Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/12/14/the-best-christmas-memory-in-6.html
…
10 Likes
That was wonderful, and I have never seen it before. Thanks!
10 Likes
I remember that one from my early childhood. It was one of the many great PSAs that hit our sets especially around the holidays. Even the USPS got into the act, with a postal chorale singing, “Mail early! Mail early! Please ear-leeeeeee!”
2 Likes
“Season’s Greetings from CBS”???
Holy shit, the “war on Christmas” has been going on for decades!
13 Likes
Wow! That was a time warp, weird too.
1 Like
Old enough to have remembered this, but I didn’t.
It’s lovely. Great twist ending.
5 Likes
I saw this in 1966, when I was in the 6th grade. I loved it then, and I love it now. Thank you for posting this – it was like going home to my childhood.
4 Likes
Another lost Christmas wonder, which I re-found on YouTube today. I read that this ran on the BBC at holiday time for years, and I saw it decades ago on PBS.
The first episode has . . . werewolf clergymen, an immortal punch & judy man (PATRICK TROUGHTON!), a pagan god, a gangster magician, and time travel. (Oh, and I almost forgot: A giant talking rat.)
2 Likes
My Christmas memory hole is this Folgers commercial. It is undiluted nostalgia, and I regret nothing. When he stands up into the frame around 45 seconds in I well up inside. So great I think they were still playing it in the 21st century, which is pretty impressive for a commercial.
5 Likes
Thanks for sharing, Richard. Here is my Christmas memory in a video-bottle:
Quoting its uploader, Eric Jurgenson:
Here’s a commercial made by Jack Havey at Ad Media (Augusta, Maine) in 1980 that may be one of the longest running TV ads in history. Until just a few years ago, the bank - due to popular demand - would revive this spot every Christmas on the Bangor TV stations. After we shot the commercial (I was the cameraman and editor), Jack kept the kittens at his camp on Maranacook Lake, and some of them ran off into the woods, prefering the feral life. I believe their offspring still roam those woods today.
Nothing, nothing makes me feel like a kid in Downeast Maine again as this ad. I make a point to look it up every year. (Sing along at the end with the bank’s 1980s ad-jingle: “Here at Bangor Savings Bank, we’re the source for you! (Mew)” )
5 Likes
It’s perfect. Hard to believe a TV network is responsible this.
Thanks for pointing it out.
2 Likes
wow, this tickles a DEEP, DEEP memory. i think i remember this. what a nice gift. : )
3 Likes
I remember seeing this too. I wonder if it was supposed to be a unicorn chaser for the heartbreaking scenes and body counts beamed into our living rooms nightly during the Vietnam War.
I remember that commercial well from growing up in central Maine. Thanks for the memory!
1 Like
I think network TV was a bit earlier on the uptake than US culture in general in understanding that not everyone does Christmas given the NYC location of their headquarters…
I used to run into the “tv room” when I was little to see this one for a local diner chain:
1 Like
Quick trivia question: What was the first animated Christmas special?
Mr. Magoo’s A Christmas Carol_
I haven’t read the original, but some folks say this is the most faithful screen adaptation.
My wife (who is from the Pittsburgh area) was stunned that I’d never heard of this commercial, and immediately pulled it up on Youtube.
Sounds like a Tuesday for Dirk Gentley.
2 Likes
I grew up on Long Island. We’d occasionally have Jewish holidays off at school, because a number of students and many teachers observed them.
I remember my 2nd grade teacher telling us about Hanukah, which fascinated and confused me. I told me working-class-Queens-dweller grandmother about it, and she seemed offended. Lesson learned: We weren’t Jewish.
1 Like
