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10[[quoteright:350:[[Webcomic/AwkwardZombie https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_comic146_5639.gif]]]]
11[[caption-width-right:350:High-school ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' fans, rejoice!]]
12
13->''"Cheer up Eddy. My mom says fads go in a cycle. In another ten years, we'll be back in style!"''
14-->-- '''Edd''', ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy''[[note]][[WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow He was right.]][[/note]]
15
16This is when something which portrays itself as "cutting edge" becomes mainstream, but soon becomes [[ItsPopularNowItSucks overexposed]], [[DiscoDan behind the times]], [[DiscreditedMeme old hat]], or [[CondemnedByHistory just plain uncool]]. However, given enough time, it suddenly begins to make a comeback, usually accompanied by words like "vintage," "nostalgic," and "classic." It's gone through the ups and downs of the popularity polynomial.
17
18How often the item cycles back and forth between "cool" and "not cool" depends on many factors. If something reached a peak when you and your friends were kids, then when you become tweens or teens, it is a reminder of a childish time -- and as [[Creator/CSLewis the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up]] set in, you don't want to think about it. But when you reach your later teens or become adults, it is seen as harmless. And once ''your'' kids discover it, it may even become cool again (as long as they don't associate it with their uncool parents). Now apply that on a larger scale.
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20Given enough cycles, it becomes the equivalent of a CyclicTrope.
21
22The name comes from the fact that we like {{alliterative name}}s, and [[MostTropersAreYoungNerds some of us are math geeks]]. Here's also a [[TechnoBabble more detailed explanation]] about what a polynomial is and what it has to do with the ups and downs of popularity.
23
24[[folder:Explanation]]
25A ''polynomial'' in x is a sum of non-negative integer powers of x which are each multiplied by a real number. You might know some simple polynomials: y=ax+b, the equation for a straight line where a is the slope and b is the y-intercept, is a polynomial (it can be written as: y=ax[[superscript:1]]+bx[[superscript:0]]). That's called a polynomial of degree 1, because the highest power of x that appears is 1. A polynomial of degree 2 (y=ax[[superscript:2]]+bx+c) is called a parabola, and if you plot its graph it looks like a dish (which could be wide or narrow, or turned upside down, depending on what a, b, and c are).
26
27Of course, there are polynomials of a higher degree than that, like y=4x[[superscript:5]]+8x[[superscript:4]]+15x[[superscript:3]]+16x[[superscript:2]]+23x[[superscript:1]]+42, which is of degree 5. Higher degree polynomials can create all sorts of curves when you plot them. Apart from the line and the parabola, you can get a lot of shapes, such as a lot of hairpin curves or a roller-coaster shape that goes on for a while before diving up or diving down.
28
29So, in a polynomial in x of a high-degree you can expect y to go up and down as x grows.[[note]]This doesn't always happen-- exactly ''how'' often it happens is a difficult question in probability, but for our purposes the answer is "often enough."[[/note]] The trope name is about looking at the popularity of something as a polynomial in time: as time progresses, it becomes less popular, then more popular, then less popular again, and so on and so forth. Generally speaking, the higher degree the polynomial, the more times you switch from "cool" to "stupid" and back. The points where the popularity rises, flatlines, and then begins to decline are known as the polynomial's JumpingTheShark moments, and when it does the opposite- reverses a decline and starts to climb- rigorous mathematical notation is that it is GrowingTheBeard. Some fringe lunacy groups insist on an alternative terminology having to do with derivative signs and whatnot, but they can be safely ignored.
30
31So if you were wondering what a polynomial was, [[AndKnowingIsHalfTheBattle now you know]].
32[[/folder]]
33
34See also ColbertBump (a resurgence triggered by a specific factor), PosthumousPopularityPotential (when a person's death [[NeverSpeakIllOfTheDead rehabilitates their reputation]]), CyclicTrope (when this happens to tropes) and DiscreditedMeme. Compare with TwoDecadesBehind, CareerResurrection, NostalgiaFilter, GenreRelaunch and VindicatedByHistory. Contrast with CondemnedByHistory, for something that ''loses'' popularity, often to the point where it ''never'' comes back. If it happens in-universe, that's PopularityCycle.
35
36----
37!!Example subpages:
38
39[[index]]
40* PopularityPolynomial/{{Music}}
41* PopularityPolynomial/RealLife
42[[/index]]
43
44!!Other examples:
45
46[[foldercontrol]]
47
48[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
49* {{Anime}} in North America has had a roller coaster of popularity over the years, normally with a particular series leading the surge. In the mid '90s, anime surged big time thanks to particularly ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', ''Anime/DragonBallZ'', and ''Anime/SailorMoon''. Around the early 2000s, the popularity began to lower but then in the mid 2000s another boom kick started thanks to ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' and ''Manga/{{Bleach}}''. There was a crash afterwards, but in TheNewTens shows like ''Anime/KillLaKill'', ''Webcomic/OnePunchMan'', and ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' caused yet another boom, with ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' and ''Manga/DemonSlayerKimetsuNoYaiba'' rounding out the decade. Two particular anime that experienced this is ''Dragon Ball Z'' and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'': Both acted as gateway series to the world of anime, ''Dragon Ball Z'' being the most popular shonen series and ''Evangelion'' once being regarded TrueArt. Around the early 2000s, HypeBacklash hit both series big time (''DBZ'' because of its filler and inaction sequences and ''Evangelion'' because of its confusing and depressing plotline) and it suddenly became wrong to openly admit to liking either series. Then later ''[[Anime/DragonBallZKai Dragon Ball Z Kai]]'' and ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion'', respectively, renewed interest in both franchises, but then interest died out again after ''Kai'' became [[OvershadowedByControversy overshadowed by a plagiarism controversy]] toward the end of its initial run, while the ''Rebuild'' movies got darker than the original TV show. ''Dragon Ball'', however, has since rebounded with a pair of movies (''[[Anime/DragonBallZBattleOfGods Battle of Gods]]'' and ''[[Anime/DragonBallZResurrectionF Resurrection 'F']]'') and ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'', while the final installment of ''Rebuild'', while still divisive, has caused the tetralogy to be revalued.
50* "Retro" Anime from the Cel-era fell out of favor in the late 2000s and into the 2010s as newer fans crowded out fans of the older style, preferring modern digitally animated anime. Starting in the late 2010s, as cleaned-up Blu Rays of classic anime were released and both old fans and anime historians became more vocal about the classics of the past, a new appreciation for the historical roots of Anime led to newer fans rediscovering anime of the "Golden age" of the 1980s and early 90s. It's not a huge boom, but will likely prevent those older forms from becoming lost media.
51* ''Franchise/{{Digimon}}'' certainly deserves a mention. The [[Anime/DigimonAdventure first anime series]] was immensely popular and brought in huge profits, but sales started to dwindle little by little with each new season. Eventually there were [[SequelGap very large hiatuses]] in between series due to disappointing toy sales.... Until Toei tried marketing to nostalgic adults and teens with ''Anime/DigimonAdventureTri'', as well as more adult targeted merch of the first three series, which was a roaring success. Playing to nostalgia was enough to bring ''Digimon'' back into the limelight, and just as much merch is being made now was it was around the time ''Adventure'' aired. The fandom also started thriving and becoming active due to people who hadn't engaged with the fandom since they were kids coming back in droves. However, with the fleeting reception of ''tri'' after the first few episodes, its even worse received [[Anime/DigimonAdventureLastEvolutionKizuna sequel movie]] and the polarizing [[Anime/DigimonAdventure2020 reboot]], the franchise seems to have hit a bump again.
52* ''Anime/MDGeist'' is a bizarre example of this phenomenon. Part of the initial North American anime boom, ''MD Geist'' was successful when it was brought to North America, largely due to the efforts of Creator/CentralParkMedia president John O'Donnel, who loved and [[AdoredByTheNetwork promoted it to a ridiculous level]]. In part [[HypeBacklash due]] to this overexposure, it was hated by vocal {{Otaku}}s and acquired a reputation as the "worst anime ever" after its commercial success faded. This changed in the late 2000s when the OVA was shown on [[Creator/{{Syfy}} Sci Fi Channel's]] Ani Monday block, due to a combination of a growing backlash against certain trends such as {{Moe}} and [[CriticalBacklash being nowhere near as bad as advertised]]. While few people would argue ''MD Geist'' is good art, it is now largely seen as [[SoBadItsGood enjoyable]] rather than being garbage, and [[http://forgottenjunk.blogspot.com/2011/07/md-geist-most-detailed-article.html several]] [[http://www.colonydrop.com/index.php/2011/07/15/mdgeist?blog=1 articles]] have been [[http://www.otakuusamagazine.com/Anime/News1/The_Truth_About_MD_Geist_1154.aspx written]] arguing against its reputation as the "worst anime".
53* The YuriGenre and yuri fandom was popular in the early-to-mid 2000s with the success of series like ''Literature/MariaWatchesOverUs'', ''Anime/RevolutionaryGirlUtena'', and ''Manga/SailorMoon''. During that period there were many popular anime with either one explicitly lesbian character or a lot of HomoeroticSubtext and {{PseudoRomantic Friendship}}s involving the characters. In contrast, yaoi anime were rare besides a few series like ''Manga/{{Loveless}}'' and AmbiguouslyGay characters were low-key. The yuri boom died out in the late-2000s and early-2010s, with only a few series coming out such as ''Anime/{{Canaan}}'' or ''Manga/WhisperedWords''. There were some popular works within the fandom like ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' and ''Anime/BlackRockShooter'' during this period, however yuri and [[HideYourLesbians yuri-ish]] series were becoming less popular in exchange for CastFullOfPrettyBoys series with a lot of HoYay getting popular. It stayed like this for a while however in the mid-2000s yuri began seeing a revival with the popularity of manga like ''Manga/{{Citrus}}'' and due to non-Japanese Asian webcomics like ''Webcomic/TheirStory''.
54* Like the games, ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'' has been hit with this several times. It was a worldwide phenomenon during its heyday Kanto days but by late Johto much of the fans had moved on. The fad days were ending and much of the original demographic began moving onto other series, especially after Misty left. ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesRubyAndSapphire'' had its fans but the anime wasn't nearly as popular as it once was. However, a lot of the PeripheryDemographic (who were the target demographic during the fad) got into the anime again with ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesDiamondAndPearl'' thanks to them getting into the games again at that same period. This popularity kept for all of Gen 4 until ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesBlackAndWhite'' killed it again. Early on fans watched it, especially because of Team Rocket's [[TookALevelInBadass new demeanor]], however they soon waned, especially after an [[ExecutiveMeddling executive-mandated retool]]. The ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesXY'' series brought back a huge amount of fans, either because the episode quality seemed to improve or because they enjoyed {{shipping}} Serena with Ash. The ending to the arc was very controversial, however, and the goofy tone of the next ''Anime/PokemonTheSeriesSunAndMoon'' arc didn't help, causing the fanbase to once again fall by the wayside, but that was alleviated with more serious and emotional plots with subjects like death, the return of Misty & Brock, and [[spoiler:Ash finally winning the Pokémon League]]. The ''Anime/PokemonJourneysTheSeries'' is well-liked for its more unique premise of going through all regions rather than just Galar, and the Pokémon Ash catching being completely unexpected. It also happens to be the last series featuring Ash and consequently, the series goes full nostalgia appeal to the anime fans of all generations since 1997.
55* The MagicIdolSinger was ''the'' most popular form of MagicalGirl Anime in the 80s, pioneered by ''Anime/CreamyMamiTheMagicAngel'' and other works by Creator/StudioPierrot. The genre fell to the wayside in favor of MagicalGirlWarrior series in the 90s, saw a slight resurgence in the early 2000s with titles like ''Manga/FullMoon'' and ''Anime/MermaidMelodyPichiPichiPitch'', and came back full force in the 2010s with the massive success of the ''VideoGame/PrettySeries'' and other similar magic idol-themed VirtualPaperDoll arcade games with anime adaptations.
56[[/folder]]
57
58[[folder:Architecture]]
59* Art deco was seen as groundbreaking in TheRoaringTwenties as it embraced technology rather than nature, but by TheGreatDepression and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII it became regarded as "expensive nonsense". However, since TheFifties, this style has been practically the most influential over modern architecture.
60* "Googie" architecture went out of style soon after the 1950's but discovered a resurgence in the 80's that continues to this day thanks to its nostalgic style emblematic of the decade. The rocket-like tailfins, starbursts, and odd geometric shapes are still a staple of bowling alleys, hamburger restaurants, auto repair shops, and other businesses popular in the 50's, as well as signs for cities that became popular in that decade, most notably Las Vegas. There exist societies dedicated to preserving Googie buildings that escaped the mass demolitions in the 60's and 70's due to their perceived old-fashionedness during then.
61* Gentrification is essentially this with regards to both architectural styles and parts of a city. Take Berlin-Kreuzberg for instance: Back when most of the houses there were built (the latter half of the 19th century, aka the ''Gründerzeit'') they were obviously deemed modern and aesthetically pleasing and the area was reasonably popular being close to the city center. After the wall was built and encircled Kreuzberg (which was in West-Berlin) on three sides, it became an undesirable location due to said encirclement. Furthermore the architectural style was seen as bad and most apartments were in dire need of renovation and lacked such conveniences as central heating or warm water. Of course the newly built housing units made of prefabricated slabs (known by the charming word ''Plattenbau'' in German, which roughly means slab building) had those conveniences and thus were widely more popular. The only people who would voluntarily live in old houses in areas like Kreuzberg were immigrants, notorious malcontents and cheapskates like students, leftists and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs leftist students]]. Many of those houses were also planned to be torn down, so there were issues with squatters. Once the wall came down, Kreuzberg suddenly found itself in the center of Berlin's attention once more and the students and "alternative" people had started their own clubs, bars and other venues and suddenly Kreuzberg became ''the'' place to live in. The ''Plattenbauten'' meanwhile have suffered greatly both in perception and in technical state (being forty or fifty years old does not help), but - you guessed it - in some cities even they show signs of being gentrified.
62* In Germany, train stations in major cities and the area surrounding them are this. Back in the 19th century when most cities were first connected to rail lines, train stations were impressive and expensive buildings in the center of town or the best neighborhoods. However, with the decline of rail travel, they entered a serious AudienceAlienatingEra and became associated with drug dealers, the homeless, urban blight and just general decay. Part of the reason for that also was that the state-owned railway company did not care enough and/or lacked the resources to do something about that. But eventually, major train stations (e.g. Leipzig, Berlin, Hamburg) have once again become places where people spend a lot of time because they ''want'' to, not because they have to. Train stations now contain a lot of shops (which, due to some quirks in the law can open on Sundays which normal stores usually can't) and they are actually a huge money source for UsefulNotes/DeutscheBahn. One of the cities where the neighborhood around the train station is undergoing serious gentrification is Frankfurt. Once upon a time Frankfurt Bahnhofsviertel was synonymous with drugs, prostitution and crime. Now, it is one of the fastest gentrifying places in Germany. The prostitution still isn't gone however. Many young people don't even remember that train stations used to have a negative image. However, the situation for marginal stations in the countryside and minor cities is still dire and many have been replaced by nothing more than shacks.
63[[/folder]]
64
65[[folder:Arts]]
66* Mime. Yes, mime. It was considered a great source of entertainment about a century ago, when it contributed so much of the humor in vaudeville, the circus, and (of course) silent movies. Then "talkies" came along in the late 1920s, and suddenly mime comedy was a joke (as depicted in ''Film/SinginInTheRain'' and elsewhere). There were a few holdouts, of course - Creator/CharlieChaplin, [[Creator/MarxBrothers Harpo Marx]], cartoon characters like WesternAnimation/{{Pluto|ThePup}} who couldn't talk - but they were the exception, as most people in the 1930s and '40s preferred to be entertained by characters who said funny things rather than acting out funny things. Then Marcel Marceau came along in the 1950s and breathed new life into the art form, even elevating it to the level of high culture...which unfortunately ultimately backfired, as Marceau inspired [[FollowTheLeader a glut of amateurish imitators]] in the decades immediately following who once again cheapened the image of mime, even giving us the current EveryoneHatesMimes trope. Yet mime has never truly died: Countless performers who are not even often thought of as mimes, such as Creator/RowanAtkinson (as ''Series/MrBean''), John Belushi, and Creator/JimCarrey, have proudly carried the tradition into the late twentieth century and beyond. Circus companies such as Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey and the Big Apple Circus also have given miming and clowning more attention in the following decades (in part a side effect of wild animal-based acts falling out of favor with modern audiences), and Creator/CirqueDuSoleil and other "contemporary circus" companies pivot upon performers who can engage audiences with few or no words at all.
67* The original MediaNotes/{{Dada}} movement of 1916 - which was based on violating conventions and depended on [[{{Troll}} confusing and upsetting audiences]] - [[ItsPopularNowItSucks died]] when [[MisaimedFandom people began enjoying it]], thus [[SpringtimeForHitler defeating its purpose]]. However, its influence can still be seen to this day: it contributed to the rise of {{postmodernism}}, and {{Spiritual Successor}}s such as YouTubePoop follow Dadaist ideology to a T.
68* Back in the 18th century, the ballet was a very popular form of court entertainment, particularly in France, where royalty codified it through such standards as the five positions of the arms and feet, around which the whole art form revolves, and it was also used as a measure of human strength, itself still true to an extent today. Then the French Revolution happened, and suddenly ballet found itself out of fashion to the point where it was a common subject of mockery directed towards the excesses of the then-recently-deposed ruling class. Only in the Romantic period did ballet experience a GenreRelaunch, and only after the [[{{Pun}} rise]] of pointework, spearheaded by the great Marie Camargo, and the creation of ballets with fantasy elements such as ''Theatre/LaSylphide'' and ''Theatre/{{Giselle}}''.
69* Ventriloquism was once considered the deadest of all show business horses, since every new act would be [[ToughActToFollow inevitably compared to]] Edgar Bergen (or at least to [[PoorMansSubstitute Paul Winchell]]). Then all of a sudden Creator/JeffDunham came along, and earned his own TV special after several sold-out performances. Terry Fator also has his own Las Vegas show.
70[[/folder]]
71
72[[folder:Asian Animation]]
73* When it premiered in 2005, ''Animation/PleasantGoatAndBigBigWolf'' got unexpectedly high ratings and became an instant hit with children. Once some time passed, it started to get a bit of a bad rep due to both an incident where real-life kids imitating the show hurt their friend and the show's seasons becoming experimental and not hitting the same way previous ones did; ''War of Invention'' in particular was criticized by fans for its writing and art styles enough to make Creator/CreativePowerEntertaining revert to the initial styles in the next season. In 2019, ''Mighty Little Defenders'' blew people's expectations out of the water with its storyline being considered one of the most exciting in years, and it brought back a lot of fans who had since left the ''Pleasant Goat'' fanbase; it's been doing well for itself since then with its story-based seasons and is now a well-respected show again.
74[[/folder]]
75
76[[folder:Clothing]]
77* Eyewear (both CoolShades and NerdGlasses) has varied greatly through the years: Beginning in TheRoaringTwenties, and thanks to Creator/HaroldLloyd, glasses became a fashionable element[[note]]Prior to that, if you wore glasses, it was because you were an intellectual, a clergyman, an older person or UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt[[/note]]. These were initially made of tortoiseshell, which by TheGreatDepression and through UsefulNotes/WorldWarII had been displaced by the more cost-efficient metal rims. Sunglasses also originated during the Jazz Age, first used by movie stars around 1922 and publicly introduced in 1929.
78** Post-WWII spectacles were made of tortoiseshell, and later plastic[[note]]Shuron Ronsirs/Ray-Ban Browlines were introduced in 1947, Ray-Ban Wayfarers appeared in 1952[[/note]], which by the end of TheSixties were seen as too conformist. Then metallic frames took over[[note]]While first made in 1937, it wasn't until about '68 when Ray-Ban Aviators were used outside military circles[[/note]] during TheSeventies, but by the end of the decade, plastics returned big time[[note]]Wayfarers were boosted primarily by the film ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'' and by the NewWaveMusic movement[[/note]] to dominate TheEighties. TheNineties and UsefulNotes/The2000s brought back metals[[note]]''Series/{{Jackass}}'' contributed to the Aviators' newborn popularity[[/note]] aside from sporty wraparounds, while TheNewTens did the same with plastic[[note]]80s nostalgia, {{Hipster}}s and ''Series/MadMen'' were instrumental for a return to Wayframes[[/note]].
79* Men's underpants seem to go through this cycle. The Coopers (now “Jockey”) underwear company introduced briefs for men in the 1930s -- which caused a sensation, as they were skimpier than most underpants at the time. This gradually brought about a change in men's intimate and leisurely fashions, with shorter underpants replacing the boxer shorts and long johns previously popular and male swimmers, bodybuilders, and surfers wearing skimpy trunks instead of the one-piece swimsuits from the 1920s. By the 1970s and the early '80s, wearing midthigh-length shorts as underwear was thought to be hopelessly old-fashioned, with only older men daring to be caught in them. Then the pendulum swung back: in the late 1980s and TheNineties, [[WildMassGuessing perhaps as a backlash against the burgeoning gay culture or maybe due to inspiration from the ultra-manly, proletarian fashion sense of Seattle grunge rock]], boxer shorts (especially plaid ones) became cool again, and during the 90s and 2000s, wearing briefs ([[MaliciousMisnaming given the notorious cognomen “tighty-whiteys” during this period]]) was often thought of as effeminate or immature. Eventually, though, with the rise of "slim-fit" in the 2010s, the two sides met in the middle, so that now in most department stores you can easily find [[FusionDance boxer briefs]], [[NonindicativeName which have leg bands and are form-fitting just like briefs but have leg sections]] (of varying lengths) like boxer shorts. Additionally, men wearing the classic brief is on the increase again as well. When it comes to ProfessionalWrestling, however, [[UnderwearOfPower this trope has always been inoperative]].
80* Two-piece swimsuits have balanced between conservative high-waisted models and skimpy bikinis: The former ones were the predominant ones between TheRoaringTwenties and TheFifties (thus being retroactively known as "pin-ups"). Bikinis took over during TheSixties and TheSeventies[[note]]They have been around since 1946, but in the United States only became prominent in the mid-to-late 60s[[/note]], showing more and more skin as time passed. "Pin-ups" returned with a vengeance in TheEighties, while the pendulum swung back towards bikinis and thongs in TheNineties and UsefulNotes/The2000s. TheNewTens' "conservative revolution" however, brought a trend of showing as little skin as possible, leading to a resurgence of the high-waisted "pin-up". One-piece swimsuits tend to vary their front cleavage influenced by how much skin two-piece suits show.
81[[/folder]]
82
83[[folder:Comedy]]
84* The general subject matter in which comedians are allowed to traffic seems to shift this way and that constantly. Perhaps most notably, ethnic/racial and male-chauvinist humor has [[CrossesTheLineTwice gone back and forth across the line]] on more or less a decade-by-decade basis since TheSixties, with TheEighties probably the low point of acceptability.
85* Similarly, political humor seems to wax and wane, depending on how high a profile America has on the world stage at a given moment.
86[[/folder]]
87
88[[folder:Comic Books]]
89* {{Superhero}} comics have been on this path for years. They were one of the few comic book genres that survived MediaNotes/TheComicsCode, although they had to censor themselves, and were the more successful comics throughout the {{MediaNotes/The Silver Age|Of Comic Books}} and {{MediaNotes/The Bronze Age|Of Comic Books}}. During the later parts of the '80s, ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' was a successful deconstruction of the superhero genre, while ''ComicBook/TheKillingJoke'' and ''ComicBook/BatmanTheDarkKnightReturns'' were grittier takes on ''Franchise/{{Batman}}''. Seeing this, many comics went DarkerAndEdgier, leading to the MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks. Unfortunately, most of the dark material, while popular at first, got old. MediaNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996, caused by a number of factors (such as the bursting of the speculator bubble, the failure of ''ComicBook/DeathMate'', and the overuse of collectors editions/crisis crossovers), made many companies such as Creator/ValiantComics die, and even Creator/{{Marvel}} filed for bankruptcy. By 2001, comic book sales were only 67 million, their lower point in years. Marvel and DC focused on their movies, while Creator/DarkHorseComics and Creator/ImageComics focused on licensed and genre material. However, with the popularity of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse and similar films, as well as lots of successful TV adaptations and new, diverse titles like ''[[ComicBook/MsMarvel2014 Ms. Marvel]]'' and ''ComicBook/{{Batgirl|2011}}'', superhero comic books have had a significant rebound.
90* In the '90s and '00s, Creator/ArchieComics seemed poised to finish its long slide from MainstreamObscurity into plain obsolescence. Its squeaky-clean characters and its [[RetroUniverse perpetual 1950s-seeming setting]] had grown increasingly out of touch with younger readers, its efforts to keep up with the times [[TotallyRadical had done little more than render it a laughingstock]] and the butt of jokes about being TwoDecadesBehind, and it seemed as though most of its fandom was of the ironic sort, with stories like ''ComicBook/ArchieMeetsThePunisher'' outright [[AdamWesting playing the company's image for laughs]]. ''Series/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch'' was a hit on television and kept the characters in the public eye, but it was largely divorced from the comics, and while the company also published [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics a popular line]] of ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' comics, these weren't a part of the company's core product line.\
91Something funny happened in the 2010s, however: for the first time in decades, Archie became genuinely hip. It started in 2010 when the company relaunched their adventure series ''Life with Archie'' as a more mature take on the characters, with storylines dealing with marriage, financial problems, homosexuality, and gun violence. This was followed in 2013 by ''ComicBook/AfterlifeWithArchie'', a horror story featuring the characters battling a ZombieApocalypse; its success and critical acclaim saw its writer, Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa, promoted to chief creative officer the following year[[note]]Ironically -- and as if to drive home just how much the company had changed -- Aguirre-Sacasa had previously been [[ScrewedByTheLawyers hit with a cease-and-desist letter]] by the company in 2003 for writing a gay-themed ''Archie'' stage play.[[/note]], along with a [[ComicBook/ArchieComics2015 modernized reboot]] of their flagship series by Creator/MarkWaid and a GothicHorror [[ComicBook/ChillingAdventuresOfSabrina rendition]] of ComicBook/SabrinaTheTeenageWitch. By 2017, Archie Comics' comeback culminated with the TV show ''Series/{{Riverdale}}'' on Creator/TheCW, its unusual setting (a thriller in a mid-century-style small town with a grunge-ish/1990s alt-rock soundtrack) becoming quite successful.
92* ComicBook/LukeCage, as discussed in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRtW10X0Vr4 this video]] by Creator/BobChipman. Created in TheSeventies to both diversify the Creator/MarvelComics lineup and [[FadSuper cash in]] on the {{blaxploitation}} boom, from TheEighties into the '00s he was seen by many comics fans, white and black alike, as a [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece dated relic]] and a symbol of everything wrong with Marvel's clueless attempts at social commentary during that time. Attempts to revive the character mostly went nowhere outside of guest appearances in ''ComicBook/{{Alias}}'', where he was largely shorn of his '70s trappings. His return to popularity and respectability came alongside the broader reappraisal of the blaxploitation genre in the '00s and '10s, with [[Series/LukeCage2016 a popular Netflix TV series]] being the turning point after years of increasingly popular appearances in the comics. Now, he's one of Marvel's headliners, updated for the 21st century but still rooted in his '70s inspirations.
93[[/folder]]
94
95[[folder:Film -- Animated]]
96* Disney has gone through ups and downs. During MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, Disney's films were successes and set the industry standard. However, after the death of Creator/WaltDisney, the confused company released a string of weak, under-performing films in TheSeventies. By TheEighties, Disney was better known as a theme park operator than a filmmaker. However, in 1989, ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', an animated film deliberately reminiscent of the Golden Age films of the 1940-50s, became an unexpected critical and commercial success and kicked off the [[MediaNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation Disney Renaissance]] that lasted throughout the entire [[TheNineties Nineties]]. By the TurnOfTheMillennium though, audiences, tiring of the increasingly clichéd formula prevalent in these films, drifted towards the then-new AllCGICartoon popularized by Creator/{{Pixar}} and Creator/DreamWorksAnimation. Disney responded by shutting down their traditional animation studio and releasing a string of their own CGI animated films, few of which made much of an impact; even the traditionally-animated throwback ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' and the well-received ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'' were only moderately successful. It wasn't until the double-whammy of 2012's ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'' followed by 2013's ultra-successful ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' that Disney truly got back on top again.
97* When it was released in 1998, ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' was a major hit, earning very positive reviews and becoming the most financially successful non-Disney animated feature at the time. Shortly afterwards, however, it faded into obscurity and was rarely talked about. Then it was rediscovered in the late 2000s and returned to prominence seemingly overnight, being regarded as one of the best Biblical movies ever made and even getting a West End stage musical adaptation in 2020.
98* At its peak, ''Franchise/{{Shrek}}'' was a franchise as big as the green ogre himself. The original ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' won the first Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'' became one of the highest-grossing films at the time. After that, the franchise's formula quickly grew stale as [[FollowTheLeader it spawned a host of mediocre imitators]], which seeped back into ''Shrek'' itself with the poor reviews of ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird''. This led to the downfall of ''Shrek''-style "snarky" animated movies and the rise of more drama-based animated movies such as ''WesternAnimation/{{How to Train Your Dragon|2010}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' as well as the more irreverent humor Illumination Studios and the Warner Animation Group began to grow in popularity. For a while, the ''Shrek'' franchise was seen as a poorly-aged product of its time that relied too much on contemporary references, and the aforementioned mediocre imitators furthered the franchise's reputation as having ruined western cartoon movies. However, MemeticMutation led to an upsurge of ironic popularity for the ''Shrek'' series, which eventually grew into ''unironic'' popularity as its fans grew up and revisited the movies, and were able to appreciate them anew due to their wittiness, 2000s nostalgia, and hidden heartfelt themes underneath the snarkiness. As of the late [[TheNewTens 2010s]], while not to the level of the early [[TheNoughties 2000s]], the first two ''Shrek'' movies are well-liked and appreciated as modern classics, and ''WesternAnimation/ShrekForeverAfter'' has quite a few fans and defenders as well. In fact, it was this renewed unironic popularity (and there's its influence, for better or worse, on animated films in the 21st century) that made it the first animated film released in the 21st century, the first non {{Creator/Disney}} animated film and only the 2nd CGI animated film (after ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory1'') to be added into the MediaNotes/NationalFilmRegistry in 2020. Furthermore, the fandom is so big that it even [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrek_fandom has its own page]] on Website/{{Wikipedia}}.
99[[/folder]]
100
101[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]
102* In-universe, the 1967 film ''Film/ToSirWithLove'' laid this bare for the audience in a scene where Mark Thackeray (Creator/SidneyPoitier) informs his disbelieving students about many things that are OlderThanTheyThink: their clothing is from the 1920s, their hairstyles from the 16th century, and so on. A trip to a museum later in the film re-{{lampshade|Hanging}}s it when one of the students is shown with his head next to that of a Renaissance statue -- and they both have the same haircut.
103* Musicals have been getting in and out of this since its beginnings: the MediaNotes/RiseOfTheTalkies brought a glut of musical films in 1929-30, only for TheGreatDepression to shift tastes to the point many films had to be modified to eliminate the songs and promoted as ''not'' being musicals. But halfway through the decade Busby Berkeley's new approach to choreography and the popularity of the Astaire-Rogers team led to a wave of musicals that intensified during the war years, with MGM becoming associated with the genre, which then faltered through the 1950s with the rise of television, being relegated to the B-movie domain by the time rock-and-roll came along.\
104\
105However, in TheSixties, ''Mary Poppins'' and ''The Sound of Music'', as well the British musical films of the Beatles era, led Hollywood to reconsider musicals, but these attempts were [[GenreKiller killed]] by a parade of flops over 1967-69 (''Camelot'', ''Film/DoctorDolittle'', ''Film/PaintYourWagon'', ''Finian's Rainbow'', ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang'', and finally ''Film/HelloDolly'') that took musicals out of fashion, with more somber takes such as ''Film/{{Cabaret}}'' and rock operas like ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'' being the primary exceptions. While the genre briefly resurfaced late in TheSeventies via a few successful efforts with quite some help from Music/TheBeeGees, most notably ''Film/SaturdayNightFever'' and ''Film/{{Grease}}'', it gave up the ghost early in TheEighties after the [[DiscoSucks disco backlash]] set on, with ''Film/{{Xanadu|1980}}'' and ''Can't Stop the Music'' [[GenreKiller killing off the genre for two decades]], the Disney animated films of the 1990s being the closest to a musical during those lean years.\
106\
1072001's ''Film/MoulinRouge'' was the first live-action musical in years to attract positive attention, but a comeback truly kicked off the following year with the Oscar-winning film of ''Film/{{Chicago}}'', and has continued into the present with the likes of ''Theatre/{{Dreamgirls}}'', ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'', ''Theatre/MammaMia'' and ''Theatre/LesMiserables''. Disney even managed to make a highly successful franchise out of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'', to the point where the third film was upgraded to a theatrical release, its success sparking franchises like ''Film/CampRock'' and ''Film/TeenBeachMovie''. ''Series/{{Glee}}'' helped to carry the musical revival torch into TheNewTens, alongside films like ''Film/PitchPerfect'', ''Joyful Noise'' and shows like ''Series/{{Smash}}'' (though neither of the latter two were particularly successful). However, 2016's ''Film/LaLaLand'' stumped almost everyone, becoming a critical and financial hit that was followed by ''Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2017'', ''Film/TheGreatestShowman'', and the 2018 remake of ''Film/{{A Star Is Born|2018}}''.
108* While out and out musicals were somewhat rare in the USSR, vocal training was part of the basic arsenal of any Soviet actor, and many (if not most, depending on the eara and genre) films would have at least 2-3 diegetic songs performed by the characters. Such diegetic songs were mocked and fell out of fashion during the 90's and were replaced with contemporary licensed music. With the surge of remakes and retro-style pictures in the 2010's, it may be time for aspiring Russian actors to think about taking music lessons.
109* Original songs in movies used to be the norm, with many being acclaimed as classics to this day, and the Best Original Song category was thriving with nominations. However, by the late 1990s a backlash spread against this (primarily because of Disney's abuse of this trope and ''Titanic''), and fewer and fewer films were using theme songs in favor of filling up the soundtrack with as many chart-topping songs as they could, with the added advantage they were less expensive. By the early 2000s, original songs had fallen off the radar. The persistence of the MovieBonusSong and AwardBaitSong tropes were the only things keeping them alive, and the effects showed at the Academy Awards Best Original Song category -- the 2011 winner [[Film/TheMuppets2011 "Man or Muppet"]] beat out ''one'' other nominee (''Rio''), which was most likely there so that there wouldn't be just the single nominee. However, in TheNewTens, with the success of songs such as "Skyfall" from ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'', "Happy" from ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe2'', "Everything is Awesome" from ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'' and "Let It Go" from ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' along with their performances on stage, original songs have seen a significant revival.
110* Hardly any epic SwordAndSandal film between ''Film/{{Cleopatra}}'' and ''Film/{{Gladiator}}''. Then it became a trend again, only to fall out of favor ''again'' due to the failures of later ones like ''Film/{{Alexander}}''. Then ''Film/ThreeHundred'' brought them back into vogue, this time tending to have more stylized aesthetics, only for ''Film/ExodusGodsAndKings'' to kill the genre again.
111* This has happened more than once to the {{horror}} genre:
112** The [[Franchise/UniversalHorror classic Universal monster movies]] were certainly big hits in the 1930s and early '40s, but after the release of ''Film/TheWolfMan1941'', they fell into an AudienceAlienatingEra that would last the rest of TheForties and well into TheFifties, with only a few bright spots (''Film/CreatureFromTheBlackLagoon'', ''Film/ItCameFromOuterSpace'') as Creator/{{Universal}} struggled to adapt to the postwar boom of sci-fi horror. Then, in 1957, Universal released a large number of its classic horror films in a television package called ''Shock! Theater''. ''Shock!'' introduced the films to a new audience that could view them from the comfort of their homes, with the lovably campy assistance of various local {{Horror Host}}s, kicking off a "Monster Boom" craze that lasted well into TheSeventies and saw the monsters reach the height of their popularity and cultural presence. [[Film/HammerHorror Hammer Film Productions]] came along at almost the same time to produce lurid color remakes of the classic films, ensuring the monsters' legacies would live on and restoring glamour to the horror genre, which by that point had devolved into BMovie hell. To this day, even as new monsters, villains, and subgenres have risen to prominence, the Universal monsters are regarded as icons of the horror genre, with most takes on the basic monsters ([[ClassicalMovieVampire vampires]] and [[WolfMan werewolves]] especially) still referring back to films made during MediaNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfHollywood, even if only to [[OurMonstersAreDifferent show themselves to be different]] from the 'Hollywood' version.
113** In the first half of TheNineties, the SlasherMovie was seen as the image of everything wrong with modern horror movies: [[WritingPitfallIndex writing issues]], [[JumpScare cheap scares]], StrictlyFormula stories and characters, [[NoBudget poor production values]], a focus on special effects over tension and suspense, and not-so-subtle misogyny. The slasher icons of TheEighties had become walking punchlines as their franchises succumbed to {{sequelitis}}, and worse, given slashers' dominance of mainstream American horror during the prior decade, many horror fans blamed them for destroying the entire genre, with very few horror films from 1989 to 1996 enjoying mainstream success. Then came ''Film/Scream1996'', which {{deconstruct|ion}}ed, [[DeconstructiveParody parodied]], and {{lampshade|Hanging}}d all the conventions of slashers, put them all back together, and not only single-handedly restored the genre to commercial viability, but marked a turning point in a critical reevaluation of the genre -- a process that had started in 1992 with Carol J. Clover's non-fiction book ''Men, Women, and Chainsaws'' (which [[TropeNamers named]] the FinalGirl trope). While the teen slasher boom that ''Scream'' spawned turned out to be short-lived (due to a combination of SturgeonsLaw and a "Too soon!" reaction after the UsefulNotes/{{Columbine}} massacre), slashers are now seen as {{camp}}y in a ''good'' way (or at least, a SoBadItsGood way), the focus now placed on their role in the history of independent film and home video, and their conventions remain staples even of non-slasher horror films. Horror cinema in general, meanwhile, hasn't looked back, seeing various subgenres (J-horror, {{zombie|Apocalypse}}s, {{found footage|Films}}, supernatural horror) come and go but never again falling into an AudienceAlienatingEra that it did in the early '90s; if anything, as of the late 2010s it is in the midst of a commercial and creative peak within a cultural climate that has given people all new things to be afraid of.
114** The effects of ''Scream'' revitalizing the horror genre (and slashers in particular) are visible in how the reputation of ''Film/Halloween1978'' has evolved over the years. While it's always had, at the very least, a [[CultClassic cult fandom]], in the late '80s and early '90s its status as the TropeCodifier for the SlasherMovie was an albatross around its neck more than anything, and many critics [[FranchiseOriginalSin blamed it for drowning the horror genre]] in a wave of {{gorn}}-soaked hack-'n-slashes (despite the fact that ''Halloween'' itself was [[GoryDiscretionShot comparatively bloodless]]). With the reappraisal of slashers in general starting in the late '90s, its reputation has recovered, and most critics once more recognize it as a classic.
115* ZombieApocalypse movies, and zombies in general, were practically forgotten throughout the '90s. It wasn't until the early 2000s that ''Film/TwentyEightDaysLater'', the ''[[Film/DawnOfTheDead2004 Dawn of the Dead]]'' remake, and ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' kickstarted the genre again.
116* This happened not once but twice, back to back, to films directed by Creator/JamesCameron.
117** ''Film/Titanic1997'' became the highest-grossing movie ever and won eleven Oscars, tying the record set by the 1959 film ''[[Film/BenHur1959 Ben-Hur]]''[[note]]and since matched again by ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheReturnOfTheKing''[[/note]] and [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail defying all the predictions of industry commentators]] who worried that, after its [[TroubledProduction very long and expensive development]], it was just too ambitious to succeed. Then the overexposure (particularly of the Music/CelineDion theme), HypeBacklash, annoying Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio fangirls, and the overall schmaltzy and {{melodrama}}tic tone of the movie damaged both its reputation and popularity. Cameron was seen as having squandered his hard-earned geek cred by making a glorified ChickFlick, and [=DiCaprio=], once seen as a rising star like Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/MattDamon, got pigeonholed as a PrettyBoy pin-up for the ''Tiger Beat'' set, a TypeCasting that it took him years to break out of. But by the time the movie turned 15 and got a [=3D=] re-release in theaters, all was forgiven and forgotten, and the film is once more celebrated as up there with ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' and the first two ''Franchise/{{Terminator}}'' films as one of Cameron's masterpieces. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2Dgu7mNto This episode]] of ''[[Creator/BobChipman Really That Good]]'' goes into more detail on the backlash and reappraisal.
118** ''Film/{{Avatar}}'' was released in 2009 after [[HistoryRepeats a very long and expensive development to the misgivings of industry commentators who worried that it was just too ambitious to succeed]]. Instead, [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail it was a massive success]] that became the highest-grossing movie of all time (a position it would retain for 10 years), received great reviews, and even prompted reports of audiences becoming so invested in the natural beauty of the world of Pandora that they [[LongingForFictionland experienced depression over the mere fact that it was fictional]]! However, despite its colossal success, ''Avatar'' developed a reputation in the next decade for being derivative (of the film version of ''Film/DancesWithWolves'', specifically) and [[DontShootTheMessage clumsily ham-fisted]] in its otherwise-laudable environmentalist message, and by the middle of the 2010s if anyone talked about ''Avatar'' it was to express confusion at how nobody talked about ''Avatar'' or disbelief that the biggest movie in the world could leave seemingly "no cultural footprint". Its lead actor Creator/SamWorthington never became a major star, and it was often noted that it had to be seen on a big screen in 3D to be fully appreciated, limiting its appeal on home video and streaming.\
119However, in later years, people started rediscovering ''Avatar'' and talking about it favorably again, appreciating its socially conscious message and still-compelling visuals and effects. There are three big reasons. First, Cameron began talking about the planned sequels again, and Disney (following its acquisition of [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox]]) made clear they were committed to bringing them out, even creating a new ''Avatar''-themed [[Ride/PandoraTheWorldOfAvatar land for Disney World]]. Second, when it became clear that ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' was on track to better its box office record in 2019, both old and new fans alike were inspired to revisit it in its tenth anniversary year. As a matter of fact, it regained its #1 highest-grossing film of all time status in June 2021 after a theatrical rerelease. Finally, as the 2010s wore on and audiences and critics grew increasingly fatigued with the ModularFranchise model of filmmaking that prevailed during that decade, many looked back nostalgically to ''Avatar'' as the swan song of a more "old-fashioned" type of blockbuster that told a complete story and crafted a compelling world within the confines of one film, appreciating its status as one of the last blockbusters that became a major success without being part of a franchise. This culminated in the release of ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'' in 2022, where it cleared $1 billion at the box office in two weeks and $2 billion in one month, [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail defying much doomsaying about it]] that had been going on ever since the "no cultural footprint" discourse.
120* Big-budget, theatrical superhero movies have risen and fallen several times. The 1940s and '50s saw ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'', ''ComicBook/{{Superman}}'', and ''[[Film/TheGreenHornetSerials The Green Hornet]]'' movie serials ride the original comic book boom onto the big screen, but that trend crashed roughly in the late 1940s, bringing about the end of the Golden Age of superhero comics, and superhero movies were relegated to low-budget made-for-TV fare for twenty years (with the odd exception like 1966's Adam West TV spin-off ''Film/BatmanTheMovie''). The success of Richard Donner's ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' in 1978 revived interest, as did ''Film/Batman1989'', but each was followed by only one well-received sequel, two poorly-received ones, and a decade each of imitators like ''Film/Supergirl1984'', ''Film/HowardTheDuck'', and ''Film/TheMeteorMan'' which were generally poorly received by critics and audiences. In 1998, ''Film/{{Blade}}'' was released and ended up being a SleeperHit. Then in the early 2000s, the genre began a slow-building but powerful and long-lasting resurgence with the ''[[Film/XMenFilmSeries X-Men]]'' and ''[[Film/SpiderManTrilogy Spider-Man]]'' film franchises, the latter [[UnbuiltTrope setting up the format]] for further superhero films. By the late 2000s/early 2010s, Christopher Nolan's ''Film/TheDarkKnightTrilogy'' became critically acclaimed, while ''Iron Man'' kick-started [[Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse Marvel's sprawling Cinematic Universe]]. By the mid-2010s the Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse emerged, while other studios have begun to build their own inter-connected universes.
121* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet''. While returning to his old high school, one of the leads notices an attractive young woman reading a comic book. He points out that when he was a teenager, only geeks read comics, and were usually mocked for doing so.
122* Adult-oriented comedies first took off in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with films like ''Film/AnimalHouse'', ''Film/TheKentuckyFriedMovie'', and ''Film/{{Porkys}}'' pushing major boundaries in terms of what constituted "good taste"[[note]]Although, technically, 1972's ''Film/PinkFlamingos'' still holds the record for "raunchiest movie ever made", and unlike most European comedies of the era, these had a plot and could be shown at a regular movie house.[[/note]] and becoming hit films in the process. Unfortunately, a saturation of films in the mid-'80s, many of which relied solely on VulgarHumor rather than witty writing, dissolved the genre just as ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'' and ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' led family-friendly humor to dominate comedy. During that time, the decidedly tamer comedy of "teen films" like ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' in the late '80s and some of the works of actors like [[Creator/PaulReubens Paul "Pee-Wee" Reubens]], Creator/JimCarrey, Creator/RobinWilliams, and Creator/AdamSandler became the norm for more mature audiences. However, ''Film/{{Clerks}}'' became a sleeper hit with its sardonic Gen X-fueled approach to adult humor and the gross-out comedy came back in 1998 when ''Film/TheresSomethingAboutMary'' became a surprise critical and commercial hit. The genre thrived for the next three or four years with such box-office bonanzas as ''Film/AmericanPie'' and ''Film/ScaryMovie''. While the new wave's over-emphasis on high school- and college-centered comedy (what with the audience for such movies moving on to adulthood), ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' brand of humor influencing family films like ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' and the popularity of the risqué sitcoms of Chuck Lorre threatened to dissolve the genre yet again, the films of Creator/JuddApatow, starting with the 2005 hit ''Film/TheFortyYearOldVirgin'', proved that such films could be just as popular with adults as with teenagers, even pre-teens, leading to a "golden age of the raunchy comedy" that peaked around 2007-2009. However, the genre fell apart around 2010 as some of its more common tropes began to attract negative attention, [[ValuesDissonance including some of the language used]]. The most successful "adult" comedy of the early '10s became 2012's ''Film/{{Ted}}'', and even its 2015 sequel tanked. However, by the latter part of the decade, films like ''Film/DaddysHome'', ''Film/{{Deadpool|2016}}'', ''WesternAnimation/SausageParty'', ''Film/MikeAndDaveNeedWeddingDates'' and ''Film/BadMoms'' (a DeconstructiveParody of the "chick-flick" subgenre popular during the early '10s) have successfully pushed the envelope by resorting on less juvenile humor.
123* Vampire movies are in a full swinging pendulum of this. They will gain popularity for awhile, then play themselves out, only for the process to repeat.
124* After his [[Film/GodzillaFinalWars last film]] was heavily panned in 2004, ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' received very little public or internet attention. But once footage and trailers for [[Film/Godzilla2014 the 2014 reboot]] started being released in December of 2013, Godzilla started trending very often on social network sites, leading to revived interest in the franchise specifically (hence why many of the films were brought back into circulation after [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes years with no home video releases]]) and the {{Kaiju}} genre in general (hence the sustained interest in ''Film/PacificRim'' and the ContinuityReboot for ''Film/{{Gamera}}''), and a Film/{{Cloverfield}} sequel that actually has something to do with Cloverfield.
125* ''Franchise/TheMuppets'': It may not be obvious to today's viewers, but the original film ''Film/TheMuppetMovie'' had any number of cameos from people who were, at the time, ''huge'' stars, and ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' guest stars were frequently leading lights either as actors or singers (or both) as well. They have made a huge comeback, now that the media industry is full of influential producers and talents who grew up on their show and still love them. There's no shortage of celebrities who want to perform with them, as [[Film/TheMuppets2011 their 2011 film]] demonstrates.
126* The 1978 film ''Film/TheDeerHunter'' won five MediaNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture and Best Director for Creator/{{Michael Cimino|Director}}, and was acclaimed as one of the first great movies about UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar and the impact it had on the people who fought in it. Then Cimino went and [[CreatorKiller sank an entire studio (as well as his career)]] with his follow-up, the critically ravaged BoxOfficeBomb ''Film/HeavensGate''. The backlash against Cimino in the wake of ''Heaven's Gate'' was so severe that it stained the reputation of ''The Deer Hunter'' for quite some time. There was a period of time in the early-mid '80s when it was uncool in film critic circles to like that film, as many critics tried to explain how they'd been "suckered in" by Cimino. The [[http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=940CE4D61638F93AA25752C1A966948260 more charitable]] said that he'd made a DealWithTheDevil for its success, while others suggested that it was never any good in the first place and was popular more for its subject matter than anything.\
127As the debacle of ''Heaven's Gate'' fell further into the past, however, ''The Deer Hunter'' eventually regained its reputation as one of the great Vietnam War movies. While there remains a minority of critics ([[https://web.archive.org/web/20110721174514/http://www.film4.com/features/article/oh-deer-oh-deer-oh-deer most notably]] Creator/MarkKermode) who still hate the film, many others have since reevaluated their negative positions on it, and it was added to the Library of Congress in 1996 and made AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies list in both [[https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies/ 1998]] and [[https://www.afi.com/afis-100-years-100-movies-10th-anniversary-edition/ 2007]] (actually climbing 26 spots on the latter list). Helping its reputation further is the fact that ''Heaven's Gate'' has itself [[VindicatedByHistory come in for reappraisal]] over the years, especially after the [[ReCut director's cut]] premiered in 2012 at the Venice Film Festival, with critics who only knew the film from its 1981 theatrical cut being surprised at how good it was and arguing that its re-edit after poor press screenings had obscured a genuinely great film.
128* Even ''Franchise/StarWars'' has had its moments of unpopularity. During the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, the franchise, while still very popular, was generally regarded as not being any more iconic than other successful blockbuster franchises of the time, such as ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' and ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''. It's hard to believe now, but when ''Film/{{Spaceballs}}'' came out in 1987, it was widely criticized for parodying a series that wasn't really that relevant anymore. But after the reissue of ''Film/ANewHope'' in 1997 and the release of ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' in 1999, the saga became a pop-culture icon, especially the original trilogy as fans became polarized by the prequels. After the release of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', the last installment in a prequel trilogy that many fans were dissatisfied with, the franchise lay somewhat dormant for a full decade until Creator/{{Disney}}'s surprise purchase of Lucasfilm and greenlighting of the sequel trilogy brought it back to prominence. The monster financial success of ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' brought it roaring back to life at the center of pop culture, and the franchise has since reclaimed its rightful glory at the top of the pack, with only Disney's own Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse as a real threat to its status at the box office. And after the second Sequel Trilogy installment, ''Film/TheLastJedi'', [[ContestedSequel got mixed reviews among fans]] which, unfortunately, spun into personal attacks against director Creator/RianJohnson and actress Kelly Marie Tran (Rose Tico), which led to a counterbacklash against the more toxic members of the fanbase; [[HeelRealization this made many fans realize that they'd treated both]] Creator/GeorgeLucas [[HeelRealization and Prequel Trilogy actors Ahmed Best (Jar-Jar Binks), Jake Lloyd and Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) the same way]], and today the PT has begun to be [[VindicatedByHistory seen in a more positive light and amass more defenders and even an unapologetic following]]. This has led to conflict between sections of the fandom of which follow-up trilogy is better or worse, however. On a more general scale, the franchise became accused of relying too heavily on familiar legacy characters and ideas following the Sequel Trilogy’s controversial conclusion in ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' as evidenced by the mixed reception of the latest projects, particularly the Disney+ shows ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'' and ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' putting it in the unique predicament of being financially viable on one hand but feeling creatively stagnant on the other as far some observers are concerned.
129* Submarine films were popular for decades following WWII. Each decade had at least one notable submarine film, TheFifties had ''Film/TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea'',''Film/TheEnemyBelow'' and ''Film/RunSilentRunDeep'', while more extravagant stories dominated the genre in TheSixties like ''Film/FantasticVoyage'', ''Submarine X1'', and ''Ice Station Zebra''. TheSeventies had few notable underwater films although Film/JamesBond would get his turn in ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''. Although ''Film/DasBoot'' started off TheEighties, most of the submarine films of that decade were actually underwater science fiction romps such as ''Film/TheAbyss''. TheNineties gave us ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'' and ''Film/CrimsonTide'', although the same decade would see a shift in action/adventure films into flashier combat sequences that became incompatible with the claustrophobic nature of these films.
130* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
131** ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' was popular enough that it did financially well at the box office. Despite critics bashing it, Trekkies were glad to have ''Star Trek'' back. After ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'' and especially after ''Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome'', fans began to see 1979 ''Motion Picture'' in a different light, often jokingly calling it "The Motionless Picture" due to its slow pacing and subdued performances from the cast. The dynamic melodrama and powerful character moments of ''II'', and the refreshing comedy relief humor of ''IV'', were often held up as unfavorable comparisons for ''The Motion Picture'', resulting in it getting thrown in with the other odd-numbered ''Trek'' movies as inferior.[[note]]This tendency to regard the odd-numbered ''Trek'' films as inferior is generally attributed to having started with the fan reaction to ''Star Trek V''. Also, fans learned more about how dissatisfied Robert Wise was with the release. Fans did, in retrospect, also feel that the film was missing something. In the ensuing years, fans were now able to watch several alternate and longer cuts of the film on broadcast TV, Laserdisc, and VHS, resulting in no less than four different cuts. This is where many flaws stood out: too long in some scenes, too many shots of the characters staring at special effects, special effects clearly missing in some shots. The film was on a tight schedule and several effects were truncated to release the film on time. Originally, ''The Motion Picture'' was also criticized for appearing to recycle of plot elements from ''The Changeling'' and ''The Doomsday Machine''.[[/note]] It was, for a time, remembered mostly for its theme song being reused for ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. The 2002 DirectorsCut sparked a new era of appreciation for ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture''. Certain effects were redone using CGI but strictly in the spirit of what was scripted in 1979. Also, this is now considered one of Jerry Goldsmith's finest soundtracks. Today, instead of being unfairly compared to the more melodramatic and action-packed ''Trek'' films that followed, ''Star Trek: The Motion Picture'' is compared favorably to ''Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey'', many fans noting that it is the ''Star Trek'' film that best represents Gene Roddenberry's vision.
132** ''Film/StarTrekInsurrection'' was reasonably well-received on its initial release -- not to the same extent as the preceding ''Film/StarTrekFirstContact'', which had gotten some of the best reviews of the entire franchise, but certainly better than ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'', the first film to focus on the case of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' -- with solid box-office returns and critics hailing it as an exception to the StarTrekMovieCurse. In the years after its initial release however, opinions on the film began to sour, with many viewers finding the overall storyline to be forgettable, and feeling that the moral dilemma at the story's heart was poorly presented to the point of making the alleged villains more sympathetic than the society that the ''Enterprise'' crew was trying to protect. Fan opinions towards the film began to improve towards the back end of the 2010s, with newer, more controversial entries in the franchise causing what had been the biggest weakness of ''Insurrection'', namely its playing it safe with the established ''Star Trek'' formula, to now be considered one of its biggest strengths. Additionally, changing attitudes towards cultural sensitivity and preservation caused many viewers to become much more sympathetic to the basic concept behind the storyline, even if there were still faults in the execution, and many also now appreciate that it finally did something with the decade-old ShipTease between Riker and Troi, helping to turn them into what many consider the OfficialCouple of the entire ''Star Trek'' franchise. While ''Insurrection'' is unlikely to be considered by many as one of the better ''Star Trek'' film's, it's at least rebounded to being seen as a largely competent entry that doesn't have any majorly contentious story elements.
133* The DisasterMovie has been through ups and downs over the years. The first boom occurred in TheSeventies, thanks to the smash success of ''Film/{{Airport}}'' and the subsequent success of ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure''. Movies such as ''Film/{{Earthquake}}'', ''Film/TheToweringInferno'', and a sequel to the aforementioned ''Film/{{Airport}}'' were part of this boom. The boom ended with a string of failures across the end of TheSeventies, starting with ''Film/TheSwarm1978'', and the smash success of ''Film/{{Airplane}}'', a successful {{parody}} of the genre, finished it off.\
134\
135A second boom began in TheNineties owing to the development of more realistic CGI and the success of films such as ''Film/{{Twister}}'' and ''Film/IndependenceDay''. Films such as ''Film/Armageddon1998'', ''Film/DeepImpact'', and the monster hit ''Film/Titanic1997'' followed. This boom, in turn, ended due to [[DistancedFromCurrentEvents a slew of real-life tragedies in]] [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s]] such as the September 11th attacks, a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean, and Hurricane Katrina.\
136\
137The DisasterMovie eventually came back in TheNewTens, heralded by movies such as ''Film/SanAndreas''. Even then, this boom has led to a different type of DisasterMovie, one that focused more on survival and less on the massive disasters occurring. Examples that followed the latter often faced critical and commercial backlash. As of right now, it is unclear whether true "disaster movies" will ever come back.
138* [[ParallelPornTitles Porn parodies]] were a big thing in the 1970s, but largely fell out of favor by the late 1980s. This is primarily attributed to the [[TechnologyMarchesOn changing distribution channels]] of the porn market, as porn theaters showing big productions on the big screen were supplanted with home video releases, which typically [[PornWithoutPlot didn't bother with things like "plot"]] or aimed for more of a gonzo style with "random" sexual encounters captured on handheld cameras.\
139\
140However, with porn becoming easily accessible [[TheInternetIsForPorn through the internet]] in the 2000s and the SciFiGhetto receding in the 2010s, there is again a massive boon of such parodies catering largely to the millennial and zoomer crowd that apparently really wants to see their favorite MsFanservice and MrFanservice characters from these works being {{Cosplay}}ed by some pornstar and getting it on (or, with virtual reality porn, getting it on with ''[[KissMeImVirtual them]]''). It's still by no means the porn industry's primary product, but with different studios sometimes rushing to get out their own parody first (''Series/GameOfThrones'' alone has five or more) and more independent content creators than ever also releasing cosplay content, it's clearly back on the ascendancy.
141[[/folder]]
142
143[[folder:Literature]]
144* ''Literature/TheAeneid'' versus its predecessors, ''Literature/TheIliad'' and ''Literature/TheOdyssey''. For many years, ''The Aeneid'' was considered the true accounting of the war, and practically required reading for any aspiring creative worker. This is for several reasons, chief among them being that Vergil's work deals primarily with the history of Rome, and most Renaissance thinkers were Italian. It was also written in Latin, which was much more widely-understood than Homer's Greek. As a result, many writers ended up inheriting Vergil's interpretations, [[RonTheDeathEater which usually depicted the Greeks in a poor light.]] However, these days, it's reversed; most people have read or at least know the plot of Homer's works, while Vergil's are mostly read by Latin students. This may be due to the rising popularity of Greek mythology and culture, the proliferation of translated versions of Homer eliminating the language barrier, or the greater mass-appeal of a massive war and a decades-long adventure as opposed to Vergil's more introverted work. Audiences today read ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'' and wonder what poor Odysseus is doing at the Eighth Circle of Hell.
145* The Literature/SherlockHolmes stories have been famous among the public ever since Creator/ArthurConanDoyle first published them in ''The Strand''. While there was not really a time when ''nobody'' admitted to liking them, there were times when few people could take them seriously, and parodies ({{affectionate|Parody}} or otherwise) dominated the discussion of Holmes as a character. The latest wave of Sherlock Holmes "consciousness" is at least in part attributable to ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'' and ''Series/{{Elementary}}'', a pair of TV shows that both "update" the stories and characters by setting them in the present day instead of the stuffy, [[AFoggyDayInLondonTown foggy Victorian setting]] that has been parodied to death, as well as the Creator/GuyRitchie[=/=]Creator/RobertDowneyJr [[Film/SherlockHolmes2009 film adaptations]], which kept the Victorian setting but gave the stories a contemporary-feeling action movie makeover.
146* The SpaceOpera, once the dominant sub-genre of Science Fiction, has declined considerably since TheEighties. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, the end of the UsefulNotes/ColdWar also ended the Space Race between the Soviet Union and the United States (the Challenger disaster did not help matters for the U.S.), leading to a period of stagnation. Secondly, around the same time an unexpected explosion in computers and bio-technology occurred. These two factors caused futurists and SciFi writers to stop looking at space for inspiration, and look instead to genetic engineering, cloning, cybernetics, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence, hence the dominance of CyberPunk and its derivatives. It's only over time, with the over-exposure of cyberpunk, nostalgic [[{{Reconstruction}} reconstructionist]] works of SpaceOpera (like for example, ''Franchise/MassEffect''), and renewed interest in space coming from the discovery of Extra-solar planets that the Genre has begun to recover. Cyberpunk and its derivatives remain on top however.
147* For much of TheEighties, the {{cyberpunk}} literary genre and movement was the new wave in both ScienceFiction and science fact, acting as a fertile seed on a ground tormented by efforts to adapt to a changing world where the computer was king and [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japan was the new force on the block]]. However, books like ''Literature/{{Neuromancer}}'' failed to anticipate how a) the internet, cell phones, personal computers, and handheld IT devices would become a mundane reality in the life of the average white-collar Joe Sixpack, and b) that the Japanese economic powerhouse [[Analysis/JapanTakesOverTheWorld would trip over itself in the early '90s]]. Once "the future" became the present, cyberpunk went from being high-tech to being filled with {{zeerust}}, painting a portrait of the future that had [[TechnologyMarchesOn stopped being relevant after about 1993]] -- the main reason why PostCyberpunk came to replace it. Furthermore, the virtual reality craze of the late '80s and early '90s simply shelved itself (for now) after failing to provide a holodeck-like experience. During the 2010s, however, the tropes of cyberpunk (if not necessarily the fashions and fixations) made a comeback in science fiction. Works such as ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'' and ''Series/BlackMirror'' reflected growing fears of the power and negligence of Silicon Valley tech companies, the rise of internet {{troll}}s within the public discourse, and, more broadly, the changes to human interaction and society that the internet and computer technology had brought, as well as non-technological future fears like [[GlobalWarming climate change]] and [[MegaCorp the power of the super-rich and big business]]. {{Genre Throwback}}s to '80s cyberpunk, such as ''Film/BladeRunner2049'', ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'', and the newest ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' games have grown increasingly popular, while the optimism of PostCyberpunk is now seen as passe.
148[[/folder]]
149
150[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
151* For 25 years or so after it first aired, ''Series/BattlestarGalactica1978'' was regarded as being a pretty solid show considering the time period when it was produced, being even more popular than ''Franchise/StarWars'' during TheNineties. Then during the 2000s, following the launch of the reimagined series, people tended to dismiss it as being just silly, campy fluff that wasted the potential of its concept. In the years since the finale of the reimagined series however, people have started to warm up to the original again, for at least being fun to watch and not having a storyline which collapsed in on itself (it helps that it's much easier to [[FanonDiscontinuity ignore]] ''Galactica 1980'' than it is to ignore the latter few seasons of the reimagined series).
152* ''Series/DoctorWho'':
153** Although easy to forget now that it's a massive media juggernaut seemingly beloved by all, the show was considered a joke in the years between the mid '80s and 2005. It had been a very popular show at its height in the '70s, but during its '80s AudienceAlienatingEra and after its cancellation in 1989 it was, at best, a CultClassic, and at worst, something for people to sneer at and assert that, no, ''they'' never watched if they wanted to maintain a shred of credibility. Then Creator/RussellTDavies and Creator/ChristopherEccleston came along, and suddenly everything changed. The show not only became a huge success in Britain and returned to omnipresence in pop culture, but for the first time it managed to cross UsefulNotes/ThePond and establish a substantial international fanbase, with ''Doctor Who'' merchandise sold in mainstream American music/video stores.
154** Case in point: [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160815193030/http://www.rotten.com/library/culture/doctor-who/ this article]] from the Rotten Library, written in 2005 just as ''Doctor Who'' was returning to television, exemplifies the dismissive attitudes (in this case, from an American perspective) that many people had towards the show at the time, ending with a joke about looking for "New ''Who''" on struggling Creator/{{PBS}} stations in between [[{{Telethon}} pledge drives]]. It would be [[HilariousInHindsight unimaginable]] for that same article to be written today.
155* {{Game show}}s in general tend to go through cycles. They went through their first boom in TheFifties, and fell hard after it was revealed that several of them (most infamously ''Series/TwentyOne'') were [[ExecutiveMeddling rigged]] in order to create tension for viewers. Except for the PanelGame variants like ''Series/IveGotASecret'' and low-stakes parlor games like ''Series/{{Password}}'', and a little thing called ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'' that started in 1964, American audiences wouldn't fully trust game shows again until TheSeventies, when shows like ''Series/FamilyFeud'', ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'', ''Series/TheJokersWild'', ''The $10,000 Series/{{Pyramid}}'', and ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' became popular on network TV. The network games almost began to die down in [[TheEighties the '80s]] when the current syndicated version of ''Wheel'' debuted, followed a year later by a syndie revival of ''Jeopardy!'', but the market did get quite saturated around the late part of the decade: in 1989 and 1990 over a dozen new shows premiered (including revivals and network primetime versions, even ''Monopoly'' had a show), except that the early 90s depression caused a backlash against the genre, which quickly went through the wayside: Except for the juggernaut ''Series/ThePriceIsRight'', there wasn't a single network daytime game show between the end of ''Series/CaesarsChallenge'' in 1993 and the ''Series/LetsMakeADeal'' revival that began in 2009. Meanwhile, cable became a haven for game shows for a while, but most of them were cheap, short-lived fluff outside a few {{Cult Classic}}s like ''Series/SupermarketSweep'', ''Series/{{Double Dare|1986}}'', etc. The cable boom also made way for Creator/{{GSN}}, which offered reruns of older shows.\
156\
157The genre returned in a big way in the late '90s/early 2000s with ''Series/WhoWantsToBeAMillionaire'' and ''Series/TheWeakestLink'', as well as shows like ''Series/{{Greed}}'' and the {{revival}} of ''Series/TheHollywoodSquares''. This boom also caused a deluge of [[WhoWantsToBeWhoWantsToBeAMillionaire their assorted clones]]. In the early 2000s, ''Millionaire'' and ''Link'' pulled in tens of millions of viewers and were watercooler discussion fodder, and their hosts (Regis Philbin and Anne Robinson, respectively) were HouseholdNames. On top of that, their flashiness and huge prize budgets mostly spelled the end of low-budget cable game shows. Then their networks [[AdoredByTheNetwork began marketing them to death]] (Creator/{{ABC}} aired ''Millionaire'' almost every night of the week), and reality shows like ''Series/{{Survivor}}'', ''Series/AmericanIdol'' and ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' started taking off and providing what were then innovative alternatives to the traditional quiz show model. Almost overnight, the shows were only surviving in syndication -- and even that wasn't enough to keep ''Link'' alive. To this day, their catch phrases ("Is that your final answer?" for ''Millionaire''; "You are the weakest link. Goodbye!" for ''Link'') are considered annoying as all hell. Game shows generally started to die off again, with one of the only success stories in the mid-2000s being ''Series/{{Lingo}}'' (2002-2007) on GSN. ''Series/DealOrNoDeal'' sparked another brief revival in 2008, but its incredibly flimsy premise, ever-increasing gimmickry, and WolverinePublicity helped do it in. Meanwhile, through all the cycles the genre has gone through, the aforementioned syndie versions of ''Wheel'' and ''Jeopardy!'', and ''Price'' over on CBS, have remained consistently strong.\
158\
159In the UK, the genre seemingly died out at the end of the Millionaire Years (thanks to that show and others like ''The Weakest Link'' becoming a bit of a joke), but has recovered in later years with shows like ''Pointless'', ''Series/{{The Chase|GameShow}}'', and ''Eggheads'' getting good ratings and being nominated for TV awards.
160* ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' was a huge phenomenon in the early '90s, but it began to slowly dwindle until about 2002, when it was bought by Disney, things getting worse afterwards. It had a short burst of success then, but Disney was apathetic towards the franchise at even the best of times, and it essentially culminated in its cancellation in 2009 after ''Series/PowerRangersRPM''. However, soon after, the franchise was bought back by Saban, [[ChannelHop hopped]] over to Nickelodeon, and after an upswing which culminated in ''Film/PowerRangers2017'', it remains somewhat popular in the mainstream, helped by Creator/{{Hasbro}}'s buyout of the franchise, the all-around improved reception of their first two series, ''Series/PowerRangersBeastMorphers'' and ''Series/PowerRangersDinoFury'' (with the latter's second season being made exclusive to Creator/{{Netflix}}), and to top it off ''another'' big screen reboot expected to hit theaters in 2023.
161* In-universe example from ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'': Marshall and Ted take a long drive with just one song to listen to, "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)". In alternating hours, they either hate it or love it (though unlike in a standard example, the moments of high "popularity" don't follow the thing's absence, but rather that it has managed to sink in).
162* ''Series/TheJoyOfPainting'' saw a major NewbieBoom 20 years after its cancellation and the death of its host, Bob Ross, after a wildly successful Website/{{Twitch}} marathon of the series in 2015. Both the show and Ross are more famous now than they ever were while the show was airing.
163* The long-form MiniSeries in the U.S. In TheSeventies and TheEighties, this was seen as the premier format for high-quality television, with shows like ''Series/{{Roots|1977}}'', ''Series/JesusOfNazareth'', ''{{Series/V 1983}}'', and ''Rich Man, Poor Man'' allowing the networks and their writers to stretch their wings and bring Hollywood-level production values and big-name stars to the small screen. The then-Big Three networks would devote large chunks of their annual budget and MediaNotes/{{sweeps}} time to air miniseries that could take up a whole week (or even more) of programming to keep audiences glued to the TV. By the mid-80s, the rise of cable television and home video eroded the ratings for subsequent miniseries, and the failure of ambitious and expensive epics ''Series/{{Amerika}}'' and ''[[Literature/TheWindsOfWarAndWarAndRemembrance War and Remembrance]]'' sullied the reputation of the format. By TheNineties, the quality of miniseries fell into the gutter as networks exploited the format as a MediaNotes/{{sweeps}}-week RatingsStunt first and a method of storytelling second. The length of most miniseries also decreased, shrinking to just two parts and 4-5 hours, as networks grew more cost-conscious. By the TurnOfTheMillennium, a glut of crappy miniseries had virtually discredited the format.\
164\
165However, the miniseries found new life on cable television in the late '00s, where many smaller networks saw it as a cost-effective alternative to producing long-running series. Creator/{{FX|Networks}}'s ''Series/AmericanHorrorStory'' and Creator/{{HBO}}'s ''Series/TrueDetective'' have been using miniseries formats in all but name. Creator/TheHistoryChannel aired ''Series/{{Hatfields and McCoys}}'', which became a huge success. History followed that up with ''Series/TheBible2013'' and ''Vikings'', with both having high ratings starting out in spite of being torched by the critics, but in the case of the former, outside of a very specific niche audience of conservative Christians, audience opinion of the series dropped after it aired; and in the case of the latter, ratings fell during season 2. Nevertheless, ''The Bible'' was a bestseller on home video, ultimately becoming the most successful miniseries ever produced, and the format has now been seen in a more favorable light. After ''The Bible'', a glut of miniseries were produced among the broadcast networks that had abandoned the format years earlier; however, after the poor ratings of such programs as ''The Dovekeepers'', ''24: Legacy'', ''Heroes: Reborn'', and ''AD: After the Bible'' (the latter three intended as [[PoorlyDisguisedPilot backdoor pilots to weekly series]], the miniseries format has since been relegated to cable and streaming services.
166* Once upon a time, soap operas were big business in American television, in no small part because of their low costs and high revenues, reaching their peak between the 1976 and 1995, when daytime dramas spawned a variety of "supercouples" which became magazine mainstays while nightly shows such as ''Dallas'' and ''Dynasty'', and later on ''Beverly Hills 90210'' and ''Melrose Place'' garnered high ratings. However, by the second half of the 1990s demographic changes led to a noticeable decline in popularity, particularly in the case of daytime dramas, which were now seen as grotesque showcases of sappiness, outrageous plots and "not-yet-ready-for-prime-time" acting (even though the latter was persistenly spoofed when afternoon soaps were most popular) that were only watched by people with way too much time on their hands, while story arcs became increasingly rare in primetime series (with ''Dawson's Creek'', ''Friends'', ''The West Wing'' and ''24'' among the exceptions). Then in the mid-2000s, shows such as ''Desperate Housewives'', ''Grey's Anatomy'' and ''Nip/Tuck'' took the formula of sensationalist storytelling with a darker flavor to great success paving the way for other shows adopting melodramatic elements, which was also helped by the emergence of streaming and binge watching, which encouraged the inclusion of cliffhangers, once seen as a hackneyed device. By the late 2010s, several elements traditionally associated with soaps in North America, primarily their sensationalism and emphasis on personal relationships, permeated not only scripted TV series but also spilled over to other media (even though as, ironically, daytime serials have fallen into obscurity.
167* ''Series/TheSopranos'' was a groundbreaking show when it first aired, pioneering dramatic television's modern usage of morally murky [[AntiVillain Anti-Villains]] and {{Villain Protagonist}}s and showing that complicated plots can be told on television without having to hold the viewer's hand and still maintain their interest. It, along with ''Series/{{Oz}}'', made HBO nationally known as a go-to network for quality entertainment, and it was HBO's flagship TV show for a long time. However, the show's controversial series finale split viewers and its thunder was quietly taken by other acclaimed crime shows that took after its storytelling like ''Series/BreakingBad'' and ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'', while HBO's own ''Series/GameOfThrones'' would later overtake it as the network's most popular TV show. ''The Sopranos'' would later see a resurgence of popularity in the early 2020s with the launch of Creator/HBOMax, making it more accessible than it ever was when it first aired. It also helps that its themes about family and personal growth continue to resonate with viewers to this day, even with younger ones who were just born when the show was still airing.
168* ''Franchise/StarTrek'' has varied in both popularity and quality, constantly going from being a CultClassic to being a mainstream phenomenon. ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' was moderately popular during its original 1966-69 run, but was cancelled after a low-budgeted third season scheduled on Fridays. The series was later revived as a [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries 22-episode animated series]]. While the first [[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture film]] received mixed reviews, it did well enough to get another sequel, ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', which was widely considered the best film of the franchise and helped create a film series, albeit [[StarTrekMovieCurse one of varying quality]]. Later, another series, ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' was released, and became an iconic show, lasting 176 episodes and seven seasons. The popularity ended up spawning two shows: ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' and ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''. While both were popular, they never achieved the status of ''The Next Generation''. The franchise hit a low point in the early 2000s, with the box office failure and poor reception of ''Film/StarTrekNemesis'' and the low ratings, lukewarm reception, and cancellation of ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. However, ''Film/StarTrek2009'', a reboot of the franchise was a success both critically and commercially, and ''Film/StarTrekIntoDarkness'' continued the streak, even though it resulted in a BrokenBase. ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' premiered on Creator/ParamountPlus in 2017, ushering in, as of 2023, five ''Trek'' programs currently producing new episodes.
169* The televised live musical was inescapable during the '50s, but died out by 1960, with the last one being a remake of ''Theatre/{{Peter Pan|1954}}''. In 2013, NBC decided to put on the first televised live musical in 53 years, in the form of a remake of ''Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic'' starring Music/CarrieUnderwood. While it wasn't well received, ratings went through the roof and NBC decided that they would put out such a show annually. ''Peter Pan Live'', their next musical, was met with similar audience response, but 2015's ''Theatre/TheWiz Live'' became a critical darling just in time for another network to try out the live musical -- Fox with ''Film/{{Grease}} Live'' in January 2016. In 2017, ABC announced that they too would give a stab at the formula with a live version of ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}''[[note]]not to be confused with [[Film/TheLittleMermaid2018 the non-Disney live action film]], or the in-development live-action remake of the Disney film[[/note]] under the ''[[Series/WaltDisneyPresents Wonderful World of Disney]]'' banner[[note]]it was later cancelled, but then uncancelled and finally aired in 2019[[/note]] -- in the same month that Fox announced live versions of ''Theatre/{{Rent}}'' and ''Film/AChristmasStory'', and NBC announced ''Music/JesusChristSuperstar'' for Easter Sunday 2018. Unfortunately, the trend suddenly died on January 26, 2019, when RENT Live star Brennin Hunt broke his foot during the dress rehearsal. With no understudies or backup plan, FOX elected to air the never-meant-to-be-seen dress rehearsal footage instead.
170* ''Series/TheXFiles'' was one of the shows (along with ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', and [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball NFC football]]) that catapulted the young Creator/{{Fox}} network to the big leagues in TheNineties. Its mix of a sci-fi MythArc inspired by real-life UFO lore and the chemistry between its leads, FBI agents Mulder and Scully, turned it into a pop culture phenomenon that received two {{spinoff}}s (''Series/Millennium1996'' and ''Series/TheLoneGunmen'') and [[Film/TheXFilesFightTheFuture a theatrically-released film adaptation]] at the height of its run. However, the SeasonalRot that the show suffered in its last few seasons killed most interest in the MythArc, which by then had turned into a KudzuPlot that made the show and its creator, Creator/ChrisCarter, the TropeNamers for TheChrisCarterEffect. The show went out with a whimper in 2002, and [[Film/TheXFilesIWantToBelieve a second movie]] released in 2008 met a poor reception and seemed to confirm that the show's fandom was dead. Worse, as Carter himself pointed out, the 9/11 attacks and UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror destroyed the cultural climate that allowed ''The X-Files'' to become such a hit, consigning the conspiracy theories that the show was built around to the political fringes and making the entire concept seem like [[UnintentionalPeriodPiece a relic of a more innocent time]]. Even the show's remaining fans often told new viewers to stick to the MonsterOfTheWeek episodes rather than get caught up in the convoluted MythArc.\
171However, in 2016, Fox aired a new, six-episode MiniSeries event that brought back the original cast and crew and continued plotlines that had been LeftHanging for fourteen years, in the process {{retcon}}ning many of the more unpopular elements of the MythArc that had come in during its SeasonalRot. While "season 10" overall wasn't universally acclaimed, it did reignite interest in the original series, which had become easier than ever to watch in the age of streaming and binge-watching (the show being a prime example of BetterOnDVD). Nowadays, retrospectives on ''The X-Files'' tend to look back on it more favorably, focusing on the GloryDays of the MythArc and the innovations it brought to television (especially sci-fi and fantasy television) now that its AudienceAlienatingEra has fallen into the past.
172* In TheSixties, the ''Series/Batman1966'' TV series starring Creator/AdamWest left [[AudienceColoringAdaptation an indelible mark]] on the character and the superhero genre in general, winning audiences over with its sense of humor and its LighterAndSofter tone. During MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks in the '80s and '90s, however, many comic book fans came to regard it as a symbol of everything wrong with MediaNotes/{{the Silver Age|OfComicBooks}}, having taken ComicBook/{{Batman}} away from his roots as a hard-bitten VigilanteMan and [[BadassDecay turned him into a cuddly live-action cartoon]]. The fact that, [[ScrewedByTheLawyers for the longest time]], the only media available from the show was [[Film/BatmanTheMovie the incredibly campy movie]] meant that there was little way to challenge that judgment, nor was the fact that the widely-reviled ''Film/BatmanAndRobin'' drew heavily from the show for its style. Backlash against the Dark Age, West's own reemergence in pop culture late in his life, and the show finally getting released on home video in 2014 led to a slow but steady reevaluation of the show's merits, with many praising it as a hilarious AffectionateParody of the superhero genre that boasted a great cast.
173* In TheNineties, Creator/FranDrescher's sitcom, ''Series/TheNanny'', was a modestly-popular TV series. But in 2023, it got a surge of popularity as Drescher, now president of [[UsefulNotes/UnionsInHollywood SAG-AFTRA]], [[UsefulNotes/TVStrikes led the union in a strike alongside the WGA]]. [[ValuesResonance With wealth inequality significantly heightened and an increased awareness about class struggles, many found the show's premise, a middle-class woman working for a wealthy producer, incredibly pertinent]], especially the season 2 episode "The Strike" from 1994, where [[TheDanza Fran Fine]] [[NiceToTheWaiter refused to cross a picket line of striking busboys]], in defiance of her employer, Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield, who was hosting a party at that restaurant, and his attempts to force her through the picket line turn into a scandal.
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175
176[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
177* Wrestling/HulkHogan. At the height of his popularity in 1985, he hosted ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' and was on the cover of ''Sports Illustrated''. By the time 1994 rolled around (thanks to a combination of confirmed allegations of steroid use, a worn out gimmick that seemed stuck in the '80s -- partially for the previous reason, and a rather disastrous movie career), he was seen as a self-parody whose shelf life was such that he needed to [[FaceHeelTurn ditch the hero routine altogether]] just to remain relevant. However, in 2002, his return to [=WrestleMania=] -- still in his villain persona -- resulted in the fans cheering him over the Rock. To this day, he and [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson the Rock]] are among the closest things the Wrestling/{{WWE}} has produced to A-list celebrities.
178[[/folder]]
179
180[[folder:Settings]]
181* [[TheMall Shopping malls]], of all things, have been going through this since about TheEighties. Overly optimistic development resulted in a massive surplus of retail space across the US, causing older generations of malls to start dying off as newer, larger complexes replaced them. This, combined with rampant demographic shifts in urban areas, helped create the first generations of "dead malls" in the US (the UrExample being Dixie Square Mall in the Chicago suburb of Harvey, which closed in 1978 and, after being repurposed for a famous scene in ''Film/TheBluesBrothers'', was left to decay until it was finally torn down in the mid 2010s.) Malls continued to decline throughout TheNineties as rampant competition in the retail market did a number on a large number of clothing stores and department stores, causing many to severely retrench or go out of business entirely (including older department stores such as Montgomery Ward and Woolworth). The large number of youths hanging out there gave shoppers the impression that malls were {{Teenage Wasteland}}s and made many women, who did most of the shopping, feel unsafe, believing these teens to be "gang-affiliated," and go elsewhere. And then by the end of the decade, the rise of "big box" stores and e-commerce took further pieces out of the retail pie, as did a myriad of department store mergers. It was in this climate that a huge number of malls began to die off entirely, most commonly aging and unremodeled centers that had failed to keep up with the times. What few malls were being built by the TurnOfTheMillennium were typically "lifestyle centers" in more affluent areas, boasting upscale shops and restaurants in a streetscape setting, or "power centers", largely composed of the aforementioned big-box stores -- both of which were also starting to become common redevelopment tactics for struggling indoor malls. Not a single enclosed mall was built in the US between 2006 and 2014. The mid 2000s-early 2010s economic crisis certainly didn't help, as seen by General Growth Properties, one of the largest mall companies in the U.S., filing for bankruptcy...\
182Then came TheNewTens, when many malls began to go on [[http://commercialconstructionblog.com/retail-construction-trends-shopping-center-construction-enters-renaissance-with-renovation-work/ massive renovation sprees]] that are bringing in plenty of new stores. Also, two new malls finally opened in the U.S. in 2014 (one in Sarasota, Florida, the other in The Bronx), and a struggling mall in suburban Washington, D.C. was gutted and rebuilt... as a new ''enclosed'' mall. While "dead malls" are still prominent, the suburban malls that are not dying are keeping themselves relevant by adopting the more main street-like style of the "lifestyle centers" (a driving force in the trend to put the "urban" in "suburban"), luring in new and noteworthy tenants to make up for retrenching retailers (particularly "fast fashion" clothing stores such as [=H&M=] and Forever 21, trendy restaurants, fitness centers, etc.) and undergoing eye-catching renovations to keep the concept of "going to the mall" relevant to a newer generation...\
183Then came the "retail apocalypse" since 2016 and amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic since 2020, where a disproportionately large number of popular mall stores went through large amounts of closings or gone out of business entirely, including major department store chain The Bon-Ton. Combined with frequent store closings from the three major department store chains (J.C. Penney, Macy's, and Sears), creating further holes to be filled in malls countrywide (although discount-oriented department stores, such as Kohl's, Burlington, and Marshalls/TJ Maxx, have thrived). At the same time, social media became the place to hang out rather than the local decaying mall, especially for younger people. Despite these closures, many malls have worked around this by introducing more big-box stores; entertainment complexes (high-end theaters, bowling alleys, large-format arcades such as Dave & Buster's); unconventional tenants such as libraries, storefront churches, playplaces, or secondhand shops; or even non-retail use (one notable example being Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn, Michigan, which replaced a long-vacant department store with Ford offices). Indoor shopping malls remain popular in areas where extreme weather conditions prevail, [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff particuarly in the Middle East]], mainly due to the fact that they're, well, indoors and thus provide climate-controlled places to walk around no matter what's going on outside. Even as the retail scene shifts, it appears that the American mall still has some life left in it.
184* The DriveInTheater has seen a resurgence as of the 21st century. Throughout TheFifties and into TheSeventies, the concept flourished, giving that generation a venue to view popular movies in a more intimate, semi-private environment than offered by a regular theater. However, the concept was dealt massive blows in the end of TheSeventies and TheEighties, with many of the culprits being the oil crisis, hikes in property taxes that made such spacious properties hard to maintain (particularly as formerly rural areas became encroached by suburbia), and the emergence of home video, cable television, and larger multiplexes with wider varieties. There was also the fact that, unlike regular theaters, drive-ins were at the mercy of weather; those in the northern states typically closed in the winter, thus giving them much less time to generate profits, while many others saw costly damage due to high winds or tornadoes. By this point, many had come to mainly showing exploitation movies and/or porn to draw wider audiences, which worked in the short-term but often drew the ire of MoralGuardians and especially irked neighbors. The number of drive-ins nationwide plummeted in these decades, with countless ones being taken for other purposes (many became flea markets or golf driving ranges; others were demolished for new development; and still others have been left completely abandoned for upwards of 20-30 years). However, a brave few drive-ins soldiered on, trading mainly on Baby Boomer nostalgia. But it was that same nostalgia that led not only to interest in patronizing and preserving the few that were still open, but also even opening a few new ones. The concept has also been modernized for contemporary moviegoers, as many drive-ins now feature digital projection, stereo sound, and multiple screens. The drive-in theater got another boost during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as moviegoers could enjoy films outside of the home while staying relatively safe in their cars.
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186
187[[folder:Sports]]
188* This happens to pro athletes all the time, even more so today in the age of multi-million dollar contracts, free agency, and intense media scrutiny. You'd never know it today, but Ted Williams was booed everywhere in the American League, including Boston, for at least half of his career -- but time (and military service) has left him in a more favorable light. Alex Rodriguez seems to be on a downturn right now, but was one of the most popular players in the past and probably will be again before it's all said and done. Jennifer Capriati went from "tennis phenom" to "troubled teenager" to "elder stateswoman of tennis". Mike Tyson alone has jumped back and forth at least twice each.
189* UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} in the US endured three moments when it seemed like it was on the road to oblivion, only to prove itself more resilient than people thought.
190** The 1919 Black Sox scandal, in which several players on the UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} White Sox were caught having thrown the World Series in order to collect on gambling bets, shattered baseball's public image and almost destroyed the sport. Fortunately, Creator/BabeRuth began his career around the same time, and his prowess made baseball even more popular than before. It was also around this time when the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead-ball_era "dead-ball era"]] of low-scoring, defense-focused, inside-the-park baseball (in 1908, the average number of runs scored in a game, by ''both'' teams, was only 3.4) gave way to the high-hitting, home run-focused game that the sport has been famous for ever since. However, some sports writers point out that the "boring" Baseball of the era had the necessary degree of drama that made it the nation's biggest sport, and that the supposedly exciting focus on batting cannot really compete with the nerve-wracking tension of the NFL or the [[TestosteronePoisoning extreme manliness]] newer leagues such as the NBA take pride on.
191** During UsefulNotes/The50s, the only place where UsefulNotes/{{baseball}} wasn't in a sorry state was UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity. The minor leagues were collapsing due to the availability of major league games on television, old stadiums were growing increasingly decrepit, the dominance of New York teams (particularly [[InvincibleHero the Yankees]])[[note]]Of the ten World Series held in the '50s, eight were won by teams from New York. The only years when this wasn't the case were 1957, when the UsefulNotes/{{Milwaukee}} Braves pulled it off, and 1959, when the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Dodgers won -- and just two years earlier, they had been the ''Brooklyn'' Dodgers.[[/note]] was causing fans outside New York to tune out, some teams were still refusing to integrate long after UsefulNotes/JackieRobinson had broken down the color barrier, and the sport had no real presence (other than the aforementioned minor leagues) in the fast-growing "Sun Belt" of the South and the West Coast. All of this gave [[UsefulNotes/AmericanFootball football]], both professional and [[UsefulNotes/CollegiateAmericanFootball college-level]], enough room to build itself up as a serious rival to baseball's status as "America's pastime."\
192\
193Then in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants[[note]]The baseball team, not the present-day NFL team. To avoid confusion, the football team is sometimes referred to as the "New York ''Football'' Giants," which is still its legal corporate name.[[/note]] moved to UsefulNotes/LosAngeles and UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco, respectively, starting a trend for other teams looking to build new stadiums, which resulted in the sport's expansion beyond the East Coast and the Midwest. This was followed by the collapse of the long-running Yankees dynasty in TheSixties and that team falling into a slump, meaning that fans of other franchises now had a chance to see their teams win the World Series. Suddenly, baseball was relevant again, and in a position to put up a real fight against football for the rest of the century.\
194\
195[[CreatorProvincialism New York sportswriters]] are still likely to remember TheFifties as [[NostalgiaFilter baseball's "golden age"]], simply because it was the era in which the Yankees got the World Series rings they were ''entitled'' to, dammit! And if the Yankees didn't win, then the Dodgers or the Giants probably did.
196** The scarce TV coverage of MLB games in the early '90s triggered a strike that CutShort the 1994 season, and the steroids scandal of the 2000s tarnished the reputation of some of the biggest sluggers of the late '90s and the sport's popularity began to fade quickly. However, it seems that everything has been forgiven and forgotten by the following decade, primarily because of the scandals that have rocked the NFL (which was one of the main beneficiaries of the decline of the MLB).
197* The NBA experiences this. While it gained notoriety in TheSeventies with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the only place you could see basketball on TV was on scattered late night broadcasts on tape delay. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird would help popularized the league in the '80s. As TheNineties unfolded, UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan took the sport to worldwide popularity, but his eventual retirement left a huge void in its popularity at the TurnOfTheMillennium. While it is currently nowhere near its '90s peak[[note]]Maybe not in terms of popular consciousness, but thanks to TV contracts and revenue from international markets the league is more profitable right now than it has ever been[[/note]], [=LeBron=] James has given the league enough buzz to rival football and baseball in national attention. The internet and exemplary talent from abroad like Dirk Nowitzki (who is easily the best known non-soccer team sport athlete in his native Germany) or the Argentine Manu Ginobili have also helped the NBA garner a significant international fanbase, helped by the fact basketball is far simpler than gridiron football and baseball, which have struggled to gain popularity outside the American influence sphere until later years.
198* Between the late 19th century until the 1960s, bowling was as popular as the other big leagues. For instance, Don Carter became the first athlete to sign an endorsement contract worth one million dollars in 1964 (by comparison, NFL's Joe Namath earned $10,000 with Schick four years later) and there were two bowling shows on prime-time. By the 1970s however, the lethargic and complicated nature of the sport coupled with its down-class appeal led to a continued decline, except for a period in the mid/late 1980s when automatic scoring was introduced. During the late 2000s and the 2010s, many bowling-alleys became part of "entertainment centers" in order to make them more respectable. As a result, interest in bowling has increased, although time will tell if this will be another fad like in the 80s or a more permanent trend.
199* Sports like figure skating, women's gymnastics, and depending on where you live, [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball soccer]]. Every four years, during the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames and UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup, those sports take center stage and grab the headlines, and then afterwards, the athletes largely disappear into obscurity until the next big sporting event rolls around.
200* George Steinbrenner is generally remembered as controversial but successful as owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 until his death in 2010, but there was a time when he was considered much more controversial than successful. Within a few years of becoming owner, he established a reputation as an often tyrannical and capricious but effective owner, using his vast reserves of money and the newly instituted system of free agency to put together a dysfunctional but winning team, winning the World Series in 1977 and 1978. They continued to be mostly a winning team for the next decade, but repeatedly fell short of playoff success, and then finished with a losing season each year from 1989 to 1992. This, coupled with his being removed permanently from the Yankees' baseball operations in 1990 for hiring a gambler to dig up dirt on star player Dave Winfield, caused him to be seen as a corrupt egomaniac who had ruined a once-proud franchise. However, he was reinstated in 1993, and brought the Yankees back to their winning ways, partly because he took a less hands-on approach to the team, including stopping his infamous tendency to constantly replace managers. The Yankees won five more World Series before his death, insuring that his legacy would be overall positive. Keith Olbermann discusses this in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MoJweOFQT0 this video]].
201* Brett Favre was revered by fans as the guy who saved the Green Bay Packers franchise and brought them their first Super Bowl victory in 30 years when he retired for the first time following the 2007 season. He then [[{{Retirony}} un-retired]] before the 2008 season and was traded to the New York Jets. The move divided the Cheeseheads (Packers fans) to the point that the CBS affiliates in Green Bay and Milwaukee requested as many Jets games as possible to facilitate the large number of fans who still supported Favre. Following the season, Favre retired for a second time, then un-retired again only to sign with the Packers' hated rivals, the Minnesota Vikings, which drew ire even from fans who'd continued to support him as a Jet.\
202\
203After a relatively successful year with the Vikings, in which they beat the Packers twice, Favre retired again only to once-again come out of retirement. Fortunately for the Packers, it got better this time around. Not only did the Packers, led by former Favre understudy Aaron Rodgers easily avenge both of the previous years' losses to the Vikings en route to victory in Super Bowl XLV, but Favre had the worst season of his career that also saw him miss his first game since becoming the Packers starting QB in 1992 due to a late-season injury. To make matters worse, he was also involved in a scandal when it came to light that he attempted to have [[AllGuysWantCheerleaders an extra-marital affair with a Jets cheerleader]] during his stint in New York.\
204\
205He retired for good following the 2010 season, and steps were taken on both sides to repair Favre's relationship with the Packers organization and fans. By the time the Packers retired his number in 2015, it was clear that he was forgiven by all of the fans and his Hall of Fame induction in 2016 was filled with festivities in both Canton and Green Bay. At least until 2022, when Favre found himself in hot water again following the reveal that he took part in a scheme to use Mississippi welfare funds to build sports facilities at his alma mater, University of Southern Mississippi.
206* American football in Germany has undergone at least one cycle of this, though outside factors played a huge role. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, the World League of American Football and later NFL Europe brought (semi)pro football to Europe and Germans in particular liked what they were getting -- big shows, concerts, American talent and the big stadiums where soccer games were normally held. In addition Football was part of the pay TV package you had to buy if you wanted to see soccer on live TV, so many Germans had the NFL on their TV anyway and ratings were solid. Even the domestic German league managed a couple of games with attendance figures like 30.000 for a Braunschweig-Hamburg final.\
207\
208Then the NFL Europe shut down because Roger Goodell, who had just become commissioner, wanted to save money and instead focus on the NFL International Series. To add insult to injury, Hamburg went bankrupt and Braunschweig entered a serious AudienceAlienatingEra due to money and fan interest running out. The pay TV company dropped the NFL due to its high cost and football entered a serious slump. Cue back to back European championships for the German national team (2010 and 2014, the 2018 edition will be held in Germany) and promising ratings for the NFL in free TV coverage (Playoffs only). Suddenly one very smart person over at [=Pro7/Sat1=] Media Group decides to carry the regular season (two games every Sunday, plus all London and Thanksgiving games) and ratings suddenly explode, teams don't know where to go with all the young people who suddenly want to try the sport and NFL related hashtags are trending topic on German Twitter. And if you try counting the amount of people running around with NFL basecaps on any given day, you'd soon get tired of all the Raiders and Patriots gear.
209* [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball Soccer in the United States]]. In the early part of the 20th century, when most of the major professional sports leagues on both sides of the Atlantic were in their infancy, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Soccer_League#ASL_I American Soccer League]] was among them. It was, at one point, the second most popular sports league in the country after [[UsefulNotes/{{Baseball}} Major League Baseball]]. However, disputes between the ASL and the rival United States Football Association over a number of factors led to a "[[http://www.bigsoccer.com/soccer/roger-allaway/2010/10/25/what-was-the-quot-soccer-war-quot/ Soccer War]]", with FIFA butting in and siding with the USFA over controversy that the ASL was signing players who were under contract to European teams. The Soccer War crippled the ASL, with the league folding at the end of the 1933 season. Worse, while the USFA and FIFA ''won'' the war and established their pre-eminence, the spectacle of a US athletic association conspiring with a European organization to undermine its rival alienated many U.S. sports fans by creating an image of soccer as a sport controlled by foreigners, and along with the lack of a professional league that was able to field good players like the ASL did, the events killed the sport’s popularity for decades, so bad to the point that [[SoccerHatingAmericans it has its own trope]]. \
210\
211Soccer experienced a brief but explosive boom in the United States between the late '70s and the mid '80s with the North American Soccer League, thanks in part to the New York Cosmos, which brought in some of the soccer world's biggest heroes (such as Pele himself and Franz Beckenbauer) to play for them. While financial hardships following Pele’s retirement would eventually lead to the NASL’s folding in 1984, it reintroduced soccer to the North American sports scene on a large scale, and was a major contributing factor in soccer becoming one of the most popular sports among American youth. Along with FIFA giving the US hosting duties in the 1994 [[UsefulNotes/TheWorldCup World Cup]], the improving success of the US Men's and Women’s National Teams, and the implementation and growing success of UsefulNotes/MajorLeagueSoccer, soccer has eventually gained its long-sought Major League status. However, the stereotypes about the "sport of the future"[[note]]Punchline: "It will always be"[[/note]] being for kids who got bored rather quickly, pushy "soccer moms" and brown-skinned immigrants persisted until the early 2010s, when its popularity exploded thanks to a craze over British culture, surging Hispanic population, and the national team's improving performance, reaching the best-of-16 rounds in the 2010 and 2014 World Cups, which had different degrees of fan enthusiasm (only 50 American fans traveled in 2010, while in 2014 U.S. fans amounted for more tickets than any country other than the hosting Brazil). In 2015, NBC began broadcasting Premier League games, becoming the only league other than the NFL and the NCAA basketball league to get regular network coverage in North America outside of play-offs. As a result, many polls have placed soccer as America's second most popular sport in the 18-34 age group, being in fourth place among the general public, being almost tied with basketball and baseball (even if the national team failed to qualify for Russia 2018), something unfathomable one or two decades ago, with many commentators speculating that the MLS might eventually become "the national pastime" by the time the U.S. hosts another World Cup in 2026 (alongside Canada and Mexico). And in 2019, the U.S. Women's soccer team won the Women's World Cup, receiving much more attention than their previous championship in 2015, becoming newsworthy not only because of their athletic prowess but also for their open "wokeness".
212* This has been a recurring theme in UsefulNotes/FormulaOne for quite some time. Generally speaking, if a driver or team is dominant for too long, their popularity tanks as people grow tired of them winning all the time, but as soon as their dominance stops, their popularity recovers. To wit:
213** When Michael Schumacher was at the peak of his powers in 2000-2004, the sport's fanbase was split between those who hailed him as the greatest driver of all time, and those who decried him as a boring InvincibleHero who resorted to cheating when things didn't go his way[[note]]he was excluded from 1997 championship for crashing into Jacques Villeneuve in a desperate attempt to deny Villeneuve the title, and many believe he did the same in '94 to deny Damon Hill the title[[/note]]. Following his retirement in 2006, and especially his near-fatal head injury in 2013, criticism of Schumi died down considerably: he's now widely agreed to be one of, if not the greatest drivers ever to have lived, and his more controversial incidents don't get brought up anywhere near as often.
214** Sebastian Vettel won four titles in a row with Red Bull from 2010-2013, with the final title being his most dominant as he won a record nine races in a row. This domination was widely perceived as boring by many F1 fans, and Vettel in turn was widely disliked for it. Then 2014 arrived, Mercedes emerged as the dominant power (see below), and Vettel moved to Ferrari. His reputation soon began to skyrocket, partly due to the perception of him as the "plucky underdog" taking the fight to Mercedes, and partly because, now that fans were no longer jaded by his dominance, they were able to realise that Vettel was actually a NiceGuy who was willing to speak out about social and environmental issues that the other drivers shied away from. His retirement in 2022 was met with much sadness, and you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone who genuinely hates him anymore.
215** When Max Verstappen first entered the sport as a 17-year-old, he was widely viewed as being far too young and inexperienced, and his raw, aggressive driving style was seen as proof of this. Then he moved to Red Bull, won his first-ever race with them, and the hype around him began to build; Verstappen was billed as the "next big thing" and a future world champion, and his aggressive driving suddenly became a source of much excitement. This excitement continued to build, reaching fever pitch in 2021 as Verstappen challenged Lewis Hamilton for the title... then he won it in ''extremely'' contentious circumstances, and the fanbase [[BrokenBase shattered into pieces]]. He then dominated the 2022 season and, as of the time of writing, is dominating the 2023 season, and once again, fans are beginning to decry his domination as "boring" and his driving style as too aggressive.
216* UsefulNotes/{{Cricket}} in the USA. It was popular in the early days before being eclipsed by baseball in the post-Civil War era (George Washington himself was a cricket enthusiast). In the 21st century, it is experiencing somewhat of a resurgence in popularity thanks to South Asian immigrants, the availability of streaming services, and the faster-paced T20 format, with Major League Cricket launching in 2023.
217* Skateboarding has similarly fluctuated in and out of popularity so much that nobody seems to care whether or not it's "in", least of all the skaters themselves. Skateboarding was big in the mid-to-late Seventies, largely on the back of the popularity of surfing at that time. It died away in the early Eighties, until, of all things, ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' mainstreamed it again.
218[[/folder]]
219
220[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
221* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' was first published in 1974, and got big in the 80s, with the SatanicPanic [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity seen in hindsight to have helped sales rather than hurt them]]. It declined in the 90s when the panic faded, due to TSR's many issues, and was surpassed as the top-selling RPG by ''TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade''. TSR eventually collapsed and was bought out by Creator/WizardsOfTheCoast, who launched 3rd Edition and reignited the game's popularity, but 4th Edition was seen as too much of a change by many players, who migrated to ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}''. 5th Edition was much better recieved, and live plays like ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' created a surge in interest among people who had not previously been roleplayers.
222[[/folder]]
223
224[[folder:Technology]]
225* At the dawn of TheNineties, most observers in the computer world had given up Platform/{{Unix}} for dead, due to the fragmentation among vendors and the GNU Project's [[DevelopmentHell slowness in developing a free replacement]]. Then a Finnish grad student by the name of Linus Torvalds released the Linux kernel to the Internet. It was rapidly adopted by GNU and various Linux distributions (though Richard Stallman [[InsistentTerminology prefers you call it "GNU/Linux", thank you very much]]), have provided a viable alternative to Windows and Mac operating systems. Open source systems based on BSD also popped up in the early '90s (Mac OS X is based in part on [=FreeBSD=].) They're most successful as servers and in high-powered applications such as animation rendering and supercomputers.
226* The programming language Lisp had been considered dead ever since the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_Winter AI Winter]]" caused all the funds for artificial intelligence research (which was the field most Lisp programmers worked in) to dry up. The language has seen a revival of interest, however, in The TurnOfTheMillennium and TheNewTens largely thanks to Paul Graham.
227* Throughout the last decade of the 20th century and especially after the start of the 21st, over-the-air (OTA) television and the traditional TV antennas used to receive it fell out of fashion in favor of cable and satellite TV, which offered a larger variety of programming, were less encumbered by content restrictions, and could produce shows with larger budgets thanks to the increased revenue from carriage and/or subscription fees. It got to the point where the most popular and talked-about TV shows were on cable stations, not major networks, and many newly built or renovated homes forwent the installation of TV antennas. In TheNewTens, however, public opinion, especially that of younger audiences, began to sour on cable and satellite, seeing them as obsolete and cumbersome services that force you to pay exorbitant amounts of money for hundreds or thousands of channels that you will only ever watch a handful of, comparing them unfavorably to newer Internet streaming services such as Creator/{{Netflix}} and Creator/HBOMax that are becoming the main source for "premium" programming. Many of these people, or cord-cutters as they came to be known, supplement online streaming services with OTA TV in order to watch programming that can't be found easily online, such as local news and sports, sparking a revival of interest in the service, especially after the transition to digital TV. This is because digital OTA stations offered "digital subchannels" and greater clarity due to the lack of signal compression on cable or satellite, as well as a lack of snow that you'd see on analog channels. In large markets, due to the proliferation of digital subchannels, available OTA channels can rival basic cable. While OTA TV may never return to being the dominant way of watching television like it was in the early days of TV, it is far from going extinct as many predicted.
228* Television in general. Beginning in the 1950s, it was ''the'' form of entertainment for families everywhere, but by the 1990s it fell into a rut due to two main factors: one being the internet and newer media such as video games becoming popular, especially among the youth, but most importantly, many networks began turning towards the lowest common denominator and forced "hipness", leading to serious cases of NetworkDecay--which more often than not, meant flooding channels with RealityTelevision by the early 2000s, while the better-regarded shows generally [[ScrewedByTheNetwork got mediocre ratings and often were axed before long]]... unless the show was on premium cable, which gave viewers movie-quality production values for the first time on the "tube" in a weekly basis. However, during the mid/late-00s these shows ended without any worthy replacements, and as a result, people all over were cancelling their cable ''en masse'' and the phrase "who watches TV anymore?" was practically ubiquitous as internet became the medium of choice for audiovisual entertainment. Ironically, it was the web which allowed a renaissance for television in the 2010s, with streaming services, namely Creator/{{Netflix}}, providing a chance for watching whatever one wants anytime they like. The opportunities brought upon by stable revenue and a lack of ''enforced'' censorship led to the making of shows featuring themes and production values that would be unfeasible on traditional TV, often resulting in massive hits. Even shows that were unceremoniously booted by the networks [[VindicatedByCable gained a second life on streaming services]]. By the mid/late-2010s, roughly ''one-third'' of all Internet traffic in the US during certain hours was streaming. The success of Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Video not only led about everyone else to try their hand themselves, creating original content in some cases, but also contributed to the popular appreciation of high-concept series which have contributed to a resurgence of premium cable.
229* TV's predecessor, radio, has also gotten a boost in the digital era due to the growth of podcasting, smart speakers and internet/satellite radio. Podcasting has made audio content for news, comedy and dramas popular again after they were overtaken by TV in the '50s. Internet radio, satellite radio, and streaming music have also allowed for greater variety in music programming and lack of censorship instead of the narrow formats of terrestrial radio. Listeners have embraced public radio as an alternative to the sensationalism of cable news. A major reason is that audio offers a relief from the visual overload from the revival of TV mentioned above. The medium had already gotten a boost due to new technology in TheFifties as dramatic programming was moving over to TV with the invention of the transistor radio and Top 40 programming. The former made radio portable in a way that TV wasn't and music programming appealed to a young audience eager to hear the new rock and roll music. Young people were catered to in a way they hadn't been before. Transistor radios were cheap enough that everyone in a household could have one of their own, in contrast to the expense of a TV in the '50s and '60s. The relative cheapness of radio broadcasting meant that stations could also experiment with new genres, such as talk radio or all-news radio.
230* Netbooks, small low-powered laptops designed for web surfing, were popular in the late '00s, but died off after Apple introduced the [=iPad=]. Chromebooks, powered by Google's Chrome OS, have become popular, particularly in schools, for their ease of use and low maintenance.
231* Bill Gates became famous for the BASIC programming language, and Microsoft's [[Platform/{{MSX}} operating]] [[Platform/MicrosoftWindows systems]]. Then he became the world's richest man, and Microsoft was a MegaCorp with questionable business practices and unreliable software such as certain Platform/MicrosoftWindows versions, and thus the general public thought of Gates as a CorruptCorporateExecutive. Then in 2000 two things happened that along the years improved Gates' reputation, his NumberTwo [[LargeHam Steve Ballmer]] become Microsoft CEO and thus face of the company, and the establishment of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the world's wealthiest charity organization. The high profile philanthropy ended the {{Demonization}}, and perception of Gates changed from an UpperClassTwit and cutthroat businessman to a someone who [[UnclePennybags wanted to make the world better.]] However, his popularity would take a major blow in 2021 when he announced that he and Melinda were getting divorced, with reports coming out shortly after that cited his potential relationship with notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as a major reason why. This, along with [[EatTheRich growing distrust of the mega-rich]] throughout UsefulNotes/TheNew10s and The New Twenties, led to further scrutiny of Gates, which revealed that many of his charitable activities were more self-serving than they appeared at first, and were seen by many as attempts to wrest control of issues such as public health and education from public hands into private ones. In particular, his opposition to waiving patents on vaccines for the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic also drew a lot of criticism, since many parts of the world, especially poorer countries, were struggling to obtain enough vaccines to inoculate their populations in time to curb the rapid spread of the virus.
232* Watches are an odd case of this--originally they were vanity items that most people couldn't afford, but over time they became cheaper to produce until they became ubiquitous, and uninteresting. When smartphones became equally universal, watches disappeared due to the redundancy of carrying an additional device that only tells time... or so you would think, but instead their status as a hot vanity item returned, with well-off people wearing glitzed-up old-fashioned watches, or "smart watches" to go with their smartphones.
233* Back in the 1990s and 2000s Nokia were the leading manufacturer of cellphones, chances are that if you owned a cellphone back then there's a high chance that it would have been a Nokia. But in 2007, Apple launched the iPhone which triggered the smartphone revolution. Nokia were late to the smartphone game and decided to use Windows Mobile as opposed to Android which decimated their reputation. In 2014 their mobile division was sold to Microsoft and was pretty much dead. But in 2016 HMD Global (publicly trading as Nokia Mobile) was founded after several former Nokia employees bought out Microsoft Mobile, this time Nokias would run on Android. Sales grew rather quickly, with many praising its price-quality scale, they even repopularised the "dumb phone" which has sold well with the growing wave of 1990s-2000s nostalgia.
234* Likewise, the traditional cellphone, also known as the "dumbphone" or the feature phone, has made a comeback recently. They fell out of fashion after the rise of the smartphone but as of late they're now making quite the comeback due to the backlash against smartphones and social media as well as nostalgia for the 1990s and 2000s.
235* Typewriters were mostly replaced by word processing software on personal computers starting in the 1980s, but some writers have rediscovered typewriters, citing the distraction-free writing environment and claiming the need to think about what they're typing improves their writing. Creator/TomHanks is a notable typewriter fan, collecting old machines and even writing a book of short stories that involves a typewriter in some way.
236[[/folder]]
237
238[[folder:Theater]]
239* ''Theatre/{{RENT}}'' was a huge hit when it premiered on Broadway. It was acclaimed and loved by audiences, becoming one of the most popular Broadway musicals of the 1990s. Then, around the mid-2000s, the musical started to get dismissed as narmy and overrated by audiences. HypeBacklash had set in and the show eventually had its final showing in 2008. The failed film adaptation surely didn't help things. Fast-forward to the 2010s and it is again being recognized as a fantastic work of drama with interesting compositions that were unlike anything at the time. ''RENT'' continues to hold a high popularity and seems to be making a comeback with audiences.
240* ''Theatre/{{Cats}}'' was ''the'' musical during the 80s, but as Broadway moved on to less flashy endeavors in the 1990s, the jokes about its niche premise and unusual costumes became more and more common. Eventually the only time it was referenced would be when it was to be poked fun at. In the 2010s however, with musicals becoming more popular in general, the show received new fans and ultimately ended up getting a revival and a movie (although the latter infamously bombed with critics and audiences).
241* ''Theatre/{{Hamilton}}'' underwent (an admittedly downplayed version of) this remarkably quickly: Upon its premiere in late 2015, it received thunderous acclaim and it soon became almost impossible to get tickets for the musical, which rapidly became a cultural touchstone of the millennial generation. By 2019 however, interest in the play suddenly began to wane, partly because it was deemed to be too "gentle" for a cultural landscape that was adopting a more confrontational tone, but also because some considered the musical was [[ValuesDissonance whitewashing slaveowners]]. When several videos mocking both ''Hamilton'' and its playwright, Lin-Manuel Miranda, as rather "dorky" appeared on [=TikTok=] during the winter and early spring of 2020, some considered these take-offs to be [[AffectionateParody quite affectionate]], but others saw these as [[TakeThat a piss-take]] amid a possible [[TheGenerationGap generational rift between "zoomers" and "millennials"]], as pointed out by ''Rolling Stone'' in an article. Nevertheless, the release of the musical on Disney+[[note]]Pre-pandemic, it was supposed to be released theatrically in 2021[[/note]] and the election of Joe Biden allowing the cultural landscape to move closer to the one of the mid-late 2010s later that year led to renewed interest.
242[[/folder]]
243
244[[folder:Toys]]
245* ''Toys/PollyPocket'' was popular in the 1990s but it lost popularity over the years to the point it was discontinued in North America in 2012 and discontinued worldwide in 2015. Its 2018 {{retool}} was much better received, in part because they went back to tiny dolls. The mid-2010s saw an increase in smaller dolls so ''Polly Pocket'' attracted kids more than it did a decade prior.
246* Franchise/{{Lego}}, popular plastic building blocks created in 1949. The toys have always been relatively popular, but in the late '90s/early 2000s, the Lego Company decided to start licensing popular franchises such as ''Franchise/StarWars''. Lego suddenly boomed in popularity with video games, fan-made stop motion videos, and in 2014 a [[WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie highly successful movie]].
247** The LEGO fandom has a term specifically for individual fans going through their own popularity polynomial; they love the bricks as a kid, but lose interest in their teens in the "dark ages" before eventually rekindling their interest, sometimes more strongly than before.
248* {{Pinball}} has seen its ups and downs in popularity. It was the dominant type of arcade game until the 1970's, when video games became inexpensive enough to manufacture for arcade owners, and intensified through the first half of the 80's with hits like ''VideoGame/PacMan'' and ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong''. Pinball then became popular again with ''Pinball/SpaceShuttle'' leading the charge, which featured an accurate scale model of a space shuttle inside, an impression no video game at the time could replicate. With nothing like it to follow up, however, pinball soon lost ground to video games again in the late 80's as video game technology became more advanced, allowing for more diverse gameplay and visuals where pinball, by nature, is stuck with a static image. This changed with ''Pinball/TheAddamsFamily'' in 1992, whose many modes and deep theme integration allowed pinball to once again compete on even terms with video games at arcades. By the end of the 90's, however, arcades in North America were becoming unpopular as console and computer video gaming allowed people to play within their homes as much as they wanted, combined with the increasing complexity and length of games as a whole. For nearly the entirety of [[TurnOfTheMillennium the 2000s]], pinball seemed to be practically dead, with Creator/{{Stern}} being the only major manufacturer left. This changed around 2012, when multiple developments combined to create an upsurge in popularity. Simulator games like ''VideoGame/ThePinballArcade'' helped spark new interest in the medium, prompting people to either find machines in public to play to see how they're like in person (or, if one could afford it, buy them for home use). In addition, Creator/JerseyJackPinball was founded and put out ''Pinball/TheWizardOfOz'' in 2013; its many features and innovations, particularly the use of a screen instead of a dot-matrix display, gave Stern a true competitor and opened the floodgates for several more upstart companies to try their hand in the field over the course of TheNewTens. Pinball has also been riding on the back of the retro gaming craze, with many newer arcades hosting both video games and pinball machines. This renewed popularity can be seen in Stern's sales increasing ''300%'' between 2012 and 2014.
249* The Yo-Yo. More like Popularity Sinusoid. It really ''does'' come around that regularly.
250** [[FridgeBrilliance Which is fitting, when you think about it]].
251** At one point, this was because the Coca Cola Company gave yo-yos a marketing push about every three years or so.
252[[/folder]]
253
254[[folder:Transportation]]
255* American cars:
256** Those from TheFifties are beloved today, with their huge tailfins and large amounts of chrome. However, when they went out of style in TheSixties, they went out ''hard''. Back then, few people who could afford it would be caught dead driving around in a '57 Bel Air. It didn't help that a lot of that stylish chrome decoration had a tendency to fall off after a few years due to rust. It was only with the rise of 50s-era nostalgia in general in TheSeventies and especially TheEighties that cars from that decade started to be more appreciated.
257** The 1980s themselves have been considered to be the last era of "true car design" in both the US and Europe as oil was no longer a concern and automakers now focused on innovative designs, leading to the spacecraft-like cars of the late 80s such as the Ford Taurus and the Citroen XM. However, TheNineties brought a focus on environmentalism and [[PoliticalOvercorrectness "blander" designs]] (as a result of the consolidation between American and European companies) that in the long run stripped cars from their personality. These claims became really popular by the second half of the 2000s (with the oil crisis and the car industry downturn) as these became relics of a better time for automobiles..
258** The lifecycle of a car design has stretched considerably since the 1990s as well: Until 1990-92, companies changed their ''entire'' lineup every 2 or 3 years (overhauling everything every 4 or 5 years) before the First Gulf War and the 1989-93 depression shook things up. Today, a new car can be exhibited at major shows almost a year before it hits the market; then comes a 5-7 year production cycle and upwards of a 20-year period before examples of a discontinued model that was popular when new are rare enough not to be an everyday sight. Expect at least another ten or even 15 years after ''that'' for them to start showing up at classic-car events.
259* The trend towards environmentalism and energy efficiency in the cultural consciousness has done this for a lot of seemingly "outdated" technologies and vehicles:
260** The post-war American car market has constantly cycled between demand for larger, roomier, more powerful automobiles and smaller, more efficient ones. In TheFifties and TheSixties, the trend was toward "bigger is better" with land-yachts and muscle cars to show off the newfound wealth of America's middle class. Then, the Arab oil embargo caused demand to shift towards compact and midsize cars and, later, minivans for most of TheSeventies and the first half of TheEighties. As a new generation came of age with little memory of the energy crises, large vehicles came back into style in the late 80s and 90s (except for a brief period around 1991 with the Gulf War) and up to UsefulNotes/The2000s, this time in the form of [[HummerDinger large SUVs]]. Now, thanks to the spikes in gas prices of 2005 (post-Hurricane Katrina) and 2008, compounded with the economic recession in-between, [=SUVs=] were out (With falling oil prices during the mid-2010s, larger cars became popular again), and crossovers, hybrids and compacts were in, as well as...
261** Minivans. As mentioned, they were huge in TheEighties as a fuel-efficient alternative to land-yacht station wagons (the fuel crises of TheSeventies still fresh in everyone's mind), but faded away in the late '90s, thanks to [=SUVs=], the perception that the average minivan owner was a boring "soccer mom" suburbanite, and the fact that the styling was getting blander -- compare, say, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1994-1996_Chevrolet_Lumina_APV.jpg Chevy Lumina]] and the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1996-2000_Toyota_Tarago_(TCR10R)_GLi_van_02.jpg Toyota Previa]] to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2004-2007_Ford_Freestar.jpg Ford Freestar]]. While they didn't entirely dispose of their uncool reputation, minivans saw a small resurgence after the decline of the [=SUV=] market, due to their similar capacity and greater fuel efficiency.
262** Small "econo-box" autos and hatchbacks. During the height of the last "Bigger is Better" craze during late in TheNineties and early in the TurnOfTheMillennium, it seemed as though the only choices for new car owners were [[FateWorseThanDeath four-door sedans and body-on-frame SUVs]]. After 2005, though, vehicles like the new Mini Cooper and various hybrids began selling so fast that it took years before the automakers could meet demand, and older models such as the Geo Metro and Volkswagen Beetle can sell for up to triple their Blue Book value on the used car market on the basis of fuel economy alone. The American automakers even started importing some of their compact European models to meet this new demand, ending decades of NoExportForYou -- to such success that it has been cited as one of the reasons for the revitalization of Detroit's "Big Three" after decades of seemingly interminable decline.
263** In the 1970s, the oil crisis led to calls for more efficient cars, as well for alternative fuel sources. This led to the development of the electric car (actually the concept is as old as cars themselves), which by the 1990s attracted public attention as well as federal support. In the 2000s government subsidies were cut, and automakers developed "hybrid" motors that used both electricity and gasoline. Rising oil prices in the late 2000s and early 2010s as well as higher environmental consciousness led to an increased popularity of hybrids and fully electric cars.
264** Up until TheSeventies, bicycles were seen primarily as transportation, and were built with full fenders and used either single speed or 3-speed internal gear hubs. Once the health craze launched a cycling boom in the early 80s, many people started switching to racing bikes, which strove to add more gears and lighter materials. Older cruisers, "English" 3-speeds, and even the steel 10-speeds made at the start of the biking boom came to be seen as extremely dorky. But later a shift back to the use of bikes for transportation led to the return of internal gear hubs, single speeds, and even fixed-gear bikes, with specialty makers building custom steel frames instead of aluminum or carbon fiber. The racing bikes, by contrast, are now the ones that are seen as dorky, while the once-cool lycra riding uniforms associated with them are now viewed as symbols of the nadir of [[TheEighties '80s]] fashion.
265** Motor scooters: The Vespa was all the rage in TheFifties and TheSixties, becoming a symbol of the "mod" and "beat" subcultures and an emblem of the Swinging London era. After falling off the radar in TheSeventies (the decade when a relatively huge Harley would be considered ''tiny''), there were minor revivals across TheEighties (the "New Wave" era) and, to a lesser extent, in the second half of TheNineties (when metro areas began repopulating with younger people influenced by the "Cool Britannia" spirit). After UsefulNotes/The2000s' fascination with chopper-building realities, TheNewTens came with another scooter craze.
266** City centers. After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when the G.I. Bill[[note]]Short version -- a law passed near the end of the war that gave veterans access to higher education, as well as loans to buy homes and to start businesses.[[/note]], cheap gas, cheap land, the new Interstate Highway System, and the postwar baby boom created an enormous demand for housing that couldn't be met by the cities alone. As a result, this led to a massive boom in {{Suburbia}} and cities began to expand outward rather than upward leading to a phenomenon known as "white flight" in which middle-class white families moved out to the suburbs fleeing the late 1960s race riots, taking their tax dollars with them and leaving the cities behind to decay ''hard''. However, since as early as TheNineties, city centers have seen a resurgence in popularity especially among younger folk due to factors such as better public transit and walkability, proximity to work and cultural attractions, and frustration with suburban life and automobile gridlock. The 2005 oil crisis and economic downturn and the 2008 housing collapse left many "Sun Belt" cities almost empty.
267** Subverted by the fact many "Sun Belt" towns have re-engineered themselves into more "urban" places akin to European metro areas, leading to a fast recovery of the area, also bolstered by the fact the Northeast ends up facing hurricanes almost every September-October.
268** Averted with metropolitan UsefulNotes/LosAngeles. During the '70s and '80s, the city had a relatively peaceful image thanks to its fair balance between the city and suburbs, specially compared with the [[WretchedHive "Rust Belt" Northeast]], where places such as UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity and UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} [[TheBigRottenApple had hair-raising crime rates]] while UsefulNotes/WashingtonDC was noted for its screwed-up council (one mayor was caught smoking crack [[ControversyProofImage but got re-elected anyway]]). However, the underlying tension (especially in racial terms) suddenly exploded with the Rodney King riots in 1992, which resulted in LA becoming what it had avoided in the past decades (or, depending on where you sit, revealing that it had always been like that under its clean surface). This helped many ailing Atlantic cities (especially the Giuliani-era New York) as businesses left L.A.
269** Streetcars (or Trams for the British). After UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, a combination of cheap gas and the growing popularity of buses (and, according to {{conspiracy theorist}}s, some [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal underhanded tactics]] by the auto industry) led to many streetcar lines falling out of use and eventually being dismantled. The few surviving ones in the West (in East Germany and most other Warsaw Pact nations this was not the case for complex reasons, among them the [[TheAllegedCar Trabbi]].), such as those in UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco and UsefulNotes/NewOrleans, persisted more for their historical and tourism value than anything else, though UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}'s is retained for its transportation value to complement [[UsefulNotes/TorontoSubway the city's then-new subway system]]. When cities ''did'' invest in mass transit, it would often be in the form of buses and subways that wouldn't threaten the flow of automobile traffic on the streets. In TheNineties and the TurnOfTheMillennium, however, the green movement and later on fears over rising gas prices led several cities to build or expand tram lines or "light rail" systems, which are essentially streetcars with decades worth of new technology, but also their alleged "flaws" have become their biggest assets, including bigger vehicles compared to buses (making for more capacity), their above ground running (eliminating some of the problems of dark muggy subway stations), their stable fixed routes (leading to measurably higher investment along routes/stations than bus service) and their overhead electric traction, more efficient than gas or third rails (all the rage in the era of renewable energy).
270** First class rail travel. Yes, you heard that correctly. You see, back in the days when rail travel was invented, there were (at least) three classes. [[ValuesDissonance Just like in society]]. However, beginning in TheRoaringTwenties, rich people started having alternatives to rail travel, namely planes and automobiles. By the 1950s the European railways (now state-owned) decided to gut first class as a cost-saving measure. But of course having a second and third class but no first would not sell well. So in a clever bit of marketing they simply uptitled the existing lower two classes while doing some cosmetic fixes to third class (e.g. getting rid of the wooden seats with no padding in third class). The only exception to this was Britain, where some law said there always had to be third class (though there [[LoopholeAbuse wasn't anything keeping anybody from abolishing ''second'' class]]). In the 1970s, rising prices of gas as well as the introduction of UsefulNotes/HighSpeedRail in the 1980s once more expanded the market for rail travel and suddenly new "premium" services for UsefulNotes/HighSpeedRail started being offered. The rail market also grew in UsefulNotes/The2000s due to [[OverreactingAirportSecurity post-9/11 airport security hassles]] and the growing awareness of air travel's environmental impacts. Nowadays, you can get "business" class, "club" class, "preferente" or whatever the marketing department comes up with. On the Acela Express (Boston - New York - Washington), you can chose between Business and First -- no Coach Class for you (also something that last happened on a large scale in the 1950s).[[note]]You can however travel in coach on the "Northeast Regional" which travels the same route at lower speeds and with more intermediate stops[[/note]] So in essence, First Class rail travel was abolished and second class was retitled first class, only for "real" first class to make a comeback half a century later. There has even been a move to discourage taking flights in favor of rail, particularly in Europe, due to air travel's greenhouse gas emissions. France, who developed the TGV, banned short-haul flights within the country and a number of companies, including Creator/TheBBC, prohibit employees on official business from flying if an equivalent train journey takes less than six hours.
271** In the 2000s "carpooling" was seen to be an attitude of the 90s that no one wanted to remember (and something only gen-Xers would admit to do). However, the increasing difficulty of driving downtown has led to the rise of "share-ride" services like Uber and Cabify, now touted as the new face of public transportation. This has also led to fewer 20- and 30-somethings (even 40-somethings) looking for cars of their own.
272* Jumbo airliners have come and gone as a result of technological advancements. The Boeing 747 was introduced for service in 1970, but the demand for 400-seat airliners was not yet established, and airlines opted to purchase smaller aircraft instead. Airlines bought 747s with the hope of expanding their market, but world events prevented it from happening. It was only with the introduction of the Boeing 777-300, a large twin-engine aircraft, that the market for 400-seat airliners finally matured.
273[[/folder]]
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275[[folder:Video Games]]
276* The indie scene altogether is the end result of this. Many indie developers are themselves gamers who first got introduced into the medium during the 8 and 16-bit era of gaming. As a result, [[SpiritualLicensee they model their own games]] on the ones they grew up with.
277* PC gaming is a nation-specific example in Japan. During TheEighties, gaming on home computers were quite popular, with {{Platform/MSX}} being the lead with other competing products at the time such as Platform/FMTowns, Platform/SharpX68000 and Platform/PC98. During the [=mid-90s=], consoles dominated the market and relegated the PC platforms to business uses and {{Visual Novel}}s, and less and less companies willing to sell PC games to the Japanese market. In addition to consoles, mobile gaming further decimated them in [[TurnOfTheMillennium the noughties]], leaving almost zero room for them till the late 2010s, when PC as a gaming platform make a comeback in Japan thanks to {{Virtual YouTuber}}s and [[UsefulNotes/ProfessionalGaming e-sports gaming]] (the latter helped by {{Battle Royale Game}}s such as ''VideoGame/PlayerunknownsBattlegrounds'', ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}'') incentivized them to the gaming population, and also introduced Japanese gamers to PC gaming distribution platforms such as Platform/{{Steam}}. The return was so strong to the point many Japanese companies decide to bring back their PC porting of their (recent) games for the home market.
278* ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' has gone through this cycle twice already. It was highly anticipated in the late '90s, became nothing more than a punchline to any joke about vaporware or ScheduleSlip during the 2000s, and then became legitimately anticipated again when it was finally released in 2011. Unfortunately, this, combined with TwoDecadesBehind, is also a major reason why it received such a lukewarm reaction. Critics pointed out that, after 15 years in development, its style of gameplay and presentation didn't hold up well against the landscape of modern shooters.
279* Sci-Fi shooters like ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' and ''Franchise/{{Doom}}'' have experienced this cycle. During the '90s and early 2000s, ''Doom'', ''Halo'' and their clones were insanely popular among action aficionados for their fast-paced, action-packed gameplay and sci-fi aethetics. However, while neither have been forgotten per se, they declined in popularity from 2005 onwards due to competition from modern military shooters. So much so that ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty4ModernWarfare'' dethroned ''VideoGame/Halo3'' as the most played game on Xbox Live. Overtime though, interest in the sci-fi shooter was rekindled as they offered diverse array of gameplay styles and weapon diversity in fantastical settings. Ironically, many new shooters like ''VideoGame/TitanFall'', ''VideoGame/{{Destiny}}'', and even ''Halo'''s rival ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' [[FollowTheLeader have begun copying]] ''Doom'' and ''Halo''.
280* ''VideoGame/CounterStrike'', and E-sports based FPS in general, are this as well. Late 90s most multiplayer games are geared for competitive gaming. However in the 2000s, for first person (while MOBA are practically born in 2005 with DOTA) it died down as the trend is rising towards cinematic action and high quality graphics that seems to be only suited for high-end rig at the time. In the last decade of the 2000s and the early years of TheNewTens, console FPS are primarily played casually. Come the mid leg of TheNewTens, and Counter Strike saw its return with Counter Strike Global Offensive, along with other competitive shooters like ''VideoGame/{{Quake}}'' saw its return, and with them, the prominent E-Sports community.
281* Creator/{{Nintendo}}:
282** In the '80s and early '90s, it was the embodiment of modern entertainment. In the late '90s and early 2000s, it became "the kiddy company" due to competition from Sega and Sony and the censorship of certain games like ''Wolfenstein 3D'' and ''Mortal Kombat'' and slipped into last place. So what does Nintendo do? Rather than fight the "kiddy" label, they embraced it, marketing toward families, senior citizens, and other groups not traditionally viewed as "core" gamers with the simple-to-understand controls of the Platform/NintendoDS and Platform/{{Wii}}, and a bevy of well-crafted [[CasualVideoGame casual video games]]. Thanks to this strategy, it was once again the dominant force in gaming throughout the late 2000s.
283** Nintendo hit another low in the early 2010s with their Platform/WiiU console, which fell to last place behind the Platform/Playstation4 and Platform/XboxOne despite a one-year head start. This happened for several reasons, but one is that they attempted to [[WinBackTheCrowd win back]] core gamers while [[MisaimedMarketing still trying to appeal to casuals simultaneously]], and failed miserably at both, leaving diehard Nintendo fans as their only audience. Their follow-up, the Platform/NintendoSwitch, ''did'' manage to strike that balance and launched to massive commercial success, going on to take the Wii's throne as Nintendo's best-selling home console in history.
284%% The Pokémon example has been discussed in the Discussion page and decided that it does count. Please don't delete without first consulting the Discussion page. Thank you.
285* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'':
286** Back in the late '90s, the series as a whole was the king of kid fads. However, it quickly faded among people who only played it to be "cool", and in a few short years, the only people who would still publicly admit to liking it were small children (though the games were still system sellers). After the release of ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'', it started making a comeback, and the 2016 launch of the ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' AR game firmly cemented it. Kids can safely admit to liking it in public again, longtime fans are no longer bashed for it, and those kids who were only fans back in the day are now grown-ups old enough to wax nostalgic about it, as seen in the page image. In addition, a Japanese clothing company released a line of Poké-merchandise specifically targeted at adult Poké-fans, with an "artsier" bent to it. However, the above is mostly restricted to the games: while there is not as much hate for the ''Pokémon'' anime as around the Johto arc, it still hasn't recovered quite as much as the games did.
287** ''VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire'' had their fair share of fans back in the day, but their popularity shrunk pretty rapidly, only to be revitalized years later with their remakes, ''Omega Ruby'' and ''Alpha Sapphire''. For years they (along with ''Emerald'') were seen as the AudienceAlienatingEra of [[Franchise/{{Pokemon}} the franchise]], as it, by some counts, took out as many features as it added and had the misfortune of being a SoftReboot for the series [[ToughActToFollow that followed]] the massively popular ''VideoGame/PokemonGoldAndSilver''. It was constantly bashed both by longtime fans and [[PopularityPolynomial fans who came back into the franchise]] with ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl''. As the series continued on, however, the games steadily amassed more and more praise, even garnering a hardcore fanbase, while ''Diamond and Pearl'' began to be seen as the lowest point of the franchise [[BrokenBase by about half the fandom]]. When the remakes for 3DS were announced, reception was almost universally positive.
288** ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'': [[BrokenBase As with all things Pokémon]], the Gen IV games, despite selling well, were the very definition of a ContestedSequel. Even though ''Platinum'' was better-received overall and improved the two biggest problems with ''Diamond/Pearl'' (limited Pokédex until postgame, slowdown due to Creator/GameFreak and Creatures Inc.'s inexperience with the engine), the quality of the games were still subject to fierce debate, with some feeling the games were flawed but still decent at worst (with ''Platinum'' [[WinBackTheCrowd singlehandedly vindicating the Sinnoh installments]] for this crowd) while others saw the Sinnoh era as a weak point of ''Pokémon'' -- to the point where edits on [[Website/TVTropes This Very Wiki]] during its early days were often negative. Cynics even predicted that this would happen with Generation V... and sure enough, [[CassandraTruth it did]]. People became quite excited for the remakes of Generation IV, as well as ''VideoGame/PokemonLegendsArceus''.
289** ''VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite'' were considered among the best games in the series upon release, then quickly fell out of favor due to how little they lent themselves to competitive battling and a controversial Pokédex, but then rose back into favor due to the backlash against the next few main games blatantly [[PanderingToTheBase pandering to nostalgic fans]] in the expense of new innovations like ''Black'' and ''White'' attempted. They suffered a strong backlash from a sizable portion of fans, who criticized some of the new Pokémon designs and the fact that no Pokémon from previous generations were available until the post-game. They even ''under''sold compared to the previous Gen IV games. For years, they were considered the worst games in the series, and suggesting they were anything except completely horrible was a good way to get ripped apart in online discussions. Fast-forward a few years, and they are now seen as some of the best, with fans praising the large amount of new Pokémon (many of whom have become fan favorites), the unique storyline that sees the credits rolling before you enter the Hall of Fame, the removal of AbilityRequiredToProceed for the main quest, and its lack of PanderingToTheBase; specifically Gen I. ''Black and White'' (and [[VideoGame/PokemonBlackAndWhite2 its sequels]]) were also the last games to utilize sprite art, before the mainline games underwent its retroactively base-breaking VideoGame3DLeap. Finally, when ''VideoGame/PokemonSwordAndShield'' cut down on the number of available Pokémon, the majority of returning Pokémon originated from Unova (even managing to outnumber the available Kanto Pokémon prior to the Crown Tundra DLC expansion), helping to endear them to fans even more.
290** ''VideoGame/PokemonXAndY'' suffered some backlash who criticised the games as being [[ItsEasySoItSucks too easy and handholdey]], for [[FranchiseOriginalSin pandering too hard to Kanto by giving the player a second starter]], launching with a GameBreakingBug, requiring a secondary service to transfer the Pokémon you ''couldn't'' yet obtain, not having a sizeable postgame, and for being [[ItsTheSameSoItSucks similar]] to the past ''Pokémon'' games. Years later, some people started to hold nostalgic fondness for it. Part of the reason being that the game had the ''largest'' Pokédex, with a total of '''457''' Pokémon available in the base game -- and this was ''pre''-National Dex. It was also praised for actually making adjustments to Pokémon outside of adding new types and gimmicks, something that Pokémon has very, ''very'' rarely done. The Fairy type was well-received, as was Mega Evolution, with a lot of ''Pokémon'' fans begging for its return in the next ''Pokémon'' game while lamenting its removal from ''Sword/Shield''.
291** Some of the remakes had spotty initial reception that improved over time. Despite positive praise pre-release, post-release opinions around ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire]]'' changed a bit. Among these criticisms were how ''OR/AS'' did not incorporate content from ''Emerald'', handed the player a [[DiscOneNuke Latios or Latias mid-game]], used base-breaking features from the sixth generation of games (like the EXP Share), [[UnderusedGameMechanic used Trainer Horde battles only twice in the entire game]] despite them [[AdvertisedExtra being somewhat prominent in marketing]], and choosing not to include the Battle Frontier. ''VideoGame/PokemonLetsGoPikachuAndLetsGoEevee'' were controversial from day one for being a "[[GatewaySeries gateway game]]" for players brought in by the success of ''VideoGame/PokemonGo''; retooling wild Pokémon battles to use the system introduced in ''Go''; removing many gameplay features like Abilities that had been a part of the series for years; reimagining the storyline with a new main character and rival; and featuring a somewhat lacking postgame compared to other games. But after the ShotForShotRemake of ''VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl'' that removed all of ''Platinum'''s QOL changes, people started to appreciate what these games ''did'' do right -- and that was provide a remake with [[AdaptationExpansion additional content]] while still remaining rather true to the original, and thus polishing up a few features.
292* Indie gaming, the Wii, and mobile gaming have brought back quite a few genres that were once assumed to have died:
293** [=2D=] side-scrollers and platformers, such as ''Franchise/{{Castlevania}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Contra}}'', ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'', and ''VideoGame/DoubleDragon'', once made up the bedrock of the industry. After the VideoGame3DLeap, they were viewed as quaint relics of the pre-Platform/PlayStation era, and were relegated to handhelds and cheap Flash games... until ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBros'' and ''VideoGame/NewSuperMarioBrosWii'' tore up the charts, and indie games like ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'' became critical darlings. Now, the side-scroller has once again become a major part of gaming, as seen with the latest outings of VideoGame/{{Mega|Man9}} [[VideoGame/MegaMan10 Man]], VideoGame/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog4}}, VideoGame/{{Donkey Kong|CountryReturns}}, VideoGame/{{Rayman|Origins}}, and VideoGame/{{Kirby|sReturnToDreamLand}}, as well as original games like ''VideoGame/LittleBigPlanet'', ''Super VideoGame/MeatBoy'', ''VideoGame/SplosionMan'', ''VideoGame/{{Terraria}}'', ''VideoGame/{{Broforce}}'', and ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}''.
294** The SurvivalHorror genre originated as a nifty response to the technological limitations of fifth-generation consoles, and produced a mountain of {{killer app}}s for the young Platform/PlayStation console, most notably ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'' and ''VideoGame/SilentHill1'', which were among the premier game franchises in the second half of the '90s. In the TurnOfTheMillennium, however, these types of games were squeezed out by rising budgets and a period of genre homogenization that briefly occurred during the mid-to-late 2000s. ''Resident Evil'' abandoned its survival horror roots in favour of more action oriented gameplay. ''Silent Hill'' eventually slid out of notice sometime after being outsourced to western developers. However, starting in the early 2010s, the genre made a comeback in the indie realm, with games like ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'', ''VideoGame/DayZ'', ''VideoGame/{{Slender}}'', and the ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' games being well-received and spawning a wave of new horror efforts. With ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUs'' being a smash hit critically and commercially, with many even considering it the best game of the entire [[MediaNotes/TheSeventhGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames Seventh Generation]]. Meanwhile, the ''Resident Evil'' franchise re-embraced it's roots with ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard''.
295** After the leap to 3D in late '90s and 2000s, especially with the major spotlight titles for the contemporary consoles being full 3D games, sprite graphics were considered hopelessly outdated for home console and PC gaming, something only seen in portable handheld games, bargain-bin UsefulNotes/{{shovelware}} "retro collections", and certain developers (such as SNK) that only got away with it due to the GrandfatherClause. However, in the seventh and eighth generation of consoles, after the rise of digital distribution (which massively cuts costs such as printing copies and shipping), indie and smaller developers for home consoles looked at sprites and saw a more practical alternative to high-tech 3D graphics engines, especially now that technology allowed for the display of far more detailed sprites and more impressive gameplay features. ''Braid'', for instance, got a ton of mileage out of its artistic sprite characters. Nowadays, 2D games for home consoles and PC continues to be a trend to the point that ''Videogame/ShovelKnight'' got a physical release.
296** The MonsSeries genre saw a decline and revival in interest over the years. Back during the heyday of ''Pokemon'' every company wanted a piece of the monster collecting pie, and this surge of monster-themed games and anime lasted well into the 2000s. By the new 10s, most of these series fell into obscurity and even the bigger names like ''Digimon'' and ''Monster Rancher'' pulled out of the market for a while. However, in the late 10s and new 20s, Mons games saw a big surge of popularity in the Indie game scene. This was partly spurred by dissatisfaction from longtime ''Pokemon'' fans regarding the direction Game Freak took the series over time, and part of it is also nostalgia for long dormant mons franchises released during the boom.
297** The AdventureGame, particularly the point-and-click puzzle variety, mostly dried up around the mid '90s around the same time Creator/LucasArts stopped making them in favor of ''Franchise/StarWars'' licensed games, upstaged by new genres such as the FirstPersonShooter. For a long time, they were all but absent except in the indie and hobby scene. Starting around 2008, however, Creator/TelltaleGames started making inroads with rebooting classic franchises such as ''Franchise/SamAndMax'', and the rise of digital distribution meant that companies like [=LucasArts=] and Creator/{{Sierra}} could offer their old games for sale to the public again. Fast forward to 2013, where adventure games feature heavily in the indie renaissance, Telltale's adaptation of ''VideoGame/{{The Walking Dead|Telltale}}'' wins multiple Game of the Year awards, and the mere promise of an adventure game by [=LucasArts=] veteran Creator/TimSchafer nets Creator/DoubleFine over $3 million on Website/{{Kickstarter}} and starts the craze of crowdfunding indie games (including other genres that fell victim to market trends and the blockbuster model). Then a few years later, everyone started complaining that Telltale's games are stale and samey, while several high-profile Kickstarted games (including those from Double Fine) ended up being derided as SoOkayItsAverage. Adventure games are virtually nowhere to be seen again, and no really big crowdfunded games have been put out for years. So the pendulum swings.
298* Retro gaming, in particular the 16-bit period. Emulators have led people to discover a lot of old classics that can be played for free, take up hardly any space and do not take any time to install. Companies have followed suit by reissuing older games. In addition, [=PS1=] gaming is also making a comeback via the [=PlayStation=] Network and emulation on PSP. This doesn't apply to Europe, though, due to NoExportForYou issues.
299** 8-bit retro gaming, on the other hand, has been a little more shaky. During the 16-bit era, 8-bit games (particularly from the original Nintendo Entertainment System and Platform/Atari2600) were seen as woefully outdated and unhip. Come the 32-bit era, classic Nintendo games begin to make a comeback, thanks to the rise of emulation. Unfortunately, emulation was and still is technically illegal. So, in response to the burgeoning scene, Nintendo unleashed a downloadable service called the "Virtual Console" in 2006 for its then-new home console the Wii. The idea was that fans could download and play classic games from every major console (including non-Nintendo consoles) up to and including the Nintendo 64 for a relatively small price. Fans went wild! Finally, there was a way to legally play classic games without needing to scour [=EBay=] for a used gaming console. The new found accessibility of classic 8-bit games also spurred an interested in [[{{Retraux}} new games that mimicked them]] both from major publishers[[note]]Such as ''Mega Man 9'' and ''Mega Man 10''[[/note]] and the burgeoning indie scene[[note]]Such as ''Super Meat Boy''[[/note]]. Unfortunately, it wasn't long before people realized that a lot of 8-bit Nintendo games didn't really hold up by modern gaming standards (not just because of their graphics and sound, but also because of archaic game design choices, etc.). To make matters worse, as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYxtMXDz9nU this video]] points out, Nintendo post-Wii started milking re-releases of 8-bit Nintendo games while paying comparably little regards to their later consoles (especially the [=GameCube=], which many fans have been begging to see rereleased games from), causing nostalgia for 8-bit Nintendo games to wane, as evidenced by the muted reception to the Switch receiving old Nintendo games as downloadables.
300* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' in TheNineties: a ridiculously popular 2D fighting game, with blood and gore as a selling point. ''Mortal Kombat'' during the TurnOfTheMillennium: an confusing, ridiculously unbalanced 3D fighting game series past its prime (the LighterAndSofter crossover with DC not helping anything), and suffered heavily from its poorly-done VideoGame3DLeap. ''Mortal Kombat'' starting with the [[VideoGame/MortalKombat9 2011 reboot]]: a ridiculously popular fighting game that uses 3D graphics but is played on a 2D plane, with blood and gore as a selling point.
301* The ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'' series has gone on a wild roller coaster of this:
302** When it came out, it immediately became one of the definitive games of [[MediaNotes/The16BitEraOfConsoleVideoGames The 16-bit Era]] and put the Platform/SegaGenesis into a fierce [[MediaNotes/ConsoleWars competition]] with Nintendo. During the time of the Platform/SegaSaturn, his popularity dipped because the series was strangely on main series hiatus, only existing through spinoffs such as ''VideoGame/SonicR'' and an enhanced remake of ''VideoGame/Sonic3DFlickiesIsland''. Come the Platform/SegaDreamcast, Sonic regained the spotlight with the leap to 3D, with ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' and ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure2'' was wildly popular and highly acclaimed, but subsequent games would take their flaws, such as [[CameraScrew dodgy camera]] and controls and GameplayRoulette, and cause the series to slowly slide into a bad reputation for its flawed 3D games and an [[FanDumb annoying fanbase]]. This was exacerbated by the over-the-top DarkerAndEdgier ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog'', the infamous ObviousBeta ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'' and the shameful PortingDisaster of [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog1 the original game]], causing the series to fall into infamy.\
303\
304After ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' introduced a new well-received style of play, with ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' and ''VideoGame/SonicGenerations'' refining it and removing any poorly received alternate gameplay styles, Sonic's popularity increased even more to the point of appearing in ''[[WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph a movie]]''. Then after ''that'', the series' popularity dipped once again, with ''VideoGame/SonicLostWorld'' getting a mixed reception for its jarringly different gameplay and collection of other highly experimental play styles after the well-received boost games, and then even more so with the ill-fated ''VideoGame/SonicBoom: Rise of Lyric''. Even though the latter was part of a spin-off [[WesternAnimation/SonicBoom sub-franchise]] whose 3DS entries were less negatively received, the industry as a whole started to trash Sonic as being a relic of the 16-bit era. The 25th anniversary duo of ''VideoGame/SonicMania'' and ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' has seen mixed results; while ''Mania'' has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response for recreating everything loved about the classic games, ''Forces'' has seen a very mixed response towards its level design, story, and use of three playstyles. [[Film/SonicTheHedgehog2020 The 2020 Hollywood film adaptation]] brought the series back to general mainstream light, which it hasn't been in since the '90s.
305** When ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' came out, it was met with mostly positive reception and even became the KillerApp for the then dying Platform/SegaDreamcast. Later on, however, reception towards it started to turn sour after numerous ports, leading more and more people to take notice of their archaic and very questionable design decisions. What made things worse is that the content that was originally seen as ambitious and bold then came to be viewed as gimmicky and tryhard (namely things like the UnexpectedGameplayChange and the greater emphasis on plot) which culminated in ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006'', a game that took everything already considered problematic from ''Adventure'' and made it ''worse''. Naturally, Sega would do everything to move away from ''Adventure'' and almost anything associated from that time, outside of a nod here and there: Sonic would be the ''only'' playable character from that point on, almost every supporting character was DemotedToExtra, and the plots became much more [[LighterAndSofter simpler and juvenile]]. However, fans eventually started to get tired of ''[[CerebusRollercoaster that]]'' direction by the time ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' came out. Looking back, fans came to the realization that many of the problems with ''Adventure'' were mostly prevalent in a lot of 3D games at the time, and that the ideas presented in ''Adventure'' weren't inherently bad, just poorly executed, and people have come to enjoy the game [[SoBadItsGood because of]] or in spite of its flaws. The slower-based gameplay segments of the ''Adventure'' titles have also become more appreciated in hindsight due to Modern Sonic's controversial "Boost to Win" formula reducing the modern games to "hold forward and A to win". With the advent of [[VideoGameRemake remakes]] making rounds in the late 2010s, namely the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy'' and ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'', and ''Mario'' and ''Zelda'' [[RevisitingTheRoots returning to their early days]] around the same time, many fans are hoping for a remake of ''Sonic Adventure'' (and to a lesser extent, [[VideoGame/SonicAdventure2 its sequel]]) to address many of these issues.
306* The ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' games were huge in the mid-'90s, with critics and gamers alike praising them to no end. While ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'' may not have had the impact the first two games had,[[note]]It was, after all, released two months after ''VideoGame/SuperMario64'' on what had become Nintendo's DaddySystem, by which time 2D platformers were perceived as a thing of the past.[[/note]] the series remained popular, even if the critical praise tapered a bit drawing closer to the TurnOfTheMillennium, with other, formerly less-hyped games being favored on the whole in retrospect. Opinions really began to shift following the release of ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong64'', which many reviewers panned as an uninspired FetchQuest, and by the mid-2000s a full-fledged HypeBacklash had set in, with it becoming trendy among critics and gamers to badmouth the series. Most retrospectively attribute this to spite over Rare's decision in late 2002 to leave Nintendo for Microsoft, and their subsequent AudienceAlienatingEra, while others point to a well-publicized quote by Creator/ShigeruMiyamoto (one that he later [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2010/06/17/e3-2010-shigeru-miyamoto-likes-donkey-kong-country-after-all?page=3 backed away from]]) dismissing the series as pure style over substance[[note]]"''Donkey Kong Country'' proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good."[[/note]] Regardless, the ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry'' series found its way onto many "Most Overrated Games of All Time" lists, and came to be seen as a prime example of all that was wrong with the VideoGame3DLeap in the mid-'90s. Fortunately, the backlash subsided greatly after ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns'' became a massive critical and commercial success, the series' reputation returning to greatness among critics and gamers.
307* For years, ''VideoGame/{{Everquest}}'' was ''the'' [=MMORPG=] for many people. Eventually, however, ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' became more popular, and over the years it has had difficulty staying mainstream in an increasingly crowded MMO landscape. ''Everquest Next'' renewed interest with many people, especially as it's [[Platform/PlayStation4 due for consoles]], however it ended up [[{{vaporware}} canceled]]. It still introduced many to the series though.
308* On his debut, the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' series was hailed as Sony's answer to Nintendo's [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] or Sega's Franchise/{{Sonic|TheHedgehog}}. Crash's first three games were lauded for their tight gameplay and beautiful art design, and even the [[MascotRacer spinoff kart racer]] ''VideoGame/CrashTeamRacing'' was seen as one of the better examples of that genre. However, series creator Creator/NaughtyDog eventually moved on to greener pastures and left the rights to the property with Universal, whose new, multiplatform installments met varying levels of success but were regarded as inferior to the original trilogy, which led to the franchise being handed to Creator/{{Sierra}}, and later Creator/{{Activision}} when they bought Sierra. Crash fell out of the spotlight as a result, reaching a nadir with the poorly-received ''VideoGame/CrashMindOverMutant''. Eventually, even the original games were seen as not all that great, their TwoAndAHalfD platforming gameplay being remembered as both [[NintendoHard frustrating]] and technologically backwards in comparison to games like ''VideoGame/SuperMario64''. However, the announcement of the ''[[VideoGame/CrashBandicootNSaneTrilogy N. Sane Trilogy]]'' in 2017, a CompilationRerelease of [[VideoGameRemake complete remakes]] of the first three games, was met with much resounding fanfare from old ''Crash'' fans, and its release was met with critical and commercial success (despite, or perhaps [[ChallengeGamer because of]], it being [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-07-18-dev-confirms-crash-bandicoot-is-harder-you-arent-imagining-it even harder than the originals]]). With the success of the ''N. Sane Trilogy'' leading to [[VideoGame/CrashTeamRacingNitroFueled a remake]] of ''Crash Team Racing'' and [[VideoGame/CrashBandicoot4ItsAboutTime a brand new game]] that follows on directly from the first three (and [[CanonDiscontinuity ignores the rest]]), many will agree that the ''Crash Bandicoot'' series has regained its former spotlight and has won over many new fans.
309* The space simulator genre was ''big'' in TheNineties, with juggernauts like Chris Roberts' ''VideoGame/WingCommander'' and David Braben / Ian Bell's ''VideoGame/{{Elite}}'', which were big-budget AAA blockbuster games. However, the rise of more profitable games, such as shooters, caused publishers to stop funding these games; Roberts' ''VideoGame/{{Freelancer}}'' in 2003 was the last major publisher AAA-budge space game, and its insane budget and [[ScheduleSlip frequent delays]] may have accelerated the decline. For almost a decade after ''Freelancer''[='=]s release, the only space sim games were Egosoft's ''VideoGame/{{X}}-Universe'' series, and a smattering of small indie titles such as ''VideoGame/{{Evochron}}''. The rise of crowdfunding websites such as Website/{{Kickstarter}} enabled developers to crowd fund their games or show there is an interest to investors. Roberts and Braben are back with ''VideoGame/StarCitizen'' ([[ScheduleSlip still in development]] as of 2017, and one the most expensive games ever developed) and ''VideoGame/EliteDangerous'' (released 2014), respectively, and smaller studios are hopping on the train as well, such as the space sim/RTS hybrid ''Void Destroyer''.
310* In the '80s and '90s, Japan was the dominant force in the video game industry. Producing many different iconic and groundbreaking franchises. However, by the [=PS3=][=/=][=X360=] era, they began to fall off the map, largely due to the overwhelming burden of developing for HD consoles, the surge of quality Western titles, and AAA Japanese developers trying too hard to cater to the Western market. However, from around 2015, Japanese developers began to skyrocket back to stardom with a string of critically and commercially successful games that put the nation back on the spotlight of the gaming world. The fact that Japanese games as of 2015 onwards are readily available in ''Platform/{{Steam}}'' and {{mobile phone|Game}}, thus expanding demographics, helps.
311* ImmersiveSim games dominated the PC scene in UsefulNotes/The90s, with the ''VideoGame/{{Ultima}}'' series, the ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' games, ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'', and ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' all releasing to critical acclaim, but none were too commercially successful. It was then ignored for most of the sixth generation, only to break into the mainstream during the seventh generation with games like ''VideoGame/BioShock'' and ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' becoming mainstream successes, along with established franchises like Creator/BethesdaSoftworks' ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' taking on more immersive sim elements as the series went on and broke into the mainstream. The genre then hit a snag in the eighth generation, with ''[=BioShock=]'' going dormant, while games like ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'' and ''VideoGame/{{Prey|2017}}'' failing to meet sales expectations.
312* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' was a one-man project that rapidly gained massive traction, its popularity peaking by 2012-13 and becoming a massive viral hit. However, the game's fame eventually grew enough to the point where gradually more people were stating ItsPopularNowItSucks, and by the time Notch dumped it in Microsoft's hands, the game's popularity was declining; and by 2016-17, it had sunken to a memetic punching bag that was mocked relentlessly by the internet (although primarily due to its [[FanDumb rabid fanbase]], rather than the actual quality of the game declining). However, in light of Microsoft's warmer connections to Nintendo culminating in the introduction of crossplay between the two (even a little with Sony), its still growing amount of ports, and the rise of {{Battle Royale Game}}s (which simultaneously brought attention back to ''Minecraft'' due to servers hosting Battle Royale custom games, and led to much of the child fanbase responsible for most of the ridicule switching over to ''VideoGame/{{Fortnite}}''), Minecraft came back with a ''vengeance'' in 2019, still receiving numerous updates, its player character becoming a DLC fighter in ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'', and even announcing a film adaptation. While it is not as astronomically popular as it was back in its first years, it is certainly slowly climbing back up and it finally became the best-selling video game of all time in May. Not that its popularity during its supposed "slump" was anything to scoff at, as it was accounted that ''91 million users'' were playing the game monthly in mid-2018. [[note]]compare it to ''VideoGame/Dota2'' 's highest monthly player count of roughly 11 million in 2016, and ''Videogame/{{Fortnite}}'''s highest monthly player count of 78 million, also in mid-2018. And note that ''Dota 2'' and ''Fortnite'' are both free-to-play games, while ''Minecraft'' is paid.[[/note]]
313* The reputation of localization house Creator/WorkingDesigns has seen ups and down over the years:
314** When the studio launched in the early 90's, it acquired a loyal cult following for translating [=JRPGs=] in a time where publishers were still hesitant to bring the genre to the west and actually putting some effort in having a flowing, natural-sounding English scripts and decent voice acting in a time where good translations or acceptable voice acting were ''not'' a priority when translating video games to English.
315** By the time Working Designs closed in the early '00s, after the popularity of the JRPG genre explored and English releases became much frequent, the studio had acquired a detractor base for its habits of liberally rewriting NPC dialogue to include [[SpiceUpTheSubtitles crude jokes]] and dated pop culture references and [[DifficultyByRegion tweaking many of the game's to make them harder]].
316** By the late 00s, opinions on the studio became to trend positive again, with a nostalgic concensus that Working Designs wasn't always the most professional, but that their as relative pioneers in the RPG translation field would be [[OnceOriginalNowCommon difficult for newcomers to appreciate]].
317** And by the late 10s, opinions on Working Designs became to sour again. Beside a growing backlash against localization of Japanese media in some circles, greater awareness of regional changes in video games and the rise of sites documenting them made people much more aware of the studio's habit of messing with the difficulty and mechanics of its releases, which were often perceived as ruining the balance and difficulty curve and making the games plainly worse to play.
318* Although [[AnyoneRememberPogs pogs]] remain a relic of not-so-distant history, through a strange sequence of events the term "pog" (or "poggers," or "poggies"), used to express excitement or triumph, sprang up among gamers and the younger generation late in TheNewTens. It comes from the Website/{{Twitch}} emote [="PogChamp,"=] which itself was copied from a video of two guys playing--you guessed it--[[https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/twitch-emotes/ pogs.]]
319* In the mid-to-late TurnOfTheMillennium, analog [=CRTs=] were thought to have been rendered obsolete by the arrival of flat-panel digital LCD displays in both the markets for televisions and computer monitors. People quickly rushed out to replace their [=CRTs=] with [=LCDs=] as soon as they could. However, the latter part of TheNewTens saw a revival in interest in [=CRTs=], especially among retro gamers, due to certain advantages they have over modern displays, such as non-existant input lag, and better handling of the low-resolution analog signals output by older consoles, which can look quite poor when upscaled by a digital TV. During this time many purist retro gamers began to insist that a CRT is the only proper way to experience old games, much like certain music fans insist that vinyl is the only way to appreciate music. [[DownplayedTrope However, the complexities in manufacturing [=CRTs=] make it unlikely that the technology will see a rebirth]] analogous to the vinyl revival, relegating this new spark of interest to a small number of enthusiasts tracking down used sets.
320* ''VideoGame/{{Myst}}'', upon its release in 1993, outsold ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' two-to-one and became the best-selling PC game of all time until ''VideoGame/TheSims1''. It was seen as the KillerApp for PC gaming at around the moment when it began to seriously take off in the mainstream, spawned a successful franchise, and provoked some of the first discussions of [[ArtGame video games as art]]. However, a vocal segment of the emerging computer game fandom of the time hated it, seeing it as little more than an interactive slide show with puzzles that were both banal and [[MoonLogicPuzzle ridiculously obtuse]] that had little going for it beyond its beautiful pre-rendered graphics and the fact that it could run on nearly any computer on the market. To its critics, ''Myst''[='=]s success did lasting damage to the AdventureGame genre as developers working in that genre turned their games into [[FollowTheLeader clones]] of ''Myst'' that imitated its worst qualities, contributing to the decline of adventure games in the late '90s. The TroubledProduction and subsequent failure of ''VideoGame/UruAgesBeyondMyst'' in 2003 [[FranchiseKiller buried the franchise]], and afterwards, ''Myst'' was reduced to a footnote in gaming history whereas ''Doom'' was remembered as the groundbreaking PC game release of 1993.\
321In the 2010s, however, the rise of the EnvironmentalNarrativeGame genre, together with the rerelease of the series on Platform/GOGDotCom, caused younger gamers to look at the game from a fresh perspective, and they found themselves intrigued by its world, its dreamlike visuals, a BeautifulVoid experience that was both relaxing and creepy, and puzzles and gameplay that they felt were better and deeper than they were given credit for. With that, ''Myst'' was reevaluated as a landmark for organic worldbuilding and environmental storytelling in gaming that was in many respects years ahead of its time, one whose impact is readily visible in a new wave of adventure games.
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324[[folder:Web Original]]
325* Platform/{{Newgrounds}}, a landmark of internet comedy and animation in the late '90s and '00s, never fully adjusted to the rise of Platform/YouTube and social media. The new breed of live-action content creators and Internet celebrities seemed to leave Newgrounds, with its focus on Flash animation and games, destined for the same heap of old, forgotten websites as Website/{{YTMND}}, eBaum's World, and Website/MySpace, especially with the concurrent decline of Adobe Flash, the bedrock of much of the site's animation and games, in the 2010s, which wasn't supported by many tablets and smartphones. Then came 2018, when Website/{{Tumblr}} announced a controversial crackdown on NotSafeForWork content that set off an exodus of many of that site's artists. When Newgrounds announced that it would welcome artists leaving Tumblr, many of those artists listened, delivering a surge of new blood to the site. And then there were the breakout successes of works like ''VideoGame/FridayNightFunkin'', ''WebAnimation/SpookyMonth'', and ''VideoGame/DeadEstate'', which truly brought Newgrounds, especially ''VideoGame/{{Pico}}'', back into relevance for a new generation.
326* By the latter half of UsefulNotes/TheNew10s, Webcomic/RageComics had basically disappeared, and were widely accepted to have outright died out by the middle of the decade after being quickly and completely overtaken by "[[MediaNotes/{{Dada}} dank memes]]". But since late 2020 - early 2021, Trollface has been fully revived in mainstream meme circles. But unlike the previous uses that treat him more as a character, later Trollface memes largely use edited versions of him as a reaction image (such as the "WebOriginal/{{Trollge}}"), fully lean into the InsaneTrollLogic associated with the character (i.e. "[[https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cover-yourself-in-oil Cover Yourself in Oil]]"), or create outright disturbing versions of him (frequently treating it as a HumanoidAbomination attempting to take over the web), fitting with the aforementioned "dank memes". [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwF0sPym_9s These]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au-qU7TUr74 videos]] go into more detail. Some other characters such as Derpina occasionally pop up in modern memes as well, although most of these are usually made to [[{{Retraux}} deliberately harken back]] to the mythical era of rage comics.
327* During the early to mid-[[TheNewTens 2010s]], StorytimeAnimators were widespread on Website/YouTube, mainly due to the relatable nature of the stories and how much life was breathed into them through animation. However, in the late 2010s, storytime animators began to be oversaturated, with many believing that most of the channels made around this time were attempting to [[FollowTheLeader ape off the success]] of WebAnimation/JaidenAnimations and her more personal topics. Couple this with satirical spoofs of the genre from people such as Creator/SrPelo and WebVideo/TheCommentaryCommunity, and storytime animators ended up being viewed as a joke during the late 2010s and 2020, with only WebAnimation/TheOdd1sOut and Jaiden herself maintaining relevance, the former due to GrandfatherClause, and the latter due to her videos becoming more about video games. After the wake of the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, however, most of the alleged copycat channels ended up going under, leaving behind only the storytime animators who actually put effort and personality into their content, such as WebAnimation/LetMeExplainStudios, WebAnimation/{{illymation}}, and WebAnimation/{{Emirichu}}, leading to the genre having a reevaluation and storytime animators subsequently going through a renaissance where people began to respect them once more.
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330[[folder:Western Animation]]
331* WesternAnimation as a whole has gone through this more than once.
332** From the late 1960s through the late '80s, animation's reputation in critical circles went into freefall. While animation was already declining in popularity through the '50s and much of the '60s as the medium migrated to television, the death of Creator/WaltDisney in 1966 marked a tipping point. With most of the biggest names in animation, including Disney, going through their own downturns in the '70s and '80s, the most successful animation came in the form of MerchandiseDriven {{Saturday Morning Cartoon}}s and the LimitedAnimation of Creator/HannaBarbera and their comtemporaries. The whole period is since as [[MediaNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation a dark age for animation]], and is credited as the reason why the AnimationAgeGhetto even exists.[[note]]None of this is to say ''no'' good programming came out of this era. Just that a lot of it was blatant toy commercials.[[/note]] The releases of ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{The Little Mermaid|1989}}'', as well as the rise of "creator-driven" television programming in the late 80s-early 90s is seen as the return of [[MediaNotes/TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation animation as an artform]].
333** While it can be aruged how much of a quality dive Western animation took during the TurnOfTheMillennium, it is generally agreed by animation fans and critics that a "second renaissance" began in the 2010s, as more series -- even comedic ones -- began experimenting more with heavy use of continuity and season- and series-spanning storylines. On the production side of things, animators had developed their skills with Flash and [=ToonBoom=] to the point where rigged puppets were starting to become indistinguishable from traditional animation, and 3D CGI television animation was now at a point where it no longer looked siginificantly worse than theatrical productions.
334** And just a closing reminder, there are reasons why we single out critical circles and put this on the YMMV tab.
335* ''Franchise/MyLittlePony'', after its enormous popularity during the '80s and early '90s, faded into obscurity by the latter half of the '90s and the 2000s, remembered only as the worst sort of [[SweetnessAversion saccharine pap]] from an era in animation that already didn't have the best reputation (as noted above). In 2010, along came ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', which proved to be popular among viewers of [[PeripheryDemographic an unexpectedly wide age range]] to [[FountainOfMemes explode onto the Internet]], collecting more images, comments, and views on Website/KnowYourMeme than anything else for a few years. This trend started to reverse around 2014, where the series' fandom hit its peak of activity and numbers and afterwards started to gradually decline. While it's still fairly large and active by the standards of cartoon fandoms, it's far from the sheer size and omnipresence of its early 2010s iteration.
336* While ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' thrived in the 1990s, the franchise had hit a snag by the 2000s. The show's quality started to decline after the show returned in 1997 (after a three-year hiatus), and the additions of Dil and Kimi to the cast were unable to breathe any new life into the scripts. While it was still popular to an extent, it had been overstepped by ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddParents'' in popularity, and the [[WesternAnimation/RugratsGoWild third installment]] in the ''Rugrats'' movie franchise flopped, to the point that Nick gave [[InvisibleAdvertising next-to-no promotion]] (if even that) to the final episodes of the series. Eventually, new management took over at Nickelodeon and got into a dispute with Creator/KlaskyCsupo about the expense of their shows, and due to ''Rugrats'' not being as big as it was, it was quickly axed and faded into obscurity for the rest of the 2000s, with its [[WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp sequel series]] eventually being ScrewedByTheNetwork and former fans often denying that they ever saw the series just to keep a shred of credibility. Fast forward to 2011, where ''Rugrats'', alongside ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'', celebrated their 20th anniversary. Nickelodeon had begun showing reruns of the show early in the morning, and the creation of [[Creator/NickRewind The 90s Are All That block]] has led to a new wave of interest. Due to this, the show has been fondly remembered, even included in several different parodies (''WesternAnimation/RobotChicken'' did a sketch spoofing how neglectful the parents are) and songs (Music/ChildishGambino's "L.E.S"), as well as airing the show on several different Viacom related networks and blocks.[[note]]It even aired on the dying [=NickMom=] block on Nick Jr. for a little while.[[/note]] As a result, the show is now remembered fondly, and [[WesternAnimation/Rugrats2021 a full-on reboot]] of the series premiered on Creator/ParamountPlus in 2021, [[MilestoneCelebration nearly 30 years after the original series' premiere]], which would become one of Paramount+'s breakout shows, and had a strong linear launch on Nickelodeon, outperforming most of it's competition sans [=SpongeBob=]. The tipping point came when Creator/CreeSummer, who voices Susie Carmichael, won a NAAC Pimage Award for "Best Voice Acting Performance" in early 2022. It goes without saying that the Rugrats franchise is in much better shape than it was in the mid to late 2000s.
337* A similar case occurred with ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls1998'': One of the most popular cartoons of the late '90s and early 2000s, until its reputation tanked hard in 2002 when ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirlsMovie'' flopped and Creator/CraigMcCracken left the show to make ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends''. However, the show regained its popularity in later years, and various adaptations in the form of one-off specials, a couple of new comic book series, and [[WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls2016 a reboot]] for 2016. However, the reboot was made without the involvement or blessing of the original cast or crew, and was roundly despised by critics and fans of the original. Another reboot was announced in 2022, this time with [=McCracken=] back at the helm.
338* The page's quote source is from an in-universe example of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', where, in "It's Way Ed", after falling behind on the latest fads, Double D tries cheering Eddy up by pointing out that fads go in a cycle and that they'd be back in style in ten years. That episode aired in 1999, and, sure enough, ten years later, [[spoiler:the Eds become popular in-universe with the kids]] at the end of the TheMovie ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddysBigPictureShow''. As for the real-world, the popularity of the show resurged in meme culture in 2018 and 2019, thanks to fans discovering the sound library for the show's uniquely bizarre sound effects and the show's composer releasing some of the soundtrack, spawning a trend of humorous "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZizzwteoA9A [X], but Ed, Edd n' Eddy]]" videos.
339* SliceOfLife kids' cartoons featuring plots that could conceivably happen in real life, enjoyed their heyday in the 90s, with shows such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug}}'', ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'', and the Creator/KlaskyCsupo shows (''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TheWildThornberrys''), in stark contrast to the zany shenanigans seen on ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' and [[FollowTheLeader its imitators]] (although a few "surreal" shows such as ''WesternAnimation/RockosModernLife'' could be considered to be quite down-to-earth). By the end of the decade however, tastes shifted towards more outlandish themes, DenserAndWackier situations and ToiletHumour. In spite of this, slice-of-life cartoons didn't entirely go away, as demonstrated by the fact shows like ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' and ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'' managed to focus on the lives of their characters beneath their fantastic premises. By the mid-2010s, the likes of ''WesternAnimation/JohnnyTest'', ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Breadwinners}}'' brought upon a backlash against extreme zaniness in animation, and shows such as ''WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}}'', ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'', ''WesternAnimation/HarveyBeaks'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' (though that show would later become increasingly DenserAndWackier) became well-received by both kids and those who grew up on the genre's heyday, to the point ''Hey Arnold!'' finally saw the fabled ''[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheJungleMovie Jungle Movie]]'' materialize and ''Rocko's Modern Life'' got [[WesternAnimation/RockosModernLifeStaticCling a Netflix special]] depicting the main trio dealing with life in the 21st century.
340* ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes''.
341** The characters were created during the 1930s and grew immensely popular during the war years, but fizzled out by TheSixties due to the departure of most of its creative team from Creator/WarnerBros[[note]]The studio closed between 1964 and 1967 (the void filled by [=DePatie=]-Freleng), before closing for good in 1969. The final cartoon of the original series was a rare Cool Cat (no, not [[Film/CoolCatSavesTheKids that one]]) cartoon called ''Injun Trouble''.[[/note]] By then, however, the original ''Looney Tunes'' shorts had been repackaged for FirstRunSyndication in the case of the pre-1948 material, and {{Saturday Morning Cartoon}}s and later prime-time specials for the post-1948 material, renewing their popularity among young people.
342** But this too died out with the rise of the MerchandiseDriven "toy shows" of the '80s. And then ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures'', which is all about child {{Expy}}s of the original Tunes, started a revival, culminating in ''Film/SpaceJam'', which combined classic ''Looney Tunes'' humor with a story accessible to '90s youth thanks to the involvement of UsefulNotes/MichaelJordan. The buzz was so large that WB[[note]]which by then had regained the pre-1948 shorts via Time Warner's merger with [[UsefulNotes/TedTurner Turner Broadcasting]][[/note]] released some of the original shorts in [[https://web.archive.org/web/20160318230611/http://looney.goldenagecartoons.com/DVDvideo/VHS/videostarsofsj.html VHS compilations]] to get kids to better familiarize with the classic characters, and today the film is remembered on the Internet as a FountainOfMemes. Between the Creator/CartoonNetwork's "June Bugs" marathons, ''Film/LooneyTunesBackInAction'', and multiple original TV shows (from focused ones like ''WesternAnimation/TazMania'' and ''WesternAnimation/DuckDodgers'' to ensembles like ''WesternAnimation/TheLooneyTunesShow''), the ''Looney Tunes''[='=] popularity has been on-off since then.
343* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' had been immensely successful during the 2000s, but its popularity started to dip by the early 2010s, especially after the infamous "Life of Brian" stunt, and the subsequent Season 12 was heavily criticized by viewers becoming disillusioned with the show becoming more and more mean-spirited and vulgar, with the characters [[MoralEventHorizon becoming increasingly amoral]] and [[{{Flanderization}} flanderized]] while shock and profanity-laced humor were amped up, as did the shows' ham-fisted political commentary. The show's reputational decline soon led audiences to avoid anything with Creator/SethMacFarlane's name on it, affecting the box office performances of ''Film/AMillionWaysToDieInTheWest'' and ''Film/Ted2'', as well as eventually leading to the cancellation of ''WesternAnimation/TheClevelandShow'' and the ChannelHop of ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad''. Despite still being in production, ''Family Guy'' had faded off into irrelevancy by the middle of the decade, and it was sparsely talked about in discussions surrounding adult animated shows.\
344\
345By the end of the decade, ''Family Guy'' started to garner attention again in time for its 20th anniversary, thanks to the show becoming a FountainOfMemes, the show's writers toning down its most heavily-criticized aspects (toning down the sophomoric humor, making characters more sympathetic, having a heavier focus on plots, and making a few callbacks to earlier seasons, as well as downplaying the most divisive changes), and [=MacFarlane=] gaining a newfound respect by launching a part-time musical career. This in turn made people revisit the series, gaining nostalgia for episodes made in the 2000s and early 2010s, and giving it critical acclaim for its off-the-wall zaniness and biting social commentary. The show's popularity bounce was confirmed by the end of 2020, when it was revealed that ''Family Guy'' was the most-watched show on Hulu. While not as huge as it was back in its heyday, ''Family Guy'' is in a much more steady place now, compared to where it was in the mid-2010s, and especially compared to the [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons two other]] [[WesternAnimation/SouthPark long running adult animated shows]].
346* Theatrical adaptations of TV cartoons: The ''Franchise/CareBears'' movies were fairly successful but other '80s TV adaptations didn't do very well (ex: ''WesternAnimation/RainbowBrite'', ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'', ''WesternAnimation/TheChipmunkAdventure''). The underperformances of ''[[WesternAnimation/JetsonsTheMovie The Jetsons]]'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{DuckTales|TheMovieTreasureOfTheLostLamp}}'' movies in the summer of 1990 likely prevented studios from greenlighting other movies based on then-popular TV cartoons, with the ones that were released, like ''WesternAnimation/BatmanMaskOfThePhantasm'' and ''WesternAnimation/AGoofyMovie'', not doing well enough to change this mindset.\
347\
348Several years later, Paramount had success with ''[[WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoAmerica Beavis and Butt-Head]]'', ''[[WesternAnimation/TheRugratsMovie Rugrats]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/{{South Park|BiggerLongerAndUncut}}'' movies that all came out in a three-year period. Suddenly, it seemed every somewhat popular TV cartoon was getting a theatrical movie, some studios going so far to reformat movies originally meant to be DirectToVideo to theatrical release. The only two that did very good business during this era were ''Anime/PokemonTheFirstMovie'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheTiggerMovie'', while movies based on ''WesternAnimation/{{Doug|s1stMovie}}'', ''Anime/{{Digimon|TheMovie}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess|SchoolsOut}}'', ''Anime/{{Cowboy Bebop|KnockinOnHeavensDoor}}'', ''[[WesternAnimation/HeyArnoldTheMovie Hey Arnold!]]'', ''WesternAnimation/{{The Powerpuff Girls|Movie}}'', ''[[WesternAnimation/JonahAVeggieTalesMovie VeggieTales]]'', ''WesternAnimation/{{The Wild Thornberrys|Movie}}'', ''WesternAnimation/TeachersPet'', ''[[WesternAnimation/CliffordsReallyBigMovie Clifford the Big Red Dog]]'', and ''[[Anime/YuGiOhTheMoviePyramidOfLight Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' as well as subsequent ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'', ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'', and ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' films, among others, did more middling business or outright bombed. While the [[WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobSquarePantsMovie first]] [[WesternAnimation/TheSpongeBobMovieSpongeOutOfWater two]] ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' movies (the first of which was greenlit at the height of this craze but not released until it had died down quite a bit, and the sequel was greenlit more to give Paramount's feature animation division an accessible and commercial first film than anything else), ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForceColonMovieFilmForTheaters'' (which, despite its lower box office gross, turned a profit due to its low budget), and ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsonsMovie'' (which came out a while after this trend died down, but had the benefit of being the long awaited theatrical debut of one of the most well known and influential animated series in American television history) were all more successful, it doesn't seem to be enough to turn a trend just yet. Since then, only [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyTheMovie2017 a handful]] [[WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGoToTheMovies of]] [[WesternAnimation/PAWPatrolTheMovie TV]] [[WesternAnimation/TheBobsBurgersMovie cartoons]] have gotten theatrical releases to relatively little success, with the films of shows like ''WesternAnimation/TotallySpies'', ''WesternAnimation/RegularShow'', ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'', ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'', ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'', and ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'' going straight to television or streaming in the United States.
349[[/folder]]

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