Catch The Best (and Worst) Infomercials With Satellite Tv

It can be difficult to fill all twenty-four hours of a cable programming day with high quality, original programming. Thus, many cable networks air full-length paid advertisements, known as infomercials in the wee hours of the morning when it is actually more profitable to just sell this airtime rather than produce a program. In the decades since the dawn of the infomercial, there have been a number of memorableand daresay classicinfomercials, many of which you can still catch in the wee hours on satellite TV.

The origin of the infomercial, lies in variety and other shows which proliferated in the 1940s and 1950s, insofar as they were sponsored by big-name companies, i.e. General Electric Theater. These programs were, essentially, full-length ads for their products with a little song-and-dance thrown in. Modern infomercials really emerged in the 1990s after the Federal Communications Commission in the U.S. relaxed television advertising regulations. For many people, the first modern infomercials hawked the products of inventor Ron Popeil. Although Popeil had been active since the 1950s, he became known to a whole new generation through selling his inventive, if somewhat quirky products. For example, Popeil's Electric Food Dehydrator, used to make beef jerky, dried apricots, and so forth, introduced a kitchen appliance which many people did not even know existed. Popeil is perhaps best known nowadays for his Great Looking Hair product, which aimed to cover bald spots by effectively spray-painting people's heads with a clingy powder.

Another holdover from the golden age of television who went on to sell products via infomercials was Jack LaLanne. LaLanne, who recently passed away at the ripe old age of 93, was one of the first prominent Americans to introduce the country to exercise and a healthy lifestyle. It was fitting, then, that LaLanne recorded several infomercials to sell a juicer that bore his name. However, LaLanne's relatively understated style was outmatched by Juicy Jay Kordich, who enthusiastically sold his own juicer by explaining that undiluted juiced parsley would get you high although it would put you on the toilet for about seven days. You should certainly be able to catch one or the other of these classic infomercials on satellite TV somewhere.

Although hair in a can is difficult to top, infomercials have found a way, with arguably the worst infomercials on television having to do with colon cleansing. One proponent of colon cleansing has claimed that John Wayne died with forty pounds of impacted fecal matter in his colon, and Elvis with sixty, due to their unhealthy lifestyles. Colon cleansing proponents have also claimed that the average colon is full of worms and other parasites. It's unclear why there has been so much concern over violence on television during the last few years, when all it takes is a few late-night infomercials on satellite TV to do major violence to our intelligence.