50 Things that happened in the 90s that will make you feel old! Part 2...

25. It's been nearly a quarter of a century since Nigel Benn fought Chris Eubank...

Just as this generation will look back on the Carl Froch and George Groves fights, we can say we were there when the original British grudge match took place... in 1990!

24. If Neil and Tony still lived together it wouldn't be funny anymore...
It would just be weird that two 52-year-old men were still roommates. That's right, Men Behaving Badly first hit our screens in 1992.

23. Even after 25 years we still love this scene...

Funny how? Like I'm a clown? I amuse you? This menacing scene from Goodfellas still has us lads quoting Joe Pesci's famous line.

22. Fanny packs were cool...
Or so we were led to believe. Even Dwayne Johnson struggles to "Rock" this look! See what I did there? Did you see? Oh shut up, you probably owned a fanny pack!

21. We shaved logos and brands into our hair...
I'm not sure how the craze got started, but it wasn't an uncommon sight in the early 90s to see someone with Nike or Adidas shaved into the back of their hair. Personally I went for WWF, although it was in a barbers so it looked pretty shit and the other kids teased me asking why I had World Wildlife Fund shaved onto my bonce. Sigh.

20. We were there when the East Coast - West Coast beef kicked off...
And it is testament to the music that there are kids born in the 90s who are still listening to 2Pac and Notorious B.I.G. songs today even though they were both murdered over 15 years ago and both cases remain unsolved.

19. Your bedroom probably looked like this...
We were all raving in the 90s. Well, that's when we wasn't at school of course. And just because we couldn't go to all night illegal field raves, it didn't stop us sticking flyers all over our bedrooms walls. Everybody had the Dreamscape: Woodstock 2 flyer on their wall. Everybody.

18. And it's likely you owned a Fantazia bomber jacket...
Or something similar. In order to keep in with the cool crowd you convinced your parents that £70 for this item of clothing was essential. Then you'd go home and listen to a pirate radio station like Touchdown FM where they'd play music like...

17. I'm Raving, I'm Raving...
In my bedroom. With my flyers on the wall. And my Fantazia jacket on. Again, I can't stress the importance that you weren't actually at a rave (after all, you were 14), but once that piano rift hit... forget about it!

16. We must just be the only generation to got to drink transparent Coca-Cola...
22 years ago Coca-Cola brought us clear cola when Tab Clear hit our fridges. The fad didn't last long as by 1994 it was no longer being sold, mainly because it tasted pretty rank. But hey, they tried!

15. They are now remaking shows from our era...
You know you're getting old when this happens. The rich kids of Beverly Hills 90210 first hit our screens in 1990! That means most of the cast are now in their 40s, apart from Luke Perry. He was 40 when they made the show.

14. It doesn't matter how old you are this is still one of the best things ever...
It's Wrestlemania VI. It's Hulk Hogan vs The Ultimate Warrior. It's 1990 and you're 12-years-old. And now you're 36 and this still gets your excited!

13. Lads mags slowly descended into porn for cowards...
In the 90s our favourite female celebrities started to get their kit off more often to the point where you no longer had to embarassingly hide a copy of a porno mag inside a newspaper, and instead you proudly bought FHM or Loaded because, you know, you liked the articles. Plus that blonde bird from that soap got her baps out.

12. You had a proper computer...
Believe it or not, but that Amiga 500 that you spent countless hours on playing Sensible Soccer or Championship Manager actually stopped being made in 1991, which means it is older than some of the people you work with in your office!

11. We will Never Forget...
Well I won't anyway. If there is one thing we knew how to do in the 1990s it was boy bands. Whether it was five bad boys with the power to rock you or everybody in the house of love, the 90s had it's fair share of all male pop groups. But there was only one group that really mattered and 19 years ago we were all drunkenly singing along at the end of the night to this:

10. Gazza cried in 1990...
And 24 years later we're all still crying. Forget 1966, we were too young for that. But this is the World Cup we will tell our kids about - the one where we nearly made it. And then we lost on penalty's to the Germans.

9. Okay, we might talk about this one as well...
Hey, when you think about it, England were pretty good in the 90s! We made it to two semi-finals, the second at Euro 96 when we bought into the fact that Football Was Coming Home. And then we lost on penalty's to the Germans.

8. Kevin Arnold would be 58-years-old this year...
Was there a better show on TV in the 90s than The Wonder Years? Fred Savage (who happens to be 38 now) played the part of young Kevin, who would now be pushing towards retirement age if the show was still running today.

7. The last time you ate a Marathon was 23 years ago...
It was 1991 when the chocolate bar changed it's name to Snickers and it is 16 years since you had an Opal Fruit (aka Starburst)!

6. Alcoholic Lemonade was the best thing since sliced bread...
Especially if you happened to just reach the legal age to drink alcohol and therefore hadn't quite required the taste for beer yet but were still adamant on getting pissed every Friday. Hooch first launched 19 years ago in 1995.

5. Geri Halliwell's famous Brit appearance was 17 years ago...
And I'm not talking about the Union Jack dress either! While that might remain the iconic image from the 1997 Brit performance, most lads also got pretty excited when Ginger Spice fell out of her dress.

4. You were massively disappointed with this film...
In 1991 you probably felt the title In Bed With Madonna was really misleading but you didn't really have anyone to complain to without coming across like a pervert.

3. The Fun House twins are now 42...
Yep, Melanie and Martina who helped out the mullet-haired Pat Sharpe on the real crazy show where anything goes and you fancied like mad are now in their 40's. Think that's bad, the Alessi Twins from Neighbours are now 48!

2. You have been telling people 'You can't handle the truth' for 22 years...
A truly great film can stand the test of times based on how long people quote that particular movie, and since 1992 we have been quoting Jack Nicholson from A Few Good Men.

 

1. No one has had a curtains haircut since 1996... 
And looking at this picture, is there any wonder why? What the hell was I thinking?!

50 Things that happened in the 90s that will make you feel old! Part 1...

It pains me that I now work with people who were born in the 1990s. It means that no matter how much I fight it, I am now old. When I was doing my GCSE's, they were pooping in their nappies.It's a sobering thought, but what makes it worse is their blank faces when you mention something that happened in that golden decade. Suddenly you have become your parents and the world as you know it is over.

Why should I be the only one to suffer? If I am going to feel old, then you are going to feel my pain with me. So sit back and enjoy this trip down memory lane and when you're done reach for the zimmer frame and accept that it's all downhill from here...

50. The Box - the music channel we controlled...
Other than MTV The Box was the only other music channel. You'd sit there for ages hoping the three numbers being punched in the bottom of the screen by users around the country was for Slam by Onyx but more often than not it would be that greasy Mexican dude Rico Suave.

49. Back in the day Beyoncé was not the Goddess she is today...
Long before she was Crazy In Love she looked like this. And who bloody remembered that there were four of them in the old days?!

48. Gillian Anderson was the hottest woman in the world...
Twenty-one years ago Dana Scully partnered up with Fox Mulder to solve supernatural crimes in the X Files. Then she got her kit off in FHM in 1996 and we all started looking at her a little differently.

47. Two decades ago PJ was blinded...
Long before Ant and Dec became the multiple Bafta award winning duo they are today, we knew them as PJ & Duncan and it was back in 1992 that this scene shocked a nation in Biker Grove.

46. This is the kid from Jerry Maguire...
Jonathan Lipnicki told us all in 1996 that the human head weighs eight pounds. Now he looks like he could rip your head off.

45. Bill Clinton did not have sexual relations with this woman...
The US President denied having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998 and tabloids went wild over what he did or didn't do with a cigar.

44. It was 22 years ago that we were serious as cancer when we said Rhythm is Dancer...
In 1992 our charts featured music from German dance groups like Snap! who topped the hit parade (that's what we called in then) with this classic tune!

 
43. The Nirvana baby looks like the guy out of Busted...
And this year he turns 23 which means he is another one of those annoying people born in the 90s here to torture us! The album Nevermind was released in 1991.

42. Bevis & Butthead are now pushing 40...
It was back in 1993 that the two teenage delinquents first started watching music videos on MTV which means by now they are both approaching midlife.

41. 15 years ago we were all screaming "Whassup" down the phone...
Budweiser's famous slogan aired in 1999 and had everyone poking their tongues out and greeting people like a demented frog. True.

40. We didn't have a clue when it came to fashion...

Come on, hands up - at the start of the 90s we all owned one of these bad boys. In 2012 the shell suit was voted the worst fashion item of the last 50 years.

39. For 20 years we've been hoping Eva Herzigova would say "Hello boys" to us...
One of the most iconic advertisements ever and still stands the test of time (in more ways than one) caused it's fair share of car crashes when this billboard started to appear in 1994.

38. Matthew Le Tissier scored goals like this but it wasn't enough to play for England...

In the mid 90s we were used to seeing the Southampton legend regularly score goals that Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo would be proud of. Not the England manager though, he preferred Carlton Palmer.

37. Oh, and Le Tiss shagged Marylin from Home & Away...
Long before Emily Symons bounced into Emmerdale, she captured our hearts as ditzy Marylin with the big boobs in the Aussie soap 25 years ago! But what were the writers thinking when they hooked her up with  Donald Fisher aka Flat Head?!

 
36. Our Friends have got a little older...
Friends was a worldwide smash but was it really 20 years ago that they first graced our TV screens? No wonder they look a little older these days!

35. K-Ci denied he was going to marry Mary J. Blige on The Word...
Back in 1995 Jodeci were huge and when this interview went out on Channel 4's The Word, Mary J. Blige was none too happy.

34. And this is what Jodeci look like today...
If ever their was a poster campaign boy for not taking drugs then K-Ci is it. It's fair to say that the years have not been kind to the Jodeci boys.

33. Kids from our favourite TV shows are now making sex tapes...
When Elizabeth Berkley got her kit off in Showgirls we all desperately hoped that Kelly Kapowski from our favourite 90s show Saved By The Bell might follow suit one day. We 100% hoped it would be Screech, who is now 37 by the way!

32. Super Mario World rocked our world 24 years ago...
In a world where gamers play against other players from around the world it is hard to believe that we ever got so excited about graphics like this!

31. Oasis and Blur went head to head in the battle of Britpop two decades ago...
Was it really 19 years ago that two of the UK's finest ever bands released Country House and Roll With It in the same week to fight it out for the number one spot?

30. You probably owned a pair of Reebok Pumps...
And nearly 25 years later you still don't have a clue what the pump is actually for other than it looked cool and cost a fortune. If only we'd just stuck with the Air Jordan's.

29. Kevin the teenager is now probably married...
Harry Enfield's creation had all of our parents giving us knowing looks every time Kevin sulked his way on to TV in the early 90s.

 

28. Google was born in 1998...
Which basically means we actually lived through a period when if we wanted to find something out we had three options: 1) The Yellow Pages 2) Call directory enquiries or 3) Get off our lazy arses!

27. Hollyoaks is 20 years old next year...
And Nick Pritchard who has played Tony Hutchinson since the first episode in 1995 turns 40 next year! He is officially a modern-day Ian Beale.

26. Twenty-four years later and if you still know every word...
Will Smith was 21-years-old when The Fresh Prince of Bel Air first appeared in 1990s and the tune has become as iconic as Cheers was for your parents. That's right, you're now in that place.

Game of Thrones intro with a touch of 90s nostalgia

Earlier this week I posted about the hilarious Medieval Land Fun-Time World parody of Game of Thrones. Well now check out this brilliant YouTube clip that has picked up over 3.5m views to date that features the Game of Thrones intro but done with a 90s twist. Creator hunterlsanders is clearly a fan of those classic 90s fantasy TV shows Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and has come up with this viral gem. Love it!

Game Of Thrones Bad Lip Reading presents Medieval Land Fun-Time World - Funniest thing ever?!

I've been a little late to the Game of Thrones party but having spent the last couple of months fully immersed in series 1-4 it is fair to say I'm a bit of a fan.

But not nearly as much of a fan of the brilliant YouTube sensation Medieval Land Fun-Time World. How the hell did I miss this bad boy?! This might just be the funniest thing I've seen since Jimmy Fallon presents Brian Williams rapping Snoop Dogg style!

There isn't too much more to say other than watch and laugh your little heart out...!

My top 10 favourite The Wonder Years facts you might not know to celebrate the DVD release!

This week marks one of the greatest weeks in TV history! And I'm not talking about the fact that yet another Hollyoaks girl got naked in Games of Thrones last night (although that is and always will be worthy of a special mention...). But this is much bigger than that! You can forget the On Demand revolution and internet streaming because it is time to celebrate a good old fashioned DVD release! The Wonder Years has finally been given the long-awaited nod to be made available to the public to own forever!

Fred Savage made the announcement this week when he Tweeted "#WonderYearsDVD coming soon" with an accompanying image of the whole cast back together, and as if I didn't damn right nearly pee myself in a state of nostalgic heaven!

The Wonder Years is the greatest coming-of-age story ever told, and if you grew up in the late 80s and early 90s then you will in no doubt be in agreement that this TV show is up there with the best of them! It was a huge influence on me, including my writing and there are influences in The Drought for sure which will hopefully be recognizable to anyone who has read the book.

You can keep up to date with details about the DVD release at wonderyearsdvds.com but before you do please check out my very own mini celebration with a trip down memory lane with my Top 10 favourite facts about The Wonder Years that you might not know. Ah, the memories. Enjoy!

10. Does anyone know where The Wonder Years was set?
In a word, no! It was never really mentioned in the show where the Arnold family actually lived. According to Wikipedia, the show’s husband and wife co-creators Neal Marlens and Carol, Black based a lot of the stories on their own childhood memories from growing up in Huntington, Long Island (New York) and White Oak, Silver Spring (Maryland) respectively. But TV network ABC wanted the location to be the non-specific suburb of Anywhere, USA, to appeal to a wider audience. Some fans have pointed to the fact that the family car had a Californian licence plate number in one episode, while others say New York because of the New York Jets jacket Kevin religiously wore in the first couple of seasons.The actual house used for exterior shots was at 516 University Ave., Burbank, California.

9. The Wonder Years won an Emmy after only six episodes
Today our favorite shows seem to churn out an endless number of episodes per series (I mean seriously, does anyone care anymore how he met his mother?!). But The Wonder Years needed only six episodes to pick up the Emmy award for Best Comedy Series in 1988 and Fred Savage became the youngest actor at 13 to be nominated for the Best Leading Actor for a Comedy Series. In all, the show received a total of 70 nominations for various awards and won 24 of those including gongs for the outstanding series soundtrack, which incidentally is one of the main reasons why it has taken so long for the show to be released on DVD due to the sensitive issue rights of all the tracks used in the show.

8. Becky Slater and Winner Cooper are sisters
That's right, Kevin Arnold's nemesis and significant other (fans of Season 2, Episode 11 will get that nerdy reference I have just made...) are sisters! Not in the show obviously, but in real life. In fact, Danica McKellar who played Winnie Cooper actually had some competition from her younger sibling, Crystal, to land the main role of Kevin's young love. Even casting director Mary Buck admitted that "it was practically a tossup" as to who got the role, but in the end Danica got the nod and would even go up against her real-life sister for Kevin affections as Crystal McKellar played part of Becky Slater in 11 episodes. Perhaps one of the reasons that influenced the whole Becky Slater story had to do with the fact during the filming of the show, Danica McKellar had a growth spurt which resulted in her looking ridiculous standing next to the 4-foot-10 Fred Savage and forced the writers to write Winnie in as a background character for a short period to allow Kevin's height to catch up with her!

7. Imagine if Kevin had a touch of The Sopranos about him...
Fred Savage has built out a decent career for himself as a director and producer (he has directed shows such as 2 Broke Girls and Modern Family), but back when he was a fresh-faced actor it was another TV great in the making who nearly had the chance to shape and mould the direction of one Kevin Arnold. In an attempt to make the show more edgier, ABC asked David Chase (who would go on to create The Sopranos) to write them a script. Chase proposed an episode where Kevin ends up acting like Holden Caulfield after reading Catcher in the Rye and starts drinking coffee and smoking, but it was rejected in favour of keeping with the wholesome image of the show intact.

6. Paul Pfeiffer is NOT Marilyn Manson!
For a period of time a rumour spread like wildfire that actor Josh Saviano was indeed shock rocker Marilyn Manson. Of course this was ridiculous as Paul and Winnie getting together (nerds please see episode "She, My Friend and I"). In fact, Saviano, who played Kevin's geeky sidekick Paul, turned his back on acting and the entertainment world all together after the show and studied at Yale before becoming a successful New York lawyer (which was almost on the money to what happened to Paul as it was revealed in the final episode that he went to Harvard and became a lawyer). And for the record, Marilyn Manson's real name is Brain Warner. Yeah, doesn't really have the right ring to it huh?

5. The Wonder Years was a playground for future famous stars
Despite the fact that Paul Pfeiffer did not go on to become an Antichrist Superstar and don red lipstick and eye liner, there were plenty of other actors who appeared in The Wonder Years and went on to become familiar faces in their own right. Here is a few names you might recognise who all had roles alongside Kevin Arnold and co: John Corbett (Sex and the City, My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell), Breckin Meyer (Road Trip, Garfield), Dustin Diamond (Saved by the Bell), Juliette Lewis (Natural Born Killers), David Schwimmer (Friends), Alicia Silverstone (Clueless), Jim Caviezel (The Passion of Christ), Giovanni Ribisi (Friends, Saving Private Ryan), Seth Green (Family Guy, Austin Powers) and Robin Thicke (plonker who cheated on Paula Patton - what were you thinking man?!).

4. And that Home Alone guy was the voice of older Kevin!
That's right, believe it or not, Daniel Stern - who played the hapless crook alongside Joe Pesci trying to outwit Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone - was indeed the inner voice and thoughts of Kevin Arnold. Stern also directed a number of episodes of The Wonder Years and appeared alongside Fred Savage in the movie Little Monsters before he went on to encounter another little monster in Kevin McCallister. And here is another little nugget for ya - Daniel Stern was not originally penned in as the narrator. Actor Arye Gross was used in the pilot episode, before the producers had a last-minute change of heart and re-recorded with Stern. And if that isn't enough Stern trivia for you, it was actually the voice of Stern's real-life son in the final narration of the final episode!

3. Winnie Cooper is hot
Like many a young teenage boy, I had a crush on Winnie Cooper (including Fred Savage who said he was "in love with her for the same reasons every other boy fell in love with her" before their relationship became one more of a sibling type bond and all he wanted to do was "irritate her.") But I digress... So it is nice to know that had my completely unrealistic fantasy as a 13-year-old boy that I would one day and meet and marry Winnie had come true, I would have been a very lucky man! And just in case you find this section of the top 10 isn't lowbrow and perhaps a tad sexist, another Danica McKellar fact is that she has a degree in mathematics and is a best-selling author. Hot and smart, the perfect combination!



2. Was Jason a bad an influence on Fred as Wayne was on Kevin?
Jason Hervey's character Wayne Arnold was notorious for terrorizing and generally setting a bad example for Kevin (so much so that the 'Wayne Arnold' character was ranked #7 in TV Guide's list of "TV's 10 Biggest Brats" in 2005), and during the filming of the sixth and final series, it was alleged that some of that bad behaviour had spilled over into real life when a costume designer on the show named Monique Long filed a sexual harassment charge against the stars. The case was eventually settled out of court but it brought a lot of unwanted publicity, and according to uproxx.com created a number of rumours that were completely false. Savage called the whole incident "a terrible experience." As for Jason Hervey, it wasn't always easy playing the bad older brother especially when some fans couldn't separate the fiction from reality, which resulted in someone once punching him in the face in a bar and telling him "I used to have a brother like you!"

1. Kevin Arnold kissed a porn star
Throughout the six seasons of The Wonder Years Kevin had his fair share of TV romances. Despite the fact Winnie was the main object of his desires pretty much throughout the whole series, he still managed to keep himself fairly busy with the opposite sex. Who could forget Denise the Grease, or Inga the Swedish exchange student, or the new girl Madeline Adams, or even Miss White (especially Miss White!). But the most infamous of all Kevin's ex-flames has to be his holiday romance Terri from season 3. And it wasn't necessarily that a 13-year-old Kevin lies to a 15-year-old Terri about his age that was controversial, more to do with the fact that the actress who played her, Holly Sampson, went on became a porn star as in such movie greats as Cheating Housewives 6. And if that wasn't enough, the actress was also linked to Tiger Woods during his cheating scandal! You can find out more about Kevin's love interests here.