scratchbomb

found this while digitizing some stuff yesterday: an OTB commercial from 1999 featuring Rip Torn and racing bugs. this was well after Larry Sanders, so your guess is as good as mine

For Valentine's Day: super smooth tips for putting your lady in the right mood from Billy Dee Williams (and Carl Stalling). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNICPRhvxh0

Then you, sir, are a very lucky man.

Just found this while digitizing stuff for the next episode of my podcats: An IBM ad from 2000 predicting the future of remote computing. Nowadays we all use eye-mounted screens while screaming like maniacs and frightening pigeons, right guys? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY9lH5bqr7k

You're probably aware of this already, but there was an Ed Grimley cartoon in the late 80s, with voices from tons of SCTV alums and Jonathan Winters. And unlike every other cartoon adaption of that era, it was really, really funny. (I wrote way too many words about this show here.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=IRTPWoad3aY

This popped in my head today for no good reason: old commercials for CD 101.9, the now defunct NYC smooth jazz radio station. Apart from Bobby McFerrin, Al Jarreau, and several cartoon cats in sunglasses, you will see Miles Davis shill for this spot on the dial, and he looks and sounds like a DEMON. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XqJiCI5jsQ

A while ago I wrote a lengthy post about "Candy Claus," which gets all of my votes for worst Christmas special ever. http://scratchbomb.com/12/2010/holiday_horrors_candy_claus/ There is a buffet of hatability in this cartoon. But if I had to pick one moment from this steaming pile that represents why it's so bad, peep this segment, where a group of elves debates what they must do about the titular character. Samuel Beckett wished he could have displayed as much existential hopelessness as the one elf in this seen who says, in an emotionless monotone, "I don't know what to do. I give up. But something's got to be done."

Just in time for Thanksgiving: Ed McMahon at the 1980 Macy's parade, singing a weird turkey-centric song while cautioning us to not be afraid for some reason.

This commercial for Transformers aired in 1985, during a block of Halloween specials on CBS. In other words, 8 full weeks before Christmas. And yet, Alex Karras (aka Webster's Dad, aka Mungo from Blazing Saddles) warns parents they better buy these things NOW "where there's still a good selection" if they want to give them out under the tree. Keep in mind, this is just a year after the infamous Yuletide Cabbage Patch Kids riots, where parents beat the shit out of each other in toy stores. So scare tactics like this could have been pretty effective. Also, Karras lip syncing "robots in disguise" and continuing on like nothing happened still blows my damn mind.

Not sure if this quite fits into the overall late night/public access theme of the show, but I believe the video on this website, dedicated to this man's "live electronic" one man band-ery, is in the spirit of the show, if nothing else. http://www.mcrorie.ca/

I have several cringe-tacular clips of The Pixies on 120 Minutes from 1991, in which the band seems to channel all of its pronounced acrimony toward poor Dave Kendall. Here's one of the more gruesome excerpts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPeGFhwmwdI&feature=plcp