80's Commercials Vol. 1021

These commercials aired on USA on October 31st, 1988
1. "Miami Vice" will not be seen tonight...
2. USA Special Presentation Bumper
3. "The Fat Albert Halloween Special" Intro
4. "The Adventures Of Fat Albert" Commercial Bumper
5. General Foods Commercial Bumper
6. Alpha Bits (With free Kids Edition Pictionary)
7. Sunkist Fun Fruits
8. The Real Ghostbusters Firehouse Playset
9. The Real Ghostbusters Granny Gross
10. TV Spot for "The Land Before Time" (I was four when this came out and it's probably my most vivid early theater going experience. These trailers are somewhat infamous for featuring deleted scenes as over 10 minutes of finished animation was removed from the final film before it was released to theaters never to be seen again)
11. "The Adventures Of Fat Albert" Commercial Bumpers
12. Sunkist Fun Fruits Spooky Fruit and Space Shapes (??? The skeleton and alien look like fun people, those laughing trees are the real nightmare fuel)
13. Super Golden Crisp
14. WDSU 6 News Promo (GROAN)
15. The Wall Street Journal (Doc Brown's house?)
16. "The Adventures Of Fat Albert" Commercial Bumpers
17. California Raisins Commercial Bumper
18. California Raisins (With Ray Charles)
19. Smurf Magic Berries Cereal
20. The Real Ghostbusters Action Figures and Vehicles
21. Kenner Commercial Bumper
22. "E.T." on Home Video
23. Promo for "Dance Party USA"
24. "The Adventures Of Fat Albert" Commercial Bumper
25. "The Fat Albert Halloween Special" End Credits (Another PSA with some helpful advice from disgraced public figure and convicted felon Bill Cosby. BTW the irrational fears that people have over Halloween candy being tampered with by strangers either through poison or having razor blades or sharp objects put inside of it are urban myths and not based on any real cases: en.wikipedia.o... The only known cases of candy tampering have actually involved members of immediate family and not strangers)

[@jnerdsblog]

So apparently 1988 is the sweet spot for memory unlockage for me. Love this channel so much.

[@matthewvandenbranden7629]

Same I was 9 🎉

[@feverspell]

I remember my dad taking me to see The Land Before Time -- when Littlefoot's mom died, I cried for the rest of the day. Now that my own mom has passed away, I can't even think of that movie without crying.

[@80sCommercialVault]

Sorry for your loss. Even just hearing a bit of the score by James Horner makes me pretty emotional. It’s definitely a heavy film.

[@DanZero77]

Yes that was the perfect thumbnail for this one - everything else was normal and tame compared to those trees!!!! About the message at the end, the 80s were my prime trick or treating years and every year it was something like that, yet nothing really happened at all!

[@yusakug]

2:27 - RIP composer James Horner. Wish I could still hear your music in movies today.

[@MyMelodyOfTheHeart]

Alpha Bits- Seeing how that Kid’s Pictionary game is set up in this commercial, it seems like it would be just as easy to play the game with just a pad of paper and coming up with the drawing ideas yourself. California Raisins- Ray Charles translates beautifully into claymation like that in this commercial. Smurf Magic Berries Cereal- Seeing how the cereal’s Magic Star marshmallows brought a machine to life, I wonder what else they’re magically capable of doing.

[@darktetsuya]

I was never a fan of raisins but I did always enjoy their commercials. I do remember having a ton of the Real Ghostbusters toys, they were quite fun! on the candy thing for whatever reason they updated it to be about THC candy (which I'm not sure why, at the prices they want for it I can't imagine *anyone* using it as trick-or-treat fodder.) go figure that original story was more urban legend than anything...

[@WilfredCthulu]

I never realized just how dystopian and all controlling "General foods corporation" really sounds until hearing it said out loud like that lol. It sounds like some Robocop or Wall-e world type of stuff you know?

[@80sCommercialVault]

So like...what kind of foods do you sell? Oh you know...uh...general...foods.

[@yusakug]

I bet Terry Wood got pretty tired of that joke…

[@jnerdsblog]

7:14 when you account for inflation, holy heck owning a movie was an INVESTMENT.

[@AIOctober]

Even for a presumed VHS recording of a cable network, this quality is *immaculate*. The fact that almost all of the commercials feel like what an average viewer of this channel may pick as commercials that define what's presented here makes this a big candidate for one of the, if not the, best example of one of these uploads in the first place. Great find!

[@BleachFan9891]

That thumbnail is pure nightmare fuel

[@yusakug]

6:45 - Huh. Never thought Egon would just swipe a car. Maybe Venkman…

[@80sCommercialVault]

In the cartoon Janine drove a VW Beetle. I think the toy was probably supposed to represent a haunted version of her car.

[@optigrabbingit]

These aired on Monday, 10/31/88 at 7 PM ET, preempting “Miami Vice” that usually aired weeknights at 7 PM on USA. “Mini Munsters” followed at 7:30 PM

[@80sCommercialVault]

Thanks!

[@ScratStitch]

Why would bees need to steal honey?

[@blackmesacake5361]

They need to bring back Smurf Magic Berries cereal

[@yusakug]

7:44 - Remember, kids, listen to Bill Cosby. He only wants what’s best for you. Take the word of the guy who unleashed Leonard Part 6 onto the world. (And yes, sadly in 88, that was the worst thing he did. Ah, simple times…)

[@yusakug]

0:02 - Fat Albert instead of Miami Vice? Not so special to me, man.

[@mrmonty86]

This recording had to be from Cox Cable in New Orleans because WDSU is an NBC affiliate in my hometown.

[@RealisticFishing]

AWESOME!

[@markdoublea84]

2:27 I have seen some of the Land Before Time films myself.

[@WWJD85]

Bill Cosby makes this whole commerical block scary,

[@TTrigg]

No Miami Vice tonight..? Damn 😡 WDSU News Promo-Who would host his very own talk show coming this fall? (Everyone points to Terry) Dance Party USA-Kelly Ripa appeared on this every now and then as a dancer The Adventures Of Fat Albert-Bill at the very end:"Now if you all will excuse me,i've got a grown-up Halloween party to attend..plenty of drinks!"

[@mightyfilm]

I was always amazed that Arthur and the Berenstain Bears basically ripped off the Fat Albert Halloween Special's plot. The whole "it's not a witch, it's a lonely old woman who actually likes Trick or Treaters" bit. And I always hated the Real Ghostbusters Fright Features toys. Those guys rarely got scared, and they certainly didn't have Tex Avery style wild takes until that awful Slimer cartoon. Also "I've been gooped?" Who wrote that copy? They can't even get the line right.

[@80sCommercialVault]

Kenner could not legally use the word Slime in the Real Ghostbusters line because Mattel first trademarked it for the Masters Of The Universe line in 1984...well before Kenner acquired the license to produce Ghostbusters toys. This is why they sold it as Ecto-Plazm and not Slime.

[@mightyfilm]

@@80sCommercialVault I get it, but why awkwardly reference the movie line if they can't legally use it?

[@80sCommercialVault]

That was just their creative workaround, reference the line but change the word to something generic. It may sound bad but they had to sell the stuff somehow. I've remarked before that Mattel's move to trademark slime was probably done intentionally to stop the competition from using it for the eventual Ghostbusters toys. Here you can see the ad for the MOTU Slime Pit playset using the exact line from Ghostbusters: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iWmbeKBjiNl4maM

[@mightyfilm]

@@80sCommercialVault Must've been a pain in the ass, since they named the cartoon version of the spud Slimer.