From season 1 of Laverne & Shirley in The Army (to use the full title):
The girls (Penny Marshall & Cindy Williams) and Sgt. Squealy (Ron Palillo) wind up getting caught under a shrink ray, and chaos ensues.....! Michael Rye (Super Friends) is our announcer.
In 1986, ALF took off like a runaway rocket, anchoring NBC's Monday night lineup, and, in time, spawned not one, but two animated spinoffs.
Not only that, but there was a toy tie-in comparable with some of the syndicated weekday cartoons on the air at the time. Coleco obtained a license for the ALF figures, and ol' ALF himself (voice of Paul Fusco) is seen in this ad.
Donna Summer's 1977 hit, "I Feel Love", which she co-wrote with producer Georgio Moroder, is considered one of the earliest electronic music tracks in history. An enterprising fan made this animated clip last year in tribute.
Here's a black & white Merrie Melodies entry, springing from the imaginations of Hugh Harman & Rudolf Ising.
"Freddy The Freshman" is based on a popular song of the era, and in this 1932 entry, Freddy is embodied as a canine college student in a raccoon coat who becomes a football hero.
I'd imagine this aired in New York back in the day, when WNEW (now WNYW) had a bigger library of WB shorts to complement later stars like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, & Porky Pig.
Partridge Family 2200 AD turns 50 this year. With baseball spring training underway, let's take a look at what would be the 23rd century's answer to football, spaceball. Danny (Danny Bonaduce) pretends to play the game to impress his mom......
Just weeks after Rare Earth appeared on The Midnight Special to perform their hit, "I Just Want to Celebrate", Doc Severinson (The Tonight Show) not only was the MC, but he covered "Celebrate", backed by a band and 8 backup singers.
This show also featured Dobie Gray, Vicki Lawrence (The Carol Burnett Show), Henry Mancini, and more.
Here's Doc.
The Lone Ranger (William Conrad) allows Silver a little vacation time to return to Wild Horse Valley, but the great stallion is lured into a trap by "The Black Mare":
To be perfectly honest, I never saw this next item until today.
Gert & Bert are a brother-sister team of humanoid rabbits who dispensed advice in the Stay Alert-Stay Safe ad campaign.
Goofy (Pinto Colvig) and Pluto are enjoying a nap until they hear a radio announcer (Dick Tufeld) promoting Colgate's Soaky. Wouldn't ya know? The Disney legends are part of the Soaky line.
We posted this next item over at The Land of Whatever yesterday, and now, we'll bring it here, too.
The Department of Defense introduced the Survivor Benefit Plan in 1972, since folded into Social Security. Michael Bell shares the screen with comedy legend Phil Silvers, playing Silvers' assistant. Not sure exactly when in '72 this was released, but we do know Michael started his toon career that fall (The Houndcats, Oliver & The Artful Dodger, The Barkleys).
In the early days of children's television, the networks relied mostly on game shows (i.e. Goodson-Todman's Choose Up Sides) and educational programs that went under the heading of public affairs programming, which suggests that it was meant for the whole family.
One such show was Let's Take a Trip, which bowed on CBS in 1956, and subsequently spawned a comic book spin-off from Pines Comics. Neither lasted all that long.
Sonny Fox, three years before Wonderama made him a NYC legend, served as host/tour guide. Fox had previously piloted The $64,000 Challenge for a few weeks before his inexperience as a MC cost him the gig. In this sample, Sonny and his two, ah, students, for lack of more appropriate description, visit a rubber factory.
From season 1 of the 1st Lone Ranger animated series.
Borrowing a plot from the live-action series, the Ranger (Michael Rye) is framed by a newly escaped convict, the Sonora Kid, who is seeking revenge on the Ranger for putting him away. I'm not so sure the writers on this show even knew there'd been a frame-up plot or two in the earlier series.
Once upon a time, Chun King was under the same roof as Jeno's pizza products, as they were both created by Jeno Paolucci. In 1960, this animated commercial introduced Chun King chow mein to a wider audience before Stan Freberg began producing & directing live-action spots for both Jeno's & Chun King (Freberg also starred in a Chun King sponsored special in 1962). The gentleman accepting the award may sound like film icon Vincent Price, but it's not. It's Paul Frees (Rocky & His Friends) impersonating Price.
Cartoonist Roger "Rog" Bollen's Animal Crackers was a staple of the Sunday funnies during the 80's & 90's. In 1997, Bollen's jungle strip was adapted for television by Canada's Cinar (now Cookie Jar), and aired here in the US on Fox Family (now Freeform), with a rerun stint on This TV a few years later.
Check out this sample from season 2.
Beyond Reason was a Canadian game show that played as if the Amazing Kreskin was a panelist on What's My Line? (Kreskin was a mystery guest on Line a few years before this show hit the air), but there were elements of Canada's long running Front Page Challenge in here as well.
This excerpt from the 3rd & final season in 1980 is significant because host Paul Soles, the original voice of Spider-Man, who was the 3rd MC for Reason in as many seasons, has Spidey's co-creator, Stan Lee, as a guest, and gets to interview Lee after the panel is done.
For the "Shrek" soundtrack in 2001, Smash Mouth recorded a cover of the Monkees' "I'm a Believer". The movie closes by moving from the Smash Mouth cover to Donkey (Eddie Murphy) taking over, and improvising on the chorus.
Neil Diamond, who wrote "Believer", probably didn't mind.
While Sha Na Na had 4 productive seasons in syndication, the format wasn't always what we saw on TV.
The pilot, which was shown to advertisers by distributor Lexington Broadcast Services, cast the band as hoodlums just out on parole, according to Ginger (Pamela Myers), who appears in several bumper segments in this installment.
Luckily, they ditched the hoodlum plotline, and went with the band as the retro cover band we all know and love. In the pilot, actress-singer Rita Moreno, fresh from The Electric Company, is the featured guest.
Here's another B. C. ad from the Ad Council. This time, the characters are depicted getting tickets to head overseas, even though air travel wasn't really possible in their era. Lloyd Bridges (ex-Sea Hunt, The Loner) narrates.
Here's another Popeye classic from the Golden Age. This time, Bluto (Gus Wickie) is a disreputable window cleaner who creates his business opportunities by fleecing his customers. Olive is a stenographer who needs a larger desk and/or chair......
Here's "The Paneless Window Washer":
"Morning, Noon, & Night Club" finds Popeye (Jack Mercer) & Olive (Mae Questel) doing a nightclub act as "Popito & Olivita", which draws the attention of a jealous Bluto (Gus Wickie). Lou Fleischer, Max & Dave's brother, voices Wimpy.
Butch Hartman co-wrote & directed this What a Cartoon! entry, "Hillbilly Blue", which debuted on Cartoon Network in February 1996. Jeff Bennett voicing an Elvis impersonator foreshadows his casting as Johnny Bravo, who'd get his own series a year later.
Popeye takes Olive Oyl to the museum, where Brutus is working as a guard. Of course, the big fella immediately crushes on Olive, and the usual chaos follows. You were expecting "My Fair Olive" to be a full parody of "My Fair Lady"? For shame!
"Weird" Al Yankovic's Devo send-up, "Dare to be Stupid", landed him on American Bandstand late in 1985. The video quality is a bit wonky at the start, but picks up when host-executive producer Dick Clark comes out to interview Al.
British rocker Howard Jones came up with an innovative means of making a video for his single, "You Know I Love You----Don't You?", back in the mid-80's. Seems the animation in A-ha's "Take On Me" was an inspiration........
The Hudson Brothers may have only gotten 1 season with their Saturday morning Razzle Dazzle Comedy Show on CBS (from the producers of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour), but they did make a run at the pop charts with "So You Are a Star":
From The New Archie-Sabrina Hour, or, in this case, The Archie-Sabrina Surprise Package:
Jughead (Howard Morris) ends up a fall guy during Fire Prevention Week at Riverdale, forcing the gang to work at the firehouse on a Saturday morning after one mishap after another, though, in his defense, it didn't start with him, but, as you'll see, with Moose.
Here's "Where There's Smoke":
The songwriting team of John McFadden & Gene Whitehead, who authored the O'Jays' 1972 hit, "Back Stabbers", hit the charts themselves in 1979, reaching the top of the R & B chart and peaking at #13 on the Hot 100 with "Ain't No Stopping Us Now", which landed them on Soul Train.
