Five Favorites That Pop(d) Onto the Scene 10 Years Ago

It’s been a decade since these classics made their debut. For real.

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Sure, time flies when you’re having fun, but it’s still hard to believe that it’s been 10 years since these pop culture-defining movies and shows broke onto the scene.

This list of five of my favorites ringing in anniversaries this year has me feeling only slightly old, as I can (mostly) remember 2007 like it was yesterday (or at least last month).

Superbad

More like super awesome, this is the hit that launched the big screen careers of Oscar winner Emma Stone, Oscar nominee Jonah Hill and Michael Cera. It also gave us McLovin’, who I’ll always remember fondly but am simultaneously not sad about ending up in the proverbial ‘clearance’ bin of once-funny-but-ultimately-obnoxious teen movie characters. Super size that, yo.

Mad Men

Arguably the first stop on the road that’s led to our current Peak TV(!) era, I can’t recall a show with more style, class and booze-soaked drama than this AMC gem. It single-handedly brought back fedoras (I rocked one) and straight-up classic cocktails (I drank some), while kicking off the trend of shows with an a**hole anti-hero protagonist front-and-center (Tony Soprano and Walter White owe them one). It was about as zeitgeist-y as it gets, and I loved every 1960s chain smoking minute of it.

Knocked Up

The second in a one-two punch from Judd Apatow & Co. in 2007, I remember this movie exploding upon impact and launching Seth Rogan into the stratosphere. I was there in the sold-out AMC Theatre in Kips Bay in NYC on opening night, and laughed until I (almost) cried at what was a fresh look at adulting and stepping up in the world. There have been plenty of criticisms in the years since about how the movie handles women (yup, we alllll heard you, Katherine Heigl), but take it for what it is, and you can’t deny this one is a modern classic.

The Hills

Look, it doesn’t get more vain or vacuous than this show… expect for maybe that from which it was spawned, Laguna Beach. But this hearty dose of brain candy—which really pulled down the curtain on how scripted ‘reality’ shows could be—was also its own kind of opus to young strivers (ok, maybe just me), as Lauren and Whitney tried to make their mark in the magazine world while taking LA by storm one dramatic, mascara-running-down-the-front-of-your-pseudo-couture moment at a time.

Gossip Girl

If there was one show that debuted in 2007 that had me scampering home early from $3 happy hour margaritas at Blockhead’s in Midtown to not miss a minute of the live action, it was the CW’s Gossip Girl. The show not only made Blake Lively a star, but it changed the way we now measure viewership, being the first series whose streaming audience surpassed its broadcast ratings. Week after week, I couldn’t get enough of the pre-recession series’ pretty people and their uptown over-the-top, Dynasty-meets-Dawson’s Creek drama. And I absolutely lived (LIVED!) for every damn ‘OMG’ moment. So, to celebrate the premiere milestone, here’s a clip of my favorite bomb drop from season one. Still epic after all these years.

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