An Addictive and Extremely Humourous 90's Sitcom: Mike and Angelo

Since I was a pre-teen, my interest in older sitcoms from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s compromised the majority of my television pursuits! By watching the older sitcoms, as opposed to the more common television shows that kids my age watched, I felt a sense of uniqueness. To make me feel more like myself, I believed that I didn’t have to feel normal or live in the “present day” to watch shows like American Idol, Hannah Montana, Shake it Up or Wizards of Waverley Place. Television gave me an opportunity to embrace being myself and pursuing whatever I desired, despite the generation I was currently living it at the time!

Mike and Angelo is a recently discovered 90’s sitcom that I started to binge-watch since October 2020. Thanks to having easy access to YouTube on my phone and iPad, I get to watch all the Mike and Angelo episodes for free! Every afternoon, or every night before bed, I enjoy simply vegetating in my squishy bed with all the lights off and just watch YouTube videos! I also like to turn on my computer and watching several episodes of Mike and Angelo while I’m eating supper. Meal times alone can be pretty desolating, so watching YouTube makes me feel like “I have company in the house” while I’m having a pleasant meal in my own home!

Ever since I began watching a bunch of episodes from the BBC miniseries Little Lord Fauntleroy (1995), I found out that the actor Michael Benz also starred in Mike and Angelo from 1993-1998. After I read his lengthy history in acting and film, I realized that he was acting in more television programs, plays and films over the years! Believe it or not, he is a middle-aged man who is still active in the performing arts and film industry. His natural talent, passion and love acting and theatre arts say it all!

Unlike the previous sitcoms I’ve binge- watched over the years, Mike and Angelo provides me with some kind of connection to my childhood. With the similar ideas, characters, settings, story plots, and themes, I was able to feel a sense of nostalgia. Shows like Home Improvement, Sister, Sister, and Boy Meets World have some similarities to Mike and Angelo that I’m quite familiar with, making me recall some of the episodes of my favourite shows.

With respect to one of the main characters Mike Mason, the characteristics are a lot similar to Randy Taylor’s (from Home Improvement). His sassiness, sensitivity, caring, bubbly, and likeable nature make me remember many of the episodes from Home Improvement, in which Randy would make the funniest but ridiculous jokes like, “Yeah, like you have to Swiss to eat cheese”!

While the episodes make me remember a collection of my other favourite shows, Mike and Angelo is relatable to situations that go on in my personal life. What motivates me to become better in life is, by watching Mike and Angelo, because the endings always turn out to be “happy endings”. The moral that I came up with is: Life is not meant to be perfect. To be able to successfully solve problems and get through challenging moments, we have to suffer and screw up sometimes. We have to take ownership to move forward from our mistakes. Issues that I’ve had in my personal life are a lot similar to the issues that occur in Mike and Angelo like being bullied and makes me recollect times where I’ve been bullied in my youth and how everything came out okay in the end! Strong feelings like jealousy, sadness, excitement, disappointment, anger, happiness and love are emotions that I experience on a daily basis! As a matter of fact, most of these emotions are revealed and conveyed in Mike and Angelo.

Thanks to the pandemic, I’ve now gotten back into both new and old 90’s sitcoms. After taking break from binge- watching Bald and Bankrupts travel blogs on YouTube, I craved a comedy show that I could just get addicted to. I picked Mike and Angelo and I don’t regret my new choice of “TV show addiction”. If you’re interested in 90’s sitcoms and older television shows in general, Mike and Angelo may be your new show to binge-watch in YouTube!