9 TV Shows Based on Commercials
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- Опубліковано 8 чер 2024
- Take a deep dive into the world of weird media as we look at the BEST and WORST tv shows based on commercials. Is Ted Lasso the best one? What was the first example of this trend? Watch and see. #believe #tedlasso
Written and directed by Kevin Maher
Edited by Matt Glasson
Produced by Kevin Maher and Nick Nadel for Atomic Abe Productions
Executive Producer: Tim Finn
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My favorite is Bing Crosby drunkenly complaining about how forest fires destroy "good hunting areas."
ha!
Thank you! I turned on captions and screenshoted that and sent it to several people, what a juxtaposition, a smokey the bear environmental ad about fires make hunting hard, omg hilarious. I mean awful. But hilarious.
Yep, he and Phil Harris (the voice of Baloo the Bear from The Jungle Book) were BIG hunting buddies.
@@kamenanew9867 yeah, heaven forbid animals need to hunt for food when they can get food from the market like we do.
My granny, who NEVER swore, saw the first commercial for the Caveman show and said to me "That's about the dumbest Goddamn thing I've ever seen."
ha! Amazing.
Pete and Pete getting stuck in copyright hell, is such a tragedy. It's why you don't see it on any streaming platform, or even a DVD release.
yes, it's a great show. definitely holds up. I think you can buy the episodes on UA-cam.
There was a DVD release of the first season years ago but it’s long out of print now.
@@TrekBeatTK But that comes back to the copyright problems. The later seasons didn't get a DVD release because of the rights.
The Mean Joe Greene commercial was also parodied on Sesame Street, where Roscoe Orman (best known for playing Gordon Robinson) played a football player name Big Murray; and a kid offered him a physical number 7 instead of a Coke.
Oh my God, I need to see this. That sounds really funny. Roscoe Orman is terrific. Thanks for sharing this!
The animated film, Space Jam (1996) deserves an honorable mention on this list.
Good point, we didn't include SPACE JAM but that would fit into a list of feature films based on commercials (Space Jam, Uncle Drew, not sure what else)
@@KevinGeeksOut WOW! Thanks for writing me back! I love your videos. 👍🏾
@@moonprincesst.s.h.4ever115 thank *you*
I guess I know one piece of trivia about "Cavemen" that you don't -- pretty sure you would have mentioned it -- one of the recurring characters on the show based on Geico Insurance commercials was played by Stephanie Courtney, who became Flo, the Progressive Insurance lady!
Hey Vern It’s Earnest was part of a rock-block with Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and it was quite boundary pushing for a live-action Saturday morning kid’s show due to the work of co-creators John Cherry and Coke Sams.
I was charmed by the show! (Hadn't seen it until doing the research.) And I feel like THE COMPLETELY MENTAL MISADVENTURES OF ED GRIMLEY was NBC's answer to that kind of programming.
@@KevinGeeksOut that Dr Otto movie was great. Insane. But great.
@@kamenanew9867dr Otto is an overlooked classic from when movies were ok being weird and nonsensical. Reminds me of The Hollowheads
Wait...John Cherry and Coke Sams?
CHERRY and COKE?
CHERRY COKE?!
That can’t be a coincidence
In the 80s, my high school best friend had a "Where's the beef?!" Speedo that his mom bought him that he wore to the pool all summer. True story😮
amazing. I wonder if they sell them on etsy.
What in sam Hailey...?
The California Raisins had an NES game as well. It was developed by Capcom, who created some of the eras favorite games, including Mega Man & Street Fighter. For some reason, it was never commercially released, but archivists got ahold of a cartridge and made it available online. There are plenty of videos about it here on YT.
Oh wow, I had no idea. That makes sense that the Raisins would get a game. Also we didn't include it (because it was too much of a tangent) there was a WHERE'S THE BEEF? board game. Not an officially licensed Wendy's Game, as far as I could tell, but the game art did feature Clara Peller's likeness.
Vinton studios made both the raisins and the Noid. Noid did get a released capcom game
I forgot I subbed to you but I'm so glad I did. Looking forward to future content from you!
I am also glad. Thanks Jon!
The two that come to mind for me are the crash test dummies who started out as a PSA about road safety, became a toy line and got a TV pilot that went nowhere and Bump in the Night which started off as a series of bumpers for the ABC animated tv block before getting it's own show. But my personal favorite was PJ Katie's farm, a canadian show that started off as short inbetween segments on the station YTV during their kids block.
whoa, you know your stuff @Hughmahn484 ! Great picks.
You briefly mentioned the glut of 80s cartoons that basically *were* commercials. HOT WHEELS was the original of those in the late 60s, but things like this didn't come out of the woodwork and they weren't as blatant until Reagan deregulated childrens' advertising. It wasn't really until Ren & Stimpy brought back the creator-driven animated series that these things started to go away.
Yeah, another version of this video would've focused on deregulation.
Pete & Pete is awesome. But it’s Not based on commercials, its based on shorts. Commercials are made to sell something, Pete & Pete shorts were just short films
17:44 you were garbagio on U-Pick Live? I loved that show.
Thanks so much.
Wait you were on you pick live! I loved that tv spot made watching TV fun 😁. I looked forward to the game show segments. My brother's friend was once on a dance off segment .
Thanks. Yes, I was a writer on U-Pick Live. And a lot of the people who worked on the show appeared on-camera. (I played Garbagio, Professor Pickins, Lucky the Cat, the Big Kid, and a few other roles.) The games were always fun -- very unpredictable. Great for live TV.
I loved "Hey Vern, it's Ernest" It was one of my favorite shows as a kid. I'm surprised to hear it only lasted a season, it felt longer. The only movie of his that I enjoyed was "Ernest Goes to Camp", the rest were forgettable, unfortunately. Maybe because after that first movie, I had out grown him. R.I.P. Jim.
I remember the "Hey Vern, It's Ernest" show when it aired! I kind of liked it, and it definitely seemed to be aiming for that Pee-Wee's Playhouse vibe and audience.
Oh wait...I just remembered another one after you reminded me of Chester Cheetah. They made a Spuds Mackenzie animated cartoon for kids...which...is weird, since he was a beer mascot. And, if parents had a problem with Chester Cheetah, I'm very surprised that Spuds actually made it to air!
So they didn't make the Chester Cheetah show, which would've been awesome. But parents had no problem taking thier kids to see 4 Lego movies? The Lego Movie is one giant commercial.
ha ha! Great point. It's a fine-line, I guess. Parents might give LEGO toys a pass, because it's about hand-eye coordination or creativity. But something like Cheetos is junk food. And some movies are practically propaganda, like in MAC & ME when the dying alien is brought back to life with Coca-Cola.
@@KevinGeeksOut Coca-cola and McDonalds.
It was just a very small group of parents lead by Peggy Charren. She was always ruining everything back then. I think she had died by the time the Lego movies had come out. Also, she usually targeted TV shows, since they are regulated by the FCC, and politicians can put pressure on them to look like they're doing something to help people.
Jim Varney was such a genius
Still makes me laugh
The talking baby routine has been used actually since the mid 60s when a TV show was developed around the idea of a talking baby with adult thoughts. The father was played by Ronnie Burns son of George Burns, the comedian.
@Atomic Abe Productions - I have one question...Where is the Sugar Bear Cartoon?
This made me think about children's cartoons that were based on R Rated movies 😂. I hope you do a list on that topic someday.
There's a podcast called Zeng This that did an episode on this very topic! The hosts talked about various cartoons based on decidedly adult properties, then pitched their own ideas. Can't remember when it was, but it was sometime in the past year. Great episode!
Pete & Pete aired when I was in middle school; and even back then when I saw Artie proclaim to be the strongest man in the world, I was like, “Really? _That_ skinny dude?“ (Decades later I said a similar thing when DJ Qualls was cast as a police officer on Memphis Beat.)
This was amazing. I never realized Jacko was hocking batteries outside of Australia. A little embarrassed.
That campaign was big. He was around for a long while. What did he do before he was selling batteries?
@@atomicabe He played Australian Rules football!
Ernest.
The Original Masters of the Universe Commercial
The Ernest and Pee Wee block on Saturday mornings are my first memories of watching television and wow did it unconsciously shape who I am. What wild creativity and humor, and the aesthetics holy shit. I loved it, I should absolutely revisit those shows!
OMG PETE AND PETE
I remember watching "Hey Vern, It's Ernest" on Saturday mornings and it making me feel uncomfortable. For some reason I kept watching it though.
Does it still have that effect? It is somewhat jarring.
I remember watching that show! The most bizarre sequence was when we saw Ernest's tongue and the tongue getting food splattered all over him!
The Claymation Holiday Special is a bona fide clasic!
First Like! 👍🏾
C'mon people! Give this video a Like. This video deserves your Likes. 😁
OMG I thought you were say
“Dead Lasso” until you put the title up at the end LOL🤣🤣🤣🤣
I never heard of “Baby Bob”. But I LOVED the E*trade talking baby commercials!
Back in the 50/60's Sitcoms were just 30 min commercials. The Actors would pitch the item that sponsered the show - in Charactor!
I wish they'd made a TV show out of that Charles Barkley VS Godzilla ad (they made a comic, though).
I think my mother still has that Claymation Christmas special on videotape somewhere.
Going way back here. The Linus The Lionhearted cartoon show had characters from Post Cereal Commercials.
"Only who can prevent forest fires?"
"You pressed you referring to me. That is incorrect. The correct answer is you."
I watched a video about the history of Taco Bell the other day, and after seeing this, it dawned on me that the Chihuahua should have had his own show.
Off topic I’d love to see a video essay about General Hospitals Luke and Laura phenomenon back in the ‘80s
Great vids as always
Ken Hudson-Campbell was on Herman's Head. I am shocked that Cavemen was not on that list.
off topic, weird history related to this.
Long running soap operas started way way back in the early the radio days 1930’s started as long form live performance commercial drama (ie highlighting products but with drama for 15 to 20 minutes.). Before “commercials” 30 sec to 1 minute separately recorded “inserts”. Soap companies bought blocks of time and scripted addictive dramas as they proved popular.
All the big name soaps you know didn’t start as early as these who were originally radio commercials, but some lasted 30, 40, 50 years.
Of course those weren’t from “commercials” as the modern understanding, because “commericials” weren’t a thing yet.
Rowan Atkinson's "Johnny English" film trilogy was based on a character he created for a series of British credit card commercials.
Those are British, not American, and films, not a TV show. But I thought it worth mentioning. :)
I had no idea. Thanks for sharing that. I wish we'd included it in the video.
The Steeler and the Pittsburgh Kid?
How'd I miss that one?
Alright so i saw the offive spin off vid, realized id seen some stuff from this channel before and somehow forgor to sub, this one is fantastic possibly my favorite so far. And im totally not subscribed now because of the memories you unlocked with that maksed wrestler clip. Thanks man.
Thanks for watching!
Pete & Pete arrived in Scotland at the perfect time. I loved Ren & Stimpy but P&P and Clarissa were very spot on at how teenage me saw his weird life was 👍
Yes, it felt so special at the time. I don't know that there are TV shows that do this now -- since teenagers can connect with each other online or through podcasts or UA-cam channels. But those shows were odd and great.
I still can't believe ABC cancelled The George Lopez Show for Cavemen.
RIP Jim Varney; the dangers of cigarette smoking.
IIRC didnt Jim do a PSA about the harmfulness of smoking?
@@mattalan6618 I could look it up, you may be right
@@tamaraclaw if so oh the irony
with all due respect, Pete and Pete weren’t commercials. they might have been interstitials, but those are an ancient part of entertainment and are only selling entertainment not whatever the others were selling.
if you include Pete and Pete you must include The Simpsons because they are no different than Pete and Pete as that show started as interstitials on The Tracy Ulman Show
Only I can prevent forest fires?!
I never knew that Ernest P. Worrell was based off of Ernest T. Bass and Goofy!
Yes, that was a fun part of doing this research. Makes sense, now you can't un-see it, right?
ok TBF the first Cool Spot game is actually really fun
Smokey was actually originally… a real bear! 😂
Doug started out in a commercial, as did Kermit & Rolf.
I didn't know that Doug started as a commercial. I know Fido Dido was used in 7-Up commercials.
9 Ernest P Worrell movies? I think you're missing his first movie, Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam. Ernest was only a bit part in that movie, but it still counts.
And there were 3 other releases;
Ernest's Greatest Hits (vol 1 &2)
Hey Verne It's My Family Album
Your World as I See It
Ernest was before my time but I had no idea there were so many movies
The Chester Cheetah was beyond the pale, yet a decade or so earlier, the Sugar Bear cartoon was A-OK (Actually, I do believe there were parental complaints about it). Bonus fact: the Sugar Bear show was one of pop star Kim Carnes' first gigs (she was the singing voice of Honey Bear, as well as the writer of some of the songs alongside her husband/writing partner Dave Ellingson).
They mandela effected you too. He was never apparently "Smokey THE Bear" and just "Smokey Bear". You even called the show the Smokey the Bear show. 4:02
oh wow. you're right
ok, that jeff foxworthy smokey is kinda cute.
There were three CGI celebrity Smokeys: Jeff Foxworthy, Al Roker and Betty White.
Not everybody can afford to subscribe to multiple streaming services or premium channels. I never heard of Ted Lasso and I never saw Game of Thrones.
Jim Varney had a near genius IQ level.
A tv show based on food should only about the Trix Rabbit or Lucky Charms leprechaun and their efforts to evade those horrible greedy children.
Of all the intellectual properties Hollywood keeps rebooting, no one wants to resurrect the Ernest character. Kind of makes you wonder who would play the character if they did. Kind of.
Wow. I've never thought about that. But since you mentioned it there have been a bunch of comic actors to play Inspector Clouseau (or like the Son of Clouseau), so it's definitely possible we could see a rebooted Ernest.
They'd probably get Zendaya and then call everyone a racist for not seeing their awful remake.
When ever I heard Only you can prevent Forrest fires I would think well Smokey you're screwed 😏
What if they had made a TV series based on the Taster's Choice couple?
ha ha. I could definitely see them getting a Christmas special. Ooh, no -- a Valentine's Day Special.
Did you say Dick Tracy had a cartoon?!?!? I must find it
It’s not for the easily offended
It is AWFUL. They brought this show back in reruns when the 1990s Dick Tracy movie came out. It didn't not go over well.
Dick Tracy just sits in is office and never does anything and barely moves. He will then talk to one of his easier to draw racist caricature subordinates over his two-way wrist radio (making sure to always position his wrist so it covers his mouth so the animators don't have to draw it moving) and tells them about a crime and then they do all the work.
Pete & Pete is really stretching the premise. The shorts weren't selling anything so they're not really commercials.
We kinda bent the rules to include PETE & PETE because we wanted another good series. I've worked in promos and on-air interstitials and I can make a strong argument that it's branding and using a lot of the same tools as selling.
I really enjoyed the Cave Man show.
actually i see commercials as short film. like a movie the writters, director and actors muct keep the audience entertained to sell their products. and content creator is just the lowest dominator
Ted Lasso peaked in Season 1
I loved Pete and Pete. But it's a bit of a stretch to call the original sketches commercials.
i prefer to call them AD fillers. Disney does the same thing in the mornings in between their shows when they dont want to show an actual commercial. Mick Toons used to do the same thing
Exactly! At best you could claim they were Nickelodeon Bumps since they had the logo at the ends. But really they were just shorts, they did not sell anything except Pete & Pete.
@@mattalan6618 it’s exactly what an interstitial is, but they weren’t ads in any way
interstitials aren’t ads, they’re just short bits like the animated parts of Saturday Night Live or MadTV…if he included Pete and Pete then by that same logic he must include The Simpsons too since they’re the sane
They also made a terrible blockbuster sitcom, and it was on Netflix of all places.
I'd never thought to wonder until now -- who owns the rights to Blockbuster. Like, after a business fails is the name and likeness still an IP for sale?
Actually, I remember Ken Hudson Campbell from Herman's Head. He was Herman's "Animal" persona, which even then I figured was a bad impression of John Belushi. And I had NO idea he did the voice of Baby Bob for the TV series. I guess I wondered what happened to him, but not THAT much....
And Cavemen. I don't understand the commercials. I don't understand the characters. I don't understand the whole point. I mean, they don't ACT like cavemen except they have the lousy makeup, and, I just don't know. Seriously, I suppose I get the racial take, but it's like when you tell the story of miscegenation, but cast whites in all the roles, including those who are supposed to be another "race."
Anyone remember a dumb 50s movie called "The Mole People"? MST3K riffed it during the Sci-Fi Channel era. It had a love story between John Agar and Cynthia Patrick, who plays a "Sumerian" - a humanoid "albino" who lives underground. Patrick is a blue-eyed blonde (I guess - she doesn't have a Wiki entry), and John Agar is John Agar. But censors apparently realized that the two characters are of different "races" even though the actors are not, and couldn't pass the film with the two becoming a romantic couple. So, for no reason whatsoever, she runs back so she can be crushed by rocks.
You know, how Hollywood treats racial relations without actually casting other "races" is sometimes just so very odd.
I downloaded the entire season of Cavemen when they aired back in the day, including the original pilot. Still have ‘em.
Good for you; you own a valuable collection of nothing.
Dude no way. 17:48
Yup. I also played Professor Pickins and other bit characters on UPL.
@@atomicabe my childhood man. Thank you
Smokey Bear… no The.
Wait holy shit!? You're garbagio?!?
Yes, I played Garbagio, Professor Pickins, Lucky the Cat and "the Big Kid". And one time I played Magellan because the musical guest was Ben Yellin.
They had plans on making a Flo Show from progressive insurance. But they scrapped that after the cavemen flop. And they were also considering an Erin Esurance show, but they decided to kill the character off altogether, because people were making fan art of her apparently? Which I still think is so dumb to fire a character.
Yeah, Flo seems like am obvious choice for a show. I am not surprised to learn she almost got a show. Had no idea about Erin Esurance's fan art! Thanks.
@@KevinGeeksOut yeah the Erin esurance show was gonna be an online show using flash animation on the esurance website. Most likely on youtube as well.
The Flo actress was IN the Caveman show.
They got rid of Erin Esurance because if you typed "Esurance" into a search engine you'd get a bunch of "Rule 34" artwork of Erin rather than information about buying their insurance.
I seriously cannot believe that those Geico Caveman commercials A: got one made in the first place, B: got so popular they made several of them, C: got SO popular that they made a TV show (however short-run), and D: are still to this day in 2024 included in Geico ads.
The entire premise is based on racist tropes, and not in a satirical, anti-racist way.
If the tag line was, "So easy a woman can do it," (as there were many ads exactly like that in the 50s, into the 70s- maybe even later than that?) no way in the 2000s would that commercial get made. Or "So easy a N-word can do it" (as many people have wrongly considered black people mentally inferior, and made statements exactly like that) with an African-American holding the cue card? Could you imagine?
But use an extinct species of hominid like "Cave Men," and it's a joke? A one-note, never-changing, every commercial is exactly the same attitude, plainly racist-coded "joke." The news anchor says the tagline, the cave man holding the cue card is upset: does the anchor refuse to say the line? No. Does the anchor apologize to the cave man in front of him because it was a rude and racist thing to say? No- he says, "I didn't know you were there," as though saying racist things about other people is okay, as long as it's behind their back, not to their face. Do the cave men in these commercials actually DO anything about this racism? No- they just shrug and look upset, and Geico's racist ads continue to be a thing. Geico has, in this series of ads, cast its own advertising department and its whole company brand on being the ones to make racist airport billboards that the subject of their racism is upset by. And this advertising-reality version of Geico has never offered an apology to the cavemen of their universe; they simply keep making these ads, and the real Geico has gone back to this well over and over and over again.
There are some clever ads, there are some stupid ads, some age pretty quickly, some are touchstones of a generation. The ad biz is tricky. But how this blatantly racist series of ads was made, and remains popular, is simply astounding to me.
Apologists will try to say, "It's only a joke, don't take it so seriously, who's it hurting, get a sense of humor." I've got a terrific sense of humor. I LOVE humor. Which is why I hate this so much, because it's not good humor. I can understand when different people have different tastes in humor. Some folks go for slapstick, some for wordplay, some for satire, etc. Personally, I prefer The Marx Brothers to The Three Stooges, but I can appreciate both types of humor. I LOVE Monty Python, and am so-so about Adam Sandler. Different humor for different folks, and I'm fine with that. And I really enjoy great satire. "Blazing Saddles" got a lot of controversy when it came out, and remains contentious to this day. But it is sublime humor, that uses jokes and situations that play on racist tropes and stereotypes to showcase how foolish and ridiculous those stereotypes are. The racists are all fools and buffoons in that film, and they all get their comeuppance. Mel Brooks was a master of using humor as social satire.
The Geico cave man commercials are NOT keen-edged socio-political satire. They are plain old racism, disguised by using a fantasy subject. And they ARE hurtful, because people continue to believe those tired old untruths "Women are stupid," "black people are stupid," "Mexicans are lazy," etc, etc. and those commercials illustrate attitudes like that as a source of humor. The subjects- the cave men- are upset, but we are meant to laugh at their frustration, and the ads keep coming, with zero repercussions. No apologies, no retractions, just continued mistreatment of the oppressed population. For no good reason, for no satire, just for the "jokes." Ridiculous.
Is this some kind of game? Am I supposed to know Ted Lasso? Is it nine or ten? The latter is as far as I watched.
Hor Wheels cartoon
Tyler Perry ripped off Ernest.
i couldnt sit thru even one episode of BabyBob dumb
I recognized everything here, except Lasso. Never heard of him before today.
Learning who he was didn't heighten my interest in watching his show at all. Hardly what I would call "prestigious".
Making fun of oppressed people by mocking them using cavemen.
Fantastic idea
That’s sarcasm people
So He-Man was on television telling kids to not watch television?
oh the irony
Not to NEVER watch TV, just to do other things, too.
Ted Lasso season 3 is terrible and boring
i loved Pete & Pete as a kid. i tried watching it again as an adult and to me it doesnt seem to hold up well at all. i barely made it through the first episode
God, Ted Lasso looks absolutely terrible. I was thinking of checking it out until I saw the clips featured here. Thank you ffor helping me dodge that boredom bullet.
Would’ve been amazing in that Smokey “fake out” commercial if he said “are you confused about your sexuality now? Guess you have a thing for…bears!”
ha ha ha!
Jim Varney had a near genius IQ level.
I believe it. That guy was sharp -- and talented.