Friends, there is hardly a day that passes by where I do not end up remarking that I wish I had access to a working time machine. If somehow such technology would be made available, I would obviously use it for personal gain, not for financial benefit… although that temptation would be there for sure. No, I would use it to revisit places in my life that were dear to me and are no longer in existence – one more day at that ShowBiz Pizza, or the local movie theater or drive-in of my youth. As a matter of fact I am sure that I would be hitting the toy stores as well – perhaps picking up those Sectaurs or possibly that sweet Live and Let Die View-Master reel set. If I am being honest, the desire to see loved ones who have passed would be the hardest temptation to resist – as Rod Serling so masterfully demonstrated on The Twilight Zone with his script for Walking Distance.
And while I am not walking the same path as Gig Young’s character of Martin Sloan from that classic 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone – the desire to revisit the past is a strong one. And while we might not have a time machine that is readily available – thanks to this video that has been uploaded by oilerfanatic1 – we can check out what types of television ads were shown 40 years ago today during the ABC Sunday Night showing of Jaws. In addition to getting a chance to check out some of the altered or deleted scenes that were included in this TV version of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece.
Off the top of my head, some of the ads that stuck out the most for me included Ryan’s Hope (With Night of the Comet‘s Kelli Maroney), That’s Incredible, Private Benjamin, and Hershey’s Whatchamacallit. With a running time of 16 minutes though, I want to hear what commercials took you back – let us know in the comments.
Well there is a ton of stuff to comment on and I didn’t even finish the whole video. Here is just a few.
The theme music for ABC World News Tonight brings me right back.
That lipstick ad, who is putting on lipstick with that much coming out of the dispenser???
I love the fact that Michael Landon is wearing a tuxedo in that Kodak ad. The camera he’s holding looks like an undated version of a camera that I had.
The uniforms on Tampa and the Bears in that Monday night football ad.
There showing of Jeremiah Johnson at 3 PM the following day.
Now for some of not so fun stuff.
The milage quoted as being great in that Mercury Lynx ad isn’t that different from today’s standards.
Except Bill Cosby and the Asian woman in the lipstick ad there is a noticeable lack of people of color in almost all of the ads.
When’s the last time you saw an ad for solar power?
Great post as always!
Jeremiah, many thanks as always for the support, my friend. On a second viewing I realized that Olympia Gold commercial features Don Stewart of 1983’s Carnival Magic and Guiding Light fame!