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Los Angeles - There were goodbyes (Jon Stewart, David Letterman and Mad Men) and hellos (Adele!). Star Wars reawakened, and a ballerina and an unheralded Founding Father both hit the zeitgeist.
But the pop-culture moment that fascinated the most? That had to be the emergence of Caitlyn Jenner.
Herewith a very selective trip down pop culture memory lane:
JANUARY
Remember we began the year talking about North Korea? At the Golden Globes, Tina Fey welcomed the TV audience to honour "all the movies that North Korea was okay with" — a reference to the Sony hacking story striking fear across the land (or at least La La Land.) But by next month, we're talking about...
FEBRUARY
...#OscarsSoWhite. The Twitter hashtag protested the fact that all the Oscar acting nominees were white; Selma director Ava DuVernay was snubbed along with star David Oyelowo. At the ceremony, prominent honourees spoke out for voting rights, gender equality in Hollywood, and privacy from government snooping. Meanwhile on TV, the swift downfall of NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams began when he was suspended for making misleading statements about his role in news stories.
MARCH
We found out that a little-known, 31-year-old South African comic, Trevor Noah, will succeed Jon Stewart on The Daily Show. In Hollywood news, Harrison Ford, 73, crashed his vintage plane into a golf course. Luckily for him — and for Star Wars fans — dashing Han Solo made a full recovery.
APRIL
"I'm a woman." With those three words to Diane Sawyer, former Olympian Caitlyn Jenner began a public transition that would captivate the country.
MAY
After seven seasons, Mad Men ended, with suave ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm) having an epiphany at a yoga retreat. David Letterman said goodbye after 33 years on late-night TV and across the pond, Princess Charlotte arrived. Tom Cruise hung off a plane (really!) in the new Mission Impossible flick and Rihanna, in a ginormous fur cape, and Beyoncé, wearing hardly anything, competed to steal the show at the Met Gala.
JUNE
Her name is Caitlyn and she made a smashing entrance — with a corset, a brand new name and a fascinating story to tell — on the cover of Vanity Fair. Ballerina Misty Copeland launched a banner year when she starred in Swan Lake, then was named the first black female principal dancer in the American Ballet Theatre's 75 year history.
JULY
Taylor Swift brought her own "squad" — the U.S. women's soccer team — onstage, days after their stirring World Cup win over Japan. In literary news, many fans of Harper Lee's iconic To Kill a Mockingbird were stunned when that novel's hero, Atticus Finch, was given a makeover as a racist in the author's Go Set a Watchman, seen as essentially an early — and very different — version of Mockingbird. And on one striking cover of New York Magazine, 35 of Bill Cosby's accusers appeared, all describing alleged assaults by the once-revered comedian.
AUGUST
Jon Stewart ended 16 years at The Daily Show with a reminder to his fans to be vigilant against falsehoods — er, dishonesty — er misinformation (we're still not using his word of choice.) And on Broadway, in a transformation as unlikely as it is refreshing, onetime Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton — the guy on the $10 bill — became a pop culture star, thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash musical Hamilton. Miranda also found time between shows to compose music for the Cantina scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a nice pop-culture mashup moment.
SEPTEMBER
It was a major year for comedian Amy Schumer: she signed a memoir deal in the high seven figures, a reflection of her rapidly escalating fame. On CBS, Stephen Colbert launched his Late Show with the declaration that "I will be covering all the presidential candidates ... who are DONALD TRUMP." He then promptly fell into an Oreo-cookie coma as he consumed one cookie per Trump joke. By year's end, with Trump dominating headlines, Colbert might want to consider a bulk order. Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton mimicked Trump on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, but a few months later, she told Seth Meyers: "I no longer think he's funny."
OCTOBER
Star Wars fanswent nuts: The first trailer The Force Awakens was relesed. It was parsed for clues: Why are Han Solo and Princess Leia? A new James Bond film was released, but got middling reviews. And hey, it was Back To The Future Day! It's 2015, the year in which the second installment was based. Cars don't fly yet, but they did get the flat-screen TVs right — and our own kids are pretty much zipping around on hoverboards.
NOVEMBER
Hello indeed, Adele! The soulful Brit debuted her long-awaited album, 25, and it gave a huge year-end boost to the music industry; it sold a whopping 5 million copies in just three weeks. In fact, we're going to give Adele November's entry all to herself.
DECEMBER
And it's here. (Star Wars, silly.) Fans were camping out at the multiplex. While they awaited, they may have combed through some celebrity mags, where they saw news of the latest high-profile baby, Saint West, son of Kimye and step-grandson to Caitlyn Jenner.
Maybe Saint can have a playdate with Princess Charlotte and maybe they can all go see Star Wars — the reviews are great!
(Photos: AP, Getty Images, Twitter/@KensingtonRoyal. Screengrabs: YouTube, Instagram)
