FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jen Bellmont, (952) 233‐0428, jen@bellmontpartners.com
Jennifer Bernard, (212) 366‐2007, jennifer.bernard@us.penguingroup.com
Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? Explores
the Lost Toys, Tastes & Trends of the ‘70s & ‘80s
New Book Fondly Revisits Generation X’s Memories of
Toys, Games, Food, TV, Movies, Home, Fashion and School
NEW YORK (May 9, 2011) — If you owe a couple cavities to Marathon candy bars, learned your
adverbs from Schoolhouse Rock!, and can still imitate the slo‐mo bionic running sound of The Six
Million Dollar Man, Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? is for you.
Embracing the delightfully unique pop culture of the period, Whatever
Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes & Trends of the ‘70s &
‘80s (Perigee Trade Paperback; June 7, 2011; $12.95) is the ultimate
compendium for people nostalgic for Planters Cheez Balls, Rankin/Bass
stop‐action TV specials and Sea Monkeys. For more information, visit
www.whateverhappenedtopuddingpops.com.
Pop culture aficionados Gael Fashingbauer Copper and Brian Bellmont
have lovingly mined the battlefields of discarded paraphernalia from the
days when MTV played music videos and Quisp and Quake duked it out
for cereal supremacy.
Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? is a pop‐culture encyclopedia
focusing on the lost items of ‘70s and ‘80s childhoods, from After School Specials to ZOOM. For each of
the more than 200 items featured in the book, the authors offer up humorous and rich memories,
some history of the item, and also trace what happened to it – did it vanish completely, is it still going
strong, or has it been revised, reintroduced or even completely replaced by something else?
“Kids of the 1970s and 1980s share a far more universal past than kids today,” says Fashingbauer
Cooper. “We all watched the same five channels, shopped at the same few chain stores, hummed the
same commercial jingles. But really, it’s not the things that we loved, it’s our memories of those things
and how they fit into our lives.”
“When we talk with other Gen‐Xers about some of the things we cover in the book, the reaction we
get nearly every single time is ‘Oh, I remember that!’” Bellmont says. “And it doesn’t matter if we’re
reminiscing about rusty playground equipment, ‘Battle of the Network Stars,’ Pepsi Light, Dynamite
Magazine, Shrinky Dinks or Debbie Gibson. There’s always some common ground.”
www.whateverhappenedtopuddingpops.com • whateverhappenedtopuddingpops@gmail.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Gael Fashingbauer Cooper is a Twin Cities‐born‐and‐raised journalist who
now lives in Seattle with her husband, Rob, and daughter Kelly.
USAToday.com named her one of the Top Pop Culture People of 2002. Her
personal weblog, Pop Culture Junk Mail, dates to 1999. Entertainment
Weekly named the site one of “100 Web sites you must know now,” and
The New York Times has called it “one of the best places to explore pop
culture online.” She didn't exactly name her daughter after Kelly Garrett on “Charlie's Angels” or Kelly
Leak from “The Bad News Bears,” but there may have been some influence.
Former TV news reporter and producer Brian Bellmont is a public relations consultant in the Twin
Cities, where he lives with his wife Jen and daughters Rory and Maddy. He’s an award‐winning food
writer and aspiring novelist, and is a fan of all things pop‐culturey, from horror flicks to comic books,
Broadway musicals to beach reads, terrible sitcoms to The Backyardigans. Over the years, he’s
interviewed pop‐culture staples like Adam West, Barry Williams, Loni Anderson, and Davy Jones;
contributed to msnbc.com and dozens of other media outlets; and written the copy on the back of a
bag of yogurt‐covered raisins.
Visit their website at www.whateverhappenedtopuddingpops.com.
ABOUT PENGUIN GROUP
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. is the U.S. member of the internationally renowned Penguin Group. Penguin
Group (USA) is one of the leading U.S. adult and children’s trade book publishers, owning a wide range
of imprints and trademarks, including Berkley Books, Dutton, Frederick Warne, G.P. Putnam’s Sons,
Grosset & Dunlap, New American Library, Penguin, Philomel, Riverhead Books and Viking, among
others. The Penguin Group is part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO PUDDING POPS? The Lost Toys, Tastes & Trends of the ‘70s & ‘80s
by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper and Brian Bellmont
Perigee Trade Paperback
On‐Sale: June 7, 2011
ISBN: 978‐0‐399‐53671‐1
$12.95
Visit us on the web at www.penguin.com
www.whateverhappenedtopuddingpops.com • whateverhappenedtopuddingpops@gmail.com
Here’s a taste of some of the retro pop‐culture nuggets in Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops?
The Lost Toys, Tastes & Trends of the ‘70s & ‘80s (Perigee Trade Paperback; June 7, 2011; $12.95):
Connect Four: We spent hours dropping checkers into the stand with a satisfying thwock, trying to line
up four in a row, while preventing a pal from doing the same. Then out of nowhere, she’d swoop in
and finish off her own row in a spot you hadn’t even seen coming. AAUGH! Damn your powers of
misdirection, Jeannine!
Lawn darts: The best childhood toys were those with a hint of danger, but this was ridiculous. Why
didn't our parents just let us juggle chainsaws or tease rabid wolverines?
Love’s Baby Soft: It was practice perfume, smelling a bit like baby powder, a bit like soap, and a lot like
what we imagined pink unicorns sunning themselves on rainbows would smell like.
Marathon Candy Bar: It’s basic Kid Law. If chocolate was good, more chocolate was better. The bright
red package even boasted a measuring stick on the back so kids could make sure Mars wasn't cheaping
out. And if your plastic school ruler broke, hey, edible substitute.
Pudding Pops: Whether it was the avalanche of Cosby‐fueled
advertising or their own delicious crack‐like creaminess, Pudding Pops
became the must‐have freezer filler of the 1980s.
Roller Rinks: Depending on the year, we did the Hustle, grooved to “A
Fifth of Beethoven,” or sang along with “Mickey” at the top of our
adolescent lungs. When the terrifying Couples Skate came up, we
suddenly found it the perfect time to hide out in the bathroom.
Schoolhouse Rock!: The video series created as many questions as it answered. What kind of camp
sent kids unpacking their adjectives next to a hairy scary bear? Was the youngest Lolly really old
enough to be slaving away in an adverb store? Who got beat up worse, the football player in
“Interjections” who ran the wrong way, or the Poindexter who cheered, “Hooray, I'm for the other
team”?
Sitting in the “way back” of the station wagon: While the rest of the family faced front, the luckiest
kids scored the best seats in the house, the collapsible ones with a view out the rear window. Seat
belts? Who needed ’em? When Dad took a hairpin turn, you’d roll around like a pop can.
The Star Wars Holiday Special: It was a disaster of intergalactic proportions. The plot, such as it was,
focused on Chewbacca’s family—his wife Mala, son Lumpy, and freakish (and, no doubt, flea‐ridden
and stinky) father Itchy—as they waited for Chewie to return home.
Time for Timer: Timer's most memorable video has him “hankering for a hunk of cheese,” but any
kid who needs to be shown how to place cheese between two crackers was really too dumb to be
allowed to watch TV.
Weebles: With their tiny heads and bottom‐heavy bodies, roly‐poly Weebles took anything a kid could
dish out and kept popping back up for more, like a punching bag with a weighted butt.
www.whateverhappenedtopuddingpops.com • whateverhappenedtopuddingpops@gmail.com