WTOL "Toledo 11 News NightWatch" 8/16/1986 pt. 1

Featuring these commercials...

1. Ponderosa Steakhouse
2. Heartland Portrait (local spot)
3. Banner Matress & Furniture
4. Richard Chevrolet
5. Kroger Supermarkets (GO KROGERING!)
6. Busch Beer

The "Huggy Bear" seen in this clip was a former A&W Restaurant we used to go to a lot. Around this time the place closed and someone who I guess worked there re-opened it as "Huggy Bear", though they still had the A&W "Great Root Bear" mascot until they re-painted the image into a female carhop bear instead. My mom can be seen for a split-second in that story, sadly they didn't get to speak with her of her experiences in these places. Today that place is some other restaurant, I think it's called "The Flamin' Pit" or something, though we now have a few Sonic Restaurant locations to go to that do a nice job replicating that carhop service!

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• WTOL
• WTOL-TV
• Toledo
• 11
• news
• local
• 1980's
• 80's
• TV
• OH
• Ohio

[no1cp]

Holy crap. The Huggy Bear... wasn't that on Sylvania Ave. near Secor?? That sign & logo, I remember that!! (I was a week from being 8 years old when this aired)

I grew up further down the road, near Sylvania/Upton.

[RetroToledo]

@no1cp It was. It's no longer there, but some other indoor diner type establishment at the moment. The Huggy Bear use to be an A&W drive-in restaurant before '86 I think.

Nice to see you were from the Sylvania/Upton area. Much of that area hasn't changed much from what I've seen over the years (still has the Salvation Army Thrift Shop).

[no1cp]

@RetroToledo Yea, I actually grew up closer to Upton/Berdan. We used to always walk down to the 7/11 there to get slurpees. I also played Super Mario Bros. for the first time there. There used to be a basecall card shop called "The Batters Box" right around the corner from that Salvation Army.

[RetroToledo]

@no1cp Strangely that's the only 7/11 left around town I noticed. There also use to be an odd sort of company nearby that Salvation Army that went by the name "The Hollywood Dream Factory". They use to put out cute little film buff-related stuff you could get at stores like Suncoast (especially production slates and reel clocks). I think the guy who ran that went out of business but I still have one of those slates (I think Kevin Smith had one too he used for Clerks).

[no1cp]

@RetroToledo I vaguely remember that place. If memory serves me right, its across Upton from the Salvation Army. On the other side of the street as that bar. If its the same place i'm thinking of, I think it used to be a video rental store like a Video Connection? Keep in mind I moved out of that neighborhood when I was like 8. lol So, my memory is a bit fuzzy. I remember going to the library on Sylvania, Church's Chicken across the street, and Netty's. I went to Blessed Sacrament.

[RetroToledo]

@no1cp It was on Sylvania just a couple doors from SA actually.

[RetroToledo]

@no1cp Oh and my grandma use to go to Blessed Sacrament as well since she lived near where DeVeaux Shopping Center is.

[mrceleb2006]

The "Hello News" music by Frank Gari was used here, as well as on the now-defunct Atlantic Pulse newscasts on ASN (later A Atlantic, soon to be CTV Two).

[RetroToledo]

@thedude19766 It is. By the way, my mom shows up in the drive-in story with her RV (if only for a split-second)!

[thedude19766]

classic WTOL there