Television has undeniably changed in nearly every way since the 1990s. Instead of appointment television and recording our favorite series on VHS tapes to enjoy later, we can stream any show at any time of the day or night. It’s fantastic, but somehow something was lost in the transition
The TV shows themselves are filmed and presented differently now, too. There are fewer episodes per season by far for most shows, and with so many options, it’s rare for a show to get the volume of viewers that shows got even with cable offering dozens of stations
So, if you grew up in the ’90s like me, it’s hard to avoid feeling nostalgic for a different time and for shows that were done with so much heart back then. These are the 90s shows that set the bar so high that we’ve never forgotten how it felt to watch them
‘Mad About You’ (1992)
I always loved Mad About You even though I would get upset during almost every episode when its main characters didn’t treat each other as well as I wanted them to. I felt that sometimes the show went too far in its pursuit of realism within an idyllic sitcom. Overall, though, it was charming and romantic, and I always looked forward to the next episode
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Mad About You is about a married couple, Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser) and Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt), as they navigate their everyday lives in New York City. There is significant growth for both characters over time as the show follows them from when they are newlyweds through parenting their first child. It’s widely considered to be one of the most honest shows about what marriage is really like
Jamie is a public relations specialist, and Paul is a documentary filmmaker. Their Hollywood-adjacent careers left the door open for some amazing guest stars to appear on the show. Mel Brooks and Jerry Lewis were just some of its famous guest stars. Lisa Kudrow had a recurring role on the show as the waitress Ursula Buffay, who was the twin sister of her Friendscharacter Phoebe Buffay, and there was a very memorable crossover between the two shows
Murray, the Buchmans’ beloved dog, was played by a rescue dog named Maui who was twice voted the most popular dog on TV by readers of TV Guide. He stole a lot of the scenes he was in and seemed like the perfect companion for Paul and Jamie
In 2019, the Buchmans returned for a memorable 12-episode Mad About You revival/sequel premiered on Spectrum Originals. It was simply called Mad About You like the original show. Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt returned to their roles at a time when Jamie and Paul were empty nesters, and the show centers around their relationship as they deal with their daughter Mabel being a young adult and leaving for college. It was very well done and true to the spirit of the original
‘Road to Avonlea’ (1990)
If you weren’t watching CBC in Canada or the Disney Channel in the United States, you may have unfortunately missed Road to Avonlea, known as Avonlea in the US. My sister and I were glued to our TV sets every Monday night at 7 p.m. to watch this one as we were growing up. It actually served as a sequel to the wildly popular 1980s miniseries Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea starring Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie. Although Follows never appeared in Road to Avonlea, many other actors from the miniseries continued their roles on the show.
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Road to Avonlea was based on a mix of books by Lucy Maud Montgomery including The Story Girl and Chronicles of Avonlea. Sarah Polley starred in the show as Sara Stanley, a child who goes to stay with her deceased mother’s relatives on Prince Edward Island after her father finds himself in legal trouble. It also centered on Sara’s Aunt Hetty King (Jackie Burroughs), Aunt Olivia King (Mag Ruffman) Uncle Alec King (Cedric Smith) Aunt Janet King (Lally Cadeau), cousin Felicity King (Gema Zamprogna) cousin Felix King (Zachary Bennett), and cousin Cecily King (Harmony Cramp).
The first season shows how Sara Stanley has a rough start to her stay in Avonlea, but she ultimately bonds with her cousins, aunts, and uncles, and the show is heartwarming and fun to watch. This ’90s series is still so beloved that there’s even a Road to Avonlea reunion happening this summer on Prince Edward Island
It’s worth noting, however, that Sarah Polley pulled back the curtain on what life was like to work on the show in her powerful book Run Towards The Danger, and her experiences on set were largely uncomfortable. She described an environment where children could be berated and how one child actor was even fired. Harmony Cramp, the child actress who played Cecily King, was replaced halfway through the show, but the departure of the actress was never officially explained. It’s unclear whether she wanted to leave the show since she retired from acting after her last episodes of Road to Avonlea.
When speaking of the show, Polley also told The New Yorker, “As I get older, I’m more reluctant to denigrate the show, because I feel like it was one of those shows that parents and kids watched together; it was an important escape for a lot of people. But I do think there’s something problematic about it, especially given what we know about the history of this country. Our airwaves have been saturated with pictures of this idyllic Canadian history, and it just hides so many horrible things.”
‘Living Single’ (1993)
If you’ve seen Living Single, you know how special this show was. Created by Yvette Lee Bowser, the show was truly ahead of its time and influenced shows from Friends to Insecure. Lee Bowser was only 27 years old and was the first Black woman to develop her own primetime TV show. She had worked on shows like A Different World, The Cosby Show, and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper. The writer and producer pulled from her own life to create the stories on the show, and it’s often credited with inspiring a lot of the female-forward buddy shows that came later.
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Living Singlewas on the air for five seasons, from 1993 to 1998. It centered around the lives of six friends who were in their twenties and living in apartments within a brownstone in Prospect Heights in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. Khadijah James (Queen Latifah) was the editor-in-chief and owner of a magazine called Flavor. Her cousin and roommate, Synclaire James (Kim Coles), worked as a secretary at Flavor while pursuing her dream of becoming an actress. Regine Hunter (Kim Fields) was the third roommate with her heart in fashion. Maxine Shaw (Erika Alexander) was Khadijah’s best friend and a sharp-tongued public defender. Kyle Barker (T.C. Carson) was a stockbroker on Wall Street. Overton Wakefield Jones (John Henton) was Kyle’s roommate, a handyman, and co-owner of the apartment complex.
Over the years, many have pointed out the similarities between Living Single and Friends. Both TV series followed a group of six single friends, with two being related to each other. They also both showed the characters’ struggles with dating, careers, and how to do life while in their late twenties or early thirties. Both shows also had a primary apartment where the friend group would gather, and they lived in different apartments in the same building. Living Single started a year before Friends. David Crane and Marta Kauffman, who created Friends, said they wanted to show the time period in young adult life when your friends are really your family. They said it was based on their own experiences in New York.
It’s theorized that NBC may have given Friends the green light because of the success of Living Single. On The Late Late Show with James Gorden, after Gorden brought up Friends, Queen Latifah said Warren Littlefield, the then-president of NBC, was asked what show he regretted passing on, and he said Living Single. Then, the next thing they knew, there was Friends. She went on to praise what a great show Friends was
‘The Bradys’ (1990)
The Bradys was nicknamed Bradysomething since it was a drama about the cast members who were then in their thirties like the then-very-popular Thirtysomething. It ran for only six episodes on CBS, and I’m still mad that it was not given a fair chance to find its audience. Unlike the original The Brady Bunch TV show and its previous sequels, this was a drama instead of a comedy, and it put the beloved Brady characters in very difficult stories. I mean, Bobby Brady was left paralyzed in the first episode, and Marcia Brady struggled with alcoholism. Things got dark.
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I turned 11 years old right before this show originally aired, and I found it to be a bit overwhelming because the other Brady sequels had been my happy place. I loved it, though. Since the original show was lighthearted with any small problem solved within an episode, this show was an extreme creative departure from what audiences had come to expect from the near-perfect world of the Brady family. However, the creative risk paid off, and it really works
Robert Reed was a classically trained, serious actor who never wanted to be in a sitcom, so he brings a lot of power to the now-dramatic Mike Brady. Jerry Houser returned as Wally Logan. He always has a captivating presence on screen, and he brought such heart and humanity to the role. His sensitive portrayal of Wally as the character copes with his wife Marcia’s alcoholism, including a heartbreaking scene when Marcia almost drove drunk with their kids in the car, is unforgettable. Did I mention this show was not afraid to go to some very dark places?
Robert Reed passed away only two years after the show aired, so this was the final sequel to The Brady Bunch. He is still very missed, and the cast universally sings his praises when discussing this show in the press and on podcasts
I think we’re well overdue for a new sequel. I’d love a 2026 sequel that follows Wally and Marcia and their growing family since I’d imagine their kids Jessica and Mickey (yes, named after Mike Brady) might have kids of their own now. I’d love The Brady Bunchto return to its comedic roots and follow their new adventures. How can we make this happen?
‘Beverly Hills, 90210’ (1990)
With a fandom that had a passion and persistence that was often compared to how fans of The Beatles were decades earlier, Beverly Hills 90210 is one of the most loved and well-remembered shows of the 1990s. The first season focused on teen twins Brenda (Shannen Doherty) and Brandon (Jason Priestley) as they adjusted to Beverly Hills after growing up in the midwest. Their parents, Jim Walsh (James Eckhouse) and Cindy Walsh (Carol Potter), were also a big part of the early seasons
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Beverly Hills 90210 also was a show about their friend group including Brenda’s best friend Kelly Taylor (Jennie Garth), Dylan McCay (Luke Perry), Donna Martin (Tori Spelling), Andrea Zuckerman (Gabrielle Carteris), Steve Sanders (Ian Ziering), and David Silver (Brian Austin Green)
Beverly Hills 90210 is remembered for the idyllic depiction of Beverly Hills. It showed the glamour and fun of being a privileged teen in the 1990s. It also shows the darkness that’s underneath the picture-perfect appearance of the characters. It dealt with very serious issues that teens everywhere face and that most shows with teens had never addressed before. Storylines on Beverly Hills 90210 addressed issues like teen pregnancy, shoplifting, eating disorders, addiction, self-harm, and much more. Conversations about these things just weren’t being had in primetime on network television, so it led to some significant changes in how teen characters are depicted and treated in TV shows. They were treated like whole, complex people.
Luke Perry died suddenly and unexpectedly from a stroke in 2019, and Shannen Doherty tragically died after a long struggle with breast cancer in 2024. The romance between their characters Brenda and Dylan was the early heart of the show, and they are very much missed by fans
Melrose Place was a popular spinoff of Beverly Hills 90210, with the character Kelly Taylor appearing in the show’s first episodes. A CW reboot of the show called 90210 aired from 2008 to 2013, and some of the original cast members appeared in the show. Then, in 2019, there was a meta-revival BH90210in which many of the original cast members played exaggerated, heightened versions of themselves. Shannen Doherty appeared in some episodes after Luke Perry died while they were making the show, and she wanted to honor his memory.
‘The Hidden Room’ (1991)
Here’s a hidden gem you may not have heard of, but if you did watch The Hidden Room on the Lifetime cable network when it aired from 1991 to 1993, you probably remember it fondly like I do. Like classic shows such as The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Hidden Room was a drama-horror anthology series that had a new story with different characters every week
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Each episode featured a woman who was experiencing a great hardship, and each story proceeded to have a dark twist. Sarah Polley played Amanda Donohoe’s teen daughter in the premiere episode. Stars who had their own episode include Mayim Bialik, Melissa Gilbert, Tess Harper, Daphne Zuniga, Helen Mirren, Stephanie Zimbalist, and Ally Sheedy
The first season of The Hidden Room featured a host (Mimi Kuzyk), but she wasn’t in the second season. When the first season episodes were repeated on Lifetime, the scenes with the host were edited out. Only 33 episodes of the show were made, and the show is unfortunately not currently available for streaming
‘Friends’ (1994)
It would be impossible to leave Friendsoff a list of beloved 1990s shows. It remains so popular that it’s consistently among the most streamed shows out there. Among its famous fans are Malala Yousafzai, Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Charlie Puth, and David Beckham. Friendsinspires so much adoration because it is genuinely hilarious with smart writing, and the connections among the characters feel real and authentic, perhaps in part because the cast members were close in real life
According to co-creator Marta Kauffman, Friendsis about that special time in life when your friends are your family. She told Women in Entertainment that, when creating the show, she was thinking about what it was like for her and her group of friends when they moved to New York and were looking for love and careers. The main characters were Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc).
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Friends is about six characters who love and support each other while they are dealing with life in their twenties and thirties. Most of the friends live in the same New York City apartment building, with all of them living there at some point. The show had a way of making each audience member feel as though they belonged in the friend group, too. No show since has managed to replicate that particular warmth the characters all had with each other
‘My So-Called Life’ (1994)
My So-Called Life was a definitive show of the 1990s although it only lasted nineteen episodes that spanned just one season. TIME included it as one of the 100 best TV shows of all-time. It originally aired on ABC, but it gained a large, very devoted following when reruns of the show aired on MTV starting in 1995. It was one of the first authentic teen dramas and was widely credited with influencing later shows like Freaks and Geeks and Dawson’s Creek
Claire Danes portrayed the 15-year-old heroine of the show, Angela Chase, who was allowed to be a teenage girl with a deep interior life that was messy and honest. The show also launched the career of Jared Leto who portrayed Jordan Catalano, Angela’s crush. Graham Chase (Tom Irwin) and Patricia “Patty” Chase (Bess Armstrong) were Angela’s parents. She had a little sister Dianielle portrayed by Lisa Wilhoit. Enrique “Rickie” Vasquez (Wilson Cruz), Brian Krakow (Devon Gummersall), Rayanne Graff (A. J. Langer), and Sharon Cherski (Devon Odessa) were Angela’s friends.
My So-Called Lifeis no doubt a modern classic. When marking the show’s 30th anniversary in 2024, Claire Danes told PEOPLE, “”I was exactly Angela’s age, maybe even a slight bit younger, but I don’t think I had ever read a more accurate account of the experience that I was having at that moment. I was just so thrilled to have my internal life articulated for me. It’s just an astonishing piece of writing, and I don’t quite know how [series creator] Winnie [Holzman] did that, how she time traveled as thoroughly as she did, and reentered her 14-year-old self, or some version of that.”
‘Family Matters’ (1989)
Sometimes you just want to watch a show that makes you laugh and feel good. Family Matters was one of the quintessential family comedies of the 1990s. Yes, it began in 1989, but most of its run was in the 1990s. The Winslow family remains one of American television’s great families, and this show was consistently underestimated
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Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) became a cultural phenomenon, and that sometimes overshadowed the fact that the show around him was hilarious and worth more attention. The Winslow family consisted of Harriette Winslow (Jo Marie Payton), Carl Winslow (Reginald VelJohnson), Estelle Winslow (Rosetta LeNoire), Laura Winslow (Kellie Shanygne Williams), Eddie Winslow (Darius McCrary), and Judy Winslow (Jaimee Foxworth)
Many people don’t know that Family Matterswas actually a spin-off of the sitcom Perfect Strangers. Before Family Matters, Harriette Winslow appeared in the third and fourth seasons of Perfect Strangers
In the pilot, little Judy Winslow was played by Valerie Jones, but she was played by Jaimee Foxworth in every other episode the character appeared in. One quirk of the show that fans couldn’t miss is that Judy Winslow mysteriously disappeared from the show during its fourth season, and nothing was said on the show about the youngest Winslow family member ever again. From that point on, the show was written as though the only Winslow kids were Laura and Eddie
The producers of Family Matters never gave an official explanation for why the character was written out. However, when Jaleel White was asked about the situation when appeared on a radio show called The Breakfast Club, he said that a variety of factors went into the decision but that he mostly blames Jaimee Foxworth’s mother. He ultimately went on to say that the production team felt the character was unnecessary for stories on the show so they wrote the character out
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Family Matters is mostly remembered for its big heart and the big laughs it gave viewers. Of course Steve Urkel as a character is still a household name so that’s saying a lot! He still is a part of pop culture. When Jamie Lee Curtis appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, she said the only celebrity autograph she ever requested was from Jaleel White, who as mentioned above played Steve Urkel
‘Full House’ (1987)
Yes, Full House started in 1987, but its cultural dominance belongs to the 90s. While the sitcom was largely overlooked and dismissed by critics, it found a very devoted audience and was a big hit. It was consistently in the Nielsen Top 30 shows after the second season
The show centered on Danny Tanner (Bob Saget) who was raising three daughters: DJ (Candace Cameron), Stephanie (Jodie Sweetin), and Michelle (Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen). He does this with the help of his brother-in-law Jesse Katsopolis (John Stamos) and best friend Joey Gladstone (Dave Coulier). Jesse’s girlfriend Rebecca Donaldson (Lori Loughlin) was also a central character who became his wife in the fourth season
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen were only babies when they started their careers on Full House and became huge child stars with a manager who had them starring in music videos for kids, TV movies, and direct-to-video movies that were in high demand. On Full House, they shared the role of Michelle, with both twins appearing in a few episodes as double characters
Catch phrases were a memorable part of this show. You may remember:
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Michelle Tanner: “You got it, dude!” and “You’re in big trouble, mister!”
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DJ Tanner: “Oh, Mylanta!”
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Jesse Katsopolis: “Have mercy!”
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Joey Gladstone: “Cut it out!”
Full House was a sitcom that leaned to the silly side in all the best ways, and it was a delightful show that made a profound impact on generations of kids. It handled the death of the girls’ mother Pam with sensitivity, and it showed the genuine connections between all members of the family throughout the show. Problems were solved with loving discussions, and it showed many examples of unconditional love. With Joey, it also showed how friends can very much be family
The Tanner house felt like somewhere viewers truly wanted to be. It was so popular decades later that its sequel show, Fuller House, was one of Netflix‘s biggest hits. New episodes were shown on Netflix from 2016 to 2020. The entire original cast appeared in some episodes, but the show mostly centered around DJ, Stephanie, and Kimmy. DJ is widowed this time, and Stephanie and Kimmy move in to help raise her three boys. It was a cute show, and my sister and I even like it better than the original.
Looking back
Finally, the 1990s gave us so much great television that it would be impossible to include all the shows that made that such a special time for TV history. These are just ten of the special shows that hold strong in the memory of many who grew up in the ’90s and enjoyed escaping into these fictitious worlds for some comfort and joy when life got complicated
Thanks for reading! For more articles about television shows that shaped us, follow me on Yahoo. Let me know which of your favorite ’90s comfort shows I should cover next
Robin Raven Creator
Robin Raven is a journalist who covers travel, entertainment, health, wellness and more. You can often find her writing songs, flying somewhere she’s never been, reading and listening to Taylor Swift.
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