TFTP Flow: Commercial/Promo Break from NBC (Dec. 1980)

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TFTP is fond of what television scholars (yes, there is such a thing) call "flow". "Flow" is the idea of looking at and analyzing a random segment of TV as aired and seeing what kinds of elements make it up--which usually includes the programs themselves, news breaks or updates, commercials, PSAs, station IDs, bumpers of various kinds, and so forth. Examining an unbroken string of such elements, such as in today's clip, helps to understand what viewers experienced when watching TV and how they experienced it.

Various blocks of commercials have been featured (and will continue to be) here on TFTP. But these are sometimes not continuous in terms of what a viewer at that time may have actually seen. For this and future "flow" posts, the clip featured will be an unbroken "flow" of material that is from a distinct program on a particular day; the term "flow" in part refers to the way in which the different elements sort of flow past the viewers in an often disruptive but yet still appealing sequence.

The "flow" sequence in this clip is from an NBC airing of the holiday special "Jack Frost" from December 1980. The sequence includes commercials for Minute Maid orange juice, Timex watches, and Kellogg's Graham Crackos cereal, and program promos for "Here's Boomer", "CHiPs", and "The Asphalt Cowboy". The voiceover in both the bumpers leading out and back into "Jack Frost", as well as in the program promos, is none other than Casey Kasem.