Eraserhead
Dystopic, Kafka-esque and as Lynch put it, “with an undertone of all-pervading happiness”
I was also going to mention Gotham, which I am working my way through at the moment. It can be a bit cheesy and melodramatic at times, but the look and feel of it is really quite effective in that noir sort of way. Love the production design, wardrobes, etc. But it feels ‘in between’ times, like you can’t quite pin it down to a specific period.
I will also nominate The Incredibles. It’s got that brilliant retro vibe but also the fantastical inventions, gadgets etc. Of course, more than a little inspired by the early Bond films, with the (CGI) set design straight out of Ken Adam’s dreams and music that John Barry would have loved.
Ah yes, Gattaca, good shout. A fantastic film and the production design, photography etc - just superb.
…in an episode featuring the poets Byron, Coleridge, and Shelley - none of whom were even born for another two to four decades.
I remember watching UFO in 1970–71. It was set ten years in the future, and there were huge technical advancements in automobiles, spacecraft, and just about everything else … except computers. SHADO was still getting rotating ball printouts on paper.
Time Tunnel was similar. The technology was very advanced two years into the future, but instructions still had to be typed into the computers even in emergencies. I always wondered how Lee Meriwether managed to do it without hitting the wrong key even once.
Also, the bridge crew in the first Star Trek pilot were getting their readouts on paper from thermal printers. Thank God that capability was largely eliminated in all subsequent iterations. (Paper printouts were occasionally seen when the plot called for it.)
I have not seen that, but here’s the screenwriter in his earlier days:
That sounds interesting, I’ll have to track it down. Sounds similar to Future '38. It claims to be a recently discovered movie from 1938, about a man travelling to the far-off future of 2018. The result is a funny mish-mash of both eras, with internet terminals printing their answers on tickertape, and smart phones where you place a call through an operator.
FYI, Hello, Tomorrow! is on Apple TV+. It was a ten-episode series. I don’t know if it’s going to get a second series.
I probably missed it being mentioned already (even though I skimmed through the thread) but The Flintstones seems an obvious example.
TCMF-2L
Top Secret! gets a little confused about whether it takes place during the Cold War or WWII. Or the 1960s (Elvis and Beach Party films) or the 1980’s when it was released.
I know, it — it all sounds like some bad movie.
/looks off to one side uncomfortably/
I accepted everything about The Flintstones until they celebrated Christmas.
Well, right in the theme song they’re called “the modern stone age family.” If the series went on longer they of course would also have gotten to Kwanzaa and Festivus. They’re moderner and modernest.
There is the theory that the show takes place in the same era as the Jetsons, just on the ground level that the people of the flying cities have abandoned. (And the “dinosaurs” are genetically engineered servant beasts or something.)
Are you sure that wasn’t Schistmas?
Their calendar was marked “B.C.”
(This is a great way to tell if antique coins are fake.)
This is a prime example of why fanwanking makes my brain vomit.
Samurai Jack not only started with the Hercules/Xena style mashed-together past but depicted a future so anachronistic in setting that quasi-canon is that Aku’s transporting Jack in time broke history itself.
I just remembered the Netflix adaptation of A Series of Unfortunate Events. It’s impossible to pin down exactly when (and where) it’s taking place. The cars seemed to range from 1930s to 1970s. It’s been a while since I watched it, but I think the internet, or at least computers, also existed in their universe.
FWIW the jeep in Roy Rogers, driven by Pat Brady, was a 1946 Willys.