The Golden Age of television is understood to have been kicked off by HBO’s The Sopranos in 1999, but it was the television of the 1990s that really made us fall in love with American (and to some extent, British) television and pop culture. Here are some of the popular old 90s’ popular British and American TV shows that we enjoyed in India and that you would definitely like to revisit.
For us 90s’ kids, they were not just sources of entertainment, they were our windows to the Western world, giving us glimpses of life in the high rises of New York and London. With satellite TV expanding into Indian homes during the decade after the economic liberalisation of 1991, various TV channels brought such shows to our screens. This enabled us to experience new cultures, lifestyles, and even styles of humour and perspectives like never before.
The ensemble sitcoms: Best 90s TV shows
The 90s saw the rise of several TV genres, the ensemble sitcoms, which, like Friends and Seinfeld, redefined what a “friend group” was on screen, to the darker, more mysterious worlds of shows like The X-Files. It wasn’t just entertainment; it was a reflection of the social and cultural shifts happening at the time.
In front of televisions, we watched for laughs, thrills, romance, and vivid characters — some of them larger than life, others relatable. The vampire TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer was unlike anything else in television history, brought together teen drama and supernatural horror, and British classics like Absolutely Fabulous and The Vicar of Dibley were bold and satirical sitcoms about British society, breaking new ground.
Best 90s TV shows: A list of popular American and British TV shows in India like
FriendsFriends (1994–2004)
IMDb rating: 8.9
Created by: David Crane, Marta Kauffman
Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer
Synopsis: Friends is the quintessential sitcom from the 1990s, chronicling the lives of six friends, Rachel (Aniston), Monica (Cox), Phoebe (Kudrow), Joey (LeBlanc), Chandler (Perry), and Ross (Schwimmer), trying to make a way through love, career, and relationships in New York City. The show had everything: wit so sharp it’ll cut through all other emotions, and warm moments, and it captured that elusive spirit of friendship. Iconic catchphrases (like Joey’s “How you doin”), wacky misadventures, and timeless storylines keep Friends popular with new generations.
Seinfeld (1989–1998)
IMDb rating: 8.9
Created by: Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld
Cast: Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, Jason Alexander
Synopsis: Often referred to as “a show about nothing,” Seinfeld was an outstanding sitcom focusing on the minutiae of everyday life, extracting absurdity from seemingly mundane situations. The show, in which comedian Jerry Seinfeld played a fictionalised version of himself, became a byword for its specific humour, memorable characters, and catchphrases. To Indian viewers, it presented a fresh, unconventional style of comedy that had lots of wit and hilariously relatable moments.
