18 Characters From The ’90s We’d Like To See As Parents

friends and that '70s show
Image: NBC ; Fox

The ’90s were a great time in television, music, and all things pop culture. For those of us who were lucky enough to be in our formative years during this decade, there are certain aspects imprinted on our souls. C’mon, you know what I mean. Lisa Frank. Britney Spears. Nightly radio countdowns. These are things that defined our existence.

Our fictional characters rocked, too. Sabrina was a teenage witch that used magic on the down low. Tommy Pickles and his rascally crew explained Hanukkah to us while dressed as diaper wearing Maccabees. Eric Mathews grew from high school hottie to college eccentric. Now, almost thirty years down the road, so many of these fictional characters could have kids. Here are some we wish we could see-

Eddie Winslow

Image: Instagram/ @wordup90s

While we were able to see Laura and Steve get engaged, things were way more up in the air for older brother Eddie. For so long during this TGIF staple, this man was the ultimate cute but trouble making oldest child of the Winslows. He butt heads with his strict-ish dad. Edward gambled a lot. He went through a string of girlfriends, including one who turned to nude modeling. Then, in the 9th season, Eddie decided to give up college and become a cop like his father. His days of working as a Chicago officer were barely touched on. We’d love to see Eddie raising a family, working as a cop, and still somehow pulling off the wild child persona. It was written in the 10th season that he was supposed to end up with Greta. We, however, are still pulling for Myrtle.

Mr. Cooper

Image: Instagram/ @allthings90s

Mr. Cooper! He was the cool, athletic teacher that lived with two beautiful women. Cooper was a former Golden State Warrior (before the Steph Curry led dominance that we’re currently experiencing). He also had a crush on his roommate Vanessa despite her grand spending habits and serious boyfriend. When he and Vanessa got together in season 4, almost immediately becoming engaged afterward, it seemed like Mark Cooper was on his way to becoming a settled family man. We wish we could see this baller turned coach turn into a father. It’d be fun to see Vanessa and Mr. Cooper struggle to mesh their very different outlooks on life into a little person.

Dani Dennison

Image: Instagram/ @greatadventuresupplyco

Dani was the obnoxious little sister that unhesitatingly told Alison that Max liked her, “yabbos.” She also was the kid that Winifred Sanderson most wanted to kill. Dani made it out of this iconic movie alive, although her beloved cat turned into a handsome ghost boy and disappeared. While there’s been a sequel written, we weren’t terribly impressed with the fact that the Sanderson sisters returned, found their other ‘secret’ fourth sister, and that Max and Alison’s kid was so against the celebrating of Halloween. More to the point, we’d love to see Dani as a parent to her own high energy kid. And, we’re almost sure, the story should open with Max and Dani dressed as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell.

Matt Roman

Image: Instagram/ @trina70

In the 90s we had the Philly based Disney show, Brotherly Love. It starred the Lawrence brothers, and all that eye candy made for some amazing television and a league of teen fan girls. While both Joey and youngest brother Andy were mechanic shop, work with their hands types, middle brother Matt was awkward, a germaphobe, and pretty unschooled at knowing what to say to girls. In fact, the shy middle kid had a long running crush on his reformed bad girl friend, Kristin. Kristin, however, pined after Joey. We’d love to see Matt with his own kids, raising a scholarly type among his jokester brothers and their rough and tumble broods.  Couldn’t you picture Matt raising a little Sheldon Cooper?

Morgan Hudson

Image: YouTube/ Analog Memories

Before we had time travel shows like Dr. Who with the now infamous Tardis, we had awesome-sauce Disney show, The Jersey. A group of friends discovered that a ragged jersey, when worn, transported them into the bodies of famous athletes. Tony Hawk guest starred once, as did Laila Ali. Morgan, as seen above, was the tomboy whose story lines often included using the jersey to gain self confidence. We’d love to see her all grown up, raising a kid, and hopefully working in some sports organization. Couldn’t you totally see her on the front of the movement for female referees in the NFL and NBA or maybe even one of the groundbreaking female coaches like Becky Hammon?

Joey Tribbiani

Image: Instagram/ @ratemyprofessors

The ’90s and Friends are synonymous. And we’ve got opinions if Joey wasn’t your favorite male friend. Played by Matt LeBlanc, Joey was suave with the ladies if somewhat lacking in book smarts. He dated nearly everyone. Most famously, he and Rachel were a thing before realizing that they weren’t physically compatible. Joey was upset when his best friend Chandler and Monica bought a house and moved out of the city. Something about Joey (everything, actually) says that he’d make a hilarious single dad. We wish we could see him raising a teenage daughter with the rest of the group, especially since Emma would be about 16 herself. Can we guess most overprotective dad ever?

Carlton Banks

Image: Instagram/ @thatsongfrom

Carlton Banks started as Will’s annoying, white collar cousin but ended the run of Fresh Prince as Will’s pal. In the last season, Carlton decided he didn’t want to finish school and tried to become a professional bowler. Also, in the picture above, Carlton developed a bit of a gambling problem and ended up having to enter a ridiculous dance contest in Vegas in order to get Will and himself home. The man was coming out of his shell just as the show ended. We’d love to see a busy, goofy Carlton mixing his own father’s seriousness with the fun loving craziness he learned from his cousin Will into his parenting. Also, we kind of hope that Carlton ended up with a hippie type wife. It’d drive his dad nuts.

Jackie Burkhart

Image: Instagram/ @cineiconic

Jackie was the youngest member of the group, and sometimes it showed. She thought money was everything and looks mattered more than a fraction. Before the show ended, Jackie dated three of the four main male characters; Kelso, Hyde, and Fez. However, just like in real life, we think Jackie was meant to be with Kelso. We’d love to see their adventures raising a few kids together. Jackie would also be stepmother to Kelso’s daughter, Betsy. Did they build a life in Chicago? Could they have moved back to Wisconsin to be closer to family? Did Jackie end up pursuing a journalist career with Kelso backing her up as a stay at home dad? Either way, we’d like to see it play out.

Morris Tibbs

Image: Instagram/ @adorkableprincess

Morris was the next door neighbor that also attended Piedmont High with TJ, Marcus, and Yvette. While TJ was the titular Smart Guy, he lacked in some basic maturity that nothing but years can bring. Despite his easygoing nature, Morris was exactly the opposite. His story lines included finding his birth mom, utilizing his amazing chef skills in the kitchen, and irritating Floyd. Morrris also had a thing for Yvette. It was always a one sided crush, though. In the end, Yvette went off to Georgetown for college. Now, we wish we could see what happened to Morris. We hope he went to culinary school, opened his own little family restaurant where he employed Marcus, and raised a kid with his wife he met while on a culinary tour of Asia. Specific? Maybe, but we’ve thought about this.

Dil Pickles

Image: Instagram/ @officialrugrats

Just when we’d gotten used to the group; Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Lil, often goaded on by Angelica, Dil Pickles entered the picture. He was a newborn, smaller and less vocal than the other kids. Tommy called Dil his ‘sponsibility.’ In All Growed Up, we see that Dil has developed into quite the eccentric little man, reminding us that Stu came to his career as a toy inventor by being unique himself. We think it’d be fun to see Tommy and Dil truly all grown up, raising two very different styles of family. Since Dil was so obsessed with aliens, maybe he grew up to be a astronaut. He’d be a total FaceTime dad. One thing we know for sure though, neither of these boys would raise entitled kids.

Caledon Hockley

The movie Titanic hit theaters in 1997 and broke records left and right. Cal was Rose’s fiance, though her distaste for him was clear. When Rose ran off with Jack, Cal managed to finagle his way onto a lifeboat. Both Rose and Cal survived, although Rose made sure they never reunited. Cal went on and married some unnamed woman with whom he had children, though Rose says that the family wasn’t a happy one. We think there needs to be a post-blockbuster update where Lizzy Calvert goes on to look for Cal’s descendants. We sense a love story there, too, one where past wrongs could be righted a bit in Rose and Cal’s now middle class, relatively normal descendants.

Lola Bunny

Image: Instagram/ @zone198

“We got a real jam going down…welcome to the Space Jam…” In Space Jam we were introduced to female b-ball sensation, Lola. Bugs took one look at her and was immediately smitten. Lola, at first, did not return this affection. By the end of the film (and Michael’s triumphant return to basketball), Lola had changed her mind about Bugs. They were as ‘together’ as two kids cartoon characters can be. Later iterations of Lola have had her shown as less independent and athletic and more, well, dimwitted and bubbly. We’re down with this first, 90s version of Lola and hope she makes a reappearance in Space Jam 2. We’d also like to see these two parenting their own nest of bunnies together. We see lots of cartoon arguments breaking out since Lola would definitely be a working woman and Bugs would be on outrageous adventures with Daffy and Porky. Talk about balance issues!

Max Goof

Image: Instagram/ @jeck.disney

A Goofy Movie came out in 1995. In it, Max makes an enemy of his high school principal in a bid to get a date with his crush, Roxanne. When his dad hears about what his son’s been up to, Goofy decides it’s time to take Max on a fishing trip. But Goofy is, well, a total goof. This irritates adolescent Max, who just wants to fit in. While Max has some of his dad’s clumsiness, he’s definitely not a knockoff. We think it’s time for a Goofy movie where Max finds out he’s going to be a dad and has to deal with his own father’s over-involvement. Plus, we’d like to see one of the Goofs end up with a girl.

Sabrina Spellman

Image: Instagram/ @nocontextsttw

In Sabrina’s last season she was no longer a teenage witch. She was in her twenties, living with her two roommates in her aunts’ abandoned Victorian, and engaged to a man named Aaron. Yet, we all knew there was really only one man for this spell caster. It took Sabrina all season long to realize that marrying Aaron would be a mistake since Harvey was the one who still had her heart. In the last episode, Sabrina is seen getting on the back of Harvey’s bike and riding off. While we hope they had a ton of magical adventures together before starting their family, it’d be fun to see these two beloved characters now raising their own kiddos. There’d have to be a twist, too, like a set of twins where one is magical and one is not. It could be similar to Lily and Petunia Evans but, you know, happy.

Ashley Spinelli

Image: Instagram/ @quirktastic_co

Did you know Spinelli’s often clueless seeming parents from Recess were secret agents? Makes sense, since their daughter was a take no prisoners kind of kid. We like to imagine a time, maybe  right before the teenage years, where this meant Spinelli and her parents had to seek cover, breaking her away from the gang. TJ would want to look for her when he grew up, right? Then we could get the spinoff we need, where Spinelli and TJ follow in her parents footsteps and have to act clueless themselves when they parent their own hardheaded kid. Can you imagine the toughness of a TJ and Ashley alliance? That kid would be unstoppable.

Otto Rocket

Image: Instagram/ @mama_funk_

Otto Rocket, along with his sister Reggie, did it all. Skateboarding. Snowboarding. Surfing. He was eleven when Rocket Power debuted, and we’d love to check in with him now that extreme sports have made their permanence in the athletic world known. Otto would make a great promoter type, and we imagine that he’d visit Ocean Shores regularly since the kids were so close with their widowed dad. We also kind of hope he ended up with a woman from another breakthrough extreme sport, an MMA fighter perhaps. Unlike the Midwest average kid plot, Otto’s brood would give us something totally unique.

Randy Taylor

Image: Instagram/ @jtt_lover

Randy was the middle brother on Home Improvement. He was also smart, a good actor and writer, and spent the 7th season of the show in Costa Rica studying. He was the one who challenged Tim’s deeply held beliefs the most, including on religion and on Binford Tool’s unethical policies regarding emissions into the environment. Randy was once Brad’s wing man, although he gained both insight and independence in the later seasons. We’d love to see where he ended up and who he ended up with. We can’t imagine that he stayed with Lauren, and statistics back up that assumption. Only 2% of high school relationships make it to marriage.

C.C. Babcock

Image: Instagram/ @thenannycaps

In the series finale, C.C. married Niles over Fran’s hospital bed in the delivery room. Then, C.C. realized that she was carrying Niles’ kid. Let’s just say that neither she nor her butler beau were exactly spring chickens. We’d love to see how they’re doing raising what would now be a young adult. In fact, we’d love to pick up with the unconventional family in the mid-2000s, when the child would have been in elementary school and C.C. and Niles would have been mistaken for his/her grandparents. We imagine the couple would have to turn to Fran, whether in person or over the phone, for several tidbits of advice. Now, they’d be empty-nesters getting to know each other again. Let the hilarity ensue.

Did we miss one of your favorite ’90s characters? Let us know in the comments below!

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