1968 my first job at 15. Worked there during the intro of the big chef and the ham and cheese. Remember peeling 50 lb bags of potatoes for slicing fries. Flame broiled burgers were the best of the day. Thanks for the memories.
Oh man, I miss Burger Chef. I was born in 1965, and BC was a treat. These commercials take me back. Our family preferred Burger Chef over Mc Donald's back in the day. Thanks for the memories.
Mine, too. The nearest Burger Chef was actually next door to a McDonalds in the early 70s. We never went to McDonalds once. It seemed like Burger Chef innovated everything that McDonalds eventually stole.
I was born in 1963 and for the life of me, I cant remember any of these commercials. I then realized back then we used to use commercial breaks to go to the bathroom, go to the kitchen and to see whats on other channels at that time :D I do remember my mom taking me and my 2 brothers to Burger Chef in the summer all the time after we finishwd swimming at the public pool. Loved their burgers.
Commercials suck wind nowadays These were great but what do we have today? GEICO,My pillow Senior Life,Plexiderm,drug and lawyer and etc,etc Using the bathroom is a big step up
I worked there in 1969, it had a metal like belt that you put the meat patties on, at one end. on the receiving end was a perfect charbroiled patty.A bag of burgers where tasty and cheap.I saw a blue van role up ( smoke coming out of doors, windows) Both rear doors open , and about 12 hippies tumbled out on the pavement. I saw a many weird things working the night shift , but that was the funniest.
It's Paul Winchell as Burger Chef and Lionel Wilson as Jeff. The late 1970s-early 1980s Burger Chef insignia is the smiling bun wearing a chef's hat. RIP,1954-86.
*It still makes me furious that the idiots at General Foods would change the best and most recognized logo in the industry back then to some stupid text signage.*
Blows my mind. When I was a little kid, I had dozens of those king kong glasses. I had many of those star wars posters. Really brings you back in time.
Among other first already mentioned, Burger Chef was the first to have a breakfast menu with egg muffins, sausage and jelly dough nuts. (loved those dough nuts) As a teen I worked there the very first Saturday breakfast was introduced. The manager actually said something like "I hope I didn't schedule too many people to work. Who goes to a burger place for breakfast?" OMG, it was it's own version of a zombie apocalypse with the mob of people who came. (many of them morning zombie cranky)
Their burgers tasted much better than those today. They had a patented broiling system that I think Burger King still uses, but the patties were thinner so the flavor was all the way through. We never went to a McDonalds if there was a Burger Chef close by.
My Favorites at BURGER CHEF was Big CHEF w/cheese, Double Cheeseburger The Fish SANDWICH With cheese was called I think it Skippers Treat or Quarter DECK. The Apple pie & the large Vanilla Shake
NJP Vlogs -N- Stuff I’m in Michigan. Burger Chef is history unfortunately :( I grew up there..Star Wars fun meals, King Kong glasses, the mariner and even the chicken sandwich with bacon were all a part of my childhood.
Going to Burger Chef and getting their Fun Meal was always such a treat for me. I loved the Fun Meal box (the best ever), the special toy and my all time favorite "swirl" chocolate cookie with chocolate filling that came with every Fun Meal.
I worked at burger Chef in the summer of 1964. 90 cents an hour. Nice size burger for 15 cents. Add a thick slice of cheddar an extra 3 cents. I made French fries every day out of Idaho potatos. Would wash, cut, wash them again, and blanch them for a couple minutes in clean oil. Into the freezer, ready to sell for the next day. 15 cents for a large bag of fries. I remember the Coke concentrate came in 1 gallon glass bottles. Can't recall what a coke was, probably a dime for a small one. No air conditioning in the place . I worked the grill and had two screen doors and two box fans on the floor , blowing hot outside air on me. Hot job, that grill. The owner was a fanatic about using clean oil in the deep fryer and kept the place spotless. Thanks for bringing these memories back!
Ha! I graduated High School in Austin, Texas, 1963. The Burger Chef commercial lyrics, set to a catchy tune, were, "...For a Nickel and a Dime you get: French Fried Potatoes, or a Big Thick Shake, or the Biggest Juiciest Hamburger yet!" Oh yeah! For less than a dollar, you could get both you and your date a hamburger/fries and a milk shake each!! :) That was apparently before they started the fancier large hamburgers... but they were very tasty!
I ate at Burger Chef in the early 70's in Providence RI, they had the first fixins bar next to the counter, you take your plain Burger to the bar and put on your mustard, ketchup, pickles, lettuce, tomato. I loved it.
I remember Wendy's having the salad bar. They had that untill the late 1990's. Buger Chef and Wendy's were the only two fast food restaurant with a salad bar. I dont remember these Burger Chef being in Pittsburgh Pa much past 1984. I remember one that closed and it became a Chinese take out .
I remember the Roy Rogers restaurant on a Massachusetts interstate which had a fixins bar. I used to load up on the tomato slices. I think that was before the sneez-gard was in common usage.
Burger Chef was always a great place for families in our hometown. Unfortunately its demise was McDonald's and Wendy's taking over their turf, along with Sonic, Checkers, Hardees, and Burger King...Competition was always a problem. Loved you always BC!
I used to get the Mariner at Burger Chef. I also used have a couple of those Star Wars posters. Still got the King Kong glass with the World Trade Center. I remember getting those fun meals too.
Early 1970s,. Went to burger chef near Flint Michigan often! They had very good burgers, and you could top them with what you wanted off the salad bar!
Hard to believe that the first chain to have a charbroiled burger, a "Big" version, the first quarter-pounder, a "happy" meal, and a "fixin'" bar lost out to all the other companies who claimed to invent those same things.
Boy do these commercial bring good memories when I was a kid growing in the late 60's and 70's in Michigan. We had Burger Chef few miles away from us. Always got really excited about going. Thanks for posting.
I was a Manager at several units. First was Woodhaven on West Rd, then Taylor on Van Born, followed by Wayne Rd. (and Sims) and Cherry Hill & Wayne Rd -in front of the K-mart, Melvindale on Outer Drive. Also in Farmington, then back to Taylor for the conversion.....assisted in opening the location in Novi, by Twelve Oaks Mall and the Van Born-Telegraph Rd. (Taylor) units.
I miss Burger Chef. It was my favorite fast food chain when I was a kid. Loved the Top Chef--a cheese burger that had bacon, which to me was a new concept at the time.
There's one commercial I remember seeing in Colorado around 1973, that was advertising their fun meals. The tag line went "That's what you get at Burger Chef, that's what you get today." I'd love to see those commercials again! I have not seen any of these online. :(
Wow memories my Father was a Manager of two different Burger chef restaurants in Connecticut in the 70s, One in the Norwalk Westport area and one in North Haven. They had Willy Wonka candy and a precursor to McDonald's big Mac called the big chef in a sandwich called the super Chef which was akin to Burger King whopper
Wow! I had some of those King Kong glasses. I forgot they were from Burger Chef. I didn’t realize they had the licensing for Star Wars. That was huge. They were riding high at one time.
In a cruel twist of complete irony, the same night that the Star Wars Holiday Special aired 11/17/1978, 4 Burger Chef employees were abducted,robbed, and brutally murdered from a Speedway/Indianapolis store. In another SAD double whammy, the Jonestown Massacre occurred the following day. By the time the bodies of the 4 BC employees had been found, Jonestown was grabbing International headlines. Burger Chef NEVER recovered from this PR nightmare.
We didn't have Burger Chef around Boston when I was a kid, but they had them in Rhode Island. I remember seeing the commercials on the Providence channels.
I remember growing up in Indiana. The one Burger Chef in Indianapolis was robbed. The robbers then forced the four closing employees, all teenagers into a car. All four were found shot to death a couple a days later. The murders went unsolved, even to this day, I think that didn’t help the situation since Burger Chef’s sales were already suffering at that point.
Yup. It was the Indianapolis suburb of Speedway. It remains unsolved because the incompetent Police didn’t check for evidence like fingerprints or ballistics. They foolishly accused the 4 victims of stealing money from the BC and leaving to go party. The irony of this is that it occurred Friday Night November 17,1978, the SAME night the Star Wars Holiday Special aired remember, they had a tie in with Star Wars, even more tragic, is that Jonestown occurred the following day. Burger Chef started having trouble by 1975, mainly because they weren’t consolidating and wanted to remain regional. They wanted quote to become “The Midwestern Whataburger”. Many Franchisees had approached them but BC didn’t want to franchise out and Parent Company General Foods thought it would be wiser to Just wait until 1979 to look at franchising and expansion to the Gulf Coast. Ultimately, on November 16,1982, General Foods sold the struggling chain to Imasco, Parent Company of Hardee’s who converted nearly all of its existing stores into Hardee’s. The Final Indiana based ones didn’t get converted into Hardee’s until December 1995.
I recall hearing about those murders. Being I worked at a Burger Chef in 64, it really bothered me. I worked at one just outside Chicago and there were no robberies back then that I recall. My folks left the front and back doors open, all night during the hot summer, with only the screen doors locked. We had no air conditioning, just a window fan. Now, that area has some real problems. Times are worse. Murders are every day. I won't eat at McDonald's or Burger King. God only knows what you're eating. @@plawson8577
I miss Burger Chef. It's just not the same without them around anymore. I like rgeir hamburger. Fries and cola. Super Chef and apple turnover. My mom and my Aunt Helen God Rest Her Soul. Liked their cheeseburger. Fries and coffee , salad,and apple turnover. I had everything they had for kids. I wish they would bring back Burger Chef.
That's weird. That one ad said "Detroit Metropolitan Area Only" as a disclaimer at the bottom. I live in Southeastern Michigan and I don't recall ever seeing a Burger Chef. I was born in 1979, so maybe they all closed by the time I would have remembered seeing them.
*sigh* its a shame because Burger Chef was amazing!!! The food was really good and the prizes were awesome!!! Now its all garbage from the likes of McDonalds or Burger King, they are nothing compared to places like Burger Chef and others. This was a really iconic slice of Americana.
I remember a television ad where 2 friends buy the bacon burger, and one of them turns to a little boy in the next booth and asks him, “a third is bigger than a quarter, right?” Or something like that. It’s the first time I can remember seeing a burger with bacon on it. Once my Cub Scout den stopped at a Burger Chef for lunch after a camporee. I had the Big Shef, and the biggest kid in the den had the Super Shef. I remember thinking he was some kind of a stud for eating a burger that big.
The one I remember is "No where else but Burger Chef" Jingle back in the early 80's as a kid....good memories.Funny thing is,later on,in my teens,I worked for Hardee's,who bought them out....
@@kurtkauffman4326 .........I was a unit manager during the conversion(s) at the Taylor, MI location. Funny thing was that when the 'sale made the Restaurant News (paper) -that I subscribed to- hit my mail (USPS) delivery I called our Regional Office in Troy, MI. They hadn't heard about it from Corp.Hdqt. (located in the Pyramids of Indy) and thoughts I was 'crazy'......SURPRISE.
this message coming from the hometown of Burger Chef,(INDY).Thank you for putting these spots together.Awesome.CHECK OUT THE HISTORY OF THE SPEEDWAY BURGER CHEF.
We had a Burger Chef in Escanaba,Michigan.(My Hometown,now living in Bradenton,Florida).The one in Bradenton later became Ya Ya's,Schlotsky's Deli,& finally Smoothie King.Escanaba's is now Hardee's,still around now.
+Kurt Kauffman That's funny... I came from a little south of Indy and had one in my hometown, and now live in St. Pete. Remember the Burger Chef and Jeff yo-yos and the glow-in-the-dark Frisbees they used to give away?
Eve Plumb from "The Brady Bunch" is an employee in one commercial and James Cromwell (Babe, Star Trek: First Contact) is in the very next ad (he's wearing a tan sweatshirt and sitting next to a kid while eating a burger)
People have already noted Jan Brady and James Cromwell. Surprised to see no comments about PJ Soles (at least I think it's her) at 8:34 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iSfMPo6KWps.html
The Burger Chef character was voiced by Paul Winchell, who also voiced Tigger on Winnie-the-Pooh, Fleegle on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and Dick Dastardly
Burger Chef was right across from the Coronado Shopping Center in Albuquerque, when my dad had us kids and my mom was working across the street in the Sears Cafeteria, he would take us to Burger Chef, I remember having the window clings.
I remember those window stickers. They were very popular. The kids next door to me seem to be getting a lot of them, but when I went they were "all out". Pissed me off. My neighbors were getting them, but I couldn't. I was finally able to get some though. It was the tomato and the apple turnover ones if I remember correctly.
Yes, Eve Plumb (Jan Brady), Denise Nickerson (Violet in Willy Wonka and Amy Jennings in Dark Shadows) and James Cromwell all appear in these commercials. I didn't state it because it thought it was pretty obvious.
I remember when I was five my mom took me to Burger Chef, and I ordered a BigMac. It looks like Jan Brady worked there. Wonder if Eve Plumb did that commercial before, or after, The Brady Bunch. Wish I still had the King Kong glass, and or, The Empire Strikes Back poster. They’re probably collector’s items.
It is a shame Burger Chef isn't still around... But Eve Plum (Jan Brady) in the one commercial just reminds me that there is something strange about seeing famous people in commercials. lol I just hate the one fact that they had a deal for products for the first two *Star Wars* films.. and they still went out of business.
I'd like to see one from the '60s with the catchy jingle:"For fifteen cents... a nickel and a dime... at Burger Chef you eat better every time!Every nickel and a dime will get... French fried potatoes, big thick shakes or the greatest 15 cent hamburger yet!" No actors, just basic animation.
Really miss Burger Chef. Grew up in Indianapolis IN and it was my first job as a teenager. Started as a cashier and eventually became the burger guy. Fire broiled burgers and the famous Big Chef.
