th: Puff Daddy and fellow rapper Shyne are arrested for weapons violations and other charges after a shooting in a Manhattan nightclub that leaves three people injured.

December 30th: An intruder attempting to break into the Friar Park home of George Harrison and his wife Olivia is caught and apprehended by security.

December 31st: Many special New Year's Eve concerts are held around the world to celebrate the arrival of the year 2000. Big shows include Barbra Streisand at The MGM Grand Las Vegas, The Eagles at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, and Metallica with Kid Rock and Ted Nugent playing for 54,000 the Pontiac Silverdome. The biggest concert on Earth that night is by Phish, however, playing for 75,000 people at the Big Cypress Indian Reservation in Florida.

Debuts This Year

Britney Spears
...Baby One More Time

S Club 7
S Club

Ayumi Hamasaki
A Song for ××

Jenifer Lopez
On The 6

Slipknot
Slipknot

The White Stripes
The White Stripes

Christina Aguilera
Christina Aguilera

Sufjan Stevens
A Sun Came

Peter Bjorn and John
Peter Bjorn and John

Video Games​

Popular Games Released This Year​

Mario Party

Soulcalibur​

Quake III Arena​

Final Fantasy VIII​

Unreal Tournament

Crash Team Racing​

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

Everquest

Silent Hill

Super Smash Bros.

Medal of Honor

Half-Life: Opposing Force

Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation

Grand Theft Auto 2

RollerCoaster Tycoon

Counter-Strike Shenmue

Consoles Released This Year

PlayStation

Nintendo 64

Game Boy Color

Dreamcast

Events in Video Games​

March: Game Over republished as "Game Over: Press Start to Continue".

March 15th: Game Network hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival (IGF) at GDC.

March 15–19th: Game Developers Conference (formerly Computer Game Developers Conference); moves to San Jose, California where it stays for six consecutive years; hosts the 1st annual Independent Games Festival.

May: Nintendo has started working on what will eventually be the GameCube, under the codename "Project Dolphin".

May 13th: Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences hosts 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards (at E3); inducts Sid Meier of Firaxis Games to the AIAS Hall of Fame.

May 13–15: 5th annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3); the 2nd annual Game Critics Awards for the Best of E3.

July 3rd: Team Fortress 2, a military shooter, is announced by Valve for release during the year, but it would go through development hell, being delayed until 2007, eight years later.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts hosted the 2nd annual BAFTA Interactive Entertainment Awards.

Sound: Grand Theft Auto: London 1969

Computer Programming: Aliens versus Predator

Design: Wip3out

Games: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Sports​

January 11th: Marty Schottenheimer resigns as head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs.

January 13th: Basketball superstar Michael Jordan announces his second retirement just prior to start of lockout-shortened 1998-99 NBA season; returns in 2001 with Washington.

January 17th: AFC Championship, Mile High Stadium, Denver: Denver Broncos beat New York Jets, 23-10; features infamous "The Miss", Vikings' PK Gary Anderson misses field goal late 4th quarter NFL All-Star Game.

January 24th: 49th NHL All-Star Game, Ice Palace, Tampa, FL: North America beats World, 8-6; MVP: Wayne Gretzky, NY Rangers, C Jan 30 Australian Open Women's Tennis: Martina Hingis of Switzerland wins her 3rd consecutive Australian title; beats unseeded Amélie Mauresmo 6-2, 6-3.

February 15th: 7th ESPY Awards: Mark McGwire, Chamique Holdsclaw win.

February 16th: O.J. Simpson's 1968 Heisman Trophy is sold for $230,000 to help settle a $33.5 million civil judgement against Simpson for the deaths of his ex-wife and her friend.

March 28th: Nabisco Championship Women's Golf, Mission Hills CC: 1992 champion Dottie Pepper wins the last of her 2 major titles, 6 strokes ahead of runner-up Meg Mallon.

March 28th: WrestleMania XV, First Union Center, Philadelphia, PA: 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin beats The Rock in no disqualification match for the WWF Heavyweight title.

April 11th: 63rd US Masters Tournament, Augusta National GC: José María Olazábal of Spain wins his second Masters title, 2 strokes ahead of Davis Love III and 3 from of Greg Norman.

June 5th: French Open Women's Tennis: Steffi Graf of Germany wins her 22nd and final Grand Slam title; beats Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-5, 6-2; Graf's 6th French singles crown.

June 6th: French Open Men's Tennis: Andre Agassi wins his 1st and only French title; beats Andrei Medvedev of the Ukraine 1-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4.

June 19th: Stanley Cup, Marine Midland Arena, Buffalo, NY: Dallas Stars edge Buffalo Sabres, 2-1 in triple overtime for 4-2 series win; Brett Hull clinches series with infamous "No Goal" ruling.

July 4: Wimbledon Men's Tennis: In an all-American final, Pete Sampras beats Andre Agassi 6-3, 6-4, 7-5 for his third straight Wimbledon title.

July 25th: 86th Tour de France: Lance Armstrong wins 1st of 7 consecutive Tour de France titles.

July 27th: Tony Hawk is the first skateboarder to land a "900."

August 1st: Canadian Open Golf (du Maurier Classic), Priddis Greens GC: Australian Karrie Webb wins by 2 from Laura Davies of England.

August 15th: PGA Championship, Medinah CC: Tiger Woods wins by 1 stroke from Spaniard Sergio Garcia.

August 31st: Dino Ciccarelli retires from the NHL.

September 1st: Ex-Pittsburgh Penguins star Mario Lemieux is approved as new owner of the struggling franchise; Penguins become first club in pro sports history to be owned by a former member of the team.

September 11th: US Open Women's Tennis: Serena Williams wins her first Grand Slam title; beats World #1 Martina Hingis 6-3, 7-6.

October 2nd: Boston's Ray Bourque becomes highest goal-scoring defenseman in NHL history; 386th career goal in Bruins' 3-1 win v Carolina Hurricanes moves him 1 ahead of Paul Coffey.

October 12th: Pat LaFontaine formally retires from the NHL due to lingering concussion problems.

October 22nd: NHL goaltender Grant Fuhr wins his 400th career game (vs Florida Panthers).

November 3rd: Los Angeles Lakers debut in the STAPLES Center, with 103-88 win v Vancouver Grizzlies; Magic Johnson & Chick Hearn co-host ceremony unveiling Lakers' retired jerseys & championship banners in new building.

November 26th: Steve Yzerman scores his 600th career goal.

December 27th: Joe Sakic records his 1,000th career point, an assist against the St. Louis Blues.

Internet

Events on the Internet
​

February 5th: The Victoria's Secret fashion show becomes the first major webcast on the Internet by attracting over 1.5 million visitors.

March 16th: EverQuest is released in North America.

March 23rd: Mellisa, a mass-mailing macro virus created by David Smith of New Jersey, is released onto Microsoft Word and begins to infect email servers across the World. It would go on it cause 80 million dollars of damage.

June 1st: Napster, a music-sharing website, is launched.​

June 16th: Metacritic, a review aggregator website, is launched.
​

August 23rd: The newly created company Pyra Labs launches a new website named Blogger.
​

December 7th: The Recording Industry Association of America sues the online peer-to-peer file sharing service Napster.

Both Classic Mac OS/ macOS and Windows 98 Second Edition are released.​

Books and Comics

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

The Gruffalo

The Bad Begging

Girl With A Pearl Earring

A Walk to Remember

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Anime and Manga

Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade

The Old Man at Sea

One Piece

Battle Royale

Uzumaki

Other​

The euro is established.

U.S. President Bill Clinton is acquitted in impeachment proceedings in the United States Senate.

Serbs accelerate ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians leading to a NATO bombing attack

New multi-party assembly in Northern Ireland meets restoring self-rule after 22 years

The human population of the world surpasses six billion.

The World Trade Organisation rules in favor of the United States in its long-running trade dispute with the European Union over bananas.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia indicts Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.
​

Time's Person of the Year
Jeff Bezos
Founder and CEO of Amazon.com.​

 

[TheDetailer]

December 31st, 1999
Los Angeles, California

"5!

4!

3!

2!

1!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!"

Phil Hartman, his kids, and friends celebrated the scene of fireworks heading up into the air and exploding into blasts of multi-colored light amongst the Los Angeles night sky. It was probably one of the most beautiful things Hartman had seen in his life, thinking of the possibilities that the New Millenium would bring him and his family. He was still acting in Newsradio and voicing in the Simpsons, he had accepted to do a sequel to Blasto, and that the script for Troy McClure had just started being written. And to think all of these opportunities would have been taken away just over a year ago thanks to his late wife’s addiction.

Phil’s son, Sean, came up to him and asked “Dad? Are you okay?”

Phil, realizing he was shedding a tear, quickly wiped it away and said: “Oh, I’m fine Sean." Thinking of activity for him and his son to do to get his mind off his thoughts, he then asked "Hey! Do you want to grab a Hotdog and head to the local pond?”

“Sure, Dad!” The two then began making their way to the hotdog stand, being the first thing they decided to do in this new millennium.

Meanwhile, all across the World, many were experiencing similar joys, as parties and raves were being held in almost all major cities, as people witnessed the shift from the 2nd millennium to the 3rd. Despite the alteration between this world and ours has only started recently, that was only the begging of what was about to come, as there were many new and interesting things that were just yet to come...

Begging of Act II
THE 2000s​

 

[TheDetailer]

January 7th, 2000
Los Angeles, California

“And that will be our class for today, thank you all for coming.”

David Strickland stood up, shook the hands of a few of his fellow recoverers, and walked out of the meeting room door and out into the hallway out to his car. It had now been 9 months since that detective convinced him to not take his life and to get the help he was given, and to be honest, he feeling alot better than he did back in 1998, it felt like he was both appreciating the life he had in his hands now more than ever before, along with the feeling that he was more loved by his family and friends as well. While the avoiding of the paparazzi as much as possible, the divorce that followed his stunt, and the following moments of depression that nagged him were hard. Before that, it was like he was blind to it all until he looked away from his pursuits for just a moment.

One thing that Strickland would never have thought when he decided not to jump from that ledge in Las Vegas, was simply how many people cared. Sure it was public, but he would of thought that people would have moved on by now. But apparently not, even in this New Millennium people still talked about that incident, many were now comparing it to other notable events in the 90s, like the Clinton Sex Scandal or Columbine, which Strickland personally thought was quite a stretch, but according to everybody else, apparently not.

What was even more moving for Strickland, Hell, it was even said Mary Bergman, that famous voice actress in numerous roles in television and films like South Park, had apparently been so fixated on the event that it forced her to come out to her husband about her suicidal and anxious thoughts, he might have passed it off, but he felt a great deal when he realized that he might just have saved that woman’s life. And then some more, as he might have just saved who knows what many more.


But that wasn’t all, however, a few days ago, he received a letter from a Dana Plato, he didn’t recognize her at first, but later realized that she was that girl from Different Strokes, who had also gotten into a controversy some time ago due to robbing a convenience store. She, not being as well known as other actresses, was having a very private rehabilitation, but regardless, wanted to inform him that she was personally thankful towards him for ‘helping her see the true craziness of Hollywood stardom’, and that she was mailing him because of that. As she personally put it “Seeing you dangling out of that window woke me the hell up.”

David could only really wonder what effect his actions could truly have on the World when people he had never met in person, spoke to, or even knew existed were making choices based on what he did. He had thought that he was just a small time actor that came in, did their best, fail, ends it, and fades away, but then again, you don’t just threaten public suicide in Vegas and don’t get noticed, do you?

Strickland climbed into his car and started to turn on the ignition, as he thought about another thing Plato had told him in her letter. One of the activities she did to distract herself from the struggles of life was to write, she didn’t write about anything in particular, but just to take notes about stuff on her mind, what ideas or creations that were in her imagination. Sometimes even write a short story or two. It was said to be relaxing for her. Strickland thought about it some more, and while he preferred to be a more 'visual' person due to his talent as an actor, decided that tonight, he would take a shot at trying it.

“It couldn’t hurt to try…”

Strickland then reached his small house, headed inside, and closed the door behind him. Glad to be away from the prying eyes of the big city.

 

[TheDetailer]

January 25th, 2000
Los Angeles, California

Keanu Reeves looked into the eyes of his newborn daughter, her eyes dark brown like his, her mouth closed but clearly showing a little smile. He was sitting in the same room that his girlfriend, Jennifer Syne, had given birth to their baby girl, as she lay in the hospital bed and looked at her daughter as she was being held in the arms of her husband.

"What are we going to name her?" she asked.

Reeves thought about it for a few seconds, for a moment, he thought about something different for her, but then decided that their original name for he would be a good one. He smiled as he looked once again into her eyes.

"Ava. That's what we'll name her."

And so, the life of Ava Archer Syme-Reeves, had begun.

 

[TheDetailer]

James Albert Varney Jr., the actor famous for portraying the crazy Ernest P. Worrell in both commercials and films, and Slinky Dog in the Toy Story films. Was announced to have died from his complications of Lung Cancer inside his home in White House, Tennessee. He was just 50 years old.

Varney first got diagnosed after he kept coughing up blood on set of Treehouse Hostage, where he first found out that he had Lung Cancer. He then began to live his life without his cigarettes, throwing them away and staying smoke-free until his death. Despite his condition becoming worse over the following months, he continued to star in movies various movies. Atlantis: The Lost Kingdom would be his final film role, with the film being dedicated to his memory.

Rest In Peace
James Albert Varney Jr.
(June 15, 1949 – February 10, 2000)​

 

[TheDetailer]

February 12th, 2000 would be marked as a sad day for Peanuts fans everywhere, as its creator Charles M. Schulz, died from his cancer at the age of 77. His final comic strip, addressing his readers on how he was grateful to have written his comics for them for so long, was published a day later on the 13th. Schulz had written, animated, and drawn Peanuts for nearly 50 years begging on October 2nd, 1950 and going on all the way to February 12th, 2000.

His comics will continue to live on forever.

Rest in Peace
Charles Monroe Schulz
(26 November 1922- 12 February 2000)​

 

[TheDetailer]

On the morning of March 4th, all across the State of Japan, Sony would unveil its newest gaming console; the PlayStation 2. Offering backward compatibility for its predecessor's DualShock controller, as well as its games. The PS2 surpasses its predecessors' abilities and capabilities, including audio, video, lighting, texture mapping, artificial intelligence, and game physics. Many popular games were set to be playable on the PlayStation 2, both at launch, and into the future.

Japan would become the first in the World to afford the PlayStation2, with the console selling fast on store shelves by people of all backgrounds and interests. But soon enough, the console is set to release in North America on October 26, 2000, and in Europe and Australia in November 2000. Going on to become the most successful gaming console of all time in the number of units sold across the World, remaining popular well into the seventh generation.

 

[TheDetailer]

On May 5th, 2000, in the Pandacan neighborhood in the city of Manila, two young hackers by the names Reonel Ramones and Onel de Guzman released a virus disguised as an email message upon the internet that would shake the early internet to its core. Named 'ILOVEYOU', it was made to look like a seemingly normal email, with the with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and the attachment "LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.txt.vbs". The latter file extension ('vbs', a type of interpreted file) was most often hidden by default on Windows computers of the time (as it is an extension for a file type that is known by Windows), leading unwitting users to think it was a normal text file. Opening the attachment activated the Visual Basic script. The worm inflicts damage on the local machine, overwriting random types of files, and sends a copy of itself to all addresses in the Windows Address Book used by Microsoft Outlook. This made it spread much faster than any other previous email worm that came before it.

By the end of the year, millions of computer users across the world would have their computers bricked from receiving and opening the infected email message causing millions to billions of dollars of damage worldwide. To protect themselves, The Pentagon, CIA, the British Parliament and most large corporations decided to completely shut down their mail systems. Ramones and Guzman would be eventually be arrested, later being released with all charges dropped by state prosecutors.

Source: Wikipedia

 

[TheDetailer]

On May 7th, 2000, former Director of the Federal Security Service and KGB Foreign Intelligence Officer Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin would be inaugurated as the second president of Russia, succeeding Boris Yeltsin. Putin's leadership will eventually grow onto to become one of the most controversial in history, leading Russia down onto a path of ups and downs.

 

[TheDetailer]

Let's have a little look at American Television around this time, shall we?

The Simpsons: With no Hartman murder ITTL, his characters were never retired after Bart the Mother (52 episodes in total IOTL), this leads to more appearances of Troy McClure and Lionel Hutz, with the characters getting more character development as a result of their continued use, with both characters having their past lives explored more in future episodes. Although most are expressed through short but quirky off-hand comments, there are moments where they expand upon them more.

However, despite the continued presence of one of the show's most beloved voice stars, just like in OTL, cracks are slowly begging to show post-Season Ten. With the absence of two of the show's most talented writers, Bill Oakley & Josh Weinstein, continued celebrity cameos for their namesake, and the infamous legacy of Principal and the Pauper still leaving fans mad, it seems that the Simpsons is slowly losing its touch year by year. Groening himself is starting to consider what to do when the show will finally come to an end, but if FOX and the large audience the show has had anything to say about it, they'd say that it would be best to ride that train into the sunset. Only time will tell which head will prevail.

Freaks and Geeks: With no Garth Ancier at the helm of NBC during 1999, the show is never canceled after 18 episodes, neither is it put on erratic scheduling. Praised for its acting, storytelling, and 'realism' by critics and fans alike, Freaks and Geeks concluded its second season like IOTL with 'Discos and Dragons' on July 8th, 2000. With the show preparing its second season to begin airing on March 8th, 2001, many fans are excited to see where Lindsay and Milly are doing with the Dead, or how Daniel furthers his relationship with the Dungeons and Dragons club, or how Neal with deal with his parents' divorce, Etc, Etc. The show's writers also prepare to start writing about some more 'serious' topics in Season 2 and beyond, such as Politics, Discrimination, and Sexuality, which were relevant to the times the show takes place during (the 80s).

While some people from OTL would argue that the fact that show was canceled at all was what helped give it that magic of having a loving following, that doesn't stop from the show ITTL getting an equally, if not larger one. With a TV poll ranking the show as being #15 in the Top 100 Best TV Shows as of 2000. Freaks and Geeks, however, is yet to make a noticeable impact on the Intenet, although the later seasons would start being watched by Generation Z, and some memes would come around from it.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Starring Seinfeld star Larry David as himself, the show revolves around his 'extremely fictionalized' life. Originally based around a one time project called Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm which aired on October 17th, 1999, it was eventually turned into a full series, premiering nearly a full year later on October 15th, 2000. The series mostly follows the interactions between David and his friends and acquaintances, often at odds with one another, mostly ending at David's expense. Despite this, no hard feelings are seemingly shared with the characters.

Curb Your Enthusiasm will eventually become one of the most critically acclaimed shows of the 2000s, gathering a large number of fans and awards, with its particular theme tune becoming an internet meme.

Newsradio: Much like the Simpsons, Newsradio saw significant changes without the retirement of Hartman's character. With Season Five being just like the last seasons, funny shenanigans going on inside the WNYX station, with the occasional outlandish 'What-If?' episode, like the Space and Titanic episodes from before. Matthew's retirement in Episode 94 and beyond due to Dick's controversy involving the situation around him and Strickland would cause a few hiccups for the writers, but eventually, the show would move on without him, to some fan's disappointment, while it being to others' relief.

After a successful Season Five, the show premiered its Sixth Season on September 21st, 1999, and concluded on June 13th, 2000. The seventh season is expected to begin airing sometime in early 2001.

South Park: South Park post-1999 would begin with the temporary retirement of voice actress Mary Kay Bergman, as she had been forced to go to rehabilitation by her husband due to her recent breakdown in their car. This shocked Trey, Matt, and the rest of the cast, not to mention all of her other coworkers on other shows and projects, as she seemed to be quite the happy-go-lucky girl for most of the time they knew her. She would eventually return at the begging of Season 5 in 2001.

Notable episodes include released during this year include "Timmy 2000", where Timmy is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder, triggering a wave of prescription drug abuse at South Park Elementary. "The Wacky Molestation Adventure" in which all of the kids begin to falsely accuse their parents and other adults of molesting them in order to get rid of authority within the town, "Rosie O'Donnell Eats Children"[1], where a family of quintuplets move to South Park and becoming a media frenzy due to Rosie O'Donnell promoting them. And Cartman Joins NAMBLA, in which the self-describing episode would be banned in Britain due to the ongoing 'Pedo-Scare' at the time, not being unbanned atleast on DVDs until 2012.

Spongebob Squarepants: Stephen Hillenburg's new show is already drawing attention and becoming Nickelodeon's newest hit show, passing the torch from Rugrats. Spongebob and the other characters on the show will quickly become icons within the world of Popular Culture, and episodes such as Rock Bottom and Christmas Who? becoming classics amongst fans.

On the road to being declared the best kids show of all time by many people, Hillenburg isn't exactly sure what to do with his newfound masterpiece. So far, he plans to end it all with one big movie, but Nickelodeon won't exactly stand for that if he decides to end this cash cow early on. But like with Groening and the Simpsons, only time will tell.

At the Movies: Ebert and Siskel are continuing to praise and smash the movies that Hollywood and whoever else is putting out in the Turn of the Millenium and show no signs of stopping, Ebert has begun to show small signs of Typhoid Cancer, but the doctors say that with enough medicine, they could potentially get rid of it, although they are still uncertain about it.

The movies that Ebert and Siskel have reviewed in 2000 include Gladiator (Both Two Thumbs Way Up), American Psycho (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Down), Memento (Both Thumbs Up), Requiem for a Dream (Both Thumbs Way Up), Cast Away (Both Thumbs Up), X-Men (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Up), Scary Movie (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Way Up), Battlefield Earth (Both Thumbs Way Down)[2], Unbreakable (Both Thumbs Up), Titan A.E (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Down), The Emperor's New Groove (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Up), The Grinch (Both Thumbs Down), O Brother Where Art Thou? (Both Thumbs Down), Final Destination (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Down), and The Road to El Dorado (Siskel Thumbs Down, Ebert Thumbs Down).

Hi! I'm Troy McClure! And you might remember me from such memorable nature instruction films such as Bobby's First Shot and Poison Ivy: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing! And I'm here to teach you the beauties of Summer Camp!

- Troy McClure from the Simpsons episode, "Last Tap Dance in Springfield", which aired on May 7th, 2000

Shut up! I'm trying to get pregnant!

- Carol McCormick from the episode "Rosie O'Donnell Eats Children", which aired on April 26th, 2000

Siskel: I honestly think that this film has made me started to appreciate Black Sheep! Atleast that film tried to be a film, albeit very poorly.

Ebert: You're kidding me on, right?

Siskel: Does this look like a kidding-me-on face?

- From the episode of At The Movies in which Siskel and Ebert review Battlefield Earth, which aired on May 13th, 2000

Hell Yeah!

- Bill Haverchuck, from an advert promoting Season 2 of Freaks and Geeks, which began showing around December 2000, the clip would later appear in Season 2 Premiere entitled "The Hangover"

[1] Known in OTL as "Quintuplets 2000", ITTL the Elan Gonzalez Incident never occurs, never causing Parker and Stone to rework the episode's plot to include elements and references to the controversy.
[2] This is the first movie that made both critics have to leave the theatre. Both, predictably, put it on their lists of the 'worst films they had ever seen.'

 

[TheDetailer]

June 5th, 2000 would see a landmark be made on the digital web in the form of a three-minute short film simply entitled as '405'. It follows the events that unfold when the driver of a Jeep Grand Cherokee suddenly finds himself in a world of danger as he realizes that his side of Highway I-405 is empty for a reason...

The short film would quickly become spread across the internet through email and video-sharing websites, particularly for its plot. But it would also become a first on the internet, being the first short widely distributed on the internet. Being watched by millions of people over the span of a few years and appearing across many famous film-related publications. Revolutionizing the way people shared and spread content on the web.

The film remains completely the same as IOTL.

 

[TheDetailer]

Hello readers. I just wanted to make a post on this thread due to the inactivity for the past 2 months.

I know all of you are wondering where the next update is and when is it coming out, and the answer to both of those questions is...I don't know. I did write up abit for what would have been the next chapter, but I procrastinated too much, and I ended up losing that progress when me computer restarted without my permission.

Now, I'm kinda stuck. I have lost quite a bit of motivation from not writing on this thread for so long, and I underestimated just how much I didn't research or truly understand the coming years I would have to write about. Not that I didn't at all, but there were a few blind spots in certain areas, i.e Sports, Anime/Manga, TV, etc.

So you've probablly have a few questions, to which I have some answers...

Is this canceled?

Nope. I still have hopes to continue this timeline, but due to me having to step back and reconsider how exactly I'm going to plan out this timeline, along with having to do research and focusing on other projects on both AH.com and offline, I'm officially putting this timeline on hiatus.

*sounds of audience disappointment*

Will it return? Hopefully, but in what form? A continuation? A reboot? A new timeline with a new PoD? I'm unsure, and thats not really too uplifting.

If you do decide to continue this timeline, what changes would be made?

Again, I'm unsure, but a change in format would definitely be one. I at first tried to go for a more Blue Skies in Camelot feel to it, but now I'm considering to switching to a mix between a Tzedek, Tzedek, Tirdof and PTS/MM way of formating my chapters and updates from now on. Although I would still like to write my Year in Review chapters in the style of BSiC's Pop Culture updates, but considerably shorter.

What are your future plans for this timeline?

For obvious reasons, I don't want to give away spoilers for the future events of this timeline, if I ever manage to get back to making it. But I think there's something that has become pretty obvious to some of the readers of this timeline since the Gonzalez update, especially to one @Kaiser Julius. So I will come out and say it; Al Gore does win in 2000. Yes, its bit of a bummer that I came out and said it like this, but I think it was pretty predictable at this point. But other than that, I don't really plan to reveal anything else, although I shall give some vague notes for those who are particularly curious on what I would like to focus on.

• Phil Hartman, of course.

• The Al Gore Administration and its policies and actions in the New Millenium. And the presidents who succeed his rule.

• International politics, relations, and culture outside the Anglosphere, especially in nations like Russia and Japan.

• Television, cartoons would probably a big interest for me to cover.

• The Internet and its culture is definitely something I really wish to focus on if I were to recontinue this timeline. Youtube would probably be the biggest focus on my Internet updates since there would be so many personalities there to document, whenever they go down the same paths, go down different ones, or never rise to prominence at all. Webcomics and Webtoons would also be a big focus for me, along with a certain forum board centering around alternate timelines...

• There would be alot of musicians and bands I would love to document in my timeline. Alot of hidden gems and underrated masterpieces who I think could get into the spotlight.

For those who have enjoyed reading this timeline, I'm really sorry for the inactivity and lack of progress, but I hope someday to recontinue this and provide you with new, interesting stories.

Sincerely, TheDetailer.

 

[TheDetailer]

While I don't want to hype anything just yet, as I fear I might end up disappointing people, I can confirm that I am writing up several documents fleshing out and detailing heh) a possible reboot of the story, along with researching stuff online. While I am still not too into stuff related to certain mediums like anime and sports, I have discovered alot since the last update I posted, and have a whole bunch of new ideas and plans for any continuation in the future.

(I just discovered that display feature today.)

Alongside the uncertainty, if I will ever manage to get this back on track, I will also confirm that there will be some retcons on the very early chapters, as I wish to redo, rewrite, and add onto them. While I won't change everything about the first couple of chapters (1998-1999), I will say that there will be significant differences. I have also found myself checking out and reading some of the other pop culture related timelines, mostly in order to find inspiration and to enjoy experiencing other authors' creativity in writing alternate pieces of fiction. These include RySenkari's SNES-CD Trilogy and CountDVB's A Gore Prosperous Tomorrow, both of which I recommend.

I have found myself being quite inspired and excited by some of what these writers have come up with, and while I don't like saying this in fear of coming off the wrong way, I have usually found myself thinking that I might include something similar in my story. I say this because I feel like the more I find stuff from other TLs and other AH works, the more I feel like I may come off as unoriginal and relying more on ideas executed by other people, which may also come with accusations of copycating or (more seriously) plargarism. Don't get me wrong, I do have plenty of my own ideas, which I won't spoil or hint here, for the story that I don't think have been done anywhere elsewhere, but I just wish to get this out there, as I find myself thinking abput this while scrolling through my favourite pop culture TLs, and genuinely hope the timeline will produce its own uniqueness and ideas without being seen as a mishmash of several other (better) timelines into one. I think this is why I put this in the OP.

So basically, if there are elements ITTL that may be based on/feel similar to something from another TL, I will credit them. No plagiarism allowed here.

But yeah, that's pretty much it, for now. I hope to see this project come back to life sometime in the future, and I hope y'all can come join me again when that time comes, and give this 'alternate popular culture timeline' thing another shot.

- TheDetailer