Clarissa Darling, please explain this to me

I’d like to stop right here and pose a horribly true fact many of us don’t want to hear: 1991 WAS 20 YEARS AGO!

That’s right; all of us 90’s kids are getting old. It’s not something I like to think about much.

I realized this yesterday when I was watching none other that Clarissa Explains it All and saw that the copyright date was 1992. I was 9 years old in 1992. Then I realized another thing: Shows like Clarissa were back in that time also; I don’t see many kids’ shows like that today.

As a result of having an unwished for amount of time off work, I spend more time than necessary watching TV, a lot of times landing on the Disney Channel. Yes, I’ll admit it, I watch the Disney Channel. I became addicted to Wizards of Waverly Place a while back due to its completely off-course views of witchcraft, and gradually found other shows I still wish I’d never encountered. Phineas and Ferb seems to keep the mind rolling with every episode and sometimes I think might have some sort of actual scientific fact in there. Plus it’s a suburban family with a freaking platypus as a pet. I see nothing wrong with that platypus being a secret agent. What I’d like to know is who lived in the suburbs with a platypus and the platypus can survive. Even more, who owns a platypus!

Back to my original question, looking at shows like this today, do they even compare to out childhood TV?

About 2 years ago I began compiling different theme songs on my iPod to play during work at my proofreading job. As we worked we were permitted to play music in order to keep the day from getting dull at times. Each day would often be granted to a different person, and so on my day, after the extreme complaints from a few coworkers finished, I would play music, interspersed with the nostalgic themes from out favorite shows. As my coworker Kristen pointed out, “I know I spent time outside with friends, but it seems like I watched a lot of TV as a kid” (This is quoted very loosely, being almost 2 years past).

With all the shows on TV in that time period however, it really felt this way. I remember watching Clarissa Darling when I was a kid, constantly watching one of my childhood crushes every episode. I believe as I grew up, even as awesome as Sabrina the Teenage Witch was, Melissa Joan Hart didn’t have the same style. There was something about watching as Clarissa explained life from her own P.O.V. (Point of View), watching as she made her own video games (usually about rid the world of Fergface), and Sam with his own personal welcome strum that still can’t be outmatched. Especially by Melissa and Joey-- HUH?

I'd like to pause for a brief addition about the great Clarissa Darling from Rosianna (@papertimelady):

Clarissa isn't the only great Nickelodeon show I've grown to relove. This week was the first week of TeenNick's "90's are All That" midnight block, showing oldschool Nick shows from from 90s. currently they have All That, Keenan & Kel, Clarissa and Doug. I never really got much into Keenan & Kel when I was a kid, except for maybe the occasional GoodBurger sketch on All That, something I see today and still question whether doctors had prescribed me the wrong medicines at the time.

All That however, brings a lot of memories back. For one many of my favorite cast members, according to imdb (which we can of course, trust about everything), were only part of for at most 14 episodes. It's hard to think that Lori Beth Denberg, the important advice guru, was only in 14 episodes? I still don't quite believe this, as this information comes from imdb, but it's quite a shocker still. Even more of a shocker that she seemed to fall of the face of the Earth after this show.

More shows are supposed to run as the time block gains viewers, as their promo keeps showing, which makes me want the other shows now. Are You Afraid of the Dark, for example, the scary kid's programming precursor to Goosebumps, had so many moments I think back to now that were influential in my mystery writing mind- even if I was too scared to watch the show until I got a bit older. The Adventures of Pete and Pete (a show I have already ordered because I don't want to wait) still makes me wonder where Michelle Trachtenberg would be had she not stood aside Big Pete, Little Pete, and Petunia.

One show that has apparently not made it to the lineup if The Secret World of Alex Mack, a show that for some reason is only on DVD in the first season. This was actually a great disappointment when I finished watching it again recently. I think by the end of the show she actually was caught, but really, how can you tell that without rewatching it. These companies just don't understand us kids of the 90s.

With all this, what if other networks brought back shows. What if Disney started playing Darkwing Duck or Talespin again. I think the world would be a better place. He's the terror that flaps in the night, and brings hope to television.

So for all of us 90s kids who still prefer The Midnight Society and Hey Dude, what are your favorite shows from the 90s?