# Movies/TV Shows/etc moments that seem really dated now... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2002, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226 "2002-09-13T04:39:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/201 "2019-05-03T06:07:44Z")
this is an old one but on the Waltons, there was an episode where johns bitching about the electric bill and there gonna just have to use the fireplace and go to bed earlier Now its in the 30s …but wanna how know much it was ??? A dollar seventy five… i choked on what i was drinking … I wish an electric bill was only 1.75 … ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/202 "2019-05-03T06:34:59Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > this is an old one but on the Waltons, there was an episode where johns bitching about the electric bill and there gonna just have to use the fireplace and go to bed earlier > Now its in the 30s …but wanna how know much it was ??? > A dollar seventy five… i choked on what i was drinking … I wish an electric bill was only 1.75 … This was dated when it first aired. It takes place in the past. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/203 "2019-05-03T12:16:46Z")
> [@nightshadea](#): > > A dollar seventy five… i choked on what i was drinking … I wish an electric bill was only 1.75 … This when a working man earned five dollars a day. ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/204 "2019-05-03T16:03:51Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > This when a working man earned five dollars a day. Bingo. I ran the numbers through an inflation calculator: I used the year 1933 to put it in the more or less center of the Walton’s period. ( John-boy graduated HS in 1934 ). A dollar seventy five would be $34.22 today. Pretty much all for lighting only. ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/205 "2019-05-03T16:37:49Z")
From 2015…Not so long ago. But Specialist Mindy Park is using an iPhone _with a headphone jack_. They have a botched launch, then have to go to the Chinese as they have the only other rocket available (JLA, SpaceX, et. al. these days should be able to rubberband a rescue rocket together roughly once a month.) What gets me is monitors. That VGA CRT? The Trinitron? The LED that’s still 2" thick? Now that monitors truly ARE thin sheets of glass, I wonder what’s going to come next that’ll make them look dated. (I know this: Open concept offices will get even worse, with workstations being 2 foot on a side, with four people sitting Knee to Knee and using VR goggles instead of screens. ) ---
**Author:** ![Alfishius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Alfishius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfishius)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/206 "2019-09-06T23:53:52Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > ISWYDT. I have no idea what those letters are supposed to stand for. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2019, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/207 "2019-09-07T00:08:47Z")
> [@Alfishius](#): > > I have no idea what those letters are supposed to stand for. I see what you did there ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/208 "2019-09-08T05:44:33Z")
If I see a scene where a high schooler hoping to get into his or her college of choice is praying to get a fat envelope instead of a thin envelope, that seems kind of dated. I don’t have kids, so I wouldn’t know, but surely that’s a thing of the past? I would think most of this stuff is done by email now. Or, perhaps, acceptance letters are also thin because it’s just one sheet directing you to the various websites you need to go to to get your registration underway. ---
**Author:** ![Mikemike2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikemike2/32/305_2.png) [@Mikemike2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mikemike2)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/209 "2019-09-08T13:57:38Z")
> [@ratty](#): > > I wonder what will seem dated in five, ten, and twenty years? You dont have to wonder anymore, w’ere here. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/210 "2019-09-08T20:04:01Z")
We’re currently semi-binge watching Barney Miller as our one-a-night classic sitcom. Just started season 6. (Goodbye, Nick!) There’s a lot of sexist stuff going on. For one thing, all make detectives. Linda Lavin was a temp assignment for a few episodes but of course ended up stuck in the role of Wojo’s love interest because what else is she good for? One trope the show does over and over is have a woman sit in the room for a long time, maybe going over mugshots, and gradually she gets “interested” in one of the males in the room (a cop or a perp). And humor ensues. Well, I think that’s what they thought they were doing. Again, the writers seem to have a limited idea about how a woman character could be funny. In one episode, a couple were in the room due to the husband raping his wife while she slept. Barney works his usual magic and the couple reconcile and charges are dropped. A happy ending! … Wait, what? No, that’s not a good ending. And certainly not for a sitcom. OMG. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/211 "2019-09-08T22:50:48Z")
> [@ratty](#): > > And the seperate beds for married couples! They were all over TV and movies until maybe the late 60’s. The crazy thing is, nobody in real life who was married actually had double beds. But I guess seeing even straight, married couples with children in the same bed would have offended some people and been called ‘indecent’. My parents had a double bed in the 1960s, I still have the frame [ca 1870 ‘4 poster’ in cherry] > [@Rilchiam](#): > > There was an episode of **Dick Van Dyke** where Rob and Laura thought their marriage wasn’t valid, and hastened to rectify it. It was supposed to be outlandish when Laura said, “But we can’t get married tonight; I couldn’t get a babysitter!” Actually at the time NY had ‘common law marriage’ where if a couple presents themselves as husband and wife, more or less they are married. I know at least one couple in the town I grew up in that were common law, and there wasn’t anything wrong, nobody treated them or their kids any different from his brother Howard, who was married by the local justice of the peace. I know a fundie Christian my husband served in the Navy with who was determined that mrAru and I were not married because it was not done in a church … despite we would not be able to be married because I refuse to convert, and would have refused to do any sort of [pre-cana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Cana) process. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2019, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/212 "2019-09-08T23:16:36Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > Actually at the time NY had ‘common law marriage’ where if a couple presents themselves as husband and wife, more or less they are married. I know at least one couple in the town I grew up in that were common law, and there wasn’t anything wrong, nobody treated them or their kids any different from his brother Howard, who was married by the local justice of the peace. New York abolished common-law marriage in 1930 something - although NY will recognize a common law marriage established in a state where it is legal. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2019, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/213 "2019-09-09T08:58:48Z")
> [@Mikemike2](#): > > You dont have to wonder anymore, w’ere here. Well played, sir. After all, it’s going to be [the future soon…](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeV9gsl5jR0) ---
**Author:** ![Alfishius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Alfishius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfishius)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/214 "2020-05-22T11:29:41Z")
This is not the best future, is it? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2020, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/215 "2020-05-22T12:09:00Z")
Well, since this zombie has been a-walkin’ for quite a while, here’s my 2 cents: In the 70s and early 80s, practically every show had an episode where a computer screwed up and did something stupid, and all the people at whatever company that maintained the computer either refused to recognize that the computer could be wrong, or had no way to override it. Everything from\* The Partridge Family\* to _Cagney & Lacey_ had such an episode. I think _One Day at a Time_ had two. Mostly, I am really good at considering dated episodes within their own contexts, but these episodes bug the heck out of me. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/216 "2020-05-24T11:14:14Z")
It isn’t “dated” per se, more like period-accurate, but I was pretty shocked at the homophobic and racist remarks by the protagonists in _Breaking Bad_ on a rewatch. I know they’ve toned it down since it’s not nearly as prevalent in _Better Call Saul_, which is a prequel. ---
**Author:** ![Ashtura](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ashtura/32/2963_2.png) [@Ashtura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashtura)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/217 "2020-05-24T11:17:46Z")
> [@Cubsfan](#): > > All of our ships still need to be manuverd in the atmosphere to GET into space. Any ship that is going to land on, or take off from a planet that has any atmosphere is going to need fins for manuvering unless we come up with some new technology or something. Before the new Star Wars movies, it did not occur to me at all that TIE fighters could fly in an atmosphere. That just seems aerodynamically impossible. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/218 "2020-05-24T13:36:05Z")
I hadn’t thought about the TIE fighters (which is very out of character… I usually obsess about stuff like that). Their “wings”, unlike the X-Wings, are vertical. > [@Alfishius](#): > > The 80s were fucking awesome. I wish all the girls fashions of the 80s would come back. The hair, the clothes, the makeup…nothing hotter than an 80s chick and if you don’t think so, you’re a dope. But a straight dope… ---
**Author:** ![Limmin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f04885/32.png) [@Limmin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Limmin)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/219 "2020-05-24T13:52:49Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > Before the new Star Wars movies, it did not occur to me at all that TIE fighters could fly in an atmosphere. That just seems aerodynamically impossible. Well, you know, why not? Star Wars, being squarely in the realm of space fantasy, can always adapt its technology to fit. For instance, don’t all these small fighters have “deflector” screens or fields, to deflect incoming projectiles and beams? This has been “lore” since 1977, “…switch your deflectors on, double-front!..” OK, so just tune them such that they deal with an oncoming atmospheric air flow, to provide lift and maneuverability, and reduce drag and atmospheric heating. Boom, done. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2020, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/220 "2020-05-24T14:13:54Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > In the 70s and early 80s, practically every show had an episode where a computer screwed up and did something stupid, and all the people at whatever company that maintained the computer either refused to recognize that the computer could be wrong, or had no way to override it. Everything from\* The Partridge Family\* to _Cagney & Lacey_ had such an episode. I think _One Day at a Time_ had two. [Also computer dating episodes](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=874359). I find shows with kind-of-but-not-quite modern tech especially dated-seeming. For instance, I’ve recently been rewatching NewsRadio, where Dave uses a laptop computer–but it is an inch thick. And in one of the early episodes Beth takes nude Polaroids of herself and faxes them to her boyfriend. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226.md?page=12)