The commercial below is from the "Messy Marvin" series of ads for Hershey's Chocolate Syrup. As you may know, Peter Billingsley (Ralphie from "A Christmas Story") played Marvin in these commercials from the early 1980s. While trying to dig up info for this post, I Googled "Messy Marvin" (damn, that sounds kinda dirty... let me rephrase that)... when I entered the words "Messy Marvin" in a Google search, I learned that the term has a totally different meaning (sexually related) according to the urban dictionary. Who knew??
One thing that's fun about watching old commercials is spotting performers who went on to star in other roles. See if you recognize the pair of actresses who play two of Marvin's classmates. Both were cast members of two long-running series. The one on the left is semi-easy, but the one on the right is pretty tough. If you aren't in a guessing mood, click here for the identity of the actress on the left and here for the one on the right.
AN HONORABLE MENTION
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The first chapter of my novel-in-progress BLOOD KIN received an honorable
mention in the 2024 Chapter One Prize of the Gutsy Great Novelist Contest. The
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2 weeks ago
6 comments:
Adorable commerical. I have a vague recollection of those too.
Chocolate.... mmmmmmm
Peter Billingsley was such a natural actor for a kid. I'm glad he's gone on to produce as an adult - it would be hard to compete with people's memories of one's Child Self. Thanks for the links on the two actresses - I would never have guessed them.
(1) The urban dictionary didn't give an etymology for the term 'Messy Marvin,' so I wonder when the phrase came about. If it predates this commercial, that's one hell of a subliminal.
(2) I've just read about twenty posts in your archives. This is a really fun blog. Thanks for dropping by my place.
I recognized Tracy Gold right away - remember how they used to show the pictures at the beginning of Growing Pains? (I was in love with Kirk Cameron)....But the other girl was too difficult for me. Also, did you see the movie The Breakup with J. Aniston and V. Vaughn? During the movie I knew I recognized their friend from somewhere. I looked the movie up on IMDB and discovered it was Peter Billingley!
Mistress of the Dark: Who ever thought that we would be able to watch old Messy Marvin commercials (among other things) on our computers? As I have said before, I love You Tube (aka cyber crack).
Stealth: These commercials do make you hungry/thirsty for some chocolate. I'm about to hit that carton of chocolate soy milk that I have in the fridge.
Julia: Thanks for stopping by. You are right about Peter. It is always nice to hear about a child star going on to have a successful adult life (either in or out of showbiz).
X. Dell- If the term "Messy Marvin" does predate the commercials, the people at Hershey have some explaining to do, lol. I appreciate you stopping by and providing me with some positive feedback regarding some of my posts. I look forward to future visits by you.
Holly: The fact that you thought of Tracey's photos that they showed during the opening credits of "Growing Pains" is scary. I was thinking of the same thing when I was putting together this post.
Although I haven't seen "The Break Up" I did catch part of "Elf" with Will Ferrell. Peter played one of the elves. I was trying to tell my ex-girlfriend and her brother in law that the elf was played by Peter... but they didn't believe me. I think I finally convinced them.
I don't know if you saw it on imdb.com, but Vince Vaughn and Peter became friends when they both appeared in a CBS Afterschool Special.
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