Your favorite stories of people becoming famous in one day

We all know where the name came from.

 

Somewhat similar... Chris Stapleton was a pretty obscure country musician until he did a duet of "Tennessee Whiskey" with Justin Timberlake at the 2015 CMA's. He immediately blew up huge, almost literally overnight. He came through town maybe a month later and played a club that might seat 800 people, maybe. Totally packed.

 

Bob Beamon. Billy Mills. Dick Fosbury, a nobody until he invented the flop. Lots of obscurity-to-fame guys in T&F.

Mike Eurzione. His name was only marginally out there before the Friday night against the Russians, Craig and Johnson were the team poster boys.

 

Macauley Culkin already had stolen the show in a previous John Hughes movie, Uncle Buck. Home Alone turned him into a star, but this was his first big break:

Also, I submit Kerri Strug winning gold for the US after landing the final vault on one leg

 

Sports and crime really aren't fair game.

I'm trying to think of a TV actor who blew up overnight. Robin Williams kind of did after Mork and Mindy (even though he did a one-off on Happy Days). You hear about comedians who pop after a one appearance on Carson, get a sitcom deal in a day.

The Beatles are pretty close. One month after getting their first airplay in the U.S. they appeared on the Ed Sullivan show with an audience of 73 million, more than a third of US population at the time.

 

Beatles are a good choice.

I can't think of anyone TV-related light now. Movie-related, I think of Brad Pitt. He had some minor roles in TV and movies, but blew up huge after Thelma and Louise.

 

I was there as a punk college kid ditching school. Behind the third base dugout.

I'll never forget the boos when the Mets manager took Doc Gooden out right before Rhodes' fourth at-bat.

 

What about the original cast of SNL? I hadn’t heard of any of them (Chicago, SCTV folks will disagree), but on a national level, SNL made instant stars out of lots of folks - Belushi, Chase, Aykroyd, Roseanna-Danna, et al.

Instant Monday morning office talk, pre-Internet.

 

Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) comes to mind.

So does Rachel Bloom from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, but while she’s won awards, I’m still not sure enough people watch that show for her to qualify as “famous.”

 

The Sweathogs, especially Travolta. They were working actors but became stars as soon as “Welcome Back Kotter” aired.

 

We went to a Letterman taping a few days between the CMA’s and I remembered some scruf with a weird cowboy hat walking through the crowd while we were all in line. An hour later, he was playing on stage, in the same clothes and the same hat. Nobody knew him. Anyone who likes country music knew him a week later.

His sound is part of the reason I don’t listen to country music. Because I’m afraid I’ll start to like it.

 

Anybody said Buster Douglas?