'90s TV Shows And Movies That Aged Like Milk

Buzz Feed

20 hours ago

Recently, I asked the BuzzFeed Community which '90s TV shows and movies aged poorly in their opinion. Here are 18 of their top answers:
"Seinfeld in general…but the whole 'sexually assaulted on camera while asleep for a dental procedure' thing was especially bad."
—Anonymous, 30, Missouri
"In the 1994 Disney film Blank Check, the 11-year-old protagonist has a crush on a 30-year-old FBI agent. They even share a KISS in one scene. Like, dude! Seriously, writers? You really just had a minor and an adult (an FBI AGENT, no less!) kiss each other? Why? What drugs were you on to make you think that scene was a good idea? Not as bad as that one (implied) scene in Big, but still! I hope that creep lost her job."
—Anonymous, 20, Pennsylvania
"Doogie Howser, M.D.! The first episode has an adult woman pretending to seduce him and makes him think she wants to sleep with him. The second episode is about an adult woman trying to get pregnant by him."
—Anonymous, 39 Hutto, TX
"I will die on this hill: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air did not age well, and Uncle Phil isn't even a top-five best TV dad. Will was a teenager dating grown women every other episode, and Phil and Vivian just let it happen. Phil claimed to be pro-Black but voted for Reagan twice, was ashamed of his background as a pig farmer, and detested 'lowly' and working-class Black people. He blamed Will for everything that went wrong, even if he had nothing to do with it. And he was sexist and controlling AF, trying to forbid a 25-year-old Hilary from posing for Playboy or Ashley from doing anything. The show was funny and rewatchable, but it's hard to ignore all of the issues."
—justchillman
"Will and Grace, while giving a marginalized group a platform, I feel, is cringeworthy now and then. I could never get through one episode without feeling that my queerness was being used as a punchline. The misrepresentation of us as a group — meaning being gay was either silly, or you were doomed to be alone and sad — was a perpetuation of most of the movie tropes from the '80s that followed queer culture into the '90s and early '00s. However, I am very proud of the new work in shows, like We Are Here and the later seasons of RuPaul, as well as the new Queer Eye."
—delicioussunflower83
"Mrs. Doubtfire. I grew up loving that movie. It came out when my parents divorced, and while Dad never dressed in disguise to spend time with us, he had the same sort of custodial arrangements — every Thursday and every other weekend. I just watched it with my kids this morning, and between the transphobia and the part where he makes a pact with the older two kids to keep it a secret from their mom, it hasn't aged well. I know people will disagree, but this is how I feel."
—bigbabybelcher
"American Pie would be my pick for didn't age well. Yes, I get this was a product of the time and would be on par with something like Animal House or Revenge of the Nerds for the type of film it is. I absolutely think you need to watch these films with a grain of salt and take them for what they were at the time they were released, even if they're problematic by today's standards. That still doesn't mean that watching them now doesn't feel a little gross because a lot of the humor doesn't translate anymore. 😬🤷🏻‍♀️"
—mo2758
"In the movie Analyze This, Billy Crystal gives counseling to tough guy mob boss Robert DeNiro. In one scene, the doctor is talking to the boss about what to do about his impotence. After the session, the boss replies, 'If you turn me into a [gay slur], I'll have to kill you!' Then the line is repeated minutes later by the counselor's son, who was eavesdropping. It's like the line was so funny, it had to be said again?"
—Anonymous, 63. Northern Midwest
"The Nanny does not hold up well. I used to love watching it as a kid, but watching it as an adult, you notice how much body-shaming there is. Every other line was about someone being 'fat.' And she was constantly comparing herself to Maggie. And she was sooooo desperate to get married, she nearly slept with her cousin. And Maxwell yelled at her a lot and blamed her for everything, even if he asked her to do it. Beautiful outfits though."
—justchillman
"On Ally McBeal, there's an episode where Ally defends a trans woman in court, then keeps her out of jail by giving her a job, even getting her boss Richard to enforce a workplace culture where her preferred gender is recognized. Unfortunately, all of that is undercut by also showing a psychologist describing gender dysphoria as a devastating and largely untreatable mental illness for which she might best be institutionalized, having characters make various jokes and disrespectful references to her gender identity, and then unceremoniously killing her off just so that Ally can feel sad about it. Absolutely gross."
—Anonymous, Alison R.
"Home Improvement was hard to try watching again as an adult who has been in an abusive relationship. I understand he had to be dumb and misogynistic to learn a lesson at the end of the show, but it was super icky."
—Anonymous
"In Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost, remember how the entire gang suspected the Hex Girls were behind the Witch's Ghost? They judged them based on their gothic appearances before knowing the full story as to why they looked like that."
—Anonymous, 18, United States
"The Wonder Years did not age well. I watched it every week. I tried to rewatch it recently and barely made it through the first episode."
—abourque
"The Cosby Show: a show where the main character was an OB/GYN examining women in the BASEMENT OF THEIR HOME!"
—surprisedlamp744
"There was this one episode of Friends where a friend of the main group became sober after realizing he's an alcoholic, and the Friends group started hating hanging out with him and considered him a bore compared to when he would drink. They ditch him by the end of the episode, IIRC."
—Amy M., Lockport, NY
"Friends did NOT hold up well. Fat jokes, gay jokes, everyone in New York is white inexplicably, Ross sleeps with a student, sleeps with his school librarian in high school, tries to kiss his cousin, violates Rachel's boundaries, says the wrong name at his wedding, never sees his son, treats his sister like crap, treats Phoebe like crap, whines about everything, etc. etc. etc. This is coming from someone who still watches it and owns it on DVD."
—ganethley
"Friends. The way they dealt with queer characters on the show pissed me off."
—Anonymous, Australia
And finally: "I never understand how and why Friends always gets a free run. They are six of the most vile and insular people to ever form a clique. Example — Janice is one of the friendliest, most caring characters, and they do nothing but ridicule her and go out of their way to be cruel. All because she has a loud laugh?!"
—shyduck175
Are there any more '90s TV shows or movies you'd add to this list? Or what about ones that aged surprisingly well? Share your thoughts in the comments!