Though we’re (allegedly) currently living through another “golden age of television” with streaming and unlimited shows to binge, ’90s kids keep a special place in our hearts for the shows we enjoyed growing up. Many of them have stood the test of time and spawned revivals or reboots – think Fuller House, That ’90s Show, and Rugrats. While not every TV show from our youth deserves a reboot, and we may look back on them now and cringe, there are certain series we have a soft spot for, no matter what. Perhaps it was the fact our brains were still growing, or the fact we didn’t have as much instant access as we do now with streaming, but we’re not afraid to say we loved these seven shows, even if others found them “terrible”.
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7) Big Wolf on Campus
For those of you who don’t remember, Big Wolf on Campus was Canada’s answer to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer craze that premiered in 1999. Although the show definitely lacked the visual effects budget and stellar writing of its American counterpart, we enjoyed Big Wolf on Campus all the same.
In the series, teenager Tommy Dawkins gets bitten by a werewolf on a camping trip and becomes one, and thus uses his newfound powers to protect his hometown from other supernatural threats. Not the most original premise, but the show made for an entertaining stopover between the Teen Wolf movie and Smallville for us ’90s kids, with its darker subject matter and “freak of the week” format.
6) CatDog
CatDog was exactly that: an uptight cat and a dim-witted dog who were fused together. The animated series’ take on an odd couple was quite unnerving if you think about it, but as kids, we didn’t mind the biological impossibilities of a feline and a canine sharing a torso (and who knows what else). CatDog was definitely one of Nickelodeon’s weirder animated series, but the show had a successful seven-year run from 1998 to 2005.
5) Johnny Bravo
Most millennial Cartoon Network shows more than hold up well, but we have to admit that Johnny Bravo’s narcissistic and womanizing personality has aged rather poorly, twenty-eight years after its debut in 1997. However, Johnny’s self-confidence and “success” with women were always played for laughs, and we found his wannabe Elvis personality nothing short of delightful as kids growing up. The character’s silhouette, with its exaggerated proportions, is still instantly recognizable, and the series was popular enough to last for four seasons on Cartoon Network.
4) 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd
The Nickelodeon show 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd‘s premise is nothing short of wild. Eddie McDowd is a human school bully who gets transformed into a dog. The only way he can change back is by teaming up with a shy classmate of his to complete one hundred good deeds…as a dog. The logic on the show is flimsy at best, but 100 Deeds gave us a special aspect of wish fulfillment. What kid wouldn’t want to see their bully reformed and get to hang out with a dog as they redeem themselves, right?
3) Teen Angel
Teen Angel only lasted one season on ABC back in 1997, and there’s a pretty good reason for it. The series follows young Marty DePolo, who dies after eating heinously expired meat and comes back as his best friend Steve’s guardian angel. It’s a wacky premise for sure (especially Marty’s cause of death) but we loved the show’s theory that your best friends never leave you, even in the afterlife. Plus, The Brady Bunch’s Maureen McCormick, sitcom royalty, plays Steve’s mom on the show.
2) The Secret World of Alex Mack
In The Secret World of Alex Mack, our titular hero gains superpowers after a chemical factory accident. It’s a superhero tale as old as time, and the visual effects were super cheesy, but we ’90s kids couldn’t get enough of Alex’s adventures, which married dealing with puberty and reckoning with superpowers with aplomb from 1994 to 1998. As “terrible” as this show may have been to a more mature viewer, Alex Mack has remained a cult classic, prompting a cast reunion twenty years after the series ended in 2018.
1) Two of a Kind
Two of a Kind was one of the many media projects the Olsen twins starred in the 1990s, and the show was a pretty unashamed attempt to knock off Full House and The Nanny with its beleaguered single dad attempting to raise his twin daughters, who try to set him up with their new part-time nanny. The series only lasted a single season in 1998, but those of us who loved Mary-Kate and Ashley were all-in on the twins back in the day.
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