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  3. 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
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Pretty Woman, Julia Roberts | THE IT GIRL Julia Roberts starred in Pretty Woman , which grossed $463 million worldwide and taught young women everywhere that the best way toÂ…
Credit: 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...''

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Ghost, Demi Moore, ... | BEST NUDE-ISH SCENE Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in Ghost . ''Time can do so much,'' but it can never diminish the general fascination withÂ…
Credit: 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.

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

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Paula Abdul | 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 BestÂ…

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.

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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 usefulÂ…

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.

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Bruce Willis, Die Hard 2 | SUMMER POPCORN FLICK Die Hard 2: Die Harder . Okay, a bunch of people saw Dick Tracy , too. And even more than that playedÂ…
Credit: 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.

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The Bonfire of the Vanities, Melanie Griffith, ... | BOX OFFICE BOMB Bonfire of the Vanities : Great book! Terrible, terrible movie.
Credit: Everett Collection

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

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Madonna | MADONNA LOOK Eighteenth-century French, à la her MTV Video Music Awards performance of ''Vogue.''
Credit: Frank Micelotta/Getty Images

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

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DANCE MOVE Ugh. The electric slide.

DANCE MOVE
Ugh. The electric slide.

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A. Martinez | The entire run of this NBC show was its own version of ''Who shot J.R.?'' — Who murdered Channing Capwell, Jr.? Just about everyone wasÂ…
Credit: 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.

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Newhart | 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,Â…
Credit: 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.

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Saved by the Bell, Dustin Diamond, ... | REGRETTABLE FASHION TREND Everything worn on Saved by the Bell ...that we totally wore ourselves to a school with a much less lenient principal thanÂ…
Credit: 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.

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New Kids on the Block
Credit: Gentlelook/Sunshine/Retna

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

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

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

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

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

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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.

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.

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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!
Credit: 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!

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

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Misery, Kathy Bates | Nobody brings the crazy like Kathy Bates. When author Paul Sheldon (James Caan) veers off the road during a nasty snowstorm, his Number One FanÂ…

THE BAD MAN SCARES ME!
Kathy Bates in Misery

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
Credit: 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.

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Chris Farley, Patrick Swayze, ... | Saturday Night Live Farley's wannabe Chippendale's dancer may not have had Swayze's bod, but he deserves an A (and some dolla dolla bills, y'all) forÂ…
Credit: 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.

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

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

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

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

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25

BEST TV FONT Twin Peaks

BEST TV FONT
Twin Peaks

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