In grainy videos posted by 90s nostalgia Instagram accounts, you can watch a vivacious and exuberant Sofia Vergara explore the canals of Venice, the chilly streets of Boston, and the beautiful beaches of El Salvador. Nowadays, it’s pretty hard to find full episodes of the show Fuera de Serie online. Airing between 1995 and 1998 on Univision, it was comparable to English language programs on The Travel Channel. Somehow, it’s become my favorite travel content on the internet. I’m not alone either; these videos regularly racked up thousands upon thousands of views and likes.
Part of the allure of these videos is Sofia Vergara herself—she is enthusiastic and has the kind of wide-eyed curiosity about the places she’s telling you about that would make just about anyone excited to visit the location. She’s also incredibly, incredibly beautiful and wearing the kind of ’90s-style clothing we are trying to emulate in current fashion. Along with her co-host, Fernando Fiore, the Spanish-language program is a fun mix of eagerness and cheekiness.
Whether the duo was exploring Busch Gardens or standing in front of the Hollywood Sign, there was an excited energy that feels a bit absent from so much of the travel content we get today. Sure, it might be a bit dated, but compared to some of the ASMR-style travel videos on social media today, the music and cadence of Fuera de Serie I see on Instagram is a dose of vibrancy that’s hard not to miss.
It is not just the hosts that make the show—it’s also the type of locations that the hosts visit. There’s less of a focus on off the beaten path destinations and more on places that are just cool and fun to visit. Sometimes, that’s somewhere like the beaches of El Salvador, or the city of Cairo—but it could also be the Hollywood sign or a theme park. There wasn’t any place that was too far or too common. All of it was fair game and worth exploration.
But perhaps my favorite thing about watching these old clips of Fuera de Serie is that the prospect of traveling still seemed like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Whether you were watching a segment on Sydney or Tampa, the show elicited thoughts like, “Wow, I would be so lucky to visit that place.” The world has changed so much in three decades that the novelty of going on vacation has somewhat worn off.
Nowadays, it feels like traveling is a requirement of a life well lived, a forgone conclusion for anyone with a certain amount of disposable income. Because it is seen as something everyone should do, there hasn’t been much time to marvel at the fact that we can do it—hop on a flight, sail on a cruise, explore a part of the world different from our own. Somehow, watching Sofia Vergara grin ear to ear as she dances with a snake wrapped around her hips reminded me that traveling is a very precious fortune.
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