E.T. was re-released in theaters in 2002 with “altered special effects and additional scenes.”
I think a lot of the stuff from the 80’s on just seemed big because of cross-media marketing campaigns, like billboards, fast food tie-ins, video games, hit songs and toys. I have memories of a lot of movies I never actually saw, but saw all of the promotions.
Disco
Shrek 2
It sits at #5 for the largest domestic box office.
It made $441 million in the U.S. while the original Shrek only made $267 million and sits at #58.
But today people still remember the original as the classic favorite of the series.
Ask about Shrek 2 and people seem to be “oh yeah, I saw that one, what was it about again? That was one of the sequels right? The sequels sucked. The original is the best.”
As long as Devil’s Tower exists, people will remember Close Encounters. There’s a KOA campground right outside the monument’s entrance–they show the movie every night during the summer on a big screen with the tower looming in the background.
In the same vein as ET and Close Encounters, I think Poltergeist is pretty lightly-regarded today (when regarded at all). At the time, it was a phenomenon.
Also, does anyone bother to watch Rambo these days?
I watched First Blood for the first time last night and I liked it.
Who shot J.R.?
The Macarena
Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty
parachute pants
Flashdance
leg warmers
the early Madonna “street waif” look
decoder rings
Barbra Streisand and Barry Manilow. They were huge back in the '70s (at least judging by the overabundance of their records in used vinyl shops) and yeah, they still have sizable fan bases. But when was the last time you heard any of their music played on the radio, even oldies stations. And they rarely, if ever, pop up in conversations about the great pop stars of their day.
In terms of movies, I’d say Titanic. Was the box office champ up until Avatar, and won 11 Oscars, but you rarely hear anyone talking about it today and it only rarely factors into conversations about great movies of the '90s.
Those are some interesting recommendations from the 1930s and 40s.
Poltergeist is also a great call. Even horror fans won’t watch it these days because it’s not scary enough and it takes that 70s-fad-ESP stuff way too seriously. Flashdance is a good choice too.
How about the Cocoon films?
this will never be forgotten.
He’s on Always Sunny in Philadelphia now, so I don’t think this example is true.
Probably stretching “Cultural events” a bit so I’ll nominate manned space flights. In the 1960s my elementary school would assemble in the auditorium to watch the Mercury flight take offs on television. Networks would devote hours to covering them. Yet where is Neil Armstrong now?
Oh, I was talking about his film roles. He made about a thousand “zany” movies like Twins, Other Peoples’ Money, etc., which were competently made and very popular but all add up to nothing. And his “serious” movie (Hoffa) was one of the worst biopics you’ll ever see - he directed AND co-stars as Hoffa’s fictional best friend (!) AND has an icky love scene.
E.T.'s not still beloved? Not by me, I mean. I loathe the glorified little bowel movement. But there’s still tons of people who are all, “Awww” over that damned alien.
I actually just heard him mentioned last night and had to look him up. The sad thing is that the reason I heard him mentioned was that his granddaughter is one of the Real Housewives of DC.
The Joel Schumacher Batman films. 1995’s “Batman Forever” (the one with Val Kilmer) was the highest grossing movie that summer and the second highest overall for that year (after Toy Story) and actually received some halfway decent (not stellar, mind you) reviews. Nowadays if anyone mentions it at all it’s too malign it or make fun of it.
John Hughes and his coming of age 1980’s angst movies.
All those brat pack actors that starred in those films.
Pretty much forgotten along with big hair rock and other 80’s stuff.
Was that a whoosh? He’s a very private guy.
I think there are a lot of these to be found in literature. Two that spring to mind are Florence Hemans and Marie Corelli. Hemans was a celebrated Victorian poet(ess) who wrote moral poems often based on true events. The only lines that survive in the popular imagination being
Marie Corelli was a best selling novelist, writing highly melodramatic romances, often with exotic settings in places she actually knew very little about. In her lifetime she outsold the likes of Conan Doyle, HG Wells and Kipling. Critics deplored her.
*From the poem Casabianca, as Wikipedia puts it:
.
I liked bits of Lost World, though I was vexed that Toby from the West Wing died when Vince Vaughn did not. It was just proof that God hates us.
I agree; it’s a great song. It knocked a bunch of the stuff from the SNF soundtrack off the top 10, and it was on the charts for something like 45 weeks.
But mention Gerry Rafferty today, and I’d be surprised if one person out of 1000 recognized the name and could put it with the song.
ETA: It was 49 weeks. I just looked it up. Can you believe I remembered that from hearing Casey Kasem say it on air back in 1978? WOOT!