You guys know how much I love TV right? I mean, I have written quite a few blog posts about it – like here, here, and here – it’s a deep love that has been around for awhile so when one of my old favorites showed up on Hulu, well, you know I had to binge watch and then another old favorite showed up and then…well, you get the idea. First, it was Perfect Strangers, then Blossom, then Full House….oh my! I was hardcore 1990s up in here for weeks, but it was funny – I kept having the same thoughts over and over again so here are 7 things I learned while watching old sitcoms.
- Cell phones would have made half the plot points moot. Seriously, in one episode of Blossom, she and Six are looking for Fresh Prince in a hotel and Blossom found him and was upset that Six wouldn’t believe her and I thought if this happened now, Blossom could text Six and then take a selfie with the celebrity for proof. In Friends, one episode has Chandler and Monica fighting over the time they said they would meet at a movie theatre – if they had cell phones they could have texted, bought tickets early, and wouldn’t have had a problem.
- Guest stars were the bomb! The aforementioned Fresh Prince was just one of many guest stars on Blossom, I mean I lost count of how many famous musicians and actors were on the show (and there were also a few before they were stars on the show as well – that’s always fun when watching old shows). Friends had big-name guest stars too. Full House had The Beach Boys all the time because of Uncle Jessie. I mean, I know there are guest stars on sitcoms today, but they’re usually big stars playing other characters, not always themselves. I know it happens, but it seems rarer, you know?
- Catchphrases!!! Whoa!, You Got it Dude, Don’t Be Ridiculous – if you watched TV in the 90s you know exactly where these phrases come from and I can think of half-dozen more – just from the ABC and NBC line-ups alone. Did I do that? How Rude!
- Theme songs are life. I miss TV shows having theme songs with lyrics that you could sing along with. The Perfect Strangers theme song is one of my all-time favorites (my other one, of course, was Greatest American Hero) – I love theme songs so much that when I did my solo cabaret show I did a medley of TV theme songs that started with Facts of Life and ended with Golden Girls’ theme song. Those were the days!
- Once a teenager gets too old to be cute, bring in a new cute kid! Actually, I think this has been a sitcom rule since The Brady Bunch but I noticed it a lot while watching Blossom (the last few seasons the dad was dating, then married, a woman with a cute kid – with a British accent) and even Full House did this with Uncle Jessie and Becky’s cute twins.
- Outside of houses never really have to match the inside. Full House again but come on that shot of the San Francisco house didn’t have a basement or an attic – that’s just nuts! Friends was like this, too, in a way since Monica and Rachel’s apartment was right across from Joey and Chandler’s apartment but they were insanely different – I’ve lived in a few NYC buildings and I haven’t noticed that big of a discrepancy in apartments just across the hall from each other – on a way higher floor, maybe, but on the same floor? I hope Chandler and Joey’s rent was way cheaper – but since Monica was basically pretending she was her Grandmother for cheap rent, I doubt it.
- Clothes were crazy! Fresh Prince, Six and Blossom, Cousin Balki – people did not dress like that in the 1990s in St. Louis. I saw more people dressed like Buffy or the people from Friends, sure – but not the crazy combinations and colors. Maybe that was just St. Louis? Who knows. PS – I had a Blossom hat (more than one actually)!
What is your favorite 1990’s sitcom? Did you know that all of these old shows were on Hulu? And Netflix has a new show called “Everything Sucks” which is set in 1996 – so apparently, the 90s are back baby!
Oh…and Will Smith was on the Late Show last night and he and Jimmy Fallon did a History of TV Theme Songs thing — LOVED IT!!!
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The nineties never happened for me!!! I was living in Charlottesville VA for a good chunk of that time!!! Quiet town in the Blue Ridge Mtns. Traveled for work all the time. Went to Italy for 1st time, UK weekend Princess Diana died… Blur!!! Wasn’t Mayim Bialik in Blossom? Why do I remember that???.???
That’s hilarious! I was in High School and College in the 90s so I was all about the TV – especially when Friends started. In college, we would make sure all of our homework was done before Must See TV on Thursdays with Friends, Mad About You, and ER! Good times. Yes, Mayim was Blossom and Joey Lawrence (my first celebrity crush) was her brother, Joey.