topher

I think the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers are a waste of TV time.  When I watch kids go nuts over it, I think "What do they see in this?"

Then a few years ago, I had an epiphany.  I saw an episode of a childhood favorite, Speed Racer.  I used to get up at 5am in the mid 70’s to watch Speed, and it was AWESOME.  But when I saw it as an adult, I thought to myself "This must be a cheap knock-off, Speed was much cooler than this.  Wasn’t it?"  It wasn’t really.  My childhood imagination was able to fill in all the cracks in the credibility.

I started thinking back to other shows that were similarly schlock-laden (is that german?).  I loved Batman and Robin.  What a mess that was.  But boy did I love it.  Jonny Quest was also a hero for a while.  Out of the realm of cartoons, there’s A-Team, and Knight Rider.  I’m afraid to watch Airwolf again, I don’t want to sully the great memories I have.

I’m not alone either.  Ruth recently re-experienced Wonder Woman, and Andy is trying to decide whether to brave Sledge Hammer.

Thoughts like these made give shows like MMPR a little slack.  These kids are going to remember these shows as perfect, and wonderful.  And then they’ll get them on holo and realize what a mess they are.

UPDATE: On the other hand, we bought Season 1 of The Dukes Of Hazzard, and fully enjoyed it despite the obvious schlock.

3 thoughts on “Past coolness

  1. ahhh…but i got season 1 of wonder woman, when everybody knows it got cool in season 2!!!! i’m off yet again in the quest to relive the coolness of the amazon princess….

    Diana Prince ROCKS!

  2. Yeah, it’s kinda like when you go back to your childhood home and it looks like a breadbox, when you remember it as a sprawling mansion.

    My kids were Spring Break bored this week, so they pulled out the old VHS Star Wars movies (trilogy #2). WOW was it disappointing! The special effects suck! It was almost embarrassing to tell the kids that this was state-of-the-art in “my” day. (Did I just say that?!)

    ack

  3. heh, I just watched “Empire Strikes Back” the other day, and even though it’s my favorite of all Star Wars movies, the stop-motion animation of tauntauns walking looks *really* dated.

    Topher – shlock isn’t German. At least not that I know of. However, dictionary.com gives it Yiddish and possibly Midde High German origins.

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