Category Archives: News

Roundup

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In lieu of a normal post today, I thought I would do a recap of sorts of several things from the past week.

We’ll start with a couple of things that I’ve put out in places other than here at Retro Ramblings…

  • Over at Geekster, a feature I put together called When Ralston Ruled the Cereal Aisle went live last week. In it, I run down all of the various cereals that Ralston produced in the ’80s and ’90s. While we all probably had some or at least one of their cereals, it’s hard to fathom just how many licensed cereals they put out back then. Click the link above and check it out if you want a fun trip back to the cereal aisle.
  • In the latest issue of This Nostalgic Life Newsletter, I provided the special feature this week as I looked back at Green Stamps and my memories of how big of a deal they were in my family back in the ’80s. Again, you can click the link above to go read that feature.

In the same issue, Eric gives a rundown of some great retro podcasts that you should check out and maybe find some new listening favorites.

  • If you haven’t signed up for This Nostalgic Life yet, I urge you to do so. It’s free, delivers straight to your email inbox every Wednesday, and features great nostalgic memories in every issue from myself and other retro-loving folks.

I also wanted to share a couple of pieces of junk food news I came across in the last couple of days…

This is one of the first new additions to the Frisco Burger line in a very long time. I’m going to be sure to try it, as the very first addition to the line in 1993, the New York Patty Melt, was so good, I still miss it to this day. If this new BLT version turns out to be good, I don’t want to miss out on it.

I’m all about trying anything that features the taste of Kentucky Fried Chicken, so these new chips will be on my shopping list to look for when I’m at the grocery store.

Campfire S’mores Cup Noodles Instant Ramen

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https://www.brandeating.com/2024/07/nissin-new-campfire-smores-cup-noodles-instant-ramen.html

I know it’s summer, and I know a lot of people in this world like S’Mores. But a S’mores flavored ramen? I don’t know about that one. The flavor and texture combo just feels like it would be all wrong. Apparently, the packing suggests that you add some crushed graham crackers and/or mini marshmallows to “recreate” the texture, but that just makes this concoction sound even worse to me.

And I’ll add this concoction is from the Nissin Cup Noodles brand, which I’ve always found to be inferior to other cheap ramen brands on the market.

Does this sound appealing to you? The only interest I have in it is picking a cup up to add to my food packaging collection, but certainly not to eat. I prefer my S’mores adaptations to be closer to the real thing, like Suddenly S’mores was back in the day.

MeTV Toons Announces it’s Daily Schedule

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Last month MeTV announced they were launching MeTV Toons, a new 24/7 cartoon network full of classic cartoons. MeTV Toons has now announced its full schedule for when it launches on June 25, 2024, as the only TV network destination dedicated exclusively to classic animation.

The best part is unlike many classic TV channels that run long blocks of the same show over and over, MeTV Toons will launch with a diverse lineup of programs.

During weekday primetime it will offer classics like “The Flintstones,” “Bugs Bunny & Friends,” and “Cartoon All-Stars” with “Mr. Magoo” and “Tom and Jerry.” And during the day you will find programs like “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” and “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” You can view the full schedule below.

Introducing This Nostalgic Life Newsletter

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Hey ramblers, I wanted to take a minute to let you all know about an exciting new project I’m working on. It’s a new newsletter/magazine called This Nostalgic Life that I’ve started alongside my good friend Eric Vardeman. A lot of you longtime visitors will remember Eric from his time posting content here at Retro Ramblings.

This Nostalgic Life is a weekly multi-media publication where we’re going back in time to tell the stories of our lives. Through personal stories and memories, we hope to entertain you and stir fond memories of your own.

Each issue of This Nostalgic Life will be overflowing with retro and nostalgic goodness and will contain special features such as Eric and/or I sharing tales from our youth. There will also be rotating sections such as Nostalgia Nuggets…short stories that aren’t quite feature length, Do You Remember articles looking back at the best of all things pop culture, short series, and more. And if you enjoy my Weekend Reading posts where I share a list of curated links every week, you’ll certainly want to check it out as that will now be the exclusive home of those Recommended Reading links every week. There are also plans to release a new podcast series, as well as audio versions of the features we present every week so you can listen to them on the go instead of reading them!

If you’re a subscriber here (and a lot of you are) or just a regular visitor and you like the things I post, then this newsletter is for you. There will be less “articles” about things, as the focus is more on the storytelling of events of our lives. There will still be plenty of things discussed like toys, junk food, comic books, video games, music, and movies…but with a lot more personal memories attached.

Eric and I both have a lot of stories to tell, and we feel that this is the medium best suited for doing so. The best part of all is that it is completely free for you the reader. And the second best part is that you can have it delivered directly to your inbox every time a new issue drops! All you have to do is click on the subscribe button below to be taken to the sign-up page.

Even if you somehow miss an issue in your inbox, you can go to the site and read them at your leisure. As a matter of fact, you should go check out the first two issues. For a sampling of what we’re doing, check out what’s appeared in the first two issues:

This Nostalgic Life Issue 1

  • It is May 4th and This is My Star Wars Story – by Eric
  • Do You Remember? Star Wars: Droids cartoon
  • Wax Pack Flashback featuring openings of Star Wars Galaxy trading cards from 1993
  • Recommended Reading with numerous links to other Star Wars fun

This Nostalgic Life Issue 2

  • How I Almost Died at a Holiday Inn Holidome – by Mickey
  • Do You Remember? Stuckey’s
  • An acknowledgement of The Retro Network’s 5th Anniversary
  • Recommended Reading with a lot of summer nostalgia links

So if all of this sounds good to you…personal stories, special features, recommended reading, podcasts, audio posts, being free, and being delivered straight to your inbox, then please consider subscribing. We promise to try and make it worth your ten minutes to consume every week.

– Mickey

Welcome to Retro Ramblings Summer Vacation 2024

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Now that we have warm weather and sunny skies throughout most of the country on a regular basis, it’s time to declare it officially summer! And with that proclamation, I’m celebrating that fact here at Retro Ramblings by sharing a slew of summer-themed nostalgia from now through August 31.

Throughout the summer you’ll find plenty of retro summer-themed posts. Plenty of summer memories to be shared, so if you haven’t done so yet, be sure to bookmark or add Retro Rambling to your favorite RSS reader so you don’t miss any of the fun.

If you do happen to miss something, you can just click on the summer vacation image at the top of the sidebar to see all of the summer-themed posts.

Campbell’s Has Revealed a Limited Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

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Campbell’s® Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

I came across this news release today from Cambell’s announcing they are releasing a new Grilled Cheese and Tomato soup for a limited time this spring. For all of my life, my favorite way to enjoy tomato soup is paired with a delicious grilled cheese sandwich.

A grilled cheese sandwich and tomato soup was a regular dinner for me growing up. My dad traveled a lot, and my brother was older than me and working, so it was just my mom and I for dinner a lot of the time, and this combination was a go-to.

I’m intrigued by this soup idea and really want to try it. My wonder though is whether will it pair well with a grilled cheese sandwich, or will that be overkill. If it’s designed to incorporate both flavors, it might be just fine on its own.

Here is the news announcement straight from Campbells:

Introducing Campbell’s® Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup. This first-ever limited-edition Campbell’s® soup flavor celebrates the brand’s iconic Tomato Soup infused with the comforting flavors of a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s the ultimate bowl of comfort bursting with satisfying flavor.

You’ll enjoy the toasty, cheesy notes of a grilled cheese combined with Campbell’s Tomato Soup in each and every spoonful.​

Whether you prefer to prepare with water (for a more robust tomato taste) or milk (for a delightfully cheesier taste), each spoonful will remind you that these flavors are just better together.​

This limited-edition soup is set to hit shelves at select grocery stores soon, but we’re giving you the chance to win a free 2-pack before it disappears. Enter today and you and a friend could celebrate National Grilled Cheese Day (April 12) in the coziest of ways.

That last line there references winning a free 2-pack of this new soup, and you can enter at https://campbellsgrilledcheeseandtomatosoup.com/

Mike “Virgil” Jones, RIP

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Damn. Two RIP posts in back-to-back days. Just yesterday I wrote about the passing of Ole Anderson. It’s been a tough stretch for old-school wrestling fans. They say these things come in threes, but I hope that superstition doesn’t come true.

If you were a pro wrestling fan in the late ’80s and throughout the ’90s you know who Virgil was. For several years in the late ’80s, Virgil was paired with “The Million Dollar Man” as his servant and helped play a hand in all of Ted DiBiase’s dastardly deeds, drawing the ire of the fans along the way.

Virgil’s WWF run came to its apex when he finally had enough of DiBiase’s treatment of him and stood up to The Million Dollar Man at the 1991 Royal Rumble. He blasted DiBiase with his own Million Dollar title belt, and went on to win that belt from him at Wrestlemania 7. Virgil went on to moderate success as a good guy before finishing his mainstream career as part of the nWo in WCW in the late ’90s.

While most fan’s memories of Mike Jones are as Virgil, my favorite memories of him were from his early days in the Memphis circuit when he went by the persona of Soul Train Jones (pictured above).

He was a middle-of-the-pack performer back then, but I didn’t know things like that back then, and he was one of my favorites. We got the Memphis television show on a couple of week’s delay here in my neck of the woods, and it was on at midnight. I had to record it each week and watch it the next day, and I was always excited to see how Soul Train Jones each week. His battles against the likes of Tojo Yammamoto’s men, Goliath, Big Bubba, and a young Cactus Jack always thrilled me. He was such an electric performer in that persona.

Whether you were more of a fan of Virgil or Soul Train Jones like me, the fact remains that another one of our wrestling heroes has left us, and that leaves another hole in my heart. Rest in peace Soul Train.

Ole Anderson, RIP

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Alan Rogowski, better known as Ole Anderson, passed away yesterday. Details as to the cause of his death have not been made public, but his obituary states that he passed peacefully.

For those of you who don’t know, Ole Anderson was a professional wrestler. He was not just one of your run-of-the-mill wrestlers either. He was a tough-as-nails, take no gruff, star throughout the ’70s and ’80s. While he was a bigger attraction in the Carolinas and Georgia, he was known the world over.

As a founding member of the legendary Four Horseman, Ole Anderson was always in the mix at the top of the card and was a money-making draw for promoters everywhere. From his incredible run with his brother Gene as one of the top tag teams in the world, The Minnesota Wrecking Crew, to his later tag team run with “cousin” Arn Anderson, to his role in the Four Horsemen, and his bitter rivalry with Dusty Rhodes, Ole entertained millions for years.

For me personally, I hated Ole Anderson when I was a kid. The Rock & Roll Express were my favorites when I got into wrestling in 1985 and 1986, and one of their toughest challenges was Ole and Arn. Ole would continually put beatings on Ricky and Robert, and I would sit on the edge of my seat hollering at the TV and Ole in particular.

As I got older and understood pro wrestling better, I came to admire the persona of Ole. The tough SOB always put on entertaining matches and was always involved in storylines with my favorites, so I had a vested interest in his matches more times than not.

Ole’s way of doing things behind the scenes rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, and over the last two decades, you’d be hard-pressed to find many good comments made about him by his peers. But I’ve never paid much attention to that in the past, and I still don’t now. From a fan’s perspective, Ole was a fantastic performer and knew how to get you riled up while you watched. That seems to be a rare trait among the crop of today’s wrestlers.

Being a lifelong wrestling fan, I’ve seen a lot of my childhood heroes pass on, and it’s always tough seeing the news when it pops up. Ole’s passing surprised and saddened me, but I hope he’s finally able to rest in peace. Thanks for the many memories Rock, you’ll be missed.

The Christmas Eve Party

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As I’m writing this, it’s 6:52 AM on Christmas Eve. I’ve got some spreading of Christmas cheer to do later this morning as I’m going to visit Dad, drop off a homemade cobbler to my brother, spend some time with Mom at the nursing home, make a stop at a store for a last-minute item, and drop in on a few friends for a few minutes along the way.

Running around on Christmas Eve is nothing new for me. When I was younger, I would tag along with my dad as he made his usual rounds on that day. He owned his own business, and back then, it seemed like all of his friends owned and operated their own businesses too. And since these were small businessmen, they were generally open on Christmas Eve as their livelihood depended on working as many days a year as possible.

But Dad would go around and visit each of them on Christmas Eve. I remember stopping by Popsicle Sweat’s used car lot, Billy Wayne’s auto part store, going to see Grey Preston at the local bank, stopping by Estel Venable’s gas station, and dropping in at the fire department, the rescue squad, and the police station as well. Some of my favorite memories of Christmas are these yearly trips around time spreading cheer.

Once all of that is done, it’s time to put the finishing touches on things for tonight’s Christmas party. We’ve got some family and friends coming over for what should be a very enjoyable evening/night. This too reminds me of one of my favorite parts of Christmas growing up…the family parties on Christmas Eve.

Growing up I had huge families on both my Mom’s side and my Dad’s. My Mom was one of eight children, and each of those 8 had a couple of kids. My Dad was one of fourteen! And each of those had multiple kids as well. I had tons of cousins and would see various ones of them throughout the year, but the family get-together on Christmas Eve meant that ALL of us would be together at one time. We ranged in ages from 7-17, so there wasn’t a huge disparity there.

On Christmas Eve, we would start by visiting my Mom’s family. It was always a simple dinner menu of Ham, some veggies, mac and cheese, and a plethora of desserts. The folks would sit around in the kitchen while all of us kids would be in the living room. We’d hoop and holler and go through the presents under the tree, waiting for one of the adults to come in and play Santa Claus. Usually, it was my Uncle Ernest who had a booming voice and was quite intimidating. He would walk in and get real loud, telling us all to get away from the tree or he wouldn’t be handing out anything. He’d then torture us by going through and finding all of the adult presents first and having us run them to the various recipients. He’d finally get through with that and move on to us kids.

With both families, there were so many kids that we drew names. You could count on getting one present from whoever got your name, and a little something from the grandparents as well, which was usually a shirt of some kind. Before we would leave for the other party we had to go to, my Uncle Jack would go out on the front porch and start lighting off Jumping Jack fireworks, and that always got all the kids in an uproar. That is a tradition I need to implement in my own family’s Christmas. I remember how much fun that used to be running from the unpredictable fireworks.

Then we would head over to my Dad’s parents for their party. You could always count on plenty of finger foods and desserts there like sausage balls, cocktail wieners, ham biscuits, cakes, pies, and homemade candies. We would draw names there too and that meant a couple of more presents before heading home. A few of the presents I got in those years stick out in my mind, so I must have enjoyed them quite a bit. I remember getting the G.I. Joe S.L.A.M. Tank, a Three Stooges VHS Tape, and a Popeye VHS tape at various times.

As time marched on and I got married, my wife and I settled into the tradition of going to her family’s Christmas Eve party. I’d sit and watch my kids running around with their cousins just like I used to do. And even though I seemed to hate it as a kid, I emulated my uncle Ernest. I’d go in the living room and tell the kids to quiet down and start picking out presents for the adults and have the kids deliver them before they get any of their presents. Life had come full circle.

Over the last five years though, her family has suffered many losses. Several of the older generation of the family have passed on, some of the younger generation have grown up and moved away, and the family Christmas party has shrunk quite a bit. My wife’s aunt hosted the family party for a couple of decades but these days don’t quite have the energy she once did, so she gave it up last year. At that point, my wife and I stepped in. We hosted a small gathering last year, and this year we’re hosting our first full-fledged family Christmas party.

This suits me just fine because now that my daughters are mostly grown, I expect they’ll be leaving home any year now, and I want to have this family Christmas Eve party tradition established with the hopes they’ll return each year with their families, thus carrying on the tradition I’ve known all my life.

Things are mostly set for a big night tonight, minus a few last-minute details I need to attend to. I hope that with all I’ve learned from the Christmas Eve parties of my past, I can create an atmosphere of holiday cheer and fun that the little ones at the party will be writing about thirty to forty years from now like I am this morning. Or at least have memories they fondly look back on one day. I guess that’s all one could ask for.

October 28th, 1989

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You know how there are just certain days from your past that you remember more than others? Well October 28th, 1989 is one of those days for me. It was a Saturday, which meant cartoons in the morning, but it was what went on that night that made it memorable. Let me tell you about it.

I’ve talked about the yearly Harvest Festival we had every year at my elementary school. Well, in 1989, the Harvest Festival fell on Saturday night, October 28th. So all day long I was eager with anticipation of that night’s event. It was also the night of WCW’s first Halloween Havoc pay-per-view event, which admittedly, put me in a disadvantageous position of possibly having to choose one or the other to enjoy that evening. So my morning hours were wracked with nervous feelings. Not enough that I couldn’t enjoy my usual Saturday morning cartoons, but it still played on my mind throughout the day. Normally, I can make my mind up quickly about things, but this was different. This particular day offered a very hard decision to make.

But as the cartoons ended and the afternoon started to roll around, my Dad made an offer. Since he would be going to the Harvest Festival with us so he could play bingo, he wouldn’t be there to watch TV. He suggested that we set the timer on the VCR and record Halloween Havoc while we were out! Now keep in mind, this was still the era before we had one of the cable black boxes that allowed us to get all of the PPV shows at no additional charge. At that time, I was allowed to order every other wrestling PPV, and this was the show. I skipped WWF’s Summerslam that year because I had gotten The Great American Bash in July. So we got the PPV ordered and the time set so I wouldn’t have to miss Halloween Havoc after all. With that set, I could turn my attention to the Harvest Festival.

So I spent the afternoon playing with Construx toys while I counted down the time left before time to go to the Harvest Festival. You know how I know I was playing with Construx? Because I was already trying to build what my interpretation was of the Thunderdome cage that was to be featured in the main event of the wrestling show that night. As it turned out, I wasn’t that far off.

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I really can’t remember my Halloween costumes from through the years. While that is true, I actually do remember my costume from 1989. I went as a convict. It wasn’t the most creative idea, but at least I had a costume. Time was getting close, so I got the costume on, but I still had a little time before we would be leaving.

It was in that short amount of time that I watched the only episode of the TV show “She’s the Sheriff” that I would ever watch. Since She’s the Sheriff was a syndicated show, and since it had already ended its first run, I probably had to have been watching it on my local Fox affiliate. I can’t tell you what episode it was that I saw that day, and since there are no full episodes on Youtube for me to embed, you’ll just have to make do with a video of the opening credits for the show.

So we finally got to the Harvest Festival and my first order of business was to take my Mom to the showcase and show it off to her. Our school had a big showcase display right across from the office in the main hub of the school. Back then, the top three classes at school all had a part of the Harvest Festival to handle. The 7th graders got to put on the yearly haunted house, the 6th graders were in charge of The Disco, or The Batcave as it was called in 1989, and we 5th graders had to put together the showcase. The theme for that year was antiques, and my Mom had donated her grandmother’s kitchen knife to be put on display with the other relics. The showcase wasn’t really anything special, but since we worked on it, I had to show it off.

Once I got tickets to the games in the gym, it was time to say bye to the folks and go run with my friends for the night while all the parents went to the cafeteria to play bingo. I used to think that would be so boring until I had kids of my own, and then it turned out that the bingo was the highlight of my night when taking my kids to these things.

My friends and I ran around and played games, toured the haunted house, and made several trips to The Bat Cave. Not to dance mind you, but to hear the music and hang out in the darkened room. No self-respecting 5th-grade boy could be seen dancing awkwardly in front of the girls.

But even as I was having all of this fun, my mind kept drifting back to home and the hard-hitting NWA action I was missing out on. The Festival was starting to wind down so I made my trip to the “general store” to buy some old-fashioned candy and got ready to go home to see how things were turning out in the wrestling battles.

The flaw in my plan was realized when we got home and the show was still going. So not wanting to get spoiled on anything prematurely, I waited until it was over, rewound the tape, and started the show!

I had been highly anticipating the Halloween Havoc show because the NWA had done such an amazing job building up not only the rivalries but the theme of the show itself. It had a Halloween setting and had an advertised main event of a Thunderdome cage match pitting Ric Flair and Sting against Terry Funk and The Great Muta. The promotion for the cage itself was fantastic as they boasted it would be the largest cage in history and would be electrified to make sure the competitors stayed inside.

But not only was the main event something I was really looking forward to but there were also several other key matches that night as well. The first meeting between The Road Warriors and The Skyscrapers was dubbed as The irresistible force meeting the immovable object, The Steiner Brothers taking on the mysterious tag-team only known as Doom, Lex Luger meeting Brian Pillman, and other matches.

It was hard staying awake that night to take it all in, but I fought my way through it, and watching that show capped off a great night in my young life.

After all of these years, it’s funny to think back about how a school event and a wrestling show could make such a lasting impression on me. But I think it has more to do with the current state of life we find ourselves in. So much responsibility with jobs, families, and the like, that sometimes our hearts ache to just go back, even if just for a little bit. And that’s what Retro Ramblings is for me. It’s my chance to go back, even if just briefly, to a simpler time. Thanks for taking a minute to make the trip with me.

And just for the record, here’s my ratings for the Halloween Havoc ’89 matches from that night:

  • Tom Zenk vs. Mike Rotunda – 2 stars
  • The Samoan Swat Team vs. The Midnight Express & Steve Williams – 3.5 stars
  • Tommy Rich vs. The Cuban Assassin – 1/2 a star
  • The Fabulous Freebirds vs. The Dynamic Dudes – 3.5 stars for the crowd atmosphere
  • The Steiner Brothers vs. Doom – 3 stars for the mystery
  • Lex Luger vs Brian Pillman – 4 stars
  • The Road Warriors vs. The Skyscrapers – 3 stars for the spectacle
  • Rick Flair & Sting vs. Terry Funk & Muta Thunderdome Cage Match – 4.5 stars for the whole experience

McDonald’s McPasta

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McDonald’s has tried a lot of off-the-wall menu items in their time. Some are fondly remembered like the McD.L.T., and others are still scorned to this day (I’m looking at you here Arch Deluxe). But a few products have come along that most of the population totally missed out on, and McPasta was one of them.

In 1990, McDonald’s decided they would try to add some entrees to their menu that weren’t hamburgers or Chicken McNuggets in hopes of bringing in more dinner time business. They dreamed up this concept of McPasta dishes and roasted chicken and felt sure it would be a big hit. Before they released it to the masses though, they went the test market route.

A small area in New York was selected, some stores in Ohio, and a chain of franchise stores in Northeast Tennessee for this new line of McPasta products. Fortunately, I lived in a part of southern Virginia where that Tennessee-based franchisee had two locations, and they put the product in those two stores as well.

What they offered was a selection of Spaghetti, Spaghetti with Meatballs, Lasagna, and Fettuccine Alfredo. Each dish came with a garlic breadstick as well. They also decided to offer tender roasted chicken as a side item, as well as mashed potatoes. How those last two items fit into the McPasta lineup I’ve yet to figure out. I guess it didn’t have to fit the “pasta” side of things, as it fell into the overall “dinner” category they were going for.

To be honest, the only one I ever tried was the Fettuccine…..and I thought it was awesome! For the six-month period they were testing the line in my area, it’s what I ordered on every trip to the golden arches. My Mom loved it too, and since my Dad was out-of-town a lot, she felt it was easier to just run to McDonald’s and pick up a couple of Fettuccine platters for the two of us instead of cooking, so I got to have the pasta goodness a lot.

Imagine my sadness one day when I went to order my favorite McPasta dish only to be told it was no longer available. I listened in horror as the lady at the counter relayed the info to my Mom and me that it had been a test product, and she had no way of knowing if it would be added back to the menu or not.

As the weeks and months passed by, I would continue to inquire about it on every trip to Happy Meal land. And every time I was disappointed. After a while, I came to the sad conclusion that McPasta wasn’t coming back at all.

For years I reminisced about it, only to find it strange when other people had no idea what the heck I was talking about. For the longest time, I couldn’t figure out why no one had even heard of McDonald’s McPasta. Then one day it popped into my brain and I searched it out on the internet. It was there that I discovered that it had been a test product with just a very limited release, and that’s why everyone thought I was crazy when I would bring it up.

Here is a transcript of an article from the Aug. 04, 1992 edition of the Chicago Tribune detailing the end of the test. And if you read it all the way through, you’ll see mention of their pizza being tested at the time as well:

McDonald`s has decided to give test-marketing of pasta and tender-basted chicken a breather.

Those dinner-menu items have been yanked from test markets in New York and Tennessee, where 70 of the fast-service firm`s 8,700 domestic stores were involved in gauging consumer response.

McDonald`s stock on the New York Stock Exchange took it on the chin Monday, dropping $1.12 to close at $42.75 on news of the pullout.

Wall Street analysts were unimpressed with McDonald`s decision to return the pasta, including lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs, and fettucine alfredo; and chicken, including chicken breast, to test kitchens at its Oak Brook headquarters. However, McDonald`s didn`t think this pullback was any big deal, considering the small scope of the test.

Still in an expanded ”test market” program is McDonald`s pizza, now available in 500 units around the country.

A McDonald`s spokesman Monday said that there was ”good consumer acceptance” for the chicken and pasta, but that other considerations were involved, such as source of supply and equipment, which the firm still is evaluating.

There may be some substance to this rationale because the pizza was taken out of test markets several times before the current test.

McDonald`s does have a presence in chicken, including a McChicken sandwich, chicken McNuggets and a chunky chicken salad, but all are priced substantially less than the chicken that was tested.

Like other fast-service firms, McDonald`s has been scrambling to expand the menu, especially at dinner time, which is a longer period than lunch, to build traffic.

Though hamburger champ McDonald`s didn`t say so, the pasta and tender-basted chicken might have been too pricey for consumers. In any event, chicken and pasta have been put on the back burner for ”tinkering” for possible re-entry no earlier than next year.

To this day I miss that McPasta Fettuccine. But now I look back and realize that the stars were aligned perfectly for me to even have gotten to experience it in the first place. Some say it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. But for those people who say that to them, I say they never loved McDonald’s Fettuccine Alfredo.

TBS Christmas Creatures Features From 1992

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TBS was one of my favorite TV channels in the late ’80s and the early ’90s, so I like to go back in time and talk about the things that made me love it so much. I’ve even given this stuff its own category…TBS Time Machine!

Am I the only one who fondly remembers TBS back in the days before it was a self-branded comedy channel? The days before the two-hour binge blocks of semi-modern sitcoms dominated their time slots?

The good old days of TBS were filled with off-beat movies from the expansive Turner library, and the programmers behind the channel used to come up with any and all reasons to group movies together and put them on the air. Like this special day of programming for Christmas in 1992. All it took was a little alliteration combining the words “Christmas” and “Creatures” and they had a theme. Then, they just had to search their library for movies that fit that theme.

The movies featured on Christmas Day 1992 were At the Earth’s Core, The Last Dinosaur, and The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Three movies that probably haven’t been shown on television since. But that was the beauty of TBS back then. Where else would something like The Beastmaster get played at least once a month, and get promoted in bumpers as a “can’t miss” event?

If I could go back in time to 1992, my TV would certainly be tuned to TBS at 10:05 eastern, and that’s where the dial would have stayed until the end of the marathon. I actually looked into making this come to life this year for Christmas by purchasing the three movies, but I had two problems with that. One, I would have had to put out a little more money than I wanted to recreate this, and two, I realized that part of the magic would be missing, as my marathon wouldn’t be filled with those glorious old TBS bumpers for other movies coming throughout the week and would have felt flat as a result.

It wasn’t necessarily the movies themselves that made it special, it was the whole package. And that’s why I lament the loss of the old TBS.