1993 A to Z: S is for…
Oh, snap! It’s time for another installment of . . .
1993 A to Z!
Here we’re talking about all things 1993, one letter at a time. Everything here is something my protagonist McKinley encounters when she finds herself thrown back in time in my new novel Rewind. Today, of course, we’re talking about the letter “S”—and let me tell you, there are all sorts of good ones!
S is for . . .
[All images courtesy of Wikipedia unless otherwise noted]
Street Fighter IITo be honest, I don’t remember much about most 90s video games (except for Dr. Mario. I can pretty much kick anyone’s butt at that one!). But the people who do tell me that, in the early 90s, Street Fighter II was the game. If you can get past the fact that it’s a fairly violent video game that deals pretty heavily in racial stereotypes, its easy to appreciate its innovative competitive-style fighting and character-driven play. Gamers around the world have been seriously loving on this game since it first appeared in arcades in 1990. It has since spawned many more spin-offs, a terrible movie, a non-fiction book on its history, and even a Niki Minaj song (which I’m only not linking to because it’s not really appropriate for many readers of this blog). And if you just want to watch random people you don’t know playing it online for twenty straight minutes, of course you can do that too.
Special props to . . .
Saved by the BellIf you were a child of the 90s, it was very difficult to escape this show. It seemed like it was on every hour of the day, practically. I loved it. I watched so many episodes in middle school that I was fully convinced that high school was going to be all about stuffing people in lockers, participating in dance competitions, and committing grand larceny. If you’ve never seen the show, it’s pretty much impossible to explain just how weird and ridiculous it was, but reading through this exhaustive list of episode plot lines may give you some idea. In retrospect, every single episode if rife with problematic bits, from sexism to racism to micro-aggressions to downright, “Huh???” (If you haven’t already, please watch the internet shorts series “Zach Morris Is Trash.” It is uh-MAZE-ing.) Still, for those of us who grew up with it, the show has a certain nostalgic charm. And who could forget this amazing gem?
“With the annual chess competition between Bayside and their rival Valley approaching, Valley decides to get some dirt on Screech, the school’s chess champion. Things turn ugly when Valley steals Screech’s lucky beret given to him by Violet. Meanwhile, Zack and Slater try to pull the old switcheroo with Valley’s chess jock, a Russian exchange student.”
With additional props to . . .
[Image courtesy of MovieStillsDB.com]
spaghetti strap dressesThere is very little that screams “Early 90s!” louder than a spaghetti-strap dress over a baby doll tee. This iconic trend was rocked by everyone—from gawky middle-schoolers like yours truly to famous 90s celebs (like Alicia Silverstone, pictured above, who would pull off the look flawlessly in 1995’s Clueless). This is the outfit that McKinley decides to go with for the Time Hop in Rewind—which means, of course, that when she winds up in the real 1993, she fits right in.
With even more props to . . .
[Image courtesy of YouTube]
Dawn and the Surfer GhostHere I go, here I go, here I go again . . .
“Don’t know how you do
The voodoo
That you do
So well
It’s a spell
Hell
Makes me wanna
Shoop, shoop, shoop”
Back in 1993, if you wanted to memorize all the lyrics for a killer song like Salt-N-Pepa’s mega-hit “Shoop”—and you did not own the single on cassette or CD—then you had to watch MTV for hours and wait for the video to come on, scribbling down a few lines every time it did. If you got really lucky you might be able to record it off the radio on your home tape deck, and Rewind it (see what I did there?) over and over until you had it all down. Oh, and you probably had to do it all at your friend Megan’s house, because you were technically not allowed to watch MTV.
If you haven’t rewatched this video lately, you definitely should, because it is so much fun, and honestly not nearly as racy as I remembered—although still probably not appropriate for the younger set, as there is lots of innuendo (and, er, out-uendo, too).
But wait, there's more!
Super Mario Bros: The MovieThirty years before the world blessed us with a fun Super Mario Bros. movie, we were forced to endure this live-action mega-bomb. Starring famously Italian (not!) actors Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as the titular “bros,” this movie had many, many, many problems. For one thing, Bowser is now “President Koopa,” a human who evolved from a dinosaur and is in charge of “Dinohattan.” He is played by Dennis Hopper. The whole thing is bananas and makes approximately zero sense, and has even less connection to the video game. To this day it’s frequently cited as one of the worst movies of all time—and even its three leads claim to hate it. Talk about a legacy!
There were a lot more “S”s I could have mentioned, but I had to stop somewhere. Which ones do you wish I covered? Drop me a line in the comments. Next we’ll be tackling “T.” And in the meantime, be sure to check out Rewind!
Happy reading!
♥ Lisa
P.S. To read all the posts in the “1993 A to Z” series, click here!
