5/28/11

commercial break s between cartoons: remember fido dido?

If there is one thing I can never forget and is most notable during the 80's and 90's was that every major television channel had there own lineup of cartoons.NOT JUST THE CARTOON NETWORKS OR FOX!
 Every channel was covered with 2dimensional animation. It was hard to keep track as times! Sadly even though it  was the age of picture to picture (will discuss more on that in future blogs), it was difficult to to try and catch them all. So as a child, you learned what shows you thought were worth watching. As a child I had a VHS player (remember those?) and with that came the ability to record shows and pause over commercials. thankfully there was assistance with this and that was a commercial break announcer.They were  commercials that came on before and after the commercial line up to introduce the sponsors , also known as a "bumper".(see the classic ABC claymation bumper on the side)



These bumpers where great, especially if you hated commercials and recorded those old shows. Prior to torrents and downloads we had the old  rec' button on the VHS. One of the most notable was CBS had started using a spokesperson (see YouTube link above). This spokesperson would be my first real introduction to a character that haunted the early 90's and was everywhere but few knew who he was outside of a citrus soda known as 7up.
Fido Dido. Yes Fido Dido,  many will look at him now and most likely think, "Oh the For dummies book guy."  Fido Dido never really had a cartoon or comic strip at first,  but was everywhere, some knew who he was while other did not .Fido Dido was created by Joanna Ferrone and Sue Rose  in 1985 on a napkin in a restaurant  and  Pepsi even use this origin story in one of the commercials (see the YouTube link at the bottom). They later stenciled Fido on T-shirts with the credo: "Fido is for Fido, Fido is against no one."<---I dunno what this means, perhaps it meant the 90's were just as high as the 70's.

Fido was your typical to cool for school stereotype teenager of that 80's and 90's gen. a rebellious underachiever but still being of good natured youth (you know when the time kids and teens where children and not trialed as an adult for doing stupid kid shit). Fido was license by Pepsi in 1988 and between 1990-1993 was theSaturday morning bumpers for CBS  and it also included the large set of the other dido friends (sadly no Unknown Fido which was my favorite).

Strangely, he was famous but never had his own cartoon show and it wasn't until later in the life line of Fido that a comic strip or comic was introduce. Fido Dido from what i remember was everywhere! I recall yo-yo's 7up machines, books and even had his own video game for Sega Genesis.--------------->

 I never played the game, but just got the ROM and gonna try it out. One thing I did own, that I remember greatly ,was this activity/ guide book called "Fido Dido 101, Or, Living Life in the Third Lane." It was one of my favorite childhood books and recall finding it at a flea market at my elementary school. According to the wikipedia page Fido is still around, also a official website (link below). From what it says Fido Dido is still used by Pepsi companies and was used here in the west until the early 2000's and is used overseas in India and Europe still! (apparently because the old world is old and behind in the times lol I kid you crazy oldworlders you!)
Sadly Pepsi ended his "reign"(I mean this sarcastically) by introducing a more simple character (and just as lame) the "cool spot" who also had his own license of games.  Fido will remain an important part of that Saturday morning icon to kids during that time frame thanks to CBS and Pepsi. As you see above on the youtube link on top of this article, Fido Dido was on every saturday during the same time as the biggest cartoons of on Saturdays, so all of us had a chance to experience him. We may not all have known his name, being young, but we remember his look and he will always be remembered to me as the CBS bumper and to some that 7up guy...and to a small few, Fido will be confused with the for dummies mascot. seriously! what the hell man!? really, you dont see it? :


 wikipedia:

(as you can see the origin of Fido Dido is shown in this early 90's commercial)
Heres the offical fido dido website: