183 Fun Facts About 90s Pop Culture

Under what working title did Crane and Kauffman first pitch Friends in 1993?

Insomnia Cafe was the title on the 1993 treatment, when the writers still planned Joey and Monica as the big love story; it later became Friends Like Us and Six of One before plain Friends.

Which made-up December 23 holiday, complete with an aluminium pole and the Airing of Grievances, did Seinfeld introduce in 'The Strike'?

Festivus was real before it was on Seinfeld: writer Dan O'Keefe's father invented it for the family. 'The Strike' aired in the show's ninth and final season.

In The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, which city is Will sent away from to live with his rich relatives?

Philadelphia: as the theme song tells it, Will is shipped from West Philadelphia to his Uncle Phil's Bel-Air mansion after one little fight on the basketball court.

From which state did the Walsh twins move to Beverly Hills in 90210?

Minnesota was home until the Walshes left Minneapolis in the 1990 pilot; the show took off in summer 1991, when it aired new episodes while rival series were in repeats.

Which network cancelled Baywatch after one season, before syndication made it a global hit?

NBC dropped Baywatch after its 1989-90 season, but star David Hasselhoff joined its creators as a producer to revive it for first-run syndication in 1991.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers built its fight scenes from stock footage of which Japanese TV franchise?

Super Sentai's 1992 series Zyuranger supplied the fight footage, and its Yellow Ranger was a man, which is why Trini's suit has no skirt while Kimberly's does.

On which network did Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiere in March 1997?

The WB launched Buffy on March 10, 1997, as a mid-season replacement; after a pay dispute with the network in 2001 the show moved to UPN for its last two seasons.

Which author wrote all 62 books of the original Goosebumps series between 1992 and 1997?

R.L. Stine spent years as 'Jovial Bob Stine', writing joke books for children and editing the humour magazine Bananas, before he turned to horror.

In 1990's Home Alone, the McCallisters fly off for Christmas and leave Kevin behind; which city were they heading to?

Paris is where the family lands, but Kate realises mid-flight that Kevin is missing; with flights home full, she ends up riding back towards Chicago in a polka band's van.

Which studio won the 1990 bidding war for the Jurassic Park film rights on behalf of Steven Spielberg?

Universal Pictures paid $1.5 million before the novel was even published, beating Warner Bros., which wanted it for Tim Burton, and Columbia, which had Richard Donner in mind.

Titanic's eleven Oscars tied the record set by which 1959 epic?

Ben-Hur's eleven wins in 1960 included Best Actor for Charlton Heston; Titanic matched the total in 1998 without a single acting award, as Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart both lost.

Titanic's $200 million budget took the most-expensive-film record from which Kevin Costner movie?

Waterworld had set the record at over $170 million in 1995; Titanic's costs then climbed so high that its studio brought in Paramount to share the bill.

Which NBA legend stars as himself alongside the Looney Tunes in Space Jam?

Michael Jordan plays himself in Space Jam (1996), teaming with Bugs Bunny against the Monstars, who stole the talent of Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing and Muggsy Bogues.

How did The Blair Witch Project's marketing describe its three lead actors at Sundance?

The cast were billed as missing or deceased: 'missing' flyers circulated at Sundance and IMDb listed them as dead. The film went on to gross $248.6 million.

The Matrix popularised which visual effect, where the action slows to a crawl while the camera seems to sweep around it?

Bullet time came from a ring of still cameras fired in sequence, and The Matrix gave it a name along with the red pill and the blue pill.

Nirvana's Nevermind knocked which album off the top of the Billboard 200 in January 1992?

Michael Jackson's Dangerous was toppled on January 11, 1992, by an album Geffen had hoped might sell 250,000 copies; only 46,251 were first shipped to US stores.

How old was Kurt Cobain when he died in April 1994?

Cobain was 27, joining Hendrix, Joplin and Morrison in the '27 Club'; he died on April 5, 1994, and was found three days later in the greenhouse at his home.

Which Spice Girls debut single topped the charts in 37 countries?

'Wannabe' was nearly not the debut: the label and manager Simon Fuller wanted a different song first, but the group dug in and got their way.

Which Spice Girl walked out mid-tour in 1998?

Ginger Spice, Geri Halliwell, quit on May 31, 1998, in the middle of the Spiceworld Tour; the remaining four finished the North American leg without her.

In which Florida city were both the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC formed?

Orlando was the base of Lou Pearlman, who launched the Backstreet Boys in 1993 and backed NSYNC in 1995; both groups later sued him over their contracts.

Which NSYNC album sold a record 2.4 million US copies in its first week?

No Strings Attached took its title and puppet cover from the group's break with their old management after a legal battle; its sales record stood until Adele's 25 in 2015.

Before her 1998 debut single, Britney Spears was a cast member on which children's TV show?

The All-New Mickey Mouse Club turned Britney away at eight as too young; she got in a few years later, alongside Justin Timberlake, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling.

Which TLC single stalled at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1995?

'Red Light Special' peaked at number two, unlike the trio's four chart-toppers; that July, at the height of CrazySexyCool's success, TLC filed for bankruptcy.

Which was the lead single from Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill?

'You Oughta Know' got its bite from two Red Hot Chili Peppers: Flea and Dave Navarro were brought in to re-record the bass and guitar parts.

Which instrument did 11-year-old Zac Hanson play when 'MMMBop' topped the charts in 1997?

Drums were Zac's job; the brothers first released 'MMMBop' as a slower, mellower song on an independent album, before the Dust Brothers produced the hit version.

Cher's 1998 hit 'Believe' pioneered the pop use of which studio tool?

Auto-Tune's pitch correction was pushed to its extreme to create the robotic 'Cher effect'; to protect the trick, her producers at first claimed it was a vocoder.

Which Oasis song was the first from the 1990s to reach a billion streams on Spotify?

'Wonderwall' passed a billion Spotify streams in 2020, the first 1990s song to do so; Noel Gallagher borrowed the title from George Harrison's 1968 album Wonderwall Music.

Which company introduced the Tamagotchi in 1996?

Bandai launched the Tamagotchi in Japan in November 1996 and was caught off guard by demand; staff were even banned from carrying bags with the company logo for fear of theft.

Who created Beanie Babies, introduced at the 1993 New York Toy Fair?

Ty Warner, founder of Ty Inc., created Beanie Babies; he 'retired' designs to fuel demand and announced in 1999 that the line would end with a bear called The End.

Which US agency banned Furbies from its Maryland premises, fearing they would repeat secrets?

The NSA feared Furbies would pick up classified conversations and repeat them outside, though the toy's maker protested that a Furby has no ability to record anything at all.

Pogs, the 1990s milk-cap craze, took their name from a juice drink sold in which US state?

Hawaii's Haleakala Dairy sold POG, a passionfruit, orange and guava juice, and gave away caps with its logo; a teacher on Oahu revived the old cap game in 1991 and set off the craze.

The Super Soaker was invented by Lonnie Johnson, an engineer at which agency?

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory employed Lonnie Johnson in 1982, when a nozzle he was testing at home for a new kind of heat pump shot a jet of water across his bathroom.

Which toy maker ran short of Tickle Me Elmo in 1996, when scalpers were asking $1,500 for one?

Tyco could not make the giggling toy fast enough for the 1996 holiday rush; it had started out as a chimp and then as Tickle Me Taz, a Tasmanian Devil, before Elmo got the part.

Which Rolling Stones song did Microsoft license for the launch of Windows 95 in August 1995?

'Start Me Up' was a nod to the new Start button; the launch push also included a 'cyber sitcom' guide to Windows 95 starring Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry.

Which feature did the Nintendo 64's standard controller bring to mainstream 3D gaming?

Thumbstick control let players steer through 360 degrees in games like Super Mario 64; Time named the N64 its 1996 Machine of the Year, though its cartridges alienated third-party developers.

Who founded Napster with Shawn Fanning?

Sean Parker met Shawn Fanning online as a teenager; lawsuits shut Napster down in 2001, and Parker went on to become Facebook's first president.

About 95 million Americans watched police pursue O.J. Simpson in June 1994 in which white SUV?

Ford Bronco, though not Simpson's own: it belonged to his friend Al Cowlings, who drove while TV stations cut into Game 5 of the NBA Finals to show the chase.

The sheep cloned in Scotland in 1996 was named after which country singer?

Dolly Parton got the nod because the lamb was cloned from a mammary gland cell, a joke her creator Ian Wilmut owned up to; Dolly the sheep had three mothers.

Which co-worker secretly recorded her phone calls with Monica Lewinsky?

Linda Tripp, a Pentagon colleague, taped her calls with Lewinsky and gave them to Kenneth Starr; Clinton was impeached in December 1998 and acquitted by the Senate in February 1999.

Which coach led the Chicago Bulls to all six of their NBA championships in the 1990s?

Phil Jackson won two three-peats in Chicago with Tex Winter's triangle offense, then took the same system to the Lakers and kept on winning titles.

Where did Seinfeld's 1998 finale leave its four main characters?

In jail: the four get a year inside for breaking a Good Samaritan law after joking while a man is carjacked, and about 76 million people saw them go.

Who co-created Seinfeld with Jerry Seinfeld?

Larry David was the model for George Costanza, and he later played a version of himself in HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Which network aired The X-Files during its original 1993-2002 run?

Fox executives turned down Chris Carter's first pitch for The X-Files; he came back a few weeks later with a fuller concept, and the show ran nine seasons from 1993.

Which bestselling novelist created the medical drama ER?

Michael Crichton first wrote ER as a film script about his days as a medical student; nobody would make it, and it sat on the shelf for about 20 years.

Frasier Crane first appeared in which sitcom before getting his own spin-off in 1993?

Cheers brought Frasier in for a few episodes in 1984 as Diane's new boyfriend; Kelsey Grammer ended up playing him for more than 20 years across the two shows.

Dawson's Creek is set in which fictional town?

Capeside, Massachusetts, is invented, but the creek is real: Kevin Williamson based the show on his own boyhood beside one in North Carolina.

Which FBI agent investigates Laura Palmer's murder in Twin Peaks?

Dale Cooper, played by Kyle MacLachlan, dictates his findings to an unseen 'Diane' on a pocket tape recorder and raves about the town's cherry pie and 'damn fine' coffee.

Which MTV animation showcase first broadcast Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-Head shorts?

Liquid Television aired Mike Judge's short Frog Baseball, and MTV went on to commission a full Beavis and Butt-Head series; the same showcase launched Æon Flux.

South Park grew out of two animated shorts sharing what title?

Both shorts were called The Spirit of Christmas: 1992's Jesus vs. Frosty and 1995's Jesus vs. Santa, which spread on VHS and the early internet and led Comedy Central to order the series.

Which cartoon joined Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show as the three original Nicktoons in August 1991?

Doug aired first of the three on August 11, 1991; after Nickelodeon dropped it, Disney bought the studio behind it and made new episodes for ABC.

In Japan, Pokémon Red was first released alongside which other colour version?

Green was Red's partner in Japan in February 1996; Blue arrived months later as a mail-order special edition, and it was Blue rather than Green that went abroad with Red.

In Pokémon Red and Blue, what must a player collect from eight Gym Leaders to enter the Pokémon League?

Badges from all eight Gyms unlock the Pokémon League; the last Gym Leader, Giovanni, turns out to be the boss of the villainous Team Rocket.

The name Tamagotchi combines the Japanese words for "egg" and what?

Watch, or uotchi in Japanese, was joined to tamago (egg) because the egg-shaped toy was first meant to be worn on a wrist strap like a watch.

Which Hasbro subsidiary released Furby in 1998?

Tiger Electronics did not invent Furby: independent toy inventors Dave Hampton and Caleb Chung created it and took it to the company, and more than 40 million were sold.

Which game came bundled with the Game Boy in North America?

Tetris got the slot after Henk Rogers argued that a Mario game would sell the Game Boy to young boys, but Tetris would sell it to everyone.

Which studio developed the 1993 shooter Doom?

Id Software gave the first episode away as shareware in December 1993; so many players were waiting that the team at first couldn't connect to the university server to upload it.

Which 1993 puzzle adventure by brothers Rand and Robyn Miller was the best-selling PC game until The Sims?

Myst sold more than six million copies and held the PC record until 2002; the Miller brothers built it in HyperCard and were not big game players themselves.

Which tape recorder toy was invented as Kevin's gadget in Home Alone 2 before it went on sale for real?

Talkboy began as a film prop built at John Hughes's request; the first shop version lacked the film's voice-changing trick, and the Deluxe model that added it became a Christmas craze in 1993.

Which studio backed Pulp Fiction after TriStar passed on its violent script?

Miramax's Harvey Weinstein took the script after every major studio had passed; made for about $8.5 million, Pulp Fiction earned more than $200 million worldwide.

Jurassic Park's dinosaur park sits on which fictional island near Costa Rica?

Isla Nublar was played by Kauai, where Hurricane Iniki struck on the last scheduled day of the shoot; the 1997 sequel moved to its sister island, Isla Sorna.

Roland Emmerich conceived Independence Day while promoting which earlier film in Europe?

Emmerich and Dean Devlin hit on the idea while promoting Stargate in Europe in 1994, after a journalist asked whether he believed in aliens.

Clueless is loosely adapted from which Jane Austen novel?

Clueless transplants Jane Austen's Emma to 1990s Beverly Hills, with Cher Horowitz as the matchmaking heroine; Amy Heckerling sat in on Beverly Hills High classes to catch the slang.

Wes Craven's Scream was developed under what working title?

Kevin Williamson's script was titled Scary Movie until the Weinsteins renamed it Scream; the Wayans brothers later borrowed the old title for their 2000 parody.

Which child actor plays the boy who sees dead people in The Sixth Sense?

Haley Joel Osment nearly seemed wrong for it: M. Night Shyamalan thought the 'sweet cherub' on the audition tape too angelic for a role he saw as darker, then decided he had nailed it.

Fight Club is based on a 1996 novel by which author?

Chuck Palahniuk wrote Fight Club in his spare time while working for a truck maker, after every publisher he tried had rejected his first novel, Invisible Monsters.

Which Will Smith film was adapted from a 1990 Lowell Cunningham comic?

Men in Black is on paper a Marvel property: the comic came from the small imprint Aircel, whose parent Malibu was bought by Marvel in 1994, three years before the film.

Which director, later of Meet the Parents, made the first Austin Powers film in 1997?

Jay Roach stayed on for both sequels; the first of them, in 1999, took more at the US box office in its opening weekend than the original had in its entire run.

Nirvana was formed in which Washington town?

Cobain and Krist Novoselic formed Nirvana in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987 and went through several drummers before Dave Grohl joined in 1990.

Nirvana's debut album Bleach was released in 1989 on which independent label?

Sub Pop released Bleach in June 1989, recorded for about $600; Nirvana then moved to Geffen's DGC imprint for Nevermind.

Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" took its title from a friend's wall scrawl naming which kind of product?

Deodorant: Bikini Kill's Kathleen Hanna wrote that Kurt smelled like Teen Spirit. Cobain read it as a revolutionary slogan and did not know it was a brand when he wrote the song.

Which Swedish producer wrote Britney Spears's debut single "...Baby One More Time"?

Max Martin wrote the song with TLC and the Backstreet Boys in mind, and both turned it down; Spears, then 16, recorded it in Stockholm and it topped charts in over 20 countries.

Tupac Shakur's parents were members of which organisation?

Tupac's mother Afeni Shakur and father Billy Garland were both Black Panthers; Afeni was on trial in the Panther 21 case while pregnant with him in 1971.

The Notorious B.I.G. followed Sean Combs from Uptown to which newly founded label in 1993?

Bad Boy Records exists because Uptown fired Combs in July 1993: he set up on his own, and Biggie's debut Ready to Die followed in 1994 with 'Juicy' and 'Big Poppa'.

Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' was the signature song of which 1992 film?

The Bodyguard got its ballad at the last minute: the plan was a cover of 'What Becomes of the Brokenhearted', dropped once Fried Green Tomatoes used that song first.

Who composed "My Heart Will Go On" for Titanic?

James Horner wrote the song without telling James Cameron, who wanted no pop ballad in Titanic; he recorded a demo with Will Jennings's lyrics and played it once the director was in a receptive mood.

"Livin' la Vida Loca" singer Ricky Martin began his music career in which boy band?

Menudo recruited Martin at 12 in 1984; bandmate Draco Rosa went on to co-write 'Livin' la Vida Loca' with Desmond Child.

Hanson, the three brothers behind 1997's "MMMBop", come from which city in Oklahoma?

Tulsa's Hanson walked away from the major-label system after their label was folded into Island Def Jam, and since 2004 have released their albums on their own 3CG Records.

VH1 named "Macarena" duo Los del Río the number-one greatest what in 2002?

One-hit wonder was a late verdict on Los del Río: the two Andalusian singers had been a working duo since the 1960s, some three decades before 'Macarena' took off.

Vanilla Ice's 'Ice Ice Baby' lifts its bassline from which Queen hit?

Under Pressure, Queen's 1981 duet with David Bowie, went uncredited at first: Vanilla Ice claimed one extra note made his bassline different, then settled out of court and shared the songwriting credit.

MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This" samples the riff of which Rick James song?

'U Can't Touch This' is built on the riff from Rick James's 1981 'Super Freak'; James sued, won a co-writing credit, and the track became the first rap song nominated for Record of the Year.

Which rapper topped the Hot 100 for five weeks in 1992 with "Baby Got Back"?

Sir Mix-a-Lot defended the song as a salute to curvier women at a time when skinny models were held up as the ideal; MTV briefly banned the video.

Which Alanis Morissette hit sparked a debate over whether its lyrics match its title?

Ironic lists mishaps that critics called bad luck rather than irony; on James Corden's show in 2015 Morissette joined the joke, singing a new line about a song called Ironic with no ironies in it.

Besides the drug trade, TLC's 'Waterfalls' warns about which disease?

AIDS is the unnamed illness of the second verse; TLC had pushed safe sex since their 1992 debut, pinning condoms to their outfits, and Lisa 'Left Eye' Lopes wore one over a lens of her glasses.

Which Canadian musician founded the all-female Lilith Fair tour in 1997?

Sarah McLachlan launched Lilith Fair after promoters and radio stations refused to feature two women in a row; the name comes from Lilith, in medieval Jewish legend Adam's first wife, who refused to obey him.

Woodstock '99 was held on a former air force base in which New York town?

Woodstock '99 took place in July 1999 at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in Rome, New York; the weekend ended in fires, looting and riots.

Lollapalooza was created in 1991 as a farewell tour for which band?

Perry Farrell conceived Lollapalooza as Jane's Addiction's 1991 farewell tour, with Siouxsie and the Banshees, Nine Inch Nails and Ice-T on the bill; it settled in Chicago's Grant Park in 2005.

What was Radiohead's 1992 debut single, a worldwide hit on its 1993 re-release?

Creep flopped on its 1992 release, when BBC Radio 1 judged it too depressing to playlist; airplay in Israel and on US alternative radio rescued it, and the 1993 reissue became the hit.

Melrose Place was a spin-off from which other Aaron Spelling series?

Beverly Hills, 90210 set the spin-off up on screen: Grant Show's Jake Hanson arrived there in 1992 as a love interest for Kelly Taylor, and Jennie Garth's Kelly followed him into the Melrose Place pilot.

Saved by the Bell was a reboot of which Disney Channel series?

Good Morning, Miss Bliss starred Hayley Mills as an Indiana teacher; the retooled show dropped her and moved Zack, Screech, Lisa and Mr. Belding to California's Bayside High.

On Boy Meets World, which teacher who also lived next door dispensed life lessons to Cory Matthews for all seven seasons?

George Feeny followed Cory all the way to college, where he married a dean played by Bonnie Bartlett, the real-life wife of Feeny actor William Daniels.

Full House's Tanner family lived in which city?

San Francisco is mostly a backdrop: beyond the opening credits, which show Alamo Square's Painted Ladies, only one episode of the sitcom was actually filmed in the city.

Steve Urkel, written for a single episode, became the breakout star of which sitcom?

Family Matters brought Urkel in partway through its first season; the show had been built around the Winslow family, but Jaleel White's nerdy neighbour soon became its main attraction.

Home Improvement is set in the suburbs of which city?

Detroit was home turf for Tim Allen, who spent his teens in the area; his character wore sweatshirts sent in by Michigan colleges, a perk the show kept almost entirely for schools from that state.

Roseanne is set in which fictional Illinois town?

Lanford's lottery jackpot never happened: the 1997 finale revealed the final season as a story Roseanne had written, and that Dan's heart attack had in fact killed him.

Which early internet sensation appeared in Ally McBeal's fantasy sequences?

The Dancing Baby began as a sample file shipped with Autodesk animation software; passed around by email and as a GIF, it had spread across the early web before the show borrowed it.

Sex and the City is based on a column and 1996 book by which writer?

Candace Bushnell invented Carrie Bradshaw as a stand-in for herself, so that she could write candidly about her own dating life in the column without her parents knowing.

In The Sopranos pilot, which birds leaving Tony's pool trigger his panic attack?

Ducks had raised their young in the pool and flew off once the ducklings fledged; Dr. Melfi leads Tony to see that he dreads losing his own family the same way.

The American Survivor derives from a Swedish series called what?

Expedition Robinson, named after Robinson Crusoe and The Swiss Family Robinson, was a British idea: Charlie Parsons devised the format for Planet 24, but Sweden got it on air first, in 1997.

Xena: Warrior Princess was filmed in which country?

New Zealand also supplied the star: Auckland-born Lucy Lawless got the part only after the first choice, Vanessa Angel, fell ill and could not travel to the shoot.

Google was founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and whom?

Larry Page and Brin had money before they had a company: Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim wrote Google a $100,000 cheque weeks before it legally existed, and they incorporated in September 1998.

Which programming language did Netscape's Brendan Eich write in just ten days in 1995?

JavaScript was first called Mocha, then LiveScript; Netscape renamed it as the unrelated Java took off, a move Eich himself regarded as a marketing ploy.

The instant messenger ICQ's name is derived from which phrase?

'I seek you' is the pun behind the letters; Israeli start-up Mirabilis launched ICQ in November 1996, and within two years AOL had bought the company for $287 million up front.

Which US city hosted the 1996 Centennial Olympic Games?

Atlanta won the 1990 vote over Athens, whose bid chairman protested that you don't hold a 100th birthday in someone else's home; Muhammad Ali lit the cauldron.

The 1992 Dream Team of NBA stars won Olympic basketball gold in which host city?

Barcelona saw the first US Olympic team with active NBA players; beaten opponents were so starstruck that they asked for photographs with the Americans, and the squad entered the Hall of Fame as a unit in 2010.

Which two MLB teams did Mark McGwire play for?

Oakland Athletics and St. Louis Cardinals were his only clubs: traded in 1997, he hit a then-record 70 home runs for St. Louis in 1998, and in 2010 admitted using steroids during that season.

Diana, Princess of Wales died after a 1997 crash in the road tunnel named after which Seine bridge?

Pont de l'Alma gained an accidental shrine: mourners adopted the Flame of Liberty, a gilded replica of the Statue of Liberty's flame standing near the tunnel, as an unofficial Diana memorial.

Who was the original host of Blue's Clues from 1996 to 2002?

Steve Burns hosted as 'Steve' from the 1996 premiere until 2002, when he 'left for college' and was replaced by Donovan Patton as Joe for the final two seasons.

Which publisher released Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the UK in June 1997?

Bloomsbury said yes after twelve publishers had said no: its chief executive's 8-year-old daughter read the opening chapter and wanted to keep reading.

Which trading card game did mathematician Richard Garfield create in 1993?

Magic: The Gathering answered a brief: the publisher turned down Garfield's board game RoboRally and asked instead for a portable game to fill the downtime at gaming events.

Which company developed the 1991 arcade hit Street Fighter II?

Capcom released Street Fighter II: The World Warrior to arcades in 1991; its six-button layout and combo system set the template for the fighting-game genre.

Which arcade developer released the original Mortal Kombat in 1992?

Midway's arcade hit caused a political storm: its gory Fatalities were singled out at US congressional hearings on game violence, and the industry answered by creating the ESRB ratings board in 1994.

Which British studio developed GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64?

Rare's Martin Hollis began with a design modelled on the arcade hit Virtua Cop, and for its first months the game was partly envisioned as an on-rails shooter before it became free-roaming.

The first Tomb Raider reached which console in October 1996, weeks before its PlayStation release?

Sega Saturn owners in Europe got it first under a timed exclusivity deal; Sony then answered with a deal of its own that kept the sequels off rival consoles until 2000.

Which studio created Crash Bandicoot for the PlayStation under the working title Willy the Wombat?

Naughty Dog's founders Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin dreamed up the game on a 1994 road trip from Boston to Los Angeles, then chose their hero from a field guide to Tasmanian mammals.

Which mercenary is the protagonist of Final Fantasy VII?

Cloud Strife's adventure was first planned for a cartridge console; Square moved it to the PlayStation largely for the storage space of CD-ROMs.

Which 1998 Nintendo 64 game was the first Legend of Zelda adventure in 3D?

Ocarina of Time had to work out how to sword-fight in 3D; its answer, locking the camera onto a single enemy, has since become common in 3D adventure games.

In Super Mario 64, Bowser hides the castle's Power Stars inside what?

Paintings in the castle are portals to the worlds where Bowser stashed the stars; Miyamoto got the idea for a 3D Mario while making Star Fox, which showed him how much more 3D modelling could do.

Which console launched in North America on September 9, 1999?

Dreamcast turned out to be Sega's last console: eighteen months after the 9/9/99 launch the company discontinued it and became a third-party games developer.

Which Los Angeles brand turned ultra-wide-legged jeans into a 1990s teen craze?

JNCO, whose motto is Judge None Choose One, made jeans with leg openings of 50 inches or more; the fad faded in the 2000s, but a founder bought the name back and relaunched the brand in 2019.

Who founded eBay in September 1995?

Pierre Omidyar launched the site as AuctionWeb on September 3, 1995; when its first sale turned out to be a broken laser pointer, he checked that the buyer understood, and was told the man collected them.

Before his 1990s TV show, Bill Nye "the Science Guy" worked as an engineer for which aircraft maker?

Boeing employed Nye as an engineer on the 747 from 1977 until the mid-1980s, when he quit for a local sketch-comedy show and began doing wacky science experiments on air.

Jeff Bezos founded Amazon in 1994 in a rented garage in which Washington city?

Bellevue was where Bezos landed after quitting Wall Street and heading west; he incorporated the company as Cadabra before renaming it Amazon.

Which 1994 release ended its run as the second-highest-grossing film ever, behind only Jurassic Park?

The Lion King was meant to be the studio's lesser project: most of Disney's top animators chose to work on Pocahontas instead, believing it would be the more prestigious and successful film.

Forrest Gump narrates from a bus-stop bench in Savannah, Georgia, but which state is his home?

Alabama is also home in Winston Groom's 1986 novel, where Forrest goes into space as an astronaut and becomes a professional wrestler, adventures the film left out.

Rugrats studio Klasky Csupo animated which prime-time cartoon's early seasons?

The Simpsons owe their look to the studio: Klasky Csupo's Gyorgyi Peluce was behind the family's yellow skin and Marge's blue hair.

Which Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men duet set a Hot 100 record that stood for 23 years?

One Sweet Day merged two elegies: Carey was writing about her late collaborator David Cole when she learned Boyz II Men's Nathan Morris had a similar song for the group's late tour manager.

Which Swedish group's 'The Sign' was Billboard's number-one song of 1994?

Ace of Base nearly went unheard: producer Denniz Pop was unimpressed by their demo until the tape got stuck in his car's cassette player; he went on to produce their breakthrough hit.

Coca-Cola's 1992 clear cola, later called a "kamikaze" attack on Crystal Pepsi, carried which diet brand's name?

Tab Clear was meant to fail, marketing chief Sergio Zyman later said: sold as a diet drink beside Crystal Pepsi, it would blur the two in shoppers' minds and sink both.

Coca-Cola created the citrus soda Surge in the 1990s to compete with which Pepsi brand?

Mountain Dew was the target from the start; Surge was the American version of Urge, launched in Norway in 1996, and though it was withdrawn in 2003, fans campaigning on Facebook won its return in 2014.

Which brewer launched the clear malt beverage Zima in 1993?

Coors launched Zima in 1993 as a clear alternative to beer; US production stopped in 2008, apart from brief summer comebacks in 2017 and 2018, while Japan went on selling it.

Nokia, maker of the hit 3210 phone of 1999, is based in which country?

Finland's Nokia began in 1865 as a wood-pulp mill and was long tied to rubber and cables; its 3210 was among the first mass-market phones to hide the antenna inside the case.

Which Boyz II Men hit from Eddie Murphy's Boomerang set a Hot 100 record?

End of the Road, written for the soundtrack by Babyface, L.A. Reid and Daryl Simmons, kept its record only briefly: Whitney Houston's 'I Will Always Love You' overtook it within months.

Which game came preinstalled on the 1999 Nokia 3210?

Snake shipped on the 3210 beside two forgotten games, Memory and Rotation; engineer Taneli Armanto had adapted it for the earlier Nokia 6110 from a concept as old as the 1976 arcade game Blockade.

Which chain launched the cheese-filled stuffed crust in 1995 with an ad starring Donald Trump?

Pizza Hut's stuffed crust was created by Patty Scheibmeir. The chain later beat a $1 billion lawsuit from a family with a 1987 patent on stuffed pizza shells.

Which Danish-Norwegian pop group was taken to court by Mattel over a 1997 hit about a plastic doll?

Aqua's label won when a US appeals court ruled the song a protected parody. The judge ended his ruling by advising both sides to chill.

Which rapper's 1995 chart-topper Gangsta's Paradise reworked Stevie Wonder's song Pastime Paradise?

Coolio had to strip the profanity from his lyrics before Stevie Wonder would approve the track. It became the top-selling US single of 1995.

Which internet provider's free trial discs once accounted for half of the CDs produced worldwide?

America Online, or AOL, called the mail-out campaign carpet bombing. By 1997 about half of all US homes with internet access were connected through it.

Which workout craze did Billy Blanks sell through heavily aired 1990s infomercials?

Tae Bo takes its name from taekwondo and boxing, the two disciplines it blends. Billy Blanks devised the routine in 1976, two decades before the videos made it famous.

Which sitcom used the code name "The Puppy Episode" for the 1997 story in which its lead came out?

Ellen drew about 42 million viewers that night, its biggest audience ever. Star Ellen DeGeneres had come out herself on the cover of Time magazine earlier that month.

Which Apple computer arrived in 1998 in a translucent teardrop case with no floppy disk drive?

The iMac came from Jony Ive's design team, and its see-through plastic look was copied so widely that Apple took legal action against imitators.

Generra's Hypercolor T-shirts, a hit of 1991, shifted from one shade to another in response to what?

Heat changed the colour of the dye, but a hot wash, an iron or a tumble dryer could ruin the effect for good. Generra sold $50 million of the clothes in about four months.

Which MTV series, first broadcast in 1992, filmed a group of strangers sharing a New York loft?

The Real World was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family. It is credited with launching modern reality television.

Which designer was dismissed by Perry Ellis after sending a grunge collection down the runway in 1992?

Marc Jacobs lost the job over the show, which one leading fashion critic publicly dismissed at the time. In 1997 he became the first creative director of Louis Vuitton.

Which host of a brawl-filled 1990s talk show had earlier served as mayor of Cincinnati?

Jerry Springer was born in a London Underground station while it sheltered people from wartime bombing. He was Cincinnati's mayor from 1977 to 1978.

Which comic actor was the first to command a $20 million upfront salary, for 1996's The Cable Guy?

Jim Carrey earned the payday after a run of hits that included Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The Mask and Dumb and Dumber, all released in 1994.

Which Baywatch star was discovered when a stadium screen showed her at a Canadian football game?

Pamela Anderson was wearing a Labatt's Beer T-shirt at a BC Lions game in Vancouver, and the brewer briefly hired her as a spokesmodel.

Which NBA star wore a wedding dress in 1996 to promote his autobiography Bad As I Wanna Be?

Dennis Rodman claimed that he was marrying himself. On court he led the NBA in rebounds per game for a record seven consecutive years.

Which actor won back-to-back Best Actor Oscars in the 1990s, the first to do so since Spencer Tracy?

Tom Hanks won for playing a lawyer fighting his dismissal and then for Forrest Gump. Spencer Tracy's double had come in the 1930s, for Captains Courageous and Boys Town.

Which Saved by the Bell actress shed her wholesome image as the lead in the 1995 film Showgirls?

Elizabeth Berkley's film was the first NC-17 release to open widely in mainstream cinemas. It flopped, then found a second life as a cult favourite.

Which future pop star was a Fly Girl on In Living Color before starring in the 1997 biopic Selena?

Jennifer Lopez moved to Los Angeles for the dancing job in 1991, filming the sketch show by day and taking acting classes at night.

Which two actors won a screenwriting Oscar for Good Will Hunting, which began as Harvard coursework?

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck grew the script from about 40 pages Damon handed in for a playwriting class. Robin Williams also won an Oscar for playing the therapist.

Which actress won an Oscar for playing an eccentric psychic in the 1990 film Ghost?

Whoopi Goldberg was only the second Black woman to win an acting Oscar, after Hattie McDaniel in 1940. She also voiced Shenzi the hyena in The Lion King.

Which radio host played himself in the 1997 film Private Parts, based on his own best-selling book?

Howard Stern made the film after a planned movie about his superhero character Fartman fell through. Co-host Robin Quivers and other members of his radio team play themselves too.

Which future Oscar winner joined the sitcom Growing Pains as Luke Brower, a homeless teenager?

Leonardo DiCaprio became a global idol with Titanic a few years later, when the frenzy among his young fans was dubbed Leo-mania.

Which actor first won attention as J.D., the cowboy hitchhiker in the 1991 film Thelma & Louise?

Brad Pitt played a charming small-time crook who befriends Geena Davis's Thelma, a supporting part that made him a star.

Which 21 Jump Street teen idol played a gentle artificial man with scissor blades for hands in 1990?

Johnny Depp took the title role in Edward Scissorhands, the start of his long partnership with director Tim Burton. He was tired of being cast as a pin-up.

Which Home Improvement teen idol also voiced the young Simba in Disney's The Lion King?

Jonathan Taylor Thomas left the sitcom in 1998 to concentrate on his studies, appearing in just three episodes of its last season.

Which actor played Zack Siler, the jock who bets he can create a prom queen, in She's All That?

Freddie Prinze Jr. led a teen update of the play Pygmalion, the same story that became the musical My Fair Lady.

Which actor played the FBI rookie who goes undercover among bank-robbing surfers in Point Break?

Keanu Reeves starred opposite Patrick Swayze, whose gang carried out its raids in rubber masks of former US presidents.

Which ER star played the Caped Crusader in a 1997 blockbuster he later called a waste of money?

George Clooney recovered quickly from Batman & Robin: Out of Sight and Three Kings soon established the television doctor as a film star.

Which actor played Jordan Catalano, the crush of Claire Danes's Angela, in My So-Called Life?

Jared Leto was launched by the teen drama even though it was cancelled in May 1995, despite critical praise and a Golden Globe for Danes.

Which 1990s heartthrob posed for Calvin Klein underwear ads shot by Herb Ritts in 1992?

Mark Wahlberg first came to fame as the younger brother of Donnie Wahlberg of New Kids on the Block, a group he had himself quit at 13.

Which teen idol appeared as the friendly ghost's human form at the end of the 1995 film Casper?

Devon Sawa's appearance began a teen-heartthrob status that he later chose roles to get away from. A year earlier he had made his film debut in Little Giants.

Which supermodel hosted MTV's House of Style and starred in Pepsi's 1992 Super Bowl commercial?

Cindy Crawford was her high school's valedictorian and won a scholarship to study chemical engineering before modelling took over.

Which pop star's 1990 Blond Ambition tour featured Jean Paul Gaultier corsets with cone-shaped cups?

Madonna's show so alarmed the Vatican that Pope John Paul II urged audiences to boycott it, and one Italian date was cancelled.

Which presidential candidate played Heartbreak Hotel on saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show in 1992?

Bill Clinton's performance is often seen as a turning point that built his popularity among young and minority voters before the November election.

Which Friends star's layered haircut, named after her character Rachel, became a 1990s salon craze?

Jennifer Aniston's stylist Chris McMillan designed the cut to repair her damaged hair and grow out her bangs.

Which NBA centre played a 5,000-year-old genie who emerges from a boombox in the 1996 film Kazaam?

Shaquille O'Neal also recorded songs for the soundtrack, having already seen his 1993 rap debut Shaq Diesel go platinum.

Which singer's 1998 solo debut album won the Grammy for Album of the Year?

Lauryn Hill recorded the album while the Fugees were on hiatus. She took home five Grammys that night, then a record for a woman at a single ceremony.

Which country superstar recorded an album as Chris Gaines, a fictional Australian rock singer?

Garth Brooks made the record as the soundtrack to a film called The Lamb, which was never shot, and the alter ego left much of the public confused.

Which supermodel told Vogue she and her peers did not wake up for under $10,000 a day?

Linda Evangelista's remark, made in 1990, has been called the most famous quote in modelling history and a twentieth-century Let them eat cake.

Which drag queen followed the 1993 hit Supermodel (You Better Work) with a MAC Cosmetics campaign?

RuPaul became the first drag queen to land a major cosmetics campaign, and released a duet of Don't Go Breaking My Heart with Elton John the same year.

Which Pokémon is Ash Ketchum given after he oversleeps and finds all three starters already taken?

Pikachu starts out reluctant, and the pair only bond when it steps in to save Ash from a flock of angry Spearow.

Which Simpsons character was unmasked as the shooter of Mr. Burns in the 1995 two-part cliffhanger?

Maggie fired by accident when the tycoon's gun slipped into her hands as he tried to take her lollipop.

Which DC Comics character was created as a one-off henchwoman for Batman: The Animated Series?

Harley Quinn was based on actress Arleen Sorkin, whom co-creator Paul Dini had seen play a jester in a soap opera. She entered DC's main comics continuity seven years later.

Which children's show starred Tinky Winky, whom a US televangelist denounced as a gay role model?

Teletubbies' makers at the BBC replied that the purple character was simply a baby with a magic bag, the red one he often carries.

Which colour-coded crook in Reservoir Dogs is secretly an undercover police officer?

Mr. Orange, played by Tim Roth, is shot during the getaway and spends much of the film bleeding while the gang hunts for its informer.

Which Friends character has a twin sister, Ursula, who debuted as a waitress on Mad About You?

Phoebe Buffay and Ursula are played by the same actress, and Ursula is the elder twin by one minute.

Which Fresh Prince of Bel-Air character lent his name to a dance devised by actor Alfonso Ribeiro?

Carlton Banks was Ribeiro's breakout role, the preppy cousin who became the main foil and eventual close friend of Will Smith's street-smart lead.

Which 1990s TV character is credited with drawing women into science, an effect named after her?

Dana Scully, the sceptical FBI agent and medical doctor of The X-Files, was partly modelled on Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs.

Which Seinfeld character was named Kessler in the pilot episode to avoid possible legal trouble?

Cosmo Kramer was based on a comedian of the same surname, a former neighbour of one of the show's creators, who later agreed to the use of his name.

Which Toy Story character went by the name Tempus from Morph during Pixar's early development work?

Buzz Lightyear was finally named after Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon.

Which English group, formed by two brothers who ran a gym, had a hit with I'm Too Sexy?

Right Said Fred took their name from a 1962 novelty hit by Bernard Cribbins. The brothers got the idea for the song from the posing they saw at their London gym.