The Big Generation X Nostalgia Thread

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I guess I'm weird, but I never got what the "scandal" about Milli Vanilli was. OK, they didn't actually sing their music. So? It's all just a performance anyway. They were definitely doing the dancing and the presentation stuff. Right?

I dunno. That just doesn't bother me. It's kind of like being told that Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher aren't actually brother and sister, and then getting all bent out of shape because Luke and Leia were portrayed as related. Or that MC Skat Kat (the cartoon character) didn't actually do his own music.

I didn't know of any Milli Vanilli fans. I presume there were fans. Were they really that broken up over the idea this dance act wasn't really singing their own songs? Admittedly, I didn't like the music, but it definitely seemed the focus of the brand was on something else and the music was just wrapping for the product.
 
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Gabriel said:
I guess I'm weird, but I never got what the "scandal" about Milli Vanilli was. OK, they didn't actually sing their music. So? It's all just a performance anyway. They were definitely doing the dancing and the presentation stuff. Right?

I dunno. That just doesn't bother me. It's kind of like being told that Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher aren't actually brother and sister, and then getting all bent out of shape because Luke and Leia were portrayed as related. Or that MC Skat Kat (the cartoon character) didn't actually do his own music.

I didn't know of any Milli Vanilli fans. I presume were were fans. Were they really that broken up over the idea this dance act wasn't really singing their own songs? Admittedly, I didn't like the music, but it definitely seemed the focus of the brand was on something else and the music was just wrapping for the product.
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It felt pretty manufactured to me at the time. Based on how bad so many bands sounded live at the time a couple of guys straight lip syncing vs singing horribly and owning it wasn't to big a deal to me.
 
Gabriel said:
I guess I'm weird, but I never got what the "scandal" about Milli Vanilli was. OK, they didn't actually sing their music. So? It's all just a performance anyway. They were definitely doing the dancing and the presentation stuff. Right?

I dunno. That just doesn't bother me. It's kind of like being told that Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher aren't actually brother and sister, and then getting all bent out of shape because Luke and Leia were portrayed as related. Or that MC Skat Kat (the cartoon character) didn't actually do his own music.

I didn't know of any Milli Vanilli fans. I presume there were fans. Were they really that broken up over the idea this dance act wasn't really singing their own songs? Admittedly, I didn't like the music, but it definitely seemed the focus of the brand was on something else and the music was just wrapping for the product.
Click to expand...
It was more like finding out that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher didn't do their own voices.
 
Gabriel said:
I guess I'm weird, but I never got what the "scandal" about Milli Vanilli was. OK, they didn't actually sing their music. So? It's all just a performance anyway. They were definitely doing the dancing and the presentation stuff. Right?

I dunno. That just doesn't bother me. It's kind of like being told that Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher aren't actually brother and sister, and then getting all bent out of shape because Luke and Leia were portrayed as related. Or that MC Skat Kat (the cartoon character) didn't actually do his own music.

I didn't know of any Milli Vanilli fans. I presume there were fans. Were they really that broken up over the idea this dance act wasn't really singing their own songs? Admittedly, I didn't like the music, but it definitely seemed the focus of the brand was on something else and the music was just wrapping for the product.
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I was pretty much the same; didn't get why it was that big a deal, if people liked the music. It seemed more like a "people smell blood in the water" situation, rather than outrage. But I guess the early 90s was a different time, a different world...
 
Stevethulhu said:
It was more like finding out that Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher didn't do their own voices.
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...or Darth Vader...

I know I'd be heartbroken to find out that wasn't David Prowse's real voice...
 
Gabriel said:
I guess I'm weird, but I never got what the "scandal" about Milli Vanilli was. OK, they didn't actually sing their music. So? It's all just a performance anyway. They were definitely doing the dancing and the presentation stuff. Right?

I dunno. That just doesn't bother me. It's kind of like being told that Mark Hamil and Carrie Fisher aren't actually brother and sister, and then getting all bent out of shape because Luke and Leia were portrayed as related. Or that MC Skat Kat (the cartoon character) didn't actually do his own music.

I didn't know of any Milli Vanilli fans. I presume there were fans. Were they really that broken up over the idea this dance act wasn't really singing their own songs? Admittedly, I didn't like the music, but it definitely seemed the focus of the brand was on something else and the music was just wrapping for the product.
Click to expand...


Selective outrage, at about the same time C&C Music Factory got sued by Martha Wash, because they replaced her with a lip syncing Zelma Davis. Davis was being promoted as the female vocalist in the band, when in reality they used a number of different female singers (Davis did sing on some songs).
Wash did the female vocals in Gonna Make You Sweat. She is a large woman better known as half of the Weather Girls (Its Raining Men). For the video they substituted Zelma Davis, a model who lip sync'd the part. In court Wash was able to force the producers to give her credit for her work as well as provide her with royalties.
The public reaction seemed to be meh its just marketing, but for some reason Milli Vanilli which wasn't much different was seen as hugely deceptive.
 
Nobby-W said:
Or Dave Prowse, for that matter ...
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That one is as silly as Peter Mayhew doing his own lines.

Actually, on set Prowse and Mayhew both did their own dialog. Some say Chewbacca had all the best lines. And that is was really hard not to laugh at the Bristolean Green Cross Code Man saying how he found your lack for faith disturbing

 
Nobby-W said:
Or Dave Prowse, for that matter ...
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A cross over bigger than... ah whatever just watch it:

 
Nobby-W said:
Or Dave Prowse, for that matter ...
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Honestly, I don't have any idea what was up with the wiring in my brain that I didn't reach for that comparison first. I don't even think James Earl Jones was originally credited for Star Wars.
 
Stevethulhu said:
That one is as silly as Peter Mayhew doing his own lines.

Actually, on set Prowse and Mayhew both did their own dialog. Some say Chewbacca had all the best lines. And that is was really hard not to laugh at the Bristolean Green Cross Code Man saying how he found your lack for faith disturbing

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That really should have been something along the lines of "I find your lack of looking and listening disturbing."
 
James Earl Jones didn’t want the credit for A New Hope. He basically said all he did (emphasis mine) was do some lines of voice work. He literally has one of the most iconic voices of all time. His “they will come” speech in Field of Dreams is one of my favorites in any movie.
 
Endless Flight said:
James Earl Jones didn’t want the credit for A New Hope. He basically said all he did (emphasis mine) was do some lines of voice work. He literally has one of the most iconic voices of all time. His “they will come” speech in Field of Dreams is one of my favorites in any movie.
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How things have changed. Voice acting used to be kind a lower class of acting. The same way you didn't see major film stars do TV. Going from film to TV or (gasp) voice acting was seen as something a successful actor did when their career was in decline. So much of an actors "worth" is based on perception.

There is a quote floating around, I don't know if it is accurate, but at the time he felt the voice was simply part of the special effects and not worthy of taking credit for. I wouldn't be surprised though if part of it was also concern of being seen as washed up, doing a voice role after having done several successful movies.

The image of voice acting has significantly improved since the 1970s, and now rather than hiding it, doing a lead role in a major animated film is a sign an actor has made the big time.


Field of Dreams is awesome, it is one of those movies I can watch over and over, along with Breaking Away, Cannery Row and Harold & Maude.
 
Necrozius said:
A cross over bigger than... ah whatever just watch it:

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Watching this makes me feel two clashing sets of emotions.

Part of me feels, "Please take me back to this time of my life when the landmarks were clear and the cultural wallpaper was comforting. I love you goofy crossover."

The other part of me is like, "Modernity was a mistake, shovel it all into that barrel over there and set it on fire."
 
TristramEvans said:
View attachment 19458
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I hate seeing all of the cool old play structures demolished and replaced with cookie cutter "safety approved" plastic structures. When I was a kid this one park (known locally as Astro park for reasons that will be obvious) had a big metal flying saucer kids could climb on and in. It was awesome. I was devastated as an adult to see they tore it down and replaced it with a generic play structure. They took out most of the trees too and leveled off the whole area. Can't be teaching kids about gravity with that wall I guess.

1593714677127.png
 
I haven't really been paying attention (not having kids), but it saddens me to think about all the ways I hear childhood is getting more and more sanitized.
 
Nothing says "fantastic childhood memories" like breaking your arm on a concrete block at the playground and being unable to go to the swimming pool all summer because you're wearing a cast.
 
I like Micheal Keaton, and he has done straight drama well, but I still think the movie was poorly cast other than Jack Nicholson who absolutely owned the Joker. Kim Basinger is dull which didn't help. Actually I think Batman may be the only Tim Burton movie I don't really care for (excepting the Joker who was awesome). Also my least favorite Batman movie, so maybe everybody but the Joker needed to go.

Batman is hard to cast, trying to think who might have worked in 1989. It is before a lot of the other possibilities I think might pull it off were old enough / established enough to consider (Tom Hanks was still in his young and goofy stage, Keanu Reeves was Bill or Ted in '89 not sure which, Billy Zane, young and not getting leading parts yet, although excellently creepy in Dead Calm, John Cusak too young, Johnny Depp too young, Christian Slater too young, but in a few years would have made an interesting pairing with Nicholson's Joker) and I don't think the part is a good fit for most of the 80s action stars. Love Bruce Willis and Kurt Russell but don't see either of them as Batman.

I've come up with Peter Weller and Jeff Goldblum at the top and throwing out Tom Selleck, Kevin Kline and Nickolas Cage as other possibilities, with Robin Williams as the off the wall suggestion that might have worked.
 
Toadmaster said:
Batman is hard to cast, trying to think who might have worked in 1989.
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ahem...

alec-baldwin-batman-joker-movie-scaled.jpg


edit: lol, posted this before reading Endless's response. Baldwin was the obvious choice.

That said, I was perfectly fine with Keaton as Batman. I was too young to have strong opinions, or even be aware of the comicbook fan controversies. To this day, I think he was the best Batman onscreen that was not animated.
 
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