80's Commercials Vol. 1051

These commercials aired on CBS on January 26th, 1980
1. "We Will Return After These Messages" Commercial Bumper
2. Cheerios
3. Star Wars Action Figures (0:51 I like how Greedo and Walrus Man are depicted like they're middle school bullies, with Obi-Wan serving as the vice principal that scares them off before they can steal Han Solo's lunch money. The action figures featured here were from the second wave of toys that Kenner released in 1978. Also notable is the inclusion of the original handsome and debonair "small head" Han Solo figure, which was eventually replaced by the notoriously ugly "big head" Han Solo in later waves: i.imgur.com/rJ...)
4. "We Will Return After These Messages" Commercial Bumper
5. "In The News" Commercial Bumper (Featuring Mighty Mouse. I guess maybe these segments were originally preceded by bumpers like this, but this is the first example that I've encountered)
6. "In The News" Intro (That weird sound effect was mixed too high here...or the announcers audio was mixed too low. Either way, a weird mistake!)
7. Three Musketeers Commercial Bumper (Also the first time I've seen a product sponsor for an "In The News" segment)
8. Three Musketeers
9. "In The News" The Draft (And you can sign up for selective service ♫ AT THE POST OFFICE ♫ Sorry, I can't get the song from Vol. 1049 out of my head, please send help)
10. Promo for "The Chisholms" (This was a short-lived Western TV series that followed a miniseries in 1979. The actress here is Rosemary Harris, who went on to play Aunt May in the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man" films)
11. "Annie" (This was for the original Broadway run at the Alvin Theatre but by this point no longer featured the original cast. I believe that the actress playing Annie at this point was Sarah Jessica Parker but I can't confirm that's her in this commercial)
12. Promo for "The Muppet Show"
13. "We Will Return After These Messages" Commercial Bumpers
14. Nestle Quik
15. Kellogg's Stick Up For Breakfast Contest
16. Star Wars Imperial Troop Transporter (This is considered the first "Expanded Universe" Star Wars toy...created entirely by Kenner and not depicted onscreen in the original trilogy. Eventually this transporter appeared in season one of "The Mandalorian" in 2019)
17. Darci Cover Girl Doll (Kenner's attempt at a Barbie type fashion doll. Also that ♫ Darci, cover girl Darci ♫ jingle will now be stuck in my head...along with the Post Office song. With actress Leah Ayres)
18. "We Will Return After These Messages" Commercial Bumpers
19. DC Super Heroes Mini Comic Books in Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles (It's so bizarre to see the cereal offer come BEFORE the actual meat of the commercial...maybe that format hadn't been worked out yet?)
20. Crest (Designed/animated by Marvel artist Herb Trimpe)
21. Star Wars Millennium Falcon Vehicle and Action Figures (And here you can see they're using the ugly "big head" Han Solo that became standard in the line going forward. Thankfully the later iterations of his character for Empire and Jedi had much better headsculpts)
22. Hershey's Chocolate Syrup (With Peter Billingsly as "Messy Marvin")
23. "We Will Return After These Messages" Commercial Bumper
24. "The Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Show" End Credits
25. Boy Scouts Of America PSA (With Hank Aaron

[@yusakug]

7:40 - I love how the kid is right there, but has the dog try to explain what’s going on first…

[@davidwages9176]

So cool to hear Christopher Glenn and that tinkling “In The News” theme again! There’s a very good chance I watched these exact commercials in 1980. I never missed Bugs Bunny on Saturday morning.

[@toonswap8511]

I was between 4 and 5 years old at this time yet I remember most of these commercials and bumpers. What a fantastic time to be a child. It's amazing what stays buried in your mind over 40 years since the last time you saw something. I even remembered the song from the Star Wars Millenium Falcon commercial.

[@Tr0nzoid]

This was around the time I discovered Star Wars toys. The marketing of the Kenner line had not yet shifted to "The Empire Strikes Back" which would dominate it in a few months.

[@yusakug]

While the In the News segment is informative, you have to imagine many kids tuned out during them, and waited for the next toy commercial. I mean, who wants to learn about the Draft, when you can bug your parents for Walrus Man!

[@MyMelodyOfTheHeart]

2.Cheerios- Interesting concept with the stick person and the dresser drawers in the animated portions of this commercial. 14. Nestle Quik- Interesting to note that the Quik Bunny is depicted at the size of a real rabbit in early commercials like this one, whereas in later commercials, he’s depicted as the same size of a human being.

[@WilfredCthulu]

"Walrus man?" lol

[@sjdrifter72]

Yes, Walrus Man. At least it's better than Ponda Baba, the stupid sounding name later given by Lucasfilm. I grew up with these action figures and still call him Walrus Man to this day. Same thing with Hammerhead and Snaggletooth, instead of Momaw Nadon And Zutton.

[@80sCommercialVault]

Most of the Cantina aliens were not given their current canon names until the late 80's when West End Games released its Star Wars roleplaying game. I believe Walrus Man, Hammerhead, Snaggletooth etc are what the characters were referred to as on set, so in some ways they are more accurate than the names provided later.

[@WilfredCthulu]

Interesting

[@DanZero77]

Some rare CBS Saturday Morning stuff here, not much online from this early in the 80s! Plus WCBS! Yes I saw Selective Service and remembered Vol. 1049! Since President Carter reinstated the SS system later in July of 1980 that's why those commercials were on years later.

[@cowmix]

OK. HTF is the quality of this recording and transfer so amazing?

[@WWJD85]

Greedo ran because he knew Han would shoot first!

[@TTrigg]

Star Wars Action Figures-wouldve been funny if they reenacted the fates of Greedo and Walrusman from the film(shot first by Han and getting his arm sliced off respectively) In The News Commercial Bumper-I saw a few others similar to this in some YT videos where Bugs Bunny, Popeye,Fat Albert and Jason(of Star Command) would go "and here's another interesting story that's In The News!" Darci Cover Girl Doll-with Leah Ayres Star Wars Millennium Falcon-love how the kid seemingly gave Chewie a voice("Nice landing,Han Solo!")

[@yusakug]

4:22 - This Annie’s a fraud, saying “wow” instead of leaping lizards.

[@Toastymarshmallow80]

Those Star Wars figures are probably worth quite a bit of money now. Especially if they are in mint condition.

[@80sCommercialVault]

The most valuable figure in that ad is the small head Han Solo, as it was only produced from 78-79 and never re-released on ESB and ROTJ cardbacks once the big headed version replaced it. The other figures are around $30-$50 loose and in near mint condition. If you mean mint on card, each figure ranges from a few hundred bucks to thousands.

[@Toastymarshmallow80]

@@80sCommercialVault Geez, I can only imagine how much the the millennium falcon is worth

[@80sCommercialVault]

The most valuable vintage Star Wars vehicle is the Sonic Landspeeder, available only through JC Penney. A mint in box example of this went for $18,950 in 2019: www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/235857/STAR-WARS-SONIC-CONTROLLED-LAND-SPEEDER-AFA-85-NM

[@Toastymarshmallow80]

@@80sCommercialVault Oh wow 😮