Jul 17, 2004

Didn't They Do "I Love The 90s" A Little Too Soon?

Now that I've seen most of VH1's "I Love The 90s," I can officially answer a question that's been plaguing my mind since the thought of a 90s retrospective entered my thoughts.

Did we really need an "I Love The 90s" special now? No, we didn't.

Let me explain.

Half of the specials were very nostalgic for me. 1990 - 1995, maybe 1996 were probably the best of the series for me because it did seem like it took place a long time ago. The latter half were pretty dang recent to me and not really worth the trip back in time. By looking at the, ahem, celebrities and their reactions to the latter half, it did seem that they were almost forced to wax nostalgic about 1996 - 1999, considering it wasn't that long ago. I feel that maybe in another three or four years that they could have done an I Love The 90s (and yes, I'm aware that the BBC, who created the frnchise, did a 90s retrospective pretty recently as well). 2004 was just a little too soon to remember fondly about the 90s.

From a cultural perspective, they had pretty much everything covered. From an animated perspective, it lacked a lot (to be honest, aside from Pokemon, it seemed very Viacomy). The thing about the I Love The 70s and 80s specials were that the most of participants were actually kids and teens at the time and remember the good old days. In the 90s, most of the participants were adults. They wouldn't have remembered stuff like Pete and Pete, Salute Your Shorts, X-Men, Fox Kids, Animaniacs, Cartoon Network, Pinky and the Brain, Batman: The Animated Series, Rugrats, Rocko's Modern Life, Sailor Moon, Dragonball Z, Dexter's Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, and countless others that we remember in our teenhood (and in most cases, childhood). Heck, where were Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King, the finest Disney movies to come out. They covered Toy Story, but that was it. In about four years, they really could have done a great I Love the 90s interviewing folks that actually watched those shows.

Instead, this trip back to the 90s was a little underwhelming. It's like the writers' minds were just trapped by adults of that era.

1 comment:

Cody S. said...

I knew before hand they'd pass ReBoot over as the first CGI series in 1994, for a highlight of Toy Story being the first CGI movie in 1995...but it was still disapointing.

I love the 90's DID come too soon...I don't know about anyone else, but being a kid in the 90s, I don't want to 'remember' the times by listening to adults complain about having to buy Power Ranger toys. I want to hear people like me remembering the fads and fasions of the times, much like they did for I love the 80s an 70s.

They should've waited atleast 5 more years...