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Does anyone remember a kids' show called Make A Wish? It aired on ABC from 1971 to 1976. Produced by ABC News, it was hosted by musician Tom Chapin and created and produced by Lester Cooper. It replaced Discovery, a similar series for children also produced by ABC News.
The series, originally broadcast on Saturday mornings but later moved to Sunday mornings, focused on a particular theme. One episode, for instance, would be about snakes; another about motorcycles. Chapin would introduce the topic in much the same manner: "I think a snake is what I'll be. Imagine all the possibilities." After that there would be a sort of free association featuring stock footage, animation, and Chapin's music and voiceover commentary.
The series won a Peabody Award for Best Children's Series in 1971.
The music performed on the show was written by Tom's brother, Harry Chapin.
The shows relied heavily on stock footage that was cleverly edited and seemed to make sense with the running narrative of words and music. TV critics loved it. Apparently, because of licensing nightmares with the numerous owners of the stock footage and music, Make A Wish won't be available on DVD anytime soon.
Tags:
Tom
Chapin
Make
A
Wish
educational
television
Added: 8th September 2011
Views: 1876
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |
 
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It's is hard to imagine today, but as late as 1958 civilian air traffic control in the United States operated independently from military air traffic control with neither group thinking it was absolutely necessary to share information with the other. The result was inevitable: On April 21, 1958, a military training plane collided with a civilian DC-7 passenger airliner just outside of Las Vegas, killing all 49 people on both aircraft. The passenger plane, United Airlines flight 736, was traveling from Los Angeles to New York and was headed to a scheduled stopover in Denver. An investigation later showed that the training plane went into a planned dive and clipped its right wing into the passenger plane's right wing. Both planes plummeted violently to the ground within seconds into an area of desert. The end result was that the FAA was henceforth given full authority to monitor all air traffic to prevent future calamities. It is still the worst air disaster ever to occur in Nevada.
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1958
mid-air
collision
Nevada
Added: 10th December 2014
Views: 1411
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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1990s Colors included yellow, blue, green, and a mystery bag with a surprise color. I'm not sure how many of you will remember this stuff, but it was just too weird not to mention. Video store chains became especially popular during the early 90s; a fact proven by the insidious amount of Blockbuster commercials strewn into TV breaks at the time. As more and more movie nights were staged from home, popcorn finally shed its "theater treat" stigma for good while sales soared. Those microwaveable bags of kernels became and remain a staple in most households, with several companies competing for the coveted top spot. Yes, there's competition in popcorn.
So how do you make one popcorn more attractive than the other? For the most part, it's all the same shit. Covering the packaging with pretty colors and in-your-face fonts only took these companies so far, and while dubious additions like cheddar dust and Cajun red spice helped differentiate the products, General Mills had something else in mind. Something strange. "Pop Qwiz." Perhaps the first and only popcorn marketed exclusively towards children. Thrown under General Mills' "Pop Secret" banner, Pop Qwiz really broke the mold. Junk food with a gimmick is common nowadays, but this stuff was pretty unique in 1991. Basically, it was just regular, buttered popcorn dyed in every color of the rainbow. You had bags of red popcorn, blue popcorn, green, yellow, you name it. That alone was sure to bring in a substantial clientele -- kids'll eat anything that looks odd.
Pop Qwiz had more to offer than weird colors, though. While each of the mini-sized bags had correspondently bright colors, the colors of the bags didn't necessarily match the shade of the popcorn within. What was surely just a cost cutting measure was sold to us as a "game" -- it was up to us to guess which popcorn color was in each bag. The point of the game is up for debate, as we got to eat all of the popcorn even if we guessed wrong. Taking things even further, the bags had all sorts of quizzes, puzzles, and other stupid games printed right on 'em. Children always appreciate things tailored specifically for them, and while popcorn wasn't an important victory, we took it with great pride. We had our own popcorn. Tomorrow, the world. You'd have to imagine that some kids would've begged for Pop Qwiz just by passing the colorful box in grocery stores, but the point was really driven home with General Mills' ad campaign. This was crucial for ten trillion reasons, and I swear, I've counted. Okay, how often do you see popcorn advertised during children's programming hours? It's pretty rare, so Pop Qwiz was playing to an audience its competitors never even thought to tackle. Another point: when a kid wants popcorn, words are rarely minced. "I want popcorn." That's all that's ever said. No specific brands are mentioned, no bias towards one particular popcorn is conveyed. Just a simple "I want popcorn." By throwing the "Pop Qwiz" title in our heads, General Mills created a sense of inadvertent brand loyalty. If we wanted popcorn, we asked for popcorn. If we wanted crazy wacky colored popcorn, we asked for Pop Qwiz. And what kid wouldn't always prefer crazy wacky colored popcorn?
This was all much more brilliant than it seemed on the surface, and the commercial was a real keeper to boot. I know I focus more on earlier years with these articles, but as I was entering my ugly, lonely teen years during the 90s, I ended up watching a whole lot more television. Alone. This "Pop Qwiz" ad, to me, is just as synonymous with the time as any of the big ones, including that PSA where the Ninja Turtles exposed the dangers of marajuana. It surprises me that the snacks weren't very successful -- I guess the world just wasn't ready to accept, much less eat radioactive green popcorn. Artists are so often unappreciated in own their time, even if they only work in kernels.
Tags:
Pop
Qwiz
Popcorn
1990
Added: 19th August 2012
Views: 2399
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Posted By: masonx31 |
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Hall-of-Fame catcher Johnny Bench does a rendition of You Don't Mess Around With Jim on a 1972 episode of Hee Haw. (It's actually better than you might imagine!)
Tags:
Johnny
Bench
MLB
sings
Hee
Haw
Added: 14th June 2013
Views: 3226
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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When New York's Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, it was the most spectacular sports facility of its age. Besides baseball, other events took place at The House That Ruth Built. Here's a photo of a 1923 boxing match--probably one of the preliminary fights on the undercard of the Jess Willard-Floyd Johnson heavyweight bout that attracted 63,000 spectators. (I can't imagine paying for one of those seats far away in the outfield bleachers. You'd be hard pressed to see anything!)
Tags:
boxing
1923
Yankee
Stadium
Added: 8th January 2015
Views: 1588
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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They may sound unbelievable, but a long time ago NHL players took pride in the the league's annual All-Star Game. They actually played defense and cared about the outcome of the game. Here's a clip of Bobby Hull scoring in the 1963 game. At that time the ASG featured the defending Stanley Cup champions versus a team of all-stars from the other NHL clubs. This game ended in a 3-3 tie between the All-Stars and Toronto Maple Leafs. (Yeah, the Toronto Maple Leafs were once the defending Stanley Cup champions. Imagine that!)
Tags:
1963
NHL
All-Star
Game
Bobby
Hull
goal
Added: 26th January 2015
Views: 972
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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