Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/19/this-is-a-1960s-tv-commercial.html
…
7 Likes
14 Likes
I’m eating prunes right now!
Something wicked this way comes…
16 Likes
“. . .Malcolm McDowell and his droogs were going to waltz into the front door at any second and cause trouble.”
We’d like some pruney wunes, luv.
5 Likes
That commercial is hilarious. (Although I still have zero interest in eating prunes)
6 Likes
4 Likes
Huston we have throb’lem!
Awesome!
3 Likes
Is this the ultra-popular “Super Bloom” the other thread is about?
ETA: In retrospect, it seems like she’s not looking for prunes, but rather dates.
2 Likes
Something’s blooming alright 
1 Like
Well, you know the old saying: “If they put Ray Bradbury’s face on a box of Ex-Lax, they could sell it empty.”
1 Like
well, he definitely got the TV screen size right.
8 Likes
Stan Freberg was a comedy genius and national treasure.
4 Likes
How about Gil Scott-Heron advertising soft drinks?
3 Likes
I’d just like to say that I eat a lot of prunes, I love Ray Bradbury, and I’m honored to have my Reddit post here.
turns back to wall-to-wall television
1 Like
Remember that Rodney Dangerfield movie where he meets Ray Bradbury and writes him an essay to go to NASA or something?
1 Like
In my early years out here, a schoolfriend and I (both very much into sci-fi novels) went to an L.A. hotel where Bradbury was scheduled to give a talk. (Excellent!) The hotel had a large room set up for such affairs and small conventions. We had one or two expectations (analysis and explanations of his stories), but that never happened, and the one thing we didn’t expect was how embarrassingly smug and self-flattering Bradbury was. He went on and on and on about his success and the money he was making still. Part way through the whole thing, my buddy leaned over to me and whispered something that – given the context – completely broke me up and had me running into the lobby so I could let loose. What my buddy had done was grab a line from Terry Gilliam’s animated talking whale (as seen on one of the Monty Python Flying Circus programs). The line: “I agree with that completely.” The thing is, Bradbury (along with John Huston) wrote the screenplay for Moby Dick, the one from 1956. A smug Bradbury… Gilliam’s talking whale… Moby Dick. There’s no way I can hear of one without thinking of the others. Burned into my brain.
2 Likes
I grew up in the L.A. area and saw Bradbury in person on three occasions. I guess the words I’d use to describe him was “lovable curmudgeon” but of course the “lovable” part was quite subjective and probably easier if he reminded you of your grandpa. He was probably the biggest luddite to ever get famous for his science fiction writing though (even though he always hated it when people called him a science fiction writer).
3 Likes
I wonder if that’s (at least partly) because, in his younger days, sci-fi writers were automatically pegged (at best) as being second rate; could be that stigma irritated his ego (an ego possibly grown and reinforced by the valued acceptance he may have felt by being able, at such a young age, to hobnob with Big Hollywood. All that said – “dick” or not – his stuff was my introduction to sci-fi, and I’ll always be grateful for that.
Back to that same schoolfriend… he came out to L.A. ~1 year before me and was able to get a couple of copies of Dune signed by Frank Herbert. (I got one of them!) In another seeming case of ‘off-putting heroes’, my buddy presented Herbert with a large poster of the Space Shuttle at the book signing… which earned my friend a dirty look from Herbert. I recall, though, that Herbert was going through a terrible patch at the time. His wife was seriously ill and I think she passed away a couple of years later.
2 Likes
Probably part of it, but as he was apt to point out he actually wrote more work that could be categorized as some form of “fantasy” than “sci fi.” We don’t think of Stephen King a “science fiction writer” because he wrote The Tommyknockers.
3 Likes
Vonnegut, in “Back to School”.
3 Likes
