Episode 253: HBO's BrainGames, Sublime's Breakthrough, Beloved TV Programming Blocks(7-22-2026)

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A brief show that left a lasting impact. A band whose rise was cut short. Some of the most popular television programming blocks ever.

Episode 253 shows the pop culture randomizer on full display.

It begins with a look back at a show that only lasted a short time but left a big imprint on a lot of GenXers. BrainGames was a revelation in children's education. The HBO show lasted a whopping 6 episodes, yet somehow is still fondly remembered to this day by many who saw it. We look at why this little show had a big impact.

30 years ago this week, an indie band with a cult following released their breakout hit song. Unfortunately, it came shortly after their lead singer had lost his life. The band was Sublime, and the singer was Bradley Nowell. On this anniversary, we do a deep dive into the rise, fall, and full-circle rebirth of one of the most popular bands of the mid-1990s.

TGIF? Must-See TV? This week's Top 5 looks at those and some of the other beloved television programming blocks of all-time. How many of these were part of your weekly scheduling plans?

Finally there is a brand-new This Week In History and Time Capsule, looking at the very first Billboard Magazine music chart(it's not what you might think).

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Listen to Episode 252 here

Transcript

0:02

Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast.

I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, MA.

And this is episode 253.

0:18

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood on Cape Cod here in late July.

And there's nothing more beautiful that I can add to your week than a fresh batch of Gen.

X nostalgia.

The Randomizer is hard at work this week for all of you.

We're going to kick it off with a personal favorite, but probably lesser known brief show from the early 80s on HBO called Brain Games.

0:43

We're going to go way back in the day, 30 years and look at the time that the ska punk alternative band Sublime broke through.

There's going to be a brand new top five as we look back at the top five most popular prime time TV blocks of all time.

1:02

And there's going to be a brand new This Week in History and Time capsule looking back at the very first ever Billboard music chart.

So get ready, It's all starting now as we pull a fresh batch of Gen.

X nostalgia out of the oven on episode 253 of the In My Footsteps podcast.

1:23

It is a beautiful day in the neighborhood now on Cape Cod.

This week has definitely been an odd one for those of us living in the northeastern United States.

There hasn't been any rain, but there has been no shortage of yellowy, orangey skies due to hundreds of wildfires up in Canada where the winds have blown that down onto US, making for a very surreal scene.

1:51

I hope wherever you are, the air is clear, the weather is nice, and you're able to enjoy this kind of middle of summer.

I say kind of because it's not really the middle of summer, but as far as kids being out of school, it is closer to the middle of summer.

2:07

Whatever your status is in the social media of life this week, thank you all for tuning in, putting together these shows.

It's really is one of my favorite things I do in my life.

This week definitely feels like I just threw random things at the wall and was like, OK, that'll make up a show.

2:26

It's all connected.

It's all Gen.

X nostalgia pop culture.

But you don't have to be a Gen.

Xer to enjoy it.

You just have to be someone that enjoys fresh, fun, engaging content.

But of course, before I start off that fresh, fun, engaging content, I can't start off without thanking my Patreon subscribers, my truly biggest supporters who put their money where their mouth is to support me, my never ending quest to be a full time, self-employed content creator.

2:56

So thank you to Laurie, Mary, Lou, Ashley, Kevin, Leo, Marguerite, Neglectoid, Crystal, Matt, Doctor Shrimp, Porto Chico, you support my content creator dreams.

I hope the content I create is worthy of the money you spend on me.

3:16

You too can become a Patreon subscriber and get a shout out on the podcast for as little as $3 a month.

I have several tiers as far as what you can donate, contribute.

You get lots of bonus podcasts, You get early access to YouTube videos.

3:33

You get access to the Remastered Without a Map live streams, which I did a few years ago in conjunction with the podcast in its early days.

Maybe someday those will come back again.

But before I consider putting more things on my plate as far as Patreon content goes, we've got to kick off episode 253.

3:53

I'm going to forgo the housekeeping section until the end of the podcast so we can get into this random sandwich.

It's like peanut butter, bacon, banana, maybe a little bit of fried chicken in that sandwich.

I think that would actually work out pretty well.

4:10

I'm not going to try it.

You can tell me if you do.

But yes, the randomizer was strong this week for the podcast.

I'm really excited to start off with this brief but likely impactful show for a lot of people my age.

4:26

So let's kick off episode 253 of the In My Footsteps podcast with a look back at the HBO educational, I guess, game show known as Brain Games.

Brain Games.

4:47

Brain games and now.

That intro there was for a show called Brain Games.

It is one of those shows that I guess you just had to be there.

5:02

I guess you had to watch it when it was on because even though it left a huge mark on me and my childhood, it wasn't around that long.

So I don't know how many of you, if you didn't watch it at the time, we'll have any clue what I'm talking about.

It was kind of a trippy, surreal children's game show, educational show.

5:25

You would have that interesting introduction there with the Egghead Man.

There would be a series of six games that would be more like puzzles or mind bending, thought provoking games.

And then the show would end with the host crying that the show was over.

5:43

Obviously I will have several clips from the show trying to hammer home what it was.

For those of you that have no clue what it was at all, Brain Games was 1/2 hour educational show.

It premiered on HBO on November 8th, 1983.

6:02

It combined animation, puzzles, riddles, visual illusions, sound challenges, logic games, interactive problem solving, all of this into one unique experience. 1983 in the early 80s in general, it was a time before educational television was a major part of children's cable programming.

6:26

You had kids shows like 321, Contact, the Electric Company, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers.

They were more children's television in general with like a splash of education in there.

6:42

So you definitely would learn.

But Brain Games was way more just a straight up game show, educational game show.

The reason why I keep saying I think you had to be there to watch the show to fully understand and appreciate it is because Brain Games, the actual show, lasted only 6 original episodes plus a compilation special.

7:07

I am sure there are dozens if not maybe hundreds of TV shows that have lasted 6 episodes that are totally forgotten in the trash bin of entertainment history.

For some reason Brain Game stuck with me.

7:24

It's been almost 45 years and here I am doing a segment on it on the podcast.

I think I'm underselling a lot of you that are my age, you know, late 40s, early 50s.

I think a lot of you do remember Brain Games.

It had this strange atmosphere, surreal animation, the mysterious narrations with different voices for different segments.

7:47

I think to understand why Brain Games was unusual for the time, it's important to look back at what HBO was like in 1983.

At the time, HBO was pretty much only known for uncut Hollywood movies, comedy specials, They were starting to do boxing concerts, a few original documentaries.

8:09

Children's programming on premium cable was still pretty uncommon.

Earlier in 1983, HBO premiered the groundbreaking children's series Fraggle Rock, which I promise will get its own segment on the podcast at some point.

8:25

Brain Game soon followed as one of HB OS first attempts at producing an educational series built almost entirely on audience participation.

It was an educational show without a host.

I mean, yeah, they had the Egg Man at the beginning with his white suit and red bow tie, but there wasn't a classroom.

8:45

There wasn't a teacher.

There really weren't any recurring human hosts.

It was kind of like the egg Man starts.

It's creepy.

He pulls an egg out of his face, cracks his head open and pours the egg into his brain.

And then it's like bubbling up with the voices saying brains like they're all zombies.

9:06

And then it would just start.

It would literally start game #1 and you would dive into it.

Game number one, boy, it's frightening out there.

But am I scared?

You know what?

9:21

I think it's time to play some very solitaire.

Brain Games was created by Sheila Nevins.

As I said, it debuted on November 8th, 1983, with additional episodes produced through the end of 1985.

9:40

These episodes were typically 25 to 30 minutes.

Like I said, there were only 6 original episodes of this show.

Somehow it's imprinted on me.

There was the pilot episode.

There were five additional episodes in 198485.

9:57

And then once the show got cancelled there was a compilation special called The Best of Brain Games which I find it funny.

It's like having a greatest hits album when a band has had like 3 albums and only one song that was kind of a hit.

Despite that small episode count, HBO repeatedly aired those programs for years.

10:18

I didn't see them when they first came out.

We didn't have HBO when I was six years old in 1983.

I watched Brain Games in probably 198586 and loved every single episode.

I loved learning, I loved education.

10:35

I still love learning.

That's why I love doing research for these podcasts.

I don't consider it a chore to sit and go through all kinds of search sites and build up enough information to do a segment on the podcast like I did for Brain Games.

10:52

Educational children's television in the early 1980s relied mostly on memorization, alphabet learning, counting, reading lessons, which is all great stuff.

But Brain Games took a different approach.

They centered on critical thinking, observation, deductive reasoning, memory, pattern recognition, spatial awareness, logic, creativity.

11:17

It was kind of like instead of being told what you were learning, you kind of did it on your own.

The only show that I could think of right away that had that same sort of vibe.

And it's not really the same as Dora the Explorer, where she will ask you questions, ask the children questions, and then pause and give you a chance to come up with your own answer.

11:38

I guess that's kind of similar to Brain Games.

It was also very, very different, because everything about the show felt mysterious and a little bit weird and a lot surreal.

It started with electronic synthesizer music, which reminded me a little bit of Robot Chicken.

11:57

Odd narration, kind of dreamlike animation, bizarre characters, surreal humor.

It was unlike the bright, cheerful children's programming.

Brain Games at the time felt eerie.

12:13

It felt haunted.

Like I said, the egg man cracking the egg into his head where voices are just saying brain games.

It's like zombies.

I had a very hard job this week where I had to watch several episodes of brain Games so I could better recite them to you.

12:30

I know it's a hard job.

I had to watch them.

What's interesting is the original, the 1983 pilot episode of Brain Games, was a lot different.

There was no Egg Man, There was a female sphinx.

There were puzzle themes.

12:46

It was still a fun show, but the Egg Man and the music and the robot arms messing with the Egg Man's face kind of get you into the mood for this show.

Weird introductions and surreal animation aside, the biggest thing about Brain Games Worthy games, some of the most beloved, included one called Airplay, where viewers first heard mechanical noises or animals or machines or household sounds.

13:16

There were no images shown initially, so after listeners guessed the source, the audio rewound and replayed with accompanying visuals.

This was training, listening skills, auditory memory inference.

There was Tales of Rongovia which was a history based puzzle where you'd have a famous historical event, and then there was a situation where four possible objects were presented and one of them didn't belong because it hadn't been invented yet.

13:46

For example, they had one where Abraham Lincoln was writing a letter to be sent to his wife and they ask how could he have sent this to his wife?

I believe it one was he could have just written it and mailed it.

One was the Telegraph, 1 was by Stagecoach, and 1 was by telephone.

14:04

And obviously telephone hadn't been invented yet, but they give you a moment to decide.

There was Digitville, which is definitely surreal.

Every person living in Digitville had heads made of numbered objects, dice, clocks, rulers, dominoes.

14:23

There was a lot of mathematical or numerical challenges through these characters.

You had the face recognition game called Hoosuma Whatchamacallitz.

It's time to play Uzama Whatchama Collins, a game in which we give you clues and you tell us who or what.

14:50

You'd have these blurry images, usually 3 or 4 in different colors slowly waving together and the narrator will be explaining or describing what they were, who they were to see if you could guess before they came together. 1 episode I watched they had Garfield, spider man, the incredible Hulk.

15:11

You had the memory game Unidentified Flying Pranksters where aliens secretly alter ordinary scenes.

I just remember watching brain games and being so excited for some of my favorites.

I love the Who's a Mawachima, call it one.

15:28

I love the Tales of Rongovia.

I loved developing my brain at 789 years old.

I think a big part of it is brain games made you feel safe to learn and to be wrong.

If you were in a class and the teacher asked what's 5 + 3 and you raised your hand and stood up and said 9 and it was wrong, you have this fear of being wrong, being judged by your peers, feeling embarrassed.

15:55

If you're watching brain games on HBO in your living room in 1985 and you guessed that Abraham Lincoln could have called his wife, Even if it's wrong, there's no one around to embarrass you.

Unless you had siblings that immediately pointed and yelled.

16:11

But I was the oldest and none of them cared about brain games besides me.

The fact that there were no hosts, no traditional cast, that the stars were the actual games that made brain games unique, the puzzles, the animation, the narration, it gave this more of an anthology like structure in which every segment felt different from the last.

16:38

I think I definitely felt some of that sadness when the narrator at the end said.

Brain Games, it is now over.

That only changed during the final episode where it said the best of Brain Games is now over.

16:55

I'm surprised the narrator didn't just sob as it faded out.

There's never been an official cancellation reason for Brain Games even after only 6 episodes.

I mean they continued airing it even through the late 80s into the mid 90s.

17:12

There were VHS collections of the shows.

In my research I found that some of the factors were probably expensive original animation, limited episode production, HB OS, evolving programming strategy, and honestly kind of a relatively niche audience.

17:30

I think that's why I've been prefacing this by saying a lot of you probably won't remember this show, but I'm thinking you're going to prove me wrong.

It could be that this podcast is the first time you're ever hearing about brain Games, or the first time you're hearing about it since it was cancelled 40 years ago.

17:49

If you're jonesing for some brain games to test your learning skills that a 7-8 year old would have, you can find the full episodes on YouTube.

That is how I watch them.

For me, and I'm sure a lot of other members of Gen.

X, Brain Games occupies a unique place in our childhood nostalgia.

18:09

This show wasn't heavily marketed, but yet if you found it, you definitely wanted to keep watching it.

Today, Brain Games occupies an important niche in television history.

It's one of HB OS earliest educational original series.

18:25

It was an innovative blend of education and entertainment.

It was an early example of interactive television.

It could be at least one of the most important shows ever that had such a limited run, but that's not up to me to decide.

18:41

I've given you all of my info about the history of brain games.

You be the judge.

You go watch some brain games.

Don't be scared of the egg man, He's friendly.

But until next time, this segment about brain games is now over.

19:06

This week in history we are going back 113 years to July 19th, 1913 and the release of the very first ever Billboard Magazine music chart.

This was not the Hot 200, the Hot 100, mainstream rock, Hip hop.

19:28

I'm sure those are what you're thinking of as far as what could have been the very first music chart, Well, maybe not hip hop.

In 1913, the very first Billboard music chart ever was simply called Last week's 10 Best Sellers Among Popular Songs That Does Not Roll Off the Tongue.

19:48

This chart was the first systematic attempt to measure what music Americans were actually buying.

What's crazy is that Billboard Magazine was not originally a music magazine.

It was founded by William Donaldson and James Hennigan, with the first issue coming out November 1st, 1894, being known only as Billboard Advertising.

20:11

Instead of music, it originally covered outdoor advertising.

Billboards, posters, traveling fairs, circuses, carnivals, expositions.

Just imagine a magazine all about advertising.

It's like, that's real exciting.

20:27

But I guess in 1894 you didn't know any better.

By the turn of the 20th century, America was becoming obsessed with live entertainment.

Traveling performers needed publicity.

Circuses needed advertising.

Vaudeville theaters needed promotion.

20:43

So around this time, entertainment coverage had become just as important as the entertainment itself.

In 1913, there was really not a lot of recorded music.

There was no radio, so there were no Billboard Hot 100.

21:00

There was no TV, no streaming.

Very few people had phonographs.

So you're probably asking what in the world was on this chart?

It was sheet music.

People weren't buying recordings.

There weren't vinyl albums.

21:16

Edison records.

No, instead of buying recordings, they bought printed music.

Families would be gathering around pianos every evening.

I guess you could say owning sheet music was the equivalent of downloading a song today.

By the early 1900s, New York City's Tin Pan Alley had become the center of the American Music publishing industry.

21:39

You had hundreds of composers working there writing songs intended to sell millions of copies of printed sheet music.

But the problem was that you couldn't accurately measure popularity.

You'd have a one publisher claiming a song sold half a million copies.

Another would claim they're sold 1,000,000 copies.

21:57

This created the opportunity for Billboard being an objective music ranking.

This all came to a head in July 1913 with the last week's 10 Best Sellers Among Popular Songs chart.

Unfortunately, there's no acronym for all those words.

22:16

It would be Luita Butsup or something like that.

No, I didn't just glitch out how this chart worked as Billboard gathered reports from music stores, sheet music dealers, which I guess were a thing, publishers, retail outlets.

22:34

Whereas today we measure popularity by Spotify streams, Apple Music plays, YouTube views, TikTok trends.

In 1913 it was just could people play your song at home?

If yes, they bought the sheet music.

If you are curious, and I know you are, the very first ever number one song on that bestsellers chart was You Made Me Love You by Al Jolson.

23:03

That chart was a success, and soon after introducing that, Billboard added other music charts, with one of the earliest being songs heard in vaudeville last week, which when it came down to it, it tracked songs that audiences were hearing in theaters in cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

23:24

What's interesting about this is that these early charts reflected America's entertainment landscape before radio, So music spread primarily through vaudeville theaters, touring performers, stage productions, piano performances, community events.

23:42

You could have had someone just playing piano at a gazebo in a small town, and there'd be someone from Billboard calling up on one of the old timey phones.

The arrival of commercial radio during the early 1920s transformed the music business.

23:58

And the rest is kind of history as far as Billboard goes.

As phonograph records became more affordable, sheet music declined.

That made the last week's 10 Best sellers among Popular Songs chart less relevant.

24:14

But it is important because it was the first Billboard music chart, it was among the earliest systematic popularity charts in American Music, and it's the foundation upon which every subsequent Billboard chart was built, all the way to today.

24:30

The Hot 100, the Billboard 200, everything else, but you had to start somewhere.

And the very first ever Billboard chart, which I've said the name enough, it's too long, debuted 113 years ago this week in history.

24:49

Now it's time to open up a brand new time capsule.

For this one, we are going back 55 years to July 21st, 1971.

What was going on in the world of pop culture back then?

Well, let's find out.

The number one song was It's Too Late by Carole King.

25:10

This was off of her legendary album Tapestry, which is considered one of the greatest albums of the 70s.

It's Too Late is actually the B side with the A side of the single being I feel the earth move.

So that's a pretty big 1-2 punch.

25:27

It's too late.

Spent five weeks at #1 winning the Grammy for Record of the Year and helping Carole King's Tapestry sell well over 30 million copies worldwide.

The number one movie was Shaft, and you could get into the theater with a ticket costing $1.65.

25:49

Well, that man, Shaft is a bad mother.

Shut your mouth.

But I'm talking about Shaft that is an all time classic 1970s song by Isaac Hayes.

Younger listeners would know him as Chef from South Park.

The film stars Richard Roundtree as John Shaft, a private detective hired by a Harlem mobster to rescue his daughter from Italian mobsters.

26:14

The film is 88% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and was a pretty big success at the theater, making $13 million on a budget of half a million.

It's probably way more well known just for its cultural impact.

It is in the category of what they call blaxploitation films.

26:33

It's a sub genre of action films in general.

There were two sequels to the original Shaft.

And of course, because Hollywood is basically devoid of ideas, in the last 20 years it was also remade.

I mean, it did have Samuel L Jackson as Shaft, but it's also only 34% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

26:55

The number one TV show was the Miss Universe pageant.

Ah yes, when beauty pageants were the most popular things on TV.

Miss Universe not including women from any other planet.

Georgina Risque was crowned as Miss Universe 1971.

27:16

There were also different awards, Most Photogenic, best National costume, a top ten of best in swimsuit and one called Miss Amity which I had to look up which means friendliest.

All I thought of was the island in Jaws.

27:33

So she could have been Miss Jaws moving on.

And if you were around back then, July 21st, 1971, maybe you were getting ready to sit down and watch Miss Universe.

You need to go to the store and get some food.

27:51

Well, I've got news for you.

You can find everything you want at Purity Supreme Freezer Queen meat slices for $0.99, a package of eight cool pops for $0.29.

28:08

Purity Supreme brand apple juice, 4 quart bottles for a dollar, All meat wieners from Wrath Blackhawk for $0.69 a pound.

And don't forget to top it all off with Nissan bread.

28:24

I'm having way too much fun reading product names.

Way back when I was a freshman in high school, me and my buddy John, we made audio cassettes because that was what we did back then at 15.

But we enjoyed going through the phone book, the Yellow Pages, and reading off what we thought were funny names of companies.

28:46

I felt a little of that coming through in that segment, so I need to stop it.

That's going to wrap up another time capsule, another this week in history.

We go from Purity Supreme to Primetime TV as we look at a brand new top five, the most popular or beloved TV blocks in history.

29:11

This is definitely going to be a fun top five that brings back a lot of memories for a lot of you most popular, beloved, well remembered prime time TV blocks.

There really was not a lot of rhyme or reason to what made-up a prime time TV block, except that it had to have some kind of a catchy name to it because I think that's what makes it beloved.

29:35

If you remember a certain block of programming, it's the name that catches on to you.

I wasn't going to say, Oh yeah, November 1985's prime time lineup on CBS was the best ever.

You'd be like, God, that's a lot of words.

When doing my research for this segment, there was only one of these TV blocks that I wasn't familiar with, and I will say that I call it primetime TV blocks.

30:01

There are a couple that I don't think are primetime, including one that I know is daytime, but it brought back too many good memories for me, so I had to share them.

As with most of these top fives, they're in no particular order and there are some honorable mentions to get your mind going.

30:21

So let's get into the most beloved TV blocks of all time, starting with the honorable mentions and First off is Nick at Night.

Nick at Night began in 1985 and for a time I was more familiar with TV shows from the late 50s early 60s than I was with present day My Three Sons.

30:42

Mr. Ed, Car 54, Where are you?

It is still going to this day, although present day Nick at Night has shows from as recent as the Twenty 10s.

Another honorable mention is Adult Swim.

30:59

This was originally the programming block on the Cartoon Network that first came out in 2001.

It was originally on from 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM with shows like Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, and Space Ghost Coast to Coast, but it expanded to be 13 hours in a day, making household names out of shows like Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

31:24

And the final honorable mention is the one that is not prime time and that is the USA Cartoon Express.

This gave me way too many good memories from Sundays at my Nana's.

It was on from 1982 to 1996 now.

31:42

It was originally on during early evening hours, but eventually became the Sunday Cartoon Express filled with Hanna Barbera cartoons, scooby-doo, Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, all those ones.

So those are the honorable mentions.

32:00

Did you watch any of those TV blocks?

You could literally watch Nick at night right now if it's a certain time of day and you're listening to this.

But let's get into the actual top five most beloved TV blocks of all time.

These are all prime time.

32:16

And it's going to start off with the one that got this whole list started, and that is #1 AB CS TGIFTGIF began as a branded primetime block in 1989.

It was an immediate hit with a murderer's row of classic sitcoms Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, and Just the Ten of Us.

32:42

Later on in the 90s you would have other massive hits like Step by Step, Boy Meets World, Hanging with Mr. Cooper.

The original incarnation of TGIF ended in 2000, but it was revived only a couple of years later.

32:57

But that didn't last long as well.

In 2018, ABC again revived TGIF.

This time it only lasted one season.

It's like you can't just say TGIF and have it be programs that aren't good.

If you go on YouTube, you can find some compilations of TGIF promos commercials during those shows.

33:20

So if you're itching for that nostalgia, Speaking of nostalgia #2 is NBCS must See TV.

Must See TV on NBC started in 1993.

The original lineup was Mad About You Wings, Seinfeld, Frasier, and then LA Law at 10:00 PM.

33:45

Must See TV exploded in popularity for the 9495 television season with the addition of Friends and ER.

These networks with these prime time blocks, when they got popular, they would try to shoehorn new shows in there to kind of get the rub.

34:03

So you'd have Seinfeld and Friends, but then you have shows like The Single Guy and Caroline in the City that weren't as good.

Sorry to any fans of those shows.

The original Must See TV went off the air in 2006 with NBC bringing it back in 2017, but then that also closed down in 2021 #3 is CBS Saturday Night.

34:30

This is the only one that I had not heard of when doing my research.

This is also the oldest primetime block on this top five.

It was for the 197374 season when it debuted.

It is considered, at least at the beginning, the greatest lineup of TV shows ever.

34:50

All in the Family, MASH, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and The Carol Burnett Show all five in a row.

In the mid to late 70's the programming started to shift with The Jeffersons jumping in to replace MASH.

35:08

This legendary block of television went off the air as the show started to end in the late 70s.

Within a little over a year, Mary Tyler Moore, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, all those shows went off the air and then All in the Family got moved to a different night for the last season of CBS Saturday night.

35:30

They had shows like Rhoda and Good Times, and the ratings plummeted and they pulled the plug on it #4 is Fox Animation Domination.

This one just gets in under the buzzer as far as nostalgia goes.

35:46

Fox Animation Domination first came on the air in 2005.

You had a line up of American Dad, The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy.

I mean that's honestly it's a murderer's row of cartoons there.

36:02

It was in 2010 that they kind of ruined the animation Domination concept with King of the Hill going off the air.

They replaced it with live action shows Malcolm in the Middle and The War at Home, and the not so good Family Guy spin off The Cleveland Show.

36:21

Bob's Burgers became the last good show to be on Animation Domination, with its first run closing down in 2014.

But of course, to no surprise, Fox brought back Animation Domination in 2019, with it just going off the air again only a few months ago in May 2026.

36:42

And finally #5 on the top five beloved primetime TV blocks is Snick, also known as Saturday Night Nickelodeon.

I feel like this block is more for my youngest sisters, Lindsay and Ashley.

36:57

This would have been right up their alley.

Snick debuted in 1992.

The original lineup consisted of Clarissa Explains It All, Ren and Stimpy Roundhouse, and Are You Afraid of the Dark?

A few years later you had new shows like All That, The Adventures of Pete and Pete and The Secret World of Alex Mack.

37:22

Snick was meant to be a prime time block that was for, you know, teens, preteens.

Saturday night was seen as the night that anyone that was not super young or super old was out doing stuff.

So typically Saturday night programming wasn't important.

37:39

So Nickelodeon tried to change that.

I'm sure those of you that used to watch Snick would remember the big comfy orange couch that was a part of a lot of the bumpers.

The original Snick went off the air in 2005 and I was actually surprised that they haven't tried to bring it back for the new generation.

38:00

But every now and then they bring it back as kind of like a stand alone special.

There you have it though, beloved prime time TV blocks and one that wasn't prime time but that was in the honorable mentions.

How many of these did you remember?

38:15

As soon as I said the name, just remembering the shows you used to watch.

TGIF must see TV animation domination Snick.

CBS Saturday night was the only one I wasn't familiar with, but when you see the line up of shows, it's like, yeah, no wonder that was so popular.

38:34

But we'll segue from beloved TV blocks to a beloved band of the mid 1990s that was unfortunately over as soon as they got really popular.

So let's go back 30 years and look at the breakthrough of Sublime.

38:57

Some artists, whether creative musicians, photography painters, receive their flowers, get their praise while they are still around.

Some are appreciated much more after they are gone.

And then there are some that kind of almost make it while they are here, only to blow up after they have left.

39:21

That's kind of the way I feel about Sublime, more specifically Bradley Knoll, the lead singer.

Sublime occupies a unique place in American Music history.

They were only together in their original incarnation for about 8 years and only released 3 studio albums during that time.

39:44

Yet the Southern California trio became one of the defining bands of the 1990s.

They were a mix of a lot of different types of music, punk, rock, ska, reggae, dub, hip hop, surf rock, funk, Blues and alternative rock.

40:03

It really was a melting pot of sound.

Sublime, in its original incarnation, formed in 1988 in Long Beach, CA.

This is a city whose cultural diversity would heavily influence the band's sound.

40:19

The band originally consisted of drummer Bud GAO, bassist Eric Wilson, and vocalist and guitarist Bradley Knoll.

The three met through the local music scene and California State University Long Beach long before they became famous.

40:35

They played backyard parties, beach gatherings, fraternity events and local bars.

Their performances often ended with police shutting them down because of excess volume or rowdy crowds.

So what exactly was the Long Beach sound that Sublime was such a big proponent of?

40:53

It was the mix of punk, surf culture, reggae, skateboarding, hip hop, Latin music, hardcore, punk.

Rather than choose one style, Sublime simply mixed it all together.

Their influences were all over the place.

41:09

Bad Brains, The Descendants, The Clash, Bob Marley, Toots and The Maytals, Minutemen, Fishbone, the Beastie Boys, even some classical Blues artists.

The result was a sound that was impossible to categorize but difficult to not enjoy.

41:28

The creative force behind Sublime was Bradley Knoll.

He was born February 22nd, 1968.

Possessing an unusual songwriting ability that combined catchy melodies, humorous storytelling, autobiographical lyrics, social commentary, heartfelt emotion, and streetwise realism.

41:49

He had a guitar style that mixed reggae rhythm playing with punk aggression.

His lyrics often addressed issues like addiction, relationship violence, poverty, police, racism, even just everyday life in Southern California.

42:06

Bradley's Dalmatian Lou Dog became as closely associated with the band as any of the actual members.

He regularly appeared on stage, in promotional photos, in music videos, on album artwork, with the dog freely wandering around during performances.

42:25

Having a very eclectic style and sound that couldn't be categorized made it where very few record companies understood Sublime or what their music was.

Rather than waiting for a record label to find them, Bradley Knoll and their manager Miguel Happold created Skunk Records.

42:46

This was an independent label that allowed Sublime to record their own music, distribute their own demo tapes, sell albums at shows, and most importantly, maintain their creative freedom.

Before releasing a full length studio album, Sublime circulated these demo tapes.

43:04

They included the 1988 EP, The Zepeda Demo, and the 1991 compilation album Jab Won't Pay the Bills, which included Lou Dog on the front.

Their performances in these albums helped Sublime develop a cult following throughout Southern California in the early 1990s.

43:24

Their first full length album was 1992's 40 Ounces to Freedom, which was released independently with sales being initially modest, but college radio stations, particularly the Los Angeles alternative station K Rock, began playing tracks from the album, greatly expanding the band's audience.

43:45

This album has a lot of famous sublime songs like Smoke 2 Joints, Date Rape, Scarlet Begonias, including Bad Fish which is one of my favorites.

Just 90 songs in general.

It has an excellent summer sound.

44:02

Then again, I say that about a lot of sublime music.

They are like one of the premier summer bands.

I guess that's the Southern California surf rock connections.

Critics initially struggled with where to classify 40 Ounces of Freedom, but the album later became one of the most beloved releases of the alt rock era of the 90s.

44:23

When you're self-publishing, when you're an independent artist, you've got to go and put the grind in, put the work in.

Sublime earned its reputation through relentless touring clubs, college campuses, festivals, beaches, warehouses, even house parties.

44:42

In 1994, Sublime released Robin the Hood, which was an even stranger record than 40 ounces of freedom.

Featuring lo fi recordings, home demos, studio experiments, spoken word interludes.

44:57

It included notable songs like Saw, Red Pool, Shark, STP.

It might have divided critics, but it helped to earn Sublime a major label record deal with MCA.

As the band's popularity grew, Bradley Knowles struggled with heroin addiction.

45:17

Friends and bandmates repeatedly encouraged treatment because his issues were complicating the recording sessions and touring finances and personal relationships.

The song Pool Shark is considered one of the most hauntingly autobiographical of all the songs that Bradley Knoll wrote.

45:37

While on tour in the early 90s, Knoll started dating Troy Dendiker.

She gave birth to their son Jacob in June 1995.

Friends had hoped that fatherhood would inspire lasting recovery from addiction, but unfortunately that didn't happen.

45:55

The band began recording what will become their biggest album, the self-titled Sublime Album.

The recording sessions for this album were energetic but often chaotic because of Bradley's ongoing drug use.

On May 18th, 1996, Bradley Knoll married Troy Dendiker in a Hawaiian themed wedding in Las Vegas.

46:18

Sadly, only one week later, May 25th, 1996, while preparing for tour dates, Bradley Knoll was found dead in a San Francisco motel room from a heroin overdose.

He was only 28 years old.

Sadly and understandably, Sublime the band was dead on arrival right there.

46:40

Two months later, on July 30th, 1996, Sublime's self-titled album, their first major label release, became an enormous commercial success.

The lead single, What I Got, was released July 23rd, 1996, thirty years ago this week.

46:59

Which you can figure that's why I put them on the podcast.

It was a strange feeling to hear this song the summer that I was graduating high school and just it's summed up summer this sublime album.

But to hear this song and say, wow, this is awesome.

47:17

This band is awesome.

I can't wait to dive into more of their music and learn more about them.

And then to find out that not only were they not around anymore, but their lead singer had recently died.

It was weird.

The self-titled album, besides What I Got, included Santeria Wrong Way, Due in Time.

47:39

These are all excellent Driving Summer by the Beach songs.

The album itself reached as high as #13 on the Billboard 200 and eventually has sold somewhere over 7 million copies.

47:55

It was interesting that when Sublime hit it big, their connection a few years earlier to Gwen Stefani from No Doubt became a thing she had sung on the song saw Red.

It was an incredible turn of events though for Sublime for the album to breakthrough, for them to become worldwide famous for their sound and then sadly not be able to follow it up or in Bradley Knowles case not even be around to experience it.

48:24

Sure they had a cult following in the years earlier, but I mean me growing up in the northeast I had never heard of Sublime until what I got came out.

I'm just speaking for me.

I don't know how far their reach went outside of the southwestern United States.

48:42

In total, the band Sublime has sold more than 17,000,000 albums worldwide.

They are still beloved as a big time band of the 90s, even though their real breakthrough came halfway through the decade.

This story does have a full circle and kind of happy ending.

49:00

After Sublime broke up, the other members of the band formed projects including Long Beach Dub All Stars.

In 2009, they reunited with vocalist Rome Ramirez, but legal restrictions prevented them from using the Sublime name, so they had to become the band Sublime With Rome.

49:20

That could have been where the story ended, but in 2023, Bradley Knoll's son Jacob Knoll joined Eric Wilson and Bud Go in the band, marking the first official revival of Sublime under its original name.

With the blessing of the Knoll family.

49:38

Just last month, on June 12th, 2026, Sublime released their first studio album in 30 years, Until the Sun Explodes.

This is the first album with Jacob serving as the front man.

Boy, does he sound like his father.

49:56

But the band in general?

They have described the reunited Sublime more as a tribute to Bradley's legacy rather than replacing him from the original era.

The story of Sublime the band is 1 of extraordinary creativity, heartbreaking loss, remarkable endurance.

50:15

This full circle.

Although Bradley Knowles life ended before he had experienced the band's commercial breakthrough, his songs continue to resonate with new generations.

I feel like the sublime sound of the 90s is kind of timeless beach music, that type.

50:34

It doesn't change much.

And I don't mean that as an insult.

It's almost comforting.

And even though he was only married for a week before he died and his son was only about a year old, Bradley Knoll contributed so much to music, including his own son, bringing the band back from the dead.

50:54

I know that Sublime was a big part of my high school experience.

Well, right after high school.

That album, that self-titled album just sums up my final summer of being, you know, high schooler.

And it stuck with me through college.

51:10

And then just continuing on.

It takes a strong band with strong music and strong lyrics to have such a lasting cultural impact with so little recorded output.

That is sublime.

That is why they are one of the defining and most beloved alt bands of the 90s.

51:30

And that was why it was very appropriate to do a segment on them on the podcast 30 years after the release of their breakthrough hit, What I Got.

But until next week, that is going to wrap up episode 253 of the In My Footsteps podcast.

51:47

Thank you so much for tuning in.

Thank you for making it to the end, wherever you are.

I hope the weather is good, maybe not too humid.

Get out there and enjoy the weather if possible.

I will keep the content train rolling.

Next week with episode 254, we're going to look back at the life and legacy of the legendary actor and comedian Robin Williams.

52:11

I'm going to laugh my ass off so much that I might have to go chase it down the street.

When we look back at Chappelle's Show and we're going to look at some of the biggest investments, collectibles, fails, things that you thought would be valuable.

52:27

So you bought a bunch of them and now they're not worth nothing.

Beanie Babies, I'm looking at you.

So all that's coming up next week on episode 254.

We've got a couple of weeks left in the fundraiser for my feature film debut, The Cabin.

52:43

The story that I wrote that is being directed by Mark Polonia, veteran of more than 100 films.

We are raising money for the budget.

Please check it out.

The link is at the top of the podcast notes.

Donate if you can, share if you can't.

53:02

I've got a few weeks left before I close down the fundraiser, and then in about a month, maybe a few days more than a month, I'll be going on location long days to film.

It is going to be really exciting and really fun.

It is this culmination as far as creative work, professional work.

53:23

I've wanted to be a film maker since I was in high school.

That's the whole story with me buying the camcorder in 1994.

It is not lost on me that something that I wrote, a story I wrote, is going to be a feature film with streaming and Blu-ray and hopefully some limited theatrical release, at least locally.

53:43

So please check that out if you can.

Of course, you can always become a Patreon member.

Tiers starting as low as $3 a month.

You can buy me a coffee if you can't part with your hard earned money.

And I definitely understand that sharing my work does just as much good.

54:02

And I've got lots of work. 250 plus podcasts, hundreds and hundreds of blogs, YouTube videos, 10 books.

My final book event of the summer is coming tomorrow from when this podcast goes live at the Dennis Public Library.

54:20

I took the month of August off from any events for obvious reasons.

Happy birthday this week to my cousin Tracy down in Florida and to my long time friend more like family.

Kristen.

I hope you both have the best days possible.

54:37

Great weather, great food, great people all around you, The sultry tones of my voice.

Wishing you happy birthday.

No, I'm not singing it.

And everyone else out there, remember to take care of your mental health.

Lean into the things that make you happy.

54:52

I know I don't say it every week, but I've said it so much on the podcast at the end because it's true.

I figured you would just know.

He always says that stuff, but it makes a big difference.

Good people, foods you like, shows, podcasts, places, all that endorphins, serotonin, all the good feeling hormones.

55:14

You need more of that in your life.

Life is not meant to be.

Work, sleep, nothing.

So remember to take care of your mental health.

I will do my best with interesting and engaging content like these podcasts.

Hopefully if you're still listening, I'm assuming you enjoy them.

55:32

And until next week, the last episode of July, remember in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps.

Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life.

Because you never know what tomorrow brings.

Thank you all again for tuning in.

55:49

This has been the In My Footsteps podcast.

I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew that, and I'll talk to you all again soon.