Another day, another announcement that a little piece of your childhood might be getting a reboot. This time it was Nickelodeon, suggesting they might "revamp" staples like Rugrats and Hey Arnold! And it's true, millennials were pretty excited when Nick started airing classic '90s shows in the dead of night, so that just when questions about the future might lead us to darkness, we could revisit Kenan and Kel.
One franchise that seems like it gets how to attract aging '90s kids is Goosebumps — the series that made an entire generation of kids slightly wary of ventriloquism dummies — that has a feature film scheduled for an October release. What's importantly unique about the new Goosebumps project is it's taking a beloved pop culture staple and translating if for a different medium. They can pay homage to the source material, but the 2015 movie isn't really encroaching on the books. It's the difference between "Oh, they're doing something with Goosebumps" and "What are they doing to Goosebumps!"
And it's that very sentiment that seems to slip past the powers that be, when they consider the internet's love for all things '90s. We've all become watchdogs for any instance posing a possible threat to our childhood memories. Whether it's a basic human instinct to resist change, or something more psychological (my parents might have split, but Doug and Patti are forever), millennials, as a rule, do not want the TV shows and movies of their youth altered. No revamped Disney princesses or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
So how can corporations cash in on the Second Coming of the '90s? Girl Meets World gets it right by preserving and reminding audiences of the Boy Meets World story lines they loved, with frequent reunions that basically play out like Boy Meets World fan fiction. And at a basic level, releasing old series on DVDs with nostalgic swag would be a safe bet. There are professional men and women in their twenties, planning their 401Ks and considering marriage, who would pay a lot of money for a Pete & Pete boxed set that came with a complimentary splat alarm clock.
So how can corporations cash in on the Second Coming of the '90s? Girl Meets World gets it right by preserving and reminding audiences of the Boy Meets World story lines they loved, with frequent reunions that basically play out like Boy Meets World fan fiction. And at a basic level, releasing old series on DVDs with nostalgic swag would be a safe bet. There are professional men and women in their twenties, planning their 401Ks and considering marriage, who would pay a lot of money for a Pete & Pete boxed set that came with a complimentary splat alarm clock.