Few things are better than sweeps season. During this special time, the programming created by our local television news teams is at once magical, fascinating and largely idiotic.

Ever the trend-breaker, WHAS11 offered this thought-provoking segment:

Louisville, Ky. (WHAS11) – The weather forecast is hard enough to predict so imagine trying to predict the future. That’s what WHAS TV did in 1984, 26-years-ago. WHAS11 News found a one hour special produced in 1984, looking ahead to the year 2010. In 1984 there was no internet, no email, no airport expansion, no Kentucky Lottery and the Humana building was under construction. So did they come close? Watch the video to find out!

The video is so wonderful, and on so many different levels — 80s anchor hair, cheesy music and baseless optimism — that to single out any one part would be a disservice to the whole. Video + snark, after the jump.

However, three things:

1. During the part of the video that discusses the coming information age-based economy, no mention was made to the thousands of rural residents who to this day don’t have adequate access to education necessary to participate in such a wonderful-sounding workforce, much less connect to the internet in order to watch pornographic films and play World of Warcraft.

2. The lieutenant governor in 1984 was none other than STEVE BESHEAR! Easy to forget, but true; this creature of Frankfort has been milling about the commonwealth’s halls of power for decades. In the video, a wrinkle-free, pre-Sith Beshear criticizes the Kentucky government of 1984 for being too unfocused, compares it to a shotgun and laments that we never seem to move forward on important issues, only side-to-side. This statement disproves my theory that Beshear has a personal time traveling device, because if he did he would’ve warned his younger self that the Kentucky government of 2010 is focused intently on gambling and coal, yet that isn’t exactly panning out either.

3. Melissa Swan and Doug Proffitt both lose points for failing to mention that the film “2010: The Year We Make Contact” includes a scene in which Roy Schieder talks about how Kentucky has “damn fine basketball … and bourbon,” two things that are (for the moment) still true. For shame.