Those were the days, my friends

[Razor]

Early X-er here (1966)..Interesting to reflect back on all the tv shows. Anyways, all this generation talk made me think of a piece I read years ago, and I can't remember if I mentioned it on here before or not? ..Basically, it called Gen -X "Gen screwed"..There were a lot of boomers, so they sewn up all the well paying "job for life" positions...Now these positions are becoming vacant because of retiring boomers, and they are now being given to millenials because Gen xers are "too old" and don't fit into their youth movement recruiting process. Heck, I remember a time when to saay get a city job as a garbage collector, let alone a trade position you had to know someone..This would of been when the boomers were established and far from retirement..How about the silent generation?. How come you never hear from them? (pun intended)..Both my folks were part of that gen, but at the cusp (few years shy)of technically being boomers.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by Razor

Early X-er here (1966)..Interesting to reflect back on all the tv shows. Anyways, all this generation talk made me think of a piece I read years ago I can't remember if I mentioned it before or not? ..Basically, it called Gen -X "Gen screwed"..There were a lot of boomers, so they sewn up all the well paying "job for life" positions...Now these positions are becoming vacant because of retiring boomers, and they are now being given to millenials because Gen xers are "too old" and don't fit into their youth movement recruiting process.

Firstly, generation label tags like "gen x" and "millennial" are basically made for marketing and surveying purposes, and really are just used to sew divisions between groups rather than having us focus on the root cause of most of the issues we experience - corps, those with wealth, etc.

Secondly, i've heard this same thing that you're mentioning, only instead of the jobs skipping Gen Xers and going to Millennials they're either being phased out entirely or they're going to entry-level Zoomers. Millennials are too old to capitalize on entry-level positions, because we had to go to post-secondary for four+ years, and too young/inexperienced to work in the most senior of management, if these jobs still exist moving forward at all. Combine that with graduating into the recession and now trying to work a career through a global pandemic and i'd say that Millennials have had it worse than Xers, although at this point we'd be getting into a squabble over who has suffered more when it reality we all have...those of us who weren't fortunate to have been born early enough, anyway.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

I can relate to this, I used to watch Three's Company when I was in elementary school. Even though I'm sure much of it went way over my head.

That is one thing that I suppose has changed since I was a kid in the 80s... back then, in the pre-specialty cable channel era, kids' shows were mostly limited to Saturday morning with a small smattering of kid stuff throughout the rest of the week. When I was a kid, I ended up watching stuff not meant for kids simply because there were no age-appropriate options most of the time. When I was under 10, I remember watching Knight Rider, The A-Team, shows like that. When my parents turned me loose at the video store, I remember picking stuff like Rambo movies, raunchy 80s comedies, etc. I remember watching wrestling which was somewhat kid-friendly in those years but even still not the greatest content.

By contrast, my kids have an endless array of kid content to stream on Netflix, Disney+, etc. Most of it is reasonably high quality even though some shows are so-so. I get usage reports for their profiles and I'm not sure that they ever see anything they aren't supposed to. Mostly cartoons and kid-oriented shows. My son is 8 and has a few favourite youtubers, but most of the stuff he watches on that platform is either pretty wholesome like Dude Perfect (sports trick shots and related antics) or just straight up sports content like NHL/WHL highlight reels.

I guess they don't have those shared experiences like us with the Three's Company, but they are definitely exposed to way less content that isn't meant for them.

Speaking of which... when I was a teen in the 80s if you lived in Quebec or even in areas outside the province where you'd get the Quebec private TV networks, it was a big deal for teens to stay up late Saturday night and watch (mostly European) softcore porn films. The multiple films of the Emmanuelle series were among the favourites. I think I could still sing the theme song by heart.

I seem to recall this programming first started on TVA which is the oldest and biggest private network, but fairly quickly TVA stopped airing them and the new network Quatre Saisons (TQS) picked up the slack, giving the time slot the now famous "Bleu Nuit" name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWgACb-ZAv8

[acottawa]

I think there was a big difference between early and late Gen X. Early Gen X got sandwiched. Late Gen X hit a sweet spot, found jobs in an improving economy, entered the housing market before it took off, and were established by the time the GFC hit.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I think there was a big difference between early and late Gen X. Early Gen X got sandwiched. Late Gen X hit a sweet spot, found jobs in an improving economy, entered the housing market before it took off, and were established by the time the GFC hit.

As someone just on the edge of being an older Gen Xer the job market really sucked coming out of university (my wife stayed in school until she was almost 30 as a result of this) but the housing market was very easy and affordable to enter.

We easily bought our first (small SFH) house on my single entry level white collar salary and her part-time wages (not all of which were even declared and "official").

[thewave46]

Originally Posted by acottawa

I think there was a big difference between early and late Gen X. Early Gen X got sandwiched. Late Gen X hit a sweet spot, found jobs in an improving economy, entered the housing market before it took off, and were established by the time the GFC hit.

The sweet spot was 2000-2008 (maybe later in smaller places) of Canada. The US had its sweet spot in the mid to late 1990s and early 2000s. The rot set in down there post 2005, culminating in the 2008/09 crash.

Here, government got its fiscal house in order, the economy improved, and housing was cheap during that era. When interest rates fell post 2008, it was a windfall to those who had mortgages.

Witness the Toronto Life guy who bought in the early 2000s and failed upwards on the back of rising home prices as an extreme example.

If one had the bad luck of starting out in the late ‘80s or early 1990s here, that was a bitter pill. Same with today.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

Did your dances end with Stairway to Heaven? Ours did.

Always. Always.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by esquire

I guess they don't have those shared experiences like us with the Three's Company, but they are definitely exposed to way less content that isn't meant for them.

Is that a good thing though? I find that a lot of parents these days are quite controlling in terms of what content they allow their kids exposure to - which are of course usually very safe, age-appropriate stuff (and which unlike many shows or movies of the past, have little cross-generational appeal). I don't have kids yet but I can't imagine that not exposing them to anything more challenging, or allowing them to sift through media on their own to build their own interests is good for their development or independence.

As a kid who grew up on the early internet with no parental oversight or censorship, I think I turned out well enough at least.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Speaking of which... when I was a teen in the 80s if you lived in Quebec or even in areas outside the province where you'd get the Quebec private TV networks, it was a big deal for teens to stay up late Saturday night and watch (mostly European) softcore porn films. The multiple films of the Emmanuelle series were among the favourites. I think I could still sing the theme song by heart.

I seem to recall this programming first started on TVA which is the oldest and biggest private network, but fairly quickly TVA stopped airing them and the new network Quatre Saisons (TQS) picked up the slack, giving the time slot the now famous "Bleu Nuit" name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWgACb-ZAv8

...and now 8 year old children watch hardcore porn with a click of the mouse.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Is that a good thing though? I find that a lot of parents these days are quite controlling in terms of what content they allow their kids exposure to - which are of course usually very safe, age-appropriate stuff (and which unlike many shows or movies of the past, have little cross-generational appeal). I don't have kids yet but I can't imagine that not exposing them to anything more challenging, or allowing them to sift through media on their own to build their own interests is good for their development or independence.

But it's not as though we lock the place down. For instance, my kids could pick up the TV remote control and flip through the channels to see what's on. However, they never do. There is simply too much stuff that they like available at the touch of a button... they press the little microphone button on the remote, say what they want to watch, and off they go.

When there is so much content that you like, you don't really have to waste time sifting through a bunch of other stuff.

I'm sure that will change over time as they get older and their interests evolve, but for now they are content to watch their (age-appropriate) shows and not bother having to make do with grown up stuff the way that I did.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by biguc

Nu Metal was made and marketed by Xers. Attributing it to the tweeners who listened to it in the 90s is wrong.

I guess you can attribute music from the 60s as The Golden age genre, considering nearly all of the artists who were extremely popular, were born prior to 1946.

At its worst, you got the most memeably Xer genre: rap rock. You could argue that musical pop culture died at Woodstock '99, smothered under a pile of rapey proto-juggalos. The last thing it saw was Fred Durst's stupid, perma-O face. Music sharing came around just when our capacity for innovation had run out

Music is music, biguc.

You sound like Grandpa Simpson. Maybe Nu Metal was not your cup of tea, but arguing that musical pop culture that was made post-1999 was all the shits, is ridiculous.

[biguc]

That isn't even close to anything I've said.

Get a hobby and stop humping my leg.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by biguc

That isn't even close to anything I've said.

Get a hobby and stop humping my leg.

Every generation is the same. Many people of the Golden Age considered 60s/70s music horrible, while many Boomers considered 80s/90s music horrible. You are just following the tradition of grumpy old men: complaining about irrelevant things.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by esquire

But it's not as though we lock the place down. For instance, my kids could pick up the TV remote control and flip through the channels to see what's on. However, they never do. There is simply too much stuff that they like available at the touch of a button... they press the little microphone button on the remote, say what they want to watch, and off they go.

When there is so much content that you like, you don't really have to waste time sifting through a bunch of other stuff.

Fair point - as I said I don't have kids of my own, so I'm not sure what the motivations from the perspective of a modern-day child might actually be. When I was a kid I tended to actively seek out more grown-up content and generally rebuked "kid's stuff", but, then I was also a generally pretentious little shit and a youngest sibling, so not necessarily indicative of most.

All's I know is that when I watch new cartoons with my nieces or nephews they're just excruciating and completely unwatchable for any adult.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Speaking of which... when I was a teen in the 80s if you lived in Quebec or even in areas outside the province where you'd get the Quebec private TV networks, it was a big deal for teens to stay up late Saturday night and watch (mostly European) softcore porn films. The multiple films of the Emmanuelle series were among the favourites. I think I could still sing the theme song by heart.

I seem to recall this programming first started on TVA which is the oldest and biggest private network, but fairly quickly TVA stopped airing them and the new network Quatre Saisons (TQS) picked up the slack, giving the time slot the now famous "Bleu Nuit" name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWgACb-ZAv8

That existed into the 90's and 00's in anglo Canada too. I remember Showcase would play Red Shoe Diaries and Flesh Gordon every weekend late at night.

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Speaking of which... when I was a teen in the 80s if you lived in Quebec or even in areas outside the province where you'd get the Quebec private TV networks, it was a big deal for teens to stay up late Saturday night and watch (mostly European) softcore porn films. The multiple films of the Emmanuelle series were among the favourites. I think I could still sing the theme song by heart.

I seem to recall this programming first started on TVA which is the oldest and biggest private network, but fairly quickly TVA stopped airing them and the new network Quatre Saisons (TQS) picked up the slack, giving the time slot the now famous "Bleu Nuit" name.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWgACb-ZAv8

We all knew about Bleu Nuit and the Emmanuelle series. It was better than having to rely on the scrambled screen soft-porn on "First Choice".

My god, the hours I would waste watching Bleu Nuit, waiting to see some p*s*y

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MonkeyRonin

Fair point - as I said I don't have kids of my own, so I'm not sure what the motivations from the perspective of a modern-day child might actually be. When I was a kid I tended to actively seek out more grown-up content and generally rebuked "kid's stuff", but, then I was also a generally pretentious little shit and a youngest sibling, so not necessarily indicative of most.

All's I know is that when I watch new cartoons with my nieces or nephews they're just excruciating and completely unwatchable for any adult.

Oh the horrors of Kids' YouTube entertainers...

I find some cartoons which began longer ago work for adults as well. Spongebob has tons of adult humour and references thrown into it. Disney and Pixar movies are also decent. Wiggles is decent but a form of torture in that the songs get stuck in your head and you find yourself singing them even when the kids aren't there.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

We all knew about Bleu Nuit and the Emmanuelle series. It was better than having to rely on the scrambled screen soft-porn on "First Choice".

My god, the hours I would waste watching Bleu Nuit, waiting to see some p*s*y

Teens today will never know the struggle. Unfortunately porn is far too accessible now. It's something I don't even want to think about yet, though I know kids get exposed far too early. Right now my son only watches Kids Youtube on my phone. No tablet. Mind you he's only 2.5 so not quite vocal.

[niwell]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

That existed into the 90's and 00's in anglo Canada too. I remember Showcase would play Red Shoe Diaries and Flesh Gordon every weekend late at night.

Haha I remember this all too well as a young teen. Even that showcase was channel 32 on cable in Calgary! It also got me into shows like Oz interestingly enough, which I think was the prototype for modern Prestige tv.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by niwell

Haha I remember this all too well as a young teen. Even that showcase was channel 32 on cable in Calgary! It also got me into shows like Oz interestingly enough, which I think was the prototype for modern Prestige tv.

Yes I remember Oz as well. The other latenight Blue Channel was Ch.36 (Bravo). Both seemingly only existed to play soft porn and Showtime series. Today Showcase is completely different and runs nothing but weekend marathons of big Hollywood action movies.