Tag Archives: McDonalds

Nostalgic Eats

[VIDEO] Let’s Visit McDonald’s In 1990!

Image Leave a comment

The year is 1990 on a mild Summer afternoon, and you just left your favorite Mom and Pop Video Store with a bag of Reese’s Pieces and a copy of Friday the 13th: Jason Takes Manhattan under your arm for a first-time watch. Depending on who you talk to, that could be either the greatest or worst viewing experience of your life– but either way, a good time, eh?! We got the munchies. We need some substance for the adrenaline that comes with a new slasher flick, so where do we go? McDonald’s of course! Where the styrofoam containers flow like a non-eco-friendly river made up of “fancy ketchup” packets and customer service is still kind of a thing. A time when if you weren’t feeling a Quarter Pounder, you had the option of a McPizza. Or perhaps a fried apple pie with a side of boxed chocolate chip cookies. You may or may not be interrupting some kid’s birthday party, and for the underlying cynic in all of us, that was a tad amusing. Five bucks bought you a Big Mac Extra Value Meal or, for the kids( or big kids), a $3 Happy Meal and your day was complete.

McDonald’s was a special treat for most of us who lived through the 80s and 90s. Whether you were a kid or adult, it was goddamn magical and a memory that serves up all the fuzzies along with a side of beef tallow fries. However, thanks to the internet and YouTubers like Vampire Robot, we can relive those times with home video footage of what McDonald’s used to be and what we remember as kids in the early 90s!

The first video is nostalgia overload with core memories unlocked as we peer into a McD’s restaurant in 1990 as a family orders a meal, and we get those lovely closeups of a Filet of Fish clamshell container and a Fry Friends Happy Meal! In the second video, we’re bombarded with styrofoam overload that takes us back to a time when the McNuggets got the same packaging treatment as a Quarter Pounder.

Some things should never be taken for granted, and visors’ off to both Vampire Robot’s channel and the person who recorded and preserved this footage. The world needs more heroes like you.

Nostalgic Eats

Time Travel To McDonald’s In 1989 With This Home Video!

Image Leave a comment

Motley Crue/ Metallica shirts, conversations about Bill and Ted, and Ducktales McDonald’s Happy Meal Toys.

This home video is a nostalgic treasure of our time and generation so grab a seat and get an eyeball full of marvelous mullets and styrofoam plates of Hotcakes.

Recorded by a pair of friends in Huntsville, Alabama in 1989, future YouTubers Eric and Darrell grabbed a handheld recorder and documented a morning visit to their local McDonald’s for some Hotcakes and unbeknownst to them at the time, a trip down nostalgic fuzzies memory lane as we’re shuffled through a time capsule of what we remember what the fast food giant to be to us old fucks.

That brown board menu lives rent-free in my head at all times.

From the excitement of the driveway of heading out to what was at the time, the peak of our food pyramid’s golden arches (you know that 10-year-old feeling I’m talking about), passing by an old Sam’s Club, and the view of the old faithful McDonald’s play area from the highway, the video takes us back to a simpler time of when those warm apple pies cost a mere 28 cents and Ronald McDonald was plastered all over the inside of the walls.

Can we also take a minute to appreciate these glorious translites?

WOOHOO

I honestly don’t even remember a country McChicken Sandwich but here we are: the evidence slaps me right in the face.

We gotta give a huge shout-out to Eric’s mom for being a good sport and that she’s almost finished watching JAWS, as per her conversation with the boys on the way home. However, I have to intervene here: While Bill and Ted are indeed excellent, Eric is right mom- EVIL DEAD 2 rules and still does.

It may have seemed boldly weird at the time for a couple of kids recording such an experience, but as time rolls on more of these videos seem to be popping up on the internet, like this Toy “R” Us home movie walkthrough. And I’m sure as shit glad they did.

I’m all for spreading the love so be sure to check out their other home videos and their revisit to that SAME McDonald’s as adults! They are indeed, doing the Nostalgic God’s work for us.

Horror Nostalgia

Remembering That Freaky-Ass Episode of ‘The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald’

Image Leave a comment

Ah, McDonald’s. The chicken nuggets are endless, the playgrounds are bitchin’, and the McFlurry machine has been broken since 1995. Despite that one glaring flaw, Mickie D’s is a pretty solid fast food joint. However, the franchise’s greatest accomplishment is one that time has forgotten. That pesky time.

That accomplishment, for those who still don’t know, is The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald. Produced by Klasky Csupo, the company known for shows such as The Rugrats and The Wild Thornberrys, the separately-released direct-to-video series focused on Ronald McDonald, the other McDonald’s mascots, and their young human friends while they experienced wondrous, moral-teaching adventures.

None of those adventures were greater, though than “Scared Silly,” the series’ very first episode. Released to VHS in October of 1998, the 40-minute episode could be purchased at your local McDonald’s for less than $4, and unless your guardians were total squares, they spotted you the cash.

Now, I’m not going to sit here in my holey sweatpants and tell you that “Scared Silly” is greater than classic haunted house films like Poltergeist and The Changeling, but I’m not going to deny it either.

scared silly 2
Just look at that freaky shit.

The episode follows the baggy jumpsuit-wearing Ronald McDonald and his friends while they go camping in the Far-Flung Forest. There are songs, there are jokes, and there is cheer all around. Like any great horror film, though, that happiness is quickly suffocated by a sense of doom when a thunderstorm strikes and forces the group to take shelter in an old haunted house.

While there, the McBuddies (A name I just gave them that should’ve totally been trademarked) encounter a holographic head named Franklin, who forces them to partake in a challenging riddle game if they ever want to leave the spooky house again. One by one, the friends begin to disappear as they fail to correctly solve each riddle.

I won’t spoil the ending for you, but I promise that it’s satisfying.

If your interest in The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald has been renewed, or if you have a child you want to shamelessly frighten in a family-friendly sort of way, the episode has been uploaded to YouTube and can be viewed below.

Stay spooky, my friends.