# "Next Big Things" that weren't so big **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 3, 2011, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044 "2011-04-03T15:57:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Amber\_in\_Treasury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amber_in_Treasury)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/21 "2011-04-03T21:48:06Z")
The Minidisc. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/22 "2011-04-03T21:50:30Z")
BetaMax ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/23 "2011-04-03T22:05:14Z")
Boston’s first album was huge. Their second album was a flop and that was the last we heard of them. I remember Rolling Stone magazine were big Boston boosters after the first album, but they jumped ship after the second. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/24 "2011-04-03T22:50:18Z")
> [@MostlyClueless](#): > > The [Segway](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segway_PT). Marketing claimed that it would be bigger than the internet. > > We all know how that went. Well, it did lead to a very funny episode of **South Park**. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/25 "2011-04-03T22:54:44Z")
In fact, the National Hockey League is very close to Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association for average attendace at each game (although the National Football League is way ahead), and Major League Soccer is fairly close too: > **[List of attendance figures at domestic professional sports leagues](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_figures_at_domestic_professional_sports_leagues)** > > The table below lists domestic professional sports leagues from around the world by total attendances for the last completed season for which data is available.\[citation needed\] The following points should be considered: > \* Seating room only > The leagues are segregated between those which normally would play in an outdoor stadium as opposed to those leagues that use indoor arenas. Some outdoor league stadiums are equipped with either retractable or non-retractable roofs where weather condition... NFL 68,240 NBA 17,520 MLB 30,201 NHL 17,460 MLS 16,675 ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/26 "2011-04-03T23:02:40Z")
> [@Manduck](#): > > Boston’s first album was huge. Their second album was a flop and that was the last we heard of them. I remember Rolling Stone magazine were big Boston boosters after the first album, but they jumped ship after the second. Well, their second album did sell seven million copies. And the third album, in, IIRC, 1988, had two big hits, Amanda and We’re Ready. They are absolute staples of classic rock radio. That said, I’m not a huge fan… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/27 "2011-04-03T23:06:59Z")
This notion that professional soccer in the U.S. is hopelessly far behind the big four professional team sports and will never catch up is rather tiresome. In fact, it has been catching up. It’s just taking decades to do it. Furthermore, sixty years ago there was very little soccer played by young kids, high school students, and college students. Now it’s reasonably common. In a few more decades soccer will be a major sport in the U.S. Not in a couple of years. Not never. In a few more decades. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 3, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/28 "2011-04-03T23:15:46Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Hothouse Flowers lasted less time and had even less impact than Darby did. They never were the next big thing, true, but they’re still around. Their last album came out in 2010. They never matched the hit of “Don’t Go” again and of course never scaled U2-level heights but they’ve had a somewhat successful time of it. “Don’t Go” is still a perennial on the radio here. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/29 "2011-04-04T00:25:46Z")
Actress Gretchen Mol is famous for this, after her appearance on the cover of Vanity Fair magazine. She said she “watched the doors open, and then the doors closed”. Maybe being on the cover of VF IS a curse. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/30 "2011-04-04T00:44:19Z")
You could probably start a whole new thread in the Game Room for athletes that fit the bill, but for now I’ll add Todd Van Poppel. He was going to be a stud pitcher for the A’s. His rookie card was the ultimate collector’s item before he eve stepped on the mound in a major league stadium. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/31 "2011-04-04T00:53:18Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > You could probably start a whole new thread in the Game Room for athletes that fit the bill, but for now I’ll add Todd Van Poppel. He was going to be a stud pitcher for the A’s. His rookie card was the ultimate collector’s item before he eve stepped on the mound in a major league stadium. In that vein, getting back to soccer (which I still don’t buy will ever be a massively popular sport in the USA within the next 50 years, if then) wasn’t that young player Freddie Adu (sp?) supposed to be the next Pele or something, when in reality his pro career is all but DOA? I saw something about him within the past year or so, and it said that the excessive hype may have really hurt him, like other young “anointed” players who ended up fizzling out before ever actually making a real mark in their sport. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/32 "2011-04-04T00:55:06Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Remember “the next Dylan” [Donovan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donovan)? If you do…you are OLD! As mentioned, Donovan had a very successful career once he dropped the “next Dylan” persona and switched to psychedelica. Loudon Wainwright III – tongue in cheek – talked about a “next Bob Dylan club” in the early 70s consisting of him, Bruce Springsteen, John Prine, and Eliot Murphy. Springsteen lived up to the hype (though not as a Dylan clone), and Wainwright and Prine were successful, but Murphy is pretty much forgotten (though he’s popular in Europe). Similarly, people were talking about Roy Buchanan as the next great guitar hero. He was a fine guitarist, but never became a star. There was talk that Don Bluth would give Disney a run for its money in animation after **The Secret of NIMH**. Boy, were people wrong with that – Bluth produced one dismal film after another. Lots of critics thought **Buffalo Springfield** would be a super act. The individuals did, but they were too divided to stay together. Robert Downey got a lot of press as the next great filmmaker back in the late 60s after **Putney Swope** , but his follow ups were disasters. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_T-Cups](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ed655f/32.png) [@Sir\_T-Cups](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_T-Cups)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/33 "2011-04-04T01:03:44Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Remember “the next Dylan” [Donovan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donovan)? If you do…you are OLD! I know who he is and I’m not old! I just watch Futurama. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/34 "2011-04-04T01:14:07Z")
[New Math](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Math) [No Child Left Behind](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Child_Left_Behind_Act) [Wolfram’s “A New Kind of Science”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_New_Kind_of_Science) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/35 "2011-04-04T01:35:36Z")
Every few years, [picturephones.](http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/picturephone.htm) ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/36 "2011-04-04T02:38:07Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#): > > There have been as many “next Dylans” as there have been “next Beatles” Amen. And some of them weren’t even similar styles! Didn’t one magazine (Time?) have a picture of Springsteen with the actual words “The Next Bob Dylan?” I mean, at least Donovan sounded like Bob (yes, seriously, his early work like [“Colours”](http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/colours/id158514558?i=158514573) and [“Catch the Wind”](http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/catch-the-wind/id370648911?i=370648925) really do sound more like Dylan than Leitch). Loudon Wainwright III didn’t just joke about it – he wrote [“Talkin’ **New Bob Dylan** Blues”](http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/talking-new-bob-dylan/id14556734?i=14556720)! He sings the song to Bob: “They were lookin’ for you, and signin’ up others: We were NEW BOB DYLANS! Your dumbass kid brothers!” ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/37 "2011-04-04T02:59:04Z")
Dana Carvey was supposed to be _the_ breakout star from his generation of SNL players (which included, among others, Mike Myers, Phil Hartman and Jon Lovitz). Think what Will Ferrell is today, that’s what Dana Carvey was supposed to be. But after starring in a couple of flops and a short-lived variety show his career just kind of fizzled. In his defense, though, he did have some serious health issues in the late '90s. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/38 "2011-04-04T04:24:35Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Christopher Reeve was hailed as being the next huge Hollywood actor. He was so good in Superman, he seemed like a total A-lister actor…and one who could actually act. > > He never fully got past Superman, though. Yeah, but he got his big break a few years later ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/39 "2011-04-04T04:36:45Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Yeah, but he got his big break a few years later You are a bad person. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2011, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044/40 "2011-04-04T05:58:26Z")
[hijack for a horrible joke] Q: What’s the opposite of Christopher Reeve? A: Christopher Walken. [/hijack for a horrible joke] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/next-big-things-that-werent-so-big/577044.md?page=3)