No bond in the early 90's

Jarvio

No bond in the early 90's meant, for me at least, no bond throughout my childhood. I was born in '85, and I feel that the most nostalgic years of my childhood were 1992 and 1993. The closest thing to bond during my childhood would have to be GE in '95 (I was simply too young to remember LTK in '89).

What were the early 90's like for other bond fans? Were you like me in that you grew up without a bond? What bond did you grow up with? What did the '89-'95 hiatus feel like?

Barbel

It was, to quote Paul McCartney, a drag. At times it felt like the Bond series had finished, become yesterday's news. Gardner's books didn't fill the gap satisfactorily, and they were basically all that was ongoing. I'd become a member of the fan club (hello Graham Rye) and read the 007 magazine and extras religiously, though news was thin and they became more retrospective as time wore on.
Then news about what would become GE statted to trickle through, and things just got brighter and brighter!

Thunderpussy

I too was in the fan club and really did think the series had fizzled out.

Higgins

Jarvio wrote:

The closest thing to bond during my childhood would have to be GE in '95 (I was simply too young to remember LTK in '89).

I wish I'd be so lucky not remembering the Dalton era

Firemass

I'm about the same age as Javio but i think I would have been too young to appreciate Bond in the early 90's. Especially if they were as violent as LTK

Muston

I was born in 1980 so I remember LTK coming out and then just survived on Moore films until Brosnan showed up. Seem to remember watching Moonraker a lot on my older brothers B&W TV when he was out and getting scared at the scene with Jaws walking down the alleyway in that huge head costume )

DEFIANT 74205

I was born in 1981 but I did not watch any Bond film in the cinema until I saw Goldeneye. It had not occurred to me that Bond films were still being made. But before that, as a kid living in Hong Kong, I recall watching a Bond film on TV at the time, and in particular a scene in which Bond was hanging from the rafters, which I know now to have been from The Man With the Golden Gun.

After moving to Australia in 1990, my interest in Bond escalated - I rented out videos (yes, videos) of the older Connery Bonds (I didn't speak much English at the time and was still learning, so Bond films heavily influenced my spoken vocabulary - and accent - but I digress ) and went to the library to borrow some of the Fleming novels (I recall reading Thunderball, Octopussy and The Living Daylights and The Man With the Golden Gun as a kid, and probably a few others too).

So that's the early 1990s for me as a very new Bond fan at the time, apparently unaware that we were in a six year hiatus between Bond films.

Number24

I'm born in 1971, but I didn't see Bond at the cinema before Dalton. Because of long distances to the cinema (that road would have been a great Bond location, the parents of my friends in town barely dared drive on it ..) and religious puritanism, we seldom went to the cinema. I remember seing some Moore Bonds on VCR, but I wasn't a fan. To be honest I didn't become a fan until about ten years ago.

Mr Mallory

Wasn't really into Bond then, but saw them on the TV.

AlphaOmegaSin

I was born in 1991, so I started watching the Films when ITV were showing them in the late 90's.

superado

The waiting really sucked. In the days before mass Internet, I frequently checked on my local library's database on newspapers and periodicals for Bond news and found out about the lawsuit that stalled EON for those 6 years. If anything, sporadic updates were reported by Variety. I fed my Bond obsession with the novels of course, including the continuation novels and movie novelizations and anything Bond related I could get my hands on from used book and magazine stores. Since Bond reference books were scant compared to the flood of books that began with GE, I re-read the few that I had, such as Raymond Benson's Bedside Companion and Stephen Rubin's book on Bond films.

I made my own Bond collectibles such as a mini poster based on a FRWL laser disc sleeve that I photocopied in color and then mounted. I even drew up plans for Bond statues or figures in 1/6th scale (using GI Joes as models) and scale model vehicle dioramas, which thankfully in time were realized in mass production by Sideshow and the JB Car Collection. I guess like what I'd imagine a prisoner's life would be like, Bond fans in times of drought can get a lot of milage out of their imaginations!

AirJordanFan93

I was born in 93 so the fact there was no Bond for the early 90s really has no effect on me other than we missed out on a third Dalton film. I though the 4 years between DAD and CR then QoS and SF were long I couldn't imagine waiting 6 years like a majority of people on here did.

Number24

Number24 wrote:

I'm born in 1971, but I didn't see Bond at the cinema before Dalton. Because of long distances to the cinema (that road would have been a great Bond location, the parents of my friends in town barely dared drive on it ..) and religious puritanism, we seldom went to the cinema. I remember seing some Moore Bonds on VCR, but I wasn't a fan. To be honest I didn't become a fan until about ten years ago.

Also, NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) never had the rights to show Bond movies. Since NRK was the only TV channel (no, i didn't grow up in a communist dictatorship!), I never watched Bond on TV until I was an adult.

The Domino Effect

This prompts an interesting question, is there a 'lost generation' of people who would be Bond fans but because there were no new releases when they were at a particularly impressionable age, they never became interested and never looked at future films or checked the TV/video shop for old ones.

MooseWithFleas

I was born in 87, so I didn't have to deal with the anguish of a 6 year hiatus. I didn't really get introduced to Bond until Goldeneye and that was through the video game. After playing Goldeneye 64 for hours and hours, me and my cousin rented Goldeneye from the video store and watched it. This led to my first cinema Bond which was TND. Hooked ever since

For fans born in 78-82, what did you do during the hiatus? I imagine you could get through the 6 years by catching up on the older Bonds from before your time.

It must have been hardest for fans born in 70-74 who lived through the Moore/Dalton Era, used the in between time to watch the Connery films and then all of a sudden 89 hits and Bond is gone for 6 years.

The Domino Effect wrote:

This prompts an interesting question, is there a 'lost generation' of people who would be Bond fans but because there were no new releases when they were at a particularly impressionable age, they never became interested and never looked at future films or checked the TV/video shop for old ones.

I do think that there could have been a lost subgroup of fans. My father didn't press his interest of Bond on me and the films in that time were a little more difficult to access. The VHS era helped grant wider access to the films, but without a wide release, the awareness was definitely down.

The video games certainly helped reach back out to those younger lost fans though.

Gassy Man

Oh, you young pups. I was born in the late 60s, so I grew up with Bond films and reruns. I preferred the 60s Bonds, so the newer stuff has always seemed imitative to me rather than the real thing anyway.

I remember seeing The Living Daylights in the theater and thinking it was a good movie, but that guy wasn't really Bond. Then I saw it a few more times, and Dalton began to impress me more. But Licence to Kill was a disappointment -- everything from the Miami Vice plot to the so-so Bond girls (Taliso Soto, who couldn't act her way out of a blacked out room; Carey Lowell, who my friend referred to as "the feminist horse" because of her demeanor and stature) to Michael Kamen's not-John Barry score made me think the Bond films had seen their day. I liked Dalton, but he just didn't seem to have the wheels for the time. Despite assurances to the contrary, I always thought the six-year hiatus to the next Bond was just to let Dalton's contract run out.

When they announced Goldeneye with Pierce Brosnan, I thought they might have a winning combination. I was excited. After all, he seemed a natural, a good-looking guy adept at light comedy, the later of which is what the two previous Bonds had been criticized for lacking. But then I saw the movie and thought it was less impressive than with Licence to Kill, which at least looked like a movie instead of a cable show. And Brosnan's portrayal seemed all wrong for the type of actor he was; instead of capitalizing on his humor and cool, they seemed to be trying to make him tougher -- like Dalton.

By then, though, the Bond films seemed largely played out to me. There were better offerings, such as the Die Hard series and the Jack Ryan films -- I remember thinking that John McTiernan or Phllilp Noyce should have been doing Bond films. It really wasn't until Craig appeared on scene that finally, finally, I thought they might get things right again, and for the most part, I think they have.

superado

MooseWithFleas wrote:

I was born in 87, so I didn't have to deal with the anguish of a 6 year hiatus. I didn't really get introduced to Bond until Goldeneye and that was through the video game. After playing Goldeneye 64 for hours and hours, me and my cousin rented Goldeneye from the video store and watched it. This led to my first cinema Bond which was TND. Hooked ever since

For fans born in 78-82, what did you do during the hiatus? I imagine you could get through the 6 years by catching up on the older Bonds from before your time.

It must have been hardest for fans born in 70-74 who lived through the Moore/Dalton Era, used the in between time to watch the Connery films and then all of a sudden 89 hits and Bond is gone for 6 years.

The Domino Effect wrote:

This prompts an interesting question, is there a 'lost generation' of people who would be Bond fans but because there were no new releases when they were at a particularly impressionable age, they never became interested and never looked at future films or checked the TV/video shop for old ones.

I do think that there could have been a lost subgroup of fans. My father didn't press his interest of Bond on me and the films in that time were a little more difficult to access. The VHS era helped grant wider access to the films, but without a wide release, the awareness was definitely down.

The video games certainly helped reach back out to those younger lost fans though.

What about the fans born before 1970, like me? Since my first cinematic Bond, TSWLM, I've come to expect a new installment every 2 years, so the 6-year hiatus was unsettling and from 1991 (when the next movie was expected) onward, there was really no knowing when the series would resume though I've been hopeful that the next year, whenever that was, would be it; I've never lost faith that the series would somehow stop.

As for the lost generation of fans, I can speak for my younger cousins who've never seen any Bonds at the cinema at that time, though I piqued their interest in Bond so much that they picked up on the series via VHS and even took to the books, which I lent to them. I was surprised that they in turn spread the Bond gospel through their friends! It was more about the world of Bond and the younger guys, like me at their age, turned their worldview into a "what would Bond do" proposition. I remember how we loved Bond so much, that whenever one of us showed up at someone's house with a Bond video tape, it didn't matter which actor it was, "AVTAK!?!? Fire up the video player!!!"

Brosnan_fan

Jarvio wrote:

What were the early 90's like for other bond fans? What bond did you grow up with? What did the '89-'95 hiatus feel like?

Ahhh, The Dark Ages.

I was born during the Moore era, and he was James Bond while I was growing up. To tell the truth, I wasn't that bothered by the 6-year gap.

I was 16 through 22 during that time, and I didn't care to hear of civil lawsuits back then. Besides, I could watch the existing Bond films over and over again (ON VIDEO, no less!! ).

Also, I (subconsciously) knew there were other films on at the cinema besides Bond - the Lethal Weapon, Die Hard and Under Siege films, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park and, of course, True Lies. :v

Golrush007

I was born in 1987, and I wasn't really aware of Bond until after GE had come out.

As a young child I was not much a movie-goer at all so I never saw a Bond movie in the cinema until DAD, by which point I had probably watched about half of the earlier films on video or on TV. The four year gap between DAD and CR was rather frustrating for me though. I had just started to become a serious Bond fan and then I was left rewatching the previous films over and over until CR came out. I also developed an interest in the Bond books during that time and joined AJB and took part in the fan fiction section here so I was never a bored Bond fan in that time, that is for sure!

Blackleiter

Bondtoys wrote:

Jarvio wrote:

The closest thing to bond during my childhood would have to be GE in '95 (I was simply too young to remember LTK in '89).

I wish I'd be so lucky not remembering the Dalton era

Ahhhh......the Golden Era! ) I, for one, was extremely grateful for the Dalton era after suffering through a phase that I found to be too jokey and long-in-the-tooth. Dalton's portrayal of Bond set things back on the right track in my view, and I'm sorry he didn't get to do more films. I also welcomed Brosnan's arrival as the new Bond and I wish he had better material to work with throughout his tenure. Still, I was generally happy that Bond was back on the scene.

BIG TAM

I was born in 1968 so Connery & Moore were my 007s. Innocence can be a blessing as not being old enough to evaluate different nuances they just seemed like two sides of the same coin; same character, different styles. Connery was Bond of TV, Moore of the cinema.
I liked the attempt to toughen up Bond with LICENCE TO KILL, though I always felt they chickened out a bit by keeping Q, as if to placate traditionalists who may not be able to cope with all the bloodlust.
Back on topic: My fanaticism with all things Bond was waning a bit in the early '90s & the six year hiatus didn't bother me. I just assumed it had all come to an end. Then GOLDENEYE turned up & my interest was rekindled - more than ever in fact! Its appearance made me properly re-evaluate what my preferences were with what had gone before. And the joy is I keep re-appraising things, hence my now appreciating YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE for the big scale entertainment it is. Perhaps I'm entering a second childhood.

chrisisall

I grew up used to a Bond film every other year, but around the time a new Bond film should have been coming out we got hit with Terminator 2 & Star Trek VI, and that quite distracted me...
Later I began to notice there wasn't one coming, I figured they'd just decided to stop making them. Then just about the time I'd given up, news of a new Bond starring that Remington Steele chap surfaced. -{

Sir Hillary Bray

I was in my mid-20s during the hiatus. I had been a real Bond junky since 1978, and while my passion for Bond never lessened in the 80s, it now had to compete with college, women, partying, living on my own, and meeting/marrying the woman of my dreams. The six years of the hiatus were among the busiest of my life -- two years of grad school, followed by an intense job which had me working 16 hours a day, the birth of my first child, and finally living most of 1994 abroad in London. I guess in a way, the hiatus was at the perfect time for me because I was almost too busy to care -- any other time, and it would have bothered me a lot more. I remember how my dad (a lawyer) would send me updates on the lawsuit he saw in legal magazines, so I was able to monitor status from a very legal point of view.

superado

Sir Hillary Bray wrote:

I remember how my dad (a lawyer) would send me updates on the lawsuit he saw in legal magazines, so I was able to monitor status from a very legal point of view.

Wow, that's cool. Compared to whatever scraps of news from mainstream sources, I think those are the best updates to have in tems of blow by blow documentation and I would have appreciated reading those.

rennervision

I remember the good old days - you would get excited that a new year ending with an odd number just started because that meant you would be seeing a new Bond movie later that summer. (I wished they still revealed the title of the next movie at the end of the last, since you could at least call the upcoming movie by its correct name.)

But without access to the internet I had no idea why year after year passed in the early 90s with no Bond film. I remember thinking, "Wow! Timothy Dalton killed the series!" (No offense to Dalton fans, since I loved LTK even though the theater was practically empty when I saw it opening night.)

MadMaxZorin

Jarvio wrote:

No bond in the early 90's meant, for me at least, no bond throughout my childhood. I was born in '85, and I feel that the most nostalgic years of my childhood were 1992 and 1993. The closest thing to bond during my childhood would have to be GE in '95 (I was simply too young to remember LTK in '89).

What were the early 90's like for other bond fans? Were you like me in that you grew up without a bond? What bond did you grow up with? What did the '89-'95 hiatus feel like?

Well, honestly (and Thunderpussy might say I am a little biased here) Bond's popularity took a hit over here in the States during the Dalton years. It was a combination of things really. Moore had been the only Bond my generation really knew growing up and he obviously had fun with the role (too much fun if You ask many here lol). Dalton was so serious when he took over in TLD that the change was too drastic for many. That along with the huge blockbuster action films of the late 80's like Lethal Weapon, Die Hard, and the very first Batman movie in 1989 made Licence To Kill almost an afterthought to random moviegoers when it came out.

So to answer Your question, without the internet at my disposal to link me to the behind the scenes info on all things 007- I honestly thought that the hiatus meant that EON had finally thrown in the towel after LTK. I was pleasantly surprised to see Brosnan don the tux in 95 and GE turned out to be my favorite of the series so it was well worth the wait and enduring those painful Dalton years for me personally

Thunderpussy

Much as I think Dalton was the closest any actor has got to the literary Bond.
I do accept, the points made by others over the years, that for whatever reasons
Dalton wasn't accepted by the movie audience.
It would have been hard for any actor to follow in the shoes of Sir Roger. :007)
He was able to replace Sir Sean and build on the success of those 60s classics
To carry the series forward. So it must have been a bit of a shock for them when
The more realistic Dalton ca!me along. )
LTK, I hated at first, looked a little cheap, and I thought the series was over.
In a way it was, although plans for a third Dalton Bond were made, it never happened,
Not until 1995 and GoldenEye was Bond reborn. :x
Although it should be noted that even after that gap, Dalton was offered GoldenEye, but
Turned it down, because he too felt after the gap it would be the perfect time to bring in
A younger actor to carry the series forward. -{

MadMaxZorin

Thunderpussy wrote:

Much as I think Dalton was the closest any actor has got to the literary Bond.
I do accept, the points made by others over the years, that for whatever reasons
Dalton wasn't accepted by the movie audience.
It would have been hard for any actor to follow in the shoes of Sir Roger. :007)
He was able to replace Sir Sean and build on the success of those 60s classics
To carry the series forward. So it must have been a bit of a shock for them when
The more realistic Dalton ca!me along. )
LTK, I hated at first, looked a little cheap, and I thought the series was over.
In a way it was, although plans for a third Dalton Bond were made, it never happened,
Not until 1995 and GoldenEye was Bond reborn. :x
Although it should be noted that even after that gap, Dalton was offered GoldenEye, but
Turned it down, because he too felt after the gap it would be the perfect time to bring in
A younger actor to carry the series forward. -{

Hey, Dalton certainly has his fans now though! Now that Craig has put his interpretation of Bond on screen a lot of people are saying Dalton was ahead of his time. Just don't let Higgins read such a thing

Barbel

MadMaxZorin wrote:

Just don't let Higgins read such a thing

) Too late... I hear his impossibly gaudy trainers approaching, his steps weighed down by the large bag of anti-Dalton quips he carries.

AlphaOmegaSin

http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/bond_17_intro.php3

Higgins

Barbel wrote:

MadMaxZorin wrote:

Just don't let Higgins read such a thing

) Too late... I hear his impossibly gaudy trainers approaching, his steps weighed down by the large bag of anti-Dalton quips he carries.

I am watching you nutters closely :v