December 27, 2024 • 43 mins
Morgan White Fills In On NightSide with Dan Rea:
Tony the Tiger is just one of the many mascots that have graced the covers of cereal boxes both past and present. Morgan had some fun with Topher Ellis, a cereal marketing consultant and author, chatting about all those great cereals we used to eat, or still do!
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
Tony the Tiger is just one of the many mascots that have graced the covers of cereal boxes both past and present. Morgan had some fun with Topher Ellis, a cereal marketing consultant and author, chatting about all those great cereals we used to eat, or still do!
Ask Alexa to play WBZ NewsRadio on #iHeartRadio and listen to NightSide with Dan Rea Weeknights From 8PM-12AM!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice side with Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We are the Freakki's. We are the Freaki's. This is
a freaky tree e.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
D.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Why am I humming that? Because that was my favorite
cereal and that was a jingle about my favorite cereal.
Periodically we talk about cereal here on WBZ, whether it's
The Morgan Show or Night Side, and it's always to
for Ellis tofa good evening, Happy holidays. Oh and I mean,
(00:40):
can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm hoping so I can you hear me now?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Loud and clear?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Excellent?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So let me start again. Of all the premiums that
came in Cereal boxes, two separate questions. What is the
most soughtmium everybody wants to own that the winning of
the Pool spoon sliders or the deed to Land from
(01:09):
Quaker Oats. And what items would bring the most at
a auction for Cereal items.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh, great question. My personal favorite. You've just named both
of them. The wing of the Pooh Spoon Sitters, of
which the whole collection of the different winning the Pool
characters would either slide onto your spoon and sit right
on your spoon, or they could also hang on the
side of your bowl. They came in nice colors and
they came into Bisco packages of cereal. Absolutely love those
(01:43):
a lot of fun. My other favorite one is the
Yukon Land Rush, Quaker Roats, Klondike Big inch Land Deeds.
Those are really beautiful little certificates that you could still
find as well on any day that has a really
nice story behind it relative to the ones that make
(02:04):
the most. That really gets down to how good a
condition any particular premium is, how where that premium is
and how badly somebody wants that premium from. You know,
an any given day, one could go for a lot
more than anyone else. That gets as worth, But it's
worth something to somebody who remembered it, wanted it, and
(02:26):
just has to.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Have it right. I still have my Boss Moss T
shirt and my snow Holdorf T shirt from the Freakis. Naturally,
when those cereals are popular and I ordered them, I
was a different size then. I couldn't put them on
now if my life depended on it. But I remember.
(02:52):
I even remember the jingle for the Spoonsitters. We need
the pool we NEI the pool Cuddliobar has a prize
for you, A prize for you to do. Do it's
your own. We need the pooh there.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
How's that outstanding?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Thank you? How many people could do that? Lo these
forty to fifty years.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Later, I'd say, you're in the minority.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Story of my life. I am going to ask I'm
going to ask people to call in if you have
memories of a certain cereal. You want to know the backstory.
You want to know what happened to the fourth elf
in rice krispies. Yes there was a fourth one. Anything
(03:44):
you might want to know about a cereal, hot cereal,
cold cereal, anything in between six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
ten thirty. And I want to talk about the cereals
that were real ercles. Julia White as Erkele was on
(04:10):
a cereal box, Mister t was on a cereal box.
Did those cereals do well when they first came out?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, they were. They didn't do well enough to hang
around for very many years, but they were wildly popular
for nostalgic reasons much later, And of course they show
up occasionally in movies and things like that.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How about C three POS, the Star Wars serial.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
That came and went it was it was promotional for
one of the movies. As you know, a lot of
the serials have these movie tie ins will come out
at the same time as the movie, and it's a
one shot deal typically, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And I'm trying to think of the unusual serials that
offered something more than the cereal in the box, and
I know alphabets and a few of the post serials
offered the Monkeys, the Jackson five, and if I'm not mistaken,
(05:18):
the Osmans record on the back of the box. Oh
you're really right, a real record.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yes, these were thirty three and a third speed records,
a little but not sebut the size of a forty five.
But there were three and a third. To understand, Bobby
Sherman had three different records. The Archies I think had
three different records, Sandwich Jackson five, and the Monkeys. I
think Gary Lewis and the Playboys also had a record.
(05:48):
Those are the ones I'm I'm sure of, and I'll
bet there's others as well.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Are they with any money? If you kept them without
being scratched up, maybe left them alone on the box,
not cut them off.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes, if the box is intact, it's certainly worth a
lot more than if you clipped it off the box
and actually listen to it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Unfortunately, mine a gone went away the Dodo bird because
I did save some of those. But oh well, and
give me a second. I lost my train of thought
talking about Cereal boxes. Some of them had a mask
(06:43):
that if you wanted to look like Frankenberry you could
cut the mask off the back of the box and
where it did Halloween with the appropriate costume, a sheet
or whatever. Speak to those.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Oh okay, There any number of boxes that offer different
things you had. I mean, if you go back even further,
like a Lone Ranger or a Tato mask, did you
clip off the side of the box. Simptically, there'd be
like little characters that you could clip off the box.
There would be you could cut houses and whatnot out
(07:21):
of the back of the box. Lots of of course,
games and other things like that you can do with them.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Now, how often are there conventions around the country that
you can attend and meet other collectors in trade seeal
boxes and the premiums that are in them. How often
does that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I don't see very many of that type of convention
just for Cereal. I have seen conventions which are like
pop conventions or nostalgic type conventions where you'll see a
little bit of this tucked in different areas that the
cons the I don't know what that would be like
(08:15):
an example of where you'd see some of this there.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
All right, and tell me about the last one of
those you attended.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh, okay, I was in one in Chicago. That was
a lot of fun. We had our Great American Cereal
book out at the time, so we were promoting that,
and as different characters came by. Let's say someone was
dressed as Spider Man, I would flip to a page
that had a Spider Man cereal and he'd hold up
the book and take a picture of them. So we
(08:47):
had any number of comic con characters come by that
were on cereal boxes, so we took advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Okay, let me take my break. I have a call
already in hall. John Redding will be our first call.
Anyone else out there, you want to talk about breakfast cereal,
your favorite anything unique you might remember about the particular
cereal you and your family loved. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
(09:15):
thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty For
the final hour of Nightside, I try to pick something
light that is fun to discuss. Last hour we talked
about scams and whatnot. This time, this hour until midnight,
we're talking about your favorite breakfast Cereal. Put it in
(09:38):
the bowl, Sprinkle on sugar, pour on the milk, and
dive in time and temperature here on Nightside eleven, fifteen
thirty five degrees.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Now back to Dan Way Mike from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Beyond behind a great thank you. This is the boss
we call them make curious, spell.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
It right, snuggled what they call them so handsome and
think he's doing a weird No, I really have to see.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
My name is Gumbo.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
You're standing on.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
My foot his mom.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
This is my game.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
I know more than you do it, so don't I'm
pretty goody ie O you what's right? Prince?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I freaky serials because.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Youpe Joe Canna have crunky freaky siel is part of
your good breakfast.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Then there's a free freaky especially Mark Foxes. Okay, Bob,
thank you very much. That was a trip down memory
lane for me. John and Redding, You're next here on
(11:07):
night side. Good evening to you, John.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Hey, Moryan, how you doing all right?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Happy holiday?
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Happy holiday? Hey. I think it's just interesting to go
over the cereal for the next hour. I think that's
an interesting topic.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Well, that's what we're going to do up until midnight.
What was your favorite cereal?
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Honestly, I like pops, you know, regular pops. That's my
favorite cereal. My sister here likes.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Grape grain, grape grain, great brain.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I've heard a grape nuts.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Grape nuts. I've never heard a great brain.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, I've heard a great mess.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
He likes all sorts of good food, but just be
very picky eata, you know, grape brain. But I was wondering,
is it you guys know a lot about there's so
many foreign cereals, do or any of US cereals.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Far to my question, Let's talk about going both ways,
foreign cereals that we got here and our cereals that
do well in foreign countries.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
That's that's an interesting interesting thing.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Okay, First, I think he might be referring to great
grains g R E A T. Great that's from posts.
They have a number of great grain cereals out that
are out based with different mixims into them relative relative international. Yeah,
(12:40):
a lot of our cereals do show up overseas. Uh,
but they might, but but they won't be called like
sugar pops, will be called like meal pops. In the
I L. I know that General Mills and Nestley had
a co marketing deal, so a lot of Nestley stuff
would show up here under the g A banner and
(13:01):
the gym series which you're up under the Nesley banner.
Frosted flakes are huge in a number of countries, but
they go under slightly different names.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Do they still have Tony the Tiger run them?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yes, in many cases they do, but there are some
other critters that also appear depending on the country.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Okay, and.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
About toys. The other question of toys, is there any
rules against toys in the cereals? Is that a regulated thing?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Good question.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
The toys you'll see occasionally. I think the last great
that we saw there was maybe like a hot Wheels
toy inside a box of Hot Wheels cereal, But it's
been a while. Most of the time they now like
to do like a mail in that way, they don't
have to worry about someone accidentally swallowing it or you
know those type of lawsuits, right, and you will see
(14:08):
characters occasionally little plastic characters inside of plastic package inside
the box, but typically not in the cereal itself. It
will be just between the box pop and the packaging itself.
Again to try to prevent the enough swallowing things, I guess,
and to for.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I'm going to set you up to answer for John.
His first cereal mentioned was sugar Pops. Tell the story
of that, why the name change roughly around nineteen seventy
to seventy two, and who was on the box back
in the sixties.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh okay, well, sugar Pops. Pete was one of the
main characters for the Sugar Pops back in the day, right,
primarily the reason to get the you know, the sugar.
Of course, back in the sixties there was a congressional
hearings and things like that into the health of cereals.
(15:07):
Sugar started working its way out. I mean, if you
really want to take them back a little bit further,
sugar sugar wasn't originally in cereals back in the twenties,
thirties and then, but they noticed that people were taking
spoonfuls of sugar and adding them to their cereal to
make them more palatable. So someone came out with honey
(15:27):
Joe's I don't know the name quite.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, but.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So they came out with a sugar cereal and it
was wildly popular for about thirty years, and then it
just swung up as a direction, Hey, you can't. We
don't want sugar in the cereal, get it out of there.
So the sixties seventies they started working it out or
change it, so it went from super sugar to sugar
to just playing honey or some other words like that,
(15:53):
and then just become specs. For example, used to be
super sugar crisp. Now it's just what is it name anyway,
it's just they took trigger out of it, not just
out of the cereal.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That's out of the name, and they went to honey smacks.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Honey Smacks, here you go. And it doesn't mean that
there's a lot less sure, and it just it's just
less advertised because it's not what people want anymore. They
did want it, ali don't necessarily want well. Bottom line
is they want it, but they don't want to know
they want it.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
John, thank you for the call. Happy New Year, today,
willyambe all right? Anyone else wants to call in and
talk cereals six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
ten thirty. I still have a huge smile on my
face because Rob found the original commercial for Freakys by
(16:49):
Ralston Purina, and I teased about this information. But so
that's why I have you here. I'll let you tell
the story of the fourth elf in Rice Chrispies.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Oh okay, Well, as most folks are where, you've got Snap,
Crackle and Pop. They came out in the early thirties,
and then of course Snap was the first one. He
was the youngest. He's the oldest. Brother were born in
nineteen thirty three. Pop was born in forty one, as
it was Crackle, But somewhere around the mid nineteen fifties
(17:30):
there was a fourth brother named Powell, who was supposed
to represent the power of the cereal. He was kind
of more of a sort of looked like an alien
because he was He actually had a military like an
army military hard hat on, but he flew around on
(17:51):
a stand up flying saucer type of thing. This was
in the concept Dart. He did not last long and
that was really about it. But yeah, there he was
chroco pop and pow, and they let.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Him go away as fast as they introduced him.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Okay, I've got another question. Tricks raspberry, red, lemon, yellow, orange, orange.
Tricks originally was the standard General Mills circle cereal. It
was like cocoa puffs where chocolate Tricks was colorful. Kicks
(18:35):
had no color, but they had that same round ball
look and then they started to do the shapes of
fruit like a purple was great. Talk about that transformation
and why they went back to the original look.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Oh okay, Well, Tricks was originally launched in fifty four
as a fruit flavored cereal. It was the first fruit
flavored cereal on the market. Of course, they were, as
you mentioned, a lot of different types of corn puff
cereals that had come out before that, and you know,
Jets was also one of the very popular ones. The
(19:17):
Tricks of her Kids slogan was incredibly popular, and oh
it worked really well, silly Rabbit. About nineteen ninety one
to two thousand and six ish, they started puffing fruit
shaped pieces to replace that round ball cereal piece, which
(19:39):
included like raspberry, red, raspberry clusters, lemon yellow wedges, purple
greek clusters, orange balls, basically the you know it was.
I thought it was a great innovation, and so when
they can innovate like that, they try it, and so
they did, and I thought it looked great on the box,
it looked great in the cereal box. I'm not exactly
sure why they pulled them, but it was about two
(20:03):
thousand and six, excuse me, about twenty eighteen when the
fruit scheet pieces. I'm sorry, So the Tricks balls reappeared
in two thousand and six, and yeah, for about twelve years,
then about twenty eighteen the fruit came back. I think
we're seeing off and on either the fruit or the
(20:24):
balls in any given cereal box from Tricks, you know,
in the grocer's ale.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And I'm gonna go with that fruit flavor because I
remember the mid sixties when they came up with oot
frey oop lay the convoluted language to say fruit loops
because it was supposed to be a secret. Nobody supposed
to know that there was this cereal, and that cereal
(20:55):
has been depending on their commercials for five decades and
it's still very popular, I'm assuming because it pretty much
has had the same shape, style and look.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, fru loops has been one of the key staples
from Kellogg's. Certainly the big, the big round pieces of
cereal on the different food flavors with two kin same
on the box right, very popular.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And when they came up with two kin Sam, he
had nephews. As in all the cartoon characters in Cereal
sixties and seventies, a younger character would be a pest
and annoying to an older character, Sonny and Gramps with
(21:52):
cocoa puffs as an example. And how come they stopped
with two can Sam's nephews?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I was opposed to, Well, each there's lots of reasons
for any given uh line. You've got two kN Sam
and he only had the nephews. You've got those other
foils all the times as a villain with several serials,
they're just they're trying to create an image and easy
(22:28):
to remember tag for any given any given cereal, and
so you don't want too many of the same thing.
You want to can Sam also having the gramps, it
starts getting for folks.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
And I'm thinking of Captain Crunch with the Pirate Jehan
the Foot, which was art imitating life because there was
a pirate that pretty much almost had that name. Tell
you what Joline and Beverly. Beverly will get to you.
After the break, I've got to take a news hit
(23:04):
my guest Toefer Ellis and we'll talk more about his
book about cereal. Trust me, you'll love this book. It'll
take you back in time, and we'll talk more about
that after these messages. Here on night Side, heard only
on WBZ eleven thirty thirty five degrees.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b
Z Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Well, they the name of Powl.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Powell Beaves power and powers Nice Ri Stress face Power,
Hello Ray Rice. Yes, Kellogg's famous Fresh guys Snap, Crackle
and Pop want you to know their silent partner, Paul
Pow doesn't say much. He just does things like putting
power on everybody, lightweight, spoonful of Kellogg's rice crispies.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Oh that's all there was, darn it. I wanted more
tof Did you hear that commercial?
Speaker 6 (24:06):
That was impressive.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Rob finds things that I don't. It amazes me how
he locates these things on the system. And we were
talking about power before the break and puff no excuse me, Powe,
Rob comes up with a commercial. All right, let's go
to the phone. Joline and Beverly. You held about him
(24:29):
and that's too long.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
I'm the one who called in last time we were
talking about cereals. I have a large cereal box collection.
In fact, I have an aracle cereal box.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Berks what I have, And.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
I was just calling in to say, I think that
this cereal is from England called wait a bit.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh we to bix?
Speaker 7 (25:02):
I think.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yes it is. And if I'm not mistaken, the Patriots
used to have a field goal kicker named John Smith
and he did we to bix commercials oh here in
the United States?
Speaker 7 (25:19):
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And I'm wondering if you have an autographed serial boxer.
For an example, Doug Flutie had flute flakes, and I
know for a fact that he autographed some boxes at conventions,
and those boxes with a real Doug Flutie autograph have
(25:48):
a value. Telford, do you want to speak to that.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
I have.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I would think that that would be a very popular idol.
And yeah, I would certainly consider that a valuable cereal box.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And do you remember weed to Bix an association with
John Smith.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
John Smith, No, he was a field goal kicker.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
For the Patriots in the seventies. He had about three
or four years.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Okay, I can tell you more about Weeda Bex than
I could about John Smith.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Though, tell me about tell me about we debates.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Weeda Bex was produced in the United Kingdom since about
the early nineteen thirties. It's the British version of the
original Australian wheat bix w E t dash bix. They
were both invented by an Australian named Benison and Osborne
for what it's worth. But anyway, so while everyone knows
(26:58):
that it is weed x wed the bits from UK,
it's really an original Australian.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Cereal, all right, Juline, anything else?
Speaker 7 (27:09):
I just wanted to say that I think I heard
this cereal from a guy who was on an afternoon
show years ago that was co hosted by Robin Young
from NPR now she works at. And he mentioned piltered
(27:33):
which was a kind of tuna fish that was inexpensive,
and he also mentioned that he ate wee to bits
where I heard about it on the show from like
the seventies on late afternoon. I think it came on. No,
it wasn't after dark Shadows. That was in the sixties. Anyway.
(27:55):
I used to play games with all the cereal boxes
that I had, from Christy Critters to oh Gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
All the Rispy Critters the one and only cereal that
comes in the shape of animals.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That was their jingle.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
And way back when film costs a lot of money.
With my little Kodak camera and it would cost three
or four dollars to have twelve prints made, I took
twelve pictures of cereal boxes and we used to play
card games with twelve.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
That was creative.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
And then candy Land we had going all through the
house on rainy days with different boxes that would represent
the figures that candy Land had and it was played
like that and if you landed on another one, you'd
have to go backwards and anyway the rooms. Yeah, that
(28:59):
was a lot of Well, thank you very much for
this very interesting trill.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Joline, thank you for participating with the show. Unhappy Happy
New Year to you.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Bye bye. Let's go to Kingston, mass and speak to
Tom or it could be Kingston, Jamaica, could be Kingston,
New York.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
I'm assuming mass Massachusetts. All right, Tom, listen, you said
Krispy Kringles. It's the only going on animals.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Crispy Critters c R I T T e r s
not not Kringles, Crispy Critters Critters.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
We used to run around the kitchen table, six of
us kids, and my mother used to go crazy. He
was to sing that song. But the other one was
rice Crinkles, one of my best cereals I had.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Both of those cereals were from Post and I'll lect
toe for speak to Crispy Critters, and it became a
controversial cereal with their characters So High on rice Crinkles tofa.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Okay, we'll start with the rice crinkles and you're writ
his post chuber coated rice crinkles. Oh yeah, it was
basically sugar frosted rice rice Krispies essentially. And if you
look at the box, it's a really cute little Chinese
boy or Japanese boy named so High.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
And so you know, basically that looks like a dish
upside down.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
You're actually, well, I think he had that was a
bowl of cereal. I think you might have had in
his head.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
It was. Here's the other one is that I enjoy
It was my mother brought Kellogg's cornflakes. And in the
back of that you're talking about records, we have the
Gary Lewis and the Playboys singing this diamond ring and
then also on there was doing the flake. Okay, cut
that out. We used to play that the Siria, I
(31:15):
loved this an adult that's been gone now for a
thousand years, about nine hundred years now. It was buckwheats.
Buckwheats was like wheaties, but it was colder with something
oh what it was, but it was nice, a nice flavor,
almost like a maple flavor.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, if you will allow me, I'll give you some
background information on Crispy Critters. Okay, they post produced a
cartoon show called Linus the Lion Hearted and they yeah, yes,
(31:57):
roar for Linus the Lion Lines is the one. I'm out,
I don't stop singing. I'm sorry, but the key, the
key is. They had four of their cereals box representaurs
like sugar Bear was a little bear who got into
(32:24):
adventures in the woods. Alphabets had a postman Lovable Bee truly,
and the dog Lawrence h am I leaving off of.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
So high.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Was and I can't remember if he was Chinese or Japanese,
and that's it's disrespectful to say Asian. But that was
a cereal that got the company in trouble because they
felt it was racist with the image that they showed.
(33:03):
And there's another one that I can't think of right now.
Oh and Linus the Lionhearted because he promoted Crispy Critters
and they were a Saturday morning show. They all were
like five minutes in length cartoon because most cartoons, like
(33:26):
let's say Warner Brothers, their cartoons were six to seven
minutes in length, but they had a shorter length to
the post Crispy Critters show Linus Lionhearted for a main reason.
They promoted the commercials for these cereals during the spots
(33:47):
that they would show. And they had they had another
cereal called Pink Elephants, and they had pink elephants that
were in your cereal box. So there you go with
your Crispy Critter's history.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Well here's the other one. I don't know what cereal was,
but you talk about masks. They had one the Huckleberry
Hound that I got to wear around the house.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Right.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
I don't know what cereal that.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Was, though I do, and I'm sure Tofer knows tofer.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Go ahead, you got me on that one.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Kellogg's All Stars was Huckleberry Hound cereal. Yokie Bear was
on Okay's right, and I'm trying to think quick drummergraws
on a cereal. I just can't place it right now,
bear with me, yes to for thank you? So Tom,
(34:47):
are you happy?
Speaker 6 (34:48):
What cereal is that?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Corn pops or sugar pops? I think he preceded sugar
pop Pete.
Speaker 6 (34:59):
Bring him back a lot of good memories.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Oh that's why we're here, Tom.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
Yes, you guys have a good New Year's coming up.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
You have a great New Years as well, and we'll
speak to you later. Anybody else who wants to join
TOFA and I. You'll have about ten minutes of show
because we end at midnight, and maybe one of you
out there is a millionaire by now. Maybe it's me.
Time and temperature here on Nightside eleven forty seven thirty
(35:32):
five degrees Now back to.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios on
WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I have only about seven more minutes with my guest
tofer is here to for Ellis and to for bring
people back to the days of Cisp and Quake. Let
people know who they were and how that rivalry just
took off in the mid sixties.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Well, that was certainly one of the big rivalries and
it was part of the Jay Ward Animation studios. J
Ward was also responsible for the entire lineup of Captain Crunch,
among others. Quisp, basically in mid sixties is probably one
(36:25):
of the most popular animated characters of all time for
folks that don't remember him. He was a kind of
a pink skin propeller driven alien who wore a green jumpsuit.
His eyes are permanently crossed and crisp and Quake, who
originally was a minor, very strong minor, worked in the mines,
(36:46):
had a miner's hat on. They would fight over whose
cereal was better and who could save the day. In
a series of commercials vitamin powered sugary cerial. Quisp for
quasi energy was voiced by DAWs Butler very good. The
original Quake what provided again nineteen mid sixties provided earthquake
(37:10):
power to those who ate it. He has fired a
big que on his big muscular chest, and then at
some point it switched over to kind of an Aussie
cowboy quake that was about late late sixties, and he
was voiced by William Conrad, who folks though as from
(37:35):
the rock to the narrator of the Rocky and Bullwinkles Show,
Gun Smoke the Radio Show and things like that. Anyway,
they had these great little commercials where they would fight
over the ability to whose serial is better and who
could say the day and eventually basically quist one. But
(37:56):
they were a lot of fun to watch those commercials.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
I loved them. And when you think of Jay Ward,
he as you mentioned, he did all of the Captain
Crunch commercials, and Captain Crunch originally had a crew and
then they kind of faced out the crew and just
(38:21):
kept Sea Dog as his crew, and eventually they got
rid of Sea Dog and it was one upsmanship with
Jean Lafoote. Now this goes over ten, fifteen, twenty years
of Captain Crunch, and they had the spin offs of
(38:44):
Captain Crunch where they had Peanut Butter Crunch with was
Medley the Elephant, and they also had Vanilla Crunch where
they had a white whale as the the Box trademark,
and they did a lot with Captain Crunch, and when
(39:06):
I called Toffer the other day, I mentioned this. Originally
they only had seasonal appearances of Captain Crunch with Crunchberries,
but it became so popular it too joined the year
round production. Do you want to tell any more about
(39:27):
Captain Crunch with Crunchberries?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Absolutely well, as you know, the original crunchberries came out
in the mid the late sixties where they had the
crunchberry beast that they found on Crunchberry Island, and the
Crunchberry Island, of course was found in the seed of milk,
but the crunchberries tasted like strawberries, and that was a
very popular cereal. Come about nineteen eighty seven, Captain Crunch
(39:56):
came out with a holiday Christmas crunch. It contained red
and green round crunchberries within the Captain Crunch cereal. It
also came with a Christmas ornament. You had one of
I don't know, three or four different ones each year,
and each year they actually put the year on the
Christmas ornament, so you could collect them every single year
(40:18):
and put them on your tree. About nineteen ninety three,
so about six years later they started bringing out different
crunchberry shapes like trees, reindeer, stars, stockings, trains, Santa still
then winter hats, that type of thing. And each year,
(40:38):
I mean one year they had an ugly sweater as
kind of the box background. Every year they ye know,
they do something a little bit clever to grab your attention,
and that's basically your crunchberries within the Christmas crunch.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And now they had like all the other and that's
Quake Road Cereals. They are available year round and to
for before I let you go, what was your favorite
cereal as a kid?
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Quisp?
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I too had a number of months where I like Quisp.
I never tried Quake, so I couldn't be a fair
judge because I only ate quisp and I like the
way it tasted, and I like the way it fit
on my spoon. And that's all I needed to be happy, which.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Was nice because they quite along with like the Captain
chrisch cereals kind of tore up your mouth.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Oh you were a little I'm glad I never tried it.
To Ford, thank you for being a part of my show.
I love having you on because you bring back such
pleasant memories, as you heard from some of the callers earlier,
and I hope you have a very healthy, happy, be
pleasant twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Sincerely appreciate it, love to be on the show. Thank you, Sam,
to you, thank you to for take care.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Bye bye. All right, a couple of things. I'm on
tomorrow The Morgan Show, Andrew Fielding will be my guest.
I'll be back Monday and Tuesday. I'm just going to
give you the Monday lineup. I have Jerry Beck looked
upon as being one of the more knowledgeable people about animation,
(42:34):
going back to Disney and Warner Brothers, Hannah Barbera and
Cleio Campbell. He and I are going to kind of
extend from Bradley Jay's subject of well known Boston based
musical performers from rock, from R and B, from pop culture,
(42:59):
and to David Nathan to talk to you about diabetes.
How this time of year, all the food you eat
necessarily isn't doing you a positive thought? And Barbara Feldon,
aged ninety nine, will be here Monday night. So that's it. Rob,
(43:19):
Thank you, excellent jar producing. I want to thank all
my guests, carm Bussemi, Bradley, j Lieutenant Bruce Apothecar again
just now with Tufa and Nancy and Gray. You two
by Boston
It's nice side with Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
We are the Freakki's. We are the Freaki's. This is
a freaky tree e.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
D.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Why am I humming that? Because that was my favorite
cereal and that was a jingle about my favorite cereal.
Periodically we talk about cereal here on WBZ, whether it's
The Morgan Show or Night Side, and it's always to
for Ellis tofa good evening, Happy holidays. Oh and I mean,
(00:40):
can you hear me?
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I'm hoping so I can you hear me now?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Loud and clear?
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Excellent?
Speaker 2 (00:46):
So let me start again. Of all the premiums that
came in Cereal boxes, two separate questions. What is the
most soughtmium everybody wants to own that the winning of
the Pool spoon sliders or the deed to Land from
(01:09):
Quaker Oats. And what items would bring the most at
a auction for Cereal items.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Oh, great question. My personal favorite. You've just named both
of them. The wing of the Pooh Spoon Sitters, of
which the whole collection of the different winning the Pool
characters would either slide onto your spoon and sit right
on your spoon, or they could also hang on the
side of your bowl. They came in nice colors and
they came into Bisco packages of cereal. Absolutely love those
(01:43):
a lot of fun. My other favorite one is the
Yukon Land Rush, Quaker Roats, Klondike Big inch Land Deeds.
Those are really beautiful little certificates that you could still
find as well on any day that has a really
nice story behind it relative to the ones that make
(02:04):
the most. That really gets down to how good a
condition any particular premium is, how where that premium is
and how badly somebody wants that premium from. You know,
an any given day, one could go for a lot
more than anyone else. That gets as worth, But it's
worth something to somebody who remembered it, wanted it, and
(02:26):
just has to.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Have it right. I still have my Boss Moss T
shirt and my snow Holdorf T shirt from the Freakis. Naturally,
when those cereals are popular and I ordered them, I
was a different size then. I couldn't put them on
now if my life depended on it. But I remember.
(02:52):
I even remember the jingle for the Spoonsitters. We need
the pool we NEI the pool Cuddliobar has a prize
for you, A prize for you to do. Do it's
your own. We need the pooh there.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
How's that outstanding?
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Thank you? How many people could do that? Lo these
forty to fifty years.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Later, I'd say, you're in the minority.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Story of my life. I am going to ask I'm
going to ask people to call in if you have
memories of a certain cereal. You want to know the backstory.
You want to know what happened to the fourth elf
in rice krispies. Yes there was a fourth one. Anything
(03:44):
you might want to know about a cereal, hot cereal,
cold cereal, anything in between six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty or eight eight, eight, nine to nine,
ten thirty. And I want to talk about the cereals
that were real ercles. Julia White as Erkele was on
(04:10):
a cereal box, Mister t was on a cereal box.
Did those cereals do well when they first came out?
Speaker 3 (04:21):
Well, they were. They didn't do well enough to hang
around for very many years, but they were wildly popular
for nostalgic reasons much later, And of course they show
up occasionally in movies and things like that.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
How about C three POS, the Star Wars serial.
Speaker 3 (04:41):
That came and went it was it was promotional for
one of the movies. As you know, a lot of
the serials have these movie tie ins will come out
at the same time as the movie, and it's a
one shot deal typically, okay.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
And I'm trying to think of the unusual serials that
offered something more than the cereal in the box, and
I know alphabets and a few of the post serials
offered the Monkeys, the Jackson five, and if I'm not mistaken,
(05:18):
the Osmans record on the back of the box. Oh
you're really right, a real record.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
Yes, these were thirty three and a third speed records,
a little but not sebut the size of a forty five.
But there were three and a third. To understand, Bobby
Sherman had three different records. The Archies I think had
three different records, Sandwich Jackson five, and the Monkeys. I
think Gary Lewis and the Playboys also had a record.
(05:48):
Those are the ones I'm I'm sure of, and I'll
bet there's others as well.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Are they with any money? If you kept them without
being scratched up, maybe left them alone on the box,
not cut them off.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yes, if the box is intact, it's certainly worth a
lot more than if you clipped it off the box
and actually listen to it.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Unfortunately, mine a gone went away the Dodo bird because
I did save some of those. But oh well, and
give me a second. I lost my train of thought
talking about Cereal boxes. Some of them had a mask
(06:43):
that if you wanted to look like Frankenberry you could
cut the mask off the back of the box and
where it did Halloween with the appropriate costume, a sheet
or whatever. Speak to those.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Oh okay, There any number of boxes that offer different
things you had. I mean, if you go back even further,
like a Lone Ranger or a Tato mask, did you
clip off the side of the box. Simptically, there'd be
like little characters that you could clip off the box.
There would be you could cut houses and whatnot out
(07:21):
of the back of the box. Lots of of course,
games and other things like that you can do with them.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
Now, how often are there conventions around the country that
you can attend and meet other collectors in trade seeal
boxes and the premiums that are in them. How often
does that happen?
Speaker 3 (07:48):
I don't see very many of that type of convention
just for Cereal. I have seen conventions which are like
pop conventions or nostalgic type conventions where you'll see a
little bit of this tucked in different areas that the
cons the I don't know what that would be like
(08:15):
an example of where you'd see some of this there.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
All right, and tell me about the last one of
those you attended.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
Oh, okay, I was in one in Chicago. That was
a lot of fun. We had our Great American Cereal
book out at the time, so we were promoting that,
and as different characters came by. Let's say someone was
dressed as Spider Man, I would flip to a page
that had a Spider Man cereal and he'd hold up
the book and take a picture of them. So we
(08:47):
had any number of comic con characters come by that
were on cereal boxes, so we took advantage of it.
Speaker 2 (08:54):
Okay, let me take my break. I have a call
already in hall. John Redding will be our first call.
Anyone else out there, you want to talk about breakfast cereal,
your favorite anything unique you might remember about the particular
cereal you and your family loved. Six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
(09:15):
thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine, ten thirty For
the final hour of Nightside, I try to pick something
light that is fun to discuss. Last hour we talked
about scams and whatnot. This time, this hour until midnight,
we're talking about your favorite breakfast Cereal. Put it in
(09:38):
the bowl, Sprinkle on sugar, pour on the milk, and
dive in time and temperature here on Nightside eleven, fifteen
thirty five degrees.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Now back to Dan Way Mike from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Beyond behind a great thank you. This is the boss
we call them make curious, spell.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
It right, snuggled what they call them so handsome and
think he's doing a weird No, I really have to see.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
My name is Gumbo.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
You're standing on.
Speaker 5 (10:27):
My foot his mom.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
This is my game.
Speaker 6 (10:30):
I know more than you do it, so don't I'm
pretty goody ie O you what's right? Prince?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
I freaky serials because.
Speaker 5 (10:38):
It's not.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Youpe Joe Canna have crunky freaky siel is part of
your good breakfast.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Then there's a free freaky especially Mark Foxes. Okay, Bob,
thank you very much. That was a trip down memory
lane for me. John and Redding, You're next here on
(11:07):
night side. Good evening to you, John.
Speaker 5 (11:10):
Hey, Moryan, how you doing all right?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Happy holiday?
Speaker 5 (11:14):
Happy holiday? Hey. I think it's just interesting to go
over the cereal for the next hour. I think that's
an interesting topic.
Speaker 2 (11:21):
Well, that's what we're going to do up until midnight.
What was your favorite cereal?
Speaker 5 (11:27):
Honestly, I like pops, you know, regular pops. That's my
favorite cereal. My sister here likes.
Speaker 2 (11:34):
Grape grain, grape grain, great brain.
Speaker 5 (11:39):
I've never heard of it.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
I've heard a grape nuts.
Speaker 5 (11:43):
Grape nuts. I've never heard a great brain.
Speaker 2 (11:45):
Yeah, I've heard a great mess.
Speaker 5 (11:47):
He likes all sorts of good food, but just be
very picky eata, you know, grape brain. But I was wondering,
is it you guys know a lot about there's so
many foreign cereals, do or any of US cereals.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Far to my question, Let's talk about going both ways,
foreign cereals that we got here and our cereals that
do well in foreign countries.
Speaker 5 (12:14):
That's that's an interesting interesting thing.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
Okay, First, I think he might be referring to great
grains g R E A T. Great that's from posts.
They have a number of great grain cereals out that
are out based with different mixims into them relative relative international. Yeah,
(12:40):
a lot of our cereals do show up overseas. Uh,
but they might, but but they won't be called like
sugar pops, will be called like meal pops. In the
I L. I know that General Mills and Nestley had
a co marketing deal, so a lot of Nestley stuff
would show up here under the g A banner and
(13:01):
the gym series which you're up under the Nesley banner.
Frosted flakes are huge in a number of countries, but
they go under slightly different names.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
Do they still have Tony the Tiger run them?
Speaker 3 (13:17):
Yes, in many cases they do, but there are some
other critters that also appear depending on the country.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
Okay, and.
Speaker 5 (13:30):
About toys. The other question of toys, is there any
rules against toys in the cereals? Is that a regulated thing?
Speaker 2 (13:41):
Good question.
Speaker 3 (13:44):
The toys you'll see occasionally. I think the last great
that we saw there was maybe like a hot Wheels
toy inside a box of Hot Wheels cereal, But it's
been a while. Most of the time they now like
to do like a mail in that way, they don't
have to worry about someone accidentally swallowing it or you
know those type of lawsuits, right, and you will see
(14:08):
characters occasionally little plastic characters inside of plastic package inside
the box, but typically not in the cereal itself. It
will be just between the box pop and the packaging itself.
Again to try to prevent the enough swallowing things, I guess,
and to for.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
I'm going to set you up to answer for John.
His first cereal mentioned was sugar Pops. Tell the story
of that, why the name change roughly around nineteen seventy
to seventy two, and who was on the box back
in the sixties.
Speaker 3 (14:46):
Oh okay, well, sugar Pops. Pete was one of the
main characters for the Sugar Pops back in the day, right,
primarily the reason to get the you know, the sugar.
Of course, back in the sixties there was a congressional
hearings and things like that into the health of cereals.
(15:07):
Sugar started working its way out. I mean, if you
really want to take them back a little bit further,
sugar sugar wasn't originally in cereals back in the twenties,
thirties and then, but they noticed that people were taking
spoonfuls of sugar and adding them to their cereal to
make them more palatable. So someone came out with honey
(15:27):
Joe's I don't know the name quite.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Right, but.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
So they came out with a sugar cereal and it
was wildly popular for about thirty years, and then it
just swung up as a direction, Hey, you can't. We
don't want sugar in the cereal, get it out of there.
So the sixties seventies they started working it out or
change it, so it went from super sugar to sugar
to just playing honey or some other words like that,
(15:53):
and then just become specs. For example, used to be
super sugar crisp. Now it's just what is it name anyway,
it's just they took trigger out of it, not just
out of the cereal.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
That's out of the name, and they went to honey smacks.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Honey Smacks, here you go. And it doesn't mean that
there's a lot less sure, and it just it's just
less advertised because it's not what people want anymore. They
did want it, ali don't necessarily want well. Bottom line
is they want it, but they don't want to know
they want it.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
John, thank you for the call. Happy New Year, today,
willyambe all right? Anyone else wants to call in and
talk cereals six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty eight, eight, eight, nine, two, nine,
ten thirty. I still have a huge smile on my
face because Rob found the original commercial for Freakys by
(16:49):
Ralston Purina, and I teased about this information. But so
that's why I have you here. I'll let you tell
the story of the fourth elf in Rice Chrispies.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
Oh okay, Well, as most folks are where, you've got Snap,
Crackle and Pop. They came out in the early thirties,
and then of course Snap was the first one. He
was the youngest. He's the oldest. Brother were born in
nineteen thirty three. Pop was born in forty one, as
it was Crackle, But somewhere around the mid nineteen fifties
(17:30):
there was a fourth brother named Powell, who was supposed
to represent the power of the cereal. He was kind
of more of a sort of looked like an alien
because he was He actually had a military like an
army military hard hat on, but he flew around on
(17:51):
a stand up flying saucer type of thing. This was
in the concept Dart. He did not last long and
that was really about it. But yeah, there he was
chroco pop and pow, and they let.
Speaker 2 (18:07):
Him go away as fast as they introduced him.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Okay, I've got another question. Tricks raspberry, red, lemon, yellow, orange, orange.
Tricks originally was the standard General Mills circle cereal. It
was like cocoa puffs where chocolate Tricks was colorful. Kicks
(18:35):
had no color, but they had that same round ball
look and then they started to do the shapes of
fruit like a purple was great. Talk about that transformation
and why they went back to the original look.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
Oh okay, Well, Tricks was originally launched in fifty four
as a fruit flavored cereal. It was the first fruit
flavored cereal on the market. Of course, they were, as
you mentioned, a lot of different types of corn puff
cereals that had come out before that, and you know,
Jets was also one of the very popular ones. The
(19:17):
Tricks of her Kids slogan was incredibly popular, and oh
it worked really well, silly Rabbit. About nineteen ninety one
to two thousand and six ish, they started puffing fruit
shaped pieces to replace that round ball cereal piece, which
(19:39):
included like raspberry, red, raspberry clusters, lemon yellow wedges, purple
greek clusters, orange balls, basically the you know it was.
I thought it was a great innovation, and so when
they can innovate like that, they try it, and so
they did, and I thought it looked great on the box,
it looked great in the cereal box. I'm not exactly
sure why they pulled them, but it was about two
(20:03):
thousand and six, excuse me, about twenty eighteen when the
fruit scheet pieces. I'm sorry, So the Tricks balls reappeared
in two thousand and six, and yeah, for about twelve years,
then about twenty eighteen the fruit came back. I think
we're seeing off and on either the fruit or the
(20:24):
balls in any given cereal box from Tricks, you know,
in the grocer's ale.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And I'm gonna go with that fruit flavor because I
remember the mid sixties when they came up with oot
frey oop lay the convoluted language to say fruit loops
because it was supposed to be a secret. Nobody supposed
to know that there was this cereal, and that cereal
(20:55):
has been depending on their commercials for five decades and
it's still very popular, I'm assuming because it pretty much
has had the same shape, style and look.
Speaker 3 (21:15):
Well, fru loops has been one of the key staples
from Kellogg's. Certainly the big, the big round pieces of
cereal on the different food flavors with two kin same
on the box right, very popular.
Speaker 2 (21:32):
And when they came up with two kin Sam, he
had nephews. As in all the cartoon characters in Cereal
sixties and seventies, a younger character would be a pest
and annoying to an older character, Sonny and Gramps with
(21:52):
cocoa puffs as an example. And how come they stopped
with two can Sam's nephews?
Speaker 3 (22:05):
I was opposed to, Well, each there's lots of reasons
for any given uh line. You've got two kN Sam
and he only had the nephews. You've got those other
foils all the times as a villain with several serials,
they're just they're trying to create an image and easy
(22:28):
to remember tag for any given any given cereal, and
so you don't want too many of the same thing.
You want to can Sam also having the gramps, it
starts getting for folks.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
And I'm thinking of Captain Crunch with the Pirate Jehan
the Foot, which was art imitating life because there was
a pirate that pretty much almost had that name. Tell
you what Joline and Beverly. Beverly will get to you.
After the break, I've got to take a news hit
(23:04):
my guest Toefer Ellis and we'll talk more about his
book about cereal. Trust me, you'll love this book. It'll
take you back in time, and we'll talk more about
that after these messages. Here on night Side, heard only
on WBZ eleven thirty thirty five degrees.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on w b
Z Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Well, they the name of Powl.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
Powell Beaves power and powers Nice Ri Stress face Power,
Hello Ray Rice. Yes, Kellogg's famous Fresh guys Snap, Crackle
and Pop want you to know their silent partner, Paul
Pow doesn't say much. He just does things like putting
power on everybody, lightweight, spoonful of Kellogg's rice crispies.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Oh that's all there was, darn it. I wanted more
tof Did you hear that commercial?
Speaker 6 (24:06):
That was impressive.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Rob finds things that I don't. It amazes me how
he locates these things on the system. And we were
talking about power before the break and puff no excuse me, Powe,
Rob comes up with a commercial. All right, let's go
to the phone. Joline and Beverly. You held about him
(24:29):
and that's too long.
Speaker 7 (24:32):
I'm the one who called in last time we were
talking about cereals. I have a large cereal box collection.
In fact, I have an aracle cereal box.
Speaker 5 (24:45):
Berks what I have, And.
Speaker 7 (24:50):
I was just calling in to say, I think that
this cereal is from England called wait a bit.
Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh we to bix?
Speaker 7 (25:02):
I think.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yes it is. And if I'm not mistaken, the Patriots
used to have a field goal kicker named John Smith
and he did we to bix commercials oh here in
the United States?
Speaker 7 (25:19):
Yeah, yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
And I'm wondering if you have an autographed serial boxer.
For an example, Doug Flutie had flute flakes, and I
know for a fact that he autographed some boxes at conventions,
and those boxes with a real Doug Flutie autograph have
(25:48):
a value. Telford, do you want to speak to that.
Speaker 5 (25:53):
I have.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
I would think that that would be a very popular idol.
And yeah, I would certainly consider that a valuable cereal box.
Speaker 2 (26:06):
And do you remember weed to Bix an association with
John Smith.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
John Smith, No, he was a field goal kicker.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
For the Patriots in the seventies. He had about three
or four years.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Okay, I can tell you more about Weeda Bex than
I could about John Smith.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Though, tell me about tell me about we debates.
Speaker 6 (26:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
Weeda Bex was produced in the United Kingdom since about
the early nineteen thirties. It's the British version of the
original Australian wheat bix w E t dash bix. They
were both invented by an Australian named Benison and Osborne
for what it's worth. But anyway, so while everyone knows
(26:58):
that it is weed x wed the bits from UK,
it's really an original Australian.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
Cereal, all right, Juline, anything else?
Speaker 7 (27:09):
I just wanted to say that I think I heard
this cereal from a guy who was on an afternoon
show years ago that was co hosted by Robin Young
from NPR now she works at. And he mentioned piltered
(27:33):
which was a kind of tuna fish that was inexpensive,
and he also mentioned that he ate wee to bits
where I heard about it on the show from like
the seventies on late afternoon. I think it came on. No,
it wasn't after dark Shadows. That was in the sixties. Anyway.
(27:55):
I used to play games with all the cereal boxes
that I had, from Christy Critters to oh Gosh.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
All the Rispy Critters the one and only cereal that
comes in the shape of animals.
Speaker 5 (28:08):
That was it.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
That was their jingle.
Speaker 7 (28:11):
And way back when film costs a lot of money.
With my little Kodak camera and it would cost three
or four dollars to have twelve prints made, I took
twelve pictures of cereal boxes and we used to play
card games with twelve.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
That was creative.
Speaker 7 (28:33):
And then candy Land we had going all through the
house on rainy days with different boxes that would represent
the figures that candy Land had and it was played
like that and if you landed on another one, you'd
have to go backwards and anyway the rooms. Yeah, that
(28:59):
was a lot of Well, thank you very much for
this very interesting trill.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Joline, thank you for participating with the show. Unhappy Happy
New Year to you.
Speaker 7 (29:10):
Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
Bye bye. Let's go to Kingston, mass and speak to
Tom or it could be Kingston, Jamaica, could be Kingston,
New York.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
I'm assuming mass Massachusetts. All right, Tom, listen, you said
Krispy Kringles. It's the only going on animals.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
Crispy Critters c R I T T e r s
not not Kringles, Crispy Critters Critters.
Speaker 6 (29:38):
We used to run around the kitchen table, six of
us kids, and my mother used to go crazy. He
was to sing that song. But the other one was
rice Crinkles, one of my best cereals I had.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Both of those cereals were from Post and I'll lect
toe for speak to Crispy Critters, and it became a
controversial cereal with their characters So High on rice Crinkles tofa.
Speaker 3 (30:13):
Okay, we'll start with the rice crinkles and you're writ
his post chuber coated rice crinkles. Oh yeah, it was
basically sugar frosted rice rice Krispies essentially. And if you
look at the box, it's a really cute little Chinese
boy or Japanese boy named so High.
Speaker 6 (30:38):
And so you know, basically that looks like a dish
upside down.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
You're actually, well, I think he had that was a
bowl of cereal. I think you might have had in
his head.
Speaker 6 (30:52):
It was. Here's the other one is that I enjoy
It was my mother brought Kellogg's cornflakes. And in the
back of that you're talking about records, we have the
Gary Lewis and the Playboys singing this diamond ring and
then also on there was doing the flake. Okay, cut
that out. We used to play that the Siria, I
(31:15):
loved this an adult that's been gone now for a
thousand years, about nine hundred years now. It was buckwheats.
Buckwheats was like wheaties, but it was colder with something
oh what it was, but it was nice, a nice flavor,
almost like a maple flavor.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Well, if you will allow me, I'll give you some
background information on Crispy Critters. Okay, they post produced a
cartoon show called Linus the Lion Hearted and they yeah, yes,
(31:57):
roar for Linus the Lion Lines is the one. I'm out,
I don't stop singing. I'm sorry, but the key, the
key is. They had four of their cereals box representaurs
like sugar Bear was a little bear who got into
(32:24):
adventures in the woods. Alphabets had a postman Lovable Bee truly,
and the dog Lawrence h am I leaving off of.
Speaker 6 (32:39):
So high.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Was and I can't remember if he was Chinese or Japanese,
and that's it's disrespectful to say Asian. But that was
a cereal that got the company in trouble because they
felt it was racist with the image that they showed.
(33:03):
And there's another one that I can't think of right now.
Oh and Linus the Lionhearted because he promoted Crispy Critters
and they were a Saturday morning show. They all were
like five minutes in length cartoon because most cartoons, like
(33:26):
let's say Warner Brothers, their cartoons were six to seven
minutes in length, but they had a shorter length to
the post Crispy Critters show Linus Lionhearted for a main reason.
They promoted the commercials for these cereals during the spots
(33:47):
that they would show. And they had they had another
cereal called Pink Elephants, and they had pink elephants that
were in your cereal box. So there you go with
your Crispy Critter's history.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Well here's the other one. I don't know what cereal was,
but you talk about masks. They had one the Huckleberry
Hound that I got to wear around the house.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
Right.
Speaker 6 (34:14):
I don't know what cereal that.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Was, though I do, and I'm sure Tofer knows tofer.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Go ahead, you got me on that one.
Speaker 2 (34:23):
Kellogg's All Stars was Huckleberry Hound cereal. Yokie Bear was
on Okay's right, and I'm trying to think quick drummergraws
on a cereal. I just can't place it right now,
bear with me, yes to for thank you? So Tom,
(34:47):
are you happy?
Speaker 6 (34:48):
What cereal is that?
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Corn pops or sugar pops? I think he preceded sugar
pop Pete.
Speaker 6 (34:59):
Bring him back a lot of good memories.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
Oh that's why we're here, Tom.
Speaker 6 (35:04):
Yes, you guys have a good New Year's coming up.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
You have a great New Years as well, and we'll
speak to you later. Anybody else who wants to join
TOFA and I. You'll have about ten minutes of show
because we end at midnight, and maybe one of you
out there is a millionaire by now. Maybe it's me.
Time and temperature here on Nightside eleven forty seven thirty
(35:32):
five degrees Now back to.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Dan Ray live from the Window World Nightside Studios on
WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
I have only about seven more minutes with my guest
tofer is here to for Ellis and to for bring
people back to the days of Cisp and Quake. Let
people know who they were and how that rivalry just
took off in the mid sixties.
Speaker 3 (36:04):
Well, that was certainly one of the big rivalries and
it was part of the Jay Ward Animation studios. J
Ward was also responsible for the entire lineup of Captain Crunch,
among others. Quisp, basically in mid sixties is probably one
(36:25):
of the most popular animated characters of all time for
folks that don't remember him. He was a kind of
a pink skin propeller driven alien who wore a green jumpsuit.
His eyes are permanently crossed and crisp and Quake, who
originally was a minor, very strong minor, worked in the mines,
(36:46):
had a miner's hat on. They would fight over whose
cereal was better and who could save the day. In
a series of commercials vitamin powered sugary cerial. Quisp for
quasi energy was voiced by DAWs Butler very good. The
original Quake what provided again nineteen mid sixties provided earthquake
(37:10):
power to those who ate it. He has fired a
big que on his big muscular chest, and then at
some point it switched over to kind of an Aussie
cowboy quake that was about late late sixties, and he
was voiced by William Conrad, who folks though as from
(37:35):
the rock to the narrator of the Rocky and Bullwinkles Show,
Gun Smoke the Radio Show and things like that. Anyway,
they had these great little commercials where they would fight
over the ability to whose serial is better and who
could say the day and eventually basically quist one. But
(37:56):
they were a lot of fun to watch those commercials.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
I loved them. And when you think of Jay Ward,
he as you mentioned, he did all of the Captain
Crunch commercials, and Captain Crunch originally had a crew and
then they kind of faced out the crew and just
(38:21):
kept Sea Dog as his crew, and eventually they got
rid of Sea Dog and it was one upsmanship with
Jean Lafoote. Now this goes over ten, fifteen, twenty years
of Captain Crunch, and they had the spin offs of
(38:44):
Captain Crunch where they had Peanut Butter Crunch with was
Medley the Elephant, and they also had Vanilla Crunch where
they had a white whale as the the Box trademark,
and they did a lot with Captain Crunch, and when
(39:06):
I called Toffer the other day, I mentioned this. Originally
they only had seasonal appearances of Captain Crunch with Crunchberries,
but it became so popular it too joined the year
round production. Do you want to tell any more about
(39:27):
Captain Crunch with Crunchberries?
Speaker 3 (39:29):
Absolutely well, as you know, the original crunchberries came out
in the mid the late sixties where they had the
crunchberry beast that they found on Crunchberry Island, and the
Crunchberry Island, of course was found in the seed of milk,
but the crunchberries tasted like strawberries, and that was a
very popular cereal. Come about nineteen eighty seven, Captain Crunch
(39:56):
came out with a holiday Christmas crunch. It contained red
and green round crunchberries within the Captain Crunch cereal. It
also came with a Christmas ornament. You had one of
I don't know, three or four different ones each year,
and each year they actually put the year on the
Christmas ornament, so you could collect them every single year
(40:18):
and put them on your tree. About nineteen ninety three,
so about six years later they started bringing out different
crunchberry shapes like trees, reindeer, stars, stockings, trains, Santa still
then winter hats, that type of thing. And each year,
(40:38):
I mean one year they had an ugly sweater as
kind of the box background. Every year they ye know,
they do something a little bit clever to grab your attention,
and that's basically your crunchberries within the Christmas crunch.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
And now they had like all the other and that's
Quake Road Cereals. They are available year round and to
for before I let you go, what was your favorite
cereal as a kid?
Speaker 3 (41:09):
Quisp?
Speaker 2 (41:11):
I too had a number of months where I like Quisp.
I never tried Quake, so I couldn't be a fair
judge because I only ate quisp and I like the
way it tasted, and I like the way it fit
on my spoon. And that's all I needed to be happy, which.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
Was nice because they quite along with like the Captain
chrisch cereals kind of tore up your mouth.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Oh you were a little I'm glad I never tried it.
To Ford, thank you for being a part of my show.
I love having you on because you bring back such
pleasant memories, as you heard from some of the callers earlier,
and I hope you have a very healthy, happy, be
pleasant twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
Sincerely appreciate it, love to be on the show. Thank you, Sam,
to you, thank you to for take care.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Bye bye. All right, a couple of things. I'm on
tomorrow The Morgan Show, Andrew Fielding will be my guest.
I'll be back Monday and Tuesday. I'm just going to
give you the Monday lineup. I have Jerry Beck looked
upon as being one of the more knowledgeable people about animation,
(42:34):
going back to Disney and Warner Brothers, Hannah Barbera and
Cleio Campbell. He and I are going to kind of
extend from Bradley Jay's subject of well known Boston based
musical performers from rock, from R and B, from pop culture,
(42:59):
and to David Nathan to talk to you about diabetes.
How this time of year, all the food you eat
necessarily isn't doing you a positive thought? And Barbara Feldon,
aged ninety nine, will be here Monday night. So that's it. Rob,
(43:19):
Thank you, excellent jar producing. I want to thank all
my guests, carm Bussemi, Bradley, j Lieutenant Bruce Apothecar again
just now with Tufa and Nancy and Gray. You two
by Boston
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