Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast - A Celebration of Breakfast Cereals w/ Mary Gitlin and Ami Moyal

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

Frank explores his lifelong obsession with breakfast cereals (and breakfast cereal advertising) with the help of author Marty Gitlin ("The Great American Cereal Book") and cereal expert/curator Ami Moyal. In this episode, the boys discuss the golden age of sugary cereals, the showdown between Quisp and Quake, the legendary voices behind Cap'n Crunch and Tony the Tiger and the silliest (and strangest) cereal box prizes of all time. Also, Marty reveals his "cereal rule," Ami plans a menu for Questlove, Quentin Tarantino brings back Fruit Brute (and Kaboom!) and Frank sends away for a "Cosmic Clouder Ray Gun.” PLUS: Oreo O's bite the dust! Franken Berry creates a panic! The Jackson 5 pitch Alpha-Bits! And Snap, Crackle and...Eddie Deezen? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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then this podcast is a walk-in clinic with a low $5 copay. Yeah, I saw Liam Neeson's latest film. It's his 50th film where his daughter gets kidnapped. And once again, he's on the phone with the kidnappers going, Give me my daughter back. I want my daughter back. And give me me looky charms. Hi, welcome back to Fun for All Ages with Frank Santo Padre, the podcast for pop culture obsessives, me and like you.

And this week's obsession is a big part of my childhood and one I share with the people on this illustrious panel, and that is breakfast cereals. And we're not going to just be talking about the cereals themselves, but also the histories, the classic commercials, the mascots, the talents behind them, the cereal box prizes, and much more. So here to help me pop open the box and dig my hand way down into this topic, Marty Gitlin. Hello, this is going to be great. This is a very patient man. An author, a public speaker, and a former award-winning sports writer who's written over 200 books for more than a dozen publishers, including the greatest sitcoms of all time, the most significant sporting events in American history, a celebration

of animation, the 100 greatest cartoon characters in television history, I want to read that one, and a book that I consider the definitive, all-encompassing guide to today's topic, and that's sitting right next to me, 2012's Great American Serial Book, which features, I'm going to brag on this book, 350 images, vintage ads, rare memorabilia, and the stories of how over over 800 breakfast cereals got their crunch. And if you should happen to run into Marty in public, do not bring up a cereal called Banana Wackies. Because those are fighting words.

He'll explain. Ami Moyal is a serial expert and connoisseur, who once consumed up to 50 bowls of cereal a week. Bless his heart. He's a serial curator to the stars, he'll explain. And the creator of the popular Instagram and TikTok account, cereal life, which boasts over 100,000, well over 100,000 followers. He's also the co-creator of a revolutionary product called The Crunch Bowl, which he's also

going to tell us about, as well as the author of the forthcoming and highly anticipated coffee table book, Serial Life, savoring the cereals that made us. And legend has it that he once survived for four whole years, eating only Waffle Crisp and Cocoa Puffs. Gentlemen, welcome. Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. That's all I saw that on, was it your LinkedIn page or the LinkedIn page of the fellow you wrote the, that you invented the crunch pole with? You want to start with the crunch pole?

Sure. Thank you so much for having you. Of course. And welcome to both of you. Thank you for doing this. Yeah, great to meet you, Marty. The crunch bowl is, if you can imagine a swimming pool, right, there's a shallow end and a deep end. So same with the crunch bowl.

You put your cereal in the shallow, and you put your milk in the deep end. And when you want a little bit more cereal, you just tap it over the edge. so your cereal stays crunchy all day. And it's a, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's just such a fun project to work on with Ethan and, uh, was, we can go on and am I crazy or did this appear on the David Letterman show? Yeah. So Ethan won Survivor Africa. He's winner of Survivor.

And, uh, he never thought that David would ask him about, you know, because he would put on his like, he was on to promote the survivor. I see. Yeah. And then he just, and he spoke about the crunch. bowl just like I did. And then everyone just like applause. But then he was on pitch men with Billy Mays and Billy Mays passed. And then just worlds collided. And we did it. We did it happen. So what's the status of the Crunch Bowl as we sit here today in 2025? There are a few boxes left.

Just a few. My crutch. Yeah, we have we have a few boxes. Do you sell them? We do. We do. Well, we did a Kickstarter project. We raised $25,000. Everyone with the Kickstarter got a crunch bowl. And now, I believe, mycrunchbowl.com. There's still a few bowls left, if you're interested. Scribble that down, Marty. I'm interested. Yeah.

It's funny, you know, there always been so much attention paid in marketing of cereals to keeping it crunchy. And people don't understand that, I guess some people like it, you know, more dunked in the milk and actually not mushy, but not crunchy either. I'm one of those people. I put a lot of milk in my cereals, but it sounds like with a crunch bowl, you can control how much, you know,

wetness you want to soak into those bits of cereals. So that actually sounds very intriguing. If only you knew the guy. If only you knew the right person to get your hands on a crunch ball. We'll get you one. We'll get you one. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I'm all over that.

Let me ask the obvious question to start off with you guys, which is how this became an obsession. I mean, let me start with you, Marty. because you wrote this wonderful book that has become a pop culture Bible for me. And tell me what your serial rule was. This dates back to when you were eight years old? It's in the preface of the book, but tell people. Earlier than that, really, probably when I was six or seven, I did have a rule.

And, you know, when you're a little kid, anything that sets you apart from other kids, you know, that makes you feel special like something different. And that was my thing. I had a rule where I had to have at least one bowl of every cereal that hit the market. So if there was a commercial on TV, and there were so many in the 1960s, right? It was a commercial on TV about a new cereal. I ran to my mother and I said, you've got to go buy this cereal. I have to have at least one bowl of it, you know. Well, anyway, my great test came in 1965 where the cereal came out called Wackies.

It was a banana-flavored lucky charms. And I knew I was going to hate it because I didn't like banana flavored anything, but I had my rule and I had to stick with it. And I told my mother, I said, Mom, you've got to go buy this banana wackies. and I want to have one bowl of it, I want to hate it, and you're going to have to throw the rest of it out. And instead of saying, no, I'm not going to, I'm not going to waste food like that. You're an idiot.

I'm not going to do that. She went and bought the banana wackies, you know. That's a great mom. And, yeah, she was a great mom. She did things like that all the time for me. And I had one bowl of it. I hated it. She threw the rest out.

And I maintained that rule until I was like 16. You know, and then like in the early, very early 70, some of these new healthful cereals, nature valley granola came out. And I knew I wasn't going to. going to like those. So that was, you know, I was like, okay, my rule is done because I'm not going to eat this granola crap, you know, instead of, you know, twinkles or puff a puffa. Twinkles.

First obscure one called out in this episode, Twinkles. Well, my, if they were going to bring back a cereal, I would say twinkles, but puffa, puffa puffa rice is my favorite bringing it back. Also, sugar jets from the mid-60s. Sure. Sugar jets. But puffa puffa-puffa rice was a brown sugar cereal, and it was really nothing like it. I think before, since, and so that would be the one I'd bring back.

You'd bring back puff of puffer rice, which was a little, if I'm not completely off base here, a little sugar smackish, because it was rice. Yes, I think it was sort of like puffed rice, but only, which I actually like puffed rice, but so it went, but, you know, brown sugary. Brown sugary. Yeah. You know, we're of a certain generation here, I mean, Marty and I, but you, and so we can blame Madison Avenue and Saturday morning cartoons for the reason that we became addicted to particularly sugary cereals.

But you are a much younger individual. And what are you in your 30s, late 20s? Yep. Yeah, I'm in my 30s. Just turned 30, actually. Right. So you're of a totally different environment. It's amazing.

Yeah. Amazing that you know about all this stuff. Well, I mean, you know, like Frank said, I'm kind of a student of these things. And Marty, I didn't want to interrupt you, but they actually brought back Twinkle cereal last year, like limited boxes at Walmart. Oh, Marty. Get out. Here's a pen, Marty.

Make a note of that. I think it's already gone. It was like a six-month thing. But you can find a maybe like a steel box. Yeah, little marbits. They call marbits, by the way. The marshmallows and cereals are called marbits. And they had, yeah, Twinkles was like in terms of healthful cereals, was like last on the list.

So how does a kid who's growing up in the 90s, for God's sakes? And is not, I mean, because obviously Saturday morning changed. all of that programming changed. There were rules, you know, about cereals. We didn't get the, your generation didn't get exposed to the same glut of sugary cereals that ours did. Yeah. Well, listen, not only did I grow up in the 90s, but I grew up in the 90s in Toronto, Canada. Right.

I was going to put with that. So we, so we didn't even get like the good cereals. You know what I mean? So I had a really great uncle, my uncle David, who would be my cereal mule. He'll go to Buffalo. Serial mule. Come back with your trunk load of cereal, right? I hope he was carrying it in his arms or his luggage.

No, you just tuck it underneath, like, your trunk space. Oh, okay. You don't tell it border police. Because otherwise you need a snack pack. Exactly. Those are too small. Yeah. But, you know, I mean, yeah, listen, the golden age of cereal, I think we would probably agree.

It's probably like somewhere in the 70s, 80s. sort of thing, but cereal has just been, you know, like, almost a part of me was like, I can't have that, so I wanted even more. And, and then, like, just a new generation of cereal that has come, like, the bacon, cinnamon toast crunch. You're very excited, but, by the way, you were sending me text this week about the new bacon cereal. Do you want to explain? I told you in advance. I wasn't supposed to. I had, like, an embargo, actually. Oh, really? Yeah, I said, I got to tell Frank, like, get ready if you want a bag.

tomorrow, it's coming out. I may have to take you up on it, just to look at it, just to put it on a shelf and look at it. Yeah, I actually have it right here. I don't know if he's got it with him. Look at this guy. I brought it just because, wow. He's holding up, this is not a visual show, but he's holding up a, is it a bag? It's not even a box.

It's a bag of cinnamon toast crunch bacon flavor. And the slogan on the back says, try it, but don't fry it. Very clever. Yeah. It's disgusting. It's terrible. But. Wait, is that something you just eat out of the bag, or did you actually put it in milk and serialize it?

So I did three things. I ate it out of the bag, and it actually isn't that bad out of the bag. It's kind of got a smoky flavor to it. Okay. Put it in milk, spit it out, and then I fried an egg with some toast, and I poured the bacon cinnamon toast crunch over it, and it gave it a really great crunch, and I completely recommend doing that. That was delicious. So if you want to make a little sandwich. Wow.

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You're richer than you think. And now back to the fun. This brings me to my question about you because Syria loves. Your fantastic Instagram account, which people need to follow. You don't just sample cereals. You do other things. You have cereal hacks, like you teach people how to sneak cereal into the movies, which I love. And you make, is it fair to call them, you know, cereal-based concoctions?

And you have one hack where you put, was it Lucky Charms that you put in the microwave and you taught people how to puff up the marshmallows? Ooh. Yeah. It's a good guy to know. So that one was an April Fool's joke. That one, everything that's supposed to. Oh, okay. Yeah, I have lucky charms at home right now.

So I was going to check that. That was a good one. That one popped off, but it was fake. But yeah, I do all sorts of weird ideas that come to my mind and make videos about them. As long as it involves cereal, I'm your guy. And why are you so super excited about this, the new fruit loops, too, that you just put up on the, these are. Now, what are these flavored fruit loops donut holes? So, yeah, it's a blue, so this is like breaking news, not even supposed to be.

This is like a sale sample, not intended for, you know, like it's somebody who probably works at Kellogg's leaked a photo to me. But yeah, it's a blueberry donut hole fruit loops. So Kellogg's unleashed, I don't even know if we should call him Kellogg's anymore, but yeah, we'll get to that. Kellogg's just sold, yeah, $3.1 billion. We'll talk about it. They released Frosted Flakes donut holes, Apple Jacks.

and then a crave variety last year. And most people actually didn't like them. I actually like the Frosted Flakes ones. But my perception is a little bit skewed because I'm in Canada, so I get the Canadian edition. And a lot of the time, the recipe is different. So I tell people, like, a given little disclaimer on that. But, yeah, so they just released, like, a Fruit Loops one

that's supposed to be coming very soon, this year. Everything we're missing out on, Marty. I know. I'm still, you know, focused on sugar jets, but bringing that bag, but yeah, this is great stuff. We were talking with the mics off, Marty and I, the big way you got your jollies when we were kids, Ami, was you poured Coco Krispies and you put the milk on the Coco Krispies.

And what was the big lure, Marty? The chocolate milk at the end, and cocoa puffs as well. Turn the milk brown, and that was a big thing when you were six. Yeah, and I put a lot of milk on my cereals. I always did that, so I was able just to have a whole glass of chocolate milk after eating this stuff. Let's talk about what Ami just alluded to, which was Kellogg's, where the show is nothing, if not topical. Torn from the headlines, Kellogg, WK. Kellogg, which was spun off from the original Kellogg's, sold for $3.1 billion to Ferreira Rochay, Italian chocolate maker.

Well, they also do the – making the big box, Marty? Yeah. They do Nutella, right? Nutella, they make Nutella. Yeah, I had never heard of the company. Oh, Nutella. I'm not a big Nutella fan. A lot of people like that stuff.

a lot. The sale will close later this year. So Tucan Sam will now sound like Marcello Maastriani instead of Ronald Coleman because it's an Italian company. Marty, did Battle Creek only become the serial capital of the world in the first place because of the Battle Creek Sanitarium? Because you have... Yeah, yeah. That was, yeah, that's in my book. I mean, you know, hey, that goes back, what, 125 years? Yeah, the Kellogg Brothers. Yeah, yeah. And it's interesting thing of what happened because originally, the very first cereal was called Granula, 1863. It's in the book.

Right. And it was during the Civil War and it was so hard and tasteless that they had to soak it in milk overnight just to eat it the next day. And the next day, it was still hard and tasteless. And cereal originally, well into the 1940s, was considered to be more, you know, healthful fare. It was designed to be more helpful fare. And then, of course, in 1949, the first baby boomer cereal came out, which was Sugar Crisp. And then the whole flood of sugary baby boomer cereals came, and then until the early 70s. And then it was more of a mix after that because some of the more health, there was a lot of outcry from parents about the sugar content of these cereals.

And it's funny, I had an interview with a woman from the BBC when this book was out. and she asked me about cereals. And, you know, she was talking about these more healthful cereals and British parents that were staying away from these cereals because of the sugar content. And she asked me, what are your favorite cereals, Marty? And I know she wanted me to say, well, Nature Valley granola and grape nuts. And I said, well, my favorite cereals are Fruit Loops, Cocoa, Crippies, you know, Lucky Charms, and, you know, sugar crisp. And there was a silence on the phone for a while. She was stunned that I would say this.

And, you know, she stumbled off into the, you know, a few more questions. But, but anyway. They asked the wrong person. Yeah. And then in the early 70s, the more healthful cereals came out and competed with the, you know, all those sugary cereals of the 60s and 70s. So it was kind of interesting how that worked. That's why it's so extra interesting that Ami should come to this, this passion for cereals, because he was not born of the sugared cereal generation. You were born in a more responsible age.

I mean, I think we have more sugar now. I think, you know, but I completely... Especially lately, yeah, it's coming back. Yeah, yeah. You guys really set the tone for us, so... It's our fault. You know, this is the kind of fun research that I was... The Kellogg Brothers experimented with the...

Well, it was the invention of flaked cereal, which is what their experiments, led to. But I did not know that C.W. Post, who became their chief competitor was in the sanitarium. He was a patient in the sanitarium before he created grape-noburn. and apparently it created a cereal boom, and there were 80 or 100 companies all going into the cereal business. Well, they were all like, yeah, they were all like corn flakes. Like there was like 100 different kinds of corn flakes in very, very early 1900s, you know. And that's the way that was going.

And, you know, certain cereals didn't follow that. I mean, grape nuts was, in fact, I think, I believe, if I remember my research correctly, grape nuts was actually the first cereal that came out that still exists. I think that was 1894 or something like that, but I'd have to look that back up. There's an interesting book by an author named T.C. Boyle, The Road to Wellville, which is about the Kellogg Brothers, which was made into a not-so-funny movie with Anthony Hopkins. But it's interesting history. Welcome to a new and ongoing fun for all ages segment, where, in the spirit of nostalgic absurdity, we're looking back in time at some unusual events. We're calling it, well, that was fun.

Today we revisit the day breakfast turned pink. Back in 1971, General Mills launched a monster-themed line of breakfast cereals, including Count Chalkula and Frankenberry. But it turns out, the scariest thing about Frankenberry wasn't the cartoon monster on the box, because it seems that soon after that delightful mix of freeze-dried marshmallows and berry-flavored frosted corn bits, hits something. door shelves. A curious phenomenon began. Kids all over America started, how should we put this delicately? Pooping pink. Parents were panicked. Pediatricians were baffled. Emergency rooms were filled

with tiny patients in technicolor stool samples. One poor kid in Maryland was even hospitalized for what doctors feared was internal bleeding. Nope. Turns out it was just breakfast. The culprit? A hearty helping of red dye number two, a synthetic food coloring that, when ingested, comes out looking like a post-modern art installation. The phenomenon became known in the medical community, and I swear I'm not making this up, as Frankenberry Stool. Eventually, General Mills reformulated the cereal, swapped out the dye, and Frankenberry survived, if slightly less vibrant and much less traumatic.

But for a brief, beautiful moment in breakfast history, consumers could load up their shopping carts with the only cereal that prompted a public health scare, required a follow-up visit to the pediatrician, and became part of the med school curriculum. That is until December of 1972 when Blue Dye No. 1 in Booberry cereal turned everyone's poop green. Well, that was fun. Now, I used to have, like, 30 boxes of cereals in my kitchen when I lived in my house in Cleveland, and I had, you know, like a cupboard full, then I had some on top of the refrigerator, then I had some in the basement.

And I used to have, like, 30 boxes of cereals, and I would eat. maybe 10 boxes of cereal or 10 bowls of cereal a week. Now, you're talking about someone that had, which one was the 50 bowls of cereal? Him. That was you. I mean, that's like... I and you from the past.

Certainly not me. I used to have, like, I used to eat like 10 bowls of cereal a week, but 50 is amazing. It is amazing. I put the boxes, like I buy, I buy collectible boxes like, like, you know, like the crusty cereal that the Simpsons put out. I just buy them

and I don't open them. And I put them on the shelves of my apartment. So I treat them like toys. But I think, and it's too late to eat them now anyway. But tell me about this cereal cornfetti that you told me about, which was a precursor of frosted flakes. Okay. This is an interesting story. There was a cereal called cornfetti, which I had never heard. Which I had never heard. You know this one on me? Cornfetti. You know what? I will love to hear about it. You stumped them. Okay. Yeah, that's amazing that I could stump this guy. In 1951 or 52, I think it was 51, the cereal came Concord Fetti.

And it was a precursor to Frosted Flakes. It was just like Frosted Flakes. And it had a mascot named Captain Jolly. He was a peg-legged pirate. And, but the cereal was so glassy. Like Frosted Flakes is only worse, hard and glassy, that it was like cutting the gums from the kids that were eating it. They were like, their gums were bleeding.

And, you know, I don't know, it stayed on the, it stayed on the market until 1950. But by that time, Frosted Flakes, which was not cutting the gums of kids, had come out, and it just blew cornfetti out of the water. Frosted Flakes, obviously, has been probably the most popular sugar cereal, you know, on the market ever since, I would think. We still have Cap and Crunch that's cutting people's mouth. That's true. Well, you had to eat it with milk, because if you ate that one out of the box, you tore the skin off the roof of your mouth for certain. I take frosted flakes from what I can glean, I mean.

Frosted flakes are big with you. They have strawberry milkshake frosted flakes and these kind of things keep appearing. Yeah, no, no. They do a great job. My go-to cereal right now is the cookies and cream milkshake frosted flakes that came out recently. Oh, oh, that might be good. I like the chocolate frosted flakes, yeah. Cookies and cream?

Cookies and cream milkshake frosted flakes. What? I want a job in development. And P&D for Kellogg's, that's what I want to do. I think the greatest cereal that, oh, go ahead. I didn't mean interrupt. No, no, no. I was just going to say, I think the idea is that they want a brand, like, the milk that you said turns to the milk chocolate-y, you know, so that it turns the milk, like, a cookies and cream milk shake.

But, yeah, I like inhaled a whole box of that. That was delicious. It was good. I mean, and I'm talking about the Canadian ones. I just want to be clear. Okay. Yeah. I think the best cereal that has come out, in my opinion,

since the, maybe the 1970s, I think it's Oreo O's. And they took it, and I love Oreo O's, I think they're just awesome. And then they took it off the market for a while. Why? I almost organized a march to Washington over this. It was just, you know, it was just, why would you take Oreo O's off? It was just such a popular cereal, and it was popular. And then they took it off the market for a few years.

It's gone again. It's gone again now, yeah. They just took it away. Oh, they did. It was back for a long time. Why would they take that off the market? It was such a great cereal, and I think people liked it. They replaced it with Oreo puffs, which is like a cocoa puff with marshmallows.

It's terrible. That leads me to a question. I mean, why do you think that they take these things off the market from time to time? Is it a tease to sort of create new demand? Is it just because it's not selling? I can't imagine Oreo-O's, which is an insane concept. Seinfeld used to have that joke about Cookie Crisp, about the exact thing. We just don't care anymore.

We just stopped making an effort. Okay, parents, for some reason, had no idea or no interest that there's no food in any of this. And it was great until the cookie crisp people came along and blew the lid off of the whole record. There's always somebody pushes a good thing, just a little too far. Cookie Crisp. If you don't know what this is, this is a cereal, it's not like cookies.

It is cookie. This is your breakfast. A bowl of chocolate chip cookie. This cereal should have been called the hell with everything. Ice cream for lunch, cake for dinner, baking and cigarettes in between. That's the cookie crisp total health plan. But Oreo O's is another step beyond. Yeah, my perspective on that cereal is that, like, a lot of the cereals, they would, like, mask it.

They would, like, whole grain or, you know, like, you know, essential nutrients. Like, Oreo O's, it was just, it was just a box, and it just said Oreo O's, and then it said, made with real Oreo. You know what I mean? It's, that's Oreo O's. So, and it's also not in Canada, because I know that part of your, part of your account, when you talk about the things that are available, state side and the things that you can't get. Yeah. Most of my account is, you know, targeted towards, like, Americans and all the companies, they send me the cereals. So I know I've been talking a lot about Canada, but it's mostly U.S. cereals.

But, yeah, they took it away from Canada, the States. We got Oreo puffs now, so. I saw the Oreo puffs at the store. I might get it. I might try it, but I don't know. I was in love with Oreo O's, and I was disappointed that I didn't see Oreos there. How is pouring milk on miniature Oreos in any sense of the word considered a breakfast? A breakfast food.

I know it takes the fun out of it. There was once a box that, for Halloween, when you'd open it up, it would scream. It'd be like a foolish sound. So not only, I'm serious, you'd open up this box and you'd go like, weir, and you know, and then you, you know, that would really, you know, bother your parents. That's what they, when they brought back the monster cereals, I see your shirt there. They brought it back originally. for, you know, during the or for Halloween.

Yeah. And I don't know if that's still the modus operandi where they only bring, or if those monster cereals are available all the time anymore. Yeah, just Halloween. The fun never stops,

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It's just me, Count Jokula, and you're listening to Fun for All Ages with Frank Santo Padre, part of a complete breakfast. And now back to the fun. And what is this now that you flew? Again, there was another video. You flew in a box from Mexico recently. Yes.

And what was this? It was a liquor brand? Yes, it was a Bailey's Kellogg's, Frost and Flakes. Oh, my Lord. You believe this? And we're getting cheated in this country. You can't get it. Only in Mexico.

If you want Bailey's flavored cereal, tell us about that. Bailies. Well, I love Mexico because they try to be healthy with the cereals, right? They put like these big warning signs on it. You know, it's just like, do not eat, do not eat, you know? It comes with like a stop sign. But yeah. Rightly so, I think.

Yeah. I would agree. They made a Bailey cereal. I mean, it was really good. I mean, it's Bailey's Frosted Flakes. I remember someone from like the Mexico R&D team reached out. They're like, you've got to try this. And I'm like, okay, how do I get one?

They're like, that's on you. So then I found a person, I think it was like Mexican candy lady. But she's like, she like imports things to the state. So I got from Mexico to the states, the Canada. But it's good. It's very good. There's actual, so there's actual alcohol in the cereal. In bed and into the.

Yeah, it can't get you wasted. I tried. Bummer. I want to talk about the monster serials because Marty brought those up. In 1969, an advertising creative named Laura Levine pitched a list of famous duos and General Mills,

the ones that they went for were Frankenstein and Dracula. And I guess there was monster culture was still around. I was saying the monsters had just left the air. So monsters were still a big thing. And Count Shocula and Frankenberry were born. And are they still going strong? Or is it, was that a special re-release for Halloween on me?

No, they're still going strong, to my opinion. I mean, they actually released a new monster, I believe two years ago, Carmilla Creeper. He's a DJ. Carmela Creeper, ladies and gentlemen. Yeah. But I mean, I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of people who like to talk about how they change the recipe, right? It used to be like oat flour and now it's corn or something like that. And it's not as good as it used to be. Yeah, well, I was a purist, and I resented fruit, brute, and yummy mummy when they showed up. Because I was purely a Count Chocula and Franklin Berry Day. Yeah, me too. Well, me too. I never ate strawberry cereals anyway. I was always, I love fruit, like fruit loops.

You know, I like fruity cereals, but I was never into, in terms of the monster cereals, I was, Count Chocula was my go-to for sure. Did you do the research in the book on these mascots, the people who voice these characters? Oh, that was my co-author, Tofer Ellis. Uh-huh. And he has his own website about serial mascot characters, spokes characters. Yeah. And I'm trying to remember what the name has been a while. We'll post it up afterward.

And so he's like the super expert on mascots more so than I am. Because these were big voiceover artists who were doing these. Oh, yeah. The famous Paul Freeze was the voice of Booberry. And the marketing was, you know, I mean, they kind of put a halt to it because what they were, what was happening was that these cartoons, Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound,

and they were pitching and they were putting these cartoon characters on the cereal boxes. In fact, there was a serial called O'Ks. And O'Ks had Yogi Bear on it. And it was also a Quick Drama Graw was on a cereal box. I think it was Sugar Smacks or Sugar Crisp. I can't remember which one. And so they didn't, the government, you know,

they were researching this and they figured that to combine these cartoons that kids were watching with the cartoon characters and serial was sort of bad influence on kids or whatever and it wasn't they deemed it to be not legal I suppose and not not ethical and so that kind of thing ended up stopping but in the in the 80s they were tying cereals like just every cereal was based on a game or a toy or a movie. Golden Age of IP serials. Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves cereal, you know, whatever. Donkey Kong, Strawberry Shortcake, Mr. T.

But at least back then they were, like, making new cereals. Now I feel like it's just, you know, like, just put some, yeah, just put some colored puffs and, like, slap, I don't know. Like, even the old Ghostbuster serial versus, like, the Ghostbusters serial versus, like, the Ghostbub. Afterlife Serial is just like, I didn't know about the Ghostbuster Afterlife. I didn't either. Did you know, Marty, did you guys find in your research, and I forget if it's in the book, it probably is because you left no stone unturned that there was a fourth member of the Snapcrackle and Pop.

Oh, yeah, Powell. Team, Powell, yeah. Snapcrackle Pop, and then there was Pow, and Powell got kicked out of the bowl pretty quickly, but they, and Powell never made it to a commercial or anything like that. but they were, I don't remember how far they got into promoting Pow as the fourth Rice Krispy, you know, Snapcrackle, Pop, and Pao. I don't know how far they got that, but it never reached the level of, you know, commercialism. These are the kind of things I bring my wife into the room to look at.

I say, did you know that the Rice Krispy, that Snapcrackle and Pop started as gnomes and eventually became elves? That's right. That's right. This is what I do. Yeah, you know, and Cheerios used to be called. Cheerios was for four years during World War II called Cheerioats. I didn't know that. It started out as Cheeriotes.

This is good stuff. It became Cheerios in 1946 or 45. Two podcast guests that we had on the last show with Gilbert, Larry Kenny, was the voice of Count Chalkula and Sonny the Cuckoo Bird. And we had the actor Eddie Deeson, who apparently played pop, voiced pop briefly of Snap Crackle Pop, which I didn't know what I was. I was interviewing him. But these are famous names, Frank Welker and Dawes, Butler. who was yogi bear and Don Messick and Paul Winchell and all of these people were voicing these characters in our heyday in the heyday of sugared cereals

that's my elephant buzz off cap and crunch us elephant hunters captured in fair and square right but his picture is on my cap and crunches peanut butter cereal sweet crispy cereal with a real honest of peanut butter flavor a delicious part of any balanced breakfast It's yummy, but it still don't get you no elephant. Well, this will, looks badly, peanut butter cereal. You know, maybe we ought to hunt butterflies instead. You know, and the mascots changed over the years, which is interesting. Do you remember the Og the Cave Man for Cocoa Krispies?

Yeah, apparently I missed out on Jose the Monkey, which was in 1958. Well, you know about the contest that kids voted on that created Tony the Tiger? Tell us about it. Well, there was... Because he was up against, what, the new? Newt the New. New. Katie the kangaroo and Elmo the elephant and Tony the Tiger.

And kids voted as to which one they liked best. Katie, the kangaroo, actually made it onto a box of frosted flakes. But anyway, the kids voted overwhelmingly for whatever reason for Tony the Tiger, and the rest is history. Another great cartoon voice, by the way, Thoreau Ravens Croft. Yes, yes. Who sang, who famously sings the Mr. Grinch theme. And speaking of contests, we have to talk a little bit about Quisp and Quake. Now, Ami, you know about this, even though, because you're a historian.

I was a Quisp guy, and when they pitted Quisp against Quake, and Quake lost, by the way, more times than Adelae Stevenson. He just kept losing over and over again. They brought him back with quangaroos. They brought him back. What was he a gaucho? He was an awseye cowboy, riding a kangaroo that sounded like Harry Grant for some reason. He was a miner at first, and then, yeah, they changed him around. He was a he man in a miner's helmet voiced by William Conrad from TV's canon, the original voice of Matt Dillon on the radio.

And they pitted him because it was the same cereal. It was basically cap and crunch because it was that same corn flavor with a different shape. So Quisp was flying saucers. Just what was quake? It was like rocks? Yeah, yeah, it was like a little, just blocked. It was really kind of actually hard to detect what quake was. Yes.

And they were like what miners would, you know, would uncover, I suppose. Yeah. They kept bringing Quake back in an attempt to give him a chance. And they brought him back as quangaroos, which was to my memory and Marty would know better. The first orange-flavored cereal. But there had to be ones before that. And it was really, really unappetizing. I don't know why the kangaroo that he wrote sounded like Harry Grant, who's not an Aussie at all.

That sure sounded like Rod Taylor. And that doesn't make any sense. It just shows how marketing plays such a big role in popularity because Quisp and Quake were basically the same thing. And Quisp blew Quake out of the water. Yes. And Quisp again, Dawes Butler. Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And we should give a nod to Jay, and we should give a nod to Jay, board, the bullwinkle creator who was behind those wonderful, wonderful ad spots, which I'm going to quiz you guys before we go back to, and we're going to talk about how Ami became a serial curator to the stars. But this was put together by my social media director, Josh Chambers, and this is a little quiz, and we couldn't come up with a title, and then I thought of John McEnroe, so we're going to call it, you can't be serial. Lame, I know. But hey, tell me if these are real serials

or just shit we made up. And I know that I will not stump either of you, but it's a fun. Are you going to go back and forth or we have to just call it out? I think Ami's going to be the big expert on this. I'll see. I'll start with, I'll go back and forth between you.

First one up. And Kellogg's Lama Loops. L-L-A-M-A. Marty? I'll say no. I'll say it's a fake. Ami. I think I saw something like that out of like Australia or something.

Oh, you were correct, sir. Oh, my God. Limited edition, 2019. Fantastic fruit with glittery sparkles. Two Lama mascots on the box, one wore shapes. Oh, so we're talking about foreign cereals too. So, okay, I got it. There you go.

Okay, here's a seasonal cereal. Kellogg's Crisp Kringles. With a reindeer mascot on the box, was there, there was rice crinkles, but was there, I'll start with Ami this time, Ami, was there Kellogg's crisp cringles for the season for Christmas, special limited edition? You're playing it, you're playing it like, like it's a real thing. I'm going to go no. Marty? I'm going to go no as well. Oh, excellent.

Nice. Couldn't get that one past you. Yeah. Good job. Ami's two for two. Okay, how about this is based on a licensed property? It came out very, very briefly in the 90s. Twin Peaks, damn fine cereal.

Coffee-flavored clustered clusters with marshmallow cherries. Anything? I'll start with you, Marty. I can't, you know, I can't believe that they would make a cereal like that. And one more time, wasn't even? Twin Peaks, damn fine cereal. Damn fine? Well, you know what?

I want to say it existed. Okay, Ami. That's hilarious. Well, there is a serial that's like, it's called Holy Shit. I don't know. That is not on my card. But, but, but, and that is real.

I'm gonna go, I never heard of it. So I gotta go no, but it's, it's, it's, Ami is three for three. We made it up. It's the 35th anniversary of Twin Peaks, I think. So we made it up. I told you, Ami would dominate this thing. Okay, here's one.

We're going to start with you, Ami. Poop like a champion. It's an ultra-fiber. Serial. Real. He's correct. You didn't even let Marty guess. I didn't let Marty guess.

I'm sorry. If Ami was so sure about that, I would definitely say yes. You were so certain. I didn't even want to put it up for a vote. Introduced in 2018, and I love the slogan, the number one cereal for number two's. Oh, okay. Bless those people. Bless them.

They should license the Queen's song, We Are the Champions, and change the lyrics. Okay. There's also a cocoa, a cinnamon, and a honey graham poop like a champion. It's okay. Stop me if it's too much info. We'll start with Marty here. Uboparoos. I will say...

From Nabisco. I will say that existed. Ami. Uboparoos with two O's. You know what? Wait, let me give you some detail. Mascot was a blue kangaroo who wore sunglasses and played an upright bass. blueberry-flavored.

You know what? I don't know this one. I'm going to go with Marty. What was your guest, Marty? Oh, yeah. It's in my book. Bubaparoo's. There you go.

Real? I'm trying to stump the experts. It is, in fact, real. It came out in 19... It lasted all from 1972, all the way to 1973. All way. Obviously a big winner. Back to you, Ami.

Was there a serial called Norman? Just Norman. Just. Is there any... Here's the slogan. The name is a shame, but the taste is insane. Oh, man. Do we get any lifelines?

I'm going to say... I'm going to say, no. I want to say there was no Norman. There was a Norman, and it was... Yeah, it hacked you to death and a shower. Wasn't that the psycho? Yes, Norman Bates. Norman Bates was not on the box of Normans.

But Norman was orange puffs. It came out in 1917. It's in my book. It's in your book. It's in the book. Yeah. I'm trying to stop the guy. Well, you know, the book was 2012.

Yeah. You got... Norman. I finally got Ami. Finally. I didn't think it could happen. Last one. Thunder cat cereal with snarf berries.

Did it exist in the 90s? Was it an IP? Thunderbolt cereal? Thundercats cereal. Thunder cats cereal. Yes. Which was a cartoon. Yes.

I've heard of Thunder Cats. Yeah, with snarf berries. Okay, I'm going to say, yeah. I'm going to say he was. Okay. Marty? If it's existed, we missed it, I want to say no. Never happened.

Yeah. Yeah. That was an honor of Larry Kenny, previous podcast guest, who was the voice of Lion-O on Thundercats. But back to you, you guys did very well. Yeah, we did okay. I think Ami edged you out. I think by one, yes, I think he did. So, not bad.

Nice job, Josh. You kind of stump the experts. Yeah, Norman. And tell me, since we're talking about quizzes, tell us about your quiz, your little test, what do you call it? Will it cereal? Yes. Can you explain to people what that is? It's another one of your kind of your hacks.

Yeah, so it's kind of a play on, like, Good Mythical Morning. Those guys are amazing. Read a link on YouTube. And they do, like, will it anything? like will it, you know, cake or Oreo or anything. Letterman used to do Willett float on his late night show. Sure. So it's a Willett cereal is when you take an unconventional snack,

you put it in a bowl with milk, and then I try it out and I determine if it will cereal or not. Oh, okay. And if it's cereals, then it passes the test. And I haven't done it in a while, but a bunch of different things. Of course, Oreo cookies. Yeah, Oreo cookies. Oreo could be.

Oreo, the mini ones, the small ones. Oh, that would be good, yeah. Excellent, but totally cereal, you know? It's just like, you know, cookies and milk. Why not, right? It does get a little bit soggy. I know Marty, you like a little bit so. Yeah, I don't mind it.

I don't mind it at all. I think you like it. Well, we know that bacon doesn't work with, with cereal. How do you have anything salty with milk on it? I don't get the concept. Yeah, but I did, I did do goldfish, like the goldfish snack. And I was surprised. I was like, you know what?

It sounds pretty disgusting, but it worked. So people can go on your account, your page, your site, and see you basically pouring milk on anything and trying to desperately to turn it into cereal. Yes, exactly. What was the most outrageous thing you attempted? Do you remember? I usually do can't, like snacks and stuff. I think they like skittles once.

It was like, how was that? It's just like. you know a cavity waiting to happen but um oh man I don't know like we had some crazy ideas like we're gonna do like hot dogs or something you know again no salty oh my god stay away from the salty that's just so wild tell me about being a serial curator to the stars and tell me tell us the story of what happened with quest love because this is fascinating this was so cool I mean I get a bunch of people who just you know slide into my DMs to just message me about um hey can You, that's awesome.

They think I just sell cereal because I'm always posting the cereal boxes. Like, can I get some cereal? I always say, no, no, I don't sell cereal. This is just like a fun thing. Until Questlove's executive assistant reached out to me. Your name's Kathy. She's the best. And she says, hey, Questlove does these game nights where he invites a bunch of celebrities

and they just like, you know, play board games, like, Uno and stuff like that. And we're wondering if you could just rally up like your top 20s. serials and like send it over and I'm like absolutely right so I look up these game nights I'm like oh my god like all these like Gigi had deed and Taylor Swift and like Channing Tate I'm like these all these guys showing up to these things I'm like I got to do so I um at the time I was in Miami and I just went to like every grocery store I sent them like you know Wendy's Frosty cereal I sent them like the strawberry milkshake frosted flakes I sent them like you know just like the most outrageous and then they actually re-release

We were talking about that earlier. They re-released it for like a number of years and I found like the final few boxes and I sent it over to him to them and they loved it. And then, you know, we did like a couple different parties and actually, I think it was like Padma. She was on with Jimmy Fallon. And of course, Questlove drummer on Jimmy Fallon. Oh, that's, you know, they did a game and they asked Padman like what was your, you know, sorry, a cereal a soup. And then she goes, well, you should ask Questlove. He's the one who does the serial parties, right?

And it was just like, she sent me the clip and it was just like, it was like amazing. What a kick. What a thrill and an honor to do this. Yeah. And then so the most, actually the two parties ago, I did a Questlove crunch, which was actually a cereal box we designed, put Questlove on it, banging the drums. And it was like fruit loops, you know, like it was just really fun. In the back had a maze through his, his, his afro.

And I love this. We gave like little box. out to all the guests. Is this something that you could continue to do in the future? Oh, yeah. I mean, I'll do it. Anytime they ask me, I'll do it. That would be, what a great gig.

Let's talk quickly about the, and again, well before your time on me, but I know you're a historian and you know this stuff. We used to, Marty and I, used to cut records off the backs of the boxes of honeycomb and alphabets. Yes. I wrote this down. The monkeys, Jackson 5, and the. Archies and Bobby Sherman, who we just lost, were featured, can you believe we took those

things and we put them on our turntables and our stiless? Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Jerry Lewis's son, Gary Lewis had a song called Do In the Flake. Very good. And he actually, I got in contact with him. He actually purchased this cereal book. And yeah, Do In the Flake with Gary Lewis and the Playboys. Do you have any of those?

Will you go and buy the old boxes and just just. just to have this stuff, just to look at it on me? Absolutely. Like, I know you guys, if you're listening, you can't see, but I have like a whole, I have like four cereal shelves in around my house. I see. I see that. Yeah, cereals that I just, like, bought online or had some of the companies send me just,

just to look at. Don't you have about 500 boxes in your, in your house at any given time? Oh, man, we could have, yeah, we could have, we'll have to, um, I got to check that out sometimes. We had, we had great collectors that we got images from cereal boxes and memorabilia for the book. I bet you got some great stuff there. Yeah, you know, it's so fun.

It's so fun. There's a great community of people who like collect these things and, I mean, like the Facebook groups and all that. Yeah, there's some great Facebook groups out there. You went to Battle Creek and you as part of the research. Yeah, and Duluth, Minnesota also. There was a guy at Duluth, Minnesota that had all these, all this memorabilia too. And we, you know, I stupidly went earlier and I tried to take pictures myself. And then I realized, you know, after the, we got the gig, you know, for the book,

The book was going to get published. We needed a professional photographer, and so we got a professional photographer, and he took some outrageous collectors out there in Battle Creek and in Duluth. Was the problem in some cases that you just didn't have images of these certain cereals that you guys remembered? Yeah, you needed the collectors? The serial companies, especially Kellogg's, by the way. Kellogg's wasn't. We got these wonderful images from General Mills and Post and Quaker and stuff. Kellogg's just didn't want to participate.

They just, and I didn't understand that because the book, you know, in a way, promotes serials. Of course. And promotes Kellogg's cereals. I don't know why they wouldn't have wanted to participate, but they didn't. That's interesting. Yeah. Do you just stay in touch with any of those collectors? No, no.

This was, yeah, this was 2011, 2010, but no. I'm not in touch with Tofer Ellis either, but. I just want to talk a little bit about it because I looked up, there's a fun, And I know you guys must know this site. There's a site called Mr. Breakfast. Have you seen this? Oh, yeah. Yeah.

And we, we, I use that as a source because, you know, it was a serial encyclopedia. We had to have every single cereal ever made in that book. And Mr. Breakfast, I went on there and I found a number of cereals that we didn't know about. And we learned through Mr. Breakfast. Yeah. Beautiful. Really, really well curated site. And he listed the top, he or she listed the top 50 cereal prizes of all.

time now. Before I get into that, full disclosure, I was telling the guys out there, in 1966, I sent away for the Quisp Cosmic Clouder Space Gun. I sent it to you on me. It was basically this ridiculous pump pistol that you filled with talcum powder, which was probably toxic. Yeah. Yeah. And I wish I still had it. Did you, did you, anything come to mind from that era that you sent away for? That I sent, no. I remember very, very well. of the things that just came right out of the box. Yeah, I was really into that. These were some of my favorites. The Flintstone's Flint Mobile. That was a cool one. Kellogg's Navy Frogmen, which you got through frosted flakes, corn flakes, rather. I don't know if these were in the

box or you actually had to send away for them. Puffed rice in the 1950s. This is my favorite weird one. One square inch of land in the Yukon. That's right. It was a deed to land. I love that I forgot about that. An actual working atomic sub, which was offered by Corn Flakes. I'm pretty sure that you had to send away for that one. And my personal favorite, the Apple Jack's Ghost Detector, which came with a disclaimer, This is a toy created for fun and amusement. There are no real ghosts.

I think there was one company that gave away like a mini rifle or something like that. That one I didn't write down. That one I don't know about it. I'm not kidding this. I think it was, obviously it was fake, but it was like a gun. What does a pilot do in an emergency like this? He's trained by the Air Force and given the finest equipment to survive. Equipment like this real Fairchild survival rifle, approved by SAC, the Strategic Air Command.

Now Post offers you this special full-sized plastic model of the SAC survival rifle. It looks exactly like the real one, same size over 30 inches long. It comes apart like the real one. The barrel and trigger sections fit inside the plastic stuff. It floats in water like the real one. It ejects play cartridges just like the real gun. To get your survival rifle, get these special boxes of post-toasty's and post-grapeanuts flakes. Get the box with a pilot on the back and follow the easy directions.

Get post-toasty's corn flakes or post-grapenuts flakes. Send for your model survival rifle right away. One of my very favorite shows, this is, I'm going off on a little bit of a tangent here, and I'll say it quickly, there was a show in the 1960s, which I was one of my favorite sitcoms of all time, because it was surreal. There's never been a sitcom quite like it called Green Acres. Sure. And in this episode of Green Acres, they opened a box of quickly, wickleys, and there had been some crook that had put all these, that had put like diamond rings and, you know, $10,000 watch. and all this kind of stuff in the quickly wickly things. And so they opened it up and they were getting this, you know, just outrageous jewelry out of it and everything.

But one of my favorite episodes, but like I say, I went off on a tangent there. Well, you have a whole section of the book of fictional serials. Fictional cereals, yeah. Yeah. Like Krusty O's, which we mentioned. Weren't there Jackie O's in the Simpsons, too? I think there was a box of Jackie O's. And quickly, wickleys from that episode of Green Acres.

I found that, you know, that was in there. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of different fictional serials that were sitting on tables in old TV shows and movies and stuff. Yeah, Ami, you were taken, speaking of prizes, you were taken with the Star Wars Prize? Yes. You put it up on your... My favorite cereal box prize is a lightsaber spoon. And essentially, like I should have brought it, it has like a lightsaber handle, and the spoon is like translucent, and you push a button, and it will light up in one of, I think, three or four.

different colors. Cool. It came in a frosted flakes. Are they still doing that today for the most part? Are they still putting stuff in the boxes or is that? Because I mean, obviously, Marty and also and I grew up with Cracker Jack, that was the original place where you could get a, yeah, get a prize in the box. But it feels like that's a part of the culture that's mostly vanished.

Yeah, Natalie, it's no more, like we've got to bring prizes back to the series. Yeah, I agree. If this, if this podcast has one thing, let's bring back the prize. It was a cereal that came out around 1960. 71, maybe, 71, called Freakies. Oh, yeah, you wanted to talk about Freakledorf and everything, and they were all, you know, you could get the, I think there were eight different freakies, and they put them in the boxes, and you can get, you know, one of the different freakies in each box. But, yeah, yeah, great stuff. It was an Alphabet's Terrarium because what kid doesn't want it, what six-year-old or seven-year-old doesn't want his own terrarium?

I wish I had those records. I know you can buy them online. You can buy them on eBay. Those monkeys' records and those things from the back of the honeycomb and the alphabets box should have hung on to this stuff. That was great, great reading material. And what, you know, what food product can you buy that you can actually, you know, read from the back of the box? And that's one of the great things about cereals is that you were able to do that when you were a kid. I don't think, I don't know if kids do that anymore.

They're too busy with their cell phones or whatever their phone. I think it was just a great time to grow up. You know, to be exposed to all that. And that was the thing. You read the back of the box, and maybe if you were lucky, the box had a quiz on it or a maze or something. Yeah, Captain Crunch had all these adventures and everything, you know, with all the different Captain Crunch characters. Yeah, shout out to Ed Griffin. He's a friend of the page, and we're working on something fun together.

But, yeah, he still does. Like, if you look at the back of a Captain Crunch box, they're one of the few boxes that still does it. Like, with all the detail, little, like, you know, you see little quisp flying around the background. a word search, you know, a find the missing thing. That's cool. We used to pour the cereal out because we were so eager to get the prize that we'd buy the cereal, pour the cereal out into the bowl to get the damn prize and then put the cereal back in the box.

I do that with Cracker Jacks, too. Yeah, of course, just to get. These are the ones that I loved as a kid. Tell me if these mean anything to you. And, of course, these are in the book. And Quisp and Cap and Crunch and King Vitamin, by the way, which were all the same. I think King Vitamin was the same as Cap and Crunch, same formula. Yeah.

Cocoa Krispies we talked about, which turned milk brown. My sister was really into sugar pops. They still have sugar pops? They're, yeah, corn pops. Yeah, now corn pops. I'm sure taking... Different on both sides of the border, but yeah. I'm sure taking the name, the word sugar out of them, makes them totally healthy.

Pink Panther Flakes, which turned the milk pink. Yeah? Like, that did not last long. And before we were talking off Mike, You mentioned Sir Grapefellow and his nemesis, Barron Redberry. You're really just kind of ridiculous mascots. Are those among your 500 boxes on me? Say yes.

Yes. Well, actually, General Mills sent me a couple boxes upon request because Marty, we were talking about companies that are very supportive. General Mills is one of those. I'm working on a little book project myself, and they sent me like a flat box of great fellow. Yeah, yeah. They sent me that too.

I have that. You know, when I was doing interviews for this book in 2012, you know, 2013, and they sent me Baron von Redberry, and Sir Great Fellow flat boxes. Yeah. I remember that. I forgot about that, yeah. Okay, who remembers Kaboom?

Oh, sure. Is that the only one that ate Kabo? That was in the Quentin Tarantino movie. What's that? Yeah, yeah, it was a kill bill or something like that? I think it's a killb. I think fruit is in. Fruitbert is in Pulp Fiction.

Yeah, Quentin Tarantino was into the, you know, putting this, yeah. Yeah. Caboom. Caboom, well, I think, wasn't it, there was some gun scene or something? It was Kaboom, you know, and made sense because there was a gun involved or something. I forgot. I don't remember. I think it was like a gun through the box. Like it was like a, it was like a, you got to pull up the clip.

I think it was like, it was a, you're right, it was a shooting scene. And then I think she took the gun through the box and shot through the box and it was like, boom. Yeah, he's a big cereal guy. Yeah. Tell me, you, so you just had your first child, and you've been married for a couple of years. What does your wife feel about having 500 boxes of cereal in the house? I mean, what is her take? I assume she's a civilian and a normal person. She is. She is a normal person, and that's why she kind of, like, said, okay, all the cereal goes in, like, your cereal corner. You have a cereal corner? Yes, I'm currently in the serial cave right now. Oh, there's a serial cave.

Do you have to slide down a pole to get into the serial cave? But she pretty much puts up with it. She puts up with it. She's very supportive. Yeah, well, they call me serial life, and they call my wife serial wife. Ah, there you go. I love that. All right.

I love that. Marty, worst, I'm just going to put you on the spot. Worst mascot. Ooh. The worst mascot. We've already covered Baron von Redberry and, and, uh, and, uh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, boy, worst mascot. What was the Freakies mascot?

There were seven or eight. There was, I think, eight different freakies. So there was not one particular mascot. There were like seven or eight. And they, you know, we are the freakies, and they were all there. But I'm trying to remember the, I don't know about the worst mascot per se, but the mascot from the, I always think of wackies, you know, banana wackies because I had that thing. What was that kid? And that was the wackies gorilla.

Right. It was a kid, too, but the Wacky's gorilla was that mascot. And it was probably nothing wrong with the mascot himself. Well, but just put Norman down as the worst mascot. Yeah. Yeah. What's the lamest mascot for you, Tommy? Well, there's a couple, like, you know, culturally inappropriate ones.

Rice crinkles. Rice crinkles, yeah. Like, so high. Oh, that's right. So high. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. You know, those are good commercials to watch.

Or the Raisin brand mascot, just the sun. Like the son, really? Serial, the son? Yeah, Tony. And they had Tony the Tiger Jr. Tony Jr. That was in a... He came and went.

Yeah, he came and went, too. And I didn't think that was necessary, to be honest with you. Yeah. Nepo baby. Yeah. Early Nepo baby. What's the cereal that, as we wrap it up and I'll get to the plugs, what's the cereal that has to come back that you want it, that you're desperate to bring back?

Puffa, puffa rice. Puffa, puffer rice. That was a great cereal. Was there a commercial with guys in a kayak? Yes, it was a Hawaiian theme, a Hawaiian theme. Puffa Puffer Rice. It was such a good series. It was really tasty.

And really, I don't think, and maybe I would know more than me, but I don't think there's ever been before or since any brown sugar cereals that was, like, promoted as brown sugar cereals. Yeah, I don't, not many. I mean, I think there was a special K that did brown sugar, but yeah. So honey smacks and sugar smacks, though they slightly resembled Puffa Puffa Puffer Rice, where it's a different form. Yes. And, uh, right, right. Yeah. Okay. Getting deep into the woods here. Ami, same for you. Same question. What, what do you dying to bring back? And it can be an old one. It could be a recent one. Rice Krispies treats. Oh, okay. That was a thing? Yeah. Yeah. That was a serial.

But I, you know, I love it so much that I make it like probably once a month. It's just, I make rice crispy treats and then I just break them up and then I pull them over it. But, uh, yeah, they excellent excellent enjoy it while you can my friend what a great creator this is fantastic stuff there's one video of him deciding that he's going to

I'm speaking for you here I mean where he's deciding he's going to make his own cereal snack from scratch so what did you do you took banana slices and you put was that cinnamon you put on them and you threw them in the oven

do I have this right yes yes you baked as a that was a partnership with Chiquita bananas and they were said... Oh, they challenged you? Yeah, they challenged me

to make a snack out of bananas. So I made a cereal out of bananas. Like, dehydrated them and then poured them into a bowl with milk. But I also did, this kind of like this cereal cookie, which was like protein powder and a little bit of syrup and, like, cereal. Put in my freezer, and it became like this cereal saucer

where you can kind of like, walk around with it and eat cereal on the goods pretty... Did they, in Canada, did they have any cereal restaurants that it was a big, thing for a while that there was like four or five different a seriality and I don't remember the names of the other ones but they

were pretty popular for a while I think they've sort of gone away I don't know but I wasn't sure if they had them in Canada as well. Yeah there was one place called like serial lab in Toronto. Yeah I've heard of that one. That sounds for me. Yeah I think they're like seasonal now but the biggest one was

serial killers. Oh there's actually two. There's serial serial killers cafe in in London, UK closed down. and nice guys. And then there was also Serial Killer's Kitchen in Las Vegas, right? In, like, Planet Hollywood. And he's a good friend, Chris.

And unfortunately, he closed down as well. I think he's got one location still open in Arizona. But those were both, like, very iconic. I never went to any. Did you go, did you lost, I bet you went? Love the idea. Serial Killer's Kitchen, Las Vegas. Yeah, we actually did a podcast there a few years ago.

And nicest guy, making, like, cereal, little shakes. A little thing, they have cereal, and then they have cereal. They have different things you could dip into the, or put into the cereals, the coconut or the chocolate chips or whatever. And, you know, I was never into that. I was always into the cereal itself, and I never liked to add things in particular. I mean, the snack packs that used to come to the little tiny boxes in the six, in the pack of six, used to be able to slice the back. There was a dotted line. Yeah.

You know this. You used to take a pair of scissors or a knife and cut the back and eat the cereal out of the box they were too small for me i needed i always like took two of them i would eat two just a thrill yeah so you can do you can do the same thing with the full-sized box of cereal guys i gotta start living like this you got to just take a knife and just are you doing that are you cutting open the back yes that was that video that video did well it was you just take a box you don't open it up you just cut you take a sharp knife you just cut a square into it you know like flat wise and then you just pour milk into it and it's your bowl and it's also um well but but you

Wouldn't you pretty much have to eat the whole box of cereal to pull that off and to make it? Absolutely. Okay. You're like Jethro from, you're way before your time, but Jethro from the Beverly Hillbillies would have these gigantic bowls of cereal. I'm ashamed to say, I remember. Wow. Marty, the book is a Bible. It's a wonderful book.

Charlie Cotchman is here, by the way. Our friend Charlie Cotchman, who was the editor of that book for Abrams. And we hope it comes back. We hope it makes a comeback and comes back into print. That would be tremendous. But you make the rounds with your other books. You've written so many books, as we said in the introduction. And sports books, books on celebrating animation, famous cartoon characters,

great a sitcoms book. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's, people want to check it out. They just go to Etsy.com. It's an Etsy page slash shop slash Gitlin books, G-I-T-L-L-I-N. And I've done a lot of books. I've done books on the histories of Major League Baseball franchises, including the Red Sox, Yankees, and Mets and Indians and Cardinals.

There's a book about Sudden Sam McDowell. I wrote his Sudden Sam McDowell, who had a, was, could have been another Sandy Kofax, but he was, he was an alcoholic. And I wrote, I co-authored with him his autobiography. He had a fascinating career. And a celebration of animation. I'm the only author ever to actually rank one to 100 with my co-a-old. author, the greatest cartoon characters of all time. Number one was a very easy choice, but I'll let people guess. And I wrote a book ranking the greatest sitcoms of all time.

I wrote books ranking the greatest American athletes of all time. I like ranking things, you know. I see that. So, yeah. Yeah. I want a book on the 100 worst serial mascots by next year. Ah, I wanted to hold it on my desk. I'd have to do some research on that. Ami, speaking of books, there's a book in the works. We put it in the intro. Tell us. Yes, sir. Firstly, check out Marty's book is great. Yes, please get the Great American Serial book, and by the time this airs, they'll all be gone from Amazon. There are a few of them out there.

The few of them left, yeah, you can get them on Etsy and such. But, yeah, I'm also working on a book. I'm also working on a book coming this Christmas. It's a lot of fun, and it has got a lot of really great images. I know Marty yours does as well, and it's just, it really takes you back. My vision for it was to, if it's a serial that, you know, came out in the 50s, you know, it looked like it was in the 50s. And then it's, you know, same thing for all serials today.

And we explore a bunch of different quirky varieties. And I think it would just make a great gift. It's a big coffee table book. Oh. This is ambitious. Yeah. Can't wait to see this. Do you have a name for it yet?

Serial life, savoring the cereals that made us. Okay. Okay. Yeah. And you could. It's going to be fun. Will you put some of the toys in the, and by the way, do you keep the toys, too? You just keep the cereal boxes in the house?

I got some toys I got a bunch of Unfortunately not too many Cereal companies still do toys But yeah This is going to talk about You know the boxes It's going to talk about toys, prizes

And a lot of quirky Pop Culture So And when are we going to see this book At Christmas time? Christmas time, yeah I think we were so successful With the Crunch Bowl on Kickstarter

I think we're going to go again And we're going to try to do Another Kickstarter with the book So yeah We're going to do a lot of fun stuff I'm thinking about, you know, everyone who kind of backs it. We're going to put them in the book. You'll get your name in this book, too.

And so many more fun details to come. I found a bad name for cereal in Marty's book, Alive. Oh, yeah. I was hoping it wasn't a tie-in to the movie. I had forgotten about that one. A live serial, yeah, yeah. Some of the serials back in the like 1910s and stuff had really weird names. Is grins and smiles and giggles and laughs one of the worst names of a first?

for a cereal? Yes, absolutely. I want to thank some people. Let me thank CityVox. Let me thank Andrew Capone, who's here, and Land Romo, who's here all the way from Los Angeles, our old Starburn's CEO. Charlie Kochman, as I said, is here.

Charlie's got some wonderful fun things coming out. I want to thank Josh Chambers, as always, and Bobby Hutch and my two wonderful guests. I am going to go home and see if I can find a snack pack and cut the back of it open and eat some. and eat some cocoa puffs out of it while my wife is horrified. Thank you guys for doing this. Thanks for having me.

This is what this show is about is nostalgia and remembering this stuff and how much fun it was. And we'll go out on some kind of weird cereal commercial that I'll dig up. And I appreciate you guys your valuable time. And we will look for that book and get Marty's book. And we'll see you guys next week. Guests of Fun for All Ages stay at Sunny's Hideaway Motor Court and Tiki Lounge. Just follow your nose to the Continental Breakfast, serve daily from 6 to 10. Fun for All Ages is produced by Frank Santo Baudre, Genevieve Sturbans, and Andrew Capone,

post-production supervisor Bobby Hutch, social media director Josh Chambers, music by MIBE and Pete Zepina, with special thanks to Seth Saltzman, FFAAA social media team, Michelle Mantine, Dino Perserpio, and John Bradley Seals, logo design by John Steele. Tesla. Support us on Patreon at patreon.com slash fun for all ages podcast. I'm your announcer, Josh Changers. The Jackson Five. That's us. And that's no job.

I love you, apple mix. It's got eight vitamins. Tell the world.