ROB: The eighties were a decade that seriously hustled.
We were told greed was good,
and that insatiable desire to consume
is the theme of this show.
NARRATOR: We are what we eat, and in the eighties, we liked it fast.
DMC: There was this fast food explosion.
KEVIN: 30 minutes or your pizza's free.
NARRATOR: They were the guilty pleasures that defined a decade.
LONI: You don't know what the hell was inside of it.
But if you cooked it right, you had glory.
JON: It's cheap and it's fast and it's delicious.
ADAM: The notion of moderation is absurd.
NARRATOR: Brands battled to unlock the cravings of a decade on the move.
DEE: The Happy Meal in itself was like crackerjacks to the next level.
JASON: Could be the best tasting lettuce and tomato hamburger, ever.
MEAT: I don't know what they did, but it was really good.
NARRATOR: 10 guilty pleasures, 10 fantastic fast foods.
But which one will rise to the very top of our menu?
ROB: Now, let's get the party started by pigging out on our number 10.
ADAM: In the 1980s, you had neon,
you had perms and Jheri curls.
NARRATOR: In the decade of outrageous clothes, and big hair
even the humble French fry gets an eighties makeover.
The fast food industry revolved around the way we lived,
and in the eighties, it gave way to the curly fry.
ADAM: The curly fry had this kind of zany-ness to it
that really spoke to the time.
ADAM: It was visually really cool.
NARRATOR: By the mid-eighties, America's love affair
with French fries has taken a dive,
when sales slump after years of rapid growth.
To win consumers back, French fry makers start experimenting
with different styles.
DMC: Hip hop took rock and funk and created this gumbo.
Curly fries took the idea of what a French fry's
supposed to be, and mixed it, you know what I'm saying,
like a DJ would, into something else.
NARRATOR: On menus since the forties,
curly fries were too labor intensive to be called fast food.
MALE: This is what they call a French curl.
Unwind it and there's two curls on the one potato.
NARRATOR: But in the eighties, the process gets industrialized.
Now potatoes are blasted down a shoot at 60 miles per hour into waiting blades.
CLAUDIA: My favourite part about curly fries of course
is all of these crispy edges throughout, so you get,
you know, the flavor of a steak fry with, you know,
a delicious crispy fry.
MALE: (Singing) You and I love roast beef at Arby's.
Tender and juicy.
NARRATOR: Arby's had become famous for roast beef sandwiches,
and only roast beef sandwiches.
Now, they're eager to expand their sales horizon.
So, in 1988,
they introduce a fry variation with its own culinary twist.
FEMALE: Spicy new twister fries, Arby's curly fries.
NARRATOR: This unique spicy seasoning is called Cajun style,
capitalizing on the growing trend for southwestern foods with bolder flavors.
PAUL: Our food has wonderful flavors,
and it has depth and it has emotion,
and it just makes you, you know, want to get fat.
NARRATOR: Arby's curly fries are a hit.
Sales in the US jump by 17 percent.
ANNE: Not always was I in the mood for a roast beef sandwich,
but I was always in the mood for fries.
ADAM: My memories of them are wrapping French fries
around your finger and becoming these
little like carbohydrate laden springs of joy.
NARRATOR: Arby's curly fries tap into the cultural zeitgeist
as our number 10.
Their popularity spirals for generations,
and they're still on menus today.
DMC: Curly fries was like hip hop, people thought it
was going to die like disco, but it stood the test of time.
ROB: How do we rank 10 tasty items, like curly fries?
Well, we recruited eight brilliant brains to rank our
fast foods by grilling them on two factors.
Eighties wow, their importance at the time,
and impact.
How we digest their legacy today.
ROB: It's time for our number nine.
One of the truly genius parts of American fast food technology
is taking something ordinary and creating a unique way of cooking it,
and then finally coming up with a catchy name.
Edging in at order number nine, a crunchy case in point.
ALVIN: Americans in particular like fast food
because of the automobile culture.
ADAM: In the 1980s you had people in their cars longer than ever before,
and more people were driving, and that meant
you had less time at home to cook,
and it meant you needed food that you could grab quickly and cheaply on the go.
ADAM: Cup holders are becoming standard in cars.
And that spoke to what was happening with food.
LONI: I mean, who came up with the genius idea
of waiting in our cars to receive our food,
and then eating it in the car?
That was genius.
That started it all off.
SANDERS: Howdy do.
NARRATOR: Chicken king Colonel Sanders built his business on the road.
Often sleeping overnight in his car to deliver his sales pitch
of 11 secret spices and herbs.
But in December of 1980, the colonel reaches the end of the highway.
ANCHOR: Colonel Sanders is dead.
The old chieftain of the Kentucky Fried Chicken empire
died in Louisville, Kentucky, in a hospital, aged 90.
NARRATOR: The colonel leaves behind a global legacy
with annual sales of two billion dollars.
Meanwhile, the nation is going crazy for chicken,
and other fast food chains are catching on.
MALE: Wendy's chicken sandwich.
WORKERS: (Singing) Come and get it.
MALE: Roast chicken club.
FEMALE: The Burger King chicken sandwich.
NARRATOR: To keep in the fast lane, KFC must rev into gear,
and they hatch a surprising plan.
They create a sandwich called the Chicken Little,
engineered to be consumed behind the wheel,
and a whole new consumer highway opens up.
ANNE: You could get KFC in your hand, while you were in the car driving.
ADAM: You could still steer while eating a Chicken Little,
as opposed to trying to make your way with a Whopper.
NARRATOR: It's perfect for the convenience
obsessed car culture of the eighties.
But it also bucks the trend in a decade known for going big.
DMC: The eighties was all about being seen.
Most people thought, yo it's got to be big to be seen.
They were smart, no, let's go small and everybody will notice us.
NARRATOR: At only 39 cents each, they're a big hit with customers,
and initially boost sales by 10 percent.
CLAUDIA: Chicken Littles are a perfect, perfect, perfect, perfect snack.
NARRATOR: But low price means low profit, and KFC realises
it can make more money by staying focused on its chicken buckets.
So, despite being a popular menu item,
in the early nineties, Chicken Littles get parked.
MALE: (Singing) Kentucky Fried Chicken, we do chicken right.
NARRATOR: Gone but not forgotten, in 2012,
fans campaigned to bring them back, and Chicken Littles ride again.
MALE: Little is the new big. New KFC Chicken Littles.
NARRATOR: And they remain on menus to this day.
Chicken Littles fight the trend of the bigger means better eighties,
and drive in at number nine.
But we're about to go bigger. Way bigger.
ROB: Now I'm a fan of man-sized portions
but that kind of went out of control with our number eight.
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
NARRATOR: Audrey Griswold wasn't the only one to be dreaming
of a never-ending feast in the eighties.
ADAM: Go big or go home is an American expression.
ADAM: The notion of moderation is absurd.
ALVIN: America is about the bountiful harvest.
That's why we celebrate Thanksgiving.
Plates of food and vegetables, huge turkeys,
this is a part of American culture.
NARRATOR: The all American all you can eat buffet
is actually a Swedish import.
The smorgasbord came Stateside at the 1939 World Fair,
and the buffet soon finds a spiritual home under Las Vegas neon.
ANNE: I guess it's a trait of being an American, you know,
that we just want more, everything in excess.
NARRATOR: By the eighties, the conspicuous over-consumption
that made Vegas, well, Vegas, has hijacked the entire decade.
Burger joint Wendy's wants to get in on the action.
FEMALE: (Singing) You'll find our salad bar deliciously complete.
12 garden fresh ingredients, yeah, all you can eat.
NARRATOR: Wendy's salad bar has been around since the late seventies.
DAVE: My daughter Wendy says, Dad,
people are eating more salads today.
NARRATOR: But in the decade of excess, they decide to roll the proverbial dice
and double down, way down.
DAVE: That's a heck of a good idea.
NARRATOR: Wendy's decides to raise the bar.
MALE: You've seen biker bars and
piano bars, handlebars, even Zanzibars,
but you've never seen nothing like Wendy's Superbar.
ADAM: The Superbar by Wendy's was a collection
of some of the strangest things you'd ever imagine.
MALE: In the mood for fettucine Alfredo or Rotini with meat sauce?
Maybe some Spanish rice, re-fried beans and tortillas?
ADAM: I'm not really sure how any of those foods go together.
NARRATOR: The ability to create your own meal
was perfect for a decade that lived large
and taught us to ask for exactly what we wanted.
MEG: I'd like the chef's salad please with the oil and vinegar on the side
and the apple pie a la mode.
JEN: That idea of I want it the way I want it really
emerged in the eighties, to the point where at the end of the decade,
that was when When Harry Met Sally came out,
and Sally said I want it on the side.
MEG: But I'd like the pie heated, and I don't want the ice cream on top,
I want it on the side, and I'd like strawberry
instead of vanilla, if you have it.
If not, then no ice cream, just whipped cream, but only if it's real.
- If it's out of a can, then nothing. - WAITRESS: Not even the pie?
JEN: Everybody called her high maintenance, but guess what?
We were all starting to do that.
NARRATOR: The Superbar offered us the choice we craved,
and all we could eat for a mere $3.49.
So, in the decade of excess, what could possibly go wrong?
NARRATOR: The Wendy's Superbar hits our number eight
because it offered us all the choice we craved,
and all we could eat for just $3.49.
MALE: Wendy's Superbar features three distinct all you can eat bars.
Pasta, Mexican, and an extensive salad bar that even includes dessert.
Very tasty, it's excellent. I'll be back.
What about the price?
FEMALE: Fantastic. You can't beat it.
NARRATOR: But it's a victim of its own success.
The unlimited seconds policy, and the cost of keeping
this vast feast of food fully stocked,
costs Wendy's more money than it makes.
ADAM: It's hard to not want to try everything.
Especially when the buffet set up is geared
for you to try everything.
NARRATOR: Tragically for salad gluttons, in 1998,
the Superbar closes down its sneeze guard forever.
ROB: Wendy's learned the concept of all you can eat can occasionally bite back,
but the eighties fast food wars raged on.
One of their competitors came up with another brilliant idea,
which is our coveted number seven, and that idea is simply,
if you can't beat them, out-price them.
NARRATOR: Between 1980 and 1990 the number of people
migrating from Mexico into the US doubles.
And over the decade, Mexico's influence
starts to be felt across US culture.
(music)
EDUARDO: Mexican people have always been in the United States.
Our food, it was so good that people wanted it everywhere they went.
People love it.
Somebody saw that and saw this is an amazing cuisine.
How do I take this and give it to everyone?
NARRATOR: Founded by American entrepreneur Glen Bell,
Taco Bell, get it, Bell, takes the quintessential
street food snack from south of the border,
and transforms it for mainstream US tastes.
MEAT: I eat at Taco Bell whenever I can.
I think their tacos are incredible.
TIFFANI: It was like hands down my favourite.
EDUARDO: It was never something I thought of as Mexican food.
- It was its own thing. - CLAUDIA: Are they authentic Mexican?
We know they're not.
But at the end of the day, everybody loves tacos,
and Taco Bell was really at the helm of that.
NARRATOR: As the eighties roll in,
Taco Bell has become a familiar part of American life.
But in 1988, due to an ever-expanding
fast-food market, their sales have nose-dived.
Needing to reinvent their image, they introduce a maverick plan.
MALE: You'll love our 59-cent value menu,
guaranteed or your money back.
NARRATOR: In 1989, Taco Bell drops the price of six popular items,
and launches its famous value meal.
TIFFANI: We used to get the value meal and we'd go to the beach
and we'd sit all day, wearing no sunscreen.
ALVIN: The value meal is about speed, low cost, and convenience.
You looked at the cost of buying the vegetables in the supermarket,
the cost of cooking it at home, what was cheaper?
Fast food. Which was quicker? Fast food.
NARRATOR: The value meal pays off big.
Taco Bells gobbles 70 percent of the Mexican fast food market,
and their profits jump by 25 percent.
It's a call to arms, and their competitors
soon add their own value menus,
starting a price cutting war that continues to this day.
ALVIN: You saw as every other fast food chain got on that bandwagon.
The value meals are very characteristic of the 1980s,
and Taco Bell's was at the essence of it.
TIFFANI: Taco Bell changed the way some families
were able to feed their families.
There were times that my dad was working two jobs.
That fast food every now and then was life-saving,
for time but also for money.
NARRATOR: So, let's take a look at our ranking menu.
Arby's curly fries spirals at number 10.
Sliding in at number nine, it's the Chicken Little.
Wendy's Superbar is our number eight.
And Taco Bell has cornered the number seven.
But what hot little number will pop in at number six?
LONI: You don't know what the hell was inside of it,
but if you cooked it right, you had glory.
ROB: Our number six is living proof of a memorable line from Hamilton,
and that is that immigrants get the job done.
Let's meet two guys from Iran, who definitely got the job done.
Ow.
NARRATOR: Having immigrated to the US in the 1960s, in 1977,
brothers Paul and David Merage found Chef America.
Their start-up becomes a big success, selling frozen foods.
But by the early eighties, the brothers are looking for the next big thing,
and soon they spot two emerging trends.
TIFFANI: The microwave.
The fact that you could make a meal in two minutes was huge.
NARRATOR: In the eighties, the microwave was the fastest growing
kitchen appliance sold in the United States.
By 1986, more than 60 percent of homes have one
and there's a good reason for that.
MALE: Nearly half the American labor force is now female,
the result of changes in attitudes, politics and laws.
NARRATOR: And many of those working women are also mothers.
SETH: If you had a family with a working mother,
the microwave was absolutely your best friend.
A kid could come home from school,
make himself dinner in like two minutes
without any chance of burning down the house.
NARRATOR: In the eighties, latchkey kids,
unsupervised minors who'd come home to an empty house,
become a phenomenon.
FEMALE: So, these kids are spending part of their camp day learning
how to be secure latchkey children.
ADAM: I was a latchkey kid and my mom, you know,
was just amazing and worked many, many jobs
so that we could get by, and very often I would get home before she would.
NARRATOR: The Merage brothers realized that if they can create a snack
easy enough for kids to microwave on their own, they'd have a winner.
But that's not as simple as it sounds.
SHAWN: Early microwaves never heated things evenly,
so you had to constantly come up with creative solutions.
JAMES: And I think a lot of people learned pretty fast
that microwaves are good at certain things,
not very good at other things.
NARRATOR: But with so much to gain,
the brothers decide they need to go for broke.
They spend years developing a way to make microwave food crispy.
FEMALE: (Singing) Hot Pockets, hot.
When you want a hot meal, without a big deal.
Hot Pockets.
NARRATOR: The key to their success is a magic
metalized inner sleeve now as a susceptor,
that brilliant mimics the effects of home baking,
keeping the insider piping hot, and the outside brown and crispy.
ADAM: You put them in that little magic sleeve and nuked it.
CLAUDIA: I mean, that was just so innovative.
It gave you the opportunity to toast inside of a microwave.
NARRATOR: This cutting-edge technology helps create
an easy snack that speaks to the cravings
of the latchkey kid generation.
Who needs Mom when you can instantly crisp up one of these babies?
- WOMAN: Ham and cheese. - GIRL: Pizza please.
- BOY: Barbecue. - MAN: It's for you.
JEN: If you're a kid who was like a latchkey kid,
came home from school,
you know at least how to heat up a Hot Pocket.
CLAUDIA: They were a staple for all of us.
Pick up a hot pocket, put it in the microwave, and you're done.
NARRATOR: The Merage brothers' ingenuity and persistence
means this tasty snack transforms mealtimes,
and earns an enduring cult status.
REGINALD: I will confess this about Hot Pockets.
I had a Hot Pocket about two years ago, and they still good.
ROB: Try the Hot Pockets, they're breathtaking.
Five down. Five to go.
We've covered some of the main food groups,
from Chicken Little to the unlimited buffet,
but one genius brand told us that the point of fast food,
was to lose all of the weight that we'd been gaining.
Our number five.
CLAUDIA: Americans love to eat.
I mean, we are the supersize culture.
But then of course, what happens when we supersize everything?
We realise that our waistline also supersizes.
NARRATOR: In 1980, the US government publishes
its first set of dietary guidelines,
noting the connection between diet and heart disease.
FEMALE: From fried chicken to hot dogs to ice cream,
American diets are soaked in fat.
NARRATOR: And by the mid-eighties, dieting
has become a $10 billion business.
MALE: The champagne diet.
FEMALE: The great American sandwich diet.
MALE: The grapefruit 45 fat burner plan just may be
the most successful weight loss program ever.
NARRATOR: The pressure for women to be thin is everywhere.
FEMALE: Particularly for women, dissatisfaction with body image
is absolutely pervasive in American society.
JENNIFER: Celebrities like Jane Fonda, Cindy Crawford,
were super thin, super fit, and that's really what
women in the eighties felt they should look like.
FEMALE: This is no rehearsal for a stage show chorus line.
This is Jazzersize, the latest way to exercise.
ROBERT: Everybody's trying to get fit and, uh
well what are you going to eat?
NARRATOR: For many, the answer to that was a revolutionary product
that sparked such a buying frenzy
it emptied shelves across the US.
NARRATOR: In the 1980s, a humble unit of measurement changes
the way we look at food. The calorie.
Counting these calories had been made popular
by bodybuilders in the late seventies.
And in 1981, frozen food manufacturer Stouffer's
launches a meal that promises to be 300 calories or less.
FEMALE: Now when you watch your weight, do it deliciously,
with new Lean Cuisine, from Stouffer's.
CLAUDIA: The advertisers nailed it with this, right,
everybody wanted to lose some weight,
and they wanted the fastest and more affordable way to do that.
NARRATOR: Lean Cuisine is so popular,
stores can't keep up with demand, and sell out.
MEAT: There may have been some diet meals before,
but nothing attacked the population like Lean Cuisine.
MALE: This is the hot stuff.
Premium single serving dinners of about 300 calories.
This segment of the frozen food industry
is the hottest thing going right now.
NARRATOR: Lean Cuisine makes the painstaking
work of counting calories easy.
KATIE: Lean Cuisine took the guesswork out of what you were eating.
The calories had already been counted.
JEN: There was this idea that if you ate a Lean Cuisine meal,
you know, once a day,
that somehow the pounds were just going to fall off.
FEMALE: Low calories, light food, therefore healthy.
JACKIE: I'm going to be healthy; I'm going to be fit;
I'm going to eat a Lean Cuisine.
JENNIFER: Lean Cuisine is probably not
the most healthy thing that someone could eat,
it's still processed food.
ROBERT: But the significance of Lean Cuisine was that
it was the right idea for the right time.
NARRATOR: By the end of the decade,
Lean Cuisine is only one diet regime among many.
But the calorie counting revolution
they helped start remains with us to this day.
MEAT: I looked last night in my freezer.
I still have four.
ROB: So many fast foods, so little time.
And time is the essence of our next contender.
Rather than you go to the food, how about we figure out a way
to get the food to you in 30 minutes or less.
Well I can instantly tell you
that this special delivery is our number four.
WAITRESS: Hiya Tony, two or three?
TONY: Two. Two. Give me two, that's good.
NARRATOR: Americans have loved pizza since the dawn of time.
But how did we jump from eating slices in a local pizzeria,
to expecting whole pies delivered to our door while still piping hot?
As with so many things, we have the eighties to thank for that.
CLAUDIA: The fact that you can get a pizza at your home,
that's freshly baked, that's still gooey and melty and delicious,
I mean that was the holy grail of pizza.
Yes. Yes. (Laughs)
NARRATOR: Pizza delivery becomes big business,
and a national obsession that reflects the era's need for speed.
CRISTELA: The whole culture was now, I can do it now,
I can always get it now. Now, now, now.
NARRATOR: But nobody likes cold pizza, and in 1984,
Domino's gets a brilliant streetwise idea.
When founder Tom Monaghan redefines his brand,
and the entire concept of fast food.
MALE: So, when you want hot, delicious,
quality pizza, delivered in less than 30 minutes,
Domino's Pizza delivers.
One call does it all.
KEVIN: The big thing was like 30 minutes or your pizza's free.
And, you know, everyone loves free.
ADAM: Everyone wants to sort of game it out and see what happens.
JEN: Are you rooting for Domino's to get there faster cause you're hungry,
or do you want them to show up 32 minutes
after you call so that you get a free pizza?
ADAM: I have friends that would literally set timers.
REGINALD: I got so many free pizzas.
I'd be like, hello brother, I think you will find
that you've arrived 32 minutes and 15 seconds.
Yeah, that's what I thought.
NARRATOR: Weaponizing home delivery gives Domino's
the edge over its rivals, and in the eighties it becomes
one of the largest fast food enterprises in the world.
MALE: From 400 stores in 1978, Domino's now lays claim to nearly 3000.
NARRATOR: But the runaway success of the promotion
eventually begins to speed dangerously out of control.
Domino's need for speed has become a killer,
causing a national outcry.
MALE: We're not talking about any kind of emergency situation;
we're talking about pizzas.
NARRATOR: But in 1993, a St Louis woman hit
by a Domino's driver is awarded 79 million dollars in damages,
and the brakes are finally put on.
ANCHOR: Domino's Pizza has abandoned one of its longest running
and controversial promotions.
It will no longer guarantee that you'll get
your pie within 30 minutes.
TOM: I just didn't feel I could put a hundred
and some thousand Domino's people in jeopardy.
NARRATOR: It's the end of an era,
but the policy has a lasting impact.
Today, Domino's is the highest grossing pizza chain in the world,
and home delivered pizza has been permanently baked
into American popular culture.
MALE: Give me that. Hey, this is a 10. The tab's 13.
TURTLE: You're two minutes late dude.
Never pay full price for late pizza.
MALE: I gotta get a new route.
Hummmm.
ROB: Now I won't comment on the actual gourmet quality of Domino's
but I understand why it's so high on the list,
because the whole idea revolved around fast delivery, which,
if you think about it, might have inspired
a little product delivery company by the name of Amazon.
I'm just saying.
NARRATOR: Domino's rushed delivery earned
it a place as our number four, ahead of Lean Cuisine
and Hot Pockets, but it can't beat our final three.
Next, the war to end all wars, fought under golden arches.
MEAT: It's called Burger King.
McDonald's is called McDonald's and that was a clown.
LONI: It was the king and it was royal, but it really wasn't royal.
KIDS: Burger King, yay!
ROB: Well now we're down to the big three eighties foods.
They have a few things in common. First,
they're all very much a part of our daily lives,
second, they've made billions for their creators,
and finally, they all have insanely catchy names.
And no name was more of a mouthful than our number three.
REGINALD: I remember being about six or seven years old,
and back then, a Whopper was huge.
NARRATOR: The Whopper has been Burger King's signature dish since 1957.
LONI: Now you see I'm a burger connoisseur of course.
My favourite fast food place was Burger King.
I mean, it was something about that burger.
CLAUDIA: That flame-broiled goodness
that's just absolutely delicious.
NARRATOR: Beloved as it may be, Burger King is far from
the only burger joint on the block.
In the early eighties, competition from Wendy's
and other chains is heating up.
And Burger King is lagging behind market Goliath McDonald's.
KEVIN: Burger King had to gain a foothold,
a toehold against the juggernaut that was Ronald McDonald.
ADAM: The hamburger is the national sandwich,
so to be the best, to have the best hamburger,
to have the most popular hamburger, is the holy grail.
NARRATOR: So, in 1982, Burger King kicks off
what became known as the Battle of the Burgers.
And in true eighties fashion, they take no prisoners.
BRIAN: McDonald's and Burger King were always sort of the Marvel
and DC of their generation when it came to fast food.
NARRATOR: Burger King's weapon of mass digestion? The Whopper.
MALE: Burger King's new ad campaign involves the claim
that consumers prefer the Whopper over the Big Mac.
The fast food battle rages on.
NARRATOR: Burger King's provocative claims
become a whopping big deal.
They enlist a young Elisabeth Shue in their advertising campaign.
FEMALE: All you do is buy one Whopper and say:
COUPLE: The Whopper beats the Big Mac.
FEMALE: Just say that and get your second Whopper free.
REGINALD: I remember when I went, it was like loads
of poor black folks going, the Whopper beats the Big Mac. (Laughs)
The Whopper beats the Big Mac.
And eventually some dudes would get to the counter
and they'd be like, hey man, you know this (bleep) I ain't saying that,
just give me my Whopper. (Laughs)
STEVE: We had people lined up out in the streets.
We had groups of teenagers coming in singing it.
We had, that weekend alone, 10 million people mouthing our claim.
NARRATOR: McDonald's is less than pleased.
They bite back by suing, and Burger King agrees to shelve its campaign.
But a year later, Burger King's at it again.
This time using the Whopper to trash McDonald's cooking methods.
MALE: Burger King presents broiling versus frying.
FEMALE: At this time, Burger King would like to suggest
that everybody from McDonald's please leave the room.
Now, the rest of you ready?
ROBERT: And they said, oh our burgers are flame-broiled,
you know, and the implication was, oh, if you go to McDonald's,
your burgers are sitting in a puddle of grease.
REGINALD: We ain't like these other people that use a frying pan. No.
NARRATOR: Now imitation is the sincerest form of fast food,
and in 1984, McDonald's concocts the ultimate Whopper stopper,
spending $100 million on an ad campaign,
featuring a pre-Seinfeld Jason Alexander.
It launches its own version of the Whopper.
JASON: Hey, you say you're getting tired of lettuce and tomato hamburgers
in this town that don't quite make it?
ALL: Yeah!
JASON: The McDLT.
ADAM: McDonald's separated the hot elements of the burger
and the cold elements of the burger
in a double wide Styrofoam container,
just the ultimate eff you to the environment.
JASON: Could be the best tasting lettuce and tomato hamburger ever.
ALL: (Singing) New McDLT.
NARRATOR: But under pressure from environmentalists
and a growing awareness of the hazards of Styrofoam,
McDonald's consigns this double wide McMissfire
to the trash bin of history.
Despite fighting off rivals, Burger King never quite steals
the burger crown.
But their scorched earth tactics in the burger
wars boost sales by a whopping 15 percent.
It seals their position as one of the true giants of the burger world..
ROB: Size isn't everything.
Well I think if we're being completely honest, we know it helps.
Especially when it comes to soda.
Fill a mega sized container with mass quantities of sugar
and, well, you've got our number two.
ELLEN: Why on earth would anybody want this much soda
when they could have this much soda?
NARRATOR: In the late 1970s, 7-Eleven is everywhere,
with over 6000 stores worldwide.
Sales of soda and their own invention, the Slurpee,
are an important part of its business.
MALE: Get your Big Gulp at 7-Eleven.
You drugstore cowboy, you.
NARRATOR: In 1976, 7-Eleven tries out a 32 ounce cup,
equivalent to over two cans of regular soda.
Of course it's an immediate success.
JON: The Big Gulp was an example of supersizing a drink,
cause it was so cheap, cause it's just corn syrup,
which is nothing because of the low price of corn.
NARRATOR: But this is only the beginning.
In the 1980s, government legislation makes
the syrupy corn at the heart of the Big Gulp,
already an inexpensive ingredient, even cheaper.
ALVIN: In the 1980s, there was a focus on farm subsidies in America.
Farmers would grow the food, and then when it was sold on,
manufacturers could produce something at such a low cost,
because it was subsidised by the US government.
NARRATOR: And that subsidy trickles down into 7-Eleven's soda sizes.
In 1983, 7-Eleven's cup runneth over.
They introduce the 44 ounce Super Big Gulp.
KEVIN: The Big Gulp, one of the best branded
pieces of merchandise in advertising history.
It says exactly what it is.
It's a big gulp man, it's a lot of liquid.
NARRATOR: The bigger gulp is a big success,
and as bigger cups mean bigger profits, 7-Eleven goes even bigger,
introducing the 64-ounce Double Gulp is 1988.
MALE: Now that's what I call a large.
BRIAN: To put this in context,
there were no free refills in the eighties.
Getting as much soda as you could possibly carry was just heaven.
KATIE: Overnight, it seemed like
kids were walking around with these barrel sized drinks,
and the straw stuck into their face,
like it was almost an oxygen tank.
AMBER: We used to get the biggest Big Gulp,
and my sister and I used to share it.
We called them suicides, so we would put literally
every single flavor of soda or Slurpee
or whatever it was, in the cup, in the Big Gulp.
ALVIN: It felt like a bargain,
and that's at the heart of a lot of American culture.
Size versus price.
NARRATOR: Once the cup is out the bag, there's no going back.
Despite concerns that the giant soda craze of the eighties
might be kicking off an obesity crisis.
BLOOMBERG: This is becoming a devastating public health issue.
It's an epidemic.
NARRATOR: An attempt by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg
to ban the sale of sodas over 16 ounces predictably falls flat.
PROTESTOR: I'm here to tell Mayor Bloomberg
that if I want to drink a Big Gulp,
I'm gonna drink a Big Gulp.
ADAM: Having a huge beverage that was cheap
and you could carry with you wherever you went,
was kind of like a trophy of American commercialism.
NARRATOR: But apparently America's thirst for Big Gulps
is unquenchable.
BRIAN: It was a huge deal to try to drink yourself sick.
MILLHOUSE: What's it like Bart?
(brbrbr)
KEVIN: Americans won't be happy at 7-Eleven until like
we're just opening the trunk of our car
and just pumping liquid right into it and being like, Car Gulp.
ROB: Gulp is right. When we come back, our number one.
I mean, what possible trick did these fast food
geniuses leave on the table that we haven't gotten around to yet?
It's one where the food takes a back seat.
DEE: It was like crackerjacks to the next level.
CRISTELA: You would have to try to collect them all,
and there was always like that one that you couldn't get.
ROB: We've sampled the menu from 10 to two,
but there can only be one number one.
And now, that order is ready for pick up.
Our panel has spoken, with a surprisingly unanimous choice.
We've taken a Whopper of a Big Gulp,
at the not so Lean fast food Cuisines of the eighties,
and now it's time for the main course.
Our number one eighties fast food brought families together
and smiles to children's faces everywhere.
NARRATOR: If there's one fast food chain sure to bring
in the kids today, it's McDonald's.
MEAT: If we had the kids in the car
and we drove past a McDonald's, that was it.
DEE: I was already a dad by the mid-eighties
and we would have to go to McDonald's all the time.
NARRATOR: But McDonald's in the seventies isn't
quite the kid-friendly zone it is today.
Then their menu was aimed squarely at grown-ups.
ROBERT: The problem was that families would come to fast food places,
you could get your kid an ordinary cheeseburger
and maybe a small fries,
but there really wasn't anything just for them.
DMC: And they're realising, we don't got to speak to the adults no more,
let's speak to the kids and we got them for life.
NARRATOR: In the late seventies, the concept
of pester power is gaining traction.
McDonald's charges adman Bob Bernstein with the job
of convincing kids to convince their parents to take them
to the golden arches.
Soon, Bob has a breakfast brainwave.
BOB: I was watching my oldest son Steve eat his breakfast cereal.
STEVE: I did what every 10 year old used to do back then,
I would put the cereal box in front of me and
I would read that cereal box over and over again.
BOB: And I'd ask him if he'd like to read
the newspaper or do his homework,
do something other than read that box.
STEVE: I'd say no, I'd just keep eating the cereal
and turning that same box over and over again.
BOB: And then I thought to myself, you know,
kids should have some kind of fun or activity while they're eating.
And that's what we tried to do with the Happy Meal.
FEMALE: Your kids will love McDonald's Happy Meal.
It's a hamburger or cheeseburger,
regular sized fries, regular sized soft drink,
and a McDonaldland cookie sampler.
It's food and fun in a box.
NARRATOR: But a fast food icon is not made overnight.
Initially McDonald's tries out the Happy Meal
as a promotion in just a handful of states.
BOB: It tested very well. So, then it got to be challenged as
to whether it should be a menu item.
NARRATOR: McDonald's execs wisely decide to go for it,
and in 1979, the Happy Meal is rolled out
on menus across the country.
But it's not really the food that catches kids' eyes.
LONI: And what made it happy was you got your little burger,
you got your little fries for the kids,
you either had milk or some type of juice,
but it was the toy. The toy.
CHRIS: McDonald's loved that because
that's where pester power came in.
Mommy, let's go to McDonald's because I need this toy.
It was a brilliant marketing move.
BOB: Kids wanted a surprise, a toy
that they could get out of the Happy Meal.
NARRATOR: In 1981, advertising is deregulated,
commercials directed at kids flood TV screens.
In another stroke of marketing genius,
McDonald's starts toy tie-ins with major movies and TV shows.
Pester power reaches new heights.
LONI: At first it was like a toy that was related
to like McDonald's, and then it became fancy.
LARRY: In the eighties there were amazing collections coming out
of the McDonald's Happy Meal toy world.
DEE: It was like you got a piece of food with the toy,
as opposed to getting a toy with the food.
ADAM: As a kid, getting a toy in a Happy Meal
was kind of a form of currency.
CRISTELA: Berenstein Bears, I loved these.
This was actually a really awesome cartoon.
STEVE: You could get Star Wars collectibles.
I had to have them all.
CLAUDIA: I think my favourite Happy Meal
of all time was the My Little Pony one.
I remember going back and having my mom negotiate
to try to exchange the different, because I already
had that one, so I needed the next one.
NARRATOR: The Happy Meal is our number one for a reason.
It combines marketing genius, convenience and a product that fills
a need that nobody knew they had, until it was served up.
And to this day, our number one still makes kids,
and its corporate creator, smile.
CRISTELA: The Happy Meal is remarkable.
It's a huge part of childhood.
It's Americana really.
ROBERT: It was enormously influential because
once you had the McDonald's Happy Meal,
then all of these other restaurant chains are like,
we had better get one too.
KEVIN: One of the most brilliant strokes of marketing genius.
Branding of the highest order.
BOB: Yes, I'm very proud of it.
I'm very proud of it.
ROB: Little do they know how much I love McDonald's.