My Television Habits in the 1990s.
I'm of the age where the 90s are the most memorable years of my TV viewership. So the years 1990–1999 take up 80% of what all TV ruined in my brain. Or so they say, TV ruins it. Looking back, one could make the case that I spent too much time watching TV and not outside. A huge part of that is because during those years I was of the age that youth-oriented shows were marketed to me.
So, it was the perfect time to catch Nickelodeon at its best. We're taking the classics like Rugrats, Clarissa Explains It All, Rocko's Modern Life, Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, All That, Double Dare, and the list goes on and on. I was one of the few lucky kids who had their own TV in their room. And having one at 19 inches back then was the Biznez! So, when I wasn't in school or doing homework, it was a safe bet that Nickelodeon was on. And I had more fellow TV fans over than my parents really wanted.
So, it was the perfect time to catch Nickelodeon at its best. We're taking the classics like Rugrats, Clarissa Explains It All, Rocko's Modern Life, Are You Afraid Of The Dark?, All That, Double Dare, and the list goes on and on. I was one of the few lucky kids who had their own TV in their room. And having one at 19 inches back then was the Biznez! So, when I wasn't in school or doing homework, it was a safe bet that Nickelodeon was on. And I had more fellow TV fans over than my parents really wanted.
We're talking upwards of 20 kids piled on my bunk bed. Now, why I was an only child but had a bunk bed, you'd have to ask my parents. But I enjoyed sleeping on the top bunk. That was until it fell one morning. Between all of us, that bed was rainbow-colored. Nickelodeon and spilling Kool-Aid all over the place just went hand in hand.
Which that morphed into Nick At Nite. Which came on just shortly before bedtime for me. But I was able to watch this show called The Munsters. It was the first classic show that turned me on. Now I have a video vocabulary of the likes of MASH, Sanford and Son, Night Court, and Welcome Back Kotter.
Another large part of my 90s TV journey is family-related. So, a ton of the time, the living room TV was on the following sports: When it came to my family, the Dallas Cowboys were the end all be all. So, when they won three Superbowls in the 90s, it was near orgasmic for my dad and uncle. Those Sundays through the playoffs, I got to see what real fanatic sports fans are like. With baseball, the Atlanta Braves had a great decade then. Which included a World Series win. They darn near needed lotion and tissue paper for that.
But the main thing is when the state I'm from (Arkansas) won its first and only NCAA basketball championship. So, in 1994, you could not escape seeing the Arkansas Razorbacks on TV somewhere. A player could sneeze, and it would be on all three of the local news shows.
I remember my dad jumping out of his recliner so high and back down that he broke the thing. The springs underneath just gave out, and his ass was on the ground. So, when people say Arkansas Razorbacks, the first thing that pops into my mind is the TV up as loud as it can go. And my dad's butt bouncing off the floor.
As a wrestling fan, things do not get any better than the Raw vs. Nitro wars on Monday night. Holy Crap!!! The NWO, Stone Cold, Ric Flair, Goldberg, DX, The Rock!!! Just thinking about the memories of those Monday nights, I can hardly sit down. It gets me so excited even now. I believed in the story lines and the characters so much that it took my mind out of reality. This was obviously before I knew the shows were written. And the matches were predetermined.
Alongside the wrestling, the way TV media was integrated into it was good. Whether it was Hogan and DDP on Jay Leno, Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, and Karl Malone selling their match during the NBA playoffs The Bash At The Beach pay-per-view where they were involved in the DDP/Malone vs. Hogan/Rodman match. You couldn't turn on the TV without seeing something from the WWF or WCW. Wrestlers populated every darn morning or entertainment news show that there was on TV.
No one can say the 90s weren't the best decade that wrestling will ever see. Just look at the ratings before and after the 1990s. It has steadily dropped. Now that I know the industry better, I love to watch what we call Shoot Interviews. These stars from the 90s explaining the real good and real BS that went on behind the scenes. Which story lines, like when Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff had their falling out. How great the on-screen interviews were because they were 80% real.
Crappy and classic horror movies were given the proper lighting on TNT's Monstervision. Hosted by the second-greatest (Elvira was the all-time great) movie host, Joe Bob Briggs That man who coined the phrase 'zombiefu'! That show was so trailer park-like that it makes Larry The Cable Guy a Harvard graduate. Thankfully, tons of those programs are on YouTube. Little did I know that a ten-year-old kid staying up at 12am wasn't really all that late. But then that was like, Wow!" While I was learning the body count in Return Of The Living Dead II the 16-year-olds on my street were getting laid to Boys2Men.
Do you remember the WB network? O, you don't, well, don't feel bad. I can remember one night I was trying to watch another channel that, for some reason, just went out. So I was channel surfing when I saw Bobby from Grace Under Fire talking to a stuffed bunny. One that sounded like the crazy guy from the Police Academy movies.
Mr. Floppy has just came into my life. Now I was a changed boy. Unhappily Ever After told the story of a used car salesman in his first apartment after separating from his wife. This old-looking bunny was a gift from his young son, so the dad wouldn't be alone. Well, a couple beers later, Bobcat freakin' Goldthwait took over the bunny. But instead of a killer like Chucky, all this bunny wanted to do was watch porn. Now that's my kind of bunny. At the time, the only porno scene I'd seen was the shower scene in Porky's one night on Cinemax.
After that first episode, my VCR caught everyone from then on. Luckily, I caught the show on its first episode. So, I only missed one but was able to capture it via reruns. The daughter of the show was the first girl I ever got the Wayne's World SAWIINNNNGGG from.
If I had to narrow down what 90s TV meant to me the most, it would be Beavis and Butthead. At the forefront, it was so freakin' hilarious. As I learned later on, it took a lot of smart people to write for these dumb characters. The memory that strikes me is how this show would unite older and younger kids. Any other show, had separate group parties, so to speak. The older kids didn't want me and my younger group to watch wrestling with them. But when BNB was on, it didn't matter. This fact really didn't hit me until I was writing this article.
Older kids who had parents who made BNB forbidden would come over to my place. We'd watch and have a pretty good time. But they didn't want to watch Nickelodeon. Friday and Saturday nights, they were out with friends or at school sports. They weren't watching Clarissa Explains It All, then over to TNT for Monstervision.
Which that morphed into Nick At Nite. Which came on just shortly before bedtime for me. But I was able to watch this show called The Munsters. It was the first classic show that turned me on. Now I have a video vocabulary of the likes of MASH, Sanford and Son, Night Court, and Welcome Back Kotter.
Another large part of my 90s TV journey is family-related. So, a ton of the time, the living room TV was on the following sports: When it came to my family, the Dallas Cowboys were the end all be all. So, when they won three Superbowls in the 90s, it was near orgasmic for my dad and uncle. Those Sundays through the playoffs, I got to see what real fanatic sports fans are like. With baseball, the Atlanta Braves had a great decade then. Which included a World Series win. They darn near needed lotion and tissue paper for that.
But the main thing is when the state I'm from (Arkansas) won its first and only NCAA basketball championship. So, in 1994, you could not escape seeing the Arkansas Razorbacks on TV somewhere. A player could sneeze, and it would be on all three of the local news shows.
I remember my dad jumping out of his recliner so high and back down that he broke the thing. The springs underneath just gave out, and his ass was on the ground. So, when people say Arkansas Razorbacks, the first thing that pops into my mind is the TV up as loud as it can go. And my dad's butt bouncing off the floor.
As a wrestling fan, things do not get any better than the Raw vs. Nitro wars on Monday night. Holy Crap!!! The NWO, Stone Cold, Ric Flair, Goldberg, DX, The Rock!!! Just thinking about the memories of those Monday nights, I can hardly sit down. It gets me so excited even now. I believed in the story lines and the characters so much that it took my mind out of reality. This was obviously before I knew the shows were written. And the matches were predetermined.
Alongside the wrestling, the way TV media was integrated into it was good. Whether it was Hogan and DDP on Jay Leno, Mike Tyson, Dennis Rodman, and Karl Malone selling their match during the NBA playoffs The Bash At The Beach pay-per-view where they were involved in the DDP/Malone vs. Hogan/Rodman match. You couldn't turn on the TV without seeing something from the WWF or WCW. Wrestlers populated every darn morning or entertainment news show that there was on TV.
No one can say the 90s weren't the best decade that wrestling will ever see. Just look at the ratings before and after the 1990s. It has steadily dropped. Now that I know the industry better, I love to watch what we call Shoot Interviews. These stars from the 90s explaining the real good and real BS that went on behind the scenes. Which story lines, like when Ric Flair and Eric Bischoff had their falling out. How great the on-screen interviews were because they were 80% real.
Crappy and classic horror movies were given the proper lighting on TNT's Monstervision. Hosted by the second-greatest (Elvira was the all-time great) movie host, Joe Bob Briggs That man who coined the phrase 'zombiefu'! That show was so trailer park-like that it makes Larry The Cable Guy a Harvard graduate. Thankfully, tons of those programs are on YouTube. Little did I know that a ten-year-old kid staying up at 12am wasn't really all that late. But then that was like, Wow!" While I was learning the body count in Return Of The Living Dead II the 16-year-olds on my street were getting laid to Boys2Men.
Do you remember the WB network? O, you don't, well, don't feel bad. I can remember one night I was trying to watch another channel that, for some reason, just went out. So I was channel surfing when I saw Bobby from Grace Under Fire talking to a stuffed bunny. One that sounded like the crazy guy from the Police Academy movies.
Mr. Floppy has just came into my life. Now I was a changed boy. Unhappily Ever After told the story of a used car salesman in his first apartment after separating from his wife. This old-looking bunny was a gift from his young son, so the dad wouldn't be alone. Well, a couple beers later, Bobcat freakin' Goldthwait took over the bunny. But instead of a killer like Chucky, all this bunny wanted to do was watch porn. Now that's my kind of bunny. At the time, the only porno scene I'd seen was the shower scene in Porky's one night on Cinemax.
After that first episode, my VCR caught everyone from then on. Luckily, I caught the show on its first episode. So, I only missed one but was able to capture it via reruns. The daughter of the show was the first girl I ever got the Wayne's World SAWIINNNNGGG from.
If I had to narrow down what 90s TV meant to me the most, it would be Beavis and Butthead. At the forefront, it was so freakin' hilarious. As I learned later on, it took a lot of smart people to write for these dumb characters. The memory that strikes me is how this show would unite older and younger kids. Any other show, had separate group parties, so to speak. The older kids didn't want me and my younger group to watch wrestling with them. But when BNB was on, it didn't matter. This fact really didn't hit me until I was writing this article.
Older kids who had parents who made BNB forbidden would come over to my place. We'd watch and have a pretty good time. But they didn't want to watch Nickelodeon. Friday and Saturday nights, they were out with friends or at school sports. They weren't watching Clarissa Explains It All, then over to TNT for Monstervision.