Today, we look at the time that Angela Bassett made an oddly prophetic appearance on thirtysomething.
This is Past Was Close Behind, a feature that spotlights moments, exchanges, etc. from older TV shows/movies/songs that take on a brand new light when read in concert with later TV shows/movies/songs. Basically, stuff that looks hilarious (or interesting) in hindsight.
In the fifth episode of Season 3 of thirtysomething, Michael (Ken Olin) and Elliot (Timothy Busfield) are on a flight home from a work trip when their plane almost crashes. It deeply affects both guys. However, before that moment, Elliot is reading the book, I, Tina, Tina Turner’s 1986 autobiography…
Here is he with the book (released in paperback in 1987), which was a big hit at the time of the 1989 episode…
Well, later in the episode, Michael and Elliot throw a dinner party at Michael’s home, and invite some co-workers and their wives, and one of their co-workers’ wife is played by Angela Bassett (her future husband, Courtney B. Vance, appeared in Season 2 of the series. They weren’t dating yet at the time, though)…
And, of course, four years later, Bassett was nominated for an Oscar for playing Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to do With It, the hit film based on I, Tina!
Funny stuff.
If you have a suggestion for a future Past Was Close Behind, drop me a line at brian@poprefs.com
The detail about Angela Bassett appearing simply as an unnamed co-worker’s wife years before her breakout Oscar nod reminds me of how messy early professional credits can be for fine arts majors. For edge cases where a university awards fractional or pass/fail credits for outside acting work, does this GPA Calculator walkthrough clarify how those ungraded units affect minimum cumulative cutoffs?
Even though Elliot reading I, Tina on the plane technically happens in the exact same episode where Angela Bassett attends the dinner party, does it genuinely qualify as prophetic if the actor and the prop never shared a single frame? While checking SHA256 Online tips helps verify digital media archives against tampering, establishing the cutoff for what counts as an edge-case coincidence versus pure accident is much harder to define.
Elliot reading I, Tina on the flight before Angela Bassett showed up is such a great hindsight moment. I love these Past Was Close Behind features. Old TV clips keep coming back as trends, much like the Crazy Frog AI trend on TikTok right now.
Seeing Bassett pop up in that 1989 dinner party scene right after the Tina Turner autobiography cameo proves how minor early steps compound into massive breakthroughs down the line. For someone starting today who prefers calculating their trajectory rather than relying on pure luck, having the MapleStory Calculator explained in clear detail shows exactly how optimizing base stats early saves hundreds of wasted hours.