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...side effects of each other's products. You know, the ones in which a very serious-looking actor "discovers" that Brand X just might possibly be more harmful than, say, swallowing drain cleaner. The confusing charges and countercharges prompted the major TV networks to pull the harshest spots; ABC went so far as to ban all drug commercials that take potshots at rival remedies...
...this was too much for TV executives, who rarely get befuddled enough to turn down business. In announcing a ban on attack ads last month, ABC said it feared that such spots could be "misinterpreted" by viewers as "overplaying the health concerns involved." The other networks pulled the fiercest ads but continue to run milder comparison spots...
...fact, this was an odd TV moment when parody and plug became one. The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show was intended to be an ironic resurrection of 1950s-style brand-name TV shows like The Lux Video Theatre or The U.S. Steel Hour. The deal originally struck between ABC and Pepsico, Taco Bell's parent company, was that each week a different member of the Pepsi family would serve as "both title and target" for Carvey's wry satire, positioning the sponsor as quite the cool dude for rope-a-doping a few edgy punches...
...sounded better on paper. Taco Bell pulled out of future Carvey shows the day after the premiere, though the company wouldn't say whether it objected to the ribald skits (which included a prosthetically enhanced President Clinton breast-feeding animals) or the darts aimed at the ad business. ABC quickly promised to tame the show, and Pepsico decided to limit sponsorship to its less familial, more attitude-seeking brands, and thus was born last week's somewhat safer episode, The Mug Root Beer Dana Carvey Show...
...take it to the studio heads and to the stars. There's a lack of creativity and opportunity, leaving stories untold." The lone black nominee, Dianne Houston, was nominated in the best live action short category for "Tuesday Morning Ride," and she lost. Protesters also gathered outside local ABC affiliates in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, D.C. Yet the show went off without a hitch. "There were no visible demonstrations," TIME's Joelle Attinger reports. "Hollywood is very much a bubble, and it remained that way on Oscar night." Jackson called on participants in the show to wear a rainbow...