In My Footsteps: A Gen-X Nostalgia Podcast

Episode 150: Listener's Choice - 1988 Pizza Hut Training Video, K-Tel Music Compilations, Discontinued Cereals, Digital Music Origins(6-26-2024)

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It's Listener's Choice as we celebrate 150 episodes of the podcast!
All that is a part of this week's show was chosen by you, the listeners.
Episode 150 kicks off with a new edition of the vintage employee training videos segment. This time we are going all the way back to 1988 to find out what goes into making pizzas at Pizza Hut. Special drinking game: Have a drink every time someone says their slogan from the time 'Makin' It Great.'
Long before playlists, mix cd's, or even mixtapes, there was a way to listen to multiple popular songs on the same piece of media. In the 1970s and 1980s compilation albums were the in thing and the company that brought them to you was K-Tel Records. We go way Back In the Day to reminisce about the innovative K-Tel compilations.
This week's Top 5 is sure to make you hungry. So many cereals, so few mornings. Though some cereals have become synonymous with breakfast over the last century even more have come along and faded away just as quickly. We will be looking at some of the discontinued cereals that might be due for a comeback.
Of course, there is a brand new This Week In History and Time Capsule centered around the groundbreaking 1994 digital music download event featuring Aerosmith and CompuServe.
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Speaker 06:

Hello world, and welcome to the In My Footsteps podcast. I am Christopher Setterlund, coming to you from the vacation destination known as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and this is episode 150. Oh yeah, it's listener's choice episode 150. So let's pull back the curtain and see what you all have won on this game show of a podcast. We're going to kick the show off with a look back at a hilarious employee training video from Pizza Hut from 1988. We're going to go way, way back in the day and look at the K-Tel Records label and their music compilations. The brand new top five this week is going to be the top five discontinued serials. And there'll be a brand new This Week in History and Time Capsule centered around the introduction of the digital download of music 30 years ago this week. All of this is coming up in the Showcase Showdown. I mean, on the In My Footsteps podcast. So come on down. So there we had a game show introduction. Welcome into Listener's Choice, episode 150. 150 episodes of this show I've been doing online. Since the first week of November 2020. Those of you longtime listeners, you kind of know the origin story of the podcast. For those that might be new here or relatively new here, this podcast began as kind of a coping mechanism with giving up alcohol. I had a drinking problem for a few years. And when I decided to finally give up alcohol, I needed something else to put all that focus into. And this podcast became it. At the time of the first episode, I said I probably had enough material to do about four years worth of shows if I did no more research. And since then, I've come up with the top five list, This Week in History and Time Capsule, converted this show to mostly Gen X nostalgia. So I could say again that we'll probably be back here for episode 300. That was the big reason why I made this listener's choice. Kind of a thank you to all of you that have been tuning into this show. Because I know there are hundreds of thousands of podcasts out there. And there's a lot of nostalgia ones. So you got to try to make yours different. And I don't know. I don't have time to listen to dozens of other nostalgia podcasts. So I don't know how different mine is. That's part of the reason why I add some stories from my own life or why I let my kind of wacky humor, it's starting to bleed more into the shows. I'm so grateful to all of you that review, that share, I mean, that listen in general. And of course, I've got to give a big shout out to my Patreon subscribers, Laurie, Mary Lou, Ashley, Kevin. Patreon is a tough nut to crack because you're asking people to actually donate money to you as a creator in whatever artistic field you're in. So I really appreciate them. And if you're interested, $5 a month, patreon.com slash inmyfootstepspodcast. You get access to bonus podcast episodes, early access to the main show, early access to YouTube videos. I'm also trying to make more things for the free tier so you don't have to part with your money if you don't want to or if it's not feasible. There'll definitely be more time at the end of the show to thank you and get a little bit more nostalgic for my own show. But I want to get this thing started and kick it off in style. Everything that comes from this point on on the show, you picked. You who voted. Luckily for me, I wasn't a fool and I made sure every possible option was something I wanted to talk about. Maybe we'll do another listener's choice for episode 200 and I'll put things in there that I don't want to talk about and knock on wood, hope that nobody votes for them. Right now, though, we'll get into another thing that wasn't a part of the original podcast itinerary, but has quickly become one of my favorite segments. It's video reviews. I've done educational short films. I've done a couple of movies, but I try to stick to shorter things that won't take you forever to watch. But really my favorite thing is these old employee training videos. And this is the one that you all picked, that you voted on. So let's review a 1988 employee training video from Pizza Hut coming up right now on Listener's Choice in my Footsteps podcast episode 150. Oh man, in the evolution of the podcast through these 150 episodes, one of my favorite additions to the show is the recurring segment of looking at old employee training videos. I did the old country buffet one. I did an old McDonald's one. I found so many of these. I could do them every week, but I like to spread them out so they don't just become another segment. This week, you voted on this video. So I'm going to review Pizza Hut's 1988 training video, along with splicing in some clips from it so you can laugh. Of course, I'll link to it in the podcast description so you can watch the whole thing. It's about 17 minutes. It immediately starts off with cheesy music and graphics, and it says, You're the best, making it great.

Unknown:

You're the best.

Speaker 06:

Just in case you wondered where you stood with Pizza Hut. The first segment here is the making of a pizza. Julie is the newbie trainee. And when she's asked if she's ready to make a pizza, she says, yes, making it great. She has to put in the catchphrase.

Speaker 08:

Okay, Julie, are you all ready to learn how to make a pizza the right way? Making it great. Yes, I'm ready.

Speaker 06:

And we're told that cooking the pizza is probably the easiest part. And naturally, it's a lot of corporate speak really over the top about why people come to eat pizza and how great it is and making them happy. They've got all kinds of pre-made pizza dough for the pizzas made by their dough master. So I guess it's good that they weren't frozen. The boss lady is explaining how to properly check the pizza and Julie, she's just full of the one-liners, just over the top about how much they love their customers. It's interesting to see that they actually have listed out how to properly sauce and cheese a pizza. They open up the top part of the refrigeration unit and there's the sheet of paper with how to sauce it. And to really date this video from 1988, they also show you how to make a priazzo. It's listed right underneath. And priazzo was one of the big fails of fast food of the 80s. As I'm watching this, I'm thinking there should be some kind of a drinking game. Every time they say their slogan, making it great, you should probably take a drink of something. Because it's repeated a lot and they try to work it into the conversation like it's just normal. They go really in depth with how to ladle the sauce out, how to measure the cheese. The big thing you'll notice, and it again dates it to 1988, the manager lady that's leading this, she doesn't use gloves. She just reaches in and grabs cheese with her bare hands, even though she said they were washed. But hey, we didn't see it in the video. It is interesting that they have it listed specifically the order to put toppings on a pizza. And I'm sure it's the same still today, but they count out exactly how many pepperoni should be on the pizza.

Speaker 08:

Now we'll measure out the exact amount and then place the cheese on top of the sauce. Again, starting at the outside and working toward the center. That doesn't look too hard. It's not.

Speaker 06:

As we're making this first pizza, and Julie is so enthusiastic about making the pizza... It's here that we get introduced to the world-famous fairy dust, as they call it. They never tell you exactly what's in it. It's a mix of cheese and spice.

Speaker 08:

What's next? Well, there are two more ingredients. The top cheese and the world-famous fairy dust. Whoa, fairy dust? That's right. Pizza Hut fairy dust.

Speaker 06:

I guess they figure even though you're watching this and you're likely an employee of Pizza Hut, they don't want you knowing exactly what's in it if you're gonna steal it and take it somewhere else. I don't think if I find a Kentucky Fried Chicken training video, they're gonna tell you the 11 herbs and spices in the video. Oh well. They take their time making this first pizza and making it look perfect, and they make it sound like you're creating this whole magical experience. And I know that's meant to be the whole point of making food. People eat with their eyes first. But when you're slammed busy, if you're in a pizza hut on a Saturday night, you're not going to have time to make these pizzas that slow. While they're putting the pizza on the conveyor belt to go under the oven, now the music starts as the manager lady starts to run down the rest of the foods they'll be making. There's thin and crispy pizzas, and the manager again says making it great. Oh, my God. It's been at least six, seven times, and we're not even halfway through this video yet.

Speaker 08:

Now, while we're waiting for that to cook, why don't we talk about some of the other products you'll be making? Great. First of all, there's thin and crispy pizza. Thin and crispy pizza is the original Pizza Hut pizza. Of course, it's been fine-tuned over the years, all part of making it great.

Speaker 06:

The preparation of the thin and crispy pizza is different. This is where we get introduced to the dough roller. And they're weighing the dough because you've got to actually make it. And again, no gloves, just reach into a bag of dough and pull out a chunk. It's a neat process. You make a dough ball, then you flatten it out some, but enough to drop into the top chute on the dough roller. And so what happens is it flattens it out once. Then you take that and you put it into another chute. So it flattens it out again. Then you got to trim off the excess dough with the dough trimmer. I wonder if Pizza Hut still uses this pizza roller machine. I would think it's way more automated now. There's actually lots of steps in making this thin and crispy dough. They give you a checklist of what it needs to have and not have. It has to reach the edge of the pan. No air bubbles, no holes, no cracks. Because you know it wouldn't be making it great if it didn't look like that. The manager lady says you can pre-make some of these doughs, but they're only good for 30 minutes and then you've got to throw them away. And Julie is shocked that they actually throw it away. Like, I don't know if she thought you would just use the pizza forever until it finally got used.

Speaker 08:

Pre-rolled thin and crispy pizza crusts are only good for 30 minutes, because after that, they start to dry out. So we throw away any pre-panned dough that we don't use right away. We'd really throw it away? You bet.

Speaker 06:

Then you learn about perforating the dough, and the utensil you use is called a perforator. Everything is pretty self-explanatory. Where it seems like if you were an employee at Pizza Hut in the late 80s, that all you have to do is be able to read. Because everything's listed, all the utensils are basically named for what they do. As I was watching this video, I kept trying to get a peek of the name tag on the manager lady to see what her name is. But she's pretty quick on not being able to be seen. And of course, it's common sense to check the pizza for quality when it comes out of the oven. But I guess that might not be considered common sense for some of the employees because there's an actual pan pizza cooking chart to show you how the crust should look. I like the fact that when they're getting ready to take the pizza off of the other end of the conveyor belt, they pick it up with a set of pliers. Like, is that the tool that they would use? You've got all these high-tech specific products, the pizza dough roller, but then they just give you a $2 set of pliers to grab the pan. Let me get some more fun late 80s music as a montage of how to cut the pizza on the cutting board. They use a rocker knife to cut the pizza, not the typical rounded pizza wheel like you would see in anyone's kitchen. They show you how to put it into a box if it's for delivery, including the box support, the little round thing that looks like a little white table that you put in the middle. Oh man, as Julie gets so excited about how the customers are going to like her pizza. And in this, they show them bring it out to the table for the customers using those set of pliers. I've never seen that. Did any of you ever go to Pizza Hut in the late 80s and have the server bring your pizza with a set of pliers? But then things get real when Julie's asking, what else could a customer want? And the manager lady says, personal pan pizza. She's got a look of shock on her face like she was just fired on the set.

Speaker 07:

No, the customer will do the rest when they bite into my delicious pizza. Delicious pan pizza and delicious thin and crispy pizza. What more could a customer want? Personal pan pizza.

Unknown:

What?

Speaker 06:

Personal pan pizzas were always something that I was a fan of back in the days when Cape Cod had Pizza Huts. They also still do that Book It program, where if you read a certain amount of books, you would get a free personal pan pizza. That was some good childhood memories. I just looked it up. They still do it. They should do it for adults, too. And here they go into detail about how they make the personal pan pizzas, including stamping the dough, which is actually pretty neat. Then comes the big moment. The manager lady is telling Julie, just follow all the instructions and you'll be fine and don't cut corners and all that stuff. And then it's time for Julie to make her own thin crispy pizza. Besides saying making it great 50,000 times in this video, they talk a lot about a dough master. That is, I guess, the one that makes the dough for them. I don't know if that's a specific job or if it's done off-site. It sounds very mythical, the Doughmaster. They go through Julie making this pizza, of course with no gloves, even when she's trying to put the toppings on, moving the cheese around, no gloves on. Then we get to the best part. I mentioned it earlier. The manager lady says, there's one more thing you got to learn about, the priazzo. Oh boy, the big fail. They're going to show you how to make it.

Speaker 08:

There's one more product you need to know about, Priazzo. That's a rich, double-crust Italian pie, and customers can choose from a variety of delicious fillings. That sounds delicious. Do we make it the same way as we make pizza? Sort of. For

Speaker 06:

those that don't know, this was a double-crusted deep dish pizza. Priazzo, it's one of those things that it looks like it would have been something good to have. Double layered, so the bottom layer is sauce and toppings and cheese. Then it's more dough and repeat the process. It's almost like a lasagna. The big difference in how you cook this Priazzo, they have this thing called a heat pin. And it just looks like a flat piece of metal with a ton of spikes on the end. It's like trying to trust employees with that. And it just ends with Julie saying, that's some pie. And then it's just over. There's no final making it great. There's no overarching explanation of your job. Do we cook it the same way as we cook

Speaker 08:

pizza? Well, we use one of these heat pins to make sure all the ingredients are completely cooked. The heat pin helps make sure the heat is evenly distributed. But otherwise, the cooking procedure is the same. That's some pie. It's

Speaker 06:

literally the priazzo. Oh, that's a great pie. And then it's done. The Pizza Hut logo pops up. which I guess is good. It's 17 minutes, so I guess it keeps it concise. But I thought there was going to be more showing of the restaurant or the kitchen. Since this was just how to make the pizzas, I guess they did what it was supposed to do. So there you go. You learned how to make all these different pizzas from Pizza Hut, thanks to Julie and her annoying making it great, saying it all the time. Hopefully you're not drunk if you did the drinking game. And for those of you wondering, for those of you that voted for other things, as far as the training videos go for this podcast, I'm going to end up doing all of those anyway. Because I have so much fun watching these and kind of giving you my thoughts on them. But it doesn't matter what I thought. What did you think, Julie, about this video? Making it great. This week in history, you are bringing us back 30 years ago this week to June 27th, 1994, and the groundbreaking digital music download of Aerosmith's song, Head First. Today, digital downloads and streaming, that's everywhere, that's common, but there was a time that that was a brand new concept. In the early 1990s, the music industry was dominated by the physical formats. CDs, cassettes, vinyl records were still around. I don't think there were any 8-tracks still. But the concept of digital music, where songs could be stored and shared as computer files, that was in its infancy. I honestly don't think I downloaded any music until probably 1998. And even then, there was nothing I could do with it except listen to it on the computer in front of everyone. Because back then in the mid-1990s, that was a time when the internet connectivity was slow, dial-up modems, you can hear that sound of that Wi-Fi connection. The internet and the World Wide Web itself was a novelty for most people. But there was potential in digital music. It promised instant access to a vast library of songs without the need for physical storage. I mean, I've still got boxes of CD cases that I wish I didn't have. The Boston-based band Aerosmith, they're always ahead of the curve, and they saw an opportunity to leverage this new technology, partnering with CompuServe, who was one of the earliest internet service providers. They released a song called Head First as a free digital download to fans. Until I researched this, I had never heard of this song Head First. But that's beside the point. The release of Head First was innovative for several reasons. First was the accessibility. Because for the first time, fans could access new music instantly without having to drive to the store immediately. No going to Record Town or Coconuts or Newberry Comics or Strawberries. This was a direct-to-consumer approach, which was revolutionary. This was also a cost-effective distribution, so it was good for Aerosmith. It eliminated the costs associated with manufacturing and distributing physical media, which then made it possible to reach a global audience more efficiently and economically. This digital download release, it also offered a new way for artists to engage with their fans. It fostered a closer connection and generated a buzz for upcoming releases. Like I said, this is commonplace now, and it has been for going on 20 years. But in 1994, this was unheard of. But of course, when you're the first, you're the one that gets all the issues that have to be ironed out. And looking back, honestly, the headfirst release is often regarded as a failure. The first reason why, the biggest reason, was technical limitations. Because in 1994, internet speeds were extremely slow, and downloading a single song, even a small one, would take hours. So you have to figure, how badly do you want to listen to this new song? And going hand in hand with that was the limited reach, because the internet wasn't yet widely accessible. In 94, I didn't have access to it. That came in 1996. Most households didn't have internet connections, and those that did often had to contend with the limitations of the dial-up modem. God help you if you're downloading a song that's taking three hours and someone picks up the phone and shuts the computer off. But it wasn't just the access to the internet, it was also the infrastructure through CompuServe. Because they were a major player at the time, but they didn't have that infrastructure to handle a massive surge in traffic, which came with the people that wanted a free song from Aerosmith. This naturally led to a lot of technical difficulties, a poor user experience for many of the fans. But in the broader scope, While the headfirst digital download didn't achieve that immediate success that maybe Aerosmith and CompuServe had hoped for, it was a pioneering effort that foreshadowed all of this, the future of the music industry. A lot of artists followed Aerosmith's lead. And just think of all that came after 1994. Everything with digital music. Napster, iTunes, Spotify... So when you really look back, Head First wasn't a failure. It was a crucial stepping stone in the evolution of music distribution. Did any of you participate in that original digital download in 94? Well, we're going to leave that in the past because it's time for a brand new time capsule. This week, you have chosen that we go back 55 years ago to June 27th, 1969. Let's see what was going on in the world of pop culture back then. The number one song was Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet by Henry Mancini and his orchestra. The song is also known as A Time for Us. It stayed at number one for two weeks and is Henry Mancini's only number one song. If the name Henry Mancini sounds a little familiar to you, you might know his more famous song, which was the theme from the Pink Panther. But Mancini also won four Academy Awards and 20 Grammys. So even though he only had this one number one song, he was a big time player in the music industry. The number one movie was The Chairman. And you could get into the theater with a ticket costing $1.42. This is a spy film starring Gregory Peck, who goes into communist China to steal a formula for an experimental agricultural enzyme with enormous practical benefits. It made nearly $5 million on a budget of about $2.5 million, so it basically doubled its budget in returns. That being said, it has a 30% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so you be the judge of if you want to go watch The Chairman or not. The number one TV show was Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. This show has been mentioned a few times on the podcast in previous Time Capsule segments. Because I've mentioned it a few times, I was tempted to clip my old audio and just stick it in here, but I promise this is new stuff. This was a sketch comedy show, really revolutionary. It ran for six seasons from 1968 to 1973. Dan Rowan and Dick Martin and tons of people that went on to be famous, most notably Goldie Hawn. But there was also Lily Tomlin, Ruth Buzzi, the announcer Gary Owens, and tons more. And if you were around back then, June 27th, 1969, It's time for a fun Sunday shopping trip, but you want to save money? Well, you're in luck. It's time to head to Kmart. In their flyer, it says Kmart has bombshell deals. The best things I could find were something called a zoo sit-on, which is a cushion, but it's an animal's face. At least in the drawings of it in this flyer, it looks horrifying. There's an 8.5 foot by 11 foot rayon rug, which I will admit that I thought first said crayon rug. Like maybe something that kids could draw on. And there is something called an Orlon men's two-piece insulated and quilted suit. It's like a pencil drawing of what this is. I don't know if it's pajamas or if it's something you would actually wear outside. Any of you out there know what an Orlon quilted suit is? That'll wrap up another time capsule, another This Week in History. But now it's time to get hungry. I hope you've eaten before you're listening to this, because now we're going to look at the top five discontinued cereals. We'll see how many of these you remember eating. I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that I grew up in the golden age of cereals. I grew up in the 1980s, child of the 80s, teenager of the 90s. So it was the mid-80s when they started to take the word sugar out of cereal, but not the actual sugar. No lie, cereal is still one of my favorite things. My mother can tell you, there were times that I could eat a box of cereal, which I'm sure was cheap as far as making dinner for me. Just here's a box, eat it. But I don't know how healthy it was. I'd love to have those days now, go buy a box of cereal and just eat it all and not have to worry. Ah, but those days are gone. Through the annals of cereal history, which, you know, it goes back over a century, there have been a lot of classics that have come out and stayed. Corn Flakes, Wheaties, Rice Krispies, and then more modern ones, Frosted Flakes, Cocoa Puffs, Apple Jacks. I should just make this whole segment me just listing cereals. Well, it's going to be anyway, but I mean just random ones. But for all of those ones that came and stayed and became famous cereals, there were some that were here briefly and were gone. So what we're going to do right now is look at the top five discontinued cereals. It's almost like one-hit wonders. These really captured a moment, and then they were gone when the novelty wore off. As with most of these lists, there are some honorable mentions. and the top fives in no particular order. And I'm sure your list will not jive with mine because there's a lot that I had listed that I just started eliminating. I could have done a top 50, but that was not an option on Listener's Choice. Honorable mentions for discontinued cereals include Quisp, which was a space-themed cereal from Quaker Oats with a distinct saucer shape and sugary flavor. No way, sugar. There was E.T. Cereal through General Mills that obviously was in conjunction with the E.T. movie. It was about as successful as the E.T. video game. There was Pac-Man Cereal, also from General Mills and in conjunction with the video game. Ghost-shaped marshmallows, Pac-Man-shaped cereal. And the last honorable mention is Smurfberry Crunch. A fruity cereal from Post based on the Smurfs cartoon. Did you eat any of those? Quisp was around for more than a decade, so I think that you'd have the best opportunity for. But let's get into the actual top five discontinued cereals. Here we go. Starting with number one, Dunkin' Donuts cereal.

Speaker 01:

Introducing a big idea from a giant in the business, the world's smallest donuts. In new Dunkin' Donuts cereal, you get delicious, crunchy little donuts by the hundreds. All your favorite donut shapes.

Speaker 06:

Yes, the popular donut chain restaurant had its own cereal from 1988 to 1990. And this is the original Dunkin' Donuts cereal. They have re-released it, and I think you can find it some places in Walmart. But this is the original with Fred the Baker, the mascot of Dunkin' Donuts, on the box. This cereal was Puffs, and it was available in two different varieties, glazed and chocolate. You can find commercials for this cereal on YouTube. Their biggest claim to fame, I guess, when they were out was that you could send away for a Dunkin' Donuts duffel bag. I guess that would be kind of like a collector's item now. I mean, people bought those jumpsuits, right? The Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and the Super Bowl commercials. So I guess people would be in the market for a duffel bag. I never had Dunkin' Donuts cereal, but this next one I did. Number two, Nintendo cereal system. I mentioned this on the podcast way, way back in the archives. The cereal was out for a year, maybe a little more, 1988, 89. But that was right in my wheelhouse with playing Nintendo. So I saw the commercials and said, oh, we got to have that. It was a dual pack cereal. So two little bags inside the Ralston box. One bag was for Super Mario Brothers cereal. The other was for Legend of Zelda cereal. The box says that it has two artificial flavors, fruity and berry. So I didn't know that berry wasn't fruit and fruit wasn't berry. I remember this cereal being okay, but when it came down to it, I'd rather have a Nintendo or a Game Boy be playing the game than eating the cereal based on the game. Because I would think if a parent brought that home and said to the kid, I got you Nintendo and they're excited for the game console and then it's a Box of cereal, they'd be so mad. Number three is Crispy Critters.

Speaker 04:

The

Speaker 06:

cereal was from Post. It was actually around in the 1960s, the mid-60s. I remembered it coming back in the late 80s, 87, 88. And it had this stupid commercial. Hello, my name is Crispy. I don't remember if we ever got this cereal. My family wasn't rich growing up in the 1980s, but I do remember my mother and stepfather always being willing to try new cereals for all of us five kids. So I'm sure if we had asked for Crispy Critters, they would have gotten it. I guess the major difference in the relaunch of Crispy Critters in 1987 was that it was considered now a low-sugar cereal, but it had animal-shaped pieces to it. But the fact that it only lasted for like a year or so when it came back tells you that changing it to a low-sugar cereal did not work. Number four is C-3PO's.

Speaker 05:

Naturally,

Speaker 06:

this cereal is based on the Star Wars franchise, the droid C-3PO. It was from Kellogg's, and they were shaped like C-3PO's face as much as cereal can look like a face. Honey sweetened oats, so it was kind of like Honey Nut Cheerios, but C-3PO's face. An interesting thing about C-3PO's and maybe a reason why it only lasted for a couple of years was that they released it in 1984. So a year after Return of the Jedi came out and there wouldn't be a new Star Wars movie until 1999. So it's like they really didn't capitalize on the success of Star Wars. But of course, for me as a child back then, seven, eight years old, they had the classic commercials for C-3PO's. That feels like a cereal that they could relaunch at any time because now Star Wars is kind of just evergreen. There have been so many movies, so many animated series, offshoot movies. But I saved possibly the best for last and possibly the most dated for discontinued cereals. And that is number five, Mr. T cereal. Mr. T was, is an actor. He was hugely famous in the early 1980s for the A-Team, for Rocky III, for being part of the main event of the first WrestleMania. So naturally he needs his own cereal. How come they didn't make Knight Rider cereal? It was just a question for you. You might also remember that Mr. T's cereal was in Pee Wee's Big Adventure, when Pee Wee said, I pity the fool that doesn't eat my cereal. It was simple, corn and oat cereal from Quaker Oats, shaped like the letter T. There wasn't marshmallow mohawks or anything foolish like that. You might be surprised to know that this cereal lasted almost a decade. It came out in 1984 and was discontinued in 1993. It's like by that point, Mr. T was close to doing those 1-800 collect commercials, so he wasn't a really big star anymore. But there you have it, the top five discontinued cereals. Did you remember eating any of these? Like I said, the only one I remember having was Nintendo cereal. And there are so many that I left out that they'll probably be Discontinued Cereals Part 2. Because I didn't even get into OJ's or Ice Cream Cones or Rocky Road. And those are all just from the mid-80s. So thank you for voting for that one. That was a fun one to go through. But next up... Before the Now That's What I Call Music CD compilation, before mix CDs, before playlists, before mixtapes, there was the K-Tel vinyl album compilations. And if you've never heard of what they are, I'm going to tell you all about it coming up right now. Today in music, it's all about playlists, Spotify. You're able to basically take any song ever that you enjoy and put them all together to make a mix that is totally to your own personal taste. Before that, you can make mix CDs, get yourself a blank CD, stick it in your laptop or your dual CD recorder, and then go through your own collection of music and put together a mix as best you can to play in your or when you're outside with your Discman. Before that and back in my day, you can make mixed tapes, audio cassettes. If you had a dual cassette recorder, you were lucky. You could try to grab some songs off the radio and try to edit out the parts where the DJs talked over the music right up to when the lyrics start. But what did you do before then? Before the mid to late 1980s? Where did you get music compilations? Well, we're going to go way, way back in the day and look at where you got them from. As we look at K-Tel Records and their vinyl music compilations. I'll be honest, I didn't have much in the way of memories of K-Tel Records growing up. I kept seeing them in my compilations of old commercials that I like to watch after popping an edible. There'd be all these mix albums from K-Tel, and I said, that might be fun to talk about. K-Tel Records, they revolutionized how music was marketed and consumed during the 70s and 80s. You've heard me say it a couple of times. They were the precursor to the now-that's-what-I-call-music compilations. But going back, all the way back, K-Tel International was founded in 1962 by a man named Philip Kives. He was a Canadian entrepreneur known for his innovative approach to direct marketing. And what's crazy is K-Tel started as a kitchen gadgets company, with Kives selling his products through television infomercials. Their initial success was a non-stick frying pan, and that Success led to its expansion into other products which included music. It's weird, a kitchen gadgets company that gets into music compilations? It's like when Colgate Toothpaste started making frozen dinners. The idea that Kives had starting in the late 1960s was simple. It was compile the most popular songs of the time into one album and sell it directly to the consumers through TV advertising. Even though I've seen a lot of these K-Tel albums from the late 70s through the early 80s, their very first music compilation was 25 country hits from 1966. And this proved to be a massive success. Those of you that grew up in the 1970s likely remember these compilation albums and the commercials because they became a cultural phenomenon. Albums like 20 Power Hits, from 1971. It included songs from Elton John, Cat Stevens, and Electric Light Orchestra, ELO. There was also their album Superbad, which included more R&B hits. It had songs from Isaac Hayes, James Brown, The Shy Lights. Even if you didn't have these albums, if you were around at the time, you remember the vibrant TV commercials. It usually had snippets of each song. So you'd be like, oh, I love that song. I'm going to get that album. They were fast paced. They would have usually the scroll list of the songs. Whoever was the voiceover was so into the music they were sharing. And I guess their enthusiasm was deserved because this was something new. Compilation albums. So say the album had 12 to 14 songs from different people. If you had to spend... $17.99, $18.99 to get one album? Think of all the money you saved. These commercials back then, you could pay with check or money order or COD. Do they even do COD anymore, where you buy something and you pay it when it arrives at your door? Could you imagine ordering something from Amazon or getting a FedEx delivery of packages and having to pay for it when they showed up? How many of those would get stolen? K-Tel was the first mix makers. The content of the albums were meticulously curated. They had to negotiate licensing deals with all these record labels to get the most current and popular songs. The late 70s saw such albums as Sound Explosion, Music Express,

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Those

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started to mix rock, pop, soul, and disco. And as the 80s dawned, K-Tel records, they evolved as music evolved. They diversified their compilation albums to start bringing in new genres like new wave, punk, and hip-hop. This included albums like Rock 80. And this is an album, it's loaded with great songs from the time. Gary Newman's Cars, Blondie's One Way or Another, The Pretenders, Brass in Pocket, My Sharona by The Knack. This is one of the albums I'm kind of partial to, I think because this is my first memories of music are from 1980. But these compilation albums that were more tailored towards specific music genres, it would also depend on what you liked. You might not have liked Rock 80. You might have liked Breakdance, which this was one of their last big albums from 1984, and it included a poster inside of how to do certain breakdance moves, and it had breakdance music.

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They'd seen it in the movies. They'd seen it on the streets. When K-Tel made their big break with this one, Breakdance conquered the youth of the nation. A number one video, a top 20 album, and the video gave them their own personal screening of the biggest dance scenes from the worldwide hit movie, Breakdance.

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They were probably just as well known, K-Tel was, for their Solid Gold series. Solid Gold 60s, Solid Gold 70s, and then Solid Gold 80s. So it was a nostalgic journey through the greatest hits of the decades. Even as MTV became a huge thing in the early 80s, K-Tel embraced that. They started incorporating visual elements into their advertisements. So there'd be clips of these videos from these songs instead of Some random couple walking on the beach or some guy sitting on a swing. It would be the actual music video. And that kept their brand relevant, at least for a little while longer, and it attracted a younger audience. From its roots as a kitchen gadgets company, K-Tel's influence on the music industry during the 70s and 80s was huge. They made popular music more accessible. Instead of spending... $18, $20 on an album that you might like two songs on. You get an album that, well, you might not like all of them, but at least it's more tailored towards what you wanted. And they kind of revolutionized that direct-to-consumer sale. And you would see other companies kind of take that model on, like the Time Life music compilations. It's funny, I want to have more clips of these ads here, but because they've got all the music in there, I'm risking the copyright strikes. The direct-to-consumer sales idea was something different. Think about it. Those of you that grew up in the 70s and 80s, do you ever remember seeing K-Tel record compilations in any of those music stores? I don't remember ever seeing them in Strawberries or Newberry Comics. tape world, record town, or any of the other nostalgic ones that I can't remember right now. In a day and age, like I said, where you can make a Spotify playlist in three seconds and listen to any song you ever could imagine at your fingertips, it's hard for people that are younger to wrap your heads around the fact that this wasn't always the case. That music compilation albums were a huge deal. Thank you for watching. They combined savvy marketing techniques with an understanding of what consumers wanted. KTEL, the company, is still around. They actually became publicly traded, and during the dot-com bubble, saw their profits soar, but when the bubble burst, they almost went out of business. Interestingly, KTEL still makes lots of money. So even though they licensed a lot of songs for their compilation albums... They also bought the rights to a lot of songs. Songs like The Twist by Chubby Checker, What I Like About You by The Romantics, and Tutti Frutti by Little Richard, and a lot more. But they own the rights to them, so they get residual payments, and they get paid to license it out for commercials. Think about how many commercials What I Like About You has been in. And this also means that K-Tel gets money for digital songs. Amazon, iTunes, Spotify. So even though K-Tel hasn't released anything as far as compilations go in so long, they're making a good amount of money based on what they did in the 70s and 80s. If you're into that nostalgia, you can find vintage vinyl albums of these compilations. eBay, Amazon... Or you can just find the set list and just make your own playlist on Spotify for a lot cheaper. But that's it. The story of K-Tel and their music compilations. But until next time, that's going to wrap up episode 150. Listener's choice of the podcast. I'm going to toast to all of you. Energy drink is flowing. I promise those are always one take when I pop that. So if it ever explodes, which is what I worry about, I will keep it in. I won't edit it out. 150 episodes. Thank you so much to everybody who's been listening since day one, or if today is day one for you. You got to understand what a labor of love this is, how much I enjoy creating content to share with you. It's been all part of the same road since I was eight years old and wanted to be a writer. It was the creation that I really enjoyed. And I hope that you can see, hear the effort that I put into these. All of the research, the notes, the recording, the editing, the marketing. I'm a one-man show. And I think it'll probably stay that way because I have trouble giving up control because I created this all from my own mind. And even though I transitioned into a nostalgia-based podcast along the way, it was still all choices from my mind, decisions I made. So I'd never want to hand over even a part of the control. And I'll keep pumping out these episodes as regularly as I can. Remember, it started, it was every other week. Then it was three weeks on, one week off. Then it was three weeks of full-length episodes, and then a bonus episode. And now it just goes and goes. There's never an off-season. But I love it. There's always that anticipation when a new podcast drops. I'm always hoping that it's worthy of those that listen, worthy of taking a chance on. So again, thank you all so much. If you're not sick of me yet, if you're still here, thanks again. If you're interested in any of my nine books, check out my website, ChristopherSetterlin.com. Coming up in a few weeks, I'm going to do a special bonus podcast episode about the 50th anniversary of the Lady of the Dunes murder case. I've been working on it a lot. It's essentially what I do in my events, my book events, for searching for the Lady of the Dunes. And I'll try to make a video out of it as well using my PowerPoint presentation. The Lady of the Dunes, that whole... I wanted to take a moment here to wish a special happy birthday to an old friend, Meg. Her birthday literally comes today when the podcast goes live. She is someone that became a really good friend during my early days of cooking, but way beyond cooking, way beyond working together. She became a really great friend to know outside of there, a great confidant, someone that I really enjoyed spending a lot of time with. And sadly, as it goes with some of the people that I've mentioned on the show before, as time goes, people drift apart. I'm not great at staying in touch, but then again, phones work both ways. But I never forget those who made such a huge positive impact on my life. So I wanted to wish her happy birthday. I will not mention her age. That's not nice. And I hope this one is the best one yet. It's funny, when I do my shows, I have notes for pretty much everything. But the closing part here is usually pretty much I wing it. So I do a lot of pausing and thinking like, oh, who else do I want to shout out? What projects do I have coming up? What am I forgetting? So I almost forgot that next week coming up will be episode 151. It's going to be part two of the look back at 1994, the year in music. If you want to listen to part one of that 1994 year in review and music, go back to episode 130. Wherever you are, I hope that the weather is great. I hope you're having the best time possible. If you're sitting in your backyard, sipping an iced tea, listening to this show, or running on the treadmill listening, which I don't think my voice will help you go any faster, do your best to enjoy what you've got. Time outside, people you're with. All that stuff is good for your mental health. And we'll end it the way that I've ended so many episodes. The funny thing is this closing line of mine never intended to be kind of my show closer. I'd have to go back and find when the first episode was that I said it, but I'll say it here. Remember, in this life, don't walk in anyone else's footsteps. Create your own path and enjoy every moment you can on this journey we call life because you never know what tomorrow brings. Thank you for listening. Thank you for voting. This has been Listener's Choice, the In My Footsteps podcast, episode 150. I am Christopher Setterlund. You already knew that. And I'll talk to you all again soon.

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