The Greatest TV Shows Of The '90s

Since the “Golden Age of Television” which has been dominated by streaming services, premium networks, and prestige channels such as AMC, we’ve seen a shift to longer, more complex serialized stories than we used to. However, there is something comforting about the old world of television, where you can watch episodes interchangeably, where everything gets neatly resolved at the end of the episodes and starts fresh at the beginning.

From sitcoms to police procedurals to legal dramas, there are many genres that have been quintessential to television for decades, and in many cases they seemed to peak in the 1990s, with the conventions having been perfected and before the seismic shift that took place in how we watch our favorite shows in the decades since. To commemorate that great decade of television shows, we have put together a list of the four greatest TV shows of the 90s.

The X-Files

“The X-Files” combined the procedural with science fiction as David Duchovny played FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder, a true believer in all things paranormal, and Gillian Anderson played Special Agent Dana Scully, a lifelong skeptic, no matter what crazy things she witnessed with her own eyes. Though the majority of the episodes were one offs, with the pair investigating various strange goings on, the heart of the show focused on the bigger story that spanned its nine initial seasons plus the spinoffs, feature films, and revival seasons.

This story focused on aliens and government conspiracies, and the long running intricate mythology that the show explored in its many special episodes was something of a precursor to the current era of heavily serialized content. New fans continue to discover the show, and as its numerous revivals have shown, audiences just can’t get enough of Mulder, Scully, and the mysteries that they unravel.

South Park

Before the internet desensitized us all, every decade had a few pop culture products that pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, and in the 90s, the raunchy cartoon “South Park” was one of the shocking and hilarious creations of the decade. To this day, the Trey Parker and Matt Stone creation which debuted in 1997 skewers all of society’s sacred cows, and it manages to remain more topical than any other show out there with its production cycle which sees the episodes hit the air immediately after they are completed.

The adventures of Cartman, Stan, Kyle, and Kenny, four kids growing up in small town Colorado, are consistently hilarious and zany, and at its peak in the late 90s there were over 10 million people viewing every episode. The show may no longer be a cultural phenomenon today, but it left its mark and paved the way for countless adult oriented cartoons to thrive in the marketplace.

The Sopranos

If you had to pick the most influential show of the past 30 years, there is a good argument to be made for “The Sopranos.” The show debuted in 1999, just as the decade was closing out, and it represents a shift from the old world of television to the new one. For HBO, it was a killer app, because if you wanted to bear witness to one of the most essential works of drama of the era, you had to subscribe.

The show depicts New Jersey based Italian-American gangsters, and it takes us into their lives like never before. Gone are the operatic stylings of “The Godfather,” or the fast paced dramatic rise and fall seen in “Goodfellas.” Rather, “Sopranos” focuses on the mundane everyday life, the interior psychology. It turned James Gandolfini into a star, won 21 Emmy awards, and set a new standard for both dramatic works about the mafia as well as television shows in general. 

Seinfeld

Sitcoms are the quintessential television genre, and the 1990s was a gold mine for them with shows such as “Frasier,” “Everybody Loves Raymond,” and “Friends.” However, the one that stands above them all is “Seinfeld,” which remains as hilarious as ever as it depicts Jerry Seinfeld and his friends in New York’s Upper West Side in what is essentially, as the famous expression goes, “a show about nothing.”

The show skyrocketed Jerry Seinfeld into the most famous comedian in the world, and its finale is one of the most watched episodes of television ever with over 76 million viewers tuning in. The humor is full of brilliant observations about human behavior, and the scripts are consistently brilliantly plotted, but the film shines in its most mundane moments, often with Jerry riffing on something. “Seinfeld” is a true classic, and one that will continue to be watched by future generations.