90s TV Nostalgia

I grew up in the 90s. Thus, my childhood consisted of lots of nickelodeon. It was pretty awesome watching Nick, Jr. and all the other Nick programming during the week and Saturday Morning Cartoons on KidsWB and Fox Kids. It was fun seeing something cool on TV and reenacting it with my friends when we played. Yes, I actually still played outside as a kid. If you had given me a tablet when I was little I probably would have broke it. I suspect kids would now too.

The content that came on old TV was very different. The producers of the shows hadn’t yet been battered by media and a bombardment of claims of corruption. As a result, I got to watch shows like Ren and Stimpy before it was relegated to late night TV. There was violence in those shows and very obvious allusions to things kids maybe shouldn’t know about. But the shows also weren’t preachy, unless you were watching Captain Planet. There was a level of risk the shows took and I loved it.

Reality TV
90s TV had a slew of reality TV or game shows. One of my favorite shows was Figure it Out. I always wanted to be one of the kids with a unique talent. I tried so hard to come up with one, but the best I ever got was drawing cars. I wasn’t even good. Growing up, there wasn’t one person I knew that didn’t watch Legend of the Hidden Temple. I was a fan of the purple parrots. There were so many other show that I wished I was a contestant on, but I knew it wasn’t going to happen. Instead I pretended I was doing the challenges in my house. It didn’t end pretty.

Sitcoms
The sitcoms I watched in the 90s had a huge range. I loved Are You Afraid of the Dark, but I really was afraid and that led to many sleepless nights. then there were fun shows like Clarissa Explains it All, Salute Your Shorts, and The Secret World of Alex Mack. They were all great, but non-of them were the grand daddy of all children’s tv shows, All That. Sure it may have ran for a bit longer than it should have, but the first few years were brilliant. I went back and watched a few episodes recently and it’s still funny.

Cartoons
What kid in the 90s didn’t watch cartoons. It was part of our DNA. My most vivid memory of cartoons come from watching Rugrats and X-Men. Both shows would keep me entertained for hours. I’m not saying they were the only ones, far from it. Everywhere you turned there were new cartoons to watch and I was ready to consume it all. On rare occasions, the cable company would have preview days of cartoon network. 48 hours of different cartoons and I would never miss it (they did the same for Disney, but I was never as excited). I’d watch The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and any other old stuff. I’d watch Ed, Edd, n Eddy and stay up late to watch Space Ghost Coast to Coast. It was awesome.

To this day, I still love cartoons. In fact, I can’t wait until Avatar: Legend of Korra Book 2 premieres.