With the return of TFI Friday and a Crystal Maze attraction opening in London, it seems that the 1990s are well and truly back in vogue. As such it’s perhaps an opportunity to look back at some other shows from the era which we’d love to see back on television. The aim of this list is to find shows which haven’t already had a comeback – so no Gladiators, Jonathan Creek or Shooting Stars. There are still plenty of shows however from a unique and interesting era of television which we’d love to see back on the air. So here are 10 1990s TV shows we’d bring back.
1. The Big Breakfast
Let’s face it, breakfast television is now a dull combination of recipes, fashion tips and sycophantic celebrity interviews and feigned interest in ‘interesting’ stories from the public. By comparison The Big Breakfast was fun, anarchic and actually clever. Rather than from a studio set the show was broadcast from a house and involved the crew, jokes, on air weddings as well as doorstopping members of the public. The show’s presenters were effectively a who’s who of 1990s light entertainment TV – with Chris Evans, Danny Baker, Paula Yates, Johnny Vaughan, Denise Van Outen, Zoe Ball, Gabby Roslin, Danni Minogue and Kelly Brook all presenting it at one point. Bring it back so we can have a little fun before work!
Image source: DigitalSpy.co.uk
2. The Crystal Maze
The Crystal Maze may be coming back as an ‘immersive public attraction’, but at £50 a go (plus travelling to London) it’s not something everyone will be able to afford. Plus, half the fun of The Crystal Maze was watching the Systems Analysts and HR professionals who appeared on the show, floundering around struggling to put various pegs in holes by being screamed at by a bald man. So rather than an over priced attraction, instead it’s time we got it back on telly – and got to watch it just like we did in the 1990s.
Image source: hookshotinc.com
3. Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Remember when vampires weren’t slightly dull brooding teens who moped about all day? We do and that’s why we loved Buffy The Vampire Slayer with its quick wit, bonkers monsters, occasionally naughty behaviour and general brilliance. Sarah Michelle Gellar was lusted after by a generation of teenage boys, but more perhaps more importantly was a bit of a feminist icon as the only girl who could stop the world going to hell. The last season of the show wasn’t perhaps its best, but with a Season 8 mapped out in comic book form and TV budgets having moved on considerably – now would be the perfect time to bring it back. Especially as many of its stars appear to be at a loose end these days – imagine a series starting with Buffy and The Scooby Gang in their 30s but still as cynical, possibly bored with life due to lack of demons – and we’re on to a winner.
Image source: Fanpop.com
4. Daria
Daria may just about be the most 1990s show of all time – it has a character called ‘Trent’ was a spin-off from Beavis and Butthead and generally showcased the cynical attitudes you might have held if you were an ‘alternative’ teen (although Daria Morgendorffer herself would’ve surely hated the term). As with all our teenage heroes though – we’d love to see how they turned out. Would Daria, the show’s anti-social star, have matured into a well balanced adult? Would her pal Jane Lane have made it as an artist? We’d love to see exactly what Daria thinks of social media – and so it would be great to have her back.
Image source: wallstreetinsanity.com
5. House of Cards
Before House of Cards starred Kevin Spacey and was a worldwide hit for Netflix it was an exceptionally well observed melodrama about a fictional leadership contest in the Conservative party, with it following the schemes of its Chief Whip, Francis Urquhart. Featuring murder, drugs, blackmail and its character’s clever use of them to get to the top, it was perfectly pitched in an era which became known for ‘sleaze’ among MPs. You could say not much has changed – and with the success of the US series and another Tory leadership change on the horizon – now could be the perfect time to re-adapt it for our own times in the UK.
Image source: Telegraph.co.uk
6. This Morning With Richard Not Judy
Few have probably heard of TMWRNJ, yet it was (partially due to scheduling) one of the most bizarre and funniest shows of the 1990s. In the sort of inexplicable decision which could have only happened in the 90s, the BBC decided to give Stewart Lee and Richard Herring – a successful double act whose series Fist of Fun series combined deliberately intellectual jokes with deliberately crass ones, a Sunday lunch time slot. Predictably, this caused a lot of complaints but also created a show which used the naff talk show format and clever parodies of everything from children’s TV to religious programming to make points which would’ve scandalised the likes of The Daily Mail had they been watching closely.
Image source: Youtube.com
7. Robot Wars
Robot Wars was strange Friday night programming – essentially Craig Charles and Philippa Forrester getting incredibly excited about remote control cars with drills stuck to them. It was however, utterly brilliant television, creating a strange competitive format in which you ended up shouting at the screen in favour of your favourite hunk of metal and their hobbyist ‘roboteers’. With ‘house robots’ like the ridiculously named ‘Sir Killalot’ patrolling the perimeter of the arena it was compelling television which would work equally as well as it did in the 1990s.
Image source: Youtube.com
8. The Day Today
The Day Today was one of the most lauded TV shows of the 1990s. A comedy show which was a satire on TV news, it is if anything more highly regarded today than it was at the time – mainly due to predicting the ridiculous nature of 24 hour news. The show also gave birth to one Alan Partridge – its sports reporter, started a war with Australia, and generally seems to have been viewed as a manual on how TV news has operated ever since. As such we’d love to see how its writer and star, Chris Morris would take on today’s current media landscape.
Image source: screeningfilm.com
9. The Lakes
Jimmy McGovern’s most lauded series may be Cracker, but it is The Lakes which is perhaps most interesting today. The show featured John Simm as Danny Kavanagh, a young Scouser who escapes to the Lake District. A dark but also humourous drama about the perils and complexities of love, the culture clash between town and country and featuring a cast of complex characters, of all McGovern’s great shows it is perhaps the one which most merits revisiting.
10. Fantasy Football League
Fantasy Football League is the show which launched a thousand imitators. The popularity of ‘lad’ culture and the newly formed Premier League led TV bosses to gamble on David Baddiel and Frank Skinner as the hosts of a weird combination of football based comedy, guests and sketches hung around the premise of one of the fantasy football games fans increasingly play. The pair’s encyclopedic knowledge of football and obscure sense of humour helped make it a hit. Since then there have been a seemingly infinite number of copycats – from the occasionally funny Soccer AM to the awful League of their Own. All missed the essential point – that it was the obscure jokes, not the celebrity guests which made it funny. With football now more ubiquitous than ever, perhaps it’s time the kings were brought back.
Image source: DailyMail.co.uk
