The Retro site Archives - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

The Other U.N.C.L.E.

Since I made two posts today about The Man from U.N.C.L.E., I thought it only made sense to close the day with Disney’s The Monkey’s Uncle. No, not The Monkees the band, and not Napoleon Solo’s U.N.C.L.E., but a 1965 Disney comedy starring Annette Funicello and Tommy Kirk.

The movie was a sequel to The Misadventures of Merlin Jones, with Kirk playing the young college genius Merlin Jones and Annette playing Jennifer. The title comes from the old saying “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle,” and in the movie there is even a chimpanzee named Stanley mixed into the story. It is pure mid-60s Disney: college kids, inventions, a silly plot, and just enough teen appeal to make it feel current.

The strangest and best part is the opening. Somehow Disney got the actual Beach Boys to appear with Annette and sing the title song. The song was written by Richard and Robert Sherman, the same songwriting brothers behind many Disney classics, and D23 notes that the film featured Annette and the Beach Boys performing the title tune.

That is what makes the clip so perfectly 1965. You have wholesome Disney, former Mouseketeer Annette Funicello, the Beach Boys’ surf harmonies, and a goofy song built around a monkey joke. It is the kind of combination that sounds made up now, but back then it made perfect sense. Disney wanted the youth audience, Annette was already tied to the beach-movie crowd, and the Beach Boys gave it that instant teenage radio sound.

So after a day of U.N.C.L.E., here is the other “uncle”: not a spy agency, just Annette, Disney, a chimp, and the Beach Boys somehow making “monkey’s uncle” sound like a surf-rock hit.

Small Shots: Mattel’s Hot Wheels Dolls

Small Shots was one of those 1971 toy ideas that sounds strange now, but made sense once you see it. Mattel basically took the Hot Wheels idea and put little dolls on skates, wagons, carts, and other rolling stands that could run on Hot Wheels-style track.

The commercial is pure early ’70s toy advertising. Everything moves fast, the kids act amazed, and the announcer makes it sound like this was the next big thing. It was not just a doll, and it was not just a car. It was Mattel trying to mix both worlds together.

That was probably the real idea. Hot Wheels was huge with boys, while dolls were usually marketed to girls. Small Shots tried to pull both sides together — little fashion-style figures that could race, roll, and crash down a track. It was a clever idea, even if it also feels a little odd today.

Another interesting note: one of the early Small Shots commercials is listed among Jodie Foster’s early TV commercial work. She was still a child actor at the time, years before most people knew her name.

Small Shots did not last very long, but it is a great example of how toy companies in the 1970s were willing to try almost anything. Dolls on Hot Wheels track? Why not. In that era, if it rolled, launched, flipped, or crashed, somebody was going to put it in a commercial.

Dairy Queen and the Cartoon Rock-and-Roll Sell

This old Dairy Queen ad has that familiar feel of a commercial trying to grab kids fast. Instead of just showing ice cream, they used animation to make it feel fun, quick, and a little more exciting.

That was probably the point of the cartoon. A regular person talking about Dairy Queen might have felt too ordinary, but a cartoon could bounce around, move fast, and make it seem like something fun was happening.

And of course, there had to be that twangy guitar. It seemed like every ad trying to appeal to the youngsters needed some version of the “new rock and roll sound.” It was not always real rock and roll, but advertisers knew a little guitar twang made things feel younger and cooler.

Simple ad, simple idea: a cartoon, a catchy sound, and the promise of ice cream. That was enough to get Dairy Queen stuck in your head.

Tobor the 8th Man: One I Need Your Memories On

A number of viewers asked us to post Tobor the 8th Man, and this is one I may have to rely on your memory for. I’m not sure if it was before my time, or just wasn’t shown in my area, but it clearly stuck with a lot of kids who watched it.

The show was the American version of Japan’s 8 Man, about a murdered detective whose mind is placed into a powerful robot body. In the U.S. version, he became Tobor, “robot” spelled backward, fighting crime with super speed and futuristic powers.

It was black-and-white, early anime, and definitely had that 1960s imported-cartoon feel. Were you one of the kids who watched Tobor the 8th Man?

Before Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, there was Luke and Laura.

Luke and Laura’s wedding on General Hospital was not just a soap opera wedding. It was a television event. In 1981, about 30 million people watched a fictional couple get married in the middle of the afternoon, and for that moment, daytime TV felt bigger than prime time.

Today, Taylor and Travis are having the modern version of that same pop culture moment. Instead of everyone gathering around the TV at the same time, people are following it through news alerts, fan videos, social media posts, street closures, and crowds outside Madison Square Garden.

Luke and Laura were the wedding America watched.

Taylor and Travis are the wedding America is following.

Different era. Different screen. Same kind of fascination.

Before Bond, Roger Moore Was The Saint

I was about 10 years old when this intro ran, and it was my favorite. The moment that halo appeared and the theme music kicked in, it had me. It was simple, but it worked. The little stick figure with the halo was genius, and the music was cool, haunting, and instantly recognizable. In a way, The Saint taught a whole lesson in how much you could do with very little. A line drawing, a halo, and the right piece of music could stay in your head for decades.

The show itself had already been successful overseas before American network viewers got it. Roger Moore played Simon Templar from 1962 to 1969, long before he became James Bond. The character was not exactly a detective, not exactly a spy, and not exactly a crook. He was more of a charming modern-day Robin Hood type who often worked outside the rules to help people who could not get justice the usual way.

In the United States, The Saint first found an audience through syndication before NBC picked up the color episodes for network television. NBC did not air every episode, but the American exposure helped make Roger Moore a familiar face here. The show had style, mystery, travel, danger, and a lead character who always seemed one step ahead of everyone else.

The intro may be what many people remember first. That halo over Simon Templar’s head, the stick-figure Saint logo, and Edwin Astley’s theme created one of those openings that did not need a lot of explanation. It was classy, clever, and just a little mysterious.

Looking back, The Saint feels like one of those shows that bridged the gap between old-fashioned adventure stories and the cool spy craze of the 1960s. It had the suits, the cars, the international flavor, the beautiful locations, and that smooth Roger Moore confidence. And for a kid watching at home, sometimes all it took was that halo and that music to know something cool was about to happen.

Before the Lawyers Got Involved

As a kid, I always wondered why adults were leaving blasting caps around often enough that they had to hire Willie Mays to make a commercial about it.

This old PSA is such a strange piece of TV history. One minute you were watching cartoons or cereal commercials, and the next minute one of the greatest baseball players of all time was looking into the camera warning you not to touch explosives.

It feels like it came from that era before everything had ten warning labels, sealed packaging, and a legal department reviewing every word. The message was simple: if you find a blasting cap, do not pick it up. Tell a policeman, a fireman, or an adult.

Looking back, it is funny how many safety lessons were delivered to kids through television. Fire safety, seat belts, strangers, drugs, littering, and apparently, random blasting caps.

Only back then could Willie Mays interrupt your Saturday morning to warn you about explosives.

Do you remember this PSA?

The Internet in 1969: They Got There… Sort Of

This 1969 look at the future is fascinating because, in a way, they really did predict where we were going. Shopping from home, checking accounts, paying bills, ordering things through a screen — all of that eventually became part of everyday life. The funny part is that they imagined it happening through a giant home computer setup that looked more like mission control than the phone in your pocket.

And you have to love the very 1969 version of household roles. The wife uses the futuristic computer to shop for clothes and groceries, while the husband comes in later to handle the bills and finances. It is such a perfect little time capsule of how the future was imagined through the lens of that era.

They were right about the destination, just not the road we took to get there. No big computer room in the house, no dedicated shopping console, and thankfully no need to dress up just to order something online. But watching this now, it is still impressive how close they came to predicting the basic idea of the online world we use every day.

New Country Corn Flakes

The New Country Corn Flakes commercial stood out to me as a kid, and I still remember it to this day. So I guess it was an effective ad.

It was not flashy by today’s standards. There were no cartoon mascots running around, no big prize reveal, and no wild animation. Instead, it had that plain, old-fashioned country feel, with a serious farm couple look that reminded people of American Gothic.

That may be why it stuck. The ad was simple, a little odd, and very catchy. It kept repeating the name and selling the idea that these corn flakes were crispier, toastier, and just a little different from the usual bowl of cereal.

Looking back, it feels like a perfect example of early 1960s advertising. Sometimes the commercials that stayed with us were not the loudest ones. They were the ones that had a strange little rhythm, a memorable image, or a jingle that somehow never left your head.

Do you remember New Country Corn Flakes, or is there another cereal commercial that has stayed with you all these years?

The FedEx Fast-Talking Man

Before every company tried to make commercials feel like mini-movies, FedEx gave us one that felt like a full workday packed into 30 seconds.

The famous Federal Express fast-talking commercial starred John Moschitta Jr., who became known as one of the fastest talkers people had ever heard. In the ad, he plays a high-pressure office worker rattling off orders, calls, deadlines, and instructions at machine-gun speed.

That was the whole point. Business was moving faster, offices were busier, and everyone needed things done yesterday. FedEx used the joke perfectly: in a fast-paced world, you needed a delivery company that could keep up.

It was funny, memorable, and very 1980s — phones ringing, papers flying, everyone rushing, and one man talking faster than most of us could even listen.