History Main / NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe

The reverse is also often true; the late '60s (especially if set around the Vietnam War) and TheSeventies -- which, not entirely coincidentally, many of these writers were no longer growing up in, being adults -- will be subject to an inverted Nostalgia Filter, being painted in a very negative light, with all innocence lost and the dream most ''definitely'' being over: Cities are [[WretchedHive living hellholes]], young men are sent to a sure death and the government uses dirty tricks against its people. The same for TheNineties, which will be portrayed as a time everyone was either moping or panicking about Y2K. TheNoughties also being a time that paranoia was all around and an economic meltdown was just round the corner. And TheThirties are just ''that'', the 30s (aka Great Depression and Hitler). The negative aspects of these decades will be stressed, and any positive things quietly ignored (except for those who lived in those eras, for whom the filter will be in full effect). This even applies to decades once portrayed positively: the 1950s are now often caricatured as a nation-wide [[StepfordSuburbia repressive prison for everyone not straight, white, cisgendered, and male (complete with ironic sitcom trappings)]]. Also, the creativity and experimentalism of such decades is often understated in favor of overemphasis on the {{camp}}, cheesy, and kitsch aspects of their popular culture (with all of the PanderingToTheBase and LowestCommonDenominator that entails). This causes later generations to [[PlayedForLaughs not take these decades seriously]].

* Kentucky Fried Chicken's 1970s-style TV commercials of the 2000s/early-10s invoke this trope. Colonel Sanders (portrayed by an actor) declares that baseball will always remain free of corruption, and that a tank of gas costs $5. Even in the 1970s, neither of these things was true.

* ''Manga/BillyBat'': the series takes place throughout the years as a conspiracy action thriller used as creative material to write the titular [[TitleDrop Billy Bat comic book]], but even as the comic invokes nostalgia of comic books from the 1950's to the 2000's, we can see the negative effects of racism, sexism, conspiracy, fraud, and poverty that were rampant in these times during the 'real-world' portions of the manga, even as they practically write the plot of the seemingly non-bigoted comic.

* Averted in ''ComicBook/DCTheNewFrontier'', with both comics and cartoon adaptation showing (briefly, in the latter's case) the fate of John Henry, who survived lynching (his family didn't) and took revenge on TheKlan, [[spoiler:only to be caught by them near the middle and murdered as well]]. The story also dealt with the [=McCarthyism=] paranoia of the 50s. On the other hand, JFK in the coda is all but treated as ''the'' saintly embodiment of everything good, virtuous, and true.

* Averted again with ''ComicBook/SandmanMysteryTheatre'', which actually dealt with issues like the rampant racism of the 30's and 40's. This is notable since in general, most Franchise/DCUniverse publications seem to have a serious NostalgiaFilter when it comes to UsefulNotes/{{the Golden Age|of Comic Books}}.

* The "Last Days" tie-in to ''ComicBook/AntMan'' reveals that Mary Morgenstern, one of Ant-Man's financial backers, is actually the retired superheroine Miss Patriot. When it's brought up that she used to use the name "Mary Morgan" back during the 40's, it's heavily implied that Mary is Jewish, and that her family changed their surname to avoid the rampant antisemitism of the era.

* ''ComicBook/PaperGirls'' is a love letter to 80's kid adventure movies like ''Film/StandByMe'' and ''Film/TheMonsterSquad'', but doesn't shy away from from the less desirable parts of the decade. There's a lot of casual homophobia, and one of the underage characters smokes without any regard for what it'll do to her health. In the words of the writer:

%%** May actually be a bit of a subversion, since (for example) the hippy spiritualist is a massive dick, the antiwar protester is a mad bomber, and the general veneer of "man, the 60's were awesome!" is relatively thin over rather more realistic depictions of the era.

* Appears in ''Film/BoogieNights'', which is set in the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles porn scene during the late seventies and early eighties. Whilst not exactly perfect -- it ''is'' the porn industry, after all -- TheSeventies are depicted as being a colorful and carefree time, and considering the setting quite innocent as well; everyone's largely happy, everything's going well, and everything's bright and cheerful. Then along come TheEighties. The Eighties suck for all concerned. TruthInTelevision, the porn industry took a hit in the 80's with the onset of AIDS, VHS replacing film and the [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]] administration declaring war on it.

* ''Film/ABronxTale'' is rife with aversions. While the narrator does fondly remember his youth during the 50's and 60's, the movie doesn't shy away from showing the racial tension and violence of the era. Even C's father, one of the nicer and less-bigoted characters, [[MalignedMixedMarriage states that people should only marry within their own race]]. That's not even getting into the horribly racist attitudes displayed by C's Italian-American buddies...
* ''Film/DazedAndConfused'' both plays this straight and subverts it. It portrays, for the most part, an idealized, nostalgia-inducing view of the 1970's, yet also shows how people are often discontent with a period simply because it's the present. At one point in the film, a girl is shown talking about the "every other decade rule"; the 50's were lame, the 60's were great, and the 70's obviously suck, and maybe the 80's will be awesome. Additionally, Pink says "If I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself."

** The first film ''1994'' naturally has a series of 90s pop and grunge every few minutes, references to ''Series/MySoCalledLife'' and iconography evoking the likes of ''{{Film/Scream 1996}}'' and ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer''. But the homophobia of the era is highlighted, as well as Gen X cynicism. Director Leigh Janiak was a teenager during the time, and based everything on her own experiences.
** The second ''1978'' does likewise with 70s hits and a cheerful look at the hippie and drug culture, as well as positioning itself as a fun throwback to horror like ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'' and ''Film/FridayTheThirteenth1980''. But one of the main characters is implied to be a closeted lesbian who's trying to escape her life by passing for straight, contrasting the two in 1994 who are at least able to be a couple. The drug culture is also shown to be a shallow escape from an empty lifestyle.

* In ''Literature/ElevenTwentyTwoSixtyThree'', Jake Epping's trip into the past leads him through some of the darker and uglier sides of the 50's and 60's, which he reminds himself of every time he starts to romanticize about the era. It gets to the point where he can't stand waiting for Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, finding the city ugly, smelly, racist, and generally miserable. [[spoiler:And it turns out the romantic idea he and Al had about saving John F. Kennedy and [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fixing history's mistakes]] ultimately proves untrue, as Kennedy's survival results in a truly hellish BadFuture.]]

* The ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' episode "Old School" centers around Peralta's idealization of [[TheSeventies 70's]] police work. Eventually, Captain Holt ends up informing him that the 70's were a dark time for the NYPD, and that in addition to the drug epidemic and high crime rates that plagued the city, the department itself was a hotbed of corruption, racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Holt, who's black and gay, specifically tells Jake that when he arrived at his precinct for his first day of work, the other (white) officers believed that instead of him being their new colleague, he was a criminal there to turn himself in. Peralta's nostalgia is dispelled for good when the journalist who wrote many of the crime books that inspired a young Peralta starts using homophobic slurs when referring to Captain Holt.
* Averted in ''Series/{{Carnivale}}''. The 30s seem like a craptastic world where America is replaced by a wasteland that actively tries to kill anyone, no institutionalized justice exists, bigotry is rampant, the poor are callously abused and imprisoned, and even Messiahs have to harm people to perform miracles. This makes sense since probably the only people who have ever idealized the Thirties were those who were actually there, and for the most part they probably only did it while they were actually happening - because, after all, how else are you supposed to get through such a rough time?

** The episode "Witchstock" subverts the peace and love aspect of the 60s when Paige gets sent back in time. She meets the younger version of their grandmother, who was once a pacifist hippie. In the past she was betrayed by a fellow hippie friend who [[TheLostLenore got her husband killed]]. She had to abandon her pacifism in order to protect her loved ones from demons, and become the strict witch who raised her granddaughters to become the Charmed Ones.

* Averted in ''Series/ColdCase''. Many of its cases date back from the early 1900's to the present, and they usually show the mentality and attitudes in those days. From racism, misogyny, or just plain asshole-ness.

* Humourously played with in an episode of ''Series/TheGoodies'' where Tim drives Britain to a ''ridiculous'' 50s nostalgia wave to the point even television returns to its fifties' tiny black-and-white screen self. The flip-side is that the gang has to report for National Service for two years as it has become mandatory once again.

* Averted by ''Series/MadMen''. Set at the transition point between TheFifties and TheSixties (culturally, it's the 50s; [[UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy JFK]] isn't dead until the end of the third season), the people behind the show go to great lengths to avoid the nostalgia factor. And not with mere background details; what appears often serves to make situations that would be easily resolved in our time hopelessly complicated. In other words (the show is trying to say), although TheSixties weren't ''that'' long ago, they really were incredibly different, and were ''not'' by any stretch of the imagination "better" than our time. Nevertheless, the characters are so engaging and the visual style so distinctive that the series really has to work hard to avoid [[DoNotDoThisCoolThing Truffaut's Theorem]].

* Mocked in an episode of ''Series/ModernFamily'', where Jay talks about how great things were when he was growing up in the 50's and 60's. His Latina wife Gloria says things were certainly great... unless you were African-American, Hispanic [[note]] at least ''mestizo'' Hispanic, which Gloria presumably is [[/note]], gay, or a woman. Jay acknowledges her point and amends his previous statement by saying things really were great... as long as you were a heterosexual Anglo white male, like him.
* A RunningGag on ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' was for Joel, Mike and the Bots to frequently quip about the darker aspects hiding behind over-sanitized contemporary portrayals of life in the 50's and 60's, especially when it came to instructional shorts from the era:

* Thoroughly deconstructed in ''Series/PennAndTellerBullshit'' where over the top nostalgia was presented as being at best misguided (the fans of ''Series/LeaveItToBeaver'' preferring TheFifties to modern life) to actually harmful and an indicator of psychological problems. They show this by having the aforementioned fans meet the man who played Eddie Haskell. They gush about how great the 50s were, and then he reminds them of things like segregation and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

* ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' has an episode where everyone gets sent back in time to the 60s. She at first loves the peace and love aspect of the era - but then she discovers the blatant sexism of the day when colleges won't accept her because of her gender. She likewise realises how shallow the hippie lifestyle is - Harvey's ambition is simply to travel the country in a van "following the music" after school is over.
* A running theme on ''Series/TheSopranos''. Tony often laments that the then current Mafia (late 90s/early 00s) is nothing like it used to be. He imagines the mob in the days of his father (mid to late 70s), picturing loyal mobsters who would never turn state's evidence and instead just take their prison sentences like "real men", as a period where the mob was "honorable" and well respected by the community. Flashbacks indicate that if anything, his father's day was just as bad or even worse.

** Another episode [[AvertedTrope averted]] it by depicting the crew as living in pre-Civil Rights Movement New York. Racism, sexism, and police corruption and brutality are portrayed as ever-present threats and the word "[[PrecisionFStrike nigger]]" is used to shocking effect for a TV show that aired on prime time in the 90s. The episode's ending leaves it ambiguous over whether or not it was OnlyADream.

* Music/TheGaslightAnthem built their fan base on nostalgia: their breakout album was The 59 Sound and their songs are filled with references to 30s, 50s and 60s music and movies. They eventually take aim at themselves with the line 'don't sing me no songs about the good times/those days are gone and we should just let them go/God help the man who said if you'd have known me when'

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' has the song "No-stalgia" by FakeBand sloshy, which criticizes the idea of nostalgia in general. Ironically, the music video is chock full of clips showing nostalgic toys from the 80s and 90s, and the black and white portions of the video were shot on a Fisher-Price PXL-2000 video camera, which was first released in 1987.

** Another ''Website/CollegeHumor'' video, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc6VP7Qp-Y8 "no, you weren't 'born in the wrong decade']] also deals with this trope. With one individual claiming they were 'born in the wrong decade' and having nostalgia for several periods they weren't even around in while trying to bring her friends around to the same way of thinking; Starting with [[TheSixties the 1960s]], then [[TheRoaringTwenties the 1920s]], and then [[RegencyEngland the 1770s]]. Only for one of their friends to constantly point out all the bad parts of each period: the racism and segregation of the 60s, the polio epidemics and the widespread organized crime of the 1920s, and the slavery and countless horrific diseases of the 1770s; until eventually they [[RageQuit give up out of sheer frustration]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' is a whole show built around this trope. It's both a love letter to and a {{Deconstruction}} of 60's animation and UsefulNotes/{{the Silver Age|of Comic Books}} comic books, and takes pains to illustrate "No, the 60's weren't necessarily the paradise people built it up to be." The flashback scenes almost always contain DeliberateValuesDissonance, such as shocking instances of casual racism or misogyny that were deemed perfectly okay back then.

* Lampshaded in an episode of [[Recap/DariaS5E09 Daria]] where Daria's friend Jane starts dating a guy who into retro fashion of 40s and such. He tried to compared those "real and authentic" times to the "shallow and declining" aspects of modern trends.

* The ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' episode "Old School" centers around Peralta's idealization of [[TheSeventies 70's]] police work. Eventually, Captain Holt ends up informing him that the 70's were a dark time for the NYPD, and that in addition to the drug epidemic and high crime rates that plagued the city, the department itself was a hotbed of racism, misogyny, and homophobia. Holt, who's black, specifically tells Jake that when he arrived at his precinct for his first day of work, the other (white) officers believed that instead of him being their new colleague, he was there to turn himself in.

* Occurs in-universe in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' when King Robert fondly reminisces of when he was younger and he was a warrior instead of a king, and Renly calls him out on glorifying a period when the empire was torn apart by civil war and a [[TheCaligula senile, destructive king]]. Of course this can come across as very hypocritical of Renly considering he then tries to usurp the throne himself after his brother's death.

* Gaslight Anthem built their fan base on nostalgia: their breakout album was The 59 Sound and their songs are filled with references to 30s, 50s and 60s music and movies. They eventually take aim at themselves with the line ‘don’t sing me no songs about the good times/those days are gone and we should just let them go/God help the man who said if you’d have known me when’

* Averted in ''Series/ColdCase'' many of its cases date back from 1900's to the present, and they usually show the mentality and attitudes in those days. From racism, misogyny, or just plain asshole-ness.

The reverse is also often true; the late '60s (especially if set around the Vietnam War) and TheSeventies -- which, not entirely coincidentally, many of these writers were no longer growing up in, being adults -- will be subject to an inverted Nostalgia Filter, being painted in a very negative light, with all innocence lost and the dream most ''definitely'' being over: Cities are [[WretchedHive living hellholes]], young men are sent to a sure death and the government uses dirty tricks against its people. The same for TheNineties, which will be portrayed as a time everyone was either moping or panicking about Y2K. TheNoughties also being a time that paranoia was all around and an economic meltdown was just round the corner. And TheThirties are just ''that'', the 30s (aka Great Depression and Hitler). The negative aspects of these decades will be stressed, and any positive things quietly ignored (except for those who lived in those eras, for whom the filter will be in full effect). This even applies to decades once portrayed positively: the 1950s are now often presented as a nation-wide [[StepfordSuburbia repressive prison for everyone not straight, white, cisgendered, and male (complete with ironic sitcom trappings)]]. Also, the creativity and experimentalism of such decades is often understated in favor of overemphasis on the {{camp}}, cheesy, and kitsch aspects of their popular culture (with all of the PanderingToTheBase and LowestCommonDenominator that entails). This causes later generations to [[PlayedForLaughs not take these decades seriously]].

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' plays with this. At first, shows the Fifties to be extremely bright and happy. But then some darker aspects show up. Racism is mentioned, for instance. Marty's mother is shown to be a somewhat promiscuous smoker and drinker, and Biff Tannen is a Grade A bully and attempted-rapist.

One of the reasons for HollywoodHistory is the average scriptwriter or executive having [[PopularHistory a very cursory understanding of the era in which they're setting the story]]. Usually, they just want to take advantage of the basic "theme" of that period, and figure that most viewers won't be able to tell the difference, anyway.

The other, equally onerous culprit for simplifying history is nostalgia, especially where dealing with recent history. For example, you almost never will find a movie or show set in TheSixties that does not paint the time as an idealistic period. In that period, we're told, every person below the age of 25 was a free-thinker and activist, kids cared about the future and were willing to fight for it, everybody had orgies all the time, and revolution was just around the corner... or that's how nostalgia would have it seem.

It gets worse with TheFifties. Since many writers grew up in the Fifties, it's rarely shown as anything but wholesome and brilliant, with NothingButHits blaring out of every radio and every teenager playing rock'n'roll. Despite the continuing mistreatment of black people, the lead in paint, gasoline and ''food cans'', and the threat of nuclear war, the Fifties is often considered something of a golden age as much as the jazz-heavy party overdose of TheRoaringTwenties (the Klan was experiencing a revival and you could die if you drank bootleg) or the glitter and grandeur of TheEighties (there was a point where the UsefulNotes/ColdWar was about to end badly and the AIDS epidemic was either ignored or cheered on by homophobic world leaders). The worst parts of these decades and even earlier eras are similarly not brought up or even [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory totally ignored]].

The reverse is also often true; the late '60s (especially if set around the Vietnam War) and TheSeventies -- which, not entirely coincidentally, many of these writers were no longer growing up in, being adults -- will be subject to an inverted Nostalgia Filter, being painted in a very negative light, with all innocence lost and the dream most ''definitely'' being over: Cities are living hellholes, young men are sent to a sure death and the government uses dirty tricks against its people. The same for TheNineties, which will be portrayed as a time everyone was either moping or panicking about Y2K. TheNoughties also being a time that paranoia was all around and an economic meltdown was just round the corner. And TheThirties are just ''that'', the 30s (aka Great Depression and Hitler). The negative aspects of these decades will be stressed, and any positive things quietly ignored (except for those who lived in those eras, for whom the filter will be in full effect). This even applies to decades once portrayed positively: the 1950s are now often presented as a nation-wide [[StepfordSuburbia repressive prison for everyone not straight, white, cisgendered, and male (complete with ironic sitcom trappings)]]. Also, the creativity and experimentalism of such decades is often understated in favor of overemphasis on the {{camp}}, cheesy, and kitsch aspects of their popular culture (with all of the PanderingToTheBase and LowestCommonDenominator that entails). This causes later generations to [[PlayedForLaughs not take these decades seriously]].