Local Connecticut Commercials Month came to a close on Sunday. In my announcement on November 1st, I explained that it was an attempt to “discuss local television in a way that will be interesting to those who aren’t locals.” My hope was that even though the specific commercials wouldn’t be recognizable to most, the types of commercials (car dealerships, restaurants, stores, etc.) would spark discussion about commercials in other parts of the country.
Based on site statistics, comments and feedback via e-mail, the entire project was a bust. Many of the commercials were only watched by a few people and some, it seems, have not been viewed at all.
(It certainly didn’t help that throughout November, Television Obscurities was incredibly slow to load due to issues with my webhost.)
Here’s a complete list of the commercials posted during Local Connecticut Commercials Month:
November 2013: Local Connecticut Commercials Month
November 1st: Timex of Torrington Commercial
November 2nd: Matzkin Furniture Company Commercial
November 3rd: Concerts at the Hartford Civic Center Commercial
November 4th: San Marino Restaurant Commercial
November 5th: Steering Wheel Casino Showroom Commercial
November 6th: Ringling Bros. Circus Commercial
November 7th: Glastonbury Jewelers Commercial
November 8th: Coors Light Motor Spectacular Commercial
November 9th: Lee’s Discount Liquors Commercial
November 10th: Valenti Chevrolet Commercial
November 11th: ConnectiCare Commercial
November 12th: Hartford Technical Institute Commercial
November 13th: Balch of East Windsor Commercial
November 14th: Derouin’s Florist Christmas Shop Commercial
November 15th: Connecticut Lotto Commercial
November 16th: Stephen World of Wheels Suzuki Commercial
November 17th: ZZ Top in Concert Commercial
November 18th: Schaller Subaru Commercial
November 19th: Dan Perkins Chevrolet Commercial
November 20th: Shaker’s Lincoln Mercury Commercial
November 21st: Seaview Subaru Commercial
November 22nd: YZ 92.5 $1000 Thursday Commercial
November 23rd: Savitt Jewelers Commercial
November 24th: Grantmoor Motor Lodge Commercial
November 25th: Steering Wheel Larry Linville Commercial
November 26th: Harold’s of New Haven Commercial
November 27th: G. Fox Bissell Commercial
November 28th: Connecticut Lottery Win for Life Commercial
November 29th: Action Sports Thanksgiving Sale Commercial
November 30th: Valenti Chevrolet Commercial
The most popular of the commercials was the Coors Light Motor Spectacular Commercial posted on November 8th. My personal favorites are the YZ 92.5 $1000 Thursday Commercial and the Savitt Jewelers Commercial.
In the future, if I try something like this again (I’ve been toying with posting local station identifications and local news promotional spots), it won’t last longer than a week. A month is just too long.
This was an interesting experiment in the obscurities associated with local television.
One aspect of local television that once existed but is now gone with the times is the franchised format local program, what I used to term as the syndicated wraparound program. A few examples of this were ‘Dialling for Dollars’ (essentially a local talkshow where viewers could be dialled at anytime), ‘Bowling for Dollars’ (local bowling coverage) and ‘Bozo the Clown’ (a local clown variety show, aired under a wide variety of names). Before the airwaves became cluttered with the plethora of nationally syndicated talkshows and judge shows, these series were staples of local television, and often worked in companionship with local news, weather and sports programming.
It would be interesting at some point to look at some found Kinescopes or tapes of some of these broadcasts, and to learn some of the behind-the-scenes insights that your research typically uncovers.
I end by noting that Mr. Fred Silverman essentially built his career and reputation in the sixties around building innovative, successful local programming when he was director of program development at WGN Chicago. His programs were truly breakthrough, very highly-rated and there have been very few local station mavericks since then. The only one I can think of is Mr. Moses Znaimer and all that he built up with City-tv in Toronto with much the same genius for local programming that Mr. Silverman also possesses.