A Commercial a Day – Day 14: 1970’s Burger King

This is what I live for. This Burger King commercial from the 70’s features skaters Dan Murray and Robbie Weir. Here’s a few of the highlights: 360’s with a serving tray! The King is live action this time, no plastic mask like the current commercials feature. He rides what looks like a Duane Peters deck, as well as an early contender for the World’s Largest Skateboard. They either switch stunt doubles or reverse the shot to get frontside airs in both directions. The sound track is… so bitchin! Here’s a quote “… and burgers made just right. Afternoon delight. Out of sight!” A complete transcription and more after the jump. Now I can retire. Update: The Burger King kid speaks!

1970’s Burger King Commercial featuring skateboarding.

First, watch this glorious piece of history. The video appears to be captured from an ancient VHS tape that was not de-interlaced, so picture quality isn’t the greatest, but it’s still the best.

Now everyone, sing along with me:

Skateboardin’
Skateboardin’

Moving fast, keeping low
Skateboardin’
Round the turn and off you go
Skateboardin’

Racing with the wind,
Making magic as you go

It’s you and Burger King
Working up an appetite
For frosty shakes and crispy fries
And burgers made jut right!
Afternon delight! Outta sight!

Skater’s speed at every pass
One last spin, you’re here at last.
It’s always something special
When you’re with Burger King

Now watch it over and over again.

What park is that, Kona? The King looks freaky with that huge beard. I can vaguely remember seeing commercials with the live action King ages ago. It’s funny that they’ve resurrected him for camp purposes. The giant skateboard at the end looks like it could have been the world’s largest until Swank made it official. That is, as long as the steering mechanism actually functions normally and isn’t some radio controlled electronically enhanced bs that some are trying to pass off.

We can only hope that somewhere out there we will find a commercial whith Ronald McDonald on a skateboard so we can have a commercial joust. No, you be there!

Oh yeah, in case you are keeping track, this is the last “Commercial a Day.” I’ve got more in the archives, I’m just kind of burnt out on it right now. Two weeks solid isn’t to shabby though.

I got in touch with the guy who posted this video, none other than Robbie Weir. He has a web site devoted to publicizing a book he wrote with Willie Miller called Miami Inverted. It’s for sale, but you can also actually download the whole book at the site. It looks like they aren’t concerned about making money, they just want to spread the stoke. There’s a short section on the Burger King commercial, excerpted below.

The summer before I went to high school in 1980, things started to happen for me. One day, at the Runway skate park, some producers wearing suits and ties showed up. They were looking for skaters to participate in a Burger King commercial. They watched us skate the injury prone pools that very few were able to ride.

They took a few pictures and asked for my phone number. A few days later, they called and asked if I wanted to do a national Burger King commercial. At that time I didn’t realize what a big deal it was. I was one of only four riders who had been contacted and offered to do this. The other three were from Ft. Lauderdale’s Solid Surf. Dan Murray, one of those three, was used as the stunt double for the magical Burger King. In the commercial, he did a frontside air and I did a backside air. Another version showed me doing a layback air, a trick that I became somewhat famous for because of this commercial. Our first location where we started to shoot was at a nearby Burger King. The call time was 6 am, and when we arrived they treated us like movie stars. They even gave us our own motorhomes. This was our first taste at stardom, and we were loving the attention. We began to shoot in front of the restaurant as all of us rode behind the magical Burger King. When we made it to the front, the magical Burger King snapped his fingers and we all ended up on one big board with BK bags in our hands. As I remember, this scene must have been shot at least 25 times. On one of those shots, a member of the crew had accidentally left a sandbag in our path causing all of us to fall on top of the magical King. I guess he wasn’t so magical after all, especially when from out of the crowd someone had yelled, “now that’s a trick”.

The whole set fell down laughing, except of course, the magic man himself. He didn’t find it that funny, especially after he had to be replaced by Dan Murray for the rest of the takes. After the shot was finally finished, we broke for lunch. They had a catered lunch set up, because the BK had to be shut down for the filming, but none of us wanted what was offered. So, I along with my buddies, decided to go across the street and have lunch at the McDonalds that was open. While we were standing in line waiting to give our order, the producers walked in and pulled us out. They were mad as hell, but in retrospect, it would have made a great commercial for McDonalds. After lunch, we moved to the Runway skate park. The pool had been painted in bright rainbow colors and looked really cool. While Dan and I were warming up, the crew was setting up.

They had one camera mounted on a crane above the pool. Dan did frontside airs and I did my backside and layback airs. The layback was the one they ended up using. This was a trick that had been invented by a Florida skater named Kelly Lynn. He always made it look so easy. Every time I skated someone would ask me to do it, and soon my nickname became the “Burger King Kid”. The commercial became my biggest break.