The Last (US) TV Show to Have the Sponsor's Name in the Title?

I remember watching Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom well into the middle 70’s.

Was this the last TV show (in the US) to have the sponsor’s name in the title?

TV Shows I’m not sure about, but I think Hallmark is still presenting TV movies.

How about The Wonderful World of Disney?

The Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour?

Did there exist a Disney’s Wide World of Sports or did I just make that up right now?

Mutual of Omaha is still sponsoring Wild Kingdom per the commercial I saw yesterday on Animal Planet.

Not sure about network television though.

You know, Wild Kingdom was on one of those high channels a bit ago when I was surfing - the name in the general display was “Wild Kingdom” but when I hit “info” it was “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom”. Which suggests it may still be the name of the show, making the question “is” instead of “was”.

Didn’t Dana Carvey’s short-lived sketch show use this as a gimmick?

On network television, I found America’s Test Kitchen from Cook’s Illustrated on the local Chicago PBS station.

Looking for any more, I’m wondering if this question might be better as “Is/Was Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom the last show with the sponsor’s name in the title where the sponsor’s business was not related to the programming?”

Because my Cook’s Illustrated cooking show feels like cheating. Likewise for Wonderful World of Disney and that sort of thing.

Well, every year we get stuff like the Nokia Sugar Bowl, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the FedEx Orange Bowl, the GalleryfurnitureDotCom Bowl…

Do you want to count sponsored athletic events? Damn near every post-season college football game is called The so-and-so generic name Bowl

An admittedly cursory search turns up The Kraft Music Hall Presents: running though 1971 (the last couple of years as a summer replacement.) That’s the same year that Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom ended its network run, although WK ran as a syndicated program for years after. Hallmark kept doing one or two Hall of Fame specials on network TV each year, at least until they launched the Hallmark Channel on cable.

So the question boils down to the definition. The last sponsor-named show produced? The last one broadcast on a regular schedule? The last one on a broadcast network? The last one on a commercial network?

If you made it up, you are pretty good, but still a little off.

Sort of. Each episode had a specific sponsor, so the first show was “The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show”, the second was “The Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show”, etc. The sponsors probably didn’t appreciate the association afterwards. :slight_smile:

Og, that show was great. Carvey, Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, Charlie Kaufman, Dave Chappelle, Robert Smigel. Why oh why won’t it come out on DVD?

If we’re counting T.V. movies, the Hallmark Hall of Fame still exists, and has a contract with CBS. According to Wiki, Hallmark was the first corporation to develop a T.V. program as part of its marketing campaign.

There are also Johnson & Johnson Spotlight Presentations, T.V. movies shown on TNT.

The Inokia Sugar Bowl, and all the other bastardized sell out bowl games.

What about Soap Operas? I Mean isnt Guiding Light still made by procter and gamble?

I really think the OP is looking for things like The Texaco Star Theatre or Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, though. In other words, a regularly scheduled program in which the sponsor has no logical connection to the program beyond its sponsorship and the name of the sponsor is in the title.

My guess is it doesn’t happen much anymore, if at all. It’d be kind of cool if it did though. I’d imagine there’d be less commercial breaks.

Remember the skit about the two “wild pranksters” whose idea of a good prank was doing things like shoveling an old lady’s walk and then running away when she went to get money? They also paid a prostitute and then had a giggle fit and scampered off when she went to change.

For a while, in the 1990s, P.B.S.'s Masterpiece Theatre was retitled Mobil Masterpiece Theatre for its sponsor.