One of the great subplots in sitcom history was Seinfeld's George Costanza working for the New York Yankees. Co-producer Larry David would voice over Yankees owner George M. Steinbrenner who was portrayed by an actor and shot from behind. One never saw his face.
For those who don't know, Mr. Steinbrenner was the biggest, greatest, most controversial sports owner in a city that boasted nine sports teams. He bought the then moribund Yankees in 1973 and revolutionized the game by adding free agent players. He revolutionized the game again in the 2000's by forming his own sports TV station, Yankees Entertainment Sports, or YES. Why let the networks buy the rights to Yankees game when he could deal directly with advertisers and gouge them silly.
George cared about one thing and one thing only, winning. Mr. Steinbrenner has passed now, but he was, is and always shall be The Boss. Mr. Steinbrenner actually made a cameo on Seinfeld, but for reasons not understood by this blog, the scenes were cut. We'd never viewed them, until now:
Incomplete 1990's Edition. With the 20th anniversary of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal we've felt a bit nostalgic for that time. We're not the only ones. The esteemed M. Steyn recently wrote about the Dawning of the Age of Incompletion. This certainly defines the 90's. A strange decade indeed, sandwiched between the Cold War and 9/11. The Ironic Decade, the Boring Decade. The decade about nothing? -'da-da-da....'
First off let's define our terms. For example, the events and trends that define the 19th Century don't really begin till the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 and don't really end till the First World War in 1914. We take a similar view of the 90's. We feel the decade begins with Bill Clinton's nomination (note-not his election)in 1992 and ends with 9/11.* With that in mind here's a list of the most 90's events of the 90's. Bill Clinton's Impeachment: a year of partisan battle that ended in a senate 50-50 vote .Talk about dull. Talk about incomplete. The 90's unfinished blowjob. Y2K: Was it all a hoax? Five years of everyone worrying about computers imploding with the calendar changeover and then nothing happened. The Seinfeld Finale: The decade's most important show ended with a trial in which all the people wronged by Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer testify against them. It was sour grapes and blaa. The Summer of the Shark: The summer of 2001; shark attacks, Gary Condit, the fetal stem cells debate....it was a different planet. The Twin Towers weren't the only thing that collapsed. *We were tempted to go with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but no. 1989-1992 was still the era of Reagan/Bush.
