Hostess Wacky TV Show Cards
Let's take a look at these quirky collectible cards from the Seventies
Wacky Packages ruled in the seventies. These wonderfully illustrated stickers featuring famous consumer products redone with hilarious names were everywhere. My sisters were avid collectors, and they stuck them everywhere—on books, the walls of their closets, and the heavily-stickered door that led to our basement. They had so many that they started showing up in our family junk drawer. That is where I discovered them years later, along with other Wacky-inspired products, like the Wacky TV Show Cards from Hostess.
Hostess was, and is, a manufacturer of tasty baked treats. Throughout the years, they would attempt to sweeten the deal of purchasing a box of Twinkies, Cupcakes, etc. by including a premium like a collector’s card. These cards and the boxes they came in have become more valuable over the years as people want to reclaim what was, to many, a fleeting but meaningful childhood memory.
I say fleeting because these cards, while fun, were often treated as disposable by the kids who received them. Fun for a quick smile, but then placed somewhere where they could be easily damaged and then discarded. So it is remarkable when any of these cards, especially ones with very limited availability, manage to survive. Any cards or stickers that survived in my household were the ones that were effectively discarded and forgotten in our family junk drawer. There, they might not have been preserved, but they were in a stable space, especially once they were buried a bit.
The Wacky TV Show Cards all feature an image of a television set. Over the TV set is a funny take on an existing TV show, and on the TV, you will see an illustration of that name. That illustration sometimes, but rarely, has any real connection to the show they are referencing. So if you are unfamiliar with the TV shows of the seventies, a lot of these will be completely lost on you. Fortunately, many of them are easy to figure out. By reimagining TV shows with absurd names and whimsical illustrations, these cards, much like Wacky Packages, provided a form of subversive humor that appealed to both kids and adults.
I am not very good at identifying art styles, but a lot of cartoons and comics of this era featured this style. I have heard it referred to as psychedelic or post-sixties. Maybe I see a similarity to School House Rock, which I have heard people compare to the works of Heinz Edelmann, Milton Glaser, and Push Pin Studios. However you might describe the art on these cards, it’s a very accessible style, and you can see why kids would love it.
The reverse side of every card had the card’s number in the set and a wacky TV fact and riddle (which was more of a kid joke). The riddle also had a cute illustration featuring an anthropomorphic television set acting out the riddle in some form. Here is an example from the back of the Flea’s Company card.
The offer for these cards was brief. They were released in September and October 1978, just in time for school, and were only available while supplies lasted. With each purchase of specially marked boxes of Hostess products, you could get three cards, and the collection had a total of 48 cards. So if you hoped to score all the cards, you would need to purchase a minimum of 16 boxes in a two-month period. That was assuming you could find boxes that had the cards you were missing.
Your best bet? Collect ‘em and Trade ‘em. This was the staple of the schoolyard. Bring your cards with you to school and trade something else you have to get them. This was a bit more difficult with cards like this, but not impossible, especially for motivated kids. When Star Wars cards started showing up on products, the trade on those was heavy. In a pinch, you might also be able to buy them from your friends or trade another card type to get what you want.
Being so limited and difficult to obtain, it shouldn’t be surprising that the cards are fairly uncommon to find out in the world. They do show up on auction sites, and prices are mixed. People will post them in response to their rarity, but with low demand, those prices will often go down. So if you do decide to collect them or complete your collection, be patient and you should be able to get the cards you need.
As I mentioned, they made a total of 48 cards. Each of them references a TV show that ran or was syndicated in the seventies. Can you figure out what shows they correspond to? Any favorites or ones you can’t figure out?
The Walnuts
The Rock Files
Captain Klunkeroo
Smell The Truth
The Cod Couple
Roper Room
The Flying Bun
Welcome Back Critters
Mush
Barnaby Bones
Laff-Out
Hoppy Days
What’s Not Happening
Charlie’s Angles
The Price Is Wrong
Let’s Make A Meal
Shove Boat
New Super Fiends
Tar Trek
The Hatch Game
The Flintrocks
Thunder Dog
Hoagy’s Heros
Brawl In The Family
The Tardy Boys
Starchy And Hush
American Handstand
Candied Camera
Bad Times
Operation Overcoat
Snitch
Greasy Addams
One Way At A Time
She Haw
Hollywood Scares
Barney Chiller
Little Mouse On The Prairie
The Arfies
The Souper Bowl
Flea’s Company
The Bratty Bunch
Blunder Woman
The Six Million Dollar Mess
Eight Is Too Much
Wild World Of Shorts
Mild Kingdom
No Soap
Bestiched
Hostess Wacky TV Show Cards were a very limited release on a product that wasn’t available in every market in the United States. If you were lucky enough to get a few, they have probably been stuck in your memory. Whenever I see the more famous Wacky Packages, I can’t help but think of them, and as a TV fan, wish they had been more broadly available. The scarcity of these cards only adds to their intrigue, making them a rare and sought-after collectible for enthusiasts of vintage memorabilia and seventies pop culture.
I would have loved to see "Blunder Woman" and "Thunder Dog" in action as real shows...
I would totally watch any of these shows. There was a MUSH cartoon in fact, but someone totally dropped the ball on Little Mouse on the Prairie. It was right there, people! It could have been so mediocre!
I can only imagine the Hatch Game.
Gene Rooster: "Dumb Dora was sooooo dumb..."
Everyone: "HOW DUMB WAS SHE?"
Gene Rooster: "Instead of an egg, she tried to hatch her BLANK"
Brett Gizzard: "Let me brood on that."
Charles Nelson Broiler: "Let me pullet an answer from somewhere. Hur-hur-hur!"
OK, It's not MAD magazine worthy. But I could've got a job at Dynamite, easy.