That odd tasting diet drink. It lasted for 57 years.
And another of the icons from my youth passes.
It seems wrong to say that a soda that’s been around for almost 60 years is ‘heading the same way’ as one that barely lasted 2 years.
And every time I here or see anything about Tab, it reminds me of the Sarah Silverman Program.
They still made Tab?
They did, though I suspect that it wasn’t made by every one of Coke’s local bottling companies anymore. You can (or, at least, up until recently, could) still find it in some stores in the Chicago area.
I remember people joking about the brand name standing for “Totally Artificial Beverage,” and that it tasted like sucking on a car key. I suspect that most of its remaining consumers were older, had been drinking it for decades, and preferred the saccharin taste over diet sodas made with aspartame, which is why those consumers had refused to switch.
The song in the commercial is still stuck in my head after all these years.
Gee, what will Marty McFly order at the lunch counter now?
Exactly what I think every time I see someone drinking one. I had my first and last one back in the 1970s and can’t believe people still drink it.
He tried to settle for a Pepsi Free.
It was the Abe Vigoda of colas.
Mine too.
Diet Coke came out in 82 so it’s interesting Tab lasted this long. I can’t recall seeing it in stores for decades.
Didn’t Bobcat Goldthwait always have two six-packs of Tab on the stage when doing his stand ups?
We still had it in Michigan. 12-packs and 6-packs, I think.
Good one.
Don’t remember the Tab commercial (and boy am I going to remember it now!) but I still remember the “introducing Diet Coke” ads.
My mother was one of those, a taste inherited from my now deceased grandmother. When I was a kid it was the only soda allowed in the house 
. But even my mother stopped touching the stuff awhile back, probably because it was just getting harder to find.
There aren’t many “foods” I’ve retained hate for throughout my life, but Tab certainly stands out as a glaring example. I loathed it and welcome its demise.
What’s next to go? The Polaroid Swinger?
I was a skinny kid of about 12 when they started making Tab, so I didn’t need a diet soda, but I remember liking it. I remember the original commercial jingle ended with something like “The Coca Cola companee put the robust flavor in Tab.” Then they discovered that whatever it was that gave it that “robust flavor” caused cancer in rats, and they changed the formula to whatever it is that diet sodas have had in them ever since. It tasted awful and I haven’t had one since. I’m surprised it’s still on the market.
What will all the gustatory masochists drink now?
Dr Pepper
Was it Hairspray? “Look, Francine, TAB for our DIETS.” ETA: No, Polyester?