From the E-Mailbag…

Gary Dunaier wants to know…

What's the deal with the box of Kellogg's Corn Flakes in the corner of the picture of Davy Jones that you ran in your blog? (The weird thing is that I remember, back in the day, seeing an image of a box of Kellogg's Puffa Puffa Rice cereal in the corner during the closing credits of an episode of The Monkees.)

Back in the fifties and sixties, most TV shows had direct sponsorship. Chevrolet sponsored Bonanza and Kellogg's sponsored The Beverly Hillbillies and so on. In some cases, it changed from season to season on a multi-season show or two sponsors would split a show or an ad agency would contract for a show on behalf of several companies it represented and would rotate their sponsorship.

Eventually, networks decided it was in their best interest to not let the sponsors and ad agencies have that much control of programming so they got rid of, for the most part, situations where one sponsor was responsible for a show. Now, sponsors buy individual spots throughout many shows.

When that was the practice, it was not uncommon for the sponsor to have its product displayed throughout the credits like that. If you watch a rerun today of The Dick Van Dyke Show, you'll see the end credits formatted to allow a space at bottom left that's usually filled with a picture of Dick. When those credits first aired, there was a pack of Kent cigarettes there. So the box of corn flakes on Davy Jones's credit indicates that the screen shot was made from a print of The Monkees that was made up when Kellogg's was the sponsor.