Topics: Jimmy Carter, Donna Summer, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor - Live In Concert, Roots: The Next Generations. (Bonus Artist: Luck Pacheco)

 

 

1979

 

Snapshots

 

1.    Jimmy Carter president

 

2.    Mar - America's most serious nuclear power plant accident at Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania.

 

3.    Mar - C-SPAN, an American television channel focusing on government and public affairs, is launched.

 

4.    Apr - On CBS, the final episode of All in the Family is seen by 40.2 million American viewers.

 

5.    Jun - McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal.

 

6.    Sep - ESPN, an all-sports channel, launches and becomes the first cable TV channel to be launched as a 24-hour channel

 

7.    Oct - President Jimmy Carter signs a law establishing the Department of Education. [also responsible for Dept. of Energy]

 

8.    Nov - Iran hostage crisis begins: 3,000 Iranian radicals, mostly students, invade the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and take 90 hostages (53 of whom are American). They demand that the United States send the former Shah of Iran back to stand trial.

 

9.    Open Comments:

 

10.    Popular Music Scene

 

11.    #1 - "My Sharona", The Knack

 

12.    #2 - "Bad Girls", Donna Summer

 

13.    #3 - "Le Freak", Chic

 

14.    Record of the Year: "What a Fool Believes"-The Doobie Brothers

 

15.    Album of the Year: "52nd Street"-Billy Joel

 

16.    Song of the Year: "What a Fool Believes"-The Doobie Brothers

 

17.    Best New Artist: Rickie Lee Jones

 

18.    Open Comments:

 

19.    Popular Movies

 

20.    #1 - Kramer vs. Kramer

 

21.    #2 - The Amityville Horror

 

22.    #3 - Rocky II

 

23.    Notables: Apocalypse Now, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Alien, 10, The Jerk, Moonraker, The Muppet Movie, Phantasm, The Warriors.

 

24.    Open Comments:

 

25.    Popular TV

 

26.    #1 - 60 Minutes

 

27.    #2 - Three's Company

 

28.    #3 - That's Incredible!

 

29.    Open Comments:

 

30.    Black Snapshots

 

31.    Jan - Singer Donny Hathaway dies after falling 15 stories from his hotel room in New York City. According to Hathaway's record company, Atlantic, the singer had been having some psychological problems

 

32.    Apr - Real People, starring Byron Allen, featured a panel of seated hosts in front of a large studio audience. The hosts introduced pre-filmed segments and engaged in comedic banter about them. Each segment was a visit to someone with a unique occupation or hobby.

 

33.    Aug - Michael Jackson releases his first breakthrough album Off the Wall. It sells 7 million copies in the United States alone, making it a 7x platinum album.

 

34.    Aug – “Prince”, the self-titled second studio album from Prince was released. The album was written, arranged, composed, produced and performed entirely by Prince. Singles: “I Wanna Be Your Lover" & "Sexy Dancer".

 

35.    Aug – TV Debut: The Facts of Life

 

36.    Sep - Benson

 

37.    Sep - Sugarhill Gang releases Rapper's Delight.

 

38.    Nov - The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh (Film)

 

39.    Open Comments:

 

40.    Economic

 

41.    New House: 58k

 

42.    Avg. income: 17.5k

 

43.    New car: 5.7k

 

44.    Avg rent: 280

 

45.    Gas: 0.86 

 

46.    Inflation reaches double digits - 13%

 

47.    Open Comments:

 

48.    Social Scene:  Jimmy Carter’s truth-telling sermon to Americans

 

49.    James Earl Carter Jr. (@ 55yrs old in 1979), Politician and philanthropist. Born and raised in south-west Georgia, Jimmy grew up to be a U.S. Navy Lieutenant, Georgia State Senator, Governor of Georgia, and the 39th POTUS.

 

50.    On July 15, 1979, President Jimmy Carter went on national television to share with millions of Americans his diagnosis of a nation in crisis. "It’s clear that the true problems of our nation are much deeper -- deeper than gasoline lines or energy shortages, deeper even than inflation or recession. And I realize more than ever that as President I need your help...I know, of course, being President, that government actions and legislation can be very important. That’s why I’ve worked hard to put my campaign promises into law, and I have to admit, with just mixed success. But after listening to the American people, I have been reminded again that all the legislation in the world can’t fix what’s wrong with America. So, I want to speak to you first tonight about a subject even more serious than energy or inflation. I want to talk to you right now about a fundamental threat to American democracy. I do not mean our political and civil liberties. They will endure. And I do not refer to the outward strength of America, a nation that is at peace tonight everywhere in the world, with unmatched economic power and military might. The threat is nearly invisible in ordinary ways. It is a crisis of confidence."

 

51.    General Legacy

 

52.    Carter's presidency was initially seen as a failure. Although HE ESTABLISHED THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY  and the  DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, initiated a lot of pro-environment policies, PLAYED A KEY ROLE IN NEGOTIATING A PEACE TREATY BETWEEN EGYPT AND ISRAEL, IMPROVED RELATIONS WITH PANAMA BY GIVING THEM CONTROL OF THE PANAMA CANAL, his  administration was plagued by dissatisfaction from congressional Democrats, high unemployment and inflation, an energy crisis, and most notably the Iranian Hostage Crisis. Carter has said his biggest lesson from his time in office was, "not to ever let American hostages be held for 444 days in a foreign country without extracting them." He added, "I did the best I could, but I failed."

 

53.    However, Carter’s peacekeeping and humanitarian efforts since he left office have earned him a Nobel Peace Prize, along with a Grammy award, making him one of the most successful ex-presidents in American history. - The Independent wrote, "Carter is widely considered a better man than he was a president."

 

54.    Open Comments:

 

55.    African American Legacy/ Appointments

 

56.    Patricia Roberts Harris: Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. The first African American woman to serve in the United States Cabinet, and the first to enter the line of succession to the Presidency.

 

57.    Amalya Lyle Kearse: the first female African-American circuit court judge

 

58.    Andrew Young: Ambassador to the United Nations, the first African-American to hold a high-level diplomatic post.

 

59.    On Obama

 

60.    Carter has criticized the Obama administration for its use of drone strikes against suspected terrorists.

 

61.    Carter also said that he disagrees with President Obama's decision to keep the Guantánamo Bay detention camp open.

 

62.    In July 2013, Carter expressed his criticism of current federal surveillance programs as disclosed by Edward Snowden.

 

63.    Carter believes the Obama administration “waited too long” to act on ISIS.

 

64.    When asked about Obama's "success or failures on the world stage," Carter replied: "On the world stage, I think they've been minimal...let me add again, let me repeat, I don't blame him for it, because there's been circumstances that have been involved."

 

65.    Audio Clip: OPRAH'S SUPERSOUL CONVERSATIONS - Season 7 Episode 620 (Aired on 09/27/2015)

 

66.    Question: How should black folks think about Jimmy? Friend - Foe - Forgettable

 

67.    Music Scene

 

68.    Black Songs from the Top 40 

 

69.    #2    "Bad Girls"    Donna Summer

 

70.    #3    "Le Freak"    Chic

 

71.    #5    "Reunited"    Peaches & Herb

 

72.    #6    "I Will Survive"    Gloria Gaynor

 

73.    #7    "Hot Stuff"    Donna Summer

 

74.    #8    "Y.M.C.A."    Village People

 

75.    #9    "Ring My Bell"    Anita Ward

 

76.    #12    "MacArthur Park"    Donna Summer

 

77.    #15    "Fire"    The Pointer Sisters

 

78.    #20    "Good Times"    Chic

 

79.    #22    "Knock on Wood"    Amii Stewart

 

80.    #24    "Lead Me On"    Maxine Nightingale

 

81.    #25    "Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground)"    The Jacksons

 

82.    #30    "You Can't Change That"    Raydio

 

83.    #31    "Shake Your Groove Thing"    Peaches & Herb

 

84.    #32    "I'll Never Love This Way Again"    Dionne Warwick

 

85.    #38    "After the Love Has Gone"    Earth, Wind & Fire

 

86.    #39    "Heaven Knows"    Donna Summer and Brooklyn Dreams

 

87.    Vote:

 

88.    Top R&B Albums

 

89.    Jan - C'est Chic, Chic

 

90.    Mar - 2 Hot, Peaches & Herb

 

91.    Mar - Instant Funk, Instant Funk

 

92.    Apr - We Are Family, Sister Sledge

 

93.    Jun - Bad Girls, Donna Summer

 

94.    Jul - I Am, Earth, Wind & Fire

 

95.    Jul - Teddy, Teddy Pendergrass

 

96.    Sep - Midnight Magic, Commodores

 

97.    Oct - Off the Wall, Michael Jackson

 

98.    Oct - Ladies' Night, Kool & the Gang

 

99.    Dec - Masterjam, Rufus and Chaka Khan

 

100.    Vote:

 

101.    Key Artists

 

102.    LaDonna Adrian Gaines, a.k.a. Donna Summer - Disco Queen (@ 31 yrs. old) (past away 2012 @ 63 yrs. old): Singer, songwriter, and actress. Five-time Grammy winner, the first artist to have three consecutive double albums reach number one and charted four number-one singles in the US within a 12-month period. She had dance hits in five straight decades; she hit the pop Hot 100 32 times. And her biggest songs altered the course of pop music permanently: Love to Love You Baby, I Feel Love, Hot Stuff, This Time I Know It’s for Real, Bad Girls, & She Works Hard for the Money.

 

103.    Audio Clips

 

104.    Open Comments

 

105.    Michael Joseph Jackson, The King of Pop (@ 21 yrs. old): Singer, songwriter, dancer, and global icon.

 

106.    "...Raised in the limelight by an infamously strict father, Michael (as a teenager) was painfully self-conscious, worried that he might never be able to shake his child stardom. He didn’t want to merely cling to his family’s fading notoriety. He wanted to break away from it completely. Off the Wall is the sound of that liberation. And he knew exactly what he was doing. On November 6, 1979, just as the album was starting to take off, Michael wrote a note to himself on the back of a tour itinerary, a proclamation of self so ambitious it could make Kanye blush. "MJ will be my new name, no more Michael Jackson. I want a whole new character, a whole new look, I should be a totally different person. People should never think of me as the kid who sang ‘ABC’ [and] ‘I Want You Back,’" he jotted down. "I should be a new incredible actor singer dancer that will shock the world. I will do no interviews. I will be magic. I will be a perfectionist, a researcher, a trainer, a masterer… I will study and look back on the whole world of entertainment and perfect it. Take it steps further from where the greats left off." - by Ryan Dombal Features Editor 2/24/2016 pitchfork.com

 

107.    Audio Clips

 

108.    Open Comments

 

109.    Movies

 

110.    Richard Pryor: Live in Concert is a 1979 American stand-up comedy film starring Richard Pryor and directed by Jeff Margolis.

 

111.    In her review of Richard Pryor Live in Concert, Pauline Kael commented, "Probably the greatest of all recorded-performance films. Pryor had characters and voices bursting out of him .... Watching this mysteriously original physical comedian you can't account for his gift and everything he does seems to be for the first time."

 

112.    Audio Clips

 

113.    Open Comments

 

114.    Television

 

115.    Roots: The Next Generations

 

116.    Primetime Emmy Awards: Best Limited Series and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or a Special – Marlon Brando for "Episode VII"

 

117.    Vote: Favorite Pop Culture reference from 1979