Christmas Specials and Cartoons

Well hi there and welcome to the blog! 

Next week is July 25th which means it's time for Christmas in July! This year, I've found a gem. Commercials are a big part of our culture and they tend to show off the pulse of the time period.

 This year, I want to share a collection of commercial breaks from Bing Crosby's final Christmas television special - Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas.  I hope you enjoy this look back to 1977.

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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

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!

In 1977, Bing filmed what would be his last Christmas television special.  Titled "Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas", it featured Bing and the family taking a trip to Merrie Olde England to visit a very distant relative, Sir Percival Crosby (played by Ron Moody).  The guests featured Mr. Ron Moody who was a famous British stage and screen actor who's most memorable role for American audiences was as Fagan in Oliver!  Also in the cast were model/actress Twiggy, British comedian Stanley Baxter and pop star, David Bowie.

Bowie performed his current hit at the time, "Heroes" as well as singing his now famous duet of "The Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth" with Bing.

The special was filmed in October on location.  Bing had several appearances in London which would prove to sadly be his last.  Bing died on a golf course in Spain on October 14, 1977.

Here is the last time Bing sang White Christmas on television.

Here at the old blog, we wish all of you a very, Merry Christmas.

This is a revised version of an earlier entry.  Uploaded is the full version of this selection.

In 1976, Rankin/Bass made a sequel to The Little Drummer Boy. They subtitled it "Book II" in a biblical style reference.

I've been looking for this commercial for a while now.  Sprite made a series of Christmas ads from the late 70's featuring a jingle made to the tune of Good King Wenceslas.

Here is one from 1980

Here's another variation of the Coca Cola Christmas commercial from 1978

 

Jack Jones

Now, around here, we love Jack Jones.  A much forgotten singer, Jack is most famous for singing the theme to The Love Boat. But Jack is as good a jazz singer as Sinatra, Deano and the rest of the gang.

Here is Jack on Judy Garland's Christmas Show from 1963.  You will also notice our pal Mel Torme' among the guests.

Running from 1965 to 1974, The Dean Martin Show appeared on the NBC network featuring Dean and a plethora of guest stars.

Here's Deano and the Chairman of the Board singing their rendition of "It's a Marshmallow World"

Enjoy!

Now, I love Donnie and Marie.  Call it a guilty pleasure.  I watched every Friday night on ABC as a kid.  I also loved their Christmas specials.

Here is an excerpt from the 1976 special

 

The Hollywood Palace was an hour long variety show on ABC TV.  There were many guests hosts (much like SNL) but Bing Crosby made the most appearances - 31 in all including starring on the Christmas specials.  The show ran from 1964 thru 1970, with Bing hosting the final show.

Here's Bing singing his perennial hit on The Hollywood Palace Christmas show from 1968.

Here is Perry Como's Christmas show presented by Chesterfield Cigarettes on Wednesday, Dec 24th 1952.  I hope you enjoy this show

Here is another great spot featuring something special.

From the 1960's to thru the 1970's, many Christmas LPs were made featuring various artists performing our favorite Christmas carols. 

Here is a spot for a collection title "Home For Christmas"

This spot is for you Susan!

I love promos from Christmastime.  Like commercials, these bring back memories more than anything because they have a familiarity from long ago.  It's like a window to the past.

Here is a promo from NBC featuring Dino himself.

In the last few years of his life, Bob Hope made a series of Christmas retrospectives featuring Bob and all of the celebrity guests he spent Christmas with over the years.

Here is Bob and his wife Delores singing the holiday classic that he made famous, Silver Bells.

The Gathering is a made-for-tv movie starring Ed Asner and Maureen Stapleton about a man who learns he is dying and tries to gather his dis-jointed family together for one last Christmas.  The caveat is that none of his children know he is dying.

Rounding out the cast is Gregory Harrison who plays Adam "Bud" Thorton, Jr., a very outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, who after an arguement with his father, moved to Canada under assumed names.

The movie was nominated for five emmy awards and won two including Outstanding special - comedy or drama.

Here is the final scenes from the film.