MARTY KROFFT DEAD AT 86

 

You can read the full story here.

Along with his brother, Sid, Marty was half of Sid & Marty Krofft Productions. They began as theatrical puppeteers before moving into television by designing the characters and sets for The Banana Splits Adventure Hour for Hanna-Barbera. That allowed them to branch out on their own to create H.R. Pufnstuf, The Bugaloos, Lidsville, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, both versions of Land of the Lost, Far Out Space Nuts, The Lost Saucer, The Krofft Supershow which included Dr. Shrinker, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Kaptain Kool and the Kongs, Wonderbug, Bigfoot and Wildboy and Magic Mongo, and Pryor’s Place.

THANSKGIVING EPISODES AND SPECIALS

 The American holiday of Thanksgiving is a time when families get together and fill up on lots of homemade goodies while also expressing thanks for everything and everyone they have in their life. Although not as widely celebrated on the small screen as its surrounding holiday brethren, there have been some episodes here and there on Saturday mornings. And these are those episodes, with more to come each year. Know of any we missed? Let us know!

All Grown Up!

"R.V. Having Fun Yet?"

Susie gets chosen to perform at the Thanksgiving Day parade in New York, but first they must endure a cross-country trek in a clunky old motor home.

Amphibia

"The Big Bugball Game"

Anne must learn to be a team player in order to help the farmers win the annual Bugball game against the Townies during their Thanksgiving-like holiday.

Animaniacs (1993)

"Turkey Jerkey"

Native American Warners must keep their pet turkey from becoming Thanksgiving dinner.

Big City Greens

"Big Deal"

Desperate for a new TV, Cricket convinces his family to go to a big Thanksgiving sale at a big-box store.

Bobby's World

"Generics and Indians"

A Native American community comes to the Generics' rescue when their van breaks down and offers them a different perspective of Thanksgiving.

The Care Bears

"Grams Bear's Thanksgiving Surprise"

The Care Bears must stop Sour Sam from ruining Thanksgiving with his crabby apple pies.

CityKids

"Rooftop Thanksgiving"

The kids band together to help a hard-off family have a good holiday.

Craig of the Creek

"Craig and the Kids Table"

When Bernard accidentally ruins dessert, Craig and the Kids Table help keep him out of trouble with the family.

Disney's House of Mouse

"House of Turkey"

Everyone eagerly awaits Mr. Turkey's arrival as the literal dinner guest.

Doug/Disney's Doug

"Doug's Thanksgiving"

When Bill Bluff is told he should have Thanksgiving dinner with an average family to boost his popularity, Doug's family ends up chosen and their holiday is turned upside-down.

Life with Louie

"The Fourth Thursday in November"

The Andersons host Thanksgiving dinner for the entire family.

The Loud House

"The Loudest Thanksgiving"

Lori and Bobby try to bring their respective families together so they won't have to spend Thanksgiving apart.

"The Loud House Thanksgiving Special (Clyde's Kitchen)"

Lincoln and Clyde are helping each other prepare the perfect Thanksgiving dinner over video chat.

Max & Ruby

"Max's Thanksgiving"

While Ruby is eager to help Grandma prepare for Thanksgiving dinner, Max is just ready to eat her famous stuffing.

"Max and Ruby Give Thanks"

Ruby encourages Max to go somewhere else to find something to be thankful for while she works on her Thanksgiving cards.

Pepper Ann

"Thanksgiving Dad"

Pepper Ann believes her father will actually visit this Thanksgiving.

Q*Bert

"Thanksgiving for the Memories"

Q*Bert's class gets a history lesson about the first Thanksgiving in Q*Burg.

The Real Ghostbusters

"The Revenge of Murray the Mantis"

Ghosts possess the Murray the Mantis parade balloon, and the guys' only chance at beating it rests with Mr. Stay Puft.

Sesame Street

"A Sesame Street Thanksgiving"

All the residents of the street gather together for a Thanksgiving feast where they plan on sampling foods from each others' respective cultures.

The Spectacular Spider-Man

"Nature vs. Nurture"

Aunt May is released from the hospital just in time for Thanksgiving--and for the newly-transformed Venom to come looking for trouble.

Strawberry Shortcake: Berry in the Big City

"Berry Bounty Bust"

Personalities clash over holiday traditions when Strawberry and her aunt are invited over to Lime's for a Berry Bounty banquet.

Teen Titans Go!

"Thanksgiving"

Uninvited guests look to spoil the perfect Thanksgiving Robin had planned for their special guest: Batman.

"Thanksgetting"

Bored with Thanksgiving, the Titans decide to come up with their own holiday and traditions.

"A Doom Patrol Thanksgiving"

Beast Boy returns home for Thanksgiving where the Doom Patrol enter a float in the local parade and watch old home movies the Chief had hidden from them.

"The Wishbone"

When the wishbone the Titans make wishes on breaks, they head to Gobble-Gobble land to set things right.

Teacher's Pet

"The Turkey that Came to Dinner"

The pets must protect the turkey Grandma Rose brought along from becoming Thanksgiving dinner.

Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales

"The Romance of Plymouth Rock"

Tennessee plans to put on a play about the Pilgrims and Jeroba Jump and Tiger Tornado join the cast in order to sabotage it.

Underdog (1964)

"Simon Says No Thanksgiving"

Simon Bar Sinister decides to go back in time and sabotage the first Thanksgiving.

                                                                          

DUNKIN' DONUTS CEREAL

 

DUNKIN’ DONUTS CEREAL
 
Ralston

 

 

            Dunkin’ Donuts, now known as simply Dunkin’, is a multinational quick service restaurant. Founded in 1950 by Bill Rosenberg (after opening as Open Kettle in 1948), the chain’s original claim to fame was its donuts and coffee; the two most popular items when he used to sell food to factories and construction sites. The chain continued to expand to include more items on its menu, particularly of the breakfast variety, and almost 13,000 restaurants. Beginning in 1981, Dunkin’ Donuts ran an ad campaign with an advertising mascot called Fred the Baker, portrayed by actor Michael Vale, whose catchphrase was “Time to make the donuts”. The campaign was incredibly popular, with the phrase’s debut commercial being named one of the five best commercials of the 1980s by the Television Bureau of Advertising. When the character was retired in 1997, by fan demand the company created an entire celebration around him including a parade in Boston and a “free donut” day. In 2019, the company began removing “Donuts” from its name to symbolize its new status as a “beverage-led” company, focusing on coffee, tea, and speedy to-go service.

            In 1988, the company attempted to expand into the breakfast market with Dunkin’ Donuts cereal. Produced by Ralston, the cereal featured three shapes representing their donuts: standard ring shapes, round balls for their Munchkins (donut holes), and figure eights. They came in two flavor varieties: glazed and chocolate. Of course, this wasn’t the first donut-inspired cereal on the market, as Ralston had released on in 1980 called Dinky Donuts and General Mills’ Powdered Donutz. Dunkin’s cereal was as short-lived as those two; lasting only a year despite the commercials and the box featuring Fred. Premiums included a send-away offer for a Dunkin’ Donuts-branded duffle bag, a flashlight, a card trick system branded by magician Harry Blackstone Jr., Nintendo trading cards with a chance to win a NES, and a back-to-school kit featuring a pencil case with pencils, erasers, a ruler and a sharpener. The cereal was also part of Ralson’s line-wide promotion offering a real Porsche.

Interactive ad for the cereal.

PINK PANTHER FLAKES

 

PINK PANTHER FLAKES
 
Post Cereals

  

The Pink Panther media franchise was conceived by writer/director Blake Edwards and ran as a series of comedy mystery movies centered around an inept French detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers), and beginning with the theft of the titular diamond with an imperfection at the center that resembled a pink panther. While The Pink Panther proved to be a hit upon its worldwide debut in 1964, an even bigger hit was the animated titles featuring a caricature of Sellers being outwitted by a literal Pink Panther. This title sequence was done by animation studio DePatie-Freleng Enterprises.

Back of the RPX car promotion box.

Encouraged by audience reactions, DFE struck up a deal with The Mirisch Company, the film’s producers, and United Artists, the film’s distributor, to produce a series of 156 6-minute theatrical shorts (of which only 124 ended up being made) featuring Pink working through a given situation—sneaking into an alcoholic’s house to spend the night, working as a secret agent, deciding a pole would look better painted pink instead of blue, etc.—while often being at odds with the Little White Man: a minimalist rounded figure of a person with a large nose and mustache said to be modeled after DFE co-founder and initial short director, Friz Freleng. Each short, played in pantomime outside of the odd side character, was accompanied by Henry Mancini’s catchy theme.

Back of the disappearing paper promotion box.

The Pink Panther shorts proved popular enough for DFE to expand their library of offerings. They began working on The Inspector, Roland and Rattfink, The Ant and the Aardvark, Tijuana Toads, Hoot Kloot, The Blue Racer, The Dogfather, Misterjaw and Crazylegs Crane. However, as the 1960s was coming to an end, the age of the theatrical short was beginning to wane. Looking to keep their investment going, Mirisch decided to follow other studios’ leads and import these shorts onto Saturday morning television. Debuting in 1969, The Pink Panther show packaged various combinations of DFE’s shorts during its 11-year run with all-new bridging sequences and the occasional new short being added.

Post Cereals, one of the sponsors of the show, decided to create a cereal tie-in as promotion in 1972. Pink Panther Flakes was essentially corn flakes with pink coloring added, which would also turn the milk pink once it was added. Advertisements for the cereal played out like a typical Pink Panther short: the Little White Man was about to enjoy some Pink Panther Cereal when Pink decided to help himself in some fashion. Part of Mancini’s theme played over them with new cereal-centric lyrics. Among the cereal’s premiums were a 5-in-1 spy kit shaped like Pink (featuring The Inspector on the back), a zip-cord powered “RPX Car” that resembled the Panthermobile created for the show, a pad of “disappearing paper” that could dissolve in water, and a pink ball.

OREO O'S CEREAL

 

OREO O’S CEREAL
 
Post Cereals

 

            Oreo is a cookie first introduced by Nabisco in 1912 as an imitation of the Hydrox cookie manufactured by Sunshine Biscuits. It has always featured some kind of filling between two cookie pieces; only changing size (Double Stuf had double the crème, Big Stuf was a giant version sold individually, Mini were bit-sized, etc.), flavor in both the crème (lemon, mint, peanut butter, apple pie, etc.) and cookie (golden, vanilla, etc.), and cookie design over the years. It began life as “The Oreo Biscuit” before being renamed to “Oreo Sandwich” in 1921, “Oreo Crème Sandwich” in 1948, and finally “Oreo Chocolate Sandwich Cookie” in 1974 (the origin of the “Oreo” name itself remains a jumbled mystery). Oreos have also expanded to products other than cookies, including brownies, ice cream, candy bars, and, of course, cereal.

            Oreo O’s was first introduced in 1997 by Post Cereals, conceived by an Ogilvy & Mather NYC advertising employee. The cereal was made of chocolate donut-like cereal pieces covered in crème-flavored sprinkles. Early marketing for the cereal featured an ad campaign imply that the cereal was so in-demand, it created a run on milk. One of the earliest commercials featured Shia LaBeouf and Rachel Duncan as kids being “interviewed” by a reporter. The next campaign featured kids being able to see an Oreo O’s-themed paradise by looking through the cereal pieces. In 2001, marshmallow bits were added to give the cereal a new “extreme crème taste”. New CGI marshmallow mascots called The Crème Team were introduced in the commercials to promote this change. Premiums included a Nickelodeon U-Pick live Challenge Game and a free ticket to the film Rugrats in Paris featured in various Post cereals at the time; and a chance to win a cruise by finding a blue-sprinkled cereal piece.

The South Korean version.

            The cereal sold well enough for a decade. Unfortunately, behind the scenes circumstances saw an end to its production. Kraft, owner of both brands, sold off Post to Ralcorp Holdings in 2007, which meant they lost the rights to the cereals they produced before and Post lights access to the Oreo name. Interestingly, this wasn’t an issue in South Korea. Dongsuh Foods was a joint venture between General Foods (the parent company of Post) and Dongsuh Companies Inc., and they had the rights to produce Post’s cereals in the country. With Kraft’s purchase of General Foods, they became part owner of Dongsuh and thus the company was able to retain both licenses needed to continue production of Oreo O’s. An E. coli concern caused a recall of the cereal in 2014, but Dongsuh resumed its production in 2016.

The return varieties.

            As for the rest of the world, Oreo O’s would soon be making a comeback—which was probably welcome news to those who had been buying it off eBay or having friends in South Korea send them some. In 2012, Oreo’s parent company became Mondelēz International and talks were opened with Post on the cereal’s possible return. In 2017, Post tested the waters by releasing a cereal called “Cookies & Cream” through their Malt-O-Meal brand. They sold well, and through a marketing deal made by Walmart for exclusive rights for the first three months, Post announced that Nabisco could be co-branding the cereal with the original 1997 recipe—however, without the marbits. In 2018, it became widely available for all stores to carry; along with a new Golden Oreo variety by the middle of the year. In 2019, Walmart launched another exclusive with the return of the marbits in Mega Stuf Oreo O’s.

The original marshmallow variety.