90s Kids' TV Shows: 35 From The Last Great Decade
The last decade where everybody watched the same thing at the same time, before multichannel and then the internet split it up for good.
These are the shows that filled it.
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Saturday mornings
- Live & Kicking - 1993 to 2001, Andi Peters, then Zoe Ball and Jamie Theakston.
- SM:TV Live - 1998, Ant, Dec and Cat Deeley, Wonkey Donkey, Challenge Ant and Chums.
- What's Up Doc?, The Ant and Dec Show and The Disney Club on ITV.
- Going Live! ran until 1993 before Live & Kicking replaced it.
- Trevor and Simon's 'swing your pants' survived the handover from one show to the next.
The after-school hours
- Byker Grove - the whole decade, and the paintball episode in 1994 where PJ was blinded.
- Grange Hill, still running and still controversial.
- The Demon Headmaster - 1996, and the reason a generation is wary of a man in dark glasses.
- Aquila, Bernard's Watch, The Queen's Nose, Woof! and Century Falls.
- Press Gang finished in 1993 having quietly been one of the best dramas on television.
- Round the Twist, Heartbreak High and the Australian imports on CBBC.
Animation and pre-school
- ZZZap! - Smart, Cuthbert Lilly, Daisy Dares You and the Handymen, with no dialogue at all.
- Rosie and Jim, Brum, Tots TV and the whole Ragdoll output from Wood Lane.
- Teletubbies from 1997, which caused genuine newspaper outrage.
- Wallace and Gromit, arriving as Christmas events rather than a series.
- Rugrats, Doug, Ren and Stimpy and the Nickelodeon imports once cable and satellite spread.
- Pokémon at the very end of the decade, which changed everything about playgrounds.
Game shows and the rest
- Fun House through its best years, Finders Keepers, Get Your Own Back and the gunge tank.
- Raven arrived in 2002, so it just misses, but Knightmare ended in 1994 and everybody remembers exactly where it stopped.
- Gladiators, which was technically for everyone and effectively for children.
- Art Attack with Neil Buchanan and the big art nobody ever saw in real life.
- Blue Peter with John Leslie, Katy Hill, Konnie Huq and Richard Bacon.
- Newsround, Blue Peter Bring and Buy sales, and the Blue Peter appeal totaliser.
- Mr Bean, Bottom and The Simpsons watched from the stairs after bedtime.
How to write it so it lands
- SM:TV against Live & Kicking is the great 90s Saturday divide.
- The Demon Headmaster did more damage than any horror film.
- Knightmare ended in 1994 and people still talk about it.
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Frequently asked questions
What were the best 90s kids' TV shows?
SM:TV Live, Live & Kicking, Byker Grove, The Demon Headmaster, ZZZap!, Art Attack, Bernard's Watch, The Queen's Nose and Fun House are the ones most people name.
When did SM:TV Live start?
1998, on ITV, presented by Ant McPartlin, Declan Donnelly and Cat Deeley. It ran opposite Live & Kicking and eventually beat it.
What happened in the Byker Grove paintball episode?
PJ was blinded in a paintball accident in 1994. It was one of the most talked-about children's drama storylines of the decade.
What was ZZZap!?
A CITV sketch show made almost entirely without dialogue, featuring Smart, Cuthbert Lilly, the Handymen and Daisy Dares You. It was designed to be understood by children learning to read.
Do you sell DVDs or TV merchandise?
No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This is written for the pleasure of remembering it, and the only products on this page are our own cards.