By Donnie Wahlberg

February 11, 2016 11:33 AM

The Story Behind New Kids on the Block’s Insane (and Preempted) 1991 Halftime Show (SL Playboy) NSFW
posted by josher71 (21 comments total)

DAMMIT. It's on Playboy and I can't read it at work. But let me tell you, 18-year-old me was devastated when it was preempted. I saw it later on that night (I want to say it aired in the middle of the night?) and ...wow. It was ... awful. And I'm a pretty die-hard NKOTB and Disney fan. Yeesh.
posted by kimberussell at 12:00 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Those outfits are as early 90's as you can get, though.

(I'm pretty sure I could have replicated two or three of them. I wore a waiter-jacket to 9th-grade prom. It was pretty dope.)
posted by oddman at 12:23 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

That's interesting. I remember very vividly Whitney Houston singing the national anthem (I still sort of think they should just play that every time) but I have no memory of nkotb. Either I didn't know they were going to perform or I got over that they were preempted quickly.
posted by betsybetsy at 12:33 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Am I crazy, or does Joey McIntyre look exactly like Sarah McLachlan in that picture?
posted by Sys Rq at 12:35 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Wherein we learn that the NKOTB influenced Michael Jackson...
posted by Nanukthedog at 12:36 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Despite being 5 years old at the time I remember this! Kind of refreshing to have coverage of that particular Super Bowl for something other than the obvious.

/go bills
posted by everybody had matching towels at 12:45 PM on February 11, 2016

If NKOTB was first, who were all the bands that were shown during Coldplay's weird "In Memoriam, just kidding, many of these people are still alive" montage during this year's show? I remember Whitney and Michael Jackson, but it seemed that there were others from older Superbowls.
posted by sideshow at 1:04 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

This was the first of Buffalo's unprecedented four-in-a-row trips to the Super Bowl! That must bring back some nice memories for Bills fans, right?
posted by Atom Eyes at 1:05 PM on February 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

TFA says that this is where Whitney's iconic National Anthem was performed, but I would have *sworn* it was from the Olympics. (Which makes no sense whatsoever 'cause they were in Barcelona in '92, and wouldn't have had our anthem performed like that anyway.)
Must have been her outfit reminded me of Team USA outifts.
posted by ApathyGirl at 1:19 PM on February 11, 2016

Maybe that’s why none of the kids ran up to me and sat in my lap. Or it could’ve been the cutoff T-shirt and the tattoo and the nose ring.

Yeah Donnie, you were just too hardcore for those kids
posted by Sangermaine at 1:52 PM on February 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

Yeah Donnie, you were just too hardcore for those kids

Send him to the Vincent Gallows!
posted by jimmythefish at 2:29 PM on February 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

Semi-related, but a really good read: How Whitney Houston Remade The Star-Spangled Banner
posted by Mchelly at 2:36 PM on February 11, 2016 [5 favorites]

I remember Whitney and Michael Jackson, but it seemed that there were others from older Superbowls

I think everyone wants to forget Up With People, but they made the montage nontheless.
posted by JoeZydeco at 2:36 PM on February 11, 2016

So does preempted mean something different in the USA?
posted by memebake at 3:01 PM on February 11, 2016

So does preempted mean something different in the USA?

It has alternate meanings outside the USA? Are they dirty?

I hope they're dirty.
posted by kanewai at 3:12 PM on February 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

Is your confusion memebake that the "preempted" refers to the fact that it wasn't shown on TV, rather than preempted all together and not shown at all?
posted by wyndham at 3:15 PM on February 11, 2016

I think everyone wants to forget Up With People, but they made the montage nontheless.

Crazy as it seems, Up With People performed during the pregame festivities at this same Super Bowl (XXVX, in 1991), prior to Whitney's iconic national anthem.
posted by roquetuen at 3:49 PM on February 11, 2016

Well, you meet 'em wherever you go!
posted by carsonb at 5:12 PM on February 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think everyone wants to forget Up With People, but they made the montage nontheless.

I know a MeFite (and by a quirk of fate we knew eachother pre-MeFi as well) who was a member of Up With people. And he's a cool dude.
posted by jonmc at 5:57 PM on February 11, 2016

I am a devoted NKOTB fan and definitely remember having their halftime show replaced with a stupid presidential speech.

I am disappoint, though, that the "insane" story is:
- Disney asked NKOTB to perform
- the performance happened
- but was never aired because there was a presidential speech.

Yawn.
posted by holyrood at 6:10 PM on February 11, 2016 [2 favorites]

I do not believe that a pre-empted halftime was JLo's first big break. She was a Fly Girl on In Living Color the same year, and that got (by definition) more air time. But she really skyrocketed with the Selena biopic a few years later.
posted by gingerest at 2:50 AM on February 12, 2016 [3 favorites]