# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/161 "2010-08-10T06:43:28Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Raise your hand if you used to play [You Don’t Know Jack](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Don't_Know_Jack_(game)). LOVED that game- wish it would make a comeback. Has MySpace been mentioned yet? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/162 "2010-08-10T13:27:46Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > The Man From U.N.C.L.E. My friends and I had the biggest mass crush on David McCallum. (Robert Vaughn was supposed to be the ‘suave’ playboy type, but we just laughed at him, and not in a good way.) Ilya Kuryakin = swooooon! Ducky Mallard = swooooon! ---
**Author:** ![filling\_pages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b9bd4f/32.png) [@filling\_pages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filling_pages)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/163 "2010-08-10T15:15:15Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > > [@joebuck20](#): > > > > Coolio. He had a monster hit with Gangsta’s Paradise in 1995. Was at one time just as famous as Snoop Dogg. > > Last I heard of him, almost 10 years ago, he was playing a free show at my college. > > He appeared as a contestant in the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother a year or two back. > Didn’t win - went back to obscurity. Let me put it this way: Coolio is now touring with Insane Clown Posse and just got a tattoo in which he misspelled “juggalo”. ---
**Author:** ![heathen\_earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/13edae/32.png) [@heathen\_earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/heathen_earthling)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/164 "2010-08-10T15:35:02Z")
Nana Mouskouri, perhaps? Supposedly she is one of the best-selling singers ever (300 million records), but I only know of her from always seeing her records in thrift stores. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/165 "2010-08-10T15:47:33Z")
I was reading an article just recently that talked about the uniqueness of the generation who grew up in teh 1970s and early 1980s. Pretty much my generation (I’m late 30s) due to an interesting time in the technology window. It was making an interesting observation that by my generation (in North America) it had almost reached the point where there was a TV in every households but video playback devises were NOT equally widespread yet, and there weren’t as many media channels. So we were experiencing some major media “events” (whether news or entertainment) all together, all at the same time. So stuff like the “Who Shot J.R.?” episode of _Dallas_ was way bigger than it possibly would have been today. ---
**Author:** ![Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Ellis\_Aponte\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellis_Aponte_Jr)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/166 "2010-08-10T22:59:43Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > 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? The three major networks put no fewer than 26 western series on the primetime TV schedule for 1959-1960. By the fall of 1975 that number was zero. ---
**Author:** ![WolfpackJeep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpackjeep/32/2921_2.png) [@WolfpackJeep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WolfpackJeep)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/167 "2010-08-10T23:18:31Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Whoa, Have Gun was on the radio? That I didn’t know, and will look for. I’m working my way through the TV show now on Netflix. Yep…interestingly, I’ve never seen the TV version. According to the info snippet provided by Botar’s Old Time Radio, my favorite radio program podcast: > [@](#): > > Initially, the episodes were adaptations of the television program as broadcast earlier the same week, but eventually original stories were produced, including a finale in which Paladin left San Francisco apparently forever, to claim an inheritance back East. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/168 "2010-08-10T23:19:14Z")
_Farscape_. For some strange reason it has almost completely fallen off the radar, at least as compared to other contemporary sci-fi/fantasy dramas, like the _Treks_, _B5_, _Buffy/Angel_, even _Battlestar_ or the _Stargates_. I don’t know if it’s because no networks (at least in the States) are showing any reruns, or what; Exhibit A is the meager 4 votes over at BoneTheFish, while _B5_ has 85, and even _Xena_ has 65 (even _Herc_ has 24). Perhaps it didn’t quite qualify as a “huge” success while on the air… ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/169 "2010-08-10T23:26:01Z")
> [@LC\_Strawhouse](#): > > I’ve only heard this second hand, but apparently it was also really trendy for westerners to adopt Indian mysticism - people would go to Kashmir to try and become swamis, gurus or lamas That’s sort of still around. Or else how do you explain the existence of Deepak Chopra? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/170 "2010-08-11T02:04:54Z")
AOL. It’s still a huge company but they have many diversified interests now; when most Internet users were still dial up and pay per minute the “You’ve Got Mail” was probably the most heard electronic voice in existence, but now, it’s almost nostaligic when you hear it. (And those ‘over’ fees- damn!) Compuserve also- huge in the late 90s. I bought one of my computers with a $400 rebate check from them for agreeing to a 3 year service contract. Now it’s rare that you see a compuserve email address even. ---
**Author:** ![Rocket\_Man\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Rocket\_Man\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocket_Man_1)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/171 "2010-08-11T07:50:02Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Ma & Pa Kettle > The Little Rascals > Shirley Temple > Robert Blake until he killed his wife > Mickey Rooney > Patsy Cline > Rosemary Clooney > Peggy Lee > Tom Jones > Julio Iglesias > David Soul Tom Jones might not register much in the US (not that I know), but in the UK his latest album charted at number 2, so hardly forgotten. Peggy Lee is also still relatively well recognised, and it would be difficult even today not to have heard at least one of her songs. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/172 "2010-08-11T08:24:11Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > AOL. It’s still a huge company but they have many diversified interests now; when most Internet users were still dial up and pay per minute the “You’ve Got Mail” was probably the most heard electronic voice in existence, but now, it’s almost nostaligic when you hear it. (And those ‘over’ fees- damn!) > Compuserve also- huge in the late 90s. I bought one of my computers with a $400 rebate check from them for agreeing to a 3 year service contract. Now it’s rare that you see a compuserve email address even. I had accounts on Prodigy and Sierra On-line. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/173 "2010-08-11T10:43:28Z")
I notice Pearl S. Buck books because my mother has several of them: some of them crop up regularly in Spain in “universal literature” collections. “East Wind: West Wind”, “Pavilion of Women”… I’ll have to see about getting that biography of Buck if it gets published in Spanish, it could make a great present for Mom. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/174 "2010-08-11T14:26:52Z")
> [@heathen\_earthling](#): > > Nana Mouskouri, perhaps? Supposedly she is one of the best-selling singers ever (300 million records), but I only know of her from always seeing her records in thrift stores. She and Joni James (100 million records) should team up for a comeback tour, lol! ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/175 "2010-08-12T16:42:09Z")
I think Johnny Carson will be completely forgotten in a few years. He stopped being the host of the Tonight Show 18 years ago, so he’s pretty much a non-entity for everyone under 30. And the shows never get rerun. Similarly, if Ed Sullivan hadn’t had the Beatles on, would anyone remember him? ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/176 "2010-08-12T17:17:17Z")
Who remembers Solid Gold and Dance Fever? (with Danny Terio!) ---
**Author:** ![mack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mack)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/177 "2010-08-12T17:59:52Z")
Jonathan Livingston Seagull ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/178 "2010-08-12T18:36:50Z")
> [@SmackFu](#): > > I think Johnny Carson will be completely forgotten in a few years. He stopped being the host of the Tonight Show 18 years ago, so he’s pretty much a non-entity for everyone under 30. And the shows never get rerun. On our second date, my now-girlfriend (who had been very reticent up to that point) pointedly asked me: “Do you like Johnny Carson”? When I responded in the affirmative, she went into an adoring spiel about her favorite Carson moments. She’s 24. Carson lives. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/179 "2010-08-12T18:39:09Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > Manly tough-guy detective shows and movies. Ubiquitous for 3 decades, they have all but disappeared as a genre. > > Mannix, McCloud, Rockford, Serpico, Magnum, Shaft, Ironsides, Mike Hammer, Riptide, Crockett and Tubbs…where have all of our 5-o’clock shadow heroes gone? For that matter, westerns have all but disappeared from television and cinema. Gothic romances were way big 30 or 40 years ago. Totally dead now. Harold Robbins. Sold more than 750,000,000 books in his heyday. Most of his work still seems to be in print, but when was the last time you saw anybody reading one or even heard his name? ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315/180 "2010-08-12T18:47:14Z")
> [@mack](#): > > Jonathan Livingston Seagull Weird juxtaposition. I once met Richard Bach in a celebrity chat forum hosted by CompuServ over a smoking 1200 baud connection. Is JLS not popular any more? I’m still meaning to read the Spanish translation “Juan Salvador Gaviota” one of these days. (One these days after I learn enough Spanish.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/huge-successes-then-completely-forgotten-now/549315.md?page=10)