In the 1950's & 1960's, it seems situation comedies used the cast members in commercials for the sponors quite often. One of those I remember well had Walter Brennan as "Grandpa" for Sylvania yellow bulbs. Sylvania was the sponsor for the program for several years.

The commercial begins by showing a porch light with various bugs flying around it. It then shows "Grandpa" sitting on a chair on the porch complaining about the insects:

"Moths, June Bugs......next thing you know we'll
have flying saucers (pronounced by Grandpa as
fly'in sah-cees) around here".

He sees an insect land on the table next to him, issues a warning to it and attempts to swat it only to knock over his glass of lemonade. Luke and Kate, who are inside the house, hear the breaking glass and come out to the porch. They find the trouble is with the porch light drawing the bugs and inform Grandpa that he should start using Sylvania yellow bulbs which don't draw the flyiing pests.

This is just an example of a commercial done by cast members, but it's one of my favorites.

I'll have to look for these on youtube.

I've looked. Couldn't find it. It's been about 50 years ago.

I have an old muslin patch that features Walter Brennan as Amos on the label. I picked it up on eBay back in the late 90's.

In the 1950's & 1960's, it seems situation comedies used the cast members in commercials for the sponors quite often. One of those I remember well had Walter Brennan as "Grandpa" for Sylvania yellow bulbs. Sylvania was the sponsor for the program for several years.

The commercial begins by showing a porch light with various bugs flying around it. It then shows "Grandpa" sitting on a chair on the porch complaining about the insects:

"Moths, June Bugs......next thing you know we'll
have flying saucers (pronounced by Grandpa as
fly'in sah-cees) around here".

He sees an insect land on the table next to him, issues a warning to it and attempts to swat it only to knock over his glass of lemonade. Luke and Kate, who are inside the house, hear the breaking glass and come out to the porch. They find the trouble is with the porch light drawing the bugs and inform Grandpa that he should start using Sylvania yellow bulbs which don't draw the flyiing pests.

This is just an example of a commercial done by cast members, but it's one of my favorites.
yea, back then cast member of ALL shows (sitcoms and dramas) did those "cast commercials for the shows sponsor. Most of them didn't mind as it was in their contract. (some of these are on DVD). They would mostly show one at the last commercial break in the show.

"The Real McCoys" was co-sponsored by Sylvania Electric (which at the time made light bulbs, televisions and radios), and Procter and Gamble (Ivory Liquid dish detergent).

I have seen magazine ads for Sylvania's unique television feature, "HaloLight," which was supposed to improve picture quality in darkened rooms. One picture depicted Walter Brennan as shown on an ordinary television set; in the next picture, Grandpappy Amos was shown on a Sylvania television with HaloLight. Naturally, he looked much better!

In one of the end-of-show commercials, Luke is raving about how Kate's hands are so soft and smooth after dishwashing, to which Grandpappy responds, "that's because she uses that Ivory Liquid DEE-tergent!"

I remember seeing the reference to Sylvania television sets with "HaloLight" as far back as the mid-1950's when it was the sponsor for Beat The Clock. At that time, there was concern regarding possible problems of TV watching on viewers' eyes particularly if there were no other lighted objects (ceiling light, small lamp, etc.) in the room. "HaloLight" was supposed to help in avoiding eyestrain. We always hear about the years a TV set will continue to operate. In that respect, I have always wondered how long "HaloLight" lasted in those 1950's Sylvania sets?