Ah,the 90s - I think this will always be the decade I look back on most favourably. I was born in 1987, and I will always consider myself lucky to be a 90s kid. A lot happened in the 90s, the internet was born - and the rest, they say, is history. But, alongside technological developments, we still had free to air TV - streaming wasn't a thing, and every week you had to tune in to catch your favourite shows. It sounds dumb now to think that TV shows had to be part of your weekly routine, 'It's Tuesday night, that means we need to watch Seinfeld'.
I guess for me, my focus is on the shows from the late 90s, which in my mind, blend into the early 2000s. Looking back, I can mark events in my life based on what was on the tele.
- During an episode of 90210, our cat, 'Familiar' was run over.
- At the end of an episode of 'Dawson's Creek', I got a text message from a potential love interest! For an 11 year old, that was huge! Speaking of 'Dawson's Creek', I also fell in love with Katie Holmes. She would be my dream girl for many, many years to follow, until Tom Cruise ruined the fantasy.
But, part of that marking of life was the Game Show, 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire'. It premiered in Australia in 1999 - just about the right time to engage a 12 year old in a fantasy, but also, to allow me to have a good crack at answering some of the questions. But that's perhaps not the reason I loved this show -- -- You see, my Dad worked a lot. My parents juggled a number of businesses, so we didn't see them a lot. But Monday night, at 8.30pm, as this show come on, my Dad would be home and we'd watch it as a family. It was not often that my Dad, Mum and sister and I would all agree on an answer, and the battle of wits was on (I nearly wrote that as battle of twits - which would be a reasonable description some weeks).
The premise of the show was this: Answer 15 multiple choice questions correctly and walk away with $1,000,000. But, get the question wrong, and you drop down to the 'locked in response' - That might be $1,000 or $32,000. But, if you were on $16,000 and didn't know the answer, would you take a $15,000 gamble? If you were on $128,000, would you gamble that to have a guess at the $250,000 question?
You see, even if you knew the answer with perhaps 80-90% certainty - the psychological impact of the game was to ask, 'Would you still risk it?'. It was fascinating viewing, arguing about what was happening on the screen, what they should do - wondering why they didn't walk away, or take the punt.
Along the way, the contestants were allowed three 'lifelines' - phone a friend, 50/50 and poll the audience. Often, people would use these wrong and we'd be yelling at the television. Then, after much delay, when an answer was finally locked in, the host, Eddie McGuire would cut to an ad break. Then, we wern't yelling answers at the tele, we were yelling at Eddie!
But, back on point - why this show? Because I watched it with my dad. He didn't watch many shows with us, he didn't like commercial breaks - but this one, he did sit with me. He died a month ago, aged 65. Hindsight tells me I don't need a million dollars, but the time spent with family is worth far more. It's a shame that this isn't a lesson you learn as a 12 year old watching the tele, but it's a reflection on perhaps what young people are missing out on today. Streaming shows and mobile phones robs us of connection - looking back, we hated the ad breaks, but it definitely gave us more time together.
Thanks for joining me on this look-back, perhaps not what you'd expect as a favourite show of the 90s, but it goes to show the power of television to become a part of our lives and memories.
This post was put together in response to the CineTV Prompt - get on it!
