Word: jetson
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Sputnik-like motels and space-race tail fins. The style captured an attitude of innocent adventure in a TV fantasy of stucco and neon. Could Wally and the Beaver come to serious harm in a drive-in with a giant ice-cream cone for a roof? George Jetson, it seems, could have been the master architect of the whole doo-wop decade. Granted, one thing to be said for those stylistic oddities is that they extended a warmer welcome than much of today's franchised glitz. Says Arthur Krim of the Society for Commercial Archeology, which studies America's commercial...
...spoons with super-duper production values and plenty of room. Meanwhile, out in the suburbs and on numberless freeways, the hamburger stand became pandemic. Hess calls Ships, a Googie imitator built in 1958 and demolished in 1984, "the major monument of Coffee Shop Modern," where "Fred Flintstone and George Jetson could meet over a cup of coffee." The descendants include Big Boy, Denny's and Sambo's. From 1950 to 1960, years of heedless American growth, cars multiplied and the great fast-food empires were born: McDonald's, Tastee Freez, Jack-in-the-Box, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts, Mister Donut...
...thing, or that it could heal, anyway.) "Strict Time," which follows, is the alternative--Shut Up and Dance, with the Attractions providing a relentless, broken-record riff that keeps Elvis on a treadmill. (Elvis is marvelous at trapping himself inside a melody, a regular rock and roll George Jetson.) There is better: "Watch Your Step," a melodic improvement on "Secondary Modern," about how any moment you could be thrown in jail, or worse, about the risk of taking to the streets like the animals we are, drunk and destructive and horny, surrealistic images rolling smoothly...