# Huge successes then, completely forgotten now **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 5, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315 "2010-08-05T19:32:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/101 "2010-08-06T18:32:36Z")
> [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](#): > > What about the Fairlight Synthesizer? I remember how it was hailed as being the instrument that would change modern music forever and take over the world, but the company went out of business only a few years after it debuted. It did. Kate Bush and Peter Gabriel used it to change the way rock music was made, and it remained Kate’s main compositional tool for years after (she used the “Page R” part as her drum machine). A revived version of the company is still around and making studio gear, just no longer making instruments. The capabilities of the Fairlight CMI are in every keyboard that can play samples and every single computer sold today. My nominee is Dave Stamper. I’ve been building his[Wikipedia page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Stamper). He wrote more than a thousand songs and had multiple shows on Broadway at the same time. He wrote for twenty-one editions of the Ziegfeld Follies. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/102 "2010-08-06T18:42:50Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > They’re all starring in **The Expendables** , which starts August 13. I can’t wait. > > See also… **Machete** , starring Danny “They fucked with the wrong Mexican” Trejo. Agreed, but we’re only seeing nostalgic homages and sendups of the genre. Back then, when Dirty Harry threatened you to make his day, you did _not_ grin and high-five your buddy, 'cause Harry would shoot you for that! ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/103 "2010-08-06T19:08:07Z")
Paul Hogan ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/104 "2010-08-06T19:43:27Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > John Hughes and his coming of age 1980’s angst movies. > All those brat pack actors that starred in those films. > > Pretty much forgotten along with big hair rock and other 80’s stuff. Say what? There’s a ton of nostalgia for that stuff these days. You all are right about _ET_, though. That film was astonishingly popular, but gets namechecked very little these days. That, and folks my age don’t show it to their own kids. My folks made sure I saw \*Mary Poppins \*and \*Snow White \*, and those still both sell well. For whatever reason, \*ET \*just didn’t have that timeless thing going on. ---
**Author:** ![Liddle\_Lamsy\_Divey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Liddle\_Lamsy\_Divey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liddle_Lamsy_Divey)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/105 "2010-08-06T21:08:28Z")
Alanis Morissette MC Hammer _The Bridges of Madison County_ Prime-time soaps Do fads count? If so, then Beanie Babies ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/106 "2010-08-06T21:26:31Z")
Something that has plummeted fairly quickly from massively-quoted-and-loved pop culture phenomenon to never-ever-mentioned is the **Austin Powers** series. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/107 "2010-08-06T23:30:17Z")
> [@Springtime\_for\_Spacers](#): > > > [@Sampiro](#): > > > > You can still find _The Good Earth_ in most bookstores, but that’s it, and most people aren’t even aware TGE is part one of a trilogy as you never see the sequels in bookstores. > > Aah, being in the UK I thought she had disappeared completely. Though here in the UK is surely precisely where Pearl S. Buck is currently going through the once-in-a-generation temporary blip/re-assessment in reputation, courtesy of the new Hilary Spurling biography of her. Duly reviewed in all the broadsheets earlier this year, etc. I even saw a London bookshop do a special in-store display of about a dozen of her titles in the last couple of months. Granted it was a branch of [Daunt’s](http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/) and most of them were imports, though offhand I believe _The Good Earth_ is still in print here (Penguin Modern Classics?). ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/108 "2010-08-07T00:16:55Z")
> [@Morbo](#): > > > [@RealityChuck](#): > > > > The Band was one of the top five rock groups of the early 70s, but other than “The Weight,” no one knows their music. > > Don’t mean to be that guy, but I imagine “Up On Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” are still pretty well known. I was listening to them just the other day, and **The Basement Tapes** CDs are going to around for a while. I don’t think “completely forgotten” == “not in my collection and not on the radio stations I listen to.” ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/109 "2010-08-07T01:53:51Z")
(I adore religious-movies kitsch! Of course, I watch TCM 90% of the time the TV is turned on.) Molly Ringwald? Big fat success, even had her picture on the cover of Time magazine, moved to France for four years and dropped like a rock. Came waltzing back after lolling around in gay Paree and found out no one really cared! wah. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/110 "2010-08-07T04:30:05Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > In the 1950s, Gore Vidal actually warned that when and if an American Hitler came, he’d be a lot like Arthur Godfrey: charming, folksy and telegenic. He was the inspiration for Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes in _A Face in the Crowd_, except his career was telescoped from decades down to a few months and his fall was much bigger. For anyone who’s never seen that movie it’s well worth a watch; Andy Griffith plays an overnight sensation talk-show-host whose on air persona is basically Andy Taylor from Mayberry and whose off-camera persona is Stalin. Keith Olbermann calls Glenn Beck ‘Lonesome Rhodes’ as an homage to the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/111 "2010-08-07T21:20:43Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Popular novelists Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth and Winston Churchill (not the British Prime minister, who used the byline Winston S. Churchill to avoid confusion) are completely forgotten today, but they were the best selling writers of their time. > > The Band was one of the top five rock groups of the early 70s, but other than “The Weight,” no one knows their music. > > (The “Classic Rock” format short changes a lot of acts, reducing their catalogs to one or two songs.) The Band may have been one of the top five rock groups of the early 1970s as far as quality but they were hardly massively popular. They had only one album go platinum and the highest any of their singles went was 25th. popularity was still dictate heavily but AM top 40 radio play (I know from personal experience the cars my parents bought back then had AM radios only). They were very popular with critics and one of the reasons Eric Clapton left Cream was he tired of playing long jams and wanted to play short funky songs as he heard on an early test pressing of “Music from Big Pink”. But back then magazines like “Rolling Stone” were fairly obscure. > **[The Band discography](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Band_discography)** > > The discography of the Band, a rock group, consists of ten studio albums, nine live albums, nine compilation albums, and thirty-three singles, as well as two studio and two live albums in collaboration with Bob Dylan. They were active from 1964 to 1976, and from 1983 to 1999. > Since 1990, Capitol Records has re-released and expanded upon the versions of the early albums. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/112 "2010-08-07T21:51:24Z")
The country music thread made me think of this one: [Webb Pierce](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webb_Pierce). Huge country music star in his day, and famously “lived the life,” with rhinestone suits, two convertibles lined with silver dollars, and a guitar-shaped swimming pool. Biggest hit: [There Stands the Glass](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKuTeDUPljQ). He had more number one hits than any other country artist in the 1950s, but today, hardly anyone has heard of the guy. ---
**Author:** ![MTCicero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@MTCicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MTCicero)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/113 "2010-08-08T03:00:49Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > Spielberg’s **E.T.** **E.T.** is still loved by many, _many_ people; is generally thought to be one of Spielberg’s best films to this day; and every current school age kid I’ve ever had dealings with (and I used to work with scores of school age kids until very recently) has seen (usually several times) the film and, what’s more, thinks it’s pretty cool. (So, you know, not the _best_ example for trying to prove your original point.) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/114 "2010-08-08T07:02:02Z")
The Bay City Rollers. Val Doonican. Roger Whittaker. BJ and the Bear. Mr Merlin. I have no idea how huge those last two actually were, but if “Dynamite” magazine was any guide, they were mega. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/115 "2010-08-08T12:29:23Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Home Improvement. Was a huge hit in the '90s, even giving Seinfeld a run for its money. Now it’s mainly remembered for giving Tim Allen his big break. > Is it even still in syndication? It’s been ages since I recall seeing a rerun anywhere. “Giving Seinfeld a run for its money”? More like pounded Seinfeld in the ratings and forced NBC to move Seinfeld to another night. Now Home Improvement is in syndication on TBS fyi. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/116 "2010-08-08T12:54:18Z")
Westerns. For season after season, each network had multiple prime time TV shows on horseback. What’s the name recognition nowadays on Gunsmoke, The High Chapparal, The Big Valley, Bonanza, Wanted Dead or Alive, Bat Masterson, The Wild Wild West, Rawhide, Have Gun Will Travel, etc? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/117 "2010-08-08T13:12:56Z")
Speaking of “Must See Thursdays”… I think just about everything they ever aired that night except Friends, Seinfeld and ER are completely forgotten: Mad About You Caroline in the City The one with Brooke Shields The one with Kirstie Alley Men Behaving Badly ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/118 "2010-08-08T13:19:54Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Speaking of “Must See Thursdays”… > > I think just about everything they ever aired that night except Friends, Seinfeld and ER are completely forgotten: > Mad About You > Caroline in the City > The one with Brooke Shields > The one with Kirstie Alley > Men Behaving Badly Well, they also aired Cheers and the Cosby show on must see Thursday, and I think at one point, they aired Frasier. Not everything is gone from there. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/119 "2010-08-08T13:32:52Z")
(((Actually, neither Doug Henning nor Shields/Yarnell were ‘huge’, so never mind this post))) ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/120 "2010-08-08T13:57:23Z")
I don’t know if I’d call them huge successes, but [est](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Erhard) and [TM](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcendental_Meditation) were pretty big movements in the 70s, and in the dustbin of history now. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315.md?page=7)