When I was a kid in the 80's, family sitcoms like the Cosbys, Family Ties or Mr Belvedere looked very realistic to me, in fact so damn "real" that I thought they were boring and preferred cartoons. Nonetheless, looking back and analyzing it, certain things in these shows weren't realistic. For one thing, most families, even in the 80's, weren't all that quirky and cute. It was cute and almost 50's ish, which isn't realistic. Families are complex, diverse and are also full of arguments/fights. In these shows I don't remember anyone ever really getting into nasty verbal fights.
Punky remained very realistic for the most part but I thought that the episode with the Chicklet girls was unrealistic. It was an episode meant to cause drug abuse awarness (that is telling kids "say no to drugs" which was what I was told in the 80's as a kid) but those girls were at most age 12 or 13 - and taking drugs ? LOL First of all, they were very pretty, well-dressed middle class girls who did not appear to be those typical drug-users in the 80's which were "punk" rockers, Goth, etc, and even those types were already full-fledged teenagers ages 15, 16 and 17. They offered drugs to Punky and Sherry and it was not realistic. LOL
When I was a kid no other kid my age or even 3 years older than me ever took drugs. The first time I saw anyone taking drugs was in high school (and if they were caught they were arrested) but by then I was already ages 17 and 18. Teenagers, not pre-teens were taking drugs in the 80's and if kids were taking drugs then damn, what a terrible thing LOL Just glad Punky listened to Ronnie Reagan and said no LOL
reply
share
15 years ago
[deleted]
FloatingOpera7
15 years ago
What school was that ? LOL I went to an elementary school and middle school in a poor, working class LA area and no one offered me drugs. No one was taking drugs. I think my particular "group" had been hypnotized "say no to drugs" "say no to drugs" and we were afraid of drugs and thought it would kills us LOl Drugs was another word for "deadly poison".
I listened to Ronnie Reagan and also George Bush Senior and Barbara Bush and never took drugs, not even later on in the late 90's when I was already 18. I knew some high school students who were taking them but they were never among my "social circle" or "friends". They were the radical Goths who listened to weird alternative music. In the 80's, I did know older high school students because one of my neighbors was already 16 in 1986 and her mother would always check if she came home both "sober" (no alcohol) and or investigated if she was taking drugs.
I'm surprised that even in the 80's little kids were exposed to drugs. I really have this nostalgic, pretty romanticized view of the 80's because I had a really nice childhood.
reply
share