While it might seem like the 90s weren’t that long ago, the beginning of that decade was 30 years ago now. Because of this, television series and the way relationships were represented was very different than it is today.
Sitcoms from the 90s weren’t nearly as good at things like representation, and they often said rather offensive things that targeted specific groups of people. Many of these relationships had troubling elements that wouldn’t do very well if they were shown on television today. Here are 10 examples of this.
While Boy Meets World has one relationship that holds up pretty well to the test of time, Cory and Topanga, some of the other relationships didn’t fare as well.
Eric was Cory’s other brother, and while he started out seeming relatively normal, he quickly turned to comic relief and was painfully dumb. This made their on-again-off-again relationship strange, and Eric wasn’t able to let go of Rachel for a long time. They were much better as friends.
While these two are considered one of the best relationships from Friends, this doesn’t mean they would do as well today. They definitely were the best romantic relationship of any of the main ones from the series, but they don’t make a lot of sense together.
Chandler was immature and sexist at times, while Monica was driven and controlling. It’s amazing they stayed together as long as they did.
Debra and Ray have a relationship that basically exemplifies all of the worst things about heterosexual relationship tropes from sitcoms. Debra was smart, capable, and a constant nag while Ray was lazy, unhelpful, and always begging her to sleep with him
While Debra was well-educated, she became stuck in a life of taking care of Ray and her kids that didn’t seem to make her happy. Ray, despite being rather bumbling and lazy, was shown to have a great career and be the head of the household, and this didn’t make a lot of sense.
It’s not surprising that these two are on this list, as they are generally seen as one of the most troubling and worst relationships from Friends. Their on-again-off-again relationship was filled with a lot of issues, including the whole “we were on a break" thing.
Ross could be jealous, controlling, and sexist, and Rachel could have done a lot better. When Rachel turned down her job in Paris to be with him, it was clearly a mistake.
Al and Peg Bundy are another classic sitcom couple that is an example of some of the worst of the tropes from the decade. Al was a father who thought he deserved respect as the head of the household and had many toxic masculinity traits, while Peg was lazy and exemplified many harmful stereotypes of what women are like.
She was shown to love things like shopping and continually nagging Al. It’s also joked that Al never wanted to get married in the first place.
This relationship is another example of the sitcom trope of a less attractive, less smart man being so put out by a beautiful, intelligent woman wanting to date him. Geroge was a selfish person, and it didn’t even make sense that she wanted to date him.
The fact that he was the one who wanted to break up and manipulated her into dumping him made no sense, as she clearly was too good for him.
While Fran might be a rather iconic character from the 90s, this relationship definitely had some troubling power dynamics.
Fran was hired as his nanny, and he was a rich man. This meant that he was her employer, and this power differential definitely makes this relationship a bit strange to watch today.
This is another couple from Friends that wouldn’t go over well today. Many fans were upset by the inclusion of this short-lived couple because it just felt like the show was running out of storylines.
The fact Joey so suddenly went from his womanizing ways to falling for Rachel didn’t make sense. Plus, the entire engagement mix-up, where Rachel thought Joey wanted to marry her, was obnoxious.
Because of the recent revival of this series, Roseanne has had a lot of criticism thrown its way. The relationship between these two is just one problematic element that can be looked at.
Roseanne was known for being rather forceful and aggressive, and Dan was more easy-going. While this does seem like a reversal of typical gender roles, the real reason they wouldn’t fly today is because of how weird things got in the final season with Roseanne leaving him and Dan’s personality changing so much.
While there are many couples on this list who act like they don’t like each other or fall into harmful tropes, Frank and Marie might be the most toxic of all.
They did more than just bicker or joke about not wanting to be married, as they seemed to actually hate each other. They were both borderline verbally and emotionally abusive all the time, and the way they treated one another was appalling to watch.
