online community focused on sharing and reminiscing about video, audio, and images that stir our memories of the past – old television, theme songs, commercials, print advertisements, the sights and sounds you remember
This short CBS promo was advertising a surprisingly historic Sunday night on March 19, 1978. All in the Family said goodbye to Mike and Gloria as regular characters, Alice welcomed country star Jerry Reed as himself, and The Carol Burnett Show featured Steve Lawrence and Bernadette Peters in a musical salute to Cole Porter
The three programs represented an incredible stretch of television history. All in the Family aired from 1971 to 1979, Alice from 1976 to 1985 and The Carol Burnett Show from 1967 to 1978. Carol’s series was nearing its emotional finale, while CBS was still using Archie Bunker and Alice Hyatt to build one of Sunday television’s strongest comedy blocks
Even the music carried impressive credentials. Broadway composers Charles Strouse and Lee Adams created “Those Were the Days,” Linda Lavin sang an Alice theme written by David Shire and the Bergmans, and Carol’s familiar closing song was written by her husband and producer, Joe Hamilton
Do you remember when CBS Sports Spectacular could fill an afternoon with sports we rarely saw anywhere else? This short promo is a perfect example, jumping from championship boxing and roaring NHRA dragsters to the brand-new World’s Strongest Man competition
Carlos Palomino was defending his welterweight title, Shirley Muldowney had just become the first woman to win an NHRA Top Fuel championship, and future Incredible Hulk star Lou Ferrigno was testing his strength against athletes from several different sports
What made CBS Sports Spectacular so much fun was never knowing what might come next. It could feature a major championship one week and something completely unusual the next. Long before we had cable sports channels running around the clock, programs like this introduced us to athletes, competitions and entire sports we might never have discovered otherwise
Did you watch CBS Sports Spectacular regularly, or did you usually tune in only when a favorite sport was featured?
“Good evening.” With those two words, Alfred Hitchcock welcomed viewers into a weekly world of murder, mystery, suspense and wonderfully dark humor.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents premiered on CBS in 1955 and ran for seven seasons as a half-hour anthology. In 1962, it expanded into The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, continuing for three more seasons until 1965. Each episode told a separate story, usually ending with an unexpected twist or a criminal discovering that the perfect crime was not quite perfect.
The opening became almost as famous as the stories. Hitchcock stepped into a simple outline of his unmistakable profile while Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette” played. Hitchcock had drawn the nine-stroke caricature himself.
Although he introduced every program, Hitchcock directed only 17 episodes of the original half-hour series. Producers Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd helped select stories, writers, directors and actors who could deliver a complete suspense film in less than 30 minutes.
The television series also influenced Hitchcock’s movies. He later used members of the show’s experienced television crew to make Psycho, helping him film quickly and economically while creating one of the most famous thrillers ever made.
Did the theme music make you uneasy before Hitchcock even said, “Good evening”?
“Give a hoot, don’t pollute!” Those six words made Woodsy Owl one of the most memorable public-service characters of the 1970s.
The U.S. Forest Service introduced Woodsy in 1971 to teach children that preventing pollution was everyone’s responsibility. Harold Bell helped create the character with Forest Service advisers Glenn Kovar, Betty Conrad Hite and Chuck Williams while they were working on the television series Lassie. Williams supplied the slogan that turned an owl’s “hoot” into an unforgettable environmental message.
Woodsy appeared in television and radio spots, educational films, posters, coloring sheets, bookmarks, decals and classroom kits. The Forest Service even sent a costumed Woodsy into schools to teach children about littering and conservation.
One of Woodsy’s familiar voices belonged to Sterling Holloway, whom generations also knew as Disney’s Winnie the Pooh. Woodsy became so popular that he received his own Gold Key comic-book series and was soon recognized by most American families with children.
His message later expanded to “Lend a Hand, Care for the Land,” encouraging people to do more than simply avoid littering. Even so, the original slogan remains the one many of us immediately remember.
Did Woodsy Owl make you think twice before dropping something on the ground?
How many of our viewers became EMTs, first responders or entered another medical field because of the television show Emergency!?
The series premiered on January 15, 1972, and followed Los Angeles County firefighter-paramedics Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto as they treated patients before rushing them to Rampart General Hospital. Randolph Mantooth and Kevin Tighe starred as Johnny and Roy, while Julie London, Bobby Troup and Robert Fuller played the hospital staff.
When Emergency! premiered, North America reportedly had only 12 paramedic units. Just four years later, about half of Americans lived within 10 minutes of paramedic care. The show introduced millions of viewers to defibrillation, intravenous medication and radio contact with emergency-room doctors, helping the public understand and support modern emergency medical services.
The series ran for six seasons and produced 122 episodes, followed by six television movies. Station 51 was played by the real Los Angeles County Fire Station 127, and the original Squad 51 remains preserved today.
National EMT and Paramedic Appreciation Day is observed on April 15, while National EMS Week is held each May. Chime in and let us honor you! Tell us where you serve, and feel free to brag about your station, department or hospital.
Wearing one of his familiar sweaters and sitting against a dark background, Bill Cosby holds up the can, calls it the best Coca-Cola ever and ends with “Coke is it!”
Coca-Cola replaced its original formula on April 23, 1985, after extensive taste testing. According to Coca-Cola’s own history, nearly 200,000 consumers participated in tests that favored the new formula. What those tests failed to measure was the emotional connection people had with the original drink.
Cosby was an obvious choice because he was one of television’s most familiar and persuasive advertising personalities. However, his appearance created an amusing contradiction. Shortly before New Coke arrived, he had appeared in commercials criticizing Pepsi for tasting too sweet. New Coke was then introduced with a sweeter taste designed partly to compete with Pepsi.
The reaction quickly became part of advertising history. Coca-Cola received thousands of complaints, consumers began hoarding the remaining original Coke and protest groups demanded its return. One Texas customer reportedly purchased $1,000 worth of the old formula before it disappeared.
Coca-Cola finally brought the original drink back as Coca-Cola Classic on July 11, only 79 days after introducing New Coke. The new formula remained available beside it, was eventually renamed Coke II and quietly survived until 2002.
Did you try New Coke in 1985, and was it really as bad as everyone remembers?
As requested by a number of viewers, here is the Raggedy Ann Colorforms commercial I remember from childhood. I have since discovered just how many different Colorforms kits were made, and I will share more of them over time.
Colorforms used colorful pieces of reusable vinyl that clung to smooth surfaces without glue. Children could dress the characters, rearrange the scenes, peel everything off and begin again. The Raggedy Ann kit shown in this 1967 commercial allowed kids to change her dresses and accessories as often as their imaginations allowed.
Colorforms began in 1951 after Harry and Patricia Kislevitz experimented with colorful vinyl originally used to make handbags. They discovered that the pieces clung to the glossy walls of their bathroom and began cutting them into different shapes. What started as a creative experiment soon became a successful toy.
FAO Schwarz placed an early order for 1,000 sets, helping turn the small project into a real company. The first kits featured basic geometric shapes, but licensed characters soon followed. Popeye became the first in 1957, opening the door for hundreds of television, comic book and movie characters.
Even the familiar Colorforms logo has an interesting history. Legendary graphic designer Paul Rand, who also designed logos for IBM, ABC and UPS, created it in 1959.
I also remember watching the local weather forecast as a child. The station used happy, smiling suns, large red H’s for high pressure and other colorful symbols that looked like oversized Colorforms.
Before computer-generated weather graphics, forecasters physically moved reusable symbols around a large map. Depending on the station, those symbols could be made from magnetic rubber, felt or another cling-on material. Whatever they were made from, they looked remarkably similar to the Colorforms we played with at home.
Maybe that is why those old weather maps remain so memorable. The smiling suns, rain clouds and giant H’s and L’s made the forecast feel like a giant Colorforms set coming to life on television.
Do you remember your local weather forecaster moving those colorful symbols around the map?
This 1975 commercial begins with customers confidently attempting to describe a Big Mac. Most of them quickly stumble over the ingredients until the familiar jingle takes over: “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions on a sesame-seed bun.”
The Big Mac was created by Pennsylvania McDonald’s franchisee Jim Delligatti and first sold in 1967 for 45 cents. McDonald’s initially considered calling it the Aristocrat or Blue Ribbon Burger, but 21-year-old advertising secretary Esther Glickstein Rose suggested the much simpler name “Big Mac.” It became available nationwide in 1968.
The ingredient chant arrived in 1974 through a campaign developed by Keith Reinhard’s creative group at Needham Harper & Steers. The ingredient list had first appeared in college newspaper advertising before Mark Vieha turned the words into music and performed the original jingle.
The campaign became so popular that some McDonald’s restaurants offered a free Big Mac to customers who could recite the complete list correctly within just a few seconds. A longer version of the commercial also appeared during Super Bowl IX in 1975.
The commercial lasted only seconds, but it taught generations exactly what was inside a Big Mac. In 1986, The Economist even began using Big Mac prices around the world to compare the purchasing power of different currencies.
Can you still say the entire Big Mac chant without stumbling?
“Cigars, cigarettes, Tiparillos?” You almost have to whisper the words when you say them. This stylish black-and-white commercial placed a glamorous cigarette girl inside a crowded nightclub, where she quietly offered Tiparillos from the tray hanging around her neck.
Tiparillo was a small, mild cigar with a white plastic mouthpiece. Even its name explained the product, combining “tip” and “cigarillo.” The name was trademarked in 1961, and General Cigar reportedly spent about $5.5 million promoting the new product during its 1962 national launch.
The campaign borrowed the familiar image of the nightclub cigarette girl, who once walked through restaurants, casinos and clubs selling tobacco products directly from a tray. The softly delivered “Cigars, cigarettes, Tiparillos?” became so memorable that people continued repeating it decades after the commercials disappeared.
Sales began slowly but took off by 1963, helping General Cigar become the dominant company in America’s small-cigar market. The following year, the Surgeon General’s report on smoking caused some cigarette smokers to briefly switch to cigars, giving Tiparillo another boost.
Tiparillo later introduced its equally famous “Should a gentleman offer a Tiparillo to a lady?” campaign. The ads featured fashionable, successful women, although Stanford’s tobacco advertising archive notes that the women were generally presented as accepting the cigars rather than actually smoking them.
When cigarette commercials disappeared from American television in 1971, little cigars initially escaped the ban. Congress closed that loophole with the Little Cigar Act of 1973, bringing commercials like this one to an end.
Do you remember the commercial itself, or does simply hearing “Cigars, cigarettes, Tiparillos?” bring it all back?
This animated commercial proves you did not need actors, scenery or even much animation to create something memorable. Musical notes dance across the screen, letters form the Winston name, and the package appears while the singers deliver one of advertising’s most familiar jingles.
The clip matches a 1963 Winston television spot, although the campaign began with the brand’s introduction in 1954. R.J. Reynolds named Winston after Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and promoted it as a filtered cigarette that still delivered flavor. The brand became the country’s best-selling cigarette by 1966.
The William Esty advertising agency built the campaign around “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should.” The use of “like” instead of “as” was intentional, creating a national grammar argument that helped make the slogan even more memorable. Walter Cronkite refused to say it incorrectly, Merriam-Webster cited it during a language debate, and Winston eventually answered its critics by asking whether they wanted good grammar or good taste.
Margaret Johnson ghostwrote the jingle and recorded it with her husband, Travis Johnson, and their group, the Song Spinners. The melody’s two quick handclaps became almost as recognizable as the words themselves. Winston later carried the campaign into popular television programs, including The Flintstones, where Fred, Barney and other Bedrock characters promoted the cigarettes.
Seen today, the commercial is also a reminder of how common cigarette advertising once was on television. Growing evidence about smoking’s health risks eventually led to the removal of cigarette commercials from American radio and television beginning in 1971.
Do you remember the words first, or those two perfectly timed handclaps?
