$1000.
Bill Cosby has a winning combination, a family man with a face you can trust and advertisers
just love him.
Tonight, we'll catch up with Cosby and other celebrities who make big bucks as TV pitchmen.
Then he's making hit record after hit record and even received a Grammy nomination last
year for best new artist.
He's Julian Lennon, son of the legendary Beatle John Lennon.
And don't carve that pumpkin yet.
We've got some prize winning tips from this pumpkin Picasso.
That's all coming to you on this Thursday's edition of PM Magazine.
And it's coming to you from Al Max where tonight as our trading places promotion continues,
we're learning about jobs in a supermarket.
Hi everybody, I'm Sheila Martinez.
And I'm Rick Smith.
Now it's appropriate that we're in a supermarket because that's where they sell products and
advertisers like to move products and advertisers like to use famous faces because those are
the faces that we trust.
So if that theory holds true, if you get somebody hot, you should have a hot product, right?
Well, if that is true, the man you'll most want on your commercials is one Bill Cosby.
Is there a mechanic in the house?
In the 80s, the most successful commercials are relying on blockbuster celebrities to
sell their products.
The idea is when the stars we look up to use a product, that product should be good enough
for us.
Sonny, I want you to do me a favor.
I want you to help your mother with the dishes.
I can't do that, Godfather.
I want you to clean up your room.
Sorry, Godfather.
Okay, I'm going to make you an offer you can't refuse.
Bill Cosby is one of the most wanted pitch men of all time.
He's hot.
And when he pitches a product, there's no doubt we listen.
Now do you want me to say E.F. Hutton or is that a tag you're supposed to have someplace?
Okay, so I don't have to say that.
Okay.
All right, let's go.
We know Bill's image on screen, but rarely do we ever get the chance to see this man
in action behind the scene.
Here in New York City, Bill adds another commercial credit to his list for investment firm E.F.
Hutton.
And unlike the entourage that travels with other commercial counterparts, Bill arrives
without all the trimmings.
All he needs is a stool and a cue from the director.
All right, let's go to the top.
Let's go to the top.
Roll.
12.
We're all lit for him because he likes to come in and sit down and do it.
And if you blink, he's gone because it's that fast.
We do two or three of the E.F. Hutton commercials.
We'll do two and three, it'll only take us an hour, two hours at the most.
A Cosby shoot runs like a well-oiled machine.
He surrounds himself with people he's worked with for years.
Even before he gets there, the crew knows what his needs will be from lighting to layout
to lines.
Director Ed Bianchi has been with Bill for 11 years.
He's directed Jell-O commercials and even does the titles for Bill's show.
And he goes over the scripts and he'll then put his input into it and make them his, you
know.
We kind of give him an outline and then he really brings them, makes them more personal.
Whoa, hold it right there.
While Bill is back getting some makeup and a quick trim, last-minute touches are done
on the set.
Making everything run smoothly is Bill's own personal stand-in and look-alike Willie Carpenter.
People tell me how much I look like him.
It is very, very, very close.
It's the same skin tone almost.
The hairline is very similar.
A lot of times I help to work out problems that they might have with the script, with
the movement and everything.
Also, again, I do a lot of commercials so I have an idea about what this is all about.
The production begins.
Cosby arrives and it's all business.
EF Hutton executives can be seen in the wings watching over their investment.
He's extremely believable.
And remember EF Hutton will be there.
EF Hutton because it's my money.
Time.
Twenty-five.
Back it up.
Let's do another one, Eddie.
I'll tell you the truth.
He works his butt off too.
You know, when I look at dailies I'm always amazed at how hard he works at what he does.
All right.
Move on.
Move on to the top.
Here we go.
Even though when you see it on TV it looks nice and easy and fun, he's a hard-working
man.
Two seconds long.
God dang it.
There's no surprise that Bill Cosby is in complete control.
He knows when a script is working and when it's not.
You know, I'll tell you what the problem is.
In your portfolio where one of your kids isn't doing well, sell it, which would make a great
joke, see?
See what you can do.
During the downtime, Cosby has a chance to relax with the crew.
Remember that movie?
No.
Freaks?
No.
Oh.
It's a wonderful movie, man.
It's the only thing that ever stopped me from eating.
But before long, it's back to business.
Those of you with small children or grandchildren forget about the toys, teddy bears, and tricycles.
With three more commercials under his belt in little under three hours, you might think
Bill Cosby is laughing all the way to the bank, but it's taken him 25 years to develop
the public persona that makes him so effective as a commercial pitchman.
EF Hutton, because it's my money.
Now those stars are well paid for their commercial endorsements.
For example, Bill Cosby is reported to have received between three and five million dollars
for his ads for EF Hutton.
Of course, there are some stars that cannot be bought no matter what the price.
Bruce Springsteen said, I was born in the USA, but I won't take your 12 million dollars,
Chrysler.
Whew, that's unbelievable.
The stakes are a little lower here, but every bit as important.
Now watch this, because this is the first time Sheila has tried this.
Alright, they normally use these plastic bags.
You have to ask for paper if you want them.
Let me hold this while you do that.
Alright, you do this bit, you put it around like this, you have to square it out.
That's very important here so that nothing falls over.
Filling the bag would be a little difficult for me to do though.
Maybe one of the jobs we try trading places.
Yeah, well I hope not, because here at this store they fill over 1,100 bags a day.
I would have to start now, huh?
Long day.
Stay with us.
When we come back, we'll meet John Lennon's son, Julian.
And we'll also carve some scary Halloween pumpkins.
Welcome back to Thursday's PM Magazine.
You know a lot of us can measure our youth through the music that influenced us.
Now for me, I was a little bit young for Elvis Presley, but the Beatles, you hear any song
by the Beatles, and I remember 1963 on.
Well when I first heard the man in our next story, I was a little surprised, a little
taken aback, because he sounds and looks a lot like John Lennon.
And that's not unusual, because he is Julian Lennon.
In the early 60s, four young guys from Liverpool made history and changed music for a generation.
John, Paul, Ringo and George, collectively known as the Beatles, influenced not only
hairstyles and clothing, but lifestyles as well.
Hey Jude, written by Paul McCartney for John's first son.
John Charles Julian Lennon was a number one single for many years.
But who would have guessed that this little guy would become a respected songwriter and
performer in his own right?
Born to John and Cynthia Lennon, Julian seemed to possess the talent for music right away.
His dad gave him his first guitar when he was just 11.
By the age of 17, Julian was holding his own jam sessions.
Actually, I started singing when I was about 11, when I played in the school band, you
know.
But after that, I used to sit at home and write songs.
But I guess I really started, I felt I really started singing when I was at home making
eight track demo tapes.
And I used to write the music and the lyrics and there'd be no one else around to sing.
So I used to just sit there and sing and try and get a good voice going.
Since then, Julian's found his voice and his own style.
His album titled The Lot When Platinum and his videos are doing quite well.
Videos are obviously one image of projecting a song, you know.
It's the image of the director and the writer, you know, of what that song meant.
I don't find videos to be a very major or special thing.
I feel as though it's part of the job, you know.
Julian's first priority is performing.
And even though his last concert tour didn't do well at the box office, Julian doesn't
let that bother him one bit.
I'm getting into singing a lot.
Because of the whole performance thing, it's when you set certain goals for yourself, as
far as well for myself as singing and songwriting or whatever, when you see the marks that you
hit and you say, yeah, I can hit that note or I can do this and that.
It's a good feeling, you know, and it just makes you want to do more, you know.
Julian is doing more.
This year he received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist and a Rolling Stone poll
named him the number one male singer.
But even with all this, old Beatle fans are never far away watching and remembering.
Well, I don't know quite what they expect, whether they want me or they want just someone
who looks like that singing that song, you know.
I mean, that's what I see a lot.
But I do.
I do a couple of songs of that material or Beatles material because I enjoy doing it.
It's not something whether, well, hey, it's his son singing it, la la, look at the connection
or anything.
It's some music in my past that meant a lot to me as well as to many other people.
But from an artist's point of view, their material was great and I loved it, you know.
And I feel very honored to be able to sing their songs, you know.
And not many bands do Beatle songs.
And I've had a lot of letters from my young, I don't know, 12, 13 year old fans that have
written in and said, well, my mother told me your dad was a Beatle, you know.
I've never heard their music until I came to your concert and I loved it.
And now I'm buying Beatle's albums.
So that's like another thrill for me, turning young kids on to what something my dad did,
you know.
So that's nice.
To many people, Julian both looks and sounds like his father, but he's his own man making
his way into a business that's hard enough on unknowns and even harder on children of
legends.
And yes, there is a rumor going around, it surfaces every few years, that the Beatles
are going to get back together again and Julian Lennon will sing the parts that his father
used to sing.
Well, speaking of parts, I have a turkey breast in my hand.
That's part of our Trading Places promotion because I might end up being a butcher.
The way you cut meat, that is an adequate, adequate description of it, okay?
Well this weighs eight and a half pounds, believe it or not, and they sell about 35
pounds a day here.
That is the most popular item, right?
Yes.
On the other hand, Liverwurst is the least popular.
Now when it's on sale, they maybe sell two of them a day, but when it's not, not even
one because some people have taste.
Stay with us when we come back, a very scary pumpkin carver.