Hey, Kool-Aid!

I spent many a summer day shouting "Hey, Kool-Aid" until I was hoarse. That fat red bastard never would smash through a nearby wall to provide any sort of relief from the heat.

Don't even get me started on my eternal quest for the Honeycomb hide-out.

Ancient Chinese secret, huh?

In 1976 or so, this commercial ran so often, I could repeat it verbatim, down to the tag line. Enjoy this rare, un-PC selection!

No little cinnamon gum...

See Peter Billingsley (Messy Marvin, A Christmas Story) smooching a girl in this classic. It begs the question: "is that a tuba, or are you just happy to see me?".

Spiderman - In Color!

At some point in my childhood ('round about 2nd grade c1976) I recall being given the choice between taking Catholic lessons on a Saturday or going to a Catholic School. That was a no-brainer. Spiderman was on Saturdays. Unknowingly I chose Epiphany School and the harsh nazi-style teachings of Sister Mary Esther. Once while leaving to get on my bus, I feigned pulling a fire alarm to a friend. Sister Mary Esther was somehow there in a flash with a vice-like grip on my arm and her stern face inches from mine making sure I knew very well that was not the sort of thing I should be doing. I knew that. It was the lynchpin of my joke. There was that experience and the experience of taking first communion classes from her. She was never my full-time teacher, yet she made more of an impression on me than my actual full-time teachers. I'm sure she's still alive and teaching at Epiphany. You can't kill that kind of evil.

How cheesy is too cheesy?

You can make the excuse; "it was 1976, it was a different time". I don't know if that's good enough. On the flip side, I think a show with the exact same production values these days might do well if done right... then again maybe the powers that be have no taste.

Heat Vision and Jack was featured on the brilliant Brilliant but Cancelled. You can check out more clips of it on youtube.com.

Napoleon Part 2

While locating the Utah State Fair Ads, I found this sweet Letterman Top 10 list. I can't believe he was able to keep a straight face the entire time!

Are these ads cool? Flip yeah!!!

Last year, Utah was in a Napoleon Dynamite frenzy, as the movie was set in an Idaho town close to the Utah border, and the people who made the movie, including star Jon Heder, were BYU students. There were also an infinity of Utah cultural references.

The Utah State Fair organizers were lucky (said like Napoleon) to have enticed Heder and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) to do these hilarious ads. So fix yourself a dang quesadilla, sit down, and enjoy!

Hey good lookin'...

It's never too soon for Christmas gift ideas! Mr. Microphone swept the nation in the late 70s, enticing everyone to become a poorly-broadcast superstar. At the very least, it was a tool to aid the smooth lothario in his conquest of sweet love.
I must wonder... When one is walking along the street and is suddenly informed from a moving vehicle that they are good-looking and that a ride will be forthcoming... does etiquette dictate that one should wait on the spot or is it incumbent on the ride-giver to locate the good-looker further down the path?

Smells like the 70s

I don't think there is anyone who was alive in the 70s (or at least over the age of two), who doesn't remember this one. She was all things to all people, thanks to a couple of squirts of some drugstore perfume. Love how, toward the end, she kind of runs and sprays at the same time.

This commercial is kinda wow!

Demon Dogs!

Starting in 1980 Thundarr the Barbarian burst onto the Saturday morning scene promising high-adventure and intelligent dialogue... well not so much dialogue. Thundarr was the slash first, ask questions never-type. Ookla the Mok was an obvious Chewbacca rip-off who growled and smashed his way through the show. Princess Ariel was the brains of the operation, but was given very little credit by her unlikely cohorts (honestly, she could have done much better). Thundarr used a sun sword, essentially a short-handled lightsabre which was stored on his gauntlet. I always worried that his sun sword would be accidentally activated, slicing his arm off at the elbow. For sure Thundarr's limited dialogue was fun. He said such things as "Demon Dogs" and "Ariel, Ookla, Ride!" What's not to like?

Interesting note: Comic book legend Jack "King" Kirby worked character/production design on this show. Watch the opening for the dude with two faces to see a very Kirbyesque character. The late Jack Kirby lent his pen to the creation of Captain America, the Fantastic Four, The Hulk and the X-Men (not to be confused with the Ex-Men who were post-op transsexual crime-fighters).

Neil Part 2

Here's a clip from a British show, honoring, among other shows, The Young Ones. It has some good clips, and an interview with Nigel Planer (Neil). It's pretty weird to see him with short hair and not acting like a hippie.

Neil's Greatest Hits

I was browsing YouTube and found this commercial I had completely forgotten about. I actually remember singing the "Hole in My Shoe" song way back in the day and thinking it was hilarious. Guess I didn't have enough money to cough up for the album, though. I wonder if one could find it on EBay.

Fun-E!

Night Flight

It's Friday night c1984, Letterman's just said goodnight and the 700 club has no appeal. Where does one go? The USA network and Night Flight. They had a 24-hour cable network and lots of public domain videos to show. Among my most cherished viewings were the Devo movie (We're all Devo), and J-Men forever. Firesign Theater dudes Phil Proctor and Peter Bergman spliced together several miles of Saturday matinee serials (including the immortal Commando Cody) and dubbed their own lines over the original dialog to hilarious effect. You can get it on DVD now, but there's very little Night Flight out there. The following clip is from the 90s, certainly past the "Golden age of Night Flight", but still way cool.

Inspector Gadget

In the mid-80s Dic brought us Inspector Gadget. It was a bit goofy, but it was clever and fun. The intro is somewhat Get Smart-ish, which fits as the late, great Don Adams voiced Gadget. At the time I think I was a bit too old for cartoons, but I've always loved them and still do, so nyeah!

It's Monday...

...and you could probably use a laugh. Well, this should do the trick!

Back when this video came out, I thought Billy was hot stuff. Fast forward 20 years (give or take), and the video had me rolling on the floor (and I don't mean in the same way that Billy is writhing around here). The shirt-tearing part has to be the highlight! Hope this rocks you today.

More Saturday Morning Live Action!

I've been a fan of early Saturday morning kids TV fare from the get-go. Eight am used to be the start time for the fun (I know because I tried earlier and all I could find were boring talky-adult-type shows). In 1974 Land of the Lost stumbled clumsily onto the scene. I remember thinking that something seemed... wrong... about the intro. I realize now that they were using miniatures and the cast on a bluescreen to achieve the effect. Willing suspension of disbelief had to be firmly in place to buy much of it... especially the possibility of them living through a 1,000 foot fall. Screw it, I enjoyed it.


Perhaps my favorite Saturday Morning Cartoon was Scooby Doo. I was always drawn to dark and creepy things. It would have done my heart good to find that more creepy entities encountered on the show were not just ol' mister Jenkins from the mill ("If it weren't for you kids and that pesky mutt...), but that wasn't the premise, I guess. The show was great up until they started introducing Scooby's relatives. Scooby Dum was OK, but Scrappy should never have existed. I'm sure some producer asked them to "Cuten it up" some. Puppy power my A**!



Other examples of harmful cutening in no particular order: Batmite, Gleek (both from Superfriends), Orko, Twikie, and Oliver.

Saturday Morning Live Action

As I recall, I was never a huge fan of Saturday morning cartoons. For one thing, my older sister and brother were 6 and 9 years older, and I hated being treated like a kid, so I tried not to act like a kid (to an extent, anyway). For another, I didn't care to get up early. Here are a couple of the few Saturday morning shows I did watch:


Big John Little John
I loved this show, and had a crush on little John. Wonder whatever happened to him.


The Monster Squad
I may have liked this one just because my sister did. It did scare me a bit, but in a good way. When I found this intro on YouTube, I was surprised to find that Fred Grandy played Walt. This was just slightly pre-Love Boat. I had a crush on him, too. Geez -- both Walt and Little John -- guess I've always liked nerds.

Note: I was quite surprised to find both of these intros, and they were both way more cheesy than I remembered.

Get your Mr. Yuk Wristband

And support the poisoning of children... wait... poison control... Oh, I don't know. You'll be an armchair activist for sure.
Green wristband

Time for timer!

Also a blast from the past, though not quite as much creep factor.

NEVER thought I'd see this one again!

Here's a very creepy blast from the past. I can't even believe I stumbled upon it.