1977: A Madman Turns 40: 2017- Day 47

    Now that I'm Type II, there's a lot of things I either eat in moderation or not at all. One of the things that I miss most (and makes me feel awful when I do) is cereal. So for today's look at my favorite year, I thought I'd try to whet my appetite by looking at the world of breakfast cereals...

  Of course, you can't start off a balance breakfast without Mikey from the Life Cereal Commercials. The Cinnamon variety is my all-time fav! The first airing of that classic commercial began in 1972 but through 1977 all the way until the mid-80s, the following ad ran regularly. 

  
   1977 saw the introduction of a handful of new cereals. Most are long gone to either the parent company going out of business or just being plain awful. The one cereal that debuted in my birth year that still thrives to this day is Cookie Crisp. Essentially, the cereal is made up of tiny chocolate chip cookies  Because hey, that what all kids want to for breakfast. Honestly, how is it okay to give your child a heaping bowl of tiny cookies but wrong to give them 3 Mrs. Field's and a glass of milk? It must be the added riboflavin.
   (There was a Vanilla Sugar Cookie variety too, that flopped pretty quickly.)

  Two cereals that have spawned legendary status but is no longer made were called Crazy Cow- Strawberry and Crazy Cow- Chocolate. The neat thing about these cereals is that they were so concentrated with flavored sugar that they turned your milk either chocolate or strawberry. Lots of cereals do the same thing now all thanks in part to this pioneering brand by General Mills. It's even been parodied on South Park, the Simpsons, and Friends- it's that iconic. Sadly, both were discontinued sometime after 1980.

Just add milk, the Type II will come later...

    Another forgotten cereal comes from Kellogg's. It's Frosted Rice Cereal. Featuring Tony Jr., it was a spin-off of Frosted Flakes cereal. I vaguely remember this brand in stores for a while. But since it was so similar to Rice Crispies it just couldn't compete. So in 1982, the cereal was renamed Frosted Crispies and those mischievous elves Snap, Crackle, Pop became it's new pitchmen.

Where did Tony Jr. go? Was he kidnapped and taken to the Bronx Zoo??
Why hasn't his face appeared on the side of milk cartons???

      Cereal is great for getting you regular. As long as it has no added sugar, premium toy giveaways or flavor inside the box. In fact, some are so awful, you'd probably have more enjoyment eating the box instead. One such cereal that hit store shelves in '77 was Cracklin' Bran. This stuff was touted as '"the sweetened high-fiber cereal with a nut-like taste." I've tried this stuff- they lied. Cracklin' Bran was repackaged as Cracklin' Oat Bran in the mid-80s when doctors touted oat bran as the cure all for high cholesterol (another lie!) and can still be found on store shelves nationwide. Though I have no idea why... 

     

Contents: 1 tasty box. 1 semi-edible waxpaper bag, and some disgusting bran cereal.

So that's a look at breakfast cereals of 1977. Man, all this talk of a nutritious breakfast has made me hungry. I wonder if I has some of my favorite breakfast food on hand some where- good ol' American cold pizza! Until tomorrow, past the milk!