We 90s kids had the best of everything: We saw and explored the world before the computer and internet revolution. We knew how to exist with other children and actually interacted with the outdoors. Remember the intense battles over Nintendo and Sega Genesis, Gameboy and GameGear?
I've always found MAD TV funnier than SNL, but the majority of people always seemed to back SNL...I never understood it. I tried repeatedly to enjoy SNL skits but they fell/fall short (in execution) so often. What do you think? MAD TV or SNL?
No matter, MAD TV was cancelled last year after 14 seasons I think. One more good thing from our childhood, the 90s, gone.
Back in the 90s we even had casette tapes and walkmen. We were the kids who watched music evolve from tapes, to CDs, to MP3 digital files. We've seen so many things changed before our eyes, not to mention the music was 10 times better and MORE DIVERSE during that decade. These days everything is just mediocre and sounds the same.
Remember when we were kids how movies would do spoofs about the distant future in which people could video conference call and see who they were talking to on a screen. Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but that has happened, and chances are you do it pretty consistently. Isn't that amazing. The only sucky part is that the world is now much smaller than it once was...and I'm still waiting on the retail flying car.
Other things we 90s kids experienced:
Have you noticed that we are no longer asked "smoking or non-smoking" when visiting a restaurant? That's because the choice is gone...health caught up with our social policy.
The switch from VCRs and VHS to DVDs...I liked rewinded tapes and having to wait 2 years to see a movie on my home TV.
TGIF - Family Matters, Boy Meets World, Step By Step, Mr. Cooper, Dinosaurs, Full House...
Martin/Living Single - Minority Children will know these show at the very least haha.
Disney Afternoons - Aladdin, Animaniacs, Darkwing Duck
REAL Saturday Morning Cartoons!! Nowadays, all they have are these cheesy "real" shows about kids in school and dumb cartoons
A Gazillion Talk Shows - Jenny Jones, Ricky Lake, Sally, Oprah, Montell Williams, etc. We would only see these on half days and vacations, haha
And remember that "funny" idea of TV censorship we had growing up (sarcasm)...well that's out the window.
Oh, I just recalled the thousands of toothbrush commercials (REACH) that used to air, showing the latest invention and how it could clean and get to the "hard to reach" places the best. The toothbrushes were always plain looking (by today's standards), but then again modern toothbrushes might as well be cars or stereos...they do so much. Oh, and the only tooth whitening we had back then came from the dentist.
Man oh man! Did I miss any of the greatness that was the 90s?!? and MAD TV or SNL? Comment and let me know.
CUT-IT-OUT...
Be Well,
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Hey, great post, touching on a lot of those small details of 90s life that are easy to forget but still such an integral part of growing up in that decade.
ReplyDeleteJust one point of contention: your claim that music was better/more diverse in the 90s. While that might be true of popular music, in reality there are more diverse strands of music now than ever. Through Myspace, facebook, youTube, etc. artists are able to reach an audience without having to find/be watered down by a record label first. Thus, while the audiences may be small, I think there is a wider, more diverse range of music "niches" than ever before, though you won't hear most of it on the radio.
And I'm an SNL guy myself.
- Ben (Nomo)
Yea...I love watching I Love the 70s/80s/90s to see all of the things I wasn't around for or had forgotten all about!
ReplyDeleteI have also laughed at those movies that predicted the future with flying cars and other things and was amazed by the things that had indeed come true (often much sooner than in the films!).
I used to love Ricki Lake(u spelled it wrong btw <3)- gone are the days of trash tv "Who's BABY IS IT!?!" that rotted our brains but kept me entertained.
I was thinking about Tomagotchis/Giga Pets yesterday and reminiscing about all of the toys we had. Furbies, BEANIE BABIES, the ELMO Craze- these were definitely good memories.
I prefered MadTV- like you...I never found any of SNL's sketches funny but put STUART on and I'm dying laughing lolol.
tamagotchis are back, btw
ReplyDeleteIt will never be the same though...
ReplyDeleteI think I'm too old to carry one of those little neon green keychains around too. If there were, however, some sort of phone app... definitely.