McDonald's wanted to cash in on the nostalgia wave at the end of the 80's by bringing together a group of TV icons from the 50's & 60's for a few spots, two of which are shown twice in this montage. How about this dinner group?:
June Cleaver & Eddie Haskell (Barbara Billingsley & Ken Osmond, Leave it to Beaver).
Maxwell Smart (Don Adams, Get Smart).
Grandpa Munster (Al Lewis, The Munsters).
Jed Clampett (Buddy Ebsen, Beverly Hillbillies).
Gilligan (Bob Denver, Gilligan's Island).
Admittedly, I don't remember seeing these spots the first time around, and the ads represented some of Buddy Ebsen's last work. Barbara Billingsley had been in cartoons, working on Jim Henson's Muppet Babies at the time, and I think Don Adams was doing a cable show, Check It Out!, around this period, since Inspector Gadget was out of production and between series.
Somehow, it just didn't work.
I DO remember these commercials! I was just a kid but they still resonated with me! It's a shame almost everyone there is gone now.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why Jerry Mathers and Tony Dow didn't join in? They were doing "Still The Beaver" and "The New Leave it To Beaver" in syndication weren't they?
Funny how Ken Osmond slips back into his "Eddie Haskell" persona. Funnier still that he joined the LAPD when he couldn't find much acting work anymore! Who'd have thought? He does admit the character has been good to him and he still makes appearances. I do remember him reprising Eddie for various shows at times since the 80s.
I'll have to look up the Beaver sequels for a time frame. Maybe they didn't want Mathers, who did look like he'd been to McDonald's pretty regularly by then, making it too obvious.
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