- [Narrator] It's April, 1996, and it's time for lunch.
(upbeat music)
Bill Clinton is the president,
Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me"
is on its fifth week at number one on the Billboards,
and "Tremors 2" is currently in theaters.
(school bell rings) The bell just rang,
and lunchtime, for you, might have looked like this.
And if not for you, then for that other kid
who always got the good lunches.
(dreamy music)
♪ Ah ♪
♪ The meal ♪
(phone beeping)
- [Narrator] Bob, can you hear me?
- I can. - Bob Drane was the lead
on the team that developed Lunchables.
- [Bob] It was a real blast, from beginning to end.
- [Narrator] But the name, he says, didn't come easily.
- [Bob] So we had a bunch of names.
"Little Oscar's Lunch Fixing's."
"Cracker Wiches," "Go Packs," "Snackables,"
"Mini Meals," "Lunch Express."
- [Narrator] Until they landed on a name
that truly defined a generation.
- [Bob] We ended up with "Lunchables."
(marker rasping) (dreamy music)
♪ The drink ♪
- [Narrator] Okay, if we had to pick one word
that defined '90s drinks,
it would probably be squeezable.
Between Kool-Aid Bursts, Capri Suns,
Squeezeits, and Mondo, there was a lot of market.
- [Ken] They all kind of came out at the same time.
- [Narrator] That's Ken.
- [Ken] Hi, It's Ken Wegner.
- [Narrator] President at Jel Sert,
the company that made Mondo.
First question, we wanna know about the cap.
- [Ken] Well, it was a child-protective cap.
It couldn't be swallowed.
- [Narrator] Right, I guess when I was younger
it just seemed way cooler than an anti-choking design.
- [Ken] But it was really all about fun and flavor,
and I think kind of, in some ways, a legendary product.
♪ The dessert ♪
- [Narrator] A quick side note:
Dunkaroos are no longer in production.
And try as we might, and we tried hard,
we could not find any, anywhere, for sale.
So this, it's just a printout, we're sorry.
- Aw! - Okay, back to the script.
Dunkaroos were king in the lunchroom.
And the ads were iconic.
- [John] I paid my bills, in the mid-90s, with voiceovers.
- [Narrator] That's John Cameron Mitchell,
writer of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch,"
and you might recognize him from "Girls,"
"Shrill," or "Mozart in the Jungle."
- But now, new--
- [Narrator] He was the kangaroo
in the Dunkaroos commercial.
- [John] I basically kind of imitated Robin Leach.
You know, "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous."
So I did a very bad Australian accent;
when I said, "How do you do your Dunkaroos?"
I later worked with Nicole Kidman in "Juniper,"
and she's like not very good.
- [Crowd] Aw!
- [Narrator] And there it is, your lunch
and some of the people behind it in 1996.
- [Kids] Yay!
(bright music)