Stan Freberg: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:08, 22 September 2004

Revision as of 18:18, 9 November 2004

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His popularity landed him his own program, ''[[The Stan Freberg Show]]'' on [[CBS]] Radio, in [[1957]]. The show failed to attract a sponsor, however, at least in part because Freberg did not want to be associated with the [[tobacco]] companies who had sponsored [[Jack Benny]], whose time slot he inherited. In lieu of actual [[advertisement]]s, Freberg mocked commercials in general by "advertising" such products as "Puffed Grass" ("It's good for Bossie, it's good for me and you!"), "Food" ("If you haven't any teeth you can gum your food with your gum, gum, gummy-gum gum"), and himself ("Freberg - the foaming comedian! Bobba bobba bom bom bom" - a parody of a well-known [[Ajax Laundry Detergent]] commercial). The lack of sponsorship forced the cancellation of the show after a run of only fifteen episodes.

Freberg continued to skewer the advertising industry, however, producing ''[[Green Christmas|Green Chri$tma$]]'' in [[1959]], a scathing indictment of the overcommercialization of the holiday. ''Green Chri$tma$'' foreshadowed [[1961]]'s ''[[Stan Freberg Presents The United States of America, Part One]]'' in that both combined dialog and song in almost musical-like style. (One can almost imagine [[JohnThomas HancockJefferson]] and [[Ben Franklin]] performing the big [[Broadway]] finish on "[[A Man Can't Be Too Careful What He Signs These Days]]".)

Freberg seemingly mistrusted [[television]]; in one of his best-known skits, he used a series of [[sound effect]]s to simulate draining [[Lake Michigan]], filling it with [[hot chocolate]] (complete with [[whipped cream]]), and dropping a ten-ton [[cherry]] on top courtesy of the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] (with 25,000 extras cheering them on). The tag line to the skit: "Let's see them do that on TV." Even so he produced commercials for products such as [[Contadina Tomato Paste]] ("Who put eight great tomatoes in that little bitty can?"), [[Geno's Pizza Rolls]] (friend and [[science fiction]] icon [[Ray Bradbury]] proclaimed them "the food of the future") and [[Sunsweet Prunes]] ("Today the pits, tomorrow the wrinkles"). Today, these advertisements are considered classics by many critics, and Freberg is usually credited as being the first person to successfully introduce [[humor]] into television advertising.