Vintage Ads - 1984-04-14 - Saturday Supercade & Fat Albert - CBS Saturday Morning

No ads for video games on Saturday Supercade? Some ad planner dropped the ball. Loved Supercade as a kid... it's absolute dreck as an adult. People who wrote cartoons in the early 80s hated children and were actively trying to keep them stupid. Anyway, here's all the crap they were trying to sell us.

[@takemyshoesoff3350]

Great commercials from a great decade

[@skingerskanger]

My childhood during the fourth grade..

[@kewanw16]

CBS Superstar Saturday and STARCADE .

[@gspendlove]

The cave-dwelling alien in the C3POs commercial was based on an unused concept by artist Ron Cobb. He was supposed to be a patron of the Mos Eisley cantina. Disney+ is rumored to have a series in the works based on his life story. Who is he? Why is he hiding in that cave? Does Threepio bring him breakfast every morning? We'll find out next spring! Meanwhile, the other alien in the Reese's Pieces commercial is there because they were not allowed to have E.T. in their commercials.

[@Madbandit77]

I wouldn't say that the writers on those cartoons hated kids. It was just the broadcast networks' standards and practices were pretty strict when it came to content.

[@DanJackson1977]

I do think TV animation had gotten locked into a rut by the 80s... the need to crank out new, cheap content and the fact that kids will watch a anything with colorful characters, no matter the quality, led to a glut of rushed, samey cartoons that all used the same 5 plots, character types that got recycled over and over again (Hanna Barberra esp.), badly revived golden age characters used to make filler shows usually by giving that classic character a kid sidekick, and deregulation that allowed toy companies to make cartoons just to sell kids toys.

[@DanJackson1977]

I do have some nostalgia for this stuff, as it's what I was raised on, but I think, in general, the 90s saved TV animation.

[@Madbandit77]

​@@DanJackson1977 True. When "The Simpsons" came along, it gave animated TV a well-deserved creative kick in the pants by being mature-themed and honest.

[@LaDracul]

Do the puppets in that Spaghetti-Os commercial legally qualify as Muppets? I can't tell...

[@DanJackson1977]

It's influenced by them.. probably not an official muppet but could be wrong. There were a lot of muppet copycats around this time... some better than others. ALF is definitely inspired by the Muppets... and I think Henson was interested in buying the character at one point.

[@LaDracul]

@@DanJackson1977 That's what I'm thinking, although that purple one looks close.

[@evanthomas4468]

Jaleel White at the 1:12mark

[@peteharwan553]

Wow, this video has the exact same segment, but starts a few minutes before and ends at the 7 minute mark of your video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fGragJ2CbtOYfbc