Sprites and Midgets featured in numerous TV shows, adverts and movies over the years. This led recently to a message from Life Member Grant Stephenson regarding a TV special feature on the revival of the AMSCOL Ice Cream brand. During the feature there was a few flashbacks to the era and adverts of the brand. At one point there was a TV advert from Feb 1963 for the AMSCOL Berry Bar. The advert featured a very young Ernie Sigley and 1963 SA Female Logie winner Angela Stacey, and an early Bugeye Sprite.

This lead me to a bit of Google search and found a number of Sprite and Midget videos clips where the cars feature. The first one that springs to mind is the very early video featuring racing driver Roy Salvadori and John Bolster (with his lovely British accent!) at Silverstone Race Track with PBL 75 – the first promotional Bugeye.

Of course motorsport has been used as the promotion for many car brands over the years, and the Sprite and Midget was no exception. This advert for the Mk III Sprite is a classic example of “Race on Sunday – Sell on Monday!”

The other way to promote the Sprite and Midget is to feature the cars in popular television series. British TV shows like Heartbeat featured a few Sprites over the years.

Even Australian TV series featured Sprites – an early 9-stud windscreen Bugeye was driven by character Jo Loveday in A Country Practice and even featured prominently in the opening credits.

The English version of Top Gear featured both Bugeye and Mk III Sprites in various special features, which also helped promote the Marque, even many years after they have been sold new.

So if you want a “Flashback” and to use up a few minutes (or hours) of Google search , type in Sprite or Midget, select video and sit back and enjoy the various clips both old and new.

Just to finish up while the movie American Graffiti is a cult American movie that features many classic American cars, hot rods and customs, if you look very carefully there is a Yellow Bugeye that features in the street cruise scene. This George Lucas film (pre-Star Wars) also has Ron Howard and Harrison Ford as stars of the movie..