4.6 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 7 October 2019
⏱️ 47 minutes
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0:00.0 | Okay, well I have to tell you just initially how I even got involved. |
0:08.8 | In early 1989, Nancy Overfield was the head of marketing and special events for the children's |
0:14.3 | division of J.C. Penny. So I went to Toy Fair in New York. I was young and |
0:18.4 | ignorant. So I went into the toy building, got in the elevator, |
0:23.0 | oh my gosh, it's like how many hundreds of people can fit in one elevator |
0:27.3 | at one time. |
0:28.9 | After it had stopped like at about 10 floors on one floor, |
0:32.4 | the doors opened and it costume character's hand came |
0:37.1 | into the elevator to stop it right as it was almost closing, which annoyed all of |
0:42.2 | us and then the hand came back and the door closed. |
0:45.8 | I looked at the guy next to me and I said what in the world was that? |
0:48.9 | And he said, oh, it's a character, it's called Bart Simpson. |
1:00.0 | Bart and his family were still relatively unknown. They had only appeared in short segments on the Tracy Ullman show, a critically acclaimed but low-rated variety series airing on the then new Fox network. |
1:08.5 | But 10 months after Nancy Overfield saw Bart in an elevator, the Simpsons premiered in primetime, and the Spiky Hare the That's because I forgot to stamp it. |
1:23.0 | The Simpsons was Fox's first real hit, a raiding smash, |
1:27.0 | but it was also a merchandising machine. |
1:30.0 | Do you have a sense of like, like, how much was the Simpson stuff selling? |
1:34.0 | Oh my gosh. |
1:35.0 | During its heyday, I mean, millions and millions of dollars. |
1:40.0 | It was the biggest thing out there. |
1:43.0 | In 1990, an estimated 15 million BART t-shirts were sold. |
1:47.0 | Shirts that had BART saying things like, |
... |
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