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The Bootleg Files: The Farmer Brown PSAs

BOOTLEG FILES 821: “The Farmer Brown PSAs” (a series of late-1970s public service announcements produced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture).

LAST SEEN: On YouTube.

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: None.

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS:
Old PSAs that have been out of release for decades.

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Not on their own, but maybe in an anthology collection.

During the late 1970s, there was a growing level of concern among pediatricians, nutritionists and parents’ groups regarding the diet of the average American youth – that generation was raised amid a proliferation of fast-food eateries and an endless bombardment of advertisements for low-nutrition food and beverages, and the threat to the well-being of the nation’s young people was considered to be significant.

Even the federal government was alarmed and, incredibly, it was decided that some action was needed to encourage youngsters to become more cognizant of the value of good nutrition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) took the lead in creating a series of public service announcements (PSAs) that advocated for healthy eating – these offerings would be produced with young viewers in mind and sent out to television stations around the country for placement in their children’s programming schedules.

The resulting endeavor consisted of four PSAs, each focused on a specific food group – carbohydrates, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, and proteins. From a marketing perspective, one might have imagined that the USDA would have licensed a beloved cartoon character or hired an actor popular with the youth audience to star in these PSAs. Instead, the PSAs featured a Muppet-style cast of new characters consisting of one human and four talking animals.

Farmer Brown was a cheerful-looking guy who wore a plaid shirt and a blue baseball cap. We knew he was a farmer because he had a cornfield behind him on one side and a red barn opposite him on the other. He stood behind a table that was overflowing with food, and he strummed a small instrument – sort of a mix between a mandolin and a banjo – and sang a jaunty ditty while shaking his head side to side.

“On the farm we grow the food that’s everything we need to eat,” he sang. “It’s a fruit-a-veg-a-bread-a-milk-a-cheese-a-bean-a-meat.”

Farmer Brown would then introduce himself, the foods he was highlighting, and the talking animals that helped him highlight the goodies on the table. Harry Hound, a talking sheepdog, was the spokesman (spokesanimal?) for the protein foods, while Molly Cow was responsible for dairy products, Harry Horse focused on carbohydrates and Gussie Goose handled fruits and vegetables.

Working within the too-tight 30-second confines of the PSA, Farmer Brown and each animal would offer the scantest of information of the most notable items within each food group. But as soon as this information was relayed, Farmer Brown grabbed his instrument and started to sing, “For variety and vitamins and feeling rooty-toot, eat a veg-a-bread-a-milk-a-cheese-a-bean-a-meat-a-fruit.” He would then suffix the tune by declaring, “Eat a variety every day” – which would be followed by a cute bit of shtick by the animal co-star.

There were positives and negatives to the Farmer Brown campaign. The most obvious positive was that the puppetry was enchanting. I have not been able to ascertain who was responsible for creating and voicing the characters – they look like early Jim Henson characters and Harry Hound sounds a lot like the Muppet Rowlf voiced by Henson, but there is no evidence that Henson was involved in these PSAs. But whoever was responsible deserves mountains of praise for creating cute and charming characters that each had a distinctive personality trait, such as Harry Hound declaring with canine fidelity “I love you, Farmer Brown” at the end of his spot or Harry Horse dancing during his PSA (you don’t see the hoof-dance, but you can hear the horseshoes tapping on the ground).

But on the flip side, the PSAs were much too fleeting to get their points across. Each spot barely skimmed the surface on the nutritional value of each food group, and Farmer Brown’s fleeting insistence to eat certain foods “to help you grow” lacked the devious effectiveness of the era’s junk food advertising.

Nonetheless, the Farmer Brown PSAs turned up on television stations starting around 1978 and were still being used into the 1980s. From my experience, I can recall seeing these PSAs on WPIX-TV in New York City during the programming sections set aside for kiddie-oriented shows. And I was not the only one who recalled these – three of the four PSAs have turned up on YouTube in VHS video recordings of that era (poor Gussie Goose is MIA in terms of online video representation).

Since the PSAs were made for the federal government, I would assume they are public domain. However, the original materials are not readily available, so including the full four-PSA series in a properly restored presentation is unlikely at this point. Mercifully, those of us of a certain age who took Farmer Brown’s message to heart have matured into a point of life where we are feeling rooty-toot thanks to a proper diet of a veg-a-bread-a-milk-a-cheese-a-bean-a-meat-a-fruit.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.

Listen to Phil Hall’s award-winning podcast “The Online Movie Show with Phil Hall” on SoundCloud (with new episodes starting in January) and his radio show “Nutmeg Chatter” on WAPJ-FM in Torrington, Connecticut, every Sunday. His new book “100 Years of Wall Street Crooks” is now in release through Bicep Books.