INTV Vs. Atari War Spokesperson George Plimpton Dies

[Retro Rogue]

From ClassicGaming.Com news:

 

One time Intellivision spokesperson (and scourge to Atari fans everywhere) George Plimpton has passed away at age 76.

 

A world famous and well respected author, his unique presence and speaking style was tapped by Mattel in the early 80's for a marketing onslaught against it's rival, Atari. The ads and commercials frequently featured the intellectual sounding Plimpton doing side by side comparisons of older Atari 2600 games and the superior graphics of the Intellivision counterparts.

[Technosis]

From ClassicGaming.Com news:

 

 One time Intellivision spokesperson (and scourge to Atari fans everywhere) George Plimpton has passed away at age 76.

 

A world famous and well respected author, his unique presence and speaking style was tapped by Mattel in the early 80's for a marketing onslaught against it's rival, Atari.  The ads and commercials frequently featured the intellectual sounding Plimpton doing side by side comparisons of older Atari 2600 games and the superior graphics of the Intellivision counterparts.

 

Yeah, it's too bad........his style was unforgettable. I first heard about this

on the 6pm evening newscast. They actually delved into some of his

wacky adventures (i.e. trapeeze artist) throughout his life as well as

mentioning some of the parts he had in movies and his TV appearances.

No mention though of the unforgettable Intellivision TV ads

[AtariDude]

With the rash of older celebrities dying lately, I would be worried if I was Alan Alda. He was the spokesman for the Atari 8 bit computer.

 

It is sad to hear that George Plimpton died. I do remember the commercials that he used to compare the Intellivision and the Atari 2600. I never owned an Intellivision but I did have a friend who did. I did enjoy some of the games so it was a nice system. Closest thing to my owning an Intellivision is the Intellivision Lives CD for the Playstation.

 

I also liked Paper Lion and remembered that it was an enjoyable movie and gave someone the sense of what it was like to play in the NFL.

[Buck]

Sheesh! I just saw him on Sunday (on TV) at the Minnesota Vikings -Detroit Lions football game. I hadnt seen him myself in anything but the INTV commercials until Sunday. Weird.

 

Buck

[tyranthraxus]

And William Shatner was spokeman for Commodore, uh oh!

 

I wonder if George's heirs are now digging through the stuff in his

basement and are pulling out boxes of INTV stuff.

[+Nathan Strum]

There was a terrific Bloom County strip done during the Plimpton INTV vs. Atari ads. It was unfortunately never reprinted in any book, but I had it on my wall for a long time. (This isn't verbatim, but I'll rememeber it the best I can...)

 

You see Opus from the side, sitting in front of the TV, and a commercial is playing. All you see is Opus reacting to the dialogue, which went something like this:

 

George: "Hi! This is George Plimpton for Intellivision home video games, comparing them to Atari."

 

George: "On Intellivision, you can see entire planets blowing up and spewing forth itty-bitty pieces of people!"

 

George: "Atari's junk. It's worthless. It's not fit to discuss in polite conversation!"

 

Opus: "You tell 'em, George."

 

George: "I wouldn't let my ugliest, smelliest dog sit on an Atari!"

[omne]

LOL

 

 

Bye George! Thanks for the memorable ads!

[JB]

I wonder if George's heirs are now digging through the stuff in his

basement and are pulling out boxes of INTV stuff.

Nah.

 

They recently found a copy of Quadrun though.