That ’90s Show: throwback TV is great, but there’s nothing like good old-fashioned original storytelling

February 16, 2023 04:47 pm | Updated 04:47 pm IST There’s a difference between TV shows that you admire and TV shows that you can’t stop watching. The show also recreated iconic skits from ‘vintage’ sitcoms like I Love Lucy, The Dick Van Dyke Show and Bewitched, among others. That ’90s Show continues this tradition, recreating scenes from Beverly Hills 90210, with Beverly Hills alum Bryan Austin Green playing a caricature of himself. Endless nudge-winks follow, the coup de grace being Betty White playing a surgeon — the patient promptly calls her “Sue” after Sue Ann Nivens, the character White played on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. It is in-joke within in-joke.” Overlapping story arcs The involution/ meta-television effect compounds over time in American television; Happy Days was a 70s production that poked gentle fun at the 50s, That ’70s Show was a 90s production parodying the 70s, That ’90s Show is a 2020s production parodying the 90s, and so on.