By my clock, this era started with Diamonds are Forever... the era of the Silly Bond.

But Diamonds are Forever was a Connery Bond and it kind of sucked because of it.

So... Live and Let Die is the first of the GOOD silly Bond movies.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm on team Connery. Team Connery all the way... but Live and Let Die is still a GREAT 007 film despite the total change in mood and persona.

It moved away from the heartless assassin to pick up a more comedic and Fx driven fair that worked better for Moore.

And because it is a new 007, the fish out of water setting works to drive it home. It's not the first time 007 set foot in the United States, but it is Harlem in 1973 and it is The Big Easy, and these are places that a white British man with an Oxford education would be a HORRIBLE person to act as a spy in. He's going to stick out like a sore thumb, and he does...

... and that is probably why they choose it as a setting to usher in Moore's era Bond. Because Moore was going to be different. He was the fish out of water in the franchise, and the setting helps drive it home.

But, who cares, it was silly Bond, but it was FUN Bond. It was just fun in a different way than Connery was. But it was still fun, and fun is still entertaining.