Saturday Supercade Segment 1: Pizza Hut (w/ Art and CM Chuck)

What’s up, dudes? Remember craving pizza, video games, and music in an atmospheric setting? Yep, Art Kilmer from A Cozy Christmas and Bookshelf Odyssey, CM Chuck from Just Another Friday Night and I talk Pizza Hut! There were Tiffany lamps, jukeboxes, and arcade table tops! Oh my! Don’t forget the tasty pizza and breadsticks!

And promotions? Oh, they had a ton! Book It, Solar Shades, “The Land Before Time” puppets! There were X-Men VHS tapes, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coming Out of Our Shells cassette tapes, and Care Bears merch! There were even Pizza Hut gift certificates which made for amazing gifts! We get into all of it, even some Christmas Commercials! Martin Mull and Rita Moreno do their best improv to entice your taste buds! And who can forget the catchy “Pizza Hut pizza to go” jingle? Of course, it also showed us the way to delicious awesomeness when we’re sick and tired of leftovers!

I don’t know about you, but I’m hungry already! So order a Meat Lovers, a Supreme, or even a ham and pineapple if you’re into it, grab a cold pitcher, turn down the lights, and dig this rad episode!

A Cozy Christmas
FB: @cozychristmaspodcast
IG: @cozychristmaspodcast
Twitter: @CozyXmasPod

Just Another Friday Night
YouTube: @JAFNpodcast
FB: @JAFNpodcast
Twitter: @JAFNpodcast
IG: @jafnpodcast

Check us out on Facebook, Twitter,  Instagram,  Totally Rad Christmas Mall & Arcade, Teepublic.com, or TotallyRadChristmas.com!  Later, dudes!

Transcript

SPEAKER_17 0:00

Pizza Hut Pan Pizza is a special way to warm the busy holiday season. We're talking Pizza Hut, hit it. Bob Ross showed us the joy of painting, and Pizza Hut was a whole experience of games, tunes, atmosphere, and tasty toppings. I'm your host, Jerry D with another episode of Totally Rad Christmas, the podcast that talks all things Christmas in the 80s, toys, movies, specials, music, and fads. If it was gnarly during Christmas in the 80s, we got it covered. Now joining me are two Totally Rad Christmas All-Stars. From the Gnarly A Cozy Christmas podcast, it's Art Kilmer. Art, how's it going? Well, I'm hungry tonight, Jerry. So I hope you brought that pizza. It could be it could be a bad thing, but you know, we're not alone to talk about to be hungry here. From the bodacious Just Another Friday night podcast, it's CM Chuck. Chuck, what's going down, man?

SPEAKER_09 1:35

What is going on, my friends? Doing okay, much like art, where I am also getting the hunger vibes big time.

SPEAKER_17 1:43

You know, I I've always loved pizza. Pizza's been like a family, a Davy La family staple for like the as long as I can remember. We'd have it at least once a week, sometimes twice a week, which is crazy. But you know, Pizza Hut was like one of the first pizza places there in Edinburgh, you know, in the in the Rio Grande Valley. And my parents would go to it when they were in college, and so you know, they would just walk across the street, eat a pizza hut. So that was like our place, you know, it was like like like Pizza Hut.

SPEAKER_08 2:15

After a day of battling on the front lines, the last thing you need is kitchen duty. So tonight, on your way home, stop off at Pizza Hut and pick up a hot, delicious Pizza Hut pizza to go. And at the same time, go back to the future for a great stocking stuffer. Now bring the future back as a Christmas present. Buy a Pizza Hut pizza and get a pair of solar shades for only a dollar ninety nine. But hurry, they're going like there's no tomorrow.

SPEAKER_17 2:42

But like, what's your uh general experience in history with pizza and pizza hut? Who wants to go first here?

SPEAKER_09 2:49

I'll let you go, Art.

SPEAKER_16 2:50

Okay. All right. Yeah, I I can remember in the 80s, you know, when I was real young, we lived in Illinois at the time, and there was a pizza hut there in town, and we'd go, feels like for just a you know, a special night or something on a Friday night, whatever, go out as a family for pizza. And it was a big deal. My dad worked a lot, and so he wasn't always there, but you know, those times when we could do it all together as a family were were really very memorable. So yeah, a lot of color, the color scheme, the just different sounds, smells. Boy, that just takes me right back. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_09 3:29

Dude, yeah, totally the same. I mean, you know, Jerry, you sent me those couple of articles, and I was like literally getting like teary-eyed during that first one. I was like, What the freak? Am I crying over pizza? You guys' stories are similar to my own. You know, I grew up on a military base, uh, you know, my dad was in the Marine Corps, yeah. And so, you know, the place that we're gonna thank for service, by the way.

SPEAKER_17 3:52

Sorry.

SPEAKER_09 3:53

Oh, yeah, thank you, man. I appreciate that. Yeah, and the the kind of the place in my life I remember kind of being old enough to appreciate just stuff in general, was you know, the late 80s and us being in a small town in Southern California called 29 Palms, where literally the only thing that there was was the military base and then like one street, like literally like a main drag, and that was it. And I cannot remember if it was on the base or off, but the one place that we would go, you know, military, you get paid twice a month, the first and the 15th. When dad got paid, wait till Friday, and we're gonna go out to eat. And nine times out of 10, what did we want? Me and my sister, and she was little then, you know what I mean? But it would be pizza, and we'd go to Pizza Hut. And dude, just like those pictures in that article, it was like I felt my memory get so triggered, I was like, Oh my gosh, exactly. Like, I can't smell pizza, you know.

SPEAKER_17 4:42

Yeah, yeah. It's it's funny because you know, you mentioned the color scheme and and and the whole atmosphere, and it really was. It was like because they use low wattage bulbs, it was like dark, you know, and then they had like their special, their their special it was almost like a what a Tiffany shade or something, yeah, almost stained glass is what it reminded me of. Yeah, yeah, and but it was like their own, and so it was just it was dark, and I remember the booths and same thing with you know, going over those articles, it reminded me, but like the booths were like really, really tall, you know, and and we were younger, so I mean we weren't like grown, and so they felt even taller, you know.

SPEAKER_04 5:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 5:25

But I mean, it was like that, plus the jukebox was on, usually, you know, people would would pay to to to put on some songs, and forgot about that one, yeah. I mean, it was just and if you were good, then maybe after after you ate, you could go play video games. I mean, it was like it was cool, man. It was like a place to be, and then of course the pizza was was pretty rad.

SPEAKER_09 5:45

Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. I know that some of the stuff I was reading through was specifically talking about the pan, and I can like I I always gripe about this now with their pizza, and maybe we were just younger and it wasn't the same, but yeah, um, you know, or you know, when you're kind of a kid, everything tastes good, right? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_17 6:03

Well, you're right about that, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 6:05

There being this specific like crunch to the pan pizza, like when you'd get down to the crust part, it would just and that buttery bottom. I mean, like it really was great pizza, you know. But but the ambiance definitely meant I really felt like they were trying to capture that like local pizza parlor vibe, and when there was no pizza in town, they kind of were the local pizza parlor.

SPEAKER_17 6:27

Yeah, pretty much, yeah, yeah. When did you uh move to San Antonio? Chuck.

SPEAKER_09 6:33

Uh we got here, my dad got out in '93.

SPEAKER_17 6:36

Okay, okay. So I'm trying to I'm trying to picture because I I don't remember going to San Antonio that often until like the the 90s, although we would go every once in a while. But in the valley, you know, in Edinburgh, I mean, we had like the Pizza Hut, and that was like it, you know, and then eventually we got another one. It was like, oh, okay. And then other ones started coming in, like dominoes and you know, little Caesars and all that stuff. But you know, for the longest time growing up, it was like Pizza Hut was our thing. We you know, and and I same thing, Art, we'd like to make it a trip where you know, like my parents would take our brothers and I, and it was just there was something special about it because I mean it was like ooh, we're we're going to eat at the Pizza Hut, you know. And uh nowadays it's funny because like it's you know, it's really no big deal, but I mean it just it felt like it was so cool. We were going to eat there, and and it was almost like a like a restaurant, restaurant, you know, like like a sit-down place, like like Applebee's or or chilies or something, rather than you know, just a little pizza joint, which when you think about it is what it really was. But I mean, it was just there with the there was just something different about it, you know.

SPEAKER_09 7:44

No, for sure, for sure. I definitely agree that it had that vibe to it because it was kind of like a you know, there in in 29 Palms, California, there wasn't much, and to get to anywhere nearby may be a 20-minute drive. So I'm really thinking as I think about it more, it was off base because the only thing I remember on base now that I think about it was a Burger King that was like a fully fledged restaurant. Now there were like these, like the B in the in the Marines, it's PX, not BX, like it is on the Air Force bases. But you go there, they have these food courts, but it's not like a a fledged out restaurant. So we'd drive about 20 minutes to like uh we were really near Joshua Tree, Yucca Valley. Okay.

SPEAKER_17 8:24

Kmart, yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_09 8:25

A Sizzler was like huge or whatever, but you know, so we would be like Sizzler, really, or Pizza Hut that you know dad would take us to, yeah, and you know, book it was going on. So that was I was determined to read because I wanted that personal pen. Yeah, same same here.

SPEAKER_17 8:44

Art and I were talking about this before we before you hopped on, but like both of us we we both love to read, and so when you put that together with pizza, I mean it's like heck yeah, I'm gonna read as many books as I can and I will write whatever you need me to write because I want that button and I want that pizza.

SPEAKER_09 9:01

That's right. That big holographic type button or whatever.

SPEAKER_17 9:04

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah. That was like the coolest back then, you know.

SPEAKER_16 9:09

Yeah, I mean, for me, I I read all the time. So to me, this was like, all right, this is only a matter of time. Uh you know, this pizza's mine. That's right. It's inevitable, you know.

SPEAKER_17 9:21

Well, and and the best part is it was a personal pan, you know, so it was like it was yours, you know. It's like yeah, like this little thing, like you do not get it, you know, talking to my brothers, like, no, no, back off. This is mine, you know.

SPEAKER_09 9:33

Yeah, these four slices are all for me, right? That's right.

SPEAKER_17 9:39

The four slices, and I loved, I still like a good personal pan. Oh, yeah. Although I think I haven't had one in, I mean, it's gotta be years now. But the last time I had one was at a target, you know, because they they they do have them at some targets, and uh so it's like, all right, I see a target, I'll I'll take uh I'll take you up on that offer.

SPEAKER_09 10:00

If they get that nostalgia, they're gonna reel Jerry Ryan in.

SPEAKER_17 10:03

I know that's it. They they already kind of got me with some of the things that they have in their other sections, and now now it's like, man, target all you need is like the low lighting and a jukebox, and I'm there. Therefore, there's a as the the kids say nowadays. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 10:21

Yeah, some of the things though I know like that I can remember too, is like you guys was talking about you know the video games. It felt like it was it wasn't like an arcade, and but it felt like it was the only place in town that had like more than you know, more than two video games side by side. It had three or four crane machine, and I was like, dude, I cannot wait to get on that and and play on the crane machine, you know. And you had your quarters ready, or you're ready to ask, you know, mom or dad to reach in the coin first. And I mean, at that time, I know my my sister, she's five years younger than I am, and she she was there, but you know, I mean, shoot, then I must have been like, you know, eight, so she's like three, so she's not really knowing what's going on, you know what I mean? Yeah, I'm you know, like, okay, I got you know, free run of things here, you know, but have her tag along here and there. But you know what I remember, you know, you guys talk about the restaurant experience. I remember that on a Friday night or a Saturday night, it would be really full, yeah, really full. And and the same thing during lunch when they had the buffet, the buffet, the buffet, so good. I ate at a pizza inside with my girlfriend not that long ago, and it was so weird because we actually laughed and said, When's the last time you saw people inside of here? Yeah, and it's even before the pandemic, because we were like we were literally the only ones in there, and the girl was so nice, but she was also taking the orders at the front, you know, online orders, whatever else, and she was serving us, and she was able to handle it like easy because there was no one in there, it was crazy. It was, but but again, it didn't have that vibe, it it's it was all stripped down, all the beauty of it, you know.

SPEAKER_17 11:49

Yeah, yeah, they kind of kept the same aesthetic in from like 74 to about 97-ish, and then they kind of started revamping. They they like you said, they kind of stripped down so the logo, you know, they used to have that because their buildings have like that iconic shape. It's like a weird, I mean, it's like a trapezoidal shape. I don't know how you describe it, but right, you know, and so on their logo, they they used to have that, and then they had that that famous lettering in the that you know, the font, you know, that Pizza Hut font, you know. And so they started changing it to where like everything was kind of slanted and there was just a little more curves, and the the font was updated, and ever since then it just it it hasn't quite been the same, you know. I and I still love Pizza Hut to this day, but it's just it doesn't have like that umph that it used to have, you know, when we were little. And I I'm glad you brought up the buffet because I actually so when I started selling insurance, I worked for a company AIL, and I I left there, and then my boss moved to another company, and he like called me up and was like, Hey, come work for me. So I went to to work for him for this other company. And my very first assignment was like in this little uh town out in like East Texas called Gunbarrel City and Maybank. So it was about like an hour and a half, almost two hour drive from where I live. But I mean, it was it was all me, I was the only agent out there, so it was awesome. But they had like a pizza hut where you could still go inside and they still had buffet, and I mean it was like the craziest thing. I I'd never seen that before. I was like, What? Like I mean, it's been so long since I've been inside a pizza hut. Yeah, yeah, so it was awesome. It was like I'd go sell insurance, and then if I didn't have an appointment, it's like, all right, lunchtime, and I'd just go to Pizza Hut and have some buffet, and then all right, let's get back to work. And you get that plate of crust, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_09 13:39

The pizza bones, you just like the pizza bones, yep, right through these slices.

SPEAKER_17 13:45

Oh man, yeah. We used to have a chihuahua that he loved pizza bones. We probably shouldn't have been feeding them to him, but like that was uh that was like his favorite, and he would just cry and whine, and we're like, all right, fine. So we'd give him some, and he loved that.

SPEAKER_16 14:01

Oh, that's a good dog.

SPEAKER_17 14:02

He was, yeah, he was oh man, he was the best. Tito, little chihuahua named Tito.

SPEAKER_09 14:06

Oh shout out to Tito.

SPEAKER_17 14:09

Yeah, we we named him uh that after the Oliver and Company. You remember that movie?

SPEAKER_09 14:13

I do, but I don't remember Tito, the character Tito.

SPEAKER_17 14:16

Yeah, it was a little chihuahua, and uh Chich Marin was the voice. Yeah, so we're like, Yeah, we love Tito, let's name him Tito. So, but he loved the pizza bones, so that was like one of our things. And after we it wasn't till years later that we're like, we probably shouldn't be feeding him this, huh?

SPEAKER_09 14:34

I feel you, man. We've got a sick chihuahua at home right now, and she's she's our girl. She's been Vita, her age is actually Vita, you know what I mean? You gotta give a Chihuahua a Latino name, right?

SPEAKER_17 14:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 14:44

But yeah, man, she's been having a rough, rough week and a half, and it's been rough on us. But she's about 13, so you know.

SPEAKER_17 14:50

Oh, it's getting to be that time, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 14:52

Yeah, she's getting she's been so good to us, but it's just been it's been a tough week. So you mentioned that's like hit me in the feels, too. Oh, I'm sorry, brother. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_17 15:01

Pizza Hut, Pizza Hut. That's all kidding. Well, so Pizza Hut was actually founded in 1958 by two brothers. They they were actually went to Wichita State University, and they within like six months, they had like another location, and then within a year, they had like six different locations, and then they started like franchising out in like 59. So a year later, I mean, they really were I don't know what they were doing, but they did it right because they expanded like crazy. Of course, the that uh iconic building style we were talking about, designed in 1963, although it actually wasn't used until '69. But I mean, it's just it's one of those things that, like, when you think Pizza Hut, like, that's the shape you think of, you know. Yeah, the red roof is so iconic. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_09 15:52

Red roof, you know.

SPEAKER_17 15:53

Yeah, the red roof, red tile. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_09 15:55

Here in San Antonio on uh a street called Fredericksburg, there's actually like it's the only one left, and people talk about it all the time. But there's a Pizza Hut there, and it's well, I think this still a couple couple of them still have the red roof here in town, but this one's got like a neon, an old school neon sign. I gotta try to find a picture of it, Jerry, and I'll send it to you to check out. But it's like of the like the guy that kind of moves in one in one way, and then he like Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's like an old, like a you know stereotypical, you know, uh Italian pizza chef with the white hat and everything, but how it moves almost like a Las Vegas style neon sign, but everyone knows that one pizza hut here in San Antonio in town on Fredericksburg Road, it's it's there, and it's just like they've never taken it down, so I don't know if it's some type of holdover, nobody wants it to see it every time it's cool to see. I mean, like, wow, it's like a real blast from that, I think that's even before the 80s, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_17 16:48

Yeah, for real. And it's funny because my brother still lives in San Antonio, so he probably knows exactly which one you're talking about.

SPEAKER_09 16:55

Sure does, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 16:57

Yeah, so in 77, Pepsi Co. actually bought them out, and then in '97, along with uh Taco Bell and KFC, and that's why you see some of those like combo restaurants around then. They were sold to Tricon Global restaurants and who renamed themselves Yum, Yum Brands, I guess, in in 2002. And so they've kind of been owned by them, but they're like literally all over the world, which is crazy. In some markets, they have like specifically targeted foods, so like in Indonesia, they have like a rice dishes and stuff like that. I mean, it's it's crazy like what they've done, you know, what they've gone through. But one thing that I thought was kind of funny was that they never really had like an official mascot, you know. So, like KFC has like you know, the colonel, Domino's has like the Noid. You remember the Noid? Yeah, little Caesars had well has Caesar, you know, but they just never really had like a mascot per se. And uh for a while they like tried coming out with one and it just didn't land. So in the end, they just kind of went with their little roof design and it worked.

SPEAKER_09 18:02

That was it. Roof.

SPEAKER_17 18:04

I guess it's all you needed, right?

SPEAKER_16 18:07

Well, that's that's bizarre. I I you know I uh we associate mascots with everything, and and now when you stop and think about it, you know, my my mind is blown now. It's like, yeah, you're right. There's there's no mascot for Pizza Hut.

SPEAKER_17 18:21

Although one thing I did think was kind of cool was that in uh so in March of 2020 in Hong Kong, Pizza Hut Hong Kong actually partnered with IKEA, and so they they created a little like side table like for a couch, but it's packaged in like a pizza box kind of a thing. Oh wow, so you could actually order like a Swedish meatball pizza, which I mean that's just like in Hong Kong, okay, I guess.

SPEAKER_09 18:45

I mean it's merging of worlds for sure, right there.

SPEAKER_17 18:50

Yes, yeah, yeah, just blew my mind there. Yeah. Yeah, so apparently, like I was mentioning at one time they kind of had the pizza head show.

SPEAKER_15 19:01

It's the pizza head show. Hey everybody, I'm using my yearly checkup. Look, Pizza Head, it's the world famous Dr. Steve. He's not a real physician, sure he is, and he wants to do some routine tests. Looks like you have a serious lack of pepperonis. We'll have to operate. Uh is this really necessary? Sure it is. Pizza pepperoni pizzas have more pepperonis now. Ah, the operation was a complete success. I look like a meatball. You just need to rest, pizza head. It's time for you to go home. Is it too late for a second opinion?

SPEAKER_17 19:30

See you next time. And it was from like 91 to 99. It was created by Walter Williams, who did those Mr. Bill sketches from Saturday Night Live, and it just didn't quite land. So, I mean, I get it. But the thing that I remember most is out of everything, there's two things. One, when The Land Before Time came out, they actually had some puppets. Uh-huh. We collected every single one. We had three sets because you know, I had two other brothers, and uh so like we made sure that we all had a set, and my parents ended up like selling them in a garage sale because I mean we didn't need them anymore. But now looking back, it's like, I wish I had those still.

SPEAKER_11 20:10

In the new movie, The Land Before Time, Littlefoot Sell in Spike sharing an incredible journey along the way, they become best friends. Let's be together, and now these lovable characters can be your child's friends too. But the pizza from Pizza Hut, the land before time dinosaur is only 99 cents. So come to Pizza Hut. Your friends are waiting.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

Always baby kids and pizza.

SPEAKER_17 20:43

And it's like, oh man, that would have been cool to have right now.

SPEAKER_09 20:48

I feel like Pizza Hut always had the good like brand partnership, you know. They would where they hooked up with Ninja Turtles, which was great. Yeah, it made perfect sense, right? Then they had they had like the Phantom Menace.

SPEAKER_17 21:02

Oh, yeah, you're right.

SPEAKER_09 21:03

They had the fact because I I had saved for a while. It was a Jar Jared. They had the cups. Yeah. They weren't even uh that you could color the boxes, they were just like black and white, and it would be a character, Obi-Wan, Jar Jar. And I had this Jar Jar one for the it's not the one I wanted, but that's the one that came with delivery.

SPEAKER_17 21:21

Like Jar Jar. Come on.

unknown 21:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_09 21:32

But uh I don't know if you guys remember this, Jerry or you are if you remember, but even for a brief minute there, like when the 90s X-Men was blown up, they had a little pizza Pizza Hut brand partnership, which was like to me crazy because I'd never seen the X-Men on cups or anything, and I was like, the X-Men, like how awesome.

SPEAKER_05 21:52

Strange and powerful forces are attracting people to Pizza Hut. It's the Marvel Comics X-Men video with a mini comic book.

SPEAKER_16 22:17

Oh, I'll wrap that up.

SPEAKER_17 22:22

Funny you mentioned that. So I have a folder where I have some old drawings that I did when I was like from like first grade all the way till I don't know, whenever. And in that folder, I found that X-Men thing. It's like a little paper brochure kind of thing that came with it. And so I still I still have that. I'll take a picture and send it to y'all. Yeah, it's crazy. Very nice. I know. It's the the other thing that I remember most was that they had to tie in with Back to the Future part two. And so this was in '89, and they actually had something called solar shades. So it was like futuristic looking uh sunglasses. And I yeah, I had a really cool pair. It was they were almost like Cyclops' visor, but it was black, although the the the uh what's it called? Frame, I guess the part that goes over the ear. I don't know what it's called, it was paint was like hot pink because you know, the 80s everything was like hot pink, yeah. So color it was all neon back then, yeah.

SPEAKER_16 23:22

Yeah, yeah. I I think I remember ours had a cutout of of Marty and and Doc, you know, like one of those life size card cutout ones. But I can't remember if it was for the second or third film now, but I I kind of vaguely remember that. But like I was telling you, I didn't see those films till early 90s, and I watched them all out of order, but loved them anyway.

SPEAKER_17 23:48

You know what? It's about time travel, you're fine.

SPEAKER_09 23:52

You know what? Art, I'm guilty too, man. Because you know what? Like, I didn't even remember that promotion, but when I I remember I make sense now because I watched them later on when I got kind of like you said, probably more recently than even that. I barely saw all three. Oh, and uh they're in they're in that second one, right? It's pizza. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're hanging out that go in the future. That those things still exist.

SPEAKER_17 24:12

Oh, yeah, but uh yeah, yeah, because they have the the little dehydrated pizza thing that then it goes through the weird dehydrator, I don't know what it's called, and it's just like all of a sudden it's like a fresh pizza, which you know. I wanted that like really bad. Oh, yeah. I was like, come on, let's let's get that going. Uh, that's a technology we should be focusing on.

unknown 24:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_17 24:38

We don't we don't need smartphones, we just we need um dehydrated hydrator for sure.

SPEAKER_09 24:46

Room in the freezer, too, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_17 24:48

That's right. I mean, think about how much room you can save. Yeah, now um in 1990 for the Nintendo, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Part 2, the game, actually came with the coupon for a free pizza from Pizza Hut.

SPEAKER_07 25:01

Nice ultras improved your favorite arcade game. First, we added two new levels, then packed it with bigger, stronger enemies, and a ton of extra butt soldiers. Next, we punched up the action with knockout new attack moves and crime fighting scenes like the Ninja Castle. If that doesn't swell your shell, we made one more small adjustment. Introducing the new Teenage Week Ninja Turtles arcade game, today's biggest edge. For your NES, three personal pan pizza coupon from Pizza Hut in every box.

SPEAKER_17 25:32

Yeah, which I didn't remember this at all. And I think it's because I had the first Ninja Turtles game, but I didn't have the second one.

SPEAKER_09 25:36

Yeah, meet the same boat.

SPEAKER_17 25:38

Yeah, and the Ninja Turtles game. That's a whole other oh man, that's a whole other thing. I don't want to get mad, so we'll keep we'll keep moving past that. But um apparently inside the game there was actually like Pizza Hut product placement and stuff like that. Like, like in the background, there were like ads for Pizza Hut. So you know, so you're right, they they did have that Pizza Hut tie-in. So I mean it's they were smart like with their branding. And yeah, definitely. Yeah, and and McDonald's, I feel like the only other one that really's done is like McDonald's, you know. They kind of have that uh that same kind of thing going on where they'll they'll just latch on to like Star Wars or something, they'll just latch on to this and just run with it. Right. Of course, Star Wars, every Star Wars license out to everybody, but you know how that goes.

SPEAKER_09 26:25

Thanks, thanks, George Lucas. We appreciate you, buddy. Well, that kind of a question, though, right, guys. Let me ask you both this. It's like the the obvious 80s connection there, speaking, you know, pizza and star wars. You got pizza the hut and space balls, right? You know what I mean? Shouldn't that have been an that could have been a mascot right there for them?

SPEAKER_16 26:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 26:46

I'm surprised they got away with that, uh, actually. Yeah, for real. Like, like, why didn't they why didn't they capitalize on that? I would have. Yeah. Space balls the the pizza or something, you know.

SPEAKER_09 26:59

I just remember that robotic guy taking bites out of him as they're talking, you know, and he's like, before pizza orders out for you.

SPEAKER_17 27:06

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Vinny, I think was his name, right?

SPEAKER_09 27:11

But it probably wouldn't have been great for them. He he was so gross looking, Pizza the Hut, you know.

SPEAKER_17 27:16

That's true, he was pretty gross looking because they they had to make him kind of like Java, so I guess I get it, but yeah, but no, art's right, man.

SPEAKER_09 27:24

I'm surprised they got away with that because the name is so on the nose, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_17 27:28

Yeah, yeah. One thing that I thought was cool, you know, you mentioned Book It, and so Booket was actually conceived by the head of like the company, he was trying to get his son, or the CEO at the time, I guess, trying to get his son to like read more, and so he got with the marketing team and they kind of came out with this whole thing. And apparently, I guess they've done studies now, and it didn't really motivate kids to read more as a whole, you know, maybe us because we we wanted the pizza, but yeah, as a whole, it seemed like it didn't actually really do its job, and so it kind of got a lot of criticism as just being like a big marketing scheme. Wow, right? Uh, it's like I question my dreams. I know sorry, but but like for real, I mean, I was motivated to read more, I wanted more pizza, and it was free. Are you kidding me? Like, yeah, like count me in.

SPEAKER_01 28:16

Children who love to read can grow to new heights, expand their knowledge by discovering new worlds, stretch their imagination by reaching for the stars. Is reading and set a program that encourages young people to read, support your children's participation in their schools, booked programs, or to find out how to learn their schools right to this address. When your child loves to read, almost anything can happen.

SPEAKER_09 28:46

No, totally, and I think part of the draw was you know, you knew your parents had to take you, you'd find it once you were in there, maybe you get a chance at them video games again.

SPEAKER_17 28:54

Yeah, exactly. Right, yeah. Or mom, give me a quarter. I want to put on I of the tiger, you know. Which but a funny story. So my aunt used to own an ice cream shop, and we would go sometimes, and there was this one day where we were hanging out there, and I think I put on Eye of the Tiger like five times in a row. I'm sure everybody else liked it, but I just thought it was like the coolest thing, I could choose my own song, and it was my favorite song.

SPEAKER_16 29:21

They're like, Oh, this kid, you know, like that's just that's just crazy to me, but yeah, I can I can remember playing. I I'm pretty sure it was a Mario Brothers game at Pizza Hut. It was like on this console thing, it was more like a flat table, and I you know the screen right there and the controls down here, and that was about the first time I played Mario. And I'm thinking, this is cool, this is life, you know.

SPEAKER_17 29:49

So the one that I remember was uh it was Pac-Man and I think Galaga. And it was yeah, it was it was like on a table, and it there were actually chairs, you would sit down and you would play. And I I it was like the strangest thing to me because at the time, all the video games I had seen were like where you'd stand up and play, you know, arcade cabinet style or or Nintendo, and it was just like, How do you play sitting down? I don't get it, you know. It's of course it's the same, but at the time, it's just my brain was just like exploding from the guys.

SPEAKER_09 30:22

Man, I'm glad you brought that up, R. Cause I think ours just had the Pac-Man only, so you you guys were experiencing something different. But I was the same way, and as a kid, I thought, when I get rich one day, this is what I'll buy. I was like, you can eat on it and sit at it and play games at the same time. I was like, this is must be like only the richest of the rich hack.

SPEAKER_17 30:45

Yep, win-win right there. Now I leave. Why would I get up? Exactly. Just to use a restroom, and then you come right back, you know? Yeah, that's it. You can still eat and everything on it. And I can't believe I've gone this long without saying it. But the reason we're actually covering Pizza Hut is not just because it's 80s, but because this was at least for me, like on Christmas Eve and even Christmas Day, like sometimes Pizza Hut would actually still be open, which I thought was kind of interesting. And so, like, we would go on Christmas Day, we'd go to my grandparents' house in Falfurius, about an hour north of where I lived. And afterwards, on the way home, you know, we I mean, us kids, we didn't really want the leftovers that we'd already eaten, you know, earlier. You know, nowadays it's like, oh yeah, please, I'll take more leftovers. But you know, at the time you're like, whatever, I don't want that, I just had it for lunch. And so as we were driving down, we would stop at Pizza Hunt, and so it was like a big thing. Of course, they actually did have advertising and holiday things as well, which which we'll get into a few of the commercials that uh that I was excited to watch again. But you know, it was like that was a thing, and so all the way even through high school, you know, it was like on Christmas Day, it's like, okay, you know, maybe let's go to a movie and then let's go eat a pizza hut. And so that kind of was like one of our things, and so that's like the Christmas connection of it all. So for those of you that have stayed listening this long, thank you for staying. There's my justification for it. Please continue listening. I know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally rad food. That's my new endeavor. Hey, awesome. But yeah, so I like that's one of the things I remember is just some of my friends, like in high school, were just like, hey, you know, it's it's Christmas, Merry Christmas, let's let's go eat a pizza hunt. And so it was just it, it was always like, Yeah, that's cool, man. I dig that, you know.

SPEAKER_09 32:38

Yeah, yeah. I I had to admit, Jerry, when you said, you know, pizza hut in the 80s, I was like, okay, I get it. It was definitely a vibe. But I was like, wait, there's a Christmas aspect to Jerry's podcast. What are you talking about? And it, you know, I guess because we didn't really have where, like, like you said, you'd go visit family. Because we were miles, you know, another states away, and we weren't the types that would like fly in or fly out to you know for the holidays. Uh we was kind of like it'd just be me, my mom, my dad, and my sister, and you know, we could talk to family on the phone, but it makes sense, right? You're off for you know a week, two weeks back then, probably. Yeah, and you know, you like you said, leading up to the holidays, you know, your mom might have to cook a big meal, so she's not gonna go all out the days before she's like, I'm saving up my energy. So you you would eat pizza, it made a lot of sense. And I was like, Man, I never made that connection until now. We probably ate it a bunch during the holidays, and I just didn't think about it.

SPEAKER_17 33:30

Yeah, yeah. And it's funny because that's actually one of the commercials is actually marketed exactly like that.

SPEAKER_06 33:37

You know, it's like it's like you don't want to cook, you know, it's just a day of battling on the front lines. The last thing you need is kitchen duty. So tonight on your way home, stop off at Pizza Hut and pick up a hot, delicious Pizza Hut pan pizza to go.

SPEAKER_17 33:54

So just pick up a pizza on the way home, you know. It's like, okay, I see it.

SPEAKER_16 33:59

Yeah, yeah. I I had to laugh at that one because that's that's pretty much my response whenever my wife asks me to take care of dinner. I don't want to cook, maybe I'll order a pizza.

SPEAKER_17 34:11

Yeah, well, you know, some days that's that's what you need.

SPEAKER_09 34:17

Hey, like that you win, Art. You gotta take that one every time, brother. You just gotta, you know, you gotta make it uh so the wife gets in it by what do you want on it, honey? What kind of pizza do you want? I'll get another one for you.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Yeah, yeah, that's old. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 34:32

It's it's just it's funny, you know. So in 85, they had a series of of commercials with Martin Mole and Rita Moreno. Martin Mole, I knew I knew him from Mr. Mom. Okay, because I don't I don't recall seeing these commercials when I was 85 or in 85. I remember seeing them like a couple of years later, they still showed him, but I knew him from Mr. Mom. I also knew him as Colonel Mustard. That was like how I really knew Martin Mole, okay, you know, from the clue movie. I was like, Okay, it's Colonel Mustard, you know. Later on, you know, I've I've seen him in other things. He was in Jingle All the Way as the DJ, you know, that that kind of a thing. He came out in Roseanne.

SPEAKER_09 35:11

He was her boss, right? He was that's right, yeah. Yeah, when you had me watch those, Jerry, I'd never seen those either in '85. Yeah, um, so I did they weren't familiar to me, but his face was familiar and I I couldn't place him. But when I when I was looking at the video, the next video that came up was him on Letterman. And I was like, the pizza commercial got on Letterman, and I was like, Oh, he had a whole nother career.

SPEAKER_17 35:32

He did, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 35:34

I checked his IMDB, and that's the first thing that I recognized that I could remember recognizing seeing him in. I mean, obviously I'd seen other stuff that he was in Jingle All the Way, and yeah, and so but it was Roseanne that I was like, Oh, yeah, he was the the jerk boss that they had, you know. So that's where I was like, Oh, that's where his face looks familiar, that jerky face he had.

SPEAKER_17 35:52

He's really good because of Mr. Mom, he also plays like the the boss of of uh Terry Gar, uh Michael Keaton's wife, and like he tries to hit on her and make a move, you know. And so so he I guess that's like his thing. You know, that's your thing. I mean, sorry, man, you know, sorry, bro.

SPEAKER_09 36:16

I'll call Martin Wool. Let's see if he's available.

SPEAKER_17 36:18

That's right. But I did love like the the theme song was so catchy in some of those old commercials as well. Because I I I sent you a few. There was one from like '83, one from '87, and in each one of those, they they kind of play the theme song, you know, they'll go pizza hut, pizza to go, you know, kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_13 36:40

Pizza hut, pizza to go. Pizza hut, pizza to go. Pizza hut, pizza to go. Pizza Hut and Pizza is a special way to warm the busy holiday season. So call ahead and we'll have it fresh, hot, and ready to go.

SPEAKER_17 37:04

Pizza Hut, Pizza to go. So that I actually remembered the song. So even though I didn't remember the commercials, I remembered that that little song from it. And so that like brought back a lot of memories, like just sitting there watching TV, because we would watch like whatever our parents were watching at nighttime. So, like it would be you know, moonlighting or it, you know, Saint Elsewhere or something like that. And during the commercials, they you know, they'd show these randomly. And and so, like, I actually really remembered the song, but I I thought it was kind of funny how in the Martin Mole and Rita Moreno ones they don't really do the song, it's literally just them kind of eating a slice of pizza, and then they just say like random things. It seemed like it was all improv to me, you know, like like it seemed like it was all improv, they were just kind of making up whatever they could, and yeah, apparently they were trying to sell their thin and crispy super supreme pizza. That was like that was like what they were going for, and so it's like Martin Mo would take a bite of pizza, and he's just like, This olive, that's my favorite part. So I'm gonna move him up to the end of the you know, right by the crust or something like that. And you know, it's it's funny because it's like a Christmassy, it's not really Christmassy, but it's like a Christmas holiday pizza hut commercial. And the other ones like seemed just so much more Christmassy to me, you know, like they would do the Pizza Hut, Pizza to go, and then there was like deck the halls, do to do do, and then they modulate Pizza Hut, Pizza To Go, and then it was like jingle bells do to do, and then pizza hut, pizza to go. I mean, it's just it was like a whole production, you know, and yeah, and the whole time they're they're like, Yeah, you know, you're tired from all that shopping that you've done, so just order a pizza.

SPEAKER_09 38:49

I know that the uh the the one the the Rita Moreno one was the first one that I kind of noticed the music, and it to me it sounded very like almost a riff on the godfather uh I was like and she talks about if I'm feeling romantic, I might order. And I'm like, Where's where's this pizza commercial going?

SPEAKER_12 39:11

If I'm feeling mellow, I just want cheese and tomatoes, and I'm feeling attractive and they put on some pepperoni. I'm feeling wild and crazy. I'm just telling the guy behind the counter. Throw it all off.

SPEAKER_04 39:39

I don't order pizza based on how I feel, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_17 39:43

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Right. It's like I'm just hungry, I don't want to cook, let's order pizza.

SPEAKER_09 39:49

That's right. I wanted to be like Rita, what do you when you order Hawaiian? What are you feeling? You know what I mean? Your feelings over certain topics.

SPEAKER_17 39:58

So each, yeah, yeah. It's like it you it's like a whole like you know, in Green Lantern, and there's like a whole emotional spectrum, and each one represents the colors, the different color, you know, red is like the red lanterns, it's anger, and you know she wore a few paces, right?

SPEAKER_09 40:12

She was kind of like, Oh, when I feel this way, this when I feel this way, that I was like, What?

SPEAKER_17 40:16

Like, well, that's yeah, exactly. That's like the vibe that I was getting. It's like, okay, so so she wants pepperoni. So uh, what what I in my mind, I was like, I I was kind of equating it with that. So I was like, what color would that be in the emotional spectrum? You know, comic book geek that I am. So uh yeah, it's just one of those baby ones, yeah, yeah. So I just I thought it was funny how she kind of tackled it, and the whole and Martin Mo the whole time is just taking bites and like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Pizza, shouldn't it be on your table this Christmas instead of that ugly ham? Look at this green, red. That's Christmas. You hear slave bells? I do. I dropped the sleigh bell.

SPEAKER_17 41:09

That's good pizza, you know. It's like like night and day with their approaches on it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 41:17

And he does the one, right, where he says, these are the rules, the etiquette of pizza, right? And he's like tucking the cheese in his mouth, and then he's like, Can you bite it from the back? And he's like, No, you can't do that. And then the next behind. I was like, What do you okay? So you're breaking your old rules here, Martin Mole. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_16 41:36

Yeah, I caught that too. I was like, you broke the continuity. Come on.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

Hello, I'm here to tell you a little bit about pizza etiquette. Can you do this? Yes, it's acceptable. I think how many have how many have done that? Can you take it and go from the other end? Crust first. No, I'm sorry. You have to start at the point.

SPEAKER_17 42:02

Which is again why I think it's like so improved, you know. Like, I think they're just like, All right, we're gonna put the camera on you. We got like like an hour to shoot this. Go, what do you got? You know, and I think he just kind of came up with whatever it was. And like, okay, that's a that's a take right there. Let's do that one, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 42:18

Yeah, he also ham like, but you don't want that disgusting ham.

SPEAKER_17 42:23

You want yeah, he says that. Whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy on ham, Martin Mo, which I I might be saying later on, spoilers are like using that later, but yeah, it's it's like the craziest thing, and I mean it's like I love a good ham. Why why be down on ham, man?

SPEAKER_09 42:41

Yeah, put the ham with the pizza, brother.

SPEAKER_17 42:44

See, there you go. See, now now you got a party.

unknown 42:47

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_16 42:49

Well, now I have to ask you guys so does pineapple belong on pizza? Pineapple and ham.

SPEAKER_17 42:55

The uh the age old debate.

SPEAKER_09 42:58

I'm not afraid here as a as representing you know my pod just another Friday night. I'm gonna go ahead and say yes, pineapple can go on pizza for sure.

SPEAKER_17 43:08

I dig it, I dig it. So it's not my favorite, but I'll definitely eat a ham of pineapple pizza. Oh, yeah, yeah. It was my favorite for the longest time.

SPEAKER_09 43:18

Good man. Three three and three yes here.

SPEAKER_16 43:20

All right, yeah, yeah. I dig it.

SPEAKER_17 43:22

All right. Well, we we've we've answered some big questions tonight. My my favorite was always meat lovers. Oh, yeah. Like that was just oh man.

SPEAKER_09 43:33

I mean, that's like the height of of me again of luxury. If you get in a meatloaf, I was like, oh because you gotta dish out more for that one.

SPEAKER_17 43:42

So if you can afford a meat lovers, you you deserve it, you know.

SPEAKER_09 43:46

When they were doing any toppings for ten dollars, I was eating so much meat lovers, I'm sure I clogged some arteries.

SPEAKER_17 43:52

I I oh I know my arteries are probably terrible. Yep.

SPEAKER_16 43:57

Just thinking about it right now, I can feel it.

SPEAKER_17 44:00

Well, see, and I remember in high school, so as fundraisers, like we would order pizzas, you know, for like various clubs, and and they would like sell pizza like a dollar a slice. And then I think when I got older, like a senior year, it was like they raised it to like a dollar fifty a slice, something like that. But like that's how we would raise money.

SPEAKER_09 44:17

I don't know if y'all ever did that, but I never did a fundraiser, but I definitely ate it several fundraisers.

SPEAKER_17 44:22

Like I got you, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 44:25

I was like, What are you? Are you kidding me? Instead of school lunch, you got a pizza hut slice for a dollar? Yeah, exactly. Totally as you said, Jerry, therefore it, brother.

SPEAKER_17 44:38

Oh man, yeah, those are like the best. Like I loved it, and it was usually on a Friday. That was like when it was it was done. It was like on a Friday. I liked it because when it was like the cheerleaders, they would usually be in their cheerleader outfits, and so you know, that was always nice. And as a little band geek, you know, I kind of I kind of enjoyed that.

SPEAKER_09 44:58

Pizza and cheer, man, you can't go wrong.

SPEAKER_17 45:00

What's that?

SPEAKER_09 45:01

Pizza and cheer, you can't go wrong.

SPEAKER_17 45:03

That's what I'm saying. That's literally like like a dream come true, right there. Which uh reminds me a friend of mine, a good a good friend of mine. Well, so like after the football games, a lot of us that were in band and some of the football players that were our friends, like we'd go eat at Whataburger afterwards because it was like one of the only things still open after football games. But apparently, a lot of the cheerleaders would go eat at Pizza Hut. And like, had I known, I would have been like up in that, you know, like I would have been there.

SPEAKER_16 45:35

So, but then you would have been conflicted. Do I go play the computer game while the cheerleader sits here? Then they know I was a nerd.

SPEAKER_17 45:44

That's right, yeah, yeah. What do I say? What do I say to those cheerleaders?

SPEAKER_09 45:51

Then you're like, Oh, see, that's yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 45:56

Smoothie, we got a smoothie here.

SPEAKER_09 45:59

Only now, Jerry. Back then, believe me, no, I was just it with uh nose in a comic book, so I didn't know.

SPEAKER_17 46:05

Same, yeah, I hear you, bro. I'm right there, right there with you.

SPEAKER_09 46:08

So I'm trying to get the next book at personal pan, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_16 46:15

My my wife likes to say that I've improved with age.

SPEAKER_09 46:19

There you go.

SPEAKER_17 46:20

I think I definitely have, yeah. So, like I was talking about one of my best friends, she she was a cheerleader back then, and I didn't really know her then. And now now it's like we're we're good friends, but it's like I never said anything really, never really spoke to her. I just kind of knew who she was, you know, it was just one of those things. And it's like, I think now I'm much more and I I blame like playing music, but I'm just definitely much more outgoing and outspoken than I ever was back then, and so I I think it was probably better that I just kind of stuck with my Whataburger.

SPEAKER_09 46:51

It all led to this, Jay. It all led to you know, totally rad Christmas, man. Without that, if you'd have been the ladies' man back then, we'd never have this.

SPEAKER_17 46:58

No, you're right, it was meant to be, and then I wouldn't have you find gentlemen on my show.

SPEAKER_09 47:06

I'm as always. I gotta say something though. I'm thinking about pineapple on pizza still, and the only reason why okay, go for it. I I had the other day, right, guys, and I realized I was like, you know, it's just pineapple chunks from the can at most places, usually, yeah. I don't like that. I want sliced pineapple on it. Wouldn't that be so that would get pineapple out of this rut it's been in being debated on if people were using fresh sliced pineapple on their pies? It would be like, no doubt, it's a winner. I mean, because the chunk is just too much, and it's you could taste it's from a can, it's not good.

SPEAKER_17 47:42

Yeah, yeah, it definitely has that that that kind of flavor to it, at least in most places. Now, have you ever had you know the the Canadian bacon or ham, whatever you call it, pineapple and jalapenos on a pizza? Oh that adds an extra little oomph there that is nice, and it actually kind of really ties it all in together, so it's not so uh Jerry D. Hey, I'd put ghost peppers on if I could, but uh I at my age I just can't take it anymore.

SPEAKER_09 48:09

I'm willing to try that though. I'm willing to try next time I get that. Uh I get the three toppings for 10, I'll add jalapeno on there. I'm curious.

SPEAKER_17 48:16

It's good, it really is. I was surprised by it. And I the only reason I know, because I I never would have ordered it myself, but if when I was at that insurance company I was telling you about, my boss month, so every Monday we would have to go to the office. That was the only day we had to be in the office, and we would make phone calls and like set up our appointments for the week. And if we were running late, he would like order pizza for us. Uh and so his girlfriend, who was like my manager at the time, she loved pineapple and ham. So, like, they had to order it, but she also liked spicy things, so he was like, Hey, what if we put you know jalapenos on it or something? So she was like, Yeah, let's try it. And so I tried one, and aren't if it was like just really good. So while I don't order it, if it's presented to me, yeah, I will I'm I'll be down for that anytime.

SPEAKER_09 49:06

Yeah, because you got kids in the house, right? Jason's got a lot of pepperoni.

SPEAKER_17 49:09

I imagine pretty much just pepperoni and cheese. The the two-year-old really just loves sausage, so oh that's nice. Yeah, it's hey, it's different. I'll take it, it's something different.

SPEAKER_09 49:19

Yeah, too, man. The hardcore pepperoni guy, so it's like you know, we got to get at least one with a half, you know what I mean? Because he can do about three slices. Now he's eight.

SPEAKER_17 49:29

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 49:30

Yeah, but I mean, just uh he's curious about sausage, I think. But but other than that, it's no nothing else. So my girlfriend loves Supreme, so there's always a debate on that.

SPEAKER_17 49:40

It's like yeah, and I like Supreme too, I really do. But I but I like I said, my all-time favorite is just it's that meat lovers, man. It's just so good, it's so good.

SPEAKER_16 49:51

Meat lovers pan pizza is yeah, I mean, that's death in a in a box.

SPEAKER_17 49:56

Yeah, yeah, you're right about that. Oh now I'm hungry. Oh man, I know. Um, okay, and before we move on, so I I I have to mention a couple of things. Do you remember the the Posone? It was like a the Pizza Huts version of a calzone.

SPEAKER_09 50:13

Yes, I do remember that.

SPEAKER_17 50:14

Vague, yeah, it was actually pretty good, I gotta say. But I remember that there was usually at the buffet like some sort of pasta, like spaghetti or something like that, at least at the ones that I remember. Yeah, and then the other thing was there was times where like I just craved their breadsticks because they were like really garlic and buttery. Yeah, just so good. Yeah, I love their breadsticks.

SPEAKER_09 50:38

I would say that if you took uh the breadsticks from all the places that have them now that are like you know, pizza places that are you know dominoes, chains, yeah, yeah, chains, and you put it against the pizza hood breadstick, yeah. I would think even today it would probably still beat them out. People would taste wise would say it was the best because they really were really, really great. Yeah, got them right when they got them crunchy and they got them crunchy on the outside, doughy on the inside. When you do it right, those are really excellent.

SPEAKER_17 51:07

Yeah, well, and there used to be so when uh you know, we talked about like some of those combos like KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, stuff like that. There used to be that here there was a a place, like when I first moved up here, it was a Taco Bell Pizza Hut combo. And so I'd hit it up just because it was usually faster than like ordering from a pizza hut, just the regular pizza hut, especially if like I was I was going to work or something was on my lunch break. So I'd go there and I'd order like this. It was usually like a personal pan and then like a couple of breadsticks on as well. And I was so bummed when like they just they shut it down and they like turned it into just a taco bell. And I was like, no, like that was my that was my thing, you know. I'd I'd stop and get little personal pan and breadsticks, you know. And I mean the crummy thing was that you know, depending on how what else I ate that day, I mean I could feel like really heavy afterwards, yeah. Oh yeah, you know, and then you're like, Oh, I gotta go sell insurance, I don't want to do that.

SPEAKER_09 52:06

But with marinara with it, Jerry or no, yes, so yeah, okay. You gotta have that marinara, you gotta, yeah, yeah, you gotta dip it, man.

SPEAKER_17 52:13

Yeah, ground it.

SPEAKER_09 52:15

Breadstick's gotta run out of marinara, the breadstick eating is over. I'm like, yeah, same here. Yeah, yeah. I I love an edible spoon, which is what the breadstick is.

SPEAKER_17 52:23

Yeah, that's basically what it is, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Oh man, but you know, we we talked about some of these commercials, we talked about how a little bit how ridiculous they are. So there was one that I saw, and I I didn't send it to you guys because I just found it about maybe 15 minutes before we we recorded, but it was from the UK, and it was like about after Christmas, so it was like you had you know, you had your leftovers or you you had your meal, then you know, the day after you had leftovers, the day after that you had leftovers, the day after that, and then it's like a guy just sitting at a table and like his wife just bringing him like random different casseroles and sandwiches and whatever, and he's like, How about a pizza? And it's like a pizza hut pizza, and so it's just uh it kind of made me laugh because you know, we talked about leftovers and all that stuff, and and I I love a good leftover, but it does come to a point, at least for me, where it's like, All right, I can't I can't eat any more ham or turkey, you know. I need something different, you know. It's usually like about day four. It's like, all right, I'm done. Like, give me something different, and so that like really resonated with me because, like, I that's when I'm usually like, let's get a pizza. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:35

On the first day after Christmas, Machula give to me. Leftover turkey. On the second day after Christmas, Machula gave to me. Turkey chess and roll that she made on the Toba Turkey on the third day.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

If Christmas is lingering longer than you expected, we have a suggestion: a pan pizza from Pizza Hut with pepperoni, mushrooms, almost any topping at all, except one.

SPEAKER_17 54:04

So, yeah, I I felt that one. That wouldn't, that wouldn't like they were spying on me for that one.

SPEAKER_09 54:08

But you know, it's like the first thing that comes to your mind when you say, because you know, you want something different, but you don't want to cook because it's like somebody was in the kitchen for all them days, you're just like, nah, let's just order out. What can we order out?

SPEAKER_16 54:21

Pizza pizza, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_17 54:24

Exactly.

SPEAKER_16 54:25

Well, it's I mean, to me, it's pizza is one of those things that is foods that are good cold or hot. Yeah, so if it takes a long time to get you to your house and it's cooled off, it's fine. You know, if it's like Chinese food, I like that hot and fresh. Yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah, I don't want cold Chinese food showing up. So that's that sounds pretty gross, actually. Well, I I think that's why I like getting the pizza. It doesn't matter what temperature it is, it it's gonna be good. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 54:58

I I completely agree. Yep, I agree 100. But so that I mean that does make me wonder, guys. Like, you know, if you could pick like your hap, hap happiest moment with like pizza or pizza hut, you know, what would it be? Oof.

SPEAKER_09 55:10

All right, I'll let you go first.

SPEAKER_16 55:12

Okay, uh well, for me, I I kind of alluded to it. It's those Friday nights or whatever night it was, you know, we'd go to out as a family playing the games, waiting for the pizza to come, you know, it just it's exciting. It was a family time, it was a small thing, but it was fun. Yeah, I remember one particular time, and I don't know why this memory is so stuck in my head, but it probably on the jukebox that a song came on. It was Walk Like an Egyptian. Nice. Do you remember that one?

SPEAKER_17 55:44

Yeah, and I just recorded an episode on the Bengals yesterday. Oh, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_16 55:50

Yeah, and that was my dad's favorite song, and it's my brother's favorite song. He had it actually played at his wedding, uh, like my brother did so uh at the dance afterwards, not during the ceremony, right? Right. I I hope so, yeah. Yeah, but it's it's probably a song that maybe hasn't aged well. I don't know, but still holds up to me. Okay, good. I just remember that song playing, and my dad getting excited because you know, oh, this is I love this song, and he's like dancing at the at the you know, doing the Egyptian thing at the dinner table at right in the middle of Pizza Hut, and my mom's like, Oh, stop it, stop it.

SPEAKER_15 56:25

You're embarrassing me.

SPEAKER_16 56:27

Nice, yeah. Well, it was so much fun, but yeah, that's when I think of Pizza Hut as a kid, that is especially the one thing that I still remember very clearly is that moment, and yeah, I couldn't tell you why, but it's it's stuck in my head, so that's a very happy memory. I dig it, yeah. What about you, Chuck?

SPEAKER_09 56:47

I mean, yeah, you know, we we kind of talked about it too, and that's it, that's a great one. I I should have taken a cue from art and and you know, because definitely a family memory would be would be great. But I mean, I do think about Book It and I gotta say, you know, as a as kind of a you know, a geek and you know, nerd into nerd culture, you know what I mean? Uh the uh the the promotional tie-ins were really awesome. And I mean, like I looked forward to that. It was like to me, it was better than the McDonald's ones and so like I said, you know, and I kind of told you a little bit about it earlier, Jerry, before we got online, but the uh when they did this one tie-in with turtles, and I don't know if they did more than one with you know, teenage meeting ninja turtles, but uh this one in particular, there was like a cassette tape you would get, and I I I might be hit in early 90s, but I think it might have been 80s. That's okay. But it was a we give Lee Way. Yeah, and it was it was the four turtles were the the quote unquote performers. Yeah. I don't know who actually performed the music, but I had that tape and I would play it, and I would just I thought that I was uh a music, you know, guru now that I turn it. Um I was better than the Beatles, better than the stone, and uh I'm sure just like if you have that uh laying around, I I would imagine I'd probably have that tape stomach. Um, I just didn't throw stuff like that away, and I just thought that was so cool. But I really thought that was neat that like pizza was giving me this cassette tape by the Ninja Turtles. Like they recorded this music and it's referring to that's awesome.

SPEAKER_17 58:19

Uh for me, it and there's like a lot of little things that stand out, but I think the one I that I like most besides book it and besides you know, going to eat there would be the solar shades, like they were the coolest things. And I remember like you know, going and eating, you know, I was nine years old when when they came out, and I remember like just putting them on and thinking I was like the baddest dude ever, you know, the scrawny little nerdy nine-year-old kid, but I thought it was so cool with those solar shades, man.

SPEAKER_09 58:51

Yeah, I'm sure we're gonna go to eBay and find them for nine thousand dollars right now. That's right, probably, yeah.

SPEAKER_17 58:58

Yeah, yeah. No, no, I bet you could find them for like 25 cents or something. And we still have a pair. I think we still have a pair like at my parents' house. It was the ones my brother had because he had the ones that were like yellow and orange, and they were like split level uh skew. I don't know. It was but the ones that I had were really cool, they were just black, you know, like that. They kind of taper off at the edge where the the actual I've worn glasses all my life, I still don't know what they're called, but you know, yeah, the arm. I get the arm, sure. Why why not? Yeah, earpiece that works too, whatever it is, you know, where that part is, and then that was the the hot pink part, and you know, it was like, yeah, walking around with my trapper keeper and my solar shades, oh and uh fanny pack too, don't forget that. Yeah, I never actually had a fanny pack. Um, yeah, my brothers did, but I never did, so I I can't say I was into that one. Okay, look, guys, I'll be honest.

SPEAKER_09 59:55

You know what I'll be googling right after this, right on to eBay solar solar shades.

SPEAKER_17 1:00:02

That's right. Ninja Turtle Cassettes, yeah. You gotta get in on it, man. But yeah, so now we come to my favorite part of the show, which is a little segment I like to call Gag Me with the Spoon. So this is where we do our uh best impression of our least favorite part of the of the commercials in this case, and so Art, I'll let you go first and kind of lead us off and just kind of set it up for us a little bit. All right.

SPEAKER_16 1:00:30

I I found the the Martin Mole commercials to be kind of unpleasant as a whole, just because he he stood there just talking with his mouth full of food, you know.

SPEAKER_17 1:00:42

And there's probably a reason they don't that they don't really have that kind of style of commercial anymore.

SPEAKER_16 1:00:47

Yeah, yeah. So I I want to do the one where he's talking about the olive because I hate olives. So go something like this. This is a piece of olive. So we put that by the end of the crust. So we go breakfast, that's right here, then lunch, dinner, and I think I'll go right for dessert. No, no, no, no, no, and I'm nauseating now, and see I don't get where he was going with with that in that commercial.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:24

I was like, why is the one slice breakfast, lunch, and dinner? Like, I don't get what I know. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_17 1:01:30

I have no idea. That's why that's why I really think they just like just just say something, it'll be funny, it'll be great. Yeah, you're Martin Wool. That's that's exactly yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, that was that was good.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:46

Yeah, yeah, I love that. I love that art. Great job, man.

SPEAKER_17 1:01:50

Chuck, you want to go, you want to go next?

SPEAKER_09 1:01:52

Yeah, I'll go for it. Uh from uh Miss Is it it was Rita Moreno?

SPEAKER_17 1:01:57

Yeah, Rita Moreno, yeah.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:59

So I forget what the first one she says, so I'm gonna start from the middle, and she says, and then I tell the guy behind the counter, perhaps I'm feeling attractive, and I get pepperoni. And if I don't know what I'm in the mood for, I tell them to put everything on it. But that's the scene for me on that one, but the fact that there's like this ominous godfathery music behind it. I was like, it's you know, take a hit out on the pizza guy.

SPEAKER_17 1:02:30

Yeah, it's it's definitely it's it's definitely odd. I'm totally unsettling, totally unsettling.

SPEAKER_16 1:02:39

I'm imagining this poor kid working behind the counter, you know, he's 16 years old, and they're like, what's going on?

SPEAKER_17 1:02:45

Okay, ma'am. His voice cracking. Yeah, okay.

unknown 1:02:49

That's right.

SPEAKER_17 1:02:51

So I actually also went with Martin Mole. And I love him as Colonel Mustard. I think he does a great job as Colonel Mustard in the clue movie, which you know, I gotta do clue on the show, but it was it was when he was talking about the ham and he was being down on the ham. And I was like, Come on, man, ham is good. And so he says, That's why I picked him, but he says, Pizza, shouldn't it be on your table this Christmas instead of that ugly ham? Come on, lay off the ham, man.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:21

Ugly, what an awful word for ham. Ham is beautiful.

SPEAKER_16 1:03:25

It's delicious, it's picturesque. I mean, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_17 1:03:35

Yeah, just hey, carve it and put it on your pizza, bro. Yeah, then you best of both worlds. Yeah, I don't I don't understand, but uh I just thought that was very interesting. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_09 1:03:50

Oh yeah, that was fun. Those commercials for the longest time he's holding this and he eats it with two hands, right? I don't know about you guys, but I never eat it that big or I've eaten it with two hands.

SPEAKER_17 1:04:00

Actually, he's holding actually there is one time I I there's a place here called Pizza YOLO's, which they have a pizza that's literally about like 52 inches or maybe 48 inches in in diameter, and so those slices are literally I mean, they're ridiculously huge, like they're bigger than my face, you know.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:19

You're in my uh Gary that here in town, right up my street from me, really, we have Big Lou's Pizza, which has been on like yeah, I've seen it eating, yeah. And I forget that one too. It's got a really like long, it's a thin slice, but it's really long. You would have to potentially eat it with two hands. But when the commercial started, I saw him holding it by the side for a long time, and in my mind, he was gonna bite it by the side, which I was gonna be like, Whoa, talk about pizza etiquette.

SPEAKER_17 1:04:44

I know party foul, bro.

SPEAKER_09 1:04:47

If he would have bit that pizza like a piece of chicken, I would have been like, This is I'm turning it off. This is wrong.

SPEAKER_16 1:04:53

This is so wrong, yes.

SPEAKER_17 1:04:54

Yeah, because you can fold it up, you know, and eat it that way, but you can't you can't take it just a bite from the side, that's wrong. It's like that's like biting a Kit Kat in the middle, right? Right, yeah, yeah, you never do that. Yeah, oh man. Oh, that that totally makes me wonder. You know, G.I. Joe, they taught us that knowing is half the battle. What do you think the other half is?

SPEAKER_16 1:05:19

The other half is two parts. Is first of all, avoiding people who like black olives on their pizza and and knowing that pineapple absolutely belongs on pizza. Ooh, there you go. All right, all right. With with that, you'll be set for life.

SPEAKER_17 1:05:38

So all right, I I dig it. What about you, Chuck?

SPEAKER_09 1:05:43

If knowing it's half the battle, then the other half is definitely going to be you've wanted life when you're on a date and you're at the Pizza Hut at the Pac Man table with your gal, not only getting some pellets eaten there. chomping away but also chomping down on some meat lovers that that is luxury great minds man because i i said if knowing is half the battle the other half is playing video games while you're sitting down at a table yeah dude that's like a that's like a dream right there you know you you and your date just playing pac-band together yeah i mean gentlemen we're all three adult men here but i would have to say i would have to reckon that none of us still do not own that height of luxury pizza nope video game table not yet nope never quite got there i i never made it if one of you does have that i i bow to you i kneel to you that is i'm still waiting holding out yeah tell you what if i win the lottery we're all by we're all getting one all right get one for all you guys but uh i guess i gotta play first so oh man this was fun this was this was a lot of fun absolutely thanks for coming on always and chuck thanks for filling in oh totally man uh i'm i'm disappointed i didn't get to hear your other guests but i'm glad that it opened up a spot for me yeah yes yes so not to you know pull back the curtain too much but chuck was was able to fill in last minute my other guest had a family emergency that he had to attend to and so you know we're we're praying for him and hoping everything's okay but but thanks for coming on you know definitely definitely fun my pleasure guys my pleasure oh man so what do you guys want to plug tell me about your shows you know whoever wants to go first okay all right well I host uh cozy christmas podcast and uh you can find me everywhere on podcasting platforms I like to tell read Christmas stories talk to people and about Christmas just you know covers my my Christmas bug I get and then if you don't mind I just started a second podcast called Bookshelf Odyssey and I basically describe it at least to this audience it's like the the cozy Christmas just without the Christmas part so I it's just a book podcast because I mean I love books and stories and I was finding all of these Christmas stories that were published you know in Christmas old Christmas magazines and stuff but they were like scary ghost stories and things and didn't really fit the vibe of my show you know to to scare people so I I've been kind of filing those away and thinking all right today is the day I'm gonna just start reading those on this other podcast so and you can find those episodes I've just started and it's at bookshelfodysy.com you can type that in and get to the website so and you can fill out a book report afterwards and uh get a free pizza yeah yeah no no you can't I'm sorry it doesn't work like that I'll do it anyway I'll listen to an episode art and then I'll just go buy my own there you go there you go you'll find out that counts what about you Chuck yeah so we're just another Friday night that's the name of our podcast you can find it you can search us on YouTube but we're also on all the podcast platforms Spotify and on social media if there's rarely one that we're not on if there's hardly any that we should not be on but we are at J A F N podcast on Twitter, Instagram TikTok and then you can just find us on Facebook and we have a Facebook group also the Friday Night Faithful where we talk about comic books comic book movies movies but we go all over we talk music we've done a boxing episode we talk a little bit of sports too uh we did like our favorite um greatest basketball players of all time episode but we just did we had a little COVID interrupt me and my regular partner Adam Adam Antium Adam I mean we my sister Phil did in the last two episodes and we did Titans last week and I I know your episode probably dropped after mine Jerry so I can tell you guys we're gonna do our own DC versus Marvel this week coming up. That's awesome I'm gonna do yeah we always dislike those matchups and we want to put together some better matchups.

SPEAKER_17 1:10:08

Okay all right that sounds fun definitely down for that reminds me of like when they did the amalgam comics you know yeah oh yeah I read those that was fun you know it was part of that crazy 90s but the 90s were a strange time for comics I loved them because that was like really when I started really getting into comics but overall in like the the through line of comic books that it there was some weird stuff going on you know really great stories now like when you compare it to like you know your Dark Knight returns or your watchmen and you're thinking about that you know amalgam series are like wow these really didn't hold up that's exactly but but they're such a perfect of the yeah there's like a time capsule basically yeah big time oh man so looking forward to that both fantastic podcasts art looking forward to getting into yours as well and yeah me too and check it out yeah and and so Chuck I know you'll be back uh joining us on the wrestling episode and probably I'm gonna have you on the Batman episode as well if I can that's gonna be just as many people that love comic books and Batman as I can get on that it's just gonna be like a free for all. It'll be fun and art I hope to have you back on as well soon. All right so we'll definitely plan something there. So thanks again gentlemen and I'll end it by saying Pizza Hut pizza to go and check us out on our social media pages Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And if you're feeling like Martin Mole and Rita Moreno advertising for thin and crispy Super Supreme Pizza leave us a review on iTunes. Not only does it help us reach more people but you also get a free sticker.

SPEAKER_10 1:11:46

And don't forget to vote later dudes avoid the ups and downs of holiday shopping with Pizza Hut holiday gift certificates worth five dollars on any hot delicious Pizza Hut pizza start your holiday shopping now at Pizza Hut the teenage mutant ninja turtles rock and roll and only Pizza Hut has their great new cassette with 10 fodacious ninja turtle tunes.

SPEAKER_14 1:12:17

Get a cassette for your kids for just$3.99.

SPEAKER_09 1:12:20

Hey act and get a most excellent photograph poster an official tour book absolutely free but hurry because this is one rock and roll deal that's too awesome to miss what is up Friday nighters this is CM Chuck of the Just Another Friday night podcast me and my partner double A Adam and Tim Adam want to invite you to join us every Friday night as we go live on Facebook and talk all things pop culture from comic books movies TV music a little bit of wrestling even some sports guys crack open a couple of cold ones sit back and join in on the conversation and if you can't make it you can always find us anywhere podcasts are available including iTunes and Google podcasts just to name a few guys we really want you to head over to YouTube hit the subscribe button so you get all the notifications on all our new episodes and there's two things we like to remind you of every Friday night guys that is to seize the day and do whatever it takes