TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from CBS/ABC (Oct. 2, 1976)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Pannoni 9'
Length - 15:39

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

In addition to a selection of ads for dolls, cereal, and kid-oriented food, this Saturday morning commercial block from October 2, 1976, has specimens from two legends of 1970s children's TV: "In the News" from CBS and "Schoolhouse Rock" from ABC. The "In the News" segment featured is a profile of figure skater Dianne de Leeuw who had competed in that year's Winter Olympics; while the "Schoolhouse Rock" segment is perhaps the greatest and most well-known such segment today, "I'm Just a Bill".

Drawn from both CBS (from "Sylvester and Tweety") and ABC (from "Jabberjaw"), commercials in the block include ones for Kellogg's Raisin Bran and Sugar Pops, Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles cereal, Keebler fudge-covered cookies, two different varieties of baby dolls (Don't Cry Baby and Baby Alive), the somewhat obscure board game Worm Wrestle, the similarly-obscure play figures called Wannabees, and Nerf Classic Fighters airplanes.

The block also has a PSA for change of address postal forms (was this an important issue in the 1970s?), several bumpers for the "Sylvester and Tweety" and "Jabberjaw" programs the commercials were pulled from, and the end credits for both programs, both with voiceovers promoting other shows.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Kelloggs Commercials w/ Superman (1954)

Posted to YouTube by user 'tvdays' (all three)
Length - 1:04 (top), 1:01 (middle), 1:02 (bottom)

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

As the sponsor of "The Adventures of Superman" in the 1950s, Kellogg's cereal had many different Superman-related commercials in that era. Here are three of them from 1954, all featuring premiums that kids could get with boxtops from Kellogg's cereals.

In the first commercial above, the premium is a snappy Superman belt--just like Superman himself wore! Kids could add to their Man of Steel wardrobe with the Superman t-shirt offered in the second commercial. Finally, they could through the third and last commercial obtain a flying Superman glider toy (which they could play with while wearing their Superman belt and t-shirt, naturally).

Premiums--in which a consumer would send in boxtops or other packaging elements ("proof of purchase") in exchange for some sort of gift--were central to childrens' programming going all the way back to the network radio days of the 1930s, and "The Adventures of Superman" brought the tradition into the earliest era of TV.

TFTP Flow: "ABC Sunday Night Movie" opening credits w/ commercial break from WLS/Chicago (1980)

Posted to YouTube by user 'The Museum of Classic Chicago Television'
Length - 5:57

Television "flow"  -  an unbroken sequence of various on-air elements such as program segments, news breaks, commercials, program promos, PSAs, station IDs, bumpers, and other interstitials, which can be analyzed to understand what viewers of the past experienced when watching TV.

This flow sequence is from a 1980 broadcast of the 1973 film "The Sting" starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford; the film was aired on ABC, with this particular flow coming from ABC Chicago affiliate WLS. It begins with a WLS "Eyewitness News" bumper before launching into the "ABC Sunday Night Movie" intro. This is followed by a commercial break featuring ads for Kellogg's Graham Crackos cereal, Dr. Pepper (one of the David Naughton "Be a Pepper" spots from this era), Johnson's disposable diapers, and Allstate Insurance. It closes with the opening credits and first minute or so of "The Sting".