Could you tell how old something was as a kid?

[wildojinx]

When you were a kid and you watched something that was older (ie, before you were born), were you able to tell if it was older or not? For example, I thought for the longest time that the Looney Tunes stuff I watched on Saturday Mornings were all new cartoons, not knowing that they were all from the 30s-60s. On the other hand, I could tell that Flintstones was an older show.

[Deleted]

Growing up in the late 80's and early 90's, I could definitely tell an older product given the color trends of each generation. The late 60's to the mid 80's all had a specific look. You went from dark orange and olives of the late 60's early 70's, to wood paneling on everything of the mid 70's to early 80's to obnoxious pastels of the mid to late 80's. I grew up in the neon color era of the 90's.

[Deleted]

Yeah I was able to tell if something was older (Popeye cartoons for example) but I wasn't able to tell how much older. I can say "hey I'm watching Brady Bunch" but I couldn't pinpoint the time period until I learned about the differences between each decade.

On that same token, it relates to wrestling as well. I realized some years ago that I can pinpoint the time period of most wrestling from 80s on but once circa I don't know,2015, it's like everything blends together for me. I can't tell anything aparts unless it deals with characters and specific gimmick changes. It's all the same.

[Lance Uppercut]

Everything on tv or movies before 1980 had this weird look to it I can’t describe. Like the sound and lighting quality was weird and the film had this grainy feel to it. I watched Airplane for the first time (1980) and it looks so 70’s, while the Naked Gun seems a bit more timeless.

[Natural Born Farmer]

What I was more surprised by was watching movies from my childhood in my late 20s and early 30s and being like "why does it look like this?"

[jason1980s]

I mostly watched wrestling and cartoons and didn't really think anything of cartoons being older. I knew Flintstones was older but a movie like Disney Robin Hood which I got the clamshell of, I had no idea it was from the 70s. I thought it was put out recently, but didn't know why it wasn't in theaters like others at the time. Duck Tales was my favorite cartoon but I never knew it was only on from 87 to 90. I felt like it was around 85 to 93 because I was still watching on TV in 93 and most episodes I hadn't seen, not sure why, so I figured they were new.

[BlackoutCreature]

This is something I always wondered about. As a kid in the 80's watching reruns of shows like Bewitch, I Dream of Jeannie or Gilligan's Island, you could kinda tell between the graininess of the film, the fashion, the general aesthetic, that it was "old". I'm wondering if kids today can do the same. Like, if I watch an episode of Friend or Seinfeld, it doesn't look "old" to me, but is that just because I grew up with them? Would my six year old niece feel the same? Would she know these shows are from twenty-something years ago just on sight?

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Not really. I knew it was older than me but I didn’t really think about it.

The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show always had the copyright year on the cartoon, so I knew.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Probably not dated to a specific time period but older than other stuff on TV certainly.

[wildojinx]

Speaking of wrestling, a lot of the early-mid 80s stuff, even the WWF, seemed to have an "older" feel to the production. Granted, it wasnt that way for everything (there are episodes of World Class from 83-84 where the production quality blows WWF away), but it wasnt until 1988 for WWF and 1989 for WCW that the production seemed to become more "modern" looking.

[Milkman Norm]

No, to the point that I thought stuff like the Monkeys tv show and their reunion stuff was current.

[Sparvid]

The Adam West Batman show was probably some 25 years old when I saw it, but I can't recall specifically considering it something old, maybe it helped that it was in color. Same with 15 years old Star Wars.

[Deleted]

Absolutely. I was born in 1981 but used to watch old sci fi shows like Lost In Space and Adam West Batman and stuff. I could also tell old Looney Tunes and older Disney movies were made a long time ago.

No one ever needed to explain to me that some tv shows were current and some were old as f***. I just sort of "got it" like no one ever had to tell me wrestling was fake. Or how I understood that Transformers and G.I. Joe comics were a "different world" than the cartoons.

I lacked social skills but was quick on the uptake. I guess I haven't changed much.

[Fade is a CodyCryBaby]

Yeah, in particular stuff from the 80s.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Mostly I could tell through noticing the film grain that something was shot using film stock or older tech as opposed to video and then how everything seemed more digitally polished around the late 90s or so. With some cartoons it was easier to tell because of either the art direction, often the older Looney Tunes shorts were far smoother and more lively than the shoddy TV-quality animation on Bugs and company for the in-between segments.

[Deleted]

I was the kid who could see just about any cartoon and tell you the year it came out and some trivia about it.

[smokinvokoun86]

I probably could tell with the age of the film and old references, but I think because Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry were on so frequently and I watched them all the time, I never thought of them as old. And since there was so many of them, you could realistically always see something new each time.



The same kinda goes for the Three Stooges. I was OBSESSED with them as a kid, and despite them being in black and white and with 30’s and 40s references, I never really thought much about them being old. It wasn’t until I got the Three Stooges Scrapbook as a kid and I saw “Moe Howard, born June 19th, 1897” and I realized, “man these guys are old”.

[James Fabiano]

Count me in with only recognizing B/W shows as obviously older, with ones obviously from 16mm film coming close (the "faded" prints with dust and hair marks flying by)

When cable and local stations got the original Flintstones and the 70s-and-up sequel series, I recognized the former as older because they had the older film qualities.

I used to love the syndicated edits of Laugh-In from the early 80s, although I had no idea what they were talking about and had no idea of it being a product of its time.

Unless I remembered seeing something, I didn't recognize the USA game show blocks as having reruns. I didn't see Play the Percentages, Liars' Club, and Chain Reaction as old, for example. I did remember Bullseye so I knew better, on the other hand.

[Celexa Bliss 54]

Before the Disney Afternoon would come on, my station would air Rocky and Bullwinkle, followed by Underdog, and I always knew they were old, especially compared to the DA stuff that followed. But where it gets funny is I actually thought they were older than Looney Tunes and Popeye, which aired on Turner stations before Captain Planet (obviously, they weren't lol)

As a contrast, when I watched Mister Rogers Neighborhood as a kid, I had no idea the shows I was watching were often from the 70s and early 80s (it would've been late 80s, early 90s I was watching these)

[ERON]

I knew stuff was old if my parents or grandparents said, "I remember that from back when I was young," like Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Mickey Mouse, Lost In Space, Star Trek, the Beach Boys, etc.

This led to some confusion when I heard my grandmother talking about watching Buck Rogers when she was young, or my mom remembering seeing the Nature Boy wrestle when she was a girl. They were actually talking about Buster Crabbe and Buddy Rogers, but here I was thinking Gil Gerard and Ric Flair were a lot older than they looked.