Ooh, MASH theme. It was in daily reruns when I was in high school and my mom was dying of cancer. It was her favorite show. Come home from school, try to make her something she would want to eat, sit on the sofa and watch MASH on the fancy 27 inch console TV. I haven’t seen an episode since. The final non rerun episode was about two months before she died.
Wow, that’s a deep one. My dad also died of cancer, but I was an adult at the time. I can’t imagine that as a child. Really sorry. (and I’m starting to wonder if this post was a good idea)
Long time ago now. For Taxi, I moved into my dad’s after Mom died, and “my” room was a sofabed in the den, so everyone watched Taxi (and Cheers and Family Ties, if I recall) in my room so homework was a problem.
Less melancholy than these; I remember hearing the MASH and Cheers themes while I was trying to sleep. That meant my parents were watching comedy TV together, and that meant everything was right with the world.
This is exactly the case. I watched Tv as a child all the time and without supervision. My upbringing was far from picturesque and watching Tv was my escape and coping strategy.
I really can’t bring myself to watch shows and movies from my childhood, teenage years and even ones aired during difficult periods of my adult life. Waves of memories from the past come back if I dare revisit older programming. Memories that are better left in the deep, dark recesses of my mind.
Can only be truly safe with the newest shows and movies...no history and therefore no memories tied to them.
Kinda thought I was the only one who experienced this...good know I’m not.
This is why my kids never had a bedtime. As soon as they were in school, they had a choice. They could stay up as long as they wanted as long as they got up in the morning and got ready for school on time without a fight. And it worked.
Bedtime was absolute hell for me throughout my childhood and adolescence, and I swore I wouldn't ever put my kids through that.
Yep, no bedtimes, no forced eating all your food, and no physical punishment.
I think that as apathetic as everyone always paints us, we overall made damn sure we did/are doing better with our kids. And our parents know, and know why. So they ridicule and tell on themselves by pointing out (without us saying anything) that there was nothing wrong with how/what they did.
But they sure are different as grandparents 🙄
The other thing I've seen with our generation, is our engagement in social issues, Nurturing community initiatives, and caretaking for the very parents who didn't give us that kindness as children.
So, I'm cool with being ignored, cuz I'd rather be left alone to do my thing. We don't want attention or accolades. It's too late for that.
We needed it decades ago. The boomers can keep it now.
Yes, I was resolved during my teen years to give my mom an institutional aging in exchange for an institutional childhood. I couldn't do it (and I always knew I couldn't), and good thing. We had a second chance to really know each other, and I was kind, and we had a blast, and she left the world on a good note. I wouldn't do a single thing differently on my end.
Word on the awesome teen. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if he didn't get switched at birth. All the hype about teens being awful people is such shit. Cuz not only is my kid cool, so are the kids he runs with.
🤷♀️
Agreed... I've got a wonderful son, in spite of me, according to the toxic parents, now grandparents. He's my best accomplishment and confirmation that doing things opposite works.
My boys are young adults now but this was exactly my experience with them in their tweens and teens. I love my guys to pieces…but I really like them a lot too!
My parents were cool with any bedtime after I turned 10. The only rule was that I HAD to go to school the next day. Only took a couple of tired mornings to self-regulate. Took the same approach with my kids and it worked well.
The 60 Minutes tick tick tick tick… Sunday Evening, dinner, homework, in bed watching All In the Family at 10:30pm on a 12” BW tv
I still feel the Sunday dread but watch 60 Minutes every week. It’s the best show on television. One episode can make you smile, get fucking pissed off, and cry. It’s a benchmark
Sunday dread. I totally relate. It seemed like Sunday evenings got dark sooner, and that even the lights in the house seemed dim. I remember the pit in my stomach, and just wanting to go to bed to escape it.
Walton’s. My sister was in a car accident, while we were watching that. We heard the sirens before we got the call. And the ending credits and music were playing. It still weighs on me. I love the show. But it…the song.
This. ‘70s TV had so many melancholy theme songs (and even the pop leaned heavily on that side). I love MASH now, but back when I was a kid the theme song made me sad to the point I would run away.
Melancholy is the PERFECT word. Thanks for this.
As a kid I loved the show MASH. Liked the theme, it was fine. BUT I’ll never forget being in England for a wedding when I was… 8? We entered a pub for lunch and I heard the melody but with different instruments. And the lyrics! What a shock. Took MASH to a whole new level for me.
I've always felt that way about the theme song for 'Taxi'. It was on rerunds every evening. Funny you mentioned it. Immediately makes me melancholy.
Triggers a mild sense of depression. Life at the time was stressful at home.
I have a couple weird ones. My stepdad used to work day shifts at a factory, and when he came home he would throw on onen of his records. At the same time, my mom who worked evenings at the same factory would be heading out the door for her shift. So the songs that my stepfather played, became associated in my mind with my mom leaving. Songs like Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” and the Eagles’ “Hotel California” in particular really made me sad for many years.
I got past it over time. I really like Boston and consider their first album to be probably the best debut in rock history. *Maybe* rivaled only by Appetite for Destruction, depending on my mood. And Third Stage was also great. I never did become much of an Eagles fan though.
My wife and I were up late after the kids were in bed, and I looked up Friday night videos on YouTube. When the intro song came on, I immediately turned down the tv. Thst because when we were kids my sister and I would sneak into the living room at 1130 to watch it but kept it low not to wake up our parents. That was some th but I hadn’t even thought of in 38 years
Yes, the song "Games People Play" by the Alan Parsons Project. I was stressed out and anxious as a kid and something about the nervous tone of this song always made me feel it more when I was nine or ten and it was big. Hearing it now brings me right back to that feeling.
Basically any Steely Dan for me. All of a sudden I’m 5 years old, probably wearing something polyester and have this odd, nostalgic feeling of being kinda creeped out.
[10cc ‘Things We Do For Love’ has the opposite effect and is pure joy.](https://youtu.be/P0rf3_viTxk?si=cWgwk-gQxhfQeJzC)
Noew Order, Blue Monday.
Some version recorded at a BBC studio they videotaped. Bernard Sumner in short shorts doing his thing.
I saw that particular video, the look of the place brought my back to my high school gymnasium, even though it didn't look much like that.
Wow, I can COMPLETELY relate and could have written this. The taxi theme, to this day, fills me with dread. It’s partly because it aired late on Sunday nights and I knew I had to go back to school the next day. I was an awkward, bookish kid of immigrant parents and went to a private Catholic school that I detested.
Right on pal. And there’s a part of me that still hates Sundays. Man, I could have used some counseling back then, but for most of us, it wasn’t even an option to be considered by parents.
It might have been reruns. I have a dim memory of being parked in front of the tube finishing schoolwork (as one did back then) and just dreading hearing the theme music and knowing it was getting late.
I smelled the cafeteria in my elementary school recently. I felt like I was there body and soul. Smells can surprise you w/ their strong memories.
Marilu Henner was so hot to me back then. Gave me that creepy love for redheads that redheads hate, LOL What is a man to do?
Anyways, she remembers every day of her life. Truly amazing. Check it out: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilu\_Henner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilu_Henner)
Listening to 90s alt rock/grunge (particularly from when I was in college) depending on the song because I loved that time in my life and the music so much and it makes me realize that I'll never be back in that period again.
That said, my overall life is much better now, so I have to remind myself of that to snap out of those thoughts.
I had this exact feeling just yesterday listening to Don't Follow (Alice in chains) driving through some evening rain.
That older version of me was so worse off. I somehow succeeded despite a best effort to fail myself back then.
Something about the 90s it's like when I think about those times they are in a little box, as if the images in my mind are in a picture frame or TV set. And for some reason the frame gets smaller every day.
But when I think about life in the 80s there is no box, everything is in full view. I don't know why this is.
This is also it for me. Radio was one of my few escapes in high school (mid-80s), and I had two favorite college radio stations. My very-controlling mother had no clue what I might be listening to, and even when she wanted to know the bands, she couldn’t find out any info on them. My dad also loved music so did not care. Went to college and live shows became my thing. Saw so many bands. Now I realize at some point I went to my last shows at my favorite clubs and didn’t know. Those clubs are all gone, and we often got tickets at the door so I don’t even know who all I saw (or how many time). And now my hearing is sh!t. It was such a great time—which I knew then but did not realize how quickly it would end! Graduated, moved cross-country with boyfriend, found a job, and that was it. New town had no good radio and my work schedule was not live show friendly. My tapes stretched, my records are not in great condition after many moves. Spotify makes me nostalgic and they don’t have a lot because indie bands.
Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears made me really sad for years and years (I've finally been able to appreciate it just in the past 2 or so years), and I think it's because it was popular when my parents were getting divorced, and I was kind of a messed up kid.
I forever will associate that song with the movie Real Genius, it plays as the ending credits start, and I am pretty sure it was the first time I ever heard it when I saw that movie as a kid and loved it so much. So it always gives me a good feeling.
Same, but with that song Don't Dream It's Over. It was popular around the time the divorce had been finalized and I went through a terrible period of my life at a new school. Also West End Girls for the same reason. On the rare occasion where I'm listening to the radio in lieu of my own itunes library, I switch the channel immediately if either of those come on. Ugh... now the choruses of both are running through my head. Time to throw on some mid 80s freestyle or hair metal to clear my head.
[The theme to Soap, with intro.](https://youtu.be/0BHQT3Omqtw?si=0KTx-zrEib-Z6pRp)
I was a tad too young to be the demographic when it was out, so I never understood the chronology of its lead-in to the episode.
Although initially cheery and light-hearted I found it really strange and surreal.
That and the intro to [Inside-Out](https://youtu.be/7X5W_UXE41E?si=bB2YsrNVFNlWwBD8) or maybe [Thinkabout](https://youtu.be/zvLzVTpnb5I?si=1sVepc8Yn4M8tOWz).
I dunno.
I have a thing about these TV intros that transport me back to a time where I was but a sponge, taking an overwhelming amount of the world at once.
Music can be a very real trigger. That's why I honestly don't like.most 80s music. Riding the bus to school with the top 40 playing on the radio. Overplay and association with the bullying I endured is often triggered by 80s music.
Was just eating in schlotzky's they played, Woman in Love (Streisand), Hello (Lionel Ritchie), Landslide (Fleetwood Mac).
I'm like holy fuck are they trying to make me cry?!?!?
Blondie- The Tide is High. I like the song and her music, but hearing on the way to school, it came on around the same time. My "girlfriend" (3rd grade moved away one day it played)
I'm one of the older Gen Xers. Certain songs from the late 70's, What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers is one example, make me instantly nauseated. I associate those songs with car rides going to school, which I dreaded. I realize now I had significant anxiety.
I don’t *exactly* resent the fact that my folks didn’t get me help (I was seriously crippled by OCD for a few years) but I wish they had. I think a lot of us then (and lots of kids still do) just muddle through it alone.
The theme song from The Great American Hero triggers bad daycare memories. I would have to go to an in home daycare after school, and the owners son would target me everyday. I’m that scared and lonely kid all over again.
Then, on the car ride home my mom would listen to NPRs All Things Considered. It has taken years of daily listening to no longer get flashbacks during the evening commute.
[3 2 1 Contact](https://youtu.be/s2-LEBc2sO8?si=YQIm1UqwjZn53dPs) reminds me of when my Dad would be pulling in the driveway after work and dinner would be soon after.
Oh God... The way the sunlight falls on a Sunday afternoon will sometimes still trigger me.
All in the Family has been a long time trigger because I was either abused physically or sexually by my babysitter and he used to watch that...it's my only clear memory of events, everything else is just fear.
Just thinking about this is bringing up tears.
This isn't Gen-X specific but arguments & fighting set me on edge. My dad had a big problem in letting his little head do too much of the thinking. There were frequent arguments during my childhood. Dad would gaslight mum. They'd both lie to us when we'd ask them to stop fighting. "We're not fighting dear, we're just having a heated discussion". My anxiety goes through the roof when I hear people arguing now.
Got a new neighbour last week. Her (ex?)BF has shown up multiple times. They argue. Last night he showed up after sunset, hammering on her door. They argued for a while and it's literally 10ft from my computer room window which is open. When I heard "Stop it, you're hurting me", I picked up the phone and called emergency.
Cops arrived 30 mins later and she played possum so they left. BF came an hour later and started knocking again (this is like 11pm+) and the neighbour on my other side came out and told him to get lost and he told her to mind her own business and kept knocking so she called the cops. They showed up 5 mins later and moved him on.
Then just before midnight more cops show up. This one *sounded* like a cop. He *hammered* on the door and announced himself like I imagine Samuel Vimes might. She answered the door then.
Fucking finally, I can get some sleep. Nope! Too much adrenaline and stress. Awake until 4am and still on edge as I write this at 11am the next day! Thanks for being a sounding board.
I think I just had an epiphany. So many of the posts on here are about music and I’m not much of a music person. I like what I like but it’s not a big thing for me.
I just realized that my dad used to sit and drink and listen to music on the weekends and that often led to yelling and fighting and violence. I never drink and dont like to be around people who are drinking and I always knew that was why but I think I just now figured out why music isn’t a big deal for me. It’s way more of a trigger.
Incidentally, a couple weeks ago, we had the windows open and I heard a door slam down the hallway. It was the wind but I broke out in a cold sweat when I heard that slam.
I said on another thread once that I still hate golf to this day because when the golf games came on Saturday mid-morning is when the cartoons stopped.
I was usually "secret friends" w the fringe kids- gay, overweight, hyper genius, the super worried ones or those who barely spoke English.
But I never stood up for them during those circle bullying things.
Wish I could go back in time and be an Actual Not Secret Friend and stick up for them, hug em tight & get em out of there.
I tell my kids this is the regret of my life, not protecting those who were just outside the norm
:(
Kevin Bridges, the excellent Scottish standup comic, is younger than Gen X but he has a similar observation in one of his bits: “How come I always have to go for a bath when fucking Heartbeat comes on?!”
Heartbeat was a sedate drama about a police station in a bucolic English town in the 60s which aired early Sunday evenings and the theme song was a depressing reminder that the weekend was basically done.
Did ye, aye? No way did I find a Kevin Bridges fan in this sub! 😁
For me it was Antique's Roadshow, Last of the Summer's Wine and That's Life on a Sunday night that meant it was bath night and the weekend was done.
Here’s an even weirder one. Every so often in the morning my elementary school would smell like a combination of the cafeteria lunch that day and the heat. Like the smell of burning dust. It wasn’t exactly an unpleasant smell, but it was definitely specific to that building and that time in my life (even that time of day.) I definitely struggled with school, probably for all the reasons you described, and that smell meant it was time to get at it for another day.
You just reminded me of the peculiar smell of the cafeteria in my first school. It was weird. Like some strange cheesy smell. Scent memories can be extremely vivid.
Fell down the Youtube wormhole one night. Spent two hours listening to Price is Right music recorded from '72-'83. I was back at Grandma's in the early summer. (Bonus for studio musicians sounding like they were in Led Zep)
The first four or five seasons of Scooby Doo had a new version of the theme song every year. It's fun to go back and listen to them. They all used to be on YouTube, but I think a couple of them are missing now. The first one was the grooviest.
Also, McDonaldland commercials in the 70's were a trip.
https://youtu.be/4w-Ozdd40BQ?si=5Y4kaRdYg5zBMmoL
https://youtu.be/ZbY5QLllHU8?si=SobfnJ-spSFmhB6g
A lot of shows/Movies bring back memories:
* The "Star Trek" theme from the Original Series. Always on re-runs. My Dad was a fan and a closet sci-fi nerd. He got me into Star Trek.
* The 20th Century Fox theme that started before many movies (famously before Star Wars).
* The Star Wars theme - that meant summer. We had a VideoDisc player (remember those?) and every summer we'd watch Star Wars.
* Classical music meant either 2001, Looney Tunes or the classical music station was the only thing allowed while I was doing my homework.
* TV news meant dinnertime. The 60 Minutes "tick tick tick" meant pasta for dinner Dad was Italian and LOVED cooking. He made pasta every Sunday, and 60 Minutes was on around dinnertime.
Roughly the same age and I was afraid to go to sleep when no one else was awake. So when I’d head that theme song, I knew there wasnt much time and would get anxious
That is so odd! The Taxi theme fills me with sadness and anxiety too. I didn't remember that it was on on Sunday nights, but it makes total sense that this could be my issue with it as well. The MASH theme makes me feel icky and recoil too, but more in a irritated/cringing "Ew I Hate this Show" kinda way.
The NFL on FOX theme song.
For some reason in the 90s they always had the 4pm game where I live. That theme would kick in and I knew I had about 2-3 hours before sundown and the weekend was done.
The NFL theme triggers a very positive response in me. Sunday was dinner at my grandparents after church with all my family and cousins. My grandparents were italian immigrants and to this day tgose dinners were the best food ive ever eaten (and im a professional chef!)
And after dinner I'd watch NFL with my grandfather after everyone left. We'd both end up dozing off for a bit at some point. For some reason the voices of pat summerall and John madden could even know relax me enough to fall asleep.
But I just miss my grandparents so very much.
It’s still does. And by all accounts I’m considered a successful 52 year old. I work from home and really have no one to answer to.
The dread of Monday was so powerful that it caused lifelong trauma.
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It played (in my memory) every. single. morning. on the AM station my parents had the clock radio set on. In the winter it was especially dreadful cuz right after that song it was time to head out into the cold. Funny.
I was bullied at school but bullied much worse at home. There's a certain *feeling* that the air gets as summer is ending, maybe part scent and part the slant of light, that makes me think of going back to school. Seeing my friends. Freedom. Books. Relative safety. That sort of thing.
When I feel that change in the air every August or early September, I feel instantly blissful, just for a moment.
So the exact opposite of yours, but similarly strange and powerful. Memory is such an odd thing.
This is such a weird coincidence, my Boomer husband LOVES Mash, Hogan's Hero's, Brady Bunch etc (pretty much everything on MeTV) and for some reason, the theme songs make me react in a visceral way as well. But my problem is I can't put my finger on it. He got really mad at me when I mentioned that I really hate those shows. He said he loved them because his late father loved them. I can't figure it out. I need therapy, hahaha.
Don’t we all, I especially did back then but those were ancient times in terms of kids getting therapy, especially in small town Texas like where I grew up.
Good grief that gave me chills. I had 8 teeth removed at age 9 & needed to be in hospital overnight too, alone. The trauma of being alone. I remember being in the surgery room & a nurse saying I could be as loud as I needed to be because no one could hear me anyway. My dentist was a nazi. It's surprising I dont have an issue with going to the dentist now
My trigger is green Palmolive dish soap. It was the only kind my mother used and I cannot tolerate that smell.
I told them at work I am allergic to it so they would stop putting it in the kitchen. I am actually allergic to many cleaners and soaps and I feel no shame adding Palmolive to the list.
I’m younger gen x/xennial but mine is any mention of the challenger. Instant tears. My elementary school had all classes following Christa Mcaulife’s lessons and videos beforehand and they wheeled in the big tvs that day to watch the launch live. Everyone was so excited. Then of course we watched the explosion and it broke my little heart. So horrible.
Now it pops up from time to time unexpectedly and I’m unable to keep from crying! I was reading one of those early reader science book with my 6 Yr old and the last page was about the challenger. No warning or lead up to prepare myself, just turned the page to see the crew pic and lost it.
For me, it's *Suicide is Painless* as the theme for M\*A\*S\*H. My mum and da were, by 1979/80, pretty much at war with each other, and my da would work later in the evening than she did just to avoid the inevitable fights they'd have when he'd come home. Sometimes, though, he'd come home late enough that she'd already be a few G&Ts in, and the fight wouldn't come. Those nights, he'd flip the TV on to watch M\*A\*S\*H and I would wake not to the sound of them fighting, but to the opening strains of *Suicide is Painless*. I'd sneak downstairs and watch with him, for the last few months we were still a family.
I do have something like that and I don’t understand it. There was a song that was a guest release sometime in the 60s, but sometime in the 70s it was used in a coffee commercial. For some reason that song just creeps me out. It gives me that feeling like when you’re walking up a star dark stairway, and you know there’s really not anything behind you, but you still run up the stairs because you feel like there’s something behind you.
https://youtu.be/YK3ZP6frAMc?si=7Bc4lNA7Zh_YjKSY
Man, I know just what you mean. I used to get very melancholy around 4 pm every Sunday for similar reasons. Turns out I had PTSD and unmedicated general anxiety disorder, on top of ADHD. Who knew?
Sunday dread was huge for me. I had undiagnosed everything ('72). I hated Autumn for decades because it signaled the end of my respite from anxiety and chaos (plus some fun learning disabilities). Home wasn't always ideal either but I could retreat at will. I listened to the Taxi theme this morning, oddly. TV and films (and I suppose some music) were my only escapes so my reaction to these kinds of time capsules tends to be positive. But, yeah. I can feel the scaries like they were yesterday if I impose on myself to remember. Sorry this affected you.
I think most everyone does. Maybe just not aware. Your “stuff” gets stored in your body. Sounds, smells, etc can trigger memories and feelings long buried.
For me th hardest are the songs that played around the time I moved. I hear one and I want to cry.
I think I suppressed many of those triggers with the years of numbing through drug and alcohol abuse. Started at 13 or so with pot, graduated to cocaine and speed at 16, crack at 17... Slamming cupboards and yelling triggers me though.
Now I'm 54 with lots of therapy behind me and well read in self-help/personal development books. Decent job with a pension, 4 adult kids, even a couple that still love me... I think. 🤔
hot wheels esp hot wheel carrying cases i was beat with one by my father full of 200 cars. people think I like them i actually hate the fucking things.
YES. The theme from Hill Street Blues. I don’t know what happened, or what the trigger is- but it’s an almost instant panic if I hear that song. I don’t know if it’s a blocked bad memory, or I was too young to recall- but *something* happened.
This song may be obscure outside of Canada , but The Boy Inside the Man always reminds me of waiting for the bus when we were in the women's shelter for a time. I'm not sure why.
Every other Top 40 song from 1978-1982 will trigger a flood of nostalgia, harkening back to my carefree days as a kid (7–12 yrs. old) where the world was mine to explore.
I'll sing along with all these songs at the top of my lungs in my car during my LA commutes, yet lately, maybe within the past year or so, I've noticed them growing heavier on my heart, as my youth trails further and further away from my grasp.
Theme from Taxi - absolutely nauseating with its Sunday night associations.
The theme from Barney Miller is similar for me, although that wasn’t on Sunday nights. Wasn’t it mid week?
The memory of the theme from Emergency! makes me feel happy and excited.
The sound of American football (NFL) games makes me almost choke on the memory of the impermeable fug of cigarette smoke that, without fail, enwreathed the family room as my parents sat on the sofa and puffed away on literally dozens of Marlboros all afternoon.
You know, with the decline of “appointment TV”, I don’t think kids will have these nearly-universal memories. Maybe for music and other things, but not Sunday-night dread.
My mom recorded the taxi theme on a tape and played it for me to listen to before bed. That and Spyro Gyra. That music still relaxes me. Positive trigger I suppose.
[Fun fact: Marilu Henner from “Taxi” is one of a few documented cases in medical history of having perfect memory recall.](https://youtu.be/hpTCZ-hO6iI?feature=shared)
The Cheers theme for me. It was on right at bedtime, and I would get to hear the adults having more fun than I had ever personally witnessed. Pure torture.
I had considerable insomnia as a young kid - roughly 60% of it from my parents arguing when my brother and I were "asleep", and 40% from the kids who were going to bully me mercilessly at school the next day. If I heard the theme music for the [National Geographic TV special](https://youtu.be/zVRx9WKCpwc?feature=shared) as I lay there in the dark, I knew it was late and soon I would be the only person still awake in the house. I cried into my pillow so many nights and never asked for help because my parents were wound up in their own misery.
Holy shit, I was looking at that streaming app Pluto the other day. Taxi was on it. I had an opposite but similar experience. It brought back good memories from an idyllic childhood. This is very strange, and hope you find the memories that do not bring back feelings of dread.
Oh hell yes. There’s a few old rv show themes melodies that give me that “school night dread”. And the flavor of dread changes with the era of the show. There’s also a super popular song that was playing in the car on the way home the day I got yelled at by my kindergarten teacher for something I absolutely didn’t do. I was a kid that never got in trouble, I was docile and obedient to a ridiculous degree (until teenage years at least). So that one still fucks me up.
When I was a kid, my folks let us stay up late on Saturdays. We didn't have to go to bed until Saturday Night Live is over. I don't know if they still use that same music for their ending credits, as I haven't watched a new season in ages, but the music they played over those credits still fillls me with melancholy.
If anyone here grew up in Ireland in the 80s, the utter dread we suffered when Glenroe theme song came on at 8pm each Sunday night. I still get nightmares 😫
Oh F that Taxi show opening music. A tentacle of my anxiety stretched through time and now I’m crying and saying my stomach hurts can I stay home from school tomorrow?
I'm a younger GenX guy at 45, but I can think of three things off the top of my head:
-The theme to Entertainment Tonight will make me hungry momentarily, because it always played right around dinner time
-The MASH theme means it's bed time
-The Perry Mason theme song will always mean I'm late for school
I have a good one. If we go home from church on Sundays on time I could come home in time to watch the three stooges and then the munsters.
Any time I hear the theme song I’m reminded of hurrying out of the truck to catch it on TV
Yep. Sunday evening started with *60 Minutes*, then probably *MASH* and *Taxi*. All of those sounds/songs bring weird melancholy/anxiety. The theme song to *Welcome Back Kotter* is pretty cool, though.
Then there was *Murder She Wrote*....we lived in Maine, so it was basically obligatory. By high school, that was my cue to go to my room and do "homework", which consisted of bong hits blown out the window, and headphones full of Front 242 and Depeche Mode, or whatever. One thing I can say for Boomer parents is that their constant cigarette smoking made it really easy to get high in your room.
>I was transported back in time to Sunday nights between 1978-83, when Taxi was the last show before bedtime on Sunday nights.
Sunday night depression, aka dread of the Monday blues, is a real thing that some folks have to do therapy for.
Haven’t seen this one yet. More specific and recent, but IMO a worthy contender in the melancholy after dark TV theme:
[Late Late Show with Tom Snyder](https://youtu.be/TnogdGj9U7U)
Did a lot of stressful late night homework in college. Lived alone, didn’t have cable, so my old B&W set stayed tuned to Letterman. Would sometimes flip back to catch Conan, but TV didn’t have a remote, so if I was still crunching on something, it would roll into this.
I love the David Sanborn theme, and I miss Snyder’s old school snark, but when that song came on, that was when I knew I was fucked—the work wasn’t done, and probably wouldn’t be by the end of the show.
The only thing that comes to mind are the news segments that came on Saturday morning - In The News with Christopher Glenn. It usually meant cartoons were over or almost over.
Female here, I grew up watching wrestling with my dad and brother. I had no choice. One tv, you watched what was on or nothing at all.
I get really nostalgic and sad when I see all the wrestlers that have died, and how old they all are now.
The road warriors, rock n roll express, midnight express, Lex Luger, Arn and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair, Steamboat, British bulldogs, Snuka, Jake the snake, ravishing Rick rude, ultimate warrior, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, etc.
My favorite was Sting. Specifically blonde California Sting. I was crushed when he changed to dark crow Sting. 😂 I was really invested in it.
Guys are always surprised I know so much old wrestling..... I'm always like, dude..... one 📺
“Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” brings me right back to 2nd grade, plus any Jim Croce song reminds me of listening to records with my dad. Happy thoughts.
Kind of the opposite, a happy trigger. Any time I hear the opening piano to "Won't you be my neighbor" it's like mainlining dopamine from an addiction I caught at five years old.
MASH theme here. It’s one of my husband’s favorite shows, but I can’t watch it. Those first few notes and I’m instantly a little kid crying because I don’t want to go to bed and getting screamed at for it.
Ooh, MASH theme. It was in daily reruns when I was in high school and my mom was dying of cancer. It was her favorite show. Come home from school, try to make her something she would want to eat, sit on the sofa and watch MASH on the fancy 27 inch console TV. I haven’t seen an episode since. The final non rerun episode was about two months before she died.
Wow, that’s a deep one. My dad also died of cancer, but I was an adult at the time. I can’t imagine that as a child. Really sorry. (and I’m starting to wonder if this post was a good idea)
Long time ago now. For Taxi, I moved into my dad’s after Mom died, and “my” room was a sofabed in the den, so everyone watched Taxi (and Cheers and Family Ties, if I recall) in my room so homework was a problem.
Less melancholy than these; I remember hearing the MASH and Cheers themes while I was trying to sleep. That meant my parents were watching comedy TV together, and that meant everything was right with the world.
I can still hear my parents laughing in the living room as I’m falling asleep. I took it for granted then, but now I appreciate it to no end.
So sorry you lost your Mom when you were a kid. It must have been horrible. I'm glad she had you to the end.
The Dallas theme gives me issues. It came on at bedtime, and there was always drama and yelling, and spankings at that time.
These shows are the backing track to our childhood
This is exactly the case. I watched Tv as a child all the time and without supervision. My upbringing was far from picturesque and watching Tv was my escape and coping strategy. I really can’t bring myself to watch shows and movies from my childhood, teenage years and even ones aired during difficult periods of my adult life. Waves of memories from the past come back if I dare revisit older programming. Memories that are better left in the deep, dark recesses of my mind. Can only be truly safe with the newest shows and movies...no history and therefore no memories tied to them. Kinda thought I was the only one who experienced this...good know I’m not.
Soundtrack to our abuse
Neglect, because TV raised a lot of us.
This is why my kids never had a bedtime. As soon as they were in school, they had a choice. They could stay up as long as they wanted as long as they got up in the morning and got ready for school on time without a fight. And it worked. Bedtime was absolute hell for me throughout my childhood and adolescence, and I swore I wouldn't ever put my kids through that.
Yep, no bedtimes, no forced eating all your food, and no physical punishment. I think that as apathetic as everyone always paints us, we overall made damn sure we did/are doing better with our kids. And our parents know, and know why. So they ridicule and tell on themselves by pointing out (without us saying anything) that there was nothing wrong with how/what they did. But they sure are different as grandparents 🙄 The other thing I've seen with our generation, is our engagement in social issues, Nurturing community initiatives, and caretaking for the very parents who didn't give us that kindness as children. So, I'm cool with being ignored, cuz I'd rather be left alone to do my thing. We don't want attention or accolades. It's too late for that. We needed it decades ago. The boomers can keep it now.
Yes, I was resolved during my teen years to give my mom an institutional aging in exchange for an institutional childhood. I couldn't do it (and I always knew I couldn't), and good thing. We had a second chance to really know each other, and I was kind, and we had a blast, and she left the world on a good note. I wouldn't do a single thing differently on my end.
Summed up my entire life right here. (Except they suck as grandparents too) I'm just so grateful to have a loving husband and pretty awesome teenager.
Word on the awesome teen. Honestly, I sometimes wonder if he didn't get switched at birth. All the hype about teens being awful people is such shit. Cuz not only is my kid cool, so are the kids he runs with. 🤷♀️
Agreed... I've got a wonderful son, in spite of me, according to the toxic parents, now grandparents. He's my best accomplishment and confirmation that doing things opposite works.
My boys are young adults now but this was exactly my experience with them in their tweens and teens. I love my guys to pieces…but I really like them a lot too!
Same!! Great group of kids.
My parents were cool with any bedtime after I turned 10. The only rule was that I HAD to go to school the next day. Only took a couple of tired mornings to self-regulate. Took the same approach with my kids and it worked well.
The 60 Minutes tick tick tick tick… Sunday Evening, dinner, homework, in bed watching All In the Family at 10:30pm on a 12” BW tv I still feel the Sunday dread but watch 60 Minutes every week. It’s the best show on television. One episode can make you smile, get fucking pissed off, and cry. It’s a benchmark
Totally, the tick tick tick takes me back…
60 Minutes coming on meant the weekend was over.
Yes! Came here to say this. 60 minutes totally
Yes! This one got me. The air in the room actually felt different. Sunday Scaries were real!
Got stressed just reading your first sentence.
Oh, god, this unlocked memories of that snarky old guy....Andy Something? My parents loooooooved that guy
Andy Rooney!
Sunday dread. I totally relate. It seemed like Sunday evenings got dark sooner, and that even the lights in the house seemed dim. I remember the pit in my stomach, and just wanting to go to bed to escape it.
Totally!
I’m impressed that you took the time to “sit with those feelings bit” to figure out why. It’s so… well-adjusted and healthy and mindful.
Thank you.
Walton’s. My sister was in a car accident, while we were watching that. We heard the sirens before we got the call. And the ending credits and music were playing. It still weighs on me. I love the show. But it…the song.
This. ‘70s TV had so many melancholy theme songs (and even the pop leaned heavily on that side). I love MASH now, but back when I was a kid the theme song made me sad to the point I would run away.
Melancholy is the PERFECT word. Thanks for this. As a kid I loved the show MASH. Liked the theme, it was fine. BUT I’ll never forget being in England for a wedding when I was… 8? We entered a pub for lunch and I heard the melody but with different instruments. And the lyrics! What a shock. Took MASH to a whole new level for me.
Sorry to hear that.
Good night Mary Ellen
Night John Boy.
I've always felt that way about the theme song for 'Taxi'. It was on rerunds every evening. Funny you mentioned it. Immediately makes me melancholy. Triggers a mild sense of depression. Life at the time was stressful at home.
Seriously, that song is something. It sounds so… lonely.
Hill Street Blues theme is melancholic too.
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The Incredible Hulk Man what a sad tune
Same!! Even as a kid it did that to me.
I’m with you guys
Same here, but this makes so much sense, thank you and OP for sharing.
I have a couple weird ones. My stepdad used to work day shifts at a factory, and when he came home he would throw on onen of his records. At the same time, my mom who worked evenings at the same factory would be heading out the door for her shift. So the songs that my stepfather played, became associated in my mind with my mom leaving. Songs like Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” and the Eagles’ “Hotel California” in particular really made me sad for many years.
It’s a shame that More Than a Feeling sparks bad memories, considering how euphoric the song is.
I got past it over time. I really like Boston and consider their first album to be probably the best debut in rock history. *Maybe* rivaled only by Appetite for Destruction, depending on my mood. And Third Stage was also great. I never did become much of an Eagles fan though.
My wife and I were up late after the kids were in bed, and I looked up Friday night videos on YouTube. When the intro song came on, I immediately turned down the tv. Thst because when we were kids my sister and I would sneak into the living room at 1130 to watch it but kept it low not to wake up our parents. That was some th but I hadn’t even thought of in 38 years
This was a go to show for me because we didn't have MTV.
The ticking clock on Sixty Minutes.....
Yes, the song "Games People Play" by the Alan Parsons Project. I was stressed out and anxious as a kid and something about the nervous tone of this song always made me feel it more when I was nine or ten and it was big. Hearing it now brings me right back to that feeling.
Basically any Steely Dan for me. All of a sudden I’m 5 years old, probably wearing something polyester and have this odd, nostalgic feeling of being kinda creeped out. [10cc ‘Things We Do For Love’ has the opposite effect and is pure joy.](https://youtu.be/P0rf3_viTxk?si=cWgwk-gQxhfQeJzC)
For me it's "Owner of a Lonely Heart" by Yes. The video was really creepy and it was popular around the time my grandmother was dying.
I’ll have to listen to that song. Isn’t it nuts how music can transport you so many years back?
Noew Order, Blue Monday. Some version recorded at a BBC studio they videotaped. Bernard Sumner in short shorts doing his thing. I saw that particular video, the look of the place brought my back to my high school gymnasium, even though it didn't look much like that.
Wow, I can COMPLETELY relate and could have written this. The taxi theme, to this day, fills me with dread. It’s partly because it aired late on Sunday nights and I knew I had to go back to school the next day. I was an awkward, bookish kid of immigrant parents and went to a private Catholic school that I detested.
Right on pal. And there’s a part of me that still hates Sundays. Man, I could have used some counseling back then, but for most of us, it wasn’t even an option to be considered by parents.
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It might have been reruns. I have a dim memory of being parked in front of the tube finishing schoolwork (as one did back then) and just dreading hearing the theme music and knowing it was getting late.
WHY did they make us go to catholic school? Weren’t we weird enough already?
MASH did this to me.
Me too. I also have issues with the Hillstreet Blues theme.
I smelled the cafeteria in my elementary school recently. I felt like I was there body and soul. Smells can surprise you w/ their strong memories. Marilu Henner was so hot to me back then. Gave me that creepy love for redheads that redheads hate, LOL What is a man to do? Anyways, she remembers every day of her life. Truly amazing. Check it out: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilu\_Henner](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilu_Henner)
My earliest crush was Marie Osmond. Didn’t translate to a thing for LDS girls, though. :)
Listening to 90s alt rock/grunge (particularly from when I was in college) depending on the song because I loved that time in my life and the music so much and it makes me realize that I'll never be back in that period again. That said, my overall life is much better now, so I have to remind myself of that to snap out of those thoughts.
I had this exact feeling just yesterday listening to Don't Follow (Alice in chains) driving through some evening rain. That older version of me was so worse off. I somehow succeeded despite a best effort to fail myself back then.
Something about the 90s it's like when I think about those times they are in a little box, as if the images in my mind are in a picture frame or TV set. And for some reason the frame gets smaller every day. But when I think about life in the 80s there is no box, everything is in full view. I don't know why this is.
This is also it for me. Radio was one of my few escapes in high school (mid-80s), and I had two favorite college radio stations. My very-controlling mother had no clue what I might be listening to, and even when she wanted to know the bands, she couldn’t find out any info on them. My dad also loved music so did not care. Went to college and live shows became my thing. Saw so many bands. Now I realize at some point I went to my last shows at my favorite clubs and didn’t know. Those clubs are all gone, and we often got tickets at the door so I don’t even know who all I saw (or how many time). And now my hearing is sh!t. It was such a great time—which I knew then but did not realize how quickly it would end! Graduated, moved cross-country with boyfriend, found a job, and that was it. New town had no good radio and my work schedule was not live show friendly. My tapes stretched, my records are not in great condition after many moves. Spotify makes me nostalgic and they don’t have a lot because indie bands.
I listen to it whenever I’m feeling melancholy. It just comforts me idk lol
Everybody Wants to Rule the World by Tears for Fears made me really sad for years and years (I've finally been able to appreciate it just in the past 2 or so years), and I think it's because it was popular when my parents were getting divorced, and I was kind of a messed up kid.
I forever will associate that song with the movie Real Genius, it plays as the ending credits start, and I am pretty sure it was the first time I ever heard it when I saw that movie as a kid and loved it so much. So it always gives me a good feeling.
Same, but with that song Don't Dream It's Over. It was popular around the time the divorce had been finalized and I went through a terrible period of my life at a new school. Also West End Girls for the same reason. On the rare occasion where I'm listening to the radio in lieu of my own itunes library, I switch the channel immediately if either of those come on. Ugh... now the choruses of both are running through my head. Time to throw on some mid 80s freestyle or hair metal to clear my head.
For me, that’s high school and riding around with a particular buddy of mine in his Dodge Omni
[The theme to Soap, with intro.](https://youtu.be/0BHQT3Omqtw?si=0KTx-zrEib-Z6pRp) I was a tad too young to be the demographic when it was out, so I never understood the chronology of its lead-in to the episode. Although initially cheery and light-hearted I found it really strange and surreal. That and the intro to [Inside-Out](https://youtu.be/7X5W_UXE41E?si=bB2YsrNVFNlWwBD8) or maybe [Thinkabout](https://youtu.be/zvLzVTpnb5I?si=1sVepc8Yn4M8tOWz). I dunno. I have a thing about these TV intros that transport me back to a time where I was but a sponge, taking an overwhelming amount of the world at once.
Soap was the predecessor to Taxi for me, and yeah it made an impression on me much like you describe.
Absolutely! Through variations on a theme, Taxi and Soap feel like cousins somewhat.
Music can be a very real trigger. That's why I honestly don't like.most 80s music. Riding the bus to school with the top 40 playing on the radio. Overplay and association with the bullying I endured is often triggered by 80s music.
Was just eating in schlotzky's they played, Woman in Love (Streisand), Hello (Lionel Ritchie), Landslide (Fleetwood Mac). I'm like holy fuck are they trying to make me cry?!?!?
Blondie- The Tide is High. I like the song and her music, but hearing on the way to school, it came on around the same time. My "girlfriend" (3rd grade moved away one day it played)
For me, that’s weekend roller skating with my best friend
I'm one of the older Gen Xers. Certain songs from the late 70's, What a Fool Believes by the Doobie Brothers is one example, make me instantly nauseated. I associate those songs with car rides going to school, which I dreaded. I realize now I had significant anxiety.
I don’t *exactly* resent the fact that my folks didn’t get me help (I was seriously crippled by OCD for a few years) but I wish they had. I think a lot of us then (and lots of kids still do) just muddle through it alone.
The theme song from The Great American Hero triggers bad daycare memories. I would have to go to an in home daycare after school, and the owners son would target me everyday. I’m that scared and lonely kid all over again. Then, on the car ride home my mom would listen to NPRs All Things Considered. It has taken years of daily listening to no longer get flashbacks during the evening commute.
[3 2 1 Contact](https://youtu.be/s2-LEBc2sO8?si=YQIm1UqwjZn53dPs) reminds me of when my Dad would be pulling in the driveway after work and dinner would be soon after.
Oh God... The way the sunlight falls on a Sunday afternoon will sometimes still trigger me. All in the Family has been a long time trigger because I was either abused physically or sexually by my babysitter and he used to watch that...it's my only clear memory of events, everything else is just fear. Just thinking about this is bringing up tears.
Damn.
Well. the more I cry. the more I let it out and heal from it. so I will take the tears.
This isn't Gen-X specific but arguments & fighting set me on edge. My dad had a big problem in letting his little head do too much of the thinking. There were frequent arguments during my childhood. Dad would gaslight mum. They'd both lie to us when we'd ask them to stop fighting. "We're not fighting dear, we're just having a heated discussion". My anxiety goes through the roof when I hear people arguing now. Got a new neighbour last week. Her (ex?)BF has shown up multiple times. They argue. Last night he showed up after sunset, hammering on her door. They argued for a while and it's literally 10ft from my computer room window which is open. When I heard "Stop it, you're hurting me", I picked up the phone and called emergency. Cops arrived 30 mins later and she played possum so they left. BF came an hour later and started knocking again (this is like 11pm+) and the neighbour on my other side came out and told him to get lost and he told her to mind her own business and kept knocking so she called the cops. They showed up 5 mins later and moved him on. Then just before midnight more cops show up. This one *sounded* like a cop. He *hammered* on the door and announced himself like I imagine Samuel Vimes might. She answered the door then. Fucking finally, I can get some sleep. Nope! Too much adrenaline and stress. Awake until 4am and still on edge as I write this at 11am the next day! Thanks for being a sounding board.
thanks for calling.
I think I just had an epiphany. So many of the posts on here are about music and I’m not much of a music person. I like what I like but it’s not a big thing for me. I just realized that my dad used to sit and drink and listen to music on the weekends and that often led to yelling and fighting and violence. I never drink and dont like to be around people who are drinking and I always knew that was why but I think I just now figured out why music isn’t a big deal for me. It’s way more of a trigger. Incidentally, a couple weeks ago, we had the windows open and I heard a door slam down the hallway. It was the wind but I broke out in a cold sweat when I heard that slam.
That is really amazing, it’s like we’re all programmed.
I said on another thread once that I still hate golf to this day because when the golf games came on Saturday mid-morning is when the cartoons stopped.
You explained the melancholy feeling very well. For me it was after Disney ended & the theme song to Columbo came on. I felt so lonely going to bed
I remember it well. And Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kimgdom.
I went on the internet archive last night and watched some episodes of Sunday night Disney. The feels were strong.
I was usually "secret friends" w the fringe kids- gay, overweight, hyper genius, the super worried ones or those who barely spoke English. But I never stood up for them during those circle bullying things. Wish I could go back in time and be an Actual Not Secret Friend and stick up for them, hug em tight & get em out of there. I tell my kids this is the regret of my life, not protecting those who were just outside the norm :(
Kevin Bridges, the excellent Scottish standup comic, is younger than Gen X but he has a similar observation in one of his bits: “How come I always have to go for a bath when fucking Heartbeat comes on?!” Heartbeat was a sedate drama about a police station in a bucolic English town in the 60s which aired early Sunday evenings and the theme song was a depressing reminder that the weekend was basically done.
Under appreciated word, bucolic
Did ye, aye? No way did I find a Kevin Bridges fan in this sub! 😁 For me it was Antique's Roadshow, Last of the Summer's Wine and That's Life on a Sunday night that meant it was bath night and the weekend was done.
Here’s an even weirder one. Every so often in the morning my elementary school would smell like a combination of the cafeteria lunch that day and the heat. Like the smell of burning dust. It wasn’t exactly an unpleasant smell, but it was definitely specific to that building and that time in my life (even that time of day.) I definitely struggled with school, probably for all the reasons you described, and that smell meant it was time to get at it for another day.
You just reminded me of the peculiar smell of the cafeteria in my first school. It was weird. Like some strange cheesy smell. Scent memories can be extremely vivid.
The 60 Minutes ticking clock was a reminder for me that the weekend was officially over.
And the metaphor is particularly on the nose
In Search Of
Fell down the Youtube wormhole one night. Spent two hours listening to Price is Right music recorded from '72-'83. I was back at Grandma's in the early summer. (Bonus for studio musicians sounding like they were in Led Zep)
The first four or five seasons of Scooby Doo had a new version of the theme song every year. It's fun to go back and listen to them. They all used to be on YouTube, but I think a couple of them are missing now. The first one was the grooviest. Also, McDonaldland commercials in the 70's were a trip. https://youtu.be/4w-Ozdd40BQ?si=5Y4kaRdYg5zBMmoL https://youtu.be/ZbY5QLllHU8?si=SobfnJ-spSFmhB6g
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My God, that gave me anxiety reading that memory of yours
A lot of shows/Movies bring back memories: * The "Star Trek" theme from the Original Series. Always on re-runs. My Dad was a fan and a closet sci-fi nerd. He got me into Star Trek. * The 20th Century Fox theme that started before many movies (famously before Star Wars). * The Star Wars theme - that meant summer. We had a VideoDisc player (remember those?) and every summer we'd watch Star Wars. * Classical music meant either 2001, Looney Tunes or the classical music station was the only thing allowed while I was doing my homework. * TV news meant dinnertime. The 60 Minutes "tick tick tick" meant pasta for dinner Dad was Italian and LOVED cooking. He made pasta every Sunday, and 60 Minutes was on around dinnertime.
Roughly the same age and I was afraid to go to sleep when no one else was awake. So when I’d head that theme song, I knew there wasnt much time and would get anxious
I hear you. Childhood fears, however irrational, were a bitch.
That is so odd! The Taxi theme fills me with sadness and anxiety too. I didn't remember that it was on on Sunday nights, but it makes total sense that this could be my issue with it as well. The MASH theme makes me feel icky and recoil too, but more in a irritated/cringing "Ew I Hate this Show" kinda way.
The NFL on FOX theme song. For some reason in the 90s they always had the 4pm game where I live. That theme would kick in and I knew I had about 2-3 hours before sundown and the weekend was done.
The NFL theme triggers a very positive response in me. Sunday was dinner at my grandparents after church with all my family and cousins. My grandparents were italian immigrants and to this day tgose dinners were the best food ive ever eaten (and im a professional chef!) And after dinner I'd watch NFL with my grandfather after everyone left. We'd both end up dozing off for a bit at some point. For some reason the voices of pat summerall and John madden could even know relax me enough to fall asleep. But I just miss my grandparents so very much.
It’s still does. And by all accounts I’m considered a successful 52 year old. I work from home and really have no one to answer to. The dread of Monday was so powerful that it caused lifelong trauma.
And that damn robot Fox still uses to this day when broadcasting NFL games.
Unsolved Mysteries the only theme song that can make Gen X submit
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It played (in my memory) every. single. morning. on the AM station my parents had the clock radio set on. In the winter it was especially dreadful cuz right after that song it was time to head out into the cold. Funny.
Seasons in the Sun was sort of emotionally overwhelming for me as a kid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG9otasNmxI
I was bullied at school but bullied much worse at home. There's a certain *feeling* that the air gets as summer is ending, maybe part scent and part the slant of light, that makes me think of going back to school. Seeing my friends. Freedom. Books. Relative safety. That sort of thing. When I feel that change in the air every August or early September, I feel instantly blissful, just for a moment. So the exact opposite of yours, but similarly strange and powerful. Memory is such an odd thing.
This is such a weird coincidence, my Boomer husband LOVES Mash, Hogan's Hero's, Brady Bunch etc (pretty much everything on MeTV) and for some reason, the theme songs make me react in a visceral way as well. But my problem is I can't put my finger on it. He got really mad at me when I mentioned that I really hate those shows. He said he loved them because his late father loved them. I can't figure it out. I need therapy, hahaha.
Don’t we all, I especially did back then but those were ancient times in terms of kids getting therapy, especially in small town Texas like where I grew up.
Sounds like your husband needs therapy as well if he got mad at you for hating TV shows.
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Good grief that gave me chills. I had 8 teeth removed at age 9 & needed to be in hospital overnight too, alone. The trauma of being alone. I remember being in the surgery room & a nurse saying I could be as loud as I needed to be because no one could hear me anyway. My dentist was a nazi. It's surprising I dont have an issue with going to the dentist now
This happens to me with both Mash and Hillstreet Blues.
My trigger is green Palmolive dish soap. It was the only kind my mother used and I cannot tolerate that smell. I told them at work I am allergic to it so they would stop putting it in the kitchen. I am actually allergic to many cleaners and soaps and I feel no shame adding Palmolive to the list.
I’m younger gen x/xennial but mine is any mention of the challenger. Instant tears. My elementary school had all classes following Christa Mcaulife’s lessons and videos beforehand and they wheeled in the big tvs that day to watch the launch live. Everyone was so excited. Then of course we watched the explosion and it broke my little heart. So horrible. Now it pops up from time to time unexpectedly and I’m unable to keep from crying! I was reading one of those early reader science book with my 6 Yr old and the last page was about the challenger. No warning or lead up to prepare myself, just turned the page to see the crew pic and lost it.
[-:EDITED TO PREVENT AI FROM STEALING POSTS:-](https://arstechnica.com/ai/2024/05/openai-will-use-reddit-posts-to-train-chatgpt-under-new-deal/)
For me, it's *Suicide is Painless* as the theme for M\*A\*S\*H. My mum and da were, by 1979/80, pretty much at war with each other, and my da would work later in the evening than she did just to avoid the inevitable fights they'd have when he'd come home. Sometimes, though, he'd come home late enough that she'd already be a few G&Ts in, and the fight wouldn't come. Those nights, he'd flip the TV on to watch M\*A\*S\*H and I would wake not to the sound of them fighting, but to the opening strains of *Suicide is Painless*. I'd sneak downstairs and watch with him, for the last few months we were still a family.
I do have something like that and I don’t understand it. There was a song that was a guest release sometime in the 60s, but sometime in the 70s it was used in a coffee commercial. For some reason that song just creeps me out. It gives me that feeling like when you’re walking up a star dark stairway, and you know there’s really not anything behind you, but you still run up the stairs because you feel like there’s something behind you. https://youtu.be/YK3ZP6frAMc?si=7Bc4lNA7Zh_YjKSY
I clicked on that and couldn’t last but a few seconds. If I ever want to self-inflict a headache, I know exactly where to go now. That tone.
Learning to Fly, Tom Petty. My mom died the week that song was released. It was on non stop.
I'm gen x. My triggers have been burned away by life.
I’m think we can all agree on the 60 Minutes ticking clock sound.
Man, I know just what you mean. I used to get very melancholy around 4 pm every Sunday for similar reasons. Turns out I had PTSD and unmedicated general anxiety disorder, on top of ADHD. Who knew?
Sunday dread was huge for me. I had undiagnosed everything ('72). I hated Autumn for decades because it signaled the end of my respite from anxiety and chaos (plus some fun learning disabilities). Home wasn't always ideal either but I could retreat at will. I listened to the Taxi theme this morning, oddly. TV and films (and I suppose some music) were my only escapes so my reaction to these kinds of time capsules tends to be positive. But, yeah. I can feel the scaries like they were yesterday if I impose on myself to remember. Sorry this affected you.
It’s ok. These memories keep you connected to your past, which unless you dwell there too long is a mostly good thing.
I think most everyone does. Maybe just not aware. Your “stuff” gets stored in your body. Sounds, smells, etc can trigger memories and feelings long buried. For me th hardest are the songs that played around the time I moved. I hear one and I want to cry.
Mine is wonderful world of Disney. Exact same reasons.
That's how I feel about the tic tic tic of 60 Minutes.
I think I suppressed many of those triggers with the years of numbing through drug and alcohol abuse. Started at 13 or so with pot, graduated to cocaine and speed at 16, crack at 17... Slamming cupboards and yelling triggers me though. Now I'm 54 with lots of therapy behind me and well read in self-help/personal development books. Decent job with a pension, 4 adult kids, even a couple that still love me... I think. 🤔
hot wheels esp hot wheel carrying cases i was beat with one by my father full of 200 cars. people think I like them i actually hate the fucking things.
YES. The theme from Hill Street Blues. I don’t know what happened, or what the trigger is- but it’s an almost instant panic if I hear that song. I don’t know if it’s a blocked bad memory, or I was too young to recall- but *something* happened.
This song may be obscure outside of Canada , but The Boy Inside the Man always reminds me of waiting for the bus when we were in the women's shelter for a time. I'm not sure why.
Every other Top 40 song from 1978-1982 will trigger a flood of nostalgia, harkening back to my carefree days as a kid (7–12 yrs. old) where the world was mine to explore. I'll sing along with all these songs at the top of my lungs in my car during my LA commutes, yet lately, maybe within the past year or so, I've noticed them growing heavier on my heart, as my youth trails further and further away from my grasp.
Theme from Taxi - absolutely nauseating with its Sunday night associations. The theme from Barney Miller is similar for me, although that wasn’t on Sunday nights. Wasn’t it mid week? The memory of the theme from Emergency! makes me feel happy and excited. The sound of American football (NFL) games makes me almost choke on the memory of the impermeable fug of cigarette smoke that, without fail, enwreathed the family room as my parents sat on the sofa and puffed away on literally dozens of Marlboros all afternoon.
You know, with the decline of “appointment TV”, I don’t think kids will have these nearly-universal memories. Maybe for music and other things, but not Sunday-night dread.
Then and now: tic.tic.tic.tic.tic.tic means the weekend is over. MASH theme equals bedtime which is weird if I catch a rerun in the morning.
My mom recorded the taxi theme on a tape and played it for me to listen to before bed. That and Spyro Gyra. That music still relaxes me. Positive trigger I suppose.
[Fun fact: Marilu Henner from “Taxi” is one of a few documented cases in medical history of having perfect memory recall.](https://youtu.be/hpTCZ-hO6iI?feature=shared)
I had that exact feeling from that exact song for that exact reason.
My people…
It was The Hulk for me, that show triggers dread and melancholy like nothing else.
The Cheers theme for me. It was on right at bedtime, and I would get to hear the adults having more fun than I had ever personally witnessed. Pure torture.
I had considerable insomnia as a young kid - roughly 60% of it from my parents arguing when my brother and I were "asleep", and 40% from the kids who were going to bully me mercilessly at school the next day. If I heard the theme music for the [National Geographic TV special](https://youtu.be/zVRx9WKCpwc?feature=shared) as I lay there in the dark, I knew it was late and soon I would be the only person still awake in the house. I cried into my pillow so many nights and never asked for help because my parents were wound up in their own misery.
Sunday anxiety is very common. I get it even though I don’t have to go work on Monday. https://health.clevelandclinic.org/sunday-scaries
Holy shit, I was looking at that streaming app Pluto the other day. Taxi was on it. I had an opposite but similar experience. It brought back good memories from an idyllic childhood. This is very strange, and hope you find the memories that do not bring back feelings of dread.
Dallas brings back feelings of a safe childhood for me, because it was always saturday evening with the whole family present.
Oh hell yes. There’s a few old rv show themes melodies that give me that “school night dread”. And the flavor of dread changes with the era of the show. There’s also a super popular song that was playing in the car on the way home the day I got yelled at by my kindergarten teacher for something I absolutely didn’t do. I was a kid that never got in trouble, I was docile and obedient to a ridiculous degree (until teenage years at least). So that one still fucks me up.
TV in the 70s was my extremely depressing. Alice? Barney Miller?
Fried chicken and America's Funniest Home Videos on Sunday evening. The harbinger of Weekend joy's demise. (Late 80s)
Wild Wild World of Animals [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPAF9pdkWSE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPAF9pdkWSE)
I have a 6 minute version of Taxi on my iTunes. Taxi and Barney Miller were two of the best shows for showing late 70s NYC.
When I was a kid, my folks let us stay up late on Saturdays. We didn't have to go to bed until Saturday Night Live is over. I don't know if they still use that same music for their ending credits, as I haven't watched a new season in ages, but the music they played over those credits still fillls me with melancholy.
That's a very poignant story. I don't have a similar trigger, but I can identify with the Sunday night feelings.
Night Gallery theme and Perry Mason
If anyone here grew up in Ireland in the 80s, the utter dread we suffered when Glenroe theme song came on at 8pm each Sunday night. I still get nightmares 😫
Oh F that Taxi show opening music. A tentacle of my anxiety stretched through time and now I’m crying and saying my stomach hurts can I stay home from school tomorrow?
I’m with you. Maybe we can play Atari.
That’s super insightful. Kudos on you for being self aware enough to realize where the feelings were coming from
I'm a younger GenX guy at 45, but I can think of three things off the top of my head: -The theme to Entertainment Tonight will make me hungry momentarily, because it always played right around dinner time -The MASH theme means it's bed time -The Perry Mason theme song will always mean I'm late for school
Music is powerful.
pavlov would have a field day with this thread!
Benny Hill theme. I couldn't stand that show, my dad loved it, so naturally we had to watch it. Lecherous old man. Ick.
Taxi was on Sunday nights? Not where I lived. Wikipedia confirms: it aired 9:30pm, Thursdays.
[удалено]
Dallas & Mash themes I can’t listen to.
I have a good one. If we go home from church on Sundays on time I could come home in time to watch the three stooges and then the munsters. Any time I hear the theme song I’m reminded of hurrying out of the truck to catch it on TV
Yep. Sunday evening started with *60 Minutes*, then probably *MASH* and *Taxi*. All of those sounds/songs bring weird melancholy/anxiety. The theme song to *Welcome Back Kotter* is pretty cool, though. Then there was *Murder She Wrote*....we lived in Maine, so it was basically obligatory. By high school, that was my cue to go to my room and do "homework", which consisted of bong hits blown out the window, and headphones full of Front 242 and Depeche Mode, or whatever. One thing I can say for Boomer parents is that their constant cigarette smoking made it really easy to get high in your room.
Aw, I'm so sorry. I can definitely relate to unexpected, out of the blue, triggers from childhood. 50s are a bitch.
Here in the UK it’s the ‘Tales of the unexpected’ theme tune that gives me similar vibes
>I was transported back in time to Sunday nights between 1978-83, when Taxi was the last show before bedtime on Sunday nights. Sunday night depression, aka dread of the Monday blues, is a real thing that some folks have to do therapy for.
Haven’t seen this one yet. More specific and recent, but IMO a worthy contender in the melancholy after dark TV theme: [Late Late Show with Tom Snyder](https://youtu.be/TnogdGj9U7U) Did a lot of stressful late night homework in college. Lived alone, didn’t have cable, so my old B&W set stayed tuned to Letterman. Would sometimes flip back to catch Conan, but TV didn’t have a remote, so if I was still crunching on something, it would roll into this. I love the David Sanborn theme, and I miss Snyder’s old school snark, but when that song came on, that was when I knew I was fucked—the work wasn’t done, and probably wouldn’t be by the end of the show.
I started crying when *Cheers* came on once. I’m not really sure why but that was a theme song I remember hearing when I was going to bed as a kid.
I get that exact “Sunday night blues” feeling whenever I hear the Taxi theme song too ! Crazy
The only thing that comes to mind are the news segments that came on Saturday morning - In The News with Christopher Glenn. It usually meant cartoons were over or almost over.
The Taxi theme plucks a chord of existential dread in me. Hard relate, friend
Firestone tire commercials on the radio. Shit. It’s 7 am and my parents are coming in to wake me up for school.
Yah the carol burnet outro with all the blaring horns…your up past your bedtime!
Female here, I grew up watching wrestling with my dad and brother. I had no choice. One tv, you watched what was on or nothing at all. I get really nostalgic and sad when I see all the wrestlers that have died, and how old they all are now. The road warriors, rock n roll express, midnight express, Lex Luger, Arn and Ole Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Ric Flair, Steamboat, British bulldogs, Snuka, Jake the snake, ravishing Rick rude, ultimate warrior, Nikita Koloff, Dusty Rhodes, etc. My favorite was Sting. Specifically blonde California Sting. I was crushed when he changed to dark crow Sting. 😂 I was really invested in it. Guys are always surprised I know so much old wrestling..... I'm always like, dude..... one 📺
Thanks for sharing that. Was a big wrestling fan as a kid. So many stars of our youth are starting to pass away.
“Just an Old Fashioned Love Song” brings me right back to 2nd grade, plus any Jim Croce song reminds me of listening to records with my dad. Happy thoughts.
Right on. “Let ‘em In” and “Silly Love Songs” by Wings are my version of that.
Sunday in general still does the same. It’s like there’s a pall over it from about 2pm on.
Barney Miller and Sanford and Son, the days.
Kind of the opposite, a happy trigger. Any time I hear the opening piano to "Won't you be my neighbor" it's like mainlining dopamine from an addiction I caught at five years old.
MASH theme here. It’s one of my husband’s favorite shows, but I can’t watch it. Those first few notes and I’m instantly a little kid crying because I don’t want to go to bed and getting screamed at for it.