Classic Corner: Wayback Wednesday

by Jason Albert


Time to go back…..way back….back into time!

As a 80s baby, I sometimes fail to realize how good we had it growing up.  Be it freeze tag outside until the lights came on, or, on a rainy day, playing my favorite video game on Atari or Nintendo.  But you know where some of the most memorable moments came from?? That’s right: television!

Let’s see, we had The Cosby Show, A Different World, Family Matters, Martin, Living Single, and  New York Undercover (Just to name a few). All we have today is The Game, Empire or Housewives of some random state on the map!  It’s amazing how dumbed down television has become! Yet, we are so quick to eat it up!  But right now, I am going to take it back and reminisce over my youth!

The Cosby Show was pretty much everyone’s favorite family! This series showed the world  that an African American couple could be successful, raise a family, and inevitably,achieve the American dream!  At the same time, it showed that no matter how much, or how little, you have monetarily, all families have problems. Yet, those problems can be resolved... together! The dynamic between siblings was also a big factor in the show….I can only imagine my sister making me a Gordon Gartrell:

The Cosby Show eventually paved the way for another successful sitcom. Enter A Different World and the students of Hillman College! This show broke major ground! We can all appreciate the trials and tribulations of college,but let’s be real, these folks right here, prepared us for it!  Every week, this show was able to give us an idea of what it was like to be an adult, in school, and trying to make something better of yourself.  Many of us went to college because of this show (I know I did!).  For six seasons, we watched a group of kids grow into adults and teach us life lessons that we will never forget.

Martin is, hands down, one of my favorite sitcoms of all time! This show was every bit of the 90s culture that we know and love.  Martin was at the height of his career and  he brought a group of friends along the way that he worked with in numerous cult classic movies.  This show paid plenty of tribute to movies such as New Jack City:

We had it good back in the 80s-90s because our  shows actually had  substance!  With streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu and channels such as Centric, TV One and MTV2, we have the opportunity to relive some of our youth and escape the yelling and foolishness that consume our televisions sets today.  One can only hope  that we can continue to keep the classics alive! God knows that these Millennials have no idea what they are missing!