Showing posts with label 1989. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1989. Show all posts

Thursday, September 27, 2007

By popular demand: MacGyver!



I love MacGyver! This is one of my top 5 favorite shows from the 80s.
Here is a description from Wikipedia:

MacGyver is an American adventure television series, produced in Canada, about a laid-back, extremely resourceful secret agent, played by Richard Dean Anderson. The series was created by Lee David Zlotoff and executive produced by Henry Winkler and John Rich. It ran for seven seasons from September 29, 1985 to May 21, 1992 on the ABC network and filmed primarily in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Of the 139 one-hour episodes, three had two parts. Additionally, two made-for-TV movies were produced in 1994.

Angus MacGyver's main asset is his practical application of scientific knowledge and inventive use of common items—along with his ever-present Swiss Army knife and duct tape and the usual coincidence of being locked up in a room full of useful materials. The clever solutions MacGyver implemented to seemingly intractable problems—often in life-or-death situations requiring him to improvise complex devices in a matter of minutes—were a major attraction of the show, which was praised for generating interest in engineering[1] as well as providing entertaining storylines. All of MacGyver's exploits on the show were ostensibly vetted to be based on real scientific principles (even though, the creators acknowledged, in real life one would have to be extraordinarily lucky for most of MacGyver's ideas to succeed). In the few cases where MacGyver used household chemicals to create poisons, explosives or other things deemed too dangerous to be accurately described for public consumption, details were intentionally altered or vague.

The use of ordinary household items to jury rig devices shows an influence from The A-Team (though MacGyver eschewed firearms). The idea has entered U.S. popular culture; such constructions are referred to as "MacGyverisms" (a term first used in episode 3 of season 2, "Twice Stung").

In an August 2007 survey commissioned by the McCormick Tribune Foundation, Americans polled voted MacGyver as the favourite fictional hero they would want to have if they were ever caught in an emergency. [2]


The thing I always admired about Mac was that he was a likeable, non-threatening, non-intimidating hero. He wasn't too good looking, yet not ugly. He wasn't too cool, but definitely not nerdy. He was a tough guy, yet always hurt his hand when he punched a bad guy... and he was good with the chicks, but not so good. That's pretty much the story of my own life methinks! ...Now, if I could just figure out how to make my truck run on bubble gum and rubbing alcohol instead of gasoline...LOL


Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Bounty Bar !!! 1989


Do you miss the Bounty Bar? ....Luscious coconut covered in either milk or dark chocolate?
In 1989 I was working for Kash-N-Karry Grocery Store as a produce clerk.
I can remember that my favorite snack on a break was a dark chocolate Bounty Bar washed down with chocolate milk. (this of course was back in the days when my metabolism was a bit faster, LOL)

I dunno about you, but Mounds Bars just were not as sweet and moist. But Bounty: now that was the candy bar worth getting jittery over!

Oddly enough, the Bounty Bar, which was distributed by the Mars Candy Co., only lasted 2 years in the United States market before it was discontinued.
In his book, "The Emperors of Chocolate," Joel Glenn Brenner states:

Mars and Hershey - the Candy Kings, as they're known to insiders - can readily attest to Americans' affinity for nostalgic candy. Take Mars's Bounty bar, for example. In 1988, Hershey turned the candy world upside down when it unexpectedly acquired the U.S. division of Peter Paul/Cadbury, maker of Mounds, Almond Joy and York Peppermint Patties. To compete with Hershey's new muscle, Mars introduced the Bounty bar in 1989, a chocolate-covered coconut bar reminiscent of Mounds. But Bounty failed after just two years, even though every blind taste test Mars conducted showed consumers preferred it 2 to 1 over the competition.

Brenner goes on to explain that the Bounty Bar failed because Americans on the whole, hold extreme nostalgia when it comes to candy and gravitate towards familiar names and tastes, of which Mounds is one. Even though Bounty tasted better, it didn't hold the gravitas of the Mounds Bar.
Mounds did have the edge in marketing in the 1980s ... I bet you can remember the Mounds commercials can't you?
C'mon, say it with me; "Almond Joy got nuts....Mounds don't"
Remember that?
And, then, of course, us creative 80s-mullet-topped boys would impress the chicks with our own version:
"Boys got nuts ... girls don't"
Bwahahahah! It's a wonder how we ever got married ain't it?

Oddly enough, Bounty Bars could be making a comeback. In 2006, this author found some (milk chocolate only) in a Shell Gas Station food mart on the south side of Chicago. I was extremely excited and bought 5 of them. Upon checking out with my chocolate milk in tow, I asked the clerk (I had to shout through bullet-proof glass) if he knew where they got them from.
He gave me a blank stare and with a thick Pakistani accent said, "det will be six dullers and derty-cents, tank you, com agin."
The sugary-coconut was delightful, but short-lived.
Today, Bounty is one of the best selling candy bars in Australia and throughout much of Europe.
If anyone from the Mars Company is reading this (yeah, wishful thinking)...you can contact me for some fresh marketing ideas ... I'll accept dark chocolate Bounty Bars in lieu of salary.