Being that Jamie Dyer was only a couple of years old in 1991, many of his memories came from looking back. He noted that every time he sat down and discovered something new he adored from the ‘90s, it was typically rooted in this year. This is why he joined me this week to talk about everything from Marky Mark’s “Good Vibrations” to the first-ever Nicktoons that made Nickelodeon what it is today and everything in between.
Just two years older than Jamie, there are some bits and pieces I remember about that year. I became an aunt at the ripe old age of four, watched my first movie in theaters, and was still a year away from entering the public school system. Life was easy and I was loving it and soon enough ‘Drop Dead Fred,’ but I also wound up loving these other things about 1991…
Maury
During the summer there was nothing I loved more than planning my day around daytime TV talk shows, and Maury became a permanent fixture on my schedule when I got older. Of course, we love a paternity test moment but I also loved when he had oversized babies, Make-a-Wish moments, and those ones where people came on with pretty out-there fears like cotton balls. Daytime TV used to be where we saw the wildest shit, and sadly – that’s just become our everyday reality watching the news.
Darkwing Duck
A couple of guests coming back got to dive into this weird aspect of the ‘90s and that’s how popular ducks were. ‘The Mighty Ducks,’ ‘Ducktales,’ and 1991’s ‘Darkwing Duck.’ I won’t get into that side of things. I’ll just say that ‘Darkwing Duck’ was part of a glorious block of cartoons that kept my ass enamored. Most of that was due to the amazing theme song that went harder than it ever had to!
Boyz n the Hood
Not sure if I watched this movie the year it was released, or a few years later but I do know that whenever I did – I was too young. Alas, it’s still one of the best coming-of-age stories to ever grace the big screen and I am forever chasing writing something as everlasting as John Singleton did with this one.
Home Improvement
For the time, this show was amazing. It had a catchy intro, quotable lines out the ass, and JTT. What more could a kid have wanted?
Problem Child 2
There are several sequels that outshine what came before them, and ‘Problem Child 2’ is one of my favorites to fall into that category. John Ritter is nothing short of amazing as the single father just trying to make it work with a son who – let’s be real – should’ve been in juvenile hall. Unlike the first one though, this one did feel more kid-friendly and I ultimately think that’s why it always stuck out more for me back then.
Dinosaurs
There are a handful of shows that make me think of my mom; ‘Roseanne,’ ‘Melrose Place,’ and ‘Dinosaurs.’ We used to watch this and just laugh and laugh. At the time I was mostly just laughing whenever she did because really, what did I know at the time? Unless it was the baby, I knew Baby Sinclair was hilarious!
Michael Jackson “Dangerous”
There are very few artists that get to be dubbed timeless and Michael Jackson is in that elite gang, and while he cemented his place there in the ‘80s – he didn’t slow down in the ‘90s. ‘Dangerous’ gave us so much goodness but it’s always been “Black or White” for me. As a little mixed kid who, at the time, was the only one like her in the family – it was rather confusing to never see people with parents like me on TV, or in Methtown, USA where I grew up. So that song always made me feel a little less weird as a kid.
Rugrats
Jamie and I talked at length about one of Nickelodeon’s premier Nicktoons, ‘Rugrats.’ From the voice-acting giants to the genius of the show as a whole, you’ll have to listen to see what else we said about it and you can do that here.
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
This comes up on the series, but I’ll never stop repeating it – one of the things I loved most about the ‘90s was that movies took risks. Not everything released had to be this Oscar-winning performance. We were allowed to enjoy silly ass movies in theaters and not just in the comfort of our homes because the only place you’ll find a movie like ‘Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead’ is via streaming nowadays, and I hate that. Really do.
Beauty and the Beast
I mentioned at the top that this is the year I had my first movie theater experience and it was with ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ I vividly remember the opening and the scene where we pan over the field and then there she is, Belle! I wasn’t enrolled in school yet but I was already a huge fan of reading or at least bothering my dad to read to me, so there was this immediate connection to the girl who loved a good book. That, on top of all of the songs…definitely a great way to break in the Fox Cineplex, the theater that’d be my one and only until I left for college 14 years later.
Crushgasm 
Leave a Reply