Category: 1980s

Players like Telly Savalas are too smart to pay full price

In the context of casinos, comps are complimentary items given out by casinos to encourage players to gamble. Most casinos have hosts who are responsible for giving out free items and contacting players to bring them back to the casino. Most casinos now require a player to have a player’s club or similar card, so that their play can be tracked and comps awarded.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, [Telly] Savalas appeared in commercials for the Players’ Club Gold Card. These commercials were parodied by Phil Hartman on Saturday Night Live as “The Player With Yourself Club”. The line from the parody was “If you’re a player, you need to be where the action is, and when there’s no action you have to create it yourself. That’s why I’m telling you about the Player With Yourself Club.” Savalas’ commercials also inspired a skit on In Living Color, where Jim Carrey played Savalas, who wields a literal “player’s club” and knocks successful gamblers unconscious, taking their winnings, though tossing them a chip or two out of generosity.

Give A Wendy’s Hamburger A Little Nibble

In May 1987, Wendy’s International followed up the “Where’s the Beef?” campaign with the US television commercial “Give a little Nibble”. The tag line was to be a catchy phrase that would capture the attention of consumers and help make Wendy’s major player on the fast-food scene once again. This television commercial was a flop and sent Wendy’s hunting for a new advertising agency. The “nibble” spots were meant to emphasize Wendy’s better-tasting hamburger. They showed customers ripping off chunks of meat from an absurdly large hamburger.

Raw hamburger may contain harmful bacteria that can produce food-borne illness such as Escherichia coli O157:H7, due to the occasional initial improper preparation of the meat, so caution is needed when handling it.

Bob and Doug McKenzie Pizza Hut Pizza Raid, eh

Bob and Doug McKenzie are a pair of fictional Canadian brothers who hosted “The Great White North”, a sketch which was introduced on SCTV for the show’s third season when it moved to CBC Television in 1980. Bob is played by Rick Moranis and Doug is played by Dave Thomas. The duo revived the act in television commercials for Pizza Hut and the Molson Brewing Company.

The [Pizza Hut] chain was founded in 1958 by Dan and Frank Carney. Additional restaurants were opened, with the first franchise unit opening in 1959 in Topeka, Kansas.

John Cleese doesn’t need the new Compaq Portable 286, he has Bruno

Compaq Computer Corporation was an American personal computer company founded in 1982, and is now a brand name of Hewlett-Packard. The Compaq Portable was one of the progenitors of today’s laptop; some called it a “suitcase computer” for its size and the look of its case

The Intel 80286, introduced on February 1, 1982 was an x86 16-bit microprocessor with 134,000 transistors. It was the first Intel processor that could run all the software written for its predecessor. It was widely used in IBM PC compatible computers during the mid 1980s to early 1990s.

[John] Cleese was educated at St Peter’s Preparatory School, Weston-super-Mare where he was a star pupil, receiving a prize for English and doing well at sports including cricket and boxing.

Apple Macintosh 1984

“1984” is a American television commercial which introduced the Macintosh personal computer for the first time. It is now considered a watershed event and a masterpiece in advertising. It was directed by Ridley Scott, written by Steve Hayden and Lee Clow, and was produced by Chiat/Day. Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother. Its only daytime televised broadcast was on 22 January 1984 during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII. Chiat/Day also ran the ad one other time on television, a month earlier at 1:00 A.M on 15 December 1983 on KMVT in Twin Falls, Idaho so that the advertisement could be submitted to award ceremonies for that year. In addition, starting on 17 January 1984 it was screened prior to previews in movie theaters for a few weeks.

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totalitarian regime. The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of falsifying records and political literature, thus effectively perpetuating propaganda, who grows disillusioned with his meagre existence and so begins a rebellion against the system.

Rainer Beer Motorcycle

Rainier Brewing Company (1884 – 1999) was a Seattle, Washington, company that brewed Rainier Beer, a popular brand in the Pacific Northwest. Although Rainier was founded in 1884, the Seattle site had been brewing beer since 1878. While the beer enjoys near iconic status, it is no longer brewed in Seattle, nor is the company owned locally.

A motorcycle (also called a motorbicycle, motorbike, bike, or cycle) is a single-track, two-wheeled motor vehicle powered by an engine.

Using the principle of mechanical advantage, transmissions provide a speed-torque conversion (commonly known as “gear reduction” or “speed reduction”) from a higher speed motor to a slower but more forceful output or vice-versa.