The tape runs nearly six hours across WEWS and WJW, covering late November through mid-December 1989. America’s Funniest Home Videos pilot with Kellie Martin guest-hosting. The debut of the Hershey’s Kisses Christmas Bells commercial — first year it ever aired. Siskel and Ebert reviewing Back to the Future 2 with their usual terrible takes. Early Regis and Kathie Lee, Roger Whittaker bringing out his daughter for a Christmas performance. A 20/20 segment on marriages with Pac-Man graphics illustrating a fighting couple. The Sunbury Collection does not mess around.
The real prize here is the ABC daytime lineup: One Life to Live, All My Children, and General Hospital from December 1989. ABC routinely failed to archive its daytime soaps from this era. Those episodes are gone from every institutional archive. Home recordings like this are likely the only surviving copies. The tape also caught the AFHV pilot incomplete — it was recorded over — and a partial Julie and Carol: Together Again that started too late. Over 130 commercials documented across both stations, including a Makro warehouse club ad from the chain’s final months before Kmart converted everything to Pace. Lionel Kiddie City, Hills Department Store’s first credit card acceptance announcement, an unidentifiable product called EpiSmile, and a Jaclyn Smith California fragrance TV spot that appears to not exist anywhere else.
Commercial Inventory
- Hershey’s Kisses Christmas Bells – Debut year of the iconic stop-motion commercial, first aired December 1989.
- Makro warehouse club – Dutch chain acquired by Kmart in 1989, converted to Pace in 1990. No US Makro TV commercials found online anywhere.
- Hills Department Store “now accepting credit” – Ohio discount chain documenting the specific milestone of first accepting credit cards.
- Lionel Kiddie City – Toy chain went bankrupt 1991. Only one other 1980s Lionel Kiddie City commercial known to survive.
- Laurelwood Hospital teen suicide PSA – Cleveland-area psychiatric facility. Zero online presence.
- Jaclyn Smith California fragrance – “The fragrance that captures the dream.” TV spot not found on any video platform.
- EpiSmile / May Company – Product cannot be identified. May Company local retail ad for an entirely unknown item.
- McRib “McRib time at McDonald’s” – Specific tagline variant not found in any vintage commercial archive.
- Aspercreme (lady from Warren, Ohio endorses it) – Local/regional endorsement variant. Regional ad variants almost never preserved.
- Freeze Lock – Lock de-icer product with zero brand presence found online. Cannot be confirmed to exist anywhere else.
- International Delight variety pack – Brand launched 1987. No early International Delight commercials found; earliest documented TV ads are from the 2010s.
- Jarlsberg Cheese – No vintage Jarlsberg TV commercials from 1989 found anywhere online.
- Chester Cheetah “Cool 86” animated commercial – Early Chester ad from the animated Richard Williams era.
- Twin Value “Law of Toyland” – Will beat all toy prices. That’s the law.
- Rax restaurant – Columbus HQ chain, pre-“Mr. Delicious” era. Very scarce online.
