This week,
the Basement presents to us another disjointed view of TV as it was on
WCVB-TV (
ABC) on October 2 and 23,
1991. Of all the early-90s commercial collections
I’ve uploaded thus far, this one is early-90ist.
0:00 to 0:15 –
Red Lobster (the dumbest part of this ad? Even then, the closest Red Lobster to
Boston was outside
Hartford, CT, a two hour drive for something you could easily get cheaper and fresher at any mom n’ pop seafood place within ten minutes of where ever you happen to be in MA.
Stupid national ad buys.)
0:16 to 0:30 – “
Ernest Scared Stupid” promo (From
Deseret News: “"Ernest Scared Stupid" is a slight step up for
Jim Varney's TV-commercial-huckster-turned-movie-star. After going to camp, saving
Christmas and going to jail, Ernest this time gets mixed up with nasty trolls in a
Halloween yarn that appears to have been made on a slightly bigger budget than usual.
Of course, whether the result is a trick or a treat may depend entirely on your age. Those over 10, beware. (My 8- and 10-year-old sons enjoyed it; my 13-year-old daughter said if I ever take her to another "Ernest" movie she's running away from home.)”
http://tinyurl.com/hvfnsh2.
Incidentally, does anyone under the age of, say, 20 know who Ernest was?)
0:31 to 0:45 –
Fisher Price Pick Up and Go
Vacuum
0:46 to 1:01 – Lunchables (with the addition of pudding to Lunchables, children could now eat their meat AND pudding in whatever order they wished, vindictive
Scottish schoolteachers be damned)
1:02 to 1:32 –
Domino’s “Pepperoni
Pizza Feast”
1:33 to 2:03 –
1992 Ford Taurus (this ad marks the release of the second generation of the Ford Taurus. As you might surmise from the ad, the changes were almost entirely cosmetic, with a complete redesign of the interior being the biggest change. http://tinyurl.com/jpdyceh The
Taurus went on to become the best selling car in the US until
1995.)
2:04 to 2:33 –
MCI “Stephany
Cavallo” (short for
Microwave Communications, Inc., MCI was one of the big two telecommunications companies in the US in the 80s and 90s, and whose
1974 antitrust lawsuit against
AT&T; led to the breakup of Ma
Bell ten years later. A technology and marketing pioneer, the “
Friends and Family” program was one of the earlier loyalty programs in the telecommunications industry. After a series of mergers, MCI eventually became WorldCom, which, itself, filed for bankruptcy in
2002 after one of the largest accounting scandals in
US history.)
2:34 to 2:48 –
Diet Coke feat.
Paula Abdul
2:49 to 3:03 -
Wrigley’s Spearmint Gum “Snack
Lover” (or you could just drink a ton of water)
3:04 to 3:34 –
Wonder Years/
Doogie Howser, MD promo
3:46 to 4:01 –
Quaker Oatmeal feat.
Wilford Brimley (I think this one speaks for itself. Here’s a bizarre bit of trivia: Wilford Brimley is a
HUGE fan of cockfighting, and has campaigned against banning it http://tinyurl.com/hhu5wp7)
4:02 to 4:32 – “
The Jungle Book”
VHS
4:32 to 4:46 – Theraflu
4:51 to 5:18 –
Campbell’s Dinosaur Soup (for those of you who weren’t there…yeah, that’s pretty much 1991 in a nutshell. Why Dee-Lite wasn’t involved in this is beyond me. Also, why no Troödon love?)
5:19 to 5:49 –
Northern Big Roll Toilet Paper
5:50 to
6:19 – Pontiac Grand Am feat.
Patrick Stewart (that would be about $20,
500 these days, about as much as a new
Chevy Cruze,
Ford Focus, or
Hyundai Elantra)
6:20 to 6:50 –
Huggies Pull-Ups
6:51 to 7:10 –
Who’s The Boss/
Growing Pains (the guy at 7:03 reminds me of a local dating show that aired around
midnight on weekends in the early 90s.
I don’t remember the title, but I swear, 90% of the dudes were EXACTLY that greasy)
7:12 to 7:42 –
Vidal Sassoon (fun fact: after
WWII, the real Vidal Sassoon joined the 43
Group, a
Jewish veterans’ organization that broke up meetings of the
British Union of Fascists)
7:44 to 8:12 –
Burger King “
Frosted Coca Cola Glass” (
Star Wars promotional glasses are everywhere on eBay, but not these.)
8:14 to 8:44 –
Partnership for a Drug-Free America PSA (
Jim Anchower: The
Later Years http://tinyurl.com/js8j3uq)
8:45 to 9:00 - Doogie Howser, MD promo
9:01 to 9:16 – ABC
World of
Discovery “
Shark Chronicles” promo (you can watch the documentary here for free! https://youtu.be/midspIF9Hqc)
- published: 15 Jan 2016
- views: 438