S01.E02: Rockets, Communists, and the Dewey Decimal System

[DrSpaceman73]

I just find this show mildly amusing.  I get the jokes, but don't find them hilarious or all that great, just kind of mediocre.  I don't dislike the show, but also don't view it as "must watch". 

If this was not a spinoff from TBBT and knowing the connection to Sheldon, I probably wouldn't have much interest

[hatchetgirl]

Libraries definitely still used a card catalog in the late '80's. I remember SF main library going through a move and computerization in the 90's and how they decorated with the old cards from the catalog. I think they were mostly comp by '92 but also know i looked in the card catalog for some books.  

Having lived in small towns in Arizona, Montana and California along with Edinburgh Scotland, i can attest to some towns and big cities (Edinburgh) being quite a few years behind.

I'm not fully onboard with the show. I just watched episode 3 and it seems to not know if it wants to be dark or cute. 

[Katy M]

7 hours ago, hatchetgirl said:

Libraries definitely still used a card catalog in the late '80's. I remember SF main library going through a move and computerization in the 90's and how they decorated with the old cards from the catalog. I think they were mostly comp by '92 but also know i looked in the card catalog for some books.  

I went to my hometown library in 2003 and was shocked to see the card catalogs still in use.  They didn't have the book I needed, though. 

[ashleylm]

Re the show looking like it was set in earlier times--that's a thumbs up from me.  Nothing looks more false than a show set in 1989 being filled with people whose furniture was purchased in late 1988, where everyone only owns clothes that came out that season, and who sport the latest hair styles from Paris Fashion week.  Most people have a few new things, some recently, some not, some used furniture, some hand-me-down pieces from Dad or Grandma, etc.  I myself sported the latest fashions from 1983-1991 (whatever the look was in London, not what the J.C. Penney was touting that season), and stuck out like a sore thumb constantly--I remember going to San Francisco (not a small Southern town) and being accused of being from Los Angeles (rather than Vancouver, my home) because of my outrageous fashion.  Everyone in San Francisco looked like they were from 1977 at the latest, in my opinion! 

[meep.meep]

On 11/3/2017 at 3:19 PM, Katy M said:

OK, I'll go with that.  Even though, I'm sure the real reason is that they're just not accounting for the fact that kids didn't have to ride in the back seat back then.

What does that even mean?

Even way way back in 1989, children had to ride in the back seat of the car.  I was born in 1955 - back seat until I started driving.  I had one kid in 1986 and one in 1988 - they rode in the back seat.   It made it easier for them to swat off the dinosaurs who were attacking the minivan.

Kids had to ride where their parents told them to ride.  If I was Mary driving 3 kids around, they'd go in the back seat.

And if I was filming a TV show, I'd put them in the back seat because the shot of her looking into the rear view mirror while you see the kid over her shoulder is much more interesting than looking at him next to her on the front seat.

[NYCFree]

I was born in 1966 and had to ride in the back seat until I could drive.

My parents' country house in the Catskills, two hours from New York City has no broadband internet in 2017. There is apparently new state funding to provide internet access to rural New York, but is certainly has not been implemented yet.

I found this episode far more charming than the pilot. I had no idea about the casting of Mary and was astonished about her voice and accent sounding so much like Laurie Metcalf's.

Edited November 19, 2017 by NYCFree

[possibilities]

On 11/18/2017 at 8:53 PM, NYCFree said:

My parents' country house in the Catskills, two hours from New York City has no broadband internet in 2017.

This is true in rural parts of western MA, also, even in areas that are relatively well-off financially and populated solely by full time, year-round residents. It's a big problem in a lot of rural areas. People are working on it where I live and they are currently saying we'll probably have it in a couple of years, after more than a decade of lobbying, organizing, dedicated committees meeting every month for the past 12+ years, multiple town-wide votes to borrow money, policy debates, feasibility studies, constant changes in plan, etc.

When I was a kid in the 1970s and early 80s, we sat in the front seat if we were driving alone with mom, and in the backseat if there was more than 1 kid or if dad was driving. Libraries had books with names in the back and card catalogues on paper well into the 1990s. Our furniture was the same from my earliest memories around age 5, to at least when I was 20. Once you buy it, how often do you replace it, unless you're a lot more wealthy than the Coopers (or my family)? I can easily imagine they have lived in that house since Georgie was born, and haven't updated the furnishings since.

I think a lot of things vary by person and by location. Fashion, too. Some people have the same clothes for decades, others keep up with trends. No one else looks like Sheldon, but he dresses the way he does because that's who he is.

[BlossomCulp]

Starting to watch this show and am on this episode now - so far so good.  Love Missie brushing her hair a hundred strokes and Sheldon telling her "you missed 11 numbers".   Also loved him trying to befriend his father, George,  and not being able to come up with anything he could compliment him, George,  over.

Edited November 27, 2017 by BlossomCulp

[CherryAmes]

On 11/26/2017 at 8:21 PM, BlossomCulp said:

Also loved him trying to befriend his father, George,  and not being able to come up with anything he could compliment him, George,  over.

I laughed out loud at the way he kept saying "George".  That kid is a fine little actor.  Actually all three of the kids are good.