Ah, 1998 – it seems just like yesterday, doesn’t it? Well, it was a decade ago – how time flies! Let’s see what was happening in the week of April 28th, 1998.
In television news, Jerry Springer is forced to clean up his show. There had been controversy as to whether the shows guests were really brawling or just faking it for the small screen. The Chicago City Council said if the fighting was real, the guests should be arrested. At that point, Jerry pulled the plug on fighting.
Maybe he realized people were just looking for entertainment that is more intellectual from the boob tube. Biography shows were popping up all over including A&E’s “Biography,” E!’s “True Hollywood Story,” and VH1’s “Behind the Music.”
Tom Snyder told CBS that he planned to quit his late night talk show before his contract ran out in September of 1999. Snyder, a late night staple, had been hosting this particular show since 1995.
On Monday nights, you could catch “Murphy Brown” on CBS, “Ally McBeal” on Fox, or “Daria” on MTV.
Were you looking for a good book to read in 1998? There were plenty out there to be found including Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden, Blood Work by Michael Connelly, and Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.
Hot movies at the box office this week were City of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan, The Big Hit with Mark Wahlberg and Lou Diamond Phillips, and the biggest movie of the year Titanic with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.
What were some of the top tunes this week in 1998? There was Shania Twain with “You’re Still The One, Celine Dion with “My Heart Will Go On”, and Will Smith with “Getting’ Jiggy Wit It.”
In national news, President Clinton opposed California’s Proposition 227, which would ban bilingual education. Instead, he favored a limit of three years for bilingual programs.