NBC - 1982 COMMERCIAL BREAKS - 1980s - 1980

[sorcerio]

I wish there was a tv channel today that had old shows and old commercials and also current sports and news but produced with old analog technology and presented stylistically like the late 70's & early 80's.

In fact it would be cool if there was a channel for each era and style.

TV now just sucks the way it is.

[chrisman737]

Hey, it's kind of interesting that we all know these commercials because we actually watched them. But nowadays we just change the channel. So in the future, no matter how many years pass, no one will be looking at commercials from the 2010s for nostalgic purposes because no one ever saw them in the first place!

[ukendcx2000]

2:26 Old Lady was adamant about the effectiveness of the product; belligerent even ...

[LedWilde]

Wish I had a time machine these days but who knows, maybe the future will be bright. I was only 3 in 1982 but sometimes wish I was 32 right now in 1982. I'd be old as fuck by 2011 but oh well. Sometimes I think it would be worth it.

[mcbain752]

@4:14 Old lady gets busted sniffing glue.

[Reborn8303]

its because woman love Wang !

[freewaydan]

Who was that lady filling in for Jane Pauley at 6:00?

[deaconblues80]

@freewaydan Judy Woodruff, who was the Washington correspondent for Today at the time. (She went to PBS the next year.)

[zinpgh]

1980s commercials were the best!

[dan1701a]

Daaaang, I used to have one of those Zenith Beta VCRs.

I'm old.

[ThatHoodieGuy]

Whats a VCR? Hmmm. These are great, thank you for uploading these.

[hughesms]

What is this Electronic Mail system??? Witchcraft I tells ya!

[musicom67]

@hughesms Why (Sen. Ted Stevens) IT'S A SERIES OF TU-U-U-BES!!!!!

[honeycone71]

@hughesms: LMFAO!

[XEmoCrazeGodX]

It's got zing! LMAO!

[abgjwg]

musicom67. Is it possible to download this commercial to my pc?

[bmasters1981]

@abgjwg It is. Just right-click, select "Copy Link Address," go to savetube.com, paste it into the "Video URL" box, press Enter, and in a moment, a list of download formats should come up; just click the one you want. Hope that helps!

[Anglynn74]

looks like a Zenith BETA player?

[readytorock865]

I wonder what the inspiration was behind the computer name wang

[musicom67]

@readytorock865 The person's NAME - Charles Wang.

[Blackboilingrobotoil]

Wang!

[snappy452]

my tuna smells like my wifes cunt!

[tvpirate05]

I love the paperweight disguised as a Zenith VCR!

[222hitme]

4:15 OOH! Haha

[THEsquirrel3d]

The building that I work in wasn't even built yet at that time in downtown!!

[Hot80s]

0:47 enough dressing already, i'm gonna have the shitz.

[nx01alpha]

Interestingly, the NBC election headquarters were setup at NBC's Studio 8H, where Saturday Night Live was broadcast from.

[MiltownPunkette21]

I wish commercials were as entertaining and just plain GREAT, like they were before about 1997.

[soybearbrew]

Dang, how much Italian dressing are they putting on that salad?

[Theluiscalderon86]

wow what happen to all the prescription drug commercials?

[Grantwebb13]

I LOVE TV!

[dandydonaldo]

Chicken of the Sea canned tuna? How come there's no Tuna of the Land canned chicken?

[pannoni1]

At 3:49 Our new electronic mail system! 15 years before the Internet became mainstream!

[bmasters1981]

I like how the "Today" title card was formed back in '82: first, the two halves of the sunburst interlock with each other, and then the sun completes its "rise" and condenses as the "Today" title in white enters from beyond the screen at the bottom. What I'd like to know is, does anyone else have any more old "Today" openings like this, like, say, one from Bryant's premiere week or from 1981, perhaps?

[azbri73]

The government loves my tuna stroganoff too

[hilarioph]

Nah we not in Wang anymore. We have windows

xp and the inter net

[warriorsorochiman]

For those who don't know who Steve Cauthen is in that Trident commercial, he is a retired horse jockey from the late 70's to the 90's. At 18 years of age, Steve was one of the youngest ever to win the U.S. Triple Crown. Before, during and after his Trident commercial, he won over 2,750 horse races around the world throughout his career. He's been well known in Europe for his many wins in Great Britain, France, Germany, Ireland, and Italy...and even the U.S.A.

[MentalRob]

I think this is 1980, not 1982

[flawedbeauty82]

Based on the dates of the Today Show open and the NBC News Promo, this aired about 2-2.5 months after I was born.

[pre76dator]

13 years before i was born

[SportsBod]

Sending things by computer from London to Tokyo as in that Wang advet?

Naa - it'll never catch on..

[dmreeoogdaq]

Aren't these commercials from 1980? The news cast (with John Chancellor) is copyrighted 1980.

Anyway, THANK YOU for posting these. Kcosta010010011001 is right, the commercials today are STOOPID. I mute the TV every time they come on, but I didn't back then. Those jingles stuck in your head ("I love TV" is already firmly planted in mine).

[Gekmdal]

look at the size of that zenith recorder. we have come a long way in the size of video recorders.

[stickshaka]

Only 4/5 dentists recommend sugarless gum?

I'm thinking the other 1/5 must also recommend smoking to keep you teeth a healthy brown.

[laura20022004]

that chicken of the sea looks expire. that dressing looks like water. gum commerical was gay. wtf wang sounds so bad lol.

[jmossinca]

Man, the Dow is low. We're screwed.

[Selanne93]

Is that a 30 year-old Jane Pauley at 1:32 ? I wonder if she was battling her bipolar disorder back then. I used to have a weird childhood crush on her.

[thegreatsamurai82]

yeah lol

[brentsapp25]

ha! he looked like he really wasn't enjoying that pepper!

[kcosta010010011001]

Is it just me or does it seem like commercials back in the 80's were all happy and musical. Now Commercials today are just so stupid.

[BettinaBalser]

@kcosta010010011001 They were a reflection of the times. We were a smarter, better educated, and classier populace in the United States back then.

[Xezlec]

@kcosta010010011001 It's because back then we had confidence and pride in ourselves and our culture. Today we're more sharply divided. Since we've been the only superpower for so long now, I think the sense of camaraderie that comes with competing together against some foreign power has vanished and left us with only self-hate. For all its dangers, the Cold War may have actually had some psychological benefits. Not saying I want another one, just wishing I could go back to The Rad Decade.

[bmasters1981]

This "Today" opening and studio, I strongly believe, were worlds better than today's version of the same. To me, Matt Lauer doesn't hold a candle to Bryant Gumbel, nor does today's studio hold a candle to this one.

[coolwafferman]

@bmasters1981 I like both Matt Lauer and Bryant Gumbel, but I have to say Bryant Gumbel is a better newscaster, because he was serious with the news for the whole 2 hours he was on. I guess "Today" is just not what it used to be. I still watch it, but you have so much fluff on there now, I guess the talent has faded away.

[fanotv]

I wonder if that is actually the show closing or just the closing for the first hour. It's a minor detail but I thought they showed the copyright at the end of Today by that point.

[Bloodybunny]

It's been so long I can't remember exactly how they handled copyright at the time, but for many years the second hour on the East Coast would air live as the FIRST hour in the Central Time Zone. Then everyone on Central Time would get a tape of the first hour as their second hour. So at 8:57 or so ET they'd always say something like, "For many of you, that's it, but for others..." and then they'd plug guests they interviewed 90 minutes earlier.

[americanidol434]

when i'm bored, i go on youtube and watch retro commericals. lol

[reymatt76]

me too!!

[laura20022004]

@americanidol434 hahahaha me too

[joebradio]

hey you too can love TV record your favorite shows and post them on You Tube almost 30 years later, neat huh?

[HollanderMelissa]

the year I was born :p

[TIPTON340]

The Today show I loved

[americanidol434]

lol. i didn't know the today show was in the 70's

[coolwafferman]

@americanidol434 "The Today Show" started on January 14, 1952.

[entertainme3000]

@americanidol434 Duh! Where have you been? It's one of the old programs on the face of the planet! I hate how you teenagers think that if something happened before they were born, it never happened!

[teflonmagnet]

thought the old girl was going to brain the announcer with that cast iron pan.

[joebradio]

and, hey will the dow ever break 1,000 ?

[jaybee1973jaybee]

This is great, esp. the introduction and close of "Today" in 1982. It's odd to hear Bryant Gumbel refer to the program as "Today Show" as by the late '80s they preferred to refer to it as "the Today program" - "show" had a less "newsy," too informal connotation. "Today" seems so "breezy" and "lite" in this clip, not like a news program. It's interesting to see Tom Brokaw and Roger Mudd sharing the anchor desk as Mr. Mudd would be promoted (actually "demoted") from "Nightly News" months later.

[royalscam76]

Good point about the "Today" open. This was around the time the program was losing significant ratings ground to "Good Morning America" with folksy David Hartman, so it's not surprising that this open was much breezier than the smooth, professional, get-down-to-business style Gumbel eventually developed. In 1983, "Today" got rid of the rising sun animation/affiliate tape open, switching to a more substantive "cold open" with Gumbel narrating the day's top news story.

[jaybee1973jaybee]

Do you happen to know if the more substantive "cold open" began when the new "Today" set was unveiled circa February 1983? (USA Today reviewed that set circa 3/1/83 - Willard Scott disliked it and called it something like a "$39.95 job". He approved of the 1985 set, but disliked the 1990 one.) I believe that the "cold open" was single-topic until September 1991 when the format changed coincidental with Katie Couric's return from her first maternity leave.

[jaybee1973jaybee]

Another possibility for when the "Today" substantive "cold open" began was circa August 1, 1983 when "NBC News at Sunrise" debuted. I'll say again, I was surprised to hear Bryant Gumbel refer to the "Today Show" on the air in 1982. When "Today" adopted a "harder news" format by the mid-1980s, it seems as if the term "Today Show" was banned at NBC News. It was "Today" or the "Today program," but NEVER a "show." The 2009 "Today" is a "show" -- it has few "news standards," if any.

[bmasters1981]

Very much so. Pretty much anything goes these days on "Today." People screaming loudly outside, a very sterile-looking studio, a 4-hour format, concerts-- that's not the "Today" that I knew when I was a little boy. The "Today" of this clip is.

[royalscam76]

I don't know precisely when the new-as-of-1983 cold open format debuted, but my guess is that it was in early '83 vs. later that year. As for the cold open, the single topic format was briefly discarded in mid-1990 when the Gumbel-Norville team was in dire straits, and Joe Garagiola, Faith Daniels, and Katie Couric were brought on board. The show opened with several topics until the Persian Gulf conflict began in the late summer of 1990, after which the show reverted to a single topic lead.

[emoneybagz23]

WANG!

[almadora]

man, are they drowning that salad in dressing or what??

[frrrrrunkis]

I said "hey, take it easy!" as I was watching that salad get doused.  Also, I've got to get my hands on one of those Zenith VCRs.

[NowhereMan1966]

BTW, my TV I use is from 1982, we bought it new in early 1983 and has been in in use almost everyday since. It is a Zenith System 3 and for it to last 27+ years, it is a remarkable set.

[frrrrrunkis]

They just don't make 'em like they used to, do they?

[NowhereMan1966]

Usually not, they say the best Zenith TV's were the CHromacolor II's from 1973 to 1979 and the first System 3's from 1978 to about 1985.

[pink1222]

@almadora lol

[robfergusonjr]

@almadora hu huuuuuuuuuuu, mmmmm.

[rmr2001]

nice memories

[xlogold]

commercials were still shot on 35mm film