Nirvana Unplugs
MTV aired many great moments in music history but rarely did the music network have a hand in actually creating them. But such was the case in November 1993 when Nirvana performed on the acoustic music series MTV Unplugged. Surrounded by candles and lilies, Kurt Cobain shied away from his band’s big hits, instead preferring to cover the likes of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World” and the traditional folk song “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?” The performance was one of Cobain’s last; he would commit suicide just six months later. Nirvana’s Unplugged performance — subsequently released as a multiplatinum album — captured the band in all its stark, depressive beauty.
Seven Strangers Picked to Live in a House
MTV’s The Real World, now in its 23rd season, is, as its everlasting introduction tells us, “the true story of seven strangers, picked to live in a house, work together and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite… and start getting real.” The show has had any number of memorable moments — Stephen slapping Irene in the Seattle season, Ruthie going to rehab for alcoholism in Hawaii — but it was the show’s third season, set in San Francisco in 1994, and its cast of characters that made the series a hit. This was the season that starred Pedro Zamora, who used the show as a launching pad to educate the nation about HIV/AIDS. It was a personal struggle for him as the show’s first (and only) HIV-positive, openly gay cast member. Pedro’s conflicts with his roommate — the antagonistic bicycle messenger Puck — almost caused him to move out, but it was Puck instead who left the house. Pedro passed away surrounded by members of his Cuban family and a few cast members, just hours after the season finale aired. After his death, then-President Bill Clinton praised his efforts to bring awareness and understanding to the HIV/AIDS cause.
