Why were the 70s such a tacky decade?

[jamespowers]

An elf who doesn't bake cookies inside of a hollow tree. That's just so wrong..

Indeed.

 

[jamespowers]

More like it took Tolkien 30+ years to sell the film rights.

He was right because his heirs got rooked by Time Warner.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aiAEIATGLREU

He sold the rights 40 years ago.

 

[Stearmen]

My ears hurt

If that makes your ears hurt, I strongly suggest you never under any circumstance go to listen to a live performance of Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, complete with cannons, your ears will probably bleed! Personally, I love it! [video=youtube;NZmGjRualUQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZmGjRualUQ[/video]

 

[Zombie_61]

It was a book, written by J.R.R. Tolkien. Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf and all that. You should read Tolkien, although you do need to be careful. It can be Hobbit forming.

I can't say I'd offer the same advice. When I was in high school in the mid- to late-70s the majority of my classmates re-discovered Tolkien, specifically his book The Hobbit, and almost every one of them was carrying a copy of it everywhere they went. I finally got a copy for myself, and after struggling through the first two to three chapters realized Tolkien was the most long-winded, boring author I'd ever had the displeasure of attempting to read.

That being said, I have absolutely zero interest in, as a good friend describes it, "Wizards and fairies and trolls and dwarves and *expletive*", so that might have had something to do with my opinion.

 

[Stearmen]

I finally got a copy for myself, and after struggling through the first two to three chapters realized Tolkien was the most long-winded, boring author I'd ever had the displeasure of attempting to read.

T

That's funny, isn't that what most people say about Leo Tolstoy War and Peace? Napoleon lost, how many pages do you need to say that?

 

[Dennis Young]

Glad that I was able to expose my kids, and those of my sister and my cousins, to the works of Tex Avery and Chuck Jones on video when they were little more than toddlers...because they learned that toons could be thought provoking and funny at the same time.

Yeah, now those two were probably the best, at least in my opinion. Especially Tex Avery. To this day I still laugh at a Tex Avery cartoon lol
I like the Flintstones and the Jetsons too but I guess the really good ones were pre-1970. So for me, that leaves Scooby Doo. J

 

[Dennis Young]

Hobbits were dope-smoking hippies living in a commune. Think about it. Gandalf was the head hippie too smoking that funny tobacco in his pipe, lol

 

[Dennis Young]

And then there was H.R. Pufnstuf . Though the original eps finished on Dec 27[SUP]th[/SUP], ‘69, they continued the reruns through ‘72. Sid and Marty Kroft swear there were no drug references in that show but C’MON! Those cats had to be trippin' acid to think that show up. lol

 

[Nobert]

I liked 'The Hobbit,' but was never able to slog my way through the full 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. All that Elvish poetry. The fantasy books I grew up on were 'The Chronicles of Prydain,' which should be better known.

 

[HudsonHawk]

And then there was H.R. Pufnstuf . Though the original eps finished on Dec 27[SUP]th[/SUP], ‘69, they continued the reruns through ‘72. Sid and Marty Kroft swear there were no drug references in that show but C’MON! Those cats had to be trippin' acid to think that show up. lol

"H.R. Pufnstuf...who's your friend when things get rough...can't do a little 'cause you can't do enough.

Yeah, I can't possibly see a drug reference in that one.

 

[dh66]

"I tried it once.....but I didn't inhale."

 

[ChiTownScion]

If that makes your ears hurt, I strongly suggest you never under any circumstance go to listen to a live performance of Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture, complete with cannons, your ears will probably bleed! Personally, I love it! [video=youtube;NZmGjRualUQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZmGjRualUQ[/video]

Too anachronistic. If the setting was the retreat of the Grand Armee' from Moscow, it should be smooth bored cannons firing black powder. When firing the correct loads, they'll ring like bells- and when the atmospheric conditions are right, they emit awesome looking smoke rings.

 

[jamespowers]

And then there was H.R. Pufnstuf . Though the original eps finished on Dec 27[SUP]th[/SUP], ‘69, they continued the reruns through ‘72. Sid and Marty Kroft swear there were no drug references in that show but C’MON! Those cats had to be trippin' acid to think that show up. lol

Oh yeah!

 

[Dennis Young]

Too bad about Jack Wild though.

 

[Gin&Tonics]

Hey! I was born in 1982 and I LOVED Disney's Robin Hood I fully admit that the music made no sense from a historical perspective, but if you really think about it, it fit perfectly with the tone and narrative of the film itself. It captured the mood and the experience of the primary characters.

As for American Graffitti, I've never seen it, but my dad was born in 1942, grew up in New Westminster, British Columbia, and he told me that the film PERFECTLY captured what his teenage years were like. I guess it really depends where you were at the time whether the culture depicted in the movie matched what was going on.

The 80's to me was the decade of horrible music and awesome movies and TV. There were some really awesome TV shows on in the 80's, along with some great movies like Labyrinth, Short Circuit, The Goonies and so on, whereas I could probably count the number of good songs to come out of the 80's on one hand.

 

[GHT]

According to Wiki, the Benny Hill Show started in 1955, I don't remember. He was on our screens throughout the 1970's. His show was described as slapstick, mime, parody, burlesque and double-entendre. Whilst I enjoy everyone of those descriptions, Benny Hill was never my cup of tea, the only saving grace was, he never got the girl, well, not on screen. Never could understand his world wide appeal.

 

[HudsonHawk]

I could probably count the number of good songs to come out of the 80's on one hand.

You must have slept through the 80s.

 

[Edward]

The 80s were much like any other decade, really..... just a time I lived through. Some stuff was good, some of it was awful. Wouldn't go back if you paid me. [huh]

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

According to Wiki, the Benny Hill Show started in 1955, I don't remember. He was on our screens throughout the 1970's. His show was described as slapstick, mime, parody, burlesque and double-entendre. Whilst I enjoy everyone of those descriptions, Benny Hill was never my cup of tea, the only saving grace was, he never got the girl, well, not on screen. Never could understand his world wide appeal.

I'm a big fan of Morecambe & Wise and what really baffles me is that on one hand almost everybody is familiar with Benny Hill and Monty Python yet Eric & Ernie are virtually unknown outside of the UK even though they were the biggest stars of British comedy in the 1970s drawing audiences of up to 28 million which was quite phenomenal considering that the UK's population is much smaller than the US.

 

[jamespowers]

According to Wiki, the Benny Hill Show started in 1955, I don't remember. He was on our screens throughout the 1970's. His show was described as slapstick, mime, parody, burlesque and double-entendre. Whilst I enjoy everyone of those descriptions, Benny Hill was never my cup of tea, the only saving grace was, he never got the girl, well, not on screen. Never could understand his world wide appeal.

Benny Hill was really an homage in some sorts to Fatty Arbuckle. His silent running around and running after women was classic Arbuckle. We can understand him over here because we had him before and liked it before.
Here Arbuckle is in 1917 with Keaton:
https://youtu.be/prx2XWm8Ko0
Even Hill's facial expressions are very similar to Arbuckle's. Notice the hand salute to the brow. lol lol
If you think of Hill in that context he did very well. I'd like to think that if Arbuckle was alive in Hill's era he would do something very similar.