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11/25/2004: The 1987 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Just in the nick of time, here’s a look back at the 1987 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I was actually at this one live, but my best memories of it are being painfully cold and poorly dressed. Though not as jam-packed with strange cool shit as some of the previous parades I’ve reviewed, this one isn’t without its charms: California Raisins, Marvel Comics, Clifton Davis, need I, say more? Two page review with an additional two page look at many of the commercials that aired during the parade, along with dozens of video clips. Enjoy! Happy Thanksgiving, all! I’m off to stuff mushroom and sleep.


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

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Discussion Thread: 127 comments

well i guess mushrooms do have a nice texture to them…it all makes sense…i think…

<3

Ghosted by heeloyd @ 11/27/2004 5:52 PM EST

Sometimes, you ain’t got mushroom up in there.
Now I will take all rightful punishment for making that joke.

Ghosted by kingklash @ 11/27/2004 6:12 PM EST

Hey Matt do you need/want anything else for your Christmas articles? Because if you want I can send you the X-Mas episode of the old Super Mario Brothers cartoon, The Night Before Cave Christmas. If you want it e-mail me at MetalWarriorsUnite@yahoo.com

Ghosted by Meat Popsicle @ 11/27/2004 8:36 PM EST

I really want the Playmobil calender this year. If anyone is interested, here’s a link to a few that I’ve found: http://www.utoypia.com/search.php There’s actually a variety to choose from.

I’m going to refrain from the "stuffing musshroom" jokes, only b/c I know I’ll get a little crazy and go off on some loony tangent, and we all know we don’t want that.

Kingklash, no particular commercial means Christmas to me, but I know that Santa is on his way when I hear "Carol of the Bells" being played. For some reason, that song conjures up everything warm and cocoa-filled for me. I’m actually kind of bummed that no one else has answered your question yet. I was interested to see what the survey… SAYS!

I think Grape Ape drinks Giant Ape Juice. It only makes sense. Magilla Gorilla only drinks orange juice, though. He’s picky like that.

"It’s a gor-il-lil-lil-lil-a!"

Ghosted by trajeal @ 11/27/2004 9:39 PM EST

I should mention that I don’t necessarily hate mushrooms, depnding upon the context. Love ‘em on pizza.

I’m actually enjoying a nice Jones Green Apple Soda right now. Yum yum. Of course, this is just after having enjoyed something not so green, and not so apple. Dook dook dook!

Ghosted by Nate @ 11/27/2004 9:46 PM EST

Mmmmm…mushrooms

Ghosted by Shroudie @ 11/28/2004 12:41 PM EST

You are a genius, mein freund.

Ghosted by steveo @ 11/28/2004 2:23 PM EST

Makes me almost want to actually watch one of those parades…someday. The reviews are better.

What’s with the stuffed mushrooms? Is this an east coast thing? I hadn’t heard of them until my Rhode Islandish friend complained all last Thursday that he was away at college and not eating his aunt’s stuffed mushrooms.

Ghosted by Mara @ 11/28/2004 2:36 PM EST

Makes me almost want to actually watch one of those parades…someday. The reviews are better.

What’s with the stuffed mushrooms? Is this an east coast thing? I hadn’t heard of them until my Rhode Islandish friend complained all last Thursday that he was away at college and not eating his aunt’s stuffed mushrooms.

Ghosted by Mara @ 11/28/2004 2:36 PM EST

Sorry about the double post. *chants to self* impatience is not a virtue, impatience is not…

Ghosted by Mara @ 11/28/2004 2:36 PM EST

Wow…just wow is all I have to say right now….

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 11/28/2004 10:44 PM EST

I have an Atari XE and a NES, I can tell you the Atari XE got played VERY rarely. Probably because we only had 2 games for it. After watching the commercial(which I don’t remember ever seeing before), I see the games we had came with the system. Flight Simulator 2 which SUCKED, I could never figure out how to play it, way to complicated for a 7 year old. Bug Hunt was pretty fun. We just had the system advertised, nothing aditional. I found the Atari XE in the attic last fall when we were cleaning and I brought it down. Me and my friends would play it after we got wasted, it was alright then. We haven’t played it in at least 8 months.

Ghosted by Fay @ 11/29/2004 3:55 AM EST

Just gotta thank you Matt for giving us these Thanksgiving Day reviews. They truly are f’n awesome!

Ghosted by J-Dog @ 11/29/2004 9:54 AM EST

Matt, you have done it again!!! Great review, and when I get home from work tonight, I’ll have to look at these ads!!!!!!! I’m at school right now, and I’m supposed to be reading the novel I picked up for a class last week.

So Jim Henson had his hand shoved in placed you don’t want to know about?????? And, you were there?! Awesome.

Ghosted by Allison @ 11/29/2004 10:19 AM EST

Sorry I’m late. Yeah that is the Marvel float that got me into my first euphoric, hunger induced (Werent allowed to eat until dinner. WHY!?)high when I was 9! THANKS MATT! :)

And yeah, what the heck was Robocop doing there? And I guess that Wolverine was the best at slinking away after losing a battle with Enchantress back then.

Panty waist.

Ghosted by gl2899 @ 11/29/2004 11:41 AM EST

Was Ataria really compairing a keyboard to ROB the robot. Robots are always cooler then keyboards…

Ghosted by LordSorrow @ 11/29/2004 12:22 PM EST

Actually marched in the 87 parade. We were a group of Boy Scouts that marched with a very stoned Ben Vereen after Reagan made his appearance.

Ah the memories.

Ghosted by Rich @ 11/29/2004 1:21 PM EST

Man, those Peanuts guys were kinda scary. I hate Barbie and the Rockers. Lousy Jem rip off and to anyone wondering, those "gay robots" are part of an Andrew Loyyd Webber show called "Starlight Express" which is about (get this) TRAINS!

Ghosted by The Dragonrider @ 11/29/2004 1:50 PM EST

I actually did a search for "Starlight Express." Despite the clip showcasing what looks like a miserable failure, this musical somehow is still going on. They even had two Ford commercials in Germany, thus proving that Germany is insane. I realize they love their Hasselhoff, but I draw the line and Starlight Express. You can see the commercials as well as performance clips here http://www.reallyuseful.com/shows/starlight/sights/Starlight+Express+video+clips/

Ghosted by Ed @ 11/30/2004 1:11 AM EST

It was Joe Bologna who played the dad on Rags to Riches.

Ghosted by Another Matt @ 11/30/2004 8:40 PM EST

Much applause for Matt…

Matt, thank you so much for the nod to the greatness of Jim Henson. Regarding him openly puppeteering Kermit, he didn’t like pretending the puppets were some independent creature (like a ventriloguist dummy saying "I’m going to sleep in my box now"), but I think he did like showing off how the Muppets were pulled off.

There was an episode of the Jim Henson hour where they showed the Muppeteers and how they did the show.

I was in Disney World (Disney World/Land specials I looked forward to, too) when they were filming Muppets in Walt Disney World. I got to watch them work. They were the funniest most creative people I’ve ever seen. I got to talk to Jim Henson (I think I said I was looking forward to seeing the TMNT movie), and then as he was walking away, I watched some guy bump into him.

I later saw them again and got his autograph. Frank Oz’s, too. What killed me later was I realized I had purchased a Empire Strikes Back poster earlier that day, and could have a Yoda signed Empire poster. I’m more than happy with the autograph’s I do have, though.

Anyway, thanks Matt for the hard work you do to keep all of us happy. I hope your Christmas season isn’t too stressful, and vacation will find you soon.

Does Robocop pay the power bills?

Ghosted by Darth Muppet @ 11/30/2004 10:53 PM EST

Wild stuff! That Marvel float was WEIRD to the extreme. The music being played during that whole surreal scene is, in fact, the main theme music from the Back To The Future movies — all of them.

Marvel must have gotten permission to use that music, because Back To The Future debuted in theaters in 1987, I think.

Keep up the good work!

Ghosted by Jennifer @ 11/30/2004 11:08 PM EST

Does ANYONE out there have a copy of this parade on tape? I am desperately trying to find it for a relative who was in one of the bands. Neither NBC or Macy’s has it that far back.

Can anyone help?

Ghosted by Thommy @ 12/01/2004 1:31 PM EST

Jennifer-

Back to the Future was released in 1985. Which would make hearing the music on the Marvel float even weirder for people because they’d already heard that music and associated it with the movie.

"Let’s see if you bastards can do 90."

Ghosted by Darth Muppet @ 12/01/2004 3:41 PM EST

Thommy,

Actually I think my family taped it since I marched in it. I may have a copy.

Ghosted by Rich @ 12/02/2004 3:43 PM EST

Rich,

If you have a copy, that is amazing! I have searched high and low.

Could you please email me (makesmovies@yahoo.com) so we can discuss the possibility of my getting a copy?

It would make the most incredible Christmas Gift for my relative who marched, but never saw the parade!

Thank you so much!

Ghosted by Thommy @ 12/02/2004 5:17 PM EST

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 25th, 2004 at 12:08 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.