Mental Floss

THE '90S



"Once you get your hands on Bop It!, you're not gonna want to stop it!"

Bop It, the popular kid's toy, started out as something called Remote Out-of-Control that required players to pull, twist, or bop it. The last one stuck.

Jake Rossen




Fran Drescher, Daniel Davis, Charles Shaughnessy, and Lauren Lane star in The Nanny.

If you’ve never seen the sitcom 'The Nanny'—which starred Fran Drescher and aired on CBS from 1993 to 1999—all you need to do is listen to the theme song once and you’ll basically be caught up.

Elizabeth Yuko


Employees at the Niagara Mohawk Power Company control facility in Buffalo, New York, go through a round of Y2K testing toward the end of December 1999.

Y2K was not the world-ending catastrophe that the media, governments, and tech gurus had predicted. But it still led to some weird, expensive, and sometimes hilarious glitches.

Jason Serafino
Warner Bros. Pictures/Getty Images

In 1997, an episode of the 'Pokémon' animated series used a strobe-light effect during a battle sequence. Hundreds of viewers in Japan suffered seizures and other symptoms. More than two decades later, no one is exactly sure why.

Jake Rossen
Beastie Boys via YouTube

With their raucous mix of rock and hip-hop, the Beastie Boys were a band everyone could love. They also made killer music videos, and “Sabotage” is arguably one of the best in the history of the medium.

Kenneth Partridge


Claire Danes and Jared Leto star in My So-Called Life (1994).

On August 25, 1994, teenagers across the country were introduced to Angela Chase, Claire Danes's character in the beloved, albeit short-lived, teen drama 'My So-Called Life.'

Rudie Obias




Elizabeth Berkley, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani Thiessen, Ed Alonzo, Dustin Diamond, Dennis Haskins, Mario Lopez, and Lark Voorhies in Saved by the Bell.

If these 'Saved By the Bell' fan theories are to be believed, murderers, eco-terrorists, a famous tech billionaire, and one foul-mouthed superhero could be wandering the halls of Bayside High.

Kristin Hunt


Paramount Home Entertainment

On July 6, 1994, 'Forrest Gump' arrived in theaters and became a box office behemoth (earning almost $1 billion worldwide in today’s dollars).

Garin Pirnia
Hulton Archive, Getty Images Plus

There’s a lot you might not know about 'Seinfeld,' the show about nothing. Like how it was anything but a show about nothing.

Jennifer M Wood, Stacy Conradt




Ian Holm and Sarah Polley in Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (1997).

Oscar-winning horror flicks. Best Picture-nominated cartoons. Emerging independent filmmakers. Moviemaking legends creating some of the best work of their careers. The 1990s had it all.

Eric D Snider


Shadow Shifter, YouTube

The novelty shirts, shorts, and pants were one of the hottest clothing items of 1991, with a special dye that changed color in response to temperature changes. Before long, Hypercolor proved to be too popular for its own good.

Jake Rossen