“Supercharged by TV,
American nostalgia developed layers, like a living room wallpapered once a
decade. The 2020s look back to the 1990s which looked back to the 1970s which
looked back to the 1950s. Of the many reasons that nostalgia never ends, the
biggest may be that it is chasing a fantasy, which is always at least one
generation out of grasp.” — TV critic James
Poniewozik, “How to Set Off a Nostalgic Time Loop,” The New York
Times, Jan. 21, 2024
The image accompanying
this post comes from the 1970s sitcom Happy Days, a key moment in the
nostalgia movement that looked back to the late Fifties and early Sixties.
(This picture, from
Season 5, shows Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham, and, in a successful effort to
launch a spinoff, Robin Williams as the alien Mork. UFOs, like nostalgia, never
go out of fashion!)
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