Advance Praise for
The Totally Sweet ’90s
“Mr. Dewey gives The Totally Sweet ’90s an A+! Should be on the required reading list for all Baysiders. But don’t worry, no need for caffeine pills, Jesse. Each page is a delightful reminiscence of that sometimes glorious but all too often ignominious (look it up, slacker) decade that polished off the twentieth century.”
—Patrick O’Brien, actor from Saved by the Bell
THE
TOTALLY
SWEET ’90S
From Clear Cola to Furby, and Grunge
to “Whatever,” the Toys, Tastes, and Trends
That Defined a Decade
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
and Brian Bellmont
A PERIGEE BOOK
A PERIGEE BOOK
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
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For more information about the Penguin Group, visit penguin.com.
Copyright © 2013 by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont
Photographs by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
PERIGEE is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “P” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cooper, Gael Fashingbauer.
The totally sweet ’90s : from clear cola to Furby, and grunge to “whatever,” the toys, tastes, and trends that defined a decade / Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont.
pages cm
“A Perigee Book.”
Includes index.
ISBN: 978-1-101-62399-2
1. Popular culture—United States—History—20th century. 2. United States—Social life and
customs—1971– 3. Nineteen nineties. I. Bellmont, Brian. II. Title.
E169.Z82C675 2013
973.929—dc23 2013000219
First edition: June 2013
Text design by Tiffany Estreicher
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Most Perigee books are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. Special books, or book excerpts, can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write:
[email protected].
This one’s for our siblings—
Rudge, Claudia, Drew, Clio, Anne,
and Dave on Gael’s side,
and Mike, Dave, and Kevin on Brian’s.
And also for the friends who helped us survive and thrive in the 1990s.
For Gael, that’s Lisa Olchefske Gilbert, Sue Dillon, Bob Seabold and
Bobbe Norenberg, Scott and Stacy Pampuch, Todd Mannis, Dan Dosen,
Scott Feraro, and Matt Gillen. For Brian, that would be Chris Moore,
Mike Zipko, Kathleen Hennessy, Dave Aeikens, and all the folks
at WEAU, CONUS, Axiom, and Shandwick.
Table of Contents
Kids of the ’90s, Unite!
Adam Sandler Songs on Saturday Night Live
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
America’s Funniest Home Videos
American Gladiators
Andrew “Dice” Clay
Arch Deluxe
Austin Stories
“Baby Got Back”
Baby-Sitters Club Books
Barney & Friends
Baywatch
Beanie Babies
Beavis and Butt-Head
Bee Girl
Behind the Music
The Big Lebowski
Big Mouth Billy Bass
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Billy Bob Thornton
The Blair Witch Project
Blossom Fashion
Blue’s Clues
Bob Ross and The Joy of Painting
Body Glitter
Bottled Water
Boy Bands
The Brady Bunch Revival
Brenda Walsh
Bubble Tape
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Bungee Jumping
Caboodles
Caller ID and Star-69
Calvin and Hobbes
Cassette Tapes
Celebrity Movies
Cheetos Paws
Clarissa Explains It All
Clear Colas
Clerks
“Closing Time”
Coke MagiCan Promotion
COPS
Cuba Gooding Jr.
Dawson’s Creek
Department 56
Dippin’ Dots
Discovery Zone
“Don’t Copy That Floppy!”
Doritos 3D
Dream Phone Game
Dunkaroos
Earring Magic Ken
Ebola Virus
Facial Hair
Fanny Packs
Fargo
Father of the Bride
Fax Machines
Floppy Disks
Forrest Gump
FoxTrot
Free Willy
Friends
Fruit by the Foot
Furby
Gak
Game Boy
George Foreman Grill
Giant Cell Phones
Goosebumps Books
Got Milk? Ad Campaign
Groundhog Day
Grunge
Hacky Sack
Happy Fun Ball
Have You Ever…You Will!
Home Alone
Hypercolor
If You Give a Mouse a Cookie Books
“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)”
“I’m the King of the World!”
Inline Skates
“I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up” Ads
Janet Reno’s Dance Party
Jell-O Jigglers
The Jerry Springer Show
Jim Carrey
Jim’s Journal
Juice Boxes
Kid Cuisine
Kindergarten Cop
Koosh Balls
Kris Kross
Lamb Chop’s Play Along
Leisure Suit Larry
Light-Up Sneakers
The Lion King
Lisa Frank School Supplies
Mac Classic II
“Macarena”
Magic Eye Pictures
Magic Middles Cookies
Martha Stewart
MC Hammer
McRib
Melrose Place
Mentos
Micro Machines
Mighty Morphin Power Range
rs
Milli Vanilli
“MMMBop”
Movie Rental Stores
Movies with Twist Endings
My So-Called Life
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Nelson
Nerf Guns
Newsies
The Nutty Professor
OK Soda
The Olsen Twins
Online Services
Oprah’s Book Club
Orbitz
The Oregon Trail
Pajama Pants
PalmPilot
Party of Five
Pogs
Pokémon
Pop Up Video
Pretty Woman
Pulp Fiction
The Real World
The Return of Donny Osmond
Ring Pops
Riot Grrrl
Rise of the Disney Princess
Riverdance
Roller Shoes
Roseanne
Salute Your Shorts
Saved by the Bell
Scream
Scrunchies and Little Kid Barrettes
Seinfeld
Skip-It
Slap Bracelets
Snapple
Socker Boppers
Sour Candy
Spice Girls
Spuds Mackenzie
Squeezit Drinks
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Wars Prequel Mania
Surge Soda
Swing Dancing
TGIF and SNICK
Taco Bell Chihuahua
Talk Show Boom
Tamagotchi
Tan M&M’s
Teddy Ruxpin
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Terrible Saturday Night Live Movies
“The More You Know” Public Service Announcements
Thomas Kinkade Art
Tickle Me Elmo Craze
Topsy Tail
Troll Dolls
Turbo Football
Upper Deck Baseball Cards
Urkel
Violent Video Games
Waterworld
Wayne’s World
Whassup? Ads
“Whatever”
Where’s Waldo?
Windows 95
WWJD Bracelets
The X-Files
X Games
Xena: Warrior Princess
Y2K Panic
Zima
Zines
Zubaz
Acknowledgments
Index
About the Author
Kids of the ’90s, Unite!
We know, you’ve spent a lifetime celebrating the nostalgia of older generations. Every other week a magazine cover remembers the enormous social changes of the 1960s, a shaggy 1970s band goes on tour, or a hideous fashion trend of the 1980s returns. That’s all well and good, even if jelly shoes haven’t gotten any more comfortable in thirty years.
But maybe you still smile when you hear someone mention The Oregon Trail, or when you find your old Lisa Frank notebook in your mom’s closet. Or maybe you get sucked in to watching the entire Big Lebowski every time it pops up on cable. Or you can’t bear to throw away your cassette tapes, even though you haven’t owned a tape player for years. There’s nothing wrong with holding fond memories of your own chosen decade—even if you still can’t figure out why Urkel was ever popular.
The reason we wrote this book—and its 1970s–1980s-themed predecessor, Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?—is that we believe the lost toys, tastes, and trends of an era do more than just remind us of what we liked as kids. They tell us a lot about who we were then, and who we are today. You can’t figure out where you’re going until you understand how you got there.
Sure, each decade is technically just ten years, but we feel confident saying that the twentieth century seemed to gain speed as it neared its end. Starting in the 1990s, technology jumped on a roller-coaster-fast track that changed everything. Mobile phones went from brick-sized behemoths that only Gordon Gekko carried to slim little numbers that everyone from nannies to nuns popped in their pockets. Televisions used to be so clunky they might have singlehandedly made you refuse to help a friend move. After the ’90s technology revolution, they morphed into sexy flat screens that hung on walls like paintings.
Before the 1990s began, you may not have received a single email. By 2000, the dude who lived in your AOL inbox was barking “You’ve got mail!” every couple of minutes.
It’s not just that the 1990s introduced us to a boatload of new stuff—all decades do that. It’s the fact that items we first encountered in the ’90s didn’t just come and go. Computers, mobile phones, electronic news and communications—these things may keep changing form, but they’re never going to fade out of our lives completely, not now. They’ll get better—or weirder—but for good or for ill, they’re here to stay.
Also in the ’90s, many of the things generations had grown up with started to slip away. Photographic film. Landlines. Newspapers. You almost don’t notice when those things start to slowly roll out of your life, but when you look back at where you were in 1990 versus where you were in 1999, it’s mind-blowing.
Technology aside, it was a decade of rich creativity and downright crazy inventions. Just think about how the 1990s loved to play with form.
You think you had candy, previous generations? We have super-sour candy that will rip a layer off your tongue! Think T-shirts pretty much can’t be improved? We have shirts that change color with the temperature! Thirsty? We have clear colas and beverages with weird floating pearls in them! You’ve seen dozens of movies and watched a million hours of TV? We’re going to hit you with Quentin Tarantino’s pop-culture-flavored violence and the whole bizarre reality TV universe. What’s that Al Jolson said as Hollywood moved into talkies? You ain’t heard nothin’ yet, indeed.
As advanced and futuristic as we thought we were back in the 1990s, we look back on it now as a decade of innocence. The Berlin Wall came down, the Soviet Union imploded, and for a brief moment the nuclear fears that haunted ’80s kids almost fell away. We had no idea, as we sailed into airports an hour before a flight, cruising through metal detectors with shoes and belts on, tweezers and giant bottles of mouthwash stowed in our carry-ons, what the 2000s would bring.
What happened to the gentle memories of our youth? Some vanished totally, like the craze for clear colas. Some stayed around, but faded from the spotlight, like America’s Funniest Home Videos and the bungee-jumping fad. Some temporarily disappeared, were revised, and reintroduced…but you’ll have to read the book to find out which ones. Not everything we remember here was invented in the 1990s, but it was important to us then. And since you’re flipping through this book, we’re guessing it was important to you too.
So don’t let anyone tell you it’s too early to remember the 1990s. Smear on some body glitter and put some fresh batteries in your Big Mouth Billy Bass. We’re heading back to the era when clear cola seemed somehow cool, we all knew how to fix a cassette tape with a pencil, and TGIF and SNICK ruled the airwaves.
Grab some Dunkaroos and pump it up, Kris. This is your so-called life.
Adam Sandler Songs on Saturday Night Live
Ambitious cast members on Saturday Night Live always find new ways to stand out. In the 1990s, Mike Myers had Wayne’s World, Chris Farley played lovable chubby losers, and Adam Sandler, long before he was a movie star, hit the right note with his own original songs.
Sandler’s topics were truly off the wall. His “Thanksgiving Song” mixed completely random pop-culture lines with tales from Turkey Day itself (“Turkey for you and turkey for me/Can’t believe Tyson gave that girl VD”), while his “Hanukkah Song” listed famous Jews who celebrate the holiday. (“Guess who eats together at the Carnegie Deli? Bowser from Sha Na Na and Arthur Fonzarelli!”) And he wasn’t afraid to rhyme “Hanukkah” with “marijuanica.”
Perhaps Sandler’s best-loved SNL song is the one Farley helped him perform, “Lunch Lady
Land.” Farley was perfect as the mole-sporting, hair-netted worker who’s the Simon Legree of cafeteria food—until the pizza and pudding came out for revenge. On a show where sketches often run groaningly long, seeing Sandler bring out his guitar meant a guaranteed two minutes of the purest and most joyful laughter.
STATUS: Sandler’s moved on to movies. His role as the SNL songwriter was eventually filled by Andy Samberg and his Lonely Island crew, singing about cupcakes and the Chronicles of Narnia and gift-wrapping one’s genitals.
FUN FACT: The lunch lady in “Lunch Lady Land” is reportedly based on a real cafeteria worker Sandler knew at NYU.
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
Before Yo Gabba Gabba!, the show every indie hipster wanted to guest star on was The Adventures of Pete & Pete. And no wonder—if you were Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, or Michael Stipe, wouldn’t you kill to be on the coolest, weirdest, most surreal program of the ’90s? Ostensibly about two carrot-topped brothers, Big Pete and Little Pete (“Get a life, jerkweed!” was one of the littler Pete’s favorite put-downs) the Nickelodeon show was like nothing else on TV—and certainly like nothing else on Nickelodeon, which had traditionally run more, uh, lowbrow fare. (Cough—Hey Dude.)
The Adventures of Pete & Pete was an oddball offering about school, suburbia, and subversion. Little Pete was an anti-authority nut with a tattoo of an adult woman (Petunia!) on his forearm. The boys’ mom had a metal plate in her head. They hung out with the neighborhood superhero, Artie, who described himself as “the strongest man…in the world!” Luscious Jackson played at their prom. And it kept getting weirder. And better than 99 percent of anything else on TV. In the immortal words of Little Pete, “Read it and weep, fungus-lick!”
STATUS: Pete & Pete started as minute-long short segments, then graduated to regular-show status from 1993–1996. The cast and crew reunited for an event in 2012.
FUN FACT: Toby Huss, who played Artie, went on to voice Cotton Hill and Kahn Souphanousinphone on King of the Hill.
America’s Funniest Home Videos
Before YouTube, the only place you could check out embarrassing real-life video footage was on America’s Funniest Home Videos, which kicked off in 1989 and quickly became the water-cooler show of the ’90s. “Oh, man—did you see that one of the kid smashing his dad in the nertz with a golf club? Classic. I wish I could post that on the Internet.” “What’s the Internet?” “No idea, but someone should totally invent it so we can watch that video over and over again.”
The Totally Sweet ’90s: From Clear Cola to Furby, and Grunge to “Whatever,” the Toys, Tastes, and Trends That Defined a Decade Page 1