Mike's PCjr Page

Back story: I've got an IBM PCAT on craigslist (too heavy to ship, imo) at a high price. Three days ago, I got an email from a photographer wanting to rent the AT for three days for a shoot for $50. A quick web check showed that there is a photog with that name, but many of the links referred to a website that doesn't exist, so I didn't bother to respond.

This morning I got an email from a lady, telephone number & email at wk.com (Weiden & Kennedy, you may have heard of them), saying, "We want this today!"

Ok. Contact info sent. Young guy, named Zac, comes by in a rented cube van. Looks at the AT, everything is fine. But, while we're talking, I mention PCjr.

"Oh!" he says, flipping thru some pictures. "Like this one?" "Exactly." "Is it for sale?" "Non-working is ok, right?" "Yes. I'll give you $200 for one, even not working." "No problem." Main unit with a dead motherboard, check. Monitor with a bad condensor (video gets worse & worse as it warms up), check. Good keyboard.

As we're putting the little computer into the back of Zac's large cube van, he said that they're reconstructing Col. Sander's office, from pictures, for an ad, so apparently, the Colonel had a PCjr on his desk. Who would have thunk it?

So if you see a KFC ad with an 80's office, it should have a PCjr in it, and you know where it came from.

And the guy that wanted to rent the AT for three days? It was Zac.

Mike

Very cool, thanks for the note.

The show Halt and Catch Fire recently reached out to some computer clubs to get as many IBM 5150 or 5160s as possible for the show. Many sales were almost made until it was indicated that the show was going to destroy them on-camera.

Dang, you were really in the right place at the right time for that to happen! $200 for a non-working PCjr! Wow!

Colonel Sanders having a PCjr didn't seem right as I seem to remember where I was living when I heard he had died and that was earlier. Yep, not possible as Colonel Sanders died in 1980. It was a sad day for my fried chicken loving self. Of course, that was before Bojangles opened (and unfortunately closed) in NYC.

You're right: 1980! I wonder why he told me that?

Mike

Because he misunderstood what he was recreating. I'll bet it was a "small" PC on the desk, like a Vic-20 or something which he mistook as "jr".

I think these KFC ads started running last week. I've seen two new ones featuring Colonel Sanders so far, one including the office. No computer of any kind in sight, though.

Trixter wrote:Because he misunderstood what he was recreating. I'll bet it was a "small" PC on the desk, like a Vic-20 or something which he mistook as "jr".

It would definitely not be a VIC-20, which was released in 1981. Maybe an original TI-99/4 or an Atari 400 perhaps? Quite remarkable for someone who was born in the 19th century and nearing the end of his long life to be using a microcomputer.

Here are all the new KFC commercials featuring the Colonel. I didn't see any computers:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... qIyvnZE0Ts

You know, I wonder if he needed the PCjr for a different commercial and just mixed up which one he was working on? That's an explanation that would kind of make sense to me.