Orson Welles ... Birds Eye (Findus) frozen peas radio commercial

Orson Welles ... Birds Eye Frozen Peas Radio Commercial.

A classic 'behind the scenes' take of Orson as he attempt to read what he considers to be a very badly written radio ad.

He gives the creative team a pretty hard time over their use of grammar and what should or shouldn't be seen on screen.

Orson only did this type of work to earn money for the projects he really wanted to do ... and I think that his frustration was coming out here.

Category:

Comedy

Tags:

• Orson
• Welles
• radio
• ad
• commercial
• Birds
• Eye
• frozen
• peas
• funny

[mgtash1]

Love it! But I am pretty sure these were TV commercials, not radio. Two reasons: (a) I am 62 and I think I can remember seeing them in the 70s, possibly, or early 80s; (b) in the peas one he complains that his script does not fit the pictures, eg: 'It's so nice that you see a snow-covered field . . .'

[jonnyacapulco]

@mgtash1 do you know, that's a very good point. it's gone down in internet legend as being a radio ad. there's also some confusion over the brand ... some say birds eye, some say findus. it would be great if you could track down the final ads ... i bet they're on the internet somewhere :)

[deteugma]

Are you sure he didn't say "if you'll forgive me MY saying so?" "If you'll forgive me by saying so" doesn't make sense to me, but maybe that's because I'm American.

[jonnyacapulco]

@deteugma hmmm think you might be right deteugma. i stand corrected ;-) ... changes made.

[DaveBTHunt]

I am English and might be able to help you with the very last part you have as "unintelligible", shortly after he declaims the depth of their ignorance, [LOL]:

Producer: "That was absolutely fine, it really was. You - you ..."

Welles; [Interrupting] "Oh, it isn't worth it - no *money* is worth this.....".

And....they're done.

BTW, the company name was and is a UK company called 'Findus', and not 'Finders", as you have it earlier, and not Birds Eye as in the Title card.

[jonnyacapulco]

@DaveBTHunt - hey thanks for the advice ... corrections made. I agree about the Findus part ... but many people (wrongly) refer to it as the Bird's Eye ad ... so will leave it like that as a sort of 'catch all' ... thanks again DaveBTHunt

[WriterJohnC]

Orson IS a legend. IN July, or any other time.

[thunderstruck665]

Crumb crisp coating! HAHAHA! Those scripts DID suck! Who talks like that???

[blackmichael75]

It definitely was a TV ad, because you can hear them talking about shots and what pictures are going to come up.

[heine71]

Old time radio?

[todtubetod]

Crumb Crisp Coating

[FidelCastro128]

I know Gary Garver, Welles DoP was looking for this outtake years ago

at Cinemateque Ontario lecture on Orson Welles. Classic excerpt

with Welles and poor script. 'This is a lot of shit., you want one more?'

[SirHatchporch]

John Candy did a funny parody of this on SCTV, reading "Good King Wenceslas."