Wait, "Hazy Shade of Winter" in '83?: Anachronisms in Stranger Things

[methodwriter85]

I'm five episodes in, and I've really been enjoying just how true-to-the-period it's been, which is why anachronisms like 1987's "Hazy Shade of Winter" stand out more. (I'm figuring it was artistic license. And hey, the song DID exist, just not the Bangles version.)

I can't really think of anything else that's been kind of jarringly out of the period- if there are anachronisms, they've been pretty small.

[RachelKM]

"Hazy Shade of Winter" threw me off too.  It was an odd choice considering how much effort the show seemed to pay attention to detail generally.

[methodwriter85]

I mean, a year or two off doesn't bother me so much- "Elegia" is from 1985, and it just fit the mood and tone.

But the Bangles is SO late 1980's that it kind of disturbed the "first half of the 80's" feel that this show has otherwise kept very well.

[secnarf]

Since the song itself is older - and I'm more familiar with the Simon and Garfunkel version - I didn't mind a newer cover so much.

In the finale, they used "When It's Cold I'd Like To Die" (Moby), which is from 1995. That was much more jarring to me.

[PatternRec]

There were little things that threw me. Like when one cop says to another about Hopper "is he off his meds?" No-one said "meds" in 1983 unless they worked in a hospital. 

I can't exactly call music that isn't diegetic anachronistic because it's not part of the actual narrative, but I get the spirit of it. I thought it was interesting that when they found "Will's body" in the water the song was Heroes (a David Bowie song written with John Lennon) sung by Peter Gabriel. I'd say Gabriel's voice is very much a thing of the eighties, and Bowie's Heroes was recorded before 1983, but Gabriel's cover is only from a few years ago. It was an anachronism that also seemed to fit.

[methodwriter85]

"Sunglasses at Night", playing when Steve is driving with his friends looking for Nancy, is a slight anachronism- the show is taking place in November 1983, but the song didn't come out until January 1984.

[littlecatsfeet]

Just started watching this, and I noticed in the first episode that the female newscaster used the expression "We reached out to...." I don't think that particular (annoying) phrase was prevalent back then.

[Portia]

On 8/29/2016 at 11:19 AM, littlecatsfeet said:

Just started watching this, and I noticed in the first episode that the female newscaster used the expression "We reached out to...." I don't think that particular (annoying) phrase was prevalent back then.

That bugged me, too! I think that's a very recent phrase. And yes, it's annoying AF.

[Aja]

1 hour ago, Portia said:

That bugged me, too! I think that's a very recent phrase. And yes, it's annoying AF.

YES! I noticed that very specifically because I went to live and work in Europe for 11 years, and when I came back to the USA in 2014 and got a job, EVERYBODY was using that expression.  I was like "Wtf? Why do you have to reach out to me? I'm not upset." Some of those little things that get overlooked hit some of us in a big way. :) ETA: I flatly refuse to participate in that trend. You can get in touch with me or go away.

Edited September 6, 2016 by Aja

[lulee]

I also thought it seemed anachronistic that Joyce reminded her boss that she had worked on Thanksgiving. I can't imagine a small town store open on Thanksgiving in 1983. Even going in to prep for the next day seems unlikely to me. 

[Ms.McGregor]

21 hours ago, Portia said:

That bugged me, too! I think that's a very recent phrase. And yes, it's annoying AF.

In the first or second episode, one of the kids says "douchebag" and the someone else says "chill."

I was the roughly same age as the protagonists in 1983, and absolutely nobody said either of these words.

[lulee]

53 minutes ago, Ms.McGregor said:

In the first or second episode, one of the kids says "douchebag" and the someone else says "chill."

I was the roughly same age as the protagonists in 1983, and absolutely nobody said either of these words.

More like, "Stop spazzing out" or "stop being such a spaz!"

[Portia]

On a positive note, I loved their use of "weirdo."  It even made it into an episode title! Spot on. When I was in grade school, calling someone Weirdo was a pretty solid put-down. 

[maraleia]

I was 12 in 1983 and we definitely said douchebag and I grew up in the Western suburbs of Chicago.

[amass]

I was 15 in 1983 and douchebag was a common insult. I lived on long island

[califred]

I was young in 83 but I know my siblings used douchebags.

 

The thing that stood out to me was the Jr High being called a Middle School, that term is newer the concept came around in the early/mid 90s 

[AimingforYoko]

23 hours ago, califred said:

The thing that stood out to me was the Jr High being called a Middle School, that term is newer the concept came around in the early/mid 90s 

Nah, I went to a middle school in *cough1977*, it just wasn't prevalent. I went to a private school that had a lower school(K-5), middle school(6-8) and Upper School(9-12). Most Jr. Highs were either 7th and 8th grades or 7-9. The middle school concept does seem to have completely usurped Jr. High now, though.

[Mabinogia]

In 1984 I went to Betsy Ross Middle School, never called jr. high. It was 6-8 grade. ( I honestly thought jr. high was a Canadian thing because I'd only ever heard of it on Degrassi) . Also, heard a lot of douchbag well before I knew what it actually meant. lol So this show is pretty spot on for capturing my childhood.

What I really appreciate is that they didn't go overboard with the styling. They could have gone OTT with the 80s cliché style but I appreciate that most of them are pretty low key and normal. Not everyone looked as totally 80s as Barb. Most of us were more like Nancy.

[secnarf]

I'm Canadian and have only ever heard "junior high" in American tv/books (never watched degrassi). Not sure what was used in the early 80s, but now it's usually middle school, although many elementary schools are jk-8. 

[califred]

In the Midwest Middle School became the prevalent term in the mid 90s when I was in college to be a teacher. We had 7-9 Jr high before that then they changed to 6-8 and MS.  So that was jarring for me like I said.  Honestly they did a pretty great job being 80s and not OTT.

[ShadowFacts]

We have to remember regionalism -- things are said and done differently even within pretty short distances, say southern Wisconsin to northern Illinois.  Bubbler/water fountain, soda/pop, etc.  In my neck of the woods, we had middle school from the 70s, but we were rural, and urban districts had junior high.  Lots of variation from the boonies to the cities. 

Edited September 12, 2016 by ShadowFacts
typo

[nodorothyparker]

In my smaller than small hometown, it was junior high for seventh and eighth grades.  The much bigger town one over called it middle school for 6-8.  I remember being vaguely jealous because I would have been in sixth grade in '83 and was still in the elementary school while kids from the much bigger town in my church confirmation class were considered middle schoolers.

[Taryn74]

1 hour ago, nodorothyparker said:

In my smaller than small hometown, it was junior high for seventh and eighth grades.

I'll see your small town junior high, and raise you a small town "grade school" (K-6th grade) and "high school" (7th - 12th grade).  All on the same campus, btw.  I graduated with 19.  LOL

[nodorothyparker]

You win by a hair.  26 in my graduating class, most of whom I started kindergarten with.  We had two buildings, the elementary for K-6, and the high school/junior high with the junior high in one hallway and the high school in the rest of the building.  Separated by a parking lot.

[Unclejosh]

I had a junior high and never even heard of a thing called middle school until I was married and had a child old enough to go to one.  My town and all the ones around me had elementary schools through 6th Grade, Jr High for 7th and 8th Grade, then 9-12 was High School.  Honestly I like this better because I don't think 6th graders and 8th graders need to be in the same school.  There is way too much of a jump both in size, maturity, puberty, etc for there not to be issues. I know my daughter was terrified of going into 6th grade and having to be around 8th graders on the playground, on the bus, etc.  Many of the 8th graders were already drinking, some were having sex, etc.

Oh and we used both douchebag and chill in the early 80's at least in Massachusetts.

[mmecorday]

I just started watching this show tonight and I'm thinking that in 1983 people were still leasing home phones. So Joyce would have contacted the phone company to replace her damaged wall phone (that looked exactly like my grandparents' phone) rather than buy one.

[secnarf]

10 hours ago, mmecorday said:

I just started watching this show tonight and I'm thinking that in 1983 people were still leasing home phones. So Joyce would have contacted the phone company to replace her damaged wall phone (that looked exactly like my grandparents' phone) rather than buy one.

I think someone posted elsewhere on these forums (can't remember where) that in an interview they stated that the show had to be set after ~1982 for that exact reason.

[notyrmomma]

On 10/2/2016 at 0:55 AM, mmecorday said:

I just started watching this show tonight and I'm thinking that in 1983 people were still leasing home phones. So Joyce would have contacted the phone company to replace her damaged wall phone (that looked exactly like my grandparents' phone) rather than buy one.

Yes!  I would have only been in 3rd grade in 1983, but I remember the early 80s relatively well.  I am watching this series with my 15 year old son and I really think he is getting tired of me saying, oh no, they didn't do that/have that/say that in the early 80s!  I was much older when that version of Hazy Shade of Winter came out with the movie Less Than Zero (which I was not allowed to watch, but I saw it anyway, LOL).  It was one of my favorite songs back in the day.  What is also annoying me is that they are using the word "super" a lot..like that was "super annoying."  I think even in the early 80s we would have said "totally annoying" but whatever.  

[Ubiquitous]

On ‎10‎/‎1‎/‎2016 at 11:55 PM, mmecorday said:

I just started watching this show tonight and I'm thinking that in 1983 people were still leasing home phones. So Joyce would have contacted the phone company to replace her damaged wall phone (that looked exactly like my grandparents' phone) rather than buy one.

Yeah, I wondered about that as well b/c I remember being fascinated by the (AT&T?) phone store in the mall, which AFAIK was the only way you could get one. 

[Lovecat]

On 9/14/2016 at 4:17 PM, Unclejosh said:

I had a junior high and never even heard of a thing called middle school until I was married and had a child old enough to go to one.  My town and all the ones around me had elementary schools through 6th Grade, Jr High for 7th and 8th Grade, then 9-12 was High School.  Honestly I like this better because I don't think 6th graders and 8th graders need to be in the same school. 

I started 7th grade in a Jr. High School, but the district switched to a Middle School system the summer after.  When we came back, 2/3 of the kids were new, and we were suddenly the big kids in school!  We made the switch over the summer of 1982.  The class above us was the first 4-year high school class.  I'm always struck at how tiny the 6th graders are.  I'm not sure I would have been thrilled about going to middle school in 6th grade, so I'm kind of glad I missed that particular trauma.  The irony is that I was actually supposed to be in the class below mine; had I not been skipped from kindergarten to 1st grade, I would've been one of those tiny 6th graders!

[mahree]

On 2/25/2017 at 4:55 PM, Ubiquitous said:

On 10/2/2016 at 0:55 AM, mmecorday said:

I just started watching this show tonight and I'm thinking that in 1983 people were still leasing home phones. So Joyce would have contacted the phone company to replace her damaged wall phone (that looked exactly like my grandparents' phone) rather than buy one.

Yeah, I wondered about that as well b/c I remember being fascinated by the (AT&T?) phone store in the mall, which AFAIK was the only way you could get one. 

At&T (Ma Bell) breakup happened in January 1982.  Here is a link to a Washington Post article that mentions purchasing phones from January 1983.  So if the show takes place in Fall 1983 it is entirely possible fro Joyce to have purchased her phone(s).  As stated in the article, you could purchase a phone pre-breakup, but only from a phone store.  After deregulation, you could buy them anywhere.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1983/01/31/ma-bells-breakup-means-big-changes-ahead-for-phone-users/185c55de-505f-4f1b-98e8-e1e2bf3b67b2/?utm_term=.624b48785028

[SophieDelago]

I never noticed that before. I had to stop reading halfway because I didn't want the series to be ruined because of a couple of anachronisms haha!

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 8/23/2016 at 11:35 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I'm five episodes in, and I've really been enjoying just how true-to-the-period it's been, which is why anachronisms like 1987's "Hazy Shade of Winter" stand out more. (I'm figuring it was artistic license. And hey, the song DID exist, just not the Bangles version.)

According to an article in Record magazine from June 1983, The Bangles were playing "Hazy Shade of Winter" at their live shows so technically, their version did exist in November 1983 when S1 of Stranger Things took place. They just never recorded the song until they were asked to contribute a song to the Less Than Zero soundtrack in 1987.

[serenitynow]

Did people call Kentucky Fried Chicken “KFC” in the 80s?  We didn’t.

[secnarf]

18 minutes ago, serenitynow said:

Did people call Kentucky Fried Chicken “KFC” in the 80s?  We didn’t.

There has been quite a lot of discussion about this in the episode thread. I think the consensus is that it was regional - some areas did, and some did not, prior to the official rebranding in 1991.

[serenitynow]

4 hours ago, secnarf said:

There has been quite a lot of discussion about this in the episode thread. I think the consensus is that it was regional - some areas did, and some did not, prior to the official rebranding in 1991.

Thanks-I hadn’t finished the episode yet when I posted so I didn’t read that thread because I didn’t want to be spoiled.  I’ll check it out.

[starri]

This is such a tiny thing, but in several episodes, we saw people squeezing syrup out of Mrs. Butterworth bottles.  I would swear that Mrs. Butterworth came in glass bottles until the late 80s.

Also, at one point, Dustin dressed in an outfit that's clearly supposed to be a reference to Duckie in Pretty in Pink, and that wasn't out for another two years.

[methodwriter85]

3 hours ago, starri said:

This is such a tiny thing, but in several episodes, we saw people squeezing syrup out of Mrs. Butterworth bottles.  I would swear that Mrs. Butterworth came in glass bottles until the late 80s.

Also, at one point, Dustin dressed in an outfit that's clearly supposed to be a reference to Duckie in Pretty in Pink, and that wasn't out for another two years.

Well, according to this 1984 commercial, this is what they looked like:

That bottle doesn't look squeezable, so you could be right. But it's kind of hard to tell if that bottle is plastic or glass.

I figured they made the Ducky reference without really making the Ducky reference because it's not out for two years.

Edited October 31, 2017 by methodwriter85

[starri]

"Behind every great breakfast is a great woman."

At least we've advanced as a culture to the point that we maybe wouldn't say that today?

[methodwriter85]

I think that's definitely glass- the screw cap on the bottle looks metal, not plastic. It still looks like that in 1987:

 

But it looks like the change has been made by 1989:

 

The screw caps definitely look plastic in the '89 commercial.

Good eye, Starri! I wasn't born until December '85 so my memories don't really start until about 1989.

Edited October 31, 2017 by methodwriter85

[bilgistic]

In episode two, Nancy wears a claw clip in her hair when she goes to the party. I know this is a weird thing to fixate on. I was 10 on Halloween 1984, but I don't remember claw clips coming into popularity until years later...like a decade or so. I use a big claw clip daily. The mid- and late-1980s were all about banana clips. The early 1990s were about scrunchies, which are supposedly coming back, horror of horrors.

Lululemon is selling a scrunchie for $8. Jesus.

[Sader87]

There was a mention, by the older brother, of the band The Smiths in Season 1.....set in Indiana 1983, that would be an anachronism imo...The Smiths weren't really known in the States until 1984 and even then, probably by very few.

No biggie but it took me out of the scene.

[nodorothyparker]

I keep wanting say I owned a medium size claw clip by later high school, like '87 or '88, but I honestly can't remember now either and can't find any conclusive evidence online either way.  I just know I never could get the banana clip to work right, although to be fair once you committed to big mall bangs there wasn't a lot else that did work in your hair.  Either way, I loved that the show got the girls' plastic barrettes right for the dance at the end.  

*small voice  I liked scrunchies.  I still have some of mine because they're the easiest things ever to use in tying your hair back in a hurry.

[bilgistic]

Oh, I was ALL ABOUT the scrunchie back in the early 1990s. My mother sews, so she was making scrunchies for my sisters and me, my dance team, my sister's cheerleading team, and the rest of the world.

[MaryWebGirl]

9 hours ago, bilgistic said:

In episode two, Nancy wears a claw clip in her hair when she goes to the party. I know this is a weird thing to fixate on. I was 10 on Halloween 1984, but I don't remember claw clips coming into popularity until years later...like a decade or so. I use a big claw clip daily. The mid- and late-1980s were all about banana clips. The early 1990s were about scrunchies, which are supposedly coming back, horror of horrors.

Lululemon is selling a scrunchie for $8. Jesus.

The one Nancy was wearing was a little more "late model," but I remember wearing claw clips around that time. They were usually more garish and bigger (and from Claire's of course) like these:

[nodorothyparker]

I had those in a half a dozen colors.  I just can't remember exactly when.

[Taryn74]

The hair discussion is cracking me up.  Once banana clips came out my aunt wore a banana clip in her hair every day until the day she died (which was in recent years), I kid you not.  She had that hair dyed and curled and puffed and bouffed around the clip so that you couldn't see the clip itself and she never went anywhere without her hair being "fixed" and it always looked exactly the same.

Oh, the memories this show brings up.

 

6 hours ago, nodorothyparker said:

*small voice  I liked scrunchies.  I still have some of mine because they're the easiest things ever to use in tying your hair back in a hurry.

No shame!  I wish I still had some, I like that there was no pokey part where the seam was to get caught in your hair or scratch the back of your neck. The 80s were ridiculous in many ways (were they ever) but they got a few things right. Heh.

[BradandJanet]

Just finished season 2. About half way through, I heard someone say, "Have a good one." I don't remember this expression until fairly recently. It's one that bugs me, so I noticed it. 

[bettername2come]

2 hours ago, BradandJanet said:

Just finished season 2. About half way through, I heard someone say, "Have a good one." I don't remember this expression until fairly recently. It's one that bugs me, so I noticed it. 

Hmm, I feel like my parents have always said this one. Duffer Brothers and I are both from North Carolina though so it could be a regional thing.

[Robert Lynch]

In the opening of season 2 with the police chase, one of the scenes features a man with a iPhone taking a picture of the car itself, despite it being 1984! It happens somewhere at 1:30-1:32.