The Retro site Archives - Page 8 of 16 - Retro Reminiscing Video and Pictures

Wacky Races

Saturday mornings became much more dangerous when Wacky Races premiered on CBS on September 14, 1968. Eleven bizarre vehicles raced across the country while Dick Dastardly and his snickering dog, Muttley, stopped every few miles to set another trap.

Every car matched the personality of its driver. Penelope Pitstop had the beauty-salon-equipped Compact Pussycat, Professor Pat Pending drove the transforming Convert-a-Car, and the Gruesome Twosome traveled inside the monster-filled Creepy Coupe. The Ant Hill Mob raced in the Bulletproof Bomb, while lumberjack Rufus Ruffcut drove a wooden vehicle with circular saw blades for wheels.

The funniest part was that Dick Dastardly probably could have won by simply continuing to drive. Instead, he repeatedly stopped his speedy Mean Machine to build complicated traps that usually backfired, leaving him and Muttley behind everyone else. Across all 34 races, they never recorded a first, second or third-place finish.

The cartoon produced only 17 episodes, each containing two separate races, but its characters proved too entertaining to disappear. Penelope and the Ant Hill Mob returned in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, while Dick Dastardly and Muttley moved into airplanes for Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines.

Which racer did you root for, and did anyone actually want Dick Dastardly to win?

Sea Hunt and the Shows We Watched With Dad

Sea Hunt was another show I watched with my dad. Combat!, The Rat Patrol and, heck, even Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. were shows many of us watched beside our fathers. We were entertained, but we also learned from them about courage, responsibility, loyalty and doing the right thing.

Lloyd Bridges starred as professional diver Mike Nelson, a former Navy frogman who took on dangerous underwater rescues, criminals, sabotage and sunken mysteries. Sea Hunt ran from January 4, 1958, through September 23, 1961, producing 155 episodes over four seasons.

The show never belonged to one major television network. It was sold directly to local stations through syndication, so families watched it on different nights and at different times depending on where they lived.

Bridges learned to scuba dive for the role and eventually performed many of his own underwater stunts. Since actors could not easily speak underwater, much of the action was explained through Mike Nelson’s narration. Many scenes were filmed in the clear waters of Silver Springs, Florida.

I do not want to sound old, even though I am, but there do not seem to be as many father-and-son bonding shows anymore. Maybe it was not only the programs that made those nights special. Maybe it was simply sitting beside Dad and sharing something together.

Did you watch Sea Hunt with your father, and what other shows brought the two of you together?

Friday Nights Belonged to The Flintstones

Before The Flintstones became a childhood favorite through daytime reruns, it was a genuine prime-time television show. The series premiered on ABC on Friday, September 30, 1960, at 8:30 p.m., when children and adults were expected to watch together.

This lively promo turns the show’s Friday-night time slot into a full Stone Age musical production. Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty and an assortment of prehistoric entertainers appear as the announcer reminds viewers where they should be on Friday night.

The first three seasons aired Fridays at 8:30. The show’s original opening music was the instrumental “Rise and Shine,” before “Meet the Flintstones” became the familiar theme during the third season.

Did your family watch The Flintstones at night, or do you remember it mostly from afternoon and Saturday-morning reruns?

Thanks Gumball _____________ what comes next?

My wife handed me something tonight, and I said, “Thanks for the gumball!” Before I could even finish, she immediately answered, “Mickey!”

It’s fun when you both connect at exactly the same time with an old commercial from your past. One little phrase can bring back a memory neither of you realized was still tucked away.

These Hasbro gumball banks combined three things kids loved: cartoon characters, candy and collecting pennies. The colorful gumballs filled the clear heads of Mickey Mouse, Bozo the Clown and Popeye, making each character look funnier with every refill.

You inserted a penny, received a gumball and heard the memorable line, “Thanks for the gumball, Mickey!” Decades later, that silly commercial is still bringing back memories and apparently finishing sentences in our house!

Did you have one of these gumball banks, or do you still quote the commercial?

Professionally Speaking, Meet the Ajax Man

We just told you about Madge the Manicurist. How about our favorite, or possibly only, professional dishwasher?

Actor Eugene Roche became television’s Ajax Man in the early 1970s, playing a no-nonsense restaurant dishwasher who knew exactly how to make greasy dishes “squeaky clean.” After washing a plate with Ajax dishwashing liquid, he would run his fingers across it to produce that memorable squeak.

His familiar sales pitch was, “Professionally speaking, you’ve got to try Ajax.” Roche’s everyday appearance and serious delivery made him seem like a genuine restaurant employee offering advice from years behind the sink.

Colgate-Palmolive ran the campaign through the Norman, Craig & Kummel advertising agency. Roche appeared as the Ajax Man from around 1971 through at least 1977, making him one of the decade’s most familiar commercial characters.

Roche later became a successful character actor, appearing as Pinky Peterson on All in the Family and Luther Gillis on Magnum, P.I.

Do you remember the Ajax Man making that plate squeak?

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.