The dance of King Vitaman: Shoddy Goods 081
1In our house, I was limited to Cheerios, Total, and the occasional Life, based on some sugar-not-in-the-first-two-ingredients rule. But when Christmas hit, we got tiny boxes of the sugar-iest cereal and I had a week or so of hanging out with Cap’n Crunch, Toucan Sam, and Count Chocula.
What was your go-to cereal growing up? And who were your favorite cereal mascots?
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Growing up? Alphabets.
Now? Quaker Oat Squares
Mascot- Tony the Tiger of course
Captain Crunch with crunchberries.
I was going to say Tony the Tiger, but everyone is going to say that; I do have a certain affection for Toucan Sam.
So Toucan Sam. Final answer.
I was never a big cereal eater growing up. I’ve never been a big milk person but while growing up I hated it and coudnt even stand it with cereal. I do enjoy cereal as adult now and use milk with it (still don’t drink milk but will at least put it in my smoothies and stuff). Now I like captain crunch peanut butter even through it destroys the roof of your mouth, Frosted Flakes, Rice Krispies and very rarely Cinnamon Toast Crunch. Cereal is more of a late night snack or a treat for me.
Mascot- I love the snap, crackle, pop people
I liked eating Corn Pops and Golden Grahams but I’m not sure either of them has a mascot. I never thought the pictures on the box made the cereal taste any better so I didn’t care much about them. Now I eat cereal about once every 6 months.
We had the run of sugar - Count Chocula, Coco Puffs, Trix, Captain Crunch, Quisp, Life, Frosted Mini Wheats – and my favorite, we always put Hershey’s Syrup on our Cheerios. (Thanks mom!)
Most overlooked tangent in the article – Vaudeville partner Dewey Barto was Nancy Walker’s father!
On school mornings my mom would have a pot of oatmeal bubbling on the stove by the time I got up. If I had cold cereal it was corn flakes, cheerios, or shredded wheat (the large one brick portion size).
I was 7 in 1972 when this commercial supposedly aired.
I’m in the right age group but I don’t remember ever seeing the commercial or that cereal!
My mom wasn’t a big fan of sugar, so we got Cheerios, and my dad ate Wheaties like it was crack. I think we did occasionally get a treat of Booberry (my favorite) or Honeycombs. As an adult I would buy Lucky Charms and would often toss the box with half the cereal left and none of the marshmallows.
Hellzapoppin’ is honestly one of my all-time favorite films, despite only seeing it fairly recently. So much so that I imported a German blu ray. It’s got the kind of 4th wall-breaks, visual gags and rowdy timing that, until Mel Brooks and ZAZ came along, basically only existed in Tex Avery cartoons, including a then-contemporary Orson Welles reference that’s an all-timer, even as the main duo wanders through a series of scene changes that predates a similar gag in Chuck Jones’ Duck Amuck by a decade. Shame Mann didn’t make an appearance!
As to the actual question, my favorite cereal ever was the Ninja Turtles one that Ralston made back in the 90s. My favorite mascot? Tony the Tiger, thanks to the dulcet tones of Thurl Ravenscroft.
King Vitaman was actually our staple cereal at home up until I was in 4th grade. We dabbled in others like Count Chocula and Boo Berry, but those were more like “special occasion” cereals. I do remember a King Vitaman TV spot that was later than the one embedded above (so probably 1974 or later).
My parents split in late '76, and therefore so did my breakfast habits – for various reasons, cereal fell out of favor with both of them. When I finally got my own place for the first time as an adult, the main item on my first solo grocery shopping trip was cereal – Trix, in that case. And I guess the Trix rabbit would be my mascot of choice.
(Incidentally, my favorite cereals now taste nothing like they did back in the day: Count Chocula, Boo Berry, Lucky Charms, etc. all taste completely bland & grainy. I assume that was due to well-meaning “improvements” like reducing sugar & trans-fats, and using whole grains. But the result is that they now taste like the box they’re shipped in.)
So did they hire George Mann as a pun? Like, was he notable enough that people would be like, “Oh I get it. King Vita-Mann. How clever”?
When I was young, the vast majority of the sugary cereals I ate were consumed in front of the TV, dry from a bowl or cup. Our normal routine on Saturday mornings was to pour a bowlful of Trix/Captain Crunch/Cocoa Puffs/Lucky Charms/whatever and eat it while watching cartoons (Yogi, Huckleberry Hound. Tennessee Tuxedo, Rocky & Bullwinkle, etc) while Mom and Dad slept in.
Weekdays were Cheerios, shredded wheat or Rice Krispies days.
Count Chocula was my favorite, but I had the other monster cereals from time to time. Cocoa Puffs too, since the powder converted your milk into chocolate milk. I was spoiled. Rotten.
I would get the little cereal boxes when we traveled. I remember being in a Howard Johnson restaurant and picking a Frosted Flakes behind the glass while sitting at the diner counter with my Dad. The little boxes will always mean road trips to me.
“King Vitaman, have breakfast with a King!” Good times!
My mother insists she forbade sugar cereals when I was growing up, I remember having them until a certain age I can’t remember, then she read an article saying how bad they were. I particularly remember Sugar Pops and Sugar Smacks, sugar RIGHT IN THE NAME.