Disney Princess Palace Pets Jasmine and Sultan

Setting the Stage 7: Smells Like the '90s

1992. The Nineties are In Effect! Big hair is out, and flannel is in. CDs will surpass Cassette Tapes as the musical medium of choice while Vinyl will begin its slow transition from the media of "geezers" to the prized domain of audiophile "hipsters". Music too is in the midst of a full-blown transformation with the Seattle Grunge scene pushing aside the last vestiges of Glam Rock. Poison will cling on to life with "Dr. Feelgood" in 1993, but "Alternative" bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam are already slowly taking over the airwaves alongside the increasingly mainstream Hip Hop, where both Kris Kross and House of Pain parlay that all-important lesson that one should, on occasion, "Jump".

As demonstrated… (Image source Glamour)

In another universe Disney's Aladdin would top the Box Office followed by The Bodyguard, Home Alone 2, Basic Instinct, Lethal Weapon 3, and Batman Returns. The Age of the Sequel that was born in the 1980s was in full force and would reign on to the present day. Bram Stoker's Dracula, by Francis Ford Coppola, would make a literal splash, bringing an auteur's lens to the Monster Movie.

In this universe…things will be somewhat different.

Meanwhile, television would continue its transition into quirky character-driven shows and away from three-camera sitcoms. The Cosby Show would end after years of dominance[1], as would other staples like The Golden Girls, MacGyver, and Night Court (all of which also end in this timeline). Tiny Toon Adventures would end, but Batman the Animated Series would begin. Hangin' with Mr. Cooper would debut along with a lot of doomed animated series like Fish Police and Capitol Critters. Young Indiana Jones would come to televisions too, an "edutainment" show meant to teach children history and culture.

Shown: "Reality"

The Real World will debut on MTV, ushering in the era of "Reality TV", the first step in artificiality's diabolical plan to replace reality itself with a postmodern simulacrum. Johnny Carson will retire from The Tonight Show, marking the end of an era. The politics of his replacement will get ugly. Barney and Friends will reach a big audience, threatening to unseat Sesame Street as the official PBS Kid's Show. The burgeoning Internet would lead to a whole new culture of Internet Hatedom with adult men plotting the slow, torturous death of a purple saccharine dinosaur-like walkaround for kids, unable to think of a target that they hated more…until they met Jar Jar.

The Internet is not quite here yet, but is on the verge of being so, and Usenets and other interconnected networks are just starting to make their presence known outside of the universities and computer nerd culture. The World Wide Web is under construction and will soon join Guttenberg's Printing Press and Marconi's Wireless in the pantheon of disruptive information technologies that Changed Everything, but at the moment it's still primarily a place for computer nerds.

Top notch prime time entertainment c1992 (Image source WBUR)

And as the 1992 Presidential race spun up, with Arkansas Governor William J. "Bill" Clinton finally chosen to "inevitably lose" to the super-popular George H. W. Bush, Television would soon start playing prime time blocks of Texas Billionaire H. Ross Perot, who throws his hat into the ring as a third-party Presidential candidate and buys up airtime out of pocket in what may have been the most expensive and complex political takedown of a hated rival (Bush) in history.

On the world stage in our timeline, US President George Bush and Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin would officially declare the Cold War over even as the former Yugoslavia continued its disintegration in a long, brutal war that will introduce the world to the term "Ethnic Cleansing". The war's aftermath will lay the foundation for a new wedge between the US and Russia.

Czechoslovakia will officially split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Riots will break out in Los Angeles following the controversial acquittal of the LA police officers charged with abusing Rodney King.

Barcelona, Spain, will host the 1992 Summer Olympics.

The Buffalo Bills will continue their distinguished four-year run as the Second-Best NFL team by losing to the Washington Redskins in the Super Bowl.

What stays the same? What changes? Stay Tuned.

Because Shopping Malls were just never quite big and wasteful enough (Image source "insider.com")

And in what has to be the ultimate symbol of the persistence of the now-fading 1980s, the Mall of America opens in Minnesota as a Consumerist Mecca. Surely the Golden Age of the Mall has only just begun…right?

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[1] It will end around the same time in this timeline, but under a fog of controversy as the shocking allegations against Cosby play out in the press, overshadowing the Last Episode.

Disney Princess Palace Pets Jasmine and Sultan

Source: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/a-hippie-in-the-house-of-mouse-jim-henson-at-disney-1980.489210/page-448

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