# Things that date movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 12, 2011, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465 "2011-03-12T23:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/121 "2011-03-15T04:26:36Z")
> [@jabiru](#): > > I have no idea what a church key is. Isn’t it what you use to open Tomato Juice and Grapefruit Juice? Gotta punch two holes to prevent regurge. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/122 "2011-03-15T04:29:55Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Isn’t it what you use to open Tomato Juice and Grapefruit Juice? Gotta punch two holes to prevent regurge. It might be. I certainly know what you’re talking about. I still own and use such an item to open cans. I just don’t recognise the ‘church key’ reference. We just call 'em can openers. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2011, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/123 "2011-03-15T08:44:12Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > It really is amazing how quickly cell phones turned some movies and TV shows into period pieces. We were watching Buffy, and it seemed every other episode someone had to tear over to someplace to warn someone of the terrible thing that was about to happen, only OH NO, it’s too late! And this was a series from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. I’ve never really understood this complaint as Buffy and Seinfeld appear to be late 90s productions and most people didn’t have cell phones. If I remember right, Buffy got one in season seven, which was still two years before I got one. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/124 "2011-03-15T09:32:16Z")
justin, I bet it’s people who’ve had cells for so long, they forget not having them. (can’t remember EXACTLY when they got their 1st one) ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/125 "2011-03-15T12:48:35Z")
> [@devilsknew](#): > > Isn’t it what you use to open Tomato Juice and Grapefruit Juice? Gotta punch two holes to prevent regurge. Here are some [instructions.](http://rustycans.com/HISTORY/OIs.html) Some images [Church keys](http://www.wordorigins.org/images/churchkeys.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/126 "2011-03-15T14:02:23Z")
Use or non-use of seat belts Ability to receive calls at pay phones Rotary phones Hosed legs on women ---
**Author:** ![Crotalus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crotalus/32/41_2.png) [@Crotalus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crotalus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/127 "2011-03-15T16:30:17Z")
> [@salinqmind](#): > > This is pretty obvious, but I always enjoy pointing it out: show a city park or county fair, and all the men are (mostly) wearing hats, long sleeved shirts, and/or suits. Only working men dressed what we think of as casual, and they too would change clothes to something more formal before going out in public. It wasn’t until late 50’s, early 60’s, with Marlon Brando wearing a t-shirt and JFK eschewing the hat, that men started dressing more like we see them today… This doesn’t have anything to do with movies, but your post reminded me of a picture I saw in a book about the building of the Panama canal. It was a shot of a group of American workers relaxing after work in the recreation room of their dormitory. They were playing pool and chatting, and all of them had ties on and most wore suit jackets. It amazes me that the standards of dress were so ingrained in these guys that they could do hard labor in the tropics all day and still put on a suit and tie for their recreational time. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2011, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/128 "2011-03-15T16:48:01Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > …It amazes me that the standards of dress were so ingrained in these guys that they could do hard labor in the tropics all day and still put on a suit and tie for their recreational time. Or the just wore suits and ties for the photographs and they normally hung out in their underwear since it was hot and humid and no women around to be offened. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/129 "2011-03-15T16:54:27Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > Or the just wore suits and ties for the photographs … No, fashions have changed. I went to university in Australia in the 1960s. When I started, it was normal for the men students to wear jackets and ties going to class; by the time I finished, that was no longer normal. There’s been a steady trend to more informal dress for men for as long as I can remember. ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/130 "2011-03-15T17:09:39Z")
I still have a church key. There are certain things I can’t open without one, such as pineapple juice. Seinfeld did have at least one scene with a cell phone. It was in the final episode. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/131 "2011-03-15T18:48:33Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > No, fashions have changed. I went to university in Australia in the 1960s. When I started, it was normal for the men students to wear jackets and ties going to class; by the time I finished, that was no longer normal. There’s been a steady trend to more informal dress for men for as long as I can remember. I blame the Beatles. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/132 "2011-03-15T22:51:45Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > Another one that occurred to me: drug use. Specifically, cocaine, being snorted in lines. No one does that anymore; you make more money turning the cocaine into crack. So, even **Robocop** isn’t exempt. I thought about this while watching **Bachelor Party** last week. …Awwww… That’s cute. Come to Hollywood sometime, son. Lines of coke are far more prevalent than crack. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/133 "2011-03-15T23:15:24Z")
I witnessed people doing lines in 2004-5. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2011, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/134 "2011-03-15T23:31:18Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > No, fashions have changed. I went to university in Australia in the 1960s. When I started, it was normal for the men students to wear jackets and ties going to class; by the time I finished, that was no longer normal. There’s been a steady trend to more informal dress for men for as long as I can remember. My father went to college during the same period in the States. Same dress code, but the dorms (which were all single-sex and lacked air conditioning) could, in his words, “turn into a nudist colony” at times. In Vietnam his barracks were like that pretty much all the time, with full blessing and encouragment of the officers. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2011, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/135 "2011-03-15T23:58:08Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > For that matter, walking out onto a runway to board a plane. _Darker Than You Think_ by Jack Williamson has a scene like that, along with a woman wearing a fur coat, and a character talking about renting a NYC apartment for something like $300 a month. Or maybe buying it for $3K. Something ridiculous. What was the time frame between the big brick “portable” phones and small cell phones? I’ve seen very few movies or TV shows with the big phones. Seems like they got small really fast. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/136 "2011-03-16T00:37:20Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > I witnessed people doing lines in 2004-5. But, is it a continuation or a return of a trend after a sustained absence? Crewcuts, for example, are making a return because of home hair cutting kits that aren’t very accurate. Duck’s ass pompadours, on the other hand, are still out. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/137 "2011-03-16T02:48:38Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I’ve never really understood this complaint as Buffy and Seinfeld appear to be late 90s productions and most people didn’t have cell phones. If I remember right, Buffy got one in season seven, which was still two years before I got one. Of course it was the late 90s and cell phones hadn’t penetrated the market yet, and at the time very few people, especially teenagers, had cell phones. But the show seems so modern to me, that the absence of cell phones is an obvious tell that the show is set in the 90s, not the 00s. Cell phones would be so useful in so many situations in the show that it was somewhat jarring that nobody had one. You don’t expect characters in shows from the 70s or 80s to have cell phones, but the late 90s are so recent and cell phones became so ubiquitious in just a few years, that the lack of phones stands out. It turned the show into an instant period piece. It reminds of me of a scene in Law and Order from the mid 90s–the grizzled cop and the young cop are investigating something, and the young cop pulls out his phone and makes a call. And the old cop gives him this dubious look. Well, a detective pulling out a cell phone would be completely unremarkable today. Or take a look at this “Unaired 1994 pilot” for 24: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLH\_QyPTYM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLH_QyPTYM). It’s hilarious because all the communication technology in 24 just didn’t exist ten years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/138 "2011-03-16T02:55:21Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > Or take a look at this “Unaired 1994 pilot” for 24: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLH\_QyPTYM](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMLH_QyPTYM). It’s hilarious because all the communication technology in 24 just didn’t exist ten years ago. LOL! _Three floppies!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/139 "2011-03-16T03:17:39Z")
Or rather, it’s not so much that it didn’t exist, as that it did exist, but sucked. It’s only now that all this shit actually works. ---
**Author:** ![FordTaurusSHO94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f07891/32.png) [@FordTaurusSHO94](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordTaurusSHO94)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465/140 "2011-03-16T03:56:12Z")
Elaine was talking on a cell phone once and Jerry said it was rude, so at least one character had one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-date-movies/574465.md?page=8)