I Love...

... reminiscing about a past I never experienced

View this email online by Aisha Harris Hey what’s up hello. It was the week Taylor Swift got really into football. It was the week Netflix bid farewell to those red envelopes. And it was the week the WGA and the AMPTP finally landed on a pretty impressive deal for Hollywood writers. Opening Argument Recently someone tweeted a photo collage of Gen-X comedians whose faces would be instantly and fondly recalled by any millennial who had access to VH1 in the ’00s. The accompanying text was straight-to-the-point, and pure: “I miss the I Love… series!!! #throwback #VH1” VH1’s I Love… series, for the unfortunate souls who never experienced the pleasures of its company during an hours-long marathon on a Saturday afternoon, was a wacky lo-fi clip show that good-naturedly mocked pop culture from the past. Inspired by a BBC series, the American iteration premiered in 2002 with a retrospective on the ’80s, followed by the ’70s, ’90s, and various offshoots. As that tweet reminiscing about the good ol’ days of I Love… made the rounds amongst us wistful 30- and 40-somethings, the responses fell largely into two camps: Those who proudly admitted to once aspiring to fill the role of “deadpan commentator on a nostalgic clip show” (i.e., Michael Ian Black, truly the MVP), and those who used it to point out the unique role the series played in teaching us millennials about some show called The Waltons and the pet rock craze. There’s something to that latter observation. Alongside retro cable programming like Nick at Nite and docuseries like Behind the Music, I Love… helped many of us cultivate a superficial sense of what it was like to exist in the times before we were born. It was about as unserious and ostensibly slap-dash of an enterprise as it could get. There were cheesy recurring gags (“The Foxy Ladies of [insert year here],” as voted on by an invisible committee of VH1, for one). There was, for whatever reason, a chimpanzee. The overall aesthetic screamed “mid-’90s screensaver.” Ken Burns this was not: Each episode moved at rapid-fire pace between subjects and observations, barely scratching the surface of any one cultural artifact or thought. An assortment of character actors, B- and C-list standup comedians, and musicians provided the silly commentary. Most of it boiled down to, “Remember this ridiculous thing we all enjoyed back then? Wasn’t that … ridiculous???” *wink wink* But the chaos and simplicity of its presentation was the draw, and the draw may have helped bridge some kind of generational gap. It lodged random old-school facts into our brains so that we may wield them decades later during bar trivia, wowing Gen-Xers who are surprised that someone as young as us would remember Small Wonder. (We don’t; but we do remember Juliette Lewis remembering the 10-year-old robot girl on I Love the ’80s: 1985.) It may have made the most curious among us seek out some of the music, shows and movies that got namechecked on the series. In a way, Twitter can sometimes function as I Love… once did, but without the structure and ease of access. For some time now, it’s been the millennial generation’s turn to sit on chairs in front of ugly green screens and wax poetic about the silly pleasures of “The Thong Song,” and we do (online, sans green screens), but it can seem like the culture isn’t being passed down as effectively. Regularly, the 30+ crowd on the internet finds itself rolling its eyes at the (presumably) Gen Z set for, say, being confused by seeing Childish Gambino in a classroom among a bunch of students who “look 30 years old.” (It’s a still from Community, and Chevy Chase must be delighted that anyone thinks he looks 30 years old.) It’s natural to be an old(er) person worrying about the preservation of the past for the future, and that too many people, regardless of age, have little historical context for the now. There are real conversations to be had about how art like early hip-hop or classic cinema are in danger of being forgotten; thank goodness for the dream hamptons and Martin Scorseses of the world. But perhaps this tiny corner of the internet isn’t telling the whole story. Alanis Morissette’s influence is all over Olivia Rodrigo, and one of the sweetest viral trends of the last few years involved two young brothers listening to Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight” for the first time, so #notallGenZ, etc. Maybe there aren’t necessarily fewer ways to engage with the past, just different ways, like YouTube, podcasts, Stranger Things, and, of course, TikTok. Some of those engagements can be just as silly and surface-level as I Love…, and there’s certainly a world where an updated version of the series returns and thrives in the short attention-span realm of social media. And perhaps it’s also possible millennials’ cultural literacy is being just a tad bit overstated – or at least, sugarcoated – in the discourse around things like I Love … There are so many other factors beyond age determining what we know and have been exposed to: race, nationality, hometown, whether or not your parents were immigrants, how old your parents were when you were born, and so on. Until last week, I’d barely registered that The Talking Heads are the ones who performed “Psycho Killer.” Did Mo Rocca crack jokes about it on VH1? Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend I’ve not caught up with the just-dropped series finale of Reservation Dogs yet (I’ve heard it’s great) because I only just started binging the show last month and am currently three episodes behind. I love it dearly, but I’m kicking myself for taking so long. If, like me, you’ve “been meaning to” check it out but haven’t, just do it. You will not be disappointed. This career-spanning conversation with Todd Haynes is a treat for any fan of his work. (There’s a charming anecdote where he recalls thinking it was “Where far out thou Romeo?” because he grew up around LA hippies in the ’60s.) I’ve had Kaytraminé, the uber-catchy collaborative album from producer Kaytranada and rapper Aminé, on regular rotation all summer, and as fall rolls around it remains, allowing me to hold onto the summery grooves a bit longer. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week Alden Ehrenreich and Phoebe Dynevor in Fair Play. Sergej Radovic/Netflix I chatted with Stephen and Wailin Wong about the Game Stop short squeeze movie Dumb Money, and then promptly forgot (for the umpteenth time) what a short squeeze is. Glen got in the ring with Isabella Gomez Sarmiento and Reanna Cruz to discuss the gay luchador biopic Cassandro. I gushed with Glen and Felix Contreras over the 40th anniversary release of Jonathan Demme’s Talking Heads concert movie Stop Making Sense. Stephen and Glen discussed Gareth Edwards’ sci-fi action movie The Creator with Marc Rivers and Roxana Hadadi. And I reviewed Fair Play, a gripping domestic/workplace melodrama about a couple upended by a hedge fund promotion. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Roxana Hadadi: John Grisham novels, including the forthcoming The Exchange Marc Rivers: The Ringer podcast Do We Get To Win This Time? Glen Weldon: Deadloch, on Prime Video Stephen Thompson: Bury the Lede, by Dessa Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WMFE (edit station). Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! 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