Tato Skins were always a go-to snack and first choice if seen in a vending machine for me. I still enjoy the Friday's version too when I see them available, and agree, they aren't quite the same.
We've had an unseasonably warm winter in Seattle, prompting an unseasonable bike ride out to Alki Beach on Sunday. While my wife and I were walking the beach strip, I confessed to her, for the first time to anyone, that I have this jingle that comes up from time to time and gets stuck in my head.
I sang my best recollection of it, which was "Something something onion, sour cream and chives, crispy baked potato..." and that a kid's voice then chimed in with "and they finally have barbecue flavor!"
We mused about what product this could have been. Clearly some kind of potato-based snack but it didn't make sense to me that a typical potato chip would have "finally" added barbecue flavor so late in the game. My wife asked what year it would have been and I estimated that it couldn't have been any later than 1989 that a chip manufacturer would have figured out barbecue flavor. It surely wasn't Lays and any competitor would have been on top of that well before.
In a moment of either brilliant intuition or stored, forgotten memory, my wife asked "Were they potato skins, maybe?" I thought this might make some sense.
"What were those called?" I asked. "Tater Skins?" She thought that seemed about right.
So I did a search for "Tater Skins flavor varieties" hoping to find something that matched my memory of the jingle lyrics. This post came up within the first few search results.
All of my lingering questions are answered here. I was pretty damn close on the lyrics and I'm particularly proud of my estimate that the barbecue flavor must have arrived by '89, one year after it did. My wife is applauding herself for coming up with potato skins.
Best of all, you posted the commercial with the original jingle that has both haunted and delighted me this many years. My wife, four years younger, believes she ate "Tato Skins" in her childhood. I'm pretty sure I did not but that puts me at about 60/40% likelihood that I did not vs did.
Tremendous! Thanks for sharing this story and glad you could find an answer. Only thing better for me is if I had been walking by at Alki at the time and could have heard you singing the jingle. I would not have been able to resist joining in.
Wow, I loved these as a kid and was kinda sad when they apparently disappeared. I had NO IDEA they were rebranded and in fact still exist to this day!
Tato Skins were always a go-to snack and first choice if seen in a vending machine for me. I still enjoy the Friday's version too when I see them available, and agree, they aren't quite the same.
The TGI version definitely tastes different/inferior to me than what I had as a kid, but given how taste buds change with age it's hard to truly know.
Today I learned they were rebranded as a TGI Fridays snack (TIL TGIF). And that they weren't really made of potato skins. I feel nostalgic and naïve.
Thanks for this look into a world I knew nothing about.
We've had an unseasonably warm winter in Seattle, prompting an unseasonable bike ride out to Alki Beach on Sunday. While my wife and I were walking the beach strip, I confessed to her, for the first time to anyone, that I have this jingle that comes up from time to time and gets stuck in my head.
I sang my best recollection of it, which was "Something something onion, sour cream and chives, crispy baked potato..." and that a kid's voice then chimed in with "and they finally have barbecue flavor!"
We mused about what product this could have been. Clearly some kind of potato-based snack but it didn't make sense to me that a typical potato chip would have "finally" added barbecue flavor so late in the game. My wife asked what year it would have been and I estimated that it couldn't have been any later than 1989 that a chip manufacturer would have figured out barbecue flavor. It surely wasn't Lays and any competitor would have been on top of that well before.
In a moment of either brilliant intuition or stored, forgotten memory, my wife asked "Were they potato skins, maybe?" I thought this might make some sense.
"What were those called?" I asked. "Tater Skins?" She thought that seemed about right.
So I did a search for "Tater Skins flavor varieties" hoping to find something that matched my memory of the jingle lyrics. This post came up within the first few search results.
All of my lingering questions are answered here. I was pretty damn close on the lyrics and I'm particularly proud of my estimate that the barbecue flavor must have arrived by '89, one year after it did. My wife is applauding herself for coming up with potato skins.
Best of all, you posted the commercial with the original jingle that has both haunted and delighted me this many years. My wife, four years younger, believes she ate "Tato Skins" in her childhood. I'm pretty sure I did not but that puts me at about 60/40% likelihood that I did not vs did.
Maybe I can "finally" have some peace.
Tremendous! Thanks for sharing this story and glad you could find an answer. Only thing better for me is if I had been walking by at Alki at the time and could have heard you singing the jingle. I would not have been able to resist joining in.
TIL about Tato Skins and that I've tried them under the rebrand! Very interesting