So it looks like Disney Plus has revived a Mouseketeers special from the 1970s (via Gizmodo) because Gen X deserves to wallow in nostalgia once in a while. But! Not only is the 60-minute promotional show The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World available to stream, but all the commercials that aired during the original 1977 broadcast are in there as well.
Credit to artist / director Rob Sheridan for the discovery, which he posted on Twitter. Shake ‘n Bake, man. We didn’t know how good we had it. “I wish all archival TV streaming content up through the 90s was presented with the original commercials and badly dubbed from VHS, it’s such a more authentic cultural preservation,” Sheridan tweeted. Amen to that.
If you have Disney+, search for “The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World” TV special from 1977, which appears to have accidentally been digitized from a VHS TV recording, complete with analog glitches and all the original weird 70s TV commercials. pic.twitter.com/R7ZZq9SSJL
— Rob Sheridan Wears A Mask ◾️ #BLM #ArtIsResistance (@rob_sheridan) August 23, 2020
Why the commercials are still included in what looks to be a digitized copy of a VHS tape is anyone’s guess, but we reached out to Disney to ask if it was intentional. In case it was not and they eventually take the old (not sure they qualify as “vintage”) commercials out, we grabbed a few screenshots so you can relive the corduroy-clad glory that was the 1970s.
Look at those beautiful graphics. This is what we had in lieu of special effects; we admittedly didn’t realize how clunky they would appear years later.
Gizmodo describes the show where the commercials appear as centering around some hijinks at Walt Disney World in Florida, with the Mickey Mouse Club Kids highlighting the attractions at the park via a relatively thin plot. In addition to ads for Shake ‘n Bake and that sweet V8 diesel Chevy pickup (sorry environment!), there are spots for Tonka toys and the Canon G-III film camera.
Honestly, I would love to see more old shows from the ‘70s and ‘80s appear with original commercials intact, if only to relive the feathered hair, sideburns, mustaches, and other fashion disasters we all managed to live through.