The "Keep Norah Happy" Collection

Our Norah, who will be three in March, occasionally has her diva-esque moments and needs cheering up, or in come cases, distraction. Cat videos will often do the trick. Here are some of her favorites:


How does that cat crawl under the door?


This one has so many good moments, particularly that of the possessed cat. Our boy thinks it's saying "lunch lunch lunch". Why not -- I suppose it isn't really saying "Oh long Johnson".


This was a really fun one to come upon -- cute cat and fun, catchy tune.

Eat them up, yum!

Long ago when MTV was desperate for musical content... ANY musical content, they played Barnes and Barnes' Fish Heads plenty.
Keep your eyes peeled for Bill Mumy of Lost in Space fame (Danger Will Robinson!), and Bill Paxton who also directed this gem. At the beginning you'll find the beautiful Pan Pacific Auditorium, once used in the film Xanadu, but unfortunately lost to fire in 1989. Also of note is Dr. Demento (Barry Hansen) in the role of Homeless Man.

How 'bout a burger, baby?!!

I'm surprised I haven't posted this totally awesome video to the ol' blog before now. Rewind back to 1999 - yes 1999, not the 80s. I was hugely pregnant with our son, and was captive in a hospital bed for two days, then two weeks later, for another two days. In that first stint (prior to the actual birth), there was a lot of TV watching, and I kept seeing this weird, bad Subway ad. It looked so 80s -- all sorts of neon and grids, and of course, the woman with the huge hair and sparkly 80s dress. I found it repellent, yet I was compelled; was it supposed to be a nostalgia thing? The timing didn't seem quite right for 80s nostalgia -- not yet, anyway.

Much to my surprise, the ad started running again last spring. We made sure to catch it on the Tivo™, and found there were a few other bloggers out there scratching their heads. I'm going to post an article that originally appeared in the St. Paul Pioneer press, which pretty much explains the whole thing (why it was running), but in order to not take up too much real estate here, I'm going to post it as a comment to this post.

Oh, and another thing -- I swear, in the shot of the two girls who sing "don't want my dinner from a big machine", the one on the right is Ione Skye. Eric doesn't believe me, but it has to be. The St. Paul Pioneer press reporter addresses rumors that the girl was, in fact, Parker Posey. She, like, totally missed the mark.

My Pretty Coney/Little Pony

This Pale Force Action Figures mock commercial from Late Night with Conan O'Brien was a huge hit at our house -- the kids particularly liked the "pee in the pants action". But the highest entertainment value is provided by "My Pretty Coney" -- who wouldn't pay good money to get one of those? Watch it, and find yourself singing the song over and over and over... Which brings us to:



Eric pointed out the similarity of the My Pretty Coney and My Little Pony songs, so of course, we had to find some My Little Pony commercials, much to the delight of our pony loving nearly-three-year-old girl. Now both tunes are being heard around the house -- scary.

It's Christmastime!

To me there were two things that marked the true beginning of the Christmas season. The first was Santa cruising through the snow in a Norelco shaver head (above), the second was Ronco commercial equipped with the tag line "it makes the perfect Christmas gift at only $14.88", followed by the "'tis the season..." music (below).



Every year I've looked extensively for these on the 'net. Only now with the wonder of YouTube are they available. Enjoy!

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Somehow, during the switch to the New Blogger™, this witty post ended up attributed to me, but I wanted to note for the record that Lefty/Eric wrote it. - Mel

Tastes Like the 80s

Remember "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!" -- "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!" While I was unable to find that exact commercial, this one is a pretty good substitute -- sure has that 80s essence, anyway.

One thing, though -- taking a jar of peanut butter to a movie? I guess it's a good thing they went to the snack bar for Reeses instead of further mixing his candy bar with her peanut butter -- not on a first date, anyway.

The name of the game is...

I can imagine getting into a super-flappy collar-pulling fight over an intense game of Connect Four with my sisters. It'd probably escalate into hair pulling and sideburn pulling until somebody let loose with a big chomp on their Freshen Up™ gum, rendering the others blind from the dreaded Freshen Up Ooze poisoning.

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.