TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from 1965

Posted to YouTube by user '31Mike'
Length - 4:58

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

Most of the commercials in this block from 1965 are video-taped ads that are from local markets in Florida, many (maybe all of them) from a commercial break or breaks during local news. A taped ad for Kentucky Fried Chicken, with an in-studio pitchman, leads off the block. Next is an ad (that suffers from some technical issues) for Rambler autos and local Florida Rambler auto dealers, and this is followed by a real-estate ad for the Sun City development in the Tampa area. A filmed ad for Doublemint gum precedes an NBC network program promo for an airing of the movie "The Rainmaker". Ads for Kentucky Fried Chicken (with voiceover about the local news sponsorship) and Zest soap close out the block.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from NBC (Sep. 22, 1967)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Gray Flannel Videos'
Length - 3:05

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 commercials that aired on September 22, 1967, on NBC includes ads for Aerowax floor wax; Aero Shave shaving cream; Campbell's Chicken with Rice Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup, and Chicken & Stars Soup (with some ultra-Sixties animation); Sta-Puf fabric softener ("The Wrinkle Reducer"); and Sta-Flo Spray Starch. (Spelling "stay" without the "y" was very popular in the '60s.) At the very end, for just a couple of seconds, is the "snake" logo used by NBC throughout the 1960s--complete with the NBC chimes.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from 1972

Posted to YouTube by user '31Mike'
Length - 5:34

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

This commercial block from 1972 features ads for GE television sets, Superior motor homes, Goodrich tires (with two separate, but very similar, ads), Colt 45 malt liquor, the Yellow Pages (with football player Bart Starr), Alka Seltzer, Taconis tobacco, and New York Life insurance. Also included is a bumper slide promo for ABC's "The Odd Couple".

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 ABC (Nov. 4, 1983)

Posted to YouTube by user 'MicroJow'
Length - 10:02

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 commercials from November 4, 1983, comes from Tampa Bay-area ABC affiliate WTSP. It features ads for Arrid Extra Dry deodorant, Canon Snappy cameras, Biskits restaurants, Nutri Grain cereal, L'Oreal lipstick, Polaroid cameras (with longtime pitchman James Garner), Sears department stores, Wrigley's Spearmint gum, Burger King (with Emmanuel Lewis of "Webster" fame), and Gulf Oil car care centers. In addition, there are two different ads for AT&T, which was at the time trying to re-establish itself in the midst of antitrust action against it; one of these ads is for the re-branding of the Bell Telephone Phone Center into the AT&T Phone Center.

There are also several ABC program promos representing the cream of ABC's 1983 crop--for "Hardcastle and McCormick", "T.J. Hooker", "Love Boat" (a 2-hour "Oriental holiday" episode), "That's Incredible", "Monday Night Football", NCAA college football, "Trauma Center", "Nightline", the network TV premiere of the movie "Stir Crazy" with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, the special "Life's Most Embarrassing Moments, Part III", and an ABC News special on JFK that was presumably timed for the approaching 20th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination.

Interestingly, ABC was really getting a jump on promoting the 1984 Summer Olympics, as every promo here--a full nine months before the start of the games--features a line of text at the bottom that says "1984 - The Olympic Tradition Continues". A newsbreak from local WTSP news appears, too, along with a promo for the upcoming late local news from WTSP.

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's Monochrome March Will Return After These Messages: Miscellaneous Commercial Block from the 1950s

Posted to YouTube by user 'MattTheSaiyan'
Length - 12:25

College basketball has March Madness. TFTP: Television from the Past has Monochrome March! 

For the entire month of March, TFTP brings you posts featuring monochrome programs and clips in glorious black-and-white!

And every Wednesday, TFTP takes a break from regular programming to bring you a selection of classic commercials. Monochrome March will return after these messages...

This block of commercials from the 1950s features (among other products) cigarettes, bread, autos, and soap products. There are ads for Palmolive bar soap (for the "schoolgirl complexion look"), Snickers candy bars (an animated look at the layers of a Snickers bar), Jello Instant Pudding, and Spic & Span cleaning solution. There are three different Camel cigarette ads--two of which are animated, one with a lion tamer and lion, the other featuring water skiing. There are also three different Sunbeam bread ads--and only one of them is the same as those TFTP featured a few weeks ago.

As we begin to wrap up this year's Monochrome March, it's worth considering how different these ads are from those we are familiar with today. To begin with, they're much longer; a couple of the ads here clock in at around two minutes. Animation was much more prevalent in ads from the 1950s and '60s; animation is almost never used in commercials now. And there is an unmistakable air of innocence to many of these ads--a girl jump-roping to sell Sunbeam bread, clean-cut teenagers featured in the Palmolive ad. Heck, even in the cigarette ads the worst thing going on is whether or not the cigarettes will irritate your throat.

Maybe, in that era, things really were more black and white.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from CBS (Jan. 14, 1966)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Pannoni 9'
Length - 6:02

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

The commercials in this block (taken from a 1966 episode of the CBS game show "Password") largely fall under two of the major categories of ads: cleaning products and baking products. In the baking products division, there are three different Pillsbury commercials (for butter pecan coffee cake mix, for chilled refrigerated pies, and for flour) and a commercial for D-Zerta gelatin. In the cleaning products division are commercials for the now-obscure laundry detergent additive La France (which seems like it was so-named just so it could have the slogan "Vive La France"), Aerowax floor wax, and Wizard deodorizer.

A couple of other commercials not fitting into the baking or cleaning categories are great examples of types of products that were just becoming common in the mid-1960s. A commercial for Sanka coffee demonstrates what a novelty decaffeinated coffee was at the time--the commercial is one from the well-known series of commercials where pleased restaurant patrons were unknowingly served the caffeine-free Sanka. In addition, a Right Guard deodorant commercial emphasizes the benefits of deodorant in an aerosol can, then a new phenomenon (no messy cream or stick! the whole family can use the same deodorant!).

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

Posted to YouTube by user 'WREYtube'

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.

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Blocks from WUAB/Cleveland (Summer 1983)

Posted to YouTube by user 'Broadcaster1988'

Here are three commercial breaks from the same program, a 1983 late-movie airing of the 1942 film "Wings and the Woman" on Cleveland independent station WUAB. It's no coincidence that most of these are either ads for local establishments or mail-order ads, as these were the types of advertisers independent stations attracted, especially for something like a late-movie.

In the first clip above: (1) a great mail-order commercial for a camping knife called the "Travel Carver"; (2) a long-ish promo for WUAB's airings of "The Rockford Files" (weeknights at 8:00!); (3) a really cool animated PSA that basically is advertising the fact that WUAB runs PSAs; and (4) a bumper for "The Late Show II" leading back into "Wings and the Woman" (with "Late Show II" being the station's branding for this late-movie timeslot; there must've been another late-movie preceding it).

In the second clip: (1) a mail-order commercial for the album "The Best of Creedence Clearwater Revival"; (2) an ad for a local Cleveland store called the "Sunbeam Shop", which seems to be a thrift store benefiting vocational training (or some such thing); and (3) the "Late Show II" bumper again, this time followed by a few seconds of the film itself.

And, finally, in the third clip: (1) a mail-order commercial (late-movie commercial breaks were lousy with them) for a series of romance novels called Sapphire Books; (2) a recruiting ad for Control Data Institute, a trade school; (3) a promo for an airing of the film "The Organization" with Sidney Poitier (under the banner of "Channel 43 Star Movie", a prime-time movie timeslot on WUAB); and (4) the bumper leading back into "Wings and the Woman".

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Miscellaneous Commercials from the 1950s

Posted to YouTube by user 'MattTheSaiyan'

Here's an assortment of commercials from the 1950s, not from any one commercial block but just a miscellaneous grouping.

Commercials from the 1950s do not resemble later commercials in a variety of ways. They were often presented as inserts in the program, by an announcer or even a cast member associated with the program (most shows at this time had a single sponsor); they could be much longer (some of the ads in this block clock in at over a minute); and they are often much more demonstrative in nature, showing the product in use.

Products in the commercials in this block (in the order they are seen): Kodak Brownie cameras, Coca-Cola (a Thanksgiving-themed ad), Betty Crocker cake mix, Olde English Peanut Brittle, Carnation Evaporated Milk, Chef Boy-Ar-Dee spaghetti sauce, another ad for Coca-Cola (a football-themed one), Dodge automobiles, Ivory Soap, and Dodge auto dealers (this last one a spiffy animated ad--cartoon ads were prevalent in the '50s and into the '60s).

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from KTLA/Los Angeles, with bulletin of Elvis Presley's death (Aug. 16, 1977)

Posted to YouTube by user 'MicroJow'

Recorded from a rerun broadcast of the 1960s TV western "The Big Valley" on Los Angeles independent station KTLA, this block of commercials includes the news bulletin of Elvis Presley's death on Aug. 16, 1977.

Rundown of commercials in this block (by original YouTube poster), not in the order they appear:
------------
Schick Center For the Control of Smoking and Weight
Carpeteria
Queen Mary Tours
Capital Home Loans
Standard American Builders
Hali-Specht's
Silent Valley
TV Guide
Dinah!
Aames Home Loans
Hair Away
The Bryman School
Custom Craft Carpets
H. Salt Fish & Chips
Dr. F.E. Campbell - Credit Dentist
Emergency! One
Banner Carpets
Hall's Furniture
The Sawyer Schools
Vita Mix

-------------

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from ABC (Dec. 30, 1978)

Posted to YouTube by user '80sCommercialVault'

Rundown of the commercials and promos in this block, by the original YouTube poster:
------------
1. Station ID
2. Promo for "The Saturday Night Movie: Help!"
3. Kentucky Fried Chicken
4. Promo for "AM" (With Regis Philbin. I posted this same promo in an earlier volume, amazing that I found another copy of it floating around out there)
5. Promo for "The Hollywood Squares"
6. "The Saturday Night Movie" Intro 
7. TV Spot for "Force 10 From Navarone"
8. Hills Bros. Coffee (With Steve Allen and Jayne Meadows)
9. Alpha Beta
10. Victoria Station
11. NAACP
12. "The Saturday Night Movie" Commercial Bumpers
13. Thomas' English Muffins (I detect creepy robotic children)
14. Milk (So good)
15. NyQuil
16. C.W. Post
17. "The Saturday Night Movie" Commercial Bumpers
18. Reunite (On ice, that's nice)
19. Olivia Newton John "Totally Hot" (Hawt)
20. Irish Mocha Mint from General Foods International Coffees (With Carol Lawrence)
21. Maxim Freeze Dried Coffee
22. "The Saturday Night Movie" Commercial Bumpers
23. TV Spot for "The Bermuda Triangle" (I think I now have to watch this, if only because it reminds me of "In Search Of...")
24. Yuban (LOL)
25. Vicks Inhaler
26. Cycle 1
27. "The Saturday Night Movie" Commercial Bumpers
28. Birds Eye Vegetables
29. TV Spot for "Force 10 From Navarone" (I've heard this movie is pretty bad, but it involves a bunch of famous people blowing up stuff during WWII. Think I'll have to watch it sometime)
30. Promo for "The Long Ships"
------------

TFTP Will Return After These Messages: Commercial Block from CBS (Jan. 27, 1978)

Posted to YouTube by user '80s Commercial Vault'

Rundown of the commercials in this block (just under 9 minutes in length), by the original YouTube poster:
----------------
1. L'eggs
2. Excedrin (The first guy must have received all of his fashion advice from Carl Sagan)
3. 7-11 (Mr. Hyde drives a Volkswagen Convertible?)
4. Promo for "The Jeffersons", "Maude" and "Kojak"
5. Aim (Note to self: never start an argument with this lady over toothpaste)
6. Wisk (Oh god! Those dirty rings!)
7. Lowenbrau (With Paul Gleason from "The Breakfast Club")
8. "The World Beyond" Commercial Bumper
9. Promo for "The Bob Newhart Show" and "The Tony Randall Show" (Tony Randall had his own sitcom?)
10. Fred Montesi Supermarket (Amazing elevator music here)
11. Dobbs Ford
12. Promo for "Miss Arkansas Universe Pageant" ("Arkansas Universe" is a pretty strange phrase...)
13. Bayer ("It has relieved more aches, pain and fever than any medication in history." Well ok then...)
14. Western Electric Telephones
15. Dial (Oh yeah!)
16. Gallo Red Rosé (This reminds me of one of those product placements on "The Price Is Right")
17. Pam (Money - Calories - Time = Pam)
18. Sucrets
19. "The World Beyond" End Credits
----------------

TFTP Will Be Back After These Messages: Commercial Block from CBS (Mar. 5, 1978)

Posted to YouTube by user 'The "New" Fun & Games Channel'

At least as important as any programs or program forms to the history of television, commercials are one of the medium's most venerable types of content. Because of this, TFTP will regularly feature blocks of commercials and individual commercials from various historical periods. We kick off this feature by posting this 22-minute block of commercials from a March 1978 broadcast of an NBA game between the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.

Many commercials are featured here, including for Lowenbrau beer, Hertz rental cars, several different models of Chevrolet autos, two different commercials each for Miller High Life and Miller Lite beers, and ads for other vehicles such as Volkswagen Dasher and Honda motorcycles. Also in this block are CBS network promos for its sports coverage of NBA basketball and U.S. National Indoor Tennis, for Challenge of the Sexes, for the TV movie "The Last of the Good Guys", for the Diana Ross movie "Mahogany", and for a curious documentary called "The Body Human: The Red River" about the human bloodstream.