Yeah Forever was more MTV generation/Gen y if that makes sense, they wanted something lighter in contrast to the darker returns.

Forever was a better time capsule than the 80s movie and the other 90s films, in my opinion. There was Val Kilmer (The Doors) as Batman, Jim Carey (In Living Color) as the Riddler, Chris ‘O Donnell (The Scent of a Woman) as Robin, Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive) as Two Face, and Nicole Kidman (Days of Thunder) as Doctor Chase Meridan.

Another issue I had with Forever was that there was not really anything to remember it by. The ‘89 Batman had the batmobile, Batman Returns had Catwoman, and Batman and Robin was a so bad it’s good film. Female pop culture fans actually purchased catsuits after seeing Batman Returns in 1992. The moment was similar to when black lace cocktail dresses became popular in 1990. Women in 1990 thought Julia Roberts looked good in her black lace cocktail dress in Pretty Woman, so the cocktail dresses were big sellers before the year was over. I don’t know of anyone who rushed to stores to pick up anything associated with either Schumacher films. To be fair, the ‘89 Batman movie is the most talked about one out of them all and it always will be. Batman fans tolerate Returns a bit better than the Schumacher films, but it’s not hard for many of them to see how the movies got progressively worse starting with Batman Returns onward. In the 80s, every new sci-fi epic at the theater was compared to Star Wars: A New Hope. Things were no different for the 90s. The ‘89 Batman movie was the ultimate superhero picture to put up against every superhero film coming out in the 90s.

I think Batman Forever suffered from having too many villains. The series was leading up to Harvey Dent becoming Two Face, but the transformation should have happened in the last Batman film of the 90s. That ruined it for a lot of people. Jim Carey’s name on the poster alone would have attracted lots of different pop culture fans (especially the ones that went to see all of his movies from the year before). There was no need for two antagonists.


Seals kiss from a rose was everywhere at the time promoting that movie

It was played more on the radio than “Face to Face” by Siouxie and the Banshees in the summer of 1992. I did not even know about “Face to Face” in ‘92. The new acts of the early 90s (I.e. - Pearl Jam, Kris Kross, and Mariah Carey) were getting all of the screen time on MTV at that point.


I am putting myself in your shoes for a min because maybe
I can see how the mid 90s could be boring was it boring in the same way mid 2010s were boring ?

The mid 90s had more to offer than the mid 2010s, but I think it is unfair to compare the two of them. We’re just in the second time period of the new millennium. In the mid 90s, we had almost a whole century behind us. Overall, I would much rather live in the mid 10s than go back to the mid 90s.

The pros of the Mid 90s:

- The economy was better

-Items from the early 90s were still in stores and most of them were marked down.

-Reruns of my favorite early 90s shows were on TV.


The cons of the mid 90s:

- Barneymania (His voice was the stuff of nightmares)

- 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

- NAFTA

- The OJ Simpson trial

- Oklahoma City Bombing

- Too many knock-off video game and cartoon characters (I.e. - Two Stupid Dogs, Earthworm Jim, and Pinky and the Brain in Animaniacs to name a few)

- Hackey sack and hemp were a big deal.

- The 1993 Geo Metro Convertible

- The Grunge music scene/ Gangsta Rap

- All of my new favorite shows from the early 90s (I.e. - The Simpsons and Jim Henson’s Dinosaurs) jumped the shark in this era.

- Cheap looking goods (I.e. - All of the merchandise for the first Jurassic Park film)

- The Real World marathons on MTV/Road Rules

I can go on about what I dislike about the mid 90s, but it would take days.  :-\\

I found the early 90s very 80s. Like
everything was zany but I did feel that things were like very drab and worn down,  In Jersey everything looked sheeshty lol

The 80s were like the clothes worn in the show Silver Spoons, strait-laced. The early 90s were a confusing time for a lot of people, but almost everything was laid back and cool. There were some things that were drab and worn down, but they were barely noticeable in the neon color shirt and happy pants era.

It got a little better
in the mid 90s but everything had this Beavis in Butthead living room aesthetic to it.  This scene from the simpsons best describes late 1993- 1996 lol


cELOaM-wRUY


Everyone had this hopeless vibe to them


In the mid 90s, people began to build on all of the drab and worn down stuff from the early 90s (the new culture of the time). That was a large part of my problem with the mid 90s.

The 90s started to feel the way I imagine the late 60s did and I preferred the music, clothes, and TV shows from the mid 60s to the late 60s.

I found the early 90s very 80s.


Was the Y2K era (1999-2001) very 90s to you?

Do you remember the “New Kids Suck” shirts and decal stickers? There was also the debate about The Beatles being the better boy band over the New Kids on the Block. 1990 was a big year for the New Kids on the Block and their fans.

There were a lot of boy bands with hits towards the end mid-90smid 90s into the early 2000s, but I don’t there was a larger merchandising extravaganza for any other boy band in the 90s  than the one for the New Kids on the Block. They came onto the scene at the right time (in the 80s) and became extremely popular after Batmania of ‘89. In 1990, you would have to have been living under a rock if you didn’t know who the New Kids were. The Backstreet Boys versus N’SYNC feud was a big deal in the Y2K era, but neither one of them managed to be on the cover of just about every magazine at the time. The New Kids were on Cracked magazine in 1990 (around the time their last big single was on the radio) and Mad Magazine in early 1991 (when their merchandise was in just about every store), whereas the Backstreet Boys and N’SYNC were only on the covers of mainly teen magazines. Not to mention, the name change. The New Kids on the Block changed their stage name to the much cooler NKOTB in the same year, 1991, that MC Hammer dropped the “MC” from his name.

Come to think of it, they are another reason why I like the last year of the late 80s and every year of the early 90s. Those times were so easy to remember:

1989: Batmania, Hulkmania

1990: Mariomania, Batmania 2.0, New Kids mania, Turtlemania, Roseanne-mania, “Twin Peaks” mania, Bartmania

1991: Urkelmania, Hammermania, Waldomania, Macaulaymania, Super Soaker mania, Videomania (Gameboy must-haves have item of the Christmas season that year), and Jordan-mania

1992: Ren and Stimpy mania, 90210-mania, and Wayne’s World mania

I’m sorry you had to see the repeated use of the word “mania”, but there were that many of them back then. Those were good times.  :)


Yes, I did.  I hated anything to do with anybody hating New Kids.  I still see a flood of jealous boyfriends and husbands who used to be jealous teenaged boys.

Was the Y2K era (1999-2001) very 90s to you?


Nope everything felt y2k as soon as late 97 hit (even tho it had mid 90s/late 90s elements)


2001 felt 89%  early 2000s and it felt that way a week before 9/11

To me it seems like this

90-91:early 90s
92:mid 90s transition year
93-95:mid 90s
96:late 90s transition year
97-2001:late 90s+y2k era

I think the two era pretty much was the whole late 90s and while I think it mostly was stopped by 911 it still lingred to about fall if 2002.

To me it seems like this

90-91:early 90s
92:mid 90s transition year
93-95:mid 90s
96:late 90s transition year
97-2001:late 90s+y2k era

I think the two era pretty much was the whole late 90s and while I think it mostly was stopped by 911 it still lingred to about fall if 2002.


my first week of 8th grade in Fall 2001 felt early 2000s did not feel any trace of y2k and this was a week before 9/11

Fall of 2002 did not feel y2k at all, at least on the east coast in Jersey

I was in the 6th grade in 2001! :)

I was in the 6th grade in 2001! :)

so u got pretty similar experiences to me then

To me it seems like this

90-91:early 90s
92:mid 90s transition year
93-95:mid 90s
96:late 90s transition year
97-2001:late 90s+y2k era

I think the two era pretty much was the whole late 90s and while I think it mostly was stopped by 911 it still lingred to about fall if 2002.


It was like this for me:

1990-1992: The early 90s

Somewhere in the last week in December of ‘92 to January 19th of 1993: Mid ‘90s transition

1993-1995: The mid 90s

In between the last week in December of 1995 to January 9th of 1996: Late ‘90s transition

1996-1998: The Late 90s

After December 25th of 1998 to January 15th of 1999: Y2K era transition

1999-2001: The Y2K era

December 29th of 2001 to January 8th of 2002: Bush early 2000s transition

2002-2004: The Bush early 2000s


Fall of 2002 did not feel y2k at all, at least on the east coast in Jersey


The Y2K era was over before then.

In the fall of 2002:

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on UPN.

- JNCO jeans were closets everywhere all over the country.

- Pokèmon Johto League Champions toys replaced the original Pokèmon collectibles from Hasbro in stores.

- N’SYNC was on a temporary hiatus.

- The new Adam Sandler movies were duds.

It was like this for me:

1990-1992: The early 90s

Somewhere in the last week in December of ‘92 to January 19th of 1993: Mid ‘90s transition

1993-1995: The mid 90s

In between the last week in December of 1995 to January 9th of 1996: Late ‘90s transition

1996-1998: The Late 90s

After December 25th of 1998 to January 15th of 1999: Y2K era transition

1999-2001: The Y2K era

December 29th of 2001 to January 8th of 2002: Bush early 2000s transition

2002-2004: The Bush early 2000s




late 96 for me felt like a shift with Sabrina, Tomb Raider, N64 arriving, and the debut of BSB (altho it was on Nutty Professor movie and no one even knew who BSB was until 97 lol) Then you had tupacs death. The first half of 96 is not late numerically or culturally

That Y2k transtion was already happening in early 97 with the change from n64 to ps1s popularity, end of 16 bit, Robyn (first time we would hear the Britney Nsync type sound) Spice Girls, 98 degrees, all this happened in 97.

so u got pretty similar experiences to me then
yup!!

late 96 for me felt like a shift with Sabrina, Tomb Raider, N64 arriving, and the debut of BSB (altho it was on Nutty Professor movie and no one even knew who BSB was until 97 lol) Then you had tupacs death. The first half of 96 is not late numerically or culturally

3rd Rock from the Sun premiered in the first half of 96. It was like nothing else on TV at the time.

That Y2k transtion was already happening in early 97 with the change from n64 to ps1s popularity, end of 16 bit, Robyn (first time we would hear the Britney Nsync type sound) Spice Girls, 98 degrees, all this happened in 97.


The beginning of the Y2K era is best remembered for South Park going downhill, Britney Spears having two hits, the second Austin Powers film, and Pokèmania. South Park, “...Baby One More Time“, and the 4Kids version of Pokèmon all first appeared after early ‘97. The 1996 to 1997 school year sticks out to most pop culture fans when discussing those times, but we were not out of the 90s yet. As bad as it was, the Seinfeld two-part finale is still brought up when pop culture fans do a review for 1998. I don’t know of anyone that calls Seinfeld a ‘90s and 2000s show. It’s a show that started in the 80s and ended in the 90s. 1998 was a 90s year to most people. I credit it as the last year of the 90s, but I almost see it as a Y2K era year. It’s close enough.

3rd Rock from the Sun premiered in the first half of 96. It was like nothing else on TV at the time.

The beginning of the Y2K era is best remembered for South Park going downhill, Britney Spears having two hits, the second Austin Powers film, and Pokèmania. South Park, “...Baby One More Time“, and the 4Kids version of Pokèmon all first appeared after early ‘97. The 1996 to 1997 school year sticks out to most pop culture fans when discussing those times, but we were not out of the 90s yet. As bad as it was, the Seinfeld two-part finale is still brought up when pop culture fans do a review for 1998. I don’t know of anyone that calls Seinfeld a ‘90s and 2000s show. It’s a show that started in the 80s and ended in the 90s. 1998 was a 90s year to most people. I credit it as the last year of the 90s, but I almost see it as a Y2K era year. It’s close enough.



1997 was still y2k it was the first full year of the new systems and by 97 the britney spears nsync time of sound had already been out, WWF attitude started in 97 as well as the new scratch logo. Being in school at the time in 97 it felt like a new era.


I am talking more about the 1997-1998 year

It was like this for me:

1990-1992: The early 90s

Somewhere in the last week in December of ‘92 to January 19th of 1993: Mid ‘90s transition

1993-1995: The mid 90s

In between the last week in December of 1995 to January 9th of 1996: Late ‘90s transition

1996-1998: The Late 90s

After December 25th of 1998 to January 15th of 1999: Y2K era transition

1999-2001: The Y2K era

December 29th of 2001 to January 8th of 2002: Bush early 2000s transition

2002-2004: The Bush early 2000s

The Y2K era was over before then.

In the fall of 2002:

- Buffy the Vampire Slayer was on UPN.

- JNCO jeans were closets everywhere all over the country.

- Pokèmon Johto League Champions toys replaced the original Pokèmon collectibles from Hasbro in stores.

- N’SYNC was on a temporary hiatus.

- The new Adam Sandler movies were duds.


No offense, but I don't get it.

No offense, but I don't get it.


Seems to have an obsession with late December/early January lol

1997 was still y2k it was the first full year of the new systems and by 97 the britney spears nsync time of sound had already been out, WWF attitude started in 97 as well as the new scratch logo. Being in school at the time in 97 it felt like a new era.


I am talking more about the 1997-1998 year


That’s like saying that 1988 and ‘89 were early 90s years.

1988 was the first full year of more late Xers and Xennials owning the Nintendo Entertainment System. By 1988, the world knew about the teen-pop offerings of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. The first episode of WWF The Main Event aired on NBC in February of ‘88, also.

The 1988-1989 school year was similar to the 1997-1988 year in that we were getting much closer to the eras that came after the ones those years were a part of.

I know a few pop culture fans that label things that came out of the 1988-1989 school year as 90s (the cassingle to Bobby Brown’s “On Our Own”) and miscellaneous items from the 1985-1986 year as late 80s (the vinyl record for “Crush on You” by The Jets), but it’s not many people that do that. I guess it all depends on your age and experience in that period. :-\\

The 1997-1998 school year seems to be your favorite period currently. The words “year 2000 date problem” were being uttered a lot in 1997. It became “Y2K” in ‘98. We made the biggest fuss about it in 1999, making 1999 the first year of the Y2K era to me.


No offense, but I don't get it.


I’ll use the early 90s as an example of what I’m talking about.

From 1990 to 1992, Americans were living in the Bush 90s and preparing for the mid 90s. On November 3rd of 1992, US voters elected Bill Clinton to be president over the incumbent George HW Bush. We still had one last month of Bush being in office, but everything started to change within that last week of December to January 19th of ‘93. The media went from talking about the 1992 debates in December of ‘92 to focusing exclusively on the Clinton family in the earliest weeks of January in 1993. It was a strange time. Bush the elder was still in office during those days, but Boomers and Xers were talking only about the Clintons nonstop. Movies released in the early 90s to mid 90s transition like the first Leprechaun movie and Alive are often referred to as “early 90s movies”, but that time did not quite feel like a part of the early 90s. For that reason, I group those dates together and classify them as a transition era.

That’s like saying that 1988 and ‘89 were early 90s years.

1988 was the first full year of more late Xers and Xennials owning the Nintendo Entertainment System. By 1988, the world knew about the teen-pop offerings of Tiffany and Debbie Gibson. The first episode of WWF The Main Event aired on NBC in February of ‘88, also.

The 1988-1989 school year was similar to the 1997-1988 year in that we were getting much closer to the eras that came after the ones those years were a part of.

I know a few pop culture fans that label things that came out of the 1988-1989 school year as 90s (the cassingle to Bobby Brown’s “On Our Own”) and miscellaneous items from the 1985-1986 year as late 80s (the vinyl record for “Crush on You” by The Jets), but it’s not many people that do that. I guess it all depends on your age and experience in that period. :-\\

The 1997-1998 school year seems to be your favorite period currently. The words “year 2000 date problem” were being uttered a lot in 1997. It became “Y2K” in ‘98. We made the biggest fuss about it in 1999, making 1999 the first year of the Y2K era to me.

I’ll use the early 90s as an example of what I’m talking about.

From 1990 to 1992, Americans were living in the Bush 90s and preparing for the mid 90s. On November 3rd of 1992, US voters elected Bill Clinton to be president over the incumbent George HW Bush. We still had one last month of Bush being in office, but everything started to change within that last week of December to January 19th of ‘93. The media went from talking about the 1992 debates in December of ‘92 to focusing exclusively on the Clinton family in the earliest weeks of January in 1993. It was a strange time. Bush the elder was still in office during those days, but Boomers and Xers were talking only about the Clintons nonstop. Movies released in the early 90s to mid 90s transition like the first Leprechaun movie and Alive are often referred to as “early 90s movies”, but that time did not quite feel like a part of the early 90s. For that reason, I group those dates together and classify them as a transition era.


I don't know the y2k era feeling was felt as early as September 1997, even Beavis & Butthead ended  ( a Gen X show), but yeah for the 90s
97-98 school year was my favorite. It was kind of a it's almost here school year. Had a few mid 90s elements on their last leg. I remember SNES
games were still at blockbuster in 97 but discounted to only 99 cents. Family Matters & Step by Step moved to CBS and their last seasons looked
very Y2K. TGIF was having an identity crisis and latched onto the horror witch genre.

Everything felt so new then, at LAST my culture had arrived, I was so sick of Grunge I hated it!

I don't know the y2k era feeling was felt as early as September 1997, even Beavis & Butthead ended  ( a Gen X show), but yeah for the 90s
97-98 school year was my favorite.

Beavis and Butthead might have gone off of the air in November of ‘97, but there were other mid to late 90s shows on Television at that time for late Xers to enjoy (I.e. - Party of Five).

I see where you are coming from. The ‘97-‘98 school year was similar in some ways to the ‘98-‘99 year, ‘99-‘00 year, and ‘00-‘01 academic year. The ‘97-‘98 school year was still the ‘88-‘89 year out of all of them. The winter to mid summer seasons of 1998 gave us the greatest Ben Stiller comedy movie (There’s Something About Mary), WB’s most memorable teen drama (Dawson’s Creek), the single everyone knows Will Smith for (Getting Jiggy With It) and the first Pokèmon games for Gameboy were unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The ‘97-‘98 year was a pseudo-Y2K school year. It is the last school year that was wholly late 90s though. ‘98-‘99 was half late 90s and half Y2K era. ‘99-‘00 and ‘00-‘01 were completely Y2K school years.

It was kind of a it's almost here school year. Had a few mid 90s elements on their last leg. I remember SNES
games were still at blockbuster in 97 but discounted to only 99 cents. Family Matters & Step by Step moved to CBS and their last seasons looked
very Y2K. TGIF was having an identity crisis and latched onto the horror witch genre.

Family Matters was a pop culture phenomenon in ‘90-‘91 school year. Then, the writers brought in the Urkelbot and people my age started looking at the show differently. That was weird to us at the time.  The only people that were watching every episode of Family Matters on TGIF from late ‘91 to ‘97 were Millennials that missed the ‘89 to ‘91 seasons. They watched Saved by the Bell The New Class for the same reason. Millennials were too young to see every unedited episode of the original Saved by the Bell on Saturday mornings in the very late 80s and early 90s.

To be fair, Boomers were making just about every sitcom and anti-sitcom (Married with Children) that started in the 80s and ended in the 90s into a live-action cartoon because they were nostalgic for their younger days when brand new episodes of Looney Tunes were on the air. Mel Blanc (voice actor for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig) died in the summer of 1989. So, from that point forward, you knew the adults (Boomers) were going to make different tributes to Mel Blanc and Warner Brothers all throughout the 90s.

The beginning of the end for TGIF was when Perfect Strangers and Full House were cut from their lineup in ‘91. Family Matters was still there, but it got worse when their production company was switched to Warner Brothers Television in mid ‘93. Going Places, Dinosaurs, Baby Talk, and Camp Wilder were not family shows like Just the Ten of Us was. I felt the schedule for TGIF was worse when they added Boy Meets World in late ‘93. That was more of a modern-age sitcom (like Home Improvement) than any show on TGIF that came before it. With the addition of that show, TGIF lost everything that made it great in the beginning to many late Xers and Xennials. It transformed into a block that only Millennials could enjoy from there onward.

I knew about Family Matters moving to CBS in late ‘97, but I never watched it on there. Step by Step (the 90s version of The Brady Bunch) was fun to look at sometimes, but it should have ended when Sasha Mitchell left. It was never on the level of Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, or Full House, but I always thought it premiered at the right time. There were a lot of shows with big families on TV in 1991. The Tokelsons immediately came to my mind when I typed that last sentence.

As for the TGIF shows of the ‘97-‘98 school year, I have to agree with you. TGIF was really suffering from an identity crisis that year with shows like You Wish and Teen Angel. The B-grade series, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, made its debut in the academic year before it. So it makes sense that that shows like it almost took over TGIF.

Everything felt so new then, at LAST my culture had arrived, I was so sick of Grunge I hated it!


Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the 1990s “decade” (1991-1999 to most people) will always be remembered for grunge, post-grunge, neo-soul R&B, and hardcore rap music. That’s “the 90s” that people my age and older want to see whenever the 90s are brought up. So, everything from the yuppie 90s (start of 1990 to July of ‘91) and the fall of ‘97 to the end of 1998 does not get a fair shake. My peers call the yuppie 90s “the late 80s” and you grouped the ‘97 to ‘98 school year with the Y2K era (1999-2001), so the fall of 1991 to July of 1997 can only be thought of as core 90s to the general public. Those were the months and full years of Pearl Jam, Nirvana (in its Grohlvana stage), Boys II Men, and Tupac. The 90s, overall, were a transition from the Bush 41 days (when the 90s were THE 90s) to the start of the second term Clinton days (a very diluted form of the 90s, but more like the Y2K era when you look back in hindsight).

At the end of the day, 80s fans in this century(Gen Xers, some Xennials, and Millennials that missed out on them) who hate the 90s will look for the grunge and hardcore rap artists in every 199x year and point them out as the only musicians of the 90s to the generations that come after them. People that like both the 80s and 90s will listen to and play everything that came out of those ages for future generations. Then, you have a variety of 90s fans that will show the oncoming generations who and what they liked from the 90s.

I prefer the period of house, acid house, adult contemporary, country, pop-rap, regular rap, power ballads, hair metal, heavy metal, pop, some grunge, New Jack Swing, and some neo-soul music to the music that came out of the rest of the 90s. I have to admit that the late 90s into the Y2K era were the break we all needed from the modest mid 90s. There was some post-grunge music on the radio by Creed and Nickelback in those years, but thankfully, there wasn’t another anti-fashion movement to go along with it. Grunge lovers in those years dressed the same way they did from late ‘92 into the mid 90s. Grungies stole almost everything from Metalheads in the 80s and early 90s. Grungies were more clean-shaven than Metalheads, but many of them did not looked well-groomed or groomed at all for that matter.

I was glad when ‘97 rolled around, too. 
The Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, and FUBU clothes were a huge improvement over the earth tone clothing (we can thank the cast of Twin Peaks for that), store bought flannel shirts, and thrift store leather jackets before it. The start and end tips of the 90s were the lightest days of the 90s. Sure, they had their problems (I.e. - Savings and Loans crisis, the asbestos scare, Gulf War, LA Riots, Dot-com bubble, and Heaven's Gate Cult mass suicide), but all times have problems. At least, there were artists like Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Spice Girls, and Backstreet Boys on the radio to help us get through them.  :)

Beavis and Butthead might have gone off of the air in November of ‘97, but there were other mid to late 90s shows on Television at that time for late Xers to enjoy (I.e. - Party of Five).

I see where you are coming from. The ‘97-‘98 school year was similar in some ways to the ‘98-‘99 year, ‘99-‘00 year, and ‘00-‘01 academic year. The ‘97-‘98 school year was still the ‘88-‘89 year out of all of them. The winter to mid summer seasons of 1998 gave us the greatest Ben Stiller comedy movie (There’s Something About Mary), WB’s most memorable teen drama (Dawson’s Creek), the single everyone knows Will Smith for (Getting Jiggy With It) and the first Pokèmon games for Gameboy were unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo.

The ‘97-‘98 year was a pseudo-Y2K school year. It is the last school year that was wholly late 90s though. ‘98-‘99 was half late 90s and half Y2K era. ‘99-‘00 and ‘00-‘01 were completely Y2K school years.


Family Matters was a pop culture phenomenon in ‘90-‘91 school year. Then, the writers brought in the Urkelbot and people my age started looking at the show differently. That was weird to us at the time.  The only people that were watching every episode of Family Matters on TGIF from late ‘91 to ‘97 were Millennials that missed the ‘89 to ‘91 seasons. They watched Saved by the Bell The New Class for the same reason. Millennials were too young to see every unedited episode of the original Saved by the Bell on Saturday mornings in the very late 80s and early 90s.

To be fair, Boomers were making just about every sitcom and anti-sitcom (Married with Children) that started in the 80s and ended in the 90s into a live-action cartoon because they were nostalgic for their younger days when brand new episodes of Looney Tunes were on the air. Mel Blanc (voice actor for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig) died in the summer of 1989. So, from that point forward, you knew the adults (Boomers) were going to make different tributes to Mel Blanc and Warner Brothers all throughout the 90s.

The beginning of the end for TGIF was when Perfect Strangers and Full House were cut from their lineup in ‘91. Family Matters was still there, but it got worse when their production company was switched to Warner Brothers Television in mid ‘93. Going Places, Dinosaurs, Baby Talk, and Camp Wilder were not family shows like Just the Ten of Us was. I felt the schedule for TGIF was worse when they added Boy Meets World in late ‘93. That was more of a modern-age sitcom (like Home Improvement) than any show on TGIF that came before it. With the addition of that show, TGIF lost everything that made it great in the beginning to many late Xers and Xennials. It transformed into a block that only Millennials could enjoy from there onward.

I knew about Family Matters moving to CBS in late ‘97, but I never watched it on there. Step by Step (the 90s version of The Brady Bunch) was fun to look at sometimes, but it should have ended when Sasha Mitchell left. It was never on the level of Perfect Strangers, Family Matters, or Full House, but I always thought it premiered at the right time. There were a lot of shows with big families on TV in 1991. The Tokelsons immediately came to my mind when I typed that last sentence.

As for the TGIF shows of the ‘97-‘98 school year, I have to agree with you. TGIF was really suffering from an identity crisis that year with shows like You Wish and Teen Angel. The B-grade series, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, made its debut in the academic year before it. So it makes sense that that shows like it almost took over TGIF.

Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the 1990s “decade” (1991-1999 to most people) will always be remembered for grunge, post-grunge, neo-soul R&B, and hardcore rap music. That’s “the 90s” that people my age and older want to see whenever the 90s are brought up. So, everything from the yuppie 90s (start of 1990 to July of ‘91) and the fall of ‘97 to the end of 1998 does not get a fair shake. My peers call the yuppie 90s “the late 80s” and you grouped the ‘97 to ‘98 school year with the Y2K era (1999-2001), so the fall of 1991 to July of 1997 can only be thought of as core 90s to the general public. Those were the months and full years of Pearl Jam, Nirvana (in its Grohlvana stage), Boys II Men, and Tupac. The 90s, overall, were a transition from the Bush 41 days (when the 90s were THE 90s) to the start of the second term Clinton days (a very diluted form of the 90s, but more like the Y2K era when you look back in hindsight).

At the end of the day, 80s fans in this century(Gen Xers, some Xennials, and Millennials that missed out on them) who hate the 90s will look for the grunge and hardcore rap artists in every 199x year and point them out as the only musicians of the 90s to the generations that come after them. People that like both the 80s and 90s will listen to and play everything that came out of those ages for future generations. Then, you have a variety of 90s fans that will show the oncoming generations who and what they liked from the 90s.

I prefer the period of house, acid house, adult contemporary, country, pop-rap, regular rap, power ballads, hair metal, heavy metal, pop, some grunge, New Jack Swing, and some neo-soul music to the music that came out of the rest of the 90s. I have to admit that the late 90s into the Y2K era were the break we all needed from the modest mid 90s. There was some post-grunge music on the radio by Creed and Nickelback in those years, but thankfully, there wasn’t another anti-fashion movement to go along with it. Grunge lovers in those years dressed the same way they did from late ‘92 into the mid 90s. Grungies stole almost everything from Metalheads in the 80s and early 90s. Grungies were more clean-shaven than Metalheads, but many of them did not looked well-groomed or groomed at all for that matter.

I was glad when ‘97 rolled around, too. 
The Tommy Hilfiger, Nautica, and FUBU clothes were a huge improvement over the earth tone clothing (we can thank the cast of Twin Peaks for that), store bought flannel shirts, and thrift store leather jackets before it. The start and end tips of the 90s were the lightest days of the 90s. Sure, they had their problems (I.e. - Savings and Loans crisis, the asbestos scare, Gulf War, LA Riots, Dot-com bubble, and Heaven's Gate Cult mass suicide), but all times have problems. At least, there were artists like Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, Spice Girls, and Backstreet Boys on the radio to help us get through them.  :)



I have to differ with you on TGIF's prime, I know you are biased towards the early 90s but TGIF's prime was 95-96 when the line up was.

Family Matters
Boy Meets World
Hanging with MR Cooper
Step by Step


Most teenagers werent watching this lineup and it was kids hence why it was changed to appeal to them

Its the period that got the most ratings, TGIF was getting crappy when they filled their 2 remaining slots to Teen Angel and You wish, both magic
themed shows, at this point ratings got so bad ABC was desperate for a Full House return so they brought back the Olsen Twins for Two of a Kind
to recapture the magic, it last only one season and ratings were getting worse. In the 99-2000 season WB created its own TGIF lineup and took
Sabrina away from ABC, then Boy meets world decided to end it's run due to being no more lineup and that was it.

I have to differ with you on TGIF's prime, I know you are biased towards the early 90s but TGIF's prime was 95-96 when the line up was.

Family Matters
Boy Meets World
Hanging with MR Cooper
Step by Step


Most teenagers werent watching this lineup and it was kids hence why it was changed to appeal to them



-Family Matters is the only A-grade TV show on that lineup. The episodes that Gen Joners, Boomers, Xers, Xennials, and Yers like to talk about are the ones from the second season. The third and fourth seasons were not so bad, but as I said in an earlier post, the introduction of Urkelbot (one large Robocop joke) scared most people away.

-Boy Meets World was the second Savage program on ABC in the 90s. The Wonder Years (another A-grade show) was cancelled by then because Fred Savage was accused of sexual harassment (a big issue in the mid 90s) by the costume designer of the show. ABC was trying to win over the 1988 shows’ audience with Boy Meets World, but Ben Savage did not have the looks or charm that Fred Savage had from 1988 to 1991. For that reason alone, ABC only got Millennials and Xennials that were still watching Family Matters to catch the first seasons of Boy Meet World. It was a C-grade show. There were two VH1 “I Love the 90s” specials and not one of them mentioned Boy Meets World because it was the less successful second attempt . Boy Meets World never belonged on TGIF one way or another. However,  Boy Meets World probably would have worked if Michael Jacobs and April Kelly created it in 1989. Still, it would have gone best in the time slot for Growing Pains on Wednesday night in the 1990-1991 school year. Boomers, Gen Xers, and Xennials all would not have missed Boy Meets World if it came on after The Wonder Years and before Doogie Bowser MD. Instead, it wound up being a show that mainly gen Yers watched. To this day, the only individuals praising Boy Meets World are Millennials that were too young to watch The Wonder Years during its original run.

-The first season of Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper was the best out of all of them. It nuked the fridge when Dawnn Lewis left and Raven Simone was added to the shows’ cast. I suggest you look at the pilot to Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper from the fall of ‘92 to see what I’m talking about.

- Sasha Mitchell was no longer on Step by Step in the 1995 to 1996 year. I’m sorry to tell you this, but Step by Step is fondly remembered for the scenes with Cody in them and the episode where Urkel appears with his jet pack. The writers and casting directors of Step by Step brought in Bronson Pinchot as Jean-Luc in a desperate attempt to get win back the late Xers and Xennials that were watching the show since its beginning, but they apparently moved on to other programs like The X-Files and Dateline NBC.

All in all, looking at it on paper, the lineup for the 1995-1996 year seems better than any of them on TV today, but it doesn’t top the first ever TGIF lineup. The first lineup will down in history as the greatest one until my generation and the XYers (Xennials) die off. Then, Millennials will most likely have debates over mid 90s TGIF being better than late 90s TGIF. Some Millennials will measure the sitcom blocks up against those of the very late 80s and early 90s. Information on all TGIF lineups will be around for the rest of this century into the next one.