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Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
Soleil Moon Frye’s reprised celebrity, as well as her struggles, are indicative of two larger trends of the American “nostalgia industry” that fixate on the 1980s and 1990s. Her role as the charismatic child star of Punky Brewster (NBC, 1984-1988) re-debuted as a 10-episode season on NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock, in February 2021, well into the Covid-19 pandemic. The new Punky Brewster represents the wider phenomenon of the “authentic continuity revival,” centered on the reprisal of the roles and arcs of lead and supporting characters in media properties, played by the original cast members (and in this case, also produced by the original network). This revival acts as a bona fide flash-forward indebted to fanfiction, and a spin-off that aims for transgenerational appeal by introducing a younger and more inclusive generation of “parallel” main characters (e.g., Cobra Kai, Saved By the Bell, Creed, Coming 2 America). Simultaneously, in her documentary, Kid 90 (Hulu, 2021), Frye is both the film’s subject and director, illuminating yet another nostalgic media trend: documentary films rooted in video essays and/or home-movie footage shot by celebrities in the 1980s and 1990s. Both an industry perspective and critique, and mixing biography with autoethnography, other recent documentaries include Val (2021, focusing on Val Kilmer) and All I Can Say (2021, focusing on Shannon Hoon). This presentation seeks to demonstrate how the “punky power” of nostalgia is at once pandemic comfort food, celebrity voyeurism (pre-social media), and an entry point for media giants into the “streaming wars.”
Soleil Moon Frye Reprising: The Punky Power of 80s and 90s Nostalgia
Soleil Moon Frye’s reprised celebrity, as well as her struggles, are indicative of two larger trends of the American “nostalgia industry” that fixate on the 1980s and 1990s. Her role as the charismatic child star of Punky Brewster (NBC, 1984-1988) re-debuted as a 10-episode season on NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock, in February 2021, well into the Covid-19 pandemic. The new Punky Brewster represents the wider phenomenon of the “authentic continuity revival,” centered on the reprisal of the roles and arcs of lead and supporting characters in media properties, played by the original cast members (and in this case, also produced by the original network). This revival acts as a bona fide flash-forward indebted to fanfiction, and a spin-off that aims for transgenerational appeal by introducing a younger and more inclusive generation of “parallel” main characters (e.g., Cobra Kai, Saved By the Bell, Creed, Coming 2 America). Simultaneously, in her documentary, Kid 90 (Hulu, 2021), Frye is both the film’s subject and director, illuminating yet another nostalgic media trend: documentary films rooted in video essays and/or home-movie footage shot by celebrities in the 1980s and 1990s. Both an industry perspective and critique, and mixing biography with autoethnography, other recent documentaries include Val (2021, focusing on Val Kilmer) and All I Can Say (2021, focusing on Shannon Hoon). This presentation seeks to demonstrate how the “punky power” of nostalgia is at once pandemic comfort food, celebrity voyeurism (pre-social media), and an entry point for media giants into the “streaming wars.”
Bio
Examining post-1960s visual culture in the United States, Kristen Galvin’s interdisciplinary research and teaching explore intersections across film and media, popular music, performance, contemporary art, gender and sexuality, memory, and subcultural studies. She has published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Art Journal Open, American Book Review and in edited collections. Her current book project explores “hypernostalgia” and reconfigurations of old and new media cultures in relation to constructions of “Americanness” in the 21st century. She is currently an Assistant Professor and Director of the Art History Concentration in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.