BBC2, 6pm: The World's Greatest TV Slot

Television scheduling is a lost art. These days, you just marathon Breaking Bad till your eyes bleed on Netflix. But back in the day, you had to watch whatever programmes were put in front of you. And it wasn’t just what was on, it was when it was on. Once you got away from primetime, there were the special slots where they put all the cool stuff.

During the 90s and early 00s, weekdays at 6pm on BBC2 was that slot. It mixed up cartoons, US sitcoms, classic sci-fi and home grown shows that were too cool to brush shoulders with Eastenders. Back then, American shows were still sneered at by British TV audiences, sci-fi was still for nerds, and animation was still thought of as kids stuff. BBC2 6pm was like a cool mixtape of shows that gave us The Simpsons, The Fresh Prince, Buffy, and loads of other weird and wonderful programmes which might not have made the same impact but are still fondly remembered. These were our favourites…

The Simpsons might be a shadow of its former self these days, with stunt guest stars and horrible gimmicks like the Family Guy crossover, but by the time the rot started it had migrated to Channel 4. Back in the 90s, The Simpsons was the coolest, cleverest thing on TV, and it was the backbone of BBC2’s 6pm slot. This is the reason you have the perfect Simpsons GIF for every situation.

Possibly the dweebiest show ever to show on British TV, Robot Wars was basically pro wrestling for engineering students. Geeks from across the country would bring homemade remote controlled robots from across the country to do battle, and be ripped to shreds by Sir Kill-A-Lot (basically a robot version of the Undertaker). In truth, despite Craig Charles and commentator Jonathan Pearce getting really excited, it was never really quite as much fun as it sounded—though it was always entertaining watching some awkward nerd get all flustered while being interviewed by Phillipa Forrester.

Up until the 90s, Brits didn’t really take to US sitcoms. We were too uppity and snooty to go for that sort of thing, until Friends really broke through. That’s why The Fresh Prince got relegated to BBC’s cult TV slot. But the charisma of a future Hollywood megastar, plus Carlton’s dance moves, were just too much too for it not to seep its way into the nation’s hearts, and learn all the words to the theme tune. For some reason, the BBC would edit in the pre-credits scene after the opening titles, meaning that episodes would start with a random burst of canned laughter. Never figured out why.

Gerry Anderson’s Thunderbirds was originally made in the 60s, but repeat airing on Fridays at 6pm in the early 90s somehow made it a national phenomenon again. Despite the show being 30 years old, kids lapped it up and toys sold out everywhere. The BBC followed it’s success by re-running Anderson’s other show like Captain Scarlet and Stingray in the same slot.

Joss Whedon’s vampires & teen problems drama changed the lives of a generation of alienated adolescents when it aired on Thursday nights on BBC2 in the late 90s, and the presence of Sarah Michelle Gellar endeared it to teenage boys as well. Channel 4 however, picked up the rights to spin-off Angel, meaning that the shows’ crossover episodes never ran together like they were supposed too.

Before South Park and Family Guy really made adult animation a thing, controversial cartoonists had to sneak things into kids show. John Kricfalusi’s Ren & Stimpy, despite being made for Nickelodeon, was clearly meant for adults, and the BBC didn’t even attempt to squeeze it into their kid’s programming—as well as running at 6.25pm on a Monday, it also got a post-pub midnight on Friday slot.

Before The Simpsons or Ren & Stimpy, the timeslot’s first foray into offbeat animation was airing this MTV anthology show. Essentially just a collection of crazy shorts from indie cartoonists, it captured the hot minute in the early 90s where underground animation was the most exciting thing in the world—both Beavis & Butt-head and Æon Flux both spun out of it.

A rare Aussie import amongst all the American shows, Heartbreak High was an Australian high school drama that had slightly tougher edge than your Dawson’s Creeks and 90210s, as well as more fun accents. It also offered a nice break from all the sci-fi that often filled the timeslot.

When they were short of things to show, BBC2 did tend to just fill the 6pm block with Star Trek. Lots and lots of Star Trek. They showed the three 90s versions of the show—The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager—which was mana for nerds, but the best was always the original series. Nothing beat William Shatner macking on hot alien girls and punching out rubber monsters.

A notable home-grown show, and also an important one—The Real McCoy was a sketch show that starred a host of up-and-coming British black and Asian performers. It gave the likes of Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Felix Dexter and Junior Simpson nationwide exposure, and it’s a real shame there’s nothing like it on British TV today.

There were a lot of memorable sci-fi programmes shown in the time slot—Roswell, Sliders, Farscape, Space Precinct—but Quantum Leap was definitely the greatest. Like a lot of great sci-fi, it used a fantastical idea to tell lots of very human stories. After a botched time-travel experiment, Scott Bakula was stuck leaping into different people’s bodies through the twentieth century. This meant episodes could vary wildly, as one week he’d be a legless Vietnam vet, and the next a pregnant woman. Or even a chimp. Or Lee Harvey Oswald. It was a varied show.

My Wife and Kids was probably intended as a replacement for The Fresh Prince, and while it never really made the same impact—let’s be honest, Damon Wayans isn’t quite Will Smith—it’s still an enjoyable show. It has that warm glow that predictable-yet-still-funny US sitcoms have, and it was always nice to see it pop up in reruns.

Between its original cancelation in 1989 and its shiny 2005 comeback, Doctor Who was more a national punchline and definitely not the multi-media juggernaut it is today. The show was kept alive with re-runs in the 6pm slot (alongside other old sci-fi like the original Battlestar Galactica), and its wobbly sets and ropey monster costumes were always worth a few laughs for the cynical 90s audience.

Malcolm In The Middle was basically billed as a live-action Simpsons, so it was only fitting that it ran alongside Homer et al on British TV. Despite the traditional family setting, its single camera set-up was pretty innovative for the time (predating the likes of Arrested Development and Community). But everyone really now only remembers it for pre-Breaking Bad Brian Cranston, and those dumb fan theories that Walter White goes into witness protection and becomes Malcolm’s dad.