18 years of Egoli at your fingertips

It’s officially the longest-running series on Showmax with 18 seasons, 4 686 episodes and over 2 300 hours of viewing. When Egoli started, the world was a very different place. We can talk about pre- and post-Egoli as a historical measure of time in South Africa. Just look at all these things that didn’t exist in SA when Egoli first aired in 1992.

1.  Smartphones

Do you remember the old-school Pentiums running the early stages of Windows? Seems prehistoric now that we basically have computers in our pockets that are more powerful than the ones used to send Buzz Aldrin to the moon.

2. The internet

Okay, so this is a tricky one. A couple of universities in South Africa got the internet in 1991, but it wasn’t really available for consumers until the mid-90s. And every time you connected it sounded like you were communicating with an alien race through the dial tone. Do you remember that sound?

3. McDonalds

Ronald and the gang only touched base in SA in 1995, and now have over 200 stores across the country. And while we revelled in the Happy Meals we didn’t realise Ronald was fast-tracking us to sign up for the gym. Thanks Ron.

4. The Cronut

Behold the birth of possibly the greatest patisserie of the 21st century. You take a croissant, you combine it with a donut, and you have the cronut. ‘Nuff said.

5. Democracy

Egoli is truly a historical measure of time in South Africa as it pre-dates democracy by two years. So you can definitely talk about contemporary South Africa in the context of pre- or post-Egoli, and perhaps it should be the academic standard going forward.

Take an immense trip down memory lane with the full Egoli collection available right now on Showmax.