30 years ago, I wasn’t planning to be a novelist. I was trying to make it as an actor, while writing screenplays on the side. One of the most successful acting gigs I had was for The Sporting News. It was a non-union shoot, which means I didn’t get paid every time it aired, only for the shoot day. Because of this, The Sporting News aired this commercial non-stop on ESPN for over a year.
At the time, I was working as a waiter at Ruby Tuesdays and once, during that time, as I was waiting tables, behind me on the bar TV played this commercial. I was waiting on a gentleman and he spotted the advertisement on the TV over my shoulder. He said, “Hey, that’s you.” I admitted he was correct. He said, “Wow, it’s on ESPN. You have to be making a lot of money.” I said, “Buddy, I’m trying to upsell you an apple pie. How much money do you think I made?”
We both laughed. He left a good tip. 🙂
I’ve spent the last five or so years trying to find this commercial. I have copies of most of my gigs, but this commercial was not one of them. Finally, I found it on a compilation of 90s ESPN commercials.
You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/5a5_5NjZrzY?t=1160
I have one more commercial to track down… a local Kash N Karry commercial. It’s the ad that my wife watched and inspired her to call me (we had dated off and on and were currently off.) 10 months later, we were married.
Next year we celebrate our 30th Anniversary.
But, for now, I’ll enjoy finding The Sporting News spot.