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
Tiny Tim took “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” and turned it into one of the most unforgettable TV moments of the late 1960s.
With his ukulele, long hair, nervous smile, and high falsetto voice, he came across like someone from another planet. His big break came on Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In, and before long he was showing up on shows like The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
The public didn’t quite know what to do with him. Some people laughed, some were fascinated, and some thought he was just plain strange. But Tiny Tim was completely sincere. He loved old songs and performed them in a way nobody else could.
And whether you loved him or thought he was weird, once you heard “Tiptoe Through the Tulips,” you never forgot it.
Leave it to the early 1980s to give us a controversy over a baby doll’s bare bottom.
Mattel’s Tippee-Toes was one of those dolls that was supposed to look cute, innocent, and lifelike. She could crawl, and like a lot of toy commercials from back then, the ad was aimed right at kids sitting in front of the TV, probably during cartoons or family programming. But then came the part that got people talking: the commercial showed the doll’s little bare backside.
That may sound pretty tame today, but back then one viewer found it offensive enough to complain to David Horowitz, the consumer advocate best known for Fight Back! with David Horowitz. Horowitz was the guy people turned to when they felt a product, commercial, or company needed to be called out. He built a career on standing up for consumers, testing products, and bringing viewer complaints into the spotlight.
The issue even made its way to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1982. Horowitz appeared on Carson and discussed the Tippee-Toes commercial, reportedly showing both the original ad and the changed version after complaints were made. It was one of those perfect Johnny Carson moments where something small, silly, and strangely serious all came together on national television.
Looking back, it feels almost impossible to believe this was a controversy. We grew up with talking dolls, creepy ventriloquist dummies selling chocolate milk, clowns selling cereal, and commercials that would probably send today’s internet into a panic. But a baby doll’s bare bottom? That was enough to get a consumer advocate involved and Mattel’s attention.
It’s a funny little reminder of how much TV, advertising, and what people considered “offensive” has changed over the years. Tippee-Toes was just trying to crawl across the screen, but somehow she crawled right into consumer TV history.
If you grew up in the 70’s you have to remember ole Euell Gibbons on the Grape Nuts cereal commercials for General Foods. Although you can’t locate the pine tree commercial on the internet the “ever eat a cattail” commercial is a close example of the ad. Euell wrote the book Stalking The Good Life and became known as a naturalist and cited as leading the way for eating healthy with natural foods. He was known for saying”Its naturally sweet taste reminds me of wild hickory nuts,” he often said of the Grape Nuts.
I remember Johnny Carson and other shows making fun of him and the commercials but the spoofs on Carol Burnett Show in 1973 were the most memorable. Even the children’s TV show The Electric Company got into the act with this spoof.
General Foods voluntarily withdrew the ad campaign and its advertising agency Benton & Bowles faced action from the Federal Trade Commission in 1976.
In September 1993 still fresh off Johnny Carson’s retirement Fox Network wanted to get in the late-night talk show circuit. Dolly Parton was considered but her agent said no but recommended Chevy Chase who signs a $3 million contract. Chevy also secured the ownership right like Carson.
Fox was so confident
in the show’s success they even went so far as to spend $1 million
in renovating the old Aquarius Theater on Sunset Boulevard in Los
Angeles, then renaming it the Chevy Chase Theater.
Chase found it
difficult to connect with his guests but was comfortable with his
skits. The biggest issue was that he had trouble connecting with the
audience which was apparent with many of the skits falling flat with
them.
After five weeks or 29 shows, Fox pulled the plug. They promised sponsors 5-6 million viewers nightly but the average was fewer than 3 million. In the last week, it dropped below 2 million viewers.
Within 2 days of the show’s cancellation workers dismantled and painted over the Chevy Chase Theater sign. It is currently known as the Nickelodeon on Sunset and at the time of the writing, Google says it is permanently closed.
In an interview with A&E Biography interview “an entirely different concept than what was pushed on me. I would never do it again. What I wanted to have a whole different feel to it, much darker and more improv. But we never got there.”
From his March 3, 1977 appearance on The Tonight Show, Andy Kaufman
segues from his “foreign man” shtick to a terrific impersonation of
Elvis Presley. Elvis himself said that Kaufman did the best imitation
of him.
Early in 1982 Bank of America seized 1,400 DeLorean DMC-12’s because John DeLorean’s company failed to make payments on a loan. If you recall, John DeLorean was charged with cocaine trafficking DeLorean attempted to sell 220 pounds of cocaine worth about $24 million back then. DeLorean was found not guilty due to police entrapment.
Enter Sol A. Shenk, a Russian immigrant to the United States. He started Consolidated International in 1967 selling closeout and overstocked auto parts. Shenk later started a consumer Consolidated Stores which you may recognize his stores like Big Lots and Odd Lots. Shenk was the only distributor of the DeLorean DMC-12’s and parts. Although he had the right to continue manufacturing the car it was determined that the car could not be sold for a profit. He only produced about 100 cars.
John DeLorean managed the development of such muscle cars like the Pontiac GTO muscle car, the Pontiac Firebird, Chevrolet Vega, and the Pontiac Grand Prix. The DeLorean Motors downturn was due to cost overruns, lack of demand and unfavorable exchange rates as the car was manufactured in Ireland. Sammy Davis Jr. and Johnny Carson were initial investors in the company. To this day I remember Johnny Carson said in his monologue on The Tonight Show that the rebate was in the trunk of the DeLorean after DeLorean’s cocaine arrest.
In a 1982 Tonight Show skit reminiscent of the old Abbott and Costello ‘Who’s On First?’ routine, Johnny Carson plays a befuddled Ronald Reagan being briefed by Jim Baker.
In April 1991, TV icon Michael Landon was diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer. A month later, on May 9, 1991, Landon was in high spirits when he made a guest appearance on The Tonight Show. He died seven weeks later at the age of 54. I apologize for the poor quality of the clip, but it’s worth watching. Video clip was originally uploaded by YouRememberThat.com member Lava1964 on September 6, 2008.
