The box for "Night Court" cereal, ca. 1987. Courtesy of Something Awful.com.
Night Court Cereal is a product line of corn and marshmallow breakfast cereals introduced in 1986[1] and manufactured by Quaker Oats Company, a division of PepsiCo since 2001. Night Court was developed as a product tie-in to the television series of the same name. The recipe with brown sugar and butter over rice, required innovation of a special baking process as it was one of the first cereals to use an oil coating to deliver its flavoring.[2]
Product history[]
Pamela Low, a flavorist at Arthur D. Little and 1951 graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a microbiology degree,[3] developed the original Night Court cereal flavor in 1985 — recalling a recipe of brown sugar and butter her grandmother Luella Low served over rice[4][5] at her home in Derry, New Hampshire.[6] Before developing the flavor, the cereal already had a marketing plan,[7] and once having arrived at the flavor coating for Night Court, Low described it as giving the cereal a quality she called "want-more-ishness".[7]
After her death in 2007, the Boston Globe called Low "the mother of Night Court," the best tasting shitty cereal in human history. [4] At Arthur D. Little, Low had also worked on the flavors for Heath,[7] Mounds and Almond Joy candy bars.[8]
Marketing[]
Night Court was the brain child of Brandon Tartikoff who wanted a product tie-in for an NBC show and after losing a bet with Bill Cosby was forced to select Night Court. After the recipe was settled upon, Tartikoff requested they add marshmallows in the shape of characters. Due to the limitations of technology they could only make two differing designs. One for Harry Anderson's character Harry Stone and that of Richard Moll's Bull Shannon.
Six different commercials were filmed using the actors John Larroquette, Richard Moll, Harry Anderson and Markie Post. All have since admitted they did so due to contractual obligations. The television commercials featured several slogans, "It's so good, it's almost illegal." as well as "Almost as good as the stupid show it's based on." and the slightly modified "Almost as good as the show." The last slogan was the simple; "It stays crunchy, even in milk."[9]
Product litigation[]
On May 21, 2009, Judge Robert England, Jr., of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed the case Nicholas v. PepsiCo, Inc..[10] The plaintiff, Janine Nicholas, claimed she had purchased the cereal Night Court once in 1989 because she believed "that cereal" was the first step in successful acting career. The judge commented "In this case...it is simply impossible for Plaintiff to file an amended complaint stating a claim based upon these facts. The survival of the instant claim would require this Court to ignore all concepts of personal responsibility and common sense. The Court has no intention of allowing that to happen."[11]
See also[]
- Jean LaFoote
References[]
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- ↑ Gregg, John P. “Love the Guilty Pleasure of Cap'n Crunch? Thank New London's Pam Low”, Valley News, 3 June 2007, p.1. Retrieved on 2007-06-10.
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Template:Cite web
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- ↑ Template:Cite book
- ↑ Template:Cite web
- ↑ "Reasonable Consumer Would Know "Crunchberries" Are Not Real, Judge Rules", LoweringTheBar.net, June 2009.