Fascinating question posed by the folks at i09.com (you can read the article here).

This being essentially an “open ended” question, the meat of the matter lies in the responses following the article itself, which posited that the insanely popular (at least at this point!) TV show The Walking Dead may not age all that well over time.

I found the very first response the most interesting: that the Marvel Cinematic Universe may not age all that well.

Let me go one better: It is often the most popularly watched/read/listened to items when they are originally released  that are in most danger of fading with time.  In part, this is due to oversaturation.  There will come a point, though probably not with the new Avengers film that’s about to be released, when the magic found in those films will suddenly be gone.

There was a time I watched The Simpsons religiously.  In fact, I thought it was the best comedy show on TV, period.  I watched the first five or so seasons, mostly with delight, but then something happened and from that point on I haven’t been willing to see an entire episode of the show at all.  Basically, I had my fill of The Simpsons and didn’t want or care to ever see it again.  And those early episodes that delighted me so?  I have them on DVD.  I have yet to re-watch any of them.

Will the same happen to the Marvel Universe movies?  Frankly, I think it is already happening to some degree.  Already a consensus is emerging on what the “good” Marvel Universe movies and what the “bad” ones are.  I, for one, didn’t find Iron Man 2 as bad as most people felt it was.  And yet, I don’t see myself seeing the film again.  One the other hand, I enjoyed both Thor films when I watched them, yet I don’t see myself revisiting either film in the future, either.

Another reason something very popular today may not be so popular tomorrow: Generational taste.  If there’s one thing I’ve come to realize over time it is that each generation has their own interests and sometimes they have little to no interest in what came before.  In part this could be due to changing attitudes. Perhaps it is also an issue of generational identity.

When I was a child, the novels of Harold Robbins were all the rage with adults.  His books usually featured sweeping generational stories loaded with (at the time) frank, graphic sexuality.  Perhaps it was nothing more than this sexuality (which may be considered tame by today’s standards) that brought the readers in.  Regardless, his books sold in the millions and a mind-boggling ten of them were made into movies and/or TV mini-series.

Yet by the 1980’s, it seemed to me that Mr. Robbins’ red-hot books were suddenly not as popular.  Mr. Robbins died in 1997.  By that time, I suspect very few remembered who he was.  Today, I doubt there are many younger readers out there who have any idea at all who Harold Robbins is.

So we return to the question at hand: What work that people love today will not hold up in the future?

As with everything, time will tell.