How many of us have begun a conversation with our kids and/or grandkids, with the words, “When I was your age…,” or “Back in my day…” and have “heard” the eyes roll in the faces of those to whom we are speaking? My generation is a very nostalgic one. We love the old B & W television shows, we listen to 50’s on 5 and 60s on 6 on Sirius Radio, we often recall our younger days, remember school days of our youth, and we rarely get tired of telling stories of our growing up, so I guess describing our generation as being a nostalgic group is fairly accurate.

Part of the nostalgia of watching television “back in my day” was remembering the theme songs and intros of TV shows. Many of us still whistle the opening of the Andy Griffith Show, or whistle/hum the beginning of I Love Lucy, or remember the shootout at the beginning of Gunsmoke. How many of us remember the movements of Ed Sullivan as he introduced acts on his show? How many remember the ringing of the telephone signaling the beginning of the Donna Reed Show? And while we’re on the subject of television nostalgia, does anyone else feel that the commercials “back in our day” were much more entertaining than the ones shown today? About ten years into Super Bowls, before the now overblown and “Eh?” halftime shows, (sorry, most of them don’t do much for me) many people ran to their bathrooms before halftime, so they could get back fast and not miss the much anticipated creative and funny commercials. Lately, the commercials aren’t that funny (and sometimes you don’t even know what they are advertising), the halftime shows don’t move me (but thumbs up on the Paul McCartney 2005 show), so I don’t have to sacrifice gametime to rush to the restroom before being disappointed at halftime.

How many remember the creativity and humor of Clara Pella’s wonderment of ‘Where’s the Beef,” or the big question of the Bud Light guy asking “Whaaaaaaaaassssup?” Who can recall Jack Somack’s heartburn review of that “Spicy, Spicy Meatball” in his search of some Alka-Seltzer? Remember the hilarity of the 1970s Miller Lite “Taste Great/Less Filling” Celebrity ads, or the soft, emotional, good feelings given us by Budweiser and their Clydesdales? As are many things recollected from my generation, they are “gone, but not forgotten.”

I kind of find many of today’s ads irritating, and I keep the remote close at hand, so I can switch channels during the breaks in programming. With the exception of a very, very few Geico Commercials, I find most Insurance Commercials ridiculously (I’m not allowed to say stupid in Miss Sally’s house, so insert dumb, unintelligent, unfunny or unmoving, oh heck, let’s just say) stupid.

They remade the Miller Lite commercials and the new ones with Luke Wilson and various celebrities are very annoying. Commercials for new medicines on the market can’t be advertised in the “old” thirty or sixty second timeslots, as listing all the afflictions you might have that would be a possible danger if we took their product with any of those afflictions, needs way more than 30 or 60 seconds. And how about the Car Shield commercials starring Ice-T and Vivica A. Fox? Does anyone, besides me, hope you have to use the bathroom when they come on the air? And has anyone, besides me, had enough of Joe Namath’s Medicare “Call this Number” ads, or his Hearing Aid (pardon the pun) plugs? Someone should remember how bad he was endorsing (and wearing) Panty Hose. Not pretty, Not cool!

What happened to the jingles or taglines, we loved singing along with, or saying, when they came on to advertise? Remember Farfle the Dog’s “N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestle’s makes the very best, Chocolate?” How about the animated kid wearing the Train Engineer’s hat singing the story of Choo-Choo Charlie who used Good-n-Plenty to make his train run? Does anyone remember the kid crying out, “I want my Maypo,” or the beaver singing the Ipana Toothpaste jingle, or the handsome, dark haired young man singing the praises of Brylcreem?

Anybody recall the Ho-Ho-Ho Green Giant teaching the Little Green Sprout about eating his vegetables, or the little girl who “hailped” her mommy make the oven baked fried chicken using Shake-n-Bake? Who remembers Madge the Manicurist soaking clients’ fingers in Palmolive Dish Soap, Josephine the Plumber scouring sinks and the bathtubs with Comet Cleanser, the lonely Maytag Repairman, John Cameron Swayze’s “Takes a licking, but keeps on ticking,”, John Houseman’s “…they EARN it,”, Speedy’s “Plop, plop, fizz, fizz,” or having breakfast with Aunt Jemima, Mrs. Butterworth, and all of the talking characters found on the boxes of kids’ favorite breakfast cereals? (You could say that “They’re Grrrreat!”)

There are very, very few of today’s commercials that will ever make me remember them twenty years from now, and it isn’t because I’ll be in my nineties then. I just find most of today’s commercials (and this is just my opinion) unfunny, dumb, irritating, uninspiring, and uninviting. You might say most of them give me Excedrin Headache Number Ad Infinitum.