While this doesn’t go “Way Back,” we here at Seen On TV Express would be remiss if we failed to acknowledge the first anniversary of the death of Billy Mays, one of the leading pitchmen for infomercials and as seen on TV products.  Monday, June 28, 2010, marked one year since the passing of arguably the best television pitchman of this generation.

Billy Mays is perhaps best known for promoting Orange Glo International’s line of cleaning products, which includes Orange Glo, OxiClean, and Kaboom!  After he began selling their products, Orange Glo International saw a marked increase in sales, despite his loud, abrasive technique (which led one Chicago Tribune writer to proclaim the anniversary of his death “ALL CAPS DAY”).  Because of his success, Mays became highly requested as a pitchman for as seen on TV products such as Mighty Putty.  He was so successful that he became founder and CEO of Mays Promotions, Inc.

At the time of his death, Billy Mays was starring with his colleague Andy Sullivan in the Discovery Channel series PitchMen, which chronicled their efforts at direct-response marketing.  Originally titled But Wait . . . There’s More, the series aired a special tribute to Billy Mays after his death.  The series was renewed for a second season with Billy Mays III stepping in for his famous father.

Mays was found dead in his home on June 28, 2009, at the age of 51.  Early speculation tied his sudden death to a head injury Mays suffered during a flight, but the autopsy results concluded his cause of death to be hypertensive heart disease.  Although the initial autopsy found evidence of cocaine in his system, a subsequent autopsy ruled that cocaine was “not a significant contributing factor” in his death.  The release of the toxicology report disappointed Mays’ family and friends.  According to his longtime friend AJ Khubani, CEO of Telebrands,  Mays was “the model of a responsible citizen.”  Pallbearers at his funeral wore khaki pants and blue shirts to mimic the “uniform” Mays was known for wearing during his infomercial sales pitches.

Despite the controversy surrounding his death, Billy Mays will always be remembered for his boisterous personality and energetic sales technique as one of the greatest television pitchmen of our time.

With an impending trip to the lake this weekend, it has just hit me that I will be forced to wear a bathing suit–in public–in less than a week.  Of course, this just sets my mind to wondering exactly how many calories I can burn in the next two days.  I think I may have to resort to forcing my fellow vacationers to wear blindfolds.

In the meantime, all of the trauma brought on by the prospect of wearing a small piece of spandex to cover my not-so-small body has made me begin to ponder the evolution of the workout video.   From Jane Fonda first bringing aerobics to your living room and  Richard Simmons being your personal cheerleader as you sweated to the oldies, we’ve come farther than you can stretch a day-glo leotard.

Just take a look at this Jazzercise video from the 80′s.  While not exclusively an as seen on TV, it does have all the crucial elements of an 80′s infomercial workout video:  the big hair, the wedgie-inducing leotards, the bad music, and the really awful moves:

I think I got an ab workout just from laughing so hard.

Of course, now we have things like P90x and Insanity. Check out the difference in the workouts (and in the bodies performing them!):

While I know that nothing is going to get this body ready for the lake by the end of the week, I have no doubt that Tony Horton and Shaun T could have me ready to rock the boat by the end of the summer.

No leotard required.

Last week we talked about how old As Seen on TV products, such as the Thighmaster, have provided the foundation for today’s modernized, highly-effective products.  Some of the products of yesteryear have become obsolete as technology has evolved.  Others just didn’t stand the test of time.

The products aren’t the only things that have had to change to keep up with the times; the infomercials themselves have had to improve in production quality and acting talent.  Marketing strategies have changed dramatically in the last several years.  To see how far As Seen on TV marketing has come, just watch some old infomercials–it can be quite entertaining!

Our focus for this week’s Way Back Wednesday combines both elements that can send a good product to the infomercial graveyard–an out-of-date product and a commercial with poor acting.

This post begins our Way Back Wednesday series, in which we look back at former seen on TV products and infomercials—the good, the bad, the ugly . . . and the downright strange.  From Thighmaster to FlowBee, we’ll look at the products that made us wonder, “What were they thinking?” and we’ll note how far we’ve come.  We’ll wax nostalgic over the commercials that made us laugh and the personalities who brought them into our homes.

We begin our journey down memory lane with one of the iconic fitness products of seen on TV marketing:  the Thighmaster.  Plugged in the early 90’s by Three’s Company actress Suzanne Somers, the Thighmaster promised, “We may not have been born with great legs, but now we can look like we were.”

See the 1991 Thighmaster commercial here:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkxFWVGqUCg

As one watches the commercial, one can’t help but wonder just how shapely surgeon Herbert L. Gould’s thighs must be—after all, he recommends it, and he uses it.

The Thighmaster boasted that it could be used not only for sleek thighs, but also for working the chest and arms.  While the commercial shows the limited practical use of the Thighmaster by current standards, we can look at some of today’s more popular and effective fitness products and see their roots in the Thighmaster.  The UltraFlex, Iso7x, and FlexShaper all take the Thighmaster’s good qualities and expand on them.  Like the Thighmaster, they are lightweight, portable, and easy to use.  They use flexible resistance as a way to tone muscles and burn fat and calories.  However, the UltraFlex, Iso7x, and FlexShaper reflect the evolution of the Thighmaster in their increased range of motion, two-way push/pull resistance, and greater number of available exercises per product.

While the Thighmaster may “feel the burn” of becoming obsolete, Suzanne Somers can take pride in launching a product that gave birth to some of the most effective exercise equipment available today.