History Main / MisterSandmanSequence

* The entire movie ''Film/ForrestGump'' 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.

* The very first sequence in ''Anime/TaishouYakyuuMusume'' establishes the atmosphere of 1920s Japan. It's all in Koume's head, though.

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* Many, ''many'' movies set in TheFifties open with Elvis Presley's version of "Hound Dog" ([[CoveredUp never anyone else's]]). ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' is an appropriate exception, as Presley only recorded his version in 1956.
** Movies in TheFifties also frequently feature a TV playing the HowdyDoody theme--''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'', and the pilot of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', just to name a few.
* Just about any period piece set in America in the 1960s is likely to feature Music/JimiHendrix's cover of "All Along The Watchtower" by Music/BobDylan.

* Inverted in ''[[Film/TheBradyBunch 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 [[DiscoDan stuck-in-the-'70s]] Brady clan is. As the years pass, this montage is becoming more and more of a straight example.

* An odd example comes in the Film/HammerHorror film ''Film/DraculaAD1972.'' The film opens with a prologue set in 1872 and then jumps into an opening title montage of scenery from 1972 London to demonstrate that this is indeed 1972 now. What's weird about it is that the movie was released in 1972, the audience should really know what it looks like. The probably explanation is that Hammer really wanted to hammer (sorry) it home hard that this Dracula movie was not a PeriodPiece.
** 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."

** Movies in TheFifties also frequently feature a TV playing the HowdyDoody theme--''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheKingdomOfTheCrystalSkull'', ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part III'', and the pilot of ''Series/QuantumLeap'', just to name a few.

* Named for the scene in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' when Marty [=McFly=] enters Hill Valley in 1955 to find that the town square is completely decked out to reflect TheFifties. The song "Mr. Sandman," as performed by the Four Aces, plays over this scene.
** 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.

* An odd example comes in the HammerHorror film ''Film/DraculaAD1972.'' The film opens with a prologue set in 1872 and then jumps into an opening title montage of scenery from 1972 London to demonstrate that this is indeed 1972 now. What's weird about it is that the movie was released in 1972, the audience should really know what it looks like. The probably explanation is that Hammer really wanted to hammer (sorry) it home hard that this Dracula movie was not a PeriodPiece.

* Creator/PeterJackson's 2005 version of ''Film/KingKong'' opens with one of these.

** In the DVD commentary for Part II, it's noted that they'd considered using "Papa Loves Mambo" by Perry Como before deciding on "Mister Sandman". "Papa Loves Mambo" does still appear playing on the cafe's jukebox later in the film, though.

* The scene in ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'' in which the ''Enterprise'' crew crosses a street in 1986 San Francisco and Kirk is called a "dumbass" by an angry taxi driver. The background music seems to be a standard '80s rock tune.
** 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, and performed by the actor that played the punk.

*** 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.

[[caption-width-right:276:[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG_IJMh1OOk Cue the music!]]]]

* Music/BillyJoel's "We Didn't Start the Fire" [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFTLKWw542g&ob=av2e is]] a laundry list of late-20th-century cultural markers rattled off one after the other. He stays in chronological order (at least approximately) until he reaches 1963, after which he starts throwing them out more or less at random... 80s, 60s, 80s again...

* Parodied on ''GetALife'' in an episode where Chris time-travels to the 1970s to right some wrong - you can tell it's the '70s because his old dad and all his codger friends are boogieing down to disco music.

** In the DVD commentary for Part II, it's noted that they'd considered using "Papa Loves Mambo" by Perry Como before deciding on "Mister Sandman".

* Occurs in ''PeggySueGotMarried'', shortly after Peggy Sue wakes up as her teenaged self in 1960. As her friends drive her home, she's treated to shots of her hometown as it used to be, with vintage clothing and cars everywhere, and "Tequila" by the Champs on the radio.

** The show's [[WholeEpisodeFlashback 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 ''Series/{{MASH}}'', followed immediately by Homer walking down the street singing "[[Music/CyndiLauper Girls Just Want to Have Fun]]". Slightly subverted when the scene is set with "a young Joe Piscopo was teaching us how to laugh."

** When Dipper and Mabel flash through various eras in "The Time Traveler's Pig," one such escapade includes heading to "Ye Old Oregon Trail," as announced by the driver of a covered wagon over a treacherous cavern's edge; he also mentions to his wife "Fertilia" that she must have [[GettingCrapPastTheRadard produced two children when he wasn't looking]].

* Frequently seen in ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls.'' Although not a time-travel example, the first few moments of the episode "Irrational Treasure," the Pines family is bombarded with covered wagons, butter churns, livestock, old-timey speech mannerisms, and banjo music, because it's Pioneer Day (to Stan's horror). There is also an excessive number of woodpeckers, but that's a historical marker unique to Gravity Falls.

* In ''[[VideoGame/MafiaII]]'', when the protagonist Vito is getting out of a 6 years term in jail, we are treated to sequence full of [[TheFifties fifties]] imagery and music, to signify how the time has passed since the last time he saw the outside world, [[TheForties during the final year of the World War II]].

** In the DVD commentary for Part II, it's noted that they'd considered using "Papa Loves Mambo" by Perry Como instead of "Mister Sandman".

** In the DVD commentary for Part II, it's noted that they'd considered using "Papa Loves Mambo" by Perry Como instead of "Mister Sandman", so this trope could've been called "Papa Loves Mambo Sequence".

A typical example appears in the second episode of ''{{Journeyman}}'', where the lead character finds himself on an airplane in UsefulNotes/TheSeventies. He sees, in the span of about thirty seconds, [[SexyStewardess flirtatious stewardesses]] in orange uniforms, [[EverybodySmokes people smoking]], a kid [[ValuesDissonance playing with]] [[TheWarOnTerror a toy gun]], the film ''[[Film/PlanetOfTheApes Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]'' being screened, and a newspaper that mentions the [[UsefulNotes/GeraldFord Ford]] administration, all while [[NothingButHits K.C. and the Sunshine Band's "Get Down Tonight" plays in the background]].

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcNTcBaluuQ&feature=related Langham Hotel's 2007 commercial]] does a backward variation where a butler retrogrades through time from the present day up to the hotel's founding. There, the butler does most of the services to prominent guests such as WinstonChurchill, King Edward VIII (then Prince of Wales in the 1920s), OscarWilde and Emperor Napoleon III of France. And then cue a slight awkward reaction from the butler and the guests while a contemporary phone the kept by the butler is ringing on the grand opening in 1865.

* Yoshihiro Tatsumi's ''Manga/ADriftingLife'' does several of these sequences to illustrate Japan's recovery from WorldWarTwo.

** Used in Episode 1 and Episode 3 of the TelltaleGames [[VideoGame/BackToTheFuture adaptation]], for 1931 and alternate 1986 respectively. Both recreate the moment where Marty almost gets hit by a car while crossing the street to the town square.

* ''TheDeparted'' 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.

* Peter Jackson's 2005 version of ''Film/KingKong'' opens with one of these.
* The ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'' movie starts with a montage of superhero history, to the sound of "The Times They Are a-Changin'" by BobDylan.
* A few of these can be found in the ''AustinPowers'' movies. Very much in the AffectionateParody vein.
* Inverted in ''TheBradyBunchMovie'': 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 [[DiscoDan stuck-in-the-'70s]] Brady clan is. As the years pass, this montage is becoming more and more of a straight example.

-->'''Nick:''' What color is MichaelJackson?

* The [[http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2003082265/ trailer]] for ''Film/TheArtist (2011)'' establishes the period with peppy dance number.
* The `60s flashback in ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut''

* Naturally, the pilot episodes of ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' and ''Series/AshesToAshes'' 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). Even the ''titles'' are [[DavidBowie in on it]].

* When Creator/ConanOBrien hosted ''LateNight'' Brian Stack had a recurring character who was a traveling salesman straight out of TheFifties. He'd usually make some sort of period reference soon after he arrived.

* The opening loading screen and title sequence in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' helps establish that it's TheEighties. The loading screen simulates a Commodore 64 loading screen, then the title sequence plays a SuspiciouslySimilarSong of the MiamiVice theme while showing scenes of life in 1980s Miami--big hair, boxy cars, etc.

* TheNostalgiaChick's ''{{Film/Anastasia}}'' review notes the unrealistic number of "1920s Paris" things and people shown, as well as the fact that Sigmund Freud shouldn't be there. (Then again, [[ArtisticLicenseHistory neither should the Dowager Emperess]].)

** {{JD Salinger}}'s literary works in the form of WWII tattoos,

* The ClassicDisneyShort ''The Nifty Nineties'' (set in TheGayNineties, so no "Smells Like Teen Spirit") is a protracted Mister Sandman Sequence.

** The [[{{Retcon}} 90s episode]] contains references to Grunge rock, VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog, Toys/BeanieBabies, and a scene where Comic Book Guy finishes explaining why Lord of the Rings can never be made into a movie [[HilariousInHindsight (which was a REAL discussion at the time.)]]

* Every retro-themed diner/restaurant posits that TheFifties were populated entirely by [[ElvisPresley Elvises]], Creator/{{Marilyn Monroe}}s, and Creator/{{James Dean}}s.

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