I suppose Cold Case type shows do that as well. But, that's kinda expected. We know that 60 years ago, they didn't have a bunch of things we have now. But, when you watch something from, say, 2005 (yeah, I realize that's 20 years ago now) and realize that there's no smart phones, no wifi in a lot of places, that sort of thing, it tends to hit me more.
I used to watch General Hospital with my mom in the early 80s. Watched an episode last year. Major adjustment shock. The young and beautiful ginger nurse, aged (obviously!)Guiding Light?
Homer already is a millennial. His age stats constant regardless of what season the show is in. The only characters whose ages kind of don't stay constant are Grandpa Simpson and Principal Skinner, who both were in specific wars as a significant part of their backstory
In 1999, only about 32% of the US population had a cell phone. I'm general a late adopter when it comes to new technologies, so I didn't get a cell phone until 2005, Nokia Razor, and I didn't get a smart phone until 2013. But in 1999, when I was in my early twenties, nobody in my peer group had a cell phone. It wasn't a few years later until they became more ubiquitous. It only took a few short years from cell phones being something you saw on occasion to being something you see frequently.
I always wondered why they were running around with a Belgian made FN-P90 submachine gun.
Marvel comics has a similar problem with many characters tied to real world wars or events. Magneto is a Holocaust survivor making him a minimum of 85, Punisher is a Vietnam veteran and has got to be in his 70s, and of course 9/11 ages all of them as everyone, Dr. Doom included, participated in the aftermath.
