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"Mister Sandman" Sequence: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:hillvalley55_842.png|link=Back to
{{quote|''"Let's take a look back at the year 1928. A year when you might have seen [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|Al Capone dancing the Charleston on top of a flagpole]]."''|'''Kent Brockman''', ''[[The Simpsons]]''}}
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A scene in a period film or TV show that hits the viewer with as many period signifiers as possible. The scene exists to quickly establish the "feel" of the time period and will almost always feature a period song (typically [[Nothing but Hits|one that is still popular in the present]]) playing on the film's soundtrack. More-or-less it's [[Popular History]] condensed into a sequence usually less than two minutes long.
A typical example appeares in the second episode of ''[[Journeyman]]'', where the lead character finds himself on an airplane in [[The Seventies]]. He sees, in the span of about thirty seconds, [[Sexy Stewardess|flirtatious stewardesses]] in orange uniforms, [[Everybody Smokes|people smoking]], a kid [[Values Dissonance|playing with]] [[The War
Not surprisingly, this tends to instantly cause eyerolling in audience members old enough to have lived through the depicted time period and know from experience that it wasn't really like that. Gen-Y viewers are now getting a taste of this with 80's period flicks like ''[[Hot Tub Time Machine]]'', as they vainly try to explain to disbelieving younger kids that no, everyone didn't wear [[Michael Jackson
The trope-namer is one of the best and most well-done examples, ''[[Back to
These are most commonly and generally best utilized by films and TV shows about [[Time Travel]], especially when the characters frequently travel between different eras making quickly establishing the time period a necessity.
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== [[Film]] ==
* Named for the scene in ''[[Back to
** Similar sequences appear for 2015 Hill Valley, alternate 1985 Hill Valley and 1885 Hill Valley, in movies two, two, and three respectively. Alternate 1985 is set to "I Can't Drive 55" by Sammy Hagar, but the other two don't get songs. The 1885 sequence includes a small harmonica bit of the BTTF theme tune, when Marty is looking at the courthouse in construction.
** The "Power of Love" scene in Part 1 also counts, although it doesn't use the same visual cues as the later examples.
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* ''[[The Departed]]'' has a strange use of one of these: In the opening scene, the Rolling Stones are on the soundtrack, all the cars look ancient, and Nicholson is doing a voice-over about Kennedy... for a scene that apparently takes place in 1989. You'd think that if they really wanted music to set the scene, they could've had Marky Mark call in a connection there.
* ''Every'' scene in ''[[The Wedding Singer]]'' has enough '80s signifiers to be one of these, but only the opening scene fulfills the purpose of the trope.
* The scene in ''[[Star Trek IV:
** It was a jazz/fusion tune that was created for the movie by the group Yellowjackets which was accurate of music adults listened to in the '80's.
*** Similarly an unlucky hoodlum is shown jamming on a boombox with music that fit the style of 80's era punk. The song was written specifically for that scene.
* Many, ''many'' movies set in [[The Fifties]] open with Elvis Presley's version of "Hound Dog" (never anyone else's). ''[[Back to The Future]]'' is an appropriate exception, as Presley only recorded his version in 1956.
** Movies in [[The Fifties]] also frequently feature a TV playing the [[Howdy Doody]] theme--''[[Indiana Jones and
* Peter Jackson's 2005 version of ''[[King Kong]]'' opens with one of these.
* The ''[[Watchmen (
* A few of these can be found in the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies. Very much in the [[Affectionate Parody]] vein.
* Inverted in ''[[The Brady Bunch Movie]]'': the film opens with a series of snapshots of mid-'90s L.A. (grunge music, cell phones, burnt-out panhandlers, etc.), the better to establish how out of place the [[Disco Dan|stuck-in-the-'70s]] Brady clan is. Of course, as the years pass, this montage is becoming more and more of a straight example.
* In ''[[Field of Dreams]]'', Ray is briefly transported back to 1972 so he can talk with Moonlight Graham. The first things he sees are a theater marquee for ''[[
* The entire movie ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' is (and aims to be) one big Mister Sandman Sequence, with the title character blundering his way into nearly every major event and prominent fad of the late 20th century.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and
** In addition, there are teenagers, both a [[Sweater Girl]], and a guy in letter jackets with a buzzcut, racing in a hot rod.
*** all possibly in [[Homage]] to ''[[American Graffiti]]''
* The mall montage in ''[[Fast Times
* The [[Animated Credits Opening]] to ''[[Grease]]'' includes flashes of numerous iconic '50s pop-culture images.
* The film version of ''Same Time, Next Year'' accompanies each scene transition with black-and-white still photos of famous people and events from each decade, to depict the passage of time and subsequent changes in the characters' lives and in the postwar society they inhabit.
* ''[[Angels
* An odd example comes in the [[Hammer Horror]] film ''[[Dracula
** Arguably counts, though in this case the point is not "hey, remember those wacky days of 1972?" but "look, here's a bunch of stuff you probably passed on the way to the theatre (assuming you're in London) to show you this is set in the present day."
* ''[[
{{quote| '''Nick:''' What color is [[Michael Jackson]]?<br />
'''Girl:''' Black?<br />
'''Nick:''' <runs screaming> }}
* Speaking about ''[[The Time Machine]]'', the ([[So Okay It's Average|otherwise forgettable]]) 2002 film version had a scene playing with this motif as a kind of [[Time Compression Montage]] to show how time passes outside the titular machine, in which dresses on a shop's exhibition get shorter and shorter.
** This is copied from the 1960 version. (It wasn't in the novel, of course, since [[
*** The story ''does'' talk about things around him changing suddenly, though the narrator is vague on the details and mainly talks about buildings appearing and disappearing suddenly, and the landscape visibly changing.
* ''[[
* The [http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2003082265/ trailer] for ''The Artist (2011)'' establishes the period with peppy dance number.
* ''[[Paper Moon]]''. The film is even shot in black and white (on what is obviously not 1930's film stock). Of course, the slow pace and the dark overtones are very much in line with [[The Seventies|the decade in which it was produced.]]
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* Used too many times to list in ''[[Doctor Who]]'' -- often with the added twist that the Doctor and his companion have judged the time period of his destination incorrectly, and disembark the TARDIS dressed inappropriately (disco attire in 1870s Scotland, or leather jackets and jeans at QEII's coronation.)
** On the other hand, such a [[Long Runners|long runner]] has artifacts of its various production time periods that sometimes seem to have walked straight out of this trope. Watch the 6th and 7th Doctor episodes, cringe at the overabuse of [[Eighties Hair]] and dreadful paleosynth music. Part of it can be blamed on a [[Totally Radical]] attempt to make the show "hip" and appeal to the youth of various periods.
* The entire hook of ''[[
* ''[[Journeyman]]'' seemed to have been especially fond of these.
* Naturally, the pilot episodes of ''[[Life On Mars]]'' and ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' both featured these, although the music in both cases was organic to the scene (from Sam's car's 8-track player and the sound system at Alex's boat party, respectively). Hell, even the ''titles'' are [[David Bowie|in on it]].
* Both played straight and subverted by ''[[
** Played straight: The beginning of "Cabin Fever" contains a number of signifiers that the flashback is to the 1950s. "Every Day" by Buddy Holly plays as a girl in a classic 50s outfit dances and applies bright-red lipstick. {{spoiler|Then she gets hit by a distinctly 50s-style car.}}
** Subverted: "Man of Science, Man of Faith" begins with a man with long hair playing Mama Cass music on a vinyl record and using an old monochrome computer. The audience tries to figure out which character is flashing back to the 1970s, only to find out it is happening in the present.
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== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* The [[Classic Disney Short]] ''The Nifty Nineties'' (set in [[The Gay Nineties]], so no "Smells Like Teen Spirit") is basically a protracted Mister Sandman Sequence.
* Parodied in ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]''. When Randall has a flashback back to when they met in the eighties, not only is everyone in the store they work at (except, notably, Randall and Dante themselves) decked out in eighties fashions, but almost everyone is a notable person from that decade -- including Ronald Reagan. Then, when Dante remembers that they actually met in the ''seventies'', the flashback includes a whole load of seventies icons, including Jimmy Carter and John Travolta ''a la'' ''Saturday Night Fever''.
* ''[[The Simpsons (
** The show's [[Whole-Episode Flashback|flashback episodes]] tend to employ these. In "Lisa's First Word," for instance, the flashback to 1983 begins with Marge and a neighbor woman discussing the last episode of ''[[MASH the Series|M* A* S* H]]'', followed immediately by Homer walking down the street singing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun."
** Slightly subverted when the scene is set with "a young Joe Piscopo was teaching us how to laugh."
** Lampshaded in "My Mother the Carjacker." Channel 6 news anchor Kent Brockman shows a montage specifically to show viewers what the 60's were like, set to "All Along the Watchtower." Brockman then calls it a "shrill, pointless decade."
*** Although that was partly his own fault, since his montage included such ludicrous images as [[Batman (TV series)|Batman]] dancing the Batusi and [[John Wayne]] saying "You bet your sweet bippy."
** Dr. Hibbert's hairstyle is constantly reflecting the fashion of the time.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Every retro-themed diner/restaurant posits that [[The Fifties]] were populated entirely by [[Elvis Presley|Elvises]], [[Marilyn Monroe|Marilyn Monroes]], and [[James Dean|James Deans]].
** Parodied by ''[[Back to
*** Including competing Ayatollah Khomeiny and Ronald Reagan as [[Max Headroom]] expies!
== General ==
* Any establishing shot of the [[Vietnam War]] is bound to use CCR's "Fortunate Son."
** ''Battlefield: Vietnam'' and ''[[Call of Duty: Black Ops
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