History Main / MisterSandmanSequence

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 [[NothingButHits one that is still popular in the present]]) playing on the film's soundtrack. More-or-less it's PopularHistory condensed into a sequence usually less than two minutes long.

A typical example appears in the second episode of ''Series/{{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 ''[[Franchise/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]].

* ''Series/{{Journeyman}}'' seemed to have been especially fond of these.

* ''Franchise/ArchieComics'' did a few stories extolling the virtues of TheGayNineties that where essentially this trope on the comics page (so no soundtrack).

** Another actual time travel occurred in "Blendin's Game" when Dipper and Mabel accidentally travel to Gravity Falls, year 2002 (ten years in the past). This example is unique in hat instead of showcasing the time period, it show cases what the Gravity Falls townsfolk were like ten years ago. [[PrecociousCrush Wendy]] is a five year-old who [[{{Irony}} thinks Dipper looks cute,]] the BadGuyBar bouncer is getting his first tattoos, [[GrumpyOldMan Stan is exactly the same,]] [[EnfantTerrible Gideon]] is just a baby, [[TeensAreMonsters Robbie]] is a BrattyHalfPint, etc.

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': Eccentric videogame designer and [[TheEighties 80's pop-culture]] fanatic James Halliday programmed a section of his MMO simulation, the OASIS, as a recreation of his childhood hometown from the mid-eighties, where everyone looks like an extra from a John Cougar Mellencamp video and the roads are filled with gas-guzzling Trans-Ams, Camaro IROC-Zs and Dodge Omnis. Within seconds of teleporting there, Wade[=/=]Parzival notices "A woman with [[EightiesHair a giant, ozone-depleting hairdo]] bobbing her head to an oversize Walkman. A kid in a gray Members Only jacket leaning against a wall, working on a Rubik's Cube. A [[TheQuincyPunk Mohawked punk rocker]] sitting in a plastic chair, watching a ''Riptide'' rerun on a coin-operated television."

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': Eccentric videogame designer and [[TheEighties 80's pop-culture]] fanatic James Halliday programmed a section of his MMO simulation, the OASIS, to be a recreation of his childhood hometown from the mid-eighties, where all the [=NPCs=] look like extras from a John Cougar Mellencamp video, the roads are filled with Trans-Ams, Camaro IROC-Zs and Dodge Omnis, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking gas only costs 93 cents per gallon]]. Within seconds of teleporting there, Wade[=/=]Parzival notices "A woman with [[EightiesHair a giant, ozone-depleting hairdo]] bobbing her head to an oversize Walkman. A kid in a gray Members Only jacket leaning against a wall, working on a Rubik's Cube. A [[TheQuincyPunk Mohawked punk rocker]] sitting in a plastic chair, watching a ''Riptide'' rerun on a coin-operated television."

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': Eccentric videogame designer and [[The80s 80's pop-culture]] fanatic James Halliday programmed a section of his MMO simulation, the OASIS, to be a recreation of his childhood hometown from the mid-eighties, where all the [=NPCs=] look like extras from a John Cougar Mellencamp video, the roads are filled with Trans-Ams, Camaro IROC-Zs and Dodge Omnis, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking gas only costs 93 cents per gallon]]. Within seconds of teleporting there, Wade[=/=]Parzival notices "A woman with [[EightiesHair a giant, ozone-depleting hairdo]] bobbing her head to an oversize Walkman. A kid in a gray Members Only jacket leaning against a wall, working on a Rubik's Cube. A [[TheQuincyPunk Mohawked punk rocker]] sitting in a plastic chair, watching a ''Riptide'' rerun on a coin-operated television."

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': Eccentric videogame designer and 80's pop-culture fanatic James Halliday programmed a section of his massively multiplayer simulation, the OASIS, to be a recreation of his childhood hometown from the mid-eighties. Within seconds of teleporting there, Wade[=/=]Parzival notices "A woman with [[EightiesHair a giant, ozone-depleting hairdo]] bobbing her head to an oversize Walkman. A kid in a gray Members Only jacket leaning against a wall, working on a Rubik's Cube. A [[TheQuincyPunk Mohawked punk rocker]] sitting in a plastic chair, watching a ''Riptide'' rerun on a coin-operated television." All the [=NPCs=] look like extras from a John Cougar Mellencamp video, the roads are filled with Trans-Ams, Camaro IROC-[=Z28s=] and Dodge Omnis, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking gas only costs 93 cents per gallon]].

* ''Literature/ReadyPlayerOne'': Eccentric videogame designer and 80's pop-culture fanatic James Halliday programmed a section of his massively multiplayer simulation, the OASIS, to be a recreation of his hometown from his childhood in the mid-eighties, and drew from both extensive research and his own memory to make the simulation as authentic to the decade as possible. Within seconds of teleporting there, Wade[=/=]Parzival notices "A woman with [[EightiesHair a giant, ozone-depleting hairdo]] bobbing her head to an oversize Walkman. A kid in a gray Members Only jacket leaning against a wall, working on a Rubik's Cube. A [[TheQuincyPunk Mohawked punk rocker]] sitting in a plastic chair, watching a ''Riptide'' rerun on a coin-operated television." All the [=NPCs=] look like extras from a John Cougar Mellencamp video, the roads are filled with Trans-Ams, Camaro IROC-[=Z28s=] and Dodge Omnis, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking gas only costs 93 cents per gallon]].

* In Alison Bechdel's collection of ''ComicStrip/DykesToWatchOutFor'' comics, the introduction where she explains herself and the comic contains flashbacks with a box that name-drops a song for each decade: "that disco mix of the StarWars theme" for [[TheSeventies 1977]], "Physical" by Olivia Newton-John for [[TheEighties 1981]], and "She's All I Ever Had" by Ricky Martin for [[TheNineties 1999]].

* An early scene in the RockyHorrorPictureShow features Brad and Janet listening to RichardNixon's resignation speech on the radio, placing the setting in 1974. Despite Brad and Janet listening to a speech Nixon gave in August on "a late November evening," WordOfGod says that this is not an anachronism, rather that Brad is such a dork that he taped it and listens to it at his leisure.

* ''{{Journeyman}}'' seemed to have been especially fond of these.

* An early scene in the RockyHorrorPictureShow features Brad and Janet listening to RichardNixon's resignation speech on the radio, placing the setting in 1974.

** The "Power of Love" scene in Part I was initially included to show Marty going about his [[MorningRoutine normal life]] before the adventure begins, but 30+ years after the release of the film, it now serves to [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece establish the very 80s world he is trying to return too]].

** The "Power of Love" scene in Part I was initially included to show Marty going about his [[MorningRoutine normal life]] before the adventure begins, but 30+ years after the release of the film, it now serves to [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece establish the world he is trying to return too]]. A world filled with Fast Food, self-serve Gas Stations, and Aerobics Classes

** The "Power of Love" scene in Part I also counts, although it doesn't use the same visual cues as the later examples.

* Film/GoneWithTheWind: Starts with scenes from the Old South, or leastways Hollywood's interpretation of the same.

* Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/KingKong2005'' opens with one of these, which leaves absolutely no doubt that it's Depression-era NYC.

* ''Film/HotTubTimeMachine'' has one of these when the four protagonists reach the ski lodge and realize that it's TheEighties. Featuring leg warmers, [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan Reagan]], EightiesHair, ''MiamiVice'' T-shirts, cassette players, cell phones the size of bricks, {{MTV}} [[NetworkDecay playing music videos]], and more all to set the mood.

* Several Music/EvelynEvelyn songs start out mentioning things that occured that year. For example, "The Tragic Events of September" (which is about the day the twins were born) features the lines "The year is 1985. ''Film/SaintElmosFire'' is at the top of the charts, the wreckage of the UsefulNotes/{{Titanic}} has just been discovered at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, and on a small farm on the Kansas-Colorado border a young mother is about to give birth".

* Franchise/ArchieComics did a few stories extolling the virtues of TheGayNineties that where essentially this trope on the comics page (so no soundtrack).

* Music/EvelynEvelyn's "The Tragic Events of September".

* Parodied in ''Series/ATouchOfCloth'' when a woman who's being interrogated unveils information about the killer's background to the detectives for something that happened in 1996, but the screen actually shows a litany of pop culture, fashion, events, and people iconic to the 1980s to the confusion of the cops. It turns out she was watching a nostalgia program on the telly during her flashback.

->''"Let's take a look back at the year 1928. A year when you might have seen [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Al Capone dancing the Charleston on top of a flagpole]]."''

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'' has a RunningGag of doing this as over-the-top as possible. One episode has a shot of [=BoJack=] driving down the street in the 1980s, in front of shops selling Rubik's Cubes and 'cocaine mirrors', in a suit, singing along to a song with the lyrics "[[TropeName Generic 80s New Wave beat]]". The exact shot is repeated later in the episode but with inflatable chair shops and teens playing hackey-sack ("Generic 90s grunge song, everyone in flannel..."), and ''again'' two seasons later but with subprime mortgage sellers and flip-phone shops ("Generic 2000 and something pop song, everyone's {{AutoTune}}d so the voices sound weird..."). [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlfK51tN-xo Here's a supercut]].

* WebVideo/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]].)