Wherein I Answer a Question

Someone on my site asked the following:

I love the 90's! and all of the things that VH1 tells me I should Love! What is one of your most favorite 90's memories!?

Firstly, I commend you on your obedience to VH1.

Here is my answer:

There was this show “California Dreams” (1992-1997) that, for some reason, really sticks in my head. I don’t even remember super much about it, except there were always music videos, ‘cus the main “teen” characters were in an “awesome” “band” called…wait for it…California Dreams. One of the girls was really shitty at acting like she played the saxophone.

Anyway(s), I specifically remember one episode where Jake (the cool one) was all excited cus his favorite uncle came into town. His uncle, bee-tee-dubs, was played by Eddie Mekka, best known for his role as Carmine “The Big Ragu” Ragusa on Laverne and Shirely*.

So his uncle comes to town, but (twist!) he’s a smoker!

And, though Jake’s friends all warn him about the dangers of cigarettes, Jake takes up the habit himself.

AND THEN (TWIST AGAIN) one morning, Jake’s uncle is hanging out with Jake when he reveals that he had coughed up blood and been diagnosed with lung cancer!

I don’t remember what happened to Jake’s uncle, but I do remember a hi-larious montage of Jake’s friends (the rest of the “Dreams”) helping him to quit smoking. He started chewing gum to deal with the cravings, bu the cravings were so bad, HE WAS CHEWING LIKE 100 PIECES OF GUM AND HE COULD BARELY TALK CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?

And there was another episode where Sly, the douchey manager, started dating Nikki Cox and found out she was blind.

So, that’s basically what I remember from the 90s.

Oh, and I guess the Gulf War was happening?

Hope that was informative.

Ryan G. Merriam

*I swear to God, this is from memory. And yet I almost failed high school chemistry.