The Lost Art of Equestrian "TV World" Advertising, Oct-Nov. 1998 · 2:52pm Oct 14th, 2014
You've Met Abraham Lincoln.
Now Meet His Hilarious Butler!
PREMIERES WEDNESDAY OCT. 14 AT 8:30PM!
ON EBC 1!
Promotion © MCMXCVIII by EBC. ™, ® & Copyright © 1998 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
This short-lived UPN acquisition may well have been the KKK's favourite TV show of 1998. But don't take my word for it.
Wikipedia says "Before the series' premiere, several African American activist groups, including the Los Angeles area NAACP, protested against the premise of the series. On September 24, 1998, a protest against the series was held outside Paramount Studios. Five days later, UPN released a statement regarding the controversy and stated that the network planned on delaying the controversial pilot episode (which never aired) and would instead air an alternate episode in its place. The first episode of the series aired on October 5, 1998, ranking 116th out of 125 television programs for that week. Desmond Pfeiffer was removed from UPN's schedule on October 24 and, after airing one episode two days after being removed from UPN's lineup, was canceled."
The show was about a British nobleman who was chased out of England due to gambling debts and becomes the valet of President Abraham Lincoln. In the show, Desmond Pfeiffer serves as the intelligent and erudite backbone of a Civil War-era White House populated by louts and drunkards.
The biggest problem? Forget the whole "Racist" thing for a sec. It was offensive to everyone, not just African Americans. The show also contained ungodly SEX jokes. The last program we needed to see in 1998? This one.
Here's the least believable part of them all: EBC actually made an approving description of the butler's actions in the show's promotional materials:
You've Met Abraham Lincoln.
Now Meet His Hilarious Butler!
Oh good lord. EBC approved of this type of racism?
Also, way to poorly spoof the Clinton administration by juxtaposing the behaviours of it into a Lincolnian environment. Unhealthy.
THE CONCERT OF THE YEAR YOU WON'T EVER WANT TO MISS
SCOOTALOO/SWEETIE BELLE
LIVE IN BANGKOKSaturday Nov. 14 on the
EverFree Television Network.Soundtrack album available November 10 on
a PolyGram Company.
314 540 909 2/4
Scootaloo appears courtesy of Virgin Records, a division of EMI.
Sweetie Belle appears courtesy of A&M Records.
© 1998 EverFree Broadcasting Corporation.
Sweetie Belle was a huge 1970s and early 1980s Equestrian singing star whose career had been on the decline since the mid 1980s. In 1996, she had been put back into the No. 1 ranking among singers in her age group when her duet album with Babs Seed, Two Stars In The Sky (A&M 31454 0553 2) immediately became a million-seller and was certified sextuple platinum by the RIAA, Belle's first Platinum LP of any kind since 1984. Scootaloo rebounded around the same time (1997) with albums Sunlight, Moonlight, Flute with Vocals, and songs such as the chart topping "Just Let Me Know If You Love Me So." By 1999, Apple Bloom and Babs Seed, who were huge in the 1970s, 1980s and even in the early 1990s, had fallen to third and fourth place respectively behind both of these singers, and their careers had some major rebuilding to do. Babs' was retooled; upon her move to Columbia Records, she began releasing Wiggles-esque children's LPs interchangeably reminiscent of many soul sounds from the late 20th Century. These sounds include: the Philadelphia sound, the Stax Sound and the Motown Sound, but some even had a sound reminiscent of the other Soul music sounds. They were released at the same time as her regular, adult-targeted, LPs. The children's LPs sold millions more copies by 2006.
THE
PEPPER CLARK
SHOWSo wacky and outrageous you could have guessed Pinkie Pie was in it.
NEW SEASON PREMIERE
Oct. 21 on the EBC.
Promotion © MCMXCVIII by EBC. ™, ® & Copyright © 1998 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
How wacky and outrageous was this show?
So wacky and outrageous you could have guessed Pinkie Pie was in it.
Among her sketches: "In a spoof of 60 Minutes, Clark investigates the executions of many cars in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area." It's funny 'cause it's about cars, not people, right? Pepper also does a parody of gospel videos -- WHO'S EVER DONE THAT BEFORE?
FOALS!
A great new Saturday frenzy from EverFree Television!
Saturday Evening, Nov. 7, at 12 NOON on EverFree Television.
© 1998 EverFree Broadcasting Corporation.
Foals! is best described in three words: "Bad Rugrats Ripoff." It had the main characters basically do anything Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil and Angelica would normally do, provide common life experiences that, in their imaginations, become adventures. It had the brave tot, the scared tot, the argumentive tot, and the bossy tot, as well.
The thinking behind it was that, since it came 7 hours before Rugrats (at least in Equestria), and had the same damn things, people would abandon Rugrats for it.
Foals! lasted slightly longer than it should have as it was about to compete against a new, reformulated, Rugrats Main Cast. At this point until Kimi comes, Saturdays were better spent reading a book, jogging, logging on to the Internet, listening to music, etc.
A GREAT NEW EBC SPECIAL BEGINS TODAY!
A GREAT NEW X-FILE ALSO BEGINS TODAY!
EBC TUESDAY!
A PolyGram Company
Next year, Motown Records, the record company that changed the face of popular music forever, and became as famous as its stars and sound, turns 40! Celebrate with 18 TV appearances from its heyday! Footage magnificently restored! Plus vintage interviews from the people who made Motown what it is today!
MOTOWN LOOKS AT 40
7:00PM
Tonight, Scully and Mulder hunt down a deadly extra-terrestrial creature as a review panel probes Mulder's claims regarding alien existence and government conspiracy!
THE X-FILES
8:30PMPromotion © MCMXCVIII by EBC. © 1998 Historic Music, under exclusive licence to PolyGram Records of Equestria, Ltd. © 1998 TCFFC.
Finally: the November 1998 ad you've all been waiting for: the official Equestrian promotion of "The Beginning", an episode of The X-Files that picks up where the X-Files film left off. Note how Motown gets a larger slice of this page than the alien thing does. Wow. Poor guy -- er, alien. The great record company we call Motown got a piece of the page larger than his!
