The Wild World of Pre-Millennium Super Bowl Halftime Shows

Jonah Krueger
·7 min read
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The post The Wild World of Pre-Millennium Super Bowl Halftime Shows appeared first on Consequence.

This Sunday, February 11th, the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will compete in Super Bowl LVIII — perhaps you’ve heard about it. The two teams will take to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for the final contest of the 2023-24 season, dissected by the yearly spectacle that is the Super Bowl halftime show.

This year, R&B superstar Usher will take the stage for the Apple Music Halftime Show, continuing the NFL’s streak of featuring some of the most recognizable artists on the planet. But that streak is shorter than you might remember. While the Super Bowl halftime show has stood as a bombastic, anticipated, much-discussed staple of the football season for two-and-a-half decades, the performances of yesteryear weren’t always so exciting.

For the first leg of what’s known as the “Super Bowl Era,” various marching bands would fill the void between the second and third quarters. As football’s profile continued to grow following the NFL-AFL merger in 1970, higher-ups began to wonder how to keep eyes on the broadcast while the players hit the locker rooms.

Let’s just say, it took a while for them to figure it out. Prior to the 2000s, the only halftime show that resembled what modern audiences have come to expect is Michael Jackson’s 1993 performance. Outside of the king of pop, the years were littered with bizarre “celebrations,” Disney tie-ins, and, yes, marching bands. A good deal aren’t worth remembering, but others are so strange that we can’t help but trumpet their existence. Welcome to the wild world of pre-millennium Super Bowl halftime shows.

1976 — “200 Years and Just a Baby: A Tribute to America’s Bicentennial”

In 1976, just a few years removed from the Vietnam War and Watergate, the United States of America celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. To NFL organizers, this called for a celebration, and thus, “200 Years and Just a Baby” — what a name. Presented by Up with People for Super Bowl X, the show marked the first halftime performance to not feature a marching band as its headlining act. In place of trumpets and snare drums, hundreds of performers sang “some of the greatest sounds in American history,” or at least, that’s how the broadcasters billed it. We’d make a joke about the manufactured, sanitized optimism and distorted representation of America, but The Simpsons already beat us to it.

1983 — “KaleidoSUPERscope”

By the ’80s, the institution of halftime shows slowly began to teethe. Disney had stepped in after Up with People to present “It’s a Small World,” and the NFL even nabbed their first presenting sponsor in 1979 when Carnival bankrolled “Salute to the Caribbean.” Marching bands still had a presence, but the spectacle seemed to be increasing with each passing year, particularly when it came to visuals. So, the next logical step, of course, is to go full-on psychedelic with kaleidoscope imagery. I mean, we were all thinking it.

The resulting “KaleidoSUPERscope” is truly bizarre, featuring everything from abstract, geometric visual transitions to slow-moving, umbrella-carrying armies of dancers. There’s no true musical performance; instead, instrumental versions of pop songs and carnival tunes are pumped through the loudspeaker as the Jumbotron instructs attendees to flip provided colored cards. The whole thing culminates in a final message of “friendship, peace, and love in 1983.” If this were a parody, it’d fall flat for being too ridiculous.

1984 — “A Sparking Salute to the Silver Screen”

Strictly talking numbers, Mickey Mouse has been to as many Super Bowls as Payton Manning. “A Sparking Salute to the Silver Screen” is the second of the Walt Disney-produced halftime shows, and there’s a case to be made that it’s the most unhinged. To the mouse’s credit, it’s a pretty lavish production. They cram as many dancers, mascots, and props as they possibly can onto the field, and it’s almost enough to distract modern viewers from noticing how creepy some of the characters’ costumes look. It’s a very 1984 showcase — dare I say, Orwellian (it’s not at all, but you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take) — and a fitting middle child for the bonkers trilogy of ’83, ’84, and ’85. Speaking of…

1985 — “The World of Children’s Dreams”

Because “KaleidoSUPERscope” was, apparently, not strange enough, the halftime show for Super Bowl XIX felt the need to explore “The World of Children’s Dreams.” Actually, to be more specific, the United States Air Force, which presented the performances, felt the need to explore “The World of Children’s Dreams.” Gotta start the recruiting early!

There are oversized props, original songs, and waving children dispersed throughout the field. Set pieces included a slew of singing pirates arriving by ship, a space segment set to “Also sprach Zarathustra,” and, expectedly, a patriotic grand finale. Fittingly, it’s as close to a fever dream as a Super Bowl halftime has ever gotten.

1989 — “1950’s Rock and Roll (Be Bop Bamboozled in 3-D)”

Never mind, this is as close to a fever dream as a Super Bowl halftime show has ever gotten. “Be Bop Bamboozled in 3-D” follows in the long tradition of Super Bowl tribute shows, where a certain genre or culture is celebrated (and we use “celebrated” pretty generously here) through medleys and choreography. This time, as you might have guessed, the show looks back on ’50s rock ‘n’ roll, complete with an Elvis impersonator hamming it up throughout the entire performance.

Because getting Vegas’ third-best Elvis wasn’t enough of a gimmick, the show also boasts two additional twists: the advent of “3-D technology” and an audience-led magic trick. Both are as strange as they sound, particularly the latter, as Elvis sings his way through guessing which card the shockingly engaged audience chose. It’s certainly one way to close out the 1980s.

1995 — “Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye”

As the NFL entered the ’90s, it was honing in on what the Super Bowl halftime show should be. Micheal Jackson’s now legendary performance came in ’93, though, the lesson producers learned from that success was seemingly not that audiences wanted actual performers, but rather that they wanted recognizable properties. So close guys!

“Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye” was one such example and quite a strange one at that. Beyond the over-the-top theatrics and pyrotechnics, there are also unexpected appearances from Patti LaBelle and Tony Bennett. It’s quite the affair, and one that they’d try to replicate with an equally wild Blues Brothers show in 1997 (which had its own musician cameos in the form of ZZ Top and James Brown).

2000 — “Tapestry of Nations”

By the turn of the millennium, the NFL had finally begun to hit its stride when it came to halftime shows. Following The Blues Brothers’ performance of ’97, there was a streak of genre celebrations that actually featured recognizable artists (like The Temptations and Boyz II Men for “Salute to Motown’s 40th Anniversary, or Gloria Estefan and Stevie Wonder for “Celebration of Soul, Salsa, and Swing”). Arriving perfectly in 2000, Super Bowl XXXVI’s “Tapestry of Nations” serves as an apt transitional performance for the modern age.

“Tapestry of Nations” has one foot in the past and one foot in the future. It’s a themed celebration akin to those of Super Bowl’s early years, but also boasts bona fide superstars at the heart of its production. The last ever performance to be produced by Disney (another marker of a changing Super Bowl), “Tapestry of Nations” finds Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, and more engaging in “a world-wide tribute to human spirit.” Within the next few years, the NFL would realize it doesn’t need a veiled excuse or some grand tribute to throw popstars on a stage and have them do their thing. But man, it was good wild ride while it lasted, huh?

The Wild World of Pre-Millennium Super Bowl Halftime Shows
Jonah Krueger

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