Full disclosure: As a Gen Xer who found himself and his peers blamed for everything that changed in the 1990s, I will testify under oath that there is NOTHING wrong with “Kids Today” that wasn’t wrong with kids of the past. Any evidence to the contrary is just the world, changing faster than you do… That said, I truly wonder how the children of 2017 would feel about the Silver Age madness of the Legion Of Super-Heroes, or whatever the hell was going on with ‘Petticoat Junction,’ leading to today’s curmudgeonly query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) is especially interested in hearing what you young Spoilerites think but please, no generation-bashing or talk of how technology ruined everything, asking: What pop culture that you love would you introduce to those rotten kids today?
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I’m not much of a fan myself, kinda just a little bit too old to really get into them when it first came out, but Pokémon. Those games are good, kids seem to still like them and I wont embarrass myself for looking like out of touch old guy.
The original games were released last year as Virtual Console downloads for the 3DS range of systems, largely unaltered except to allow for wireless trading (as the 3DS line does not have the link cable the old Gameboy system used). I got both Red and Yellow versions myself, and it has been fun to replay the games as they originally were rather than an updated remake (not that I haven’t enjoyed the remakes, but I haven’t been able to play my original games in years as I don’t have any system capable of playing old Gameboy cartridges).
Although it will be returning with a new cast for new episodes very soon, MST3K. While I’ve already introduced many of my friend’s kids to it, I cannot wait for others to finally get around to seeing it. The humor isn’t that different from what we see today, much of it holding true all these years later as they are not all based around dated concepts (or, some that ARE dated are making fun of concepts that were already ancient, like when they watched those old educational short films).
On a tougher to acquire subject, I would love to introduce plenty of young’uns to classic Doctor Who in the form of serials besides the select stories BBC America and some streaming services had airing around the time of the 50th anniversary. My local PBS has been airing 4th Doctor stories (listed as “Doctor Who: The Tom Baker Movies”), but unfortunately this isn’t something on every PBS (we get 4 others on my cable package, and none of them have any Doctor Who airings, old or new). I find it frustrating that it is so difficult and costly to see older episodes, so most new Who fans have only a limited basis to judge the old series by, some of which are not the best representatives of their era. I don’t expect them to love them as I do or did, but I would like them to have a better chance at judging the series based on a better variety of serials from the past.
Babylon 5, as the show that introduced the season- and series- long story arcs to sci-fi & fantasy television, as well as being the series that showed TV execs that a non-Star Trek sci-fi show could find an audience.
Sailor Moon(But not Crystal, as the girls’ personalities were largely removed in the interest of Saving time), Bill Nye the Science Guy, and Wishbone are the series that I, At the ripe age of 25, would pass on to my Niece’s and Nephews generation. I feel like Sailor Moon at least provides options that many young girls still don’t have to see character’s who represent them as opposed to just having the option be the “Pink” Member of whatever team show. Bill Nye and Wishbone are more interesting than anything they taught in school when I was kid(up-hill both ways), and were a big part of my current love of literature and zest for science and environmentalism. I think the next generation needs these things for them too.
I would say Star Trek, but thankfully, they are getting their own. Let’s all hope it’s good.
They’re getting their own Star Wars, too, so that’s a good sign.
But mostly, they all need more Pink Floyd. Everyone needs more Pink Floyd in their lives. Not Roger Waters, not David Gilmour…PiNK FLoYD. :)
I died a little when I mentioned I liked Pink Floyd and my friend’s young cousin for some ungodly reason thought I meant the singer Pink, who they apparently thought had the last name Floyd.
Now, THIS is funny. :D
To my Children9, 9 & 7, I recently introduced the Atari 2600, Clash of the Titans, 2001 a Space Odysseyas well as a constant surge of Music and geekiness.