What was going on in the world when 'The Simpsons' debuted?

In time, “The Simpsons” would parody “Twin Peaks” a few times, particularly during the “Who Shot Mr. Burns?” two-parter. David Lynch and Mark Frost’s cult show actually debuted in April 1990, would get canceled after two seasons, and get revived for a third season on Showtime all during the run of “The Simpsons,” which continues.

In the criminal justice system…and so on. “Law & Order” is NBC’s indelible franchise about finding criminals and prosecuting them debuted in 1990. It would run until 2020, an impressive run in its own right, especially for a live-action show. The procedural has also had several spinoffs, including “SVU,” which continues to this day. “Law & Order,” by the way, has also returned.

We aren’t going to give every show that debuted in 1990 its own entry, but here are a few more notable programs to include. “Blossom” debuted with Mayim Bialik as the titular kid. Now, she’s one of the hosts of “Jeopardy.” “In Living Color” would help turn Jim Carrey and Jennifer Lopez into stars. “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” would birth Will Smith’s acting career. Also, for the kids of the ‘90s, “Tiny Toons Adventures” and “Captain Planet.”

“Match Game,” “Let’s Make a Deal,” and “To Tell the Truth” were all rebooted in 1990, though not effectively. One reboot was a success, though, and that’s “Supermarket Sweep.” Yes, the version hosted by David Ruprecht wasn’t the first. The show initially aired in 1967.

The iconic ‘90s show about sun, fun, drowning, and red bathing suits almost didn’t make it. The show debuted in 1989, a few months before “The Simpsons,” but was canceled by NBC after one season. Then, it was brought back in first-run syndication and ran for 10 more seasons into the 2000s.

“Consider Me Gone” was supposed to end the fourth season of “ALF” on a cliffhanger. ALF is planning to head to New Melmac, but is captured by the United States government’s Alien Task Force. Originally, it ended with a “To be continued…” but it wasn’t. “ALF” was canceled, leaving the fate of ALF up in the air.

A classic 1980s sitcom, “Newhart” would eke into the 1990s and then end with a bang. Or, rather, with a twist ending harkening back to an earlier show. In the series finale, after Bob Newhart's character is hit in the head with a golf ball, we suddenly find ourselves in the bedroom of Bob Hartley, his character from “The Bob Newhart Show.” Suzanne Pleshette even returned as Emily Hartley for the surprise.

“Miami Vice,” a quintessential ‘80s show, ended in 1990. So did “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” and “Pinwheel,” the first Nickelodeon show. Oh, also “The Tracey Ullman Show,” the FOX sketch show that was the originator of “The Simpsons.”

New cable networks were still being added into the mix in 1990. One of them was the Ha! Network. Ha! was Viacom’s comedy network set to compete with HBO’s The Comedy Channel, which had debuted in 1989. In the end, the two networks merged, giving us Comedy Central.

Clay, the polarizing standup comedian, was still a massive star in 1990. He even sold out Madison Square Garden. In the penultimate episode of the 15th season of “Saturday Night Live,” Clay was called upon to host. This led to cast member Nora Dunn boycotting the episode and also led to Sinead O’Connor backing out as the musical guest as well.

As is often the case, the 16th season of “SNL” saw some changes to the cast. Jon Lovitz was gone, as was Dunn, who was not in good standing after her boycott. Lorne Michaels needed some new cast members, so he promoted two writers, Rob Schneider and David Spade, to the cast. Then, he went out and added Chris Rock and Chris Farley as well. During the middle of the season, Michael brought in a couple more cast members: Tim Meadows and Adam Sandler. A huge year for “SNL,” to be sure.

Nickelodeon, the cable network for kids, was already an ongoing concern. In 1990, though, the network took a big step forward. Nickelodeon Studios opened in Orlando, Florida, and the network would begin to film their shows at the studio for several years.

In 1990, “L.A. Law” would win Outstanding Drama Series for the third of the four times it would win. Not bad for a show that was only on for eight seasons. Iconic sitcom “Cheers” would also win big, with the show, Woody Harrelson, and Rhea Perlman all winning Emmys. Of course, Emmy darling Candice Bergen also won for “Murphy Brown,” one of the five times she would win.

The Oscar ceremony every year hands out awards for the prior campaign. As such, the Academy Awards event that took place early in 1990 was for the films of 1989. The Best Picture winner at that Oscars, hosted by Billy Crystal, was “Driving Miss Daisy,” a largely-forgotten movie that isn’t necessarily fondly remembered.

People were skeptical of “Dances with Wolves.” Kevin Costner was not only going to star, but make his directorial debut, and studios didn’t think that Westerns were viable anymore. In the end, Costner’s gamble paid off. “Dances with Wolves” made $424.4 million worldwide, and would win not only Best Picture at the Oscars, but also Best Director.

Sure, “Dances with Wolves” was a huge hit, finishing fourth at the worldwide box office. However, it wasn’t the top hit of the year. Worldwide, that honor went to supernatural romantic drama “Ghost,” which made $505 million worldwide. Domestically, though, the top movie was “Home Alone,” which turned a young Macaulay Culkin into a star and birthed a few sequels.

The original “Teenage Mutant Ninjas Turtles” comic was a black-and-white, violent parody of “Daredevil,” but in the 1980s it was turned into a colorful cartoon to sell toys. Making a “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film made sense, but it was a gamble. The live-action, low-budget film actually ended up making history. “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” became the highest-grossing independent film of all time in 1990.

These days, sequels abound. They were around in the ‘80s and ‘90s, but not quite to the same degree. Two big sequels came out in 1990, though, and they were both successes. First, we had “Die Hard II,” an iffy attempt to capitalize on the massive success of 1988’s “Die Hard.” Then, there was the third, and final, “Back to the Future” film, which was a Western because, well, Robert Zemeckis wanted to make a Western.

Having two top-10 films in the box office in the same calendar year is an impressive feat, especially when you are the lead of both of them. Schwarzenegger pulled that off in 1990. He had both “Total Recall” and “Kindergarten Cop” come out that year, one year before “Terminator 2” definitively labeled him as the top movie star in the world.

It makes sense why “SNL” wanted O’Connor on as a musical guest (and she would be the guest on the season 16 premiere). Her song “Nothing Compares 2 U,” written by Prince, became a massive hit. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 for four weeks in a row and became the biggest single of the year worldwide.

Rap music existed prior to 1990, but it was still trying to click with a mainstream audience. Two poppier hip-hop artists had massive success that year. MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” helped turn the Oakland native into a star, with help from his parachute pants, and then Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” became the first-ever rap song to top the Billboard Hot 100. That, in hindsight, is a little awkward.

Madonna had a massive hit of her own in 1990, “Vogue,” and she also went on an epic world tour, her famed “Blond Ambition” tour. Like many things Madonna did, it proved controversial. Pepsi had dropped its sponsorship of the tour after the “Like a Prayer” music video created a lot of anger, and reportedly Pope John Paul II called for Catholics to boycott the “Blond Ambition” tour. Of course, that didn’t stop the tour from bringing in a reported $62.7 million.

2 Live Crew pushed the boundaries with its vulgar, explicit raps. Their 1989 album “As Nasty as They Wanna Be” courted controversy, and in June 1990 the group would be arrested for obscenity while performing in Florida. A little over a month later, they would release their next album, the fittingly titled “Banned in the USA.”

At a club in Seattle, Washington in October, a band named in honor of NBA role player Mookie Blaylock took the stage for the first time. The group would gain the attention of the band Alice in Chains and open for them on their 1991 tour. Mookie Blaylock would then sign with Epic Records, at which point they would change their name to Pearl Jam.

In 1990, pop punk pioneers Green Day and hip-hop icons A Tribe Called Quest both released their debut album. There was also the self-titled debut of Mariah Carey. Carey proved a huge success right out of the gate. The first four singles off of her album all topped the Billboard chart.

Handheld video games? They existed before the Game Boy, but Nintendo’s handheld console was huge for video game fans around the globe. Game Boy was released in Japan and North America in 1989, just before “The Simpsons” debuted, and then was released in Europe in 1990. Also released in North America in 1989? That would be the Sega Genesis.

“Super Mario Bros. 3” would be released in Japan for the Famicom in 1988, but it would take a little time to arrive in America. Americans with the Nintendo Entertainment System would have to wait for 1990 to get the third Super Mario game. The critically-acclaimed game would prove a massive hit, becoming the best-selling game in North America in 1990, and it is now the third-highest-selling NES game ever.

If you were a kid in the 1990s having trouble, say, beating Shredder in the ridiculously difficult “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” game, you might want to get your hand on a Game Genie. The contraption allowed you to use cheat codes or alter games in different ways. Game Genie was first released in 1990, at the time only usable on the NES.

“SimCity” is probably the most popular game ever wherein collecting taxes is a crucial part of your success. Gotta pay for that infrastructure you’re building! Especially if a giant monster rolls through town and destroys stuff! “SimCity” was released across assorted platforms from 1989 through 1991. It was definitely fun for the time, though “The Sims” would come to be the defining game of the franchise.

The Nintendo Entertainment System was all well and good, but it definitely felt old school. The Super Nintendo, though, felt like a real evolution in video gaming. It had several buttons on the controller! The SNES would arrive in North America in 1991, but Japan, the home of Nintendo, would get the system in 1990.

The 1989 NFL season would culminate early in 1990, when Super Bowl XXIV happened at the Superdome in New Orleans. This was before the halftime show really mattered, which is a shame, because it could have been the highlight of a game that needed it. The San Francisco 49ers ended up trouncing the Denver Broncos. Joe Montana’s team would beat John Elway’s by a score of 55-10.

Dallas was supposed to have the first-overall pick in the 1990 NFL Draft, but they forfeited it to take Steve Walsh in the 1989 supplemental draft. That left the Atlanta Falcons with the top pick, but they would then trade it to the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts traded up so they could take quarterback Jeff George out of Illinois. George would not prove worthy of being a top pick, but it was a bad year for quarterbacks, with Neil O’Donnell being the best one drafted. Not that it was a bad draft all in all. Among the first-round picks were Junior Seau and Emmitt Smith.

Expansion came to the NBA for the 1989-90 seasons. We got to see the first seasons of the NBA’s 26th and 27th franchises, the Magic and the Timberwolves. Neither team proved particularly good, which is how things used to go with expansion franchises.

While the Magic and Timberwolves were languishing – though neither finished with the NBA’s worst record – the Detroit Pistons were thriving. They would win their second NBA title in a row, this time taking down the Portland Trail Blazers. Hopefully, the Pistons enjoyed it. The 1989-90 season was Phil Jackson’s first coaching the Chicago Bulls, who would proceed to win the next three NBA titles.

Famously, Wayne Gretzky was dealt from the Oilers to the Los Angeles Kings. The 1989-90 season was Gretzky’s second season with the Kings, and he racked up 142 points in 73 games to win the Art Ross. However, it was his former Edmonton teammate Mark Messier who would have the last laugh. Messier won the Hart for league MVP and then led the Oilers to their fifth Stanley Cup by beating the Boston Bruins. It was the franchise’s first without “The Great One.”

It’s been a while since the Cincinnati Reds or Oakland Athletics were top MLB franchises, but both were racking up wins, and titles, in the 1970s. However, the success didn’t end there. In 1990, Cincinnati and Oakland met for the World Series. The A’s were the favorites, but the Reds pulled off the upset for their first title since 1976, and their last for now.

Oakland’s run to the World Series was powered by Rickey Henderson, who won the MVP of the American League. He led the AL in stolen bases with 65 as well. Meanwhile, Barry Bonds would win the NL MVP, but not with the Giants. No, this was when Bond was still a Pittsburgh Pirate.

The MLB Draft doesn’t get as much attention as the other major American sports leagues, but the 1990 MLB Draft was a big one for Atlanta. It decided to draft a high schooler out of Florida with its first pick. That would be Chipper Jones, who played his entire MLB career with Atlanta, helping it win a World Series en route to making the Hall of Fame.

Back in the ‘80s and ‘90s, there was no College Football Playoff, and prior to the late ‘90s, there wasn’t even the BCS. Also, New Year’s Day basically ended the college football season. Indeed, the 1989 college football campaign ended on January 1, 1990. Colorado, who was ranked number one heading into bowl season, lost to Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, while Miami beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. That pushed the Hurricanes up from second to first, making them the champions.

It’s maybe the most-famous boxing bout of all time. Tyson was the undefeated heavyweight champion and considered possibly the best boxer to ever do it. Buster Douglas was seen as cannon fodder, and he was a 42-1 underdog when he faced “Iron Mike” at the Tokyo Dome on February 11, 1990. Not only was Douglas not knocked out in the first round, but the fight kept going and going, and suddenly it was Douglas knocking out Tyson in the 10th round to become undisputed heavyweight champion. It was an upset for the ages.

After World War II, and all through the Cold War, Germany was a divided nation. Even Berlin was divided by a wall of note. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and that began a process of bringing West Germany and East Germany back together. On October 3, 1990, the Unification Treat was officially signed, bringing Germany together.

Mandela was a vital figure in the history of South Africa. He played a key part in ending apartheid, though he also spent a staggering 27 years in prison as part of that process. Mandela would eventually be elected President of South Africa in 1994, but first he was released from prison in 1990. And yes, he was released from prison. He did not die there.

Thatcher made history when she was elected as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979. Of course, history aside, the “Iron Lady” was an arch-conservative with bad politics who effectively waged war on laborers and the working class. Eventually, even her own party turned on her, and after being challenged for leadership, Thatcher resigned during her third term, to be replaced by John Major.

Tim Berners-Lee was working at CERN and getting annoyed about finding information stored on different computers. This led to him coming up with an idea for a “web” that would connect computers to make it easier to access data and information in 1989. So began the journey of the World Wide Web, the basis for the internet as we know it today. Berners-Lee worked on his proposal, and he introduced his concept of the World Wide Web in December of 1990.

Tensions in the Middle East were high in the early 1990s. Iraq, led by dictator Saddam Hussein, lit the match when it invaded Kuwait in 1990. This, eventually, led to the Persian Gulf War, and the United States’ involvement in said war.

Have you ever been to the Field Museum in Chicago? If so, you have surely seen Sue, arguably the best-preserved Tyrannosaurus Rex fossil ever discovered. It’s been a staple of the Field Museum for decades now, but it was discovered in a field in South Dakota by Sue Hendrickson in 1990. Yes, the skeleton is named after her.

A lot of Nobel Prize winners aren’t notable names, but the 1990 winner of the Nobel Peace Prize certainly was. It went to Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union and a key figure in the dissolution of the Cold War. Famously, Ronald Reagan implored Mr. Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, and soon thereafter this is exactly what happened.

Photoshop has been one of the most-used bits of software for a while, especially by graphic designers and people trying to craft creative and clever photos to use online. Though it is largely associated with the internet these days, it precedes ubiquitous internet use and social media. Adobe released the first version of Photoshop in 1990.

There were many products introduced in 1990. Among them, a staple of childhoods of the decade. The first Super Soaker, the water gun of record, was released in 1990, setting the pace for summers from that point on. We imagine the firepower of the first Super Soaker not being up to snuff by eventual standards. We also imagine Bart Simpson would have been a Super Soaker fan.