1. Just Say Julie – Late-1980s MTV had two Julie Browns. There was Downtown Julie Brown, the cool Club MTV host and then there was Miss Julie Brown, the goofy comedienne. The latter Brown’s show was Just Say Julie, a mostly one-woman show that drew heavily on her celebrity-mocking stand-up act.
Brown played a valley girl with a bit of an agenda against pop stars like Tiffany and Debbie Gibson, and a bit more of an agenda against Madonna.
The show was an unintentionally beautifully sort of clunky stream of consciousness, with Brown’s monologues taking up the bulk of the time. There were also music videos but these were mocked in a proto-Beavis-and-Butthead style. Sometimes she’d even show up in them!
She played up a rivalry between herself and Downtown Julie Brown, the “Evil” Julie Brown. Her unrequited love for Jon Bon Jove was a recurringtheme as well. Both running gags resulted in payoffs later in the series!
Here’s an episode. It’s almost hard to tell from the grainy, hiss quality here but this was a pretty popular show and managed to upset a lot of celebrities!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYu-repRj6E
2. Famicom Commercials – This is a collection of commercials for the Japanese brother of the NES, the Famicom system. There’s a lot to love even once you get past the initial delightful weirdness of these spots. My favorites are the Mega Man ad, the ones with Mario and Link dying, and all the various R.O.B. commercials! Also, so many custom animations for these things!
3. Explorers Poster – A little font and layout love, here’s the poster for the1985 Joe Dante film Explorers. The framing inside of the frame is pretty great.
4. The Magic of Walt Disney World – This 30 minute program/commercial from 1972 showcasing the Magic Kingdom makes some interesting choices. It seems to deliberately downplay the rides at Disney World in favor of highlighting the architecture, food, and “out in the open” experiences you’d get at the park. In a way it makes sense, given that in 1972 Disney’s big challenge was convincing people that the trip to rural Florida was worth it and that you were getting more than just an amusement park. But still, the rides!
The attention to the Hall of Presidents is nice, however. It’s easy to forget what a technological marvel that thing was at the time. The extended segment on the Country Bear Jamboree, however, not so much.
5. Green Stamps – Beautiful, beautiful ad for the benefits of Sylvania’s Green Stamps program.
-ds