# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/101 "2016-06-20T02:49:53Z")
> [@Alfishius](#): > > Read, dude. > > [Fan Theory Proves Almost All TV Shows Exist Within Same Universe | HuffPost Entertainment](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tv-show-fake-tommy-westphall-universe_us_55f84ba1e4b00e2cd5e8118a) > > They all actually exist only in that kid’s head. The evidence is overwhelming. TBG’s right. In the final scene we saw Tommy’s father and grandfather. Tommy had imagined them as characters in his globe but they were also real people in his life. There’s no reason to assume the other characters in Tommy’s mind weren’t also based on real people. ---
**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:** [June 20, 2016, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/102 "2016-06-20T20:40:34Z")
> [@smokey78](#): > > An Officer and a Gentleman > -or maybe not? > > OH, and how a big deal it was for couples to live together w/o marriage, the whole premise to Three’s a Crowd! It might not have been a big deal for a lot of people (and in San Francisco no less), but at the time it wasn’t implausible that the landlord might be an older person with conservative (pre-1960s) values. ---
**Author:** ![smokey78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@smokey78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smokey78)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/103 "2016-06-21T00:33:35Z")
Will mention the opposite problem: when films/stories depict a certain future year, and then that year comes up and we still haven’t seen over the air hoverboards (well not commercially) ala Back to the Future. The other example I recall was my teacher sheepishly saying, “well the author thought that would happen” I think it was a Ursula Le Guin short story set in 1987 where folks were colonized on the moon. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/104 "2016-06-21T01:58:47Z")
> [@smokey78](#): > > Will mention the opposite problem: when films/stories depict a certain future year, and then that year comes up and we still haven’t seen over the air hoverboards (well not commercially) ala Back to the Future. > > The other example I recall was my teacher sheepishly saying, “well the author thought that would happen” I think it was a Ursula Le Guin short story set in 1987 where folks were colonized on the moon. The best example has to be Asimov’s story about Everest; sure, he did a bad job of predicting the future when he wrote it – but by the time it saw print, _“I predicted that Mount Everest would never be climbed, five months after it was climbed.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Alfishius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@Alfishius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alfishius)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2016, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/105 "2016-08-06T23:15:51Z")
…and with all these shows being in that kid’s head, I think someone has shown that _our own world_ i.e. the “Real” world…is also in that kid’s head. Mind=blown, amirite? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/106 "2016-08-07T00:20:25Z")
> [@Alfishius](#): > > St. Elsewhere was all in that kid’s head…Even the real world is somehow inside that kid’s head… > [@Alfishius](#): > > Anyway so yeah all these shows were in that kid’s head… > [@Alfishius](#): > > They all actually exist only in that kid’s head… > [@Alfishius](#): > > …and with all these shows being in that kid’s head…the “Real” world…is also in that kid’s head. Hey **Alfishius** , just wondering if you think it’s all in that kid’s head. Please clarify. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Patch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a183cd/32.png) [@Patch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patch)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/107 "2016-08-07T02:18:15Z")
Stumbled across an episode of _Adam-12_ a few years ago. The main pair of cops had pulled someone over for some offense or other, and the guy was being a jerk. One of the cops took the guy’s license, went to his car, spread peanut butter on it, and ate it in front of the guy (licenses were paper then). He then wrote a guy a ticket for driving without a license, stating “Go ahead and challenge it. Tell the judge I spread peanut butter on your license and ate it. He’ll think you’re nuts.” Yup, because what we want is our officers fabricating tickets then committing perjury in court. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/108 "2016-08-07T02:32:21Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > Stumbled across an episode of _Adam-12_ a few years ago. The main pair of cops had pulled someone over for some offense or other, and the guy was being a jerk. One of the cops took the guy’s license, went to his car, spread peanut butter on it, and ate it in front of the guy (licenses were paper then). He then wrote a guy a ticket for driving without a license, stating “Go ahead and challenge it. Tell the judge I spread peanut butter on your license and ate it. He’ll think you’re nuts.” > > Yup, because what we want is our officers fabricating tickets then committing perjury in court. It’s a good thing black people didn’t exist on television back then or things coulda got violent. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/109 "2016-08-07T03:48:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …On the other hand, the human drama and interaction is appalling. Captain Breiteis is condescended to, and called “Bright Eyes” \*. It’s pretty neat that the first human into space is female, but she has to put up with this kind of abuse… IIRC the only reason she was the 1st human in space was because she was smaller & weighed less than the male astronauts. Also didn’t the President promote the male lead at the ender (after she married the couple) because naturally a husband had to outrank his wife (I guess POTUS is a widow or spinster)? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/110 "2016-08-07T04:34:14Z")
Interesting to read such a long-lived thread. For me it’s not attitudes, prop technology, or prices that date some entertainment so badly as to make me disconcerted (although some items, like Mickey Rooney’s performance in Breakfast in Tiffany’s make it unwatchable) it’s more about passe techniques. The big one for me is the psychedelic montage. I was reminded of it recently when Cracked made some jokes about the Nixon campaign ad “[Convention](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hM0CBfwI_Ck)”. The film adaptation of “Flowers for Algernon” (Charly) had a notable one. Obviously, 2001 had a famous one at the end. I think Kubrick liked the psychedelic montage-- and was good at them-- and they don’t stand out so much in his work, and thus don’t date them. I suspect that the ones that I dislike (and I really didn’t like the one in Charly, a film I otherwise didn’t mind) are imitations of Kubrick. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/111 "2016-08-07T05:14:19Z")
> [@Dave\_Hartwick](#): > > I think Kubrick liked the psychedelic montage-- and was good at them-- and they don’t stand out so much in his work, and thus don’t date them. I suspect that the ones that I dislike (and I really didn’t like the one in Charly, a film I otherwise didn’t mind) are imitations of Kubrick. That montage in _Charly_ was just awful, but I have a particular dislike for the “running from yourself” dream sequence [here](https://youtu.be/pxwja4BH5hk?t=5269), with distractingly bad double-exposure photography that must have seemed primitive even in 1968. But of course Cliff Roberston got the Academy Award - he didn’t go full retard. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/112 "2016-08-07T05:55:03Z")
I’ve been watching The Monkees season 1 lately. Vox Super Beatle amps? A Gretsch bass guitar? Come on! ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/113 "2016-08-07T07:46:20Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > That montage in _Charly_ was just awful, but I have a particular dislike for the “running from yourself” dream sequence [here](https://youtu.be/pxwja4BH5hk?t=5269), with distractingly bad double-exposure photography that must have seemed primitive even in 1968. > But of course Cliff Roberston got the Academy Award - he didn’t go full retard. Beating out Peter O’ Toole for \*\*A Lion in Winter \*\*who should’ve gotten it. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2016, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/114 "2016-08-07T09:49:44Z")
I had no idea Robertson got an Oscar for that. Here’s a [link](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxwja4BH5hk&t=67m40s) to the montage scene, which shows off his performance. Sure, the double exposure sequence is also bad, but holy crap. Speaking of the Monkees, I think I remember that their show had a lot of this sort of thing as well. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/115 "2016-08-08T01:34:10Z")
> [@smokey78](#): > > Will mention the opposite problem: when films/stories depict a certain future year, and then that year comes up and we still haven’t seen over the air hoverboards (well not commercially) ala Back to the Future. > > The other example I recall was my teacher sheepishly saying, “well the author thought that would happen” I think it was a Ursula Le Guin short story set in 1987 where folks were colonized on the moon. Anything done in the 1960s was hyper-optimistic where spaceflight is concerned. At the time people took the early space launches as the equivalent of Kitty Hawk, and presumed that spaceflight would advance as fast as technological development would allow. In fact they’d have been disbelieving if you told them that there’d be an interregnum where we’d putter about in low orbit for fifty years before even considering doing as much as returning to the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/116 "2016-08-08T04:24:43Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Anything done in the 1960s was hyper-optimistic where spaceflight is concerned. At the time people took the early space launches as the equivalent of Kitty Hawk, and presumed that spaceflight would advance as fast as technological development would allow. In fact they’d have been disbelieving if you told them that there’d be an interregnum where we’d putter about in low orbit for fifty years before even considering doing as much as returning to the moon. Heh, reminds me of a comment by an aerospace engineer who’d been involved in _Apollo_ along the lines of "If you’d told me in 1970 where we’d be in 1995, I’d’ve asked ‘was there a major war?’ " ---
**Author:** ![MsJinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/278dde/32.png) [@MsJinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsJinx)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/117 "2016-08-08T05:22:39Z")
Drunk driving was sometimes treated humorously in old shows. A car on a spewing fire hydrant was always good for a few laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Eclipse\_Chaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@Eclipse\_Chaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eclipse_Chaser)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/118 "2016-08-08T19:08:22Z")
Back on topic, _Hawaii Five-O_ is a gold mine for dated material. I always enjoyed the scene where one of McGarrett’s underlings was tailing a bad guy. When asked for an update he replied, _in all seriousness_: “He was last seen with three chicks. They were both very foxy.” There was no charming pimp-like inflection to his voice. It was stated as if this was legitimate technical law-enforcement terminology that would stand the test of time. [/QUOTE] Even way back then, it infuriated me the way whenever there was a pretty girl from the mainland in the plot, the guys would immediately switch to the Hawaiian language in front of her and start making personal comments about her. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/119 "2016-08-08T19:58:54Z")
> [@Eclipse\_Chaser](#): > > Back on topic, _Hawaii Five-O_ is a gold mine for dated material. I always enjoyed the scene where one of McGarrett’s underlings was tailing a bad guy. When asked for an update he replied, _in all seriousness_: “He was last seen with three chicks. They were both very foxy.” There was no charming pimp-like inflection to his voice. It was stated as if this was legitimate technical law-enforcement terminology that would stand the test of time. My favorite line was when McGarrett asked Chin Ho how much a bunch of figures came to: _“I don’t know. I don’t have my abacus with me.”_ ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2016, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226/120 "2016-08-08T20:04:34Z")
> [@Patch](#): > > Stumbled across an episode of _Adam-12_ a few years ago. The main pair of cops had pulled someone over for some offense or other, and the guy was being a jerk. One of the cops took the guy’s license, went to his car, spread peanut butter on it, and ate it in front of the guy (licenses were paper then). He then wrote a guy a ticket for driving without a license, stating “Go ahead and challenge it. Tell the judge I spread peanut butter on your license and ate it. He’ll think you’re nuts.” > > Yup, because what we want is our officers fabricating tickets then committing perjury in court. I don’t know what you watched, but it wasn’t Adam-12! I’ve seen all the episodes recently, not only is that not there, it doesn’t even fit the tone of the show. Jack Webb would never show characters doing crap like that. Let alone, them carrying a jar of peanut butter around just for jerk-assed tricks like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-shows-etc-moments-that-seem-really-dated-now/128226.md?page=7)