Now, in reality, the term Xennial isn't that specific, and vaguely approximates the cohort of people born between 1977 and 1983, though some may place the goalposts differently. And we didn't get superpowers when the Belgrano sank, though being born in May '82, during the war, I like to believe this was the case. (Incidentally, Prince William was born June '82, in the full flush of victory. The holy maiden Diana experiencing the pangs of childbirth as the conflict raged. So one day we may have the fabled Xennial King.)
Anyway, back to Ghostbusters. Yesterday, on Twitter, Ghostbusters was referenced as a Xennial childhood marker. However, this garnered a response of doubt, as the first Ghostbusters movie was released in 1984 and people born in the early eighties would've been too young to have watched it at the cinema. With the cartoon following just a few years later.
Having been a toddler when Ghostbusters came out though, I know this wasn't the case. It made me realise that people born outside of that era don't understand just how big Ghostbusters was at the time, and how much it dominated the years following. It really was bigger than Star Wars. Some of my earliest memories are of the Ghostbusters. It dominated the childhood landscape, and it wasn't just the movies. It was the merchandise, the theme song, the action figures, the cartoon, the candy. I remember having the Peter Venkman and Egon Spengler actions figures (my younger brother got the other two). It was the first thing that I was really into. I remember choosing those two because they were the ones I identified with - Egon, the smart one and Venkman the smart-arsed one. My brother, being younger, had to make do with the two others.
Interestingly, noting the comparison with Star Wars, if you check the Wikipedia entry on Xennials, Star Wars is given as the main cultural marker.
In 2017 The Guardian noted, "In internet folklore, xennials are those born between 1977 and 1983, the release years of the original three Star Wars films."
Star Wars was the first movie franchise to be hugely merchandised, and then Ghostbusters in the 80s followed on from that. For me, Star Wars felt quite distant though. I was aware of it. In fact, as a very small child I remember my aunt buying me some Star Wars figures. I never really felt a connection to it though and hadn't seen the movies. So much so that I remember me and my brother flushing a Princess Leia figure down the toilet. At the time it annoyed me that I couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. I vividly remember my mam saying, "That's Princess Leia.." as if I should've been impressed by that, but my response was, "Why does she look like a boy? And why does she have a gun?". I think the hair buns and trousers fooled me.
It's funny looking back. Ghostbusters was definitely the thing for me though.
This all brings to mind a clear difference between Ghostbusters and Star Wars too, which I think in part highlights what influenced Xennials. Star Wars, though a movie, was a very childlike one. Darth Vader was a little scary, but there was nothing particularly adult or unsuitable for children in it. So the toys and flasks and lunchboxes were a nice, though commercial, fit. Ghostbusters, on the other hand, was a movie written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis.
Aykroyd was a Saturday Night Live comedian, who starred in things like The Blues Brothers, and Ramis was the guy who'd previously brought the world films like Stripes, Caddyshack and Animal House. So though Ghostbusters had childlike appeal in the form of ghost-catching, Slimer and Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the humour and tone was very adult.
And not adult in a 'cool', taking drugs, stereotypically Hollywood influence-the-kids kind of way, but in an aimed-at-adults actual sense of the term. So it's strange thinking back that that's what we were watching. It's hard to imagine it didn't have an influence on our little heads.
Take 2: Turtles.
Also, as a final aside before I finish, in the late 80s there was a period where the Ghostbusters were eclipsed by the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. It was a noteworthy thing, as the Turtles had a similar dynamic. You had the gang of four guys. You had similar archetypes: Donatello, like Egon, being the science guy; Raphael, the Venkman wise-guy. The whole thing was quite wise-cracking and adult. Certainly in comparison to something like Star Wars, though not quite with the same zing of Ghostbusters.
I liked the Turtles as well, and likewise had the toys and figures. I do remember having an awareness that they'd superseded the Ghostbusters however. Meaning I felt a drop of disappointment that my favourite thing wasn't the thing anymore. In some ways the passing of the baton was a little bit like the Stone Roses taking up the mantle from the Smiths in the late 80s. Or Oasis following on from the Stone Roses. It was the latest gang people wanted to be a part of.
Part III. Simpsons.
Finally, the Turtles were supplanted by the Simpsons. Again, these days we tend to think of the Simpsons as being in the same bracket as other adult-aimed cartoons like Family Guy and South Park. At the time they filled a slightly different cultural niche though. Bart Simpson weirdly followed on from Michelangelo as the skate-boarding, pizza-eating, "cowabunga dude" cool kid. The slingshot being another set of nunchucks. People of a similar age might recall the Turtles seaside arcade game that was around at the time, which was subsequently followed by a Simpsons version that more or less copied the exact same format, and filled the exact same slot at the arcade.
So, casting back, we started with Thomas the Tank Engine, which was also strangely grown-up for a children's show. Thomas basically having a fulltime job and responsibilities; the Fat Controller on his back like some Victorian Mr Gradgrind figure. Followed by the Ghostbusters, then the Turtles. (Interspersed a little with Dogtanian and the ThunderCats.) Then finally we left childhood just as the Simpsons arrived.
It was a high civilisation decade as far as cartoons go.
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