An early happy birthday goes out to television legend Dick Van Dyke. He reaches 88 on December 13th. His life story can be found on various internet sites so I won't be going over that kind of thing in much detail in this blog entry. Little, though, is talked about the commercials he appeared in. Some commercials occurred in the '60s, in character as Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show.
I came across several commercials from that point in time on You Tube but I also came across some commercials that I no doubt seen as a child of the '80s. There are a couple of specific commercials that he appeared in that I have not yet been able to find but one day they might turn up on video hosting sites.
I came across these commercials for Hunt's that he appeared in during the 1980's...starting off with one from 30 years ago in 1983...
Here's one promoting Hunt's new squeezable, plastic bottle...
A decade earlier he did commercials for Kodak...this aired during the time period The New Dick Van Dyke Show was on the air, 1971-1974...
Another Kodak commercial, this one is from the late '70s according to the one that uploaded it...
You can also find commercials about safety and fire prevention starring Dick Van Dyke...these PSA commercials aired into the 1980's and it's those commercials that introduced me to the actor. I asked my mom one time "who IS that man talking to the gopher?" and she'd say "that's Dick Van Dyke". As a kid I used to think Dick Van Dyke had to be related in some ay to Dick Van Patton (an actor's name I recalled seeing on Eight is Enough). They had similar names and so, as a kid, I insisted that the two were cousins much to the annoyance of my parent's who tried to explain countless times that their similar first and middle names meant nothing more than they had similar names.
One of the earliest fire prevention PSA's that I've come across on You Tube is a 1977 commercial featuring Van Dyke as Santa...
Here is another fire prevention/detection PSA...the upload states it's 1987 but I'd say mid to late '70s...his hair still had some dark in it...as you can see in the above clips from the mid to late '80s his hair had become entirely gray/white by that point in time and so this one is from the '70s.
In 1988 he appeared in the fire safety commercial that I remember the most...he co-starred with a gopher...
Dick Van Dyke's biggest successes came on television but he starred in his share of movies, too. His three biggest movies, as far as box office goes, happen to be Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and Bye Bye Birdie.
He starred in The Dick Van Dyke Show from 1961 through 1966 as comedy writer Rob Petrie. The sitcom not only became one of the highest rated but also one of the most awarded. Van Dyke took home 3 Emmy Awards as Lead Actor in a Comedy Series in 1964, 1965, and 1966. His co-star, Mary Tyler Moore, played the role of Laura Petrie (Rob's wife). She took home 2 Emmy Awards as Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1964 and 1966. The show itself took home the Emmy for Best Comedy Series in 1963, 1964, 1965, and 1966. When a TV series is nominated, the producer(s) of the winning program gets the Emmy.
Carl Reiner wrote many episodes...he also had a recurring role as Alan Brady, the boss of Rob Petrie. He won and was nominated for several Emmy awards in the writing category in addition to the Emmy wins as the producer of The Dick Van Dyke Show. The sitcom's biggest year at the Emmy gala came in 1964. According to research that's the season (1963-1964) that the sitcom swept most of the comedy categories. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, as mentioned, took home Lead Actor and Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 1964. The show won Best Comedy Series. Rose Marie received an Emmy nomination for her portrayal of comedy writer Sally Rogers. The sitcom took home an Emmy for Best Writing and that went to the team of Carl Reiner, Bill Persky, and Sam Denoff. The fifth Emmy win that night was in the Directing category and that went to cast-member Jerry Paris. He directed a lot of episodes...including "It May Look Like a Walnut", the surreal episode featuring Danny Thomas as a thumbless, 4 eyed alien from the planet Twilo. During the 1966 Emmy telecast the "Coast to Coast Big Mouth" episode took home an Emmy for writers Sam Denoff and Bill Persky. That's the episode that featured Laura on a nationally televised game show and accidentally told the entire country that Alan Brady wore a toupee. Other cast members included Morey Amsterdam as Buddy Sorrell, Richard Deacon as Mel Cooley, Jerry Paris as Jerry Helper, Ann Guilbert as Millie Helper, and Larry Matthews as Richie (Rob and Laura's son).
In the early 1990's after the show had basically been discovered all over again on Nickelodeon's classic TV evening line-up, branded Nick-at-Nite, a documentary special on CBS aired. The special was hosted by Charles Kuralt. Ironically, just as the classic sitcom was going through it's revival on cable TV, Dick Van Dyke was just getting started with an all new series...a drama series...more on that later...
After The Dick Van Dyke Show went out of production in 1966 he didn't have another on-going television series until 1971 and the debut of The New Dick Van Dyke Show. This early '70s sitcom, once more produced by Carl Reiner, had a three season stay before being canceled amidst backstage controversies over content/direction of the series. In this series Van Dyke portrayed a television talk show host named Dick Preston and Hope Lange played his wife, Jenny. The premise borrowed elements of the 1960's sitcom in terms of characterization. Van Dyke had gone from playing a comedy writer to being a talk show host. His home life consisted of a wife and a daughter (rather than a wife and a son like the '60s series). The couple did have a son that was rarely seen (being off at college). His work life consisted of his interaction with his boss, played by David Doyle. As in the '60s sitcom there are a couple that live next door in the '70s sitcom. Bernie and Carol Davis can be seen as fill-in's for Jerry and Millie Helper. In the third season (1973-1974) the series is revamped and Dick Preston becomes a soap opera star...and the family moves to Hollywood from Arizona. It is in this season that a lot of supporting players are added. The program consists of 72 episodes broadcast on CBS from September 18, 1971 to March 18, 1974. It's never been reran in any consistent manner even though there are enough episodes for daily syndication. Someone was wise enough to tape a couple of the episodes that aired for a brief time in 2004 on a cable channel called Good Life. This is Part 1 of 4 of an episode called "The Harry Award".
It's my belief that the 1960's sitcom is such a classic and so well loved that the early '70s sitcom never got much of a chance. This has become compounded in the decades since and most sentiments today from classic TV fans largely hold the opinion that the early '70s sitcom is more or less a copy/clone of the '60s sitcom's concept. Also appearing in this series were Fannie Flagg and later on, in the third season Henry Darrow, Dick Van Patten, and Richard Dawson just to name a few. After the third season ended, Van Dyke voluntarily decided not to continue on if Carl Reiner wasn't going to be involved anymore. Research shows that Van Dyke and CBS had signed a "three year deal" in 1971. A controversy had erupted during the third season about script content and Reiner refused to return for a potential 4th season (1974-1975) and so with that, The New Dick Van Dyke Show ended in 1974 after a 3 year run.
Not long after the series ended he returned for a variety series titled Van Dyke and Company. The series put a spotlight on his expert physical comedy and pantomime skills, plus clever camera tricks, but strangely enough it didn't last more than a season...but yet it won two notable awards in 1977: An Emmy for Outstanding Music/Variety Series and a People's Choice honor as Favorite Male Performer in a New TV Program. Later on in 1977 he appeared in 11 episodes of Carol Burnett's long running variety/sketch comedy series. After the cancellation of this series he fell into a career of guest appearances on high profile and obscure television programs and continued to do commercials as well as TV movies. In 1984 he won a Daytime Emmy for his work in a children's special "The Wrong Way Kid" that appeared on a CBS anthology series called CBS Library. Other appearances by Van Dyke during the mid '80s included guest appearances on Airwolf, American Playhouse, Highway to Heaven, and Matlock.
In 1988 Van Dyke returned to sitcoms in The Van Dyke Show. The series, because of a writer's strike, didn't debut until late October (instead of September). Dick and his son, Barry, starred in it as a father/son team running a theater. Dick played 'Dick Burgess', a former Broadway star that retires to help his son operate a local musical theater. In what can be considered a complete lack of confidence in the series, CBS pulled it from the air after just 6 episodes! Debuting on October 28, 1988 it left the air after the December 7, 1988 broadcast and obviously it's never been seen on TV since. The network didn't bother to air the remaining four episodes that had already been taped. Apparently 10 episodes had been taped in advance but by the 6th episode it was decided that "nothing can help the ratings" and just like that the series abruptly ended. I have no idea if the remaining episodes ever aired later on as 'special programming' on classic TV channels or if they're included on any DVD as bonus features. There is one episode on You Tube, of medium video quality, but watchable. I seen some things I would've changed based on that single episode. I would've had the focus on Dick Van Dyke, his son, and the son's wife first and foremost, and then Whitman Mayo, and others in and out of the theatrical circle. I would've removed the 'cute kid' if I had been in charge. In 1989 Van Dyke guest starred in an episode of The Golden Girls and his appearance earned him an Emmy nomination.
In 1990 Van Dyke had a small but critical role in the Dick Tracy movie. He portrayed corrupt District Attorney Fletcher. Legend has it, this performance led the producers of the drama series Jake and the Fatman to cast Dick Van Dyke as Dr. Mark Sloane in an episode of the series. The episode titled "It Never Entered My Mind" aired in March 1991 and it introduced the character of Mark Sloane. Soon after a series of made-for-TV movies aired starring Van Dyke as this character: Diagnosis of Murder and The House on Sycamore Street both aired in 1992. In 1993 a third TV movie aired, A Twist of the Knife. In October of 1993 the TV series, Diagnosis: Murder, began. Van Dyke's character became more fleshed out and while in the Jake and the Fatman episode he said he had no children, I think for the sake of this series, Mark Sloane needed a 'buddy' figure and a person with direct involvement in homicides and so they retooled the character for Diagnosis: Murder. In the series Barry Van Dyke co-starred as Mark's son, Steve, a homicide detective for the LAPD and the ultimate source for Mark's amateur sleuthing (Mark was a medical consultant for the LAPD but not an official police officer...but he got involved in his son's cases nevertheless). It was around this point in time that Van Dyke's 1960's sitcom as seeing a revival on classic TV channel, Nick-at-Nite. Diagnosis: Murder would not appear on the 1995-1996 Fall Season schedule but it was brought back in December 1995 to start an abbreviated third season hich ran from December 8, 1995 to May 6, 1996. Once the program returned for it's fourth season, 1996-1997, it remained on the air through the spring of 2001. It's 178th and final episode aired on May 11, 2001.
I didn't intend for this entry to get so technical and long but Dick Van Dyke's had a long and varied career and so I'll blame it on that. Happy early Birthday!
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Commercials and Mascots...
Once upon a time there used to be pitchmen and pitch-women that appeared on television commercials playing a character. Also, there used to be a time that products used a mascot of some sort or another. Some may consider the characters in those commercials as a mascot. I happened to be born in the mid '70s and so I caught the tail end of a dying era...as a child of the '80s I distinctly remember commercials for various products and each one featured a memorable 'character' or 'mascot'. A lot of these commercials featuring these certain characters had been in production for decades, as I later found out, once I grew older and my nostalgic appreciation became more and more less subtle.
I see a modest revival in contemporary television commercials using 'characters' or personalities to advertise products but it's nothing like it once was. Insurance commercials seem to be at the heart of this whereas in the past it happened to be cereal and other kinds of commercials for domestic items. The commercials that air daily for such insurance companies as All State, Safe Auto, Geico, Progressive, and Farmers tend to stick with a continual character or mascot in a series of highly visible commercials. Geico usually features a British sounding CGI gecko mascot...and in some commercials they've utilized a caveman routine. They're more into the mascot style of advertising, obviously. They've been using the gecko since 1999 and the Caveman idea since 2004. Safe Auto features commercials with Norm McDonald and they're rather funny. Farmers often has a recurring routine of a tour and along the way events happen that call for someone to either get Farmers Insurance or to remind the victim that they've got insurance and so there's nothing to worry about. I did not know the name of the man that appears as the spokesperson in those commercials but I looked it up and it's an actor named J.K. Simmons. His commercials started airing in 2010.
Another actor's name I had to look up, Dennis Haysbert, is the spokesman for All State. His commercials have been airing since around 2007-2008 and they still air.
Progressive, on the other hand, uses the spokesperson, Flo, played by Stephanie Courtney. In a short period of time, Flo has appeared in many TV commercials and her likeness appears on many website banners, too. The character debuted in 2008 and reports state that by 2010 the character had appeared by that time in more than 50 commercials for the insurance company. The commercials continue to air.
Wendy's, a fast food restaurant, once had it's founder, the late Dave Thomas, appearing in humorous commercials. I'm sure a lot of people remember them...not necessarily word for word but you remember his appearances in them, click HERE to see one of them. Those commercials came several years after the massive popularity of the Clara Peller commercials, one in which can be found HERE. She appeared in more commercials for the company that you can search for yourselves if you so desire. A couple of years ago the restaurant unveiled a different spokesperson, Wendy Thomas herself! You can see one of those commercials HERE. However, after several commercials, the on-screen characterization of Wendy was changed from the real Wendy to another spokesperson that more closely resembled the iconic Wendy illustration in the company logo. Accompanied with a new restaurant slogan, Morgan Smith became 'Wendy' in the TV commercials and print advertisements. One of the commercials can be seen HERE.
I rarely see commercials for McDonald's anymore that feature Ronald McDonald or any of the other mascots that populated the commercials: Mayor McCheese, Hamburglar, Fry Guys, Birdie, or Grimace. Research indicates that those mascots were all phased out by the early 2000's but I can't recall even seeing those mascot commercials in my area even then. The characters populated a fictional area called McDonaldland, and it, too, gotten phased out around the same time period. There used to be McDonald's locations that featured a playground area out front based on the McDonaldland characters. There are playground area's still, in some locations, but they've been moved inside and I've never personally been inside any of them to know if any of the rides feature likenesses of those characters or not. You can search You Tube for videos of commercials and you can even Google images of those characters, too. As mentioned, those characters no longer appear on modern-day McDonald's commercials.
One of the commercials featuring Ronald, a class of hamburgers, and the Hamburglar is on You Tube. I've decided to embed that commercial...
Keeping with the mascot theme, certain audiences vividly recall the commercials for the Monster Cereal. In my area there were three major brands that appeared in commercials: Frankenberry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula. Somewhere along the way it was decided that 'monster cereal' is only profitable during Halloween season and so therefore it's only available on store shelves during a scant few days in late October. This time around the cereals were not sold individually...instead, they were packaged together and being sold in groups of three and so consumers had to purchase all three Monster brands in one deluxe offer (a Triple Pack) or purchase none at all. I was a bit disappointed to see this because, first of all, the selling price was higher due to all three being sold together and secondly, the very heart of those monster cereal commercials played on the competition between the mascots so it didn't seem right to have the three 'competing cereals' being sold together in a Triple-Pack but that's only a minor quibble and one that I don't necessarily feel as if I need to pound the drum complaining about.
The cereals used to be available year round and that's why there used to be a series of animated commercials that ran frequently on television for a couple of decades and NOT just during Halloween season, either. A lot of the commercials featured Frankenberry and Count Chocula bickering over whose cereal is best and a lot of times Boo Berry is left out of the argument...and eventually his appearances in the commercials become almost non-existent except for the display of his cereal at commercial's end. The running joke is that Frankenberry and Count Chocula are actually afraid of ghosts (explaining the reason that the Boo Berry cereal is rarely given as much focus by the actual mascot).
This commercial is billed as the debut of Boo Berry in the commercials...
Mrs. Olson is a character that appeared in Folgers coffee commercials. I remember the character and my parents, at the time, drank that brand before changing to Maxwell House. I used to call an aunt of mine Mrs. Olson because of similar facial features they shared. The commercials aired from the 1960's through the mid 1980's. Nowadays the commercials are lambasted as sexist or called other synonymous expressions but I don't necessarily share those blanket sentiments. One of the black and white commercials can be seen HERE and here's a much later commercial in color...
Mrs. Olson (Virginia Christine) is just one of the handful of live-action 'characters' that appeared in a long running advertising campaign. I mentioned some of the modern day spokespeople for insurance companies earlier in the blog entry but there once was a time where TV commercials regularly consisted of not only Monster cereal, McDonald's, and Mrs. Olson but commercials for dish liquid and paper towels, to name only a few, also became attached to memorable campaign ads.
Jan Miner played the role of Madge in a lengthy commercial series for Palmolive that aired on American television from 1966 through 1992. The commercials, aimed at women, were among the most parodied by comedians. You can see one of those commercials HERE. I couldn't find any late '80s or early '90s English language commercials featuring Jan Miner as Madge but I did come across some American commercials dubbed in a foreign language. One commercial is from 1989 and another from 1990. They're both on You Tube. The clip below is NOT one of the dubbed commercials...it's one of the commercials that ran in America...
"Madge" became one of the biggest characters in advertising, and television in general, during her peak years. As popular as "Flo" is for Progressive Insurance is how popular "Madge" was for Palmolive and the same can be said for Mrs. Olson for Folgers and...
Nancy Walker for Bounty...yes, the actress had a lengthy role as Rosie in a series of commercials for Bounty. In my childhood I'd see those Rosie commercials and, just like a kid, I thought that was her actual name. I also thought this of Mrs. Olson, Madge, and some others. Little does the average kid realize that actors and actresses are playing a character. Nancy portrayed Rosie, according to various on-line sites, for 20 years, 1970-1990. Here's one of her first commercials...from 1971...
...And here's one of Nancy's last commercials for Bounty...from 1989...
There have been a whole lot of mascots and spokespeople for products ranging from food to cars to cigarettes to alcohol to pop to household appliances and pet food. There is one product, though, that is vital to any human being, in my opinion, and a long running series of commercials aired selling this particular product. Along the way I've mentioned iconic characters for McDonald's, Wendy's, the Monster Cereals, Folgers Coffee, Palmolive Dish Liquid, and Bounty paper towels. I hadn't even mentioned Charlie the Tuna for Starkist or the Hostess animated characters or Morris the Cat or even Cap'n Crunch!!
The product that ranks above those for necessity is none...other...than...
Yes, oh yes...how can you not laugh, giggle, or at least smile upon seeing Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin, the product that he regularly and annoyingly told customers not to squeeze? Those commercials, in my opinion, are hilarious and I'd say that toilet paper is a necessity that all humans need!! Dick Wilson portrayed Mr. Whipple in the Charmin television commercials from 1964 through 1985. Some sources cite 1989 as the final year but perhaps that's the year the commercials stopped airing altogether and 1985 is perhaps the year the last first-run commercial had aired (meaning that Charmin commercial reruns took up the final four years of the decade!?). Whatever the case, it was a long and lengthy ad campaign that saw over 500 individual commercials starring Whipple hit the airwaves in that 21 year span. There are several commercials of various vintage on You Tube featuring the character but the humor and overall concept of the commercials are lost on modern day audiences. You can spot this right away if you glance at the comment section for any number of the Charmin commercials. Commentary ranging from opinions like: "oh my!! this guy's really creepy!!" to "this is totally sexist...ogling toilet paper much in the same fashion he'd like to ogle those women...". I'm paraphrasing those comments rather than posting them word for word. It's unfortunate that a majority of those that have discovered these
Charmin commercials on You Tube don't enjoy them as I did
then and I still enjoy seeing them. The intentional silliness and
absurdity is lost on a generation raised primarily on
seriousness and political correctness. Watching anything remotely silly, absurd, or goofy is apparently no longer appreciated and is now frowned upon and seen as a waste of time because of the intentional lack of "realism". In later commercials, like the third one I embedded below, they changed the don't squeeze the Charmin approach and had Whipple encouraging people to squeeze the product. This caused much confusion and comedy amongst the various 'shoppers' in the commercials as they had long believed Whipple detested the idea of shoppers squeezing the Charmin but now insisted they do so.
In 1999 they brought Mr. Whipple back in a series of Charmin commercials and those lasted about a year before the animated Charmin Bears took over full time in the commercials.
Mr. Whipple is hilarious and a joy to watch...period...and here's some of that joy right here...
I see a modest revival in contemporary television commercials using 'characters' or personalities to advertise products but it's nothing like it once was. Insurance commercials seem to be at the heart of this whereas in the past it happened to be cereal and other kinds of commercials for domestic items. The commercials that air daily for such insurance companies as All State, Safe Auto, Geico, Progressive, and Farmers tend to stick with a continual character or mascot in a series of highly visible commercials. Geico usually features a British sounding CGI gecko mascot...and in some commercials they've utilized a caveman routine. They're more into the mascot style of advertising, obviously. They've been using the gecko since 1999 and the Caveman idea since 2004. Safe Auto features commercials with Norm McDonald and they're rather funny. Farmers often has a recurring routine of a tour and along the way events happen that call for someone to either get Farmers Insurance or to remind the victim that they've got insurance and so there's nothing to worry about. I did not know the name of the man that appears as the spokesperson in those commercials but I looked it up and it's an actor named J.K. Simmons. His commercials started airing in 2010.
Another actor's name I had to look up, Dennis Haysbert, is the spokesman for All State. His commercials have been airing since around 2007-2008 and they still air.
Progressive, on the other hand, uses the spokesperson, Flo, played by Stephanie Courtney. In a short period of time, Flo has appeared in many TV commercials and her likeness appears on many website banners, too. The character debuted in 2008 and reports state that by 2010 the character had appeared by that time in more than 50 commercials for the insurance company. The commercials continue to air.
Wendy's, a fast food restaurant, once had it's founder, the late Dave Thomas, appearing in humorous commercials. I'm sure a lot of people remember them...not necessarily word for word but you remember his appearances in them, click HERE to see one of them. Those commercials came several years after the massive popularity of the Clara Peller commercials, one in which can be found HERE. She appeared in more commercials for the company that you can search for yourselves if you so desire. A couple of years ago the restaurant unveiled a different spokesperson, Wendy Thomas herself! You can see one of those commercials HERE. However, after several commercials, the on-screen characterization of Wendy was changed from the real Wendy to another spokesperson that more closely resembled the iconic Wendy illustration in the company logo. Accompanied with a new restaurant slogan, Morgan Smith became 'Wendy' in the TV commercials and print advertisements. One of the commercials can be seen HERE.
I rarely see commercials for McDonald's anymore that feature Ronald McDonald or any of the other mascots that populated the commercials: Mayor McCheese, Hamburglar, Fry Guys, Birdie, or Grimace. Research indicates that those mascots were all phased out by the early 2000's but I can't recall even seeing those mascot commercials in my area even then. The characters populated a fictional area called McDonaldland, and it, too, gotten phased out around the same time period. There used to be McDonald's locations that featured a playground area out front based on the McDonaldland characters. There are playground area's still, in some locations, but they've been moved inside and I've never personally been inside any of them to know if any of the rides feature likenesses of those characters or not. You can search You Tube for videos of commercials and you can even Google images of those characters, too. As mentioned, those characters no longer appear on modern-day McDonald's commercials.
One of the commercials featuring Ronald, a class of hamburgers, and the Hamburglar is on You Tube. I've decided to embed that commercial...
Keeping with the mascot theme, certain audiences vividly recall the commercials for the Monster Cereal. In my area there were three major brands that appeared in commercials: Frankenberry, Boo Berry, and Count Chocula. Somewhere along the way it was decided that 'monster cereal' is only profitable during Halloween season and so therefore it's only available on store shelves during a scant few days in late October. This time around the cereals were not sold individually...instead, they were packaged together and being sold in groups of three and so consumers had to purchase all three Monster brands in one deluxe offer (a Triple Pack) or purchase none at all. I was a bit disappointed to see this because, first of all, the selling price was higher due to all three being sold together and secondly, the very heart of those monster cereal commercials played on the competition between the mascots so it didn't seem right to have the three 'competing cereals' being sold together in a Triple-Pack but that's only a minor quibble and one that I don't necessarily feel as if I need to pound the drum complaining about.
The cereals used to be available year round and that's why there used to be a series of animated commercials that ran frequently on television for a couple of decades and NOT just during Halloween season, either. A lot of the commercials featured Frankenberry and Count Chocula bickering over whose cereal is best and a lot of times Boo Berry is left out of the argument...and eventually his appearances in the commercials become almost non-existent except for the display of his cereal at commercial's end. The running joke is that Frankenberry and Count Chocula are actually afraid of ghosts (explaining the reason that the Boo Berry cereal is rarely given as much focus by the actual mascot).
This commercial is billed as the debut of Boo Berry in the commercials...
Mrs. Olson is a character that appeared in Folgers coffee commercials. I remember the character and my parents, at the time, drank that brand before changing to Maxwell House. I used to call an aunt of mine Mrs. Olson because of similar facial features they shared. The commercials aired from the 1960's through the mid 1980's. Nowadays the commercials are lambasted as sexist or called other synonymous expressions but I don't necessarily share those blanket sentiments. One of the black and white commercials can be seen HERE and here's a much later commercial in color...
Mrs. Olson (Virginia Christine) is just one of the handful of live-action 'characters' that appeared in a long running advertising campaign. I mentioned some of the modern day spokespeople for insurance companies earlier in the blog entry but there once was a time where TV commercials regularly consisted of not only Monster cereal, McDonald's, and Mrs. Olson but commercials for dish liquid and paper towels, to name only a few, also became attached to memorable campaign ads.
Jan Miner played the role of Madge in a lengthy commercial series for Palmolive that aired on American television from 1966 through 1992. The commercials, aimed at women, were among the most parodied by comedians. You can see one of those commercials HERE. I couldn't find any late '80s or early '90s English language commercials featuring Jan Miner as Madge but I did come across some American commercials dubbed in a foreign language. One commercial is from 1989 and another from 1990. They're both on You Tube. The clip below is NOT one of the dubbed commercials...it's one of the commercials that ran in America...
"Madge" became one of the biggest characters in advertising, and television in general, during her peak years. As popular as "Flo" is for Progressive Insurance is how popular "Madge" was for Palmolive and the same can be said for Mrs. Olson for Folgers and...
Nancy Walker for Bounty...yes, the actress had a lengthy role as Rosie in a series of commercials for Bounty. In my childhood I'd see those Rosie commercials and, just like a kid, I thought that was her actual name. I also thought this of Mrs. Olson, Madge, and some others. Little does the average kid realize that actors and actresses are playing a character. Nancy portrayed Rosie, according to various on-line sites, for 20 years, 1970-1990. Here's one of her first commercials...from 1971...
...And here's one of Nancy's last commercials for Bounty...from 1989...
There have been a whole lot of mascots and spokespeople for products ranging from food to cars to cigarettes to alcohol to pop to household appliances and pet food. There is one product, though, that is vital to any human being, in my opinion, and a long running series of commercials aired selling this particular product. Along the way I've mentioned iconic characters for McDonald's, Wendy's, the Monster Cereals, Folgers Coffee, Palmolive Dish Liquid, and Bounty paper towels. I hadn't even mentioned Charlie the Tuna for Starkist or the Hostess animated characters or Morris the Cat or even Cap'n Crunch!!
The product that ranks above those for necessity is none...other...than...
In 1999 they brought Mr. Whipple back in a series of Charmin commercials and those lasted about a year before the animated Charmin Bears took over full time in the commercials.
Mr. Whipple is hilarious and a joy to watch...period...and here's some of that joy right here...
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