Making myself feel old through popular media

[Guy Gardener]

Here's something really sad and pathetic.

Last night I found myself feeling excited about watching "Saturday Night Fever".

When I was a teenager, I always wanted to be "Tony Manero".

Still streets ahead of wanting to be young Tony Danza.

 

[the G-man]

A few years ago, I found myself feeling excited about picking up dvd season sets of old tv shows from the 1970's and 1980's...Watching these tv shows again (now as a middle aged adult), I eventually came to the realization how awful a lot of this stuff was.

Of the list you gave, Magnum still holds up in my book, along with the first season or two of Miami Vice (if you can get past the dated 80s references, especially on the latter). But a lot of what you listed were, basically, kids' shows. Maybe not in terms of being Sat AM programs, but in terms of the fact they were written to appeal to younger audiences. So it isn't surprising that, as an adult, they'd lose their appeal.

 

[Guy Gardener]

When I was about 4, I walked in on my parents watching Caligula, and years later I deducted that what I had seen must have been I Claudius, but after sitting through I, Claudius twice, I really was perplexed about where all the naked penises had gone.

 

[Argus Skyhawk]

I just learned a scary tidbit. Ralph Macchio is now 51 years old, which means he is the same age Pat Morita was when they shot The Karate Kid.

Ralph Macchio was in his 20s when they made The Karate Kid?! Wow. Did not know that.

Yep. It was common for twentysomethings to play highschoolers then (and possibly still is?), but the difference in Macchio's case was that he actually looked as young as the character he was playing.

 

[the G-man]

...as opposed to, say, the cast of Grease.

 

[Aldo]

Or the cast of the Porky's films. Who, by the third film, were starting to have receding hairlines.

 

[Magellan]

A few years ago, I found myself feeling excited about picking up dvd season sets of old tv shows from the 1970's and 1980's...Watching these tv shows again (now as a middle aged adult), I eventually came to the realization how awful a lot of this stuff was.

Of the list you gave, Magnum still holds up in my book, along with the first season or two of Miami Vice (if you can get past the dated 80s references, especially on the latter). But a lot of what you listed were, basically, kids' shows. Maybe not in terms of being Sat AM programs, but in terms of the fact they were written to appeal to younger audiences. So it isn't surprising that, as an adult, they'd lose their appeal.

Totally agree on Magnum. I wsnt old enough to enjoy it when it was new but I'm watching through it now and find it to be a well written and enjoyable show today. I agree that many of the older shows don't but I think they are primarily the "dumb" action ones(ahem A-Team). I don't think sitcoms have really changed all that much, and ones from 20 or thirty years ago arent exactly high art but neither is the Big Bang Theory

I think iI must be old when I think of Jurassic Park as being state of the art fx and its older than many college students

 

[Holdfast]

I just learned a scary tidbit. Ralph Macchio is now 51 years old, which means he is the same age Pat Morita was when they shot The Karate Kid.

Ralph Macchio was in his 20s when they made The Karate Kid?! Wow. Did not know that.

Yep. It was common for twentysomethings to play highschoolers then (and possibly still is?), but the difference in Macchio's case was that he actually looked as young as the character he was playing.

Yeah, it's the second half of your sentence that made me surprised. Macchio actually looked like a young teen. I just looked up a more recent pic. If anything, the difference to his actual age is even greater now. He looks a good 15-20 years younger than his actual age. Guy has good genes.