Friday A/V Club: Let These Marionettes Demonstrate How to Save Your Cows in the Event of a Nuclear Attack

Some strange old civil defense spots

These civil defense spots were made for rural TV stations in 1965. Something about the farmer puppet's flat and unchanging expression makes me suspect that, deep down inside, he'd welcome a nuclear armageddon.

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Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

DO NOT WANT. Those things frighten me more than nuclear fallout.

[tarran]

That lifeless expression... the jerky, zombielike motions...

It puts me in mind of one of the best series of Dr Who ever made.

I give you... The Robots of Death!

[Old Man With Candy]

Wonderfully creepy, thanks Jesse!

[Longtorso, Johnny]

Looks like a Mary video.

[LiveFreeOrDiet]

Mmm, flash-fried beef with pasteurized cream and burned puppet.
What, they add hickory flavor!

[Robert]

Of course we're still hearing PSAs like these on the radio all the time. Maybe TV too. But why marionettes? Surely live actors would've made for a cheaper prod'n.

[Robert]

I guess for some reason a company that happened to have marionettes got the contract. Maybe it was a package deal with kid stuff.

Today's equivalent is at http://ready.gov , according to the radio teaser PSAs.