# Movies/TV where the writer is clearly much older than the character **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 21, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096 "2011-09-21T18:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/41 "2011-09-26T14:34:33Z")
My mother discovered Three Company’s in syndication and loved it. She had a crush on John Ritter. Amongst the younger people I know, they seem to like modern rap/R&B/whatever until they are about 25. Then they become huge classic rock fans, wanting to know everything about 1960’s music. Tell a 20 year old rap won’t last as long as rock and they won’t believe you. A 30 year old will agree. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/42 "2011-09-26T14:38:54Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Tell a 20 year old rap won’t last as long as rock and they won’t believe you. A 30 year old will agree. Bwuh? This doesn’t make any sense. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/43 "2011-09-26T16:17:33Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My mother discovered Three Company’s in syndication and loved it. She had a crush on John Ritter. > > Amongst the younger people I know, they seem to like modern rap/R&B/whatever until they are about 25. Then they become huge classic rock fans, wanting to know everything about 1960’s music. Tell a 20 year old rap won’t last as long as rock and they won’t believe you. A 30 year old will agree. Rap has already lasted longer than the period in which “classic rock” was created. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/44 "2011-09-26T18:49:59Z")
I get that people can have individual pop culture interests that have their roots before one’s time (I have some myself), but I know what the OP is talking about … it’s not that Marshall as an individual can’t have an Evel Knievel obsession, but it feels a tad off for him to make that reference as a general culture thing as opposed to a personal interest thing. (And God knows if it was a personal interest thing, _HIMYM_ would have done an episode on it.) I notice this a lot on _Psych_, Sean and Gus are supposed to be around 10 years younger than I am, but I’m pretty sure the writers are exactly as old as I am. (I just looked up two of the writers who have done multiple episodes at random, and yeah, they are my age.) ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/45 "2011-09-26T19:03:30Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > Milhouse _is_ a little young to know what POGs are let alone ALF, I mean come on! He’s too young _now_, yes, but that episode aired in the mid-to-late 90’s when Pogs were in their heyday. As for ALF, well…yeah, he would have been a little too young to remember it originally airing…but he would have been the perfect age when The Simpsons first aired ~seven years earlier, so I’ll give the writer’s some freedom to “play” wit the relative ages. They even made fun of that themselves in an episode where Homer describes his childhood and said it was the 6’s, or the 7’s, or it might have even been the 50’s, he couldn’t remember. ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/46 "2011-09-26T19:08:30Z")
> [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](#): > > Yeah, I know. But they _are_ always the same age in whatever year the episode takes place. That means that the episodes from say, 1991 where Marge was 34 means she was born in 1957. Which is a little too young to be into Paul Anka in his prime, or have been a young teenager painting pictures of Ringo. Same with the later Monkees reference. Marge would have been born in 1962 at that point. Boy, am I a geek. And the most recent retcon (in the 2007-2008 season) had Homer as a young man who started a grunge band in the 1990s. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/34f0e0/32.png) [@The\_Lovely\_Margo\_Lane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Lovely_Margo_Lane)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096/47 "2011-09-26T22:31:00Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > In _Beyond the Valley of the Dolls_, there is a lot of teenage slang, spoken by characters who are not teenagers. > > Watching the film, I often got the impression that the actors would have preferred iambic pentameter to the lines that Roger Ebert wrote for them. “I’ll study tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.” “You sound like Z-man!” “And Z-man sounds like Will Shakespeare…” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-tv-where-the-writer-is-clearly-much-older-than-the-character/597096.md?page=2)