Panos Productions (Demonstration Reel, 1978)
Here's a promo demo reel for Panos Productions, a local Chicago video production house that produced some local TV commercials and at least one program. (Outdoor Sportsman on WCIU Channel 26)
The fonts seen here are from a very primitive CG system, along the lines of 3M Datavision (but different from what was used by WSNS Channel 44).
Includes:
Roughly two seconds of EIA RS-189 color bars and two short ~1 kHz beeps, followed by 'PANOS PRODUCTIONS DEMONSTRATION REEL' title card
Commercial: Fannie May candies (not to be confused with Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association) - sale on Christmas candies (voiceover by Jim Hill)
Commercial: Woodfield's 7th Anniversary Hit Parade - mimes previewing upcoming appearances by Tommy Dorsey's Orchestra (October 18th), Chicago Symphony Chamber Players (October 20th), Beatlemania, magic acts, and Gus Giordano's jazz dancers (voiceover by ??)
Commercial: District Furniture & Appliances - "Come Down to the District" (voiceover by ??)
Commercial: Jimmy "The Greek" for Pro Football Weekly newspaper - 13 issues for $9.95 (voiceover by ??)
Political ad: Michael Bakalis for Governor - a third variant, skewering Governor Thompson over potholes on Illinois' roads (following this and this example) - "Paid For By a Lot of People Who Want Mike Bakalis to Be Governor Committee" (ending voiceover by ??)
Next is a set of "Story Boards," leading off with a commercial for Hawaiian Punch and another for Country Companies Insurance ("You'll Love the Country Way"), all done in cheaply-animated drawings
This demo reel in this form did not air anywhere, but the ads themselves (save for the two Story Boards) would have aired on local Chicago TV during the 1977-78 period.
Ready for description.
Date Uploaded: 05/27/2017
Tags: 1970s Local Commercials Promotional / Sales Reels (Not Intended For Broadcast)
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Smctopia 05/27/2017 Reply
Loved seeing the old fountain in the Woodfield ad. The water formed a waterfall and there were fish tanks below it. Now there's a mini escalator there and a Comcast area. So boring.
That is of course supposed to be Donny and Marie in the Hawaiian Punch Story Board.
W.B. 05/28/2017 Reply
Funny . . . they didn't look all that much like Donny & Marie in that storyboard . . .
TeleFrank 06/20/2017 Reply
Panos Productions did not produce the Outdoor Sportsman. Joe Wyer the host and producer of the show may have used them occasionally and they did produce the program open. Other than that Joe produced his show out of Studio B at WCIU-TV's Board of Trade Studios. Often he showed 16mm films produced by others. But I clearly remember the day he prepped a deer for "stuffing" live on the desk of the Stock Market Observer. Joe was a taxidermist by trade. His show was a little different every week.
Ernie Panos the owner of Panos Productions was a Greek born dentist who created Panos Productions to produce his own greek language show. He soon discovered that his fellow ethnic broadcasters would use his services for location shooting and occasionally a commercial. They were cheap and incidentally, since you made such a big deal about it in the description the main draw was the CG. WCIU had an art department but not a CG. Paying for the art department to create a slide or a graphic card was a cost that could be avoided by just typing on the Panos CG. It was amazing for these producers.
Not sure what happened I had left WCIU by then but Panos's show went off the air and I think the production company followed. Some years later I recall that Mr. Panos was in the news for fondling young patients. He was acquitted for that. I think he's dead.