TVSquad

This month we're taking a look at celebrities who did TV commercials.

Whenever you get into any profession, you have to start at the bottom. The TV business is no exception. The stars you see in prime time today probably cut their teeth working in TV commercials. Heck, some of them still do TV commercials even after they become big stars (but it's often overseas...shhhhhhhh).

After the jump, a sampling of TV commercials from years ago that star celebrities who are now household names. If you're old enough to remember these commercials, you'll probably say to yourself, "Oh yeah, I remember this ad, but I didn't realize that he was in it!"

Watching this interview that Jimmy Kimmel did with John Cleese the other night (after the jump), and near the start of the interview, Cleese mentions that the real last name in his family is "Cheese," not "Cleese." At first I thought this was some sort of absurdist humor by Cleese, but after doing a little checking around the online world, I found out that it's true. I wonder how many big Cleese/Monty Python fans like me never ever knew that little piece of trivia.

This is actually a great interview with Cleese, because both Cleese and Kimmel seem to get along well and they're both quick on their feet. Kimmel was sick that night so he immediately gives Cleese some antibacterial lotion, Cleese jokes about how many times he's been married (three times, all Americans - his wife passed away last year), and the comic even gets in that one of the things wrong with Kimmel is that he's overweight.

Cleese is also on Twitter, so you can keep up with him that way if you're a fan.

If it weren't for public service announcements, kids everywhere would be drinking Liquid Plumber and throwing themselves in front of trains.

You know what I mean: those PSAs you watched as a kid told you how to be safe, avoid abduction, deal with bullies, eat the right foods, and seventeen ways to kill a man with a paper clip. I'd say, in most respects, TV raised you better than your parents ever could.

Anyway, here's a few old PSAs. Two come from Concerned Children's Advertisers in Canada, the last one from the American Lung Association.

This is the 27th in my twelve-part series where my friends (that's you) and I (that's also you, but in this case: me) try to learn all we can about a subject by turning to that great teaching tool known as television.

Many people will tell you that whether or not a person ultimately believes in a supreme being is a matter of personal choice, hopefully arrived at through study and reflection. This is not true: both atheism and religion are based on cheese, and which of the following items most interests a person, this: