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Early 90s sitcoms: better the second time around?

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Belfast

Member
I think I'm becoming addicted to watching reruns of old early-90s sitcoms. I get out of class pretty early, so I can come home and catch the reruns in the early afternoon. They're also showing some on Nick at Nite now. I've been watching stuff like Step by Step and Fresh Prince, Boy Meets World, etc. They're still pretty entertaining and there are a lot of jokes I'm getting now that I certainly wouldn't have when I was younger. Compared to today's programming (and especially sitcoms) there's something almost refreshingly comfortable about the innoncent sense of moral teaching in these shows. And once again, there's some slightly more "adult" humor thrown in here or there (usually cleverly disguised) that I wouldn't have understood before.
 

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
STEP BY STEP

DAY BY DAY

A FRESH START OVER A DIFFERENT HAND TO PLAY

damn your topic header :(
 

Belfast

Member
jooey said:
STEP BY STEP

DAY BY DAY

A FRESH START OVER A DIFFERENT HAND TO PLAY

damn your topic header :(

HAHAHAHA. Yes, I intended it that way.

I mean, seriously, right now there's an episode of Step by Step on that has a teacher giving JT an A+ because she wants to seduce him and jump his bones. JT is in high school. Hell, she even gave him wine! Maybe this was around the whole time that Mary Lay whatever-her-name seduced that student, but its still pretty crazy to think they'd lampoon a situation like that.

However, I have to say, out of all of these, Fresh Prince STILL holds up very well. Will Smith was definitely at his peak.
 

Belfast

Member
LinesInTheSand said:
Step by Step sucked.

Boy Meets World was the shiznit though! Has it come out on DVD yet?

Nope. But you can catch it every day, several times a day on The Disney Channel.
 
I've actually started finding myself watching through an entire episode of Wings. I don't know if I should kill myself now or what.
 

border

Member
None of those shows were really funny. I'm assuming we all watched them because we were kids, and thus had relatively low standards for comedy. They were closer to "entertaining" than "funny". I think the biggest laughs I've actually gotten out of Step-By-Step were the jokes people used to make about Cody beating his wife.

Other than The Cosby Show, I don't think any of those real old sitcoms hold up at all. Fresh Prince is hopelessly dated and formulaic. Will Smith's character was okay, but all the rest were one-joke characters that had their one-joke repeated for years on end (kinda like the later seasons of Friends).
 

Belfast

Member
OK, entertaining, funny, whatever. I mean I don't LAUGH OUT LOUD, har har har, or anything, but some of the humor can be pretty sly if you really pay attention. Gotta disagree on Fresh Prince, though. Change the clothing style and some of the slang and it could work just as well today as it did back then. Dated? Maybe a little, but so are a lot of these shows. I'm talking about the humor value and writing quality. I don't give a crap if the characters are one-dimensional or not, that's why I find it so refreshing, though. It doesn't try too hard or get muddied up in *modern* stereotypes (OMG, EVERY SHOW MUST HAVE A GAY CHARACTER NOW).
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
border said:
Other than The Cosby Show, I don't think any of those real old sitcoms hold up at all. Fresh Prince is hopelessly dated and formulaic. Will Smith's character was okay, but all the rest were one-joke characters that had their one-joke repeated for years on end (kinda like the later seasons of Friends).

Cheers, Cosby, Martin (mostly), early Night Court, Soap, early Mad About You (actually, mabye only the first season)... I think those hold up well. Although if you don't wanna call Soap a sitcom I'd understand.
 
In all honesty I've always been a friend of the really old shows like I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke, The George Burns Show (lol, I can't remember if it was or wasn't the Gracie Allen one), Mary Tyler Moore, Bewitched, and many others. I wish that Nick at Nite was what we still have today, but I guess people got bored with it and it all got shoved to TVLand where the shows are on maybe once a day, a week in some cases because the station is so crowded. The more recent sitcoms (especially ones we've had today, or nearly today, Friends, Seinfeld, etc, blech) just aren't as refreshing at all as these shows I've come across thanks to "Classic TV".
 

Shouta

Member
Fresh Prince = Rox
Step By Step = Rox
Family Matters = Rox but the later seasons were ass
Boy Meets World = Ok


There's a bunch of other shows I could say but there's jussssst tooooooooooo many to go about it.
 
border said:
Fresh Prince is hopelessly dated and formulaic. Will Smith's character was okay, but all the rest were one-joke characters that had their one-joke repeated for years on end (kinda like the later seasons of Friends).

But what a joke!
Alfonso Ribeiro represent!
alf2.jpg
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
DarthWufei said:
In all honesty I've always been a friend of the really old shows like I Love Lucy, Dick Van Dyke, The George Burns Show (lol, I can't remember if it was or wasn't the Gracie Allen one), Mary Tyler Moore, Bewitched, and many others.

You ever watch that Phil Silvers show Sgt. Bilko? Great show... never watched the modern movie remake or whatever it was.
 

Lord Error

Insane For Sony
I just don't see the appeal of Seinfield. I don't know, I just never saw the appeal. I mean, I don't really see much of an appeal in most other sitcoms either. I loved some seasons of Simpsons and maybe couple of other shows that I can't even remember offhand, but seeing that Seinfield is often hailed as something 'above and beyond' I'd expect it to really do it for me. But it never does, and never did :\ Especially today when it looks pretty dated, and the added laughing is as annoying as in any other show that uses it.

Surprisingly enough, I really love 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. It doesn't even feel like the same person has made both shows.
 

fennec fox

ferrets ferrets ferrets ferrets FERRETS!!!
Out of all the ones mentioned, the only ones I'd watch again are Get a Life and the criminally unpopular Herman's Head.
 

belgurdo

Banned
Herman's Head had an awesome concept, but too bad Fox only wanted to push the Simpsons and Married with Children (would this show even had lasted for 10 years if it weren't for the fact that people complained about it?) only instead
 
levious said:
You ever watch that Phil Silvers show Sgt. Bilko? Great show... never watched the modern movie remake or whatever it was.

Nah, sadly not, well I've never been able to catch it if it were on. Though I looked it up just now and he does seem to be really familiar, did he make a lot of guest appearances on other shows around the time?
 

levious

That throwing stick stunt of yours has boomeranged on us.
oh yes, if you're familiar with more than one show of the time, you've likely seen him. Also many movies of that era, hardly any starring roles though. It's gotta still come on TV Land at some point.
 
Marconelly said:
I just don't see the appeal of Seinfield. I don't know, I just never saw the appeal. I mean, I don't really see much of an appeal in most other sitcoms either. I loved some seasons of Simpsons and maybe couple of other shows that I can't even remember offhand, but seeing that Seinfield is often hailed as something 'above and beyond' I'd expect it to really do it for me. But it never does, and never did :\ Especially today when it looks pretty dated, and the added laughing is as annoying as in any other show that uses it.

Surprisingly enough, I really love 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'. It doesn't even feel like the same person has made both shows.
I love CYE too, but IMO it's not quite as good as Seinfeld. It gets a bit boring at parts. But I've only seen the first two seasons of CYE. I hear the Crazy Eye Killa episode is classic. I haven't even seen it and I quote it..."HE'S GONNA BEAT ME UP AND NUT IN MY EYE!"
 

Rorschach

Member
shoplifter said:
Get a Life
Herman's Head
WOOPS!
Herman's Head was awesome, but looking back, I really shouldn't have gotten all the jokes at such a young age. There must have been something really wrong with me.
 

mrmyth

Member
border said:
Other than The Cosby Show, I don't think any of those real old sitcoms hold up at all. Fresh Prince is hopelessly dated and formulaic. Will Smith's character was okay, but all the rest were one-joke characters that had their one-joke repeated for years on end (kinda like the later seasons of Friends).


Holy fuck. 90's is real old now? Goddamm, those ancient 70's shows musta been filmed by chiseling stone inside the camera.
 

etiolate

Banned
LinesInTheSand said:
Step by Step sucked.

Boy Meets World was the shiznit though! Has it come out on DVD yet?

Correction! They both sucked.

When there is a Herman's Head DVD collection I will know the end is nigh.
 

snapty00

Banned
Seinfeld really isn't as good as I remember it being. The second time I see those episodes, they really just aren't as funny. They don't have the "WTF?" value to them, anymore.

I like Cheers, and I liked the Fresh Prince of Bel-air a bit. It had some funny bits, but some of it had that cheap early 90s "I'm a black show and damned proud of it!" thing going.

The Cosby Show was great. Even today, that's good.
 

duderon

rollin' in the gutter
I'm loving Seinfeld right now. Never watched it during the 90's, but i can't get enough now.

"George is getting ANGRY" :D
 

etiolate

Banned
I can still enjoy Married With Children. Certain things like the really cheap dummy versions of Al being used in stunts is priceless.
 

pops619

Member
Wow, not one mention of Full House?

Anyway, I'm in the same boat as Belfast. I get done with class early, so I have a lot of time to catch 90's sitcom reruns. I mostly watch Full House, Boy Meets World, and Fresh Prince. Occasionally, I'll watch some Step-by-Step and Family Matters. I can't get enough of these shows. Yeah, they're cheesy, but I think they're legitimately funny a lot too. Besides, I grew up on them. These are classics to me.
 

nitewulf

Member
i actually liked caroline in the city, i mean what. the. fuck. mostly because of that jaded artist character though, he rocked. and lea thompson is a hottie!
wings was kinda funny, i used to watch the re-runs a few years ago during the summer, i think around 2000.
boy meets world was really good in the beginning, till it turned into a soppy teen drama.
fresh prince was good.
step by step sucked.
seinfeld is still the best sitcom ever though.
 

Loki

Count of Concision
"Married With Children" is still funny-- very, at times.


But in my opinion, "The Cosby Show" is the old sitcom that holds up best ("Seinfeld" shouldn't be mentioned in here, as others have said-- it's godly); watching The Cosby Show now that I'm older, I find I appreciate more of the humor, and Cosby's delivery and emotivity are as spot-on as ever. Great show. :)
 

aoi tsuki

Member
The Cosby Show, Seinfeld, and a few others shine because they had seasoned, accesible comedians as main characters, so the comedy is pretty much timeless. Boy Meets World shined because of it's coming of age male perspective. A lot of the others fall into the "delicious nostalgia" portion of my brain at best because they lacked these elements, mainly the first one.
 

Coen

Member
You know what really sucked back then and still sucks today? That show with Tim the Toolman Taylor and his show Tooltime. Don't know what it was called, but it was really horrible.
 

OmniGamer

Member
Coen said:
You know what really sucked back then and still sucks today? That show with Tim the Toolman Taylor and his show Tooltime. Don't know what it was called, but it was really horrible.

Home Improvement *grunts 3 times*
 
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