More nostalgia
Mar. 13th, 2013 02:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladybug_archiveI finally traced down the rest of my extreme nostalgia bursts not to my childhood, but to about thirteen, fourteen, fifteen years ago, when I became seriously interested in classic television and began exploring bookstores and antique malls for memorabilia. Specifically, for some reason the nostalgia seems to be spy-show based, which puts The Man From U.N.C.L.E. at the top of the list. I've wanted to see it for years, even though it was only recently that I was afforded the opportunity. And for me, it's pretty much the epitome of everything a really good and fun spy show is, so that's why I assume the nostalgia hones in on it even though I didn't get to see it for years.
I have long romanticized spy-type shows in my mind; they're exciting and adventurous, and I don't like to think that with the end of the sixties came the end of such shows. I have an extreme desire for the best of both the fifties and the sixties to live on in the present-day, and for me, no "best of" list would be complete without spy shows. Hence, one giant reason why I have to set the shows in the present when I write for them. I live so much in both the past and the present that I can't stand to think of the past being the past; I want the present to be alive with the characters and the shows from decades before, just as they were then and not "updated" with the garbage that gets put into shows today.
Every time the sky gets cloudy, or even cloudy-ish, the nostalgia flares to extreme bursts. I think that's because some of my most favorite experiences visiting the antique malls were on cloudy days. And maybe also because clouds are so mysterious and I really get more excited over cloudy days in general than sunny ones. I love the sun, but it's so hot, and I much prefer overcast days because they're more rare and they suit my personality better.
This nostalgia does indeed extend to Ponies as well, because during a couple of my jaunts in those years, I saw some. Oddly enough, it had never before occurred to me that I might still obtain G1 Ponies through such means. For me, when they were off the toy shelves, they were gone for good. Then, suddenly, I saw some in an antique mall and whole new possibilities were opened to me. Encouraged, for the first time I realized I really could have G1 Ponies again.
The problem remained of finding them in good condition, however. But I think the ones I saw years ago were in better condition than some I saw yesterday. Poor things.
I also discovered that, even though my latest G1 Pony craze started with me going nuts over not being able to find the new G4 plushies, it will not be curbed by me finding them. Yesterday I found Rarity (squeal! She's gorgeous and so soft!), and my desire for G1 figures as well as the G4 plushies persists. I'm in the middle of hopefully closing a deal with someone over some G1s. They're just gorgeous! So clean and beautiful and unmarked! I was even more excited by her offerings after seeing those poor, dirty Ponies yesterday.
Also, I've seen more of The Virginian and also some of the final, color season of Tales of Wells Fargo. The Virginian is totally the better show, just as I knew I'd think. But I also think I'd prefer the B&W seasons of Wells Fargo to the color one. The B&W seasons were more adventurous, I've gathered, while the color season is more soap opera-ish and Little House-ish. Yawn. Not that Little House isn't a sweet show and not that I don't like the morals (I do!), but ... I like action and adventure better than seeing what random townspeople are up to in soap opera-ish fashion, or seeing what's going on with the kids. It's always so hard for me to explain this well, because I love character development, which often happens during downtime scenes, but ... gah, I hate soap operas. And "family" shows honestly bore me sometimes because they usually don't get as dark as I like. And I can't really identify much with kid characters, most of the time. I'd rather see shows with adults and grown-up problems (other than romantic problems, ugh).
That's the main reason why I don't often like the episodes of My Little Pony featuring the younger characters, too. I just can't relate. I get bored. The main characters are more grown-up and deal with problems that are easy for both kids and adults to relate to, which is one reason why I think it has such a strong adult fanbase. I realize the episodes with younger characters are important for keeping hold of the youngest fans, but I'm just usually not a fan of them. I think I only really like maybe three of them.
This whole mindset is also affecting my feelings towards Route 66. It's a very good show, make no mistake about that, and it's very deep ... but The Fugitive is even better. It has the same kinds of elements as far as meeting and helping various people and being philosophical are concerned, but the protagonist is an adult who has experienced a great deal more in his life than the two young adults in Route 66. It's more interesting for me to see a Route 66-type show done with adult mindsets. Tod and Buz, Heaven love them, just don't always have enough life experience to understand some of the feelings of the people they encounter. That's especially obvious when they get involved with older women, as Tod does in the Chick Lorimer episode MeTV showed recently. He couldn't grasp the woman's deep and intense feelings over her many years of loneliness, and it showed. In the end, I think Route 66 was marketed more towards a younger set (at least the age bracket of the main characters), while The Fugitive was marketed more towards older adults.
That being said, however, one of the points of Route 66 is for the main characters to gain life experience. They certainly meet some interesting people along the way!
I wonder if the main problem is that I'm not digging season 3 as much as 1 and 2. There's some really silly, even stupid episodes in 3, and some that otherwise just aren't clicking with me. And they brought back a character they met in 2, and from what I saw of it, it paled in comparison to the first episode with her and there was a dumb running gag of Tod getting in trouble with the police every time he tried to talk to her. I'm not sure he managed to in the first half, nor am I overly eager to get out the disc and see after I saw the latter half. I don't understand why they'd wreck such a great opportunity to use that unique character again.
1 and 2 have some really deep and serious and grown-up episodes. Some of them, like the pilot, are downright incredible and chilling and haunting. But 3 ... ugh. There's been some good episodes, but I think maybe only the season premiere has blown me away so far.
And back to The Virginian, the titular character is totally my favorite on the series. He's serious, but he's friendly, and he knows how to laugh and have a good time. But he isn't totally rowdy and happy-go-lucky, like Trampas is at least in earlier seasons. Trampas grates on my nerves in some of the earlier episodes. I've heard that he's the most well-developed character, though, and after seeing some later episodes too, I think I agree that he developed. He's much better in later episodes, say around season 6. But so far, I still like The Virginian the best. (And I have to admit, ever since I saw that wonderfully squeeable episode with him and H.M.'s character in season 6, I've had a bit of a crush on The Virginian/James Drury.) I haven't even re-watched the episode with Darren yet, because The Virginian isn't in it. But Trampas is really good in it, and I definitely do want to re-watch it at some point.
I have long romanticized spy-type shows in my mind; they're exciting and adventurous, and I don't like to think that with the end of the sixties came the end of such shows. I have an extreme desire for the best of both the fifties and the sixties to live on in the present-day, and for me, no "best of" list would be complete without spy shows. Hence, one giant reason why I have to set the shows in the present when I write for them. I live so much in both the past and the present that I can't stand to think of the past being the past; I want the present to be alive with the characters and the shows from decades before, just as they were then and not "updated" with the garbage that gets put into shows today.
Every time the sky gets cloudy, or even cloudy-ish, the nostalgia flares to extreme bursts. I think that's because some of my most favorite experiences visiting the antique malls were on cloudy days. And maybe also because clouds are so mysterious and I really get more excited over cloudy days in general than sunny ones. I love the sun, but it's so hot, and I much prefer overcast days because they're more rare and they suit my personality better.
This nostalgia does indeed extend to Ponies as well, because during a couple of my jaunts in those years, I saw some. Oddly enough, it had never before occurred to me that I might still obtain G1 Ponies through such means. For me, when they were off the toy shelves, they were gone for good. Then, suddenly, I saw some in an antique mall and whole new possibilities were opened to me. Encouraged, for the first time I realized I really could have G1 Ponies again.
The problem remained of finding them in good condition, however. But I think the ones I saw years ago were in better condition than some I saw yesterday. Poor things.
I also discovered that, even though my latest G1 Pony craze started with me going nuts over not being able to find the new G4 plushies, it will not be curbed by me finding them. Yesterday I found Rarity (squeal! She's gorgeous and so soft!), and my desire for G1 figures as well as the G4 plushies persists. I'm in the middle of hopefully closing a deal with someone over some G1s. They're just gorgeous! So clean and beautiful and unmarked! I was even more excited by her offerings after seeing those poor, dirty Ponies yesterday.
Also, I've seen more of The Virginian and also some of the final, color season of Tales of Wells Fargo. The Virginian is totally the better show, just as I knew I'd think. But I also think I'd prefer the B&W seasons of Wells Fargo to the color one. The B&W seasons were more adventurous, I've gathered, while the color season is more soap opera-ish and Little House-ish. Yawn. Not that Little House isn't a sweet show and not that I don't like the morals (I do!), but ... I like action and adventure better than seeing what random townspeople are up to in soap opera-ish fashion, or seeing what's going on with the kids. It's always so hard for me to explain this well, because I love character development, which often happens during downtime scenes, but ... gah, I hate soap operas. And "family" shows honestly bore me sometimes because they usually don't get as dark as I like. And I can't really identify much with kid characters, most of the time. I'd rather see shows with adults and grown-up problems (other than romantic problems, ugh).
That's the main reason why I don't often like the episodes of My Little Pony featuring the younger characters, too. I just can't relate. I get bored. The main characters are more grown-up and deal with problems that are easy for both kids and adults to relate to, which is one reason why I think it has such a strong adult fanbase. I realize the episodes with younger characters are important for keeping hold of the youngest fans, but I'm just usually not a fan of them. I think I only really like maybe three of them.
This whole mindset is also affecting my feelings towards Route 66. It's a very good show, make no mistake about that, and it's very deep ... but The Fugitive is even better. It has the same kinds of elements as far as meeting and helping various people and being philosophical are concerned, but the protagonist is an adult who has experienced a great deal more in his life than the two young adults in Route 66. It's more interesting for me to see a Route 66-type show done with adult mindsets. Tod and Buz, Heaven love them, just don't always have enough life experience to understand some of the feelings of the people they encounter. That's especially obvious when they get involved with older women, as Tod does in the Chick Lorimer episode MeTV showed recently. He couldn't grasp the woman's deep and intense feelings over her many years of loneliness, and it showed. In the end, I think Route 66 was marketed more towards a younger set (at least the age bracket of the main characters), while The Fugitive was marketed more towards older adults.
That being said, however, one of the points of Route 66 is for the main characters to gain life experience. They certainly meet some interesting people along the way!
I wonder if the main problem is that I'm not digging season 3 as much as 1 and 2. There's some really silly, even stupid episodes in 3, and some that otherwise just aren't clicking with me. And they brought back a character they met in 2, and from what I saw of it, it paled in comparison to the first episode with her and there was a dumb running gag of Tod getting in trouble with the police every time he tried to talk to her. I'm not sure he managed to in the first half, nor am I overly eager to get out the disc and see after I saw the latter half. I don't understand why they'd wreck such a great opportunity to use that unique character again.
1 and 2 have some really deep and serious and grown-up episodes. Some of them, like the pilot, are downright incredible and chilling and haunting. But 3 ... ugh. There's been some good episodes, but I think maybe only the season premiere has blown me away so far.
And back to The Virginian, the titular character is totally my favorite on the series. He's serious, but he's friendly, and he knows how to laugh and have a good time. But he isn't totally rowdy and happy-go-lucky, like Trampas is at least in earlier seasons. Trampas grates on my nerves in some of the earlier episodes. I've heard that he's the most well-developed character, though, and after seeing some later episodes too, I think I agree that he developed. He's much better in later episodes, say around season 6. But so far, I still like The Virginian the best. (And I have to admit, ever since I saw that wonderfully squeeable episode with him and H.M.'s character in season 6, I've had a bit of a crush on The Virginian/James Drury.) I haven't even re-watched the episode with Darren yet, because The Virginian isn't in it. But Trampas is really good in it, and I definitely do want to re-watch it at some point.
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no subject
Date: 2013-03-14 12:09 am (UTC)Ooh,certain weather does trigger nostalgia in me, too--spring/early summer breezes. That was when my Pokémon RP group did our thing.
Definitely not a fan of soaps, either; the only one I tolerated was because of Robert Clary--and that arc was certainly atypical of soaps. And it was highly satisfying, I might add.
Hmm, that's surprising that Route 66 went downhill like that. Which season was Simon's ep in?
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Date: 2013-03-14 09:51 am (UTC)Awesome! Every season has something about it that inspires nostalgia for me, for different reasons and things. Breezes are a good one.
Ha, that's great that the arc wasn't typical of soaps. Then you didn't have to wade through garbage. I still need to see some soap episodes of shows to see H.M.
2. Simon's is definitely one of the most grown-up episodes of the show. 2 was a great season. And Darren's was 1.