70's Commercials Vol. 103

These commercials aired on NBC on July 29th, 1978
1. New Jersey Bank
2. Shop Rite
3. Schaefer Beer (With George Kennedy)
4. Polaroid Polavision (The guy in the plaid sport coat is Steve Guttenberg. Polavision was a proprietary silent Super 8 film format that was a huge commercial failure and was discontinued in 1979)
5. NewsCenter4 Ending
6. Promo for "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert"
7. SNL Cold Open (Left part of this in since it immediately featured a parody of Don Kirshner played by Paul Shaffer)
8. Schick Personal Touch Razor
9. U.S. Army
10. Kirin Beer
11. Faberge Organic Shampoo (With Joe Namath)
12. "Saturday Night Live" Commercial Bumper
13. Honda (With the voice of Burgess Meredith)
14. TV Spot for "The Driver" (A critical and commercial flop when released, this is now considered a cult classic and often cited as an influence on directors like Quentin Tarantino)
15. Wilkinson Twin Blade Razor Cartridges
16. Kodak Our Gang Movie Camera (Also a silent Super 8 movie camera)
17. "Saturday Night Live" Commercial Bumper
18. Marriott Essex House
19. Gatorade
20. Visa
21. Castrol Motor Oil
22. Revlon Flex Conditioner
23. "Saturday Night Live" Commercial Bumper
24. Volkswagen Rabbit Diesel
25. Ultra Brite Toothpaste
26. Woolite
27. Maybelline Super Shiny Lip Color
28. "Saturday Night Live" Commercial Bumper
29. RCA Music Service Offer
30. Levi's Womenswear
31. Toyota Celica
32. Brut 33 (With Joe Namath again)
33. TV Spot for "Foul Play" (Chevy Chase's first movie after he left SNL in late 1976 to pursue a film career, which was seen as a questionable choice at the time. "Foul Play" went on to be a success at the box office and earned Chase, Goldie Hawn and Dudley Moore Golden Globe nominations)
34. Kotex Light Days PantiLiners
35. Promo for "Sha Na Na!" (With Martha & The Vandellas)
36. Barrelhead Draft Root Beer
37. "Saturday Night Live" Commercial Bumper
38. East Wind Limousine Service Promotional Bumper
39. Promo for "Contract On Cherry Street"
40. TV Spot for "Eyes Of Laura Mars" (The original story and initial script treatment were written by John Carpenter, though he disowned the final shooting script rewritten by David Zelag Goodman. This was several months before the release of Carpenter's "Halloween")
41. Columbia Records at Korvettes (Billy Joel's "The Stranger" was a late 1977 release and Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness At The Edge Of Town" and Bob Dylan's "Street Legal" had just come out in June of '78)
42. WYNY 97.1 FM
43. Promo for "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert"
44. Windex (Steve Guttenberg can also be seen here at 16:48)
45. Vanish (If I ever meet a toilet bowl genie I'm setting that poor bastard free. What a miserable existence)
46. Tuscan Pop (Buddy Hackett speaking a foreign language was not on my bingo card)
47. 4C Iced Tea
48. "Saturday Night Live" Commercial Bumper
49. Kodak Handle (With Dick Van Dyke)
50. Dr Pepper (With the Harlem Globetrotters)
51. Comet (Nice New Yawk accent)
52. TV Spot for "Hooper"
53. WNBC Radio 66
54. Toyota Buck Stretching Days
55. Metric Education/U.S. Office Of Education PSA (We all know how this turned out)

[@yusakug]

Was only 1 when these aired, so always fascinated in this era, even if I have no nostalgic connection to it.

[@marymunkelwitz3917]

I love this era as well, and wasn’t born until 1983.

[@de3182]

I was born in 1970 and I remember the Dr Pepper commercial!

[@phillyradiogeek]

This must have aired during a rerun of SNL that featured Steve Martin debuting his song "King Tut," along with an opening number by The Blues Brothers (right after Paul Shaffer's Don Kurshner impression), and Martin and Gilda Radnor's famous dance sequence. Many people consider this the greatest single episode of SNL!

[@80sCommercialVault]

Yes, this was a repeat of that episode

[@3hooks781]

Ahhh...my favorite stuff. NYC metro broadcast content from the '75-'86 era! Thanks so much!!!

[@MyMelodyOfTheHeart]

New Jersey Bank- The animation style used in this commercial reminds me of the “Schoolhouse Rock” cartoons that I used to watch in grade school. 32. Brutt 33- Seeing how those antiperspirant can costumes that the people in this commercial are wearing were designed, I can imagine it would be one of the most uncomfortable experiences they ever had.

[@yusakug]

16:58 - This woman seems to be on the verge of a breakdown. Luckily the cartoon toilet genie appeared and…Wait, that’s probably a sign of a breakdown…

[@yusakug]

21:36 - All the cool kids back then understood the metric system.

[@DanZero77]

WNBC! I see what you did there with the "Rock Concert" promo! The silent Super 8 wars were heating up in '78 but so was the metric system. LOL! RIP Genovese & Korvettes.

[@TerrickTerran]

Wonder if Steve was a Stonecutter already when he made those commercials. Always enjoy the 70s commercials.

[@TTrigg]

Schaefer Beer-when having more than just one,you shouldn't get back in the plane Polaroid Polarvision-Carey Mahoney was a wedding photographer before he joined the police academy Newscenter 4 ending-turn out the lights before leaving the studio Schick Personal Touch Razor-with Shelley Smith(r.i.p) The Driver-one of the inspirations for the Driver video game series Wilkinson Twin Blade Razor Cartridges-she seems like a supervillain Foul Play-always beware the dwarf... Sha Na Na-love the band member sneaking into the background when the dance number was almost over Contract On Cherry Street-whatever you do,do not make Frank Sinatra angry Eyes Of Laura Mars-good film..poster creeped me out 4C Iced Tea Mix-it makes you see double..or triple Saturday Night Live commercial bumper-Steve Martin is thinking "finally these cameras can stop following me around.." Hooper-this could almost be considered as the Bandit's origin story

[@yusakug]

17:30 - if you play this backwards, does Buddy Hackett say Satanic messages?

[@wmbrown6]

NBC staff announcer voiceovers: 6. Bill Rippe 35. Roger Tuttle 39. Mel Brandt 41. ending tag by Arthur Gary 43. Arthur Gary

[@toonswap8511]

I had no idea Buddy Hacket was so fluent in Yiddish.

[@leroylowe5921]

Is that what that was. I thought it sounded like a strange dialect of German (which it is).

[@backgroundmovieguy4193]

It seems Steve Guttenberg did a lot of commercial work before films like Diner and Police Academy!

[@mikethinks]

Well that whole metric system sure took off....

[@80sCommercialVault]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act The Metric Conversion Act of 1975 signed into law by Gerald Ford established a board known as the United States Metric Board that was responsible for implementing the metric system across various industries and educate the general populace about converting to the metric system. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Metric_Board Ronald Reagan abolished the United States Metric Board in 1982.

[@andrejg4136]

I personally like using metric when I cook but I totally understand when I need to keep to imperial units for friends and family.

[@den-r4l]

It's incredible that Dick Van Dyke is still alive in 2024

[@wmbrown6]

Wonder if he has the same genes as Keith Richards.