After writing about Back to the Future I got to thinking about just how many science fiction teen comedies there were during the eighties, and why that might be. I think I’ve got it figured out. It’s because of computers like the Commodore 64, TRS-80 and Timex Sinclair.
All of these early home computers brought the power and mystery of the computer to generations who had previously only associated them with Star Trek and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Little boys like me didn’t know all that much about what they could do, and our parents probably knew even less. Was the computer “alive”? Could it talk? Would it hack into the Pentagon and launch World War III… or maybe build us a British supermodel? There was no telling, but there they were in our living rooms and bedrooms, full of possibility.
The computers brought friends, too. The consumer electronics revolution manifested in many ways, from the VCR, Walkman and the digital watch to cable television and Atari. The future was here, and even if we we didn’t get our jetpacks we were still in for a wild ride. For suburban families like mine, these suddenly affordable perks of technological innovation fueled an excitement for the future. (There was fear, too, and this was manifested in Cold War horror flicks like The Day After, but that’s a story for another time.)
We were curious about what else might be coming down the pipe, and how our lives might change. for the better. Since we weren’t able to answer those questions with any real degree accuracy, entertainment stepped in and gave it a shot. Directors like John Hughes had made the teen comedy a lucrative industry, and there were a lot of other directors who followed suit. With “Pac-Man Fever” on the airways and “floppy disc” becoming a familiar word in the teen lexicon, it was probably easy to see that there would be a market for giving comedies aimed at a youthful audience a new technological twist.
The year 1985 seems to have been an iconic year for this kind of thing. An apex moment in culture where mass entertainment and technology fused with surging Gen-X hormonal madness. was it the near-saturation of computer entertainment systems? The economy? Who really knows?
Back to the Future (1985) was a classic film, and in my opinion one of only a handful of flicks that have effectively used time travel as an integral part of its plot. It’s so eighties, too: A Delorean jacked up with funny cables and flashing lights. Quintessential eighties kid travels into the past in quintessential eighties sports car. Libyan terrorists in pursuit. The only way this film could get more eighties would be if the screen showered you with Nerds candy and neon leg warmers ever ten minutes. What a great film, though!
While it’s clear that Back to the Future was aimed at an all-ages family audience, other eighties techno comedies were not.
Weird Science (1985) was squarely targeted at teenage boys. Nerdy teenage boys. During a sleep-over, geeks Gary and Wyatt decide to see if they can create a computer simulation of a beautiful woman. As hormone-flushed boys are wont to do, they make her a sex goddess. During a classic eighties “hacking” montage during which they hook computer up to a Barbie Doll (Why would a teenage boy own a … uh…don’t answer that.) things go horribly awry (or terrifically “alright!”) and their simulation comes to life in the form of “Lisa” (model Kelly LeBrock., who became quasi-infamous for a series of commercials in which she told viewers “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”). Lisa asks the boys what they’d like to do. After they say they’d like to shower with her she agrees to do so, only the boys are too afraid to actually do anything sexual with her. They’re still geeks, and no amount of feminine flesh will fix that. In short order, Lisa becomes their Mary Poppins, fixing their lives by showing them the things that they should have done on their own, like stand up to bullies, socialize a little more, develop self confidence. It doesn’t hurt that there’s plenty of girls, laughs and even evil, chopper-riding mutants along the way. I’m a lot older than I was when I first saw Weird Science, but I still enjoy it.
Real Genius (also released in 1985), was another iconic “geeks versus the powerful” romantic comedy, and a surprisingly deep one for anyone expecting just another lowbrow sex romp. If Back to the Future was for the kids, and Weird Science for the teenagers, Real Genius was for the young adults.
In Real Genius, a fifteen year-old genius enrolls at Pacific Tech where he meets a gang of eccentric young scientists in training. They’re working on a mystery project that is revealed to be a military weapons system. Choices have to be made regarding whether to continue the project or not. Doing so will lead to more warfare and killing, but not doing so will ruin academic careers. Our teenage protagonist and his geeky/cool buddies make their way through, and along the way have plenty of fun with girls, music, and all kinds of nerdy innovation.
These are just a few of the teen comedies that arose around the inception of the home computing age. There are countless others, and they reflected the mix of excitement and anxiety that both puberty and social change provoke. What are some of your favorite from past and present?
Source:
http://suvudu.com/2013/07/back-in-time-why-was-1985-such-a-good-year-for-sci-fi-teen-comedies.html