19 Random '90s Pop Culture Facts You Probably Didn't Know But Are Honestly Fascinating

Cher and Anjelica Huston as Louis and Lestat in Interview with the Vampire?! I would like to see it.

1. Both Nirvana and MTV thought their now-iconic episode of Unplugged was going to be a disaster.

MTV

According to Dave Grohl, the band was not used to playing acoustically and the rehearsals they had for the show had all been terrible.

2. RuPaul got her big break after appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1993.

CBS Television Distribution

At the time, Ru's "Supermodel (You Better Work)" was a hit song and the video for it was on rotation on MTV, but she hadn't been exposed to a mainstream audience yet.

3. "Vogue" by Madonna was originally meant to be a B-side to "Keep It Together," which was the fifth single from her album Like a Prayer.

Warner Bros.

But after hearing the finished track, executives at Madonna's label, Warner Bros., thought it was too good to be a B-side and that it would be a good track for her upcoming album, I'm Breathless (aka the Dick Tracy soundtrack).

4. Elizabeth Taylor's White Diamonds perfume was the first hugely successful celebrity fragrance and to this day is a bestseller.

Images Press / Getty Images

White Diamonds, which was released in 1991, was neither Elizabeth's first fragrance nor the world's first celebrity fragrance. In fact, Cher had released a fragrance in 1987, while Sophia Loren had released one in 1981.

5. Brad Pitt hated filming Interview with the Vampire and actually signed on to do the movie without seeing a script for it first.

Warner Bros.

Brad was not a major star when he filmed the movie, and he signed on because he thought his role would be more like the one in the book. But instead, his character, Louis, was reduced and Tom Cruise's character, Lestat, was turned into the main character.

6. Cher cowrote a song for Interview with the Vampire called "Lovers Forever." Ultimately, it was cut from the soundtrack.

Cher @cher

beautiful Vampire song friend & i wrote 4 Interview w/A Vampire! Jen loves it brought it out so im going 2re-Record it w/2day Sound!Who no's

06:11 PM - 21 Aug 2012

7. The reason Cher wrote the song was because, at the time, she was considered for the role of Louis. In fact, Anne Rice actually wrote a script with not only Cher in mind, but also with Anjelica Huston as Lestat.

Ron Galella / Ron Galella Collection via Getty, Paramount

In this version of the story, Cher would have played a woman who was dressed as a man (Louis) in order to own her own land and run a plantation. The rest of the film would have followed the same storyline as Interview with the Vampire.

Also, Cher did eventually release the song in 2013.

8. Disney executives actually shut down the production of Toy Story 'cause they hated the early version of the movie they saw. Pixar said they would fix the film and begged Disney for two weeks to reconsider its decision — which, of course, they did, and the rest is history.

Disney Pixar

At the time, Disney had a three-picture deal with Pixar and was paying for the film, so they had a creative say in the movie.

9. Toni Braxton did not want to record "Un-Break My Heart" because she thought it was too adult contemporary sounding and she wanted a younger sound (she was only around 27 during the recording of the song).

Sony Music

Ultimately, she recorded it because the producers she was working with told her it would be a hit. And it went on to not only be a huge hit, but also become her signature song.

10. The character Lexington on Gargoyles was gay.

Disney

Greg Weisman, who co-created the series and was a writer-producer on it, said they didn't write the character to be gay at the beginning, but as they spent more time with all the characters, they came to the realization that Lexington was gay. Although, at the time, they would never have been able to address it onscreen, so had the series continued, it would have only been hinted at very subtly.

11. Left Eye starting her rap verse in "Waterfalls" with "I seen a rainbow yesterday..." was actually because the day before they recorded the song, she and T-Boz had been driving around and saw a beautiful rainbow.

Sony Music

According to T-Boz, the rainbow left Left Eye feeling good about life, and she used it as a metaphor for changing her life.

12. "Waterfalls" was the first song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 to reference HIV/AIDS in its lyrics.

Sony Music

Also, Clive Davis didn't want to release it as a single.

13. In 1994, Janet Jackson was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Again" from her film Poetic Justice.

The Academy Awards/ giphy.com

Janet lost to Bruce Springsteen, who won for "Streets of Philadelphia" from Philadelphia.

14. The Spice Girls asked to be on Beverly Hills, 90210, but Jason Priestley said no to it.

Brenda Chase / Getty Images

The Spice Girls would have appeared on "Graduation Day: Part 2," which was the final episode of Season 7. They would have been the band that Kelly's rich dad hires to play her graduation party. Ultimately, Jason picked the Cardigans to be the band in the scene.

15. Reese Witherspoon could've been Cher and Kerry Washington could've been Dionne in Clueless.

BuzzFeed

They both were up for the roles.

16. Reese Witherspoon was not the first choice to play Annette in Cruel Intentions — the studio really wanted Katie Holmes for the role.

Getty Images/ Warner Bros. Television, Columbia Pictures

In fact, Reese didn't want the role either. It was only after her then-boyfriend, Ryan Phillippe, and the film's writer-director, Roger Kumble, begged her to do it that she accepted it.

17. Originally, Alanis Morissette's "Hand in My Pocket" was meant to be the theme song for Dawson's Creek.

Getty Images/ Warner Bros.

However, they couldn't get the rights to the song, so instead they went with Paula Cole's "I Don't Want to Wait" as the theme song.

18. The Backstreet Boys filmed the music video for their song "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)" in the same mansion that Casper was filmed in.

Sony Music, Universal Pictures

19. And finally, the classic "The One Where No One's Ready" episode of Friends was written as a way to save money — it only starred the main cast and took place on one set (Monica and Rachel's apartment).

Warner Bros. Television

The idea for this episode came from Kevin S. Bright (a longtime director on the show), who realized they could save money on this episode and put those savings toward their budget for episodes further into the season.