This post will be a little different than my previous ones since this is partly a request for more information on a topic that is personal to me as well as a unique subject matter that I want others to know about. I’m talking of course about the lost Oswald/Osbourne crossover commercial from the early 2000’s. This was a parody commercial featuring Oswald characters from the Oswald Nickelodeon Jr. TV series, with their dialogue being dubbed over with audio from the Osbournes. The Osbournes are notable for their reality television series on MTV called The Osbournes, which detailed the life of rock musician Ozzy Osbourne and his family. The commercial was apparently an ad for the Oswald cartoon but featured the animated characters with audio from the Osbournes, completed with bleep censors that made this particular commercial very notable and controversial among viewers at the time.
An image of the main character, Oswald, from the Oswald Nickelodeon Jr. TV series.
An image of the Osbourne family, with Ozzy Osbourne on the far right.
Personal Experience
I first saw this commercial as a young kid when I was at my grandmother’s house. I was either in late elementary school or early middle school when the commercial aired. I can’t recall the date exactly, but I believe it would have been around 2007-2009 since that lines up when I was still in late elementary/early middle school. I was watching TV by myself when the commercial eventually came on. All I remember to this day was Oswald and his pet hotdog named Weenie walking from their house to a crosswalk. When they approached the crosswalk, Oswald stated something that was meant to be humorous, but the last part was bleeped out. I believe Weenie also said something and it was also bleeped out, however I’m not 100% sure about this. I can definitely say though that Oswald himself said several things that were bleeped out. Even at such a young age, I knew the joke was that the characters were cursing but the bleep censors obscured what they said. I unfortunately don’t remember anything else outside of that brief scene, but it shocked me to this day. I was, and still am, intrigued that this aired on Nickelodeon and I always wanted to find it again. It’s funny when a piece of lost media like the Oswald crossover commercial is still ingrained inside your mind but doesn’t exist anymore and most people haven’t seen or heard of it. The Oswald commercial is my personal lost media white whale and I would love to find it in the future somehow.
Background on the Lost Commercial
According to the Lost Media Wiki, the interstitial debuted sometime in June of 2002 on the Nickelodeon TV channel. It aired around the time the popularity of both the Oswald and the Osbournes shows were at their highest. The ad depicted the Oswald characters as the Osbournes, complete with singing songs from Ozzy Osbourne by the characters as well as censored swearing throughout. Reportedly a parody logo was shown that may have said “The Oswalds”, with the joke of course being that the Oswald characters are the Osbourne family. The ad only had a limited distribution, which is why most people have never recorded or even heard of the ad.
Below is a photo from the Nickstory Archives wiki site with various commercial blocks that appeared on June 2002 on the Nickelodeon TV channel. The Oswald/Osbournes commercial is the only commercial without an image, but its presence on the wiki confirms that the commercial did air during June of that year. The ad has the production code N5560.
Below is Seeker of The Lost’s video on the subject.
The Lost Media Wiki forum would also discuss this elusive commercial in a thread. I have included a link to the forum below.
https://forums.lostmediawiki.com/thread/6152/nick-oswald-ozzy-osbourne-commercial
Popular YouTuber and lost media researcher LSuperSonicQ would post a surprise update about the Oswald/Osbourne crossover commercial on November 18, 2023.
Final Thoughts
While the dates I listed for viewing the commercial are notably different than the accepted air dates from the very early 2000’s, I have some simple explanations about this. The first and most likely answer is that I got my dates confused and I actually saw it sometime from 2000-20003. This is a very reasonable conclusion since I myself don’t remember a lot when I first saw this commercial. However, since I’m still sure that I saw this commercial at a much later date than most people did, the other possible scenario is that my grandma actually recorded it when it was live and simply had it stored on her television for years after. This is a likely possibility since I personally remember saving a lot of TV shows in the early 2000’s and before the advent of streaming services. It may or may not still be there at her place, but it’s an encouraging thought if the commercial could still be saved on someone’s personal tape. The company or studio that produced the commercial could still have a copy or some material associated with it as well.
Sources
https://oswald.fandom.com/wiki/Oswald_Wiki
https://lostmediawiki.com/The_Oswalds_(lost_tie-in_parody_commercial_for_%22Oswald%22_Nick_Jr.series_and%22The_Osbournes%22_MTV_show;_2002-2003) (Unfortunately the link doesn’t take you to the direct page for whatever reason. Please type in “The Oswalds” in the search bar of the Lost Media Wiki to access the page. It’s called The Oswalds (lost tie-in parody commercial for “Oswald” Nick Jr. series and “The Osbournes” MTV show; 2002-2003)
https://nickstory.fandom.com/wiki/Commercial_Central/2002/June_2002
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