On October 30th, the blog celebrated it's 3-year anniversary! As with every new anniversary, I go back over the year's posts and apply the label "Best of Me and You" to those articles that either were most popular or were a personal favorite of mine. Click here and you will have access to all of those posts. This is especially great for those who are new to the blog and wish to get a greater sense of what the blog is about.
Also, this year I'm finally implementing something I've been meaning to do for a really long time. I now have a survey to get your feedback on the blog! There are only a few questions. Please answer honestly; I can't improve the blog if I don't know what you like and don't like.
I really appreciate every single reader I have. You guys are the best!
Not being one to resist giving old broadcasting a plug, I continue my nostalgic trip through Philly TV past, this time with a look at WPHL-TV Channel 17, known in the late 70s and early 80s as "The Great Entertainer." I didn't watch too much stuff on 17 back in my very early youth, as Channel 48 had the majority of what I was interested in. Still, there were definitely highlights, some of which I'll spotlight here.
Welcome Back Kotter!
Barney Miller!
Its spinoff Fish!
The original Battlestar (I'll stop with the exclamation points).
Star Trek.
As far as kids programming goes, I watched the 60s Filmation Superman and King Kong cartoons during the summer in the mornings, and Ultraman, Spectreman, and Speed Racer in the afternoon, but the most important contribution to my childhood that Channel 17 made was airing the 60s Spider-Man cartoon, one of my favorites TV shows ever. Not just cartoon series, but any kind of series. When Channel 48 died, much of their equipment and library went to Channel 17. When that happened, Spidey left 17 and was off the air in Philly until Channel 57 brought it back in the mid-80s.
Today the station is mostly still independent, save for its affiliation with My Network TV, of which I'm not a fan, to put it mildly. The station, however, does recognize its past with a section of its Web site called "Vintage 17," where you can see the clips I posted here as well as some others.
I apologize to those not interested in my Philly-centric tone of late. I'll get back to more broad topics soon. Until then, here is Channel 17, and me, signing off!
In a similar vein to yesterday's post featuring Philly local TV commercials, today I present more commercials all from one Philly institution: The Tasty Baking Company, makers of Tastykakes--the best snack cakes EVER!! I grew up--and grew wide--on their delicious cakes, and these commericals helped contribute to their popularity.
To start off, here is a commercial featuring the classic jingle. I'm not the boy featured, but I might as well have been!
Next is an animated commerical I don't remember, but it's cute and has a late 70s/early 80s charm to it.
Here, kids enjoy some great Tastykakes, and learn the penalties in hockey as well. During Flyers broadcasts back in the day, when a Flyer scored, he "scored for a case of Tastykake!"
Here is a set of several various commercials that includes one Tastykake spot. What interests me about this clip: it aired on a Washington D.C. station! I didn't know they were sold that far south of Philly.
Finally, what may be the most interesting commercial of the set. Not only is it in great shape for being over 30 years old, it features a celebrity endorsement from none other than--Betty White! How the hell did that happen?
I think I'll go home and enjoy a good Tatykake right now!
Today is one dedicated to my fellow Philadelphians. The city is very rich in history, and that includes broadcasting history, one of my favorite subjects. Besides the great stations and personalities that made their way here, even local TV commercials have become popular and well remembered. Here is a sample of some fun commercials Philly folk should remember fondly.
Having car trouble? Try visiting Jimmie's Used Auto Parts, "Home of the happy auto parts!"
"Hey, where did everybody go?" They've gone to Betson's!" Betson's Furniture, that is!
Before moving that Betson's furniture into the house, make sure you first lay down carpet from Big Marty's. Big Marty sells carpets...cheaper!
A great blast from the past for Philadelphia residents is the memory of Frank's sodas. Here is a famous commercial from the 80s that supposedly features Patty Smyth performing. I don't know if that's really her or not; I'll let you be the judge.
Closing out today's post the way we began, with a car maintenance commercial, here is "The Boss's Wife" for Atlantic Transmission. "Don't get frantic; call Atlantic!"
Do you have any suggestions? Let me know in the comments section or at phillyradiogeek@gmail.com and I'll try my best to find them!
As my one final Jaws-related post for hopefully a long time to come, I have two remaining clips for you. Here is yet another parody of the film's opening scene, and as with my Jaws as Pitchman post before, it's for a radio station. This clip makes its point very well! Once again, I'm thwarted from embedding a YouTube clip, so please watch it here.
Here is a very abridged animated version of the film. Unlike most Internet film abridgements, this does not star bunnies.
I'm going to the seashore for an extra long holiday weekend starting tonight. Everyone have a safe and fun July 4th weekend. And remember--don't go in the water!
This Sunday June 20th marks the 35th anniversary of the release of one of my alltime favorite movies, Jaws! In honor of this event, I'm devoting the entire week to Jaws and shark-related material.
First up: a syndicated TV special released in 1983 that acted as an advertisement for the release of Jaws 3-D in 1983. The Making of Jaws 3-D: Sharks Don't Die was a combination of general facts about great whites and, well, the making of Jaws 3-D, and is narrated by one of the film's stars, Louis Gossett Jr. As bad as the movie may be (more on that later this week), this special captivated me when released, and I'm happy to have found it and present it here. Enjoy!
By request! Here is a quick word about two locally produced children's series that aired in the 70s and 80s on WCAU-TV, Channel 10 here in Philadelphia.
The first is The Candy Apple News Company, in which a small human cast interacted with puppets in putting out a newspaper. The main cast member was the late Matt Robinson, who had previously played Gordon on Sesame Street and was the father of actress Holly Robinson Peete. Each episode was a fun half hour of skits, short educational films, and other produced pieces.
Alas, there's very little information about the show on the Internet, and virtually no footage. I've tried for years, but have only found this one clip of the show's intro, which was just uploaded to YouTube last month.
This was requested by freelance writer and fellow blogger Chris Illuminati, whose exploits you can read about at the Great Moments in Christory blog, among other fine places, including his new book which you can purchase here.
Around this same time, Channel 10 also produced Star Stuff. This show revolved around a boy in Philadelphia who could communicate with a girl who lived in a space colony in the future via his amateur audio and video equipment. He would play various video clips, cartoons, and for some reason, Laurel and Hardy silent films (I'm not making that up). I liked the show for that reason alone.
Clips of this show are also rare, but here is the opening and closing sequences, along with a brief profile of the show for the Web site io9.
Keep the requests coming, and I'll see what I can do. And as always, thanks!
UPDATE AS OF MARCH 23, 2010: A week after this entry was written, two of the videos below were pulled from YouTube due to a copyright claim by the owner, whose Web site appears at the end of the post. As this post was so popular, however, I'm leaving it "as is" so people can still read about the show. DVDs can be purchased at the aforementioned Web site. Thanks!
Back in the 80s (yes, I'm dipping into the 80s well again), there was a dance show that aired on local TV in Philadelphia called Dancin' On Air. This was an old school teen dance show that aired Monday through Friday on WPHL Channel 17, very similar in format to Bandstand back in the 50s. The series ran throughout the decade and slighty into the 90s, evolving into a weekly national show that aired on USA network on Saturdays, renamed Dance Party USA. The show was a must-see for teens throughout the Philadelphia area in the show's prime. The great thing about this series was its role as a time capsule for the decade in both fashion and dance music. Witness!
Here, local band Social Voyeurs (I don't remember them) perform on the show.
Finally, the program was a showcase for one young woman from Berlin, New Jersey who would go on to much greater success in acting and program hosting--Kelly Ripa! Talk about humble beginnings.
Lo and behold, there's even a tribute Web site to the show, where you can order DVDs of highlights from both series. Sweet! http://www.dancinonair.com/
Yes, once again we traverse a Saturday morning schedule past for tasty nostalgic treats. It's Saturday Morning Recreated, and this time we enter--NBC in the fall of 1981!
As usual with NBC ads, there are no exact times, and considering the unusual way networks packaged their programs, I'm not even going to guess what the exact times were for these shows. I'll just go in order this time and see what's what.
Starting off the morning is the Flintstones Comedy Show. I've already talked about this series previously, and as their isn't much more footage from it to post, we'll simply move on.
The next show is, well, the most successful Saturday morning children's show of the decade--The Smurfs. The Belgian-born creatures had been around for ages before hitting American shores, but when they did, they were an overnight sensation that would last for years more. This show was to NBC's Saturday morning lineup what The Cosby Show would be to the network's primetime lineup in 1984. Their impact on kids TV in the 80s can't be overestimated. Here they are!
Next up is The Kids Super Power Hour with Shazam! This was a blend of two cartoons plus live action sequences. Hero High was simply that: a high school for super-powered teenagers. They were also portrayed in the live action spots by actors who were, well, older than teens. Truth be told, they were pretty bad. I remember the live action spots, but have no memory of the cartoon.
They appeared with an animated version of DC Comics' Captain Marvel. Strange that Filmation would give an animated take on a character for which they produced a live action series just a couple years before. Unfortunately, all I can find of this series is the intro (there were several episodes from the series available online fo a few years, but it looks like YouTube finally pulled the plug on them).
Up next is a return from the previous season, Space Stars. As with the Flintstones, I'll give this one a pass this time around, as I've already covered that series in my 1980 post. This leads up to...
Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends! Spidey makes his second go-round as an animated series, this time with help from the X-Men's Iceman and heroine Firestar, a character I believe was created specifically for this series (although she was later added into Marvel Comics' continuity). As a huge Spider-Man fan, I of course loved this show, even if it lacked the charm and energy of the 1960s series. How did these three crazy kids get together? Find out here!
Next is the Daffy and Speedy Show, a collection of crappy cartoons from the late 60s that were packaged for this series. Another leftover from previous seasons, so no need to mention it further here.
Finally, like the Jetsons from the 1980 season, this lineup is rounded out by a classic from the 60s, Rocky and Bullwinkle. At least this is a much better use of recycled material.
And that's the lineup for NBC 1981. As typical of most of the lineups we've examined so far, there are some gems (Smurfs, Spider-Man) and some crap (Hero High, Daffy and Speedy). Still, it's more than you can say for today's Saturday morning TV, but I'll save that for another post some day (and I do have a lot to say about it).
We'll have one more post to wrap up 80s Month, and then--heh heh heh. You see that new orange banner near the top right of the blog? Click on that and you'll see what's next for October. Bwah ha ha!
It's been far too long since I posted for this feature, and it's high time I did. Once again I'm visiting an old comic book ad for a TV network's Saturday morning lineup of the past and doing the best I can to recreate the experience here (well, recreate the lineup, if not the experience). For this round, I present the Saturday morning lineup for ABC in the fall of 1980! You can check out my two previous installments of this feature here and here.
First up at 8am Eastern time is a true Saturday Morning classic, Superfriends. Here they appear in "The Beasts Are Coming!"
Next at 9am is The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang, an animated version of Happy Days. Yes, Happy Days. Except this incarnation involves time travel. And a humorous dog who gives thumbs up. ABC took this approach with a few of their live action sitcoms, but this started the trend. Just look.
At 9:30, ABC presented the Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show. Here, the canine duo (along with human Shaggy) wind up on a boat as "Stow Aways."
10am began the Richie Rich Show. I couldn't find any episodes, but here are the intro, outro, and interstitial bumpers.
10:30 brought us the comic strip cat Heathcliff, along with co-feature Dingbat, the vampire dog. Yes, networks tried everything on Saturday morning TV.
At 11am, we saw DC Comics superhero Plastic Man, a carryover from the previous season, but this time with a bouncing baby boy--literally.
This was followed at 11:30 by Thundarr The Barbarian. Character design was created by legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby.
Lastly, the morning (by this time, afternoon) ended with two ABC stalwarts, The ABC Weekend Special and American Bandstand. I've featured the Special before, and there are virtually no clips for Bandstand, so I'll stop here.
Quite a mixed bag here. Superfriends was a winner, and I was a fan of Thundarr, but Happy Days is laughable and the remaining lineup forgettable. I'll look for the other networks for this same time period to see how they compare.
I once again want to thank Kliph Nesteroff of the Saturday Morning Blog and Shawn of Branded In The 80s for permission to use the concept and comic book ad, respectively. Please send me any feedback you can so I can make this feature prime reading. Thanks!
Hello everyone! Sorry for the week-long delay. I was away on a mini-vacation over the July 4th weekend, but now I'm back. Posting will be a bit sporadic throughout the summer as I'll be taking several short vacations rather than one long one. I'll be sure to make every post when I'm home a quality one.
That begins right now. Here are four TV commercials for Zeller's, a department store chain in Canada; think of it as Canada's equivalent of Target or Kohl's. Each of these commercials features an animated Batman and Robin stopping a classic Bat villian from charging customers high prices on toys. The animation is very well done for TV commercials, and I love the homage they pay to the Batman 60s TV show. In fact, if you listen closely, you'll notice that the sound effects of the villians are taken right from the show itself. Here they are!
Did anyone else think Catwoman showed a little too much skin for a toy commercial?
These remind me of a clip I posted previously last December (and can be found here) in which Zayre's department store also features a Batman TV homage, this time with live action. I wonder if they got their inspiration from the Zeller's spots.
See you next time--same Bat time, same Bat channel!
Superman, fighting for truth, justice, and the American way. And doing so--by speaking out against society's ills. Sure, super strength, super speed, and the ability to fly come in handy here and there, but nothing beats the power of the spoken word. See below for proof!
First are two public service announcements (PSAs) against smoking. Both were created and aired in the United Kingdom, and you can tell by the children's accents. The voice actor for Superman, however, is trying to fake an American accent--and failing miserably. Still, smoking sucks, so the PSAs are worth it. The animation is pretty good for a PSA, and I like Superman's tough attitude.
Next we're back in America, and this time Supes is reminding us to watch our cholesterol. Or more accurately, Clark Kent is. Clearly inspired by the Superman movies, the actress portraying Lois Lane bears a very close resemblance to Margot Kidder.
Finally, this PSA is likely my favorite, because I remember this one from childhood. Superman is telling a group of children how they can stay active while taking care of their asthma. This was shown quite frequently on children's TV in the early and mid 80s. Please forgive Superman's blue hair.
If anyone knows of any other superhero related PSAs, let me know in the comments section and I'll try to showcase them here. Thanks!
Here we go once again, stepping into the Wayback machine to take a look at kids TV of Saturday mornings past. Last time we looked at ABC in the Fall of 1979; now let's take a look at the competition at the same time. Here is CBS's Saturday morning lineup for the Fall of 1979!
First up at 8am ET is the Mighty Mouse/Heckle and Jeckle Show. This was not the first nor the last time Mighty Mouse would adorn CBS's Saturday morning lineup. The first time was in the mid-60s with his original cartoons made by TerryToons years earlier. This time around, CBS presented new cartoons made by the famous Filmation studios, which along with Hanna-Barbera was responsible for most animation featured on Saturday mornings. Here is a brief clip of Mighty Mouse; I couldn't find the new Heckle and Jeckle cartoons anywhere.
Well, that looks like it sucked.
Next up at 9am ET is an alltime Saturday morning classic: The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show. Although Warner Brothers cartoons were packaged in a thousand ways all over television during this era, this, to me and my generation, was the supreme showcase. It aired for a whopping 90 minutes! I couldn't find the intro with the classic theme song, but I do have the theme with a still of the intro here.
Here is a cartoon likely to be seen on this show, and probably my favorite Warner Bros. cartoon ever, "Rabbit Seasoning."
Also part of this hour, as the title states, was the Roadrunner, who also had his own theme song:
Here is the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Genius, in "Hook, Line, and Stinker."
At 10:30am is the All-New Popeye Hour, a show that had a surprisingly long run for CBS. As the title states, these were newly produced cartoons and not airings of the classic theatrical ones. Like some other cartoons at the time, these had little life lessons sprinkled throughout the hour. Here is the show intro and sample lesson.
Speaking of lessons, now is a good time for some interstititial programming, and if it's CBS, it must mean In The News. These were 2-minute segments presenting recent news stories to younger viewers in a clear, capsulized way. They were written and narrated by CBS newsman Christopher Glenn, who passed away in 2006. Several other Internet bloggers have described the segment as a drag on the schedule, but I loved them! Here is one example (which is really from December 1976/January 1977, but please allow me some slack).
At 11:30am is CBS Saturday morning stalwart Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids.
Wow, it's 12 noon and were not finished yet. I lvoed when networks had expanded lineups like this. Way to go, CBS!
At noon is the live action series Jason of Star Command, which I vaguely remember seeing but I can't tell you anything about the premise. Here is the intro. I couldn't find full episodes online, but the series is available on DVD.
At 12:30pm is Tarzan and the Super Seven. This hourlong program by Filmation was only one of several ways these individual components were packaged on the network. The seven in question were Tarzan himself;
The voices for Batman and Robin were none other than Adam West and Burt Ward. Perfect! Funny, I vividly remember Tarzan and the Freedom Force, but I never saw this version of Batman until a couple of years later in syndicated reruns.
Lastly at 1:30pm, CBS presented 30 Minutes, a news program aimed at young adults (translates as "teenagers") loosely patterned after 60 Minutes. I never knew it existed until I saw this comic book ad.
All in all, not a bad lineup at all. Mighty Mouse is definitely the weak link here, but otherwise an entirely enjoyable, watchable morning.
One of the blogs you'll see in my blog list is the Saturday Morning blog (http://saturdaymorn.blogspot.com/). This is an awesome sight run by Kliph Nesteroff, also owner of the Classic Television Showbiz and Generation Exploitation blogs. He has posted some cool and often forgotten cartoons of the 50s through the 70s. One feature he carried for awhile was Saturday Morning Recreated, in which he would attempt to present all of one network's Saturday morning lineup via clips from video sharing sites such as YouTube.
With permission from Kliph himself, I'd like to take over the reins on this great feature and present further installments here. To do that, I needed the same source material that Kliph used to determine the lineups: comic book ads. For years, networks would advertise their new Saturday morning lineups in comic books (that's where the audience was), and they're a great window into Saturday mornings past.
For this first installment, let's check out ABC, Saturday morning lineup from the Fall of 1979!
This ad doesn't have the exact times, but it's likely that the lineup began at 8am ET. The ad uses arrows to show which program leads into which.
First up at 8am is the Super Friends, which by 1979 had been a big hit for ABC for a few years. As this ad mentions the Legion of Doom, the team of super villians bent on conquering the world, the incarnation of the show this season is likely Challenge of the Super Friends. Here it is!
Up next at 9am is the Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, featuring the titular hero (albeit a relatively obscure one) headlining his own series. Here is Plas in "The Horrible Half Ape!"
Plastic Man shared this hour with several other features. Here is Mightyman and Yukk, the world's ugliest dog. Proceed with caution, as this is a bad cartoon.
This in turn was followed by Rickety Rocket, which is the first cartoon in this lineup I have absolutely no recollection of, but here's the intro.
The Plastic Man hour was concluded with Fangface, a comedic take on the werewolf concept. I enjoyed this one as a kid, but shake my head in disbelief at this now.
Before the next show, it's time for Schoolhouse Rock! ABC relied heavily on this and other short programming and PSAs between programs. Let's go with a classic--"Conjunction Junction!"
Up next at 10am is Spider-Woman, another cartoon based, like Plastic Man, on a relatively obscure comic book character. This was Marvel Comics' first production from its own animation studios, followed by Spider-Man and the Hulk on NBC in the early 80s. Here, Spider-Man guest stars in "Pyramids of Terror." Please excuse the non-English subtitles.
Up next at 10:30am is the Scooby and Scrappy Doo show. As Scrappy Doo is so universally hated, I'll keep comment here to a minimum. While his inclusion in the show is certainly a classic "jump the shark" moment, he doesn't bother me as much as other people.
Time for Timer!
Rounding out the morning are two programs aimed at tweens and teens. The ABC Weekend Special was a series of adaptations, both animated and live action, of books aimed at middle and high school age viewers. Here is the intro and first few minutes of one installment from the 1979-1980 season.
Finally, the legendary American Bandstand. I had a really hard time getting a decent clip of this show, at least from the late 1970s, which really surprised me. Instead, here's a clip of some goofball harassing people with his dancing to the theme song. Will this do?
And that's what Saturday mornings were like on ABC in 1979-1980. An interesting lineup certainly, with it's highs and lows. Super Friends was and is a classic. I liked the Plastic Man cartoon when I was young, but it's aimed squarely at a very young intellect. The rest of the Plastic Man hour was simply not good. I never knew the Spider-Woman cartoon existed until a few years later when I saw it on VHS--not bad. As stated previously, Scooby Doo wasn't as good during the Scrappy years, but I didn't hate it like others did. The Weekend Special was, as are many anthology series, uneven, but had its good installments. American Bandstand is, or course, an iconic program.
This was a lot of fun! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. I must thank again Kliph Nesteroff of the Saturday Morning blog for the idea and Shawn Robare of Branded in the 80s for the ad scan. Check their sites out!
Here is another program that I looked for last year with no luck but am happy to present to you now. This Christmas episode of The Flintstones is one of the best Christmas episodes of a TV show I've ever seen.
When the real Santa Claus is sick, it's up to Fred, who's been moonlighting as a department store Santa, to fill in. The usually grumpy Fred is shown the light when he takes on the role of Santa, leading to a very charming and surprisingly heartwarming program. An hour-long special with a similar premise was created in the late 80s/early 90s, but this episode from the original series is much better. And Fred sings, no less.
Greetings and salutations! Today I'd like to acknowledge, two weeks late, that this blog celebrated its one year anniversary! Me and You and a Blog Named Boo debuted on Tuesday, October 30, 2007, and I've had an absolute blast keeping it going. That's thanks in no small part to you, my loyal readers. I hope you've enjoyed reading all of this as much as I've enjoyed bringing it to you.
In honor of the blog, I've decided to steal an idea from the Secret Fun Blog (sorry Kirk, I hope you don't mind), available in my blog list to the right, and label several of my past posts as the Best of Me and You. These are posts that have attracted the most attention according to my stats, or posts that I personally think define the reason for this blog's existence. Some of the posts included are the "Hey Ya, Charlie Brown" post from last November, the He-Man/She-Ra Christmas special, various fast food TV commercials posts, my article of the late and lamented TV Channel 48 here in Philadelphia, and more.
You can check out all of these posts under the "Best of Me and You" label. I will make additions as warranted going forward, so if you'd like to tell me what your favorite posts are, let me know in the comments section of this post or email me at phillyradiogeek@gmail.com.
I'm still in a Pac-Man state of mind (isn't that a Billy Joel song?), so I'm going to meander more about him today. Please be patient, as I'm going to talk about a 1980s pop culture phenomenon, and in doing so, I sometimes get high on the 80s goodness, being a young child during that glorious decade.
One thing I've always noticed about Pac-Man is the different looks he's sported in different pictures. Of course there's the usual.
Then there are attempts to make him more 3-dimentional. To wit:
Here he has arms and legs, which really help in the ghost hunting department. Notice the eyes shaped like little Pac-men.
Here he looks much the same as above, but he now has a nose and boots. The better to run after and...smell ghosts?
AAUUGGHH! THE 80S! IT'S TOO MUCH 80S IN ONE SHOT!! MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT!! AAUUGGHH!!
Here we learn two things about Pac-Man: he's much more lean that any of us expected (got to be all that marathon running)--and he really needs a dentist.
This is one of my favorite depictions of the man they call Pac, from his early 80s ABC Saturday morning cartoon show. The boots are back, along with a fedora (inspired by Indiana Jones, perhaps?) and a bright smile. You'll be seeing more of this incarnation in the future. Stay tuned to this blog in the coming weeks (oooh, blog tease).
Here is the same character design as previously seen, but for a print ad for the Nintendo version of the game rather than the cartoon show. This was when Nintendo's first home game system was the hottest thing out there, dating the ad at about 1987-89. I find this interesting, as the cartoon was off the air for a few years before this ad came out.
I love this image! It's a fan's dramatic representation of the game action, as the good guy Pac-Man (here an actual human) is chased by the fiendish ghosts, with only Pac-man's pellets to save him. Good stuff!
This is a funny illustration of Pac-Man by freelance artist Andrew Bell. The picture becomes downright hilarious when you learn its title: "You Said No One Would Get Hurt." Genius!
Finally, here is the Pac-Man image I've found the most unique, especially since it's from the very thing that started it all--the original arcade game version. Here we have legs, which is not uncommon, but he's more oval than round, plus, he has red eyes! Sleepless nights from being chased by ghosts, I guess? I 've always found it ironic that this console is Pac-Man's origin, yet has artwork that differs the most from the game version. Does anyone else think about these things? No, of course not, just me.
Thanks for being patient through this long-winded (for me) post. Coming up next: part 10 of the Saturday Matinee! See you then.
I love the Internet. Ya know why? Because it's like a stream of consciousness for the universe. Case in point. I was looking through YouTube for material for upcoming posts and came across one thing that led to another and I wound up at: old TV commercials for Pac-Man cereal.
Weird, to be sure, to be interested in something so obscure, yet I am. Mostly because I found no less than seven of these things! Wanna see them? Sure you do!
I'm guessing this is the oldest of the bunch, likely 1981 or no later than '82. The jingle has a good bit of techno in it, which isn't surprising as it fits a video game-related product, and this was the start of the techno-sounding 80s.
Next, the same jingle but even more 80s-ish art design (a healthy dose of neon, a glowing aura around the characters, etc.).
Looks like Pac-Man and Co. are going to houses throughout the neighborhood.
Yep, they're canvassing the hell out of this town.
In these past few commercials, I like how Pac and the ghosts, although working together to promote the cereal, still give each other uneasy glances here and there. In this next one, however, their relationship is more overtly hostile. Have no fear, Super Pac is here!
In these last two commercials, the animation is gone and is replaced with live action children dancing, no doubt thanks to the "energy" provided by the sugary cereal. In this next clip, they dance "The Pac-Man!" This commercial is covered in 80s cheese: the return of the neon, the Day-Glo clothes, techno sounds, corny choreography--awesome!
Finally, let's not forget Pac-Man's betrothed--Mrs' Pac-Man! Otherwise known as Pac-Man with a pink bow on his head.
Wow, no less than seven commercials for a cereal that no longer exists. Most licensed cereals are temporary swipes at a passing fad, but Pac-Man cereal must have lasted for several years. Did any Gen-Xers out there who might be reading this eat this stuff? I never did, although I remember its existence. Please place comments below. Thanks!
Long-time readers of this blog will remember my post back in April regarding the defunct UHF TV channel 48, WKBS in Philadelphia, and how it featured the coolest cartoons in the city. One of those cartoons was the Mighty Heroes!
The Mighty Heroes first aired on CBS Saturday mornings in the fall of 1966 as part of the Mighty Mouse program. Both Mighty Mouse and the Heroes were created by the Terrytoons animation company. The concept for the Heroes was pitched by fledgling animator Ralph Bakshi, who went on to later fame, or infamy, as the creator of adult-themed cartoons such as Fritz the Cat and Cool World.
The Mighty Heroes, however, were as innocent as can be, although they were quite inept at handling their weekly villian. The team consisted of super-powered baby and team leader Diaper Man, a strong man named Strong Man (fancy that), Tornado Man, Rope Man, and Cuckoo Man. These bungling heroes would start attacking their villian without regard for their fellow teammates. Only when they worked cohesively as a group did they eventually foil the bad guy.
Here is one of my favorite installments, and according to some online sources, the first installment of the series, "The Plastic Blaster."
What a fun cartoon, and what great theme music!
This next clip is something I never saw until very recently: the actual wraparound theme and bumpers used in the original CBS network airings. These never appeared in the syndicated packages I saw on channel 48 in the late 70s. An awesome find!
