Dark Side of the 90s

Dark Side of the 90s is a documentary television series created by Insight Productions and RailSplitter Pictures for Vice Studios that takes a look at popular culture of the 1990s.^[3] It is a spinoff of Vice's Dark Side of the Ring series.^[4] The first episode of Dark Side of the 90s aired on July 15, 2021.^[5][6][7] The series is narrated by Mark McGrath,^[8] vocalist of Sugar Ray, a rock band that attained mainstream popularity in the mid-to-late 1990s.^[9]

Dark Side of the 90s
Genre	Documentary
Developed by	Insight Productions Railsplitter Pictures
Directed by	Richard Rotter
Narrated by	Mark McGrath^[1]^[2]
Composer	Orin Isaacs
Original language	English
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	20
Production
Producers	Vanessa Hill Matthew Ginsburg Tim Healy
Running time	60 min.
Production company	Railsplitter Pictures/Insight Productions
Original release
Network	Vice on TV
Release	July 15, 2021 (2021-07-15) – present

Series overview

Season	Episodes		Originally aired
			First aired	Last aired
1	10		July 15, 2021 (2021-07-15)	September 16, 2021 (2021-09-16)
2	10		June 14, 2022 (2022-06-14)	August 9, 2022 (2022-08-09)

Episodes

Season 1 (2021)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Subject(s)	Original air date	Viewers (millions)
1	1	"Trash TV: Dirty & Deadly Talk"	The explosion of tabloid talk shows (including the critically derided yet popular ratings hit The Jerry Springer Show).	July 15, 2021 (2021-07-15)	N/A
2	2	"The Viper Room: Hollywood's Sanctuary"	Johnny Depp's The Viper Room and the death of River Phoenix.^[10]	July 22, 2021 (2021-07-22)	0.150^[11]
3	3	"TV for Teens"	The conception of Fox Network and its hit show Beverly Hills, 90210, and other shows geared at teens (one of them being the Golden Globe-winning Party of Five).	July 29, 2021 (2021-07-29)	0.108^[12]
4	4	"Beanie Babies Go Bust"	The rise and fall of Beanie Babies' creator Ty Warner alongside the culture of collecting the successful toy line,^[13] and the birth of E-commerce and eBay with 12th employee, Lina Trivedi^[14]	August 5, 2021 (2021-08-05)	0.080^[15]
5	5	"Grunge & The Seattle Sound"	Seattle, Sub Pop Records, and the start of the 1990s rock subgenre known as grunge.	August 12, 2021 (2021-08-12)	0.081^[16]
6	6	"Baywatch: Sex Sells"	The popular TV series Baywatch and the controversies surrounding it (especially Pamela Anderson's sex tape with Tommy Lee).	August 19, 2021 (2021-08-19)	0.160^[17]
7	7	"A Tale of Two Cults"	Coverage on both the Branch Davidians and Heaven's Gate cults.	August 26, 2021 (2021-08-26)	0.086^[18]
8	8	"Hip Hop: The East Vs. West Media War"	The infamous East Coast-West Coast hip hop rivalry and the tragic consequences of it (the deaths of Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls).	September 2, 2021 (2021-09-02)	0.099^[19]
9	9	"Secrets of The Runway"	The international success of supermodels and the dark secrets behind the scenes.	September 9, 2021 (2021-09-09)	0.065^[20]
10	10	"Internet 1.0: Don't Believe the Hype"	The dot.com bubble during the Internet's early years.	September 16, 2021 (2021-09-16)	0.077^[21]

Season 2 (2022)

No. overall	No. in season	Title	Subject(s)	Original air date	Viewers (millions)
11	1	"Arseniooo Hall!"	The success of The Arsenio Hall Show to younger audiences before its downfall due to competition from Jay Leno and David Letterman alongside a controversial episode featuring Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan	June 14, 2022 (2022-06-14)	N/A
12	2	"MTV & The Real World"	MTV's 1992 debut of reality TV sensation The Real World and its impact on the channel	June 21, 2022 (2022-06-21)	N/A
13	3	"Cops: Bad Boys, Bad Boys"	The documentary TV show Cops featuring racial conflicts between white American police officers and lower class African-Americans.^[22]	June 28, 2022 (2022-06-28)	N/A
14	4	"UFC Pt. 1: No Holds Barred"	The bloody "no rules" origin of Ultimate Fighting Championship.	July 5, 2022 (2022-07-05)	N/A
15	5	"UFC Pt. 2: To Live or Die in the Octagon"	UFC survives multiple attempts to ban it and becomes a mainstream sport.	July 5, 2022 (2022-07-05)	N/A
16	6	"Tabloid TV"	Tabloid journalism on television (Hard Copy and A Current Affair) and the salacious stories they uncovered (among them the Amy Fisher saga)	July 12, 2022 (2022-07-12)	N/A
17	7	"Black Sitcoms' Last Laugh"	The successes of African-American sitcoms (Living Single, Martin and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air) and the Emmy Award-winning variety show In Living Color before falling into the pitfalls of fame.	July 19, 2022 (2022-07-19)	N/A
18	8	"The Rise of Rush Limbaugh"	Rush Limbaugh is conservative talk radio's first megastar, claiming to have talent on loan from God as he created a divide in America that is still unfolding 30 years on.	July 26, 2022 (2022-07-26)	N/A
19	9	"Y2K: Paranoia Will Destroy Ya"	At the end of the decade, the fear of an apocalypse looms (even for far-right militias) as two men become the stars of the real-life action thriller known as the Y2K scare.	August 2, 2022 (2022-08-02)	N/A
20	10	"Morning Show Wars"	Morning TV is the profit center of the news divisions that produce them with The Today Show and Good Morning America battling for dominance where there's no room for failure.	August 9, 2022 (2022-08-09)	N/A

References

1. Sugar Ray Singer Mark McGrath Say 'Dark Side of the 90s' Has Secrets That Surprised Even Him|Showbiz Cheat Sheet
2. Why 'Dark Side of the 90s' Got Mark McGrath Emotional - TV Insider
3. Vice TV General Manager on Why the Network Is so Into the ’90s Right Now and Plans for a ‘Dark Side’ FAST Channel - Variety
4. 'Dark Side of the 90s' Season 2|Decider
5. Baysinger, Tim (December 8, 2020). "Vice TV Orders 'Dark Side' Spinoffs on Football and '90s Pop Culture". The Wrap.
6. Gonzalez, Shivani (July 12, 2021). "What's on TV This Week: 'Catch and Kill' and the MLB All-Star Game". The New York Times.
7. Schager, Nick (July 15, 2021). "Inside the '90s Haunt Where Young Hollywood Partied——and Died". The Daily Beast.
8. Mark McGrath Interview: The Dark Side of the 90s | Screen Rant
9. Treese, Tyler (July 16, 2021). "Interview: Mark McGrath Talks Dark Side of the 90s". ComingSoon.net. Retrieved November 18, 2021.
10. Inside the '90s Haunt Where Young Hollywood Partied——and Died - The Daily Beast
11. Metcalf, Mitch (July 23, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 7.22.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
12. Metcalf, Mitch (July 30, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 7.29.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
13. Topel, Fred (August 5, 2021). "Beanie Babies Landed Some People in Jail According to 'Dark Side of the '90s' Episode". Showbiz Cheat Sheet.
14. McGrath, Mark (host) (August 5, 2021). "Beanie Babies Go Bust". Dark Side of the 90s. Season 1. Episode 4. ViceTV.
15. Metcalf, Mitch (August 6, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 8.5.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
16. Metcalf, Mitch (August 13, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 8.12.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
17. Metcalf, Mitch (August 20, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 8.19.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
18. Metcalf, Mitch (August 27, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 8.26.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
19. Metcalf, Mitch (September 3, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 9.2.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
20. Metcalf, Mitch (September 10, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 9.9.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
21. Metcalf, Mitch (September 17, 2021). "Showbuzzdaily's Thursday 9.16.2021 Top 150 cable originals & Network finals updated". showbuzzdaily. Retrieved November 2, 2021.
22. When 'Cops' Forced Ugly Copaganda Down America's Throat - The Daily Beast

External links

• Dark Side of the 90s on IMDb
• Official website
• Official trailer