It’s a fun game trying to define what 90s television looked like. It held such a crossover of the things viewers had got used to during the 80s but then supercharged and mixed with new shows they’d never quite imagined were heading their way.
Our diet of 90s viewing was becoming more and more comfortable pushing cultural boundaries, creating feel-good happy viewing, contrasted with new shows built on new ideas, written to leave you feeling confused and wondering what just happened!
Let’s take a minute; tell me, which of these sums up 90s TV best for you?
Was your preference packed with teen culture to the hilt, jam-packed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, My So-called Life, and Beverly Hills, 90210?
Or did you gravitate towards those wonderful, classic 90s sitcoms like 3rd Rock from the Sun, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Tim Allen’s Home Improvement?
Maybe your tastes dictated something distinctly more British? Absolutely Fabulous, The Vicar of Dibley, Bottom, and The League of Gentlemen?
American TV glued us to our screens with thousands of episodes of Friends alone; then there was Ally McBeal, the cult Twin Peaks, NYPD Blue, and E.R., the show that paved the way for every medical drama to follow in its fantastic footsteps—and it gave us George Clooney.
When it came to animation, there was plenty to choose from there, too: from junior content including Rugrats, Animaniacs, and The Ren and Stimpy Show to the most adult offerings of Beavis and Butt-Head, Family Guy, and South Park.
The 90s could have been the first real year of the spin-off, as finally, characters like Frasier, Angel, and Daria (yes—she made her first appearances on Beavis and Butt-Head!) proved that a character breaking free from another show had enough quality and interest to carry off their own shows—successfully!
Whichever jumps out to you will probably the opposite of your neighbour. There was just so much going on and so much to choose from.
And now? Who cares? As long as there’s a plethora of TV taste and culture to choose from, all neatly catalogued online, easier than ever to access—the magic of all those 90s TV shows definitely gets our vote.
If you’d like a complete low-down to the TV shows that filled our screens through the 1990s, then Stacker compiled a top 100 list according to IMDb earlier this year. What a trip. That’s a great ride down memory lane for those old enough to saddle up that particular horse.
If you want to know where to find them all, well, Amazon Prime is, well, prime; Netflix has its fair share too, and Hulu has as much 90s content as you’d need to fill most of your weekends for the rest of the year.
With a massive 90/100, South Park takes joint pride of place at the top of Reelgood’s scores for 1990s TV shows over all the streaming services. What was their other top of the tree show? Twin Peaks—and if you’re looking for contrast, well, there it is by the bucket-load. You can catch South Park on HBO Max, Fubo TV, and quite a few more, with Twin Peaks streaming on Hulu, Netflix, and Paramount Plus, to get you up and running.
You can catch third place, Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Prime Video, Hulu, All4, and a few more services here and there. If you didn’t follow Sarah Michelle Geller through her 7 seasons and 144 episodes of demon-quenching teen-angst, then give it a go. It’s comic-book culture on TV at its 90s finest.
After that, the Reelgood fans vote Frasier, Mr Bean, Family Guy, One Piece, and Star Trek: Voyager as the next on the list—suggesting that the 90s was becoming quite animation orientated. In fact, in our Reelgood and IMDb findings, the 90s had far more animated shows than previous decades.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Daria, Kenan and Kel, 3rd Rock from the Sun, A Different World, and Twin Peaks are all shows you can stream from the vast catalogue of Amazon Prime. It doesn’t stop there, though. You know how deep Amazon’s well is—it’s practically bottomless.
When it comes to 90s favourites, one of the biggest, the smash hit that introduced the world to Will Smith, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, is on Netflix, as is Sister, Sister, Goosebumps, Charmed, and the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers.
(You can also watch The Fresh Prince of Bel Air on Disney+ if that’s your streamer of choice over Netflix.)
Friends also finds its home on Netflix, as does That 70s Show, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, and Stargate SG-1. Given most of us hold a Netflix subscription (or are piggybacking a friend’s or an ex’s!), they’ve got enough on their collaborative catalogues to whet any appetite.
If you love teen cheese, then Saved by the Bell is for you, and you’ll find it on Hulu. You’ll also find (more cheese and) Dawson’s Creek, Family Matters, Animaniacs, Living Single, and Beverly Hills, 90210 there. Hulu also holds all the episodes you could hope for
Absolutely Fabulous is one of the many very British shows to make it to Hulu. Ally McBeal, Melrose Place, and Full House provide more US sitcom and drama shows to the mix, and to top it off, you’ll get the most critically acclaimed TV sitcom of the 90s there, too—a masterclass in the art of the sitcom—Seinfeld.
In a different world (possibly only marginally different to the one we’ve endured over the past year), we’d be free to watch the masses of TV that one of the fastest-growing industries has wowed us with. Never have we had so much, and of such a diverse range of programs to watch. From the most up-to-date, and let’s not deny it, brilliantly challenging dramas, groundbreaking movies, unbelievable documentary making, to the masses of archived classics—they’re all sat at our fingertips, awaiting a simple, single click to get them rolling.
Don’t get us wrong; we’re not telling you to give up your jobs and watch TV 24/7 (although that doesn’t sound all that awful), as we want all of our subscribers to stay happy and healthy—balance is key, remember, folks!
What we are saying is, if you need a break from the usual visual feasts and binge-worthy marathons, then taking a break to soak up some of what your parents used to watch can provide a wonderful change of pace. With an often lighter look at life and how it worked before it grew into the fast-paced world we live in, let’s all take some time to enjoy garishly coloured knitted jumpers, huge shoulder pads, telephones that plugged into the wall—and a personal favourite of ours—the VHS recorder.
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