Mr. Intellivision

Many of you probably remember George Plimpton, to the extent that you remember him at all, for his brilliant work in the role of psychologist Dr. Henry Lipkin in Good Will Hunting. ("No more shenanigans, no more tomfoolery, no more ballyhoo...") Others may know him as an author of many fine books including a handful, such as Paper Lion, recounting his attempts to masquarade as a professional athlete. Me? I remember him for "beating out" an infield hit on a slow roller to me in a Phillips Exeter alumni baseball game back in '94. What can I say? I didn't have the heart to gun down a guy in late 60's.

But one thing you probably don't remember about George is his turn as "Mr. Intellivision" back in the early-80's. Hell, I was an Intellivision junkie back then and even I can't remember him doing ads for it. But he did. Many of them. And, thanks to Youtube, we can watch beauties like this...



Wow. That's all I can say about that. Just a tour de force. A is clearly better than B. Mr. Intellivision is right about that. Neither one of them should be all that proud of themselves though. I mean, what the hell is that sound when the runner gets cut down at home on Intellivision? I think it's the same sound they used in "Frog Bog" when you caught a fly. Good God. Atari baseball? Holy crap. Kids used to play that? 4 bases on a green screen? Three bizarre fielders moving in tandem? What the f***? That is too funny.

On a side note, if you never had the priviledge to play Frog Bog, you have no idea what you're missing...