Getting the Pop Culture References Right

[methodwriter85]

Alright. This is going to be a thread where I ask people about their opinion on pop culture references in CAP, to see if they're period-and-age appropriate.

 

For the inaugural question, I'm curious about something. Would someone who is a contemporary with Gathan (born in the early to mid-80's) understand a casual reference to the t.v. show, the Six Million Dollar Man? My contention is that they wouldn't, because the Six Million Dollar Man was not something that ran on t.v. all the time when they were kids in the mid-80s to mid-90s. There were apparently t.v. movies, but I'm betting that would have only really appealed to the parents. I think if you mentioned Lee Majors to today's current mid-to-late 20-somethings, you get a bunch of blank looks until someone said, "Farrah Fawcett's ex-husband."

 

If you're a contemporary with Gathan, do you remember any of your friends ever talking about that show? Did you watch it in reruns? My gut is saying that the Six Million Dollar Man is just one of those shows that would appeal strictly to Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, not something that this current generation really remembers.

 

What do you think?

[Dark]

I was born in the 80s and I know who the Multimillion Dollar Man is. I know Nightrider and the A-Team, Wonder Woman, Little House on the Prairie, and Bonanza, because my mother loved those shows. I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting at the moment. When we returned to the U.S. in the mid-90s, those shows played all the time as daytime dramas and even in the early afternoon before the more popular/current shows came on, like MacGyver and Quantom Leap and Star Trek. We watched them all the time. Some of it was likely because we couldn't get those shows on the BBC at the time, but since my mom now collects those shows on DVD, she really did like them.

 

I also remembered being madly in love with a handful of cartoons like the Transformers and GI Joe. And listening to Madonna on the bus ride to school (while we were in England, because we were behind the pop culture of the U.S. then). My mom hated that we'd come home singing her songs.

[B1ue]

With the exceptions of Little House on the Prairie, which I read in school, and Star Trek and MacGuyver, I can't think of a single detail to any of the shows you listed.

 

There's probably a fair amount of cultural resistance at play for me, though. This was a time that, as Tina Fey put it, pop culture was so white Jaclyn Smith was chocolate to Farrah Fawcett's vanilla.

[intune]

I was born in the late eighties, but I don't understand the reference.

[methodwriter85]

One thing that's been bothering me is the complete lack of mention of all the teenybooper stuff coming out at this time. Pop culture was just getting saturated with teen movies, music, and television at the time, and there's little reflecting that. There was some stuff about Leo Dicaprio in Bloodlines and a little bit about Harry Potter books in Millenium, but for the most part, the kids seem to almost exist in some kind of pop cultural vacuum. Will doesn't mention crushing on boy bands, or on the guys who populate the WB tv shows. Darius doesn't talk about crushing on Jennifer Love Hewitt and the like. It feels a little weird. One of the things that I really loved about Be Rad and Man In Motion was all the pop culture mentions that dated the time period, and made it feel like these were really people who were coming of age in the early/mid-1980s because the historical context was so well set up. It's not really happening here as much.

 

I think maybe that might be why I was so bothered by the Six Million Dollar Man reference- because we're not getting that many Y2K-era references, yet we still got a 70's one. I wasn't sure why I felt so bothered by that one, but I think that's the reason- because I don't think the pop culture of this era is getting reflected all that well. It made sense in Millenium, because of Brad's age, but with this one...it just doesn't make as much sense because any fourteen-year old gay boy in 2000 is going to be watching the WB to gawk at Jason Behr's constantly bared abs.

 

I could be wrong, though. I don't know why this bothers me so much, but eh. I have really liked the pop culture aspect of the story, but I feel like it's been getting de-emphasized in the last few stories we've had.

Edited May 30, 2011 by methodwriter85

[B1ue]

There were bared abs on tv during 2000?

 

The things I missed by preferring jogging to TV...

[methodwriter85]

It was the WB. I think the only show were the guys didn't constantly take their shirts off would've been Dawson's Creek. Buffy, Roswell, Popular, and Felicity were good about getting their guys shirtless.Then later on, the O.C. and One Tree Hill were especially good with exploiting the man candy.

Edited May 31, 2011 by methodwriter85

[B1ue]

I was combing through some old cd's, and it occurred to me that the American Queer as Folk started airing in December 2000.

Speaking of offerings of flesh on television...

[methodwriter85]

I watched it a few times. The eye-candy was nice, but I couldn't stand the characters, save for maybe Emmett.

 

In terms of gay characters, my favorite portrayal would be David on Six Feet Under.

 

In terms of man-flesh, nothing really beat watching Oz. I remember sneaking viewings of that show whenever we got the previews. Christopher Meloni has a great body. LOL.

[methodwriter85]

Hey Mark, the precocious nostalgia my generation has is paying off in dividends. I remember reading once that bosses who deal with Gen Y like to study generational and cultural touchstones to better understand them. Here are two primers for you to understand this generation better.

 

 

"You Know You're A 90's Kid When..."

 

 

"Your Childhood in 94 Seconds"

 

I related to most of this stuff, save for some of the cartoons mentioned. The shot of Bill Clinton getting sworn in for his presidency made me tear up. 90's America really didn't know just how good they had it.

 

When you come up with childhood references for JJ and Will, just think, "90's Nickelodeon" and "pogs". Seriously, you won't fail there.

Edited January 11, 2012 by methodwriter85

[B1ue]

90's America really didn't know just how good they had it.

 

Yes, because living through the Politically Correct wars was ever so much fun. Don't you remember not being able to say the word "black" because it might offend someone? Not just in reference to those of African descent, but at all? I personally encountered more racism during the 90's than I did in the ten years since they've finished up, never mind that I was a child then and so blocked by my age from having to deal with most of it. My sisters, parents, and cousins had it worse, especially those that were in the military at the time. I'm sure I'm forgetting some point or another, but the last overt comment I've gotten that I can recall was immedietely after 9/11. when someone thought I was Arabic.

 

Personally, I am not going to experience much nogistalgia for the 90s. The general wealth of the country did not touch me, after all, and on a personal level that entire decade blew.

[PrivateTim]

I love the changing, politically correct thing to call people. My great grand parents called African Americans "coloreds" which is interesting because we are almost back there with the "people of color" label. My grandparents, ever so PC called them Negroes, as in the United Negro College Fund, then my poor parents have had to go through the very brief Afro-American, on to "black" and now to African-American which seems to offend those from the Caribbean and South America.

[methodwriter85]

Well, my family was working class as well, but I was still able to get things like Pogs, Tamigotchis, CD players, etc etc. I don't know- even though there was a lot of crappy things in my life on a personal level, there was something about getting twenty dollars from Mom and thinking that was soooo much money that was great. And of course, the stuff in pop culture was truly great- from early 90's Disney, 90's Nickelodeon, late 90's the WB, the great teen movies like Clueless and Can't Hardly Wait, the fun of the boyband/teen queen pop era. My family got the internet in '99, and back then the internet just seemed really exciting and cool and new, and there was a high level of intelligence at every board I went to.

 

As for the racism, sorry to hear that. I grew up, respectively, in New Jersey, Texas, Delaware, and Maryland, and I don't really remember running into racism. Which was kind of crazy, because Elkton, Maryland was the center of a KKK chapter back in the '90's. The closest to overt racism I've gotten was people asking me "where I'm from", because I'm filipino and I don't really into the black/white dichotomy of the country, so I don't automatically register in people's race-o-meter.

 

Back to late 90's/early '00s pop culture:

 

 

I think on some subconcious level, I used to buy American Eagle clothing because that's what they wore on Dawson's Creek. And remember when everyone was in love with Katie Holmes? Geez.

 

And of course, we can't forget Cruel Intentions:

 

 

What an awesome, awesome ending. How incredible was the use of music to match the imagery and emotion?

Edited January 13, 2012 by methodwriter85

[methodwriter85]

Another JJ/Will childhood reference...All That. (Ran '94 to '05; golden age was the first couple of seasons.

 

 

I wish I could have gotten the season 1 theme in better quality, but it's better than nothing.

 

 

"QUIET! PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO STUDY!"

 

Seriously, there are few twentysomethings that don't remember this show. It came on at the same time that the Mickey Mouse Club was on it's way out, and it just seemed to have picked up that hip, edgy '90's vibe in a way that MMC wasn't able to do. It had more of an urban, hip-hop generation sensibility to it.

 

There was enough nostalgia going for this show that Teen Nick started a nostalgic 90's programming block running through the night with the show.

Edited February 18, 2012 by methodwriter85