This Thanksgiving will look very different from years past. Myself, my wife and our 3 kids will be staying home this year, but just as she does with everything else, my wife is going big with the Turkey Day feast. She is making us a feast consisting of turkey, macaroni & cheese, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, seafood salad, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, pecan cheese cake, cookies and pumpkin pie! It is going to be amazing! I am truly thankful for my wife and the rest of my family. This year would really suck without them around. I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving full of food, family (probably via Zoom) and football! If you have the time I've posted some festive retro Thanksgiving commercials and specials below for you to enjoy.
This week, I really don't have too much to share with you all. I just want to thank everyone for their support of this blog over the years. It has gotten more traction and I've met more cool people with similar likes as myself than I could have ever imagined. All that said, here are some of my favorite retro commercials that bring back that sweet summer nostalgia for me. I hope you enjoy!
Throw on your codpiece and head to the hippest club around aswe take you back! Without further ado, here is the 20 Years Before 2000 THROWBACK JAM OF THE WEEK...
Artist: Cameo
Song: Word Up Album: Word Up! (1986)
Peak Billboard Hot 100 Position: 6 Bonus Fun Fact: The music video features a cameo by LeVar Burton as a police officer trying to arrest the band! This song has been covered many times over the past 30 years by bands like Korn, Little Mix and Mel B of the Spice Girls! This song was reworked for a Cherry Coke ad in 1987! You can view that video below.
I had such a great time finding these nostalgic commercials from my childhood on YouTube a few weeks ago, that I decided to do a second post! Once again these are the commercials that would run on our local stations when I was a kid living in New Jersey. Most of them ran in the Summer when us kids were home in the daytime to watch multiple hours of TV in between pick up basketball games and Nintendo marathons. Man these really take me back. Enjoy!!
I had planned on a pretty cool post for this week, but with sick kids and the crazy weather I have been unable to get it written and onto the blog. Instead I decided to share some of my favorite local commercials that I used to see on TV in the 80s while living in the great state of New Jersey. If your from the tri-state area these should bring back some great memories. If not, I'm sure you can still enjoy the nostalgia of the spots. ENJOY!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE! I hope you are having fun watching football, enjoying some time with your family and stuffing yourself silly! In case you need a break from any of that festiveness, I have provided you with some Thanksgiving specials to kill some time below!
I work for an affiliate television station and just recently our art director of 34 years retired. It was tasked upon me to clean out his office to make room for a new employee. I was told to keep anything that might have some historical significance to the station. It almost took a week to clean up that office. 34 years is a long time to accrue stuff! Of course some things were not needed for the station, but had some value to me. Here is part 1 of what I dug up:
Newspaper ad layouts for Mr. Belvedere & Sledgehammer from the 1986/87 season
Mr. Belvedere was one of my favorite shows growing up. It seemed so adult at the time and having a kid around my age in the show gave me someone to relate to. Once I found out that Bob Uecker used to play Major League Baseball, my mind was blown! And that theme song...where do I begin! It has to be one of the greatest and catchiest of all time. The piano notes in the beginning alone give me goose bumps. Whatever happened to good ole Mr. Lynn Aloysius Belvedere? I imagine he is with some exotic diplomat, serving blue drinks with umbrellas on a beach with beautiful women right now.
The Cosby Show and Alf/Valerie's Family Ads
We all know what's going on with Mr. Jell-O Jiggler right now, but before all that he was the dad everyone secretly wanted. Delivering babies, reppin Temple University and making hoagies Philly style! This was, is and always will be one of the best shows on television. Not that I knew it at the time but between the laughter and lessons, The Cosby Show broke stereotypes and showed educated, high standing African Americans every week, killing all previous stereotypes and teaching a generation that no matter what race you are, you can achieve your goals and succeed. Did I go to far with this "The More You Know" moment?
The Disney Sunday Movie & Monday Night Football Logos
The Disney Sunday Movie was an opportunity for families to sit together and enjoy a program before a new week full of school, work and sports practices began. This series of films that ran from 1986 to 1988. I wish they would bring this back to ABC. I would watch it with my kids. Some of the standout films I remember recording on VHS and watching over and over and over where: Mr. Boogedy, Robin Hood and Fuzzbucket. Also, who could forget the intros to each movie with Michael Eisner and Mickey Mouse as the hosts?
Television/Radio Age Magazine (August 19th, 1985)
How could I not save this from the trash? I really liked the Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors toy line as a kid, but never really got into the show. Why can't they make theme songs like this anymore? Me and my brother would switch parts to our machines all the time and then argue about whose piece belong to who. Now that I think about it, it was kinda a pain in the ass! The Spider-Man ad on the back was also fun to see. What kid didn't love Spider-Man? This was around the time where Secret Wars was blowing up big time and everyone had at least one action figure to play with in the back yard. I'll get deeper into this magazine in a latter post to show you what's inside.
C-3PO & R2-D2 Coloring page
Found an old coloring book that must have been used as a giveaway at appearances for the station. Other pages included the Ewoks, Super Friends, Scooby-Doo and the Looney Tunes! Fun fact: The opening theme, "Trouble Again" was performed by Stewart Copeland of The Police!
I hope you enjoyed this look back on TV advertising from the 80s. Part 2 is coming soon.
While we wait for LeBron to lose another NBA Championship and begin filming Space Jam 2, I just re-watched the original Space Jam with my kids. They loved it...and so do I! Michael Jordan was at his peak of popularity, Bugs Bunny and crew were looking for a way to regain their star status and then came a campaign of Nike ads to help them out. Space Jam was born!
Space Jam was released in November of 1996. The Chicago Bulls were world champs again, Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive game record, Oprah started her book club, Bone Thugs blew up with "Tha Crossroads", Seinfeld was still popular on TV and Tupac, Jerry Siegel & the great Tiny Tim had passed away. The world needed a savior. The world needed Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Michael Jordan and Wayne Knight.
I remember seeing this movie in theaters. My friends (Knicks fans) were skeptical that it would be any good. In the end all of us enjoyed it. A few years ago, while shopping a yard sale, I found a copy of Space Jam on VHS for $0.50. I would have paid that for the movie itself, but on the back, tucked into the sleeve was...
The limited edition Space Jam collector's coin! Holy crap! I grabbed this up immediately and took it home. I never did watch this VHS tape since I already owned the movie on DVD. So, to my surprise as I was cleaning the basement yesterday, I opened the VHS clamshell and found...ALL THE ORIGINAL COUPONS! These were included in every VHS/DVD release and were thrown away pretty quickly. Here they are in all their 90s glory:
I wish I could go back to 1997 and take advantage of the offers from Dole, Ballpark, Rayovac & Warner Bros. I would have entered the "Meet Mike" contest, scored a Special edition Space Jam Streetball & Mini-Pocket basketball game and saved about $1,000,000 in rebates! Unfortunately that will never happen, but it's still fun to see these 20 year old ads. I suggest you dust off your copy of Space Jam and watch it today!
Saw this promo for the upcoming Ghostbusters movie last night while watching Game 3 of the NBA Finals (Cleveland 120, Golden State 90) and thought it was pretty AWESOME! Wayyyyy better than the Kobe version. I think I would be more excited to see this Melo, Spike, Frazier & Porzingis lineup than the one in the GB reboot. Although I might sub in Patrick Ewing for Porzingis? I really do want to like the 2016 Ghostbusters, I am trying hard, but then I see something that makes me question how good this could be again. I know Dan Aykroyd gave it the thumbs up, but he also can stand to make a lot of money if the movie does well. I will more than likely see GB2016 in theaters and then I can finally decide if it is worthy of taking over the franchise I loved so much as a kid.
While watching the above promo, I was reminded of the time I met Spike Lee and saw him talk at my college. He was very nice and signed a copy of "Do The Right Thing" (1989) for me. Then he talked with the student body and was very motivating and empowering. Truly a highlight from my college career and a moment I'm glad I didn't pass on.
"My people, my people, what can I say; say what I can. I saw it but didn't believe it; I didn't believe what I saw. Are we gonna live together? Together are we gonna live?"
Discovered this 80s style promotional video for the new X-Men movie Apocalypse hosted by fan favorite mutant Jubilee! It is done so well in the style of 1980s infomercials that I could believe it came off someone's old VHS tape of shows they recorded off air! This commercial would fit perfectly between episodes of Head of the Class and Misfits of Science.
At the end a number for the school appears on screen. If you call the number, you get a recorded message from Stan "The Man" Lee pimping the new movie in theaters. EXCELSIOR!
I was a big fan of X-Men: Days of Future Past and I can't wait to see Apocalypse...hopefully soon?
