Comic Book Time: Difference between revisions

 

 

 

 

Another factor of Comic Book Time is that it does not pass at the same rate for everyone; secondary characters may catch [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome]] and age from children to teenagers and then young adults while their adult counterparts remain roughly the same age. Or minor characters can drop out of the narrative, only to return years later, aged, while their counterpart heroes remain youthful. This concept was picked up on in the [[Fourth Wall]]-breaking ''She-Hulk'' series, in which a [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] character decided to hang around She-Hulk as much as possible to stay youthful.

 

 

 

Indeed, this is a valid point, because an open-ended series that wants to keep using the same characters and keep them in a given age-range for a long time pretty much ''must'' use some variant of comic-book time.

An adaptation of a series that has this can usually [[Adaptation Distillation|avoid it]], as most of them only last a few years. On the flipside, non-comic series that [[Long Runners|last long enough]] also tend to use this.

 

 

 

{{examples}}

 

== Comic Books ==

** After ''Infinite Crisis'', it's closer to twelve years, one of which was covered by the "One Year Later" jump.

** However, characters which existed only in Earth-Two and were re-integrated as the [[Justice Society of America|Justice Society]] were allowed to bring along their age: Alan Scott as [[Green Lantern]], Jay Garrick as the [[Flash]], Wildcat, and the original Hourman have all visibly aged. Even still, Jay Garrick is looking remarkably well-preserved these days for someone who should be pushing 100 years old.

**** Another consequence of this is the utter retcon of Black Canary, originally from Earth-Two and Green Arrow's on-again/off-again love interest. Originally an older woman, she's now clearly younger than Ollie's given age of early 40s, possibly by as much as a decade. It doesn't sound so bad until you put the couple into context with Nightwing. Ollie's infamous in-universe for being a Batman copycat, so everything Batman's done, Ollie did a little later, like get a sidekick. Speedy (later Arsenal, later still Red Arrow, and now Arsenal again) is clearly a year or two at most behind Nightwing in age. In his late teens, Speedy also had a drug problem, from which Black Canary helped him recover while she and Ollie were split. The experience tied Black Canary and Speedy together so closely that they consider each other mother and son. The problem is that this story was written when Black Canary was in her mid-30s, Ollie in his late 20s, and Speedy in his mid-teens. The timeframe now is such that only seven years at the most separate Black Canary and Speedy in age, so even assuming Black Canary was exceptionally mature for her age, the "mother" moniker would be unlikely. Even more egregious is, of course, that if this occurred approximately ten years ago in continuity, she and Ollie would have been very early in their relationship, and more importantly, she'd have barely known Speedy, who had turned to drugs after an extended absence from Ollie.

***** The "fix" applied to Black Canary (circa 1980) was that she suddenly discovered that she was actually her own daughter, with false memories.

** This isn't even consistent among all writers. Brad Meltzer, for example, had Elongated Man muse that he'd been a hero for almost ''two'' decades in the opening pages of ''Identity Crisis''.

*** Its weekly sequel, ''[[Countdown to Final Crisis]]'', claimed to be real time early on, yet took place concurrently with the rest of the Comic Book Time [[The DCU|DCU]].

*** As of ''Adventure Comics'' #2, the time between [[Superboy]]'s death in ''Infinite Crisis'' and his return in ''Final Crisis'' (ie ''52'' + ''Countdown'') is said to be slightly over a year.

**** The confusion was caused by, of course, Countdown to Final Crisis. Because of DC's original stance that ''Countdown'' was going to be in real time like ''52'', Geoff Johns initially believed that [[Final Crisis]] was going to occur "two years" after [[Infinite Crisis]] (a panel in an early issue of [[Booster Gold]] stated "Week 104, The Final Crisis"). But since ''Countdown'' was shunted into "vague what-ever time" status... yeah. Or maybe Geoff doesn't know ''how'' long it's been since Infinite Crisis... no one can say.

* Pretty much everyone in ''[[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Fantastic Four]]'', but most especially Reed and Sue's son Franklin, who was born in the late-60's and has yet to reach puberty.

** The 2008 [[Miniseries]] ''GeNext'' does the same real-time gimmick and stars the kids and grandkids of the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]].

* Kitty "Shadowcat" Pryde of the ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' was introduced during the 80s as a thirteen year old girl. [[Character Development]] saw her grow from an inexperienced kid into a full member of the team, go through numerous names, develop as an electronic whiz, psychically learn a lifetime of ninja skills, become a founding member of the British based superhero team Excalibur, and work as an agent of SHIELD... yet she takes a break from being a superhero to go to college full time. Unless a government agency is allowed to hire minors for dangerous covert ops, Shadowcat seems to have experienced retrograde aging.

** New flash on the college thing: "going to college full time" doesn't make you a minor. There are a significant number of people who attend college in their 20s and 30s. A significant and relevant demographic are those who serve a term or two of military service ... and "X-Men to Excalibur to SHIELD" definitely has parallels to more traditional uniformed service.

* Variations of Kitty Pryde's lack of aging can be seen in the entire ''New Mutants'' generation of X-Men introduced in the 80s, who are maybe five years older than characters introduced nearly twenty years later.

** They even mentioned he was having his 30th birthday in a few days/weeks' time in an early '90s of "Adjectiveless" X-men.

*** And that Jean Grey wasn't even close to 30 at the time (or at least she wasn't turning 30 anytime soon after him).

** Of course, at one point, he died and was brought back to life by Heaven. [[Epileptic Trees|They could de-age him in the process.]]

*** And more recently, was killed, resurrected as a Frankenstein-like being and returned to life by a magical [[McGuffin]].

** Frank is a special case. While it is true that there is a Frank who has aged in real time, that one is only the MAX continuity (which branched off of the normal continuity at some point during the Marvel Knights run). That Frank is a Vietnam vet, whereas the traditional Frank (the one who went to Heaven and became Frankencastle and the like) varies depending on the author, much like any other character.

** This is another reason why most Vertigo stories are not considered in-continuity with the regular DC Universe. See also [[Exiled From Continuity]].

** Well, it's Zatanna, whose father was originally a 1940's hero, & whom immortal ''Homo magi'' Doctor Mist apparently thought was like him or could become like him. Who says she isn't magically letting the world see her as young?

** Note that, despite this, he does look pretty youthful for his age. Speculation is that the demon blood's keeping him young.

* Averted in ''[[Judge Dredd]]''. The story has a 1:1 time-passage rate. Dredd really is thirty years older now than he was in the late 70s. Even all his treatments and cyborg implants have their limits. Dredd facing his old age, watching long-time supporting cast retire, and training the new generation of Judges is a major theme now.

* Another exception: Virtually all comic book universes created by [[Jim Shooter]]. All stories that took place in [[The New Universe]], [[Valiant Comics|Valiant Universe]], Defiant Universe and Broadway Universe unfold in real time, and the characters aged accordingly.

* ''[[Runaways]]'' actually subverts this for ''other'' series. When the Avengers did a guest spot, it was explicitly stated that Luke Cage fought Tombstone as Power Man three years earlier, and [[Spider-Man (Comic Book)|Spider-Man]] wore his black costume when Chase (who was nearing his eighteenth birthday) was in grade school.

** However, it plays it straight for its ''own'' timeline; the series has been running since 2003, and only Chase and Molly have had birthdays, but the references to years keep changing.

** IIRC, one early arc had a character's recovery over a year happen in a single issue, yet some other story arcs will take place over as little time as a week. ''Fables'' seems to run on "whatever time is most convenient".

* One of the problems with the sliding timescale results in a variant of [[Fad Super]] Syndrome. In ''Infinite Crisis'', Black Lightning claims that he chose his name because, at the time, there were very few black superheroes. Which was true enough in the seventies, but by this point, he had to have gotten his start in the nineties with the rest of the DC crew. In fifteen years or so, he'll have chosen the name Black Lightning sometime around ''now''.

* [[Lampshaded]] in [[Neil Gaiman]]'s ''[[The Sandman]]''. During the Wake, we see Clark Kent, [[Batman]], and J'onn J'onzz discussing their dreams. Clark mentions that he has a recurring dream where he gets infected with a virus that forces him to only move one direction through time.

* Top Cow Universe seems to be heading in that direction. Originally, it stayed fairly close to real time. In the 2003 universe handbook (published on the tenth anniversary of the line's debut), most characters are given concrete, real-time birthdays and chronological references to past events that worked perfectly well if you assumed that their stories took place during the year they were published. In more recent stories, writers seemed to be backing away from that. While they do acknowledge that the characters have been around for a couple of years, they carefully avoid giving any exact dates. It's probably just as well - if the above-mentioned birthdays were still canon, the current Witchblade would have turned forty in 2010.

** Like the fact that he's got a ''girl's'' name?

* Someone mentioned that [[Wonder Woman]] "has lived among us for nearly a decade" in a comic from 2003, nearly ''six'' decades after Wonder Woman's real world debut.

* None of the [[Young Avengers]] seem to have aged at all since their debut in 2005.

* Sort of used in [[Marvel]]'s ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' comics. The Transformers on the ''Ark'' awakened in 1984, and that date remained consistent for the entire run; thus, in issued printed in 1989, a couple of characters mention having been active for five years. Also, Simon Furman's future stories always take place exactly 20 years after the mainline stories; thus, the future segments of "Target: 2006" take place in 2006, while those of "Time Wars" take place in 2008. However, Buster and Jessie never seem to advance through high school, nor does Spike graduate from college. (Granted, these are very minor quibbles, but it's still noticeable).

* On the subject of Batman, [http://www.shortpacked.com/2007/comic/book-5/06-flashbacked/thefirstmovie/ this] Shortpacked explores some of the consequences of Comic Book Time.

* A short-term example happened for [[Daredevil]] during the ''Inferno'' [[Crisis Crossover]]: He gets beat up by an assembled gang of his enemies and dropped in a ditch during a Fourth of July parade. He gets out of that ditch and vaguely healthy again just in time for the Christmas issue, implicitly no more than a week or two later.

* ''[[Dennis the Menace UK]]'': Dennis has been about 10 years old since he first appeared back in 1951. It's "about", because his physical appearance has changed repeatedly, getting sometimes taller and stockier like a teen, and sometimes smaller and more round-faced like a younger boy of 6 or 7 or so. However back in 1998, his mother got pregnant, carried a baby to term (his sister Bea), and little Bea is now walking and talking at the level of a 2-year-old (and friends with 4yo pre-schooler Ivy the Terrible), while nobody else has aged one iota. Bea was retconned back to a baby when the 2009 CBBC cartoon started and the comic adopted its art style and continuity.

* The [[Archie Comics]] main characters have been in high school for over sixty years.

* Cherry from ''[[Cherry Comics]]'' has always 'just turned 18'.

* COMPLETELY averted with the modern day stories in [[Valiant Comics]] which had almost every single story set in the month it was published (the only exceptions being multi-issue stories which would take place somewhere in that time frame as well).

 

 

 

 

== Film ==

** Especially problematic thanks to the casting of Kate Bosworth who was 23 when the movie was released (22 during filming) and looked at least that young. She must have gotten a really early start at the Planet (and a really early start at some other things, considering the age of her son). Brandon Routh, 26 during filming was a little less noticeable. [[Jimmy Olsen]] looks older than Lois (and in fact Sam Huntington is about a year older than Bosworth), despite being about a decade younger in most continuities.

** Or that the previous movies only occurred in [[Broad Strokes]].

* The third story of ''[[Trilogy of Terror]] 2'' presumably picks up a few hours after the third story of the first film. The first film was from 1975 and the sequel was from 1996, and it's a ''bit'' hard to reconcile how different things look between the two films.

 

== Literature ==

** [[Nero Wolfe]] appeared in over 30 novels and more short stories published between 1934 and 1975. Each story is set in the year it was written, but Wolfe, Archie, and the main supporting characters don't age, even though Archie celebrates more than one birthday.

*** The 2001 television adaptation "A Nero Wolfe Mystery" displays this quite clearly, as the stories weren't done in anything like chronological order. The brownstone never changes, but the minute Archie steps outside and walks down the street... The show's use of a regular group of actors for the minor characters also magnified the effect, as last week's flapper is this week's flower child.

* William Brown of ''Just William'' is always eleven. He was eleven in the early stories between the wars. He was eleven during the stories set in [[World War II]]. In one, he says, "Mother, I don't seem to remember when there wasn't a war on." His mother replies, "Don't be silly, William, the war's been going on two years and you're eleven now." He was eleven when he celebrated V-E day. He was eleven when he tried to copy the pop stars he'd seen on colour TV.

* ''[[Sweet Valley High]]'' and ''Sweet Valley Twins'' are known for doing this.

* In the ''[[Babysitters Club]]'' books, the characters started the series at the end of seventh grade and moved to eighth, but stayed there for the rest of the series, leading some to suspect the author originally intended to age the characters but didn't once the series proved to be so popular. Similarly, the books originally covered a month each while being published once a month, but later moved to covering only a week each.

* [[Beverly Cleary]]'s books tend to take place around the time they were written, so [[Ramona Quimby]] goes from being 4 or 5 in the 1950s to just turning ten in the 1990s. In ''Ramona and Beezus'' (1955), she is 4; in ''Ramona the Pest'' (1968), she is 5; in ''Ramona the Brave'' (1975), she is 6; in both ''Ramona and Her Father'' (1977) and ''Ramona and Her Mother'' (1979), he is 7; in ''Ramona Quimby, Age 8'' (1981), she is, um, 8, and stays that way in ''Ramona Forever'' (1984); and in ''Ramona's World'' (1999), she starts out 9 and turns 10.

* [[Judy Moody]] plays this trope straight. Although many assume all the books could take place in one year, the recent book ''Judy Moody: Girl Detective'' is stated to take place the October after the [[Christmas Special]] book ''Judy Moody and Stink: The Holly Joliday''. Although there should have been a summer vacation (and a change in grades) between those books, both books (and all the other books) show Judy as being in the third grade and aged eight.

* It looks like the recently revived ''[[Goosebumps]]'' series is heading this route too. A few protagonists from earlier books have appeared, all still the same age as they were over ten years ago in real time.

* One of [[Kim Newman]]'s short stories, "Coastal City", featured a [[Batman|Commissioner Gordon]]-like character for heroine "Amazon Girl", on the edge of noticing that, among other paradoxes created by the sliding timescale of the universe he lives in, his war-hero past was being repeatedly updated, shifting from [[World War II]] to the [[Korean War]], the [[Vietnam War]], and now the [[Gulf War]]. {{spoiler|Fortunately for him, a fresh crisis distracted him from the potential existential breakdown.}}

* Leslie Charteris' ''The Saint'' has flitted back and forth in print between period pieces and a sliding timescale. In the introduction for ''Catch the Saint'', published in 1975, Charteris notes that these stories took place before 1939, since "literary detectives sharper than Inspector Teal" would realize that, based on topical references in earlier adventures, the Saint would have grown too old to fight crime, and only a rejuvenation out of science fiction could deal with this situation. (While some Saint stories did feature the paranormal, which later collection in the anthology the Fantastic Saint, Charteris declined to pursue such an approach for the Saint's aging.) However, later books did not follow this trend. In 1997, Burl Barer wrote a new Saint novel that, in his blog, Barer stated took place in contemporary times. Viola Inselheim, a young child in 1934's ''The Saint in New York'', has aged to adulthood in ''Capture the Saint'', but Barer otherwise sidesteps the issue of time. Film and TV versions of the Saint have never gotten down as period pieces. The Roger Moore version took place in the then-contemporary 1960's. Post-Roger Moore TV versions such as those with Simon Dutton, Andrew Clarke, and Ian Ogilvy also eschewed the period piece approach. The 1997 Val Kilmer film, though released almost 70 years since the Saint's first appearance in print in 1928, took place in then contemporary times, if not the future. (In the director's commentary, Philip Noyce noted that he tried to extrapolate and anticipate developments in Russia. This was reasonably successful, as a plot point in that film involved heating oil shortages.)

* ''[[The Dresden Files]]'' averts this trope for the most part, with each novel being set just at about the same time as it was written. However, Harry's young apprentice Molly somehow managed to have two birthdays (going from 17 to 19) in the ten-month interim between ''Proven Guilty'' and ''White Night''.

* ''[[The Executioner]]'' action-adventure series was created by Don Pendleton in 1969, and after being purchased by Gold Eagle is [[Extruded Book Product|still going strong]]. The series starts with the protagonist Mack Bolan as a Vietnam veteran (early novels even mention service in the Korean War), a fact that's not even mentioned now as it would make Bolan seem too old.

* Some Spider novels from the 1930's and 1940's appeared in redacted versions in the 1970's, with Wentworth's military service changed from World War I to the Korean War. Another redaction; a collapsing building in The City Destroyers called the Sky Building replaced by the World Trade Center.

* Richard Stark's Parker initially did not require a sliding timescale. Parker's series initially ran only eleven years, from 1963 to 1974. Westlake did not revisit Parker for another twenty plus years, till the second wave from 1997 to 2008. In The Outfit Parker states that he had been in the Army from 1942 to 1944. In The Outfit Parker also does state he had already been a thief for 18 years, and refers to a heist he committed in 1949.

* Possibly averted to a degree by Nick Carter, which ran from 1886 to 1990, as the Nick Carter of 1964 to 1990 referred to himself as Nick Carter III, suggesting him as the grandson of the 1880's Nick Carter.

* Most of the "pulp heroes" such as the Shadow, the Spider, Doc Savage, etc. did not run into this, as few of them lasted in the 1950's (though the Black Bat and the Phantom [Curtis Van Loan] did, and the Black Bat returned for 700 adventures in Germany). However, in the 1960's, Walter Gibson wrote The Return of the Shadow, and Dennis Lynds continued from there with stories of the Shadow set in contemporary times.

** Anthony Horowitz is fond of this; the first [[Diamond Brothers]] book came out in the eighties, while a later book features the London Eye and is stated to be set in 2004.

* Patrick O'Brien did this for the ''[[Aubrey-Maturin]]'' series: around book nine or so, he encountered the problem of running out of Napoleonic War years. To get around it he had to fudge an "1812a or 1812b" to allow for the long sea voyages. Since he's pretty meticulous about [[Shown Their Work|Doing The Research]], he admits this fact in the forewords of the books affected.

* Averted in [[Ephraim Kishon]]'s satirical short stories. We see Kishon's kids age in [[Real Time]], from toddlers to teenagers.

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[Greek]]'', when it's all said and done, will cover the time between Rusty's enrollment at college to his sister Casey's graduation in about 3 1/2 years (the span is actually about 2 years, as Rusty enrolled at the start of Casey's junior year.) It helps that [[It's Always Spring]] in the Ohio of the Greek world...

** After season 2 however, it gets hazy. It's likely they are now in grade 10, but it's possible they could still be in grade 9, or have moved ahead to grade 11.

 

 

* This happens in pretty much ''every'' newspaper strip, including most of the serious, "soap opera" ones, so listing exceptions is probably a better idea.

* The storyline of ''[[For Better or For Worse]]'' ran in real time from its inception to 2008. Then it rebooted to the early days, using a combination of reruns, [[Retcon|modified reruns]], and new strips drawn to look like the old ones. Word on the street is that this was [[Executive Meddling|the syndicate's idea]].

** Wanda's pregnancies have both taken place in real time, however, without any noticeable aging from the other siblings occurring in the meantime.

** Kirkman and Scott state that they age around a "Three to one Ratio".

* ''[[Luann]]'' & company have been in high school since 1985, approximately twenty-four years.

** Brad has since graduated high school and become a fireman, and Luann is now in high school, but this seems to be a case of a sudden one-time jump in the timeline about 10 years ago, combined with [[Art Evolution|updated looks for the characters]], which apparently pushed the non-adults forward about 4 years, but since then they've stopped aging again.

* Long-running Scottish comics ''The Broons'' and ''Oor Wullie'' both make heavy use of this, having kept all characters at identical ages since they were first published in the 1930s. While the setting progressed around the characters for the first few decades, the comics seem to have settled into a sort of temporal limbo that darts back and forth between the 1950s and the present day at will, shifting from a "present day" setting to a nostalgic yet nonspecific "good old days" one.

* ''[[Dykes to Watch Out For]]'' is another exception: the story is set in the present day with constant references to topical events, and characters, both adults and children, have aged at pretty much chronologically accurate rates. The few exceptions, for a long time, included Mo's cats, who'd survived the strip's entire 20-plus year run; however, in the last year or two of the strip's run, they were shown increasingly frail {{spoiler|and one of them finally died}}.

* The characters in ''[[Heart of the City]]'' don't age, but their pop-culture references remain current. In 1998, Heart was an elementary-age girl swooning over Leonardo DiCaprio; by 2008, Heart was an elementary-age girl swooning over The Jonas Brothers. Also worth a mention is the fact that Heart and Dean have a new school teacher every year despite not getting older.

* ''[[Little Nemo in Slumberland]]'' would actually [[Lampshade]] this from time to time. It was a once a week strip, and a lot of times when a plot was taking too long a character would complain about it seeming to take weeks.

* Recently, ''Big Nate'' had this bit of [[Lampshade Hanging]]:

'''Nate's Gram''': Oh, Vern! Honestly! }}

* ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'': Current events form a vaguely acknowledged background for what's going on (with the exception that the strip is always about peacetime army even if there is a war going on), but if anyone really ages (which has happened to about two characters, Ms. Blip and General Halftrack), it's more of a [[Retcon]] reimagining their character concepts than anything else.

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* Furthermore, depending on your group and how your GM handles time, it can lead to some problems when the characters seemed to have gone from low-level n00bs to walking gods without aging a single bit.

 

 

== Toys ==

 

 

== Video Games ==

* Lampshaded at the start of ''[[Evolution]]'' by the hero, who hasn't grown an inch since he was twelve, so the fact that he's no taller between the first and second games can be ignored.

** Definitely justified, as it allows Capcom to modernize the characters without actually aging them. Trying to explain why Sakura is still a gawky, gangly, uncoordinated klutz with no muscle definition whatsoever after over a decade of fighting experience or a 40-year-old Chun Li doing cute-cute squee jumps would be simply too much of a headache.

* Subversion: the Sega CD version of the original ''[[Final Fight]]'', ''Final Fight CD'', changed the game's setting from 1989 to 1992. However, instead of changing the characters' birthdates to match their ages in the original arcade version, they simply aged the characters accordingly by three years (Cody's age was changed from 22 to 25; Haggar's was changed from 46 to 49; and Guy's was changed from 24 to 27).

** ''[[Art of Fighting]]'' was a prequel to the ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' series, taking place in the 1970s with a younger Geese eventually showing up in the sequels. An adult Ryo was even a hidden boss in one of the ''[[Fatal Fury]]'' games. In ''[[King of Fighters]]'', the AOF cast has essentially been transported a few decades into the future with no change to age or personality.

* The original ''[[Rolling Thunder]]'' was a period piece set during the late 1960s. For some reason, the two sequels moved the setting to the 1990s, even though the Albatross and Leila from those games are implied to be the same characters from the original.

** This is almost averted in the second game which claims a year has passed from the first but this [[Voodoo Shark|just raises further questions.]] Most characters have grown taller, (or for some weird reason in the case of Hibiki ''SHORTER'') several have changed their hairstyle, and all have aged a year but nobody has improved much as an idol. Also Miki is unawakened and Ritsuko has quit being an idol. The official ending of the first game could be guessed at being the Futami Twins who only separate to debut solo in their best ending but neither is an A rank idol. It seems a year passed but the first game never happened ... even though it did; and now I'm getting a headache.

** He's actually had a couple of birthdays in the Archie comics but since they're always rebooting the universe he never ages beyond 16.

** It's made even more painfully obvious by the aging of characters like Amy and Tails.

 

== Web Animation ==

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[Achewood]]'' characters age normally... except for Phillipe. Phillipe is five. He will ''always'' be five.

'''Francis:''' ''[http://www.pvponline.com/2006/12/27/dec-27-2006/ I'm never going to be in my thirties!]'' }}

** On the other hand, Cole's daughter (Born 1999/2000) dropped out of the strip for a decade and is now in college.

* Averted in ''[[Kevin and Kell]]'' (and also in Bill Holbrook's other strips). Coney was born and is growing up, Lindesfarne graduated and went to university, and even Rudy has grown up and matured. A little.

 

== Web Original ==

* In the ''[[Whateley Universe]]'', time clearly moves more slowly than in the real world; Team Kimba arrives at the academy in early September 2006 (still in the future at the time the first stories were written), and by real-life early 2009 the storyline has advanced to begin to cover events in January/February 2007. On the other hand, the stories do provide plenty of concrete dates and times to help keep everything on track.

* Averted so far in the [[Less Than Three Comics|LessThanThree-Verse]], with actual dates matching those in the real world, and the core characters, The Brat Pack, less than a year from graduating high school.

 

 

** When, exactly, the backstory to the kids' birth takes place has never been treated very seriously (notably in two separate episodes Bart was 5 in 1990, but was concieved at the time of [[The Empire Strikes Back]] in 1980, making him 5 in ''1986'') and is always floating at "10, 8 and 1 year(s) ago". This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in another episode where Homer remembers his childhood as "The fifties, or the sixties, or... maybe it was the early seventies."

*** This could be part of the reason Homer's mother was written out of the series. She left her family in [[The Sixties]] to escape the law but at this point, 39ish-year-old Homer would be too young for this to make any sense now.

** In the episode "Lisa's Wedding", Lisa sees into the far future her first love in the year... 2010!?

** Lampshaded in a flashback episode set in [[The Nineties]]; Bart (who would have been born around 1998) says he's never heard of the 90s.

** Lampshaded in "The Last Temptation of Krust" Marge is taking Bart and Lisa shoe shopping for dress shoes. Lisa complains that they were two sizes too big and Marge says she'll grow into them. Lisa then asks 'When?' and Marge says 'Oh you're overdue for a growth spurt.'

** Major League Baseball catcher/later manager Mike Scioscia made guest appearances in 1992 and 2010 and aged normally. Although the events of the 1992 episode were mentioned, his physical appearance was not lampshaded, despite a great opportunity to blame it on his tragic illness in the former episode.

** "Ned-Liest Catch" references Edna Krabappel's relationship with Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer which took place in the 3rd season episode Flaming Moe's back in 1991 and he has aged in real time since then and no one comments on this.

** Also in a "Behind The Scenes" episode, Lisa states in her "Tell All Book" that she has been given anti-aging hormones to keep her 8.

** In the first half-hour episode where the family gets Santa's Little Helper, Marge writes in a letter to her family that Maggie had taken her first steps, though she still fell down every so often. Maggie's been learning how to walk for more than ''twenty years''.

* The characters in ''[[South Park]]'' don't age much. Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny started out as 8-year-old boys in the third grade. In the 4th season, the boys move onto fourth grade and were 9-years old. By the season 15 episode "Crack Baby Atheletic Association", all the boys were 10. None of the other characters in the series have aged at all either with the exception of Ike who started out as a toddler who could barely speak coherently, as of season eleven he is a bit taller, wears different clothes and he can now speak in full sentences.

** DW has also turned five and the baby Kate born and aged to around nine months, yet Arthur is still eight.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in ''[[Family Guy]]'', twice:

** While Chris and Meg have aged, the rest of the cast are pretty much frozen in their ages.

* [[Scooby Doo]] has celebrated his fortieth birthday. He's still alive and the members of Mystery Inc. are still teenagers. Also, their ages are always the same, despite the various series having had more than one [[Halloween Episode]]. That Halloween must have been a ''really'' busy day for the gang.

** This was lampshaded in ''Scooby Doo: Pirates Ahoy!'' The Gang goes on a cruise to celebrate Fred's birthday. At the wharf, they ask him how old he is. His response? "37. [[Beat|*beat*]] 38... 39... Here it is. Dock 40."

* ''[[King of the Hill]]'' has an interesting timeline. At the beginning of the series, Bobby was 11 years old and had a birthday. He turned 13 in the fifth season and hasn't really aged since. In the fourth season, Luanne stated that she was 19½, then in season 9, she celebrated her 21st birthday. John Redcorn was said to be 36 in a season three episode and 40 in a season 10 episode.

* The main characters of the TV show ''[[Home Movies]]'' have stayed eight-years-old throughout its four year run.

* ''[[Liberty's Kids]]''- the show covered 1773 right up to about 1789, and the main characters never aged - although all the adults around them did! By the end of the series Sarah was still 15, James 14, and Henri only 8 - after about 16 years!

** T.O. Morrow built robots to destroy the Justice Society of America during World War II, and at the time of the show is still building them to destroy the Justice League. {{spoiler|Of course, the real T.O. Morrow is an old man in a coma who built a robotic duplicate of himself to continue his work.}}

 

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[[Category:Plot Time]]