HADDAWAY - "WHAT IS LOVE" from his 1993 album, "Haddaway"
So "What Is Love" is probably best remembered by American 90's kids as those SNL "Night At The Roxbury" characters' fave song when they went to their cheesy Eurotrash-flavored club. Yeah. My favorite 90's pop culture moment involving the infectious dance hit by Trinidadian singer Haddaway can be located in the eleventh episode of TV show "My So-Called Life" called "Life of Brian."
I am a big fan of late 80's/early 90's house and dance music, and learning that Haddaway is Trini (my father's side of the family hails from Trinidad) makes my memories even better. The thing I love best about the song and the way that it was used in "Life of Brian," is that even though the lyrics hint at pain and confusion over relationships, the music itself is ridiculously triumphant, like, as if I'm going to let that shizz get me down.
The episode "Life of Brian" deals with Ricky Vasquez's struggle with his homosexuality. He tries to pretend as if he could entertain being interested in and taking the new girl (whom Brian Krakow rejected) to the school dance, but in the end, he comes to accept who he is, expressed through a thrillingly gay and oddly poignant dance to Haddaway's "What Is Love." If you have seen it, you know what I mean. If you haven't, it's a thing of beauty:
It's time, 90's fans. It's time. It's time to talk about "My So-Called Life." No, no, stop crying, it'll be alright. Let's talk it out.
Why we aren't watching MSCL's lead character Angela Chase finish her doctorate, get married and have a bunch of kids in a suburb in Connecticut right now, I'll never know...
I watched the boxed set of this show a few weeks ago, which consisted of only a single season on ABC, and smiled inside at creator Winnie Holzman's appearance in the special features. She strikes me as that eccentric New Age neighbor lady with frizzy hair and Stevie Nicks capes that was always super-nice and introduced you to stuff like tarot cards and crystals. Kind of like Rayanne's mom Amber (played with gusto by Patti D'Arbanville Quinn, living up to her inspiration for the 1970 Cat Stevens tune "Wild World") did for Angela in the episode where Rayanne throws a huge party and OD's on ecstasy. Winnie's sweetly vulnerable but astute take on teenage life seared itself into my cerebral cortex, and I'm kind of scarred for life now.
Here's the most pertinent question when it comes to MSCL...are you a Jordan girl or a Brian girl? One of the central conflicts in Angela's 15 year old life was that she wanted painfully hot Jordan, who was nearly always emotionally unavailable to her, and she wanted nerdy and familiar Brian Krakow to stay away from her, although he loved her with the heat of a thousand suns and wanted to be her dog. Jordan or Brian? This is a decision every young girl needs to make.
I myself professed love for Jordan in the cafeteria at school, but was really a Brian girl at heart. I'm kind of married to a Brian now. I like smart, weird, socially awkward types, and Brian Krakow was manna from heaven to my kind of geek girl.
This show did an incredibly deft job of handling issues relevant to teenagers not only in the 90's, but teenagers yesterday, today and forevermore. Producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz were responsible for the hit TV show "thirtysomething" (1987-1991), and managed to more-than-successfully translate that formula to a often-contradictory Generation X audience. This show captures the ennui and apathy felt by that generation, as well as the genuine social concern, noncomformity and passion for change that they exhibited.
The other aspect of the show that I truly miss is the great ensemble cast and acting on display. Claire Danes, of course, gave her tour-de-force performance in MSCL, but all the other young performers, including Wilson Cruz as the fabulously in-the-closet Ricky Vasquez, the underrated Devon Gummersall as my beloved Brian, A.J. Langer as that self-destructive-but-incredibly-attractive-girl-we've-all-been-friends-with, Rayanne Graff, the underrated Devon Odessa who played good-girl and spurned friend, Sharon Cherski, and last, but not least, even Jared Leto felt his oats as "grunge" hottie Jordan Catalano, scourge of pubescent girls everywhere.
I've come to appreciate the older members of the cast very much in the years since MSCL was cancelled, especially Angela's parents Patti and Graham, played to perfection by Bess Armstrong and Tom Irwin. I really appreciate how well-drawn their characters are now, being a writer myself, from Patti's dominance in the household as mother and breadwinner (reflecting men's and women's shifting roles in the home at the time) to Graham's lapsed-hippie laidback-ness, sensitive creativity evidenced by his skill at fine cooking and proclivity for flirting and cheating with other women. It was like the producers were able to continue a version of "thirtysomething" through Patti and Graham's character arcs. Loved it.
My So-Called Life practically birthed the concept of "brilliant-but-cancelled" television (it was cancelled mainly due to low ratings and, possibly, Claire Danes's wish for a film career), and continues to influence TV writers and shows to this day. Even Joss Whedon admits that there's a lot of MSCL in his late-90's, early '00s powerhouse TV show "Buffy The Vampire Slayer." I will always hold a special place in my heart for a girl who was my same age, shared my name and wasn't too prudish to make out in a boiler room when she had to.
Enough out of me. Please check My So-Called Life out for yourself:
I could add MSCL videos all day. Love the hell out of this show.
The splendid Gus Van Sant film "Drugstore Cowboy" (1989) has a scene where Matt Dillon, after nearly being beaten to death, tells the detective that the TV babies did it. He explained earlier that the TV babies are the younger generation of folks reared on television and have a skewed sense of right and wrong since they learned all their values from the shows on the screen.
I always felt a little guilty watching this scene in this mesmerizing movie because I was, and am, a TV baby. I am desensitized to violence because I grew up watching it on TV. I love the murmur of the TV in the background even when I'm not watching it. At one point in my life, I could quote you the TV guide verbatim, by day. TV was also the locus of popular culture in the 90's, so I believe it's important that it's not dismissed on this blog.
IN LIVING COLOR (1990-1994)
This show seems kind of unbelievable when you think on it now. Not only was it created by Keenan Ivory Wayans, and featured most of the very lucrative Wayans family (including Damon, Marlon and Shawn), but some of our most lucrative and critically esteemed actors, such as Jamie Foxx and Jim Carrey. Plus J-Lo herself was a Fly Girl! I'm saying! I love the Fly Girls with their metallic bustiers a la Janet Jackson circa "Rhythm Nation":
There's almost too much that can be said for a show that brought us a dead-on parody of Vanilla Ice, Homey the Clown, Fire Marshal Bill, Wanda, Men on Film, and countless other really quite funny skits that had the edge of brilliant race commentary like the future "Chappelle's Show" would mine successfully. Here's Anton Jackson, precursor to Dave Chappelle's Tyrone Biggums character:
I loved the white chick on this show. She had a great sketch as the woman who was stuck in the 40's that I loved.
The cast was really great at skewering 90's pop culture figures like Milli Vanilli, Crystal Waters, and Vanilla Ice, witness:
OMG, I just spit at my computer screen watching that again. That Vanilla Ice parody was so incredibly popular at the time, you don't even know, those of you born after 1982. These sketches speak for themselves, do you even need me? Your 90's-ologist is only here to serve you...here's some Men on Film:
The blush on David Alan Grier in this sketch? Three words: FAB-U-LOUS.
I love this show because good sketch comedy never dies. Sure, it was maddeningly imperfect, and alot of its funniest days are clumped up in the first two seasons, but this is worth a rent if you're new to it, and worth buying in some form if you can remember when it was on, like me. All five seasons are available on DVD. Here's one last taste for the old folks:
I like when he pulls out the NASA satellite dish. This sketch reminds me of my Dad...this was right before he pierced his ear in a fit of midlife crisis, and he'd go around trying to be cool quoting this show: "Mo' money, mo' money!" So 90's it hurts. I can't help it, here's some Homey The Clown, and I'll let you go about your business:
