the 90s strike back

This post is kind of about the 90s, I guess. My friends will definitely get the title's reference, considering it was the name of our Orientation Week, back in 2008. That seems like such a long time ago....ah well. The main reason I named it that was I decided to just continue talking about my favourite tv shows, but going back in time...to my childhood! I am sure most people are familiar with these shows, considering how popular they were in the 90s, but I'm going to talk about them anyway. After a tiring day of stupidity and incompetence, I think talking about my childhood tv shows is almost therapeutic. Anyway, here we go!

The first show on my list, which is my favourite, has to be the Transformers cartoon. I do not mean Beast Wars/Beasties, but the original Transformers with Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Ironhide, etc etc. I know it's not a 90s show, mainly from the 80s, but I grew up with cousins who were much older than me, and as a result, I am a fan of a lot of things from the late 70s/early 80s....like G.I.JOE, Transformers, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future, etc etc etc. Anyway, Transformers was definitely a huge part of my life growing up, and I have many of the original toys; the Decepticons were the best, by the way, with Soundwave being the most awesome of them all. "Soundwave superior, Constructicons inferior" will always be one of the most memorable lines to me, hehe.

Secondly, I'd have to go with Bill Nye the Science Guy. Now this was a true show of my childhood. I learned so much from this show, it's crazy. It was a true educational show that combined learning with crazy fun, and Bill Nye himself is awesome. I mean, what more can I say about this show? I learned about gravity, electrons, atoms, outer space, geology, physics...you learn so much from him/the show in general, and it's entertaining enough that you can retain the information you learn and still want to learn more. Plus, every episode ended with a sweet music video about SCIENCE. How awesome is that?

Directly related to Bill Nye is The Magic School Bus. What kid of the 90s didn't watch this show? No one, that's who. What I didn't learn from Bill Nye, I learned from The Magic School Bus. Ms. Frizzle, Liz, the bus and the rest of the class were often people I wish I knew in real life; they just seemed so fun. I mean, really, the premise of the show was them going and doing crazy things, from traveling back in time to see the dinosaurs, to teleporting inside one of their student's bodies, to shrinking down to miniature size in order to bake a cake, to creating a lifesize Rube Goldberg machine, to visiting a world without friction, to going to the rainforests of South America, to going to outer space (where one of the students takes his helmet off on the surface of PLUTO, and promptly turns into a block of ice). I mean, it's probably one of the best shows ever. I think something I appreciated about it was, once it was done, the show's producer or something would take a 'call' from the 'audience', and explain the differences between the show and real life, just so kids didn't get the wrong impression about what happens (as in, that not only can humans NOT travel to Pluto so far, but they definitely would not be able to take their helmets off on the surface and still live =P). It definitely helped me...but, whatever, awesome show.

To be honest, other than those three shows, I really only remember the Power Rangers, which I didn't watch all THAT much. It was a hilarious show, in hindsight, and as a kid, I really enjoyed it. I only watched the first few seasons, though, considering how ridiculous it got eventually. Later on, towards the end of the decade/in the new decade of 00s, Digimon, Pokemon and other shows took centre stage, but those three shows definitely defined my childhood and me as a person. I wanted to be a scientist for the longest while, but high school soon dissuaded me of that notion...and here I am, majoring in English and Political Science. How exciting! =P