Wideo Wednesday: Well, It Was the Nineties

It wasn’t the Boomers; the Boomers had already burned down whatever social resources that fueled their rebellion. It wasn’t exactly my generation, unless you count us coming in on the shirttails, at the end of a wave. There’s probably some pop cultural maven who can trot out some precise label. Well, it was the Nineties; let’s just leave it at that.

And taking sitcoms as a sort of barometer of the times three of my favorite shows exemplified cultural trends. Two have become sort of marginalized; the last one became most successful, still watched today as a classic.

Get a Life (1990) starred Chris Elliott as “Chris Peterson … a 30-year-old man who has never grown up. This is evident in his lack of ambition, the fact that he's living over his parents' garage, and maybe most apparent in his job as a paperboy. Hilarity ensues as Chris interacts with his family and friends while trying to avoid as much responsibility as possible.” Later he moves into a garage/apartment, rented from the acerbic Gus, played by Brian Doyle-Murphy, and the short-lived series kicks into high gear.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3-IQtRw8p8

Spewey

Absolutely Fabulous is a sitcom from Great Britain (1992; American premiere 1994). “A show brilliant in its uncensored bad behaviour and satirical humour, this programme features Edina and Patsy, two hard-drinking, drug-taking, completely and outrageously selfish middle-aged women. Their humour focuses on the hypocrisy of today's society, much to the chagrin of Edina's more moral and conservative daughter, Saffron.” Edina (Jennifer Saunders) is more successful than Chris Peterson, having discovered a way to retail trashy trends into a fashion magazine (along with a healthy dose of alimony), but she’s just as immature and amoral, still refusing to take responsibility.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCHw5pxAhp0

AbFab (Morrocco)

The third sitcom needs no introduction, and, really, no sample. It is Seinfeld, which ran from July 1989 to May 1998. They seem to have hit on an acceptable ‘role model’ for the hero of the Nineties; he is not as immature as the others, though in many ways Jerry never grows up, either. He makes no personal commitments, has no ‘serious’ job, and loves Superman. He is, in my opinion, definitely in the tradition of the other two, of the amoral uncommitted goof who bumbles ‘forward’. He became the avatar of the Nineties.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u8KUgUqprw

Seinfeld (The Sea was Angry)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwkEgKEyBIo

"We're Not Men"