When one considers which one pop culture image defined the entire decade of the 1990s, the obvious answer is the dancing baby from the "Ally McBeal Show."
What, you didn't know? Or, better yet, you don't care about the baby? Don't tell VH1. The station makes even more obnoxious use of this twirling toddler in their summertime series "I Love the '90s" than "Ally McBeal" did the first time around.
And that's really just problem number one with the series. "I Love the '90s" tries to ride the coattails of VH1's more successful "I Love the '80s Strikes Back," only to find that, much like the baby, the '90s were way more obnoxious than they were funny.
VH1, arguably in a decline since its "Pop-Up Video" days, seized on the success of last spring's "Strikes Back" and ran wild with it.
The format of the series is simple: gather a handful of B- (and even C-) actors and comedians, throw in a few that viewers will actually recognize, and unleash them to give running commentary upon the chosen decade-appropriate topic. Hilarity (rarely) ensues.
The network applied its technique to any and every idea it can possibly come up with, including but not limited to "Most Awesomely Bad Videos of All Time," the "100 Most Metal Moments of All Time," the "Most Shocking Reality Moments of All Time," and the "Best Celebrity Breakups."
VH1 has tried this format before, with varying degrees of success. "I Love the '70s" and "I Love the '80s" preceded "Strikes Back," which was the most successful of the decade love-fests.
Trying to capitalize on the success of "Strikes Back," VH1 brought us the "Nineties," but it really flew too close to the sun on this one. The show's own commercials and promo spots, which ran all summer, turned out to be prophetic. They featured its commentators in the Peach Pit of "Beverly Hills, 90210" fame, protesting that it was "too soon" for "I Love the '90s."
The show itself appears hastily thrown together. The comedy pales in comparison to its predecessor, and the green screen background behind the comedians is gaudy and offensive to the eyes, making the program difficult to watch.
Some of the better commentators made the wise decision to not come back for "Nineties," most notably Donal Logue. Even the space fillers that precede commercial breaks are lame in comparison to "Strikes Back." "Jay and Silent Bob Rename Your Favorite TV Show" is a pathetic effort to give the popular characters as much as airtime as possible and is completely devoid of any humor whatsoever.
Which is not to say that "Nineties" doesn't have its moments. Michael Ian Black and Mo Rocca, easily the funniest two commentators on the earlier series, returned and provide the few shining moments of running dialogue. There are some particularly funny moments involving slap bracelets ("for the pre-teen dominatrix"), Zoobaz pants ("What do you have in a black and silver zigzag print?"), and a discussion of the inherent racism in the "Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers."
The '90s were a decade as obnoxious as the baby that VH1 uses to characterize it in the opening credits. It would have taken a mammoth effort to salvage the years that brought us Aqua's "Barbie Girl," not to mention Tamagotchis, the Teletubbies, and creepy little Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense." In the end, the effort was not enough.
The decade was just not that funny in the first place. We can only pray that, in time, "Party of Five" will seem as funny as "My Two Dads" does now ("Bad news, your mom died, and, well, she was a slut...").
So the relatively unfunny "Nineties," which was shown constantly for its first week of broadcasting, has already been relegated to the incredibly rare airings of the also unfunny "Seventies" and original "Eighties." "Strikes Back," however, is still in what seems like weekly reruns.
VH1's own prophesies were right: it was too soon for the '90s. But not to worry. "I Love the '90s Part Deux" is already in the works. We can only hope that "Part Deux" can save the '90s the way "Strikes Back" saved the '80s. Maybe it has a chance, if VH1 leaves the baby in the past, where he belongs.
