Don't Eat the Brown 'Special Sauce'
scrubbles links to this marvelous essay on the bizarre alternate universe of old McDonald's commercials. The download times on some of these clips are pretty long, but definitely worth it, if only for the incredibly cheesy faux-psychedelic theme song that sounds like a bunch of hippies tripping on some mellow acid, the (ripped-off?) Sid and Marty Krofft ouevre, and Ronald McDonald with a giant 'fro. I'm not exactly lovin' it, but I am feeling very close to it in a platonic sort of way.
Bonus: TV Acres provides this helpful map of McDonaldLand for those of us too stoned to find the Hamburglar House.
Comments
The link to the McDonaldLand map is broken. The essay is a pretty fine thing, though. As it implies, it's difficult to find a thematic base which will resonate with kids who are not from the 1970s. Ronald McDonald now stands for "eating food and meeting people," aims which are as genetic as breathing. The obvious inversion would be a distinct improvement -- perhaps Tim Burton could direct.
Posted by: Jonathan K. Cohen | June 11, 2005 7:35 PM
Yep, McDonalds originally approached Sid and Marty Krofft to make the McDonaldland characters. They declined the offer and McDonalds went ahead and made them as Krofft-like as possible, so Sid and Marty sued. I think they ended up settling out of court.
Posted by: Matt | June 11, 2005 8:31 PM
The link works fine for me, Jonathan. So the obvious inversion would be "meeting food and eating people?"
Works for me, but hasn't Eating Raoul already covered that territory?
Matt, thanks for the info. I figured McDonaldland had to be plagiarizing the Kroffts somehow; the similarities were just too obvious.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 11, 2005 8:58 PM