To the posters saying it was "'70's culture" and dated already in the '80's, I must step in and say that the year 1980 was still EXTREMELY "'70's" culturally. Since popular music is a good reflection of pop culture, I'll give some examples -- top-charting U.S. hits of 1980 included "Funkytown" by Lipps, Inc. (disco/funk), THE WALL album by Pink Floyd (psychedelic pop/rock), and "Cruisin'" by Smokey Robinson (Motown/soul). I will admit that the late-'70's brought New Wave and Punk hits, but those did not displace the other music genres. Same goes for everything else (including fashion, slang, daily life) that would later be associated with the '70's -- it was still going strong in 1980. Examples of popular TV shows during the year 1980 that also show this include: TAXI, THREE'S COMPANY, and CHARLIE'S ANGELS.
By the way I also consider the MID-1980's to have been very eclectic in terms of pop culture in the US. For instance whereas an episode of CHEERS from 1985 may show many aspects one would later think of as "'70's," that same year (1985) had the movies DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN -- starring Madonna and epitomizing the style we now think of as '80's including thrift store fashions -- and THE BREAKFAST CLUB directed by John Hughes and starring Molly Ringwald.
To the poster who said that AIRPLANE already looked very dated to them when they first watched it in 1988, this is completely understandable. Watch the (really good) hit 1989 comedy-drama PARENTHOOD (directed by Ron Howard) and it looks and feels a world a million light years away from AIRPLANE, it even already looks completely far removed from any kind of stereotypical "'80's" pop culture in any way whatsoever. I'd even go so far as to say PARENTHOOD (1989) looks and feels relevant now in 2016 (!), but that's a topic for a different thread.
I would also like to point out that whereas the '70's was relatively slow in terms of pop culture change from beginning to end, and was largely a continuation of the LATE-'60's, the '80's was a VERY innovative decade.
The point I'm trying to make with all this is that AIRPLANE indeed reflects what the US looked like in 1980, but not 1988 or even 1985. I think too often people get caught up in the stereotypes of a particular decade without realizing that there was/is often lots of overlap. This wouldn't even be a topic here if this movie had been released in December 1979, but since it's from 1980 that throws people off that stereotype a decade and think it must be grouped together with 1989. The world didn't suddenly transform on the stroke of midnight after New Year's Eve 1979.
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slidell333
8 years ago
^^^ This. There is a lot of "overlap" as dabukaba described...for example, 1980 looked like 1977 to me. Yes, I was born in 1977 but think about it like this, do you remember 1990 or say, even 2000? 1990 looked just like any year from around 1985 or so on and it didn't look like the 90's until around 1991 or 1992 IMHO. Same with 2000, the movies could easily be mistaken for any med to late 90's film.
Anyway, this film looked a little dated the first time I saw it in probably the mid 80's. But, I didn't care because I thought it was funny. To me, it is still dated but that doesn't matter as it is a classic. Kind of like a time capsule, but still resonates with people today based purely on the comedy. I can understand how a younger person kinda cringes at this film, but just think how dated some of all the other Airplane! copy-cat films will look when they are 40 years old...
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