NOT MURDER: Flintstones Vitamins, David Duchovny, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer

We're taking a trip down memory lane, spilling the beans on the public outcry that led to Betty Rubble's vitamin debut. Then there's a song by Bree Sharp that unexpectedly became a time capsule for the 90s as well as a tribute to Agent Mulder himself--David Duchovny. And for anyone who was (and maybe still is) obsessed with all things Buffy, we chat about Sarah Michelle Gellar's beginning stardom. It's a nostalgic episode filled with quirky tales from the past—sure to satisfy your thirst for trivia!

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Buzzfeed UK. Sarah Michelle Gellar Reacts to Her Most Iconic Roles. https://youtu.be/uY3ABVIJoLU?si=EgOvMp9B7WJc4IJl. 3 Feb 2023.
Brodsky, Rachel. We’ve Got a File on You: David Duchovny. stereogum.com. 11 Aug 2021.
Eloise, Marianne. That time Scully made Mulder a lip sync video in the 90s. dazeddigital.com. 26 Sep 2017.
Grimm, David. Pro-vitamin Betty fans want her out of the rubble and into the bottle. latimes.com. 4 May 1995.
Minotta, Mauricio. “You can bite into Betty.” The Kokomo Tribune. December 1, 1995.
McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez. A Brief History of Flintstones Vitamins. mentalfloss.com. 21 Oct 2010.
Bree Sharp performs “David Duchovny” live in front of David Duchovny in New York. https://youtu.be/elYq4I-4TQI?si=y3oghDsper3VDDDj. 11 Feb 2015.

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Transcript

Julia Goodwin: 0:00

Hi everyone. This is Julia, and murder is bad, so let's not talk about it today. It can be rather upsetting only consuming true crime, and for every episode I put out I've researched probably four or five, and at times it can be taxing because I'm also consuming true crime through other podcasts, as I'm sure you are, and this week I just needed a palette cleanser. So if you're looking for moida, you ain't gonna find it kid. What you will find is a lovely compilation of one of my other favorite pet passions, which is random things from the 90s that most people have forgotten about. So yeah, if that sounds interesting to you, then stick around. If not, I'll see you next week. All right, here we go. We all know what Flintstones vitamins are. Flintstones problematic children's programming vitamins problematic health supplement. But let's back it up a little bit. When the Flintstones aired, it actually took the 830 to 9pm slot on ABC. It was supposed to be like a Stone Age honeymooners for adults, but it actually turned out to be very popular with teens. So it kind of had this effect on children's programming where they moved away from live action programming like puppets and things like that towards more animated things. The Flintstones moved into syndication in 1966, and then Miles Laboratory, which Elkhart, Indiana, or was, acquired the branding to make these Flintstones vitamins, which came on the market, I think in 1969, some places as 1968. So that kind of sets the stage. Now Miles Laboratory actually was acquired by the German company Bayer in 1979, and we see the commercialization.

Julia Goodwin: 2:54

You guys know the jingle probably. It was written by, oh gosh, martin O'Donnell, who also did the music for Halo. Just interesting little tidbit. But here's the jingle we are Flintstones, kids, 10 million stars, flintstones with the vitamins and minerals kids need and the taste they love. Now, that's what I call complete and growling. And so you would think the Flintstones vitamins would contain all the main characters, wouldn't you? Well, you'd be wrong, because there was a very important character missing, pardon me. The name is Betty, your wife. Oh, you must remember. You know, with the meals, washing, keeping the house clean, think hard, it'll come to you. Oh, betty, there, I doubt you would remember. Oh, cut it out, betty, that's right, there was no Betty. And Miles Laboratory did get a few complaints over the years, but by the time this quote unquote controversy peaked, miles had been absorbed by Bear.

Julia Goodwin: 4:16

So the whole thing that kind of reinvigorated this mystery is that Rosie O'Donnell played Betty Rubble in the live action Flintstones in 1994. She starred opposite Rick Moranis of Little Shop of Horrors fame, I think, a Ghostbusters movies Keymaster kind of thing and a DVD that I watched in my room several times my Blue Heaven. There was also John Goodman and Rita Wilson, who is the wife of Tom Hanks. I can't mention Rita Wilson without mentioning Tom Hanks, because my mother would kill me. She went to go see Rita Wilson when she was doing country music stuff and she told me I thought I felt that Tom Hanks was there that night and then she heard on the radio the next day he had been there. I love you mom. I don't know if she's listening, she is, she listens to everything. Anyways, the Flintstones movies comes out.

Julia Goodwin: 5:20

Rosie O'Donnell does an interview with Connie Chung on this news magazine program called Eye to Eye and tells Connie there's no Betty vitamin. This causes Spy magazine to do an article about it. Then something called the Betty Club in Grants Pass, oregon gets all in a hubbub about it and even an Atlanta, Georgia band forms called Betty's Not a Vitamin. Paste magazine called it one of the top 100 band names. A bare spokeswoman, karen LaZan, said this public outcry has made us rethink the original decision. If America wants her, we'll put Betty in a bottle, which, when you put it that way, doesn't sound like a good thing. Also, in some articles that you're talking about, like now, you can bite Betty Like oh gosh. So the whole reason for Betty not being there is kind of vague. But I think the real reason is that she was too similar once you shrunk them down to vitamin size to Wilma and Bayer was like kids, like different shapes.

Julia Goodwin: 6:43

Also, something comes out about. They tried to make a Betty but her waist was just too small. The vitamin kept breaking in half. Well, I think that's a problem with her waist size. I'm just saying maybe cartoon characters shouldn't be created to have a non-existent waist. But that's a different conversation.

Julia Goodwin: 7:06

But before they just go put Betty in a bottle, marketing happens. They put up some original voting booths and shopping malls and put out a 1-800 number for people to call and vote if they wanted Betty to be a vitamin. There was 20,000 votes between those two things and 91% were in favor. What is the 9% doing? What is up with you? Who are you? But Betty finally gets to be a vitamin January 1st 1996. I've never seen them so excited about something that you couldn't spread an I&A's on. And of course they don't skip a beat when it comes to oh. But you know, we have a bunch of bottles that don't have Betty. You know what they do. They come up with a campaign of a find Betty. So some bottles have Betty and some bottles don't. Smart, super smart Moneymakers. They've done this before.

Julia Goodwin: 8:17

But if we're talking about Rosie O'Donnell, we have to talk about something that happened at the end of the 90s, because Rosie O'Donnell was in a tribute video to David Duchovny for his birthday. Now, in 1999, a musician named Bree Sharp recorded a song titled David DeCovney why won't you love me, I Around. The same time, david Covney's friend, joe Blake, was working on a mockumentary about country music and was going through hours and hours and eons of music and found this David de Covney song and sent it to him and David de Covney Really liked it Not in an egotistical way, or maybe he did like you deserve that, but he thought was really catchy and he would listen to it. He ended up memorizing it and in this reddit AMA he actually said he got caught singing along to this song while his windows were down and he kind of just sped away. So the song is out there and a couple different versions of this story come out and In one version Gillian Anderson kind of spearheads making a video for David Gillian Anderson, his co-star in X files, you know, skully and Mulder.

Julia Goodwin: 10:19

And Another version says that the creator of the show, chris Carter, david showed it to him and then it was his idea, or maybe it was a combination of both, but they were gonna make him this video using this song and they wanted to give it to him as a present. They got permission from Bree Sharp and had two writers, assistants, just go around the film lot of X files and you know other stuff is filming there too Century Fox, I think and Just ask people if they wanted to be in this video. A quote from David Covney said they went out and whoever they got, they just said we're doing this as a present for David, will you do it? And whoever did it did it. So they got a bunch of people. Okay, they were like on the set of Frasier. There was David Spade, janine Garofalo and even Brad Pitt dressed as Tyler Durden on the site of Fight Club said. Being that, they got some good people.

Julia Goodwin: 11:26

My great friend, gary Shandling, is in it, with Kevin Nealon and people that I'm very close to, as well as people I didn't know and never met, and people that I've worked with, like Brad. So a little while After the video is made and given to David to Covney at Christmas time he loves it, obviously he's walking down the streets of New York and a woman comes running up to him and is like I'm Bree Sharp and he's like oh my gosh, I love that music that you made. I'm so flattered. And they kind of stay in touch. And in 2015, david De Covney is releasing a book Holy Cow and Bree just happens to text him or call him around that time and he's just like oh, you know what? Why don't you come to a reading I'm doing for Holy Cow and seeing this David De Covney song? And she was like yeah, sure, so then that happens.

Julia Goodwin: 12:30

Bree says the whole point of this video is that it's so random and so funny. That's why I think it's sort of has this like underground status now, because it's completely bizarre and makes no sense. It's pop culture in action. Do you know who else is in this video? There's a part of the song that says I'm gonna kill Scully, who lip syncs that Sarah Michelle Gellar on the set of Buffy holding a stake in the library Saying I'm gonna kill Scully.

Julia Goodwin: 13:08

Which brings us to my last little tangent, which I remember reading from an unauthorized Authorized watchers guide I got from Barnes and Noble about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There was a story and Sarah Michelle Gellar actually has recently talked about the same story. So let me stop being cryptic and just tell you she was a five-year-old girl who got cast in a Burger King commercial. In the commercial she mentions McDonald's and this leads to McDonald's suing the advertising agency Burger King and naming five-year-old Sarah Michelle Gellar in the lawsuit. I look 20% smaller to you. I must to McDonald's. When I order a regular burger at McDonald's they make it with 20% less meat than Burger King Unbelievable.

Julia Goodwin: 14:14

In a YouTube video from Buzzfeed UK, sarah Michelle Gellar says that all she kind of remembered about that time is that she wasn't eating a lot of fast food and she was so excited because her mom said she could have a burger when she was on the set. Quote and what I learned on that day is that when they make the burgers for commercials they glue each seed on it to make it look all perfect and beautiful, and then they shellack it and they paint it. You guys, tv is not real. I love Sarah Michelle Gellar. She also said that while the lawsuit was going on she wasn't allowed to go to McDonald's. It wasn't like a ban, but just outward facing publicity, and at that time a bunch of kids are having their birthday parties at McDonald's. So she missed out on a lot of Apple pies. But after the lawsuit turns out now you're allowed to say your competitor's name. So when you see a side by side comparison, that's all because Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Julia Goodwin: 15:27

That has been my random 90s rant. I hope you enjoyed it. I will get back to true crime next episode. I just needed a bit of a breather and I hope you enjoyed it too. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you to the 90s, thank you to David DeCovney and Rosie O'Donnell and Sarah Michelle Geller, and just thanks to the universe for making weird history a thing people like to revisit.

Julia Goodwin: 16:06

If you'd like to see images related to this episode, you can go over to the @murderisbadpodcast murderisbadpodcast. Feel free to comment, strike up a conversation If you want to send me a DM about a case you're interested in or if you just want to say hello, I would love that. If you're feeling generous, why don't you hit the five star rating on the app you're listening to? You could even leave a little nice review. That would be lovely. I would appreciate it. What I appreciate the most, though, is you listening and sharing with someone who you think might enjoy this. So take care of each other and remember murder is bad and sometimes we need a break from it.