#NEARERINTIME

A collection from my #NearerInTime hashtag on #TwitterRIP.

The ideas behind #NearerInTime are several:

1. You are old if you remember these things.

2. These things, which are often riffs or remakes of other things which were then historical, are nearer to the things they remade than to today. So it was history then, and really very very history now.

3. These are not intuitive. Time perception is weird, for instance the time from Original to Remake seems long, but from Remake to Now short.

Television

• The debut of I Love Lucy (1951) is #NearerInTime  to the first term of the Presidency of Grover Cleveland (1885-1889) than it is to today.

• Kermit the Frog was introduced in 1955,  #NearerInTime to the Spanish-American War than today.

• Star Trek The Original Series (1966) is #NearerInTime to World War I than it is to today.

• Similarly, Star Trek: The  Motion Picture (1979) is #NearerInTime to World War II than today.

• Galaxy Quest the movie (1999) is #NearerInTime to Galaxy Quest the TV series (c.1982) than the present.

• Zefram Cochrane’s invention of Warp Drive (2063) is #NearerInTime to today than Star Trek TOS (1966-69).

• Happy Days (1974) is #NearerInTime to its first season (set in 1955) than today.

• Happy Days, which ran from 1974-1984 basically represented 1956-1966 in its timeline, which is #NearerInTime to Weezer’s Buddy Holly Video (1994) than that is to 2023. 

• WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982) famous 1st season episode \Turkeys Away\ is #NearerInTime to the actual Hindenburg Disaster (1937) than to the 2020 Presidential Election. #OhTheHumanity.

• Classic rock anthem, The Who’s “Who are you” (Sept 1978) is #NearerInTime to its use in the premier of CSI (Oct 2000) than the beginning of season 1 of CSI is to the present. 

• The beginning of Seinfeld (1989) is #NearerInTime to the end of the Partridge Family (1970-1974) than the end of Seinfeld (1998) is to the present.

Movies

• A Trip to the Moon\by Georges Méliès (1902) is  #NearerInTime to Yuri Gagarin’s first manned rocket trip (1961) than Gagarin’s trip is to the present.

• Alfred Hitchcock’s first movie (1923) is #NearerInTime to the Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” (1845) then to today.

• Mary Poppins (1964) is #NearerInTime to its setting (1910) amidst the women’s suffrage movement (granted 1918/1928) in the UK than today.

• Dr Zhivago (1965) is #NearerInTime to the Russian Revolution (1917) than to the present.

• The Godfather (1972) is #NearerInTime to its setting (1946) than today.

• The Godfather Part II (1974) however is not #NearerInTime to the Don Fanucci part (1917), but will be in 2031.

• The Godfather Part III (1990) is #NearerInTime to the events portrayed (1978) than to today.

• HBO, launched in 1972, is #NearerInTime to the emergence of talkies (The Jazz Singer (1927)) than to today.

• Young Frankenstein (1974) is #NearerInTime to the Boris Karloff Frankenstein (1931) than the present. 

• The Way We Were (1973) is #NearerInTime to the events depicted (FDR era) than the present.

• The Right Stuff book (1979) and movie (1983) are #NearerInTime to the Mercury program (1958-1963) than to the present or the TV series (2020).

• Pulp Fiction (1994) is #NearerInTime to the events of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (1969) than the present.

• Star Wars Episode IV (1977) is #NearerInTime to Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz (both 1939) than today.

• Leigh Brackett (1915-1978), writer of Empire Strikes Back was #NearerInTime to invention of Long Distance call (1892) than iPhone (2007).

• The filming of Raiders of the Lost Ark (released in 1981) is #NearerInTime to the World War II era of its setting than it is to today.

Music

• The Beatles’ Please Please Me (1963) is #NearerInTime to Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1911) than today.

• Oasis’ formed (1991)  Definitely Maybe (1994) is #NearerInTime to the Beatles’ Let It Be (1970) than to today.

• Jimi Hendrix death (1970) is #NearerInTime to the Harding Administration than the current administration. His birth (1942) nearer to Canadian Independence (1867) than today.

• The band Cheap Trick, founded in 1973, was formed #NearerInTime to the Presidency of Calvin Coolidge than to Joe Biden.

• J Geils Band (lead singer Peter Wolf) song Must Of Got Lost (1975) is #NearerInTime to Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf (1936) than the present.

• The Eagles Hotel California (1977) is #NearerInTime to California Governor James Rolph (died 1934) than the present. 

• Sugar Hill Gang’s Rappers Delight (1979) is #NearerInTime to Glenn Miller’s Pennsylvania 6-5000 (1940) than the present.

• 1999 is #NearerInTime to Prince’s (1982) album 1999 than the present.

• The Fine Young Cannibals cover of Suspicious Minds  (1986) is #NearerInTime to the Elvis original (1969) than today.

• Grunge (e.g. Nevermind) (1991) is #NearerInTime to surfer music (Beach Boys, formed 1961) than the present.,

• The Lemonheads cover of Mrs. Robinson (1992) is #NearerInTime to the Simon and Garfunkel original (1967) than to the present.

• Sabotage by the Beastie Boys (1994) is #NearerInTime to Starsky and Hutch (1975-1979), Baretta (1975-1978) and the Rookies (1972-1976) than today.

History

• Caesar Augustus is #NearerInTime to Barack Obama than to Sargon the Great (h/t @asmuniz),

• Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk (1903) is #NearerInTime to George Washington’s Presidency  (1789-1797) than to today,

• The end of the US Civil War (April 10, 1865) is #NearerInTime to US involvement in World War II (December 1941) (27,999  days)  than Pearl Harbor will be to August 5, 2018 (28,000 days). The losers of the  Civil War and WWII still have their partisans.,

• Sputnik (1957) is #NearerInTime to the Klondike Gold Rush and discovery of electron (1897) than to today and Bitcoin.,

• Reagan’s election in 1980 is #NearerInTime to the end of World War II than today.,

• The US Invasion of Panama (1989) is #NearerInTime to the JFK Assassination (1963) than today.