Remembering TV stuff from early childhood

[GaryV]

Toys R Us is running a commercial now that revisits their commercials from upwards of 30 or more years ago, such as the old "I'm a Toys R Us Kid!" jingles.

The one that starts, "I don't wanna throw up, I'm a Toys R Us kid ..."     
(In later years, I wondered if when you went to the store and wrote a check, did you have to write the R backwards?)

I remember the old Roadrunner cartoons where Wile E Coyote actually hit ground.  We'd count the seconds (after he really started falling - that didn't happen until he realized he was off the cliff edge) and calculate the depth of the gorge.

We used to watch Gilligan's Island reruns after school every afternoon (except during the Watergate hearings that preempted everything).  Trying to be the first one to remember which episode it was.  That wasn't easy when the first line of dialogue in almost every episode was either "Skipper!" or "Gilligan!" yelled by the other character.

[Scott5114]

(In later years, I wondered if when you went to the store and wrote a check, did you have to write the R backwards?)

I've found that whenever I cash checks made out to my business, the banking system seems pretty lenient as to the name on the Pay to the Order Of line. As long as it's a reasonable match, they're fine with it. You could probably get away with "Toys Are Us", "Toys Us" or any number of other things.

I did find out that if there is a discrepancy between the written amount of the check and the numerical amount, the written amount in words governs. I had someone write me a check that was supposed to end in 11¢ and the writer mistakenly wrote 00/100 on the written amount line. The bank declared the check to be valid for the round dollar amount without the 11¢. Even with this, though, they seem to be fairly lenient as to what they'll accept. I like to reduce the fractions when it's simple to do so–for a check for $25.20, I'll write it as "Twenty-five and 1/5" and it'll go through.

[Otto Yamamoto]

♫800-588-2300.. Empire!♫ - Today!

My mother tells me that as a baby, when I had got the core parts of speech mastered, I would repeat that all the time. This commercial is still on the air to this day.

And it is a plague to me, as it runs frequently overnight, and some resident's televisions are usually on overnight.

P00I

[BamaZeus]

I remember the old number readouts on 'The Price Is Right' even though those apparently were changed when I was only 2.

The old brown ones?

I have a Price is Right related memory from age 2 too–I remember when there were little round red carpets for contestants to stand on at the Big Wheel. These were replaced with a big red carpet that covered the whole front of the wheel area when I was 2.

They replaced the little carpet in front of the wheel, because too many people slipped and nearly crashed into the wheel.  They needed a solution with more traction, so they carpeted the whole thing.

[Max Rockatansky]

I still watch old cartoons from the 1980s or earlier on Youtube today or when they happen to pop on TV.  I just bought myself a copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and even watched it last night.  Really it just good times for me, not much interests me on TV today.

[US71]

♫800-588-2300.. Empire!♫ - Today!

Only for about 15 years, since Empire Carpets went national.  Originally, it was just "588-2300..Empi-i-i-i-re" in Chicago. 

Lynn Hauldren, who played the Empire man, came up with the jingle when he worked for the ad agency that contracted with Empire.  It goes back to at least the mid '70s, if not earlier.

1977 for the jingle, 1978 for the Empire Man

[US71]

[Otto Yamamoto]

Holy crap, I forgot how disgusting Macca's actually is. That's genuinely nasty looking.

P00I

[KeithE4Phx]

♫800-588-2300.. Empire!♫ - Today!

Only for about 15 years, since Empire Carpets went national.  Originally, it was just "588-2300..Empi-i-i-i-re" in Chicago. 

Lynn Hauldren, who played the Empire man, came up with the jingle when he worked for the ad agency that contracted with Empire.  It goes back to at least the mid '70s, if not earlier.

1977 for the jingle, 1978 for the Empire Man

That late?  I moved to Chicago in 1975, and I don't remember not seeing the Empire commercials even then.  Getting old...memory fading... 

[Rothman]

♫800-588-2300.. Empire!♫ - Today!

Only for about 15 years, since Empire Carpets went national.  Originally, it was just "588-2300..Empi-i-i-i-re" in Chicago. 

Lynn Hauldren, who played the Empire man, came up with the jingle when he worked for the ad agency that contracted with Empire.  It goes back to at least the mid '70s, if not earlier.

1977 for the jingle, 1978 for the Empire Man

That late?  I moved to Chicago in 1975, and I don't remember not seeing the Empire commercials even then.  Getting old...memory fading... 

I'm with you, there, though.  It seems like the Empire jingle was around prior to 1977 (seemed to always be on when I visited my grandmother's house), but facts are facts.

[Otto Yamamoto]

That early? I was stationed in Great Lakes Naval Training Centre from Sept 78-Jan 79 and again for a month in 1982, I don't recall seeing/hearing it until I got to NY.

P00I

[Scott5114]

I remember the old number readouts on 'The Price Is Right' even though those apparently were changed when I was only 2.

The old brown ones?

I have a Price is Right related memory from age 2 too–I remember when there were little round red carpets for contestants to stand on at the Big Wheel. These were replaced with a big red carpet that covered the whole front of the wheel area when I was 2.

They replaced the little carpet in front of the wheel, because too many people slipped and nearly crashed into the wheel.  They needed a solution with more traction, so they carpeted the whole thing.

I remember that happening and thinking it was hilarious at the time.

[US71]

BK Soul

[Stephane Dumas]

There was the KFC jingle who aired in Canada in the early 1970s, I heard often the French version of that jingle, too bad then the French version isn't posted on Youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ACXIQkfAac

[bing101]

321 Contact that was my first show I watched it.

This was on KQED-TV via the old instructional programming at the time.

Also KCSM-TV used to be the telecourse television for San Mateo, CA and aired stuff from Annenberg project productions.

KTEH back in the 1980's But KTEH is now owned by KQED inc and now KQED plus it kept the PBS affiliation


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1uF3GgLwF4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2ZiSugoQrs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czotUDZkszU

[english si]

Toys R Us is running a commercial now that revisits their commercials from upwards of 30 or more years ago, such as the old "I'm a Toys R Us Kid!" jingles.

Here they made an entirely new one where Geoffrey the giraffe does the sleigh run after the reindeer get distracted by the toys, using his long neck to drop presents straight into chimneys. It's not very good and must have cost a fortune - probably a futile Hail Mary play that didn't even get time to not work as they are closing all their UK stores soon and announced before the ad came out.

They've basically ran the same advert for about 30 years, slightly tweaked as time goes on - until the last few weeks of their physical presence where they did something different.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hjmRQ0ADng
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B72y_OByf_4

[english si]

Am I actually the only adult who remembers stuff they saw on TV when they were 3 or 4? I don't mean kids' shows like 'Sesame Street'. I mean station ID's and commercials geared to adults. I actually remember some of the old logos of local TV stations that were changed when I was only 3.

I remember Thames TV's ident*, which (much mourned) lost the London weekday ITV franchise when I was 5. I remember the promotions for GMTV, which took over the nationwide morning franchise at the same time. I perhaps watched a bit of Anne and Nick on TV-AM, and I didn't care much that they were going, but I was worried that the kids stuff I watched would change, given the cockerel kept saying everything would change when the franchises did. And I was somehow aware that Thames TV was going at the same time, which covered afternoons and made the shows I loved as a toddler, so I had a week or two really worried that TV would not be nice anymore - that it would be like that horrid cockerel that kept showing up.

I made sure we didn't watch GMTV when it started, so my parents had to switch their morning TV from the rather beige and comforting Anne and Nick on TV-AM to the anarchic loudness of Chris Evans on The Big Breakfast.

*though that could be that they produced a lot of programs, some of which I got videos of as a child, so it has the logo at the start of the VHS, so it lasted a bit later.

[bing101]

http://www.wkbw.com/news/remembering-irv-weinstein-a-buffalo-broadcasting-legend

For Western New York State a TV legend on WKBW-TV has died.

[US71]

[PHLBOS]

Although the below is only on audio (from Feb. 15, 1970); I remember the intro* and the blue background showing all the 4s (still shown on the below-video) for Eyewitness News on WBZ/Channel 4 - Boston during the very early 1970s (maybe even late 1960s).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhq1AiurLCE

*music is from John Barry's 007 instrumental from the 1963 James Bond movie From Russia With Love.

No, I don't remember watching this actual news broadcast (2/15/70, I was 4 at the time); just the music & images.

[1995hoo]

The references in this thread to donuts got me singing the jingle for Donutz cereal from 1982. Here it is on YouTube. I see I commented on that video some two years ago about how my dashcam caught me singing the jingle when we stopped at the Apple House in Linden to get some donuts. Totally ridiculous idea for a cereal, but I recall liking it the few times my mom let me have any.

Edited to add: Watching that video prompts me to recall two other things from old TV.

(1) The commercials for what my mom called "junk cereal" (basically anything with sugar–Donutz, Trix, Cookie Crisp, Frosted Flakes, etc.) always referred to them with wording like "part of this nutritious breakfast" as they showed a photo of a full breakfast with toast, eggs, juice, milk, etc. (as the Donutz commercial does).

(2) A week or two ago I was watching some old NFL highlights, including some clips from Super Bowl XXII, and I was struck by how, after an extra point was kicked, the camera always switched to the referee turning around to signal that the kick was good, even though you just saw it go through the uprights and you could see the officials underneath the goalpost signal that it was good.

[abefroman329]

Am I actually the only adult who remembers stuff they saw on TV when they were 3 or 4? I don't mean kids' shows like 'Sesame Street'. I mean station ID's and commercials geared to adults. I actually remember some of the old logos of local TV stations that were changed when I was only 3.

I remember Thames TV's ident*, which (much mourned) lost the London weekday ITV franchise when I was 5. I remember the promotions for GMTV, which took over the nationwide morning franchise at the same time. I perhaps watched a bit of Anne and Nick on TV-AM, and I didn't care much that they were going, but I was worried that the kids stuff I watched would change, given the cockerel kept saying everything would change when the franchises did. And I was somehow aware that Thames TV was going at the same time, which covered afternoons and made the shows I loved as a toddler, so I had a week or two really worried that TV would not be nice anymore - that it would be like that horrid cockerel that kept showing up.

I made sure we didn't watch GMTV when it started, so my parents had to switch their morning TV from the rather beige and comforting Anne and Nick on TV-AM to the anarchic loudness of Chris Evans on The Big Breakfast.

*though that could be that they produced a lot of programs, some of which I got videos of as a child, so it has the logo at the start of the VHS, so it lasted a bit later.

If you're talking about the Thames Television ident that used to run before The Benny Hill Show, yes, it was great.  Much better than what followed, in most cases.

[abefroman329]

There's a great site that has a lot of old classic Chicago area TV news, breaks, station ID's, signoffs and such called Fuzzy Memories..

http://fuzzymemories.tv

This really is a great site, I could watch the videos on there for days.

[roadman65]

"Time to make the donuts...."

I still utter that one out loud at appropriate times.



Mike

Pity they're shiipped in frozen now.

I remember when the Donut Man was Sam Breakstone!  His commercials with the dog that always bit his trouser cuffs was an icon when I was a kid.

[jp the roadgeek]

The guy who played Fred the Baker was also the spokesman for a local electronics chain called Sound Playground.  One campaign had him in a role similar to his role for Dunkin as a salesman named Harvey Middleman.  One ad that sticks out (can't find it) was when he said they were having a big sale, and a mariner looking guy comes in carrying a big sail, and a hilarious dialog ensued.

Mariner: Not a big sail
Harvey: No
Mariner: A big sale
Harvey: Right
Mariner: A big sail
Harvey: No way
Mariner: A big sale
Harvey: Right
(Mariner gives an "oops" kind of look)

Here's the only one ad I could find:

The first 2 shows I remember watching as a kid were on PBS: Sesame Street, and a Spanish show calld Via Allegre.

Gotta love the closing of Sesame Street from that era, and that funky version of the theme..

Via Allegre:

This ad was the subject of many a discussion in 5th grade for what one word in the 2nd line of the song sounds like: