One thing I was reminded of was the Pepsi advertising campaign that Michael Jackson participated in. In 1984, Pepsi sponsored The Jacksons' Victory Tour. (I still have a commemorative Pepsi can from that year which I have held on to for 25 years for some reason.) In return, Michael and his brothers were to star in two commercials for the company. Jackson had reworked "Billie Jean" for the commercial and entitled it "Pepsi Generation". The song was used as the official jingle for the commercials. Here is the first commercial for you to watch...

During the filming of the second commercial a firework exploded and Jackson's hair caught fire, leaving the singer needing reconstructive surgery. I can still remember the videos of Jackson being taken from the scene on a stretcher with bandages wrapped around his head. The commercials were premiered at the Grammy Awards, with Jackson wearing a hairpiece to cover his burns as he collected a record eight awards.

I had actually been planning to cover this Pepsi commercial as part of an 80s retro commercial issue well before Michael's death, but now it seemed even more appropriate to revisit it.

In the 1984 commercial above, the boy who can dance like Michael is Alfonso Ribeiro. Later that same year, he was cast as Ricky Schroder's best friend in the television series Silver Spoons, but he is probably best known for his role as "Carlton Banks" on the 90s television series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. That was one of my favorite shows at the time and Ribeiro's character was a big reason why. He played sort of a 90s version of "Alex P. Keaton" who is another of my all-time favorite TV characters.

Alfonso Ribeiro shows off his dancing skills in selected episodes of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. My favorite is what has now become known as the "Carlton Dance" which he first performs to the Tom Jones song "It's Not Unusual" and you can see that in the video below...

Ribeiro would again show off his dance moves in another episode which would also include some Michael Jackson moves including the famous moon walk. Here is the video from that episode...

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air is obviously not an 80s show, but it has a loose connection to the 80s with Ribeiro's "Carlton" character and Ribeiro himself. So even though I started the issue with Michael Jackson which still saddens me when I think about it, I ended it with "Carlton" dancing which always makes me laugh. Hope you enjoyed it, too.

That's all for another issue of Kickin' it Old School. Thanks as always for reading. If you are interested in reading any of my other 80s related issues, please click there for a summary of those. You can also always click on the Archives in the upper left hand column or use the Google Search Box at the top of the right hand column to find any other issues you may have missed. If you are a fan of Kickin' it, PLEASE CLICK ON THE FACEBOOK LOGO in the upper right hand column. This will take you to the Fan Page where I ask you to then click on "Become a Fan". Even if you are not a Facebook member yet, please consider joining and registering as a fan at that page. Let other 80s fans know about it as well! Peace and much love.

Check this out: I thought the placement of these two billboards was sort of ironic and humorous, don't you think? Preventing childhood obesity right above a fast food restaurant? I wonder if either of the placements was intentional or if this was just a coincidence.

Quote of the day: "Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." - Maya Angelou, American poet, writer, historian, educator