Forgotten American Culture

I was just thinking about these guys the other day because the character of the President on Succession is called “The Raisin.”

It started as a 30 second commercial. The first time I saw it I was high as a kite and thought it was the most surreal thing I ever saw.

The President on Succession isn’t Biden? Are they living in some strange alternate universe or alternate timeline? I didn’t know this was a sci fi show.

It’s a slightly alternate universe, R3–the protagonists own a major cable news channel, so they and their competitors are all made-up corporate entities, as are the political figures and tech people. But they reference real musicians, actors, etc.

Spuds MacKenzie. Remember the dog?

R2, same with me! My boyfriend and I were high and/or drunk and howling at the TV: "Purple turds! Eww. Purple turds singing!! What the fuck?!!"

[quote] "and even a Halloween costume!"

I was in third grade when a girl dressed in this. It was cheaply made, and I wasn't impressed. But the teacher was. She actually insisted the girl go to the other third grade class to show it off. Very cringe. The only good thing that came out of that franchise, was Oscar-winning animator Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration", originally airing in 1987.

[quote] "and even a Halloween costume!"

I was in third grade when a girl dressed in this. It was cheaply made, and I wasn't impressed. But the teacher was. She actually insisted the girl go to the other third grade class to show it off. Very cringe. The only good thing that came out of that franchise, was Oscar-winning animator Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration", originally airing in 1987.

"Very cringe"

R7 You should have paid more attention to the teacher in that 3rd grade class.

I liked their story arc on Falcon Crest.

R10 No, they were on Fresno.

Care Bears. I think it was 1983-84 when they were so popular. I was in a department store when they were holding a drawing for one of five bears they had left, a week or so before Christmas. They were virtually impossible to come by, and were selling in some stores for way above the retail price. Mothers and children were mobbing the place. The store called the ticket numbers over the PA system, and I was one of the "lucky" five.

Having no use for the bear, I walked the store searching for a child who seemed in need of a special gift, and slyly offered my winning ticket to a little girl's mom, along with thirty bucks to buy it. She cried with excitement.

R12 Also, Cabbage Patch dolls.

The California Raisins had a critically acclaimed first album but it was all downhill from there. Cocaine addiction and mental illness ravaged the once promising band. As their reputation deteriorated and finances suffered the lead raisin fell deeper into despair culminating in a psychiatric hospitalization in 1990....

[quote] The California Raisins

Suzanne Somers is now the newest member.

Here's the special I mentioned at R7. It's still a favorite of mine.

And I apologize for the double post @R8. It wasn't intentional.

Clara Peller screeching "Where's the beef?" for Wendy's. Around the same, the "I've fallen and I can't get up!" safety alarm commercial was lampooned everywhere.

[quote]I was in third grade when a girl dressed in this. It was cheaply made, and I wasn't impressed. But the teacher was. She actually insisted the girl go to the other third grade class to show it off. Very cringe.

Wow! You, from West Virginia, who very well knows the levels of poverty there? Did you let your contempt for the little girl leach out and insult her? Did you and your friends crowd around and kick dirt to let your contempt be known, that she was cheap and "cringe" looking? Of course, you could chalk it up to being naive and in Third Grade, but you bring it up as a point of pride as an adult. WTF?

I used to enjoy your posts, Native W. VA, but I'm afraid you've shown yourself to be as petty and backward as the GOP that runs that state.

Good for you. Your self-regard and blind disregard is so refreshing for someone from a region so impoverished. You don't give a shit about poverty? Or how you seem intrinsically disgusted by poor kids and you aren't afraid or unwilling to glory in it?

Yes, I await your rejoinder-- I made assumptions, "but her parents had money, but were trashy low-lifes" as justification.

OP- The title of your thread should be- BEST Forgotten American Culture.

Special orders do t upset us. This was the ear worm of the time.

That kind of advertising wouldn't fly today. They look like colored people.

Whoa, I preferred R8's post way more than Outraged Frauzilla R18's. Get bent R18!

Are Beanie Babies forgotten?

The first cassette tape I ever got was The California Raisins: Sweet, Delicious and Marvelous. It was Motown songs re-recorded with studio singers/musicians. I was 8 years old, and I played it until it wore out.

Because you like Third graders marked and ashamed by superficial DL adults or that you not-so-secretly revel in humiliating small children, r22?

You sound rather diseased. Of course, humiliating a poor 3rd grader is nothing like the rampant homophobia those communities experienced if a child or teen is a tad too "different."

At least the 3rd grader got her damage started younger before sexuality was perceived or demonstrated. The meanest she may have experienced had nothing to do with her Third grade sexuality, just her poverty.

The oat bran craze of 1988.

My earliest memory is standing in line for a Cabbage Patch Kid at a toy store in the (at the time) world's biggest mall. For some reason both my parents were there (usually my dad would have been at work or not interested in shopping) and my sisters too. It took hours. In the end my sisters got the bald "Preemie" dolls. Both wanted dolls with long hair. Only one of them cried.

I actually think I remember that, R26. There was some kind of hot cereal involved. And a Cheerio variety? And they all touted the oat bran content on the packaging.

Dear R18 & R25: I know this may come as a shock to you, but not everyone in West Virginia is abused or lives in abject poverty. That girl certainly did not. Her family took large annual summer vacations, and some kind of cruise every other year at Christmas, or during spring break.

It was cringeworthy because there were so many other better costumes in the class (homemade and store-bought...some even featured on children living far below the poverty line, myself included), and shocking because someone like herself (whose parents were nice people, and spent all kinds of money on her wardrobe...she would often go a month or more without repeating a garment, and was quite proud of it), would even think about wearing a costume that looked like that. I can't imagine the costume was inexpensive. I was really surprised her parents didn't spend their money more wisely. So, as I said: the entire situation was cringeworthy.

And for what it's worth: she eventually went on to become a pharmacist. So not only is she STILL not living an abused existence in poverty, she got an education and did well for herself.

But please continue hurling unwarranted insults while demonstrating your shocking level of ignorance where my home state is concerned.

Oat bran is what you want!

Weren't Americans obsessed with Australia during the 80s? Crocodile Dundee and all those types of films? I can't quite understand why. They seem too similar to Americans to be a source of fascination. Though obviously somewhat more intelligent than us, given that they had universal healthcare for quite some time.

Yes! Everyone was going around saying "G'day mate!" and putting shrimp on the barbie! There was even an Australian girl added to The Facts of Life! Yahoo Serious killed that trend.

One big trend that used to dominate television on the 80s and early 90s was the obnoxious preponderance of dramas that revolved around sexual tension between the head male and female characters. Everything else was just filler. Television has vastly improved since then. Storylines seem to be more well rounded now.

Speaking of "Crocodile Dundee": I know it's been nearly forty years, AND that he was nearly forty when he made the first film, but part of me can't believe Paul Hogan is eighty-two years old!

[quote]The California Raisins

Unfortunately, they've gone the way of celebrities like Demi Moore and had too much plastic surgery. They do not look like them selves anymore. I suspect way to many fillers.

I can't believe I ate the WHOLLLLLEEE thing!

r29 - yet your memory was your insult of a poorly dressed child, right? How did poorly dressed kids once hissed at make it out of your classroom?

I get people like you. It's all about you exemplars and striving to SEEM better

I remember the California Raisins but maybe at the end.

Cereal characters seemed to have been more popular than they are today.

I remember 3 guys on the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box.

Smurfs were rather vile.

They were like something that would hide under your bed and come creeping out at night.

I was at the opening night of "California Raisins in the Sun", but it closed soon after.

[quote]r39 Cereal characters seemed to have been more popular than they are today. I remember 3 guys on the Cinnamon Toast Crunch box.

I had a crush on the cowboy on the Sugar Pops box. I was loyal to him, and always chose his brand when my mom let me pick out cereal in the store.

I think in the commercial he also cracked a whip. Which was interesting.

Reunited ! !

Also, shows of watching people dance.

People still love to watch people dance, just look at TikTok.

But Soul Train, American Bandstand, etc.

As I kid of the 90’s I watched The Grind on MTV.

How could he possibly confuse this young, nubile body with that raisin in sneakers?

[quote]Outraged Frauzilla

I remember a time when your hurt and damaged to us used to be worthy of discussion, but you believe I'm an outraged cunt, rather bewilderd only by by hurt?

Right. Tell me please more and reply to my unnatured hints and habits.

R5 yes!! I even had a Spuds McKenzie t-shirt!

[quote] "I had a crush on the cowboy on the Sugar Pops box. I was loyal to him, and always chose his brand when my mom let me pick out cereal in the store."

Adorable, R42.

R40, Smurfs weren't American.

They were popular in America in the 1980s.

This guy:

The Snapple Lady

Care Bears aren't forgotten culture at all. In fact, they were brought back nearly twenty years ago and are on store shelves at this moment.

Tweety Bird on t-shirts everywhere.

Calvin decals (from Calvin and Hobbes) plastered on trucks across America showing him peeing. What the fuck was that about?

We had our own strange cultural, commercial oddities growing up in Hawaii. Jingles for things like Ajinomoto, eXchange Orangeade, Lippy Espinda who sold used cars, J Akuhead Pupule, Zippy's, Primo Beer, Captain Honolulu, Checkers and Pogo, Frank DeLima, Andy Bumatai, Rap Reiplinger. It continues too, with all new people and stuff. There is some very weird shit out there. It was like growing up in a strange world but I didn't realize until I moved away for a while. It's like no other place on earth. Yes, it would be categorized as American culture, but not like any culture people from other areas of the USA would understand.

[quote] "[R29] - yet your memory was your insult of a poorly dressed child, right?"

True! Who are you? Perry Mason?!

If you read the post, you'd know I didn't insult anyone. In fact, I didn't even speak on it until my parents asked me how my day had gone, later that evening over dinner.

[quote] "How did poorly dressed kids once hissed at make it out of your classroom?"

I wouldn't know. I didn't become a protégé of Mr. Blackwell until age ten, in Fourth Grade. I needed that extra Awards Season to take in Allan Carr's 1989 Oscars disaster. It was just as hideous offscreen as it was on.

You have no power here. Go stir shit somewhere else, before somebody drops the truth on you (again)!

Troll dolls. I loved those little freaks.

The muscle bike era.

R58 Me, too! Especially the ones with the gem stones in their tummy. 😂

The California Raisins are a textbook example of an advertising campaign that went mainstream, but did nothing fore the product it was supposed to promote.

R5 I read once that Spuds MacKenzie was played by a female dog, but that was kept under wraps because Budweiser thought that would ruin the character if people found out.

I'm serious.

R62, most dogs in films are female. They are more easily trained than males.

"Woke" evaluation of the raisins:

Maybe the California Raisins weren’t created from racist intentions, but systemic racism in the white-dominated advertising and entertainment industries certainly allowed them to flourish. There is something disconcerting about depicting Motown singers as raisins. It leaves a bad taste in our mouths.

Times are different now and we’re all taking a closer look at how we approach issues of race and cultural appropriation. A pitch like Werner’s probably wouldn’t get green-lit in today’s culture (at least, we hope it wouldn’t). By all means, make the raisins sing and dance, but compose an instrumental bop that doesn't bear the racial connotations Motown does. Also, don't model anthropomorphic food after racial stereotypes. Sorry, California Raisins, but we've concluded that you deserved to get canceled.

Twoallbeefpattiesspecialsaucelettucecheesepicklesonionsonasesameeseedbun!

We would have contests in grade school on who could say this the fastest.

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” was huge, with cartoons and live action characters interacting. Now it’s as forgotten as “Avatar”

Battle and James wine coolers, more specifically, the two old men who advertise them.

Grease was a cultural phenomenon for decades, but seems pretty forgotten now.

Austin Powers is another movie that was all over pop culture for a few years, then disappeared.

Dick Tracy starring Warren Beatty. The BIG movie of the summer of 1990 with tons of merchandise, now forgotten.

" Ishtar"

R64 That is an example of why the vast majority of people reject racial wokeness.

[quote] Battle and James wine coolers,

Cough syrup!

Even as a child, I recall wondering why no one thought the California Raisins were racist. They had a Motown sound, so were they wrinkly, old Black men?

BTW, for anyone attempting to argue with Native WV, I've surmised that he's never, ever wrong about anything. So good luck!

R74 No because everyone knows black don't crack. Therefore, they couldn't be old black men.

Hey, at least they didn't trot out the California Golden Raisins as a bunch of martial arts enthusiasts!

[quote] "No because everyone knows black don't crack. Therefore, they couldn't be old black men."

Which reminds me, R75...

A friend just saw "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" and couldn't believe how great Ernie Hudson looks in comparison to Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray. And he's older than BOTH of them. Now I want to see that movie.

Hmm, when I read this I expect it to be more along the lines of Chautauqua and Lady Audley's Secret. Are any of you aware of life before 1970?

Yes, R78. I miss taking a stroll whilst sporting my monocle, spats, and twirling my walking stick.

1970 was over half a century ago. Anyone who was an adult at that time is dead or on their way out.

Pepperidge Farms remembers……

OK, here's one for r78:

Abie's Irish Rose

("Our future babies we'll take to Abie's Irish Rose - I hope they'll live to see it close.")

Independent video stores. Although I still have my laminated Blockbuster membership card.

Pound pupies

R21, I knew two guys who started using “raisin” as code for black people.

" A Raisin in the Sun" ain't about white people.

This.

R86 excuse me, but if it’s not, how did Jerri Blank snag the lead role? Inquiring minds want to know!

Native WV blocked...sometimes I thought he was a sock puppet (and/or vice versa) of rescue chick. I blocked that bitch over quarantine when she went off the rails.

Who said Roger Rabbit movie is forgotten? It's still remembered by many and being discovered by younger generations. Jessica Rabbit, in particular, is popular with younger Millennials and Zoomers.

R90 is that so? Guess I’m an old fart who doesn’t watch cartoons

Liars! They never cared about teaching people to sing! They just wanted to sell sugar water and diabetes medications.

R88, Jerri identifies as black.

These guys.

There was a period of time when those minions from Despicable Me were everywhere.

Joey "Buttfucker" Buttafuoco

Since we seem to be stuck firmly in the last third of the 20th century, The Mike Curb Congregation.

Put on your Sunday best and come down to a public lynching! Don't forget to bring the kids.

Minstrel shows were all the rage during the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Salem gets all of the glory but Connecticut also had witch trials.

R97 An interesting thing about Mike Curb, he is a conservative Republican who served as the Lt. Gov. of California and has always been very anti-drugs, but he is also very supportive of gay rights. He worked with Harvey Milk to campaign against the Briggs Initiative and convinced Reagan to oppose it, which helped it to be defeated. He has remained a supporter of gay rights and has supported Nashville Pride for many years.

He was also very cute, as was many male members of the Congregation.

R101, I never found any of the men in The Mike Curb Congregation (The Congregation was a British group) attractive. I have always wondered about the baby gay with red hair. He was everything wrong with child performers.

Mike Curb's anti drug crusade is legendary. Nice to hear he is gay friendly.

R102 I just shortened it to Congregation because I was lazy, lol. I had never heard of the British band, which was credited as The English Congregation in the US, so as not to cause confusion with the Mike Curb Congregation. I can't find many pictures, but I watched the MCC on one of the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hours and there were a few I found attractive, including Mike Curb. On there they had this kind of the Osmonds meets hippies vibe, which I find appealing. Like they were hippies that still took baths.

Oh, my! The choreography is sensational. Fosse? Bennett?

So not to derail this thread with the MCC, I started a new one.

Hey racebaiter how bout all the cowboy hangings ????

[quote] Dick Tracy starring Warren Beatty. The BIG movie of the summer of 1990 with tons of merchandise, now forgotten.

Dick Tracy was a flop. It never happened like they wanted it to.

Dick Tracy was so fetch!

Roger Rabbit also was not a huge hit. They thought it would be more of a phenomenon but people didn’t like it, especially kids.

[quote]r107 Dick Tracy was a flop.

Yeah. Because I was fired.

Who’s that?

R5, Spuds is currently serving as a U.S. congressional representative from Georgia.

Glenne Headly @ r111

Why was Glenne fired?

Sean was fired. Glenne was her last minute replacement.

Saw this on reddit the other day and realized I had not seen these or thought about them in decades.

Just a nice way to pass the time waiting for a bus to pull up and take drifters and their lone suitcases to the next town with a boarding house.

[quote]But please continue hurling unwarranted insults while demonstrating your shocking level of ignorance where my home state is concerned

While you demonstrate yourself to be a horrid cunt lording over poor children you yourself deem unworthy?

We most certainly will!!!

[quote]Roger Rabbit also was not a huge hit. They thought it would be more of a phenomenon but people didn’t like it, especially kids.

What? Roger Rabbit was a HUGE hit! It was very well-received by both critics AND the public. In fact, it was the second highest-grossing film of 1988.

The lowest point in American Culture: Strawberry Shortcake. This was the moment when women became “frau” as Datalounge puts it.

I definitely had the Halloween costume in fourth grade (bought at Mervyn's--now defunct department store) and I remember my mom adding "extras" like glitter to the cheap looking thing. I went to religious school so no witches, ghosts or anything like that but the California Raisins were fine.

For about a year and a half, these fucking commercials were inescapable:

What part of the country are you in R121. I've never seen this commercial.

Avoid the Noid!

Scopitone. These were a sort of music video jukebox. I have memories of these from my childhood. I am fudging this a bit because Scopitones are really a European invention, but they were very popular in the USA (I believe the well known clip of Nancy Sinatra doing These boots Were Made for Walking was originally a Scopitone.) According to Wikipedia, Scopitone targeted adult establishments such as bars and nightclubs, but I remember them. I distinctly remember one at LAX.

Those sappy Hallmark card commercials make you all misty-eyed.

Cigarette commercials on tv