The Wonder Years... An Ode to the 90's
I was born in 1989 and my parents timing honestly couldn’t have been better! The 80’s were long gone and a new decade was on the horizon, allowing the world to change once again. Thankfully, I was a 90’s kid. The 90’s were a time when everything on television provided an escape from reality (no “reality” TV yet!), when movies sucked you in and knocked you for a loop, and when SEGA and Nintendo were at war with each other. World economies were flourishing as the technology boom carried us into the new millennium. By the end of the decade, everyone had to have a cell phone and the World Wide Web had broadened everyone’s horizons. It seemed like good times were still to come but we all saw how much of a cluster fuck of chaos the last decade was! So today, I pay tribute to the time of my childhood. Long live the 90’s!
The internet. Where would we be without it?
Great, great TV! That 70’s Show, Seinfeld, Home Improvement, The Drew Carey Show, The Simpsons, Rugrats, Doug, The Ren & Stimpy Show, Friends, Hey Arnold, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, King of the Hill, Batman: The Animated Series, The X-Files, Beavis and Butthead, South Park, the Monday Night Wars (WCW vs. WWF), and all those WB teeny bopper shows that I never really got into but I figured I have to mention them in some way.
Unlike today, movies were still being based on original ideas and actually made the trip to the theaters worth it. If I want to watch King Kong, Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, The Karate Kid, or Clash of the Titans I can go to a video store (or download, whatever you prefer) and pick those up. I don’t see the need for a cleaned up CGI remake (except for the studios trying to cash in on name value alone). Classics consist of Jurassic Park (best CGI EVER), Pulp Fiction, Forrest Gump, Unforgiven, Independence Day, The Silence of the Lambs, Home Alone, Twister (the tornadoes chase people), Happy Gilmore, Braveheart (again, Mel Gibson butchers history), Men in Black, Tommy Boy, Toy Story, The Lion King, Air Force One, Liar Liar, the re-release of the entire Star Wars Trilogy, Rush Hour, Billy Madison… I need to stop sooner or later.
Great music as well, at least from the early going. Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Pantera, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Public Enemy, White Zombie, Green Day (old Green Day), 2Pac, Alice in Chains, Wu-Tang-Clan, Soundgarden, The Offspring, Rage Against the Machine, and The Black Crowes. Then of course you had the teen pop wave at the end of the decade which included the boy bands, Britney Spears, Jennifer Lopez, Hanson, Spice Girls, Ricky Martin… I don’t feel like naming anymore on the pop end of the spectrum… starting to feel a little nauseous.
With the advent of the home consoles, video games reached new heights of popularity and success in the 90’s with systems like the Super Nintendo, SEGA Genesis, Nintendo 64, and the original Playstation. Handheld systems (Gameboy, Game Gear) allowed the gamers to take their adventures into the outside world. Some of those old games, despite their simplicity, have far more replay value then the video games of today (unless you really like first person shooters). Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Goldeneye, Zelda, Pokemon Red and Blue, Donkey Kong, Shadows of the Empire, Mario Kart 64, Tomb Raider, Half-Life, Mortal Kombat, Warcraft, Age of Empires, and Starcraft.
With my parents putting our house on the market soon, I’ve been cleaning out the closets and have found tons of totally useless crap that my brother and I were into when we were kids. Shit like Pogs, Tamagotchi’s, Fireball yo-yo’s, and Pokemon Cards (I guess my brother didn’t sell all of them).
Cleaning out my house has been like stepping into a 90’s time capsule. I fucking found Surf Ninjas on VHS, my Gameboy Color, and all these yo-yo’s and Pogs. Happy times, indeed.
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