August 2026 - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

You’ve Got a Lot to Live, and Pepsi’s Got a Lot to Give

This is one of those commercials where I remembered the Pepsi slogan, but I never really thought about everything they packed into the minute.

This one is actually known as “Big Town U.S.A.”, and instead of spending much time telling us how Pepsi tasted, they turned New York City itself into the commercial. We get couples, kids playing in the streets, a hot dog cart, fire hydrants, the Brooklyn Bridge and that boy carrying his baseball glove all the way to an almost completely empty Yankee Stadium. The Smithsonian even has this commercial preserved as part of its Pepsi Generation collection.

And that familiar “You’ve Got a Lot to Live, and Pepsi’s Got a Lot to Give” jingle has quite a story of its own. It was written by Joe Brooks, who later wrote “You Light Up My Life,” and Pepsi even had artists including Johnny Cash, B.B. King, Tammy Wynette and Three Dog Night record versions of the campaign music.

What really stands out looking back is how little this feels like a traditional soda commercial. Pepsi was selling youth, neighborhoods, friendships and a way of life — exactly what the Pepsi Generation idea was designed to do.

How many of you remembered the commercial itself — and how many immediately remembered that Pepsi jingle?

Liberace Feelin’ Groovy

This may be one of the strangest—and most wonderfully 1968—things I’ve come across in a while. That’s Liberace getting “groovy” with The Youngfolk on The Red Skelton Hour on March 5, 1968.

And The Youngfolk weren’t just a bunch of dancers thrown together for the show. They were an actual seven-member Los Angeles folk group who recorded for United Artists and had already made several appearances with Red Skelton.

The song, of course, was Paul Simon’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy).” Simon & Garfunkel recorded it on August 16, 1966—which, amazingly, was 60 years ago this week. Their version wasn’t originally the big single, though. Harpers Bizarre turned it into a #13 hit in 1967 with an arrangement by Leon Russell.

What I love about this clip is watching television try to interpret the whole flower-power generation for a mainstream audience. Giant flowers, bright colors, “groovy” slang—and right in the middle of it all is Liberace, completely committing to the bit.

Even better, Paul Simon eventually admitted he really didn’t care for this song and once jokingly used it as his own punishment after making a mistake onstage!

Do you remember seeing variety shows trying to get “hip” like this back in the late ’60s?

You Get A Big Delight In Every Bite

This early commercial takes us back very close to the beginning. Ho Hos were introduced in 1967 after first being made by hand in a San Francisco bakery, with mass production following soon afterward. Ding Dongs arrived that same year, making 1967 a pretty important one for the Hostess snack aisle

I like how simple this commercial is. Long before Hostess surrounded its cakes with cartoon characters, the selling point was basically right there on the screen — chocolate cake rolled around crème filling, covered in chocolate, and the promise that “you get a big delight in every bite”

A few years later Hostess advertising became much more colorful. Happy Ho Ho arrived as a little Robin Hood-style character with a feathered cap, bow and arrows, joining Twinkie the Kid, Captain Cupcake, King Ding Dong and the rest of the Hostess gang. (popicon.life)

And Ho Hos certainly caught on. By their 40th anniversary in 2007, Americans were eating around 100 million a year. Pittsburgh was even declared the Ho Ho capital of America, eating more per person than any other city

The brand has survived quite a journey since this commercial. Hostess shut down in 2012 and Ho Hos disappeared from stores for a while, but new owners brought the familiar cakes back nationwide in 2013. Today Hostess is owned by the J M Smucker Company

For something that started as a hand-produced little cake in a San Francisco bakery, Ho Hos certainly became part of a lot of lunchboxes

Were you a Ho Hos kid, or did you reach for Twinkies or Ding Dongs instead?

He & She: One Season on TV, 64 Years Together in Real Life

On Friday I shared a post from Classic Movies Digest celebrating Richard Benjamin and Paula Prentiss and their remarkable 64-year marriage, so I thought this was a perfect time to bring back the opening to their 1967 sitcom, He & She

They met while attending Northwestern University and married in 1961. Then, six years later, CBS gave the real-life couple their own television marriage. Richard played cartoonist Dick Hollister and Paula played his wife Paula, a social worker — something still fairly unusual for a sitcom wife in 1967

Jack Cassidy nearly stole the show as Oscar North, the egotistical actor playing Dick’s comic-book creation Jetman on television. Oscar later became one of the inspirations for Ted Baxter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Unfortunately, audiences never really found He & She. CBS scheduled the sophisticated New York comedy Wednesday nights immediately after Green Acres, and Richard Benjamin later felt the two shows attracted very different audiences. After only 26 episodes, CBS canceled it

But the industry certainly noticed. He & She received five Emmy nominations, including acting nominations for Benjamin, Prentiss and Cassidy, and won for comedy writing. Allan Burns, one of those winning writers, would soon co-create The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Their careers certainly didn’t end with the show. Paula went on to The Parallax View and The Stepford Wives. Richard starred in Goodbye, Columbus, Westworld and The Sunshine Boys, then became the director of My Favorite Year, The Money Pit and Mermaids

One season together on television — and more than six decades together in real life

Does anyone remember He & She, or is this opening completely new to you?

Tareyton Smokers Would Rather Fight Than Switch!

Who remembers those Tareyton smokers with the black eyes? “Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch” became one of those advertising lines you didn’t have to smoke to recognize

The campaign began in 1963 and was created at BBDO by advertising legend James Jordan, who later gave us other memorable lines including Wisk’s “Ring Around the Collar.” The idea was simple: Tareyton smokers were so loyal to their brand that they would supposedly take a punch before switching cigarettes. The black eye made the joke instantly recognizable, although I think we can all agree the imagery hits a little differently today.

It worked. Company records show Tareyton sales jumping from 16.1 billion cigarettes in 1964 to 18.5 billion in 1965, while its market share increased from 3.2 to 3.6 percent. By 1967, Tareyton still controlled more than half of the charcoal-filter segment.

The slogan became bigger than the product. MAD magazine spoofed it, politicians borrowed it, and a young Martha Stewart even appeared in Tareyton advertising before any of us knew her for decorating or cooking.

Television cigarette advertising ended in January 1971, so Tareyton’s black-eyed “unswitchables” continued primarily in print. Internal tobacco-industry histories show the main campaign being discontinued in 1976, although versions of the famous slogan lingered afterward.

Do you remember the Tareyton commercials — and did you ever hear someone use “I’d rather fight than switch” without even thinking about where it came from?

Who remembers when Bugs Bunny was actually on the Kool-Aid package?

This commercial takes us back to around 1965, when Bugs and Elmer Fudd weren’t just Saturday morning entertainment — they were helping General Foods sell the relatively new Pre-Sweetened Kool-Aid

What I love is that they didn’t just drop the characters into a generic ad. Elmer is still chasing that “wascally wabbit,” Bugs is still one step ahead, and somehow the whole thing turns into a Kool-Aid commercial

Legendary animator Tex Avery, who helped shape Bugs Bunny’s personality years earlier, returned to direct some of these commercials. Mel Blanc was still Bugs, but Elmer was voiced here by Hal Smith, who many of us remember better as Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show

Pre-Sweetened Kool-Aid itself was fairly new, introduced in 1964 so you no longer had to add your own sugar. Bugs became so closely tied to the product that his picture appeared right on the packages

And then this commercial gives us another nearly forgotten memory — Kool-Pops. The frozen treats had been around since at least 1960, giving General Foods another way to turn Kool-Aid into something kids could beg Mom to buy

It’s funny how one short commercial can bring back so much at once — Bugs and Elmer, the old Kool-Aid packets, Kool-Pops, and the days when cartoon characters regularly helped decide what ended up in the grocery cart

Do you remember Bugs Bunny on the Kool-Aid packages — and does anyone remember Kool-Pops?

The Herculoids

How many of you can still name all the Herculoids just from watching this opening? Zok, Igoo, Tundro, Gloop and Gleep — along with Zandor, Tara and Dorno — made for one of the strangest and most memorable groups Hanna-Barbera ever put together

What amazes me is how few episodes there actually were. The Herculoids debuted on CBS in 1967, and only 18 original half-hours were produced, containing 36 shorter adventures. Yet those episodes were rerun enough that the show feels like it was around much longer than it really was. Joseph Barbera later even recalled the series pulling an extraordinary 60 share in the ratings

The incredible look of the show came from Alex Toth, the legendary comic-book artist who helped shape Hanna-Barbera’s adventure cartoons. Toth was also heavily involved with characters and designs for Space Ghost, Birdman, Fantastic Four and other shows that gave Saturday mornings a very different look from Hanna-Barbera’s comedy cartoons

There was some great voice talent hiding behind all those creatures too. Mike Road, who many of us also remember as Race Bannon on Jonny Quest, handled Zandor along with Zok, Igoo and Tundro. Don Messick gave us both Gloop and Gleep before becoming the voice of Scooby-Doo just two years later

And those creatures really were wonderfully bizarre. Tundro had ten legs and fired explosive rocks, Zok shot energy beams, Igoo was essentially a walking rock pile, and Gloop and Gleep could turn themselves into practically whatever the story required — shields, trampolines, parachutes or slingshots

The Herculoids weren’t forgotten either. They crossed paths with Space Ghost, appeared in comics from both DC and Marvel, and returned with 11 brand-new adventures in 1981 as part of Space Stars. Oddly enough, their planet Amzot became Quasar for the revival

For a cartoon with only 18 original half-hours, The Herculoids certainly left a big impression

Who was your favorite — Zok, Igoo, Tundro, Gloop or Gleep?

Birdman and the Galaxy Trio

How many of you remember this opening? Birdman and the Galaxy Trio arrived on NBC Saturday mornings on September 9, 1967, right in the middle of Hanna-Barbera’s great superhero period. Birdman could fly, fire solar energy from his hands and create shields, but there was one major catch — he had to keep recharging himself with sunlight. Take away the sun and suddenly our superhero was in serious trouble.

Birdman was created by legendary artist Alex Toth, whose fingerprints were all over this era of Hanna-Barbera adventure cartoons. He was also closely associated with the designs of Space Ghost and The Herculoids, which helps explain why these shows all had that wonderfully dramatic comic-book look many of us remember.

Keith Andes supplied Birdman’s powerful voice and that unforgettable “Biiiirdman!” battle cry. There were some other great connections hiding in the cast too. Don Messick was Falcon 7 before becoming Scooby-Doo, while Dick Beals played Birdboy — and if his voice sounds familiar, he was also Speedy Alka-Seltzer in hundreds of commercials. Over with the Galaxy Trio, Ted Cassidy, better known as Lurch on The Addams Family, voiced Meteor Man.

The music was by Ted Nichols, one of the composers who helped give Hanna-Barbera’s adventure shows such a big, dramatic sound. Nichols also worked on Space Ghost, Jonny Quest, Scooby-Doo and many other familiar cartoons during his years at Hanna-Barbera. He died earlier this year at age 97.

And September 9, 1967 was quite a Saturday morning. Birdman, The Herculoids and Hanna-Barbera’s Fantastic Four all debuted that same day on competing networks. Birdman himself lasted only 20 half-hours, but he certainly wasn’t forgotten. More than 30 years later he was completely reinvented as an attorney in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, introducing the character to an entirely different generation.

Did you watch Birdman during its original run, or was this another one you discovered through Saturday morning reruns?

Speedy Alka-Seltzer

How many of you remember Speedy Alka-Seltzer? By the time this 1976 commercial appeared, Speedy was actually making a comeback. He had been one of television advertising’s earliest memorable mascots during the 1950s and early ’60s before disappearing from regular Alka-Seltzer advertising in 1964.

Speedy was a pretty clever character when you look closely. His body was an Alka-Seltzer tablet, another tablet became his little sailor-style hat, and he was brought to life one frame at a time with stop-motion animation. He was originally going to be called Sparky, but the name was changed to Speedy to match the company’s “Speedy Relief” campaign.

And that wonderfully youthful voice belonged to Dick Beals, who was already an adult when he began playing Speedy. A glandular condition left Beals only about four-foot-six with a voice that never changed from childhood, and he turned that into an extraordinary career. He also originated the voice of Gumby and was the first Davey on Davey and Goliath. He eventually performed voices in more than 3,000 commercials.

This 1976 revival also brought Speedy together with the line most of us probably remember best — “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is.” The jingle was composed by Tom Dawes, who had previously been a member of the 1960s group The Cyrkle. Two years later, even Sammy Davis Jr. recorded his own versions of it.

Speedy had already shared the screen with silent-film legend Buster Keaton back in the 1950s, and he would eventually make another comeback decades later. For such a little guy, he had quite a television career

Did you remember Speedy himself, or is it the “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz” jingle that immediately takes you back?

Shopping For Phones

Who remembers when we were finally able to go shopping for our own telephone?

For years, the telephone was basically part of your phone service. Ma Bell supplied it, you paid for it every month, and there usually wasn’t much reason to think of the phone itself as something you would go shopping for

That began changing in the 1970s with Bell PhoneCenters and all those new colors and styles. The transition was actually a little strange — with some early Design Line phones, you bought the decorative outer housing while Bell still owned and maintained the working parts inside. Eventually, complete customer-owned phones became the norm

And I’m sure many of us made sure that second or third phone had all the new bells and whistles — almost literally! Touch-Tone buttons, last-number redial, programmable memory dialing, speakerphone, mute, hold and answering machines became things to look for. Then there were telephone-company features like Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, Three-Way Calling and Speed Calling. Caller ID came later and suddenly knowing who was calling before answering seemed absolutely amazing

What surprised me is how successful the shopping concept was. Bell reported in 1974 that 73 percent of PhoneCenter customers selected an extension phone, compared with 58 percent of customers using the old sales method. The stores let you actually see and touch dozens of phones instead of having somebody describe them over the telephone

And look at the variety in this commercial — colorful phones, fancy phones, character phones and phones designed to match the furniture. Bell even sold Mickey Mouse, Snoopy, Winnie-the-Pooh and that unforgettable doughnut-shaped Sculptura phone

Then almost overnight it seemed every department store had phones, and eventually nearly every phone came loaded with features we once thought were something special

What was the first telephone you remember actually buying instead of renting from the phone company?