TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken (1968/1971/1981)

Posted to YouTube by user 'chicagofilmarchives' (top), 'Bionic Disco' (middle), 'robatsea2009' (bottom)
Length - 1:06 (top), 1:04 (middle), 0:30 (bottom)

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

These three commercials from fast-food giant Kentucky Fried Chicken all feature the iconic red-and-white-striped KFC bucket. In the first commercial, from 1968 and the only of the three to also feature the actual Colonel Sanders, the Colonel puts wheels on the bucket to demonstrate its portability. (Was take-away food still that much of a novelty in the 1960s?) Commercial number two (from '71) uses the bucket as a punchline: a mother has served KFC chicken at dinner with her daughter's new boyfriend and passed it off as her own cooking, until little brother barges into the dining room wielding the bucket. Finally, the third commercial, from 1981, displays the bucket prominently upfront--a KFC employee fills and displays a bucket--before going on to show numerous groups of people eating fried chicken--out of KFC boxes.

TFTP Promos: Affiliate Station Promo from ABC (1971)

Posted to YouTube by user 'VintageTelevision'
Length - 2:04

This two-minute long promo film is not one that was used on-air by ABC affiliates but rather one that was part of a presentation to affiliates at their annual convention in 1971. As part of the network's presentation of its promotional campaign themes--"This is the Place to Be", which appears at the end here, was used as ABC's on-air promotional slogan for a while--films such as this served as mood-setters for the staffs of the dozens of network affiliates that convened to hear what the network had to say.

The music here is so seventies-mellow that it's almost ridiculous (at first listen, the first few moments sound like Nilsson's 1969 hit "Everybody's Talkin'"). The raster-like graphics of the multiple ABC logos have a definite seventies-mellow vibe as well. And the multi-colored silhouettes, presumably from scenes of ABC shows, are just bizarre.

The many images from ABC programs that make up the middle portion of the promo film include glimpses from then-current shows such as "The Brady Bunch" (with several images), "Marcus Welby, M.D.", "The Courtship of Eddie's Father", "The Odd Couple" (with separate images of Jack Klugman and Tony Randall), "The FBI", "Monday Night Football" (which had just premiered in the fall of 1970), "The Smith Family" (with Henry Fonda), "The Mod Squad", and "The Partridge Family".

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from WLS/Chicago (Jun. 25, 1971)

Posted to YouTube by user 'pannoni4'
Length - 7:37

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

This block of 1971 commercials from Chicago station and ABC affiliate WLS includes ads for the Kleenex Americana collection (a special set of tissue boxes commemorating America), Cheetos (an animated ad with a mouse painting a billboard), Pepsi, Bravo floor wax ("brightest shine under the sun"), Raid mosquito coil, Rival "Ranch Partner" dog food, Wishbone Italian Rose salad dressing, Northern paper towels, Bactine, Wonder Bread ("how big do you want to be?"), Pop-r-corns snacks, Jewel supermarkets (big meat sale!), and Diet 7-Up.

There are also two local WLS items: a promo for "Howard Miller's Chicago", a talk show hosted by the local radio personality, and a voiceover PSA ("art treasures of the world at the Chicago Art Institute") on a slide of the WLS/Chicago logo.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from WTTG/Washington, D.C. (Nov. 2, 1971)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Michael Pannoni'
Length - 13:43

Every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. We will return after these messages...

This 1971 block of commercials is from Washington, D.C., station WTTG, which was independent at the time, but had previously been one of the key affiliates in the DuMont network and later became one of the first affiliates of Fox. In '71, it was owned by the Metromedia group of stations, which is what the "MM" stands for in the ID slides seen in this block.

A wide variety of commercials appear in the block, including for Bronkaid mist, Procter-Silex blenders, Westinghouse "Super Bulb" light bulbs, Soft-Weve toilet paper, Bromo Seltzer, Close-Up toothpaste, All laundry detergent, the board game Score Four, Tiparillo cigars (featuring a pre-fame Fred Willard!), Anacin and Dristan medicines, and Chase & Sanborn and Maxwell House coffees (the latter featuring comedian Danny Thomas and his daughter).

Several WTTG bumper slides and promos are also featured, including a few appearances of the same WTTG news bumper, an election day news promo for local WTTG news, and multiple instances of a bumper slide for the David Frost show (probably because it was that program that the commercial breaks were taken from).

TFTP Signs-Off for the Week: Sign-Offs Through the Years - 1971 (WLIW/Long Island, NY)

Posted to YouTube by user 'stevations'
Length - 0:35

Each Friday afternoon, TFTP signs-off for the week with a classic station sign-off sequence for your enjoyment and to bid farewell until Monday...

And throughout 2018, we are featuring "Sign-Offs Through the Years", as we go year-by-year with each successive week.

This first TFTP Friday sign-off of 2018 is also the launch of "Sign-Offs Through the Years", a special feature in which we will go year-by-year with each successive week, starting with today's sign-off from 1971.

There are not a lot of existing copies of full sign-offs from before the late-1970s, and so many of the early sign-offs we'll be posting are either re-creations using original audio or clips with a montage of still images using original audio. In an era before VCRs were widespread, it was relatively easy to record audio (using reel-to-reel or cassette recorders), but very difficult to record video.

This 1971 sign-off is a short one with very poor audio and a montage of still images, from station WLIW/Long Island, NY. WLIW had launched only a couple of years before this in 1969, serving (then, as now) as the public TV station for the Long Island region of New York state, including parts of the New York City metro area. The sign-off audio consists only of the ownership/technical voiceover.