I’ve been reading comic books, watching kids’ TV shows and playing NES & SNES games I liked as a kid and I’ve overall been underwhelmed. I tend to enjoy listening to some of the opening themes (like this one: Générique Inspecteur Gadget.flv - YouTube ) but I don’t know if that’s because of nostalgia or because intros tend to be catchy. It’s brought back memories but overall, I don’t tend to enjoy the comics/shows/games of my youth.
Some of the S/NES games I played a lot seem kinda shitty or just don’t grab me. Yet I remember being enthralled by them, they seemed so vivid. I think I was in a flow state of complete presence when reading/watching/playing them. But now, those same TV shows and comic books seem to be way too on the nose with stilted dialogue. The same games feel repetitive or simplistic in a way that the games I play today don’t. I don’t know what to think of that.
Same here, though the first couple of Xanth books are still ok - or at least not ridiculously creepy.
Also, cars in general. I mean, I may still appreciate the looks of now-classic cars, especially muscle cars, but there’s no way I’d want to own or drive almost any of them, even if they were magically in showroom-new condition. Today’s cars are just so much better in just about every way. Acceleration, handling, braking, safety, economy…there’s just no comparison.
I have kinda the opposite: I find myself getting nostalgic for stuff I used to hate. The Goo Goo Dolls came on the other day, and I thought to myself “Aww, I remember when I first heard these guys and how much I thought they sucked.” Then I listened to the whole damn song and it wasn’t as bad as I remember, and then I felt…sorta nostalgic for some reason.
To me, the memories ARE the nostalgia. I can have fond memories for comics/shows/games/etc. of my youth while at the same time understand I would not enjoy them if I had encountered them as an adult.
I get this too-- I started an 80s song thread here a couple months ago and the videos that were posted sent me down a huge nostalgia rabbit hole. Despite the fact that when I was living the 80s as a young person, I was solidly into 70s style rock; and hated, or at least convinced myself I hated, synthesized silly 80s music with a passion.
At least it was one of the better (and less offensive) Piers Anthony books.
I’m amused these days when people get mad about reboots to Thundercats or He-Man or other 80s American action cartoons. Man, they all sucked! Seriously. Terrible plots and shitty animation designed to sell toys. They were okay enough when I was ten years old and easily impressed by dudes fighting monster-people but none of them hold up to adult viewing. If someone wants to turn them into an anime or Adventure Time-lookin’ thing or whatever else, have it. There’s nothing there to desecrate.
This is kind of what I get with Roald Dahl. As a kid, I thought he was the most entertaining, interesting author ever. Now as a grown-up, I find his writing to be packed full of political agenda and cynicism.
I still feel very nostalgic about the toys and hobbies I enjoyed as a kid – toy trains, slot cars, model rockets, etc. I feel nostalgic for the sports teams that I followed as a kid – the Packers and the Brewers – and the players and style of play from that era. And, I still love a lot of the music that I grew up on.
It’s the TV shows that often haven’t aged well. A lot of the Saturday-morning kids’ programming that I loved when I was a little kid, I can’t even bear to watch now. My very favorite show was The Banana Splits; I watched an episode or two as an adult, and I was surprised to see just how very bad it really was. Some of the evening shows that I loved – like Emergency! and The Six Million Dollar Man – aren’t cringe-worthy like the kids’ shows, but when I’ve watched them recently, the slow pacing of television shows from that era (compared to modern TV series) is really noticeable.
The first CD I ever owned, in third grade, was Connected by the Stereo MCs. I was especially fond of the title track.
I absolutely cannot stand that song now. I’m resolved never to listen to it again.
Most other stuff I liked during my childhood, I think I just grew out of it. I was a Power Rangers fan the first year it aired. I don’t think I could sit through an episode of it now, but that’s mostly because I don’t think the show really appeals to my adult self. I did watch the 2017 film, though.
I haven’t heard or even thought of that song in 25 years, and I was much older than you when it came out (early twenties), but I fondly remember the song and still think it’s quite good. Now I have an earworm .
I remember thinking the TV show Monty Python was so funny as a kid that I would laugh until I couldn’t breathe. Nowadays I find it’s only intermittently funny.
Hanna-Barbera in general, but especially the adventures, like The Herculoids. I really liked that as a youngker, but, today, it’s too painful even to watch for a few moments.
(Jonny Quest and Pirates of Dark Water stand the test of time a little better.)
As a tadpole, I liked Casper and Richie Rich. Today, looking at them, I find that they’re not even one-dimensional.
For me, the chase cartoons: Tom never catches Jerry, Wile E. Coyote never catches Roadrunner and Sylvester never catches Tweety. How long can you milk it without ever getting boring? As a kid, very long, but not anymore.
I chewed so much Bazooka Joe that now I cannot stand to chew gum.
I watched way too much TV. I would get home from school and do homework in front the afternoon shows, like Mike Douglas and Match Game. Once I got to college I developed an aversion to TV. I do lament the loss of the WB cartoons, not out of nostalgia but I feel the production quality was so much better. There followed a long period where TV cartoons were just total shit, and then I was fascinated when my kids would watch Sponge Bob and Fairly Odd Parents.
I wish I still had my old Mattel Thingmaker sets. The Pretzel Jetzel was pretty cool, too.
However, some of the TV shows I loved as a kid are unwatchable to me now. All in the Family and the other Norman Lear shows just grate on my nerves. They just seem loud and coarse to me now. MASH, Hogan’s Heroes, and Andy Griffith do too, but with them it’s probably because I’ve seen way too much of them, just like why I can’t stand hearing any old Bob Seger songs on the radio.
There’s a podcast I listen to called “I used to watch this?” It’s run by a couple of Gen X guys and features shows I used to love (or tolerate because my brother watched them) like CHiPs, Miami Vice, Rockford Files, and Starsky & Hutch.
Man, I had forgotten how boring and trite tv was back in the era of only 3 networks.
The first two of the Xanth series, maybe 3 or even 4 are still good. Then they start the downward spiral into the worst sort of hack crap. I have not tried re-reading the Incarnations, but I remember only Death was really good.
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was one of my Faves. I tried to re-read it, but the Prof’s long boring and utterly wrong political lectures made me toss the book aside.
The Suson Cooper YA fantasies are still good, but Edward Eager- no longer so, alas.
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