Those Crazy Ol' Commercials (Goodtimes, 1986). [Category: Commercial]

Despite its lame title and $2.99 bin packaging, this is a pretty good collection of interesting commercials. There are quite a few fun moments here and a couple of real jaw-droppers (listed below). It gets docked 5 points for including one commercial with inaudible audio (the Tony Randall Libby's Fruit Juices one––don't panic when you get to it, it's the only one affected).

Highlights:

• The ad for "Old Happiness" liquor is a parody, not a real commercial. But it's so well done and amusing, I'm not going to dock the tape any points for including it. It looks like it's from "The Twilight Zone" series––I wonder if any of the videos from that series bother to include it. If not, it's a great obscurity.
  
• "Put Royal Triton in Cynthia's little tummy," coos Marilyn Monroe, camping it up even more than Edie Adams.
  
• There's a really great example of early TV in the form of a commercial for the 1950 Ford Victoria. It's the slowest-paced commercial I've ever seen. Life must have been really slow paced back in the 50's for a commercial to be that slow.
  
• The real jaw-dropper is a public service announcement about highway safety featuring James Dean. Jimmy urges us not to drive too fast on the highways: "Take it easy on the highways, folks. The life you save may be mine." Unfortunately, it was not to be.
  

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: ****. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.