CELEBRITY SPONSORS
VOLUME #1
(approx 55 min)
Back in the 1950's, when commercial television first took off, it followed a pattern previously set on radio in the 1930's--in addition to commercials running during the station breaks, program stars often endorsed a sponsor's product. This policy pretty much ended in the mid-1960's, as individual sponsors took on fewer shows by themselves, and more series had multiple advertisers, with the producers, studios, and the networks assuming more of the risks behind production. CELEBRITY SPONSORS consists of sections from original series--mostly sitcoms like THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW, DENNIS THE MENACE, MAKE ROOM FOR DADDY, I LOVE LUCY etc.--that have never been seen as part of the syndicated versions of these series, in which the stars shift in- and out-of-character to shamelessly endorse the products that put up the money to get the series on the networks originally.
HIGHLIGHTS: DENNIS THE MENACE (Jay North and Billy Booth plug Kelloggs Rice Crispies; Hugh Downs and Frank Blair of the TODAY SHOW push Corning unbreakable dishes; Rosemary De Camp endorses 20 Mule Team Borax; Gracie Allen and George Burns step out of character on behalf of Carnation Instant; Ozzie & Harriet (with Ricky) for Kodak; Danny Thomas, Marjorie Lord, Rusty Hamer, and Angela Cartwright (and Hans Conreid as Uncle Tonoose) do their best to plug Post cereals; Jackie Cooper as Hennesy plugs Kent cigarettes; the cast of the DICK VAN DYKE SHOW pushes Kent (with the Kent jingle, "Kent satisfies best" prominently displayed) while in character, and Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore refer to each other as Dick and Mary in a pair of plug spots; Joey Bishop and Abby Dalton, in a scene from the ultra-rare JOEY BISHOP SHOW, give their nod to Newport cigarettes; Hugh O'Brien, from his dressing on THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF WYATT EARP, hawks Gleem toothpaste; Jean Arthur on the set of THE JEAN ARTHUR SHOW (1966), pushes Jello, with Ron Harper as her son and Leonard Stone as Morton, her chauffeur; Andy Griffith, Francis Bavier, and Ronny Howard discuss Sanka as the Taylor family; the original, not-seen-in-40-years TOPPER intro, prominently featuring Jello; and William Fawcett introduces Bill Williams and Don Diamond from THE ADVENTURES OF KIT CARSON, pushing Coca-Cola in and out of character.Enjoy this series of "My Favorite Years" starting from 1949-1953. See what was going on during those time periods.
TV BLOOPERS AND OTHER WEIRDNESS VOLUME 1
(approx 60 min)
Television has produced many comical moments, most intentiional and some unintended--the sheer volume of production, with each network generating hundreds of hours of studio activity each week since the 1950's, makes it inevitable that this type of material will be created, and that some of it will survive a visit to the cutting room floor, if only for the entertainment of the people who work in television. Some of television's best (and worst) unintended moments are included on these three volumes from our vaults.
An outtake from THE GONG SHOW, with the crew urging on a very enthusiastic exotic dancer, opens the tape. Instances of other women revealing more of themselves than they or the censors intended, on various game shows including THE PRICE IS RIGHT, where host Bob Barker has no idea why the crowd is so boisterous (he didn't see the woman's top come off as she ran down the aisle); the blown lines and entrances on BENSON (people have lots of trouble getting through doors) and SOAP reveals them as fun sets to work on, and Caroline McWilliams as having a delightful laugh; audio outtakes from ABC News' national election coverage reveals some of its on-air personnel as not much more authoritative about politics than their audience; used car dealers make embarrassing errors and curse a great deal while doing it on their commercials; a wife on THE NEWLYWED GAME (circa 1970) tells more about her husband's routine on going to bed than host Bob Eubanks wanted to know.
From thousands of hours of television news coverage, firefighters answer stupid questions from reporters; a drunk interrupts a police official telling a reporter how safe his city's "skid row" is to visit; an attack dog trained by the South Vietnamese Army seems even less anxious to search out a tunnel than any G.I.; the late Roger Grimsby or EYEWITNESS NEWS tries in vain to do his intro and outro to a location piece on a navy ship, and is continually interrupted by a fog-horn; a reporter accidentally refers to North Vietnam as North Korea; and the late Frank Blair of THE TODAY SHOW, showing ever rising frustration, has to cover for a half-dozen pieces of film from around the world that just weren't ready for a certain morning's broadcast.
Occasionally the people who produce television series would assemble what they considered their own best/worst outtakes for the enjoyment of family and friends. The final part of this tape consists of blown lines, missed cues, and other silly moments from such classic series as GUNSMOKE, HAVE GUN WILL TRAVEL, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and RAWHIDE, all hosted (in deadly serious demeanor) by James Arness.
TV BLOOPERS AND OTHER WEIRDNESS VOLUME 2
(approx 60 min)
This volume opens with the famous STAR TREK BLOOPER REEL, probably the first such collection ever to get wide circulation thanks to the show's loyal audience and the enthusiasm of its fans. Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, Will Geer, and most of the rest of the cast of THE WALTONS are also seen having fun at the expense of the show's wholesome image, and doing some comically unwholesome things before the cameras; Jonathan Winters, in a breakdown of decorum on his own show, launches into a freewheeling, stream-of-consciousness monolog in front of the crew where he talks about comedy, mental illness, his own history in show business, and the relationship between all of it. Peter Bonerz of THE BOB NEWHART SHOW appears in a sketch without dialogue, in which two men in a waiting room get into a drumming contest; Bob Newhart keeps blowing lines in an industrial film in which he is appearing; two characters from SESAME STREET get into an on-camera altercation; and in one of the most famous on-air surprises in the history of television, SOUPY SALES is met by a topless girl on the other side of the door of his set.
TV BLOOPERS AND OTHER WEIRDNESS Volume 3
(approx 60 min)
Soupy Sales fans unite! In the most famous and outrageous sketch of SOUPY SALES' history, he plays a bumbling waiter in a restaurant where the diners include Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., and Trini Lopez--a pie fight ensues, with Sinatra covered head-to-foot in pie residue, and even Stepin Fetchit and Frank Nastasi (a regular on Sales' old show) turn up; in a later SOUPY SALES sequence in color, he visits a film vault and, while being pursued by a guard (played by Jerry Seinfeld's TV father Barney Martin), steps inside an old movie and into the middle of a scene between Chester Morris and Joan Fontaine (who did all of this new for the SOUPY SALES show). Finally, Soupy goes through several flubbed sequences involving Pookie the Lion.
TRADEMARKS
COMMERCIALS FROM
THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES
Volume One
(approx 60 min)
Modern American marketing is built around trademarked images and familiar emblems and jingles, all of which have been around for barely a century. This tape highlights some of the most familiar from television, from the 1940's thru the 1960's. The Ajax singing elves clean up some messy dishes, doing their familiar jingle along the way. Sterling Holloway pushes Peter Pan Peanut Butter ("smooth peanut butter") with help from Tinker Bell. Buffalo Bee pushes Nabisco Wheat Honeys and Rice Honeys to a couple of kids. Charlie Tuna tries to get caught in a Starkist Tuna net, with Herburt Vigran providing the voice of his finny friend. The Jay Ward-created Quisp and Quake battle the evil Dr. Ah-Ah, who replicates them as dolls, which are then offered to viewers who send in enough boxtops. Bill Ding pushes the retailer's offerings, including paint, roofing supplies, and siding. Happy the Esso oil drop pushes Esso Oil and its motto, "Happy Motoring," and we hear about such developments as colored paving material from Esso's Humble Oil research division. Tony the Tiger pushes Kellogg's Sugar Frosted Flakes, and we get to meet Buster Brown and Tige (in cartoon form). Buster Keaton appears as a mountie, a ship captain, and a party-goer, distressed by headache and relieved by Speedy Alka-Seltzer, who sings the complete Alka-Seltzer jingle ("Relief is just a swallow away"). Speedy also sings a marching song while going cross-country over a map of the United States, while distressed people (including Tris Coffin as an unhappy stockbroker) get relief from Alka-Seltzer. Speedy also plays the vibes. An animated boy and girl get together over a little dab of Brylcreem, from an animated Brylcreem tube. Mr. Clean introduces a special bargain offer. A striped tiger, horse, mouse, and elephant sing the Beechnut jingle ("Yipes, stripes....")
ON-AIR PROMOS VOLUME #1
(approx 55 min)
The 1960's and early 1970's were the heyday of the on-air promo--the networks had lots of money and series were not replaced for at least 13 weeks, and usually 26 weeks, which left plenty of time to come up with and air promotional ads. For many viewers, the on-air promos will be more familiar than the shows themselves, especially those that only lasted a single season or less (THE YOUNG LAWYERS etc.), but the best parts of this tape may be the behind-the-scenes material on THE ODD COUPLE, THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY, and BETWITCHED.
The series promos included on this volume include MY THREE SONS (original series, 1st season), CHEYENNE (incl. scene with Peter Whitney), SUGARFOOT (incl. scene with Francis Bavier), THE RIFLEMAN, COLT .45, GUESTWARD HO starring Joanne Dru, Mark Miller, and J. Carroll Naish, JUDD FOR THE DEFENSE, THE YOUNG LAWYERS (w/Lee J. Cobb), THE IRON HORSE with Dale Robertson, OZZIE AND HARRIET (with Ricky Nelson imitating Elvis Presley, and David dressed up as Yul Brynner from THE KING AND I), THE PRUITTS OF SOUTHAMPTON with Phyllis Diller, Reginald Gardiner, and Richard Deacon; DREAM GIRL OF '67; the 1967 JUNIOR MISS PAGEANT; BATMAN (third season, with Batgirl), THE ODD COUPLE (first season, outtakes and unfinished scenes, including director Jerry Paris at work), DICK CAVETT, Cavett talking about help for allergy sufferers; THE BRADY BUNCH; THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY introduced by Dave Madden; BEWITCHED in Salem, Mass.; THE COURTSHIP OF EDDIE'S FATHER; BRIDGET LOVES BIRNEY (several promo clips, including David Birney and Meredith Baxter Birney frolicing on a waterbed); 15th ANNUAL GRAMMY AWARDS; THE MELBA MOORE/CLIFTON DAVIS SHOW; Ingmar Bergman's THE LIE (done for PLAYHOUSE 90), with George Segal and Shirley Knight; the Marlene Dietrich special MARLENE: I WISH YOU LOVE; THE GOVERNOR AND J.J.; THE SELFISH GIANT animated special; CANNON; MANNIX; DAN AUGUST; THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS. And, best of all, a 1964 ABC promo featurette built around THE DONNA REED SHOW, with the Stone family (Donna Reed et al) watching highlights from I'M DICKENS HE'S FENSTER, GOING MY WAY etc.
ON-AIR PROMOS
VOLUME # 2
(approx 55 min)
Volume Two of this collection is an equally dazzling array of in-house and on-air promos done for television, seasoned with some TV GUIDE television ads from the 1970's. The material includes a promo clip for the late 1950's special THE CAT IN THE HAT; THE NEW BILL COSBY SHOW; HAWAII FIVE-O; the Joseph Papp production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING; THE CBS MORNING NEWS with John Hart, and the CBS EVENING NEWS with Walter Cronkite; THE SANDY DUNCAN SHOW; the different cast members (including Barbi Benton) of HEE HAW plugging the show; Peter Ustinov as King George III in THE LAST KING OF AMERICA; Stacy Keach pushing a special about Bellevue Hospital; THE NEW DICK VAN DYKE SHOW; MAUDE; THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW; THE SONNY & CHER COMEDY HOUR; GUNSMOKE (in color); POLICE SURGEON with Sam Groom; THE BOB NEWHART SHOW (including lots of pre-first season spots with a VERY young looking Suzanne Pleshette); BARNABY JONES introducing himself; HE'S YOUR DOG, CHARLIE BROWN; YOU'RE IN LOVE, CHARLIE BROWN; THE NAME OF THE GAME with Gene Barry Robert Stack, and Tony Franciosa; THE DEBBIE REYNOLDS SHOW; TOMBSTONE TERRITORY; NIGHT GALLERY with Rod Serling; TOBOR, THE EIGHTH MAN; FAT ALBERT AND THE COSBY KIDS; JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS IN OUTER SPACE; THE AMAZING CHAN; HORTON HEARS A WHO; and TV GUIDE on-air spots for stories on Suzanne Somers, Johnny Carson, baseball, the day Elvis died, a look back at John Lennon etc.
NEW WORLDS FOR PURINA DOG CHOW
(approx 25 min)
Produced by Ralston Purina for the benefit of dealers of Purina Dog Chow, this promotional film seems strange today, because it features "guest" appearances by the stars of some of the shows that Purina was sponsoring. Opening to graphics of a rocket launching into space (with the name "Purina" on its side), the narrator goes into a brief history of Purina Dog Chow, and the company's 1959-60 advertising campaign, and a breakdown of that campaign by region: Advertising in the South includes space in the magazines PROGRESSIVE FARMER and FARM & RANCH; in counties "low in population but high in dog food purchases," advertising will appear in FAMILY WEEKLY, DOG WORLD, and DOG NEWS etc. The company's television campaign on network television is also presented, including planned advertising (in conjunction with Ralston cereals) on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER and CHEYENNE, pointing out that the latter program should do extremely well in the ratings becasuse Clint Walker is returning. We then get a long excerpt from a CHEYENNE episode involving a shootout in a western town, a sheriff out to get Cheyenne Bodie (Clint Walker) and a retiring gunslinger named Matt Reardon, and a would-be gunfighter out to kill Reardon. The other big purchase of advertising time for Purina for 1959-60 is on THE RIFLEMAN, and Chuck Connors appears on camera to thank the Purina company, says how proud he is that Purina has sponsored the show, and also holds up a bag of dog chow.
REYNOLDS ALUMINUM
(approx 60 min)
If the 1950's were the Golden Age of Television Advertising, part of the reason lies in the kind of products that were being sold--all of the research into metallurgy and other applied sciences during World War II was now paying off in the household, in the greatest array of helpful household products ever seen by American consumers. And one of the most revolutionary of all the materials in use after the war was aluminum, a lightweight, strong, durable metal, which had come into its own during and after World War II. The Reynolds Metals Company, in particular, perfected ways of manufacturing aluminum that actually kept the price in 1954 identical to what it had been in 1939. By the mid-1950's, aluminum was being used everywhere in houses, as is recalled in these commercials, mostly drawn from the MR. PEEPERS tv show. These commercials feature Rex Marshall, Reynolds' spokesman for television from the mid-1950's, extolling the lightness, strength, and durability of aluminum in products such as ladders, roof gutters, awnings, and siding, while Helen Wagner shows off the more "feminine"-oriented uses of aluminum, mostly in the form of Reynolds Wrap and its usefulness in the kitchen. Also on hand is David Hartman, from a 1960's era commercial for new aluminum soda cans, which are taller and seamless compared with old steel soda cans. The tape is as fascinating as a sexual and social document as it is as an industrial or advertising document, and the on-screen references to MR. PEEPERS make the commercials seem doubly strange.
TELEVISION BUREAU OF ADVERTISING: THE VISION
OF TELEVISION
(approx 60 min)
A dazzling industrial film dealing with the growth of television, both as a cultural institution and an advertising medium. Beginning with an example of the familiarity of television names (Joe Friday, Kukla, Fran & Ollie, Sergeant Bilko, and Howdy Doody), this 1957 film goes into the explosion in the number of channels and sets in use in the United States from 1953 thru 1957, the ballooning number of advertisers both locally and nationally, and the growth in the average daily viewing time (to 5 hours and nine minutes as of 1957). The usefulness of television advertising, and its competitive costs with other advertising media are discussed, and viewers are treated to both real and "mock-up" commercials for Castro convertibles, Fab, Good Luck Margarine, Revlon cosmetics, RCA Victor protrable television sets, and Snow Drift Wesson Oil shortening, all of which demonstrate different techniques of using television to great effect in selling products. Viewer statistics are analyzed, along with the way in which viewers react to televisino messages (as opposed to print). Amazingly for 1957, there is a surprising degree of emphasis on color broadcasting, even though only a tiny fraction of receivers in use at that time were color sets, but black-and-white's effectiveness is analyzed as well (257 stations in the U.S. at that time broadcast in color at least part of the time, according to this film).
THE STORY OF TELEVISION
(approx 60 min)
"THE HOUSE THAT TELEVISION BUILT"--produced by the Television Bureau of Advertising, this documentary tells how the Lestoil company's sales grew from 150,000 to 60 million bottles a year through a carefully developed, initially very conservative campaign of television advertising over a few years; the nature of the audience demographic that they were looking for and the one that they ended up reaching through television; and how television advertising was responsible for expanding the company's customer base by nearly 40-fold. This is examined in the relation to the overall growth of television and the number of sets in households throughout the country.
This is followed by SOCIAL SECURITY IN ACTION, featuring an appearance by comedian/actor Morey Amsterdam (THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW), who talks with Department of Health, Education and Welfare official Arlen Carr at the Hollywood Social Security Administration office about how social security works and talks about his album FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK.
THE SMOTHERS BROTHERS: U.S. ARMED FORCES
INFORMATION
(approx 60 min)
Back before they were taken off the air for their supposed anti-establishment approach to comedy, the Smothers Brothers were stars, and they were straight enough to be engaged by U.S. Armed Forced Information Services in this series of commercials--intended to be shown over Armed Forces Television, pushing the various high school and college-level courses available to members of the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force. The spots are repetitive but extremely funny, as Tom and Dick Smothers play off of their established television personas--each one opens with the two of them doing a folk-like tune while a voice, more questioning than proud, announces, "The Smothers Brothers?" Tom makes a dimwitted remark that Dick picks up on involving, say, psychology or math, and then he tells how anyone interested in the subject should see their education officer and get information about college and high school equivalency courses. Then they fade out doing the song they were singing in the opening. There are dozens of these on this reel, and dealing with subjects as different as sociology and trigonometry, all feature Tom and Dick having fun with their tv personalities.
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