Did the 90s just have a different of view age gaps

[Lance Uppercut]

In teenage tv?

I rewatched a bunch of Peter Engel shows and man, there’s a whole bunch of instances where you should go… wait, isn’t that guy/girl in college?

Sure there’s Jeff and Kelly where she has to be 16 and he said he’s a sophomore to at least 20, so that’s kind odd.

They never did explain how old Stacy Carosi was supposed to be in saved by the bell, but always assumed she was in college since was running the resort on her summer breaks and lived in the east coast and her bf was in a fraternity.

Lisa trying to bang the military drill instructor

Watching city guys and the dudes are trying to get with Lorean from ca dreams but she’s supposed to be a cop so she’s gotta be in he mod twenties.

Jake from ca dreams and the undercover cop

Watching hang time and there’s screech on there lusting after Julie and Antonio thinks she’s hitting on Christy

I know these days with outrage culture, people would be screaming about Grooming

[Denny Zen is Cooking™]

Nothing is worse than that Disney movie, Blank Check. Karen Duffy's character should have done 15 years in prison, but was treated like a hero and discovering that she was in a relationship with an 11-year-old, and then kissing him, was played for laughs.

[fw91]

Another saved by the bell one was Kelly and that young accountant who played double agent to try to close her grandfather’s Hawaiian resort. Dude was beyond college

[Ben Wyatt]

I love Clueless. Love it. But Josh has at least 2-3 years on Cher and is her ex Stepbrother. Lotta ick factor there

[Cyno]

It isn't that uncommon for college freshmen to be in relationships with high school juniors and seniors. A lot of states also have "Romeo and Juliet" laws where some teenager doesn't become a statutory rapist the minute they turn 18 or 19 if their sexual partner is like 16 or 17.

That said any further/younger is when you get into really creepy territory. Like a 21 year old still trying to pick up high schoolers gives off serious red flags.

[Fade]

Sept 5, 2023 14:10:52 GMT -5 Denny Zen is Cooking™ said:

Nothing is worse than that Disney movie, Blank Check. Karen Duffy's character should have done 15 years in prison, but was treated like a hero and discovering that she was in a relationship with an 11-year-old, and then kissing him, was played for laughs.

I watched this as a kid, loved it, loved the actress etc

But yeah even I did a double take with that kiss. Like “ay I wish that was me but still that ain’t okay”

[Feyrhausen]

TV can be real weird with mixing high school and college. They write college kids as if they were still high schoolers and the high schoolers as if they were adults. Just natural they mix them all together. Saved By The Bell was pretty chaste though. So in some cases it was just high school kids crushing on older folks like the drill instructor, school nurse and what not. And I always figured Stacy Carossi was a high school senior or just graduated and got to run things because she grew up around the business.

But hey, one of my best friends in high school was dating a college guy. Public girlfriend and everything. Stayed at his house, etc. So it happens.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

A lot of it is outrage culture, yes. Which you can see anytime someone dates a younger woman, Leo DiCaprio gets a lot of screaming at for DATING A LITERAL CHILD!!!! So you think Leo is dating a 6 year old, but turns out she’s 23.

Huge age gaps have really only been a problem recently and the idea of marrying someone you consider a soul mate is super recent too, which is why the last Civil War widow died like 5 years ago.

I’m not saying it’s right, but the screaming around this has certainly amped up, especially since #metoo.

[sarkerpolseng]

Didn't Brad Taylor date a signicantly older woman?

And Eric Matthews?

[Cranjis McBasketball]

Sept 5, 2023 18:49:13 GMT -5 sarkerpolseng said:

Didn't Brad Taylor date a signicantly older woman?

And Eric Matthews?

I remember Brad dating a college girl. Eric, I don’t remember, he did want to adopt a kid at one point, but he probably did as well.

[agent817]

There were some other examples from those Peter Engel sitcoms. On "California Dreams," Lorena tried to get a handsome doctor's attention. If the man was a doctor, he was likely in his 30s (or at the youngest, late-20s, but even that's a stretch). At the end of the episode, he said that she was beautiful but he doesn't date co-workers. I recall reading a review on a blog that had reviews of "California Dreams" episodes and the writer wrote that the doctor doesn't date teenage girls.

I should also talk about a "City Guys" episode where it touched on workplace harassment. In this episode, Chris, Jamal, and Dawn all get internships for a company that a former Manny High student works for. Then Chris dealt with some sexual harassment by the former student. I recall seeing this as a teen and I had a bunch of different thoughts in my head about this. I will give it to the casting agency for having an attractive woman portray the former student because it would have been too easy if she was played by an unattractive actress (it's all subjective in the end). Plus, there was a side of me that would have been like "Dude, she is cute and you're weirded out by that." Of course, I had a different thought that said it didn't matter if the person was attractive or not. However, when I got older, I started thinking differently because that was a career woman (likely in her 20s, maybe mid-to-late if she was already working for the company for a while) hitting on a high school student, which makes things even more suspicious. I know the actors were around the same age but still.

I also recall another episode where the main crew were on a reality show and the guys fake having to need things fixed just to have the attractive building manager come in and fix things. She had to be over the age of consent and the guys were likely not thinking straight if they thought they had a chance with her. So I'll probably think maybe that was what the writers went for.

[FinalGwen]

Not quite an age gap but I've always found it rather surreal how much of Hocus Pocus is making fun of a 15 year old for being a virgin. At what age did Disney think teens should have active sex lives?

[wildojinx]

Sept 5, 2023 18:58:42 GMT -5 FinalGwen said:

Not quite an age gap but I've always found it rather surreal how much of Hocus Pocus is making fun of a 15 year old for being a virgin. At what age did Disney think teens should have active sex lives?

And thw writers of that film would later write Molly Holly's 2002 angle (not really).

[A Platypus Rave]

Sept 5, 2023 15:11:20 GMT -5 Ben Wyatt said:

I love Clueless. Love it. But Josh has at least 2-3 years on Cher and is her ex Stepbrother. Lotta ick factor there

You can kinda blame Jane Austen for that... well maybe not the step brother bit (he was her brother in law I think technically....) but age wise... it's waaaay worse.

[Abadebe]

I remember a Q&A with Joss Whedon where someone asked him about the age aspect of the Buffy/Angel relationship (Angel was canonically 27 when he was turned and he's dating 16-year-old Buffy). Joss basically went "Well, Juliet was 13..." and then quickly moved on to the next question.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Sept 5, 2023 23:42:59 GMT -5 Abadebe said:

I remember a Q&A with Joss Whedon where someone asked him about the age aspect of the Buffy/Angel relationship (Angel was canonically 27 when he was turned and he's dating 16-year-old Buffy). Joss basically went "Well, Juliet was 13..." and then quickly moved on to the next question.

How very Whedon.

[Non Banjoble Tokens]

Sept 5, 2023 18:58:42 GMT -5 FinalGwen said:

Not quite an age gap but I've always found it rather surreal how much of Hocus Pocus is making fun of a 15 year old for being a virgin. At what age did Disney think teens should have active sex lives?

Also, he was a cat. I'm not sure if that makes it worse or not, but with the rampant spaying and neutering of animals it really shouldn't be a factor.

[Cranjis McBasketball]

In the late 70's they did a series called Mrs. Columbo, who was previously an unseen character on Columbo. Since they hired the youngest actress they could find and statements made on Columbo about her, people did the math and figured Mrs. Columbo would have been like 12 when they got married and had a child off screen. So it was hastily re-written and eventually Columbo came back on TV and claimed there was a woman running around pretending to be his wife, but she wasn't.

[Mighty Attack Tribble]

Sept 6, 2023 3:14:08 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

In the late 70's they did a series called Mrs. Columbo, who was previously an unseen character on Columbo. Since they hired the youngest actress they could find and statements made on Columbo about her, people did the math and figured Mrs. Columbo would have been like 12 when they got married and had a child off screen. So it was hastily re-written and eventually Columbo came back on TV and claimed there was a woman running around pretending to be his wife, but she wasn't.

Yeah, Kate Mulgrew was 24 when she starred in Mrs. Columbo (1979), while Peter Falk was 52. In a 1990 episode of Columbo he says they're celebrating their 28th or 29th anniversary soon, placing their marriage at some point in the early-'60s.

Assuming their ages are also respective of their characters' ages, Columbo married his wife when he was in his mid-30s and she was anywhere between six and eight years old.

As an aside, I find it amusing that two of Kate Mulgrew's three most well-known roles share her name – Kate Columbo and Kathryn Janeway.

[SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman]

Honestly, I find the whole concept of teenage drama romance kind of weird. I get it, teens are interested in romance and want shows relevant to their interests (although frankly, even as a teen, I don't remember particularly caring about teen-centric shows), and in some ways it can even be a good tool to warn teens about older people trying to exploit them but at the same time, it can get dubious real quick when your characters are underage.

Sept 5, 2023 18:28:41 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

A lot of it is outrage culture, yes. Which you can see anytime someone dates a younger woman, Leo DiCaprio gets a lot of screaming at for DATING A LITERAL CHILD!!!! So you think Leo is dating a 6 year old, but turns out she’s 23.

Yeah, I feel like if all people involved were of age when they first met, age gaps kind of stop mattering. It's so weird too because people (rightfully) complain about grown women being infantilized and treated like they're immature, but then they'll claim that adults fully capable of giving consent are "literal children".

And then the same people will also happily glorify cougars. You know, older women who define themselves by sleeping with men young enough to be their sons.

Sept 6, 2023 3:14:08 GMT -5 Cranjis McBasketball said:

In the late 70's they did a series called Mrs. Columbo, who was previously an unseen character on Columbo. Since they hired the youngest actress they could find and statements made on Columbo about her, people did the math and figured Mrs. Columbo would have been like 12 when they got married and had a child off screen. So it was hastily re-written and eventually Columbo came back on TV and claimed there was a woman running around pretending to be his wife, but she wasn't.

I don't know the details but IIRC, wasn't that show made pretty much without the Columbo showrunners and writers' knowledge or approval? I imagine stuff like this didn't help their feelings on it. It's also just silly to cast a young, pretty lady for a Columbo spin-off considering Columbo's entire schtick is that he's schlubby-looking and unintimidating, luring criminals into a false sense of security.