OK, Professor Whoopie, set the dial on the way back machine. Let’s try, motor oil in glass bottles at full service (no other kind back then) gas stations that charged 18 cents a gallon, and had a vending machine that sold 5 cent Cokes in a glass bottle. Speaking of vending machines, how about the reach in type soda machines where you had to slide the hanging bottle out of a rack? Cops directing traffic in white gloves. Horizontal traffic signals that were suspended by wire across the intersection. Real penny candy counters, 10 cent packets of beef jerky. The little six packs of wax soda bottles that were filled with different colored syrups. All milk cartons were made of waxed cardboard with a circular top in one corner. No personalized license plates. Indian head pennies and buffalo head nickles in your change. Silver certificate paper money. Black Jack licorice chewing gum. Crusader Rabbit (extra points for whoever can name his sidekick), T. Tom Terrific. The list goes on…
Rags the Tiger.
Crusader Rabbit is the first cartoon character I could remember the name to. Of course, he was soon eclipsed by Bugs Bunny, but my dad would watch bugs with us kids (it wasn’t an insult to his intelligence, I guess).
~~Baloo
That’s still the case in England, third world country that it is…
– Video games that cost a quarter.
– Battle of the planets!
– Action heroes that were successful despite never acutally hitting anyone (A-Team)
ahhh…don’t you remember when you were young and didnt know nostalgia?
Ludovic
Lots of people have been reminiscing about old computers and old computer games. How come nobody has mentioned this: a picture of Snoopy, composed of X’s and O’s, printed out on that old green-and-white printer paper. As I recall, there were a couple of other pictures floating around, but the Snoopy printout was almost as popular as the Farah Fawcett poster.
Remember the big old floppies (5-1/4) that came single-sided, but you could take a paper punch, add a notch of your own, and make them double-sided?
There’s a retailer across the street from me who still has some boxes of these for sale. I think he’s got 'em marked at like $10! LOL!
Mixing our cartoon memories are we? The Wayback machine was what Jay Ward’s Mr. Peabody and his boy Sherman used for time travel. Mr. Whoopie was the mentor of Tenesee tuxedo and Chumley.
“Every dog should have a boy.”
-Professor Peabody
I was just telling my seven-year-old how when I was kid there was only powdered Tang. And you had to mix it up before every sip because the stuff wouldn’t dissolve and you’d end up with a gooey mess at the bottom of the glass. She looked at me like I was from another planet and then said, “They still make it that way. I saw some once.” All because she wanted us to get some of those drink packs for our trip to the zoo. I can’t wait until the first time she asks to borrow our car.
“Rags” the Tiger was “Ragland T. Tiger”. The main villain, who looked like a taller, thinner version of Snidely Whiplash, was Dudley Nightshade.
Anyone remember the Bowery Boys (and the many previous incarnations, going back to the movie and play “Dead End”?)Then what were “Slip” Mahoney’s and “Sach” Jones’ real names (Not Leo Gorce and Huntz Hall, but the names of the Characters)? Bonus points for BOTH of “Slip’s” middle names.
And what was Jughead Jones’ real name? (from the Archie comics)
The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. I loved watching The Wide World of Sports!
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned these:
“Wacky Packages”
(Stickers that parodied popular products of the day.)
“Ultra-Man”
(You kids didn’t REALLY think that Power Rangers was an original show, did you?)
“Jonny Sokko & his Flying Robot”
(My cousins & I would argue for hours about who’d win the battle of Ultra-Man vs Giant Robot.)
[Of course anyone with an ounce of sense knows Ultra-Man would mop the floor with Giant Robot]
Aaagghhh! I know this…but I can’t remember what it’s from. Help!
Shrinky Dinks. Guaranteed to result in a few burns from mom’s cookie sheets.
Kool Aid. Remember when you had to add two cups of sugar to get it to taste right?
The Gong Show. With that idiot, The Unknown Comic. I hated that bastard. Believe it or not, the guy’s still playing Vegas every now and then.
Can’t remember who said this earlier, but I say this all the time and no one ever knows what I’m talking about! Grrr!
Demo, Demo, Demo…
Remember a little news show called the Huntley-Brinkley Report?
“Phineas J. Whoopee…You’re the greatest!”
What was the zookeeper’s name, who was always after Tennessee Tuxedo and Chumley?
I just noticed this thread made Threadspotting!
Thanks to whoever submitted it!
[Breaks out the champaign.]
~~Baloo
I just noticed that JillGat submitted this thread to threadspotting (in all the excitement I forgot to read the credits!)
Thanks, JillGat! [Hands Jillgat a flute of champaigne.]
~~Baloo
How about the game “Hack” on an old 8088? Got me into computers.
Listed further back and I can’t get it out of my head, “Aye, aye, ya aye, I am a Frito Bandito…”.
Or, “Mighty Mouse is on the way!”.
SpeedRacer
Mechano
Lego when it didn’t cost a second mortgage.
Friendly Giant and his giraffe, Rusty. Can’t remember the chicken’s name, though.
Mr. Dressup and his little friend, Casey. Always wondered about that one.
Pixy Stix
Trying to explain to kids about “Where’s the beef?” and why it was funny.
The old metal wheeled roller skates that we used to take a cedar shake and place it perpendicular across the skate, then sit and balance on it with our feet in the air as we hit terminal velocity going down the hill. You’d have to watch your knuckles on the turns or you left most of your skin behind you.
Lawn darts were a Darwinian method of weeding out those who were to slow or unobservant.
And firecrackers were legal! There was many an ant hill that faced destruction from that form of artillery.
Only for my buddy Baloo, would I go though five pages of posts!
The only things I can think of that I haven’t seen are:
Viewmaster (I had an episode of The Lone Ranger)
Top Cat. The only cartoon that Dad would watch with me, some time in the mid sixties.
Hey, I hadn’t bothered to read all five pages of threads to find out that Raggs the Tiger was already mentioned several times. (Congrats to the crowd.) However, Professor Whoopie is connected by virtue of indentical artistry (Jay Ward) and was not linked in my mention any other way. Cheers to you Baloo for having a dad that could appreciate Bugs Bunny, Bugs is my hero. Mel Blanc breathed life into every Warner Brothers character. Mel’s voice box was insured through LLoyd’s of London. Before the policy could go through, Mel was asked to see a speech pathologist to ensure that his larynx was in tip top shape. The doctor also had the opera singer Caruso as a patient. He told Mel that his voice box was the largest he had ever seen, and that he was basically a freak of nature (and I respect that in a man). NOW, FOR REAL EXTRA POINTS, NAME THE TWO MOST OFTEN HEARD NON-WARNER BROTHERS VOICE CHARACTERIZATIONS DONE BY MEL BLANC (one will be familiar to West Coast residents only). Ten silver dimes (not) to the person who also identifies the recent lawsuit tied to one of these two items. On you marks…