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
In 1976 Kodak introduced their instant camera that turned out to violate a number of Polaroid patents. A lawsuit was filed in 1981 and settled in 1986, the same year Kodak invented the megapixel sensor which helped make digital photography and their demise possible.
I’m sure people today would freak out with the “clown” style make up in this commercial.
Carl Dean Switzer also know as Alfalfa in the series Our Gang was one of the earlier actors who were type casted and unable to find work after being a child star when his run with Our Gang ended in 1940 at the ripe old age of twelve. He did turn to television and had some luck with the Roy Rogers and a few other television shows. Switzer also trained hunting dogs and guided hunting expeditions. It was over $50 for the reward for the return of one of his dogs that caused an argument that lead to his death. The shooting was judged to be self defense as Switzer pounded on the shooters door demanding to be let in. 42 years later n 2001 a witness came forward saying it was more like a murder (see Wikipedia for the full story).
If you grew up in the 70’s and 80’s you probably have all these songs committed to memory. The 120 Music Masterpiece collection was first offered by Time/Life and then to Vista Marketing which you can heard dubbed in in this commercial. It is said that this is longest running commercial in TV history which ran from 1971 to 1984, mostly during daytime TV on local stations. John Williams was the actor in this commercial which ran longer than he did, he passed in 1983. You might remember Williams in Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder. He was also the original Mr. French in Family Affair in the opening season of 1967.
For many of us, this was our education in classical music. I can remember each song in memory and what song was next.
One of my “fondest” songs to end the year with is Same Old Lang Syne by Dan Fogelberg released in 1975. This song hits home with anyone who ran into an old flame some where years later. Fogelberg is as good a story teller in his songs as Harry Chapin. As he sings each line the listener can visualize the scene in their mind. This song is based is based in fact of an encounter he had while looking for whipped cream on New Years Eve for his Irish Coffee and his old lover from an on again, off again relationship meet in a convenience store and reminisced over a six pack of beer in his car.
I was going to do an in depth report on this relationship that revealed who his old lover was. While doing research about this song and relationship I came across this video which did an outstanding job explaining it along with a visit to that convenience store and then to Folgerberg tributes in his hometown. Excellent video Kyle from the Track X Track channel on Youtube! Thanks for your work on this!
I was in a restaurant with my wife celebrating our anniversary and there was a table with kids. All were well mannered but one kid was just so loud I said he reminded me of the cartoon character Vavoom which gave me the inspiration for this post.
Vavoom was an Inuit (Alaskan indigenous person) on the Felix the Cat cartoon who used his voice to get them out of situations, like blasting rocks away in this video.
I grew up watching Felix The Cat on the Saturday morning cartoons. Surprisingly Felix The Cat only ran from 1958 to 1960 for a total of 126 episodes. CBS revived in the 90’s from 1995 to 1997 under the name The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat for just 21 episodes.
Did you ever give someone the nickname Vavoom. Please tell!
Aurora Toys had big success with Skittle Bowl when it launched in 1969. It seems their company started making EVERYTHING Skittle, except for the candy!
This was one of the games my dad played with me and my four brothers that we actually started leagues with playoffs and championship. We even had a cup like the National Hockey League.
You can still find the games on eBay, but way more than $6.99. I bought one over fifteen years ago and play it with my kids from time to time. Sometimes when my brothers get together one of us will break it out and relive the memories.
Here is the commercial on Youtube I wonder where we got the idea for leagues and a championship cup? !!
For five memorable seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, Don Knotts superbly played Barney Fife, sheriff Andy Taylor’s well-intentioned but inept deputy. Deputy Fife was such a beloved character that anyone who attempted to replace him would have a difficult task. Knotts opted to pursue a movie career at the end of the 1964-65 TV season and left the TAGS cast. His replacement was comedian Jack Burns who was cast as deputy Warren Ferguson. Ferguson was the nephew of town barber Floyd Lawson. He was a recent graduate of a police academy who zealously enforced Mayberry’s statutes. (In one episode he raided a ladies’ club bingo game.) Ferguson is best remembered for his grating habit of punctuating his monologues with the word “Huh?”. He was also bungling, but nowhere near as popular as Barney Fife. After just 11 episodes, deputy Ferguson vanished without explanation. He was never seen or even mentioned again. Sheriff Taylor never had another regular deputy throughout the rest of the series (which ended in 1968).
This article was originally written by YouRememberThat member Lava1964 in February 1969.
The Musters was a series that ran from Fall of 1964 to the Spring of 1966 and aired on CBS at 7:30 on Thursday nights. It was written by the same writers from Leave It To Beaver.
Here is the 1964 pilot that was recorded in color. It was recorded for 15 minutes but edited to 13 minutes. Many say the network didn’t want to spend the extra money to produce it in color while others say it was to copy Universal’s vintage monster film’s appearance from the 1930’s and 40’s.
There were a total of 70 episodes recorded. The show ran for two years until it received stiff competition from ABC’s Batman that aired opposite of the Munster’s. The show continues to run in syndication. At the time of this writing it has been picked up by Cozi-TV
As you can see, the characters weren’t finalized. What did you like or dislike about the original cast? Do you wish it was recorded in color?
Time capsules are fun. They are usually buried which creates challenges for preserving the artifacts. In 1957 the State of Oklahoma celebrated it’s 50th anniversary of statehood by burying a brand new 1957 Plymouth Belvedere along with other artifacts of the time period. This was during the cold war so the car was buried in a cement vault capable of sustaining a nuclear blast. They held a contest for the car, all you had to do is guess the population of the state in the year 2007 to win. See the unveiling in this fun and interesting video:
Jay Thomas, who appeared as Eddie Lebec in nine episodes of the TV sitcom Cheers, died from cancer on August 24, 2017 at the age of 69. On Cheers, Lebec was a French-Canadian goalie for the Boston Bruins whom Carla (Rhea Perlman) meets while he is riding a hot streak. However, as soon as Eddie and Carla start dating, he slumps badly. (To thwart the jinx, Eddie and Carla continue to date, but they go through a ‘breakup’ ritual before every game.)
The Eddie Lebec character was popular, so the show’s writers decided to have Carla and Eddie marry. However, Thomas, who hosted a radio show, got himself into hot water one day when a caller innocently asked him what it was like to be a Cheers cast member. The irrepressible Tomas replied, “It’s brutal. I have to kiss Rhea Perlman.” Perlman happened to be listening to the broadcast–and Thomas never made another appearance on Cheers. The show’s writers had to come up with a way to drop Eddie Lebec from the show.
In his final episode on Cheers, Eddie’s hockey career was over so he had gotten a job in an ice show as a skating penguin. The writers came up with the memorable idea of killing Eddie off in a Zamboni accident in an episode cleverly titled “Death Takes a Holiday on Ice.” (The premise is quite ridiculous: Have you ever seen how slowly a Zamboni moves? Its design makes it almost impossible for a Zamboni to run over anyone.) Despite the absurdity of the plot twist, Cheers fans loved it. Eddie’s death also led to a further plot development: At Eddie’s funeral it was revealed that he was a bigamist whose second wife was strikingly similar to Carla! According to writer Ken Levine, this idea worked well as it made Eddie look like a heel, thus viewers were happy he was no longer part of the show.
This article first appeared in our former website YouRemeberThat.com on August of 2017 and written by member Lava1964. Eddie LeBec played by Jay Thomas died on Thursday at 69 after a battle with cancer.
