Just want to call your attention to “The Lede” in Wednesday’s New York Times blog, in which they explore the questionable history of turning commercials into real TV series, like this fall’s CAVEMEN. If it sounds like an unprecendented move, it’s only because the other such shows have been miserable failures.

“Baby Bob,” a sitcom based on a talking baby who appeared in spots for FreeInternet.com, ran on CBS in 2002.

Max Headroom began on a British TV series, turned up in a series of Coke commercials and was revived for an ABC series in 1987-88.

A character named Ernest P. Worrell, played by Jim Varney in ads in the ’80s, was featured in a CBS series, “Hey Vern, It’s Ernest,” in 1988, and later appeared in movies.

Headroom doesn’t really count, he was a series first THEN a commercial. Read the comments to find the ones the TIMES missed (I’m talkin’ to you, NOID!) Fascinating. And horrifying.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 19th, 2007 at 10:09 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.