Why was there a 3:00 movie? Because that’s when we got home from school, or that’s when we huddled around the little TV in after-school daycare. I said somewhere else that my dad picked me up early a few times so I could catch assorted creature features: Frogs, Empire of the Ants, Night of the Lepus, The Swarm. Even if we did have a VCR at the time, nobody knew how to record on the damn thing.
First commercial: “Taste the Thrill of Atari at McDonald’s.” Atari worked promotions with almost every big name in the business, and I never won jack. Watch for the Atari 800 and the Atari 825 dot matrix printer. I found some of the game cards on eBay.
And here’s one of the tray liners, courtesy of Peter Hirschberg, who has lots of other awesome stuff on display.
Second commercial: “I need well trained people” is actually progressive phrasing for a secretarial staffing company in 1982. Five years earlier it would have been, “I need well trained, well groomed women.” Notice that there’s only one guy in the spot, and he’s in the only office.
Third commercial: You recognize her, right? She’s very awkward here.
Fourth commercial: That’s one giant meatball that splats on the floor, amigos. It ain’t organic, and it ain’t made of turkey. It’s red meat, and we were too busy shoving our faces to ask any questions.
The editorial rebuttal enters the realm of surreality. A union rep on TV? In a position of authority?
(Video via FuzzyMemoriesTV)
2 Warps to Neptune 
In NY it was the ABC 4:30 movie. I used to love Planet of the Apes week.
Was that Renee Russo? Very awkward, but that commercial didn’t give much to work with. And an editorial reply? Wow, I vaguely remember when news casters were more than just talking heads.
It sure was. True, it was an awful commercial, and she probably had one take.