Television tagged with 90s - 2/5

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Traditionally, when a film is only marginally successful at the box office, the likelihood of it ever spawning a television series is slim at best. Even more rare is when anyone associated with such a film decides to make the transition into television. But Buffy the Vampire Slayer apparently wasn’t concerned by these preconceptions, because it proceeded to render them null. Not only was this 90s series far more successful than the original film, it also had creator and screenwriter Joss Whedon at the helm. Traditions be damned.

Bump in the Night

Captain Kangaroo

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Every morning, he opened the door to his Treasure House and invited kids to share an easygoing hour of laughter and learning. He wore a jacket with giant pockets, and thus came his name, Captain Kangaroo. He had the longest running children’s program in network television history. (Only Public TV’s Sesame Street can beat the record.) Let's take a look back at this beloved show.

Double Dare

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Nickelodeon brought green slime to the forefront of television with its 1986 program, Double Dare. A combination of quiz show and obstacle course, the kid’s network made sure to provide plenty of slime, jelly, syrup, and other forms of goo. Host Marc Summers started things off by having the two competing teams, decked out in [...]

DuckTales

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"Life is like a hurricane, here in Duckburg…" "Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes, it's a duck blur, You might solve a mystery, or rewrite history, DuckTales, woo-oo!" (Oh, come on, you know the words!) With its ‘tales of derring-do, bad and good luck tales’ (A-woo-ooh!), DuckTales made its foray into daily syndication in the fall of [...]

Eerie, Indiana

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Imagine taking the quirkiness of a David Lynch-type series and applying it to a show for kids. The result might look something like Eerie, Indiana, which aired for a single season on NBC in 1991 and followed the adventures of a boy and his best friend who, much to their dismay, live in one of the most bizarre towns imaginable.

Garfield and Friends

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Garfield, role model for lazy cats everywhere, started out as a syndicated newspaper comic strip created by Jim Davis. And, as one might expect, the character proved popular enough to made the transition to TV commercials, which eventually led to his own Saturday morning show in 1988, Garfield and Friends. The kitty with an attitude endeared himself to many a young viewer, enough to stick around for a respectable 121 episodes.

Growing Pains

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A family-based sitcom is dangerous territory. If the kids are annoying, if the writing falls flat, if the family doesn’t seem real – all can lead to a quick demise. But every once in a while a show like Growing Pains comes along and proves that when everything clicks, the rewards can be substantial. This 80s series, which would go on to become one of the longest-running and most watched of the decade, seemed to have it all – clever humor that could elicit an unexpected guffaw, a cast of likable characters of all ages, and a family that never seemed too “Hollywood.” Growing Pains captured the trials and tribulations of raising a family, while never easing up on the laughs.

Hey Arnold!

Home Improvement

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Tim Allen enjoyed a rapid rise in stardom in the late 80s/early 90s as a stand-up comedian. He owed his success to a hilarious routine that revolved around power tools and the primeval grunting males that covet them in their never-ending quest to be the king of all home repairs. Network execs at ABC thought that made for an interesting premise for a sitcom, and the foundation was laid for Home Improvement. Over the next decade, the series rose in popularity like a mighty skyscraper under swift construction.