TV shows and movies set in ambiguous time periods

From my fuzzy memory of it, the movie It Follows had a very jumbled time aesthetic.

Yep that’s a good one. Very much an 80s vibe but if I remember rightly, they’ve got smartphones? Also, a much better film than you might expect, well worth watching.

Just watched the dark, body horror-heavy parable on aging in Hollywood “The Substance” with Demi Moore. It starts out with Demi’s character, a middle-aged former movie star, hosting an aerobics show, in leotard and leg warmers. It seemed to mirror Jane Fonda’s career arc by the 80s, and not only the outfits but the whole set design had a very 80s vibe, as well as the cars, which looked to be mostly 70s era muscle cars. So I assumed, for maybe the first half hour, that the movie took place in the 80s.

But then flash drives, wide screen TVs and smart phones started showing up, and it was like…uhhh ok it’s modern day, I guess…

The Andy Griffith Show ( 1960-1966 B&W era ) seemed to be in somewhat of an ambiguous time warp to me. Though the vehicles clearly date it from the early to mid 1960s, the show, barring them, it the settings/situations/dialog could be from 10 to 20 years earlier. Yes, it could be a product of being set in a rural mountain town though, as the only people appearing even the slightest bit current ( or dare I say, hip ) for the times are outsiders who visit the town for whatever reason.

I recently saw some clips from Baa Baa Black Sheep. Loved that show when I was a kid. I never noticed anything wrong. Now when I look at it I notice the Farrah Fawcett hairdos on the nurses who are conveniently stationed on the island.

I used to love Combat! (I was 12 when it aired). Found out later that German viewers would giggle at hearing the Nazi Soldiers speaking German with strong American accents.

I had always understood The Andy Griffith Show to be set in the present day (when it originally aired), but they purposely made the townsfolk seem a bit old fashioned. A big part of the premise of the show was that this small, rural town was kind of behind the times compared to the rest of the world.


Sometimes the wrong outsiders showed up.

Then here’s one you probably don’t want to think about; George Jetson is not from some distant future. He’s living among us.

It was canonical in the show that George was forty-years old and that the series was set one hundred years in the future. The show premiered in 1962, which means it was set in 2062. So George Jetson was born in 2022.

MASH is another example of this. Characters like Hawkeye and Trapper John (and many of the guest stars) have hairstyles that never would have existed in the fifties.

Oh, that’s sick! Funny as hell, but still sick! :astonished:

That’s okay. The dates are there; the fans didn’t pull them out of their asses.

However, try to do the math on when Jane will be born. She - like Laura Petrie on Dick van Dyke - is somewhat underage for modern sensibilities.

Hawkeye and Trapper John would never have existed in the fifties, period. They are examples of a trope that was current for a brief period in the early 1970s, that of the anachronistic proto-hippie soldier who somehow doesn’t get court-martialed for their appearance and behavior. Another example is the character of “Oddball” played by Donald Sutherland in the movie Kelly’s Heroes

I noticed that watching reruns many years later, after I had learned German myself. There was, however, a real German who was in several episodes, though he seldom spoke: Hans Gudegast, now known as Eric Braeden. He went on to play Hauptman Dietrich in Rat Patrol and a neo-Nazi on Mission: Impossible. When he did speak, his accent was authentic.

Actors who played Nazis on Combat! included Ted Knight and Richard Basehart, but John van Dreelin, Fritz Weaver, and Albert Paulsen made a career out of such roles.

… Which is why so many people still think MASH was set in Vietnam.

She was 17 going on 18 when she met Rob, and she lied about her age on the marriage certificate.

I’ve known girls (women) who married straight out of high school, so it’s not all that unusual. Laura had obviously left home and was living on her own, earning her keep by dancing. People grew up fast back then.

16 year old brides were common 60 or 70 years ago. 13 if your cousin was a famous musician.

Margaret Houlihan raised the bar with her blow-dried look in 1950s Korea.

Jane was 33 years old. That means she will be born in 2029.

Judy was 15 years old. That means she will be born in 2047. George will be 25 and Jane will be 18.

I’d say this future sf timeline had a little too much Heinlein in it.

I’m trying to find a linkable clip. Until then you’ll have to take my word that the hairstyles in Baa Baa Black Sheep were a lot more Charlie’s Angels ridiculous than anything in MASH. That’s not even mentioning Peter Frampton playing an Australian coast watcher with his 1970s rockstar hair.