more old kids commercials and or infomercials

I just remembered a few more that I've seen when I was a kid.

In the farm, there was farmer named Farmer Brown, as he played a song on his banjo about all the  good and healthy things to eat on the farm. He often had puppet animal friends like a horse that would tell you the foods you need to keep you healthy like Breads, Rice, Cereals, they give  you energy. They also had a dog, that talked about the importants of meats in your diet, like meats, fish, baked beans, nuts and peanut butter, which was the dog's favorite thing to eat.

There were a variety of Woodsy the Owl commercials teaching kids to give a hoot and don't pollute, never be dirty bird. They also taught kids how they can help save the planet like planting new trees and such. I do remember the walk around costume of Woodsy and liked it when he went in the park with the kids and went under a tunnel to the other side.

Actor Dick Van Dike I think had appeared in a few commercials that taught the importance of fire safety, and how to get out of a house when it's on fire. I think he also appeared in a commercial to teach kids on not to smoke cigarettes.

A Claymation animated film of a guy, whom eats nothing but junk food and walks around the city, and feels low on energy and such. Suddenly something happens and by magic, he waves his hand, then some stick of candy in his hand chages magically to a carrot and he starts to eat more healthfully.

There was a series of commercials featuring a parrot named Officer bird that taught the kids the importance of safety, and how to be safe in your neighborhood. "That's the word from officer bird, that's his tip for today." Bwark

Christmas Eve on Sesame Street

Getting nostalgic for books of my youth, I found one It's titled Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, based on the Sesame Street holiday tv special made in 1981. It's Christmas eve on Sesame Street, and everyone is all excited and ready to celebrate, but Big Bird is concerned on how Santa can get down those skinny chimneys on Christmas eve. Oscar, the grouch then tells Big Bird  that if he doesn't know, and if he doesn't find out, then nobody will get their presents on Christmas day. So Big bird spends the day asking about how Santa gets down the chimney. He gets help from his friend Kermit, whom goes around asking the children of the area on how they think Santa gets down the chimney. The kids had some creative and  funny answers, but none of them was helpful to Big Bird. So he gets his friend Snuffy to help in a little experiment by getting him to climb into a few of the giant colored drums, but he was too big to fit.
Meanwhile, Bert and Ernie set out to Hooper's store to buy each other Christmas gifts, but they traded in something they loved dearly to get what each other needed. Bert needed a cigar box to store his paper clip collection, and Ernie needed a soap dish to put his rubber ducky in. Surprisingly, Mr. Hooper himself was working in his store, and it would be one of the last major tv specials he stars in before he died, and he was drawn very well.
                   Then Cookie Monster tries to create his Christmas list to give to santa, and he asks for cookies of all kinds. But unfortunately, he got soo hungry, that he ate up everything he used to create his list for santa, including a phone he used to call Santa personally.  So with Big Bird wondering and desperately seeking the answer to his question, he goes upstairs and sits on the roof during the cold and snowy night to watch for the arrival of Santa to see for himself on just how he gets down that tiny chimney. Suddenly, everyone wonders where Big Bird was and got concerned and searched and called out for him. And it was Maria that had yelled at Oscar angrily and personally, for telling Big Bird to find the answer to his question or nobody gets their presents this Christmas.  She told him to go out and help find Big Bird. Meanwhile,  Big Bird was getting sleepy while waiting for Santa, and it was just then that he heard Santa arriving and coming the chimney, but Big Bird was asleep and thought he just dreamt it all. He then decides to come in to warm up. Everyone was glad to see that he was safe, and he then discovers a miracle, as Susan And Gordan's decorated Christmas tree had presents underneath the tree, and their stockings were full of toys and gifts. But the most important thing that Big Bird was inside and safe, as everyone was looking for him.
                 It's a great book, since it's in great condition as I got it used, and a great memory of the tv special, and a look on how the street used to be, as well as seeing Mr. Hooper again. Although in my opinion, they should've included the scene, where Cookie Monster ate Susan and Gordon's Christmas  tree, leaving it bare, and developed a big belly, and had gas. I thought it was the funniest scene when I saw that on tv.

The Lollypop Dragon

When I was in elementary school, I remember our teacher showing us filmstrips , which would tell stories of the Lollypop Dragon. Back then, the film strips were shown one frame at a time, while the tape recorder would play the narrative story, and a beep would play to indicate it was time to advance to the next frame. I don't really remember all of the Lollypop dragon stories, but I came across a children's book  called "Happy Times of the Lollypop Dragon." It was sold for about 69 cents with $4.00 for shipping and handling. I suddenly got nostalgic and decided to order the book. The story is about the Lollypop dragon, whom goes to a town called Tum Tum, and is in search of happiness and good times. When he arrives, he sees the children of the town helping out by cleaning up the garbage in the streets, helping other children whom are deaf, buy using sign language to tell a story, helping other kids to learn to read, and even a little girl was cleaning up her messy room. Wow, the Lollypop dragon has observed a lot, and found out from the children that what  they do is work, but it makes them happy, as it helps themselves and helps others in time of their need.  So The Lollypop dragon begins to learn on what makes a person happy, by helping out the children with the jobs they have to, and even he began to feel happy himself. So its a great book, and brought about memories, as I remember once having this same book when I was 10  years old. I tend to get nostalgic for various things of my youth.

Paddington Bear

I remember watching this stop motion animated short features made in 1975 on tv as a kid. A combination of animated 3-d and 2-d card board cutouts for the characters, and the  backgrounds were cut outs as well. Created in 1975 by Mr. Ivor Wood and narrated by Mr. Michael Horden, A friendly young bear from Darkest Parue  had stowed away to find a better life, as his aunt Lucie bear was in a home for retired bears. While he made it to a  London  train station, the Brown family had taken notice of him and decided to take him into their home and cared for him, and decided to name him Paddington as that was the name of the train station they were at. Paddington bear wore a large black folded had, a blue trench coat and often carried a suit case with him containing the things he needed. Life in London was very difficult for Paddington as  at first, as he wasn't used to all the modern conveniences of home life. Of course a lot of his day to day living was learning new things and skills in life, and often getting into large predicaments and sticky situations, even stickier than the jar of marmalade that he absolutely loved to eat as a sandwich. Often, he tries to help his next door neighbor Mr. Curry, whom doesn't often take kindly to Paddington, as he often makes huge messes and breaks things, but not on purpose. In one adventure, Mr. Curry had gotten a new steam bath sauna for Mr. Brown, and decided to test it out as it was very cold and wintery day. It all worked well, except  that Paddington had placed his combination lock over the door and locked Mr. Curry in, which got him all steamed up.
         Of course Paddington has had  many adventures when shopping down town. In one episode he was taken to a department store by Mrs. Brown and  their maid to get new pajamas. Of course it was difficult to find the right size for Paddington, but the store clerk seemed helpful but confused, but allowed Paddington to go to a fitting room to try on the pajamas. Paddington had problems finding an open and empty room, but managed to get into a room that was all set up for a bedroom. Paddington thought it was much too fancy for a simple fitting room, and got into his pajamas and went to the bed and fell asleep. Later that day, he woke up to a sound of people, as they were all watching him sleeping in the bed from outside the  store display window. But Paddington didn't realize that he was in a store display window and not a fitting room. As a result, those very same pajamas he wore had sold like hotcakes and were in huge demand.  There are lots of fun adventures that this brown fun loving bear has, and often get into mischief that will make you laugh. This is all available on DVD from Cookie Jar entertainment and runs for a little over 3 hours as there are a little over 30 adventures running no more than 10 minutes or so. Paws up, this is a great nostalgic DVD for kids or kids at heart whom remember Paddington bear's adventures. So make yourself a few marmalade sandwiches and watch this heartwarming dvd.

X-Rated Atari 2600 games

It's hard to believe, but I do have a memory of X-rated games made for the Atari 2600. What? X-rated games for that 2600 system, with such blocky graphics, how could you even tell that it's x-rated? Well I first heard of it, as someone in my family that I was visiting told me that some friends of his were coming over with a new Atari 2600 game to show him. As excited as I was about playing the game, I was told that I was too young to play this game. I didn't understand what he meant, as I've played Atari 2600 games, how can I  be too young for this game? I was also told that the game will be played late at night, while you're asleep, and was told not to come out and watch. With the game on my mind all that day, I wondered what kind of game it would be. Late that night, I woke up as I had to go to the bathroom. The room was dark, and after I finished going to the bathroom, I heard some women laughing and  being excited as she  told the other woman next to her to stay away and  that it's hers.  My curiosity got the best of me, so I just stood at a distance in the dark hallway and observed the game without anyone seeing I was there . All I saw was something  that looked like Activision's game Kaboom, as 3 blocky things moved back and forth on the  bottom of the screen, while some thing was moving back and forth on top of the screen dropping something. I had no idea what was going on, and soon went back to bed.
               I remember once seeing a news report on those X-rated games for the 2600, and a lot of women had felt offended and protested against the game. The game shown on the news was Custer's Last stand, as if he successfully makes it safely to a Native American princess on the other side of the screen, he gets to have sex with her. I began to somewhat understand, but was still curious. In my adult years, I found info on those games that I was too young to play as a kid. That  game I first saw was Beat em' and Eat em. And with the description of the game, it was perfectly clear on why it for adults. I also found out of other x-rated games made for the 2600, and after looking at the sample screen shot of the game, it was very hard to  tell what was going on with the blocky graphics. Go figure, but it was a major breakthrough and a desperate attempt to come up with a new game to continue the sales of the 2600 as it was close to the video game crash. I've heard that within one of the games, the designer was drunk when he came up with the concept.

Mary and Mark Ritts Puppets

Mary and Mark Ritts were puppeteers and came up with some very unique puppet friends that had entertained children for decades. One of their first tv series in the 1950's, was a show called "In the Park."  A guy goes for a walk in the park and has fun conversations with Mark Ritt's Puppet friends, such as Magnolia the Ostrich, Sir Jefforey the Giraffe, etc. This was way before my time, however it wasn't until the 1970's, when I was in elementary school, that  a film was shown in the classroom featuring Mark's Puppets.  I'm pretty sure it was live action, as it took place in the park and in color, and featured an assortment of Mark Ritt's animal puppets. the movie was titled "For the Love of Fred." Whom was a caterpillar friend of the animal puppets, and they took very good care of him and got amazed when he turned into a butterfly. I never saw that film much since, but strongly remember  seeing the Ritt's puppets on Saturday mornings in various commercials for kids in the 1970's from the Better Business Bureau. They were short live action clips teaching kids the importance of saving power, energy, eating right, and saving and spending your money wisely. They added another puppet character for their commercials which was Abominable, a friendly snow monster. I started to think that I was crazy for remembering these things, and spent years searching the internet for anything about Mark Ritts puppets.
           Turns out, the commercials are all on Youtube, various press photos of the puppets are sold on Ebay, and I even once saw a Mark Ritts coloring book being sold. With all the merchandising, you figure that may have been tied into these characters, I looked for books, saw records, and continue searching for more. A website I came across offered a DVD transferr of a live action movie called "Puppets are Creepy", and even included a copy of the 1970's in the park live action movie featuring Mark Ritts Puppets. I also remember reading that this movie had once aired on NBC as part of a childrens film festival type of tv show, as they showed children's movies. To this day, sadly both Mark and Mary Ritts have passed on, and their work is still nostalgic and talked about on Tv Party.com There are no plans to release the For the Love of Fred movie onto DVD or other Mark Ritts works, except for his last work in the tv series Beakman's World. Other than that nothing. But it was my childhood memory and I wanted to see that movie again, but I can't as it's only available a movie and probably can only be purchased or rented by a school. Kids these days are so lucky, as for the tv shows they remember seeing as a kid, and no longer air, they can easily go and get it on DVD.

Dudley the Dinosaur

years ago, sometimes on a Saturday morning, I would see these animated commercials featuring dinosaurs talking about the importance of good dental care. The star was a green boy dino named Dudley, and I thought his commercials were fun and cool. Though these days, you seldom see them on tv. Anyway, I caught onto Dudley and was looking for merchandise of this catchy mascot character, maybe a fun picture with a costume of him? Finally my opportunity came during our town's annual summer street fair. It was located in the business section, where there were booths from various companies and organizations. I came across a booth of the ADA and saw the Dudley.
I had mentioned to the woman in the booth on how much I was a fan of Dudley and asked kindey for some of the things in her booth. I got two Dudley the dino activity books and a few dental samples. It was then that it was late in the afternoon, and upon passing the booth from a distance, I had then began to ask her a question. Immediately she yelled at me angrily and told me to get away from her. She was extremely rude to me. But I did manage to get the Dudley samples. I also found out from the ADA website that they have Dudley merchandise as he's the official spokes dino of this organization. However I thought that you had to be in a dental business to order the merchandise, but the minimum for the order is 100 at just a little over a $1.00 per copy.
I don't think I would want to order 100 copies and spend over $100.
I feared that the same woman who yelled at me would be there the next year. She wasn't thank goodness.

Geoffrey the Giraffe

growing up, I thought Toys R Us was cool, but my main interest was their mascot character Geoffrey the Giraffe. Believe it or not, I first had memories that Geoffrey had a giraffe family in the earily commercials for this great toy store. Of course that was back in the 1970's-1980's. I didn't go there much, as the only closest one was in a shopping center before the SmithHaven Mall. But the few times I went there, I have never seen Geoffrey in costume form walking around the greet the kids. It was on my trip to Toys R  us in NYC that  I finally met up with him  and had my picture take with him in his cartoony form (which is what I most remember him by). He was much taller than me, as  I had only made it height wise to his nose. But he's the giraffe that makes us laugh. The next time I saw him in person, was when the store made a more realistic verison of him. Met up with him and got my picture taken with him. Personally, I much prefer to see him in cartoony form.
        The only few Geoffrey products I bought was a plastic candy tube as a Christmas thing. The tube was filled with red and  green M&M's candies, and the top cover was of Geoffrey in a Santa suit with his two giraffe kids in his arms on each end. I think the Geoffrey family consisted of Geoffery, Mrs. G, Big G, and Baby G. (I'm not changing her diapers) I found a few websites that took me down memory lane of animation cels of the animated Toys r us commercials featuring Geoffrey and his family. Of course I got a few Geoffery merchandise in the NYC store. Very big place, and they even let you play with their toys.  Sometimes I thought I was crazy for remembering these things, but turns out that sometimes what you're trying to remember might be just within your fingertips.

nostalgic products

I know that alot of  products had come and gone, but I loved them and I missed them dearly.

Hostess Pudding pies
Giggles Cookies
Keebler Pudding Creames
Some kind of sortbread cookie that had a drop of chocolate on it
PB Max chocolate bar
Shoprite brand Bran Muffins (Used to be sold at Shoprite)
Dinosaur Grrrahms cookies
Patterson's Lochness monster short bread shaped cookies (imported from Scotland)
Chocobliss candy barr
Dinersaurs Cereal
Rocky Road Cereal
S'mores Crunch Cereal
plastic backed baby diapers (from when I was a baby in the 1970's)

Kid's short films

A few funny short  movies I remember seeing on tv as a kid were very memorable, but I'm not sure what the name of the movies are.

1. Channel 21 used to air short movies featuring a guy that always got into accidents like being high on a tree, and upon chopping it down, he fell down.

2. A Boy, His Dog and a frog. This is what being a boy is about. going out with your dog and looking for a frog down by the creek. It's a very funny movie as the boy got muddy and dirty during his attempts to catch the frog. The funny part was seeing him trying to catch the frog, as he leaped away. Seeing frogs hop like that is hilarious. And just when he gave up and went home to take a bath, the frog followed him home and went upstairs to see him. Ribbit.

3. The Lollypop dragon- various film strip stories seen in school, with a tape recorder playing a pre-recorded track for the stories. When I saw the image of the Lollypop dragon during my nostalgic search, the green dragon somehow reminded me of Zak from Dragontales.

4. ZAP! a kids movie seen in school of a kid who gets magical powers by mixing various ingredients together and then reaches his hands out and shouts "Zap!" whenever he wanted to change something.

5. Channel 21 used to air various education short movies, one such I remember was Inside Out.

6. I remember an animated short film, where an young alien creature lands on Earth, and is lost. A little girl is playing and notices the alien and helps him out and shows him around. Later, you hear, her mom call her "Maria." the little girl explains to the alien child that it's her mamma calling, and suddenly hundreds of language translations of Mama was shown on the screen and as the alien cries out for his mama, his mom comes and  picks him up.

7. An animated poem about the colors, as a woman narrates it and asks what is black, white, red, etc, and tells a poem of what  those colors mean to her.

Old Tv Kid's commercials

Believe it or not, I remember alot of the old tv commercials and announcements to kids back in the 1970's. Back in school I saw the fun live action puppet film featurin Mark Ritt's puppets "For the love of Fred." The  puppets were so memorable that they appeared in a variety of commercials from the Junior Consumer Tip of your better business bureau. They taught the importance of saving money, eating right, saving energy. I only wished that I could see that movie again. Channel 11 used to air these animated movie shorts "The Most important person." Like episodes that taught about being lonely, making mistakes, feelings. One other funny commercial featured puppet pills that came out of a pill jar and sung a song about the dangers of taking pills as they're not candy.  Back then Saturday Mornings were worth the wait as the're are tons of cool shows to watch.

nostalgic products

I get nostalgic for tons of things, as they all somehow left my life, and I can't say goodbye to them. Mostly they were products once sold at the supermarket, and such and as time goes by, the products are no longer sold. So sometimes when I watch a movie on tv made in the 1980's or 1970's, they sometimes will show a scene in a grocery store. Sometimes you might get lucky and see a scene of breakfast cereals on display, and you remember them fondly and wished that you can get it again. I saw a movie on tv "Oh God! You Devil." A scene or two at a grocery store brings back memories of the Tic Tac display at the register, as well as a few boxes of cereal.
     Talk about getting nostalgic over breakfast cereals, I saw this live action short movie on a tv show called Callioupe. I don't know what the name of it was, but it's about a little boy in a supermarket who has a big imagination and imagines things happening to the people who work  there. During a scene of him going down the breakfast isles, and seeing all those nostalgic breakfast cereals as they were made back then, the boy sees a guy with acne on his face as he places the price stickers on the product. The boy wonders how that man got those bumps. He invisions that maybe he went up a tree to a beehive to get fresh honey to sell in the store and he got stung.
One of the breakfast cereals the little boy picked off the shelf was "Dringles" freaturing Dr. Dringles. The little boy looked at the box and thought of the animated commercial advertising the product.
      Oh here's another one, "Three Men and a Baby" One of the men goes to get diapers for the baby, and all the diapers there are plastic backed. Talk about nostalgia, but the movie was made in the late 1980's. Sometimes a scene in the movie might take place at a video arcade and you see the classic arcade games all lined up and lit up in all it's glory playing it's music and sounds. Makes you wish you could go there and play those games. Another movie Poltergeist has a scene in the kids bedroom where the original Geoffrey the Giraffe mascot character is scene on his bed sheets, pillow cases. And even in the movie E.T., one of the older kids in the family is wearing a Space Invaders T-shirt. I had one of those, but I always got sunburned as the t-shirt was black, and darket colors absorb heat.
      

Christmas Bells

When Christmas time came, I always listened to my Christmas tapes. Mostly they are of Organ and Chimes and handbell choirs which I love to listen to but are very rare to find. Well as you know, tapes don't really last very long, and even upon making a back up, it  just doubles the problem. So one day upon cleaning up my apartment and getting rid of old things, I  got rid of all my tapes as they were very old and probably were worn out. One of my all time favorite Christmas tapes that I threw out was called Christmas Bells which was seen on an infomercial in the 1990's by The home Shopp inc. I had loved it as the bells were of an orchestrated hand bell choir and sometimes mixed in with a concert and singing choir. I had a few all time favorite songs like Jesu Bambino. But knowing that transfering tapes to cd was illegal, I tore up any attempts I had done to transfer it to Cd. I had remembered that there was a Cd version of it as shown on the infomercial, but I didn't have a cd player back then as it was a new media.
      So I had regreted throwing it out and missed it dearly, so I had searched the internet for a year or so trying to find the cd version which is out of print. Then one day, I got lucky and found it on Ebay, and I bought it on the spot without any competition. I was soo happy and it only costed me about $6.00 or so. I was eternally grateful as my Christmas will be merry as the Christmas bells shall ring once again. Now the only other ones I have to try and find are "Robert Rhimes Christmas Organ and Chimes, Berkshire's Bellringers, and the old tradtional Christmas Organ and Chimes ( the one that somehow reminds me of a nursing home for some reason) But they are all great  to listen to even as background music while opening the Christmas presents.

The Bedtime Prayer Reminder card with glowing cross

I had  gotten one of these back in the 1970's when I went to a church with our neighboor Ms. Bect and her son Joey. I don't exactly remember the name of the church we went to, but I do remember seeing some old bridge we went over that overlooked a small brook. The church was very historic and huge as parts of it were made of old stones. I remember I was still angry and upset as my mom had divorced my biological father. I was attending some kind of school program there. After we attended church service up stairs, we went downstairs to their basement to sing songs, pray, and we even got a snack of juice and those sandwich cookies. I  remember that the door downstairs was huge, and heavy and made of wood with those metal pointy bar designs on the side of the door. Anyway, after one day at this school, our teacher gave us these bedtime prayer reminder cards that had an image of Jesus knocking at someone's door on the top half of the card. Then on the bottom half there was a dark blue shield that had a soft texture. And inside that shield was a special cross that glowed in the dark upon it being exposed to light.
I remember seeing this hanging on the wall in my bedroom, as I enjoyed it's pleasant glow.
One day, I guess I threw it out as it had lost it's glow. Our neighboor Ms. Becht remembered this and I had asked her about it many times. She remembered what it was and told me that she will look for it.
Then one day, when I came to her house for her garage sale, she found one and gave it to me. It was a very nice thing for her to do. I continued to hang onto it and enjoyed it's pleasant glow. Sadly, the cross had lost it's glow again, and I may have thrown it out again. I know that I sometimes get nostalgic for something long ago, and go crazy in finding it, and when I get it, I throw it out because something's wrong with it. But sometimes I regret what I had done and go crazy searching the internet for it. This time I lucked out and found a similar image of what it was, but it featured a picture of a little girl holding a sheep. The bottom of the picture reads "Bedtime Prayer Reminder" And on the bottom is a larger red heard with the same glowing cross in it. On the very bottom it says "Jesus Cares" It's very similar to what I had and it may lead to another comeback of a lost item.
The company that made it was The Borrowed Timers and it was printed and distributed by Warner Press in 1943. I had attempted to contact the company for info and hope that they have a few leftover, even if it's been out of print. But you never know.