Home
Gallery
1990: A Very Good Year?

1990: A Very Good Year?

''Saved by the Bell'' and Screech! Paula Abdul and MC Skat Kat! Mullet bangs...on EW's cover?! Annie Barrett eyes 25 things that ruled pop culture the year of EW's birth

By Annie Barrett

Updated May 28, 2010 at 07:00 PM EDT

Skip gallery slides

1 of 24

1

Everett Collection

THE IT GIRL
Julia Roberts starred in Pretty Woman, which grossed $463 million worldwide and taught young women everywhere that the best way to throw it in the face of a snooty Rodeo Drive salesgirl who glared at your hooker outfit and assumed you were trash is to waltz in looking fab and announce, ''Big mistake. Huge. I have to go shopping now...''

2 of 24

2

Everett Collection

BEST NUDE-ISH SCENE
Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost. ''Time can do so much,'' but it can never diminish the general fascination with pottery that gripped us after seeing this movie.

3 of 24

3

Getty Images

CELEBRITY COUPLE
Ten months after his breakup with Mimi Rogers in February, Tom Cruise married Nicole Kidman on Christmas Eve. Ho, ho, ho.

Continued on next slide.

4 of 24

5

MEMORABLE MUSIC VIDEO
MC Skat Kat and Paula Abdul just couldn't be more different! ''Opposites Attract'' would end up winning Abdul a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video in 1991.

5 of 24

6

SONG OF SUMMER
''It Must Have Been Love'' by Roxette. The lyric ''It's where the water flows, it's where the wind blows'' was especially useful if you wanted to cryptically sing to your mom that you were going to the beach.

6 of 24

7

Everett Collection

SUMMER POPCORN FLICK
Die Hard 2: Die Harder. Okay, a bunch of people saw Dick Tracy, too. And even more than that played the Dick Tracy Crimestopper Game all summer at McDonald's.

Continued on next slide.

7 of 24

8

Everett Collection

BOX OFFICE BOMB
Bonfire of the Vanities: Great book! Terrible, terrible movie.

8 of 24

9

Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

MADONNA LOOK
Eighteenth-century French, à la her MTV Video Music Awards performance of ''Vogue.''

9 of 24

10

DANCE MOVE
Ugh. The electric slide.

Continued on next slide.

10 of 24

11

Everett Collection

SUDSY STUDS
Marcy Walker and A Martinez won Soap Opera Digest's Outstanding Super Couple Award for their portrayal of Eden and Cruz on NBC's Santa Barbara.

11 of 24

12

Landov

MEMORABLE TV FINALE
It was all a dream?! Thirty million people watched Bob Newhart wake up next to Suzanne Pleshette (who'd played his wife, Emily, on The Bob Newhart Show) in the May 21 series finale of Newhart.

12 of 24

13

Everett Collection(3)

REGRETTABLE FASHION TREND
Everything worn on Saved by the Bell...that we totally wore ourselves to a school with a much less lenient principal than Mr. Belding and no oil spill on the football field that [SPOILER ALERT] killed a poor, innocent, beautiful duck named Becky.

Continued on next slide.

13 of 24

14

Gentlelook/Sunshine/Retna

MORE REGRETTABLE FASHION
The oodles and Caboodles of New Kids on the Block-inspired T-shirts, hats, pins, notebooks, etc.

14 of 24

15

REGRETTABLE HAIR
Bad, mullet-y bangs like Jane Pauley's on the cover of EW.

15 of 24

16

MOST 'WTF?' EW COVER
Cybill Shepherd: ''Texas Tease.'' That pose! The suit! The dog!

Continued on next slide.

16 of 24

17

FOOD FAD
''Lose weight; Slim-Fast.'' You're welcome for sparing you the creepy ''belt cinching the waist of the shake'' motif of later commercials.

17 of 24

18

AP Images

GOTTA-HAVE-IT GADGET
Was the beeper/pager enthusiast in this photo the real inspiration behind How I Met Your Mother's Robin Sparkles? EW.com investigates!

18 of 24

19

Everett Collection

MEMORABLE MOVIE QUOTE
''Kevin, you are such a disease.'' —Home Alone

Continued on next slide.

19 of 24

20

THE BAD MAN SCARES ME!
Kathy Bates in Misery

20 of 24

21

Kobal Collection/WireImage.com

YOUR KIDS WILL LOVE IT
1990 brought us a live-action film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. It was almost as good as the Nintendo game. Wait, no. Nothing is as awesome as that.

21 of 24

22

Everett Collection

MEMORABLE 'SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE' SKETCH
Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley competed to become America's Next Top Chippendales Dancer. May the breast man win.

Continued on next slide.

22 of 24

23

BOOK YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO READ
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike

23 of 24

24

BOOK YOU WERE REALLY READING
The Plains of Passage by Jean M. Auel

24 of 24

25

BEST TV FONT
Twin Peaks

Replay gallery

Up Next

By Annie Barrett @EWAnnieBarrett

Account

1990: A Very Good Year?

1 of 24

1

1 of 24

2 of 24

2

2 of 24

3 of 24

3

3 of 24

4 of 24

5

4 of 24

5 of 24

6

5 of 24

6 of 24

7

6 of 24

7 of 24

8

7 of 24

8 of 24

9

8 of 24

9 of 24

10

9 of 24

10 of 24

11

10 of 24

11 of 24

12

11 of 24

12 of 24

13

12 of 24

13 of 24

14

13 of 24

14 of 24

15

14 of 24

15 of 24

16

15 of 24

16 of 24

17

16 of 24

17 of 24

18

17 of 24

18 of 24

19

18 of 24

19 of 24

20

19 of 24

20 of 24

21

20 of 24

21 of 24

22

21 of 24

22 of 24

23

22 of 24

23 of 24

24

23 of 24

24 of 24

25

24 of 24

Share the Gallery

Up Next

Share the Gallery

Everything in This Slideshow