#preston may have helped impact some of bart's media taste

[radioactive-earthshine]

Every now and then I come across Bart in fics where the author writes him as completely disinterested in older media or is contemptuous of black and white film when the comics make it very clear that Bart actually has a pretty wide range of interests across decades.

Impulse #21

During the LoSH vs Bart Allen debacle featuring the Cosmic Treadmill Bart quotes The Jetsons, the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 1960s. In the 1990s reruns of this show was broadcasted very frequently alongside dozens of other cartoons so he would definitely have had an active choice to watch it or not.

Impulse #53

The Patty Duke Show from the 1960s is a little niche even for teens of the 90s and it is interesting that he watches it. The show was not colorized, and was aired on Nickelodeon during their "Nick-at-Nite" broadcast block in the 1990s.... which Bart should have been asleep for.... because his bedtime is 8:00pm... and that block started at 9:00 iirc.

But that's how it was for our world, for the comic world Pickelodeon may have had a completely different broadcast. Still it is a little charming to imagine Bart sneaking to watch this show, and maybe Helen would permit it and supersede Max's bedtime regime.

The premise of the show in relation to Bart and Thad's relationship is amusing and fitting, identical 'cousins' who are completely different in personality, taste and temperament as they get into shenanigans and fumble around displaced from home.

Impulse #57

On Christmas Eve it has been a long standing tradition for It's a Wonderful Life (in this case X-Mas) to air on American television. It is regarded as a treasure and is enmeshed in pop culture whose core premise of how one man can have a profound change on everything has been reused countless times across multiple other forms of media. The film is from 1946, has been colorized but is more frequently broadcast in black and white.

Bart admitting that he wants to watch it, and furthermore that it is his favorite Christmas movie is a little unusual for teens of the 1990s compared to the monolith of other options. He watched it among many others and decided that this beloved classic was his favorite over the others.

In closing; Bart Allen plays a lot of video games, watches MTV, cartoons, and movies that are rated R but he also watches older classics too and enjoys them.

Bart came to the year 1994 with very little prejudice and does not have any contemptuous opinions regarding older media. So for your next fic instead of having him turn his nose up at the idea of watching something from the far distant decade of... 1980... consider that he would be absolutely 100% all about it.