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The San Diego Chicken, also known as the The Famous Chicken, the KGB Chicken or just The Chicken, is an advertising mascot played by Ted Giannoulas, which originated as an animated TV commercial for KGB-FM Radio in San Diego. Writer, cartoonist, and actor Brian Narelle, star of John Carpenter's film Dark Star, was working for Odyssey Productions and offered to animate a wacky acrobatic chicken as part of a commercial contract bid. Narelle went on to direct and animate the commercial as well as create cartoon art for the campaign. Subsequently Giannoulas, then a student at San Diego State University, was hired to wear the first suit for a promotion to distribute Easter eggs to children at the San Diego Zoo. A redesigned suit followed that more closely resembled The Famous Chicken today.
The Chicken, whose antics entertained steadily larger crowds, moved on to features at concerts and sporting events (appearing at more than 520 San Diego Padres games in a row). Conflict emerged between KGB Radio and Giannoulas, and the latter was fired in 1977. Another unnamed employee was hired to don a chicken outfit at a Padres game. Fans, many of whom were aware that Giannoulas was not in the outfit, booed the chicken loudly. After a lawsuit was decided in Giannoulas's favor in June 1979, Giannoulas was allowed to continue to perform in a chicken costume (though not the same as the original costume), and his Chicken emerged from an egg at a "Grand Hatching" seen by 47,000 people as "Also sprach Zarathustra", the theme used in 2001: A Space Odyssey, played. Currently, the Chicken makes about 250 appearances annually across the United States.[1]
The success of the Famous Chicken helped lead to mascots becoming widespread throughout professional sports, particularly Major League Baseball. The Chicken was named one of the 100 most powerful people in sports for the 20th century by The Sporting News.
[edit] Character history
- The official mascot of the San Diego Padres is not the Famous Chicken but the Swinging Friar.
- Early in the first Holiday Bowl, uninformed security guards attempted to eject the Chicken from the field. He refused to leave the game, sitting on the sidelines as the mistake was ironed-out. Meanwhile, as Brigham Young University was working their way through the "red zone" for a touchdown the crowd was chanting, "We want the Chicken."
- Giannoulas was once sued by the producers of the show Barney & Friends for beating up a Barney look-alike. The Chicken won the case, with the court holding that his performance was satire protected by the First Amendment.
- In the 1980s, the Chicken would appear in McDonalds commercials with Ronald McDonald. McDonalds founder Ray Kroc was also the owner of the Padres, at whose games the Chicken appeared frequently.
- The Chicken appears on a card in the 1982, 1983, and 1984 Donruss sets with an offer on the back of the card where you could send the card to The Chicken himself to autograph it.
- Following an incident during an NBA game in 1991, a Chicago, Illinois jury ordered Giannoulas to pay $300,000 to a Chicago Bulls cheerleader allegedly injured when the Chicken tackled her.[2]
- The Chicken is featured in the educational economics video, "Chickenomics".
- In 2008, The Chicken was featured in a Sony commercial that also featured Dale Earnhardt Jr, James Brown and Peyton Manning. In the commercial, The Chicken gets angry and is held back by Manning when a customer says he does not like sports.
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[edit] External links
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