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DVD Review: Parker Lewis Can't Lose - Season 1 - I'd Rather Be Watching Movies Blog
06 August 2009
Ah, ‘90s nostalgia. As a guy who came of age in the decade that brought us grunge, round sunglasses and....'60s nostalgia, getting a chance to immerse myself once again in the gelled hair and brightly-colored shirts that were the height of ‘90s fashion thanks to the recent DVD release of Parker Lewis Can't Lose was a special experience. I watched the show pretty religiously when I was a teenager, and I think I even used it as a sort of guide to what to expect when I transitioned from junior high to high school (I was pretty disappointed by the reality, let me tell you). Parker Lewis Can't Lose is an interesting show in that only a relatively small niche, generationally speaking, is even aware of it. But it seems like EVERYONE within that age bracket remembers the show vividly. So when I got the opportunity to review the long-awaited season 1 DVD collection, jumped at it. I desperately wanted to know if it held up to scrutiny a decade and change later.
And the verdict is....shockingly positive. Given that it was such a quintessentially ‘90s show (seriously, check out the haircuts on these guys), and that it was created with teens in mind, I feared that the harsh light of 21st-century scrutiny would be more than Parker Lewis could handle, but I was wrong. Sure, the fashion and pop culture references can be a little jarring (I had no idea Tom Petty was considered the peak of cool back then; he's referenced in several episodes), but on the whole Parker Lewis Can't Lose was pretty far ahead of its time when it debuted in 1990. It's the first sitcom I've seen that really aspires to be a cartoon, utilizing sight gags and sound effects ripped straight from classic Looney Tunes shorts. It aired on Fox when that network was still the young upstart (if I'm not mistaken, Parker Lewis led into The Simpsons, which at the time was the hot new show everyone was talking about), and the producers' desire to make something totally unlike anything else on the air at the time is evident even by today's standards.
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