7 works looking back
Nostalgia has a measurable reach.
28.4
years, on average, between when these were made and when they are set
Outlander reached back 69 years; The Great Gatsby only 3 years. Close enough to a generation that the audience remembers the decade being sold to them, far enough that somebody else has to build the sets.
This is the one figure on the site that does not move each January. A gap is fixed when the work is made; only the corpus changes it, and it is computed from 7 settings across 7 works.
Outlander
Looked back 69 years
Claire steps through the stones at Craigh na Dun and lands 202 years before the woman who left. This site measures 271 years, because it counts from the broadcast and not from her own bedroom. Made in 2026, she would land in 1755.
Mad Men
Looked back 47 years
Matthew Weiner's series opened in a 1960 its 2007 audience could still half-remember: 47 years back, close enough for parents and grandparents, far enough that the ashtrays counted as costume. The show was built on that exact distance — near enough to feel personal, far enough to look like another country.
Stranger Things
Looked back 33 years
The Duffer brothers set their first series 33 years before it aired, in a 1983 of bicycles, walkie-talkies and basement Dungeons & Dragons. The show is an argument that a particular childhood is worth rebuilding in detail, and the detail is what people came for.
The Wonder Years
Looked back 20 years
The show had this site's formula written into its production rule: every season is set exactly 20 years before it aired. Six seasons from 1988 covered 1968 to 1973. Premiered in 2026, that same rule would run Kevin's adolescence from 2006 to 2011.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
Looked back 16 years
Rockstar built 1986 in 2002, 16 years after the fact, out of Miami Vice, Scarface and 113 licensed songs. Made in 2026, the same reach would have it recreating 2010 instead — a year now old enough to sell as a period, complete with its own radio stations.
American Graffiti
Looked back 11 years
George Lucas made his second film for about $777,000 and set it 11 years back, on a single night of cruising in a California town. It took over $140 million, invented the modern nostalgia picture, and did it from a distance short enough that most of the audience had lived through it.
The Great Gatsby
Looked back 3 years
Fitzgerald wrote about the summer before last. The gap is 3 years — the smallest on this site by a wide margin, and small enough that the book was reporting rather than remembering. Written in 2026, the same reach would set it in 2023.