Two worlds of battle action not included.
Because we don’t need that on Fridays!
A friend of mine sent me two of her videocassettes recently, and asked if I could digitize the content to preserve it. I had attempted to copy the content some time ago, but my passthrough device is a fickle beast, and the result was videos where the audio and video aren’t synced, the VCR and passthrough don’t feel like playing nice together, or the passthrough device’s software refuses to play nice. Thanksgiving week, I took another stab at copying the videos, and the result was perfect. Two six-hour videocassettes have been digitized and put in their own file on my computer. And what I was able to get from these videos are some great content, some of which is the subject of today’s Flashback Friday.
Special thanks to my friend of the written word, Ashley Thomas, The Nerdy Blogger for sending me these videos. You never disappoint!
When I was growing up, from preschool age until the end of eighth grade, I watched a lot of Nickelodeon. Cartoons, live action shows, game shows – the network was on a constant loop after school and on weekends for many years. As my brother and I got older, we watched less of the stuff we grew up with, and focused more on game shows and sitcoms. After the summer between eighth and ninth grades, it really wasn’t socially acceptable to watch Nickelodeon anymore.
It was only socially unacceptable until we got Comcast digital cable sophomore year of college, and discovered a whole Nickelodeon network devoted to their game shows. One night right after we got digital cable, my brother and I were watching Legends of the Hidden Temple in his room while we were doing homework, and my mom asked what grade we were in.
Um, clearly sixth grade, part two.
Today’s commercials come from a much earlier time in our Nickelodeon-watching life, from December 1988, when I was actually in Kindergarten. Ashley’s family recorded this sometime close to Christmas (perhaps the week of?), during an episode of Inspector Gadget, during a “Gadget-A-Thon.”
For the curious, the Inspector Gadget episode these commercials aired during was the season two episode “Focus on Gadget” (Original Airdate: October 5, 1985).
Included in this block of commercials:
How middle school kids in the 1980s wore jeans, plastic machetes that turned into a whole other toy (apparently Entertech wasn’t the only company to try their hand at realistic-looking toy weapons), the 1980s version of Funko Pops, “coming up next,” stockings filled with awesomeness, and a game that tackles a gross subject…like many other children’s toys of the time!
We’ve got sweepstakes, the house band for a kiddie talk show, toys, and an appearance by the DiC “Vortex” logo, a few years before your immaturity hit an all time high.
And we’ve also got an appearance by this guy, and his crazy facts!
“Ready or not fellow mutants, I’m back with more freaky facts!”
Do you remember this, and his freaky facts?
It’s short, compared to Thursday’s marathon of commercials, but it certainly is sweet!
So good. So much amazingness and 1980s Nickelodeon glory! This is where I watched Inspector Gadget growing up – I loved this show, and admittedly, watched it well into my teens, when it wasn’t really cool to do so.
A huge thank you – and virtual hug – to Ashley for contributing to today’s ease into the weekend. My writers’ circle is made so much more awesome with you in it! Geeky and Nerdy chicks who “write real gud” always gotta stick together!
Have a fantastic Flashback Friday, and a great weekend!
I forgot about the game bedbugs, I don’t we ever owned it, but I do remember playing it. You’re probably too young, but do you remember the very first Nickelodeon show called Pinwheel? I don’t even remember much about the show, aside from the theme which still gets stuck in my head from time to time.
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I know about Pinwheel and the theme song, but I don’t remember it per se. I did have Bed Bugs – we got it for Christmas in 1988!!!!
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