Good stuff, Maynard!, remembered by Matt in Waukesha, Wisconsin as his grandfather’s praise after supper, was popularized by a long-running series of Malt-O-Meal commercials. In the ads, a father urged his son to eat the hot cereal with that line. The spots often ran in the pre-cable era of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The phrase is sometimes incorrectly linked in memory with Maynard G. Krebs from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, but the commercials are the source, not the television show. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Malt-O-Meal Commercials Popularized “Good Stuff, Maynard!” in Pre-Cable TV Days”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Matt from Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Hiya, Matt.
Hello, Matt.
Hi.
What are you calling us about?
Kind of a childhood memory flooded back to me this summer of when my grandfather at the end of like a meal, or usually I think it was supper time, would use the phrase, good stuff Maynard. I don’t know if it was just a polite way of telling grandma she cooked well or something else, and it just came back to me and it’s been about 20 years since I’ve heard it. But I was wondering where that came from and if it meant anything.
When did you first hear it?
I think he said it, and I was probably 8 years old, so that was probably mid-1980s.
Mid-1980s, that’s about right.
And your grandmother wasn’t named Maynard?
No, she wasn’t.
Okay, just checking.
May for short. Very embarrassing for her.
Did you ever eat malto meal?
I remember being talked about. I don’t think I ever agreed to eat it if my mom served it.
Well, that’s actually the reason that the advertising agency that worked on behalf of the product, Malta Meal, had this whole series of ads with a father and a son. And the father, as a way of kind of trying to goad the child into eating the Malta Meal, would say, good stuff, Maynard. And these commercials, this is in basically pre-cable television days, three or four channels on the air. These things ran for ages. You can find a number of them on YouTube. And he would say, good stuff, Maynard. And they ran so often it became a catchphrase.
Really?
Good stuff, Maynard.
Yeah, I remember it very well. And if you look at the commercials, I bet, I’m betting you’re like, oh, I remember that. Because there’s this one that we used to make fun of. There’s a little boy. He’s all dressed up in his winter clothes. He’s got the scarf, the hat, the coat, the gloves. He looks like a Michelin tire man, right? And he’s like, I think I need some more mother meal. Meaning he would have to take the whole outfit off, right? He’s got this snotty kind of, I think I’ve eaten my malto meal.
That actually rings a bell.
Yeah, there we go. That’s why you never ate the stuff, right?
Probably. I don’t know if they say good stuff made it in that commercial, but it’s those series of commercials about this little boy and his family and the little boy is one over and starts to eat the malto meal. I actually liked the malto meal with lots of butter and sugar, of course.
I never had it, never heard of it. I had cream of wheat. But doesn’t the Maynard go back even further to Maynard G. Krebs on the old Dobie Gillis show?
Yeah, but the catchphrase, good stuff, Maynard?
Yeah.
I don’t think it goes back to Krebs, no.
I thought it did. I thought he said that. Even if it was older than that, it was definitely popularized by the commercials in the, I believe it was the late 70s and early 80s and maybe even through the 90s.
Good stuff, Maynard.
Well, good stuff, Grant.
Good stuff, Matt.
Thank you much.
Thank you.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Well, ringy-dingy-dingy, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673. Questions about grammar, slang, usage, old sayings, something you heard as a kid, something Grandpa used to say. Or email us, words@waywordradio.org.
