80's Commercials Vol. 489

These commercials aired on NBC on December 15th, 1983
1. Sears
2. Promo for "The Yellow Rose"
3. Promo for "NBC Nightly News"
4. Cella
5. WESH News Bumper
6. TV Spot for "Gorky Park"
7. Dristan
8. "Buffalo Bill" Commercial Bumper
9. TV Spot for "The Man Who Loved Women" (Burt Reynolds perfecting his patented sleazeball attire for this movie)
10. TV Spot for "Christine" (Not one of Carpenter or Stephen King's best)
11. United Way
12. TV Spot for "D.C. Cab" (Mr. T AND Gary Busey?!? How have I not seen this?)
13. Levi's Action Slacks
14. "Buffalo Bill" End Credits (Pretty good cast for a show nobody remembers)
15. Promo for "The Tonight Show"
16. BC News Digest
a. Canadian Prime Minister and President Reagan meet to discuss Détente (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%A9... Détente was not supported by the Reagan administration)
b. Four Major League Baseball player suspensions for drug use (I know what you're all thinking, but they were actually suspended for using cocaine)
c. Police fire tear gas at demonstrators in Poland
d. Christmas at the White House
17. Scotty's (I love the stereotypical Scottish mascot)
18. Curtis Mathis Home Entertainment Centers (Shameless R2-D2 ripoff at the end)
19. Jordache
20. Promo for "The Love Boat"
21. Promo for "Two Of A Kind" (The plot for this sounds absolutely insane: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_of_... Unsurprisingly, it was heavily panned by critics)
22. 7up (With Geoffrey Holder)
23. "Hill Street Blues" Commercial Bumper
24. TV Spot for "The Man Who Loved Women"
25. Sofia (With Sofia Loren)
26. Energizer
27. Atari 2600 Sesame Street Library
28. TV Spot for "D.C. Cab"
29. Burger King (With Elizabeth Shue)
30. "Hill Street Blues" Commercial Bumper
31. WESH News Update
32. Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
33. WESH News Update

[@yusakug]

The volumes with lots of movie commercials are always my favorites. Love seeing promos for cult films like D.C. Cab, and the just plain weird like Two of a Kind. Thanks so much!

[@jason3fc]

Man that Buffalo Bill bumper title card, looks just like Night Court! Same exact font and color.

[@chrislang9442]

Sheesh, I wish *I* was Chance, romancing an early 80's Cybill Shepherd.

[@zachhoran]

Two of a Kind is perhaps best known for giving Olivia Newton-John her last US top 10 hit, Twist of Fate. Buffalo Bill did air in reruns on A&E for a while after its cancellation.

[@JohnnyUtah15]

During the Dristan commercial, I had song playing in my head: Aneka - Japanese Boy The voiceover guy in the United Way commercial reminds me of Wayne Rogers but I'm not sure it's his voice.

[@thrasher6499]

i love dc cab and christine best movies ever

[@TTrigg]

Christine-still wonder how they pulled off the Moochie death scene..why the heck couldnt he have found a way to get on the roof lol D.C Cab-wished they couldve made a sequel..

[@Farzee49]

The movie "D.C Cab" got my attention as a kid because my dad drove a cab and those yellow cabs, like you found in NYC, weren't driven in the D.C. area at all so...as kids we always made a big deal of the movie commercial being a big ol' lie! lol

[@miketroncin749]

The maker is Checker automotive. They Stopped making them in '82

[@Farzee49]

Mike Troncin Oh ok. I've never seen one in real life. They didn't have them in DC which is a pretty cosmopolitan city.

[@miketroncin749]

+MsFarzee me either, they just used to do a lot of advertising in national geographic in the early 60s.. They had two door and station wagon models too.

[@80sCommercialVault]

A friend of mine in college owned a blue '64, they're incredibly roomy on the inside.

[@Farzee49]

80sCommercialVault They look roomy!

[@alskndlaskndal]

Wow, how did I miss DC Cab? That looks like a classic 80s movie. In other news, a Trudeau is PM in Canada and a Republican former B-list celebrity is the next President, so I guess history repeats itself.

[@hrtvfan2870]

Regarding the "Two of a Kind" movie; while doing nowhere near as well as Grease (one of the first in a string of flops for John Travolta between Urban Cowboy and Pulp Fiction and {along with 1980's Xanadu} completely destroying the big-screen career of Olivia Newton-John); it did provide Newton-John with her last top 10 hit in "Twist of Fate".

[@JohnnyUtah15]

Between "Xanadu" and "Two of a Kind", all I can recall are the songs.

[@BrotherHerbert]

Love the entry for "Fake Laughter" in the BUFFALO BILL credits - one of the few single-camera shows to openly acknowledge its laugh track. Is it just me or is December 15th a bit late to be lighting the WH Christmas tree? The VO for the United Way commercial is by Mal Sharpe, and the VO in the Atari spot is William Daniels (aka KITT).

[@jwgreek8606]

Patrick Foran and aka Dr. Craig on St. Elsewhere and my generation Mr. Feeny on Boy Meets World

[@rsdaddy141]

You won't get any action in Levi's Action Pants!!!

[@Farzee49]

Stephen King's novel Christine's '58 Plymouth Fury showed up in subsequent stories. I dunno how many but it appeared in his book "11/22/63" and maybe one other story. I enjoyed reading "11/22/63" immensely but never read "Christine". I might pick up soon...the books are way better than the movies usually.

[@miketroncin749]

King was really good up to the late 80's , then I kinda lost interest around "the tommyknockers", just too out there. But his old stuff like pet cemetery, shining, Christine, some of his short stories were very absorbing

[@Farzee49]

Mike Troncin I'm SO easily spooked now that I do not know if I can read his really scary stuff.

[@DanZero77]

From NBC's crappy 1983 season to movies I never even heard of because they weren't all that good. BE THERE!

[@80sCommercialVault]

Seems like December was where a lot of movies were sent to die back then, not the blockbuster movie season it is today.

[@ClassicJunk88]

this is so great

[@DrewberTravels]

12:20 (from wikipedia) Columbia landed on Runway 17 at Edwards Air Force Base on December 8, 1983, at 3:47 pm PST, having completed 166 orbits and travelled 4.3 million miles (6.9×106 km) over the course of its mission. Right before landing, two of the orbiter's three auxiliary power units caught fire due to a hydrazine leak, but the orbiter nonetheless landed successfully. Columbia was ferried back to KSC on December 15. The leak was later discovered after it had burned itself out and caused major damage to the compartment. The shuttle was then sent off for an extensive renovation and upgrade program to bring it up to date with the newer Challenger orbiter as well as the upcoming Discovery and Atlantis. As a result, Columbia would not fly at all during 1984-85.

[@georgejones2501]

1:30 - Gorky Park, the 1983 thriller movie where William Hurt plays a Moscow detective on the trail of a bizarre triple homicide involving a New York cop, a sable tycoon and the tycoon's girlfriend.

[@RandomAccessDreams]

Do my ears detect a young Phil Hartman doing narration for the United Way ad?

[@JohnnyUtah15]

Okay, this seems about right. Wasn't sure about my guess but yours sounds more likely after listening to it more often.

[@jwgreek8606]

Kusoge at the time he was the announcer for the pop n rocker game