PEOPLE in the '90s

Welcome to our bonus episode. It's an awards show special! You know the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys. Well, allow us to present The Besties — a highly subjective (and voted on by two people) celebration of the '90s. Jason and Andrea wrap up season one of PEOPLE in the '90s by declaring the decade's best fragrance and sex scene, celeb workout video and supermodel, VH1 Divas Live per

We got our man. Fabio seemingly fell to Earth in the ’90s fully formed, Italian beefcake on a clam shell: a 6-foot-3, 250 lb. model turned romance novel cover star (over 1,300 of them) turned I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter front man. He both defined the sexy-silly optimism of the decade and, in some ways, he never really left it. His hair forever blows in an ever-present bre

The Rachel. The Gap. Alicia Silverstone’s Aerosmith videos and Rob Thomas' hook on "Smooth." Sometimes, there was too much of a good thing in the '90s. On the cover of PEOPLE’s December 25, 1995 issue (our 25 Most Intriguing People of the Year issue): Hootie and The Blowfish. (Along with Jennifer Aniston and... Babe the Pig.) Darius had the biggest-selling album that year — "

Real World, Daria, Choose or Lose, House of Style and The Week in Rock. (There were some videos too.) In the '90s, MTV was our media of choice — and, if you think about it, was Instagram before Instagram. The network set the pop agenda, told us who was cool and what to wear, introduced us to reality television (and Jenny McCarthy — shoutout to Singled Out!), and broke the bigge

Jerry Springer and Ricki Lake. Sally Jessy, Maury, and a few Steves. The other Mark Wahlberg. There was a lot of talk on daytime TV in the ’90s. And even more gasp-inducing, can't-look-away insanity: “You are the father!” reveals, surprise drop-ins from exes, strippers, club kids, and daughters begging moms to “stop dressing like me!” Then, exactly 25 years ago, came The

Breathless romance and shocking slaps. Demonic possessions and really big hair. An exhausting use of the word “bitch.” In the ‘90s, soap operas were off-the-chain crazy. And delicious. On the cover of PEOPLE’s February 21st, 1994 issue: the stars of Melrose Place. Lisa Rinna —who starred on both Days of Our Lives and Melrose — takes us back to the golden era of soaps, b

Seinfeld, Sinbad, Ellen, The Jamie Foxx Show. In the '90s, it felt like every standup comedian had a self-titled sitcom. On the cover of PEOPLE's March 29, 1993 issue: Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold — “The Terrible Two of Comedy.” Comedian, actor and talk show host Sherri Shepherd had a front row seat for the standup-sitcom boom — having appeared on seemingly every sitcom in

The late '90s were all about teens. As millennials learned to drive, they began shaping pop culture. We even created a magazine for them. On the cover of TEEN PEOPLE's June/July 1999 issue: Julia Stiles, Brandy, and 19 other It Boys and It Girls — all under 21. Julia talks to us about 10 Things I Hate About You, Heath Ledger, and whether or not she dated Joseph Gordon-Levitt in h

Once upon a time, celebrities dressed themselves. And, sometimes, we made fun of them for it. Actress and comedian Margaret Cho knows a lot about those '90s worst-dressed lists, because Joan Rivers was her mentor. And she was on Fashion Police. And she appeared in PEOPLE's 1995 Best and Worst Dressed Issue. We go back with Margaret as she honors Joan, explains how the culture of ro

From Total Recall to Titanic to all those July 4th Will Smith movies, we’re talking 90s summer blockbusters. (The ones without sequels.) Then we talk to Jamie Lee Curtis about her PEOPLE cover story from August 22, 1994. She explains why she'll never write a memoir, but does kindly take us behind the scenes of her own major '90s hit True Lies and explains why she thought she wasn