Writer of Pop Culture

Cool and refreshing news about pop culture and entertainment.

This Day in Pop Culture for November 30

On this day in pop culture history, the Mason Jar was created, Michael Jackson finished a killer album, Father Dowling began solving mysteries and Ken Jennings lost on “Jeopardy.’

November 30, 2020

2–3 minutes

1982: Michael Jackson’s Killer Album

On speaking about his upcoming sixth studio album, Michael Jackson said that he wanted to make an album where every song was a killer, and he nearly did that. Thriller, which debuted on this day in 1982, was Jackson’s first number one album on Billboard’s Top LPs and Tapes chart. And it stayed there for 37 weeks.

Seven of the album’s 10 singles were released including “The Girl Is Mine” (with Paul McCartney), “Billie Jean”, “Beat It”, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’ ”, “Human Nature”, “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)”, and “Thriller”. All of them reached the top 10 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart.

Today, the most remembered song off the album is of course, “Thriller”, but Epic Records didn’t initially plan on releasing it as they saw it as a novelty song. In addition to Jackson, fans were also “thrilled” to hear horror movie star, Vincent Price performing a spoken-word sequence at the end of the song followed by his legendary laughter. (Image: Epic Records/Wikipedia)

1987: Mr. C Becomes a Priest

After appearing as Mr. Cunningham on Happy Days and Sherriff Amos Tupper during the first three seasons of Murder She Wrote, Tom Bosley got the chance to star in his own show, only wearing a totally different uniform.

In Father Dowling Mysteries, Bosley played Father Francis Dowling who also had a habit of walking in on various murders (and a few crimes as well) in Chicago, Illinois. His crime-fighting partner was the street smart (and much younger) Sister Stephanie Oskowski played by Tracy Nelson. The cast also included Mary Wickes as Dowling’s housekeeper and parish secretary, Marie Gillespie and James Stephens as Father Philip Prestwick. Bosley also got a chance to play Dowling’s evil twin brother, Blaine three times and Nelson’s then husband, William R Moses, appeared in one episode as Stephanie’s ex-boyfriend.

1858: The Mason Jar is Invented

While home canning jars using wax sealers had been used since the late 1830s, it was on this day in 1858 that John Landis Mason patented his design known today as the Mason Jar. Up until then, home canners had to pour sealing wax into a channel around the lip of a tin lid which wasn’t easy or reliable. Mason invented and patented a screw finish glass that is still used by many today.

2004: Ken Jennings Finally Loses at Jeopardy

The longest running winning streak for the U.S. TV game show, Jeopardy! came to an end on this day in 2004. Software engineer Ken Jennings won 74 games in a row and won more than $2.5 million. The event gave Jennings more than 15 minutes of fame that year. Barbara Walters named him on of the “10 most fascinating people of the year,” he was a guest on Late Night with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Sesame Street. In 2021, Jennings became host of Jeopardy.