The Cold War was scary, even if – maybe particularly if – you weren’t one of the major players. It’s always interesting to see the post World War II balancing act between nuclear preparation and nuclear panic, in all of its different forms, and these civil defence posters are a good look at one way that…
Tag: ephemera
For Digestion’s Sake – Thanksgiving Ads (1940s-1990s)
Holiday traditions in the United States grow and change over the years, but there’s one constant: everyone wants a piece of your holiday spending money. These Thanksgiving ads ranging from 1942 to 1991 showcase the different angles these companies took to try and get at your wallet. In doing so they speak to the design…
Five Things – 5.22.17 – Stories For Boys
It’s About Time (1966) What if you had a silly TV show set in a remote jungle location and you had an idea for a second, unrelated-yet-just-as-silly TV show set in a remote jungle location and you just re-used props and sets from the first silly TV show for the second silly TV show…
Five Things – 5.8.17 – Some People Call This A War
The Front Line This 1960s training film on the merits of good checkout procedure places an awful lot of responsibility for the store’s performance on what happens in the checkout lane. Indeed, they are “The Front Line” in the grocery war. Seriously, they just casually call it a war. I’m not going to spend time…
Five Things – 07.25.16 – World’s Tiniest Engineers
Ghostbusters No, not that one. In 1975 Filmation had a live-action series about a couple of guys and a gorilla who hunted ghosts. It was about as different from the 1984 movie that would come as you could imagine; it was aimed directly at children and focused on slapstick rather than actual paranormal enthusiasm for…
Five Things – 7.11.16 – Real Sick, Real Quick
Man From The 25th Century This 1968 Irwin Allen production never got off the ground, and it’s kind of a shame. Tomo was abducted from his 1951 Earth life and given combat and telekinesis training on a distant planet 500 years in the future by alien beings, his ultimate mission being to return to 1951 and…
Five Things – 07.04.16 – You’re Weird Too, Then
Dollar a Second This 1981 reboot of a 1950s game show seems centered around insulting and humiliating people while occasionally throwing them a few dollars, and also about confusing the rest of us. Bob Eubanks conducts this train wreck in which contestants earn the titular Dollar A Second for as long as they’re on stage. A…
Five Things – 05.09.16 – I’m Talkin’ Quarter Pounder Beef On The Hot Hot Side
Don’t Look Now Last week we saw a failed attempt at a prime-time spinoff of You Can’t Do That On Television called Whatever Turns You On. Well, here’s a failed attempt at a carbon copy of You Can’t Do That On Television, 1983’s Don’t Look Now, produced for PBS station WGBH by the YCDTOT creators. Don’t Look Now copied and…
Five Things – 04.25.16 – I’ll Be Bigger Than Ollie North
1987 NBC Saturday Morning Preview ALF hosts this Friday Night preview of NBC Saturday Morning lineup featuring, well, ALF. The premises for these specials are always so ridiculous, and this one’s no different: The special begins in the Tanner family garage, where ALF is on the phone with his agent regarding his new prequel cartoon series….
Five Things – 04.04.16 – That Men May Fight
You Dont Know Jack In the summer of 2001 ABC tried to create a televised version of the crazy successful trivia video game show You Don’t Know Jack. It was not successful, but it did end up being kind of crazy. The show was pretty loyal to the game’s format. Instead of the game’s regular host Cookie…