"wheres the beef" news and stories

Who the %*&#! is Clara Peller?

You like trivia? So does Fox's new game show Million Dollar Money Drop, whose first contestants had to answer a question about vintage ad slogans, one of which involved the now-famous query, "Where's the Beef?" (The grouchy old bag who asked the question was the late Ms. Peller, who, to the best of our knowledge, was a one-hit wonder.)

The show also called out "Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your Hands," the vaguely obscene slogan for M&Ms. But why stop there? Let's take a stroll down Madison Avenue, right where it merges with Memory Lane, and call up some of our favorite TV food commercials from the past:

Snap, Crackle and Pop for Rice Krispies (1939). Gee, Bobby, hope you'll stay over again now that your little friend can summon up his Breakfast Pals in a flash each morning. And can they also summon up a Play Station instead of bowl of cold cereal?

Chef Boy-ar-Dee (1954). "Hello, may I come in?" asks the chef with the world's thickest Italian accent. Actually, please go away. Even at 15 cents a serving, we can make better spaghetti from scratch.

Harriet Nelson for Aunt Jemima Pancakes (1958). When you've got "three man-sized pancake eaters" like Ozzie, David, and Ricky hanging around the house (what did Ozzie do for a living, anyway?), you need some help in the kitchen.

I'm a sucker for TV commercials. I even think they should be put on TV DVDs, though I bet some people would hate that idea.

But it got me thinking about all of the great TV commercials we've had for food over the years. After the jump, eight classics. I'm not saying that these eight are the "best" (though some could be), but they're eight that I really enjoy.