FAME '10 Decades Project - 1990's

Blue's Clues was an children's television show airing on the Nickelodeon family of channels. The show premiered on September 8, 1996 and continues to air today, although production of new episodes ceased by 2006. Versions of the show have been produced in other countries. It was created by a "green team" of producers, Todd Kessler, Angela Santomero, and Traci Paige Johnson, who used concepts learned from child development and early-childhood education research to create a television show that would capture preschool children's attention and help them learn. They used the narrative format in their presentation of material, as opposed to the more traditional magazine format, and structured every episode the same way.

The result, Blue's Clues, has been called "one of the most successful, critically acclaimed, and ground-breaking preschool television series of all time". Author Malcolm Galdwell called the show "perhaps the 'stickiest'—meaning the most irresistible and involving—television show ever". Its innovative use of research, technology, and interactive content has influenced its genre since its debut, including the "gold standard of preschool TV programs" that inspired it, Sesame Street. It became the highest-rated show for preschoolers on commercial television, and received nine Emmy awards. Its efficiency in teaching children using the medium of television has been documented in research studies.

In 1993, Nickelodeon assigned a team of its own producers to create a new television program in the US for young children, using research on early childhood education and the viewing habits of preschoolers. Their goal was to invent a children's television program that would "empower preschoolers to learn through active participation in activities that are grounded in their everyday lives, to redefine the approach to problem-solving for preschoolers in an engaging manner. The producers, Todd Kessler, Angela Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson (whom Brown Johnson, executive creative director at Nickelodeon, called a "green creative team"), were influenced by Sesame Street but wanted to utilize research performed during the 30 years since it debuted. "We wanted to learn from Sesame Street and take it one step further," Angela Santomero said.

The production of Blue's Clues was based upon research that showed that television could be a "powerful educational agent" because for most American children, it was an accessible medium and a "powerful cultural artifact". Since television programs tell stories through pictures, the potential for episodic learning was high. Television, using film techniques, was able to present information from multiple perspectives, in a variety of "real world" contexts, and that television could be an effective method of scientific education for young children. The creators wanted to provide their viewers with more "authentic learning opportunities" by placing problem-solving tasks in the context of storytelling techniques, by slowly increasing the difficulty of these tasks, and by inviting their direct involvement.

The show's creators encouraged participation with their use of repetition. At first, Nickelodeon aired the same episode daily for five days before showing the next one. In field tests, the attention and comprehension of young viewers increased with each repeated viewing. Repetition was built into the structure of each episode; for example, "in an episode called 'Blue's Predictions,' the show's human host, Joe, says some variation of the word 'predict' around 15 times."

Beavis and Butt-head is an animated televison series created by Mike Judge. Judge's short film"Frog Baseball", starring the characters Beavis and Butt-head was featured on Liquid Television, a show featuring short animated and live action material that could be considered the precursor to Cartoon Networks's Adult Swim. MTV signed Judge to create the series, and it aired from March 8, 1993, to November 28, 1997. The series has retained a cult following. It is rated TV-14 when reruns are aired in the United States.

The show centers on two socially inept rock-loving teenage boys, Beavis and Butt-Head (both voiced by Judge), who live in the fictional town of Highland. They attend high school, where their teachers are often at a loss as to how to deal with them, although in many episodes, the two skip school. They occasionally work part-time at Burger World, and sometimes other side-jobs when people mistake their odd behavior as outgoing and assertive. Comedy is derived from their utter lack of conventional values such as work ethic. They are extremely obnoxious, misogynistic, and rude to almost every other character in the show and even to each other. They do not seem to realize this, however and seem to function on an instinctual level. They survive their often hazardous misadventures without serious consequences, though others around them don't fare as well.

Mixed within each episode are segments in which Beavis and Butt-head watch music videos and provide humorous and bizarre commentary, improvised by Judge.

In 1996, the series was made into an animated feature film, Beavis and Butt-Head do America.

The two characters' lives revolve around TV, nachos, heavy metal, and their utterly fruitless efforts in trying to "score with chicks", making money, and other stuff that's "cool". Since their parents are never to be seen, it is implied they were "raised" by the TV.

Beavis typically wears a blue Metallic T-shirt (in an earlier episode "Blood Drive", a Slayer T-shirt), while Butt-head is usually seen wearing a gray AC/DC T-shirt. (On some merchandising items, their shirts were either blank or read "Skull" and "Death Rock" due to copyright issues). They live in "Highland" which is said to represent Richardson, TX. Also, their High School "Highland High" is said to represent Lake Highlands High School, which is also in Richardson,TX.

Their family names are never mentioned on the show individually, but in Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Butt-head comments that his first name is Butt and his surname is Head. Though the parents of the two are never seen in the series, Butt-head regularly uses "your mama joke" to belittle Beavis, and other references to family members, including uncles and grandparents, are made by both. The film features a scene where they meet two middle-aged adult males who bear a strong resemblance to the duo, and it is implied they are most likely their fathers when the two men say they scored with "two sluts from Highland". The larger man insists he was the only one to "score" with "both of 'em!" They are also known for the names they insult each other with including: Asswipe, Buttmunch (sometimes Assmunch), Buttdumpling, Dillhole, Bunghole, Chode-smoker, and many others. They are also said to be perverted because they frequently point out sexual things in what people say unintentionally. These responses include: you said "nuts", you said "load", etc.

The O. J. Simpson murder case was a criminal trial held in the LA, California Superior Court in which former American football star and actor O.J. Simpson was charged with the 1994 murder of his ex-wife Nicole Simpson and her friend. The case has been described as the most publicized criminal trail in American history. Simpson was acquitted after a lengthy trial that lasted over nine months—the longest jury trial in California history. Simpson hired a high-profile defense team initially led by RObert Shaprino and subsequently led by F. Lee Bailey and Johnnie Cochran. LA county DNA evidence including that the blood-sample evidence had allegedly been mishandled by lab scientists and technicians - and about the circumstances surrounding other exhibits. Cochran and the defense team also alleged other misconduct by the LA Police Department. Simpson's celebrity and the lengthy trial riveted national attention on the so-called "Trial of the Century". By the end of the criminal trial, national surveys showed dramatic differences between most blacks and most whites in terms of their assessment of Simpson's guilt.

At 12:05 a.m. on June 13, 1994, Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman were found fatally stabbed outside Brown's condo in the Brentwood area of LA. Her two children, Sydney (aged 8) and Justin (aged 5), were asleep inside in an upstairs bedroom. O. J. Simpson and Nicole Brown Simpson had divorced two years earlier. Evidence found and collected at the scene led police to suspect that O. J. Simpson was the murderer. Nicole had been stabbed multiple times through the throat to the point of near decapitation; her vertebrae were almost severed, and she also had a swollen face.

Simpson was suppose to turn himself in to the Police Department, but he never showed up. On June 17, 1994, over one thousand reporters waited for Simpson at the police station. The police tracked calls placed on the cellular telephone from Simpson's van in Orange County A sheriff's patrol car saw a white Ford belonging to Simpson's friend, Al Cowlings, going north on Interstate 45. When the officer approached the Bronco, Cowlings, who was driving, yelled that Simpson had a gun to his own head. The officer backed off but followed the vehicle with Simpson in a slow-speed chase at 35 miles per hour. Thousands of spectators and on-lookers packed overpasses along the procession's journey waiting for the white Bronco. Some had signs urging Simpson to flee and others were caught up in a festival-like atmosphere. Over twenty helicopters were following this chase. It was televised by local as well as national news outlets, with 95 million viewers tuning in. The chase ended at 8 P.M. at Simpson's Brentwood home, 50 miles later. He was allowed to go inside for about an hour. His attorney Robert Shapiro arrived and a few minutes later, Simpson surrendered himself to authorities.

Simpson pleaded not guilty to both murders. It was apparent he committed the crime. One dark leather glove was found at the crime scene, with its match found near Kato Kaelin's guest house behind Simpson's Rockingham Drive estate. Kaelin testified that he had heard "bumps in the night" in the same area around the guest house the night of the murder. Brown had bought Simpson two pairs of this type of glove in 1990. Both gloves, according to the prosecution, contained DNA evidence from Simpson, Brown and Goldman, with the glove at Simpson's house also containing a long strand of blonde hair similar to Brown's. Prosecutors contended that the presence of O. J. Simpson's blood at the crime scene was the result of blood dripping from cuts on the middle finger of his left hand. Police noted his wounds on June 13, 1994, and asserted that these were suffered during the fatal attack on Ronald Goldman. However, the defense noted that none of the gloves found had any cuts. They also alleged that Fuhrman had planted the glove at Simpson's house and that the analysis finding that the hair could be Brown's could not be reliable. The prosecution contended that this was not the case, pointing out that by the time Fuhrman had arrived at the Bundy home, the crime scene had already been combed over by several officers for almost two hours, and none had noticed a second glove at the scene.

At 10:07 a.m. on October 3, 1995, after only four hours of deliberation the previous day, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. KHAOS IN THE STREETS!