Was the '90s the last great decade? That's what National Geographic Channel's upcoming three-part miniseries, The '90s: The Last Great Decade? seeks to explore. The other day, we shared a clip from the miniseries that focused on O.J. Simpson's Ford Bronco highway chase. Today, Nat Geo has given us a few more clips from the miniseries, one of which focuses on the impact Kurt Cobain and Nirvana's music had on society's youth during the early '90s.
"The music felt real and honest and true. And they captured what youth was going through at that time," Beverly Hills, 90210 star Shannen Doherty says in the video above, speaking about Nirvana and the band's lead singer/songwriter, Kurt Cobain. Doherty is also featured in this next clip from The '90s: The Last Great Decade?, talking about Anna Nicole Smith's rise and fall...
Speaking of media attention, this next clip focuses on Princess Diana and her relationship with the press...
As fun as it is to flashback to decades gone by, it's not hard to see a pattern developing here with these videos, as the three 90s icons featured in the above clips -- Anna Nicole Smith, Princess Diana and Kurt Cobain -- are no longer with us. It makes me think that perhaps the tone of this series won't be (entirely) nostalgic fondness, but an examination of the state of pop culture in that decade and the direction it took us for better and/or worse. That brings us to this quick clip has author/comedian Baratunde Thurston talking society's increasing curiosity about the dysfunctional lives of other people...
"There was a grotesqueness to our desire to leer into the dysfunctional life of someone else," Thurston says. Put that way, it makes it seem like maybe the 90s wasn't really the last great decade, but more the start of a turning point for society. Combined with the internet, privacy became more relative a term than ever for celebrities, and society's appetites for more information about their private lives likely spiked as a result. It's an interesting topic to discuss, at the very least, especially when we factor in the onslaught of celebrity-focused reality TV shows that emerged in the decade that followed the 90s.
It'll be interesting to see how in depth National Geographic Channel's three-part miniseries gets as it relates to the impact the 90s had on the direction of American culture. Narrated by Rob Lowe, The 90s: The Last Great Decade? premieres Sunday, July 6 at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT on Nat Geo. Check out he O.J. Simpson Bronco chase clip here.
