Bring Back The Cuckoo Bird!!!!!!

Along with the aforementioned Trix rabbit and Bunny Rabbit from "Captain Kangaroo", darlings, one of my favorite TV animals was the Cuckoo Bird on The "Cocoa Puffs" commercials. It was all connected; this cereal and Trix were manufactured by General Mills (who also gave us Kix). Each were little round cereal balls; Kix was corn, Trix fruit flavored and multi-colored, while Cocoa Puffs was...what else?...chocolate!!!!!!!

Guess which one I, and most kids, went crazy over????? You better believe it!!!!
Because when the Cocoa Puffs turned soggy in your bowl, the milk would turn brown...and it was like having chocolate milk for breakfast!!!!!!!!

This cereal and Trix had counterpart commercials. Trix famously showed the rabbit coming this close to getting Trix, but never succeeding...till the write-in campaign where we all voted to give the rabbit some Trix. The Cuckoo Bird for Cocoa Puffs always got what he went after, with the result being he would go..well, cuckoo!!!!!!!!

The ad would show him ingesting a spoonful of cereal...then the animators would go wild, having him rocket into the air, feathers coming apart, etc. while bells and whistles would go off on the soundtrack, and, in a high-pitched voice, he would yell, "I'm cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs; cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs; cocoa for Cuckoo..." on and on!!!! I know I drove my parents and grandmother crazy when I began to imitate this, especially when the commercial was aired each time!!!! And in those days, before air conditioning, when I would do this in the Summer, my poor mother felt she had to close the windows!!!!!!!

I don't precisely know when Cuckoo Bird vanished, but I wish he would be brought back. I can't remember the last time I had Cocoa Puffs, but maybe if the bird returned, I would!!!!!!

There's not much to go cuckoo over these days, and Cuckoo Bird gave us all something to cheer for!!!!!!! This is one bird who does not deserve to be extinct!!!!!

And I would love to see HIS screen test for Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds!"