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11/23/2006: The 1993 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade!

Happy Thanksgiving, folks! This year has really flown by — tough to imagine that come tomorrow, we’re officially in the Christmas season and totally allowed to cover everything we own in blinking lights and baubles. I’m excited, but I’m also very busy today, so let’s make this quick. Yes, there’s a new Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade review. It’s true, I didn’t let you down. It’s also true that approximately six people read the site on Thanksgiving, but whatever. Finished writing this baby at like 5 in the freakin’ morning, and didn’t have enough gas to copyedit until just a few minutes ago.

It’s the 1993 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade! And what a disaster it was! See the drama unfold as criminally powerful winds rip balloons to shreds! There are a lot of words, pictures and videos in this two page feature, which I hope you’ll enjoy, because the fact that I stayed up so late to write it spells a very cranky Matt for the remainder of the holiday. Hey, Aunt Mary? I am going to punch you in the tits and stab you if you take just one more slice of turkey with your god damned fingers.

Use the comments space to talk about your Thanksgiving adventures, thoughts on this year’s parade, Black Friday bullshit and/or what have you. Have a good one!

I! I am one of the sad yet happy few reading today. We’re watching Elf right now. And after that article I really feel the need to dig out my “We’re Back! A Dinosaur Story” SNES game and whip some 32-bit dinosaur ass.

I bought the Special Edition thingy of Home Alone last night. Cant wait to watch it. I should dig out my TalkBoy. And have some fun.

I don’t have time to read the review until Thanksgiving is actually over, because of my crazy adventures. I have enough to talk about said adventures though.

This year, my father has decided to experiment with venison. My father also, apparently, has no taste buds and put so much seasoning on it that I am choking on the smell. It’s covering the lovely turkey smell, also.

Tomorrow I’m going to see “A Christmas Carol” at a local theater. No shopping for me, I prefer to hold that part of the Christmas season off as much as possible.

Just watched Christmas vacation yesterday and it reminded me of you. Keep being cool 8).

I’m one of the few reading today, because we eat at home with no guests (and early - dinner means “large formal lunch” in the south, yo).

Personally I thought today’s parade was pretty amazing. I watch on CBS, since NBC only seems to cover the Broadway crap these days, and… wow. They sent poor Neil Patrick Harris out into the cold and rain to interview bored parade spectators, and the hosts, who were in a heated tent, were literally taunting the poor guy. “Oh gee, I bet you wish you were up here! Oh, but you’re out enjoying the elements!” The funniest part of the whole thing was definitely when he had to interview a kid who kept screaming “HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!” no matter what he asked, and continued screaming that in the background even after the camera had changed over to another shot. Gold, pure gold.

I knew I’d find a parade review, and now that I’ve read it, I can head off to my aunt’s house in pleasure.

haha, neil patrick harris just isn’t winning at all lately. did anyone see the conan sketch the other night where conan said that clay aiken “began furiously dougie-ing his howser” upon hearing that Neil Patrick Harris was gay? holy crap, i stopped breathing.

…I woke up this morning violently ill with a stomach virus, only to find my mother had it too. Happy Thanksgiving indeed.
I was even going to go to the parade with my bff, but the weather sucked anyway.

Annnnnd tomorrow I get to go to work. At the mall. And deal with awful customers.

I’m not having a terribly good week. But I wish all of you and yours the best.

Yay parade article! I haven’t checked out the videos yet, but I totally will- very exciting. Thanks, Matt!
I’m going to Grandma’s again this year, except only about a third of the family is expected to be there- yes.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
(Feel better, Denise!)

Count me in on those reading today. I’m not even getting out of my pajamas, I’m one of the “eat at home with no guests” people. More turkey and pineapple stuffing for me! W00t!

Wow, I actually remember that Home Alone 2 commercial.. it’s been a while haha. I never watched the Macy’s Day Parades(mostly because I’m canadian) but they look very extravagant.

This year the family won’t be having Thanksgiving until 4pm instead of the traditional noon meal. So, I am one of the six people in the universe using the Internet right now and wanted to say that I was thrilled to see the annual Macy’s review! It’s amazing how many bits & pieces of these parades are still buried in my memory. That Woody Woodpecker balloon is one of the ones I always associate with the Macy’s parade. Thanksgiving just hasn’t been the same since they retired him.
1993 had to have been a year when I started losing interest in the parades, too… and the balloons were becoming more and more about movie tie-ins or advertising mascots (remember the year of the Ask Jeeves balloon?). As Homer Simpson once said “If they start building a balloon for every flash-in-the-pan cartoon character, you’ll turn the parade into a farce!”
Thanks for the great article, I am now in the Thanksgiving spirit. Now to watch my recording of the Macy’s parade that aired today… and fast forward through the boring stuff.

Great review Matt, Those were the good old days of thanksgiving parades. The days when it wasnt obligatory to have some flavour of the month pop star on every single float.

Oh crap, I just remembered why I don’t remember the ‘93 parade… eesh. Let’s just say that was a VERY bad Thanksgiving in my house.

But this year it’s a very good one! I just switched our table over from the Thanksgiving setting to our Christmas one, with red tablecloth and lots of candles. I love it

First of all, I’d like to extend my annual Happy Thanksgiving to all bloggers, and to Canadian bloggers who had their turkey last month. For the rest of you, I hope you at least get to enjoy your day.

I saw about two seconds of the parade on CBS this morning before my sister and I drove down to my mom and stepdad’s house in southern Cape May County, which is where I’m typing this from. Considering my stepdad usually kicks me off his TV before I can see the full parade and what I did see was very, very wet, maybe it was just as well.

I wouldn’t have seen this particular parade - or any parade at all - in 1993. By that point, my mother’d had enough with the local cable company’s high rates and what she percieved to be her family’s overly intense viewing habits and had the cable turned off. It wouldn’t be turned back on until fall 2001.

Aw, my little nephew just came up, looking for his Granpa. He’s too cute. He’s not feeling well, though, according to his nana. And my brother just came up to see what I was doing. He wasn’t all that impressed. He, Dad, and my cousin have been glued to Madden something-or-other on the PS2 all day.

My parents’ small house is full of people. 12 family and reletives are going to sit down in two hours to turkey, real (not boxed or bagged) stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, carrots, rolls, pearl onions, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce.

Hey, this is the first Thanksgiving Day Parade I ever saw! I specifically remember the Sonic The Hedgehog balloon ripping apart, but that’s it. Jesus, I was I was in FIRST GRADE back in 1993! I feel old.

I also remember seeing “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story” the day after Thanksgiving. That was fun.

And kudos to you, Matt, for reviewing something from the 1990’s. Now I can finally wax nostaglia about something you’ve reviewed on your site. You seem to skip a few years every year. So, does that mean you’ll do the 1998 parade next year? Cuz, I wouldn’t have a problem with that.

I remember getting gitty and gluing myself to the tube when they mentioned bart simpson. I was pissed and I growled at anyone thinking about changing the channel. I still am, but back then I was a severe simpsons freak. So that was awesome for me and one of the highlights of the day. I remember seeing bart several years in a row and being mad and confused when I did not see him again. I’ll now take a shower, happy thanksgiving everybody!!

The Raffi video was the best one in the series; those kids obviously did not look like they wanted to be there.

I do recall that Izzy guy from the Atlanta Olympics. It was generally an attempt to gather money from people to buy crap with him on it. That dog from the 1992 Barcelona games was better.

Happy Thankgiving everyone. If you have the unfortunate task of meeting up with relatives this year try not to beat them.

it’s good to hear from Matt again. I work at McDonald’s 4p.m. to midnight tomorrow, so I hope it isn’t too bad. It’s down the street from a Target, so it might be busy(of course, there’s a Burger King right next to it; I’d hate to be one of the people working there). After dinner today I can start preparing the Christmas decorations. I want to start early because we at my house have an unfortuante habit of starting late on the night of December 23rd. Happy Thanksgiving to all the bloggers out there! Count your blessings!

I had one of those game tables advertised at the bottom of your article. It was decent. Flipping from one thing to another was sort of irritating although I no longer remember anything about that process. It kicked ass for air hockey, but was lousy for pool because it was so small, but I was lousy at pool anyway so I didn’t know the difference until later.

And yes I don’t even have to watch it, I remember that irritating Home Alone 2 vhs commercial with the singing. I’m not playing it because I don’t want to remember the lyrics.

Ahahahahaha. Good times. Thanks for making the effort, this made my Thanksgiving. Enjoy yourself!

I HAVE to know what books those dragons came from. They look SO cool! It cant be Dragontales… thats a crappy PBS kids cartoon with dopey looking lizards. These are some seriously cool dragons here. I would have flipped if I had seen that “live”. I remember watching the parade and the big hooplah over the Sonic balloon (was a HUGE sonic fan and was super excited about his big appearance in floatable balloon form) but had tuned out by the time the dragons came up.

Anyone know what books they are from? Thanks
Happy Turkey Day to all!!! Great article Matt.

Holy crap, I remember mosto f those ads, especially the ones for the FP Tournament Table!

Count me in who also saw “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story” in the theaters.

Denise, sorry to hear about you and your stomach virus. I have to work at both of my jobs tomorrow, for a grand total of 14 hours!! 4:30am-1:30pm at KB, and then 5-10 at CVS. So I’d have to go to bed…now. I win.

I don’t remember which Thanksgiving Parade I saw first, but this one seems oddly familiar. I remember most of those balloons, including Spider-man. And I haven’t watched the parade in a good 3 or so years, because I’ve been asleep through them (today I woke up at 1:30pm!)

I do remember Izzy, and I remember the one-shot cartoon promoting him airing only once I think in 1996 on Cartoon Network. I believe it was about Izzy trying to get to the olympics and crossing over to our world from his own world of Torch World by earning the 5 rings in the Olympics logo, but some villains try to stop him because they don’t know what will happen if he succeeds, such as believing that Torch World will blow up. I have no idea if he succeeds, because I remember only watching half of it!

I just had thanksgiving dinner, so I’m both full, and buzzed on Tryptophan. So here’s my poll: Since Charlie Brown Thanksgiving already came on monday, and I don’t have the dvd for it, what should I watch? I already saw the Garfield one…On Halloween, so that one’s fresh in my mind.

Oh man, that 3-in-one tournament table commercial appears about 87 times on this old tape of Christmas specials I have, and I didn’t even have to watch it, because I have it memorized.

There’s several other Thanksgiving themed eps, but not wholesale, like this one. Enjoy

I’m in Canada, so we had our Thanksgiving a few weeks ago…nevertheless, I am certainly enjoying watching football on Thursday!

I hope everyone (to whom it applies) is having a great Thanksgiving, and everyone else is having just a plan great Thursday!

Happy Turkey day Americans!! I tried to watch the Macy’s parade on TV and my roomates vetoed it! Damn them….at least I have this 93 edition to read about instead- thanks Matt!

Ah, it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without a Macy’s Parade review, and this is without a doubt the funniest one yet. ‘93 was so hilariously awful. ‘Twas not a good year for the parade, and especially the balloons. The rate of destroyed balloons had to have been at least 1 per minute.

Hope your Turkey Day’s going/has gone well, and I look forward to (hopefully) seeing the parade review tradition continue next year.

Today just didn’t have the feel of Thanksgiving…the year is just going by so fast.

Thanks Matt, you really made my day…now I can go to work early, very early mind you, tomorrow at Target and deal with all the rude people, nagging and annoying kids…ahhh the holidays…

I must have eaten a box a day of the Triples cereal, and I think, if memory serves me, when I was quite young I participated in one of those mall taste test panels of the cereal.

I loved the Fosters home for imaginary friends float today!!! it was AWESOME!!!!!!!! I especially loved the Blue puppet they had becaue the guys arm controlleing him could be seen in several shots.

And how about that Cingular Go phone commercial? The Christmas Story one? OMG! I was laughing so hard!

I had to work on Thanksgiving so I tried to timer-record the parade.
But, when I came home I found out that it didn’t record due to a power-outage!

If someone here has a recording of it, please, please help me. It would really save my Thanksgiving if someone, anyone were to send me a copy.

This one’s one of my favorites, mainly because 1993 was one of my most fondly-remembered Macy’s Parades. Yes, I remember those Cotton commercials being on EVERY SINGLE BREAK and they were TERRIBLE.

But Bart Simpson, hey! Though that was his final year in the parade. :( I waited patiently for his appearance in the 1994 parade, but got hosed.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Thanks Matt for your hard work and Happy Thanksgiving to you sir.

Great article! I remember the Sonic balloon being mentioned in the 10th anniversary booklet included with Sonic Adventure 2, Finally I get to see the footage! Thanks and happy gravy day!

Hey Matt, this is my first time posting on your blog but I’ve been a long time fan of your site and your articles. Just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for the great Macy’s article!

Lol…you know how Tripto what ever that crap is in turkey that makes you sleepy? Well when an 8 month old 7 pound Shih Tzu puppy eats a nice little mound of turkey, it works triple time on her! Poor baby is zonked out with her head in a sneaker!

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all you Americans. Jesus, the colour picture of Ronald McDonald is even more terrifying: May god have mercy on my soul

Also worth mentioning: the Fisher Price Tournament Table ad. That aired so many times in the early 90’s that I can go up to anybody my age and breathily shout “ONE MORE GAME!” and they’ll get exactly what it means.

Okay it’s sad that I know this, but Judge Reinhold wasn’t in Beethoven’s 2nd, he was in Beethoven’s 3rd and 4th. Charles Grodin was in the first two Beethoven movies. I have the Beethoven boxed set. *shamefully hangs head*

Yo DJ Lisas,
I was just about to say the same thing about Judge Reinhold and Charles Grodin. No shame here, my friend.
Thanks for the great article, Matt. Happy holidays to all.

Matt, for what it’s worth, this parade review was one of the shining moments of an otherwise yawn-worthy day. After dinner, my father-in-law’s girlfriend’s family took up all the seating in front of the TV in the living room and promptly fell asleep, not that I could have watched TV because they were using the satellite for the “mood music”. That left one place for me to sit at the table where my husband and his family were locked in a board game. All I could do for 4 hours (no exaggeration) was watch people play Risk. I managed to sneak into the room where the computer was for a few minutes, and I went to the site praying for a Macy’s review to return my sanity. It was there. I couldn’t watch the clips there (due to lack of plugins), and for some reason my going into the room drew a lot of attention to me and everyone kept coming in to see what I was doing and then lingering over my shoulder (which I hate), but I’m safe and sound at home and ready to see all the morbidly entertaining clips. God bless you, Matt!

Happy Thanksgiving all (somewhat late)!
Thank the Force it’s over and I’m back in Brooklyn.
Bartending on the biggest drinking night of the year and then taking a train as soon as you get off work really ruins the holiday spirit. My usually 20 customers a night bar somehow had three fights break out in front of it last night. Aye!

Matt, I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your staying up until the crack of dawn to finish your review…you’ve brought this reader a lot of joy over the past few years…I can’t wait for the Christmas countdown to begin!

Am I the only one that LIKES the broadway stuff? Sure, some of them are lame (Chorus Line, I’m looking in your direction), but you can’t deny that this morning’s performance of “Always look on the bright side of life” from Monty Python’s “Spamalot” made you smile…

As for the Broadway stuff, speaking specifically about the parades of old and not so much about recent years, part of the problem was that all of the Broadway performances took place in the same, bare spot, and the performances were generally the longest “skits” in the parade. Some years, they’d even do Broadway medleys that lasted a solid 15 minutes. I think Monty Python would get a pass, though.

Didn’t get to see the parade today, but I saw some clips on the news — looks like the rain made it another banner year.

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone so quickly (I found a spider ring and some rubber bats lying around today).
For all of you Canadians who are feeling the “No-Thanksgiving Here Blues”, I gave you a tribute towards the bottom of the last thread.

And now, big thanks to Matt for another excellent parade review worthy of PARADE. Loved the “Do the Bartman” reference. Yeah, that girl on the “Baby Beluga” segment was pretty funny but the close-up girl ACTUALLY YAWNS THEN LOOKS AT HER SHOES! Classic. Also, it was interesting to see your fatigue/anger seep through (especially on that one costumed kid. Thanks for toning it down.):)

I know I am fighting last week’s battle but why do they show the PEANUTS specials but no Garfield’s??? Wouldn’t the GARFIELD THANKSGIVING make more sense than Charlie Brown vs. a bully? Especially when one considers the fact that Garfield is a much hotter commodity (with the movies and all) than PEANUTS (no disrespect intended). Your thoughts…

Manimal: Most won’t notice the edit, but both the original and edited versions of “that line” are just references to the squirrel suit ghost scene from The Shining. In that context, it’s a little less offensive, but I got a couple of e-mails about it and agreed that the original line wasn’t worth pushing on people who didn’t get the reference.

Yeah, I can’t believe Thanksgiving is over, either. This year has flown. I’m tempted to give into Black Friday temptations, but the thought of getting up at 7 AM to do that gives me a backache.

As for the Garfield specials, I’m with you. Garfield is pretty huge again thanks to those movies; at least, he’s huge enough to warrant airing a special that half the potential audience already knows and loves/loved anyway. Maybe they’ll surprise us come Christmas.

Sorry to post again so soon, but I just finished watching the NBC promo and all I can say is that Harry Weston sure delivered a lot of babies for being a PEDIATRICIAN.

Ahhhh, fair enough.
I’ve only seen THE SHINING once so I didn’t get that one.
As to the Garfield situation, we can dream…

Despite the rain, the balloons all seemed to be intact today. It was nice seeing balloons of pretty much all “A”-list cartoons characters this year, including a new version of the classic “Flying Ace” Snoopy balloon. I do miss the “classic” Garfield balloon, but the new one holding Pooky is pretty cool, at least they didn’t make a balloon of creepy CGI movie Garfield.

Matt thanks for capping off my Thanksgiving on a high note. I swear this place has become a holiday tradition for me. From the Halloween Countdown to the impending arrival of Knacks and Kuse, this site is the perfect compliment to my holidays.
Speaking of Thanksgiving, as stoked as I was to see the lit-up Pikachu, I was not prepared for the Hess Truck float immediately following him. Talk about a one-two combination for fans of this site. Was I the only one who remembered the advert calendar from last year? All we needed was Bart to come down afterwards and it would have been overload. And why was Bart absent this year? Do they not have a movie to promote?

Uh, am I the only one who thinks to watch the parade on CBS instead of NBC? CBS shows waaaay more footage of the actual parade, and skips most of the Broadway stuff NBC spends so much time on.

Triples? Are you serious? I hated that stuff. My dad would buy boxes of that shit and we had to EAT ALL OF IT before we could open the new cereal. And this was a household were BooBerry was the only Monster cereal we got- and all the time to boot.

Never did get that weirdo scene in The Shining. Stanley Kubrick is on f’d up mofo, I know that much.

Actually, that scene was one of the few preserved from the book. Of all the things to keep…I always thought having Jack N. do the aspirin-chewing would have been a cool effect.
Awesome article! These are always among my favorites. “BAGGIES ON THE FEET!” still gives me a random giggle on occasion. Now I’ll be morphing Raffi to grunge too.

Just got back from the BLACK FRIDAY exploits. I only went to TOYS R US and our favorite magical slice of retail heaven, TARGET.
TARGET was swamped. Two items of interest: No bull, I got that Boba Fett Target Statue for (drumroll) 2.44!! Oh yes oh yes ohhhh yessss.
The other funny thing was that I may have picked up a soon to be collector’s item without even realizing it. I finally bought HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS on DVD. Nothing unusual about that except the packaging says “50th Annivesary Edition” yet my prior knowledge (and the back of the DVD) clearly state that this special was done in 1966. Now, either my math skills are worse than I thought or I pulled a mini-Rip van Winkle and woke up in 2016…

Wow, I actually still have a tape of the 93 parade…I taped it for my neice when her cable had gone out and never taped over it. As the Bethoveen balloon was weaving back and forth Willard comments that “The kids love it as long as they don’t break.” I wonder if an NBC guy ran up to him during the following Native American dance saying “Ixney on the break-ey”

Matt, how exactly do you acquire tapes of entire Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parades from ten to fifteen years ago? There are a few ways that come to mind, but I’m curious to know your way.

Manimal - The “50th Anniversary” the new Grinch DVD is referring to is the anniversary of the first publication of the original book in 1957. Kind of confusing, I know…
BTW somebody at Warner Bros needs to be fired for thinking covering the outside of the DVD case with sparkley glitter (to look like snow) was a good idea. You can’t even touch the damn DVD case without getting your hands covered with glitter.

I was able to flip back and forth between the Macy’s parade and the parade in Philly, in front of the art museum. Both were pretty ho hum in my book, but at least the Philly parade didn’t have broadway numbers every 15-20 seconds. You should’ve seen how shocked and offended my gf and I were when we noticed during the Grinch number that his dog talked! His dog isn’t supposed to TALK! That’s just not right! I do have a question though. Does anyone know when they started having the Garfield balloon with binky as opposed to the old one with him sitting down? Thanks and I hope everyone had a good holiday!

I think the new Garfield started about four years ago. Is there a website anywhere that lists all the balloons, and says how many had different versions (Garfield, Snoopy, Bullwinkle) and how many only ran one year?

Being as I’m one of the poor bastids enlisted in sitting in my office until the stock market closes, I should be melancholy. Or pissy, as I’m still really hung over right now — it *IS* eggnogg season afterall.

I just heard “Christmas in the Stars” from a certain holiday special featuring a certain set of droids on XM’s Special XMas channel, so it’s really, really hard not to grin like a fool. Especially when it’s followed up by Sesame Street’s Grover and Friends singing “Blue Christmas”.

I’ll take Jazzy’s advice and watch it on CBS next year. The NBC version has been sucking for years (although this years was pretty good since I recognized most of the songs). Heck, I think 1993 was the last good one, even as chaotic as it was. I remember all of the balloons in this one. The old Big Bird balloon was better then the new one (since when did BB need a combover?). Kind of sad that three of the people in the review aren’t with us anymore.

Thanks to Jon for letting me know that the universe is still in balance and I didn’t hit some kind of time warp.

Honestly and embarassingly, I didn’t even think about the book.
Yeah, that glitter is nice now but I am thinking about 6 years down the line…
I watched the CBS version of the parade this year and, yes, it was better. Still too much Broadway stuff though. To me the Broadway segments either come off as a needless plug for N.Y. OR the city showing too much self-love.
It would be interesting to see if there is any data showing that viewership going down during those segments.

I remember the whole ‘93 mess. For some reason, nobody seeme to be in synch with each other. Unfortunately, the Eagle Dancers were one of the worst examples of not being able to hear the music well. Totally changed my mood from “Hey, Native Americans! Cool!” to, “-The hell? That doesn’t look right.” What happened to Sonic was such a ironic stroke that Nintendo brought it up in a print ad a couple months later.

Meanwhile, in the Sooner State, the BC Clark jingle started playing yesterday. Now the season is officially gaining a full head of steam. Are any of your local traditional ads on yet?

Matt: Answer Der Super’s question, please–I’d like to know that myself. I want a ‘93 Thanksgiving Parade tape. Maybe Garrison can donate a copy….

I quit watching the CBS coverage because they kept switching between Macy’s and all these other parades from around the country, and I only came for one. Are they still doing that?

Thanks for the link, K-! I was going to watch that on one of my DVDs, but forgot what ep it was, then I found this!

Mars: CBS stuck to Macy’s this year. The only problem was they kept interviewing annoying soap stars. But they kept the interviews short and made sure to highlight all the important floats and balloons.

Kingklash: Yesterday I saw that ad with the Hershey’s kisses in different colored foil ringing like bells, and I literally almost squealed out loud.

I was one of the six who read it on Thanksgiving, in fact I think I probably read it about an hour or so after you posted it, Matt!

Couldn’t afford to go anywhere this year, so spent it mostly online and with videos. The review was a nice replacement for missing the parade live.

Just for the record, I checked for a new Macy’s review on Thanksgiving morning!!! It wasn’t there yet, but I knew you’d come through. These have become a highlight of the holidays for me. Thanks for putting in the time!!

I loved Triples Cereal! It’s wierd but I have some cognitive ache in my tougue from the sight of that box. I bit my tougue when I was a kid eating the damn stuff. Oh well. Still good.

Cameron T, you’re not the only Broadway fan. I was disappointed I missed it before I headed out with my sister. Usually, that’s the only part of the parade I get to see before Dad says “get off, I have to watch the same DVD I’ve watched every day for the past month” or someone feels the need to play PS2.

The Fisher Price 3-in-1 table gave me flashbacks. I think I saw it most during American Gladiators. Speaking of which, I lived in Germany for three years so when I first heard about the concept of American Gladiators I somehow thought that they had actually executed the concept of Arnie’s classic “The Running Man” in real life. I was a stupid lil kid.

On a side note I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a great family T-Day and I hung out with my 6 year old cousine Kyle who showed me the way of Spongbob Square pants. We watched 3 hours of it on dvd and I have to tell you that’s the new favorite. That is the funniest cartoon i have seen in a while, or I had one too many Sam Adams Holiday brews. Any animated show that has music from Pantera and Ween gets an A+++++ in my book. Somtimes it takes the one person who’s career ambition is to become a Diver/Pirate astronaut to show you a new highlight of life. I can say that as a 28 year old because no one knows me here.
I think from now on I with chant my way to work saying, “I’m ready, I’m Ready, I’m Ready…”

Wasn’t Aaron Neville singing in those cotton commercials? I recall hearing some singing like his on those.

This is so fun to see all these old commercials after so long! I doubt you’ll want to see some of today’s commercials years from now though. (honestly, we could do without car insurance shilling amphibians and spy-type people)

Very nice article, Matt. This is the first of your Thanksgiving Day parade reviews I’ve read, and I must say it definitely ranks up there with some of the best articles on the site.

Oh man this is the year that Katie wore that jacked up oddly shaped red hat. That’s my most vivid memory of that parade. And how much the 10 year old me wanted that hat.

Just a comment about the Broadway acts (since I’ve noticed a lot of people complaining about too much coverage)–the parade actually starts about 2.5 miles (I think) away from Herald Square (which is where the majority of TV crews film). The Broadway acts are performed in Herald Square until the parade actually gets to the Square. So if the TV stations didn’t show all the Broadway stuff they would only be able to air interviews and such for at least the first hour.

So Black Friday is over and done. How were the crime reports in everyone’s neighborhood?

Anyway… Given the interest expressed in the previous thread, I’ve taken it upon myself to compile the Photog/Bitner thread into book form, whose file I will then send to Matt as a gift. He can then choose to publish and sell, or ignore. The choice is his. The reason I mention it here is that if anyone has any related material saved from that thread (pix, screencaps, etc…) please send it to me if you would be so kind. You can click my name for my e-mail. Thanks ever so.

Let me just say Black Friday sucked hard. I ended up punching someone myself, as some big gangster-type charcter thought he could just push through the line that was waiting outside of the store effectively skipping EVERYONE in line AND knocking my wife and my daughter up against the wall. When I saw that, my Incredible Hulk side came out and I knocked this guys teeth down his throat. I was kindly asked to leave the store… amidst cheers from all the downtrodden meek people who would never have dreamed doing something like this could happen in real life. I felt like a hero, I felt totally vindicated, and I felt like my hand was broken. The local Mall, however, was desolate. We were able to visit 7 different stores, pose with Santa, and gulp down a couple Orange Juliussesseses in under 2 hours. I would love to know what story that “gangsta guy” is gonna tell all his home-skillets about the no doubt gaping hole in his front teeth.

We saw Casino Royale. GAWD IT SUCKED!!! I mean, it really didn’t even feel like a Bond flick. Plus, I could’ve cut a whole hour out of that film. The lovey dubby scenes made me wanna puke!

Oh yeah, and dinner sucked too. We just ordered the thanksgiving dinner from Marie Callender’s, since the only member in my family who could ever cook (my grandmother) is no longer capable of doing so.

It’s Charles Grodin, not Judge Reinhold in Beethovens 2nd…jeez man…apologize to Grodin.

Loved the review of the parade Matt, you are such a unique writer. Have you thought about writing a book of some sort? Maybe you already have and I am just out of the loop!

Played the new Nintendo Wii. Got to say I like it. I just can’t wait for a local TV station to do a story on a catastrophic injury from some kid throwing his arm out or smacking his younger sister in the eye with a simulated motion from a samari sword. Can not wait for a Jedi lightsaber battle on Wii.
http://www.threebrain.com/weeeeee.shtml
This is a perfect Wii theme song!

Not that that is a bad thing in anyway shape or form. I just kept waiting for him to praise the Moon or something.

“That ain’t no school you’re writin’ on. That’s a damn rock. I like to rock. I will rock your face!!!!”

“Gonads and Strife” always sounded like a old hygiene film I might have seen in high school.

This is a film about Billy. Billy is reading a so-called “Tijuana Bible.” Billy’s “friend” Frankie gave it to him. Billy is about to learn a lesson about….
GONADS AND STRIFE

Lol Kingklash! So true. I love the comparison of gonads being Ron Jeremy and strife being Harry Anderson from Steven King’s IT. “Beep Beep Richy!” By the way, I didn’t know Tim Curry was Penny Wise.

That commercial for “Beethoveen’s 2nd’ is on the tape too..with Grodin saying “No, no, no, no, no!” as the camera cuts to different puppy shots and his shout of “Puppies!” as the stuffed stand-in for one of the puppies goes flying off the skateboard.

So, I’m sooo excited …i have some kinda cool thing to report…but not til we have an SNT thread….(looks in Matts direction)

They still use the Bart balloon (up to a couple years ago…I haven’t been bothered to get up and watch the parade since then), and it looks so pathetic and lackluster. Most of the color is gone, and the thing just barely retains its air.

does anybody remeber a wwf float at this parade w razor ramon, undertaker, paul bearer? because i do. maybe it was 1992, but i thought it was this one.

Home sick. Few better ways to spend it than reading an X-E Macy’s Parade article.

Do you think that someone will write a similar review about this years parade is 10-15 years?

I’ve have enjoyed your Macy’s Parade highlights, including the 1984 and 1993 verisons of the parade.I was at the 1993 parade, down along Central Park West and the balloons were taking such a beating and it was the coldest parade I have ever attended.My personal favorite of that parade was seeing the return of “Smokey The Bear” after a 12 year hitaus and considering that Smokey was the oldest giant balloon(he made his debut in the 1966 parade)in the 1993 event.I hope that in the future you can add the 1991 & 1992 Macy’s parade highlights so all can enjoy.Keep up the great work Matt.

my fav balloons were bart, betoven, and the t-rex(b/cit was funny they zoomed in on his ass) lol

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