The Retroist

Smurfberry Crunch was a licensed cereal that appeared in the early nineteen eighties during the height of cartoon driven food marketing. Produced by General Foods and tied to The Smurfs television series, it used brightly colored corn pieces and a made up fruit flavor to stand out in an already crowded cereal aisle. Like many cereals of the period, it existed as part of a larger push to turn popular characters into everyday consumer products, especially items aimed at children. By the time the cereal arrived, the Smurfs, created by Belgian artist Peyo, over 20 years earlier, were already familiar through toys and television, and Smurfberry Crunch felt less like an introduction and more like a signal that they had moved to a whole other level.

I might have seen some Smurf toys in this fun novelty/card store we had at the mall before the cartoon began, but like most people in the United States, it was the premiere of the cartoon in 1981 that turned me into a deep blue fan. I loved the Smurfs and the Christmas after they were released was the Smurfiest. It was perfect timing, I was still collecting Star Wars toys, but GI Joe still was on the horizon, so I got a few little blue figures, a Smurf House, and a Smurfs Clay Kit that year. After that, the Smurfs just slowly rolled in, showing up as gifts from my mom or grandmother when they were able to buy something little at the card store. I didn’t play with them much, but I had a shelf I dedicated to them and I liked setting them up and moving them around. Otherwise my fandom was on cruise control until early 1983, when suddenly a that collision of breakfast cereal and Smurfy goodness finally made it into my cereal cabinet.

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In February of 1983, in a short article from the New York Times New Service titled, “Troll-like Smurfs are big business,” we see huge optimism for Peyo’s creation. According to the article, in 1982, Smurf related merchandise made more than $700 million. The Wallace & Berrie company, which licensed Smurf products expected “1983 to be a billion-dollar sales year.” With a marketing budget of $40 million they were partnering with over 80 companies to make Smurf toys and other branded products. This included a new cereal.

Partnering with General Foods they promised a cereal that brings the magic and flavor of the Smurfs to your breakfast table. I think they delivered. I can still remember the super sweet berry smell when I first opened the package, and in the bowl, Smurfberry Crunch was impossible to miss. The pieces were bright red and blue, small and crisp, and the milk slowly turned a purplish pink as you ate. The flavor was sweet and loosely fruity, not tied to any real berry so much as a general unreal candy-like taste. I remember it being mild at first bite, then getting much sweeter as it sat in the milk.

While the cereal went wide in March, it started appearing on shelves under the Post brand in late February. The first mention of it for sale I can find is on February 27, 1983 in Trenton, NJ. It was also available in other stores in the South NJ and Philadelphia area at the Shop n Bag supermarket chain. An 11 ounce box there will cost you $1.39. From there the cereal keeps appearing in more markets every week. By April it is pretty much available nationwide in both an 11 ounce and 16 ounce package.

April is when things went into overdrive on the marketing of the cereal. General Foods had budgeted $7.5 million for the rollout and a lot of it went into television advertising. The commercials featured our favorite Smurfs in all of their animated glory.

According to an interview done with Hollywood star Jack Black, the animated commercials weren’t the only ones made. While most might know that Black appeared in an early commercial for the Activision game, Pitfall!, he also made a lesser known appearance in a commercial for Smurfberry Crunch. According to Black in an article from the Associated Press from 2003, when he appeared in the Pitfall! commercial, his friends thought he was the coolest, but not his next commercial. He stated that he quit acting after he appeared in a Smurfberry Crunch commercial, and “became very unpopular in school because of it.” Unfortunately this commercial appears to be lost media, but I keep scouring the web hoping it will pop up someday.

Smurfberry Crunch is often described as a short-lived cereal, but it had a pretty healthy run. As I mentioned it was available in February of 1983 and while it would diminish in its availability, it would remain on the shelves until 1989 with the last recorded mention of it for sale that I could find is in Illinois on June 21, 1989. With that being the final printed promotion, I would guess that by the autumn most of it had disappeared from shelves. Six years on store shelves in pretty impressive, especially since this was made a novelty cereal that was very strongly tied to the cartoon series. A cartoon series that expired uncoincidentally broadcast its last episode in December of 1989.

But if you were to go to the store after that, you didn’t need to return Smurf-less. Because in April of 1988, General Foods launched a brand new Smurf-themed cereal, Smurf Magic Berries. That’s right, for over a year, you could go to a supermarket and pick up not one, but two Smurf Cereals. How to describe them?

Smurf Magic Berries tasted like a broad artificial fruit cereal rather than any specific berry, closer to a generic fruit punch flavor than blueberries or strawberries. The cereal pieces were lightly crisp and fairly mild, with most of the flavor coming from the sugary coating. The marshmallow stars changed the experience quite a bit, adding straight sweetness and a soft, spongy texture once the milk soaked in, so each bowl shifted between crunchy and soft bites. That made it sweeter and less sharp than Smurf Berry Crunch, which stayed firmly in the fruity crunch lane, while Magic Berries edged closer to the Lucky Charms model, fruit cereal with marshmallows and the fruit flavor playing more of a supporting role.

The first mention of Smurf Magic Berries I can find is from April 25, 1988. At that time an 11 ounce box was on sale for $1.99. Not too bad. It’s not clear how long they lasted though. I find references all the way up to 1994, but nothing after that, but I could have sworn that they last longer. I will keep looking and if I can find a definitive answer I will update the post.

This wouldn’t be the last cereal from the Smurfs, as they showed back up in the cereal aisle in 2011 alongside the movie. The cereal itself looked a lot like Fruity Pebbles, made up of tiny crisped rice pieces rather than flakes or shapes, just done in blue and white instead of a full spread of colors. That choice did most of the work, you could tell what it was supposed to be without reading the box. It followed the rules of modern kids cereal at the time, simple, sweet, familiar, and easy to place next to everything else on the shelf, which was really the point. It kept the Smurfs in a space they had already occupied before, and it did it without trying to reinvent anything, which was probably the safest and most boring move.

Smurfberry Crunch ends up being one of those products that makes perfect sense when you look back at it. It sat at the crossroads of cartoons, toys, and breakfast food, and it did exactly what it was supposed to do. It turned a television habit into something you could pour into a bowl. It also lasted longer than most people remember, long enough to feel normal rather than fleeting. By the time it was gone, the Smurfs themselves were fading from daily life, at least in that original form. But for a few years, they were everywhere, even first thing in the morning. And for me, that moment when the milk turned pink was enough to lock it in place. It was not just a cereal tied to a show. It was proof that the Smurfs had fully arrived, right there on the shelf, asking to be eaten while you watched them on TV.

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For most of the year, when the newspaper showed up in my family’s house, I was only interested in the comics section. But as the holiday season started to roll around and toys sales were starting, I found myself going straight to the inserts and sales circulars. What I wanted was reference material for my Christmas list. Something I could point to make my mom aware of exactly what I hoped to get. I would bring them to bed with me at night and instead of reading a book or comic, I would just read and re-read them, staring at each toy and wondering if any of them would show up under our tree on Christmas morning. Not many of them did, but the dreaming and planning was still a lot of fun.

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Nowadays, I still enjoy looking at the old relics of sales past. They are wonderful historical artifacts and they take me right back to when I was a kid. So, I would like to share with you a Toys “R” Us circular from 1984. It was published right after December of that year. Like most of their sales offering during these years, it promised that their “prices will be no higher through Dec. 25th.” So no matter when you shop at the store this month, this is what you would have paid. Let’s jump in and look at some of the highlights on each page.

What an amazing way to kick things off. You have a great Christmas ball motif and five items I would have been happy to get. I loved Star Wars and the Rancor was a great-looking toy, but as a committed player of Dungeons & Dragons, I would pick Tiamat all day, every day. I know for a fact she was on my list, but sadly, never arrived. Soundwave and the Rancor were also on my list during this era. RoboForce is an interesting toy line, I have one that I picked out of a bargain bin years ago and you can still find them at reasonable prices, although, I am not so sure about toe Patroller Vehicle. I guess I should comment on Snake Mountain. Of course, I wanted it, but at that price it was very out of reach.

More D&D figures, please! That is Bronze Dragon & Strongheart. At some point I picked up Strongheart, but still don’t own his might flying mount. Some really cool MotU vehiclse and Castle Grayskull. I was a dabbler in the this toy line, I supposed I would have committed more if I had gotten anything outside of the handful of figures I got. I was just too into other toys at the time, namely, GI Joe. I did see Dune, but it didn’t capture my imagination enough to want the toys. Since I was a Marvel reader it didn’t occur to me to pick up their action figures, but that Hall of Justice looks pretty great. My dark horse pick on this page is the Blackstar Motorize Wagon. Looks pretty dangerous.

Go Joe! Since all of my friends were into GI Joe, together we had all these GI Toys. When I got the HISS I was dancing around. I still liked Star Wars and on this page was my most treasures Star Wars toy that I still owned, the Millennium Falcon. My friends didn’t like playing Star Wars anymore, but I frequently played with the toys and the Falcon was usually the center of action.

Crossbows & Catapults deserves more attention. What a great idea for a game and some of these accessories are really something. Verbot was the stuff dreams were made of.

Realistic guns in the lower right hand corner were a real draw for us. We played gun make-believe games frequently and this was still the era when the realer the better. These two are really neat, but I was pretty happy with my small cap guns and didn’t care to waste any of my limited toy wish list space on toy guns.

I am amazed at how many toys from 1983 are still making a splash in 1984 with just small changes. This year instead, instead of Cliff Hangers, they had Super Cliff Hangers. I don’t care how old you are or what decade it is, when you drive a slot car up a wall in the dark, it’s pretty satisfying.

This is around the time one of my friends and me were getting into trains and he got the GI Joe train set, while I got a more generic HO scaled set with that Santa Fe engine you see above. My interest in the set lasted a lot longer and at some point he gave me what was left of his track and cars. I wasn’t into roller skating, but I knew several people who got those Nash Cruiser Skates.

More trains and some great looking models. That Tyco set is closer to the one that I got. I dreamed about setting up a bridge and trestle. It lived up to the hype.

Potato Clock was a pretty big deal for a few people I knew. I liked science as much as the next person and I thought it was interesting, but I also thought it was a waste of potato that I could eat. Only the coolest kids who were in the know got a Robotech model. I wasn’t one of those kids.

Radio Control vehicles like the Sandmaster were always on my list, but I am glad my mom never tried to stretch to get one for me. In retrospect I would not have been able to keep up with the battery needs of a toy like that.

Things. Just. Got. Interesting.

The Commodore 64 was released in the summer of 1982, but by Christmas of 1984 it was finally getting into the territory where I could legitimately hope to afford one someday. I had the VIC-20 that I was happy with, but all eyes were on the C64 and that floppy drive.

I still used a tv for all my computing at this point, but was intrigued by them. I would eventually get an amber NEC monitor in a trade with someone who was more skilled at dumpster diving than me and it became an early prized possession.

I don’t think realized by the winter of 1984 that the ColecoVision was on its way out. It was always something I wanted. Wonder how many people bought it with the Cabbage Patch Doll offer? Both seemed like they were past their hype peaks. Still one of the best systems of the era, and I sat that even though I was an Atari kid, and hated the joystick.

Speak & Read and Speak & Math were pricey! My honorable mention for memorable toy on this page goes to the Little Professor. Small but proud. Keep teaching, Lil’ Pro.

I look at this page and see two things I wanted and remember asking for. The Handheld 2 screen Electronic Donkey Kong II and Wizard’s Quest by Avalon Hill. What I did get was the Entertainment Tonight Trivia Game. Not sure why, but later on I was also given the People Weekly Trivia Game. I liked trivia, but I didn’t ask for either of them.

I think my family had hopes that I would become a game show winner someday. Sadly, never happened and modern game shows aren’t very interested in “Who was married to Brett Somers?” What I would have been happy to get was the Pop-O-Matic Chipmunks.

An easy page for me. While I appreciated the Cabbage Patch Kids and liked the Care Bears, I wouldn’t have spent much time thinking about wanting them since I had so many options. Looking at it now, I wouldn’t mind playing around with that Soap Shaper.

I thought this would be a pretty easy page, but then I spotted ol’ Lurky. A sidekick perhaps, but a fun looking plush that I would have been happy to get and wish I owned now. Poochie and the Get Along Gang were nicely designed and I watched the The Get Along Gang cartoon, but never collected the toys.

I had a Team Murray bike. Not one that is pictured here. It was built like a tank compared to my friends bikes that were much fancier. I rode it just about every day until I felt that I was too big to do so. Eventually I would get a 10-Speed bike. I loved how fast you could go on that, but it lacked the personality of my original bike.

That Little Tikes toy chest was so popular. I think every other boy I knew had one. I inherited an old wood toy chest that I think was made in the early 50s or late 40s. It was solid wood and if the lid came down on your head, you felt it for a few hours.

I still wouldn’t mind getting that A-Team Van Playhouse.

Who puts the future in your hands!? Robotix! Another happy memory was getting a Robotix set for Christmas from my grandmother. It might have been her best gift and I could a lot of play out of it. Still pulling it out from time to time for years afterwards. I used to dream about Capsella and I still think they were amazing, but once I got Robotix, I was all in on it.

Electric Toothbrushes were huge back in in 80s. I really wanted one. That Talking Viewmaster is pricey! I guess that’s what you pay when you want a Thriller toy.

I had a Chipmunks plush, it was a Theodore. What I wanted was Alvin, since I thought he was the cool one, but now I am pretty happy I got a Theodore. I wonder if I got him because they were sold out Alvins or if my mom just made a decision based on my temperament. I don’t think I got Garfield plush at this time, but I would get one later in the 80s.

WOW, that Strawberry shortcake Happy Home is very expensive.

I didn’t play with Barbie dolls, but the Barbie Corvette was pretty amazing. If only it was to scale with my small action figures.

Back page stuff is all doll-related. You can see Strawberry Shortcake trying to get into the Cabbage Patch adopt-a-doll world. That didn’t catch on.

The real star of the page isn’t the toys though, its Gtv. Geoffrey directing a music video or some sort of performance where Michael Jackson and Great Shape Barbie take the stage together, it doesn’t get much more 1984 than that.

The 1984 Toys R Us Christmas circular had a way of pulling you in with page after page of bright plastic dreams. I still think about it whenever I run across an old ad in a newspaper archive, mostly because so many of the toys in it lined my shelves or lived rent free in my head for years. It is funny how a simple flyer that was tossed out by most families ends up feeling like a small time capsule for the rest of us.

The big names were there of course, sitting shoulder to shoulder with lines that barely lasted a season. Even the oddball toys had their fans, and somewhere out there a kid was circling a cheap robot with the same enthusiasm another kid had for the newest action figure wave. I remember doing that kind of circling myself, usually with a pen I was not supposed to be using on the furniture.

Do any of the toys ring a bell for you. Maybe one of them sat under your tree or maybe it was the thing you kept pointing at during a long shopping trip. I am always curious to hear what people remember from these old ads, so feel free to share.

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I am not sure when I had my first tortilla chip. I am pretty sure it was a Bravo, which was the Wise companies’ answer to Doritos. Wise was big in my area, and I tended to be loyal, but when I had my first Dorito, I was smitten, and it became one of the top snack chips in my life. I didn’t think anything had a chance to get between me and those wonderful nacho cheese triangle chips, but in March of 1993, Keebler unleashed the Chacho’s upon the world. They weren’t exactly the same, but for at least a year after their release they were giving Doritos a run for their money.

Throughout my life, I have always loved walking through grocery stores looking for something new and the Chacho’s hit a sweet spot in its crossover appeal. I enjoyed the tortilla chip, but up until this point, I had only ever had ones made with corn, this one was made with flour. Of course, I didn’t know that at the time, I just saw a new snack food from Keebler, and took it home. As soon as I tasted it though, I knew it was different. The texture was lighter, so I consulted the bag trying to figure out what was different. I would like to say I was savvy enough to understand the label and spot the difference, but I had to go to my sister who quickly figured out that it was the flour vs. corn.

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It wasn’t just the texture that made Chacho’s interesting when compared to existing snack chips. They also added an interesting snack chip flavor to the mix. When you thought about tortilla chips in this era, probably two flavors came to mind first, plain and some sort of cheese flavor. Chacho’s had those covered. Their plain offering was nice and salty without too much of an oily taste that you often got with similar chips. Their cheese variety was called, “Cheesy Quesadilla.”

I was instantly attracted to the cheese-flavored (who wouldn’t be) and I liked the taste. If I were to describe them now, it would be by comparing it to chips that exist today, like a Dorito. By comparison, the chip itself tasted lighter and maybe flakier in some way. Flavor-wise they were also much milder. They weren’t light on the spice, but compared to the densely coated Dorito, they were much more subtle. At first, I found this charming, but after a few bags I realized that I was hooked on the more flavorful offering from Frito Lay. Luckily Chacho’s had a flavor that was unique amongst snack chips.

Just as an aside, I want to congratulate Keebler for using the word quesadilla in a product at this time. While, a lot of people in the United States were getting more acquainted with the word at the time, in many areas of the country it was still a word someone might read, but not really know how to pronounce yet. Then Keebler ran this great commercial that not only spells it out clearly, but also give a pronunciation. I know at this point in my life I knew how to pronounce it, but I am pretty sure this would be the first time older members of my family had heard and saw the word.

I mentioned two of the Chacho’s three flavors, the third one is what really made them stand out, Cinnamon Crispana. Never before did I have a cinnamon flavored snack chip from the grocery store and for the life of me, I cannot understand why they aren’t more popular. I was quickly taken with them and for about a year after they launched they were usually on my family’s shelf. The cinnamon flavor was clever since it took a shape and style associated with salty chips and pushed it toward something closer to a sweet snack, which was unusual on a shelf where sweet usually meant cookies or cereal rather than something shaped like a tortilla chip.

I wasn’t the only one who appreciated Cinnamon Crispana. A few years after they were released, I found a Super Bowl Recipe article and Rite Huffman sent in her simple, but delicious-sounding Cool Whip and Caramel Dip. What did she suggest you dip in it? Cinnamon Crispana Chacho’s, of course.

In 1995, they added a new flavor to the lineup, Salsa Verde. Another interesting addition to the lineup, it too had a mild flavor, but to its credit it was also slightly different from other chip offerings at the time. Unfortunately, it didn’t catch on and is hardly remembered. Although it was featured in a Keebler/Cinemax contest in late summer of 1995. Can you answer these trivia questions?

They also did this interesting partnership where you could send away (with 2 UPC Codes) for a Demo CD-ROM that included four Shanghai tile matching games plus the complete version of Sargon V: World Class Chess. It really captures the tech level of the mid-1990s.

Chacho’s made their first appearance in supermarkets in March of 1993. The earliest appearance I can find is from the 13th. While they probably went through testing in select markets before this, I am guessing this was the start of the nationwide rollout because after this mentions of them would start to spread.

They stopped appearing in stores just about three years later with the final mention of them I could find from a store selling them in Flint, Michigan on March 4, 1996. They are actually slightly cheaper per bag than they had been during their introduction.

Chacho’s faded out because they never found a strong place on the shelf, and they were trying to survive in a space ruled by the Doritos juggernaut. They were sold as a tortilla chip, but the flour base gave them a taste and texture that felt off to people who expected corn. Even the cinnamon flavor, which had some novelty, did not turn into steady repeat sales. Stores also moved them around instead of giving them long runs, and Keebler already had a crowded snack lineup that pulled attention away from them. For the people who liked them they were distinctive, but they never built the broad audience they needed to stand up to an established brand that dominated the category.

Chacho’s are just another failed product among thousands. One season you have a new bag that feels like it might become a steady favorite, then a short while later it is gone and the shelf looks the same as it always did. Chacho’s still come to mind when I walk through a grocery store, mostly because they remind me of a moment when companies were willing to try ideas that did not match what people expected from a tortilla chip. They never found the wide audience they needed, but during their brief run they added something new to my snacking. Even now I can picture the bag and remember how hopeful it felt to find something new that did not taste like everything else.

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In 1967 Hanna-Barbera had a new show on Saturday Mornings, The Herculoids. This was before my time, but the show’s concept and characters were so enduring that nearly a decade and a half later they would be revived for a new show and I would be introduced to the great characters. Between and since then the have shown up in reruns, comic books, and more modern shows where they often appear for laughs.

The design of the characters was by the great Alex Toth, who I haven’t really talk enough about on the show. So I start this episode with a bio of Toth after talking about my experience discovering and learning about the show over the years. Then I move onto thee show itself. I discuss the people in front of and behind the camera, the studio who made it, its release, the music, and much more.

While the show combined elements of science fiction and fantasy, it was very easy to understand. A family of people and creatures come together to protect their home against anything that throw at them. Combine that simple and repeatable idea with great design and straightforward, but compelling animation and you have a memorable show that is still worth remembering today.

You can support the Retroist by joining my Patreon. Supporters will get member-only shows and audio extras associated with the show. Click the giant button below to check out the Patreon Page.

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If you have a moment, please stop by Apple Podcasts or wherever you might download the show and perhaps give the show a quick rating. It is very much appreciated.

Maybe I will release this Podcast on Cassette? Join Patreon for a chance to get a mixtape.

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• This is the 354th episode of the Retroist Podcast and episode 4 of Season 18.

• I am glad to finally get to talk more in depth about Alex Toth. I intended to do that during the Thundarr episode I did, but for some reason that didn’t happen. Not sure why? User error?

• Like most people, I like the creatures more that the people. They are so perfectly designed and each one appealing in their own way.

• If I was to criticize one thing about the show, it would be the modern sound mix on releases. The creature noises are way too turned up.

• I have enjoyed the new comic book by Dynamite and hope they decide to keep revisiting the characters in the future.

• Who is your favorite creature? Is it the same one you had as a kid?

• I love that they don’t explain the name Herculoids (as far as a I can tell).

• A Boy and His Blob: Trouble on Blobolonia is a game you should try if you have not.

• Bonus clippings can be found over on Patreon for Supporters.

• Some fun retro audio in this one. I want to include double what I did, but it was getting too long.

• Music on the show is, as always, by Peachy.

Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.

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In 1983, the first wave of arcade madness was still at a highpoint. We had a slew of classic games filled with classic characters that had become household names. Still, only one had made the leap off the gaming screen and onto the small screen, Pac-Man (and his family.) With everyone being so crazed for games, TV networks were wondering, how do I get my own Pac-Man type show? That is where we get the Saturday Supercade. Because why have a show with just one character when you can pick up a slew of video game stars.

On today show I want to tell you all about the Saturday Supercade. I start by talking about my own viewing habits as a kid. I was very much the target demographic for this show and I did not let the network down. Then I move onto each segment of the show, talking a little about its run, voice talent, and more. I conclude by summarizing the Supercade, how long it was on, when it ran, and its long-term influence.

The show was so meaningful to me that this was actually the second episode of the Retroist Podcast. Over the years I have wanted to redo it to modernize the audio and bring a little extra to what I had done the first time. Ultimately I decided to keep a lot of what was original even though the format is a bit different from episodes that would follow. I did that just so people could still see how the show evolved, plus it was fun for me to go back and redo it this way.

Like so many kids, I was a major fan of cartoons, and the cartoons of the Supercade were high on my list of new shows that September and I am happy to say I was not disappointed. While the show might not have last long, it was a smart step in the strategy of cross-promotion. More importantly, for an all too brief time it gave new life and stories to some video game characters who to this day only had their moment of the sun during the Saturday Supercade.

You can support the Retroist by joining my Patreon. Supporters will get member-only shows and audio extras associated with the show. Click the giant button below to check out the Patreon Page.

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If you have a moment, please stop by Apple Podcasts or wherever you might download the show and perhaps give the show a quick rating. It is very much appreciated.

Maybe I will release this Podcast on Cassette? Join Patreon for a chance to get a mixtape.

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• This is the 353rd episode of the Retroist Podcast and episode 3 of Season 18.

• This is a redo of episode 2 of the show. I hope you like it, the old version is being retired, but you can hear a little of it at the end of this one.

• In a perfect world, we would have had many more years and other video games brought into the Supercade. I would have loved to see a couple more Atari 2600 games get a season of segment. Maybe Haunted House? Yar’s Revenge? What would you have liked to see?

• I wondered if the segments were too kid-oriented? A lot of gamers were already pushing into the tween years. Maybe edgier cartoons (within reason) would have boosted ratings? Not sure that was possible at this time.

• I redid the Saturday Supercade logo to run as a promo image for the show and I am happy how it turned out. A lot of what is out there is very pixelated coming from screencaps. I did try and keep it slight retro looking. Pretty sure no one will notice it outside of the proud note readers.

• The old version of this show had some non-Peachy background music, that is all gone.

• Bonus clippings can be found over on Patreon for Supporters.

• Some fun retro audio in this one. I want to include double what I did, but it was getting too long.

• Music on the show is, as always, by Peachy.

Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.

Thanks for reading The Retroist! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

Growing up in New Jersey, I was lucky to be surrounded by some of the best pizza in the United States. So when chain pizza places started to creep into our area, they were at first pretty easy to ignore. This was especially easy since my mom was very opposed to spending money at anywhere that wasn’t a beloved place she had been going to, often for decades. It was an independent pizza paradise, but it couldn’t last. Advertising for these chains was relentless and eventually in the nineties, when novelty pizza released started to become more common, I couldn’t resist. While I felt guilty, it was a fun time to start trying these chains. Their cheap and often novel pizzas might not have been as “good” as some of the local places, but they could be interesting and fun.

In 1995, Pizza Hut was riding high on their Stuffed Crust Pizza success and was looking for the next great thing. It wouldn’t take them too long to figure out a follow-up to stuff crust. What if, instead of stuffing something in the crust, you instead stuffed cheese inside the entire pizza? The result of this thinking was the TripleDecker Pizza and its spin-off the TripleDeckeroni. These decadent creations would entice Americans to indulge in cheesy layered tastiness. It wasn’t a long-lived creation, and often overshadowed by other pizza novelties, but it is well-remembered for those who indulged. So let’s take a look at the rise and fall of Pizza Hut’s TripleDecker Pizza.

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At the start of 1995, Pizza Hut was in a great position. It had 8,300 locations in North America and was the leader of the then $30 billion dollar pizza industry. It wasn’t alone nationally, but other chains like Domino’s and Little Caesars were needing to play catch-up with their product releases. Pizza Hut has released stuffed crust in March of 1994 and in early 1995 they were predicting sales around $1 billion by its anniversary. This was a huge number, equally about 30% of the company’s sales which would be up 7% from the $3.2 billion they made in 1994. On top of the world, and realizing that maybe Americans weren’t as health conscious as some news outlets were claiming, they released a product with even more cheese than their stuffed crust.

Going vertical allowed them to add twice as much pizza as in a regular pizza. To build a pizza they start with a crust topped with a six cheese blend. On top of this is placed a second this crust that has perforations and large hold in the middle to let steam escape while the pizza bakes. They then use a small tool that trims and seals those crusts together. After that you prepare the pizza like you would a normal pizza, adding sauce, more cheese and even topping before putting it in the oven. It was priced the same as the stuffed crust pie, about $9.99 with one free topping. You could even mix it up with other established Pizza Hut products, for example make a Supreme TripleDecker, which would run you $12.99.

You will see in advertising that people eat their TripleDecker slices like you might have a traditional pizza slice. That was never my experience. The crust would never be stiff enough to hold all the toppings. They weren’t exactly sloppy, but if you had a fresh hot pie, the cheese tended to spill out the sides of the slice. So you could either let it cool substantially or use a fork and knife to eat it.

They had been working on the idea for nearly a year. Like any food product, testing and training is important. How you make a food product can change based on weather, and even altitude. They worked out all their details in their test kitchen, but then prepared training materials that went to every store in the chain. Launching it at start of the year gave them an opportunity they didn’t want to pass up, a Super Bowl XXX reveal with a new spokesman, legendary actor Anthony Quinn. While not exactly a youthful choice, Quinn’s commercial is pretty funny.

The product made a splash, but Pizza Hutt didn’t sit on their laurels. They decided to play with the format by quickly unleashing the TripleDeckeroni Pizza in May of that year.

This was very similar to the standard TripleDecker, except in one key way, it was chock full of pepperoni. You know that first pizza where they added the six cheese blend? Now add a hearty layer of 90 pepperoni pieces that pretty much guaranteed that every bite was meaty. Remember, you could still get a free topping on top as well. So you could go crazy with pepperoni, and many people did.

Remember I mentioned that Pizza Hut wasn’t too concerned about people’s reaction to the nutritional value? Allan S. Huston, who was president and chief executive of Pizza Hut at the time said in an article by the Associated Press, “Quite frankly, low-fat is on those things that customers talk about, but not something they do.” This didn’t stop an outcry from reporters, advocates, and health groups who pointed out that one slice of the original TripleDecker with a meat topping contained 400 calories and 17 grams of fat. Here is a chart February of 1995 from USA TODAY.

While some were taking these health questions seriously, a lot of the discourse felt kind of jokey. With people comparing it to a heart attack in a box. Still, that noise didn’t seem to have much to do with why it disappeared. By March 1997 the item was being phased out quietly, with no press release or official explanation. Trade publications of the time never cited health concerns, only that it was one of several short-run “innovation” pizzas that came and went in the mid-nineties. The likelier reasons were more mundane, the sort that rarely make headlines, like high prep costs, inconsistent baking, and a short-lived novelty appeal. Fans remember it fondly, but Pizza Hut moved on to simpler, cheaper limited runs soon after.

Financially, Pizza Hut’s momentum was already cooling by the time the TripleDecker was fading from menus. After a record 1995, with sales jumping more than 15 percent thanks to the success of Stuffed Crust Pizza, the company entered 1996 on shakier ground. Systemwide sales slipped to around 4.9 billion dollars, and same-store sales dropped roughly 4 percent. The slowdown suggested that the novelty boom had hit its limit, and that frequent limited-time products were starting to feel like gimmicks instead of growth drivers. In that light, the quiet disappearance of the TripleDecker wasn’t a retreat from indulgence so much as a sign that Pizza Hut was tightening up, trying to regain consistency after a few years of chasing spectacle.

In 2000, Pizza Hut briefly revived the TripleDecker as the Insider Pizza. The Insider appeared to be exactly the same as the TripleDecker. I guess enough time had passed, or Pizza Hut thought a rebrand would just be better because they never even mentioned the connection to their new product in any of their advertising. Much like the TripleDecker, it was a short-lived offering, ending its run in the summer 2002. I do like the advertising they did for the Insider. Something about cows demanding better treatment for their six-cheese blend and a nation descending into turmoil because of a dairy shortage that still makes me smile.

The TripleDecker was a good example of what happens when a big chain decides to chase novelty for its own sake. It wasn’t meant to change the way people ate pizza, just to keep their attention a little longer. For a while, it worked. It was a kind of edible spectacle, the sort of thing you’d order for a group just to see what it was like. Looking back, it fits right into the mid-nineties mix of indulgence and irony, when food trends were loud and a little absurd. The TripleDecker burned bright for a moment, left its mark on the menu boards, then vanished as quietly as it arrived, leaving behind one more memory from a time when even pizza felt like an event.

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On the October 2025 Monthly Update I talk about what’s been going on with the site and podcast, but also some other things going on in my life and some random thoughts I have. They include:

• Brigantine Castle

• Fun Size Candy Bars and Candy Safety

• Universal Mini Monsters and how they might have succeeded

• Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House and Phish

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The Wraith is a great home video rental. That is where I discovered it when my friend rented it one Friday night. The film moved quickly and had some fun stunts and driving scenes, so we were smitten. My friends more so than me because they were more into cars and had a lot to say about the Interceptor used in the film.

On the show, I start by talking ab…

Prom Night, starry Jamie Curtis, is a movie that is often overshadowed by her more memorable turn in Halloween. While it might not be a classic, like Halloween, it is a film well-worth your time. A fun, low-budget slasher film, it is also has a nice whodunit, and a time-capsule of the late 1970s with its disco dancing and music.

I begin the episode by discussing my own prom. It wasn’t memorable like all the proms I saw in the movies, but my friends and I did eventually manage to have some fun. Could our prom have used more disco? Probably, but all proms could use more disco. After discussing the prom, I move onto the film itself. Talking about how it got made, who made it, the actors, music, reception and much more.

Prom Night is interesting as a bridge between the Halloween era and the more graphic slashers that followed. Its kills are relatively low-key compared to what came after, but its focus on teenage drama, secrets, and revenge foreshadowed many later films. Why should you watch it? Curtis’s performance, its place in slasher history, and its splendid mix of disco, high school nonsense, and a masked killer that makes it feel very much of its time.

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If you have a moment, please stop by Apple Podcasts or wherever you might download the show and perhaps give the show a quick rating. It is very much appreciated.

Maybe I will release this Podcast on Cassette? Join Patreon for a chance to get a mixtape.

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• This is the 352nd episode of the Retroist Podcast and episode 2 of Season 18.

• This is a new episode for a new season. It was not how I planned to start it, but it is happening. Might have a few missteps, but episodes will flow like spice again.

• Jamie Lee Curtis is the best actor in the lot of “teenagers.” But the adults are all pretty decent. That isn’t always the case with these types of films.

• Dancing is great! Feels so "featured,” like they knew the choreography before they knew the plot of the rest of the film.

• If you know any disco music, try and listen to the sound-a-likes and see if you can tell which songs they are replacing. Some are very obvious.

• I will keep looking for those pillows. Someone must have one or a photo of one. Still think they must be generic.

• The scenes with the kids being all murderous are a bit scarier than the scenes with the actual murderer.

• Soundtrack and songs are all over YouTube, if you are interested.

• Not sure where this sits in my 80s horror list. I enjoy it when I watch it, but I would like it more if they focused a bit more on the background of the characters and how they feel and less on the weird love triangle.

• Bonus clippings can be found over on Patreon for Supporters.

• Some fun retro audio in this one. I want to include double what I did, but it was getting too long.

• Music on the show is, as always, by Peachy.

Thanks for listening to the show and I hope you have a great weekend.

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As a kid, I loved all things Disney. Unfortunately, I was born in a time when my options for Disney entertainment were more limited. On any normal week, I might be able to read a book (comic or children’s), listen to a Disney record, or if I was lucky catch The Wonderful World of Disney. It was the records that I listened to the most. I had this tank-like portable General Electric record player that I inherited from my sisters. I would sit on the floor and listen to the handful of Disney records I owned again and again. Perhaps most prized in my collection was one that had nothing to do with any existing Disney character or movie, Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House.

Horror made me nervous when I was young and the idea of listening to a record about anything haunted didn’t really appeal to me at first. But I found the Disney brand on it reassuring and intriguing. I am pretty sure that the first few times I gave it a listen I had to stop and start it repeatedly since it was making me nervous. Ultimately though, it won me over and became a standard record for me to play, especially as the Halloween season approached.

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While many of us listened to in October, it’s easy to forget that Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House wasn’t made as a Halloween record. When it came out in 1964, Disneyland Records wasn’t thinking about trick-or-treating or costumes. They were just trying new things. Most of their albums were stories or songs from films, which is what I was familiar with, but this was something different. They already had a library full of sound effects from their movies, so someone likely figured they could turn those into something people might enjoy on their own. It was the prefect time to do it. Families at the time were buying record players and kids were experimenting with tape recorders, so it made sense to put out an album that was mostly sounds.

The first version was simple. One side had short narrated scenes and the second side was only sound effects. It didn’t tell you what to do with them, it just let you decide. Maybe you could use it for a play, a school event, or to scare your friends? The last one I actually tried to do with a basement haunted house that didn’t work out. Whatever you decided, the record was more of a tool than a story, and it still had that careful Disney tone that made it safe for kids, but maybe not just for younger kids. The back cover even says it’s for “older children, teenagers, and adults,” which was unusual for a Disney record. It’s like they were saying, this one’s not just for kids.

It also came out at a good time. The early sixties were full of light horror and monster fun. The Addams Family and The Munsters were on TV, and Disneyland was working on The Haunted Mansion. Monsters were part of the culture again, but in a friendlier way. This record fit right in the very year it came out already found itself being rightly associated with Halloween.

The album grew out of the huge sound library at Walt Disney Studios. The studio had been collecting effects since the late 1920s, so by the early sixties they had every kind of noise you could think of. Wind, thunder, chains, creaking doors, and all sorts of strange mechanical sounds. When the record division was looking for new ideas, someone clearly realized they already had a treasure chest sitting there. I like to picture some sound engineer in a back room threading through reels of old film and thinking, this could make a great record.

On the first side of the album, there’s narration mixed with effects. Laura Olsher reads short little scenes with titles like “The Very Long Fuse” and “The Unsafe Bridge.” They are not stories in the usual sense, just quick setups that hand things off to the sound effects. Then the second side drops the narration entirely. It’s just groups of effects you can use however you like. It plays more like a tool than a story album, which was probably the point. The idea was that kids or adults could make their own stories or haunted soundscapes with it.

The cover was painted by Paul Wenzel, an artist who worked on Disney concept art during the sixties. His haunted house painting has that same eerie but tidy look that runs through the Haunted Mansion design work. It connects the record to the larger world Disney was building at the time, even if most people didn’t notice it then. The 1964 release did well enough that the company kept it in print for several years, and it built a quiet reputation as one of the more unusual titles in the catalog. It did well enough that a new version was released almost a decade later.

The 1973 version was a reissue of the same recordings. The sound mix and track lineup were unchanged. The difference was in how it was presented. The Disneyland Records logo had been redesigned, and the cover art and typography were adjusted to match that newer style. The reissue came at a time when the label was giving older titles fresh pressings, and this one was among them.

A fun thing you will find when looking inside is the fun art on the paper record sleeve. If you were listening to this as a kid, almost 100% of the time you were re-reading these and studying the art.

Some copies were marked as stereo, which makes them slightly different from the first mono release, but that is mostly a technical note rather than a creative one. It stayed a steady seller through the decade, often appearing in record stores alongside other general audience sound albums.

You might be thinking that this doesn’t sound at all like the version I have. That is because six years later, in 1979, a new edition hit the market. This one was a complete remake. It shared the same name but none of the same material. It featured a new narrator, new sound effects, and new recording sessions. The sound effects are noticeably cleaner and more theatrical. They appear to have been recorded on newer tape systems rather than reused from the earlier catalog. The editing and mix also reflect late seventies production methods, with sharper stereo separation and heavier use of reverb.

The cover was completely redone. They completely dropped the borders and it is completely dominated by a more vivid depiction of the mansion . This version was produced at a time when Disney’s record division was releasing more novelty and themed albums for home use. It was not a repress but a distinct production intended to refresh the brand and reach a newer audience.

So, when viewed together, the 1964 and 1973 records are two versions of the same product, the first establishing it and the second keeping it in circulation. The 1979 version is a separate project made to replace it rather than continue it. The change in tone and design between the two eras reflects shifts inside Disneyland Records itself more than any planned response to Halloween trends. These albums were both successful sellers. The 1964 album became a certified gold record by the RIAA on December 7, 1972. While the updated 1979 album was certified gold by the RIAA on April 11, 1988.

By the early 1980s, Disneyland Records (then also using the Vista label) released the Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House orange-cover version on cassette. It used the same 1979 master and track listing, with similar cover art resized for the plastic case. These tapes were sold through department stores and sometimes appeared in Halloween seasonal displays at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

In the 1990s, Disney briefly revived the concept on compact disc, but not under the original name. Tracks from both the 1964 and 1979 versions appeared on CD compilations such as Halloween Songs & Sounds. These were mix-and-match collections that didn’t credit the original album directly, though the material came from it.

If you area collector, these albums, which were produced in great quantity are still very affordable. Which one you get will probably depend on the one you heard as a kid. If you haven’t heard it before, you will probably pick the one with the the cover that is most appealing. I grew up with the 1973 version, and so that is my favorite, but I see the charm of the original cover and find the changes they made in 1979 intriguing.

Looking back, it’s surprising how much personality that old record had for something without characters or songs. It was just a mix of voices, wind, creaking wood and other effects, yet it managed to feel like part of Disney’s world. I still think that’s what made it last. The company built so much around story and music that even when they tried something simpler, it stood out. Whichever version you happened to grow up with, it carried the same spirit. It was Disney experimenting, having fun with sound, and giving kids something they could imagine with. That’s probably why so many of us never stopped listening to it.

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