Introductory Stuff

So what exactly is The 40-Year Retrospective?

Shortly after my 40th birthday, I embarked on what was to be my most ambitious movie marathon to date: a retrospective of the 1980's, spanning the calendar decade of 1981-1990, in chronological order of release date. As 1981 progressed, I began to add TV shows and music as well. It was fun and more than a little nostalgia-inducing, as I felt like I was revisiting my childhood through the media and pop culture of the era.

One day, while talking about this marathon, a friend said to me, "Why only do the '80s? Why not start with the year you were born? Then you'll be able to revisit your childhood in its entirety." This was a tad more ambitious than I felt I was ready for, but the idea never strayed far from my mind. I began asking several friends for their input: should I start with the year of my birth or just stick with the '80s? Some suggested the latter while others liked the former.

Then my friend and co-worker, Ian, had a particularly intriguing suggestion: "Start with the year you were born, but don't do the entire year. Start with the day you were born, then work your way up from there. Don't watch anything that came out before you were born." I liked this idea immensely. When I ran it past my friend Vincent, he suggested blogging the whole thing, and The 40-Year Retrospective was born.

This Retrospective will span the period between the day I was born (December 8, 1972) and the day I turned 40 (December 8, 2012). Why 40 years? Why not 30 or 20? I don't know, 40 just seems like a seminal year to me. Turning 30 didn't feel like as big a deal to me as turning 40, and so 40 seems like an appropriate ending point for this retrospective.

What will The 40-Year Retrospective cover?

It will cover the following:

MOVIES -- As a lifelong film buff, I will primarily be focusing on movies. I won't be watching everything, of course, but I will be covering a great deal of movies. I will be re-visiting old favorites, re-watching films I haven't seen in years, and, of course, see movies I haven't yet gotten around to seeing. This also gives me the opportunity to purchase whatever movies I do not yet own, as well as finally upgrading some old VHS tapes to a less, shall we say, prehistoric format.

TV -- Since the medium of TV dates back farther than I do, I need to be a little selective with this one. Therefore, I will not be watching any TV series that debuted before 1972. (Unfortunately, this means no All in the Family, which debuted the year before.) The only exception to this rule is Doctor Who, simply because I have been a fan for most of my life, and the Doctor was a big part of my childhood, so it wouldn't seem right to exclude him. I'll also be checking out various made-for-TV movies and miniseries.

MUSIC -- Every Saturday, Billboard Magazine has always released their weekly Hot 100. I'll be checking out the songs that debuted on the chart each week, and listening to each week's Top 20. I'll also be noting what albums were released and, as with the movies, will use this as an opportunity to fill in the gaps in my music collection -- upgrading old cassettes to CD and so forth.

VIDEO GAMES -- These days I'm not the gamer I used to be, but like most of my generation, I grew up with an Atari, played Nintendo and Sega throughout my adolescence and early 20s, and indulged in the occasional PC game. And there's no denying that video games are a huge part of our culture today. Therefore, I'll be following the evolution of the medium from its fledgling days of Pong and Gotcha to the pop culture juggernaut it has become today.

WORLD EVENTS -- No work of art exists in a vacuum. Every film, TV show, song, video game, etc. is very much a product of its time. I plan on reviewing world events, both major and minor, throughout this retrospective in order to put everything, including my own life, into a proper historical context.

And that's what The 40 Year-Retrospective is: quite possibly the most ambitious and comprehensive movie-and-TV marathon ever attempted. I have to admit I'm enthusiastic and excited about this - it promises to be entertaining, historically interesting, and even nostalgic once I get to the years I can actually remember. And I hope those who follow this blog enjoy reading about it as much as I will enjoy embarking upon this massive undertaking.

Of course, the real challenge will be completing this retrospective without taking another 40 years to do so. :P