TV Commercials of the 70's and 80's

Here are some listings of my seventies and eighties commercial compilations culled from the thousands in my collection. I'm always open to trades (VHS and DVD)--but if you have nothing to trade, email me anyway (pgsaur at frontier dot com OR hugo1000faces at gmail dot com) if you are interested in anything here!

Sunday, November 09, 2014

Christmas / NYC Commercials Compilation! NEW for 2014!

Here's a new (2014) custom compilation of Christmas, holiday and winter ads from the 70's and 80's (and some even earlier) with an emphasis on New York City-area commercials. This DVD would make a fantastic nostalgia gift for the folks you know who grew up watching WCBS, WNBC, WNEW, WABC, WOR and WPIX back in the day. Pair this with a viewing of "King Kong," "Miracle on 34th Street" or "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol" and it's sure to immediately melt away thirty years or so faster than the Snow Miser visiting Southtown!

I made a similar collection about a decade ago, but I only had about a half-hour's worth of Christmas commercials so I filled the rest in with old toy ads. My collection has grown so much in the years since--much of it not to be found on YouTube or anywhere else--that this compilation is a full TWO HOURS of warm and fuzzy TV memories, with tons of NYC stuff throughout. You'll see such fondly-recalled Yuletide ads as the animated Toys R Us spot with Geoffrey and family zipping around in their convertible; the sometimes manic, sometimes mellow Jerry Carroll for Crazy Eddie;  local TV stations wishing their viewership happy holidays; and there's even a rare "Krush Groove Christmas Party" ad with then-new school rappers at Madison Square Garden. (See my YouTube video of it on my channel here, or watch it right here and now!)



Although much of the material is taken from LP (six hour) recorded VHS, I strove to make sure the video and audio quality is overall pretty good, and in fact I'd say it's quite good for the most part. There's some graininess here and there, when I wanted to include something really cool but no better version existed. There's also the bits of rainbowing that you'll get in a homemade comp like this, but I've found that the average viewer doesn't even notice it most of the time. I'd recommend watching it on an old-school cathode ray tube television if possible, but a new TV that can be set to "normal" (as opposed to a "wide" screen) with some tweaks to the video settings should do just fine.

HERE'S JUST SOME OF WHAT YOU'LL GET!

--Ads for toy stores such as Toys R Us, Playworld, Childworld, Coronet, Lionel Kiddie City...

--Other local stores such as Korvette's, TSS, Two Guys, Woolworth and Woolco, May's, Harrow's, Nassau Farmer's Market (not Christmas but I stuck it on there anyway--see it on my YouTube channel here, or watch it below), Alexander's, Genovese, Ceaser's Bay Bazaar, Macy's and Arthur's, plus Dial Santa at 976-3636 (with Peter Billingsley before "A Christmas Story"), Mount Airy Lodge winter fun (70's and 80's versions), and so many more... Plus season's greetings from local TV station personalities and promos for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and WPIX's Yule Log... (Check out the Harrow's ad and a WABC promo on my YouTube channel here or watch right here, below the Nassau Farmers Market ad...)





--Ronco gadgets geared toward Christmas gift-giving, such as Mr. Microphone, the Potato Chip Machine, and the Record Vac!

--Familiar national ads such as several Coke "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" ads, "Holidays Were Made for Michelob" (with John Forsythe), Pepsi, Disney, 7Up, Union 76 (with Richard X. Slattery as Murph), McDonald's, Barbie, Underoos, Kodak, Hallmark, Oreo, Apple IIc, Little Debbie, Radio Shack, JC  Penney, Kmart, Ace Hardware, Burger King, Byrne Dairy, Hershey's, Wendy's, Post Pebbles Cereals, Jack LaLanne, Hess (toy trucks) and tons more...

--Familiar faces such as Suzanne Somers, Robert Klein, Willie Mays, Milton Berle, Bob Hope, Phil Rizzuto (dressed as Santa and giving out Cabbage Patch Kids!), Merlin Olsen, Ed Koch and many others, and a bunch of spots featuring the dulcet tones of Tom Carvel (Christmas Cookie Puss is naturally a favorite, but I especially love the Thanksgiving ad because it features Tom's voice synthesized as the turkey)...

If you're interested, email me at the address HUGO1000FACES at GMAIL dot COM