As a kid in the '60s thru early '70s, going to the mall was a slice of heaven. TWO record stores, plus Monkey Wards had a record/tape section, they also had a toy section which expanded for the holidays (Toys backward RUs was at the other end of the mall). A pet store where the owner didn’t mind kids coming in to browse, because it made them look busy. Radio Shack for my battery of the month (punch that card). A HUGE movie house. G C Murphy’s was close to a five-and-dime store. Several places to get munchies and a sit-down restaurant. You wouldn’t dream of avoiding the rest rooms, afraid of pedos. Top it all off with a dill pickle out of the barrel at A&P just in time to meet Mom, finishing her grocery shopping, for the ride home.
You couldn’t get me into a mall today (the few that are left) at gunpoint. There is absolutely nothing for anyone who isn’t a 9-to-29 year old female.
And don’t get me started, again, on the Aggressive Kiosk Vendors. There will be blood.
Most TV shows, especially the NBC thursday night lineup. Even without Cosby’s unveiling as a predator, that show is well-night unwatachable for its cloying nonsense. Max Headroom is the only show from that period to hold up for me, even with the antiquated pre-internet notions of how computers work. I read yetserday that a deal has finally been struck for Moonlighting to hit a streaming service, and I’m wary to revisit it, as I suspect it’s aged awfully and I’d like to retain some happy entertainment memories from that period.
At some point in my life, I was finally able to recognize that most of the cartoons I loved as a child were just glorified commercials produced to get around regulations related to advertising to children. I have good memories of GI Joe, Transformers, and even He-Man, but I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to invest my identity so heavily into a product that I get bent out of shape when it changes.
Some shows have aged better than others, and the Real Ghostbusters is one of them. I’m not really interested in sitting down and watching it today, but it didn’t make me want to gouge my eyes out like Thundercats did. Robotech is another cartoon that aged well. There are other things that I’m just not the right demographic for anymore, but they’re not actually terrible. Like the OP says, there are just some things you age out of.
By all accounts Chuck E. Cheese pizza is terrible though.
A few cartoons and kids shows were much worse than I thought at the time but I was pretty good at separating the wheat from the chaff. For instance, I never thought Lost in Space was very good. They would tease us with monsters in the commercials but most of the show was boring. I preferred the Outer Limits to the Twilight Zone then, and still do now.
When it comes to stuff like ChefBoyArdee I loved the spaghetti and meatballs and the ravioli also. Now I don’t love it but I don’t consider it awful, and once and a while I’ll pick up a can for the nostalgia.
American junk food arguably has always been considered nutritionally vile, but dammit, it was tasty and reasonably inexpensive. Not any longer.
Oreo filling for example was once chiefly lard or maybe beef tallow & sugar. Vegetable oils and corn syrup are not nearly as tasty. Even the purported health benefits are in some question. They are undoubtedly cheaper. I would guess Twinky filling is similarly made with ersatz ingredients compared to the halcyon days of yore.
I’m convinced that a lot of my friends hold great affection for certain movies and shows just because they watched them as a kid, not because they were good or anything. Hook is widely regarded as a kinda low point in Spielberg’s filmography, but I know people who effing LOOOOVE that movie (watched my ex-girlfriend line up to get an autograph from Dante Basco at a convention once), and I fight the urge to ask if it’s a genuine classic or they just like remembering life when they were twelve.
I’m convinced that is the only reason milllenials continue to enjoy Space Jam or Hocus Pocus enough that both got legacy sequels. Take off the nostalgia googles and they are both pretty bad movies.
I could say the same thing about myself and Moonraker, simply because it was the first Bond movie I saw in a theatre and I was 13. Loved it and would defend it. Then I tried to actually rewatch it a few years ago. Ouch. Still better than A View to a Kill or Die Another Day
Johnny Quest has held up pretty well, it really was pretty different compared to the regular Hanna-Barbera fare, a “serious” cartoon. Some of those episodes scared the bejeebus out of us kids, and often spoke of in hushed tones on the playground.
Plus, it has one of the best theme songs ever, kind of a “James Bond” vibe going on.
Even as a kid I thought Lost in Space was hokey and awful. I especially hated it after Dr. Smith virtually took over.
Then Star Trek came around and rescued TV science fiction. I can still watch TOS. But I never could stand Lost in Space.
Incidentally, Gold Key comics had a series called Space Family Robinson that predated Lost in Space, although not by much. When the TV series came out, rather than suing them (TV has deeper pockets) they rebranded their series “Lost in Space”, despite the differences in characters.
Same basic idea – family traveling through space in their own craft, visiting various worlds and encountering new situations. But no Dr. Smith. No “Robot”. And the writing was decent and hip to SF.
Moonraker was my first Bond as well, and I loved it but then I was eight when I watched it. Any time I’ve watched it after my teens (and every few years I do a full-franchise rewatch and never skip any of them) I think it’s garbage. Die Another Day has a great first hour then it all goes to hell, I think. A View to a Kill has its moments but is definitely near the bottom of my rankings.
Some really kitschy songs-- but not ALL of them. Still think Sugar, Sugar by the Archies is a great pop song but Muskrat Love is. . . dumb. I am and will always be a fan of the Afternoon Delight harmonies but Playground In My Mind is childish.
This does not preclude me from singing any and all very badly and loudly if they pop up on any oldies station I am listening to.
Thanks. I tried these not that long ago and was kind of shocked how crappy they tasted. I knew they weren’t healthy or amazing, but they were really bad.
Pretty much every show I loved as a kid. I’ve learned not to revisit these as it ruins my fond memories.
Absolutely the Xanth novels. I read dozens of those, and was a member of the “Hi Piers” fan club. Now as an adult I can’t believe Anthony hasn’t been arrested yet.
I always loved Grape Nuts tho. Still do (everyone else in the family hates them so more for me).
Beefaroni is objectively horrible and I can no longer see the appeal. Also, there were a wide selection of similar blocks of meaty canned salt licks sold in square containers and foisted on the gullible. These were objectively terrible outside of critical situations.
Amazingly, I still looked forward to boxes of shelf-stable, never refrigerated make-your-own-pizza even considering this a treat (!) - (just add water to powdered dough, sauce and plastic cheese included, included preservatives entitle user to discount on embalming expenses). Proving any pizza is good pizza when there are few other options.
Hocus Pocus was released when I was 17, but I didn’t see it until around 2000, but I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. It’s not on my must-see list or anything, but I think it’s a pretty good kid’s Halloween movie.
