Guest Post: The X-Files

In honor of Halloween, I present to you a post about something that scared me endlessly in my youth. The show scared me so much, in fact, that I could never bring myself to watch about it and hence could never do it justice writing about it. Luckily fellow blogger and X Files fan Kelly stepped up to the plate to bring you this comprehensive post complete with fun facts and trivia.

About guest blogger Kelly, in her own words: Being born in ‘83, I’m on the older end of the 90’s kid spectrum, but that just means I remember it better! I spent my high school years completely obsessed with Mulder and Scully and, as the proud owner of three separate X Files related tattoos, I still am. I keep a blog of my various misadventures here, and you can find a crappie website I made in college here.



The X Files



Who of us raised in the 90’s can recall a prime time drama scarier or grosser than The X Files? In a pre-CSI landscape, it was surely in a class of its own. The story of two FBI agents, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, working the strange cases relegated to the basement and known as “X Files,” each for their own reasons and struggling against their own demons.

Without the dark example of The X Files, we may never have been able to witness such wonderful shows as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Reaper, Bones, or even the stomach turning sequences of CSI, on network TV. Plus, nothing else in pop culture has ever done so much for the word “debunk.”

As the defining aspect of my high school experience, I could write pages upon pages dedicated to the mythology and motifs of The X Files; where they came from, what they meant for society, and what they meant to me personally. (And trust me, I have!) However, for today’s purposes, I’ll break down a small sampling of elements and themes that exemplify the huge appeal of the show and the special brand of nostalgia Children of the 90’s is known for. Here we go!

Paranoia, Conspiracies, and all things “Out There”



The 90’s were a prime time for pondering the story behind the story. In a decade that featured Oliver Stone’s conspiracy flick “JFK,” the birth of VH1’s “Behind the Music,”and numerous political scandals, the public was constantly looking for ways to find out what we weren’t being told.

The X Files epitomized this. Mulder’s obsession with the fate of his sister, missing since she was 8 and he was 12, her abduction recalled only through spotty memories recovered under hypnosis, fueled his passion to solve each case that came to him. Young Agent Scully was assigned to accompany him, with direct orders to disprove and debunk his findings. Together, they introduced us to theories about far reaching government conspiracies, investigated urban legends, human monsters, and UFO sightings, and taught us that the skin tone of a Reticulan is actually grey, not green. You could not mention anything vaguely spooky or creepy in the 90’s without someone chiming in with the familiar first notes of The X Files opening theme.

Fabulous, Cutting-Edge Technology of the 90’s



A hallmark of the series were the two agent’s ever present cell phones. A wonderful tool to keep the agents connected while in separate places, the models featured in early episodes are now comically enormous. Note the antenna on Scully’s cell piece above. Also, there’s no touch screen when she turns that bad boy over!

Another technological phenomenon central to The X Files was the internet. Not only did the plot lines of several episodes feature the internet, computers, or video games, fans of The X Files are widely recognized as some of the first to embrace the medium as an outlet for fandom. “X Philes,” as they dubbed themselves, took to chat rooms and online forums in record breaking numbers to discuss their favorite show and post original pieces of fanfic.

Additionally, The X Files was featured in a first person, CD-ROM game for MAC and PC. In the game, you were a new agent saddled not only with the task of finding the missing Mulder and Scully, but changing the CD as you progressed.

Catch Phrases

What would a 90’s show be without ubiquitous catch-phrases? The X Files certainly had it’s share of mostly serious expressions. I defy you to hear any of the below without immediately hearing the theme music!

I Want to Believe
The Truth is Out There
Trust No One
Deny Everything

Of course, the most fun catch-phrases are the unintentional. I present to you “Mulder, it’s me.”




Guest Stars and Crossovers

Casting nine seasons worth of an hour long drama with relatively few recurring characters is sure to result in quite a roster. The X Files definitely had it’s share of recognizable guest stars, (Ed Asner, Lily Tomlin, Tony Shaloub, Peter Boyle, Luke Wilson, Bryan Cranston, and even Tom Selleck, to name a few) but was probably more notable for the bit parts played by relatively unknown actors. It’s a list that could go on for pages, but here are few of the highlights. Look up their episodes to catch a glimpse of these famous faces early in their careers!



Seth Green - As a stoner with a scooter in the second episode of the series. And, no, I don’t know why Mulder is standing like that.

Ryan Reynolds - As a high school hunk murdered by a pair of girls with telekinetic powers in the episode “Syzygy”

Michael Buble - Yes, Michael Buble. As a submarine sailor with no speaking lines in “Apocrypha” and “Piper Maru.”

Lucy Liu - As the daughter of a Chinese immigrant caught in a black market lottery for human organs in “Hell Money.”

Jack Black and Giovanni Ribisi - As a teen with the ability to control electricity (Ribisi) and his friend (Black) who mysteriously winds up electrocuted in “D.P.O.”

Willie Garson - The erstwhile Stanford Blatch was actually in two episodes of The X Files as two different characters, first in season 3’s “The Walk” and then in season 7’s “The Goldberg Variation.”

Shia LaBeouf - Along with Willie Garson in “The Goldberg Variation.”


The X Files also participated in the grand TV tradition of crossover appearances. Detective Munch from Homicide: Life on the Street and Law & Order:SVU stopped by to arrest Mulder and his pals, the Lone Gunmen, in a flashback episode. Frank Black of Millennium came over to assist Mulder and Scully with a time sensitive New Year’s Eve case. And Mulder and Scully even made a detour through Springfield to help solve the mystery of an “alien” appearing in the woods on the edge of town. (Spoiler, it was Mr. Burns suffering the side effects of a radical anti-aging treatment performed by Dr. Nick!)





Like I said, these are just a few of the things that made The X Files memorable and totally 90’s. Until next time, remember, the truth is out there!

Guest Post: Adolescent Ingenues of the 90s

About guest poster Kari, in her own words: I’m a 90s kid hailing from the suburban South and living in New York City. I frequently prefer kid’s movies, often watch Saturday morning cartoons, always enjoy nostalgia, and determinedly refuse to grow up for good. You can visit me on Tumblr, and I also write a book blog.


There was just something about certain actresses of 90s movies; they seemed to pop up in everything (kinda like the klepto kid from Can’t Hardly Wait, who was also the pube pizza kid from She’s All That, and also in American Pie). These ladies were the ones I wanted to be—maybe because they rocked awesome kicks, hats, and had great hair, but most likely because they were individuals. They were a little bit quirky but entirely confident with themselves.

You’ll be pleased to know that most of our adolescent ingenues are still in the acting world, though most of them have gone more of the indie flick route (just further evidence that these 90s ingenues were destined for great things beyond the dreaded child actor stigma). Your individualism has paid off—you’re no longer just “former child stars”!



Anna Chlumsky

Oh my god, what I would’ve done to be Vada Sultenfuss in My Girl 2. (For some reason, always liked that one better than the first. Inexplicable.) I can’t even count how many cheap mood rings I bought after those two movies and how much of an internal struggle I had about flowery 1970s hats (I was a huge tomboy, yet she just looked so damn cool...). Beyond the My Girl flicks, Anna also starred in Trading Mom and Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain with fellow ingenue Christina Ricci (two movies my mom rented for me on sick days). Anna took almost a decade off from acting after 1998 to attend college (International Studies), get married, and apparently be a woman of all trades (food critic, restaurant guide, editorial assistant). She’s back to acting, though, with several recent indie movies and lots of TV roles.




Thora Birch

Never have I wanted anything as badly as I wanted a pet monkey, thanks to the movie Monkey Trouble. (I also desperately wanted a copy of that movie, and pre-Amazon.com, it was incredibly hard to find. I never got it.) And lest we forget Thora’s best and most memorable role as Dani in Hocus Pocus. (This assertion is not up for debate.) Thora’s early acting also included Now & Then and Alaska. In 1999, she made a swift move to adult roles with American Beauty, and she’s steadily done indie flicks since (most notably Ghost World).




Gaby Hoffmann

I never really knew Gaby Hoffmann until Now & Then (where she and Demi Moore were most perfectly cast), but since then, I’ve seen her pop up in a ton of stuff made prior. Who knew that wasn’t her break-out role? (Me.) She started her career with Field of Dreams, Uncle Buck, and Sleepless in Seattle, and starred in All I Wanna Do (total underrated late 90s teen flick starring lots of the up-and-coming famous females of the late 90s/early 00s—Kristen Dunst, Rachel Leigh Cook, Monica Keena, Heather Matarazzo...) before joining fellow ingenue Christina Ricci in 1999’s 200 Cigarettes (again, end of child roles). Lately, she’s done some guest-starring TV roles and has several new indie movies under her belt.




Christina Ricci

Christina was the “It girl” of the early to mid-90s, with a breakout role in Mermaids to her pre-teen roles in flicks like Addams Family and its sequel, Casper, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain, Now & Then, and the 1997 version of That Darn Cat. Just one year later, in 1998, Christina officially ended her career as “child actor” with The Opposite of Sex—a poignant moment I remember in the video store when I saw her sporting blonde hair and cleavage, and thinking, “That’s it—my childhood is dead.” Christina’s had arguably the most well-known career of our ingenues throughout the past twenty years, leading most recently to ABC’s new series Pan Am.


**HONORABLE MENTIONS**


Tina Majorino

Who could forget the adorable girl from Andre and Corrina, Corrina (which were released, in my mind, at exactly the same time)? Tina’s childhood career wasn’t quite as notorious as the previous four ladies, but she was a familiar face. You probably remember her now from Napoleon Dynamite; I bet every 90s kid’s reaction to that movie was: “She looks familiar...” Tina has done lots of TV acting since Napoleon, most famously on Veronica Mars and Big Love.




Anna Paquin

I give Anna Paquin an honorable mention for this reason: I always thought she was one of these ingenues that appeared in everything mid-90s, but when I recently checked her creds, I realized...wow, she wasn’t in as much as I thought. Yet, I DO remember her and associate her with these 90s childhood flicks, so that must mean something. While her official breakout role was in 1993’s Piano, her breakout role to OUR generation was in 1996’s Fly Away Home. The next really memorable role of hers was as Freddie Prinze Jr’s goth-chic sister in She’s All That, which led her to more teen/adult roles in Almost Famous, the X-Men flicks, The Squid and the Whale, and...her current claim to fame...HBO’s True Blood.


As you can see, no troubled former childhood stars from this group of girls. Further evidence that 90s kids are the best kids.

Guest Post: TOP FIVE: PRE-TEEN GIRL SERIES FROM THE 90s

About guest poster Megan: I'm a bookworm, aspiring author, daydreamer and music lover from Adelaide, Australia.

I blog about my obsession for books at Storybook Love Affair (link to http://storybookloveaffair.blogspot.com/) where I share reviews, reading and writing events, author interviews and bookish products.

Blog link - http://storybookloveaffair.blogspot.com/

Facebook link - http://www.facebook.com/pages/Storybook-Love-Affair/148548541901670

Twitter link - http://twitter.com/#!/search/storyloveaffair

From a very young age I have always loved to read. Remembering back to my youth, many of the books I devoured were part of a series. I did read the occasional stand-alone novel as well but it’s always the series books that hold the fondest memories for me and transport me back to a period I would love to revisit.

Luckily for me, I get to journey back to those years with this very fun guest post!

Here are the top five series that occupied much of my reading time while growing up in the 90s:

1. Sweet Valley High

Love them or loathe them, sixteen year old twin sisters Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield were a huge part of my life growing up. Unless you had also read the series, it probably wouldn’t hold any appeal to you, but for me the series has an intense nostalgic appeal.

The twins live in a town called Sweet Valley and are described as picture-perfect in every way, from their blonde hair, blue eyes, size six figures and All-American good looks. They are the popular students at Sweet Valley High where Elizabeth is the serious twin who writes for the school newspaper, and Jessica is the fun-loving cheerleader who flirts with boys and loves to party.

Life in Sweet Valley isn’t always idyllic though and between them the twins have been kidnapped, stalked, held hostage and attacked multiple times. Amazingly, through all this emotional drama they were never affected by anything and always managed to bounce right back into life with enthusiastic zest. As you do...

The books have been criticised for their unrealistic portrayal of teenage life and also for the lack of cultural diversity within the stories. Most characters come from privileged white backgrounds, have no zits or other typical teenage body issues, manage to have loads of cash without part-time jobs and drive cars that not even forty-something professional men could afford.

Although containing many inconsistencies (how can the same girls be 16 years old for 15 odd years??), the storylines in the early parts of the series were a whole lot of fun. They featured around the twins and their friends and often held a moral significance behind the story such as drug use and drink driving.

Later on in the series though the storylines became extremely ridiculous (I remember one in particular where somebody became so obsessed with the twins’ mother Alice that they tried to steal her face through a transplant?!).

The early books were definitely worth reading - it was fun to escape into the world of Sweet Valley and immerse myself in the quintessential American high school life. But the later books deserve a miss - unlike the vampire craze currently sweeping the world, these stories were boringly unrealistic.



2. Girl Talk

This was a series for teenage girls telling the school adventures of four American teenagers (Sabrina, Katie, Randy and Alison) in junior high school. The series produced a range of spin-off products including a board game and special edition books. I had the board game and absolutely loved it!

The books were known for one chapter being devoted to phone call conversations between the girls as well as offering descriptions of the hilarious 90s fashion they wore at the time (remember happy pants anyone?).
The books were written in the first person narrative with each character taking turns. Many of the books focused on the rivalry between the girls and another group of girls - Stacy the Great (the Principal’s daughter), Eva, B.Z and Laurel.

I loved reading Girl Talk simply because of the focus on friendship it had. The girls were such good friends and retrospectively thinking they were probably A LOT more mature than the average 13 year old in real life, but despite this they represented positive role models to all girls, particularly in terms of their relationships with their friends.





3. Nancy Drew

I started to read Nancy Drew books after another old mystery series I liked called Meg had ended (after only the sixth book!).

Nancy Drew is a young amateur detective who loves nothing more than to solve a mystery. There’s over 100 books in the complete series, and although I didn’t finish every one of them, someday I hope that I can!

The books first appeared in 1930 and the character has evolved over the years to suit America’s changing cultural tastes. But despite numerous changes, she’s always been depicted as wealthy, attractive and amazingly talented. Apparently this is the norm for preteen characterisation.

I guess the aspect that made Nancy so likable to girls was her ability to have traditionally feminine attributes such as good looks and a variety of clothes while at the same time encompassing traditionally male traits such as having the freedom and money to do as she pleases and living to solve mysteries rather than participating in family life.

In essence she was a contradiction, which made her all the more intriguing and ironically a bit of a mystery herself.



4. The Baby-Sitters Club

I wasn’t as into The Baby-Sitters Club as I was the other three series mentioned above. However, I did spend a lot of time reading the books and I think I came pretty close to completing the whole set.

The series is about a group of middle school students who run their own baby-sitting club. The members of the club are all best friends, however they go through numerous conflicts throughout the stories. The books came in many different versions including super specials and mysteries.

I remember swapping the books with other kids in my neighbourhood when I was young and we even tried to set up our own baby-sitters club at one point. Not surprisingly, our own club didn’t work out quite as well as the club in the books. Turns out parents were appalled at the idea of us (just babies ourselves) trying to take care of their kids! Oh the nerve...



5. V.C Andews - The Dollanganger Series

Flowers in the Attic was one of my absolute favourite books growing up. The five books in the series focus on the Dollanganger children who are imprisoned in an attic by their mother and monstrous grandmother.

The first book Flowers in the Attic tells of their incarceration and subsequent escape while the rest of the novels pick up the story after their escape.

The V.C Andrews Series books have copped a lot of flack over the years for being trashy. I certainly wouldn’t describe them in this category though. To me they are a combination of a brilliant gothic horror and family saga genre. The novels are famous for their family secrets and forbidden love (frequently involving scenes of consensual incest between a brother and a sister). It still amazes me today that these books are actually aimed at a younger audience. The themes are so remotely adult and have even been quite controversial over the years leading to the book Flowers in the Attic actually getting banned at one point from schools.

The storyline presents a shocking portrayal of child abuse and is at times very dark and extremely sad. The series truly is a gripping read though and offers an extreme example of the influence of money and how the pursuit of it inevitably always ends in nasty greed.

Guest Blog: 90s Cartoon Network Classics

Standing in for your regular blogger, I am Nick, otherwise known as Blogging Nickster. You can catch my blog, The Unofficial Cedar Point Blog, which is a blog all about the world-class amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio! You can also follow me on Twitter and like my blog’s Facebook page!

As a kid in the latter half of the 1990’s, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon ruled my weeknights. Johnny Bravo, the Angry Beavers, Rugrats, and Dexter’s Laboratory ruled the land of cartoons, before the world of Spongebob-reruns and cheap knock-offs of the classics. Although both networks were amazing at the time, Children of the 90’s has sort of neglected Cartoon Network shows. To solve this, as a guest blogger, I will be peering into the fascinating cartoons that used to roam Cartoon Network in the mid-to late 1990’s.

Dexter’s Laboratory

The theme song was scary; the main character was a tiny carrot-top; and the protagonist was extremely annoying. What other cartoon could that be besides Dexter’s Laboratory? In a nutshell, the show was about an extremely short kid with a giant laboratory somehow shoved into his family’s standard two-story house.

Dexter’s parents were so stereotypical that it almost made me sick: a businessman dad and a stay at home mom, complete with an everyday outfit of an apron and yellow rubber gloves. However, Dexter’s sister, Dee Dee, was quite… um… different. Dee Dee had really long legs, with these giant combat boot-like feet that would make a funny stomp noise as she stumbled about. To this day, I still don’t know how that girl could even pick her feet up!

Mandark was this annoying enemy of Dexter that also created his own secret laboratory, too. (I’m sorry, but there really only needs to be one mad scientist per town…) But anyway, Mandark inherited the worst laugh in history. It was this high-pitched, pinched “Mwuhahaha, mwuhahaha, mwuhahaha, mwuahahaha!” (See video below to remember the annoyance!)



In between each episode, these little segments would pop up called “Justice League” and “Dial M for Monkey.” Both of the segments annoyed me. I didn’t really care about this stupid monkey that had superpowers; I thought it was a dumb idea. The Justice League bit was just as bad. I just wanted to get back to watching Dexter!

Cow and Chicken

By far, the most bizarre (Hey, that rhymed!) cartoon on the network was Cow and Chicken. Amazingly, two humans managed to produce a cow and chicken as children, creatively named Cow and Chicken.

We never really got to see the upper halves of Cow and Chicken’s parents, but there was obviously something genetically wrong with one of them. They both must have some recessive traits that were lining up somewhere, or their upper halves were extremely screwed up...


The Powerpuff Girls

Growing up, my older cousin’s favorite show was The Powerpuff Girls, and I never wanted to watch it because the show was centered on three girls. And, as we all know, girls have the dreaded cooties, and these three girls were especially toxic because they were created with “sugar and spice and everything nice.”

But, once the cooties phase ended, I caught an episode or two of the Powerpuff Girls, and was automatically scared of Mojo Jojo. He just… looked so… evil! I had a nightmare after I watched my first episode of the Powerpuff Girls involving Mojo Jojo pushing me into this mysterious fire-filled pit. I hated tly monkey-looking thing. And I never understood that hat/helmet thing he wore.

Just now, during a little research, I found out that Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were kindergartens! They could really kick butt for kindergarteners, now that I think about it!

Courage the Cowardly Dog

Ah, the pink little puppy: one of my favorite Cartoon Network shows. Sure, it could really scare me out of my mind sometimes, but nowhere near Mojo Jojo, somehow.

So pretty much, in every episode, some sort of weird monster or creature attacked Courage and his elderly owners, Eustace and Muriel. My personal favorite of the creepers that showed up was Katz the Cat, a homicidal red cat that cooked up several schemes to kill or manipulate Muriel and Eustace, such as a spa that turned Muriel into a washing machine and Eustace into a wrecking ball. Freaky Fred, Muriel’s nephew with an obsession with shaving heads, was another notable and scary villain. Let’s just he was very “naaaaaaaawtieee,” as he would say.

Johnny Bravo

Johnny Bravo… I’m not even sure how to describe this cartoon. There was a big blonde guy that really wasn’t all that bright, and he still lived with his “Mommmaaaah,” as he said in an Elvis Presley-like tone. That’s about all you need to know. It was a primarily simple idea...

2 Stupid Dogs



Believe it or not, the theme song was probably the most complex part of the show...

The short-lived 2 Stupid Dogs was amazing show about… two stupid dogs. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t the most creative name. Although we never knew their names, the dogs were a dachshund and a type of shepherd dog. The bigger shepherd dog had a low-pitched, unenergetic voice (which was actually Brad Garrett voicing him!) that was the complete opposite of his dachshund counterpart.

About the only episode I remember watching was when the dogs had to swim across this ridiculously large ocean, and somehow ended up at the San Andres fault line. I’m not really sure what happened after they reached the fault line, because my dad took the remote! (Didn’t you hate when your parents did that!?)

Technically, the show is a way toned-down version of fellow 1990’s cartoon “The Ren and Stimpy Show.”

Mike, Lu, and Og

The adventures of Mike, Lu, and Og always confused me. How did they get on that cool island? Why is only Mike wearing “normal” clothes? Why was Lu such a brat? And what is a wombat?

Well, I found out that Lu and Og were cousins, and inhabitants on the island, but Mike landed on the island after being asked to be an exchange student. In the issue with Lu’s problem with being a brat, she’s the governor of the island’s daughter, so naturally she believes that she is the princess of the island. She even had a turtle named Lancelot, and she tortured that poor thing. And according to Wikipedia, Lancelot is actually a girl! Whoa! Finally, a wombat is some sort of weird squirrel-looking animal. There’s everything you need to know about Mike, Lu, and Og!

Overall, Cartoon Network was great back in the day. But nowadays, they hardly even show cartoons anymore! I mean, with a name like CARTOON Network, you’d think that they’d show CARTOONS! But, just like Nickelodeon, it will go down in the books as a “used-to-be cool and original” television network.

I miss the 90’s. (insert sad face here)