Tag Archives: Television

The 1990 TV Pilot ‘Tag Team’

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We all have some TV shows that we were very fond of that didn’t last more than a season. Well, in this edition of Retro Ramblings, I want to talk about a show that never made it past the pilot that I was a huge fan of. Tag Team.

In the mid-late ’80s, professional wrestling, and the WWF in particular, was big business. A lot of the WWF superstars were becoming household names thanks to Vince McMahon and his traveling circus. Two of the better-known superstars were “Rowdy” Roddy Piper and Jesse “The Body” Ventura. Piper had spent years as the biggest bad guy wrestler on the roster, while Ventura was well known as one of the voices of the shows as color commentator. Each broke out of the WWF world to become moderate successes in Hollywood. Piper had starring roles in B – Movies like Body Slam, Hell Comes to Frogtown, and They Live. Meanwhile, Jesse was becoming a solid backup man in action flicks with Running Man and Predator. 

In 1991, they teamed up on the small screen in the pilot episode of Tag Team. The show’s premise was simple. These two wrestlers couldn’t wrestle for a living anymore, so they decide to become cops. That decision was made after they used their wrestling moves to stop a robbery at a grocery store. It was a simple idea, but one that a television series could conceivably be based around.

As the air date for the pilot episode drew closer, Vince McMahon was hyping the debut of the show on his wrestling shows, and as a 13-year-old wrestling fan, I was salivating. I marked the date and time on my calendar so I wouldn’t miss it. Here was another chance to inject more wrestling into my world, and I wasn’t going to miss it. Although I can’t recall what night of the week that this premiered, I DO remember getting everything set up in my room for it. My chair was at the right angle, I had a frosty beverage at my side and some sort of snack at the ready. I was pumped. 

As I remember it, the episode was pretty good, and I thought it was really cool that these two wrestlers were going to be in a television show every week. Unfortunately, I wasn’t aware of just how exactly television worked at that time, and was quite disappointed when the show never aired again. The series wasn’t picked up, and the show was thrown into the huge pile of “could’ve been” with hundreds of other series that were never picked up. 

I listened to a podcast featuring Ventura and Piper that was recorded a long time ago before Piper passed away, and Ventura explained why the series wasn’t picked up. The two companies who were producing the show together, Disney and Corelco, got into a lawsuit with each other over something not even remotely related to the Tag Team series, and while in litigation, the show was left in limbo since neither side was doing business with each other at the time. When the lawsuit dust settled, too much time had passed and the Tag Team series was abandoned. 

It’s a real shame because the two had great chemistry together in the pilot, the premise was solid for an action/comedy show, and would have probably drawn decent enough ratings to keep the 13–episode first season on the air. Whether it would have been picked up beyond that is anyone’s guess, but I know one 13-year-old who would have watched religiously.

Watch the pilot below and decide for yourself if it had a shelf life or not.

Classic Cereal Commercials

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This edition of Retro Ramblings is kind of a combined post. A combination of a classic commercials posts mixed with a forgotten foods post. It’s two great tastes that taste great together! Let’s watch some old cereal commercials and let our mouths water and our memory glands tingle.

Honey Nut Cheerios starring Hulk Hogan (1985)

My earliest memories of eating cereal center around eating Cheerios. I guess my Mom wanted me to eat a healthier cereal like that instead of the really sugary kinds. That was until I saw this commercial. Being the huge wrestling fan that I was, I wasn’t hearing anything about not switching my Cheerios to Honey Nut Cheerios because Hulk Hogan liked them. It wasn’t long until the switch was made, and then once the sugary cereal barrier was broken, there was no turning back.

Mr. T Cereal (1980 something)

Of course, I was on the A-Team bandwagon from the beginning, and yes, B.A.Baracus was my favorite character. Then the Mister T cartoon hit, and I was all in on that too. So when Mr. T cereal dropped, I was down. I can’t even remember what it tasted like, but the commercial mentions brown sugar, so it was a sweetie. And since I had already popped my sweet cereal cherry, this was a logical step. But the song in this commercial. I ain’t gonna lie, that’s just a bad jingle. But with the excitement and the urgency in the vocalist’s voice, you knew you just had to get to the store and get a box of this.

Smurf Berry Crunch Cereal (1983)

Back in the early to mid-’80s, what kid worth their salt didn’t like the Smurfs? It was hard NOT to like them because the little blue bastards were everywhere. They had the hit cartoon, toys, pajamas, clocks, socks, velvet posters, and so much other crap, you really couldn’t get away from them. And then came the cereal! And if you were already a fan of the cartoon, this commercial was just like an extension of that. It made it feel like buying a box of this stuff was your duty as a fan. I bought in hook, line, and sinker. But of all the cereals on this list, this may have been my favorite. It was pretty much like Cap’n Crunch Berries cereal, but with a more fun theme. In the future, we’ll have to cover the sequel cereal, Smurf Magic Berries. That stuff was the shit too!

Kellogg’s Nut & Honey Crunch (1987)

This cereal was so good. Since in theory, it would seem healthier than the other cereals already mentioned, I guess my Mom was more than ok with buying this for me. And of the cereals on this list, this by far had the best hook to the commercial with everyone saying the name of the cereal, but whoever is around takes it the wrong way. It was a simple gag that they could do a lot with, and they did. Like the spoof at the end with the cowboys. I imagine calling one of those tough sumbitches “honey” would have resulted in a beatdown of the first order. It was a different time. But the cereal was damn tasty.

Kellogg’s Big Mixx Cereal (1990)

What in the hell is that mascot supposed to be? If you listen to the people in the commercial, they’re just as confused as I am. While it may come across as hokey, it’s still a pretty cool visual mixing up the different animals to emphasize the mix of the cereal. The moose head is the best part, and that’s not up for debate. I don’t ever remember having this cereal, but these days, it seems like I would embrace it like a warm blanket on a cold night. This is one that needs to come back to store shelves. And bring back the commercial too. It’s one I wouldn’t mind sitting through while streaming an old episode of Buck Rogers or something equally as awesome.

    Wax Pack Flashback: Saved by the Bell Cards (1992)

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    Saved by the Bell nostalgia is running wild these days, what with the new reboot series doing well on Peacock and all. So I thought it was a good time to revisit when I opened an old pack of Saved by the Bell cards from 1992 on my Wax Pack Flashback show on The Retro Network YouTube channel.

    Now back in the day, even though I was really into cards during the time period, I never saw a pack of these. Being the huge Saved by the Bell fan that I am, I know I would have been all over them. But I wasn’t even aware of their existence until I stumbled across them for sale on eBay.

    Watch the video below to see a pack of them, and hey, if you had them back in the day, let me know your memories of them in the comments when you’re done watching.

    Mickey’s Christmas Carol

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    For this edition of Retro Ramblings, we’re gonna talk about what I refer to as the greatest holiday special of all time. You know, the one with the talking mice, ducks, and crickets. I’m talking about Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and the special place it holds in my memories.

    Mickey’s Christmas Carol debuted on December 10, 1984, as a prime-time special on NBC. Maybe I actually watched it that year, but I can’t really say. I do know that if that wasn’t my first viewing, then it would have been the 1985 showing or 1986 at the latest. Checking the Google machine, I see that day was a Monday. I kind of distinctly remember watching it on a Sunday night. But maybe that’s just the eggnog talking.

    None of those facts are really important to the story though. Let’s just all agree that I watched this near its infancy, and have watched it most years since then. It may be the oldest Christmas tradition I have. I’d have to think about that actually to confirm.

    But let’s get into the meat and potatoes of why I love this special so darn much. The short answer is nostalgia. I have vivid and colorful memories of my whole family sitting down to watch this together. Most likely because I would have been in the 6-8-year-old range when I first saw it, so I’d say I was vocal about wanting to see it.

    That nostalgia encompasses more than just the special though. It’s the whole experience. A fire going in the fireplace in the living room…me in my pajamas…my Dad cracking pecans and walnuts for us to snack on, followed by those Andes Toffee Thins that only come out at Christmas…maybe some snow falling outside…and Christmas themed commercials. All of it together is why I love Mickey’s Christmas Carol so much.

    Besides all the warm fuzzy feelings I associate with it, the actual special itself is stupendous. And I’m talking about the entire special, not just the actual Mickey’s Christmas Carol feature. You’ve got to see the whole thing and breathe it all in. Donald’s Snow Fight, Pluto’s Christmas Tree, The Art of Skiing, and Mickey’s Christmas Carol. In later years, Disney and/or the networks would bastardize it by removing Goofy’s skiing feature and replacing it with looks at whatever new movie they had in the works. That was a horrible decision in my opinion. Give me Goofy falling off the ski lift any day over behind-the-scenes photos from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

    To me, they were all heartwarming tales. Donald and his nephews waging all-out war in their snowball fight, Chip & Dale causing havoc with Pluto by hiding in the Christmas tree, Goofy being his silly self on the ski slopes, and then the main event of Disney’s re-telling of the quintessential Christmas fictional classic.

    I’ll give you the fact that the extremely shortened version of A Christmas Carol left out a lot of parts, but damn, the art and the rich colors kinda make you forget those details. And at the end when Scrooge finds the Christmas spirit and is bouncing all around town…it just gets me right in the feels.

    And I mentioned earlier the commercials…so much Christmas goodness just oozes from those commercials. They came across as necessary additions to the whole thing. Especially that McDonald’s one with the kid who gets left behind while everyone else is skating on the pond. A night of watching Mickey’s Christmas Carol just isn’t complete if that commercial isn’t in there somewhere.

    So I put Mickey’s Christmas Carol right at the top of my list when it comes to Christmas viewing. Hell, I put it in my top ten of all-time things I’ve ever watched on TV. And I saw the twin referee angle in the Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant match. That shit was crazy at the time. This is above THAT!

    Unfortunately, you’ll no longer find a version of the entire thing like it was originally presented. And it’s usually the Art of Skiing skit that continues to get dropped every time a new release drops. I was really hoping that Disney+ would somehow piece the whole original concept together and air it, but no luck so far. Actually, I can’t even find Donald’s Snow Fight on the service yet either.

    But if you look around the ‘net enough, you’ll find all the pieces and can watch it kind of how it was originally intended. Hell, you can even find that McDonald’s commercial to throw in there too.

    And for you trivia buffs out there, check out this little tidbit: Mickey’s Christmas Carol was adapted as a daily comic strip and ran daily in November and December leading up to the special. If you look below, you can check out the first part of it. Enjoy!

    Five Classic Christmas Commercials

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    Man, what better way to keep getting pumped up for Christmas than watching some old Christmas commercials!  No?  You’re not a fan of commercials, are you?  Well, once upon a time I didn’t use to be.  But that was back in the days before Tivo, Netflix, and other streaming services that allow you to skip all the advertising. 

    These days, I find myself kind of missing commercials.  Not every commercial break, but some old commercials in particular.  It was rare, but sometimes commercials could actually enhance the show you were viewing.  Hang on…hear me out!  I can remember watching Mickey’s Christmas Carol Special that aired on NBC every year in the mid-late ’80s, and when the commercials that aired were Christmas in nature, it kept the cool Christmas vibe going for my young self.  So these commercials we’re viewing here today get a pass.  That seems like enough of an opening…let’s get to five of my favorite classic Christmas commercials.

    Folgers Coffee – Peter Comes Home for Christmas

    I’m not sure why this commercial ever touched me as a kid.  It probably had something to do with the fact that my old man traveled a lot, and there were times he would come in early in the morning like this.  Never at Christmas though.  He was always in town for that.  But whatever the reason, this commercial has continued to resonate with me for all these years since I first saw it air. 

    I think it really embodies the spirit of Christmas in the form I like to think of it.  Families being together, and enjoying simple things in life like a fresh cup of coffee is endearing to me.  I actually keep this commercial on my Christmas playlist on YouTube to make sure I see every season. 

    Polaroid Cameras

    One of the great frustrations for me growing up was trying to prove or disprove that Santa Claus was real.  I tried my own ways of getting to the bottom of things, but trying to snap a picture with a Polaroid camera was never one of them. I give these two kids an A for effort here, as their plan kinda worked.  They just didn’t anticipate Santa being a petty thief and sneaking away with their snapshot. 

    Budweiser Clydesdales

    There’s something about those old Budweiser commercials featuring their famous Clydesdale horses that I just love.  Now, there was never any drinking in our family, but that didn’t stop us from enjoying these commercials.  And this one, in particular, is really good.  Just seeing those horses tromp through the snow with the Christmas music in the background is enough to take me way back in time to maybe a Friday night in front of the fireplace while the folks watched the latest episode of Dallas.  It makes me think of all those good old days in the ’80s. 

    Fruity Pebbles Cereal

    Ok, so here is another product I identify with Christmas, based pretty much on just this commercial.  Now I’ve always loved me a big bowl of delicious Fruity Pebbles, and it doesn’t have to be Christmas for me to enjoy them.  But I always make sure I have some on hand for the holiday season.  When it gets to be about October, I start keeping my eyes out in the stores for the special Christmas edition of the cereal with the red and green pebbles. 

    This commercial embodies the Christmas spirit as well as Fred finally lets Barney have a bowl of his Pebbles that he’s always after.  Maybe those kids should have paid attention to this lesson and let the Trix rabbit have some for Christmas. 

    McDonalds Ice Skating

    Of all the commercials on this list and all the commercials that have ever aired with a Christmas theme, this one is my favorite.  I’m not sure I can pinpoint exactly when I first saw it, but I CAN pinpoint when it first connected with me.  It was on during the airing of Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1985.  For whatever reason, watching the sad tale of the little boy who was left behind while everyone was ice skating was something that I held on to.  Nowadays, I include this commercial on every bootleg Christmas special I put together for my kids.  I really don’t associate Ronald McDonald with Christmas in any other way, but for this 30 seconds, he’s as big a hero as Santa Claus. 

    Well, that’s it.  Five classic Christmas commercials that I never minded seeing pop up in the middle of my favorite show.  Do you have any old favorites?   Share them in the comments if you do.