80's Commercials Vol. 325

These commercials aired on NBC on October 30th, 1981
1. TV Spot for "Time Bandits" (Even though this movie isn't perfect, I do like how it has all the midgets from the Star Wars trilogy together. And Sean Connery's brief cameo is legendary)
2. Duracell Batteries (A Halloween themed battery commercial!)
3. Sony Betamax (Who knew Albert Einstein looked so terrifying!)
4. Colombian Coffee
5. Promo for "NBC SportsWorld"
6. Promo for "Barbara Mandrell & The Mandrell Sisters" and "The Nashville Palace"
7. Promo for "Saturday Night Live"
8. Silhouette Romance Novels
9. Alberto VO5
10. Porcelana Medicated Fade Cream (LOL at "child-bearing years")
11. Topol (Or...stop smoking)
12. NBC's Movie Of The Week Commercial Bumper
13. Promo for "Born To Be Sold" (Baby Importers!)
14. Promo for "Miller & Company"
15. Channel 4 News Promo
16. Channel 4 News Update (Dan McDaniel...what a name!)
17. NBC's Movie Of The Week Commercial Bumper
18. Glad (With Tom Bosley!)
19. TV Spot for "Only When I Laugh" (Kevin Bacon sighting!)
20. Vaseline Intensive Care
21. Mr. Coffee (With Joe Dimaggio)
22. Promo for "CHiPs" (I had no idea that the "CHiPs" universe had supernatural elements) and "Death Of A Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story"
23. Absorbing Junior (Is that woman supposed to be his mom?)
24. TV Spot for "Halloween II"
25. Eveready (SAVE WITH THE CAT)
26. Playtex
27. "Halloween" End Credits
28. NBC's Movie Of The Week Commercial Bumper
29. Promo for "Ultra Quiz"
30. Red Lobster

[@MsLeahpet]

Thank you for your hard work putting these together! They are a fun escape!

[@AnJah]

Wow - I still have that black cat bank from the battery commercial!

[@feather031]

page 285 from the book "Live From New York": "There was one host who came on, he was drunk and senile. He kept going, 'Where's Gilda? When's Gilda showing up?' He was so arrogant; he basically just did a monologue. Donald Pleasence."

[@AnJah]

That beta max commercial is full of awesome, it's hilarious!

[@YodaPagoda]

A very timely set of commercials! I'm amazed that I remember as many of these commercials as I do. Time Bandits = Awesome! As far as I'm concerned, Tom Bosley (RIP) is still selling Glad products.

[@cynant2912]

Time Bandits!! That was a good movie!!

[@80sCommercialVault]

I'm sorry, this is the way I list them and it's not changing.

[@bull_honk]

I really want that Everready cat bank!

[@ghkillah1995]

Awesome, pure awesome

[@VelvetCyberpunk]

She was really popular in the early 80s. After Halloween was so successful she was everywhere. She seemed to drift away after A Fish Called Wanda.

[@JohnnyUtah15]

Sony wasn't the only producer of Betamax. Recording times and movie rentals were also factors. "...manufacturers divided themselves into two camps: On the Betamax side were Sony, Toshiba, Sanyo, NEC, Aiwa, and Pioneer. On the VHS side were JVC, Matsushita (Panasonic), Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Sharp, and Akai. For consumers, the most immediately obvious difference between the two formats was the recording length. Standard Betamax tapes lasted 60 minutes - not long enough to record a movie..."

[@jwgreek8606]

RIP Dan Miller

[@nkaio5]

I was too young to know the difference at the time, but why did VHS prevail over Beta? I've heard Beta was higher quality.

[@theflamelord]

God my mom has tonnes of those Silhouette books

[@Jeff98177]

The main reason Beta failed was because Sony wouldn't allow other companies to produce the Betamax, while VHS players were produced by several companies.

[@VelvetCyberpunk]

Also, Sony wouldn't allow porn on the Betamax. That was a huge reason it failed.

[@beckigreen]

Dan miller, the longtime anchor for WSMV,died unexpectedly,a few years ago.

[@schmootheonly]

Amazing, on tv these days you would never see teeth like the man selling toothpaste. Never mind on a toothpaste commercial!

[@cbecrad]

That Vaseline commercial drives me nuts. All those people, and nobody bothered to say that you're supposed to clap on the 2 and the 4 and not the 1 and the 3?

[@AIOctober]

I have to say, the design of that "Halloween II" TV spot is really creepy and effective, even for something so simple. Tut tut at that narration on the "Ultra Quiz" promo, though. x) "FROM THE COUNTRY WHO BROUGHT YOU SUSHI", it's okay guys, it's Japan. We all know what Japan is. You can say it.

[@IsiniaMosienko]

The reason VHS won the tape format war was because it was cheaper to make and had longer recording time. I agree that Betamax was the superior format as it gave extra lines of quality. While the first version of it was the same as a VHS, later on the Betamax were vastly improved as the resolution went from 350×480 (250 Lines) to 420×480 (300 Lines, Super Betamax, Betacam) to 700×480 (500 lines, Extended Definition Betamax) in it's last few years. Sadly, VHS only won because it was cheaper.

[@JohnnyUtah15]

Hey Joe, where you goin' with that cup of coffee in your hand -- Jimi Hendix

[@jwgreek8606]

NBC was Jamie Lee Curtis happy!

[@GenXtasy]

only when I laugh looks interesting. I may look it up

[@jareddicarlo7816]

The SNL episode they’re promoting is the infamous Halloween special where they had the punk band FEAR as musical guests, and the band proceeded to destroy the set.

[@80sCommercialVault]

It also never re-aired in syndication because of the graphic/violent nature of the sketches. I've also heard that Pleasance was a jerk to everyone because he thought he'd be working with the original SNL cast.

[@j.jsmallz912]

Thank you for existing. Thank you, oh so much1

[@DanZero77]

LOL Fade Cream.... just watch for the importers! After a little research that Ultra Quiz wouldn't seem out of place in today's television landscape.

[@VelvetCyberpunk]

The women in the Playtex bra commercial are wearing Mormon magic underwear. Creepy. :op

[@irrespondible]

To those below: Betamax failed because the improvements over VHS were meaningless to the casual users, the length was smaller (Sony limited it to 1 hour on the beginnings until the 80's, which was too late), it was expensive and the system was sold only by Sony for it's first decade of use (the system began in the 70s, but its third-party support came in the 80's) while JVC allowed other users as soon as they began. Even thought Betamax had a head start of a year, VHS started better and by the time Sony began to counter up (in the 80's, as mentione,d they allowed other companies to work on the system and allow recording length similar to VHS), their system only had 25% of the marketshare. Sony's mistake was thinking people would pay more for hi-def, while VHS was longer, more affordable and compatible. They got themselves fooled by U-Matic success, ignoring that not everybody will go with the pros on a limited budget.