StarKist tuna introduced Charlie the Tuna to television audiences in 1961. While folks were trying to figure out why Charlie wanted to willingly sacrifice himself to be inside a can of StarKist, the ad campaign soldiered on for more than 20 years before the gimmick was retired in the 80's.
Herschel Bernardi (ex-Peter Gunn) began his voice acting career with these ads, and would subsequently be hired by Terrytoons (The Mighty Heroes). There was a period in the 70's & 80's where Charlie would be joined by a smaller fish (Henry Corden), but the campaign stayed the same. In 1999, even though he wasn't appearing in ads anymore, Charlie was brought back as a corporate mascot, a gig he still has today.
Most of the ads in the 60's & 70's were produced by DePatie-Freleng, but I am not sure if Marvel assumed the contract when they purchased DFE in 1981.
Right now, let's take a look at a spot from 1980. Danny Dark (Super Friends) is the announcer.
Today, Charlie appears on all the StarKist packages, but not on TV.
3 comments:
Good ol'Herschel Bernardi! My parents saw him perfom as Tevye at the Starlight Theatre in the early 70s. He was such a talented man :D
He only had one leading role, and that was the sitcom, "Arnie", in the early 70's. I didn't find out until much, much later about his work on "Peter Gunn".
Actually, Charlie still shows up on TV every so often nowadays. I believe that he's currently voiced by either Tex Brashear or Jeff Bergman.
Post a Comment