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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 on 11/24/2005. E-mail me!



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!!!

Chestnuts roasted by schroeder @ 11/24/2005 1:54 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Kristen @ 11/24/2005 2:02 PM

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

Chestnuts roasted by Ed @ 11/24/2005 2:08 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by jazzy @ 11/24/2005 2:18 PM

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

Chestnuts roasted by jazzy @ 11/24/2005 2:19 PM

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…

Chestnuts roasted by D-Roc @ 11/24/2005 2:42 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 2:47 PM

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!

Chestnuts roasted by schroeder @ 11/24/2005 2:53 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Elfinlady @ 11/24/2005 3:04 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by squee4242 @ 11/24/2005 3:20 PM

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

Chestnuts roasted by Rob @ 11/24/2005 3:46 PM

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

Chestnuts roasted by Jabo @ 11/24/2005 3:49 PM

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!

Chestnuts roasted by IHAQ @ 11/24/2005 4:32 PM

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

Chestnuts roasted by Frostor @ 11/24/2005 4:39 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 5:05 PM

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…

Chestnuts roasted by phunqsauce @ 11/24/2005 5:50 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Invader Norbert @ 11/24/2005 5:54 PM

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?

Chestnuts roasted by D-Roc @ 11/24/2005 6:13 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Kittycatgirl @ 11/24/2005 7:26 PM

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…

Chestnuts roasted by Double G @ 11/24/2005 8:18 PM

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. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Chris @ 11/24/2005 8:36 PM

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."

Chestnuts roasted by The Manimal @ 11/24/2005 8:58 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by Muppet Baby @ 11/24/2005 9:05 PM

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.

Chestnuts roasted by dohopoki @ 11/24/2005 9:34 PM

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 24th, 2005 at 12:43 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.