The public is being asked to decide how the mini-soap opera featured in Taster’s Choice TV commercials for the past seven years should end.
How unfair.
How can we possibly know whether: a) She should go back to her ex-husband Andrew, who showed up only a few commercials ago, or; b) She should stick with beau Michael, who has been romancing her through the entire series?
We hardly know Andrew. We don’t know why he and the never-named heroine parted in the first place. And if, after all this time, our heroine and Michael (or the ad agency which has been writing their long-running romance) don’t know how they feel about each other, why should we?
Surely, you have seen these commercials about two 40-something singles who live next door to each other in an apartment building.
In the first one, she, elegantly dressed, rings his doorbell. “Hello,” she says in a polished British accent, “I’m sorry to bother you but I’m having a dinner party and I’ve run out of coffee.”
He lends her his jar of Taster’s Choice freeze-dried and romance begins brewing.
The story unfolded v-e-r-y slowly. Each 45-second commercial added a new plot element — along with, of course, a plug for Taster’s Choice.
Most ended in a cliffhanger.
In 1992, for example, Michael is startled when a good-looking guy answer’s his lady-love’s door. Was she seeing another?
Some six months later, when the sixth installment aired, we learned the guy was her brother.
Little by little, the two become more intimate. They kissed for the first time in 1993. He had gone to Paris on a work assignment. She followed him there. Smooch.
Some think it should have ended there. But, no, in 1994, we learn she has a college-age son.
Will this turn Michael off? Nope, he’s still interested.
Which brings us to ex-hubby Andrew. We first met him a couple of years ago as the son brings him up to date on mom’s love interest.
In last year’s commercial, Andrew paid a surprise visit to his ex as she was getting dressed for a date with Michael. Michael arrives to her sharing a cup of coffee with Andrew.
This year, in what turns out to be the series finale, Andrew called to apologize for his unexpected visit.
“I’m sorry about last night,” he says. “I’m not,” she says.
What does that mean? That she is glad Andrew is back in her life? That meeting him again confirms her intention of proposing marriage to Michael?
According to Nestle’s USA, maker of Taster’s Choice, the decision will be made by newspaper readers who redeem a discount coupon for Taster’s Choice.
The results, we are told, will appear in the Feb. 3, 1998, issue of Soap Opera Digest, as if all watchers of Taster’s Choice commercials on TV get that magazine.
There are no plans to dramatize the choice in another commercial. Tsk, tsk.
American TV watchers should know that Nestle’s handled this matter differently in England, where a similar ad campaign just ended for a Nestle’s brand called Gold Blend.
British viewers got two different romances to follow. The first, which featured the same actors — Sharon Maughan and Anthony Head, who played the romantic neighbors in the Taster’s Choice series — ended in 1992 when he openly declared his love for her.
The next commercial featured a new couple. After five years of episodes, they, too, have gone off together — after she spurns the attentions of a millionaire suitor (who probably preferred tea to coffee).
Nestle’s has announced that it will launch “fresh, new” ad campaigns in both Great Britain and the United States next year.
One final note:
Should voters decide to reunite the lady and her ex-husband, Michael’s fans may be consoled by the fact that they can continue to see the actor who played him on TV — as Buffy’s mentor Robert Giles in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
