Internet Becomes A Time Machine For ‘70s Nostalgia

Wed., May 22, 1996

Roy Rivenburg Los Angeles Times

It’s bad enough that the 1970s actually happened.

Now, the leisure-suit decade has returned to life in cyberspace. Thanks to computer geniuses who must have ignored scientists’ warnings never to stare directly into the light of a disco ball, it’s once again possible to experience such cultural mishaps as “Starsky and Hutch,” the AMC Pacer and David Cassidy’s gallbladder surgery.

Try not to be alarmed, but the Internet is teeming with sites devoted to these and other topics.

Consider, for example, “CHiPs” Online, which not only satisfies the deep-seated human longing for computerized photos of actor Erik Estrada but also resolves the pressing global debate over how to tell the difference between episodes from the show’s second and third seasons: If the copyright date at the end is in Roman numerals, it’s an earlier version.

Internet explorers can also visit 8-Track Heaven (thrill to the sound of a tape changing programs), Exor’s Brady Bunch Harmony (featuring proverbs uttered by Mike Brady), the Sea-Monkey Worship Page (never mind that the three-eyed creatures technically predate the ‘70s) and Speed Racer (which reveals that Button C on Speed’s Mach-5 steering wheel “releases powerful rotary saws from the front end of the car to slice through any and all obstacles”).

“People who grew up in the ‘70s are old enough now to look back on the decade with nostalgia,” says Lisa Sutton, a Culver City, Calif., art director who runs a home page called Disco Biscuit (‘70s slang for Quaalude), which is accessible only to Prodigy subscribers. “It’s become a hot topic.”

Sutton’s fondness for the decade doesn’t stop at the computer terminal. It also infests her home.

In her living room, for example, is an entire wall of lunch boxes depicting Bobby Sherman, “The Bionic Woman” and Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp.

Some of Sutton’s collection is featured on her home page, which she dubs “the Room 222 of the Web.” The “Flashback Gallery” section of the site, for instance, contains pictures of “Welcome Back, Kotter” toys and magazine ads for such products as True cigarettes and the Chevy Vega.

Sutton’s page also links visitors to numerous other ‘70s Internet sites, all of which are available to non-Prodigy subscribers.

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