Retro Review of the 90’s

There are so many great things from the 1990’s. Most people would agree. We had grunge,  interesting fashion and most of all, we had great, cheesy television. The 1990’s made a mark for coming up with ingenious ideas and programs. (Reference Twin Peaks or the X-Files) However, one thing this decade did much of and stayed relatively consistent with was the way in which they programmed teen-television shows.

Watch this video below on Irish people watching 1990’s sitcoms.

The premises all seemed to be about the same. Most shows revolved around some inopportune event and then made it into a laughable commentary. Looking up most show story lines would bring you to a kid taking out his or her parent’s car without permission and then getting a ticket. Another common theme was two people fighting over one love interest. And to make the shows appear totally serious, they would occasionally throw in a story line that dealt with a serious matter like drugs, disabilities or violence.  For the most part, they were light-hearted, good-in-nature and usually wrapped up by the time the episode concluded in thirty minutes.

What does this have to do Ireland? Well, it has to do with their opinion. As one man sums up his thoughts on 1990’s, teen, television; bright clothes and bad relationships. The man had a point.  Another great observation was that most of these actors who played teenagers were nearing the age thirty. That could make any show seem pretty funny. In that I mean the outward obviousness that the actors doing the show were older and more mature then typical teenagers would have made things at the very least entertaining. Perhaps this may have even had a negative impact on some of them if people assumed that a regular twenty-nine year old was really more like a chronological nineteen year old based on a character they had played.

Many of the actors who played once cool, hip teens were more notable for their private lives, specifically if they ran into some sort of trouble. The good news there is that no matter what, they kept on going despite it all. And underneath it all, they will always best be known as playing some really iconic people.

What is ironic is that so many of the morals of the shows were not entirely realistic. For example, a student who doesn’t study much but does better than one who does on a test is possible, but not likely. All in all, this video serves as a nice walk down memory lane. I think it is good that for the most part people have kept their sense of humor about it.