The Best ’90s TV Shows to Watch (or Rewatch) Right Now
It’s hard to imagine today’s television landscape without the influence of 90s TV shows. The decade that gave us dial-up internet, the Spice Girls, PlayStation, Resident Evil, democracy in Russia, Titanic, optimism, Nirvana, Tupac and Biggie, and Lara Croft really had it all—and it gave us some of the most enduring and influential television ever made.
Without Twin Peaks, would we get The Sopranos, or Breaking Bad, or the broader prestige wave of the 2010s? Sopranos creator David Chase doesn’t seem to think so (more below). And the ongoing cultural influence of The Simpsons requires little elaboration: you can feel Springfield in every American domestic sitcom made since 1989, from Family Guy through to Modern Family and Bojack Horseman.
Here, GQ surveys the TV landscape of the ’90s to pick out some of our favorite shows from the decade.
The Simpsons
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There’s a strong argument to be made that when The Simpsons was at the height of its powers, it was simply the funniest show on TV. We’re talking gag-a-second stuff in its best episodes: take season four’s “Last Exit to Springfield,” wherein Homer takes over as the nuclear power plant’s union boss, with “Lisa needs braces” and “classical gas,” jokes that have become popular memes thirty years later. A growing consensus says that the show is currently undergoing a renaissance (led by showrunner Matt Selman, who has worked in the writers’ room since 1997) but it’s never matched its ’90s heyday. Few shows could. You can watch The Simpsons on Disney+.
Queer as Folk
DXK39N QUEER AS FOLKCHANNEL FOUR TELEVISION / RGR Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
