25 pop culture anniversaries we're celebrating in 2025: Britney Spears' 'Oops!,' Billy Joel's Coliseum farewell, 'Golden Girls,' more
Miami nice: From left, Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Estelle Getty of "The Golden Girls" Credit: Alamy Stock Photo/Collection Christophel
In 2025, we'll be celebrating many significant pop culture anniversaries from the premieres of “The Jeffersons” (50th!) and "The Golden Girls" (40th!) to “Toy Story” (30th!) and Billy Joel closing Nassau Coliseum (10th!). Here's our annual, extremely subjective list of notable anniversaries designed, as always, to make you say out loud, “I can't believe it's been that long!”
1975 (50th anniversary)
Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley of "The Jeffersons." Credit: PictureLux/The Hollywood Archive/Alamy Stock Photo
JAN. 18 "The Jeffersons": George and Weezie leave Archie and Edith behind and move on up to a deluxe apartment in the sky.
MAY 31 "The Hustle" hits No. 1: Disco fever begins to break out, with Van McCoy's dance hit. Sales of polyester shirts triple.
JUNE 20 "Jaws": The birth of the summer blockbuster.
OCT. 11 "Saturday Night Live": Still running strong, now watched by the grandchildren, and maybe great-grandchilden, of the original viewers.
OCT. 27 Boss-mania breaks out: As "Born to Run" launches Bruce Springsteen into the national consciousness, he becomes the first entertainer to appear simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek.
FIVE MORE TO REMEMBER: "Nashville"; Silver Convention's disco smash "Fly, Robin, Fly"; "Chinatown"; "A Chorus Line" opens on Broadway; "Starsky & Hutch"
1985 (40th anniversary)
Rambo (Sylvester Stallone) is interrogated in a scene from "Rambo: First Blood Part II." Credit: Columbia/TriStar via Getty Images
FEB. 15 "The Breakfast Club": The Brat Pack at its height.
MAY 22 "Rambo First Blood, Part 2": Sylvester Stallone gets gung-ho as he re-fights the Vietnam War.
JULY 3 "Back to the Future": So if they remade this movie today, and Marty McFly went back in time 30 years, he'd be in 1995?
OCT. 26 "Saving All My Love for You": Whitney Houston has her first No. 1 song.
SEPT. 14 "The Golden Girls": Forty years later, all we can say to Dorothy, Sophia, Rose and Blanche is: Thank you for being our friends.
FIVE MORE TO REMEMBER: "Live Aid"; "We Are the World"; Madonna's "Like a Virgin"; "The Color Purple"; "Moonlighting"
1995 (30th)
Selena performs at the Astrodome during the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo on Feb. 26, 1995, a month before her death. Credit: AP/John Everett
JAN. 16 "Star Trek: Voyager": The fourth in the TV franchise (and the first with a female captain) was the centerpiece of UPN, a new (and ultimately doomed) broadcast network.
MARCH 31 Selena murdered: The world's most popular Tejano singer is shot to death by her former personal assistant in a Corpus Christi, Texas, Days Inn.
JULY 19 "Clueless": Take one Jane Austen novel, change the setting to Beverly Hills and the result is an instant classic and star-making vehicle for Alicia Silverstone.
AUG. 9 Jerry Garcia dies: The Grateful Dead leader, 53, dies of a heart attack in his room at a California rehab facility.
NOV. 22 "Toy Story": Woody and Buzz become pop-culture icons, Don Rickles finds a new audience as the voice of Mr. Potato Head and computer-generated animation comes of age.
FIVE MORE TO REMEMBER: TLC's "CrazySexyCool"; "Braveheart"; Alanis Morissette’s "Jagged Little Pill"; O.J. Simpson trial; "Batman Forever"
2000 (25th)
Britney Spears performing at Jones Beach Amphitheater on June 27, 2000. Credit: Getty Images/Scott Gries
JAN. 1 Y2K fears subside: That sound you heard was the world breathing a collective sigh of relief that we were not tossed back into the Stone Age.
MARCH 21 ‘N Sync breaks out: Justin Timberlake and his boys set the one-week Nielsen SoundScan sales high of 2.4 million with their album “No Strings Attached.” It sells 1 million the first day, 9 million by year’s end.
MAY 3 “Oops! . . . I Did It Again”: Britney Spears’ second album turns the 19-year-old ex-Mouseketeer into a pop icon.
MAY 31 “Survivor”: The reality era begins on network TV. A few months later, 51 million viewers will watch the first season finale. Richard Hatch, a scheming corporate trainer, took home the $1 million prize and later went to jail for failing to pay back taxes on those same winnings.
FIVE MORE TO REMEMBER: "Big Brother" debuts; "CSI"; "Gladiator"; "The Marshall Mathers LP"; Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston marry
2005 (20th)
The gang at Dunder Mifflin, from left, rear: Oscar Nunez, Brian Baumgartner, Leslie David Baker, Ed Helms, Steve Carrell, Mindy Kaling, Phyllis Smith, Creed Bratton, Angela Kinsey Credit: NBC/Everett Collection
MARCH 24 "The Office": The funniest workplace show on TV since "Mary Tyler Moore."
MAY 23 Tom Cruise jumps on Oprah's couch: Declaring his love for then-wife Katie Holmes, the actor knocks down his reputation several notches and creates a TV moment that went viral (as the term would become known).
NOV. 8 TMZ.com launches: Celebrity culture would never be the same.
DEC. 9 "Brokeback Mountain": Breakthrough film that was definitely not your daddy's cowboy movie.
DEC. 15 YouTube launches: Just what did we do with our time before this?
FIVE MORE TO REMEMBER: Carrie Underwood wins "American Idol"; Mariah Carey's "We Belong:Together"; "Grey's Anatomy" debuts; "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"; Destiny's Child breaks up (and so do Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston)
2015 (10th)
Billy Joel greets fans at his farewell concert at the original Nassau Coliseum. Credit: Howard Schnapp
JAN. 7 "Empire" debuts: The hip-hop version of "Dynasty" had plenty of bling,backstabbing and bad behavior.
MAY 20 David Letterman's final "Late Show": After 33 years on late-night TV, Letterman signs off and begins growing his Santa Claus-like beard. (Stephen Colbert took over as "Late Show" host on Sept. 8.)
AUG. 4 Billy Joel closes the Nassau Coliseum: Appropriately opening the show with "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," the Piano Man bid farewell to the original Old Barn, about to undergo a multimillion dollar renovation. When it was finished 20 months later, a Joel concert reopened the arena.
NOV. 20 Adele's "25": The British singer's third studio album sold 1.9 million copies after two days of availability, and 2.3 million after three, becoming the fastest-selling album of the 21st century and the bestselling album of 2015.
NOV. 25 "Creed": The "Rocky" legend continues with Michael B. Jordan playing the son of Rocky's rival Apollo Creed and Sylvester Stallone as his trainer.
FIVE MORE TO REMEMBER: "Hamilton" moves to Broadway; Bruce Jenner becomes Caitlyn Jenner; "Mad Men" ends; Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck"; "Jurassic World"
Andy Edelstein, Newsday's entertainment editor, supervises coverage of TV, celebrities, movies and pop music. He has written three books on popular culture, including "The Brady Bunch Book."
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