In this day of smartphones,
tablets, laptops, and extremely advance video game consoles children who get
sick and have to stay home from school are quite likely to have a lot of
outlets for entertainment during their recovery. Thirty years ago during the decade of the
1980’s it was a much different story.
Sure if you were lucky you might have had access to a Nintendo
Entertainment System, but I know that my time on it during sickness was
limited. My mother would make sure that
I pretty much stayed in bed if I was sick.
That ruled out the NES as there was only so far the controllers would
reach out.
What it left me was the
television. Granted by the mid-80’s many
households had cable which gave more choices in terms of what to watch. Still, the television broadcast during typical
school hours was severely lacking in anything of substance. It was during the 1980’s that a new sort of
program began to pop up. This would be
the paid advertisement program known as the infomercial. It was typically a half-hour long showcase of
some ‘must-have’ product which would revolutionize the world. Very rarely would that happen. In addition there were many new products
running in shorter advertisements that fell into the ‘as seen on TV’ variety
which is all too common today.
Thirty-plus years ago infomercials and television-exclusive products
were new and I guess exciting. So let’s
take a trip down memory lane with some of the greatest hits of 1980’s
infomercials and television-exclusive products.
One product that immediately
comes to mind when I think of my sick days in the 1980’s has to be the Life
Call. Who could forget the image of the
elderly Mrs. Fletcher lying on her side next to her tipped over walker
screaming into her Life Call “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!” By pressing the button on the alert necklace
police and rescue would be called and sent out to the person in need. This product came about in the late 1980’s
and a similar product still exists today under the name Life Alert.
Another classic which is still
around today is the Chia Pet. A ceramic
follower pot basically, shaped like anything from a sheep to a human head, in
which you could grow chia seeds which sprouted like hair/fur through the chosen
pot. Surely any child of the 1980’s, or
any since cannot think of a Chia Pet and not immediately think
“Ch-ch-ch-chia!” Though it was invented
in 1977 it hit its stride in the 80’s and as of 2007 it was reported that more
than 500,000 Chia Pets were sold annually, during the holidays alone.
In a bit of lightning striking twice the same company which
came up with the Chia Pet also came up with another 1980’s classic The
Clapper. “Clap On! Clap Off!” The product, which debuted in 1985, was a
sensor outlet that responded to your clapping, or other very loud stimulus
causing whatever was plugged in through the special outlet to switch on or off. It led to some hilariously 80’s commercials and
is still available today.
A trip down the infomercial memory lane wouldn’t be complete
without Ginsu Knives. Though the word
ginsu means nothing it was meant to sound Asian, as if related to the Japanese
samurai sword as far as sharpness went.
It debuted in the first half of the 20th century but became
well known through a series of ads which began in 1978. They were a success and Ginsu sold between
two and three million units by 1984. The
main selling point was how sharp the knives were and how they would never
dull. The ads would show the knives
cutting through various items like nails, tin cans, and a radiator hose. These are also still available today.
Some honorable mentions for a possible followup post include:
Thighmaster, Mr. Microphone, Saladmaster
Cookware, Smokeless Ashtray, Sweatin’ to the Oldies, etc.
Come on back for some more crazy but true stories from the
1980’s! Click here to check out my last blog when I first discovered Movies Are Not Real.
