11/27/2003 Entry: "The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - 1985-1986!"

Matt-
I was in the 86 parade. Where did you get your footage? I'd love to see more of it. Please contact me at keithmoon2334@msn.com.

Chestnuts roasted by mosbrooks @ 11/27/2003 04:55 AM EST

Are you using IE or Netscape, pikachulover? I don't think Netscape supports windows media player.

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 11/27/2003 04:57 AM EST

Videos are uploading as we speak -- wait about 10-15 mins, then they'll all be activated.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 11/27/2003 04:59 AM EST

I think Robotman was/is a comic strip created by someone based at the Daily News and syndicated by their syndictator. So since the Daily News is one of the big yearly sponsors of the parade their crappy comic gets a promotional float.

One question I've been meaning to ask -- as a cartoonist, I'm usually up on the characters past and present, but what comic strip was "Snake" in the '84 comic strip float from? Was that supposed to be the snake the 'Fat Broad' (Johnny Hart's name, not mine) is always clubbing in "B.C."?

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 11/27/2003 05:18 AM EST

Maybe if you're ever stuck for a random blog video clip, Matt, you could put up the clip of Snoopy you mentioned. A giant balloon Snoopy dropping a giant paper on an unsuspecting crowd sounds like a great blooper. :) Man, I wish I had a VCR that year. I'm surprised the cameraman didn't cut away immediatly so there would be no visual evidence for a lawsuit ala the Cat in the Hat balloon in '97.

Was there a different Betty Boop balloon in '85? The only one I remember is the '86 Moon one. But then again, I just remember the '84 Olive Oyl, didn't know they remade her with Swee'Pea the following year. I thought she just made the one appearence and was retired. I remember all the hoopla about her being the first female balloon character at the time.

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 11/27/2003 05:41 AM EST

Great great great job Matt. Two things you might want to check -- the Bull/Blanche clip isn't there, and you have the Dolph He-Man clip uploaded twice.

Chestnuts roasted by Garrison @ 11/27/2003 07:32 AM EST

Congrats, Matt. You've finally finished the article!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

:)

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 11/27/2003 08:00 AM EST

I really have only one thing to say: what the hell is WRONG with Dolph? He sounds like he escaped from a Beavis and Butthead skit and might go "huh-uhhuh" after every sentence.

Chestnuts roasted by Roddy @ 11/27/2003 08:27 AM EST

No. Freaking. Way.

On this year's Macy parade, during a commercial break, there was an ad for KB Toy's Black Friday sales. During the ad, for about five seconds, the announcer was...

WEARING HULK HANDS AND SHAKING THEM AT THE CAMERA.

All I've got to say is...YES!

Chestnuts roasted by Paul @ 11/27/2003 09:22 AM EST

Bert Convy hosting anything ever again is impossible, I think. He died a while ago. I think it was right after his game show went off the air.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 11/27/2003 10:03 AM EST

I can't imagine why someone would want to wear fur in the rain. That coat must've smelled like a couple dozen wet dogs at the end of the day. Useless trivia that keeps popping into my head when reading the parade reviews: all the "balloon handlers" are really Macy's employees. Well duh but they're all vollunteers from Macy's regular staff of schlubs. In fact, except for the celebrities, bands, and some of the dancers, ALL the extras are Macy's staff members. I remember seeing something where they said everyone from Macy's helps at the parade. I can't remember if it's because they want to or because they want to keep their jobs.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 11/27/2003 10:21 AM EST

I noticed that both links to download the 85' and 86' MOTU float videos are linked to the same video file. Is that on purpose or shouldn't there be a video for each year of the MOTU float?

Chestnuts roasted by Rybo Flavin @ 11/27/2003 11:03 AM EST

Nice reference to the 1985 Clue movie on page 6.

Chestnuts roasted by Czar Matthew @ 11/27/2003 11:04 AM EST

First off...Happy Thanksgiving to Matt, X-Entertainment, and all bloggers! And, to those of you who live outside the States and don't celebrate (or, in the case of Canada, have already celebrated) Turkey Day, I hope you guys still got as much of a kick out of these parade articles as I did. I was especially happy to read this one because my dad and brother were so desperate to watch "X Men 2" they kicked me off the only TV in my parents' house that has cable and a DVD player. These may be the only parades I get to see today.

Rain or shine, He-Man in a bad costume or a good one, that "Masters of the Universe" float was AWESOME! They're detailed and meticuously crafted, with about 18,000 things going on at once....and no weird celebrities to make a spectacle of themselves. That float, and everything occuring on it, was spectacle enough.

I'm surprised I don't remember this float. I defintely watched at least the '86 parade. My sisters and I had tons of She-Ra stuff, including the She-Ra and Swiftwing dolls mentioned in the commercial (which I DO remember, and well). We wanted Crystal Castle sooooooo badly, but my parents never had enough money for the playsets.

The appearance of "Barbie and the Rockers," Barbie's attempt to out-fashionada "Jem and the Holograms," doesn't surprise me. What does surprise me is that "Jem" herself didn't put in an appearance, especially since both "Rockers" and "Jem" were at their peak of popularity in 85-86. The Blockbuster in Wildwood actually has copies of the "Barbie and the Rockers" animated specials. Maybe I'll try them, just for nostalgic kicks...

And Phyllis Diller. My god, Phyllis Diller. I don't know if she'd been hitting the spiked eggnog or if she just didn't want to be there or if it was a combination of the two, but her appearance was unforgettable...in many ways.

Oh, and I thought the Betty Boop balloon was the best of the ones we hadn't seen. The banana/moon was actually kinda cute. : 0 )

Chestnuts roasted by starwenn @ 11/27/2003 11:07 AM EST

I had the Matchbox train set and it rocked! It blew away all of those old "suitcase cities" they made in the 80s. No motors in the train but that actually inspired creativity, unlike today's toys.

Great site!

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 11/27/2003 11:38 AM EST

Great job on the article! :)

Chestnuts roasted by marril159 @ 11/27/2003 11:58 AM EST

A few days ago i mentined how "truly truly truly outrageous" the he-man/she-ra float was. And now the article calls the float "truly bizzar". Now thats bizzar! huh? Truly truly truly bizzar

Chestnuts roasted by kennef @ 11/27/2003 12:07 PM EST

Happy T-Day guys and gals...He-Man float video link has been fixed. :)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 11/27/2003 12:09 PM EST

As have the commercial pages.

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 11/27/2003 12:17 PM EST

"Mr Telephone Man" is the only song I know by "New Addition." I loved it.

Can't wait to get back to work where I can download the videos.

Thanks for not banning my home IPA.

Chestnuts roasted by klatubaradanikto @ 11/27/2003 12:18 PM EST

Your website continues to amaze me. Keep up the fantastic work! Happy T-Day!

Chestnuts roasted by James @ 11/27/2003 01:16 PM EST

Great job, as usual. ^_^

The He-man float kicked ass. Would have been funny (and appropiate) if they had Dolph out there playing He-man instead of that 90 pound weakling in the 100 pound suit (that makes a 190 pound SUPER weakling?).

The commercial for the Fright Zone reminded me of how I used to scare the crap out of my baby brother with the snake puppet and one of the furry spider vehicles from the Insectors line. Good times. ^_^

Nowadays I oversleep and miss the parades.. only thing I saw this morning was some people dancing before I flipped the channel. :(

Chestnuts roasted by Lynx @ 11/27/2003 01:55 PM EST

Thank you, Matt!
This article was really fantastic- it got me back into the Thanksgiving spirit. (Why? We always get together as a family and eat in my Grandma's basement on Thanksgiving- this year, we're upstairs. Same for Christmas, and we will have no other family holidays. Yeah, I'm a little depressed- no one cares about tradition anymore.)But thanks to Matt, the day will be okay. Everyone, when you're giving thanks to whatever you're giving thanks for this year, squeeze in a little thanks for Matt, too.
Yeah, that was a little corny. Sorry, but I do mean it.

Chestnuts roasted by Rainbowfeet @ 11/27/2003 02:22 PM EST

Unbelievable. I liked this one better than '84, believe it or not. Been replaying the Diller clips all day long. Great job, and have a nice Turkey Day everyone.

Chestnuts roasted by Super Grover Balloon @ 11/27/2003 02:30 PM EST

man, i always gotta stand up for dolph's intelligence. this is from imdb.

"Born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden, Lundgren attended the Royal Institute of Technology. Spending time abroad in the United States on various academic scholarships, he attended Washington State University and Clemson in South Carolina. In 1982, he received a scholarship to complete his Masters degree in Chemical Engineering at the University of Sydney in Australia. The following year, he was awarded a Fullbright Scholarship to the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology."

by the way, i have a copy of dolph's excercise video "maximum potential"(i love collecting celebrity excercise vids), and was shocked to see the names of the production assistants on the shoot:

quentin tarantino, roger avary, and lawrence bender.

Chestnuts roasted by packratshow @ 11/27/2003 04:29 PM EST

your WRONG about the monopoly train float it was used again as recently as this years parade but it was remade to be a country style train but its the exact same train.

Chestnuts roasted by Mike @ 11/27/2003 05:02 PM EST

Good stuff there Matt. Especially the commentary and clips of the eternally uptight Mr. Sajak. The guy always seems so uncomfortable whenever he's away from his Wheel of Fortune set that you're compelled to watch him. You can almost see a homicidal maniac behind his eyes waiting to come out.
I remember being disappointed by the MOTU float back then, mostly because of the cheesey actors. As I look at it now I'm impressed with the work that must have gone into it though. Mattel really started to kill the toy line in the mid to late 80's trying to outdo the cartoon and coming up with characters that were a little too outlandish. That's when I started to get into GI Joe/Transformers. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think they made any Macy's parade appearances did they?

Chestnuts roasted by skorch_uno@yahoo.com @ 11/27/2003 05:10 PM EST

Mat teven works on thanksgiving...that, my friends, is dedication. All that so some of us can swim in a few moments of nostalgia. This brought back so many memories. Also, it made watching the parade today more amusing. I only got to see bits and pieces of it but I nearly jumped out of my seat when someone (I think it was one of the hosts) said, "Baggies" and then they had this damn float with some ballet going on and at the very end the guy puts the girl on top of the piano and tries to jump up himself but he can't so he tries to improvise and stand in front of the piano looking like he meant it that way all along (the piano is almost as tall as the guy is). In fact the float drove off with the guy still trying to heave himself up on the piano. It was great. Not as great as the oldies viewed through the eye of Matt but, then again, nothing really is.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 11/27/2003 05:25 PM EST

Heehee... Clowns... That was good.

Chestnuts roasted by Evin @ 11/27/2003 05:29 PM EST

Thanks for the great parade articles. I loved the Phyllis Diller part too. That and the balloons being let into the air; that was cool.

Chestnuts roasted by mjf7583 @ 11/27/2003 05:54 PM EST

I also remember the train toy. I think I had it. Of course, I had LGB trains as a kid, so these were sort of pitiful in comparison. But I did get some fun out of it.

I noticed that this year's Santa had a yellowish beard, not white. Ughh.

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 11/27/2003 06:16 PM EST

Considering I had to stay at my college dorm this Thanksgiving instead of going home, and my luscious Thanksgiving dinner consisted of mac & cheese and Chef Boyardee... this really made my day. Thanks, Matt, for all you time and hard work.

Chestnuts roasted by Kodo @ 11/27/2003 06:29 PM EST

I just wanted to see if anyone else thinks that Dolph Lundgren sounds an awful lot like Homestar Runner.

Chestnuts roasted by Jason @ 11/27/2003 06:57 PM EST

Fubumagoo!

Chestnuts roasted by Cameron @ 11/27/2003 09:00 PM EST

Garrison I use earthlink and/or neoplanet. I'm happy cause I saw the pikachu balloon in the parade. I ate lots of stuffing my fave side.

Chestnuts roasted by pikachulover @ 11/27/2003 09:17 PM EST

Is it more or did Dolph have this to say:

"...as He-Man battles the evil whore..."

I never knew prostitution was a problem on Eternia....

great article matt!!!

Chestnuts roasted by I.C. Veena @ 11/28/2003 12:30 AM EST

Wow. I just finished reading the article, and had to stiffle some serious laughter, as not to wake up everyone in my house. Also, Sajak is a jerk, poor Stepfanie. I bet ol' Pat wouldn't be so rude to Fred Dryer (HUNTER REFERENCE!).

Chestnuts roasted by Rob @ 11/28/2003 01:21 AM EST

They say one of the reasons you don't seem many of those Fievel based -Christmas- happy meal toys anymore, was it was pointed out the mouse character and his family were Jewish. McD pulled the HM-toys. I don't see the trouble with a kosher happy meal.

Chestnuts roasted by Aconite @ 11/28/2003 01:38 AM EST

OH MY GOD!!! I (still) have a bed sheet set of RobotMan!!! I hope you had a good Thanksgiving Matt and are resting after spending all that time working on this article!

Chestnuts roasted by Dethstryke @ 11/28/2003 02:48 AM EST

This article made my post Thanksgiving day!

My job has required me to work the last 8 Thanksgivings, meaning I rarely have time to see family or the parade either. (Probably the last parade I have seen was in the ultra early 90s when I was still in high school, before this job of mine and the Navy..)

These articles bring back some fond and not so fond memories of the time.

Of course one of my favorite things out of the mid 80s never had any floats or much of any actual marketing back then, making it it something of a cult thing.
Which also makes it hard to talk with other retro folks.

Either you knew about Robotech, or you didn't.

Oh yeah. I wouldn't mind a Robotech article or two if its doable.

Because of all the anime obessed folks these days, Robotech gets a bad rap, and there is not enough of us 80s folk who defend it and its fond memories.

Forget Transformers, or He Man, or GI Joe. For me, once Robotech arrived, everything else was sub par at best.

Im rambling aren't I?

Chestnuts roasted by Bloodcat @ 11/28/2003 06:33 AM EST

the bitner has showed up on his blog, for anyone who is interested

Chestnuts roasted by ... @ 11/28/2003 10:50 AM EST

A nitpick: Brian Bloom was a teen heartthrob from "As the World Turns". The kid who played the blond brother (Andrew) on "Family Ties" was Brian Bonsall.

Great article though. Why is it so much fun to watch Pat Sajak suffer?

Chestnuts roasted by Annie @ 11/28/2003 12:17 PM EST

Besides being the most animatronic motherfucker EVER, what does the dog do during the last verse of the song? Wag his tail?

Come on, I was expecting him to bite Dick Van Patten's head off or spray pyro!

Great article, as always.

Chestnuts roasted by Rein-o @ 11/28/2003 02:19 PM EST

Matt, you never cease to amaze me. My favorite part was philis diller where the guy running next to the float is begging her to say something.

I bet he wish ed he didn't.

Chestnuts roasted by chad @ 11/28/2003 02:47 PM EST

Thanks Matt! You've once again brought back memories long cobwebbed and hidden!

Wasn't '85 the year that He-Man and She-Ra toured the nation's malls? Suffice to say, this parade footage reminds of said tour! Thanks again!

Chestnuts roasted by Slacker @ 11/28/2003 02:52 PM EST

That was awesome... simply awesome...

Chestnuts roasted by MysteryGuyCalvin @ 11/28/2003 03:09 PM EST

Wow, the Bitner really is back. The whole Bitner extravaganza of a blog is truly truly truly outrageous in an unsolved mysteries kind of way...except its been solved!

Chestnuts roasted by Kennef @ 11/28/2003 04:16 PM EST

I only read through it briefly...has there been anything said that proves that it's the real Bitner? (if we can find proof, I can probably do a full article on the Photog fiasco...and finally get up everyone's Photog art, which is still saved on my HD)

Chestnuts roasted by Matt @ 11/28/2003 04:31 PM EST

That was excellent, Matt. Phyllis Diller was smashed! I'm suprised she was able to stay on the goose. Dolf Lundgren was really baked. Either that, or he had no brain cells to begin with. Pat Sajak is a luser, I don't even like him on "Wheel".

Chestnuts roasted by Hope @ 11/28/2003 06:04 PM EST

I have the 86 parade tape too,and have been doing lundgren jokes about the "wheres vanna" line for years.

Nice to see its not just me who thinks its funny.You should see all the photoshoped shit ive done on thouse 2....oh man.

Chestnuts roasted by Craig @ 11/28/2003 08:19 PM EST

Man those clowns must've really killed Robert Vaughn's career because he's now doing commercials for some local lawyers. Damn those clowns!

Chestnuts roasted by Stacey @ 11/28/2003 08:57 PM EST

Bless you Matt. Now that i've finally gotten to see the He-Man float (and it did not disappoint) my life is almost complete. The only things left for me to do now are:

1)Appear in the studio audience of a Ron Popeil Infomercial. &

2)Get myself a pen like the one Bill Cosby used on "PicturePages" that makes crazy sounds when you write.

A man's gotta have dreams

Chestnuts roasted by Goggles Pizano @ 11/29/2003 12:21 AM EST

Matt, again you've outdone yourself. Just for the record, the float that went all haywire and kiled some folks was Sonic the Hedgehog. Lousy Mario imitator. Never saw Mario mowing down three people. Who is Stepfanie Kramer anyway? Phyllis Diller and Lundgren clearly hung out at the same pre-show party. Jeez. Hey, I wonder if that insipid clown from 1984 that was clearly touching Joey Lawrence inappropriatly was one of those clowns trying to steal Robert Vaughn's air time. I wonder about a lot of things. Like who thought giving Magic Johnson his own talk show was a good idea? Or what was that thing on Gorbachev's head? Oh well. I could use some hot cocoa myself. Bye everybody!!

Chestnuts roasted by Tuff Daddy Cool @ 11/29/2003 01:56 AM EST

Awesome review!!!

Phyllis Diller drunk off her ass reminds me of my own grandma!

I have a hot wheels crack up still. I have the Top Bopper, but mine is red.

In the Yugo commercial the last guy says "we wanted a dependable fuckin' car" I died of laughter. I watched it over and over, he says those words! See for yourself!!

Overall a great thanksgiving this year! I had good food and a great review of some parades from when i was in diapers. Great job Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by heeloyd @ 11/29/2003 02:55 AM EST

thats BS man, the best mcdonalds commercial was not the doodler one. Someone back me up on this that it really aired, all my friends don't believe me. there was a mcdonalds commercial with this retarded guy working a register all talking about how great it is to work at mcdonalds, then this hot babe comes out, and he goes all retardedly "'is is ma girfrend, i et her a mcdona's". funny, yet not supposed to be. does anyone else remember this?

Chestnuts roasted by UlicQel @ 11/29/2003 03:16 AM EST

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact the Robert Vaughn was surrounded by clowns. Just the outright abusrdity of it. Just think of it. Someone thought that it was gonna be a good idea to surround Robert Vaughn with clowns WHILE READING A TRUNCATED VERSION OF THE PREAMBLE. On second thought, don't think of it. I did it just now and my left side has gone numb. Stevie feels dizzy. Stevie's gonna go lay down for a while.

Chestnuts roasted by Stevie G The Dance Machine @ 11/29/2003 03:34 AM EST

During the Yugo ad I swear the old dude says "we needed a dependable fuckin' car" I mean, I KNOW he says second, but it sounds like fuckin'.

Chestnuts roasted by NotIan @ 11/29/2003 05:44 AM EST

They cost less, but you couldn't knife a hole in their ass and fuck them.
Holy Shit! Funniest thing. Ever.

Chestnuts roasted by blastendedskrewt @ 11/29/2003 06:12 AM EST

Messed up thing about the Rocert Vaughn lawyer ads-I have seen them both here in Boston AND down in Georgia (for different law firms). I think it's like one of those things where they shoot one "main" advert and when they show the graphic for the law firm they play a "personal" voice over. The first time I saw it was in Georgia and then when I came home I thought I was seeing things. Sad when all you remember about someone is them shilling for shysters and being annoyed by clowns.
What also amuses me is that Pat Sajak probably gets asked EVERYWHERE he goes about Vanna. He goes to the supermarket and people probably hound him about her...public restrooms, everywhere. Let's face it-she's the real star of the show, not him and he knows it and it really pisses him off. I mean seriously, she DID play "Venus the Goddes of Love" in a made for TV movie. What movies has Pat Sajak been in? How many best selling biographies has he written? Vanna's bio was even called, "a Hell of a book" by Matt's favorite Golden Girl, Dorothy. So Pat is probably bitter about living in the shadow of a woman who does little more than smile warmly, applaud, and turn letters (well, now all she does is touch the video screen). Pat's life is pretty pathetic, if you ask me.

Chestnuts roasted by Killer Duck @ 11/29/2003 11:12 AM EST

Matt, feel LUCKY you never had a pet mouse... There's a reason you can really only buy them out of the back room of pet stores as snake food. Sure, they look like cute & tiny rats, but they are not as calm, healthy, or smart, and make for miserable pets that only live 3-6 years. Imagine a lazy, paranoid, excessivley-pooping gold fish with teeth that hates you...

Anyway, the video of the '85 MOTU float always cracks me up when Skeletor shows up. He FINALLY made it into Castle Greyskull, only to crawl out JUST to pick on Orko.

Chestnuts roasted by RewolfJ @ 11/30/2003 05:21 AM EST

I can't see the clips. :(
O well, must be problems on my end. Anyway, great job Matt!

Chestnuts roasted by Whitney @ 11/30/2003 09:45 AM EST

Oh man, that Robert Vaughn thing is gold...

"Tell the insurance companies you mean BUSINESS! Call the (insert local attorney's name) Law Office!"

Chestnuts roasted by FishEyekun @ 11/30/2003 08:06 PM EST

Did anyone notice that Robert Vaughn actually messed up when he was reciting the preamble to the constitution? Geez, I learned that in like the 4th grade. Maybe those clowns were making him nervous.. They'll do that to ya. ::shudders::

Chestnuts roasted by LioConvoy @ 11/30/2003 10:08 PM EST

In Ohio, I've also spotted the Robert Vaughn commercials, just thought I'd add that.

Chestnuts roasted by Rob @ 11/30/2003 11:11 PM EST

happy thanksgiving and thank you for a great review. i laughed when i read the article since it was so funny. the commercials were great too. all of those mcdonalds commercials make me hungry. wasn't the cosby commercial for the episode when they meet stevie wonder and record a song with him. great review and happy holiday.

Chestnuts roasted by Romo @ 12/01/2003 08:53 PM EST

i have no idea how you have the time to do what you do

Chestnuts roasted by puke7 @ 12/02/2003 04:43 AM EST

Matt your Macy's Parade artical was awesome! Your comments on Sajak, Stepahnie Kramer, Phyillis Diller ect. was funny!
Now, you said in your artical, that you've spent hours trying to figure out how The SUPERMAN BALLOON lost his hand. Well, here's somewhat of an answer-
CBS had covered the Parade that year from uptown.
Superman lost his hand from the start of the parade.It looked like his hand was tied in a knot at the wrist. I kid you not, seconds before the hand fell to the ground, they cut camra and he wasn't seen again.
But, it wasn't till the end of parade, CBS showed highlights of the parade while the credits were rolling. It showed a Superman Balloon handler picking the hand up off the ground (Still inflated I might add)and moving it off to the sidelines. Then the camra panned up at Superman with no hand. If I'm not mistaken he had gotten snagged on a tree limb.
Then during the parade Superman had encountered another problem.
If you look at your '86 parade again, you will see (When Kermit the Frog is introduced) you will see in the background on the left side of the screen showing Superman swaying to the side. Then when Pat intros. The bag pipers paying you will see that Superman isn't even there. He was lowered to the ground. But it isn't till Pat introduces The Doodle Bug Float, you will see behind Pat, Superman is flying again. I don't have an answer that.
Anyway, I hope you'd found it helpful and interesting.
I hope next year you'll have more parade stuff.
Have A Great Holiday!!!

Chestnuts roasted by night-train2004 @ 12/05/2003 01:17 PM EST

I just wanted to add that I'm in the UK, know nothing of the Day parade or a lot of the people (Save for Dolph, Stefanie Kramer(!), Joey Laurence and Robert Vaughn) but still found it funny as hell. It's almost something to rival 'The Worst Witch' review, but nothing quite beats Tim Curry and the elusive paper sun.

Chestnuts roasted by DrVenkman @ 12/14/2003 09:01 AM EST

I just wanted to add that I'm in the UK, know nothing of the Day parade or a lot of the people (Save for Dolph, Stefanie Kramer(!), Joey Laurence and Robert Vaughn) but still found it funny as hell. It's almost something to rival 'The Worst Witch' review, but nothing quite beats Tim Curry and the elusive paper sun.

Chestnuts roasted by DrVenkman @ 12/14/2003 09:03 AM EST

I just have to say that this is, by far, my favorite entry on the site! I spent hours one day at work watching all the clips and reading the comments--i havent laughed that hard in ages. It's funny how the only part of that parade that gave me deja-vu was the clip of Joey Lawrence and the Cabbage Patch Kids ;);)

Chestnuts roasted by Amy @ 01/07/2004 10:45 AM EST

Un. Fucking. Believeable.

They could NOT have made Orko any more gay.

And the relentless Mickey D's advertising...oh, it's fucking genius!

Chestnuts roasted by Mike @ 01/16/2004 07:56 PM EST

When you construct your pages for the Thanksgiving parades in the mid-1990s, you must include the homage to host Willard Scott by the Homewood (Alabama) High School Marching Band. When they concluded their performance, a band member -- with perfect synchronization -- flipped over a placard to reveal a giant photo of Willard. It was reminiscent of those grandiose public tributes to Third World dictators on their birthdays/"coronation" anniversaries.

I think that this happened during the 1996 parade (maybe it was 1995).

Chestnuts roasted by Jason B. @ 01/29/2004 02:20 AM EST

Holy Crap. I cried i laughed so much. I remember a lot of this shit, but who could have reminded me about Dick Van Patten singing a commerecial song about the family dog, trying to look intersted. Classic.

Chestnuts roasted by Earthwormgym @ 04/23/2004 11:54 PM EST

BTW, I rember that old people Mikey D's commercial and it choaked me up too....but not as much as the 1986 (?) Mickey D's commercial that had the kid crying because he didn't get picked out for ice skating with the crowd..and then Ol' boy Ronald McDonald shows up and starts ice skating with him. Definitly the most important McDonalds commercial ever made, usually run in conjuction with the "Peanuts", Charlie Brown Christmas. I think when we die, we don't go to Heaven, we go to our favorite decade.

Chestnuts roasted by earthwormgym @ 04/23/2004 11:59 PM EST

god i love spending a lazy sunday afternoon just reading about a drunk phyllis diller and an armless superman. i remeber these parades from when i was a kid. the old ads bring back a LOT of old memories, some i cherish and some i'd soon forget.( the wuzzles?)
i have many of the commercials that matt has graciously given to us on this site on old tapes of the real ghostbusters i still have. i watch them occasionally because not only were they great, but i still like the commercials.
i have the choco bliss commercial and even the one featuring Hi-C 100
with new 100% juice, and the new long straw in my Hi-c Fruit Drink.

god looking back i know theyre corny but theres something about them that just make you feel nostalgic. I feel old and i'm only 20. now thats a damn shame

Chestnuts roasted by Randy @ 06/13/2004 05:25 PM EST