Call me a nerd but I was excited to see an Apple commercial on TV at the time and they always aired super late with a 1800 # to call. This was before Apple Stores existed and most computer stores were kind of intimidating at the time for a 10 year old kid. Our first Mac was a 33MHz Performa 550 in 1994 with 5MB of RAM and 160MB HD, today I have an 4GHz M3 Max MacBook Pro 16" with 48GB RAM and 1TB storage.
I grew up in Long Island and I remember this infomercial would air around 11pm on channel 55. I grew up some years without cable, and it was the only thing to watch. We'd watch it all the time---I thought it was a sitcom. It was such a good ad.
I love how the grandpa isn't the one set in his ways! He's having fun with it and, despite his confusion, is willing to learn the new technology. I was expecting him to be the grumpy one and not the dad.
You can tell they're shopping at CompUSSR. Even back then you'd have to search out a PC that didn't have a sound card or a CD ROM drive. My first computer in 1989 came with a sound card. We added a CD ROM drive in 1991 I believe. Of course if you just bought a computer at that point, it would've come with one. All in all, I LOVE this infomercial. It's so cheesey. :) Thanks for posting it.
One computer for six people! In a typical American middle class family like this one, today there would be more PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones in the house than people.
This playing after the Kids' WB block is what got me to beg my mom to finally get a computer and so she got a Performa (which we had to share). I don't care what anyone says about the Performa or any Mac from the 1990s, I had fun with the games on it it and the Power Mac and iMac G3 that came after. My subsequent Macs however have gotten have gotten more internet-friendly but less game-friendly and funnily enough I get less happy 🙃 Thx Steve Jobs
Back in the day when 7 people sharing 1 computer was normal. In 2015, a family like this would have more desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones than people.
Holy shit I the part at the end where they talk about points triggered a vague memory. I must have watched this back in the day. I haven't seen the rest but I remember the dad awarding points to random shit. I nostalgia'd, I lose.
Well, you can consider the occasional "special events" Apple does nowadays as LIVE infomercials. Whenever they introduce the latest generation Mac/iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch that will be available in weeks, that means it's a cue to save up as much of your hard-earned money as you can! (By the way...At the time of this infomercial, I was originally planning on getting a Mac myself after my school was equipped with almost every one of them, but Windows 95 would change my mind completely)
I remember watching these. They ran for a few years (different families I think. I could be wrong.) For a few years watching these were a part of the Christmas season for me. Looking back of course they are now cheesy and funny. But at the time it was kinda techy.
@justus4justice Also, using the command prompt may have been needed for some advanced settings, but the same goes for any operating system including Windows 7 and MacOS X. Basic things could be set via the GUI, and advanced settings are not for average users anyway. The point is that this commercial suggests that Windows didn't have a GUI at all, whereas the truth is quite the opposite. If Apple lies to you about that, how can you trust anything they say?
Except that if you looked closely, you'd notice that it was actually Windows 3.1, not 95. Even on Win95 though, I do remember having to do quite a bit at the command prompt. Not to mention, both 95 and 3.1 were essentially just shells that sat on top of MS-DOS. If you ever needed to troubleshoot something, you were likely going to be at the command line.
I too recall watching this back in the day , and dreaming I could afford one . The computer really made this family better for having owned it . Yet , little TJ seems in fear that without points , the computer would disappear . It is pretty clear at the store scene that it is just a question of who was paying for it , Dad , or Grandpa . They made a wager on who got stuck with writing the check . Q These days , all the family , including the dog would say " what do I care " as no matter how ma
I thought Gramps lived in the nursing home with Jerry Seinfeld's Grandmother. Did the Martinettis put him there after he invited a stranger to the house?
i remember fighting with my brother and mom to go online (aol) everyone wanted to be online. then i remember when napster came out it was amazing...free music!!
I use the Power Macintosh G3 at least during a few days. I still have to re-install the whole operating system (Mac OS 8.5) from the USB flash drive because Mac OS 9.2 is a piece of rubbish.
MULTIMEDIA!!!!! I never knew what that word meant, but I remember wanting a computer that had it when I was younger. All you ever heard was multimedia, multimedia, multimedia!!!!!! Come to find out, it just means the computer has sound and can play movies. BTW, what the hell was pops using?? That computer he was using at work looked to be at least 12 years old. Was his company failing???
This is hilarious.... So what was the price for the Mac? I bet still around $1500 hahaha Technology is crazy... those fat monitors all need to go away completely.
I had this computer. It was great to take the pictures from the writer's craft and mutilate them. This didn't have AOL at this time it was called EWORLD. I used to troll chat rooms on it. There was a really awesome picture of genital warts in the Family Doctor. I printed it out in my 3rd grade class.
@justus4justice "Not to mention, both 95 and 3.1 were essentially just shells that sat on top of MS-DOS" Dude, you don't want to know what Mac OS was back then... No wonder it was thrown away in 1999 and replaced with a third party operating system based on Unix and FreeBSD. By the way, what you refer to as "shell" is called GUI (graphical user interface), and operating system GUI's always sit on top of the kernel, so I don't think the word "just" is justified in your sentence.
I'm buying a MacBook Pro in the near future. MacBook Pro is the future of Macintosh. So I decided to head to the Apple Store at Baybrook Mall with Mimi, Bubba, Alexis and Brittany to test out the MacBook Pro computer before buying one. MacBook Pro: It has Wi-Fi. It tracks down your Windows Phone. It also does multimedia and games and so much more. It also does TV and Video. It has Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks. It has a Intel processor. It goes where you go. It goes where my girlfriend goes. Here is a example of Disney Princess My Fairytale Adventure running on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (see next video about Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks).
This should have been a whole show
Love your channel
See im not the only man of culture
No
When I was a kid, I had insomnia...this infomercial came on after Mr. Wizard episodes stopped repeating...it was...comforting to me then.
SAME!
Same here as well. Watched it many many times
Same here!
Call me a nerd but I was excited to see an Apple commercial on TV at the time and they always aired super late with a 1800 # to call. This was before Apple Stores existed and most computer stores were kind of intimidating at the time for a 10 year old kid. Our first Mac was a 33MHz Performa 550 in 1994 with 5MB of RAM and 160MB HD, today I have an 4GHz M3 Max MacBook Pro 16" with 48GB RAM and 1TB storage.
I grew up in Long Island and I remember this infomercial would air around 11pm on channel 55.
I grew up some years without cable, and it was the only thing to watch. We'd watch it all the time---I thought it was a sitcom. It was such a good ad.
This Is My Most Favorite Informercial. Always So Much Fun To Watch Everytime It Was On TV.
Remember watching this during the day as a kid when I was home sick from school. I enjoyed it watched it a dozen times lol your killing me smalls!
I loved this infomercial!
I love how the grandpa isn't the one set in his ways! He's having fun with it and, despite his confusion, is willing to learn the new technology. I was expecting him to be the grumpy one and not the dad.
I loved this infomercial and always wanted more episodes hahaha
I am so glad I was around for this entire transition to the computer age. What a wonderful time.
"On a Windows PC, running a CD-ROM was a real hassle"
Pro-tip: you have to put the CD-ROM into the drive.
"I hear you can even have music on it too."
LOL
This was a cool infomercial I remember watching while growing up. Thanks for posting this for memories!
This is the weirdest episode of Malcolm in the Middle I've ever seen.
"You can get music on it!" Even opera?" No Gramps, Firefox.
Literally lol'd - cheers from a decade in the future!
I remember this commercial and I actually enjoyed it.
That.... and "the information super-highway".
Oh God, that was horrible!
You can tell they're shopping at CompUSSR. Even back then you'd have to search out a PC that didn't have a sound card or a CD ROM drive. My first computer in 1989 came with a sound card. We added a CD ROM drive in 1991 I believe. Of course if you just bought a computer at that point, it would've come with one.
All in all, I LOVE this infomercial. It's so cheesey. :) Thanks for posting it.
You can definitely tell this was pre-Windows 9X.
Ever since this first aired, my brother and I would say to each other, "Eight megs." "I knew you were a power user!"
One computer for six people! In a typical American middle class family like this one, today there would be more PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones in the house than people.
This commercial prompted my family to by a PC.
OMG I remember catching such a beating from running up my dad's internet bill chatting to people on that MAC E world service lol
Fletcher has giant teeth
this commercial is gold
I believe this store was called "Incredible Universe" I remember those color uniforms and insane prices.
but now Incredible Universe became Fry's Electronics.
Cheesy beyond belief, this video surpasses the emmental, soars past the cheddar and smashes the stilton. Best watched with a rich, complex red :-)
Macs, they just work.............until they don't.
This playing after the Kids' WB block is what got me to beg my mom to finally get a computer and so she got a Performa (which we had to share). I don't care what anyone says about the Performa or any Mac from the 1990s, I had fun with the games on it it and the Power Mac and iMac G3 that came after. My subsequent Macs however have gotten have gotten more internet-friendly but less game-friendly and funnily enough I get less happy 🙃 Thx Steve Jobs
Except that 95% of the people had Windows and 5% had a Mac, so if you needed help, you had a lot more people to turn to.
You just put in the disc and BAM the dirt is gone
moar allegro
Back in the day when 7 people sharing 1 computer was normal. In 2015, a family like this would have more desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones than people.
Yep and your parents could spy on your naughty adventures clear as anything LOL.
Holy shit I the part at the end where they talk about points triggered a vague memory. I must have watched this back in the day. I haven't seen the rest but I remember the dad awarding points to random shit.
I nostalgia'd, I lose.
Well, you can consider the occasional "special events" Apple does nowadays as LIVE infomercials. Whenever they introduce the latest generation Mac/iPhone/iPad/Apple Watch that will be available in weeks, that means it's a cue to save up as much of your hard-earned money as you can!
(By the way...At the time of this infomercial, I was originally planning on getting a Mac myself after my school was equipped with almost every one of them, but Windows 95 would change my mind completely)
I remember watching this three times in a row when I was a kid til I figured it wasn't a tv show and it was the same episode over and over.
I just found one in the trash, with the matching monitor. I grabbed it for a friend of mine.
5:33 PLUS there were GAMESSSSS
I would watch this as a kid
Dude what happened... Now it's just Elsa beats up spider man with a baseball bat :(
Is that Squints? From The Sandlot?
I remember watching these. They ran for a few years (different families I think. I could be wrong.) For a few years watching these were a part of the Christmas season for me. Looking back of course they are now cheesy and funny. But at the time it was kinda techy.
AWESOMMMEEEE
I remember eWorld!
I love this infomercial,
Opera? Sure gramps, and it's even better than safari.
Fletcher is a genius, so he sells computers for $5/hour
i bought a performa because of this
Wow this brings back memories.
T.J. is Squints from the movie "The Sandlot" no?
Anyone else think so?
Back when getting a computer was a major event...ahh those were the days.
Where are you Chadtronic?
I remember watching this infomercial every weekend in the 90's I wanted one so bad but couldn't afford it :( I still don't own Mac...
The Hamster Dance was big back then.
I remember seeing this in 1995 early in the morning.
look at the size of that computer!!!!!!! wow.....
@justus4justice Also, using the command prompt may have been needed for some advanced settings, but the same goes for any operating system including Windows 7 and MacOS X. Basic things could be set via the GUI, and advanced settings are not for average users anyway.
The point is that this commercial suggests that Windows didn't have a GUI at all, whereas the truth is quite the opposite. If Apple lies to you about that, how can you trust anything they say?
Except that if you looked closely, you'd notice that it was actually Windows 3.1, not 95. Even on Win95 though, I do remember having to do quite a bit at the command prompt. Not to mention, both 95 and 3.1 were essentially just shells that sat on top of MS-DOS. If you ever needed to troubleshoot something, you were likely going to be at the command line.
tetris saves the world
Man, I wish I grew up around that time. When computers were actually useful.
Yeah. $2,300 for the one in the video, but they started at $1,500
1:27 this song was used in the iMac G3 commercial.
Niall Strain oh, hello me!
what family was up at 3 AM?
@stephthestar90
I think this infomercial aired when Windows 3.1 was the newest version.
I too recall watching this back in the day , and dreaming I could afford one . The computer really made this family better for having owned it .
Yet , little TJ seems in fear that without points , the computer would disappear . It is pretty clear at the store scene that it is just a question of who was paying for it , Dad , or Grandpa . They made a wager on who got stuck with writing the check . Q
These days , all the family , including the dog would say " what do I care " as no matter how ma
Is the older brother played by that kid from Dawson's Creek? James van something?
I thought Gramps lived in the nursing home with Jerry Seinfeld's Grandmother. Did the Martinettis put him there after he invited a stranger to the house?
i remember fighting with my brother and mom to go online (aol) everyone wanted to be online. then i remember when napster came out it was amazing...free music!!
what the hell is a modem???
Who is that kid? I know I've seen that face before.
I use the Power Macintosh G3 at least during a few days. I still have to re-install the whole operating system (Mac OS 8.5) from the USB flash drive because Mac OS 9.2 is a piece of rubbish.
FORR... EV... ER!
It's hardcore katie !
A Modem Is A Device That When Dial-Up Was Still Popular, That Would Connect ONE Computer Top The Internet Over A Phone Line. Does That Clairify?
And they still have only a fraction of the third-party support. ;)
MULTIMEDIA!!!!! I never knew what that word meant, but I remember wanting a computer that had it when I was younger. All you ever heard was multimedia, multimedia, multimedia!!!!!! Come to find out, it just means the computer has sound and can play movies.
BTW, what the hell was pops using?? That computer he was using at work looked to be at least 12 years old. Was his company failing???
This is hilarious.... So what was the price for the Mac? I bet still around $1500 hahaha
Technology is crazy... those fat monitors all need to go away completely.
No points!
I had this computer. It was great to take the pictures from the writer's craft and mutilate them. This didn't have AOL at this time it was called EWORLD. I used to troll chat rooms on it. There was a really awesome picture of genital warts in the Family Doctor. I printed it out in my 3rd grade class.
i thought the old man was the best character. did he ever do voice over work?
This commercial is a total lie. Win95 never required command prompt and it played cds just fine.
fletcher!!
lol hahaha
Also, when multimedia was the buzzword of the year. Lol.
TJ = Alan White from Freaks & Geeks
@bricklayerpayne Sure is. Michael...Squints...Paladores.
now stave job id dead oh well look like apple is going go down hill
anyone recall the price of the performa?
The one they bought started at $1,500
if linus created linux in 80's, then there would be more linux users!
I am getting a MacBook Pro
omg, i nostalgia
Did you even watch the fucking video?
4:30 has 95' PCs. This video was made in 95.
Besides, Windows 3.1 was GUI as well, not command prompt.
Lol da fuck
Epic. It's funny because so many years later, it's still the same deal. Macs just work.
whoda thunk?
Frankie is a cutie pie!
I hated that my parents bought one of these.
@justus4justice
"Not to mention, both 95 and 3.1 were essentially just shells that sat on top of MS-DOS"
Dude, you don't want to know what Mac OS was back then... No wonder it was thrown away in 1999 and replaced with a third party operating system based on Unix and FreeBSD. By the way, what you refer to as "shell" is called GUI (graphical user interface), and operating system GUI's always sit on top of the kernel, so I don't think the word "just" is justified in your sentence.
Who in the name of fuck green lighted this shit to ever be made? Or were the 90s literally just the worst at everything?
I like gramps, he seems like a nice guy. That actor is probably dead by now... ß^(
I'm buying a MacBook Pro in the near future. MacBook Pro is the future of Macintosh. So I decided to head to the Apple Store at Baybrook Mall with Mimi, Bubba, Alexis and Brittany to test out the MacBook Pro computer before buying one. MacBook Pro: It has Wi-Fi. It tracks down your Windows Phone. It also does multimedia and games and so much more. It also does TV and Video. It has Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks. It has a Intel processor. It goes where you go. It goes where my girlfriend goes. Here is a example of Disney Princess My Fairytale Adventure running on Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (see next video about Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks).
I use Windows XP, but if I was in their situation during the early 90's i'd go with a mac, especially the Performa.