Well, I finally got around to throwing a banner together for these TV Guide posts.  Makes it seem more official I guess.  Anyway, I was planning on getting to the 1982 Fall Preview issue, but I received the '77 and '78 editions in the mail this week, so I think I'll go ahead and get to them first.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I sort of have this odd Quantum Leap-centric idea about the time period I want to cover on this site (nostalgia and ephemera-wise that is.)  I like the idea of covering stuff that has taken place over my own lifetime, much in the way Sam could only leap (time travel for all those non-initiated Quantum Leapers out there) throughout the timeline of his own life.  Honestly, I think this was a coy way that the writers could keep the show relevant for the viewing audience's experiences, straying away from the idea of leaping into medieval or prehistoric times for instance.  It provides a bit of grounding I guess.  Anyway, it worked well for that show, and I think it'll do for me as well.

So with that in mind, I present the highlights from the 1977 TV Guide Fall Preview issue.  Again, the first thing I noticed about this issue (like the 1980 issue) is that the digest itself was folded and stapled instead of being perfect bound like a book.  This makes for very difficult scanning; well difficult while trying not to destroy the issue as well as trying to keep relevant pages together.

    

Also, as I've been noticing with these older issues of the Guide, most of the advertising is set aside for cigarettes and booze, but there are a few other odds and ends that are interesting.  I didn't realize that there was a deluxe version of Kraft Mac & Cheese available in the 70s.  Mainly I subsisted on ramen during my college days, but every once in awhile as a treat I'd pick up the deluxe Mac & Cheese dinner (in particular the one with bacon bits included, you know to simulate eating something a little more substantial.)  At first glance I thought the plated dinner in the ad looked a little weird with the two strips of bacon and the paltry makings of a BLT on the side of the plate, but right now it actually sounds pretty good.  I do have to say that it throws off the illusion of a quick and easy dinner though; I mean if you're going to fry up some bacon and slice a tomato, why not go ahead and cook?

I also dug the heck out of the Quaker Oats cookies ad.  First off I really love spot illustrations in ad work, especially when it's quality like this (are those watercolors?)  But I also love it when the company mascot is front and center without just using the familiar iconographic image (like the Quaker man on the boxes in the coupon.)  It's kind of interesting (and a little weird maybe) to see Quaker man fishing with some kid and his dog while enjoying a picnic of cookies and what I can only hope is milk in that thermos.  It's kind of nice to think that Quaker man enjoys relaxing in his off time with hobbies like this, though I think in this modern world it's a little creepy that he's off alone with a strange kid.  Heck, maybe it's his nephew or grandson, but then for continuity's sake I'd like to see the kid in a Quaker outfit as well.  Also, who developed the crosshatching pattern for peanut butter cookies anyway?  My mom always stuck to this tradition when baking them for our family when I was younger.

The Toyota Celica ad is kind of cool too.  I like that the designers were trying to ape the look and feel of a Mustang with the liftback version of the Celica.  Making them feel a little more American I guess.  Did you realize that car is 'hot'?  On the other hand we have what I believe to be one of the most annoying ads I've seen in a long time (barring TV and radio that is) for the Vivatar 603 pocket camera.  I get that the ad guys were trying to visually put a spin on the idea of other brands offering only 'half a camera' because the new Vivatar offers a build in flash, but because they cut the ad in half and shuffled with around like that on the page it's just annoying to read.

    

As far as the previews go for 1977, there sure are some whoppers as well as some weird ones.  Above we have a preview for a show called Operation Petticoat (based on a movie of the same name) starring John Astin and Jamie Lee Curtis.  I think it's kind of weird to have a sitcom set aboard the claustrophobic confines of a submarine (in particular with the main crux of the story surrounding the sexual tension of the crew vs. a bunch of military nurses that they are transporting.)  After doing a little research though it looks like this was truly a vehicle for John Astin as he directed the first few episodes as well as starred as the sub's captain.  I'm not sure how well the show did though as it only lasted for a season and a half, not to mention that Astin and Curtis jumped ship after the first season.

'77 was a very nautical year as the Love Boat also launched from port.  Growing up there were two shows that it seemed like my sister never missed, Love Boat and Fantasy Island, so I caught my fare share of episodes while hanging out with her.  Looking back, the concept of the show was just marketing genius.  Having the majority of the stories surrounding the plethora of guest stars that came aboard each show is almost a way of having sweeps episodes year round.  I wish the studios weren't being so stingy with the DVDs that finally came out this year though (only releasing half a season of a 31 year-old show and charging full season rates is absolutely piratanical I tells ya.)

The TV set in the ad adjacent to the Love Boat preview looks a hell of a lot like the TV my family had until I turned sixteen.  Same faux-wood box, and channel tuners.  I wonder if TVs are being built that can last 16 years like these old monsters did?  I doubt it.

I absolutely love the Camel ad in this issue.  It screams action, adventure, and maybe a little James Bond, though only if an actor that looked like a cross between Tom Selleck and Patrick Duffy played Bond.  I'm as interested as that bikini-clad assistant and the bearded seaman in what Camel man has found in the depths of the sea!  I am seriously considering picking up smoking now…

With these older TV guides I've certainly hit the Saturday Morning cartoon ad jackpot as all three major networks make a showing.  Above we have the line-ups for NBC and CBS including shows like The Adventures of Muhammad Ali, the New Archies and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Space Academy.  I really dig the illustration done for the Space Academy show as it makes it seem ten thousand times more thrilling and action packed than the actual Filmation show was.  It is kind of odd that the CBS ad is a truncated version of the ad they ran in comic books at the time (which you can see here in this post I did awhile back), and it really shows in how poorly it was translated to the digest size format of the TV Guide.  It's also sort of weird because the times the shows are listed to air are different.  It raises a question about whether comic book printings used to feature regional ads or if this was just a mistake.  I can see the line-ups jumbling around from city to city, so the different TV Guides might have slightly different ads, but I always figured comic books were distributed country wide with the same ads.  Anyone out there know?

    

Rounding out the cartoon ads is this beauty from ABC featuring one of my all time favorite shows, the Hanna Barbera Laff-A-Lympics.  I never seemed to catch this show at home when it aired in re-runs, but I swear, every single time my family was out of town or on the road it seemed like the only cartoon that I'd find on TV in the various motels we'd stay at.  It brings back a lot of fond memories of waking up to the show, and then off to the complimentary Ho-Jo's continental breakfast.  I could so go for some plain scrambled eggs, bacon, and corn flakes while watching Blue Falcon and Dynomutt face off against Yogi Bear and Quick Draw McGraw in a battle of river rafting right about now.  Also, I totally missed out on everything Kroft while growing up and I am dying to see the adventures of Bigfoot and Wildboy…

One of the best parts in picking up these old TV Guides is getting a feel for what a week in the life of a 1977 TV viewer was like.  I get a little of this watching shows like Freaks and Geeks (hearing Sam, Bill, and Eli pontificate on catching the latest Three's Company, Welcome Back Kotter, and Bionic Woman episodes), but it's really neat to see it for myself in an artifact like this.  Again, I put out a plea to studios everywhere, get over your stupid money grubbing rights issues and put some of these shows out on DVD!  I need to see Jamie Sommers and her bionic dog fight crime.  At least they finally started releasing decent sets of shows like Welcome Back Kotter (instead of the pointless 4-episode best of discs.)  The following page is just as exciting as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew face off against Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein, while later on in the evening the Bionic Man is captured by Killer Sharks!  You never see stuff like this anymore.  When was the last time Meredith was captured by sharks on Grey's Anatomy?  When was the last time a bionic dog was introduced into a show's cast?  Makes me miss shows like Buffy as it was about the closest we got to stuff like this…

There was also an ad for an odd show called Lucan about a boy raised by wolves.  At first blush I figured this was a werewolf show, but I think it's more of a raised by animals deal.  I guess they should have thought twice before using the dripping blood font which just confused and unnecessarily excited me.


    

I thought it was interesting that the editors at TV Guide were keen on getting feedback from viewers in the premiere of CHiPs, going so far as to provide a little mail in coupon.  I wonder why this show and not all of them?  Were they being paid by NBC to facilitate it?  Well if I could have at the time, I so would have written "Heck Yeah!" on the back and sent it in.  I talked about my love for this show when I shared my set of CHiPs sticker cards a while back.  I can’t wait to pick up the second season…

I was surprised to see an ad for the network premiere of the Making of Star Wars so soon after it hit theaters.  I'd have to say that for once, a crazy claim on an ad has actually stood the test of time as well.  I'd be willing to wager that Star Wars still holds the title as the most popular movie of all time.  I also thought it was cool to see an ad for the season opener of Wonder Woman which boasts the jump in time from the 40s to a modern setting.  I watched my fare share of this show in re-runs growing up and it never dawned on me that it was originally set during WWII.  Shows how on-the-ball I was as a kid.  Oh and lets all make sure not to miss the Muppet show (I really liked that the original owner of this issue circled all the shows they wanted to make sure not to miss.)

Much like my infatuation with the Rodeo Girl TV movie from the last post I made, I am now equally as intrigued by the disturbing ad for Curse of the Black Widow.  I am so speechless.  A spider-woman with huge boobs and creepy human appendages!  Wow!  I bet it has nothing to do with gigantic female spiders, but if it does, please somebody get me a copy of this film…

There's also another, much better though just as small, ad for Sha-Na-Na in this issue.  Again, what was the draw of 50s nostalgia during the 70s and 80s?  I guess it's no different than my current 80s obsession.  Also, on the facing page, what’s up with that weirdly sincere cigarette ad that's playing off of a cover of the Saturday Evening Post?

    

There were a lot of cool shows starting up in 1977, but the one I've probably watched the most of over the years is Soap.  My mom introduced me to this sitcom when we'd both stay up late on the weekends during the late 80s and 90s watching Soap in syndication.  I was hooked on all of the spoofy storylines and loved seeing all the actors who I knew from their later work in this earlier hilarious show.  I'm pretty sure I even watched its spin-off, Benson, before I realized that this show existed.

 

Last but not least we have a couple of previews for some more sci-fi oriented shows that debuted in '77, The Man From Atlantis and the TV version of Logan's Run.  Though I doubt it's as cool as I'm making it out in my head, I would really like to see TMFA as I've always been curious about the idea of a live action version of either Namor or Aquaman (though I'm completely un-interested in the pilot to the show that they tried to pawn off on us last year.)  Before Dallas and Step By Step, Patrick Duffy sported webbed hands and feet in four TV movies and finally this show, battling mad scientists and criminals.  Who'd of thunk it.  Also, on a totally unrelated note, I just realized that all of the preview pictures in this issue have a spotlight shining on the stars.  Nice design touch TV Guide...

Next week I'll be back, most assuredly with the '78 issue of the TV Guide Fall Preview…

Before I jump into this week's Peel Here I wanted to take a second to say that I'm making a little head way on the Branded in the 80s print edition/magazine front.  For two days I was able to hold the finished product in my hand, though sadly because of annoying circumstances I had to send the entire batch of magazines back to the printer to be fixed.  The light at the end of the tunnel (at least for my own poor nerves) is that I think I did the best job I was able to with the time I had, and even though it's not exactly what I want the magazine to be, it's a very exciting first step.  I can't wait to take these up to Wizard World Chicago at the end of June (where I'll be exhibiting in Artist's Alley.)  If nothing else, it's got me jazzed to work on future issues, which has in turn started the creative cogs in my brain turning (though they're heavy and quite sluggish at the moment.)  If all goes well, I should have a link up to purchase the book sometime right after WW: Chicago.

Lets get on to the meat of today's post though with my almost complete collection of the Topps Back to the Future II sticker cards from 1989.  I've been working on this site for just over two years now and I can't believe that I've yet to talk about this film series all that much.  I have a very vivid memory of going to see the first film on the 4th of July at a theater near the Altamonte Springs mall near Orlando, Florida back in 1985.  It was a packed house and by the time my family made our way into the screening room the only seats left were smack dab in the front row all the way on the right.  It was my first experience truly seeing a film that appeared larger than life, and it completely blew me away.  After the flick there were fireworks, hotdogs, and plenty of begging my parents to replace the family copper colored Mazda 626 with a De Lorean DMC-12.  Though my parents never caved under my pressure (nor did they when I begged them to get a Lamborghini), there was one family in our neighborhood who was jazzed enough to buy one and you can imagine how often I would go out of my way to pass by their house on my way to school.

As an 8 year-old who looked up to Michael J. Fox as if he were my own older brother, I took a special pain at the 'To Be Continued' title card at the end of the first flick.  When was I ever going to see the further adventures of Doc & Marty in their wonderful time machine?  The four years until the release of the sequel in 1989 were a special little hell for me, particularly in the 80s world sans the internettubes for news and rumors to tide me over.  Unfortunately, by the time it did roll around I was already switching gears (in the fanatic department), becoming a bona fide Bat-a-holic the summer before BTTF2 was released.  That didn't stop me from seeing the flick mind you, I was just in a different headspace than when I saw the original.  It didn't help that there were some subtle cast changes (Crispen Glover was replaced by Jeffrey Weissman and Claudia Wells was replaced by Elisabeth Shue) and that the flick was playing off of the whole 'actor playing multiple parts' thing that Eddie Murphy was beginning to make a career out of.  For some reason that just didn't play well for me the first time around.



The one aspect I seem to remember the most from the BTTF2 release was a promotional tie-in at our local Pizza Hut.  They were giving away goofy futuristic sunglasses (in all sorts of wacky shapes and colors) with the purchase of a personal pan pizza (I believe, my memory is a little cloudy on this.)  My pair were yellow and pink and featured weird triangular frames.

As far as these sticker cards go, they aren't bad though they're a little too over-produced for my liking.  For some reason the designers of these stickers omitted the die-cut feature which was so prominent in Topps sticker card fare up to this point, and were in full blown advertising mode, what with each sticker featuring a giant logo with the title of the flick.  I'm missing card #5 from the set, and for once Jeff Allender's House of Checklists has let me down as far as determining whose mug is on that sticker.  Otherwise, I'm a tad disappointed that there weren't more characters featured (a future/old Biff pairing would have been nice), but at least the designers didn't eschew Doc completely in favor of Marty.



There are also a couple nice shots of the De Lorean, both a practical image (directly above) and a painting (sticker card #1.)



As far as the puzzle on the back of the stickers goes, it didn't hurt all that much to be missing #5 as it was a bottom corner piece and it doesn't interrupt the flow of the painting all that much.



Anyway, I should be back this week with another vintage issue of the TV Guide Fall Previews, most likely from 1982.  Also, I'd like to put a shout out for a list I put together of all the 80s cartoons available on official DVD releases in the US.  Not only is this functioning as a checklist for releases, but it's also a way you can help support Branded in the 80s if you so desire.  By clicking on any of the titles (which will take you to that cartoon's Amazon.com listing) and then making any purchases, a percentage of the purchase will bounce back to me here, which I'll use to fund the site.  No pressure, just wanted to let everyone know that it's there.  So until next time, make sure you don't mack on your mom if you find yourself traveling through time…

I guess if I'm going to do a 10+ week series of these TV Guide Fall Preview issues from the 80s, I'm gonna have to slap together some sort of banner.  Feels weird staring off a post all wordy like this.  Anyhoo.

*Update*  As you can see the banner is done.

I was thinking again about the dates on the lot of vintage issues I picked up a while ago, and like most wonderings I have concerning stuff on the site, I always seems to come back to that time travel concept from Quantum Leap where Sam can only leap around in his own timeline.  Last week for instance, I didn't have a whole lot of specific memories about the shows (or whatnot) in the preview issue because I was only four years-old at the time, spending most of my waking hours in front of cartoons or Tonka trucks.  But I kept thinking about it and I decided that this series of posts wouldn't feel complete until I found the issues from '77-'80, so I jumped on eBay and picked up a cheap copy of the 1980 Fall Preview issue, (and am currently bidding on the others I'll need.)

This first thing that jumped out at me when I received this issue in the mail, was that it had different binding that the rest of the issues I have (and am used to.)  Instead of being perfect-bound with glue, it's folded and stapled like a comic book, except it's like 3 million pages long so I have no idea how these things ended up staying so neatly folded.  If nothing else, it made the job of scanning in pages without destroying the copy very difficult, and in some places the images are a little blurry on the sides where the magazine wasn't pressed up close enough to the glass on the scanner.

    

For some reason the 2-page Marlboro spread on the inside front cover made me laugh a little.  I guess it's because that cowpoke is carrying an entire carton of cigarettes. I guess he just hit the local smoke-n-feed store while riding.  I also noticed that his belt buckle has a nice picture of a Midwest vista on it.  I bet the other cowboys are jealous.  Actually, this reminds me of another weird aspect to these old TV Guides, they're practically packed with only ads for cigarettes and booze.  Not being a smoker myself (or really a drinker for that matter), it's kind of weird to see so much advertising space taken up by tobacco and liquor companies.  I guess it says something about the Guide's target audience as well.

On the other hand, there are a couple of ads that I'm all about.  Take that Vivarin ad above.  I remember my mom used to eat Vivarin like candy, and when I got into middle school she used to cut one in half most mornings and give it to me with my breakfast to wake me up.  I was one of those foot-draggers when it came to getting up for school.  If I didn't have my little yellow pill, a bowl of hot soup and an episode of Woody Woodpecker or the Little Rascals playing in the background there was no way I was going to get up.  I had to stop taking these in college when I found myself working 50 hours a week (nights), while trying to take three classes in the mornings on weekdays.  I was up to two Vivarin and a 24 oz. Mountain Dew each morning, which was just way too much caffeine for my system.  Thank god it's not habit-forming…

That Toyota ad also cracked me up a little.  When are advertising agencies not extolling the virtues of 'more room for leggy drivers', and percentage benefits for new aerodynamic stylings?  Heck by now you'd think we'd be driving the equivalent of the spaceship from Flight of the Navigator.  Come to think of it, I could so use a roving mechanical eye on a hydraulic arm with the voice of Pee Wee Herman helping me to drive my car.  Who needs GPS when you have that handy?

There's also an interesting bit on the actor's strike of 1980 that feels totally relevant to the writer's strike we just went through (and possible actor's strike approaching.)  Even though they couldn't print concrete premier dates, TV Guide still had the chutzpah to run with the preview issue.  It's very 1930s newpapermenly of them. 

Last up in these first five scans we also have a K-Mart ad for one heck of a crazy audio set-up.  It's a five-in-one system with a stereo, turn table, dual cassette decks, 8-Track player, and even comes with two microphones, speakers and a nice looking set of headphones.  Crazy.  I think I could actually use something like this now, well if it had a usb port that is.  It's make for one heck of a podcasting unit with built in vintage vintage audio media capabilities.

    

Above we have five of the new shows premiering in 1980 including a television adaptation of the film Breaking Away, Hill Street Blues (another 80s staple that I have never seen a single episode of), a drama starring Lorenzo Lamas & Linda Hamilton (which is advertised for those who love soap operas but are sick of Dallas), a goofy looking buddy cop show starring Hector Elizondo, and a show that had me terribly excited until I realized that it was a non-fiction animal expose show.  I mean c'mon, look at that picture!  Priscilla Presley, Burgess Meredith and a chimp?  Why wasn't this the TV adaptation of Every Which Way but Loose (Burgess can so pulled off a wizened old Clint Eastwood)?

    

On of the aspects to these older TV Guides that I've really fallen for is all of the illustration work in the advertising.  This is something that I've taken for granted for years and it's been only recently that I've really started to miss this type of practice.  The fringes of pop culture, in particular advertising, is always going to shift with technology towards the fastest, flashiest way of getting people to notice their products which means ditching illustration work for more Photoshoped or CGI fare.  It just looks more modern which is what people tend to respond to.  In particular I noticed this trend recently when General Mills reused some vintage packaging on Honey Nut Cheerios and Lucky Charms.  The characters looked so much more appealing to me at first blush, and I think a lot of that has to do with them not looking so slick.

Anyway, a lot of the interior advertising in this TV Guide (be it the more random products or the show adverts) features illustration work that I'm really digging.  For instance the Kraft ad above that has artwork that looks like it was ripped from the pages of Highlights magazine.  On a side note, I distinctly remember my mother trying to hook me on veggies with some sort of sour cream based dip for after school snacks (doing her best to wean me off of Chef Boyardee or a bowl full of Cheez-Its), and now that I think back on it I'm kind of glad I didn't go that route.  One serving of that dip above probably had half of the daily recommended fat, 90% of which is saturated, which would turn eating veggies into the equivalent of eating large hunks of cheese wrapped in bacon and deep-fried.

There's also a nice piece of advertising from the network premiere of Foul Play (with a little more Burgess Meredith), as well as a small advert for an episode of That's Incredible, a show I remember watching all the time, though I don't have an specific memories of episodes.  Next up there's a small ad from the show Kids are People Too featuring the young Jodie Foster and Matt Dillion.  I don't remember this show, but I'm curious.  I suppose it was like a daytime talk show aimed at teenagers?

Last in this set is a horribly misleading ad for the ultimate in sweat suit technology, the Second Skin, the space age slenderizer.  The ad boasts the loss of five pounds in as many minutes, and getting rid of five inches from your unsightly waist in as many hours.  The basic premise is like having a self-contained sauna in a metallic looking rubber body suit.  I'm sad to say that I witnessed the use of one of these suits first hand.  My father was always on the heavy side while I was growing up, and he was always trying to do his best exercise-wise.  He'd jog and hike, but he never seemed to loose any weight and at one point he invested in some variation of one of these suits.  I remember he'd go out jogging in it and then about 15 minutes later he'd come back into the house all winded and reeking of sweat.  I'd always find the thing draped over the bathroom shower bar totally drenched.  Shudder.

    

Also in this issue there's a fun little ad for a Dukes of Hazzard movie, which I think is just a two-part episode aired back to back (though I'm not positive.)  It's kind of fun to see an ad that doesn't feature the General Lee prominently front and center.  There's also a great ad for a movie I'm now dying to see, Rodeo Girl.  Cow roping action mixed with the potential for soap opera-esque baby loosing drama is one heck of hook in my opinion.  It's like Lifetime and the original TNN got together and did a movie of the week.

    

If you'd asked me last week if Ted Danson had a starring role in a futuristic spy thriller facing off against Christopher Lee before moving on to Cheers, I would certainly have laughed and said no, but there's the advert for it above.  Again, where are these movies on DVD?  Also, in the K-Mart ad above, is that the most expensive clock radio ever?  Who paid $40 in 1980 dollars for a clock radio?

    

Though I don't have many first hand memories of much of what's contained in this issue of TV Guide, I have to admit that it contained a ton of surprises.  Take the above preview for the Dukes of Hazzard spin-off series Enos for example.  Though I practically grew up on DoH, and have had an interest in the mythology most my life, I have never heard of this wacky gem.  Enos, in California?  Really?

There are a couple of other fun previews including Too Close For Comfort, Magnum P.I., It’s a Living, and one show out of all of these that I actually watched the living heck out of once it hit syndication, Bosom Buddies.  Tom Hanks was the example by which I judged and defined comedy for a large portion of my childhood.

Finally, on one of the last pages of this issue there is an interesting section devoted to other shows that the Networks have waiting in the wings so to speak, one of which I've never heard of and I am dying to see called Mr. & Mrs. Dracula.  The relevant portion is highlighted in the above scan, but basically it's about the Dracula's emigrating from Transylvania to America so they can raise a family in more suitable environs.  Wow, how Munster's is that premise?  Why have I never heard of this show?  Maybe it never actually aired, or maybe I have a bit of Youtube homework to do tonight.

Anyway, next week I'll be back with yet another highlighted issue, most likely the 1982 edition.

I thought I'd do something a little different for this week's Peel Here column. Though I'm still going to post some stickers, I'm also going to throw out some long lost food memories that sort of tie into the stickers (as well as some others that don't.)

Something that I don't have nearly enough of in my vintage sticker collection is food premiums. If stickers fit the definition of ephemera, that stickers which were only available as prizes or extras with either prepackaged or fast food should (in my mind) be a great example of ultra rare ephemera. I've talked about this before, but the idea that full sheets of stickers from 20-odd years ago are still floating around on the secondary market is just amazing to me considering they were designed to be peeled and stuck to things. For me, the disposability of a sticker premium is just tripled. Not only are these stickers blatant advertising from the product purchased, but also it's not something chosen by the owner.

Who buys a box of cereal just to get some stickers? Okay, as I typed that last sentence I realized that there are actually a lot of kids (and grown-ups) who might do just that, but even so aside from sticking them in a sticker book or on the side of a bureau or shelf, who is keeping these mint on either their original backing or in the cellophane they came wrapped in?

Regardless, sticker premiums seem pretty rare to me, at least in the 'finding them on eBay' department. I only managed to find a couple of sheets, one of which is a horrible scan (I screwed up while messing with the DPI and image size and didn't realize I fuggled it up so bad.) First up we have a sheet of stickers that were originally found in a box of Cap'n Crunch's Choco Crunch (from sometime in the mid-80s.)





Though I have very fond memories of this cereal in general (it, along with the Crunchberries variety, were some of the only good cereals my mom would let me have growing up) I don't remember actually liking the chocolate flavored bits mixed in with the regular Crunch cereal.

Next up we have a sheet of stickers that were originally found in a package of Giggles cookies (again, from sometime in the mid-80s, I'm not sure what year as the stickers weren't dated.)



Though my mom didn't buy sweets on a regular basis (at least not for the whole family – she always had a stash of Milano cookies for herself), we did have our fair share of Oreos, E.L. Fudge, and Giggles cookies in the cupboard (as well as some other exciting cookies I'll get to in a minute…) Though I remember the silly happy face shaped cut into the cookies and the fact that they were basically just Oreos, I'm kind of cloudy on the rest of the details. I seem to remember that they were available in Vanilla, Chocolate, and a mixture with both on one cookie, though I can't back that up. Also, for some odd reason my memories of these cookies are also tied to the short lived Quackers snack crackers (which were a variation on Cheez-Its or Chicken in a Bisket crackers but were flavor blasted with either Ranch, Nacho Cheese, or Sour Cream and Onion powders.)

Last up today I'm going to point outside of Branded to something I stumbled upon a few months ago that left my mouth agape for a minute or two. I recently ran across Jason Liebig's Flickr account and all the wonderfulness contained within including scans of old T-Shirt Iron-Ons, as well as a plethora of stickers, candy packaging scans, and other great bits of ephemera. Included were some amazing scans of some old Return of the Jedi Pepperidge Farm cookie packages that hit me in the gut like a cold fist. (Click on the images to be whisked away to Jason's Flickr gallery)







I remember eating the living heck out of these as a kid and I was so happy to find these images on the internets. In addition to Jason's great Flickr gallery, he also takes part in a fun project preserving old Christmas Wishbook catalogs from the past, so if you're bored and have a few hours to kill you'll find a ton of great stuff to look at.

About a year or so ago I stumbled upon something pretty cool on eBay that I thought would be fun to share on Branded in the 80s, namely an almost complete run of TV Guide Fall Preview issues for the eighties (1981-1990.) I'd still like to locate the issues from 77-80, but instead of putting this off any longer, I thought I'd go ahead and start posting the highlights from these issues.

My family was TV Guide-oholics while I was growing up. First off we didn't have a television with a remote until I was in high school, and we didn't have a remote controlled cable box until a couple years before that. Up until then, all throughout the 80s we had those old cable boxes that had a slide lever that you pushed to the right to get into the higher numbered channels and to the left to get to the lower numbered channels. It was one of those types of boxes that you family's drunk acquaintances would swear could pick up the pay channels for free if you just stuck a playing card between the lever and the receptor inside. Ours were typically connected to the TV by an extra long cord that was always stretched across the living room so that my dad could toggle through the channels while he lay on the couch. Anyway, because channel surfing was a little more archaic and because none of us cared for the one channel that would flash programming for all the other channels (what's become the TV Guide channel oddly enough), we lived by our weekly TV guide digest.

On Satudays my mom would come home with the weekly groceries and I'd always dive into the bags looking for our copy of the guide so that I could flip straight to the 'Movies' section to see what was playing on the pay cable channels. We only ever subscribed to HBO and I was always dying to see what was going to be on that week, not to mention lamenting what I couldn't see on Showtime or Cinemax. Sure, we also received the HBO guide by mail once a month, but my parents usually swiped it up and it would soon disappear never to be found again. I would also roughly plan out my Saturday morning, trying to come up with the best way to navigate through the cartoons on the various channels, though ultimately I would always end up sitting in front of the TV and switching between toons, mid-show. Of course, the best issue only came out once a year, the Fall Preview edition which showcased all of the new programming on the main three networks.

As I mentioned above, the earliest issue in the lot I picked up was the 1981 edition. I was only four at the time, so I doubt I flipped though this particular issue, and with a few exceptions, I don't remember many of the new shows that were offered up. I still can't help but smile while looking though it though. Actually, another interesting aspect of the TV Guide is that it's geared towards local markets, so every week there should be at least 100 to 200 different editions depending on where you live in the country. Though most of the up front and cable material is the same, there are some interesting bits of local flair in the middle. Most of the issues in the stack I purchased were from California, and in the small region that was actually lucky enough to pick up Channel Z (there's a great documentary on Z Channel that gives background on the whole phenomenon), so it's kind of a kick to see what was playing through out part of the 80s.

Anyway, without further to do, here are a bunch of thumbnail that link to larger scans from the issue…

      

I think it's weird that the artist who mocked up the cover chose to put a ring on what I assume is a lady's hand drawing back the right side of the curtains. I don't know why I find it weird, but I do. Though there were plenty of cigarette and liquor ads, the one that caught my eye first which a whopping 6-page Sears spread featuring all sorts of appliances and electronics. From $400 dollar monstrously sized microwave ovens (though they allude could cook a whole turkey, though I wouldn't want to eat it) and surprisingly modern-priced washer and dryer units, to pricey TVs (with Super Chromix picture tubes) and $800 Betamax players. Interesting side note on the Super Chromix picture tubes, I distinctly remember putting my face up so close to the TV glass that I could only see the weird green, blue, red color bars. I always wondered how it could look so good from far away and so simple up close. Ah the wonders of science and technology, and stupid kids smudging their grubby faces on TV screens…

      

I didn't scan in every TV show preview page, but I tried to snag the ones with some recognizable faces, like the above show King's Crossing with a young Linda Hamilton. The one show out of this entire book that I wish I had paid attention to at the time was the show The Powers of Matthew Star. It sounds like an 80s version of Smallville, except the dude had a kickass spear!

      

I also tried to scan in shows that have since become pop culture icons, like Simon and Simon above. Believe it or not, I have never seen a single episode of that show. My wife is ashamed of me.

I also thought it was kind of weird how openly liquor used to be advertised with soda brands. The above Bacardi ad is only one of like three in this issue alone that has major brand sodas in them, advertising the beauty of a mixed drink. Does this ever happen anymore?

Of course I was all over the Saturday Morning cartoon ads in the TV Guides I bought. These make wonderful companion pieces to the ads I've already posted from the various comics books of the 80s. This one above fills in the 1981 ABC gap in my original post. There was also a tiny ad for one of the ABC Weekend Special cartoons which I vaguely remember catching every once in awhile…

      

There was also a nice Solid Gold ad (featuring Andy Gibb and Olivia Newton-John, who has been a crush of mine every since I saw Xanadu this past year.) For some reason, though no one in my family really seems the type to have watched it, I remember having Solid Gold on in the background on the weekends while we had our big family meals (typically either steak or burgers.)

      

Now there's a show that I have weird memories of, Sha-Na-Na. Actually, my memories are all fragmented and for some odd reason seem to be getting mixed up with both Scott Baio and Hee-Haw of all things. I remember the weird song they'd sing where the one dude was pumping his guns and twisting his wrist and fist outward and inward. Again, why aren't there compilations of stuff like this on DVD. I don't need a season of Sha-Na-Na, just an episode to stir up some more truthful memories. Sigh.

Also, we have another Saturday Morning cartoon ad, ah, excuse me, a Saturdazzle ad. Man, to wake up early on a Saturday morning to catch Fat Albert on Saturdazzle, tizzle my dizzle and the hippity hoppity and junk. Anyway, you can find a different version of this ad from a comic book here.

Above we also have yet another show I'm sorry I missed and is now sadly gone (though I bet there's stuff on youtube), Fridays. Would you look at that young afro-clad Larry David! I wonder what hyjinks Andy Kaufman was getting into that week? Btw, I love love love Mark Blankfield, he was great in the Incredible Shrinking Woman…

        

Above we have some more fun preview pages showcasing the beginnings of the Fall Guy, Gimmie a Break, a running try at a series by Joel Higgins (who would later cement his fame in Silver Spoons), and a last ditch effort by Gabe Kaplan (who should have known better than to try and follow up Welcome Back Kotter with anything.) There are also a few fun ads, including one for Dial soap with some fun illustrations, a very conniving cigarette ad, and some old packaging for Nuti-Grain cereals.



Last but not least, we have a preview for Open All Night starring Bubba Smith (who was making a name for himself acting-wise in the Police Academy movies), and George Dzundza (who I believe was partnered with Chris Noth on the first season of Law & Order.)

Anyway, that basically the highlights from this issue. It was really cool to get a look at the listings even though they weren't my particular local stations growing up. It was cool to see what re-runs were playing at the time as well as all of the cartoons and such. Hopefully I'll be showcasing another issue each week until I've made my way through the rest of the 80s (and I might hit a couple from the 90s just for good measure.)

Wow, times flies around here when I'm not posting on a more regular basis. I'm more or less out of the weeds in terms of being busy (crossing my fingers and toes), so hopefully I'll get back on track with a weekly or twice weekly schedule sometime soon. But no one wants to hear about my time management issues…

In other Branded in the 80s news, if you've been following my Twitter feed at all (in the left-hand menu bar toward the bottom, you've probably guess that I've been working on a site related project for the last month or so. Actually, it's more of an experiment. I've been working on a print edition of the website, a magazine of sorts that I'm going to debut this year at Wizard World Chicago. The first issue is going to be a 20 page pocket-sized magazine containing 4 articles and some other fun stuff. In addition, I'll also have an 8 page Micro Magazine in a similar format to the pocket-sized book, which will contain one article, but will a have a cheaper price point. Basically, the magazine is an experiment to see if I can generate a little bit of money to go towards upkeep on the site (hosting, fees, etc.) as well as generating a little bit of petty cash to put towards vintage content materials (stuff to share on the site.) Both books are currently off to the printers, and if everything goes according to plan (I've drugged B.A. for the flight, registered my artist alley table for Wizard World, packed plenty of excess cats so ALF can having something to snack on during the trip up, etc.) I'll have them in hand within the next few weeks. I'm going to take the initial batch with me to the con, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of copies left over to sell on the site. Again, this is an experiment. If all goes smoothly then I've been thinking of putting out a larger book (both in page count and physical dimensions) quarterly or so. We shall see.

Getting back to Peel Here though, this week I thought I'd throw up something that just barely makes the cutoff in terms of 80s nostalgia. I've always been a firm believer in the idea that a decade isn't defined necessarily by the actual dates (e.g. 1980-1989) but by the pop culture fads and such. When you stop and think about it the first few years of most decades tend to feel more in place with the previous one. When I think about the 60s, I picture hippies, the later Beatles, the Munsters, peace signs and Vietnam, all of which is more or less '65 and up. The initial explosion of the Beatles, the Mods, Kennedy, etc., that all feels more in line with the late 50s to me. Same with the 80s. The arcade explosion, Atari's, knee-high socks, stripped ringer T-shirts with iron-ons, Star Wars, this all feels more like the 70s, while He-Man, G.I. Joe, Nintendo's, the surf and skate craze, Punky Brewster, etc, all feels like the 80s to me.

Going along with this, the first couple of years during the 90s feel a lot like the 80s. The end of hair-metal and pop R&B, Batman Returns, and the Beetlejuice cartoon, this is all residual 80s pop culture in my opinion. I know this seems like I'm going overboard a little on proof-of-concept, but I'm a stickler for details and when I see the '1990' date on the stickers below it puts me off a little. It's like when I hear people mentioning Tiny Tunes, the Animaniacs, and Captain Planet as 80s cartoons, when they are both the 90s and feel like it as well. Beetlejuice on the other hand feels, at least to me, more like the 80s as it debuted in '89 and is tied to the titular film of the same name (which is very 80s.)

Anyway, that's enough of my anal decade squabbling; let's get onto the stickers. These are part of a subset of trading cards that were issue by Dart FlipCards in 1990. Thought he card set was very similar to the standard Topps fare of the 80s, they were a little more in-tune with the 90s card sets in that they were printed on cleaner, nicer cardstock, and the stickers that were included were a little more like the Panini sticker book stickers (they're printed on thin flimsy paper and are a tad smaller than the card set itself.) The big draw of this set is that all of the stickers featured glow-in-the-dark artwork…



Though I haven't seen an episode of the cartoon since 1993 or so, I remember loving it to pieces because of its then new mixture of CGI and traditional animation (something I'm all that keen on anymore, at least not in general.) I also loved the way the series turned the movie's concept on its head by making Lydia and Beetlejuice friends, again something that I probably wouldn’t care as much today. I think this stems from my love of the BJ character and the fact that even though he might seem like the main character in the movie, he's only in like 17 minutes of footage while the rest is taken up primarily by Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones. It was really cool to get a chance to explore the neitherworld and watch Beetlejuice go nuts.

As far as this sticker set goes, I was a little under-whelmed in that it doesn't really feature the cast of characters from the cartoon all that well. There is a lot of miscellaneous imagery on the stickers, which though cool, isn't quite what I'd like. I guess I was hoping for another Lydia sticker or two, or one featuring the Monster Across the Street. Heck there are three skeleton themed stickers on this first bit above, any of those could have been Jacques LaLean



As far as the glow-in-the-dark gimmick, some work better than others. Sticker #9 above is pretty cool in that the blob of 'gitd' at the bottom of the picture is in the outline of two people (no doubt getting the wits scarred out of them by that monster.) On the other hand, in sticker #14 the blob of 'gitd', though obviously a monster, is sort of lost in all the black in the background, and even when glowing is still sort of non-descript.



At the end of the day, after reading about these stickers online I was hoping for more like #20, basic character poses. I did my best to try and scan one of these while it was all charged and glowing, but it didn't quite turn out as I hoped…



…but I think you can sort of get the point.

Hopefully I'll be back this week with something other than a late Peel Here to post, but we shall see…

Well, if anyone is wondering why the posts have slowed down so much lately, there is a reason, and it's far from something bad.  In fact, it's pretty cool, but I don't want to spill the beans completely until I have more solid confirmation (though I haven't been keeping it all that secret...)  Regardless, I thought I'd take a second and throw up a quick edition of Peel Here to keep the fires stoked and burning around here.

This week I'm going to share my last two sets of Colorforms Lazer Blazers hologram stickers that I have in my collection. First up I have one of my Holy Grail items in my quest to find vintage stickers, the 1983 Dungeons & Dragons LB set.  I was pretty hot to get these because they have proven to be the hardest to find, and they do occasionally pop up on eBay, the most expensive Lazer Blazers by far.  I've been in two furious bidding wars, and both times the other guy was willing to pay far more than I could or would, so I sort of stooped to a kind of low to get these.  Actually, I never really purchased the stickers themselves, but instead, I contacted one of the sellers who listed them, and I offered to pay for a decent sized scan instead.  Not one of my finer moments, but I feel justified in that I now at least have them to share…



Like most of the D&D merchandising in the 80s, these have nothing to do with the Saturday morning cartoon, and everything to do with a the actual role playing game (though a couple of these characters do make an appearance in the show.)  I've talked about him before, but I had a weird crush on the Warduke character (who is in the package art as well as on the bottom left sticker) as a kid as I had the toy and I always thought he looked pretty darn evil.

Up next we have one of the three more girl-oriented Lazer Blazer sets, the 1983 Barbie stickers…



For once, the prismatic rainbow color effect of the hologram technology is put to an almost perfect use.

Besides these two packages (and the nine I put up in past columns), I know of at least four more sets and a binder that were produced between 1983 and 1985.  There was a My Little Pony set, which also probably looked pretty good in holo-colors, a Beastman themed Masters of the Universe set, a set of generic (non-branded) unicorns, and a set of rainbows.  Though I've already posted these, here are the rest of the ones in my collection, so that in the future I can refer to this one Lazer Blazers post.  Enjoy!

As a quick aside before I plunge into the Peel Here column proper I'd like to say that I finally bit the bullet and picked up a rather expensive copy of the very first Choose Your Own Adventure style book. It's called Sugarcane Island and Edward Packard wrote it in 1969. As the story goes he came up with the idea while thinking of bedtime stories for his three children; he found probably one of the most useful ways of taking advantage of the 2nd person point of view in writing (at least in my humble opinion), which is a very tricky way of putting the reader into the shoes of a story's protagonist. This way he could involve his children in the stories more, handing over the controls to them so to speak and giving them opportunities to decide how the story would play out.

Anyway, it was a pesky book to try and find. I couldn't locate a non-branded copy to save my life, so I had to settle for the version that was printed under the Which Way banner in '78 (it was also published again under the Choose Your Own Adventure series in the 80s, but it was modified and updated, and I really wanted the original.) Picking Sugarcane Island up means that I can finally start working on showcasing a bunch of these decision-style books in a new column on the site.

So, with that little bit of news out of the way, lets move on to the meat of today's post, my meager collection of ALF stickers…



I don't think I really have to give any background on the character, as he was practically a rock star in the late 80s for a number of years. The 1986 ALF sitcom and franchise was pretty darn big spawning four seasons of the live action show, a couple of cartoon series, at least one popular plush doll, and a bevy of merchandise including stickers. Though I watched the live action show (to the blank stares and amazement of my parents) and the first cartoon series quite a bit, I really didn't get into any of the ancillary merchandising, stickers included. I did manage to procure some of the more common stuff on eBay like the puffy stickers above (which were released by Russ in 1987.)



There were also a couple of series of ALF cards issued by Topps in 1987-88, and a series called the U.S. of ALF (issued by Zoot in 1987.) The below sticker cards are from the second Topps ALF series in 1988…



I freaking love his skinny tie in sticker #27. There’s also a nice bit of airbrushed artwork in this next set…



And of course there was the obligatory puzzle poster that came along with the set…



I really need to go back and watch the TV series, as I haven't seen it since it aired. I still find incredible that we managed to get four seasons of a show with a guy in a little furry suit as the main character, on prime time TV no less. There's no way that would work in today's TV environment, not unless ALF was invited to take part in the Surreal Life or something (and I'd love to see the logistics of that happening…)

This week's Peel Here is brought to you by insane side effects to prescribed medications. Have you ever heard of nightmares as being a side effect to medication? I hadn't, yet for the last week I've had the weirdest dreamscapes that I can't help but describe as nightmares (if only because they wrecked my much needed sleepy time.) It's right there on the pill bottle as well, nightmares. Anyway…

I've been meaning to get to the following set of stickers for awhile, but for some reason kept putting it off, so this week I'm going to rectify the situation by presenting the complete Cyndi Lauper sticker card collection from Topps (1985.)



I wouldn't say I was a huge Lauper fan growing up, but it sure was hard to escape her image and music in my household. My sister had the She's So Unusual record on regular rotation and thanks to her odd cross promotion with the WWF and her songs in the Goonies flick I seemed to always be running into that bright orange and blonde hair. It also didn't hurt that I was addicted to the "We Are the World" song and video like most everybody else in the early 80s. A little later on my Mom became a huge fan after the release of the "I Drove All Night" single, which she played more often than my sister played the SSU album. Heck, I'd also be the first to admit that I started wearing multicolored jelly bracelets around that time as well. I'm not a slave to fashion, but I am impressionable from time to time.



Though the design on the Michael Jackson and Menudo sticker cards seemed to scream the 80s, I'd have to say that this set takes the cake in terms of being patently iconic of the decade. As if Cyndi wasn't vibrant and in your face enough as it is, these background sticker design is insane. Though we do get an appearance by Captain Lou Albano (mainstay of her videos and possible nemesis to her wrestling persona –I just don't remember), I was kind of bummed by how static the set seems in terms of imagery. Granted, I realize the set is supposed to be Lauper-centric but I think there needed to be a little more variation, possibly by including the pictures from her album cover or something.





The other thing I just thought of is how much Lauper reminds me of Diz Aster from the Nickelodeon show Out of Control (she was the one with the shrill aaaeeeeoooo aaaeeeeooo cry.) Well, actually, I think I have that backwards as Aster was probably a play on Cyndi Lauper.

Anyway, this set of sticker cards also breaks convention a little by offering one huge 15-card puzzle poster instead of two smaller ones like the Menudo and Michael Jackson sets…


It's kind of weird now that I think back on it.  I have a weird thing with ages and stuff, and it's hard to believe that Cyndi Lauper is just about my Mom's age.  I don't know why it seems weird, but I guess I always thought she was around my sister's age because I aquated her to my sister since she was the 'fan'.  Anyhoo...

I think I'm going to take a little break from Garbage Pail Kids here on Peel Here for a bit, if only to get the sticker columns flowing again. I still have to scan in four or so sets of sticker cards and I keep pushing it off when I'm at home. On the other hand, I still have plenty of other stickers that I scanned a good bit ago, and I kind of want to switch gears for awhile.

For today I thought I'd bust out with my collection of Rambo stickers, which were part of a subset of Topps cards that came out in conjunction with the second flick, First Blood, Part 2 (probably the silliest name for a movie ever.) Though the film's title is pretty weak, its star certainly is not. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that at the time First Blood, Part 2 hit theaters Sly Stallone was probably hitting the height of his popularity, as were the 80s action flicks he helped usher into the decade. For my money this is about as far as an action flick could go, crazy believability-wise, without side stepping into fantasy, sci-fi, or becoming a parody. Don't get me wrong, it's not really all that believable, but it's not quite Commando either (also don't get me wrong redux, I love both flicks, in particular Commando.)

I wasn't allowed to watch the flick when it first came out, I was still a couple years away from completely breaking my parents of their justified urge to try and shield my 8 year-old eyes from uber violence. This didn't stop me, and an entire generation of young boys, from idolizing the film, character and man by lusting after lunchboxes, T-Shirts, branded school supplies, and the coup de grace, the plastic replica hunting knife (with realistic hollowed out handle containing fake matches, string, and other odds and ends, and capped off with a glass compass. That knife was my generation's Red Rider BB Gun. If I remember correctly the knife also came packaged with a glow-in-the-dark replica of his little jade pendant necklace.

Anyway, this subset of cards was released in 1985 by Topps and contained 22 stickers, the backs of which made the standard puzzle poster…



As far as Topps sticker subsets go, this is probably one of the loudest in terms of design and color choices. Other than the fact that there were already a ton of sets that featured Red borders, I'm not sure why they didn't choose to go with that, or a nice hunter green. The yellow just sort of hurts my eyes. I also think the die-cut on the stickers is kind of boring, and since it encompasses the movie title and card number anyway, it's sort of pointless. As far as the choices for screen captures go, I don't blame the designers in pretty much completely sticking to Sly in fun action poses, though I'll be honest, I was kind of hoping that there would have been a torture rack sticker (as inappropriate as it may have been.) I guess I'll just have to live with the skinny dip into the muddy leach water instead (in this next set of stickers…)



One thing I found kind of odd about the pictures on the stickers was that there seemed to be an awful lot of captures where Stallone is reaching or jumping up with arms outstretched. There's a fourth one in the next set below. Just seems like a red flag would have been raised in the design process. I wonder how many kids opened up a pack of cards and were supremely bummed by getting a Richard Crenna or a Julia Nickson sticker?



If nothing else, I'm glad they included the two pieces of poster art (above) as stickers. I've always been a fan of this, if only because poster art used to be so awesome in the 80s what with all the paintings and stuff. Beats the heck out of all the bad Photoshop jobs we see these days.