History Main / TwentyMinutesIntoThePast

* Despite being set in the title date and immediately after, later works in the ''[[SixteenThirtyTwo 1632]]'' series have started to use this since the American town of Grantville was transported to that time from the year 2000- so writers must be careful to give their computers only the capabilities and programs they would have had then, for instance.

Specifically the inverse of TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture with a similarly vague sense of sometime over that way, just not now. Compare and contrast NextSundayAD.

* ''Negadon: A Monster From Mars'', created in 2005, but with many indications of being set in TheSixties or TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, as it would be seen in sixties.

* ''TheWeddingSinger'', made in 1998, was set in 1985.

* ''HowIMetYourMother'' is an interesting example, as the main story takes place in the present, but is narrated as if it were 20-something years in the past.

* ''{{Lost}}'' started out as PresentDay, but was definitely TwentyMinutesIntoThePast by at least the 2nd Season. [[TimeTravel Then it got more complicated]].

* ''FamilyGuy''. In "Meet the Quagmires", Peter and Brian travel back in time so Peter can relive life as an 18-year old.

* ''Animal House'', released in 1978, set in 1962.

* HarryPotter is set between 1991-1998 or so while [[Literature/HarryPotter the books]] were released 1997-2007 and [[Film/HarryPotter the films]] 2001-2011. The books are nonspecific enough (owing to the general lack of modern technology) to occur anywhere in that period, but the films are clearly set in the naughties.

* HarryPotter is set between 1991-1998 or so while [[Literature/HarryPotter the books]] were released 1997-2007 and [[Film/HarryPotter the films]] 2001-2011. The books are nonspecific enough (owing to the general lack of modern technology) to occur anywhere in that period, but the films are clearly set in the aughts.

* [[Ulysses]] the famous novel by James Joice was published between 1918 and 1920 yet is set on the perfectly ordinary day of June 16 1904.

* The original ''BackToTheFuture'' was set mostly 30 years before its release.

* ''RedDwarf'''s episode Status Leak takes us back into the RedDwarf before the accident 3 million years before the show is set. Apart from the lack of crew, it looks exactly the same.

* ''HappyDays'' (1950's)
* ''MadMen'' (1950's)
* ''PanAm'' (1960's)
* The (very) short lived ''ThePlayboyClub'' (1961)

* The original ''BackToTheFuture'' was set mostly 30 years before it's release

* The JimCarrey vehicle FunWithDickAndJane is set in early 2000, and was released in '05.
* {{Super8}} is set in 1979, mostly because that was the beginning of the Spielberg era.
* NapoleonDynamite was released in 2004, but in many aspects it seems to be set in the 1980s, internet dating notwithstanding.

* Despite being set in the title date and immediately after, later works in the [[SixteenThirtyTwo 1632]] series have started to use this since the American town of Grantville was transported to that time from the year 2000- so writers must be careful to give their computers only the capabilities and programs they would have had then, for instance.

* HappyDays
* MadMen
* PanAm
* The (very) short lived ThePlayboyClub
* The beginning of {{The X-Files}} is set in early 1992 though the show started in 1993.

** Of course, being a LongRunner operating on ComicBookTime, WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons features NegativeContinuity when it comes to deciding just ''which'' era is currently Twenty Minutes In The Past. If one considers a suitable timespan for this trope to be the last two or three decades, say, then a lot of that period by now falls within the period the show has actually been running in RealLife.

[[folder:Anime]]

A work that is shot so that it looks like it happened sometime in the years before it was actually filmed, often right around the time that the target audience was kids. It's not a [[PeriodPiece historical piece]] related to some specific event or story written in that time and thus specifically tied down, but it may have a specific date attached just to increase realism or allow for [[EstablishingShot Establishing Shots]] so you can imagine the mindset of the characters (for instance, the Cold War mindset is used now in works set in that time period even if the story has nothing to do with it; a similar phenomenon has occurred concerning 9/11). It may be tinged with nostalgia, or maybe the props were just easy to pick up at a secondhand store. In recent times this can be to avoid the plot destroying parts of modern life like cellphones.

* Super8 is set in 1979, mostly because that was the beginning of the Spielberg era.
* Napoleon Dynamite was released in 2004, but in many aspects it seems to be set in the 1980s, internet dating notwithstanding.

-->'''Brent''': "Didn't that... happen like thirty seconds ago?"
-->'''Hank''': "It was a magical time."
-->-- ''Series/CornerGas''

Ah, the wondrous World of Yesterday. When people lived in log cabins and had buckles on their hats and drove around in big, gas-guzzling Cadillacs and Hummers. Wait... what?

When a work of fiction is set in the past, but not so far back as to be considered a PeriodPiece, then it's TwentyMinutesIntoThePast.

Most commonly the setting of [[FlashBack flashbacks]], often with a heavy NostalgiaFilter applied.

Compare TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin this, but in the future.]] See also PresentDayPast, where this is the setting but the trope's about the period details slipping a bit.

* The original ''BackToTheFuture''. It's probably more like forty minutes now, but it would have been twenty minutes when the film came out in the '80s.

* The HarryPotter novels are very vaguely set in TheNineties.

* ''{{Shenmue}}'' takes place in the late 1980's, but you wouldn't notice it at first glance. Especially since the main character has a SegaSaturn.

* Several episodes of ''TheSimpsons'' (usually episodes about the kids' lives as infants or Homer and Marge before they were married) are set in the recent past.

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* The original BackToTheFuture. It's probably more like forty minutes now, but it would have been twenty minutes when the film came out in the '80s.

* The TomHanks film ExtremelyLoudAndIncrediblyClose is set during and shortly after 9/11.

* RedDwarf's episode Status Leak takes us back into the RedDwarf before the accident 3 million years before the show is set. Apart from the lack of crew, it looks exactly the same.
* That70sShow
* HowIMetYourMother is an interesting example, as the main story takes place in the present, but is narrated as if it were 20-something years in the past.
* LifeOnMars and its American counterpart, which both take place in the 1970s.
* {{MASH}} takes place during the Korean War, but it would have been twenty minutes in the past when it aired in the '70s and '80s. Now, it's more like forty minutes.

* {{Shenmue}} takes place in the late 1980's, but you wouldn't notice it at first glance. Especially since the main character has a SegaSaturn.

* Several episodes of TheSimpsons (usually episodes about the kids' lives as infants or Homer and Marge before they were married) are set in the recent past.
** The third act of "The Wettest Stories Ever Told" is a retelling of ThePoseidonAdventure set in the not-so-distant past.

* FamilyGuy: In "Meet the Quagmires", Peter and Brian travel back in time so Peter can relive life as an 18-year old.

[[folder:Western Animation]]

Compare TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, which is [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin this, but in the future.]]

* HowIMetYourMother takes place in the present, but is narrated as flashbacks to 20-something years in the past.

* LifeOnMars, and the American remake of the same name are set in the 1970s.

** The third act of "The Wettest Stories Ever Told" is a retelling of ThePoseidonAdventure set in the '70s.