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11/24/2005: The 1989 Parade & HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

And here you thought I forgot about you. I totally did not — I just had zero time and hated every second of having zero time, but the review is done, at the zero hour. Get your Turkey Day Hooray on with the two page review of the 1989 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, starring ALF! The Joker! Spider-Man! Ronald McDonald! MELBA MOORE! Yayyyayy!

Fessing up, the review was originally intended to be much longer, but time wasn’t on my side, and it got to the point tonight of either having to trim the turkey fat or do my big blogpology post about how woe is me and how I wasn’t going to provide a parade review this year. I think you’d rather have the two pages. They’re a good two pages, full of fun and video clips, and did I mention ALF? I’ve included a few downloads of commercials that aired during the parade in the review, but here’s a few more…

Fruit of the Loom, starring giant fruit people.
A Back To The Future Part 2 ad, starring smaller Marty people.
The Typhoon Hovercraft toy, you so wish you had one.
The “Mickey Look,” a toy that looks like Mickey!
Lost ‘N Founds dolls, which were almost vaguely popular!

I don’t know how many of you are around this Thanksgiving, but if you’re here, have a good one, and if you live somewhere that isn’t celebrating anything today, whooooops. I’m thankful for many things this year, and that very much includes the lot of you who choose to make this site a stop, to read and to join in the discussions, to have and to hold, yadda. You’re all great, unless it’s the wine and coffee and need for sleep talking. I leave you with this:

It’s gonna be a good Thanksgiving.


Posted by Matt. E-mail me!

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Discussion Thread: 132 comments

Well, my first parade review, and it was everything I hoped it would be.

I was actually embarrassed while watching the Loony Tunes "rap." They should be ashamed.

Thank you for including the New Kids–Donnie Wahlberg looks like he feels like a total ass up there. At least he went on to redeem himself with bit movie parts.

To Akbar, I had the "Batdance" cassingle. Loooooooved it.

"Stop the press, who is that?"
"Vicky Vale", "Vicky Vale"
"I like…"
BATMAN, BATMAN, BATMAN

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Ghosted by schroeder @ 11/24/2005 1:54 PM EST

Well, I don’t know if you’re were really seriously serious about knowing who Fred Travalena is, but here you go, anyway:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0871239/

No wonder they had him doing so many voice impersonations. Wow. That’s quite a string of credits. I’ve been listening to this guy’s voice for my entire childhood and had no idea.

P.S. Thank you, thank you, thank you for this website. I heart nostalgia.

P.P.S. Somehow, I can envision the "Thank you, Easter Bunny" kids and the Poppin’ Fresh crescent roll family with the ornery grandpa running in (after they all finish their own little TV spots) to join the Loom Fruits in savoring their Thanksgiving feast. Don’t they all seem like they belong in the same house? Must have been the same ad agency.

Ghosted by Kristen @ 11/24/2005 2:02 PM EST

A Macy’s Parade review? NOW it’s Thanksgiving. Hope everyone has a good one!

Ghosted by Ed @ 11/24/2005 2:08 PM EST

Wow, after the incident with the M&Ms float or whatever it was taking out a street light this morning, I wonder what the fate of the Macy’s parade will be. (Note for the people complaining about too many broadway acts: I’ve found in recent years that CBS does waaaay more coverage of the actual parade than NBC does. NBC usually focuses on the dancing and crap.)

And now for a little rant: My boyfriend’s mom called us at 10:00 last night and asked if we’d like to go over to their house after we had dinner here. Now, I pretty much hate this woman for reasons I won’t go into (but let’s just say she is fucking crazy). But I agreed to go with my boyfriend so I could spend time with him. Well today his brother called while we were IN THE MIDDLE OF DINNER, and asked if he wanted to go over earlier. His brother mentioned that it would be "just family" and I was somehow no longer invited, even though I was invited as recently as 14 hours ago. I was very hurt, but after my boyfriend promising me last night that he wouldn’t go unless I could, I was sure he’d turn them down.

Well, guess where he is now? After I worked for six hours to make the perfect family dinner… on his first thanksgiving spent at my house… on a day when we are supposed to put up our decorations and eat pie and watch TV together… He’s at his mom’s house. Without me. The witch fucking snubbed me and my boyfriend still wanted to go over there.

It wouldn’t hurt so bad if I didn’t know that every holiday for the rest of my life was going to have some kind of conflict because of this awful woman. And to top it all off, our planned dinner tomorrow with my boyfriend’s father and stepmother, both of whom I actually really like, was cancelled due to everyone getting the flu.

Ghosted by jazzy @ 11/24/2005 2:18 PM EST

Um.. I didn’t mean to be such a downer. I hope everyone else is having a better thanksgiving than I am.

Ghosted by jazzy @ 11/24/2005 2:19 PM EST

Fred Travalena must be related to fellow voice over actor Wally Wingert.

Ghosted by ME @ 11/24/2005 2:39 PM EST

Happy Thanksgiving to all on X-E!! JAZZY- That’s pretty low for your Boyfriend to do that to you. Reluctantly, I’m stuck home with the flu myself. I got to wait untill my girlfriend gets home to chow down on some leftovers. For now, a frozen dinner. Dear God, this sucks…

Ghosted by D-Roc @ 11/24/2005 2:42 PM EST

Well, I was gonna mention the M&M incident today, but it seems that i’ve been beaten to it tenfold.

That’s what I get for sleeping in, I guess.

And WHEN is the Charlie Brown Special on tonight?? 8? 9? Est???

Here’s a poll for later when you’re done gorging yourselves: What was on the Thanksgiving Menu for tonight/last night/whenever you read this??

I’ll post something later.

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 2:47 PM EST

jazzy-

as someone who’s been through this before…I’m gonna go all Dr. Phil on you sweetie.

i understand that you’re upset, but even if his mom is really that crazy, she is still his mom. if this is your first thanksgiving together, you’ve been together for less than a year. he’s known his mom his whole life.

ya, it’s rude to dis-invite you, but if you dont get along, you’re probably better off not going in the first place; it would probably create more drama than has already happened. and i bet your man promised not to go without you when you WERE invited, right? maybe the wrath he’s gonna get from you is nothing compared to what he’ll get from her…

for the sake of the relationship that you plan to maintain for the rest of your life, dont make him choose between you. be the better person (which doesnt seem to hard to do if she is a nut-job). if she knows how pissed you are, she wins right? dont let her upset you, and take it easy on your man–it’s not easy for him to be stuck in the middle of this sort of thing.

come on, its Thanksgiving, and Charlie Brown is on tonight! make yourself a drink, and revel in the fact that your boyfriend is probably miserable right now, the food you cooked is probably way better than his mom’s, AND there’s a frickin DOG SHOW on!

Ghosted by schroeder @ 11/24/2005 2:53 PM EST

Jazzy, I feel your pain. Last Thanksgiving, my MIL (normally not this horrible) went psycho on me. She said some horrible things to me. Accusing me of wanting to kill my son horrible. Thankfully, I am not required to go to her house this Thanksgiving, but we will be seeing her after Christmas. Thankfully, this year we will be staying in a hotel. After last year’s debacle, it is understood that we are not welcome to stay overnight in each other’s houses.

You are probably better off not going to your boyfriend’s mom’s house. Hopefully he will come home soon.

Ghosted by Elfinlady @ 11/24/2005 3:04 PM EST

Oh no, that’s terrible (M&M incident). I really hope those kids are okay.
My fam’s out of town, so today’s nothing but a strange midweek day off for me. No dinner cooking at my house…I’m going in a few minutes to help the Cub Scouts serve it up for local seniors and homeless. (I can’t take credit for true altruism, I have to do some volunteer hours for school and I thought this could be fun.) I’ll probably gate crash a friend’s family festivities later on just so I don’t feel deprived. Hope everyone has a delicious day.

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 11/24/2005 3:20 PM EST

where are the smurfs.. where are the smurfs!!!!!!!

Ghosted by Rob @ 11/24/2005 3:46 PM EST

Well once again great job on the Macy’s ‘89 Parade Review Matt! I know myself and others, were wondering and waiting for it! Being Canadian, I celebrated my TG last month…but either way I say Happy Thanksgiving to all my American XE family members. Hope you all have a good one.

Invader Norbert: A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will be on tonight at 8 on ABC (after that they’ll be showing Finding Nemo…go figure :D )

Jazzy: That really sucks, I mean hell I know I’m a bit of a mommas boy, but I’d never pull that kinda shit on my girlfriend..if i couldn’t bring her…I wouldn’t go. But that’s just my opinion :)

Anyhow fellow XE’ers, again have a Happy Thanksgiving…and don’t eat too much! :D

Ghosted by Jabo @ 11/24/2005 3:49 PM EST

Oh man, great review, I really enjoy seeing these parade, I wish I was lucky enough to have them be a part of my childhood.
This year I went to the x-mas parade in Toronto and I got to see a Mc Donald’s float with Grimace the Hamburgler and Birdie I was so excited and shocked to see them, I didn’t think McDs had them anymore! I also saw the Kool-aid man, and I couldn’t help but think of X-E, it was cool to see him, I was so so close to yelling out OH YEAH! but I was interrupted by a kid on a nearing float yelling YOU ROCK KOOL-MAN, YOU ROCK!!!
On my train ride home some girls that were in the parade were handing out new chocolate from Cadburys that haven’t even come out yet, its chocolate with pop rocks in them!!!! I had such a blast!

Oh and I remember that lost and found commercial so well, it almost brought a tear to my eye I had so much excitement!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone that celebrating!

Ghosted by IHAQ @ 11/24/2005 4:32 PM EST

Even though this Joker lacked the homicidal qualities so necessary for the character, I have to admit that the makeup was pretty good.

Ghosted by Frostor @ 11/24/2005 4:39 PM EST

NOW I was able to watch the clips, and boy…that was one for the ages. 1989 was NOT a good year for the Looney Tunes. Mel Blanc died, that Bugs Balloon not appearing in the parade, that Godawful Song, even "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" had more disney characters than Warner Bros ones!

And what on earth was that grayish body suit man supposed to be, the Silver Surfer? He looked more like a walking Lightpost if you ask me.

And woo! 8pm I will be watching! I haven’t seen it in a few years either, so It’ll be refreshing.

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 5:05 PM EST

Willard Scott doing his Hulk impression in the marvel section was quite disturbing. Why do I get the impression thats not the first time he’s done that to somebody…the silver surfer costume was rather freaky too…

Ghosted by phunqsauce @ 11/24/2005 5:50 PM EST

I forgot to bring this up, but this is blog #700!!!!!!!! Woo! We’ve come a long way, Baby.

Ok, Now I’ll answer my own poll:

-Turkey (which is gettin me tispy as im typing this)
-Stuffed mushrooms
-mashed potatoes
-sweet potatoes
-corn
-Homemade stuffing (yum!)
-some crap with green beans & onions
-the usual can-shaped Cranberry Sauce

How bout Y’all? Don’t be suprised if you don’t see me for the next 36 hours…turkey & black friday and all that.

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 5:54 PM EST

The Marvel float video was funny as hell! What’s with Magneto and Dare Devil? Did they have some sort of homo-erotic relationship I didn’t know about?

Ghosted by D-Roc @ 11/24/2005 6:13 PM EST

As most holidays are, Thanksgiving was the SuX0R. Went to my boyfriend’s mother’s house for Thanksgiving and it was terrible. I am *very* heat sensitive, and the house had to be atleast 85 – 90 degrees in there. The heat made me so sick I had to sit outside on the front porch while everyone else ate and they "aired" the house out. I felt so queasy afterwards that I still couldnt bring myself to eat any of the food they had.

Heres what was offered:

-mashed squash (yuk
-mashed potatoes (no salt? no gravy?)
-sweet potatoes (boiled and cutup)
-sausage stuffing (yuk)
-turkey (made with mayo all over it and stuffed in the cavity. smelled sour)
-two pies, one chocolate, the other pumpkin made by the grandmother who can’t cook anymore – she forgot the sugar in both
-potato rolls (edible)
-brown sugar ham (I brought this)

Last year I brought a ton of food and no one ate any of it so I only opted to haul the ham this year. :( Oh well. I came home and stuffed myself with ham til I was about to explode and played Xbox. Blegh. Holidays sux sometimes.

Ghosted by Kittycatgirl @ 11/24/2005 7:26 PM EST

D-roc:

LOL! seriously. Everyone on that float had some sort of "thing" going on together. I didn’t know being a super hero required posing in the most homoerotic positions possible!? who knew. ok, chocolate cake, chocolate cream pie, apple pie, schnecken, chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin pie, cheesecake, coffee, tea, beer, milk and wine have been finished… time for Charlie Brown…

Ghosted by Double G @ 11/24/2005 8:18 PM EST

Well Just caught the end of Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. :( Don’t think I’ve seen it before. Yes I know, I’m deprived haha. Actually got up this year to see the parade. Had a little laugh about that lamp post. My parents collect M&M stuff.

Probably see a review of the parade in ten years or so. But looking back at these reviews they sure don’t have good parades anymore or something.

Well didn’t eat too much. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I did. :)

Ghosted by Chris @ 11/24/2005 8:36 PM EST

Makes me long for the old Comedy Central MST3K marathon. *singing*
"We gather together to watch cheesy movies" something something "on Thanksgiving Day. It’s Mystery Science (inhale) Theater 3000, it’s 30 straight hours and it’s called Turkey Day."

Ghosted by The Manimal @ 11/24/2005 8:58 PM EST

OK, I’ll admit it- It made me ridiculously happy to see the New Kids on the Block in this parade review. They still freakin’ rule in my mind!

Also- is anyone else’s link to page 2 of the review broken? I cannot get to page 2 :( Damn.

Ghosted by Muppet Baby @ 11/24/2005 9:05 PM EST

Well my thanksgiving sucked. We arrived late and everyone else left early. I put actual effort into my list (see above) for once with the most detail I could fit on the small piece of paper. Want a twist ending? The list I drew requested cash.

Ghosted by dohopoki @ 11/24/2005 9:34 PM EST

First of all and as always, Happy Thanksgiving to all bloggers who are celebrating it today (and to the Canadians, who enjoyed their turkey last month). I hope you had a wonderful day, with lots of turkey, parades…and, more importantly, friends and family.

After everything that’s happened this year, from family troubles to work problems to the hurricanes, tsunamis, and earthquakes that destroyed people and property, it’s nice to know there are things you can still be thankful for…like Matt and X-Entertainment. As with the 1986 and 1987 parades, I likely only saw the 1989 parade in passing. I was a devotee of the Philadelphia parade throughout the 80s and into the early 90s. I watched the middle part of the Macy’s parade today, but turned over the remote control to my bored dad around 11 and thus missed the M&M balloon incident.

I was grateful to be able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, sisters, brother, and my younger sister’s baby son. Mom has Thanksgiving dinner down to a science after 26 years of feeding a six-person family, so we were treated to mouth-watering turkey, real (not boxed) stuffing, sweet potatoes with marshmallow, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, orange-glazed carrots, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and chocolate chip bar cookies.

I didn’t get to see "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving" tonight, as I left my parents’ house before it came on…but I DID get to see it yesterday, as I rented it a few days ago.

Ghosted by starwenn @ 11/24/2005 9:36 PM EST

I saw Charlie Brown Thanksgiving earlier for the first time and years, while it was still good and funny, wasn’t there some whole story that Snoopy catered the dinner as Joe Cool Catering and it got cut out because of syndication? Or am I thinking of some other special?

Ghosted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 9:53 PM EST

starwenn:
sounds like a heavenly Turkey Day dinner, yum!

Finally read the article, I remember this parade sooo well! I was thrilled about Alf being a host and was glued to the set. They really don’t do the parades up right like they used to, this was riveting stuff! Willard Scott was a great MC, the people they have nowadays are so annoying.

Ghosted by Kittycatgirl @ 11/24/2005 10:09 PM EST

I remember that joker clip.. I was mighty disappointed as well seeing it wasn’t Nicholson. as for Fred Travalena he was basically a cut rate Rich Little celeb impersonator. I was hoping deep down that this Joker would do something crazy like use green nerve gas or something. alas this was just as deadly.. the singing being enough to drive a knife into my ears.

Ghosted by Mike @ 11/24/2005 11:10 PM EST

Happy Thanksgiving to my X-tended family!!

Too much food, not enough time to eat it = stummy ache.

In the new issue of Toyfare (#101) there’s no article by Matt, but in those little cartoony-type things, one of them has the word Squee in it!! So, I guess Squee got a shout-out in Toyfare!! whoa.

Why is it that all the Charlie Brown Specials are only a half-hour long, but seemed sooo much longer when I was a kid?

Ghosted by kidneyboy @ 11/24/2005 11:15 PM EST

Willard Scott was on Vh1 recently on the "I love the holidays" special.The parade today was good.I liked the new ballons though,when my daughter saw the Dora ballon she went nuts! She didn’t have the same excitement for the Barbie float. I did catch a glimpe of the incident on CBS but they were showing the fallen lampost,appereantly the people who were injured left the hospital as of now so they are ok.

On another topic:I got the Tyco typhoon on X-mas 89′ and I remember it fondly. Man that was the shit. On the 25th I took it to the lake and I was being envied. Thanks again for a great memory Matt.

Ghosted by Felix @ 11/24/2005 11:17 PM EST

Fred Travalena! Master Impressionist….but you wouldn’t know it watching that parade skit.

http://www.fredtravalena.com/index01.html

Isn’t the blonde cohost from A Current Affair these days?

Ghosted by RedBaron @ 11/24/2005 11:25 PM EST

So in the bonus area there is the McDonald’s Little Mermaid commercial…funny thing…I still have my Flounder toy and we still put it on the tree.

Ghosted by Katie @ 11/24/2005 11:40 PM EST

Hee, kidneyboy. Actually, "Squee" is the name of a character from Jhonen Vasquez’s comic Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, and later his own set of comics. The phrase "squee" is just sort of a sound effect of joy or fear or what-have-you. The Squee character is a sort of hyper-terrified nancy that I identified with, so when I needed a nickname back at Scout camp I picked it, then spent the rest of the week explaining "It’s like squeeze without the zee".

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 11/24/2005 11:51 PM EST

yeah, it was the sound effect of a monkey, actually, that I saw. But, it still made me think of you, so I thought I would share it!

Ghosted by kidneyboy @ 11/25/2005 12:03 PM EST

Hey!! I liked it too!!!

Ghosted by BrettDaveed @ 11/25/2005 12:39 PM EST

Invader Norbert: I’m going to admit that I’m a bit of a Peanuts "fanatic" so I’m here with the info you’re looking for: The Peanuts special you’re thinking of with Snoopy having Joe Cool Catering is: Is This Goodbye, Charlie Brown? in which Linus and Lucy have to move away because their father got a new job. At one point in the episode, they have a going away party. They bring in Joe Cool Catering…and much like the Thanksgiving special. Snoopy sets up a table, with chairs (but not as comically) And all the food that’s served ends up being dog food and dog biscuits (the gravy bowl even has water in it to moisten up the food) Hope I was able to help clear things up…if there’s anymore Peanuts related questions from anyone…I’ll try to answer or help the best i can :)

Ghosted by Jabo @ 11/25/2005 12:47 PM EST

In case anyone is hanging on my drama like a bad soap opera (unlikely, I know) I’d just like to say that the boyfriend and I made up after he got home. I think the whole thing may have been a misunderstanding. We ended up watching Charlie Brown together and then decorated the tree for a nice cozy ending to the day.

Here’s our menu from dinner (which I cooked all by myself! From scratch! w00t!)

-Turkey, of course, with gravy
-Cornbread dressing (my late grandmother’s recipe)
-Squash casserole (also my grandma’s recipe)
-Green beans
-Sweet potatoes, baked and slathered with butter
-Potato rolls
-Mysterious cranberry cylinder sauce from a can
-Pumpkin, pecan, and cherry pie (made by Sara Lee, not by me!)

Ghosted by jazzy @ 11/25/2005 12:55 PM EST

Thanksgiving is over and now onto Christmas! It’s Black Friday and I’m getting my ass over to Wal-Mart to hoard some cheap toys for Toys for Tots. Maybe a DVD recorder for myself.

So does anyone know what the big ticket toy item is going to be this year?

Ghosted by Mystie @ 11/25/2005 1:02 AM EST

I would think it’d be the Xbox 360. :)

Ghosted by Julie @ 11/25/2005 2:27 AM EST

my mom is always a big ticket item, every year!@ I pimp that bitch out like it’s goin’ outta style, yo.

Brrr….I’m cold. How ’bout you, Gozer?

Ghosted by kidneyboy @ 11/25/2005 2:53 AM EST

That’s sweet, kidney :)
I’m so not looking forward to working tomorrow…why didn’t they just make Thanksgiving the last Friday of the damn month? I should be watching the recorded Chuckie Brown for the seasonality but I’m a little too ineebed with turkey and stuff that could conceivably have a turkey on the label for that kind of drollness, so I’m catching up this week’s Lost instead…lots of cute reunions there. Now that that’s done I’m going to rewatch the finale of Rome, which was epic and awesome even if almost anticlimactic after last week. Of course we saw everything that was coming from miles away but man did they weave those threads! I’m hearing March 2007 for season two but I haven’t seen it substantiated. They’re apparently playing fast and loose with history (Cleo should have been around for this business, I hear) but we should be seeing a lot of Anthony and Octavian whenever it comes back, which I think is great.

Ghosted by squee4242 @ 11/25/2005 2:59 AM EST

The first Cleo I thought of was Miss Cleo…

Ghosted by dohopoki @ 11/25/2005 4:08 AM EST

Apparently Fred Travelina is not a man to be taken lightly.

P.S. According to his website, he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Presumably for his groundbreaking performance as The Joker.

Ghosted by mtrox @ 11/25/2005 8:46 AM EST

YO JOE!

Why am I still up =\

Ghosted by dohopoki @ 11/25/2005 9:44 AM EST

Rest In Peace Mister Miyagi.

Ghosted by Double G @ 11/25/2005 11:13 AM EST

If anyone wants to see the M&M balloon accident as captured by home video, its up on the wcbs website.

http://wcbstv.com/

Ghosted by GarrisonSkunk @ 11/25/2005 11:39 AM EST

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Click on my name for a link to that Jones Soda taste test I was talking about in the last post.

Ghosted by Chris Martin @ 11/25/2005 11:48 AM EST

kidneyboy: Yeah, it’s fairly frickin’ freezing. We had Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle’s house yesterday who happen to only live a mile from my apartment, so I decided to just walk over rather than drive. It took me like half an hour to unthaw. Luckily I won’t have to be outside today other than walking to my car and back.

Ghosted by Gozer @ 11/25/2005 12:05 PM EST

Gozer:

You should come down to Texas. It’s about 63 degrees today. :)

Ghosted by Cameron T. @ 11/25/2005 12:14 PM EST

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