Amazing Commercials of Yesteryear

After watching these clips I thought to myself, how come commercials aren't this great now?! You would think they would attempt these cool special effects now with all the CGI we have going on. What do you think?

Edd Byrnes Gets Kookie

Schadenfreudian Therapy posted selections from the soundtrack to the television series "77 Sunset Strip" which makes me want to be part of the action. One of the cast members of "77 S.S." was a fellow by the name of Edd Byrnes. Fans of "Grease" know him as Vince Fontaine. Fans of the Love Boat know him as many different characters. And fans of Sunset Strip know him as Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III. Kookie was famous for his duck tail hair-do and his constant combing of it. It became such a phenomenon that Edd Brynes and Connie Stevens recorded a novelty number entitled "Kookie, Kookie Lend Me Your Comb." The song was such a big hit, a complete album of "Kookie" related songs was released by Warner Brothers. Incidentally, singing the female parts on all but the "Lend Me Your Comb" track is none other than Joanie Summers, who would have a hit of her own with "Johnny Get Angry". One final note: the character of Gerald Lloyd "Kookie" Kookson III was not originally a part of the series regulars. Edd Byrnes starred in the pilot in the role of a continuously hair-combing serial killer in the pilot, Girl on the Run, and was so popular as a result that he was brought back the following week as a regular cast member in a different role! At the beginning of the episode which followed Girl, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. broke the fourth wall with the announcement:"We previewed this show, and because Edd Byrnes was such a hit we decided that Kookie and his comb had to be in our series. So this week, we'll just forget that in the pilot he went off to prison to be executed." Here's Edd Byrnes, Connie Stevens and Joanie Summers having a ball with the full length "Kookie" album! Enjoy!

Edd Byrnes - Kookie

The Best of The World of Wonder: She's Alive! Alive!

Since I've seen Weird Science three times in the past two days on HBO, I thought it only fitting to have this as my second "Best Of" post!


Being a typical male teenager in the 80s, I fell in love with Kelly LeBrock. What male from that era didn't? I didn't hate her for being beautiful, I loved it! And of course, she was never hotter than when she appeared in the film, "Weird Science"! However, Kelly's hottness aside, Weird Science was a great movie that still holds up today. Great scenes, great writing, a great cast and a lot of super cool music. The theme song alone was worth the price of this soundtrack. Here's the enitre soundtrack album for you now. Enjoy!

Weird Science OST

Bonjour, Madame White

In 1963, Walt Disney Records came out with this unique soundtrack from "Snow White". What was so unique about it was that it was in French and in English! According to the album cover, it is "Educational and Entertaining"! What they do is play one song in French followed by its English counterpart. It's really cool! When I saw this item for $1 at a thrift store, I knew I had to have it. When I did some research on it, I found very little about it. Mostly record store sites that had it up for sale or auction. And most prices were in the teens or higher. If anyone wants a copy of their own, I recently did a search on e-bay and found a few posted. You might want to take a look. Anyway, here for your education as well as your entertainment is "Songs From Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs in French and English". Enjoy!

Snow White In French

as an added treat, here's a video of the Seven Dwarfs singing Hi-Ho in French:

It's 2008 Ban-a-zai!!!!

Happy 2008 everyone! I hope the new year will bring happiness and success to all of you! Here at the World of Wonder, we have many a treat for you. And we're kicking it off with the first post of the new year! This time around it's the soundtrack to one of the most interesting movies ever made. Back in 1984, producer and director, W. D. Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch released "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Acrosss The 8th Dimension" to a very confused and bewildered public. The film starred Peter Weller as the hero, Buckaroo Banzai and John Lithgow as the evil Dr. Emilio Lizardo. The initial release did not fare too well as it face stiff competition from other hits as "Ghostbusters" and "Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom". However, since then it has gained an enormous cult following that almost rivals "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". In fact, at one time, 20th Century Fox Studios had to hire a special team of Banzai fans to answer all of the fan mail which they termed "The Banzai Institute" which eventually turned into the official fan club of the film. Here for you now is the soundtrack to this great film! If you haven't seen it, I strongly urge you to put it on your netflix list! If you have seen the movie, I strongly urge you to buy the cool special edition DVD that was released a while back. But right now, I strongly encourage you to listen to the soundtrack that I have presented here for you now. Enjoy!

Buckaroo Banzai OST Part 1
Buckaroo Banzai OST Part 2

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 20

Fisher Price was probably one of the biggest companies to make kids toys. They came up with the coolest items for every age group. I was the proud owner of the Little Tykes Basket Ball set. It rocked! The best part was every time you scored a basket, a bell would ring! And you could keep score by rotating the number wheel on the right and left sides of the basket! I also had the Little Red School House. It was even more of a novelty for me as we had a Little Red Schoolhouse in the town where I grew up! This was not just a school house playset - it was a chalkboard and a magnet board as well! In fact, my mother still finds those letters around the house, some 30 odd years later! The garage playset was awesome. That ramp was the coolest! But nothing beat out the barn! When the doors opened up, you heard the loudest "MOO" ever heard. And of course, we all remember the Little People! How many people had the dog only to have it end up with one ear which would be twisted upside down?!

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 17

Super 8 Theater presents Santa Claus' Story performed by Monkeys!!!!

The 25 Posts of Christmas: Day 14

Another Great item from the Sears Wishbook:
This item was a very special and bizarre part of my childhood. I went through a phase where I wanted nothing more than to have a brother. Unfortunately, I had one sister and after me, my mom was not able to have any more children. Then I heard about this television show called SOAP where a character on the show had a dummy that he referred to as a brother. Being the impressionable child that I was, I asked for this dummy that was advertised in the Sears Catalogue. It was called Willie Talk. A play on words that never hit me until I was well past this stage of my life and kept the dummy in a box in a closet. Anyway, I received him for Christmas and took him with me everywhere, always referring to him as my brother Willie. This worked rather well until I dropped him and his mouth caved into his head. I was able to pull out the mouth and put it back in place, but since the fall had broken one of the points that kept his mouth in place, if I pulled the cord on the back too hard, the mouth would go back into the head again. Eventually, as I stated above, Willie Talk found his way into a box in my closet where he stayed until years later when I tossed him.