TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from c. 1970

Posted to YouTube by user 'quadvideotape'
Length - 5:31

This block of commercials is from circa 1970--most likely not 1971 as it says in the video clip's title. The most striking commercial of the bunch, for True cigarettes, could not have aired any later than Jan. 1, 1971, as that was the last day that cigarette ads aired on American TV--starting on Jan. 2, ads for cigarettes were banned. (The last day that cigarette ads could run was pushed back by a day from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1 so networks could run such ads during football bowl games telecast on New Year's Day.)

Out of the ads seen here, the cigarette ad is the most intriguing to us today, simply because we are unaccustomed to seeing TV ads for tobacco products. Other ads in this block include for the New York Times newspaper, Harry Jacobson menswear, Arco gasoline, Ragu spaghetti sauce, United Airlines ("fly the friendly skies"!), and Quasar television sets by Motorola (Raquel Welch's reference to her TV special, which aired in April 1970, also helps to date the group of ads).

TFTP Late Night: "The Tonight Show" (Sep. 27, 1970) w/ Mel Brooks

Posted to YouTube by user 'Johnny Carson'

Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" is a TFTP favorite (as is Carson's pre-"Tonight Show" career), so here is our first post from "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson". This September 1970 clip features Mel Brooks doing an impression of an Indian ichthyologist (which is a scientist who studies fish, in case you didn't know). Brooks was known for his characters using a wide variety of different kinds of accents, although this one is not one of his better ones.

More interesting is the overall ambiance and look of the "Tonight Show" in this era. This is from the pre-1972 New York period of Carson's "Tonight Show"--before the show moved to LA and a period for which surviving episodes and clips are rare compared to later years--so it's a nice glimpse of the show's early years. The multi-hued background and orange chairs set the tone for what was at the time still the early years of color television. This clip is from the official YouTube account for Johnny Carson's estate, which has posted quite a few more clips and many full episodes of "The Tonight Show".

TFTP Promos: ABC Friday Night Line-Up (Fall 1970)

This 3-minute promo highlights the ABC programs on Friday nights for Fall 1970; featured are "The Brady Bunch," "Nanny and the Professor," "The Partridge Family," "That Girl," "Love, American Style," and "This is Tom Jones." "Brady Bunch" and "Partridge Family" are well-known, "That Girl" a little less so. "Nanny and the Professor" ran for about two years, from January 1970 to December 1971. "Love, American Style" was an anthology program featuring humorous stories about love--it's biggest claim to fame being that it featured as a 1972 episode the pilot for "Happy Days" (entitled "Love and the Happy Day").