June 2026 - Page 5 of 6 - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

The Untouchables: Before There Was Airplane!

Before Robert Stack showed up in Airplane! as Rex Kramer, he was dead serious as Eliot Ness in The Untouchables.

The show aired on ABC from 1959 to 1963 and gave TV viewers a gritty trip back to Prohibition-era Chicago. Stack played Ness as the calm, tough, incorruptible federal agent leading his team against gangsters, bootleggers, and mob bosses.

It had tommy guns, raids, speakeasies, gangland hits, and that hard-boiled narration from Walter Winchell that made every episode feel like a crime file being opened.

And here’s a fun connection: Leslie Nielsen, who later co-starred with Stack in Airplane!, also guest-starred on The Untouchables in the episode “Three Thousand Suspects.” So before they helped make deadpan comedy history, they were both part of this very serious crime-drama world.

Looking back, The Untouchables helped shape the TV crime drama: sharp suits, mob danger, straight-faced lawmen, and the kind of dramatic seriousness that made Airplane! even funnier years later.

Cheerios: Get Yourself Go!

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Before cereal commercials got too complicated, Cheerios gave us the Cheerios Kid, Sue, and the promise of “go-power.”

The idea was simple: eat Cheerios and suddenly you had the energy to take on whatever trouble showed up next. The late-1960s ads had that catchy “Get Yourself Go” jingle, the kind of line that stuck in your head long after Saturday morning cartoons were over.

A fun bit of trivia: the jingle is credited to Neil Diamond, before most of us knew him as the Neil Diamond.

Looking back, it was pure cereal-commercial magic: a bowl of oats, a quick cartoon adventure, and one more earworm we never quite forgot.

Mr. Magoo: The Man Who Couldn’t See Trouble Coming

Mr. Magoo was one of those cartoon characters built around one joke that somehow kept working: he could barely see, refused to admit it, and still managed to stumble through danger without realizing how close he came.

His full name was Quincy Magoo, and he first appeared in the 1949 UPA cartoon The Ragtime Bear. The character was voiced for decades by Jim Backus, who later became just as famous as Thurston Howell III on Gilligan’s Island.

The humor was simple. Magoo would mistake one thing for another, walk into ridiculous situations, and somehow come out fine while everyone around him panicked. His famous line was:

“Oh, Magoo, you’ve done it again!”

What made Mr. Magoo stand out was that he wasn’t a talking animal or superhero. He was a stubborn little old man with terrible eyesight and total confidence. The cartoons had a sharp, modern look compared to a lot of animation at the time, and Magoo became one of UPA’s signature characters.

He later moved into TV cartoons, specials, commercials, and even holiday programming. Looking back, Mr. Magoo is definitely a product of his time, but for many of us, he’s still remembered as that squinty little guy who caused chaos everywhere he went and somehow never knew it.

Suzy Cute and Louis Armstrong: Yes, This Really Happened

The Suzy Cute doll commercial is one of those 1960s toy ads that makes you stop and say, “Wait, is that really Louis Armstrong?”

Yes, it is.

The commercial was for Topper Toys’ Suzy Cute doll, part of the company’s Suzy line. After Armstrong’s huge 1964 hit “Hello, Dolly!”, Topper’s Henry Orenstein apparently thought, “Who better to sell a doll than the man singing about Dolly?” Armstrong filmed and recorded the spot on January 6, 1965, shortly after returning from a major overseas tour.

The ad has Armstrong singing and performing with a group of little girls while promoting the doll. What makes it so charming, and a little surreal, is that Armstrong does not phone it in. The Louis Armstrong House Museum notes that even the full unused take of the jingle shows him treating it seriously, scatting, encouraging the band, and even playing trumpet during the extended recording.

That is what makes the commercial so memorable today. It is not just a toy ad. It is one of the greatest jazz legends of all time giving full Louis Armstrong energy to a tiny baby doll commercial.

Only in the 1960s could a toy company say, “Let’s get Satchmo to sell Suzy Cute,” and somehow make it happen.

Silly Rabbit, Trix Are For Kids!

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The Trix Rabbit is one of those cereal mascots who spent decades chasing the same bowl of cereal and almost never getting it.

Trix cereal was introduced by General Mills in 1954, but the famous slogan came a little later. General Mills says “Trix are for kids!” first appeared on the box in 1959, before the now-famous rabbit fully took over the campaign.

The setup was simple and perfect for kids: the rabbit wanted Trix, the kids caught him trying to get some, and then came the line everybody remembers:

“Silly rabbit, Trix are for kids!”

It worked because it was funny, colorful, and a little unfair. As kids, some of us probably felt bad for the rabbit. He tried costumes, schemes, disguises, and tricks, but those kids almost always shut him down.

Looking back, that was the magic of the campaign. One rabbit, one cereal, one catchphrase, and a generation that can still hear it in their head.

The World of Commander McBragg

The World of Commander McBragg was one of those quick little cartoon shorts that showed up inside other shows, especially Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales and later syndicated cartoon packages. The shorts were usually only about 90 seconds, but they packed in a whole tall tale before moving on.

Commander McBragg was a retired British-style officer and gentleman who loved telling outrageous stories about his impossible adventures. He would buttonhole some poor listener at his club, point to a map or globe, and launch into a story about the time he survived some ridiculous danger. Of course, the name said it all: McBragg. He was always bragging.

The humor came from how seriously he told these completely unbelievable adventures. Giant birds, dangerous jungles, impossible escapes, wild animals, lost valleys, flying machines, and whatever else the writers could dream up. At the end, he would usually survive by some absurd bit of cleverness, then calmly accept praise as if it had all been perfectly normal.

The character’s deep, gravelly voice was done by Kenny Delmar, who had been famous on radio as Senator Claghorn, the character who helped inspire Foghorn Leghorn.

Looking back, Commander McBragg was basically a cartoon version of that old uncle or neighbor who always had a bigger, better, wilder story than everyone else. You didn’t believe a word of it, but you still wanted to hear how he got out of it.

Tennessee Tuxedo: The Penguin Who Tried, But Couldn’t Succeed-o

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales was a Saturday morning cartoon that aired on CBS from 1963 to 1966. It starred Tennessee Tuxedo, a penguin in a hat and bow tie, and his loyal but dim pal Chumley the walrus. They lived at the Megapolis Zoo and were always trying some new scheme that usually went wrong fast.

Tennessee was voiced by Don Adams, before Get Smart made him a household name. Once you know that, you can hear a little Maxwell Smart in Tennessee’s voice. Chumley was voiced by Bradley Bolke, and Larry Storch voiced the brilliant Phineas J. Whoopee, the professor who explained things with his famous 3DBB, the “three-dimensional blackboard.”

That was the sneaky educational part of the show. Tennessee and Chumley would get into trouble, then Mr. Whoopee would explain science, history, or how something worked, but it didn’t feel like school because the cartoon was still silly.

Looking back, it had that classic early Saturday morning feel: simple animation, funny voices, a catchy theme, and just enough learning hidden inside the laughs. Tennessee may have tried and failed a lot, but the show stuck around in a lot of memories.

Two-Year-Old Tiger Woods On TV

Before he became one of the greatest golfers of all time, Tiger Woods was a 2-year-old kid on The Mike Douglas Show, standing beside his father Earl and putting while Bob Hope watched.

The clip is incredible because it is not just cute. You can already see the swing, the confidence, and the beginning of something unusual. Tiger’s father, Earl Woods, had introduced him to golf almost as soon as he could walk, and he became his first coach, teacher, and biggest influence.

Earl did more than teach him how to hit a ball. He taught Tiger discipline, focus, and how to handle pressure. That early father-son bond helped shape the child prodigy who would grow into a golf legend.

Looking back, that little TV appearance feels like the first public glimpse of history. A toddler with a golf club, a proud father nearby, and the start of a career nobody could have fully imagined yet.

National Donut Day: Time To Make The Donuts With Fred

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Today is National Donut Day, so it feels like the perfect time to celebrate with Fred the Baker and his famous line: “Time to make the donuts.”

Fred was played by actor Michael Vale, who became the face of Dunkin’ Donuts in commercials from the early 1980s until 1997. The whole idea was simple: while the rest of us were still sleeping, Fred was dragging himself out of bed before dawn to make fresh donuts. That tired little walk and mumble made him feel like every hardworking person who had to get up early and do the job.

National Donut Day itself goes back much further. It was created by The Salvation Army in Chicago in 1938 to honor the “Doughnut Lassies,” women who served donuts to soldiers during World War I. It also helped raise money for people in need during the Great Depression.

So today, grab a donut and give a little nod to Fred. He made getting up before dawn look exhausting, funny, and somehow heroic.

Time to make the donuts!

Before There Was Jell-O Wrestling…

Check out this advertisement for Jell-O from the early 60’s. Jell-O fisticuffs! Would they run an ad like this today?