A few days ago, my friend and I were discussing themes for our conjoined May birthday party. (Nothing is better than having a friend who has the same birthday as you.) After some debate and moments of ‘No, seriously, what should the theme be,’ we decided on a ’90s-themed party — but more specifically, ’90s Nickelodeon shows.

Maybe I’m biased, but the ’90s were wonderful when it came to cartoons. I have fond memories of sitting on the couch with my younger brother and soaking in hilarious and ridiculous Nickelodeon shows. No one has the right to argue that current Nick shows, such as ‘iCarly,’ are better than the ones that were on while I was growing up. Because you’d be wrong. Very, very wrong.

I can’t talk about all the ’90s classics, but here are some of the ones that stuck out for me.

For 10 seasons, ‘All That’ was all that. The sketch comedy show featured weekly musical guests and was a tweeny version of Comedy Central. And very toned down, of course. With skits like ‘Good Burger,’ starring Kel, a dumb but loveable teenager who never could do anything right was known for his famous, ‘Welcome to Good Burger, home of the good burger, can I take your order?’ Spinoffs from ‘All That’ included ‘The Amanda Show’ and ‘Kenan & Kel.’ I don’t know what I would have done if I had never had my ‘Amanda, Amanda, Amanda, Amanda Show.’ Also, TLC’s theme song for ‘All That’ was catchy — I still have it stuck in my head.

‘Are You Afraid of the Dark?’ was always an excuse to curl up next to those cute tweeny boys. No, that’s a little too extreme. That cute boy whose hands you could hold. Centered on the Midnight Society, the episodes were frightening, yet you couldn’t draw your eyes away from the screen. But I am a scaredy-cat, so maybe you shouldn’t listen to me.

‘CatDog,’ whose protagonist was a hybrid of a cat and a dog, was amusing due to the brothers’ constant bickering. I mean, poor Cat, he had to survive Dog’s need to chase the garage truck and listen to rock ‘n’ roll. This show was perfect for someone who had a sibling (like yours truly), who could relate to such conflicting dynamics while still remaining BFFs.

But alas, who can forget the classics of ‘Rugrats’ (being a baby never looked so fun), ‘Rocket Power’ (woogie, woogie) and ‘Hey Arnold!’ (stoop boy’s afraid to leave his stoop). This truly is nostalgia. My birthday needs to come faster.

— Compiled by Colleen Bidwill, asst. feature editor

Published on April 3, 2011 at 12:00 pm