Some 90s shows were head of their time and others aged like milk. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the shows that aired a good portion of their episodes in the 1990s that would be at home on TV screens now, and the ones that are hopelessly dated.
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00:00Are you still master of your domain?
00:02I'm queen of the castle."
00:05Welcome to Miss Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the shows that aired a
00:09good portion of their episodes in the 1990s that would be at home on TV screens now, and
00:14the ones that are hopelessly dated.
00:16We're excluding animated series.
00:18Boy, those were the days, huh?
00:21Number 5.
00:22Aged like milk, Family Matters
00:24Shockingly, Steve Urkel was not supposed to be the star character on this Perfect Strangers
00:29spinoff, but the Winslow family's pesky neighbor was a scene-stealer.
00:33Do it.
00:35Do it.
00:37Everybody.
00:39Do me a favor.
00:41Now point your fingers up to the sky.
00:43Family Matters transformed into a showcase for him and performer Jaleel White, who went
00:48from supporting player to practically carrying the sitcom on his back.
00:52Urkel fever was the epitome of the 90s zeitgeist.
00:55Alright, let a rip call.
01:04Did I do that?
01:06The problem with having a show so dependent on a single character's antics is that the
01:10novelty will wear off.
01:12Centering the story around Steve Urkel may have made sense at the time, however it's
01:16a decision that makes the series all but unwatchable now if you don't already have nostalgic
01:21feelings attached to it.
01:23I never thought I'd say this in a million years, but...
01:26But what?
01:28I miss Steve Urkel.
01:30Why?
01:31Number five, ahead of its time, Twin Peaks.
01:34While it may have seemed like a standard whodunit, David Lynch and Mark Frost's idiosyncratic
01:39small-town murder mystery didn't hesitate to get freaky.
01:42Now you're gonna be working for me.
01:44Sometimes local law enforcement has a problem with that, I hope you understand.
01:47Like I said, we're glad to have you here.
01:51Sheriff, what kind of fantastic trees have you got growing around here?
01:57Twin Peaks combined its detective story with surrealism, metaphysics, and unapologetic
02:02melodrama.
02:03Sure, it only lasted two seasons during its original run in the 90s.
02:07Looks like cable, probably no reception problems.
02:10But the true test of any hotel, as you well know Diane, is that morning cup of coffee,
02:15which I'll be getting back to you about within a half hour.
02:17Yet its melding of genres and tones, and its lack of crystal clear answers and spots,
02:22endeared it to a cult of fans.
02:24Thus, its cinematic scope and technique would feel more than at home on our TVs now.
02:29However, at the time, it ran completely against the grain of procedurals and sitcoms.
02:35Dr. Lawrence Jacoby.
02:37Laura's psychiatrist.
02:39Dr. Lawrence Jacoby.
02:44You did it! You hit it!
02:46Number 4. Aged Like Milk.
02:48Walker, Texas Ranger.
02:50For nine seasons, audiences watched Chuck Norris beat the bad guys with martial arts
02:55and a strong moral code.
02:56How's the guard?
02:57Well, a lot better than Waxwell, I think.
03:00Can you get up?
03:01Yeah.
03:07But as much as Walker, Texas Ranger sold itself as being about the importance of law and order,
03:12it came off more like a showcase for Norris and his moves.
03:15The action crime series ended as the age of the TV anti-hero began,
03:20so the amount of time it spends lionizing his character feels bizarre in retrospect.
03:25From its stereotypical villains to its black and white morality and liberal use of slow motion,
03:30it's a show that had no time for subtlety.
03:33If anything, we're with Conan O'Brien.
03:35We stand in awe of Walker, Texas Ranger and all its 90s-tastic badness.
03:41But it didn't age well.
03:44You haven't heard the last of this, Ranger.
03:46I better have.
03:47Number four, ahead of its time, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
03:51Will Smith's fish-out-of-water sitcom found his working-class character from Philadelphia
03:56making a big splash with rich relatives in Bel-Air.
03:59Much of the humor was derived from the conflict between the two worlds,
04:03but it's also what made the frequent exploration of themes like class, race, and discrimination
04:09all the more digestible to a mainstream white audience.
04:13No map is going to save you.
04:15And neither is your glee club or your fancy Bel-Air address or who your daddy is.
04:19Because when you're driving in a nice car in a strange neighborhood, none of that matters.
04:23They only see one thing.
04:25The Fresh Prince was never afraid to have the conversation.
04:28It may have made us laugh while it taught us a few lessons,
04:31but it took its messaging seriously, and it always felt earned.
04:35I'm running the same race and jumping the same hurdles you are, so why are you tripping me up?
04:41You said we need to stick together, but you don't even know what that means.
04:44If you ask me, you're the real son.
04:47Peacock's dramatic reboot made these themes more explicit, but nothing compares to the original.
04:52No more hugs, Will.
04:55I saved your life, man.
04:58I saved your life. You owe me!
05:00Number 3. Age Like Milk. Married. With Children.
05:04When this sitcom premiered in 1987, it was considered oppositional programming
05:08to the feel-good family series of the era.
05:11Any particular reason you put it where the alarm clock used to be?
05:17I thought it would dress up the room a little bit.
05:19Aw, gee, you know, I meant to tell you to be careful before you slammed your hand on the alarm this morning.
05:24Well, you didn't.
05:26In fact, it was apparently originally called Not The Cosbys.
05:29Along with The Simpsons, it's one of the shows that made Fox a network powerhouse.
05:34Unlike The Simpsons, though, it failed to age up.
05:37For 11 seasons, Al Bundy and his grubby family
05:40performed their deep unhappiness and dysfunction for the world to see.
05:44Hey, she's got no place to go.
05:46Bud, get some sheets and a blanket for the couch so your mother will be comfortable.
05:51Bundy's unchecked misogyny, largely cheered on by audiences at the time,
05:55is the epitome of aging like milk.
05:58Two, four, six, eight! Don't make fun of our weight!
06:01Two, four, six, eight! Don't make fun of our weight!
06:05Ironically, the show's strategy of contrasting contemporary programming
06:09may have also locked it forever in its time.
06:12Number three, ahead of its time, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
06:16Buffy Summers wasn't the only female lead of a fantasy series in the 1990s.
06:20It's my first day.
06:22I was afraid that I was going to be behind in all my classes,
06:25that I wouldn't make any friends, that I would have last month's hair.
06:29I didn't think there'd be vampires on campus.
06:32What set Buffy the Vampire Slayer apart was its emotional complexity
06:36and a quality that belied its relatively smaller budget and network.
06:40Mixed in with its supernatural monsters were very grounded human stories
06:44about growing up and rising to the challenges of adulthood.
06:48I'd just like to float something bigger than a pencil someday.
06:51Hey, how's with you and Riley? You two seem pretty snugly after class.
06:56For instance, Willow Rosenberg's coming-out narrative
06:59was an early marker of shifting attitudes surrounding LGBTQIA plus issues,
07:04Buffy's loyal and engaged following formed in the early days of the Internet,
07:08and the way fans engaged with it looks fairly similar to modern-day TV fandom.
07:13Awesome, Buffy.
07:18See, you're a hit.
07:20Everybody loves you.
07:22Number two, aged like milk, home improvement.
07:26Tim the Toolman Taylor was a monument to male arrogance.
07:30It's guy stuff, and women don't appreciate guy stuff, and that's the truth.
07:33I don't think a woman really understands the diaphragmatic control it takes
07:37to do all of the vowels in one belch.
07:40That was part of what made him funny, even in the 1990s.
07:43He learned his lesson, to a point.
07:46But home improvement was steeped in old-fashioned gender dynamics and misogyny
07:51that, while treated casually by the show, doesn't go so unremarked upon anymore.
07:55Because Pam had done all this Playboy stuff,
07:57and they were really worried about criticism of being sexist on the show,
08:01they really kept Pam to as much of a minimum as they could anyway.
08:05In the home-improvement verse, men liked sports and doing DIY projects,
08:10and women nagged their husbands to take them to the opera.
08:13I was thinking more along the line of season tickets to the opera.
08:19That's a Greek word, isn't it? Death by Music.
08:24It's outdated stuff.
08:26Of course, Tim Allen's He-Man persona found some success on the more recent Last Man Standing,
08:32but that title should give some indication of how his type is not as popular as it used to be.
08:38It was like the first time that guy Buddha sold his first naked cheese.
08:44How can you feel anything but pity for a man like this?
08:46Number 2. Ahead of its time. The X-Files.
08:49Dana Scully and Fox Mulder's adventures in alien hunting, and more,
08:54started as a niche cultural object.
08:57I'm Dana Scully. I've been assigned to work with you.
08:59Oh, isn't it nice to be suddenly so highly regarded?
09:02So who did you take off to get stuck with this detail, Scully?
09:06Actually, I'm looking forward to working with you.
09:08Scholars and critics have notably attributed the show's growth in popularity
09:12and the rabidness of its fan base to the concurrent growth of the internet.
09:16What set The X-Files apart was that it volleyed between different styles with ease.
09:21One episode might have been more comedic, while the next might have been deadly serious.
09:25But no matter the tone, it was always well executed.
09:29What were you doing?
09:31You know what I was doing.
09:33You know I can't help thinking about it.
09:36You know, I can't help thinking, Agent Scully, you're the only one with a gun.
09:40If you get infected, we don't stand a chance, do we?
09:43It was unafraid to rewrite the rules of what it could be from week to week.
09:46Thus, it offered its loyal following constant surprises and hard-hitting tales of human drama,
09:51set against its fantastical monster stories. That'll never get old.
09:56The rest of my body's still pretty hairy, which is why I never go to the beach.
10:01That doesn't quite explain the potato.
10:04I got some warts on my hand.
10:07That doesn't quite explain the potato.
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10:251. Aged Like Milk – Baywatch
10:28Baywatch followed the personal lives of its physically gifted group of lifeguards on pretty beaches.
10:34You know, you're more trouble than most riptides.
10:36Get rid of the power ski before I have you sighted.
10:40I know how hard it is for you to make up excuses to come and see me, Jo.
10:44Spare me, Trevor.
10:46David Hasselhoff led an ensemble cast that initially included Pamela Anderson,
10:51Carmen Electra, and a revolving door of gorgeous models turned actors.
10:55In other words, it was an anomaly.
10:58It wasn't particularly well regarded critically, even as it was airing.
11:11In fact, its entire reason for being seemed to be giving an audience the chance to ogle bodies for a certain period each week,
11:18sometimes in slow motion.
11:20Somehow, that was enough to keep it on the air for 11 seasons.
11:23You'd be hard pressed to find a show that could survive on this business model in this day and age.
11:401. Ahead of Its Time – Seinfeld
11:43Despite what the star-slash-co-creator of Seinfeld may think about the modern state of comedy,
11:48this self-titled sitcom still inspires much of the TV we see today.
11:52We have to do it. It's part of our lifestyle.
11:57It's like shaving.
11:59Oh, that is such a baloney. I shave my legs.
12:02Not every day.
12:03Friends, Just Talking has basically become a genre unto itself.
12:07Indeed, Seinfeld subverted everything we knew was possible in a half-hour series.
12:13The woman across the block has nothing on, nothing on.
12:17The woman across the block has nothing on, nothing on.
12:21It's a mix of single-camera and multi-cam scenes, its amoral characters,
12:26and its ability to find humour in the most ordinary things were not commonplace when it premiered in 1989.
12:32For a show that took this many risks, even some of its wildest jokes and scenarios are still really funny.
12:39See, the hard part is to find a pasta that captures the individual.
12:44Why if you're silly?
12:46Because you're silly.
12:50Get it?
12:51How does your favorite 90s show stack up today? Tell us in the comments.
12:55Come on, Ross, you said you wanted to talk about it. Let's talk about it!
12:58Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo,
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