1982 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (found NBC broadcast of parade; 1982)

This article has been tagged as Needing work due to its lack of references.

The Lineup Guide of the '82 Parade.

Status: Found

Date found: 15 Apr 2022

The 1982 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was the 56th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and was held on November 25, 1982, in New York City, and shown to viewers live on NBC that same day. It was hosted by Bryant Gumbel and Sarah Purcell. Participating celebrities included Milton Berle, Andy Gibb, Sammy Davis Jr., the Oak Ridge Boys, Paul Williams, Laura Branigan, Ricky Schroeder, and the New York City Opera.

Availability

While almost all of NBC's parades since 1980 have been widely bootlegged, the 1982 Parade is the only one since 1980 that has yet to surface in full. This is especially odd since it (like all the other parades during this time period) aired during a time when nearly everyone in North America had some form of home recording media, though for some reason no one wants to share the whole thing on the Internet. Only a handful of clips have made their way to YouTube, including the one seen at right. (The other uploaded clips are of two other marching bands and of Andy Gibb's performance of "Any Dream Will Do" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.) Some other clips were also shown in the parade's 85th-anniversary special, which aired in November 2011 and can be found in its entirety on YouTube. Certain clips of 1982 were used in 1983 (including Aviator Snoopy), which can be found in full on YouTube

One of the 1982 clips that can be found online is of the Clinton High School marching band from Clinton, Tennessee, and was uploaded by one Amy Jeffers. She claims to have the entire 1982 parade on VHS, however, she hasn't contacted anyone in regards to leaking it. (As an additional note, the clip in question was recorded using a video camera taping the television set, so it's likely that Jeffers does not have a video capture USB device.)

On April 11th 2022, a user called RetroGamePlanet uploaded more, previously unseen footage of the 1982 Parade. This included the Keith Carradine performance on the Thanksgiving Turkey float, the Sesame Street float and the Kermit the Frog, Olive Oyl and Woody Woodpecker balloons. Later that day, the remaining balloons appearences were uploaded in full to YouTube.

On April 15th, 2022, user Laura Branigan Forever uploaded the 1982 Parade in full to YouTube and the Internet Archive, after being lost for nearly 40 years.<ref>https://youtu.be/01iCRY5vVig The YouTube link to the 1982 Parade]

Impact

This year's parade is especially notable for Sesame Street fans as it was the last public appearance of Will Lee, who played Mr. Hooper since the show started in 1969. Though he was ill with cancer, Lee performed the best that he could. He was hospitalized a few days later and passed away on December 7th. The next Thanksgiving, Sesame Street aired a sobering episode that openly addressed Mr. Hooper's death and helped the cast deal with it. The parade also featured the debut of the Olive Oyl balloon, which was the 3rd female giant balloon to appear in the parade's history. The other balloon to debut that year was Woody Woodpecker, who became a parade mainstay for over a decade.