Marcel Winatschek

Game of Thrones, 1985

Someone edited Game of Thrones into an 80s TV show intro—synth stabs, VHS grain, that particular saturated color palette that makes everything look like it was filmed on a slightly different planet. It’s been making the rounds on YouTube, and it works better than it has any right to.

The strange thing is how naturally it fits. Knight Rider, Baywatch, The A-Team—those shows weren’t so different in ambition: massive casts, morally compromised heroes, spectacle as the main product. They just had smaller budgets and shinier hair. Strip the HBO production value and the blood volume from Westeros and what you have is essentially prime-time network television with dragons.

The joke lands because it isn’t entirely absurd. The same appetite that made those shows appointment viewing in 1985 is what drives Game of Thrones now. The packaging changed. The hunger didn’t. Things weren’t better then—just different, which is all nostalgia ever actually means.