2000s Decade Recap - Entertainment
2000s Decade Recap - Entertainment
What Kind of Decade was it?
Well, Sitcoms and dramas were replaced with reality programming, while a desperate Hollywood turned to any and all sources of inspiration it could find.
Yeah, that’s the kind of decade that it was in Entertainment.
In 2000, the millennium began with a sweeping change of the TV landscape with the launch of “Survivor.” This quickly began an industry-wide reality craze that prioritized cheap, unscripted programming above plot or production values. That same year “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” flew into theaters to become the highest-grossing foreign-language film in American history. At the same point, Marvel studios released “X-Men,” their first major superhero comic book film adaptation, a success that would cause other superheroes like Spiderman to quickly swing to cinemas.
In 2001, movie studios realized that fantasy novels garnered a huge following. As a result the film versions of J.R.R Tolkien’s “The Lord of The Rings” went head-to-head with J.K Rowling’s “Harry Potter,” while “Shrek” spoofed fairy-tales and collected animation’s first Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
2002 saw Hollywood finally break the mold by awarding African American actors in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories when Denzel Washington and Halle Berry were recognized for their roles in “Training Day” and “Monster’s Ball” respectively. Meanwhile, “American Idol” premiered to the delight of the countries worst singers who got to screech in Simon’s face, as well as provide a launching pad for the truly talented, such as Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
In 2003 we saw Disney flip a five-minute ride into a three-movie franchise while Martha Stewart decorated a prison cell. It was also the year we lost a neighbor: Mr. Rogers passed away in February.
2004 gave us Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” a failed attempt to block president Bush from being re-elected. This coincided with the popularization of a new film category called “Torture Porn,” as seen in “Saw” and Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” The world lost a hero this year when the man known as Superman passed away, as did the man who portrayed his father. Christopher Reeve died in October, Marlon Brando passed away in July.
In 2005 a new dawn for entertainment began with the YouTube explosion, which made celebrities out of ordinary people…well…sort of ordinary people. That same year the nation mourned the passing of comedian Richard Prior and Johnny Carson, while Steve Carell re-defined outrageous adult comedy with “The 40 Year Old Virgin.” He paired this achievement with the amazing feat of starring in a successful American version of a British Sitcom. Meanwhile, “The Colbert Report” invaded late night television, and moviegoers were spared as those dreadful “Star Wars” prequels finally came to an end with “Revenge of The Sith.”
2006 was the year that gay cowboys rode into the sunset in “Brokeback Mountain.” And “Borat” showed us how gullible and racist we all really are. Perhaps most shocking of all, was not the fact that Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was killed; it’s that he was killed by a Stingray and not a Crocodile. “The Inconvenient Truth,” former vice prez and democratic nominee Al Gore lost the election, but won an Oscar. Bond went blond and Balboa came back for round six.
In 2007, Paramount and Hasbro transformed a toy line into big money with “Transformers.” They relied on Megan Fox to provide the eye candy. It was a dark year for television as the Writer’s Guild of America went on strike, which meant no new TV, and the seasons of existing shows were cut short. This was also the year Anna Nicole Smith ended her reign as the tabloid queen, when she passed away from an accidental overdose in February.
In 2008, darker superhero movies finally became popular with “The Dark Knight,” a movie that benefited from the stellar performance of the late Heath Ledger, who passed on shortly after completing the film. In the realm of TV, “Sex and the City” got a movie adaptation that lured tons of women, and their poor boyfriends, to movie theaters. Meanwhile, reality programming became legit when 3 Emmy Award categories were created to honor the genre. And the blu-ray high definition disk finally won its two year struggle with HD-DVD to become the next-gen video format of choice.
2009 was the year of celebrity deaths. Ed McMahon. Walter Cronkite. David Carradine. Even Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett died – though no one noticed as Michael Jackson passed away the same day. And Patrick Swayze followed not long after. In the movie world, however, Sci-Fi took center stage as “Star Trek” was given a new lease-on-life with the help of a younger cast. The low-budget “District 9” proved that a defined vision and fresh actors can beat out the usual Hollywood strategy. The decade finally came to a close with James Cameron’s “Avatar,” the most expensive and visually impressive film ever to combine live action, CGI and 3D Experience.
