I don't think it means what you think it means

[author_by_night]

So I went on a bit of a John Hughes kick, probably because of Community. One of the movies I decided to watch was Sixteen Candles. I knew in the BSC books, Mary-Anne loved it.

Holy cow, that is not a movie a sheltered twelve year old should know. There's implications of date rape, alcohol, teen car sex... Richard Spier would never have let his

Comments

[author_by_night]

For me, it's more that every other character has seen the show. I actually of love the idea of one character being a retro person and liking old stuff, and my friends and I have a few shows or artists we watch/listen to even though they were around long before any of us were born. But it's not like we all love Bob Dylan or all love Leave it to Beaver.

[kakeochi_umai]

This. I loved taping and listening to my parents' old records when I was in middle school, and now have a lot of that music in my iTunes (in fact, this has just reminded me that I need to grab the tracklists of some compilations before I move out in a couple of months), but the point that I think a lot of us are making is that that's not what every kid an any given town listens to. Ann just slapped her interests onto the characters rather than researching what kids were really into at the time she wrote the books, and that smacks of lazy writing to me.

[cassandraclue]

In a way I don't mind it so much, because it helps the earlier books seem less dated. Like, at the end of the series they started making references to Hanson and grunge and stuff, and while I like that because it was my era, it seems more strange now in a way than Wizard of OZ seemingly being the number one movie in Stoneybrook.

[imxlennysxmom]

I agree. When they like a classic, it makes the story feel a little more timeless (like I can transplant it to any year in my head) but when they reference 90s things (like Jason Priestley)it makes the series seem extremely stuck in the past.

[miss_myu]

I think it's a tiny bit unfair to call it lazy writing. Quite honestly, researching what kids were into wouldn't have helped much anyway because by the time the book was actually published there would have been something new. When I read the book where Claudia and Stacey talk about Johnny Depp it was during that period where he seemed to drop off the radar a bit and that stood out to me a lot more than Mary Anne's awe of Dawn's video recorder in book 4.

[sidndnancy]

I did admit to it in middle school. Everyone thought I was weird for being so retro. So yes, I thought it was odd that the BSC loved Nick at Nite's programming and never got flak for it from the other students.

[glitterberrys]

Yeah, this. And not liking ANYTHING modern? Really? I liked current stuff, too. I was just a chronic insomniac even as a kid and the Nick at Nite lineup was pretty much all that was on.

[katdvsgf]

I was the same way! I would be up late at night, unable to sleep so I would watch Nick at Nite or infomercials for the psychic friends network.

[design_star_21]

This all the way!!!

[sidndnancy]

Yes! As much as I had a crush on Keith Partridge, I also wanted to marry Bill Nye the Science Guy.
...I was a strange child. But seriously, I loved watching Nick at Nite with my mom before bed but during the daytime, I watched regular Nick toons and Disney like every other kid with tv.

[design_star_21]

I was in love with Keith Partridge too. I wanted to marry a Lawrence brother though. I also watched with my mom in addition to being an insonmiac.

[kakeochi_umai]

THIS! I may have loved my parents' old records, but that didn't mean I didn't play Spice Girls and Hanson tapes to death too.

[fairest1]

My best guess as to why she went with I Love Lucy and so forth is that it's a retro show that pretty much everyone has at least heard of. If she went with something "current", then it would become dated faster than just going with retro.

Maybe the local station just got a good deal on syndication rights for old sitcoms.