Pardon the jumping around in time. Instead of getting into a time rut, I thought it might be more interesting to visit different TV eras, even if somewhat out of place/time order.
The year 1980 was one that NBC wanted to forget. Viewers already had forgotten - they spent their time with ABC in 1980. Fred Silverman had been brought in as network president to try and pull NBC out of third place. A new campaign was launched to brand the network - "NBC Proud as a Peacock." There was little to be proud of in 1980, as most of their new shows utterly failed within weeks of premiering.
Outside of some returning favorites, like CHiPs and a few successful premieres, such as Facts of Life (a spinoff from Diff'rent Strokes), there wasn't much to see here, and viewers did move along.
Amusingly, the jingle company that recorded the campaign jingle for NBC had another version, which Don Imus of WNBC Radio got ahold of and promptly aired. It ripped NBC and Silverman for completely blowing it in 1980. Critics weren't happy either. The 1970s was dubbed the decade of "T&A" by critics who just dealt with a decade of increasingly trashy programming, big on cleavage and very light on plotlines and quality. But despite the crap, viewers still watched, whether it was Battle of the Network Stars or Charlie's Angels or Three's Company.
The most bizarre and spectacular failure for NBC in 1980 was the totally incomprehensible and impenetrable Pink Lady & Jeff. Viewers had no idea what to make of a show featuring Jeff, who looked like a porn star, and "Pink Lady," two Japanese young ladies who spoke practically no English whatsoever. It was one of those Plan 9 from Outer Space messes -- so bad it would be written up in TV history books.
Enjoy the NBC parody, an effort from WESH-TV Orlando to localize the Proud as a Peacock campaign with their own local staff, and a bunch of network promos. Notice the gradual change to NBC's logo, which spent most of the 1970s as a big letter "N." In 1980, the "N" was superimposed over the more familiar peacock logo that NBC first used back when color shows started on the network. It wasn't more than a year before the "N" completely disappeared, leaving the peacock logo that NBC still uses to this day.
And yes, that is the voice of "Shaggy," Casey Kasem, who was the on-air announcer for the network promos in 1980!
NBC "We're Loud" Audio Parody - 1980
