One of my favorite YouTube accounts is run by Hugo Faces, who posts a lot of great clips from the New York City stations I watched as a kid. Here is a recent compilation of several holiday-themed commercials, and I think it's a solid warmup for 12 Days of Watching:
Included here: Several ads for Arthur's, a chain I don't recall even hearing about. There certainly weren't any locations in my area. While watching this clip, Laurie declared no one wanted a vacuum cleaner for Christmas, so that's one thing I can remove from my shopping cart!
Consumers Catalog is another unfamiliar concept, but I did have Service Merchandise. What is this guy doing in that ad for the latter? "Oh, how did you guess?" "Well, it wasn't easy considering you insisted on playing charades instead of just telling me what you wanted."
And of course any video of NYC 1980s ads is enriched by a Crazy Eddie spot!
Forgive me for using the Sesame Street YouTube Spotlight post to share a video from the playlist that is not from Sesame Street. We did stuff the playlist with Sesame clips, and yesterday's Power Rankings featured 10 more. Instead, then, let's take another look at this "Children's Favorites" LP ad that Mike mentions on the pod:
83 tracks sounds like a great deal! You have to love the song selection, too.
I tell you, though, the animation is almost bizarre, and this ad really puzzled me when it aired (and it aired a LOT) back in the day. The most baffling moment is the clip at--Wait! There are TWO "Children's Favorites" LP ads! I included both of them, but THIS is the one I want to focus on today. In particular, go to the 26-second mark.
What IS this song? The only time I ever heard this tune is watching this ad.
"Boom, boom! Ain't it great to be crazy? Boom, boom! Ain't it great to be crazy?"
Is this an actual children's favorite or some kind of psy-op?
I just looked around, and after 40 years of wondering, I know know this IS a kiddie standard. The likes of Barney the Dinosaur and Mickey Mouse covered it. I must have been deprived. After hearing the cloying (even in context) version on "Children's Favorites," I felt more depraved.
One of my favorite clips from our Gilligan's Island playlist this week is this 1979 ad for Van de Kamps frozen fish:
First of all, I love the fact that a known actress doesn't lead the spot but shows up in the second "segment." How random must it have seemed watching the tube in 1979 to see Mrs. Howell raving about frozen fish 15 years after Gilligan's?
I think I knew Donny and Marie from their Hawaiian Punch ads than I did their actual TV work. The commercials were on all the time, and I loved Hawaiian Punch! Or was it Kool-Aid? Or maybe Hi-C?
On one hand, we all love the image of Fell as Stanley Roper grinning at the camera. Let's try, difficult as it is, to remove that picture from our mind. If you take out the mugging Stanley from Fell's repertoire (not that I want to), is there any better combination of pitchman and product than he and Pepto?
Before the Oscar for Moonstruck revitalized her acting career, Cher was perhaps most prominent in a series of fitness gym commercials, like this one we included in this week's Sonny and Cher playlist:
That was far from the only ad, nor even the only club. Cher also starred in many more ads like this:
For a while, Cher was arguably a bigger fitness icon than a music icon, let alone a screen icon!
I mean, it was out of control for a while there. We put this particular spot in the MASH II playlist this week:
That one actually pairs Colonel Potter and Trapper John in a truly historic moment! But there are many others, and here is a compilation:
Adding to the fun, Alan Alda was appearing in numerous Atari ads in the same general time period. Oh, to see a Gary Burghoff ad for Sega Master System.
Here is a 1987 NY Times article explaining the concept and dealmaking behind the ad campaign. Note that Alda wasn't part of the initial deal but was indeed added later as the piece indicated was possible.
Miami Vice inspired a lot of things, but you wouldn't think a toy racing playset would be one of them, would you? Well, check out this vintage ad for a Galoob toy car track:
Everything about this, including the kids dressed as Crockett and Tubbs, makes me think it's a parody, but, no, this was a real product. I wonder, did Galoob buy time during the series? Or did it run these ads in between Hair Bear Bunch episodes on USA Cartoon Express?
The Museum of Classic Chicago Television account has done it again, sharing a clip so shocking, so astonishing, so Seventies, that words fail me. Let the YouTube commenters do the talking today.
It's the Disco Body Shaper:
This ad has it all except for one important thing.
Does the guy in that ad remind you of a certain Genius-award-winning actor? Everyone is trying, and it's Christmastime. I enjoy this commercial and the way it is shot. Maybe it could be a little grittier, but how many large retail chains want to be associated with "gritty"?
Next up, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback with a seasonal Isotoner ad. These commercials were ubiquitous at the time, but the holiday variant is a nice watch:
Marino was one of the highest-paid guys in the league. Were Istoners really expensive? You know what, let's not go there. It's the thought that counts, and with the slogan, "Take care of the hands that take care of you," Marino indicates what is really on his mind: Making sure his offensive lineman keep his butt off the turf.
This is your friendly neighborhood podcaster Rick sending you all Season's Greetings and announcing that starting today and going up to December 24, I will be sharing the 12 Days of Christmas Watching with you. Each day I will post a few words about a bit of holiday television I watch this season, with the only rule being it will be something I have never seen before, or at least something I don't remember seeing before.
Maybe we can make this an annual tradition on par with screening A Charlie Brown's Christmas, with the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Plaza, and with me stabbing myself with one of the cheap ornament hooks I insist on keeping each year as I pull them out of the box.
So how do I start the 12 Days for 2022? Uh, well, I don't want to write about a few things because what I saw first is from a series we are likely covering in Season 11. So...oops!
To save this new feature from instant terminal lameness, though, let me share a cool commercial. Take the world's biggest toy store and combine it with the world's biggest trend, and you get 1979's roller disco Toys R Us ad!
This has it all, except Ethel Merman! OK, some actual toys would be nice, but skates are toys!
Another thing is, this isn't an actual store. If it is, boy, I really regret growing up 40 minutes away from the nearest location. They knew they didn't need to show the products or the setting, but all they had to do in 1979 was show DISCO, and everyone would arrive ready to buy.
I don't think that is a Christmas commercial, so here is the classic one that I loved even though it irritated me because I didn't have a store in my town:
This day celebrates the dessert, but maybe it's a good time to celebrate the cartoon and the toy! Maybe you or someone in your family watched it, maybe you stepped on the toys once or twice after they were scattered on the living room floor, but it would be hard to grow up in the Eighties without some exposure to Strawberry Shortcake. They seem to revamp the character every decade or so, but here are a few glimpses of the original!
This is an odd commercial, a 1988 automobile ad featuring Frankie Avalon Junior as well as his dad:
This was part of a series of spots with the offspring of celebrities telling us it's COOL to drive this car now. I tell you, Frankie Avalon Jr.? Seems a little bizarre 30 years later. He was in The Karate Kid and has had a solid career as a drummer (including in his dad's band), and Avalon Prime was having a bit of a renaissance at this time following the success of 1987's Back to the Beach. Still, though, it seems odd.
Doug Henning was one of the big stars of the BOTNS era, but his untimely death may have contributed to the lack of awareness of him today. Of course he played a big part in the original Night of 100 Stars. Here he is for Plymouth Voyager:
Is it really a magic wagon? Can't we just pretend? And don't we need a little more magic and wonder in our lives?
I say, hey, enough of this vinyl resurgence. It's time to enjoy 8-track cassette tapes again!
I love that Party Rock in this case is basically just good oldies music. I mean, is "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" really as party friendly as "Summer in the City"?
"Hey, you hosers, up here, that's called every day." --Bob and Doug
To celebrate, as tempting as it would be to rejoin Dolan and the lads, we present a NEW (well, you know what we mean) Lowenbrau commercial, one appropriate to honor the just-ended March Madness of the NCAA tournaments.
In case you can't see the video embedded above, an older basketball coach congratulates his victorious protege after their game. The winning coach is gracious, saying he had the best teacher, and the defeated one also shows class but asks if he was taught the tradition of the winner buying a Lowenbrau. They then share warm complimentary remarks at the bar over a couple bottles a' Lowenbrau.
The spot features all that I love about this old ad campaign: Idealized (but heartfelt) portrayals of male friendship, an overall ambience of camaraderie and good cheer, and Arthur Prysock singing that terrific jingle. Let It Be Lowenbrau, indeed!
