Mental Floss

THE '90S

Mark Bellomo

If you visited an older, well-established McDonald’s franchise during the latter part of the 1990s—specifically one of the corporation’s two-story restaurants boasting a “McDonald’s PlayLand”—you may have noticed some odd shapes and unfamiliar characters

Mark Bellomo
Yvonne Hemsey/Getty Images

Nintendo's groundbreaking console just turned 25. Find out why the system had such a big impact (and why the company needed to sell protective gloves for one particular game.)

Jason Serafino


YouTube

'Home Improvement'—which premiered 25 years ago, on September 17, 1991—was a sitcom documenting the work and home life of Tim “The Toolman” Taylor, stand-up comedian Tim Allen’s interpretation of a man unjustifiably secure in his knowledge of power tools

Roger Cormier






PBS

Between 1995 and 1998, PBS fed kids classic tales like 'Ivanhoe' through a wise-cracking Jack Russell Terrier. And now it looks like he's getting his own feature film.

Kristin Hunt
NBC

Still airing in syndication more than a quarter-century later, the once-critically panned teen sitcom has become a cultural phenomenon.

Abbey Stone


toytoystoys4 on eBay

For nearly as long as there have been movies, there have been food and snack brands appearing in movies, either as intentional product placements or unintentional props of the times.

Andrew LaSane


20th Century Fox

Though Titanic was plagued with production problems, James Cameron's epic disaster/romance went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of all time.

Lilit Marcus




ToysandGames

It was a sprawling beach scene populated by hundreds of characters, including one dressed slightly inappropriately for the climate: Waldo, the sweater-sporting explorer who “hides” in every crowd scene illustrated by Martin Handford for his 'Where’s Waldo

Jake Rossen
YouTube

Netflix's 'Fuller House' might finally reveal whether Uncle Jesse's nightmare of needing hair plugs came true.

Roger Cormier
YouTube

The series ran for five seasons on MTV beginning in 1997. Here are some facts about the show even 'Sick, Sad World' doesn’t know.

Roger Cormier




Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Paul Sorvino, Martin Scorsese, and Joe Pesci in Goodfellas (1990).

'Goodfellas,' Martin Scorsese's modern gangster classic, has been called the director's best movie. Others have called it the best movie—period.

Adam D’Arpino, Scott Beggs




Fun fact: Ruth Bader Ginsburg once weighed in on Koosh balls in a court case.

Kids of the late 1980s and ‘90s loved their Koosh balls. They were easy to catch, easy to throw, and didn't hurt nearly as much as traditional balls when you got hit by one.

Erin McCarthy
Starter via Facebook

David Beckerman decided he was done peddling plaid golf pants. The 1966 University of New Haven graduate had been a salesman at a Duckster sporting goods store when he realized that the bland clothing on the racks held little interest for casual sports fa

Jake Rossen