The Chronic Curmudgeon

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October 30, 2005

The Chronic Curmudgeon Pop Culture Influence #8 and #7

8. Harry Potter - 1998 - present I've never read even a word of J.K. Rowling's series. Probably never will, either -- I just have no interest in them. But tens, if not hundreds of millions of kids around the world do have interest in them -- to the point of obsessiveness. And that alone earns Harry Potter a spot on this list. Kids staying up late and lining up around the block on premiere night... 'in my day,' we did that for Star Wars at the movie theater. But thanks to the magic of Rowling's books, this generation of kids does it for a book. As in, Harry Potter doesn't just have kids willing to read, it has kids wanting to read. And when there's a new Potter book out, neither video game nor mall nor TV show will keep kids away. Seriously, imagine the impact and influence of a series of books that encourages children to love reading?! If you'd have suggested in even 1997 that soon a series of books would come out tht would result in midnight bookstore openings, paranoid secrecy about shipments of books not being opened too early, people lining up for blocks around the bookstore, and virtual riots breaking out when they're first put on sale, no one would have believed you. Had you said the same thing and then told them that it would be a series of books aimed at pre-teens and young teenagers, and you'd have been locked up.

But somehow the world at Hogwarts, with its spells and potions and talk of Muggles and all the rest, has captured the hearts and minds of a generation (excepting those with repressed, uptight, doctrinaire, fascist extremist parents who fear the "witchcraft" the series allegedly promotes), become a billion dollar series of movies, become the most successful book series of all time, and has made JK Rowling wealthier than even Queen Eliazbeth II. Not bad for being written in a coffee shop by an unemployed single mom, whose series and character come in at number 8 in this countdown.

7. Miami Vice - 1984-1989 It's become such a punchline now, the subject of put-down lines in "The Wedding Singer," and a symbol of the cheesiness that was the 1980s, that's it's sometimes hard to remember that Miami Vice was at one point cool. Very cool. So cool, in fact, that it dominated not just television, but music and fashion for a couple of years. In 1985, "Miami Vice" was Lost, Desperate Housewives, Prison Break, 24, and CSI all rolled into one.

The formula seems simple now: take your standard issue cop show, set it in south Florida (which at the time was a relatively exotic idea for a TV series) where lots of bikinis and elsewise scantily clad scenery could be featured, hire two good looking, fashionable leads... and adopt the style of the new MTV zeitgeist, incorporating fast edits, extended sequences with no dialogue but rather action set to music, and put it to a soundtrack of the hottest contemporary music. In fact, the entire show was born from a famous two word Brandon Tartikoff brainstorm: "MTV cops."

Miami Vice was a revolution, albeit a short-lived one. Nothing on TV had ever looked like it, or sounded like it. The pacing and style did channel MTV, and not only did MTV artists provide the soundtrack, they guested on the show (namely Phil Collins and Glenn Frey). Don Johnson made stubble hot instead of sloppy -- and somehow made the blazer over t-shirt with no socks look trendy. The show borrowed the pastel coloring that predominates south Florida, and made teal and coral the hottest colors around. The theme song went to #1 on the Billboard charts. Glenn Frey took "You Belong To The City" to #2 based on the show, and then turned his appearance into a song, "Smugglers' Blues," that broke the top 20. Advertisers couldn't get enough of the show; not only did they clamor to get air time during the show, but several -- including Pepsi and Budweiser -- built entire ad campaigns around it.

The show's police heroes also exhibited the until-1983-unheard-of-but-now-all-the-rage trait of moral ambiguity. You definitely knew that Crockett and Tubbs had their own agendas of revenge and retribution, and that being cops simply gave them the legal imprimatur to pursue them. It added to their appeal. Beyond that, but the show's Miami setting lent it a tangibly Latin/Caribbean feel -- the first time Latin/Caribbean style, music, and culture found such a broad audience on American network television. (Chico and the Man doesn't count.)

Nothing that burns so brightly so quickly can ever last; American culture likes to eat its own, especially anything that becomes too hip too fast. Besides, once you got past the slick packaging, Miami Vice just wasn't really that great of a police drama. But you couldn't touch it for pop culture impact -- music, TV and fashion followed one TV show for a couple of years. So grow out that stubble, break out your loafers and teal blazers, and celebrate Miami Vice as the #7 pop culture influence of the last 25 years.

Posted by Christopher on October 30, 2005 04:32 PM

Comments

Posted by: Sarah at October 30, 2005 07:45 PM

Posted by: Shari at October 31, 2005 09:58 AM