Christmas Specials and Cartoons

Do you remember McDonald's gift certificates?  You could buy books for $5-10 and give them as gifts.  This was kind of neat when I was a kid, but I never seemed to have enough for a full meal [and let's be honest, as kids we all wanted a Big Mac].

Anyway, here's a classic commercial from the 70's.

Here's a great live spot for Schick.

In the 1970's, The Carpenters were at the height of their success.  Richard and Karen Carpenter released A Christmas Portrait in October of 1978 with an ABC special to follow.  The previous Christmas, they brought us their first special, The Carpenters at Christmas.

The show featured Richard and Karen singing their Christmas favorites and featured guest starts such as Harvey Korman and Kristy McNichol.

Here is the complete show as brought to us by YouTube user arfies

Christmas Seals were widely popular until the early 80s as a way to raise money for charity.  Specifically, for the American Lung Association.  Christmas Seal commercials and ads were commonplace in America until this time.

Here is a short featuring our boy, Bob Hope from 1944.

In the late 70's, Polaroid featured a series of commercials featuring James Garner and Marriette Hartley.  These commercials led most people to think the two were married to each other due to their great on-screen chemistry.  In real life, the two were not married to each other but simply shared the spotlight on the memorable commercials.

Here's one from Christmas of 1979.

Here is a commercial from the late 70's for Kodak™ cameras featuring a young Ricky Schroeder.

Rick was a popular child actor at the time and would make the film remake of The Champ with Jon Voight two years later.  Rick went on to star in his own NBC sitcom Silver Spoons.  After his childhood career, Rick went on to star in many made for TV movies including Lonesome Dove with Robert Duval and Tommy Lee Jones and was in the very popular police drama  NYPD Blue.    He also starred in a season of 24 as well as guest appearing in shows like Scrubs and Strong Medicine. 

In 2013, he starred in a Hallmark movie "Our Wild Hearts." His daughter Cambrie co-starred with him.  His most recent project is a reality-tv show for the US Army.

Burger King is what I remember most as a kid.  The weird story is in my hometown, the McDonald's didn't have a drive thru window so you had to go in.  My mom would never go because it was such a hassle and because of inclement weather.  So, we went to Burger King.

So, here is another old Burger King Christmas Commercial from the early 70's.

Enjoy!