Over at NiT I wrote the story of why I wasn’t allowed to see A Certain Movie until many years after it was popular. I’ve told that story before in other places and always chuckled at the thought of it.
Today as I wrote the post for Nashville Is Talking I decided to go to YouTube to see if anyone had posted the original trailer. Sho’nuff, there it was.
And you know what? I think my dad was right to be upset. Watching the trailer removed from any of my life-experience context I realised exactly why my dad–who was exactly the age I am now, come to think of it–was so angry. There’s a lot to learn from this, I think.
- Even when it seems silly, our parents have our best interests at heart.
- When taken out of context, it’s easy for something fun and innocent to seem frightening.
- If you want your message to be well-received, consider the audience.
- You can find absolutely anything on YouTube.
Exactly about the parents having our best interest at heart. My father thought in shielding us from watching shows like “Three’s Company” that depicted a male living (platonically) with two women and “James at 15″ where we might’ve been prematurely exposed to (gasp) what happens to young boys during puberty…he really thought that was the right thing at the time. It seems silly now, but, as a parent (who lets her kids watch everything-bad mother) I know he meant nothing but good, just like your dad did.
Interestingly enough, later, Three’s Company was one of my dad’s favorite things to watch in syndication.