These '90s Shows Were More Groundbreaking Than You Think

When Sarah Michelle Gellar’s Buffy Summers first appeared on screen in 1998, Hollywood saw a new type of female action hero who saved the world on the regular while embracing her femininity. Even the supporting women around her, like Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Anya (Emma Caulfield), had powers in their own right. In addition to being one of the first shows on TV to feature a committed, long-term lesbian couple as lead characters (and they were the best couple), Buffy also broke new ground in proving that horror, feminism, and comedy went together like dead vampires and dust.

When Ellen DeGeneres came out on the front cover of TIME magazine in April 1997, it had a direct and tremendous impact on her ABC sitcom, Ellen. Shortly after publication, her character Ellen Morgan also came out on the show’s fourth season, making it the first gay story arc of its kind for a lead character. Proving that it was ahead of its time, the show was canceled a year later, reportedly because the network’s executives wanted less focus on gay themes and wanted to include a special viewer’s advisory about content.

While many other teen TV shows were talking down to their audiences, My So-Called Life talked directly to them, and it was one of the first shows ever to do so. It treated the worries, problems, and signature angst of teenagers as seriously as they deserved, and it made for powerful and emboldening viewing. It also launched the careers of Jared Leto, Wilson Cruz, and Claire Danes, who won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of lead Angela at 16 years old.

It's a show about nothing, featuring characters – Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer – who are actually pretty bad people when it comes down to it. Seinfeld was the first comedy to revel in not having a clear plot when it was released, and it remains a huge influence on modern comedy shows, including the likes of Arrested Development and Curb Your Enthusiasm. It even had an episode that condemned homophobia – a radical move at the time. In 2021, all 180 episodes of Seinfeld found a home on Netflix.

Whether it was an episode that provided some emotional insight into the life of one of the once expendable "red shirts" or simply killing off a main character in a sudden and inexplicable manner, Star Trek: The Next Generation was ahead of the curve. The beloved sci-fi show that birthed loyal Trekkers boldly went where other genres hadn't bothered before and set a precedent for the sort of complex genre storytelling we see today.

The frankness of Sex And The City is so commonplace now that it's hard to imagine a time when we weren't all sharing our sexual experiences over brunch or recommending vibrators to each other in the gym à la Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte. But my goodness, that time existed. Sex And The City was so revolutionary that it caused a commotion every time an episode aired. Even its sequel, HBO Max’s And Just Like That…, is subversive in the ways it portrays women of a certain age – no matter where you stand on the controversial storylines.

Without Twin Peaks, we wouldn't be enjoying the sort of high-caliber, prestige TV murder mysteries like True Detective and Big Little Lies today. The show brought Hollywood quality to the small screen and proved weirdness could be mainstream. Not only that, but it was something audiences were definitely interested in – as proven by the strong cult following and a revival decades later.

It's 2022 and still something of a rarity to see a working-class woman as the focus of a TV show. Roseanne was exactly this, and it was also incredibly successful — proving that yes, there's a market for this sort of thing. And yes, more shows like it should be made. In 2018, ABC released a spinoff, The Conners, sans its former protagonist Roseanne Barr, who was removed from the project after she posted a racist tweet. Like its predecessor, The Conners also peers into modern America’s issues, including the opioid epidemic.

As the first comedy sketch show made by and starring African Americans, In Living Color was beyond groundbreaking. Made by the endless comedy talents of the Wayans Family, In Living Color managed to deliver incredible comedy for four seasons that were socially and culturally powerful – and that prioritized inclusion above all else. The likes of Jim Carrey, Jamie Foxx, and Jennifer Lopez even graced the Emmy-winning comedy.

Taking primetime to the next level, the medical drama ER was soapy, but with absolute gravitas. It delivered shocking twists, swoon-worthy romances, horrifying tragedy, and lots of beautiful and fascinating characters; George Clooney and Julianna Margulies kept audiences captivated. It redefined the capabilities and quality of mainstream programming and turned medical dramas into a Hollywood staple, paving the way for shows like Grey’s Anatomy to run for 19 seasons and counting.

As Grace And Frankie is currently reminding contemporary audiences, The Golden Girls proved a woman's story and her immense worth do not diminish past a certain age. Yes, the series started in the '80s, but it continued into the '90s and definitely deserves a spot on this list. It starred Betty White, Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. From the way the show handled the discussion on AIDS to its portrayal of the LGBTQ+ communities, Golden Girls was way ahead of its time. Thank you for being a friend.

Listen: This sci-fi show helped make nerds mainstream and created a whole new form of online fandom in the process. And from the success of The X-Files (and Star Trek: The Next Generation, too) came a whole set of programming developed around what is still considered to be "geek culture." Plus, FBI Special Agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) was a feminist science icon.

On the surface, Felicity was just another college campus show. But deep down, it was something so much more significant. As well as providing complex and diverse storytelling full of heart, Felicity also wasn't afraid to tackle major issues in a frank and constructive manner. This included a sexual assault plotline, which honestly remains one of the most searingly honest portrayals of rape on TV.

Combining campy, slapstick fun with pioneering LGBTQ+ and feminist subtexts, Xena: Warrior Princess changed television as we know it. While the relationship between Xena and Gabrielle was never explicitly outlined as a lesbian romance, fans knew it was. And that was worth everything. Xena’s character also upended the notion that fierceness and femininity in women are mutually exclusive.

MTV’s The Real World, which premiered in 1992, basically invented every reality TV show. The concept of putting a slew of regular people – all strangers – in one house and following their day-to-day lives? Yes, The Real World started that. Plus, it was radical for a show to be discussing different takes and conflicts surrounding sexuality and race, among others. It also spurred the reality star-to-celebrity pipeline.

Full of major twists, violence, and even nudity, this phenomenally influential HBO drama, starring Ernie Thomas, Rita Moreno, and Kirk Acevedo, set the precedent for future must-see TV shows like The Wire, The Sopranos, Deadwood, and Breaking Bad. If you've never seen Oz, then it's definitely time to marathon it.

Before the famed pals of Friends, there was first Fox’s Living Single (1993). Khadijah (Queen Latifah), Régine (Kim Fields), Maxine (Erika Alexander), and Synclaire (Kim Coles) were the original twenty-somethings trying to make it in New York, navigating careers and relationships while living together in a Brooklyn brownstone. Though it never became as mainstream, it ushered in a slew of friend-centric shows, including Friends, Insecure, and Harlem.

Like its lead Denise Huxtable (played by Lisa Bonet), the spinoff of The Cosby Show was way more rebellious than its PG predecessor. Through the comings and goings in the HBCU Hillman college, A Different World boldly tackled race relations well into the ’90s, though it premiered a few years shy of the decade. It even ventured into other never-before-seen topics on TV. In its fourth season, for example, Josie (Tisha Campbell) revealed she’s HIV-Positive.

The Judd Apatow-produced Freaks and Geeks, set in the ’80s, created stars out of its ensemble cast: Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, and Busy Philipps. In a short 18-episode run, the show followed a group of misfits and changed the sitcom formula, stripping it of laugh tracks and in-your-face punch lines. It was perhaps too fresh and ahead of its time – a reason why it was canceled early.

Yes, Moesha, played by Brandy, was groundbreaking in her story arc – she was a confident Black teen navigating love, family, and school. But perhaps what was most iconic about her character was her fashion. Her signature box braids popularized the hairstyle that has historically been used to malign Black women. Her outfits, too, were statement-making. Moesha’s costume designer Yolanda Braddy intentionally highlighted Black designers and labels in the show’s six-season run.

Another show that premiered in the ’80s but continued to break ground well into the next decade, Designing Women followed four Southern women who put their interior design careers first. In its seven years on air, the series portrayed issues still relevant to women today, including domestic violence, slut-shaming, and the pressures of marriage after reaching a certain age.

In the NBC sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will Smith’s character is sent to live with his affluent relatives after his mom fears for his safety after a fight with a gang in his neighborhood. Despite all the laughs it induced, the six-season series’ whole premise – and many of its punchlines – actually centered around issues of classism and racial tension. There was even an episode on racial profiling in the police force. A darker, two-season reboot, Bel-Air, is coming to Peacock in February 2022.

In the 1994 comedy Sister, Sister, twins Tia and Tamera (played by Tia and Tamera Mowry) were separated at birth but bump into each other as teenagers at a mall. After their adoptive parents meet, they all end up living together. While the separated-at-birth arc isn’t exactly new, the predominantly Black cast portrayed blended families in a way that felt fresh at the time, and it ran for six seasons.

Charmed practically reinvented the witch genre. Prior to the Halliwell sisters, played by Shannen Doherty, Alyssa Milano, and Holly Marie Combs, witches were relegated to good, nose-twitching housewives, or a comedic high school student. Prue, Piper, and Phoebe helped reclaim the “witch” archetype. Plus, they were busting ass fighting demons, all while prioritizing their careers and owning their femininity. At its core, it was also a show about sisters, something uncommon in the ’90s. The CW introduced a more inclusive “Power of Three” in 2018. The reboot’s fourth season will premiere in March 2022.

Fran Drescher’s Fran Fine was a ’90s icon, and it’s no surprise the “flashy girl from Flushing” is having a resurgence on HBO Max. Aside from her over-the-top fashion choices, which proved she was 100 percent dressing for herself, Fran’s Jewish upbringing and close relationships with her mom and grandmother were as crucial toThe Nanny’s storyline as her relationship with Mr. Sheffield. Plus, the six-season show, which premiered in 1993, incorporated LGBTQ+ storylines at a time when that was considered radical.

When Ellen was canceled shortly after its lead character came out, TV lacked LGBTQ+ representation. Enter NBC’s Will & Grace in 1998, a show that featured two gay leads. Despite leaning into stereotypes a bit, the show was groundbreaking in normalizing gay relationships and storylines centered around LGBTQ+ communities. One episode in the second season even went meta when Will (Eric McCormack) and Jack (Sean Hayes) protested the lack of kisses between gay men on TV, ending the scene with a shared, albeit political, kiss – one of the first in network television.