31 Days of Halloween: The First Appearances of Count Chocula, Franken Berry and Boo Berry...

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Last month, I made my love of the General Mills Monster Cereals quite clear when I celebrated their return to stores for another season of frightfully-fantastic breakfast delights. Now that we’re almost at the end of October, it would feel wrong to leave the boys out of 31 Days of Halloween here on The Rock Father, so for Day 27 we’re turning back the clock to take a look at the first appearances of Count Chocula and Franken Berry and Boo Berry. I tend to think that my daughters will never have such an emotional attachment to a line of breakfast cereals…

The year was 1971. Deep within the dimly-lit stockrooms of Grocery Stores everywhere, Monsters began arriving by the truckload – all while hiding in plain sight. These creatures were terrifying perhaps only to parents or nutritionists.

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With his deliciously chocolaty cereal accented by sugary marshmallows, the Vampiric COUNT CHOCULA arrived in plain brown boxes alongside FRANKEN BERRY and his strawberry delights. As the duo battled-it out for supernatural supremacy in the cereal aisle, each appeared on television to tell you about their “Chocolate Sweeties” and “Berry-flavored Sweeties,” both of which were noted in text to be “Vitamin Charged” (in what looks like the famous FRIDAY THE 13th font, pre-dating the movie by nearly a decade), both would find themselves scared silly by a very PEANUTS-looking character (the spot was created by Bill Melendez, PEANUTS animator) .

And what about their (allegedly) stoned little friend called BOO BERRY? Well, the little blue guy in the jovial bow-tie didn’t appear to haunt grocery store aisles until 1973, and rumor has it, the little guy actually gave Frank and the Count a little bit of a scare!

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